My Bountiful Ozarks Farm: Ohhhbrrrr

Yes, I know. It's "Oh, brrr." But lo, these many years ago, when I was but a young woman fresh out of high school and in her first semester of college at the local community college, I became friends with many people of diverse ages and backgrounds. (Yes, that's deliberate, I'm in an odd mood. Go with it, ok?) Yea, one of these friends was an older woman named Louise, whom we all called "Lou." She was bright, articulate, and incredibly humorous. She also invented ohhhbrrrr.

One early winter's day, whilst the gang, which included your humble diarist (stop laughing, I can hear you laughing!!!!! and saying, "HUMBLE? Since WHEN?"), was gathered in the basement of the student union, where the college had so thoughtfully provided us a cafeteria and canteen, and we were all sitting at our usual table closest to the canteen and furthest from the numerous and incredibly cold in the chill of a mid-Michigan winter floor-to-ceiling windows on the outside wall, who shouldst we spy but Lou? Waddling towards us like a penguin, all bundled up for the weather as she was, she got to our table and announced, "Ohhhbrrr." Why, asked we, did she say that when the phrase is clearly two words, not one. Perchance she mispoke herself? (Okay, I admit it, I pulled this part together deliberately so I could use "perchance." I've wanted to throw it out there for a while, just for larks. Okay, I've wanted to use "larks," too. So shoot me. *giggle*) Nay, respondeth our querent. "It's too bleeping cold out there to make it two words. One will have to do." Thus the title of this week's post, which I'm starting on Wednesday night, purely because I'm bored and need something fun to do.

That and we've got a cold snap here in the Ozarks right now that is pretty awful. It's not horribly bitter like it was last year for three months that seemed like they'd never end, it's just awful darned chilly. Thank goodness for the heaters. The radiator heater (electric) in the bedroom works a treat to keep that room and the bathroom comfortable, even at night. Last night we hit a low of 19F and we were still comfy ... a bit cool, but that was the worst of it. The living room has a quartz heater going in it till we can get the propane heater and get it up and going. More electric, but it's keeping the living room comfy, too.

The "tool room" and the front bedroom are both closed off, we don't get into the broom closet or pantry unless we have to, the windows are all sealed up for the winter, and the insulated blackout curtains on the doorways into the living room from the kitchen and hallway are both dropped down instead of tucked up now. The blanket in the bathroom door between the bath and the bedroom is up when we need to heat that room up a bit for showers and such, and is down the rest of the time. No sense heating up rooms we aren't using. The kitchen is the worst of the lot. I could see my breath in there this morning, but what extra insulation we could put in this past summer that was taken from the Merlot went to rooms we would use more frequently than not over the cold months - bedroom, living room and bathroom, and to fix up the interior of the water heater closet (no insulation, it's a typical mobile home one with outdoor entrance and a METAL door, so you KNOW that sucker let in a heck of a draft to the bathroom!).

The rest of the trailer got shortchanged, but we don't use the rest much anyhow, so no biggie. Even as bad as the kitchen is during the worst of the cold, we aren't in there more than 10 minutes at a time anyhow, even with cooking something. It's pop in to stir, out to the living room to stay warm, back to stir, and so forth. Even doing dishes in there isn't that bad ... fill the dishpan with stuff to soak for 10 minutes, go warm up, pop back to wash them (and rinse in the other dishpan), stick another panful to soak, back out to stay warm, etc., till they're done. That way, I'm not in there long enough to get all that chilled!

It's awful nice to climb in bed under all those afghans and slide between flannel sheets, and be cozy and warm all night long. We do keep the bathroom door to the hall cracked for the boys, and the bedroom door to the hall shut all the way, so that we can get in and out without letting all the heat out of the bedroom as well as let the boys get to their food and water and litter box in the living room. A bit of old boot lace with loops in the ends and a couple of screws (one into the door and one into the door frame) solves the issue of keeping the door open only so far, and no further.

The days are flying by. Just one more day to get through as I write this part and Quentin can finally apply for rehire. One of his friends is going with him to the library that morning so he can do the application as early as possible, without me having to take time off work to help him, especially since we can't really afford me to do so until he's back to work and getting paid again. (If the friend can't go, then he's already arranged with the librarians to help him, and they've promised he can have all the time he needs due to being computer illiterate and needing to get his application in. You gotta love small-town librarians!) Today at work was pretty rough, though. Being November, we all have to go through ethics retraining, and it's a two-and-a-half-hour class of mostly boring videos with a Q&A thing at the end that you have to answer the questions with a clicker. I about fell asleep during mine today, because it was right after lunch. Me, a full tummy and a dark room generally means one thing - naptime. I had to fight to stay awake and ended up with a headache and a crick in my neck.

On top of that, one of the important pieces of equipment we use in my department to get the legless birds, what we call "footballs" because they're about that size, to the various lines for the meat to be cut off, decided to keep breaking down. Six times all told in an eight-hour shift. So it made for a bit of a rough day to get through, even if the time in that class was paid time sitting on my butt. I don't mind training time like some people do. Sure, I'd rather be doing my job, but the training we do is important. I may work for Big Ag, but at least they do try to keep us safe from harm. (Unlike some companies I can name ... *coughButterballcough*.)

Our goal every day is to have none of what we call "recordable accidents," which just means things like going to the doctor to get a prescription or injection, having surgery, or something of that nature. General booboos don't count in recordables, but do count against us in our overall safety score. We all want for every single employee to leave in the same condition we arrived for work. Tired and a bit sore maybe, but that's to be expected from a good, solid day's work. But we all are expected to do our part to leave with all our fingers and toes intact.

One fellow recently wasn't doing his part, ripped off the end of one pinky in one accident, and broke his foot in another. This lack of care on his part got him bumped down to what is called a Class 1 job, which is the level I work at also. It's basically the easiest jobs out there, that pretty much anybody can do, even if they are barely medically cleared to work in the department. There's a LOT of Class 1 work that goes on that's highly important. Like mine - I'm either sending breast meat through an x-ray machine to have it check for bones or I'm trimming them out. If the people on the line do their jobs right, when I'm rotated down to trim, I get to essentially stand there and half-doze for that time. If not, I'm busier than all heck. We joke on my section that it's essentially a snoozer job, but it's an awful important snoozer job. Seriously, if you have to buy your chicken at the store instead of raise it yourself, wouldn't you rather it be something you know is not going to have bones in it? I know I sure would.

Let's see, as I write this part on Wednesday night, the baby's blanket is almost done. I finally got it big enough, more or less, to call it done, and so I switched back to the border color and have that done. There's just the binding off stitches to do, and I'm partly done with those. I just had the urge to write tonight instead of knit! Eric and Bobbi know that I'm making something for the baby for Christmas, but not what. Shhhhh! Don't tell them, it's a surprise!!!

*****
Thursday night. I'm sitting here, having a blast. The blanket finally got done tonight, and I'm working on a five-hour baby sweater to more or less match it (the borders will match and the insides will be a hodgepodge). I have to go through toddler sock patterns and find some socks I can whip up for the baby and do the hat so that the true toddler set is ready for her. The crocheted sweater is just a six-months baby sweater, not really that big or anything, but the five-hour sweater is being made on bigger needles than called for with doubled yarn so Elizabeth can grow into it. I adapted the pattern just a bit so it's all done in stockinette with a proper buttonband border, so all the blasted knit 2 together in one row then increase in the next to get back to the same number of stitches I HAD is not happening. Ditto the socks and hat. (I have this thing about wrapping babies and small children up in woolies, they get cold so easily!)

I'm also having fun because Smudge is curled up near me on the bed (Quentin's watching wrestling on TV, so I'm in the bedroom with the laptop knitting). And in between bouts of knitting, I'm paging through my newest seed catalog. I never really understand why so many places keep sending me catalogs, as the only place I really ever seem to order from is Pinetree. Good prices, lots of heirlooms, lots of all kinds of things, and you get a lot in a seed packet - enough for a home garden but not so much you get overhwelmed. About the only thing they don't have going for them is the bulbs - I do love my bulb flowers like daffodils and tulips and iris and so forth. I have a catalog or two around here from last year I think that are full of nothing but bulbs, so it's going to eventually be interesting to buy stuff to tuck away for when a place is bought. I'm not going to invest in planting permanent stuff here if it ain't being bought. I also need to put in an order with a horticultural place that sent me a catalog - they have the cell packs I want.

And since tonight it warmed up enough to rain cats and dogs, it's a good night to settle down with my pen and that Pinetree catalog and pick out heirloom and open-pollinated veggies, and herbs and flowers and whatever tickles my fancy. Once Quentin's back to work, it's bits and pieces of order, order, order, even if I have to hang on to stuff for a bit. So that's it for tonight. I'm back to the catalog, sorry folks. Too many goodies I want to take a peep at in there!

*****
And it's now late Saturday night, nearly to bedtime, and I'm writing again. I should note that there's no photos this week, mainly because I just plain forgot. We haven't yet heard from my brother-in-law on the obituary or anything else, since he and Quentin had the big dustup the day their Dad died. I still find it hard to believe people can be so horrible venal (I think that's the word I want) about things, versus being sad that someone is gone forever from their lives. Shoot, my Mom dies, somewhere down the road, I know I'm going to be a freaking basket case for days or weeks. The weekends will be the worst at that point, knowing it's time for our weekly phone chat and not being able to call and hear her voice anymore. Like I said before, there's a few things I want when she goes out of sentimental value, and anything else is just extra stuff. If there's more to come with it, fine. If not, I'll be satisfied to get the memories. She's done so much for me over the years, that more would just be ... I don't know. Kind of seems like I'd be almost being ungrateful for all the helps she's been, you know?

Anyhow ... fall around the Ozarks has settled in with a vengeance. The trees are completely naked for winter. That comes from daughter Amber when she was about eight or nine. We were driving home one night from something in late fall, and the trees at the roadsides had all lost all their leaves. She looked out the car window and said, "Look, Mommy! The trees are all naked for winter!" And it stuck - fall now to my family is when the trees are naked for winter. Period!

Mid-week it was mighty chilly, and here it is the weekend, and the weather's done another turn. Warmer temps in the high sixties, near to seventy, and lots of gusting wind to boot. If I had a wind turbine, the thing would be spinning like crazy right now, because we're getting gusts up to 50mph this weekend. So of course, now that the fall rains have sort of stopped for the moment, the county road crew now decides its time to get out the graders and do some roadwork in general, and our road being one of the in particulars. It is nicer now, with the two rises in the road no longer being the equivalent of human bobblehead runs, but it's a bit weird, too, because we've all gotten so used to the bouncing and jouncing!

But it's cozy in the house, even with the wind and rainy sprinkles that are going on right now, and no worries about anything other than when the heck Quentin is going to get his phone call for the interview that's essentially a Q&A session to find out if he can do the job or not, and get his butt back to work at Tysons. He actually surprised me and made me proud of him. He's completely computer illiterate, yet he went to the library Friday morning, and with the help of the librarians to get things done, did his application online pretty much all by himself. I'd set him up a gmail account for email a couple of weeks ago, and took some screenshots of the app process up to the point of actually creating an account and all without doing so (because it would have pushed his eligibility back even furhter), so he kind of knew what to do to get started, but not the whole process.

He managed just fine - we went to McDonald's Friday after I got off work anyhow with the laptop to double-check his information at his insistence, because he wasn't sure he did it all correctly. He did perfect, barring misspelling the name of his high school, so we also had a chance to find out his app is "in process" and hopefully early this upcoming week, he'll get that all-important phone call. Until then, it's hurry up and wait!

I do apologize for no photos this week. Like I said, I plain forgot. It's been that crazy getting Quentin stabilized after his Dad's death and all, and ready to do his rehire app, so it's been a nutty week. Though I did get a lot of knitting done, it's just too late and I'm too tired to take photos of that much. Next week for sure, because I hope to have the last of the set done by then for the baby!

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My Bountiful Ozarks Farm

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Ohhhbrrrr

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