I woke up with a roaring headache and so stuffed up it was going to be impossible to get to work, let alone deal with work. So I took the day off, much as I hated to. The money would be nice for the day, but when you can't breathe or think clearly, it's a bit ridiculous to think you can drive safely. Which meant I got the chores done today.
The weather continues kind of wacky, anyhow, and I worry that my little car may have not been so good at the roads with all the wind. The weatherman last night said the winds 80 miles north of us in Springfield, MO, were "howling," but here in NW Arkansas, they were just moaning like crazy. Sounds like a blasted freight train out there, or a tornado just sitting overhead. Sheesh. The treetops are just whipping around, and we're talking sixty foot trees bouncing around. Maybe it's a good thing I stayed home, because Quentin called once he got to work and said the winds were bad enough he even had trouble keeping the van on the road.
But it means I can spend the day doing some planning. Like more catalogs gone through. We've talked about it and while it's likely once again for no garden this year, I will be at least getting seeds and storing them away. Anything and everything we might eat ourselves or be able to sell at the farmer's market. Trees and brambles and bushes will be bought later this summer if we can get the well up and running at all, and put into large half barrels to get them going. It will help us get going on various things anyhow.
The day off means things get planned out better for what to do and when. Today was chores, and now it's sitting here with the TV going for background racket, while working on needlework. Six more squares on that afghan and it's ready for the border, and I want to get another twenty or so rows done on the baby sweater for Jamie's shower. It's going to be a really nice evening tonight.
And Monday night, I got a lovely surprise from Smudge. My pudgy, loveable but non-snuggleable kitty decided that my sitting in bed to listen to TV while I did some needlework meant all of a sudden that my lap needed filling with furrage. I kid y'all not, he just up and climbed into my lap, snuggled down between my knees, put his right front paw on my right knee, gently plopped his chin onto his paw, let out this huge sigh, and went to sleep. He stayed there for over an hour, and I just sat there and occasionally stroked him. It was a moment worth a few happy tears, because he's never done that before, and it's not likely it will ever happen again, but it was so unusual from him that I couldn't bear to make him move even when my knees protested being in that position for so long. It was worth it.
The week in general went pretty good. I finally got the sweater for Jamie's baby shower to start coming together. Five Hour Baby Sweater as usual for emergency baby gift, but it just would not come together for me. I had to frog it twice before I got it to work out. Still a few rows to do on the bottom on Friday night, but tonight I'm concentrating on seed catalog stuff. I have GOT to get that spreadsheet done and straightened out, so I can start putting out my orders! Even for stuff we wouldn't normally eat, because I can figure out ways to use things that will taste good with a little research, and if it can't be sold or we don't like it at all, I can still save the seeds and compost it. I do need to get the seed savers handbook soon, too, so I know what I'm doing. There are some things I know how to GROW, but not how to save seed from, and that's important for sustainability.
We were talking a bit today (Friday) at work about teachers, and one gal said how it was weird to her that her young daughter has a teacher who she herself had when she was that age. I know exactly how weird she feels. I remember when Amber started school, and I told Mom about her teachers for Kindergarten. I named the gym teacher, who I think was Mrs. Terwilliger, and Mom said, "Oh my GOD, isn't she dead yet?" This was because not only had Mrs. T. been MY elementary school gym teacher, she'd been Mom's gym teacher at some point as well. This lady had to be at least in her early sixties, and she was still going.
I found it funny with many of Amber's teachers. Her middle school music teacher, Mrs. Nutzmann, had been mine, too. But the fun one of the lot was Mrs. Flynn. I remember one parent-teacher conference, where she looked at Amber and said, "Now, Heather, please clean up your desk while I talk to your Mom." I laughed, and replied, "Well, I would, Mrs. Flynn, but I haven't been your student for around twenty years!" "You know which one of you I meant!" she chuckled back. Sad part is, even my own Mom has managed that one. Yes, my own mother has looked at me and called me Amber, and her by my name!
The funniest though, was my son Ian. He started something that lives to this day. His Kindergarten teacher was Miss West. She got married partway through the year, and in order not to confuse the youngsters too much, changed her name to Mrs. West-Aiello. Problem was, Ian had a bit of a speech impediment, and it came out Mrs. West Eye Jello. All the other kids in his class picked up on it, the other kids in the school picked up on it, and most of those other kids had younger siblings who later went to the same school. Many of those other younger siblings also had Mrs. West-Aiello. Unfortunately, by the time the younger kids got there, their older siblings had gotten them to understand her name was West Eye Jello, and seventeen years later, it's stuck. That poor woman is NEVER going to be known by the kids by her proper name.
The weather continues winter-crazy, with ups and downs in the temps that seem to defy the whole issue of is it winter or not. This weekend is rain, wintry mix and possibly some snow for Sunday night, up to two inches of that. Right now, Saturday afternoon late, it's rainy and extremely foggy out on the mountains. Driving home from finishing errands, we could look around and see the mountains around us all foggy-topped. Heck, we got home, and parked, and the fog was so thick that we couldn't see the neighboring ridgeline at all. It was even pretty thick up towards the house, to where we could see the wisps around the house. Yeesh. Time for movies, seed catalogs, and spending time in the bedroom so if we get snoozy, we can just shut things off and take a nap.
So anyhow, it's time for me to hunker back down with the spreadsheet and the seed catalogs (I got my Cook's Garden and High Mowing Seeds and Johnny's Selected Seeds catalogs today (Saturday), yay! MORE goodies!), and pick out my veggie seeds, herb plants (I cannot get herbs to grow from seed to save myself, so I'm being safe there and sticking with plants), and eventually I'll get some flowers listed. I like flowers, too, but I like to plant those and forget them. Even seed flowers - I've always had great luck with marigolds, snapdragons, rudbeckia and nasturtiums self-seeding, and very hardily. I remember the last time I grew snapdragons, and the darn things just kept popping up every year, in all kinds of wild colors. So ta for this week, books are below, and pray for March to get here soon so I can make the appointment for internet installation!!!
By the bye, I should note that in my seed wants, I'm going strictly for open-pollinated and heirloom varieties, if I haven't already. There are a lot of good hybrids out there, I know, but you can't really save seed from them, and that's one part of eventual sustainability that I won't give up. This is primarily because, of course, I want to save seed to grow the next year's crops and all, but I'd also like to have extra seed for selling in small packets (online and locally) as well as some bedding plants to sell locally. Yeah, the business plan for the farmstead is totally going there. I'm even going for things that I normally wouldn't eat or haven't tried, and a good chunk of that is just I want to try them and potentially expand my eating possibilities. (Hey, I might find some stuff I like and never tried because it wasn't available in the stores when I was growing up, let alone now, right?) But I do admit that I'm a little disappointed on first looks through the Johnny's catalog, as it seems they have little BUT hybrids, severely limiting what I might get from them. But now it's time for books. See you next week!
Ooops - I made it to McQuack's but the snow is coming down pretty hard and I'm cutting today as short as possible so I can get home and hopefully up the mountain road without issues. The road itself is hard and dry underneath, but if y'all know Ozarks snow, the inch or so we've got already is not good. If I hadn't had to bring movies back to the RedBox and get some new wipers on the car, I wouldn't have come out at all. But the movies need to come back and if I'm to get to work tomorrow, the wipers need replacing, as this winter has clobbered the heck out of them and they're pretty useless. Quentin is all "I'll come down and go to O'Reilly's and get new ones then come to McQuack's to put them on for you." Then fifteen minutes later, it's "Wow, the snow's coming down, do you think I can make it?" In the VAN? I made it in the CAR! The roads aren't bad, just it's snowing hard enough that you have to go slow and careful. Yeesh. Crap like this makes me want internet at home so bad so I can just stay home and not deal with this mess.Till next week, folks!
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