Change in plans

But a minor one. Turns out, there aren't enough squares to make a full afghan for the bed like I wanted. There are enough for a lapghan, so that's now a later project. I have more than enough other yarn in partial skeins around here, and in bits and bobs, plus a nearly full super size skein of an off-white color called "Aran," that I can whip out what's called a Mile-A-Minute afghan for the bed. What I really need is to be able to work from home so I have the time to pull it together in a couple of weeks. What I have is a full-time job, half a dozen things that need doing as well, including Mom's Christmas present (which is likely to be late, again, darn it). Oh well ... nobody ever said homesteading was easy, and now that DST is over with, and my sleep patterns are going to be all messed up again for a bit, and it's cooler weather, I'll have more time on the weekends to deal with playing catchup on needlework projects and on writing.

Hubby is outside working on the truck a bit, as it needs an oil change. He got the old oil draining and came in to tell me it's a good thing he decided to do it, as the old oil is nearly black, so who knows when the last owner changed the oil. Yeesh, when you have a high-mileage vehicle, you change the oil religiously, in order to keep it running. Period, or else your vehicle is going to boom on you in fairly short order. Engines are a lot more expensive and time-consuming to replace than oil. You can guess which one I'd rather do.

Dinner tonight is spaghetti, or what hubby calls "spit at Eddie," as a joke. Water is on, heating up so I can do dishes, then it's shower water and food while that all heats up, and trash still has to be pulled together so it can go out and get burned. Chores never end. There's always something to be done, which does keep a homesteader busy even in the down times. Also, there is that load of firewood to load up that we sold and will be paid for once it's delivered. Hubby will work on that once he gets done with the truck.

For more heat, for now, we also got another radiator heater for the front room. This one's digital and I wasn't too thrilled with that right off. But it works wonders. The living room went from barely 60F to nearly 70F in under an hour, and you can tell the difference. Even with the blackout curtains down to help hold the heat in the living room and out of the hall and kitchen, which hardly get used except for a minute or two at a time, some of the heat from the bedroom and living room are leaking to them, and it's still halfway comfortable in the kitchen. Doing dishes this winter is going to actually be nice. Improvements help a lot, even in small batches.

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