Planning and Sorting

27°f/-2.8°C, overcast. Snow arrived around 3pm and is only now beginning to stick. I really doubt we will get the 3-5" predicted, unless the snow really picks up. 36° as I write this.

This was one of those waiting days, a day when we wait for the predicted weather to arrive. We didnt have any plans because snow was supposed to start around noon, be very heavy, slick roads, yada yada. Well, whatever. It was nice to kind of meander into the day with a good breakfast, lots of coffee and Christmas music.  

I spent some of the morning going through my favorite cookie cookbook and revisiting the old familiar recipes. 

These are two I make every year from this cookbook:

I also like this handy list of substitutions:

Other than these, I will probably make some kind of chocolate chip cookies, lemon bars, mincemeat tarts from my canned green tomato mincemeat, and pecan sandies, all favorites here. Maybe cranberry orange bread too, and then of course pies, and maybe Granny Marigold's fudge. Some of these will go to the several single/widowed men who frequent Shari's,  and a plate or two may go to neighbors. Most of the rest will, I hope, go home with those who will be here for Christmas day.

I had a nice long chat with son #4, Aaron, who was at the Atlanta Airport, waiting for his flight to Lima, Peru. He will fly from Lima to Argentina , where he had worked on a project for his company back in October. It is hard to know where he will be whenever I call.  I the last two weeks he's been in Des Moines, Charlotte, and Montreal (Canada). So when we do get a chance to talk, we take full advantage of it! 

This afternoon I have been sorting that load of glassware we were given yesterday. I have it sorted into what goes on ebay, what goes to booths, and what goes to the thrift store. And there are three little pieces I will keep, a small candy dish (oddly, I don't have any!), a very small rose bowl, and a little divided dish with a handle that glass collectors call a nappy, why I have no idea. 

None of these have any real value, but will be nice to use.

As you can see, this glass has taken over my kitchen! This is not all of it, either---I have already listed some and stored it away. Some just didn't get into the photos.

The black piece is what I used for background for the ebay photos. Not fancy, but effective. 

This is one of two large boxes for the thrift store. None of this glass is chipped or damaged, but would be hard to sell in my booths or online.

Meanwhile, as I have been putting this post together, things are getting pretty white outside.

A good evening to stay inside!

Well! For Once They Were Right

25°f/-3.9°C, clear after snow squalls all day yesterday.

Larry checking the package box. Poor box has been tumbled over the hill a few times by strong winds, even though it is anchored to the ground. It makes life easier for mail and delivery services, as they don't have to come down our long-ish driveway.

A bit more snow than expected! We ended up with a couple inches, but the eastern WV mountains had over a foot. This is early for us; we don't usually see measureable snow until late November, if then. The old folklore says that the date of the first measureable snowfall is the number of measureable snows you will have that winter. I have seen this to be true, but I doubt it holds up further north, where snow is a more frequent visitor!

We went ahead with our plans anyway, and worked about 4 hours at our Ripley booth. Still more to do there today, and then we will start on Ravenswood.  Most of that time was spent putting up lights. The booth really needs them because it is dim back there, but I swear they look like some crazed old woman put them up. Not far from the truth, actually. Still, the space does look brighter, and the glass really sparkles. No photos yet, but I will post some later on.

I took lots of snow pics, though! Here's a few:

The youngest mulberry was beginning to shed its  leaves when we got home yesterday.  They stay green longer than any other tree, I think, only turning yellow the other day.

And then, this morning, naked! And a beautiful golden puddle on the ground. I look forward to this every year. 

Along our driveway. 

At the top of the hill, Larry gets the mail.

On our road, Joe'sRun: Ernie's homeplace.

Earlier in the day, as we were going out. The snow had just started an hour or so before. To the right is where Larry was brushhogging just last week.

I love these old trees. One is completely hollow but still alive. Years ago I watched a black snake crawl in at the bottom and out at the top.

Our neighbor Dave's hay bales. He lives a couple miles away but this is the back end of his land,up on our ridge 

And down this hill to where our driveway turns right. Larry once slid down this and crashed into two Ford trucks owned by the gas drilling company. They were shoveling sand on the hill and had blocked the road. Poor guys were from Texas, and had no idea how to deal with this icy hill--- you stop at the top, pick your best route, and let 'er roll. Works beautifully. Best to hug one side of the hi or the other, depending on where the snow/ice hasn't been too packed down.  Larry jokes that his old Chevy took out two Fords.

These are out of order:they are on the oaved part of Joe's Run. 

Isaac and Grace's house, one of my favorites along our road.

Today, of course, is Veterans Day. My family is full of vets, dating back at least to the Revolutionary War. If you are fairly new to my blog, you might be interested in this post and photos about our vets.  My Dad, my husband, four of our 5 sons...and even today we have a few in service.

Ice, Baby

18°f this morning, -8°C, light snow, but clearing to partly sunny and a high of 32°f (0°C)

We were out and about today, because we needed to pick up milk from Maddie the milk girl (she has the loveliest milk from her Jersey cows, a bargain, I think, at $6 a gallon.  All that beautiful cream!). And since we had to go out, we took a few totes and stocked the booths. Not that they really needed it; with the cold and snow this past week, no one is doing much unnecessary shopping. While I love what we do, I am well aware that vintage and antique stuff is not required to live, so weather has a huge impact on sales.

It was worth going out just to see the icicles on a cliff along our road that never disappoints in wintry weather. 

This first photo though! Look at that face! The Ice Man cometh?

I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but the icicles extend back into the cavity under the rock shelf.

These others I liked pretty well too.

Same face one, just more distance away.

I like the way these kind of cascaded down the hill.

And the long range view. Larry knows I love these, so he obligingly stopped to let me take photos. We stopped in the middle of the road, because there isn't that much traffic on our road, as you can see by the tracks, and everyone knows I'm the weird old lady who takes pictures of everything.

Icicles excited me even as a child. I could not wait to get outside and break one off to lock, like a popsicle. Lord only knows what dirt and other stuff might have been in the ice, but I'm still kicking so I guess it didn't hurt me. One thing I miss these days is Jack Frost on the windows. Doublehung windows keep that from happening now, I suppose, but oh how I loved those icy ferns and fancy swirls that disappeared at the puff of a breath. 

A warming trend starts tomorrow, so our little bit of snow will soon be gone, and we will be back to the inglorious mud. Muddy boots, muddy dogs, muddy porch, ugh. Still, it will be nice to see the sun again. It has been quite a while--in fact I can't remember our last sunny day.

Til next time, friends!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Thaw

10°f, -12°C, warming to 41°f. Clearing skies.

Morning sparkles

Finally, a mostly sunny day that actually warmed up to let some thawing begin! Snow left the roof of the log room with a great whoosh, and took all the lovely icicles with it. Ah well. 

The icicles I have watching grow the past couple days, all gone with the whoosh. I took this photo this morning; you can just barely make them out.

I shoveled part of the deck and salted the porch steps, and Larry salted the walks and tried to shovel, but alas this ice us still quite thick under the snow. He did get the tractor out again and worked on the driveway, so perhaps one day we can drive the van back down again.

Across the hill, we could heat the laughter and shouts of our neighbor's grandchildren as he hitched a large piece of metal roofing to his four-wheeler and was pulling them around in the snow. Other children down the road were sledding, I see, according to their Facebook pictures. It was a good day to be outdoors.

The cellarhouse. The top is storage, the bottom is where I store apples and all the food we can.

I was in and out all afternoon, after the air warmed up, but spent the morning canning pasta sauce. We still have several gallon cans of sauce given to us last summer; it is pretty bland so I added seasonings and canned it in quart jars, which will be much more suitable for us.

This evening we watched Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, an older movie that we watched several years ago. I could not remember the story line, but I knew I liked it. Such a touching movie! 

I did step outside during the movie to see the beautiful full moon though. What a sight! 

I guess that's all the non-news for today. I hope you all had a great weekend!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Just Another Saturday

14°f, -10°C this morning, with light snowing continuing until noon.

The promised snow arrived, leaving 3 inches of new fluffiness on top of the earlier 13", which hasn't melted. It has packed down a bit, so we have about 15" on the ground now. Today warmed up to 30°f, and the icicles I have been watching grow in front of the window added a good 6" to their length. Larry has been knocking down the ones on the back of the house, but I asked him to leave these. I just love seeing the sun glint on them. 

No more snow is predicted until at least next weekend, and with a slight warming trend this week we should see the mounds begin to shrink. 

You know I have been enjoying this snow! I mean, it has been years since we have had such weather, and I have to wonder if I will see it again in my lifetime, given climate change. So I am taking much pleasure now, storing away as many memories and pictures as I can. I know many people are complaining about it, especially those who must drive in it, but for me it is an unexpected delight. 

I still haven't been off the sidewalks though, and even those are tricky and icy. Larry, bless him, says each morning he's not going to go out any more than he has to...and then spends several hours mucking about out there.  And he loves it too, coming in a ruddy-cheeked and smiling. Last year we built a snowman, but haven't done that yet this year. Maybe tomorrow. We shall see.

I did very little today, even slept in until 9am. And I do mean slept. The pill for nerve pain, combined with Tylenol PM has made good, solid sleep possible again at last. It's amazing how much good sleep does for one! Until late afternoon, I actually thought today was Sunday, so I was taking it slow; for some reason it seems perfectly acceptable to me to be a little lazy on Sundays. But I did do a little cleaning, canned 5 pints of venison, and finished my book, so I guess I redeemed myself a bit. And tomorrow I can be lazy again,  right?

It wasn't a great read, just an average murder mystery set at Christmas time. It was disappointing because although the author tried to provide all kinds of suspenseful atmosphere,  he did not leave all those enticing clues that good mysteries scatter about, which allow the reader to form theories about whodunit as they read. Another thing: when the characters are gathered for a meal, there were no details of what they ate. Okay, a small thing, but if they are having breakfast at an English manor house, don't you want to know if they had ham and mushrooms and baked beans and so on? Or if they are at the local pub, what they're drinking? Or if wandering in a garden, what flowers or shrubs surround them? Those kinds of details are important,  I think, to paint a vivid scene.

Right now our house is so quiet. My CD of Celtic music has ended (we still play CDs here), and Larry is sleeping. Little Boy is curled up in a corner, Buddy is sleeping in Larry's chair, and Clyde the cat and Daisy are on the rug in front of the stove. The crackle of the fire and Daisy's snoring are the only sounds. I think it is time for me to join the sleeping crew myself. 

Good night, all.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Snowed In

18°f, about -8°C, snow flurries continuing all day.

It has been years since we have been snowed in, but with 12" of snow on the ground, we aren't going anywhere, and won't be for a while from the look of it.

The snow started Sunday afternoon, and continued through Monday. But Monday night we had a little over 11", but added another inch overnight. Even now, late Tuesday afternoon it is still flurrying. We had a 4% chance of snow today but I guess no one told the clouds. More snow is predicted for Friday.

We had ample warning that we could have this much accumulation, but that it could also be freezing rain or sleet. We did have a tiny bit of that, but thankfully not much. What is funny is that our son Derek, who lives maybe 10 miles away as the crow flies, only got 7". Go figure.

But all around our area, the roads are awful. Most have not yet been plowed or treated. School has been canceled and lots if businesses are closed. Surprisingly,  our electricity is still on, probably because we had enough wind to knock the snow out of the trees.

It is absolutely beautiful outside, but for the most part I am enjoying it from inside because I have no desire to take any chances with my new knee. Larry has been out and about a lot, shoveling a bit of the walk, setting up a heater in the cellar, bringing in wood for the fireplace,  taking care of the chickens, etc. Today he walked up the hill to where he parked our vehicles to the snow off and let them run a little. It was a difficult walk, as there is a crust if ice just below the last snow so he had to crunch through that with every step. He said he was wishing for snowshoes! But he dressed very warmly and took his time because he didn't want to be a statistic of the storm. I hate leaving all this work on him, but I know I must.

The dogs, of course are loving it. They are like having little children, going in and out all day to play. No worries about Buddy running off in snow this deep!

I have stayed busy doing some cleaning and some canning. I put up 13 quarts of pinto beans and 6 of corn chowder. Our oldest son gave us a gallon of maple syrup made near his home, which needed to be divided into smaller containers for storage. To do that, I heated the syrup to 180°f , put into sterilized jars with new lids, and then turned the jars upside down for 10 minutes, per instructions from a Canadian government website. This is enough syrup for  at least a year or two. And do delicious.

It's good weather for canning--the extra heat is welcome as temperatures haven't reached higher than 25°f this week. Tonight will be very cold, and I think tomorrow night will be single digits. Fortunately Larry was able to fix the problem with our main heating stove--the orifice needed a good cleaning. Wellhead gas is not quite as clean as gas that has been through the compressor stations, but we rarely have any issue with it. Except when we do! It is a blessing though to have free gas and not have to worry about a terrible bill.

This cold spell is expected to stay with us for most of next week, so the snow won't be leaving anytime soon. We don't have to be anywhere,  so we will just hunker down and enjoy this down time. I finished one of the books I bought to read over Christmas, an older title called Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer. It was a murder mystery, and even though I knew who had done it almost immediately I continued reading because it was such a well-written book. Now I am reading another murder mystery, called Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan. It too promises to be a good read. I think I have 2 more similar books that I bought in December, along with a dozen others waiting to be read.

While I am writing this, Larry is snoozing under the colorful throw made for us by granddaughter Ashley. Lord knows he's earned the rest! Snow is still drifting by the window, the fire is crackling, the dogs are sleeping, and I can't think of anywhere I would rather be at this moment.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.