Third Time

You know how they say the third time is the charm?  Yeah, this is the third time I've cast on this hat. 

Well, really the fourth, if you count the time I cast on before I ripped the whole thing out, but this is the third time I've cast on since deciding to use the yarn doubled.  

The first time, I used one of the needles from my new interchangeable set, only those cables are just a touch too long for these hats.  It just seemed too stretched out, so I frogged it and cast on with one of my Knit Picks circs.  

I figured using my preferred Chinese Waitress cast on would be too difficult to do with two strands of yarn, so I used the knitted on cast on instead.  I didn't like the way that looked, because that's the problem with this particular cast on.  It's very loose and loopy.  So I frogged it one more time. 

I finally put on my big girl britches and cast on with the CW.  It turned out not to be too terribly hard -- I just had to be careful to pick up both strands when I was drawing the loop over.  I had to re-do a couple of the cast on stitches, but we got there in the end.  

Now we're plugging away. 

In the meantime, I'm still making progress on the other hat I have OTN.

Yarn: Euphora Knits

Colorway:  Illegible

Pattern:  Sockhead, by BoHo Knits 

Needles:  US 2.3/3mm

Model:  Evil Incarnate

In other news, they posted yesterday that the plant would be working five hours tomorrow to make up for the time they lost when the electricity went out Monday.  At least those who didn't put vacation in will get paid for that time.  Those who did were given the option to change their day, but I don't know how many people would do that.  I'm not, I can tell you that much for sure. 

Since I'm not working, I decided to go ahead and get my shopping done, so I wouldn't have that hanging over my head all weekend.  Yes, I bought more sweet potatoes.  

But why?  Well, I'll tell you.  Because I want leftover sweet potato casserole.  I'm also going to buy a box of Stove Top, and make my strawberry Jell-O salad, so I can have the leftovers.  I'm not going to buy a turkey this time, but I hope to bring home some ham from Cody and Brennan's.  

And I picked up the last piece of the puzzle for my decoration thing -- big ornaments. 

If you look closely, you can see there is a larger ball in the center to give the thing more body -- so to speak.  

Now that I have all of the components, maybe I can start putting this together this weekend.  

And finally, the coworker who was getting me the firewood says they about have it ready, so we penciled in for them to deliver it next Friday.  I said I'd get with him one day next week and finalize our plans, but it looks like that's one more thing I can mark off my to-do list. 

Times like this, I really wish I were able to multitask, because there are still a lot of things on that list. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go knit some more.

Laters. 

Baby Steps

It was 45° when I left the house this morning to go to work, and after yesterday it felt positively balmy.  We're expected to be above average for at least a week, with no more freezing temps in the near future, so when I got home from work, I put all the plants back out onto the back porch.  

As I was standing there looking at them, I said, "What the heck" and moved my garden sage from the pot I had it in into the raised bed. 

I tried not to disturb the root ball, so I'm optimistic it will do well, and hopefully recover from any transplant shock before the next cold snap gets here.  It looks kind of sad right now, but that pot I had it in didn't drain as well as it probably needed to.  In this bed with good drainage, I'm hoping it will pick up a bit.  OK, a lot.  

I'm thinking I can put a pineapple sage in the other half of that bed, but that's probably all that will fit, since sage can get quite large. 

Since I had the plants out of my kitchen, I was able to move the old sewing machine out and get that corner cleaned up really well.  I put the microwave stand in its place, and stuck everything onto it. 

 I still have some organizing to do, but it looks a heap sight better than what it was before. 

Unexpected Half Day Off

I am a bit behind on my blogging, or rather the stuff I want to blog about, but there is a good reason for that.  I felt it was important to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald tragedy, and it deserved a bit more than an "Oh yeah" at the end of a post.  

Thus, this post might be a little bit long, but I hope not too terribly boring.  

So there I was yesterday at work, just a working away when the lights went out.  Not just the lights.  Everything cut off.  Even the emergency lights were off.  It was pitch black in there.  The only light we had was from the lit brazing tips.  It was downright spooky.  

Fortunately, the lights came back on pretty quickly, at least up in the component area.  They were still off back in the back.  But they were the only thing that was on.  We had no electricity anywhere else.  We couldn't run machines, or our fans, or even strike our tips.

About 15 minutes later, Inspector Gadget came around the corner and called, "Everybody clock out and go home!"  He didn't have to tell me twice!  The only downside is a short paycheck, but that's why I get all the overtime when it is available -- so I'll have savings built up for days like this. 

Anyway, it took forever to get out of the parking lot, because they couldn't even open the exit gate, and everyone had to go out the entrance, which is only one lane wide.  But get out I eventually did, and ... got caught by a freight train.  

As luck would have it, it was a short one, so once it had passed and I had waved at the engineer, I zoomed on back to the highway...were I got stuck behind road construction.  

At this point, I was beginning to feel like that old cartoon character, you know the one the rain cloud follows around all the time...But I finally made it home, and first thing I did was light a little fire in the wood box. 

I thought about putting one in the fire pit and sitting out there for a while, but man, that wind was kicking.  I walked outside and it like to have blown me away.  I said, "Nope" and went right back inside.  It would have been nice otherwise.  As it was, I settled for the one in the stove.  I let it burn down, then lit my little creosote sweeping log and let it burn down.  

Then I sat in my chair, thinking about all the phone calls I need to make and not making any of them.  

I'll tell you what I did do, though.  But first, you need a little backstory. 

Ever since I moved into this house, I've had this little microwave stand right here in this spot. 

I've actually had the stand for much longer.  I think I bought it 2006, when I bought my second trailer house, but that's neither here nor there. 

These last couple of years, I've been thinking that this spot would be perfect for some sort of baker's rack.  The plan was, if I ever got my act together and got this house remodeled, I'd have whoever did the remodel to build one in.  I wanted to make some sort of coffee bar, and thus would be able to clear this mess out and get it better organized. 

As the years went by, however, and I realized my act would probably never be that together, I began looking for one on Amazon.  I found several that I liked, but as I said, I've been trying to cut back on my spending at least until the overtime starts up again.  

Then one day last week, I realized that after six long years, I finally had enough points on my Fetch app to redeem them for a $100 Amazon card.   It just so happened, that the baker's rack I wanted was marked down to....$100!  To make a long story short, the points got redeemed, the rack got delivered Sunday morning, and it quickly got put together. 

Really, the hardest part was getting back up off the floor...and by the time I was done, I was too tired to worry about cleaning the spot out, so there it sat until yesterday.  What with my half day off, I got that old stand moved out, the floor under it swept and mopped, and my bakers rack put into place. 

Once that was done, it didn't take long at all to move my coffee maker and all my coffee and tea over to my new coffee bar. 

It took a bit longer to convince myself to put my microwave onto the rack, because I was worried about its weight.  However, after reading the reviews, they said it would hold that much weight, so I took a deep breath and put the microwave onto the stand. 

No creaks, no groans...nothing.  Heaving a great sigh of relief, I plugged it in and we're good to go.  I'm loving it.  

 Better yet, I now have all of this additional counter space to work on. 

As for the old microwave stand, I want to use it for my seed starting station.  Right now, everything is sitting on this old sewing machine that my cousin's wife gave me. 

Someone had given it to her ages ago, and she didn't want it.  She offered it to me, and even though I already had a sewing machine, I needed a stand for a snake tank, so I took it.  Blaze's tank sat on it until just a few years ago when Snow died, and I moved him into her tank. 

Now I use it for my seed starting tray, but it's not really practical for that.  It's heavy and hard to move, and as you can see by the state of the floor, there is no storage.  I'm thinking I can use the old microwave stand for the seed starting tray, and the shelf and cabinet underneath for storing all that other stuff.  

And it's on wheels, so it'll be easier to move it back into the junk room when it comes time to bring my outside plants inside for the winter.  

After I finished all of that, I was sitting in my chair watching some TV -- a real life game show based on the Netflix show The Squid Game -- when I realized, hey, I have room to get my toaster oven out!  That is exactly what I did.  

I got the toaster oven out, cleaned it up really well, then made my self some toast  -- some proper toast for the first time in years.  It was soo good, I'm telling you.  Then I thought, "While I'm getting old appliances back out, might as well get the coffee pot out, too."  And I did just that. 

I cleaned it up, ran some vinegar through it, and found it a place on the baker's rack right next to my single serve coffee maker.  I had to move my pod holder over, but there's still room for it. 

When my toaster oven had cooled off, I even found a space for it on the bottom shelf. 

There is even room for the cat's food and water bowl right beside it.

Finally, I had my baker's rack set up just the way I wanted it....or so I thought...

I got up this morning and went to work, and today being Veteran's Day, they had gift baskets for all of the veterans.  

It was filled with junk food, as usual, but I was more excited about the basket it all came in.  It's just perfect to put my teas into.  I was able to fit five cans and one box of tea into the basket, and it fit onto the shelf perfectly.  

Now, I think it's finally the way I want it.  

And finally, this is what I work up to this morning.  

It would have been a great day to call in and snuggle back into bed, but given what happened yesterday, that simply wasn't feasible.  My paycheck simply can't take that big of a hit.  So I got up and went to work, and we managed to stay the whole day.  

As expected, the frost got my basil.  

I'll get out and pull it up here in the next few days.  And another bit of sad news, the high winds ripped my fall flag up. 

It's come full circle, because high winds several years ago blew this flag into my yard in the first place, and now high winds have taken it away. 

Ah well, the wind yeeteth and the wind yoinketh away.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bowl of birthday gumbo calling my name.  

Laters. 

The Legend Lives On

From the Chippewa on down of the big lake they call Gitche gumee...

Today marks the 50th anniversary of one of our nation's greatest maritime mysteries, the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  All we know is that the ship was crossing Lake Superior, keeping in contact with her sister ship the Arthur M Anderson, when Captain McSorley radioed "We're holding our own."  A mere 12 minutes later, the ship vanished from the radar, never to be seen again.

Divers have since found the wreckage of the ship, and there's been lots of speculation, lots of conjecture from those who've claimed to have solved the mystery of why the Edmund Fitzgerald went down, but truth is, only God knows what really happened that stormy night of November 10, 1975.

 

I was just one day shy of turning 11 years old when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank, so even if I had been in the living room when the news was on, I wouldn't have been paying attention.  I don't remember my dad talking about it at all, so even if I'd seen the reports, I would have quickly forgotten.  

Indeed, outside the Great Lakes area, few people would remember the incident, and it would have vanished into the oblivion of forgotten history were it not for the efforts of one man who said, "I can't let that happen."

I'm talking, of course about Gordon Lightfoot, who read an article about the wreck, then sat down and wrote one of our greatest folk songs ever. 

I was in college when I first heard the song -- probably re-released in 1985 for the tenth anniversary -- and even then, I thought it was just a lovely little folk song.  I had no idea it was based on a true story.  After I found that out, I still thought it was based on something that had happened back in the 1700s.  

I was in the Navy when I found out..."Whoa!  That happened in 1975!"  From that moment on, I was hooked -- on the mystery, on the tragedy, on the romance, but none of that would have happened without the song.  So, after the church bell rings twenty nine times...

🔔  Ernest M. McSorley -- Captain 

🔔  John H. McCarthy -- First Mate 

🔔  James A. Pratt -- Second Mate 

🔔  Michael E. Armagost -- Third Mate 

🔔  George J. Holl -- Chief Engineer 

🔔  Edward F. Bindon -- First Assistant Engineer 

🔔  Thomas E. Edwards -- Second Assistant Engineer 

🔔 Russell G. Haskell -- Second Assistant Engineer 

🔔 Oliver J. Champeau -- Third Assistant Engineer 

🔔 Thomas D. Bentsen -- Oiler 

🔔 Ralph G. Walton -- Oiler 

🔔 Blaine H. Wilhelm -- Oiler 

🔔 Gordon F. MacLellan -- Wiper 

🔔 Frederick J. Beetcher -- Porter 

🔔 Nolan S. Church -- Porter 

🔔 Robert C. Rafferty -- Steward 

🔔 Allen G. Kalmon -- Second Cook 

🔔 Thomas D. Borgeson-- Maintenance Man 

🔔 Joseph W. Mazes -- Special Maintenance Man 

🔔 Ransom E. Cundy -- Watchman 

🔔 Karl A. Peckol -- Watchman 

🔔 William J. Spengler -- Watchman 

🔔 Eugene W. O'Brien -- Wheelsman 

🔔 John J. Poviach -- Wheelsman 

🔔 John D. Simmons -- Wheelsman 

🔔 Bruce L. Hudson -- Deck Hand 

🔔 Paul M. Riippa -- Deck Hand 

🔔 Mark A. Thomas -- Deck Hand 

🔔 David E. Weiss -- Cadet

for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald, 

let's ring it one more, for the man who made sure they would never be forgotten. 

🔔 Gordon Lightfoot -- singer and songwriter. 

While we're at it, raise a glass to those who have taken up the torch, and passed it on to the next generation.  🍺

Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.  -- Joel 1 : 3

So that we may never forget...

Stoked!

Sooooo, after I blogged yesterday, I went into my kitchen and mashed up my sweet potatoes to see how much I had.  I need three cups for the casserole, and two cups for the pie, and as luck would have it, that's exactly how much I ended up with.  Man, I was stoked!

And yes, I do realize it's kind of sad the things I get excited about these days...

Speaking of getting excited, my sparkly yarn was delivered shortly after I posted.  In fact, I was still sharing the links while she was bringing it to my porch. 

I could hear the mail carrier through my open window calling to the other person helping her make deliveries, “Hey! They got a Venus Fly Trap!”  I don’t know why, but it tickled me to hear how excited she was about it.  Part of me thought about going to the window and talking to her about it, but a bigger part of me didn't.  So the bigger part of me won, and I stayed in my recliner. 

In other news, I was watching football yesterday evening when a commercial for Voya came on the TV, and I remembered I hadn't filed my claim for this year.  My employer offers accident and critical illness insurance through Voya, and if you get a physical or health screening -- or even a dental checkup-- you can file a claim for a $100 benefit.  I always forget to do this one until I hear someone talking about it at work -- only this year it was an ad.  

No matter, I filed the claim and will soon be a hundred bucks richer.  Is it sad that my first thought was, "Ohhh, I can buy another raised bed for my garden with this!"?  Nah....

While we're on the subject, my little celery looks a bit wilted, so I don't know if it's going to survive. 

I'm not sure how cold hardy celery is, so it might die tonight anyway.  But I got the rest of my plants inside, 

and the woodbox filled, so we're all ready.  

Oh, I still need to go and put the styrofoam cover over my outside faucet, but other than that, I'm all ready.  

Kindly ignore my messy kitchen.  What with cleaning out boxes from the shed, my junk room is full and the stuff I normally stuff into said junk room to make room for the plants is still in the kitchen.  I'd hoped to be finished by now, but I'm just not moving as fast as I thought I would.  

And yes, part of it is that I plan on giving a bunch of stuff away, and people can be so aggravating.  They'll say they want it, but never show up to get it.  I've got two stadium seats that have been sitting in my car port since September, because the person who was desperate to get one never did.  

Anyway, the plan is to finish sorting through all the boxes and put whatever I don't want outside and say, "First come first served" and just leave it at that.  I can guarantee you that 15 seconds after I post, someone will ask if it's still available, then claim to want it, only he'll never show up to get it...Happens every time.  I'll leave it out there for about a week, then whatever is left, I'll chunk in the garbage. 

And finally, I think I'm going to name my little Christmas cactus -- you know, the one that's been through so much -- Gloria, after Gloria Gaynor who sang "I Will Survive." 

It's kind of become it's theme song, you know.

We Didn’t Get Any

We didn't get any rain yesterday evening, so I'm going to have to wait a bit to see how my garden spot settles.  No matter.  It'll rain plenty before it's all over, and I've always said this will be a multi year project anyway.  

Even so, it turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day today, and I've been able to keep my windows open all day to get some fresh air into this house.  The bad news is, my sparkly yarn hasn't arrived yet, so I haven't been able to work on my Christmas project while watching football.  I'm not worried, as sometimes the mail on Saturdays arrives relatively late in the day.  

In the meantime, I've finished another sailor hat. 

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This  Yarn

Colorway: Sunset

Pattern: Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8

I haven't cast on another one yet, but I will soon.  I've already passed up the total number of hats I sent off for this year's Christmas At Sea, so I'm stoked about that. However, I did something some of you will consider to be unthinkable.  

Remember that set of yarn minis I'd bought at FFITS that I'd agonized so much over and finally cast on with?  Yeah, I ripped that whole thing out.  

Mine just wasn't turning out the way the sample hat I'd seen at FFITS looked, and I wasn't happy with it.  I think it's kind of a bummer that she didn't have a pattern for her hat, if she's going to have one on display.  Anyway, I think she was doubling the yarn, so that's what I'm going to try when I cast it back on.  For now, I cast on another one with the yarn I'd caked up a while back. 

Yarn: Euphora Knits

Colorway:  I don't know, the label is illegible.  It looks like KoHerKo River or KuHaKu River

Pattern:  Sockhead Hat, by Boho Knits

Needles:  US 2.5 or 3mm

In other news, my first bud has opened on my Christmas cactus!

Do you see that little branch to the lower right that looks dead?  Yeah, I thought it was, too, so I pulled it up with the intention of composting it.  But when I did, I saw that it still had a couple of little roots, so I put it into some water to see if it will come back. 

If it does, I'll re-plant it, and if it doesn't, it'll go into the compost as I'd originally intended.  

I was pleasantly surprised to see so many buds on this one, too. 

This poor baby has absolutely been through the wringer, and has somehow survived it all.    

The only other thing on my list that I managed to get done was to boil my sweet potatoes down. 

I wanted to go ahead and do it to see if I'd bought enough for both a casserole and a pie.  I still have to mash and measure them, but right now I'm waiting for them to cool.  If I don't have enough, I'll have time to go buy some more.   

While I was in the kitchen, I also cut up my celery.  

I tried to take an artsy-fartsy photo, but I'm not too sure how that worked out.  I miss having a DSLR camera, but that's another topic for another day. 

After I finished, I remembered reading somewhere that you can stick the remnants of your celery into the ground and it'll grow.  I don't know how true that is, but what could it hurt to try, and celery is part of the Trinity after all.  So, I took it out and stuck it into one of my garden beds. 

If it grows, great!  If it doesn't, I'll pull it up and put it into the compost.  

Speaking of, I've got three beds ready to be planted, 

 and I'm seriously considering doing just that.  

After tomorrow night's freeze, it's supposed to warm back up for at least a week.  Since my lemon balm is used to being outside in the planter anyway, if I'm careful not to disturb the roots too much, it ought to be OK.  Do you think so?  

Also, I have a sage plant I was going to put up into that corner bed, where the fence meets the house.  It's used to being outside as well.  I think I'm going to try it.    

Wish me luck.

Paid My Fees

Today would have been a lovely day to sit in the house and do nothing all day.  Alas, that was not to be, as I had to go into town and pay the tax collector for the privilege of driving on the roads in my state. 

In other words, I had to renew my license plates.  And drop off a few books to the Little Free Library while I was on the Square. 

On my way into town, I stopped off at the Chakchiuma Swamp in the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve to see the new stuff they've added since I was last there.   I'd seen a post on their FB page about it and wanted to check it out for myself.  

There is a nice educational sign, 

and on the other side are QR codes you can scan to reserve a canoe or kayak, identify bird calls, or connect with other fans of the swamp on their website.  

Just beyond the sign is a nice little elevated boardwalk, 

which leads to a deck with benches where you can sit

and look at the swamp.  

For the more adventurous amongst you, there are death stairs on the other side of the deck. 

Watch that first step.  It's a doozy! 

Seriously, though, I think that's for getting into and out of your canoes and kayaks when the swamp actually has water in it.  It's pretty dry right now.  

I sat there for a while, then finished walking the trails, paid my respects to the Old Man Of The Swamp, 

and went back to my car.  Only I didn't make it.  To the car. 

I decided to walk the River loop and pick up a Pokémon Go route badge.  I seem to have forgotten how to work the thing, because once again, it didn't give me credit for walking the route.  I thought about going around again, but realized the time was moving along and I still had my errands to run.  And I decided that since I was already in town, I might as well get my shopping done while I was there.  

So I did.  

Walking around the store, looking at my Thanksgiving shopping list, knowing I didn't need to buy any of that stuff now...it was a bit discombobulating.  Part of me wanted to rebel and buy it all anyway -- I'm going to cook my Thanksgiving dinner already by golly!-- but I talked myself down from that ledge.  Cody and Brennan want to host, and I need to let them.  

I'm still going to make some casseroles, and I was thinking I can cook all of the rest of it for Christmas.  The kids may or may not show up for that, but I can still have a nice dinner for myself.  

I know I said I was going to cut back on my spending, but I couldn't pass up this little cocotte.  

It was marked down from $7 to $4, and it seemed like a pretty good deal.   I also bought more ornaments to put into my decoration thing.  

My sparkly silver yarn is supposed to arrive tomorrow, so maybe I can start putting this together while watching the ball games.  

Since we have a chance of rain this evening, once I got home I wanted to work just a bit more in the garden spot.  Guess what I found growing there?  

If you said even more spider lilies, give yourself a cookie.  This slab is 8' x 8' --ish-- and this is how many spider lily bulbs I've dug up this fall. 

I'm going to let them dry out a bit, then probably burn them in the fire pit.  If any local folks want some, you're welcome to come by and get them before I burn 'em.  

Other than digging up stray bulbs,  I don't plan on doing any more digging in the garden spot.  I'm just going to use my push/pull hoe to scrape the high spots down, and my dirt rake to move the dirt into the low spots. 

It's looking pretty good, but I want to see how this latest round of rain is going to settle things before I do any more to it. 

At this point, what with a hard freeze being expected in just a couple of days, it's too late to transplant anything this year, so I'll have until spring to get it all the way I want it. 

Using my mini chainsaw -- with proper PPE this time -- I was able to get that crepe myrtle stump mostly out, though I couldn't get all of the roots.  

Still, I was able to cut it down low enough it shouldn't interfere with my raised beds.  Unlike this Incarnation Of Evil...

I reckon I ought to go ahead and put that plastic barrier stuff down...later.  For now, I'm heading back to the swamp

 even if it's only in my mind...