Whiling Away the Hours

I have to admit I'm using the cold weather as an excuse not to do anything outside.  Of course, there isn't much I can do now that the ground is frozen and there is some fair snow cover, but I think I should be more industrious.  I could always cut more fence posts.  I did make some nice Christmas cookies:  gingerbread men, kolaches, plain oatmeal cookies and some with raisins, plain sugar cookies, Reese's chocolate fudge peanut butter cookies, and fudge with peanut butter and nuts.  I will have to put some cookies on the side to be sure we have some to take on the 21st to the Special Olympics Christmas party.  I have been working on knitting hats and mittens with scrap yarn, too.  I am nearly finished with a second pair of mittens.  As usual, I'm looking for a specific hat pattern and can't find it.  Ugh!

Yesterday the weather warmed to around 20F so I took the opportunity to run to Fifield and get some chicken supplies from Bernie.  Then, since he is located right off Highway 70 on Highway 13, I took Highway 70 East over to County Road D and checked out the new Goodwill store that had its grand opening in Lac Du Flambeau.  (I won't be going back.)  Then, it took me a good hour to unload the truck and carry all the chicken supplies to the coop and put them away.  Good exercise!   I spread new wood chips down for the chickens and filled the nests with new chips.  The coop is pretty cozy.  Some of the roosters got frost bite on their combs from the below zero cold we had a few nights ago, but otherwise all the chickens are ok and seem to be acclimated to the cold now.  I bring them warm water every morning and give them some extra corn and oats.  The oats especially give them higher carbs to help their metabolism keep them warm.  They aren't too keen on going outside the coop, but I do open the door for them.  They like to congregate in the open doorway and are content to look outside. 

I will have to go through the egg refrigerator and cull any eggs that have frozen.  I wish I could put the refrigerator inside the house, but there just isn't any room for it.  I have more eggs to wash, too.  I am still getting about a dozen eggs a day so the ladies must be happy.   In January I will call our DATCP (Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Department) and find out about getting an egg license so I can sell them at the farmers market and to grocery stores or restaurants. 

I am enjoying looking at the seed catalogs as they come in.  Around February 10th we get back to 10 hours of daylight and I will start onion and leek seeds then.  One of the things I can do is go through my seed bin and see what I have left.  I planted most of my squash and pumpkin seeds last year and got no harvest so I will  have to buy more of those seeds.  For sure I want to get a solid medicinal garden growing and will need to get some more seeds since the chickens devoured all my herbs last year.  I will put the herbs in the hops section out in the field next year.  I think they will look pretty there.  Horizon Herbs is the best place for herb seeds, plants and roots in my opinion.  Everything they sell is certified organic and the quality is simply excellent.  It's always fun to plan the garden. 

Well, that's about all for now.  Take care!

Christmas Shopping

The last few days have been exhausting.  At least my Christmas shopping (for the most part) is finished.  And I never left the house!  I have our soldier girl and my Dad left to buy something for.  Dad is easy -- all he ever wants is pipe tobacco.  He counts the cans he gets from me and my sisters and squirrels them away in his cupboard.  He knows exactly how many pipes he gets out of each can and figures out how much he can smoke until his birthday comes and he receives more tobacco.  We also give him tobacco on Father's Day. So between my sisters and I, Dad generally is kept in Half and Half pipe tobacco heaven for the full year.  Soldier girl is the hard one to buy for.  I suppose Tom and I will make it easy on ourselves and just send her money. But at least the gift shopping is mostly taken care of.  I thought very hard about what gifts to buy.  Mostly I bought necessities -- food and clothing.  Next was how-to books.  Lastly, for entertainment I bought some DVDs.  To say the least, this is a very frugal Christmas for us. 

This Christmas I am very mindful of the suffering of the many Americans who have lost their jobs, homes, health care.  Those whose lives are in ruins and have been displaced because of the economy or weather related disasters.  On my Net roaming I came across this video:



Pretty grim, and from what I've been reading, the worst is yet to come.  We probably won't see the bottom until March of next year at the earliest.

No one person can dry America's tears, but each one of us can do something to help.  Drop a coin in the Salvation Army bucket; buy a bottle of eye wash or hand lotion for a donation box going overseas to soldiers; give a food item to your local food pantry.  Or do what I am doing and knit warm hats and mittens for needy children.  Whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do unto Me.  Let your heart lead you. There is always a need somewhere in your neighborhood that you can fill, so rise and let your Light shine this Christmas -- and always.

December

I just can't believe it's December already.  I must be the queen of missing time because hardly anything seemed to get done this year.  Still, small accomplishments do build up (like soil) and eventually the bigger picture becomes visible, so I will just have to wait a while to see the results of my efforts!  Astrologically, this coming year is another year where most of my planets reside in cadent houses, and that means another year of basically educating myself, working on my infrastructure, and preparing for more active times in 2011 when my current efforts will be tested for soundness.   Challenges I can deal with (I have Aries rising and a Scorpio sun); it's the detailed prep work that frustrates me (Aquarius moon). 

Tom went to town and bought a Christmas tree.  (We have all kinds of trees in our woods and he had to go and buy one!)  But I have to admit it is gorgeous.  Eddy and I put it up this afternoon.  Isn't it pretty?  In the early '90s I collected Hallmark ornaments and I love hanging my Folk Art Angel and Santa, my silver Victorian ornaments, and my Star Trek Enterprise NCC-1701.  Christmas tree ornaments tend to accumulate meaning as the years pass:  the ornaments the children made at school in certain years; this one came from so and so; what happened in life the year this ornament came to you -- that sort of thing.  And, of course, ornaments get broken and glued or parts are lost forever, but you still still hang them up because they are your ornaments.  It always takes me a long time to decorate the tree because of all my side trips down memory lane. 

We've finally gotten a little bit of snow here.  Certainly not enough for any snowmobiling (the trails opened today) and that doesn't bode well for the businesses that cater to the snowmobiling crowd.  Also not doing well are the businesses that cater to hunters because the hunting is almost non-existent -- there's hardly a deer to be found.  Tom has caught a few on his deer cam but always at like 2 a.m., and he's seen buck sign, but when you go outside, there's no rifle sound and the woods are still.   Here's a shot of the moon from last night; maybe because it is almost full, it will give the hunters some luck.

Well, for those of you who follow the good folks at Half Past Human, here's a heads up that the latest issue of The Shape of Things to Come will be coming out December 6 (by the way that happens to be the Feast of St. Nicholas -- Little Christmas as my family calls it).  You can reach HPH from this blog through the link I have posted on the right hand side of this page under my Favorite Web Sites and Useful Information section. 

Tomorrow is Special Olympics again.  Lara's paperwork finally came back so she is officially an athlete now.  She was happy when I told her that.

Well, it's getting late.  Take care and Be Good -- we don't want to deserve any coal in our Christmas stockings now!