HALLOWEEN IS OVER -- MOVING ON

 

Looking across the south field to the canyon

Mike and I went to the farm Thursday – just a quick trip (really quick!). I wanted my sewing machine and some machine embroidery supplies, and while we will make at least one more trip before Christmas, I brought back the bin of small cars that I know Silas will expect when he visits. He will remember the bin of cars for sure. He’s been playing with them since he was one, and even last Christmas, when he was two, he watched me carry the bin from the shed to the house and exclaimed, “That’s my cars!” Knowing that the cars will be Silas’ priority, I left our Christmas stockings behind until the next trip. If it comes to that, Silas won’t care if Santa fills a paper bag – or even if Santa doesn’t come – as long as he has the cars.

Mike had things he wanted from the farm, too – a bicycle, his power saw, and the homemade ice cream that I’ve forgotten twice. I packed a couple of crates with open packages from the pantry that should be used.

3-year-old Silas as a monster truck

That night was Halloween. We turned on the porchlight and had just one caller, the adolescent from across the street. Just as well. Mike added the leftover M&M snack packs to his trail mix. He has already taken down and stored our Halloween yard figures.

I have long felt that my standard ironing board took up too much space in my cramped sewing room. While pressing is important, I make mostly small things and seldom need to iron our clothes. I searched for and eventually found exactly what I wanted – a small ironing board affixed to a cabinet, available from Wayfair. “Will I have to assemble it,” asked Mike, and I affirmed that he would. They made it sound easy, but it was a nightmare – heavy, awkward, some of the holes not punched, inadequate instructions. It took us at least 3 ½ hours, and don’t believe them when they say you won’t need an assistant. The good thing is that it fits the room as I expected. The standard ironing board is stored in the shed and accessible if I need it. KW

THE LANGUAGE OF SALES

Little girls ready for the Halloween party

I sign up for email promotions from those online retailers from which I purchase. If I didn’t, I’m afraid I would forget all about them. So, everyday my inbox is filled with sales promotions with the expectation that I, and other shoppers, will be drawn in:

·      Hurry! Your deal expires soon. (Trust me, if it ends, it will be back. They always want to sell me something.)

·      Last chance (Fat chance! There will always be another deal.)

·      Final hours

·      Get it before its gone! (Okay. It might be gone.)

·      Your 10% (or 15% coupon) ends soon. (Are you kidding? I might pay attention at 25%.)

·      Free shipping / free gift / save 20% (And then you open the website to discover this deal only applies when you spend a certain amount, like $69, $85, or $150, carefully calculated so that you won’t reach that amount with just the item you have in mind.)

·      Buy one, get one -- and variations thereof. (This is my least favorite promotion. When you only want one, as is often the case, this is a useless deal whereby they lose my purchase altogether.)  

·      Today Only! (Give me a break. There’s always tomorrow.)

·      Here’s your $10 bonus (which upon ordering, doesn’t seem to mean very much in the total)

·      This weekend only – $4.99 (original price: $5.99)

·      Or, they invite you to the clearance sale, and everything you might want is no longer available. Penney’s and Blair are big offenders.

·      And then we have seasonal sales, such as “Spooky Good Deals,” “No Tricks, Just Treats,” or “Monster Sale.”

Sometimes I get sucked in, but my goal is not to add more fabric and yarn to my stash without a definite purpose. (Notice that I am enticed by fabric and yarn, not clothes and home dec. Sometimes I have to be stern with myself. “You’re shopping,” I say, “and you don’t need a thing!” True but not much fun.

I used to think that I should never shop JoAnn’s without a discount coupon. If I got to the store without a coupon, I just didn’t go in. Then I realized that for the little I actually spend plus the fact that the coupon doesn’t apply to sale merchandise anyway, I really don’t need to bother with coupons. These days I seldom present a coupon, and they never ask for one. KW

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

THE AT-HOME DESTINATION CHRISTMAS

The purple ash passes

The thermometer didn’t quite register freezing Friday morning, but I saw frost on the rooftops. It was 35 as Bess and I took our morning walk at 8:00. I wore my winter coat for the first time, but it wasn’t the first time that I’ve worn my gloves. We haven’t had a fire in the little stove yet, but we’ve talked about it. We’ve turned the furnace on a couple of times. Our space heaters are in place.

What about the farm, you ask. Well, we aren’t worried about anything there – yet. We were going to go on Thursday, but Mike’s appointment at the pain clinic was moved up three weeks to that afternoon, a significant improvement in timing. And then, son Clint asked Mike to accompany him to Tri-Cities on Friday to pick up a used motorcycle, an opportunity too good to pass up. Saturday, Mike has football games to record and watch, and then there’s a chance of rain. And that’s the way it goes. Wait and see.

The red maple begins to turn

But as it gets colder – and it is getting colder – winterization of the farmhouse is on our minds. Overnight freezing is definitely happening at the farm now. It’s only a matter of time until that first cold snap is upon us. We keep a watchful eye on the forecast. Besides winterizing, Mike, wants to bring the 4-wheeler and the lawnmower back to town, and as for me, I don’t want much – just the sewing machine, the Christmas tree, Christmas ornaments, and six or seven projects in progress.

The "burning bush" begins to "burn."

You see, this past week I decided to put my desire for a farmhouse Christmas aside and pursue “Plan B” in earnest. I suggested to daughter Hallie, my logistics go-to person, that we rent an Airbnb here in the Valley for our holiday get-together. She was on it! It would have been better to have arranged this earlier, but it’s okay. She rented a house for Dec. 24-27. She says we can decorate quickly, so we’ll “haul out the holly,” drape a few red and green afghans over the furniture, put some stuffed toys in strategic places, set up a pre-lit tree, and hang a wreath on the door. What more could we want? What, indeed? We’ll be together. KW 

IS IT FALL YET?

 

Ash tree glows in the morning sun

If I had posted this essay several days ago, I would have said, “Okay – it’s cold now. 33 this morning.” It went from a high of 80 to a low of 33 on Thursday in a matter of days.

“Fall weather switch has flipped,” read the headline in Wednesday’s newspaper. It goes on to say that it might snow soon in the mountains. And that reminds me that my brother Chuck predicted this six weeks ago or so. “It’s going to be warm, and then it will be winter,” he said. I begin to think he might be right.

Once again, I washed my summer robe and t-shirts and put them away – “for the last time,” I pronounced to myself. But no! The high in the Valley on Saturday reached into the 70s, and hit 79 on Sunday. Mike wore shorts. But the change is here again now with rain and highs in the 60s.

Well, it just leaves us wondering when we should winterize the farmhouse. I’d like to have Christmas there, but Mike says he’d like to winterize before it gets cold. Seems like that would be pretty soon. So -- I’m working on “Plan B” for Christmas.

We went shopping this morning, and it was cold in Walmart. I suppose they kept it cool over the weekend. Our house is still reasonably warm.

I came back from the farm with two containers of tomatoes – ripe and green. I didn't expect the green ones to ripen, but every day, several of them turn from green to orange. It happens so quickly. I'm getting quite a collection on the kitchen window.  Such fun to watch! KW

EARLY AUTUMN YARD REPORT

Mike and I came to the farm Monday morning, bringing enough supplies for a night or two. It’s just a quick trip to take care of some fall clean-up. Fall colors have begun to appear, and the trip up the Clearwater was beautiful. In fact, Monday was a beautiful day here with a high in the mid-70s and a pleasant 72 in the house. It's just a few degrees cooler today.

No mice in traps but obvious rodent activity in the yard. 

We stayed in town several weeks, and I was worried about the produce ripening here at the farm. However, for the little we actually get, I told myself that it just didn’t matter, so I was elated to see that apples still hung on the three young trees in our little orchard / meadow behind the house. I picked as follows:

·      7 Empire (the tree closest to the house) – no worms (Yay!)

·      5 Freedom – quite wormy

·      Honey Crisp – 3 beautiful medium-sized apples; 4 small; half a dozen culls; and a bunch that succumbed to the worms.

It seems that the dormant spray has helped, so we’ll keep that up. Each tree is protected by fencing, or the deer would have eaten the apples by now – maybe even the trees! In fact, the country trees are barren of fruit now. Existing apples have disappeared, but some trees did not set fruit this year. I used most of the apples I picked to make a pint of applesauce.

It hasn’t frozen here yet. The zucchini plant still looked good but had only one very overgrown squash and a couple that were misshapen. The tomato vine was dying, but I picked plenty of red and green tomatoes. The strawberries didn’t do a thing this year, so while we were pulling out the zucchini and tomato plants, we ripped out the strawberries, too. Then Mike spread manure over the beds and tilled them. I don’t think we’ve ever done such a good job of putting the garden to bed.

We also put away the solar lights and ornaments. I love solar lights. Mike said the orchard looked like a carnival this year.

Son Murray, who gardens in town, reported that his tomato plant set on late in the season. He had his first BLT just last week. He called it “August in October.” And we discussed what we could do with the green tomatoes. I believe I have enough to make green tomato mincemeat.

In other kitchen work here, I used some frozen serviceberry and apple juice to make a batch of jelly. It took a long time for it to cook (I think the burners need adjustment) and turned out syrupy but delicious.

I believe a change in the weather is imminent, but I can’t tell you how many times I have washed and put away my lighter-weight clothes – especially nightwear – only to dig them out again.

Speaking of temperatures, I’m listening to The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown in which he mentions a record high in my hometown of Orofino, Idaho, on July 28,1934 – 118 degrees. It was 117 in Lewiston and Lapwai. I verified this online, where it also said this temp is still the highest recorded in Idaho. KW

EARLY AUTUMN MUSINGS

 

Purple Ash

The forecast is for several days of highs in the 80s. Typical of autumn in the Pacific Inland Northwest, mornings and evenings are cool. It takes longer to reach the day’s high temp, and it doesn’t last as long. To some extent, it depends on what you’re doing. At 9:30 this morning, Mike and Bess returned from hunting, complaining that it was hot on that hillside while I’m wearing my hoodie over a long-sleeved shirt.

Moving on to today’s musings, say what you will about Amazon, it’s nice to be able to order something you want / need and see it in the mailbox or on the doorstep in two days.

While Mike was gone over the weekend of Sept. 27, I happened to come across a pattern I’d saved for a Halloween spiderweb project in crochet. Inspired, I found the yarn on sale at a famous online retail outlet and ordered it. Meanwhile, I continued to work on the current crochet project, a “scrap” afghan in the wattle stitch, in order to make as much progress as possible before I put it away. I do like to work on seasonal projects when it’s the season, and a seasonal project trumps the non-seasonal.

After five days or so, I started watching for the ordered yarn, anticipating that it could be delivered at any time. However, a week to the day after submitting the order, I received notice that it had just shipped. And now, through the magic of the internet, I see that it isn’t due here until this coming Friday, two weeks after I placed the order. It’s now traveling slowly from Michigan to Washington state, currently in Illinois.

So, I’m just sayin’ – two-day delivery is wonderful. It just doesn’t always happen. And I’m spoiled.

Oh! And as I moved through Albertson’s yesterday, I came upon fruitcake fixings and grabbed the classic mix of candied fruit. I usually order it from Amazon because I can't find it locally. “Good for you,” exclaimed the cashier. “You have to buy this early. Wait until later in the season, and it will be gone.” How well I know! (Frankly, I just thought they never stocked it.) KW

PERSONAL EFFECTS

“You are welcome to use anything that is mine,” said son Milo when I told him Mike had hung his cool wall clock in the den at the farmhouse and I had taken over his wonderful lap board. I promised we would return them when he was ready, but now he won’t ever be back.

So, today was the day that we sorted through Milo’s stuff. We agreed that we needed to get it done while the weather is decent. It was a family effort. Sons Murray and Clint arrived at the town house at 8:00 this morning. Clint set up some folding tables in the garage, and we commenced to go through storage bins, boxes, and bags, loading items for donation into Clint’s pick-up.

“I could use this,” one of us would say from time to time, and that was nice. No one wanted what someone else could use, and that was nice, too.

It was a lovely morning. We worked steadily and were finished by noon. Well, I say we were finished, but Clint would still have to sort through the stuff in the bed of his pick-up, keeping some things and taking others to the thrift store.

After lunch, Murray and Clint left, and Mike and I worked along at clean-up until about 1:30 when a dust storm commenced. I was so glad we had finished. KW

[There is no pictorial record of this event. I didn't want one.]