6 March 2008

I thought I saw a heron in the lake, but it turned out to be
a very alert goose.

There is still ice on the lake, but I wouldn't walk on it
without webbed feet and down underwear.


9 March 2008

The big storm went way south of us and we had a bright,
sunny Saturday, but there was a dusting of snow last night.

New record: it wasn't until I reached into a pocket I
didn't have that I noticed that I'd forgotten to put pants
on for our walk. Fawchunately, I put my lipstick on before
leaving the house.

I *was* wearing two pairs of long johns.

Spent Saturday morning running up and down stairs to use the
kitchen sinks to wash toys from the nursery, and spent last
night lying awake because my hip hurt. I guess going down
9th-Street Hill once a week isn't enough to keep me in shape.

Peeked into the nursery after church, and it appears to be
all back together. But I don't know what the back room
looks like! It was unanimous that we need to get rid of
some of the toys.


19 March 2008

The things you learn on Usenet! Did you know that the
American Civil War ended in Great Britain?

> On June 23, 1865, at Fort Towson in the Choctaw Nations'
> area of the Oklahoma Territory, Stand Watie signed a
> cease-fire agreement with Union representatives, becoming
> the last Confederate general in the field to stand down.
> The last Confederate naval force to surrender was the CSS
> Shenandoah on November 4, 1865, in Liverpool, England.


He didn't say what the ship was doing in Liverpool.

On our walk tonight, we saw that the ice has finally broken
up -- confirmed when we realized that we could see it moving.

Yesterday I dressed up warm and carried the umbrella --
which I furled up before getting out of the driveway, and
never did unfurl until I put it in the garage to air -- and
on Park Avenue I was thinking that I would *much* rather
walk than drive, because the visibility was so poor. So it
was startling to come out on Chestnut street and see not a
trace of fog. (I'd come on Sunday Lane, so sight distance
was very short until I was actually on the street. Meant to
ask Lynette whether she'd driven through fog to get there,
but didn't find a suitable opportunity.

The fog was entirely gone when I came home, which didn't
surprise me, because I can see down Ninth Street from the
ramp room.

Repaired a split seam and a broken hem on my silk undershirt
during Handwork Circle -- just in time to put it away for
the summer. I was fairly industrious yesterday, and cleaned
up all the mending jobs littering the sewing room, and took
one off the "giant hook" besides. But then I put one -- the
silk shirt mentioned above -- into my Tuesday Night Bag, and
replaced the job I took off the "giant hook" with two jobs
that had been lying around.

I'd better put those two jobs at the top of my priority
list: Both pairs of grubby jeans need patching, and the
gardening season is coming up.

This morning, I took the Buick out just to be going for a
drive, which, I think, is the first time in my life I've
done that.

Went to Pierceton, turned south, and went south and south
and south. Finally got to Sydney, which just barely
qualifies as a bigger town than Packerton, and thought "My,
I'm glad I didn't come all this way on a bicycle!" But just
as I was leaving town, I spotted a sign that might indicate
the orchard the pastor referred to in his sermon. I don't
recall what the topic was or how it tied into apples, but I
do recall thinking "He's been here two weeks to my eight
years, and already knows more about the territory than I
do!" (In last Sunday's sermon he mentioned that he'd been
here six months; you can't say I act precipitately.) So I
drove all around the building and didn't see any place where
I could leave the car without blocking a loading dock or a
fire truck -- I drove past the firehouse getting back onto
Route 13. So I parked at the business across the highway,
which appeared to be closed. (I suspect that there was a
parking lot under the semi-truck that was making a delivery.)

I thought that I'd be parked there just long enough to find
out that the fruit market had closed for the winter, but it
turned out to be a neighborhood grocery. I bought apples,
popcorn, black walnuts, and sweet potatoes, but was too
distracted to look into the dairy case and remember that we
need eggs.

Some big horns of cheese were delivered while I was checking out. That made two of us being distracted, so there were two mistakes found and corrected in the process. The clerk caught the first, I caught the second.


21 March 2008

There is a much larger sandbar than there used to be. Piled high with broken ice covered with a thin film of sparkling-white snow at the moment. The pile of ice was white to start with; the thin ice everywhere except where the creek kept it open is gray. Probably open near the drain at the northeast end of the lake, too.

You have to know it's there to see the snow on the grass.

I've got a pot of bean soup started; we've had a ham shank
in the freezer for weeks. Told Dave he can buy another one
the next time he goes to Leesburg. Didn't tell him I want
to make soup in my bake kettle. The tons of firewood and
kindling on the lawn are inspiring, and it should be warm
enough by the time we finish this pot.

In *my* summer kitchen, solid-fuel fire doesn't make it
easier to simmer for a long time. I can build only a little
fire in the fireplace, and I have a "simmer" setting on the
gas stove.

But I've finally got a pierced stove shovel to sift out
coals to put under the kettle and on the lid. Lehman's
calls it a "Koal Keeper". Google didn't find it, but the
key words I could think of did turn up a blog entry in which
someone was raving about his new ash shovel, and said where
he got it.

Forgot to put some corn meal in water to make yeast bread; I think I'll make ordinary cornbread instead. Using Semolina instead of white flour. I wish Bonneyville Mill ground Golden Durham meal. I suspect that the miller would, if you asked nicely, overpaid, made arrangements in advance, and supplied the grain. But I've no idea where I'd find Golden Durham (it's grown in North Dakota, I think), and even less idea what I'd do with a hundred pounds of noodle meal!

Right after Dave brought me two bags of semolina -- he gets
to Spring Creek much more often than I do -- I decided that
I'd rather use high-gluten flour. Partly because I always
have a sneaking fear that I'll get the soft-wheat semolina
that's meant for hot cereal. Spring Creek doesn't write
anything but "semolina" on the package. (They re-package
their flours in plastic bags, except for the New Rinkel
flour.)

They also re-package bulk cinnamon. I must start a shopping
list for Dave, as I'm on my last packet of cinnamon.

And I have to start a new list for me; I couldn't find it in
Kroger yesterday, and I think that I took it out in the
library to get the name of the author of the Master Li and
Number Ten Ox books (Hughart), then forgot to put it back
into my pocket. If so, it would have been thrown out when
they cleaned up at closing time. Sigh. I remember only a
few of the items that were on it. On the bright side, this
means I get to give up on the un-obtainable items. (Hmm. I
don't remember searching Marsh for dried sweet potatoes.)
(On the other hand, fresh sweet potatoes keep pretty well.)

[written later in the day]

Snow all went north of us. Dave says it's cold -- I haven't stuck my nose out -- but the ice thawed off the lake. Still a pile on the sandbar. And it's still white. I'm used to the dirty piles shoved off parking lots.

The soup seems to be developing nicely. I didn't have any bacon grease to put in the cornbread, so I have a skillet with half a slice of bacon, cut into bits and fried in sesame oil, standing by to pour the the batter into when the oven is hot. And everything but the egg and milk mixed together in a bowl.

Dave looked at the cornbread-in-progress and said it wasn't like his mother's -- she used Little Crow cornbread mix. Worked full time all the time her kids were growing up *and* kept the neatest house I've ever seen. Maybe she did all her baking with Bisquik, but she *did* bake.

I suspect that the oven is now hot.


23 March 2008

Today's Kevin and Kell strip <http://www.kevinandkell.com/>
wasn't as good as previous Easter strips.

Perhaps he, too, was caught off guard by Easter being so
early? It's lucky that all the Fellowship Committee had to
do for Easter Breakfast was repeat what we'd done in
previous years.

On the way home from Alice's we saw lots of clouds that
looked like showers, but not quite right: they were fuzzy,
and many streamers seemed to be falling, but didn't make it
to the ground. Finally we drove under one and saw a few big
flakes of snow. Later drove through a big flurry with its
north edge somewhere in Wabash.

I heard Dave laugh and went in to look at his monitor:
the radar map looks as though the nation had hives or
measles; I've never seen such a wide area of spotty
precipitation.


25 March 2008

Yesterday I hung out the first sheet of the season -- and
just before breakfast today, I took it in. Doesn't appear
to have rained or blown hard during the night.


28 March 2008

Tulips are coming up in the raised flowerbed -- most of them in one clump; made me think there must be a peony down there when I first saw them. I don't think there was any bulb vigorous enough to divide that much, and I don't think a little critter would have dug up the bulbs and re-buried them.

Daffodils are showing in the lily bed, and the iris are showing somewhat frostbitten leaves -- as are the winter onions. Past time I planted the multipliers.


30 March 2008

I did something on time for a change -- I finally got around
to patching my grubby jeans today, just in time for the
garden season.

I'm slipping in gradually: I baked my first loaf of kettle
bread today, and picked up a lot of fallen branches in the
process. This is pushing the season quite a lot, but I've
got a brand-new ash shovel, and all that fuel lying around
is very tempting.

Also went to look at the garden: I seem to have left it in
pretty good shape last fall; shouldn't take long to make it
fit to plant the multipliers. Then I should go look for
onion sets and seed potatoes.

It's been a busy week. On Sunday, I helped serve breakfast
at the church, then we ran down to Alice's house for the
rest of the day. Monday, I was just starting the wash when
the phone rang. The dentist reminding me of the next day's
appointment, I thought, but she said "We've got the crown,
we've got an opening -- can you make it?" So I turned off
the washer -- it was a white load, so extra soaking didn't
hurt any. Then shortly after I arrived, a child in severe
pain was brought in, which I think had something to do with
the inordinate wait between the time the hygienist finished
and the dentist came in. I had a copy of _The Cyborg and
the Sorcerers_ in my pocket for just such an emergency.
Then I had to stop at Marsh for bananas on the way home, and
bought my shopping list while I was at it.

Tuesday, Candy came to Handwork Circle because she'd
forgotten how to cast on in the round, and we had a nice
visit & I got some sock-mending done.

Took too long to write, and forgot what I did on Wednesday
and Thursday. Friday Dave and I went to a concert at
Rhodeheaver Auditorium with John, but John didn't show up
and hasn't been heard from since, which leaves me slightly
worried.

And today I mended and baked bread. Good, chewy bread. I
substituted gluten flour for half the semolina, the
cannister of semolina being nearly empty, and now I don't
think I'll open the other bag of semolina. (Not until I make another batch of cornbread.)

Ah, so -- on Thursday I went to the health-food store for
tamari (soy) sauce, which is where I got the gluten flour --
not to mention a bag of tapioca flour and fifty dollars
worth of nuts and dried fruit -- and to Aldi's for sweet
peppers, milk, and a few other things. Missed a turn on the
way to Warsaw Health Food & decided to park at Lowery's and
walk to the Mexican grocery for Mayonesa (after a tour of
the fabric shop, of course). But I couldn't find the
Mexican grocery; it's always been a bit marginal, so I was
more annoyed than surprised. But there are -- or were --
two others on the same street. Hope it gets to be cycling
weather before we use up the mayonnaise, as exploring is
*much* easier when you don't have to find a place to leave a
car.


31 March 2008

Completely uneventful washday. It was raining pretty good when it was time for our brisk waddle. We went anyway -- but took a short cut.

Polish sausage boiled in kraut for supper.

--
Joy Beeson
http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/
http://www.timeswrsw.com/craig/cam/ (local weather)
west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.