Hello dear friends! Well, I had every intention to write several posts this month, but well, we all know where the road of good intentions lead, don't we? The month started out with a bit of excitement. We had a tree removed from our property, well actually the neighbor's property, but that's a tale for another day. My word! Modern technology is amazing! The entire process is done by computer. The operators stand well away from the tree and operate a machine that looks like a giant Transformer. A giant arm with a claw on it grasps the branches and a saw comes out and cuts it, carrying the big tree trunks over the roofs. It took about an hour to cut and remove a twenty-five foot tree. I must say, I was impressed.
It was a busy month bringing in the garden. When the final tally was taken, we were so blessed to discover how much food our little garden produced. More than enough to get us through the cold months until we start the process all over again in early Spring with the maple sugaring.
We still found time to do some fun things. The Autumn church rummage sales were amazing! I noticed that there were a lot more attendees than usual. I think people are finally learning how to be thrifty out of necessity. The scratch and dent store has more customers lately, also.
Been doing a lot of organizing. In desperation to get my ginormous yarn stash organized, I begged Ran to make me some tall shelves with lots of cubicles for the upstairs landing. He made them by cutting two old doors lengthwise and using scrap lumber for the shelves and backing. The were made from old doors that we had made into a screen for the back of our property for privacy. The trees have grown up so much we no longer needed them for that purpose. They turned out great. I wish I had a picture to show you, but for some reason the pictures just don't do them justice. Anyway, we had one more door left, so we made it into a mantle for the little electric fireplace in the dining room.
Lest you think it is all play and no work around here, I canned and canned and canned. We really tried hard not to waste anything. Once I finished up with the garden produce, I started in on canning up the dried beans. About every three months, I go on a big bean canning spree and can a dozen jars of several different varieties of beans; pintos, turtle, kidney, great northern and garbanzos. We eat a lot of beans becasuse we try to eat at least three meatless meals a week. Once I finished those up, I vowed that unless an amazing deal on meat came up, I was finished with canning until Thanksgiving turkeys went on sale. You guessed it! The very next day I received an e-mail from the Mennonite store announcing they had purchased ground turkey that had to be sold now. Our Mennonite store works by purchasing some things close to the expiration date and passing on the savings to the customers. At ninety-nine cents a pound, how could I resist? So a day later, I had ten pounds of turkey taco filling canned and on the shelves.
And yes Esther, I did finish my hat. I don't know why I dragged along knitting it. It was just a boring knit. The little vest for the teddy bear, turned into a sweater.
I just made up the pattern as I went along. It was a fun and only took about an hour. I liked knitting with this vintage yarn so much that I decided to knit myself a vest from it. Just have to do the neckline and armholes and that will be finished. Then it will be on to crafting for Christmas. Can you believe that November is right around the corner? I was inspired by a couple English ladies that I watch regularily on YouTube that were making up their Christmas cakes. A good Christmas cake takes time to age. There's stories of people making them in batches every five years. Well, I don't think I want mine to age that long! But anyway, I had all these little containers of dried fruits and such cluttering up my cupboards, so I decided no time like the present to bake my cake and clean out the cupboards. Like killing two birds with one stone. So now I have a lovely cake in a vintage tin monopolizing the bottom shelf of my refrigerator. It hasn't gotten cold enough yet to use my outdoor fridge, aka the mud room , for storing food. Strange weather this year. We've only had a few fires and only in the morning so far. Oh well! I guess it saves on the firewood. Although I do miss a good crisp frosty day.
Well, it appears the world has gone cracker dogs. I managed the stress by just staying in my zone and keeping putting one foot in front of the other. Rose asked me how do I manage to see the bright side of things. I'm not an overly optimistic person, but this I do know, everything will eventually pass. I ask myself, "Is there something you can do about it?". If there is, then do it. But a lot of what is going on in the world is out of our hands. Will there be another Great Depression? Perhaps. What I can do about it is to grow as much food as I can and preserve it for my family and whomever needs a helping hand. I can stockpile some necessities in case I won't be able to afford them down the road. (I'll certainly have enough yarn to knit everyone socks and mittens that may need them. Ha!) Will there be another world war? Possibly But there is not much I can do about that. All the letter-writing to Congressmen, voting, protesting has never stopped the wheels of politics from rolling where they want to roll. What I can do is make my little patch of earth peaceful. Life goes by so very quickly. I often try to remember the things that I worried about in my younger days. Some things never happened. And some happened and we dealt with them. I remember thinking as many young people think today, that I would never be able to afford a home. When I was starting out, inflation was a lot higher than it is now, interest on mortgages was 16 1/2%! Credit card interest was 25%. There was an oil embargo going on and gas prices rose by 50% in a matter of few months. Unemployment was high. And that was just after going through all the drama about worrying about being drafted. The draft ended the very month Ran turned 18, so we had the worry hanging over us while trying to make plans for the future. So yes, I understand what you are going through. People have gone through far worse in history than my generation. Or your generation, whatever it is. It will always be this way until the Lord returns. So take the lessons from this time as a gift. A time to learn how to be frugal, to learn to lower your expectations, to learn the difference between a want and and a need. Learning those lessons will bless you far beyond measure.
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
2 A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
3 A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
4 A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
7 A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
8 A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace.
~Eclesiastes 3~
Hugs
Jane
