What Summer Means to Me

To me, summer is dirty feet.  

I absolutely cannot keep my feet clean in the summer.  I am one of those people who loves to walk barefoot. I always have.  And, thus, I have always had dirty, filthy feet all summer.

When I was a kid, I would be all over the neighborhood sans shoes.  My mother made me wash them before dinner - though I don't know why, we didn't eat with our feet in my house - and inevitably I would get in trouble again for leaving nearly black washcloths in the bathroom.  Still not sure what she was on about there, I was doing what she asked.

Today I tend to get the ring-around-the-heel, and no amount of washcloth application will get it out because that dirt is delicately ground into my skin now.  I need to soak and scrub my feet clean a couple times a week.  I only go barefoot around the house, not outside anymore (rocks, chicken poo, pine needles, etc.), but that is plenty good enough to get my feet dirty.

I have a particular pair of pink flip flops I wear when I walk the dog.  They have soft, spongy, foamy soles that keep wet once they've gotten wet, and often that helps keep my feet fairly clean.  It's usually not enough, though, and I still have to go at them with the pedicure cheese grater thingie.

I was looking at my feet at work the other day, cleverly disguised in nice sandals, and I saw that light ring - I can get away with one more day without scrubbing, but not two - and that's when I realized that this is what defines summer to me.  Not home grown tomatoes, not swimming pools, not fireworks. 

Just dirty feet.

NOT Stuck On You

Didn't stay on campus. The roads weren't too bad when I left, the snow wasn't sticking on anything for the first 2 hours that it fell. Snow was fairly light last night.

However, we woke up this morning to this:

That's our bedroom window. The roof for our front porch is out the window, so we're looking at about 2-3 feet there. That picture was taken an hour ago, and now the snow is up to the center of the window. It is snowing heavily now.

More pictures to come, after we eat and plow a bit. I'm not anticipating anything to be actually cleared until tomorrow. I also haven't measured yet, but I don't think we got the mere 16-24" that they called for yesterday.

General Update

….

I almost started out by saying ‘Not much is going on’ but that is so not true. The garage is down, we are prepping to pour concrete but the weather is not cooperating. You can follow our demolition and building project on the garden blog, there is a list of links at the top right corner, which will be added to as posts about the garage are added.

We’re both giddy about the garage. Matt really really wants to get the concrete down, because as soon as that is done he will really be able to WORK on it. The concrete is really the only barrier for him to get started building. I’m giddy about it because I want it done. I’ll have some workspace in there and I want to start working in my new space ASAP. I’m looking forward to planning the new space, decorating, etc, too. I can’t wait. Plus, we will be able to move a lot of stuff out of the house, which will make it feel less crowded, which will be glorious.

In other news, I’m sending a basket of jewelry along with a friend to work tomorrow to hopefully get some sales, which will pay for my website rental for another 3 months or so and another parts order, because I need to get some beads for a project, some wire for a project, and I really need a new batch of clasps, preferably gold. Wish me luck on my sales! It is very strange, as I’m picking out things (send this, don’t send that) I find that I look at this stuff and think: “But, I like that! I don’t want to see it go!” I need to try to get over that. I understand it is a common issue for crafts and arts people, but still. It’s not like I wear a lot of jewelry! Why would I want to keep everything?? Fortunately I do have pictures of everything, and that will be enough.

Both sets of ‘rents are doing well. I’m meeting mom tomorrow for brunch at the French bistro (good coffee and crepes, here I come). Matt’s parents took us out to dinner on Saturday, during which time we had an adventure. We found a purebred Vizsla running up the middle of the road on the S-bend. He would have been killed for sure. He hopped in the car with us and after we called the numbers on his tag (both DC area codes) we wandered around looking for his people. After dropping him of at Ray & JoAnne’s, we found the owners and while they seemed nice enough, we kind of wish the dog were still with us. Between his breed and training, he was a multi-thousand dollar dog with a great temperament, and we got the distinct feeling from his owner that if he hadn’t found the dog, well, he just would have bought another. If we find him loose again, we’re keeping him.

By the time we got to the restaurant we were like Give Me Food and Hot Tea. Now. I had ribs, everyone else had prime rib. We were hungry.

We went to the Gettysburg Outlets on Sunday and I found the knee boots I’ve been looking for (dressy boots, not winter boots) for half what I was expecting to spend. I also found that they opened up a Pendleton outlet, by god, and I’m thrilled with a capital ILL over that. I got a red red coat. It was more than I’d wanted to spend, it was red red, which is a color I’ve never really lusted after. It is a little big but I now have the name of a very good tailor in town so I will be paying her a visit to fix that jacket and another I have. It is really nice.

General Update

Still no news about the contract. It is officially 1 month and counting. We are all really crackerdog about it, too, just really stressed and acting weird. It’s been that way all summer, but it has taken a turn in the past couple days from a manic barking stress to a quiet simmering stress. I don’t know which is worse.

This month is exceptionally busy for us, this week we have canning and planting to do. Matt is off this week, too, he’s going to get the land use permit so we can pour some concrete, and he’s going to be pouring a concrete floor in our root cellar (it is existing, off the garage). He is also going to be tearing the roof off the garage. Demolition and food prep will be the order of the day for this month, as well as ripping out summer veggies and getting about half the beds put to sleep for winter.

This Friday I get my last wisdom tooth removed, oh the joy. I’ll be out of commission for a few days.

Next weekend we have our annual Clam Bake up near Ashland, PA. It is the 75th anniversary and is going to be a big to-do. The Gettysburg Wine & Music festival is also that weekend, and we’re hoping to go to that as well. I may be going to the clam bake alone, Matt may be on call this weekend, dammit. If so, anyone want to go with? It would involve camping and woods and clams and a pond and some of my strange and interesting family and a pond and a stream and Fire! Fire! Fire!

The weekend after is a probable trip to Hawk Mountain with Angie, (speaker for mother life). This will depend again on Matt’s call schedule

The weekend after that I work.

After that it is October!!!! Holy cow! Why does the late summer always seem to just fly by? Why are we always SOOO busy this time of year as opposed to winter, when we’re just sitting around waiting for it to be over?

In other news, Matt and I have been talking about whether or not we really want to stay in this area forever (I don’t want to be in this area now, quite frankly). We have been trying to think about where we’d like to relocate to with permanence in mind. We’re young enough that we could purchase now while the prices are low, and come on folks: if nothing else it is an investment option because they are not making any more land, but they’re sure making more people. We’re thinking around 5 acres.

Some places are just out from the word Go: places like Florida, Arizona and New Mexico are out for heat. California is out just on general principle (sorry). Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Montana the like are out for snowload. I think New England and New York are options, but Matt feels they get too much snow/cold. Jersey is out. Much of the south is out for, um, heat and cultural reasons. I mean THE deep south. Midwest is out for tornado reasons. I think we should investigate Oregon, but it may be too close to brother David for comfort for both of us. Most of the costal eastern seaboard is out for hurricane reasons.

That doesn’t leave a whole lot of options, really. Sooooo….. We’re thinking northern North Carolina. Possibly parts of Virginia. Mountains. Cooler. Still some snow, definitely a winter and obvious seasonal changes. I’ve already started looking.

It kills me, a property just sold that would have been perfect: 4 acres, northern NC, basement prices and it would have cost us (collective gasp) only $130/month in mortgage. It was a blank slate and had everything we wanted. I know there are more out there, but we want to get some of our current debt paid before we seriously look and that is about 2 years out. But still, 2 years ain’t that long.

Cookies and Gutters, and a Big Honkin' Egg!

It rained allll weekend, so I didn't get outside to do any work. Work desperately needs done outside, so....

Instead, I baked cookies! Not all weekend, of course. I found the recipe for 'Chinese Gingersnaps' online. It calls for 1tbsp of white pepper, 1/2tsp of cinnamon, 1/4tsp of cloves, and 5 whopping tablespoons of freshly minced/ground ginger. If anyone wants the recipe I'll post it, just let me know.

I decided to halve the recipe (I didn't have enough butter) and it still made 56 cookies.

I topped some of them with green sugar, some with regular sugar, some with nothing, and some with finely-minced candied ginger.

Guess which ones I liked best?

Matt went morel hunting Sunday morning. Didn't find any that were pickable yet. Soon. VEEERRRYYY SOOOOON.

There was a kitty hiding behind the tree, Max was going nuts here.

We went to meet a friend of Matt's for coffee, then after we got back we decided that we had to clean out the gutters. In our nice clothes. With the hose. And the muck. Did I mention our nice clothes?

Max helped, though, by barking at the drainspouts. You see, around here chipmunks like to hide in our drainspouts, so he had reason in his mind to bark at them. He also has the habit of grabbing onto them and pulling them off the house. The drainspouts, that is. Not the chipmunks.

He also helped by grabbing plants and pulling them out of our way roots and all. Very helpful, our Yorkie. Fortunately, the plants were already long dead, so no harm was done.

You can see ^ Matt's legs on the ladder, and Max at the far left of the picture, barking.

And here's a close-up of Max staring at the black water coming from the drainspout.

I also recently purchased a treat for myself. It is a peanut butter meltaway egg from Sarris Candies in Pittsburgh. It weighs 1 pound. It is everything I thought it could be. I figured it out, the entire thing is 2300 calories, 143 grams of fat.

Silly things and Fire

A general ‘update’ post for the past few weeks. Not much going on here, so I’ll try to do a few Subtitles to break down my thoughts and make it all just a bit more organized, if not interesting.

General
Still waiting on a measurable snow here. Several dustings and some ice, nothing serious. I was sick a week ago, some stomach virus. Ick. Max and Matt are well. I’ve joined Facebook. Ordering seeds for spring, check the garden blog for that stuff.

Visit
Matt’s brother came out from San Diego for a week between Christmas and NY with his wife and their daughter, who is 12. We don’t like or get along with Bro. By ‘we’ I mean the entire eastern seaboard. Ok, I’m exaggerating, but only a little. They couldn’t get gone soon enough for me. I get along OK with the Wife, and the 12 year old is a blast, but the Bro is a….piece of…..work.

Fireplace
I may have mentioned this before, but we (ok, Matt) installed a propane fireplace in the house which has helped tremendously with heating costs, as propane is cheaper than heating oil right now. Propane makes me nervous, and I was concerned about this unit, but all’s well.

New Car
So far, the new car is very nice. We’re averaging about 32 MPG. There are a few things I don’t like. I hate the security system. I keep accidentally setting it off, and I don’t know how I do it. I think once I accidentally hit the PANIC button on the keyfob, but otherwise I don’t know.

This car has an automatically adjusting rearview mirror. It senses light and automatically dims, which is pretty nifty, with the exceptions of the following:

• It doesn’t do it during the day, so if you are getting tailgated by anyone with their lights on you just have to live with it
• It doesn’t do it during dusk, see above.

I would happily rip the thing off and replace it if I could. I’m still adjusting to the controls for everything being different and apparently designed for a space alien with arms at least 1 foot longer than mine. When I’m sitting in the car and need to close the door I have to practically get OUT of the car to reach the door handle, which defeats the purpose.

Mom
Mom recently had her first cataract surgery. It seemed to be easier than just about any other ‘procedure’ out there nowadays. She goes in for her second one the beginning of February.

Business
My jewelry business is slow, and I’m to blame. I did do some sales before Christmas and have been doing some restringing for friends. I really need to get over my shyness and get out there to some shops and schmooze.
I also can’t seem to get into the Business Blog I started, and the last time I updated it was before Christmas. I just don’t know what to write about. I need to get on the bandwagon for this again.

I’ve also decided Etsy is a lost cause for sales….but a really nice option for a cheap online showcase that looks professional, so I’m going to stick with it. It is just not my market. I have

I did pay my 2nd round of PA state sales tax ($5.05) successfully. And I’ve got my books done for tax season, so yippee for me.

Work
We have a new administration with new leadership on the DHS level, but so far nothing has really changed here. There are some presidential appointments still needing to be filled (FEMA and USFA administrators, their deputies, etc), but I don’t expect some of them to be filled for months. Probably little will change here.

Our contract is up this year, but I’m going to do a separate post about that special, special process.

Food
I haven’t been cooking as much as I usually do, I’m just too tired by the time I get home from work. I MEAN to cook, but I just never get there.

We found a new, really nice restaurant called Café del Sol. They do salads, wraps, Panini, pasta, specialty pizzas, and the best homemade potato chips I have ever had. Really great place.

Draft Dodgers

I learned this from dear old dad. One of my chores as a kid was to help him seal up the windows for winter. This is a great tip for those of you who live in northern climate, and it really REALLY makes a difference in drafty older houses. It is also great to do with the kids.

Go to your local fabric store and buy some of the cording they use in upholstery. It is white, very flexible and looks woven. It may come in various thicknesses, and you may need to experiment to find the right size for your windows.

Now, take a thin flathead screwdriver and start pushing the cord into the gaps around your windows (see left). It is time consuming and a little tedious, make sure you have some fun, loud music on while you do this. It helps time go by faster.


Some of the gaps around our windows are too tight for cording, but still let cold air into the house. In this case, we purchased something called Fingertip Rope Caulk (my dad calls it 'rope putty'). It has the consistency of thick play dough. I get mine at Lowes, one pack lasts me a couple years or so and costs around $4.50.

This is where the kids come in. You want to press this stuff into the cracks that are really thin, and their little fingers can be great for this. They (or you) really need to press, though, to make a good seal (so be sure to check their work).

I also use cotton balls where necessary to fill in the deep tracks where the windows ride up and down.

In the end, though, you have nice, sealed windows for winter. We have seen a noticable difference in our drafty older house.

One tip, though: when the weather starts to warm up don't wait too long to take out the putty. In the heat, it can get really messy. You want to take it out while it is still relatively cool.

We actually leave some of our windows sealed through the summer. There are some windows we just never open, and this method keeps the heat out, too, thereby keeping our cooling bills lower, too!

Leveling out….I hope

It seems my life is finally leveling out a bit, although I hate to say that in fear that I might jinx it. I don’t know why I’ve had such a hard time getting back to normal since the hooplah of July, but there you go.

Matthew has been working diligently on the greenhouse, getting the inside structure up (to help with possible snow load this winter) and shelving. He’s doing a great job on it. He’s also putting a deck around the outside which will be very nice and helpful. As soon as that’s all done we can start cleaning out the garage and knock it down.

I’ve been busy with the garden but I don’t want to steal the garden blog thunder, so go over there to see what I’ve been up to. I’ve also been canning, so far I’ve made ketchup, salsa, and blackberry-chipotle sauce that is to die for.

My mom is planning on retiring the middle of November, but keep it hush hush because no one knows yet. They recently purchased a used white PT Cruiser with a moon roof.
Speaking of cars, the Camry goes in for some fixes. The gas pedal has been sticking really bad lately, and we have some lights out and a few other more cosmetic things to fix.

Max is doing well, he has been spending hours outside with us when we’re working. Hunting chipmunks (see action shot, right). All Hail Max, Conqueror of Chipmunks! He occasionally runs into something, but doesn’t get hurt. He did find a patch of briars, the kind that cling and stick to his fur. He had two stuck on the underside of his paw around the pads of his foot, not comfortable. He also had three on his inner thighs that we had a real time getting out. Fortunately none got stuck to his, ah, manhood, which would have been excruciating, I’m sure.

I’ve been watching the election coverage and the economy meltdown with concerned interest. This is a very very good time for people my age and younger, we can recoup our losses and then some when the markets go back up. This is a very very bad time for people of my inlaws generation because they can’t recoup this. My inlaws have all their retirement in the stock market, I can only imagine how much they’ve lost in the past few weeks. I don’t think they know yet, and quite frankly I don’t think they even realize they may be in trouble. I haven’t heard any heads exploding yet. Stay tuned.

Work has been interesting. We have a new head honcho who’s been tweaking the website and the card catalog to his heart’s content, and so far I like the outcome. Things keep getting screwy, though, because some changes have unforeseen consequences. So it’s been entertaining.

I’ve decided to search for a new doctor, again. This is the second one this year. I’m just not comfortable with the place I chose 8 months ago. So I’m off to find another. I’ve got almost 2 months to find one, a prescription I have runs out in December.

Tim is coming to visit at the end of the month, hallelujah! I’m not sure what all we’ll get up to, stay tuned.

I’m doing something interesting this week for the first time, stay tuned for a report!

It's set in concrete now!

We recently purchased a 10'x12' greenhouse, which isn't here yet and is, of course, on back order. We don't know when it will get here because they keep pushing the date back, those silly people. But in order to have a nice home for it, we made a form and poured a concrete foundation.

The same day, we got a guy we know to come up with his bobcat and do what is commonly called 'work' around the property to help us with some problem areas. We had some straight edges that needed smoothed out and our driveway badly BADLY needed straightened out. I will post pictures of the work Joe did for us later.

The picture above is the 'before' of the place where the greenhouse is going. The brown thing is our incinerator, where we burn our paper trash. The pile of rocks on the left is...well a pile of rocks we got from the local quarry. It was free! It is their junk rock (below), they can't do anything with it because of the quartz veins running through it, can you believe it? So we asked for it so we could build some nice rock walls with it in the future, and they were kind enough to just drop it off for us.

All this is in the big hole that was supposed to be the site for our new garage, but since that was dug out we decided to rebuild the garage where the current one is and do things a little differently. So this is a perfect place for a greenhouse or two, sheltered, flattened already.

The bank in the picture above, right also was to come out and get smoothed out (see below).

As for the foundation, we had a lot of big PVC drainpipe that Matt used for the foundation (see below). It worked out, this will easily drain water away from the greenhouse while making it so we didn't have to buy a lot of wood to use instead. A money-saving idea! We likes these, yes we does.

Matt estimted 5 yards of concrete and the truck was due for 8am on Saturday and lo! That's when they arrived. And they actually made it up the driveway! Will wonders never cease.

Notice the drain sitting up in the middle of the floor. That's 'crush n run' that they are standing on, it makes a good base.

That's Matt and his dad, Ray, and the guy from the concrete company on the right there. I didn't catch his name, let's call him Magnus.

Magnus actually pitched in quite a bit, even though I don't have any pictures of it.

(Left) And here it comes!

(Right) Making sure there's enough in the far corners.

(Left) Pulling it from the middle to the nearer corners. You can't see the drain, but it sits a few inches lower than the edge of the foundation. It was covered up with duct tape to keep the concrete from getting in, but they needed to make sure the floor sloped away from the drain so they had to keep pulling concrete from the middle to the edges.

(Right) Starting to skreet the floor. The skreet is resting on the drain in the middle and Matt is using it to flesh out the slope of the floor from the edges. Ray is still pulling concrete into the corners and to the edge.

(Left) Almost finished skreeting!

(Right) Pouring the ramp. Before the greenhouse will really be a greenhouse, we're going to be using it for a shed. We needed a place to empty our garage into, and this seemed like it would kill two birds with one stone. Now, we can empty the garage, tear it down and rebuild a new one AND then have a usable greenhouse afterwards instead of a shed that we'd have no future use for. A lot of the stuff in the garage will need to be moved using a dolly, hence the ramp.

(Left and below) Matt, smoothing out the already skreeted floor with a hand-held 'float' trowel.

(Left) Matt. Smoothing out the middle of the floor. Balancing on a 2x10. If he had lost his balance it would have been a MUCH better picture.

After this was finished, we all went next door where they were also pouring a floor in the basement.

We also purchases some concrete sealer to use on the floor. It is stained a nice rusty red color, we thought it would be a nice color.

Stay tuned, this weekend I will probably post pictures of the work Joe did to the driveway area.

Busy busy!

I still haven’t received my business cards yet, but I am in great anticipation of getting them. I also haven’t yet bought the domain name or the moo.com mini cards, but Friday will be the day. I’m also thinking of opening a store on Ruby Lane. Go check out the website and tell me what you think.

I also haven't gotten through to anyone at the PA State Corp Bureau about changing my mistake on the form. I've left voicemails, not returned. I used their online form, which told me (twice) that the information I was trying to view had expired (WTF?). Typical state bullshit. Stay tuned.

Garden is fooming, all is well there.

We will be starting work on and around the house this weekend. Crush & run was delivered this morning for the greenhouse foundation, we’re hoping to get the forms up and pour concrete this weekend. Also on Saturday our buddy Joe will be up with his bobcat to do some work on moving land around. I’ve already taken some ‘before’ pictures and will post them with the ‘after’ pictures….after. We have quite a bit of outside work to do to get ready for that….

We did a lot of outside work this weekend, including but not limited to getting the asparagus bed finished and cleaning up the two flower beds in front of the house.

I also cooked a leg of lamb last night, which was a first. We both agreed that it could have used a better crust on the outside but all in all it was very good. We also tried to duplicate the lime & mint frescos we had at Olive Garden and they weren’t exact but they were pretty good.

My mother gave me a great cookbook recently called The Horizon Cookbook. It is a history of eating and dining through the ages and through various cultures. The first half of the book is all narrative, the second half is full of hundreds and hundreds of recipes from Roman times through present from all over the world. I’m just thrilled with this book. Tim, you will have to go through it when you come visit next, lots of French, Spanish, Jewish, German and South American recipes.

Various and such

Work has been difficult lately, people are just morons. I don't want to go into too much detail (and besides I think I have only 2 readers so 50% of you have already heard all about this), but I'm working on an exit strategy to get out of here within 2 years via my jewelry business and our farmette, with a possible part time job on the side if necessary. Stay tuned.

The job search for the new fed in charge of our contract is apparently well under way, we had two people wander through yesterday casing the joint. It was interesting, we didn't know anything about it, but the woman who came through in the morning told us she was an applicant but failed to mention that she was invited up to take a look around. The gentleman who came through in the afternoon told us he was invited up to take a look around, but didn't tell us he was an applicant (by this point, though, Linda and I had figured it out because we're just too damn smart for them). Both were very nice and fairly young (40, give or take 5 years). We're not sure if this means interviews are taking place, but I doubt it. I think they're narrowing down the pool, our library is very small and a young up-and-comer who is looking for something larger may decide they're not interested after all and withdraw themselves from the running.

Garden is moving along. Matt and I stopped by to see David and Junko over the weekend, they are hurting for fresh veggies because the weather has been so cool for the past few months. Farmers just don't have much available, the only produce they had to sell at their stand was strawberries and spring onions. But he has veggie plants for sale this year, and I can supply him with some of those next year, we're selling them potatoes and garlic this year, and possibly sugar snap peas and berries.

We're seriously kicking around getting a greenhouse. It would be about $800. In addition to being a greenhouse it would also be a perfect storage spot for all the stuff we have in the garage because we need to tear down the garage sometime this summer. I was just in there and the walls are bowing even more than they were before. Scary. We cleaned out an old stove, an old heating unit, and an old grill (we took them to the scrap yard and got $58 for it all), but we still have all the garden implements of destruction, lawn mower and weed wacker, et cetera.