middle of December

It's the doldrums of winter.

Not much interesting going on. It warmed up the last few days and we got a considerable amount of rain. It beat the snow down and dissolved it some, but we still have quite a bit.

But now, the snow will be crummy and we can't ski or snowshoe on it until we get about

another foot of snow on it.

This is what happened last year, and then winter wasn't much fun any more.

Back by popular demand...the cat!

"If I just had opposable thumbs I could hold a book and a latte!"

"Oh sure, they think this is cute and they're taking pictures,
but who's going to help put my hips back in their sockets?"


We made french toast on the woodstove, using homemade bread and reconstituted
eggs from the ones I dehydrated back in the summer.
It was delicious.
We're learned that the dehydrated eggs soak up the water better when you use warm water instead of cold.



Among the many hot pads I've been making I made a couple of camo ones for a friend.
They seem so big until I round off the corners and sew on the trim.


I also had a friend ask if I could make insulated pan handle pads/grips/whatever you call it.
So I made a "prototype".


I used cotton fabric for the outside, terry cloth for the inside, and sewed the opening with
bias tape trim.
This one is a bit thin in diameter because this pan has a long, slim handle.
The ones I made after this are wider.



"My toes are freezing! Hello, anyone there? I'm ready to come back in now!"

The kitten (yeah, right, something that BIG is a kitten?!) ducked outside when the door opened.
A while later I was in the kitchen and saw the cat sitting on the propane tank
looking in the window!

I've been busy finishing up on the hot pad orders, and doing some writing, along with the normal cooking, cleaning, and laundry, plus some reading.
The snow is slick and icy, so we have to put the boot cleat things on in order to walk around outside. I haven't ventured past our outbuildings in a while, but I do my stair-stepper
machine for exercise.

Canned deer

As we're about to start canning venison, as soon as the deer thaw out enough to cut up, this picture brings a smile to my face!

I got it from a friend, but I don't know where it came from before that.

Second week of December

"Hmph! If someone (hint hint) would move their smelly feet I could fit all of me on this stool! And where's MY cup of hot chocolate?"

Breakfast, using some of the eggs I dehydrated this summer, rehydrated and fried omelette-style with onions. Ham and home-grown boiled potatoes sprinkled on top.
It was delicious!

Being December the sun doesn't rise until almost 9:00 this far north.

Here's some of my completed hot pads. They were ordered by someone in Kentucky, mailed out on Wednesday and got there by Friday!

Let's here it for the USPS!

lol

Thanks, Randy, for the order!

"Wow! Not only are the feet gone, but I get this awesome cushy pillow to lay on!

Um...does this pillow make my tail look fat?"

Winter tends to put me in a baking frenzy!

Biscuits in back left, peach pie in lower left.

Peanut butter cookies on tray.

chicken stir-fry in skillet to right.

The peaches in the pie are ones I canned. The pie pan

was one that used to belong to my mom, and it's some kind of

stoneware. It sure did a good job baking the crust nicely!

Breakfast the next morning, I opened a jar of home-canned sausage.

I brown the sausages, stack them in wide-mouth jars, and dry-can them.

When I use them I either fry them as patties, or break them into gravy,

like I'm doing here. The gravy is to the right.

We poured it over leftover biscuits.
This sausage is from the pigs we raised and butchered two years ago.

Grandkids

Left to right: David, Andrew, Jonathan

Front: Anna

Who are there good-looking kids?

They're our Grandchildren!

Thanks, Amy, for sending the picture to us!

Hi Jonathan, Hi David, Hi Andrew, Hi Anna!

Lots of love from Grandma and Grandpa G.

Barbara's cat and the Christmas tree!

Barbara emailed me this picture of their Christmas tree!

At first I was looking at it thinking..."oooh, pretty lights"!

Then I looked closer and saw the cat!

There's 'Boney' among the branches!

ROTFL!

This would make a great Christmas card!

Hot Pads

Since I've had people ask, and it's easier to put pictures on here than to attach them to everyone's emails...

Here's the cloth I'm using for the hot pads:

These are rough-cut from a big piece of fabric. They need to be sized and squared, then the padding and backs cut.

Then they get sewed together with the trim.

I put my hand on the fabric to give an idea the size of the leaves.

In real life, this fabric is greener than it looks.

For this one I would carefully cut squares around the animals to make the best-looking square
for a hot pad.

Same here, I'd plan my cuts to make the best hot pad.

This one will be harder to do hot pads. I'd probably have to stick with the

ones that are more square than rectangle.

Here's some of the Christmas fabric.

The one on the bottom left is strings of Christmas lights.

It's hard to see in the picture.

And the rest of the Christmas cloth.

The bottom one is "John Deere Christmas".

Icicles and Pumpkins

The icicles hanging from the cabin roof are doing strange things!

As they get longer, they're leaning in toward the cabin.

On both sides of the cabin the tips are touching logs and windows.

I've been getting snow off the trampoline to melt.

Most of it gets used for dishes, laundry, and showers.

Some gets boiled and filtered and used for cooking and drinking.

Some hot day when we're camping in the uhaul

I'll look at this picture and laugh!


Here's the four pumpkins I brought in from the garden in early October.
(Disregard the squash on the upper left!)


Here's the four pumpkins now.
They really do ripen after you bring them inside.
They were ripening slowly in the back room, so I brought
them out and set them on the piano.
Then they ripened quickly!
In years past I threw away a lot of pumpkins that didn't make it to ripeness.
Never again!