It is a mystery

We only got two inches of snow here, we're too far west of this storm. I hope everyone else has power and can shovel out quick! Jade in NYC still has power and sent me some photos of a lot of snow but I'm waiting to hear back from my siblings on their snow situations. Z should be good, she's in NYC but my brother in MD hasn't responded yet but pictures last night indicated he also got a bunch of snow.

The weather was fairly miserable this week, it rained, it snowed a little, it rained some more. Everything is properly mud and the ground has started defrosting. It's gross. We are preparing to tap maple trees this week, so all the focus has gone there for work.

I baked Wednesday since it was proper nasty and made potato rolls, fig newtons, yogurt and blueberry bars. I ordered more sorghum flour and tapioca flour from Bulk Foods and they had black mission figs on sale, so I got some and made Stella Parks' Fig Newtons recipe. I hope she's doing okay, she left the internet as far as I can tell. The potato rolls are fine, I ate them for lunches all week. I keep trying new recipes in the hopes that I can finally have the perfect gluten free bread recipe but I think I will always be disappointed. I want them to be wheat bread and they simply will not be that. I have had the best luck with delicious flatbreads like the pita which aren't so tied up in delicious bread memories and are reasonably tasty. I do want to try sourdough since I bought a whole book of gluten free sourdough recipes but I think I need to stop getting my hopes up in general. Of course they won't taste like wheat. Sourdough will happen when my parents move out and I have a fridge to myself for experiments. I miss making wheat bread. And eating it. 

I signed up for a pottery class in February and I'm thoroughly enjoying it, I went both Wednesday and Thursday night to the studio and have been enjoying it. I don't think I'll continue it, I don't actually need another hobby and one that is so time consuming but it is a lot of fun and the teacher has been reasonably impressed with my progress. I've made a bunch of bowls, a mug and a pot. I think I'm just going to keep making bowls because I need bowls in my life.


( more rambling and photos )

I knew this cold was coming, so I spent the last few days cranking out some firewood. Thursday, I split all of the log that I cut up, just dropping it onto the ground. This is split as small as I can make it to help it dry out and burn fast and hot. The basswood is very nice to split, the centers of the log, I could push it an inch into the wedge and it would pop the whole thing, so I could stick a section on and split four logs out of it in about 20 seconds. Very good. Then I went and did another dump trailer load of wood for the burner. I didn't really need it yet, but I had the time and also the storage space for it next to the burner. Plus I knew I'd go through a lot of wood with this weather and I'll be busy next week. 

Friday, I played musical equipment. The winch was on the M which is our biggest and beefiest tractor. The dump trailer was hooked up to the E. I had to take the winch off the M, unhook the trailer, put the winch on the E, put the forks on the M and also rescue the winch cable from the logs my dad skidded because the PTO pull button on the M was frozen and he couldn't pull the cable back in. I dropped the winch in place, put the forks on, lifted the logs so I could pull the cable out, then hooked the E up and got everything put away. 

Then I used the forks to get wood storage and stack the split wood. My dad built a bunch of U shaped things out of three pallets to hold wood, so I fetched those from the heifer shed which was irritating because of the things stacked in front of them. I did discover that the deer had broken into and fully emptied a bag of cover crop seed that had gotten left out there. Rude. I moved the rest of the seed back to where they shouldn't be able to get to them. Hopefully. I filled two of the holders with wood. In the picture, you can see one of the two rows of logs that fit in the holder.



Then I started cutting those logs. Only got most of one done before it got dark and the wind started picking up. 

It was 9F when I woke up this morning at 5:30am, by 8am it had dropped to 1F and it's come back up to 5F but we've had some intense wind so far. I can't run the indoor stove with these kinds of winds (the chimney isn't tall enough for our roofline, so the wind will blow down the chimney and smoke the inside of the house. we are on the hunt for the right size chimney pipe to pop on top to help with that), so I loaded the outdoor burner up but it isn't quite keeping up. It's currently 61F in the kitchen, which on the east side of the house, so I'd say the living room is probably 58F. I am wearing layers and blankets. It's not the burner's fault, there's only one loop in the whole house in the downstairs, so there's only so much it can do. I just added a couple of logs to the burner when I went out a few minutes ago. To be fair, we run around 63, 64F in the kitchen normally, so we aren't much below normal. ETA: the wind dropped off right around dark, so I've started the stove back up!

I did get dog blankets and towels and covered some of the windows and doors that are problematic. We should make it through tonight with enough ambient warmth (-4F plus wind predicted) and it will be less windy tomorrow, so I'll start the stove back up even with some wind. We never get the predicted wind speeds because of the mountains, so 30mph winds predicted tomorrow will be ~20 and that's good enough for me. We have 48mph predicted today and we've only gotten 33mph. It is extremely cold outside, I'm running between buildings when I have to go out because it's so cold. I'll need to fully bundle for the next burner load up tonight. 

One of my heated blankets has bit the dust, the one that I keep downstairs. It has made a funny smell the last few times I've used it and I found an area where the heating wire seemed twisted up, so I picked open a seam and the wire is normally white, but in that section it was red and coiled up very tightly. Seems bad. So I'm just using it as a regular blanket now and I've emailed the company I bought it from. 

I feel like maybe I should try and do some computer work but the cold is making me sleepy, so I've been spinning and working on my loom and watching olympics, mostly hockey. Some of the big air skateboarding which is just a bonkers sport. I feel like we've gone too far. It's too much. Humans shouldn't go that high or spin or land like that. 

We got around a foot of snow, no ice at all. It stayed aroudn 7F all day sunday and rose to a balmy 20F yesterday. My dad got giddy and spent a good portion of the day plowing all the snow, I think he's missed doing it since I came back and have doing it. I cleaned off all the vehicles and shoveled the sidewalk at least. It was -8F this morning somewhat unexpectedly, but I left the faucet dripping and everything was okay there. 

I felt under the weather the last two days, I think I stressed myself out too much with Friday and Saturday work, especially the straw spreading so intensely. My problem elbow (right) feels weird. Not super sore, just weird. I was using it more when putting bales in the shredder to keep pressure off the wound in my left index finger and I think it's unhappy because of that. Someday I will get that checked out. But also I suspect I have a period coming up this week which is always a terrible time. I was able to get a new T prescription finally but the effects won't kick back in for a bit. I suspect my tiredness is hormonal related generally. Bleh. 

Sunday, I spent a good amount of time spinning, which is something I can do so long as I remember to keep my index finger away from thr wool. Can't knit for sure. 

I did remove the stitches yesterday, the skin flap finally sealed itself up solidly and the stitches touching things were hurting more than the cut, so I just got them out. Plus I think I was fussing with them in my sleep even though I had wrapped it. It still makes washing dishes extremely difficult. 

Yesterday, I read fanfiction, made this cookie recipe (delicious even if it was way way way too thick to pipe even after adding a lot more milk, I wonder if the milk quantity was a typo), tried making foccacia and burned the bejeesus out of it, made risotto for dinner and crafted. I was very tired and down feeling for most of the day but I did perk up and feel better with crafting hangout time. Yay socializing! Plus I made progress on projects. 

Fanfiction wise, I have started reading a few witcher fanfics. I don't even go there, but somehow ended up reading (via the author gremble rec'd below):

The Accidental Warlord and His Pack by inexplicifics - listen, I don't even go here. I know basically nothing about Witcher, but this series explains everything anyway. It's very enjoyable. Very wish fulfillment but enjoyable all the same

Then I looked at friend dragonlady7 (bomberqueen17 on Ao3 and tumblr)'s fic which I do love all the stuff she writes in other fandoms and decided to jump in and have read almost all of her witcher fics in the last three days. It's over 1 million words. It's very good. Still ongoing but she's a great writer and I do love threesomes with feelings and she likes writing those. Even her smut is usually in service of character and relationships development so I'll read it which is pretty good for my taste. Most times smut is skippable but I'll read hers mostly. 

other two fanfics I've been reading lately

Bring Down Rain by gremble - ever want to think about the inherent horror of ComfortUnits in the Murderbot universe but also how they're people too???? it's so good. Still updating, but the author is pretty consistent and it's almost done

for the want of a jewel by FormLessVoidbeast - The above series reminded me of this original fic which I had read first and now that I've looked, it is inspired by it. Really fun and good, interesting worldbuilding too. 

many people are getting The Big Storm this weekend. We are currently predicted to get 13 inches of snow starting sunday morning, so not too bad at all. I am going to spend part of tomorrow cutting and splitting wood, the new chainsaw bars came yesterday and it took me about a minute to get through a test log that was probably 30 inches in diameter, smooth and easy. So nice. We have plenty of wood to get through the storm, but I want to keep working on it. 

We have around 5 gallons of gas and two generators that work to power our or the relatives houses. Plenty of food and water and I just split some more wood for the indoor burner today plus we have another tote at the other house. I will need to drain the downstairs bathroom pipes tomorrow night since they freeze when the temps get too close to 0F, oh well. 

We picked up a trailer of straw today, unsure if we'll be able to get it all spread before the storm due to the intense winds we are supposed to get. But I'm hoping we get at least two loads done tomorrow, possibly three if we can, then two Saturday morning. It takes around 5 donkey cart loads to empty the trailer. I don't really want to do it because it will be either windy or cold as fuck but we can't spread when there's much snow on the ground and we can't spread if it's windy since it blows the straw before it drops. Cold as fuck it will be. 

Plow is on the tractor, ready to go for snow removal. Shovel is on the back porch. 

I don't think we'll lose power, my parents barely lose it compared to the house in NY which lost power a lot, so I think it's all good. We've got hot chocolate and I'm tempted to try making it on the wood stove for fun. 

Good luck to everyone else, stay safe and let your pipes drip

project: get my parents moving on projects is going well, I helped my mom paint most of a room in the rental this afternoon, high priority since they finally have renters moving in feb 1st. it took 30 mins of her flitting around doing sanding and wandering away and me taping things and then we got to painting. I rollered and she did brush touchups of corners and edges. I'll need to roller the main areas again tomorrow but progress! There is a second room and then we'll switch to their house doing primer on some walls there. 

My phone has decided to receive group text messages again, verizon must have changed something on their end. I'm still using a unihertz phone and just accepted that I wouldn't receive group texts, the only ones I am regularly in are my family group chat or my parents and I. So I could just ask my parents if there was group texts in the family group chat. This actually worked okay. Not great, but I didn't miss much. But something changed, I now get all the group texts. 

early bedtime today I think, two loads of straw spread, moved a bunch of equipment, pulled a lot of twine out of the straw shredder too. 

Holidays were very good

• hung out with family and their dogs
• we did a puzzle that friend of a friend of my SIL made of their painting - it was very good and difficult
• had friends visit on their way south, they brought their dogs
• played a random series of games - exploding kittens, oh hell (family fav), some kind of game about guessing on a scale, ransom notes, some kind of imposter game. most party games aren't to my taste, but I did like exploding kittens
• new years day family party which was nice
• I pulled all my stash out organized it and it is mostly put away
• I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and they were so good
• I made tacos for the friends that stopped by and it was good 
• went for many walks - christmas day with the cousins, twice with sibs and the dogs, friends around the farm
• I brought some furniture, my CPW and the two extra boxes of yarn stash that I didn't know I had from the shed and am now more optimized for crafting and can watch tv on the big screen while I do it
• finished upstairs bathroom floor - drywall next
• started journaling my feelings in a little physical notebook
• made a dr appointment for next week
• my brother bought me anno 1800 - time sink it's very good if confusing
• my brother and SIL came overnight because they realized their ski lesson place was closer to here and so brought their dogs for two days and I got to hang out with the dogs which was very good

today, I spread two loads of straw - person spreading counts as the one putting the bales in the shredder, not the driver. driver has easy job. we go 1.5mph and a bale goes 50 ft or so. the cart behind the shredder holds 50 bales or so. I'll try and have my mom get a video, it's very fun and decently difficult farm task. then I finishing sanding my parents office at their house. I was supposed to run for groceries and supplies from hardware store but after straw and sanding I am tired and don't want to. Might do that and baking tomorrow. 

I am attempting to motivate my parents on their renovation by just simply doing parts of it for them. this is working okay so far. I need to pick up a spackle bucket. not a bucket of spackle but something for holding the spackle because my dad used it for floor patch in the rental and it apparently because extremely solid in the container. spackling and sanding is next for them and as soon as I get my drywall pieces up in the upstairs bathroom, I will be spackling and sanding. 

In theory my parents are moving their bedroom over this week, the reality is that my dad went to urgent care today to get something with his jaw looked at. I have been working with an attorney on business stuff. there's a lot going on and I'm very tired right this minute so I might get my heated blanket and take a nap in my comfy chair and then crafting tonight, can't wait for more crafting

my parents are Making Progress

thank all the gods

it does help that the farm is basically asleep and I am working on those things but really only get 4-6 hours of work done each day on outdoor tasks, so everything is taking a lot of days there. so now all my dad's free time is on house stuff plus he absolutely loves deadlines to work to and my mom is only stressing about moving instead of about everything including the farm. 

so yesterday before I hit the road, I helped my mom load and move three large bins and two small boxes over to the fun house and she thanked me so much for helping and how it was so difficult and she couldn't have done it without me!!!!

in my mind I am thinking "dear god moving isn't this difficult, it truly isn't that hard, this was so little stuff and so easy" but I am trying to remind myself that I have moved six times in eleven years and I have practice moving. They moved twice in 33 years. Wildly different experiences. It is a skill that needs to be developed. My mom is very good at losing her mind about things. She also is pretty clearly procrastinating on actual important moving tasks by having me help her with other stuff (we forked two cabinets from the front porch where they have sat in their boxes for literal years, which they may actually set up for use in the garage) or suggesting I fix unimportant things (the upstairs hallway light doesn't have a fixture and she wanted me to work on it). I am going to have to kick her out when it comes time to actually set the house up for guests because our ideas of housekeeping are very very different and I will lose my mind if she comes over here to clean more before guests come over. The front porch is an example, she wanted to start cleaning the front porch off because the cardboard boxes look terrible but I won't be able to host guests at all if the fucking guest bedrooms aren't empty of their stuff. We come into the house via the back porch, the front porch steps don't even work. PRIORITIES

I just got back after 24 hours away (drove to MD for continuing education credits for sidejob) and my dad has almost fully emptied his work desk of things, plus the giant shelf next to his work desk (they are leaving me the giant shelf, I am SO EXCITED about it for crafting supplies, it is HUGE. It is floor to ceiling, four feet wide, 2 or 2 1/2 feet deep with four shelves. It will be the perfect shelf for roving and fleeces). Now it's all piled on the couch, but it has been sorted at least. 

The order of operations currently is: finish laying new flooring in the rental (currently around half done), do all other repairs in rental (new renter is moving in Jan 1st), then sand and finish flooring in fun house office so all office supplies can be moved directly in (due to computer/server/network things I know nothing about, it is easier to move offices only once), their bedroom moves to fun house, (once those two rooms are emptied, I can move a bunch of my stuff from shed to here, and set up guest bedrooms for christmas and I can start cleaning and organizing the house to my liking), they move either to the fun house or to the rental temporarily, I don't really care which, they do the rest of the flooring in the fun house and all the other renovation things. They may have to move back into the guest bedroom here temporarily while they seal and finish the hallway floor but if we get to that point, it will be a minor miracle. They would also still be using the kitchen here to cook. I just suggested to my mom that she use the church which would be closer but she didn't seem thrilled. Can't imagine why. 

The couch will remain until after christmas which is fine by me, it's a very nice and comfortable couch, so I don't mind borrowing it. I will probably rearrange things so we have more space and can fit things. I did send around the christmas gift list but my asks were help moving things after christmas day and not much in the way of physical gifts because I need help with tasks, not stuff. 

I did get the indoor woodstove working, I did not clean the chimney out, I got up there and started the attempt and gave up but! the actual up/down part of the chimney was mostly smoke and the pipes to the stove were full of creosote, so I cleaned the pipes and top of the stove out, plus the basement cleanout and started that bad boy up. it's so so so nice to have the woodstove to warm up next to after working outside, I warm up so much faster. 

anyway, so many parentheses and I'm very tired after my drive home, thank you to the moon for being so bright for the drive.

yesterday I took another day off work, made pumpkin pie, granola, cheesy puff pastry thingies and went and got my covid and flu shots. no big deal, my day off! and then I got a hell of a nasty period all at once, the first in several months. then at 1:30am I was woken up by very bright headlights shining in my second story bedroom window and car door slams. I went to investigate in the cold, just someone broken down who's ride got there already and they left pretty quickly. I took aleve at this point because my shoulder was very sore despite my best efforts and I was pretty nauseous and extremely thirsty.

didn't get back to sleep for a bit. 

I did sleep in a bit to make up for the middle of the night interruption, so I wasn't super tired for most of the day, got some farm work done but now I'm very sleepy all of a sudden and heading to bed as soon as I finish eating my pie. I'm hoping I can fall asleep fast, we're getting a heck of a windstorm and maybe some rain, but we battened down the hatches and actually took one canopy fully down this afternoon. pie could be better tasting, I usually like a little more spices for flavor but it's tasty enough.

Almost done, just two group outings left, one Thurs night, one Fri morning. They had been scheduled for the previous Thursday but it rained a lot, so we rescheduled them. I had my employees start cleaning things up yesterday, emptying displays, cleaning up unused tables, etc. Today is the day a lot of people are stopping by to get pumpkins for their animals, so I'll have them pull off the displays and out of bins first, then from the field. 

My to-do list for the next day or two: 

• nap - today, woke up at 3am to use the bathroom, only managed to doze on and off until 7. and I had gone to sleep late. curses upon time changes for sleep schedule disruptions
• grocery store - overdue
• clean out fridge - there are things alive in there that shouldn't be
• fill out a form and mail it
• make pumpkin pie - lots of edible squash left, so I'll keep a bunch and a bunch will go to the food pantry this week
• crack garlic, get rototiller on tractor and plant it real fast

I've been playing video games and relaxing this morning, doing some spinning too. delightful

jeez I'm tired. naps required for today. the weekend wasn't record breaking but it was pretty close. there was some minor crises as normal like the wind. 30 mph winds, so dad and I spent some time battening down the canopies. pretty sure they all survived the night as well. the wind made our power flicker so all the registers went down, plus the card readers. came back up quick so I was able to reboot the computers and have them run cash while the internet came back enough to use the card readers. 

saturday had 10 outings which went mostly smoothly, the first set ran late but it was fine in the end. not sure if people are not reading emails or what. 

it's raining right now which is nice for a break. late last week I posted on facebook that we had extra tiny pumpkins and we'd offer a discount if people bought 20 or more and uhhh, people went wild for it. I couldn't believe how many people have contacted us about them. we are almost out actually. another day or so of pumpkin picking this week, primarily to scavenge enough smalls for our daytime group outings

I have rediscovered KEXP which was recommended by B ages ago and their youtube page, so I've been listening to their in-studio performances while playing some video games this morning. also late to this party but Shaboozey has some delightful country anthems especially his last album. that seems to be his whole jam that I've heard so far but they're very enjoyable

office work and planning in a bit and then some prep work for the week, then crafting tonight. I'm going to lay around on the couch a bunch and work on my laptop in between video game playing.