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Christmas light
Thursday, 11:15 pm
By Kate
Dec
20
2007
I was just sitting here by the wood stove, enjoying the warmth and some pretty candle light. I bought this little lamp a few days ago, and it’s one of those impulse purchases that will probably be remembered as one of my all time favorites. I love it and so enjoy watching the candle flame flicker inside. I like the way it reflects off the wood bench it’s sitting on. The bench is very old—was once used as a laundry bench many years ago. For now, it’s serving as my coffee table. I was thinking of getting a new coffee table, but maybe not. I love this bench, too, even though it is distressed and well used. But that is its charm. The little candle lamp makes it even more charming.
Getting ready
Thursday, 4:22 pm
By Kate
Dec
20
2007
Today it snowed again. I shoveled the driveway again. Then the snowplow man decided today would be the perfect day to widen the road and plugged the end of my driveway full of snow again. And I shoveled again. Yesterday I spent an hour shoveling a path to my wood pile and dug my way into it. I did it again today. That’s been the general flavor of life around here the past several days.
So, now that I have that out of the way....
The lad is coming home on Saturday, I think. He arrived at his Dad’s house last night and will enjoy a couple of days there before heading on up here. That’s the plan so far. Much is dependent on the weather, naturally. He is happy to be away from school for the month and I think his friends must be of the same frame of mind—my phone has started ringing non-stop. “Is he home yet?” They are ready to rock ‘n roll.
I will probably get to see him for all of five minutes on Saturday before his friends descend to either whisk him off or crowd around the stove to see what’s cooking and then eat all of it. He will, undoubtedly, be coordinating schedules over the phone on his ride up here. It’s interesting...the one person he looks forward to seeing the most is a young woman who has been in love with him for the last 4 years. She keeps it light and they truly are best friends. I often wonder if he will suddenly discover that she’s the one. Well, life is about to become very active in this household and I look forward to it. At least for a few days.
On the 27th, he’ll leave with his Dad and family for a trip to Alabama and will return somewhere around January 3rd so that he can be ready to go do his civic duty (jury duty) at 8:00 AM on January 4th. We hope that will not last for more than a day. It’s supposed to be one day jury duty, but the brochure says it can extend up to a week, in some cases. Although he is curious to see what serving on a jury is like, he’d really much prefer to be told that he doesn’t have to show up when he calls to check in. This is supposed to be vacation, after all.
After that, I have no idea. I imagine he will spend a little more time at his Dad’s house somewhere in January, but nothing has been planned that far ahead yet. How ever long he is here, I intend to soak up every minute of it and enjoy the heck out of it.
Between now and Saturday I have a full slate of chores to attend to. I’d like the snow to stop falling for a few days so I can spend my time on in-the-house chores. Got to get his room ready and stuff washed and polished and shining. I still have to lay in a supply of food and probably have something baked and ready for him. I should put a tree up, too, but I haven’t gotten that far. Frankly, I’d be perfectly happy without one, but that wouldn’t go over very well. Well, I do have a tiny one that glitters and glows at night with a string of 10 itty bitty lights on it. That satisfies my need for a tree, but it’s rather too small to put presents under. ;)
My new best friend
Tuesday, 6:09 pm
By Kate
Dec
18
2007
Despite telling myself that I wasn’t going to buy one more thing this month, for any reason whatsoever, I went and bought one more thing today. Shame on me. I’m not suffering from any ill effects, though, let me tell you. I can’t wait until my new small ‘appliance’ arrives.
After shopping around and comparing various models, and putting it off, thinking about it, and doing some more comparison shopping, and putting it off some more, I happened to look at my floors this afternoon. About three hours after having dragged the vacuum cleaner out—and a half an hour after carrying a couple of arm loads of wood to the rack by the stove. Wood crumbs all over the place.
Now, I love my wood stove. But the wood crumbs...not so much. And I’m tired of dragging the vacuum cleaner out of the closet and fighting with the cord and the hose and the fittings two or three times a day. Besides...it eats electricity like nobody’s business. I knew there had to be a better way.
So, my new Oreck Restaurateur (completely manual) Floor Sweeper should be on its way to me within the next day or so. I’m told that it will eat the wood crumbs like candy. And sand, too. And whatever else it can find to eat. Except electricity, of course. It’ll be small enough to tuck in a corner somewhere so that I can grab it with ease, too. No cords. No tangled hoses. No more wood crumbs. I am so excited!
I Have Shrunk
Monday, 3:30 pm
By Kate
Dec
17
2007
I’ve been going through jeans at a prodigious rate this past week, what with all this weather, shoveling, and wood hauling. My laundry hamper is full. After yesterday’s slog in the slush, I added another pair to the hamper. And I was not too enthusiastic about doing a load of laundry last night.
Then my eyes spied a pair of jeans folded up on the laundry table in the basement. They’d been there a while. A long while. I’d outgrown them some time ago, but I saved them ‘cuz you never know. They were my favorites...a pair of Aeropostale jeans. And 100% cotton, too. They predated the spandex-y abominations by a few years.
I brought them upstairs last night and pulled them on to see where things stand these days. Much to my delight...they fit. Perfectly. I’ve noted, too, that my regular every day jeans have been growing somewhat roomy recently.
Maybe there is a silver lining to all of this wood hauling and snow shoveling. It seems to do a body good. I’m positively luxuriating in my soft, one-size-smaller, 100% cotton jeans today. Jeans the way they were meant to be.
God I hate snow
Sunday, 3:05 pm
By Kate
Dec
16
2007
I am sick to death of snow. On the 16th of December—five days before winter even officially begins.
I woke up this morning, hearing wind. That made me not want to look out the window, so I grabbed my laptop instead and crawled back under the comforters and tried to read the news. All about snow.
So, I watched a movie instead. A really old Errol Flynn movie called The Black Swan. There was no snow in the movie. That was nice.
But then I had to get out from under the comforters. Abbie said she was hungry and she wasn’t taking no for an answer.
Naturally, the first thing I did was open the window blind and take a look outside. It was horrifying. I don’t know where it all came from, but we have at least another fresh foot of snow on the ground. With drifts. The last I had heard, we weren’t supposed to get more than 3 inches, if that. We were supposed to get mostly rain. But no, I’m here to tell you, we have a good solid foot of fresh snow on the ground. And I know without even sticking my toe outside, that this is not the light fluffy stuff, either. It’s the wet, heavy kind.
Know what’s even better? Our wonderful snow plow man gave my driveway another extra foot of length and then stuffed the end of my driveway full of snow. He choked it full of snow. It’s going to take me a half an hour just to get that out of the driveway, never mind the rest of it.
And my woodpile! It’s a good thing I dragged a whole lot of wood in the house yesterday, because today it is nearly buried. It’s going to take considerable time and effort to chop my way to it, say nothing of chopping my way into it.
I thought I might wait a while to see if the storm turns to rain and melts some of this wretched snow before I have to start shoveling. More likely it would just supersaturate the snow and then freeze as hard as granite tonight. Wouldn’t that be fun? It’s still snowing sideways and it will all probably freeze as hard as granite tonight, anyway—rain or no rain.
I’m so over loving snow. The very last thing I want to do is bundle up and go shovel snow AGAIN. Heavy wet snow. I don’t wanna. What could be more enjoyable than going out there and having the wind whip freezing pellets and snowflakes in my face while tossing 15 pounds per shovel load of snow into ever higher piles? It adds immeasurably to the ambiance. Sigh....
90 Percent Project - Week 28
Saturday, 3:36 pm
By Kate
Dec
15
2007
Alrighty then. It’s time for my weekly values for Week 28 (December 6-13, AM readings) of the 90 Percent Project.
Electricity
Week 28: 15 kWh used
Not bad at all considering the Christmas lights. It’s a matter of making some trade-offs. I briefly mentioned last week that I unplugged the refrigerator to make up for the lights. A number of people on the 90% list have also unplugged their fridges and I was kind of curious how that would work on a daily basis. Some people claim that they don’t need a fridge at all—ever—and have been fridge-free for years. I’m not there yet. Not sure if I will be. I’d say I’ll never be, but I tend to prove myself wrong repeatedly in these matters.
Nevertheless, for now, winter has offered free ice. I put out my ice containers in the late evening, bring in the already frozen ones, and put them in the cooler. Everything stays nice and cold. I’m not in the least inconvenienced by it and opening the cooler isn’t much different than opening the fridge door. Stuff is cold and that’s what matters. As long as nature provides the ice, I’ll continue doing this. When nature quits providing the ice, I’ll probably plug the fridge back in. For now, it works well for me.
Is unplugging the fridge a little extreme? Well, I’d have said so a few months ago. But, it’s interesting to learn what I really, really need and what I have gotten used to thinking I need. It’s also interesting to learn what actually needs refrigeration and what doesn’t. We over-refrigerate in our culture. I still think that I need some refrigeration, but I have concluded that it doesn’t matter whether it’s electrically provided or nature-provided—at least in terms of effectiveness. I do quite enjoy the benefits to my electric meter that taking advantage of nature provides.
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Gasoline purchased (for 1 person)
Week 28: 0 gallons
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Water (for 1 person)
Week 28: 97.253 gallons
A little better than last week.
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Natural Gas
Week 28: 3 CCF
Not sure why I bother to fight with the bushes to read this meter. Nothing changes.
May I just say that I detest my gas utility? On November 1, they raise the rates nearly double for the winter. It’s like we’re being held hostage to winter. It’s one thing to pay nearly double if we’re actually getting some appreciable benefit from the gas use (though still a reprehensible practice), but I’m not deriving much appreciation. My current bill is $36 for a couple of pilot lights and a water heater parked on the vacation setting. How vile is that?
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Trash (for 1 person)
Week 28: 2.7 lbs.
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Consumer Goods
Week 28: bigger than a breadbox
I bought some Christmas gifts and I’d better not say or a certain someone might put two and two together. ;)
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Food
Most food procured is still of local origin. Many fewer varieties of local vegetables now, but there are still plenty of Cucurbits and root vegetables available. They’re ideal for heavier winter meals. Next year I plan to grow a lot of tomatoes so I can preserve them in various forms. I’m going to have to buy non-local tomato sauces and canned tomatoes pretty soon. I am having tomato withdrawals.