The Little Things

I don't feel I've accomplished much lately due to lots of little things getting in the way. For example, I spent the entire day yesterday, with my three children, in Florida, so my computer could spend the day "in the shop." It has taken to freezing up periodically. Often times, it will not reboot after freezing, but will play dead for hours at a time. I thought it had died once and for all Thursday afternoon. It made some very bad noises and then, did nothing.

Naturally my computer rebooted with no problems Friday morning at the shop. And after a full day of testing I received a bill for services rendered and was told nothing could be found wrong with my computer. At least nothing fixable and those were the only tests run.

I had my knitting with me yesterday, of course, but I had to spend the day with children who are not used to being confined to a car or being ferried around running errands. (I had to try to redeem the waiting time after all.) So no knitting got done which in my world means I had a lousy day. There have been way too many knit-less days lately.

Despite all of the little things conspiring against my knitting, I have managed to complete a few of the projects I needed to get done. I finished the socks for John, my husband's landlord in Fairhope and Gregory's beloved Sunday school teacher.



These are my favorite basic ribbed socks for men from the book, "Vogue Knitting, Socks 2."

I also completed a pair of socks for John's wife, Cindy. They are "Simplicity" from "The Eclectic Sole" in Tia Dalma from Enchanted Knoll Farm.



I couldn't get a good picture of the color of these socks. They are actually quite lovely. I struggled with giving these socks away while I knitted them. I just love the purple and teal with a bit of pink and blue and the soft superwash merino yarn. I might try to hunt down another skein of this yarn in the future. Well, that is if things stop breaking around here. Did I mention my dehydrator broke the other day? The one we use a couple times a week? My husband Kurt managed to get it running again by substituting a wire heddle from my loom for a burned out part. While Kurt feels confident his fix will work indefinitely, I immediately ordered a replacement dehydrator. That way if the house burns down from a defective dehydrator at some point in the future, I won't have to deal with our insurance coverage being invalidated because we knowingly used an improperly constructed appliance. But then I think about stuff like that. A lot.

The saddest bit of knitting I finished is a chemo hat for my new friend Clara at our new church.



My prayer is for a miracle that will keep her from needing it.

I've continued to spend lots of time in the kitchen. We cook almost everything from scratch in order to accommodate various dietary issues and that keeps me in the kitchen. However, I like convenience foods as much as anyone, so I make my own. Last week some friends from church gave us some more venison. I used a portion of the meat for chili.



I added between 3 to 4 gallons of chili to my pantry shelves. I love a full pantry.

Now if I can only keep from eating/serving all the pantry foods immediately because I am too tired to cook from all the little things that keep demanding my attention.

Slowly in January

Things are seemingly moving at a snails pace and it feels like I cannot get even a fraction done of those things which must soon be done. Spring planting looms and we are still amending the garden beds with leaves and compost.

Actually, I have bribed my 12 year old. Since Michael, my 3 year old wakes up grouchy and demanding and early, it is tough for me to sneak out in the mornings to work in the garden as I like to do this time of year. So Gregory, my 12 year old, has been getting up to work in exchange for which I get up and prepare him a big, fancy breakfast. He likes to read "Farmer Boy" from the "Little House" series. The story line revolves around a young boy growing up on a family farm and food and eating. Lately, Gregory fancies himself an old fashion farmer boy and enjoys working in our "fields." The "food for work" arrangement works out well for both of us, though I feel like most of my time lately is in the kitchen.

In addition to preparing lots of large meals to fuel Gregory's "farm work" and fatten the rest of us, I've been doing a bit of canning. I grabbed one of my 6 gallon stock pots and cooked up a pot of chicken soup a few days ago.



I ended up canning 4 gallons of soup for the pantry and freezing some as well.

Some friends from church blessed us with some deer meat and I picked up the ingredients to make chili the other day. I hope to can some chili for the pantry soon.

Kurt celebrated his birthday on Thursday. I made him a hat with the same pattern I used for the children at Christmas.



Since Kurt had to work over his birthday, we were not going to see him or help him celebrate. Not liking that idea, we made some arrangements with one of the ladies at work (she organized a pot luck) and then the kids and I baked Kurt's favorite birthday cake, the one he had requested for this weekend, and showed up at his work for a surprise birthday party. Kurt said it was a very good birthday and I am glad. He still wanted me to make him another German chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting this weekend since he had to share the other one with so many people. So I've baked two birthday cakes for Kurt this week.

I experimented with sprouting some soft white wheat to grind into flour for Kurt's cake. Since I can't stand coconut, I haven't had any of the cake, but I understand the soft white wheat made a huge difference in the texture and taste of the cake. I will have to get some more of that type of wheat for making cakes and pastries in the future.

With all the gardening Gregory has been doing lately, he has been feeling strong. Michael emulates Gregory in most everything. The other day Michael found my 3 pound weights.



Raising them up and down over his head, Michael told me he was s t r o n g.



He is a funny little guy.

The Cold Before Christmas

I have a head cold. A bad one. It is no fun. But I learned something the last few days.



I can actually knit much faster than I thought I could. I started this blue hat awhile ago and had just finished the ribbing before I got sick. I figured it would take about a week to get through the stranded portion. Then a head cold gave me focused knitting time. I finished the hat in a day.

I realized I normally behave like an ADHD child when knitting. I knit for a couple minutes then jump up to do something else. I tend to my preschooler's needs. I prepare meals. I do laundry. I clean up. I intervene in squabbles between kids. I assist with home school. I do a hundred different things while trying to work on the stitches of my knitted items. As I compare my speed to others, I always end up feeling slow.

This week, almost all of us are sick. No one is eating much. I made three or four days worth of muffins for breakfast and the kids help themselves if they want them. We've been sort of skipping over lunch. The kids grab an apple or baked potato if they get hungry. For dinner, we've been eating out of the pantry. I have jars and jars of homemade chicken soup. The freezer contains loaves of a variety of breads and vegetables. Preparation time is minimal. Most of our time is spent in front of the television or guarding our horded stashes of tissue. (Incidentally, we are going to have a tissue crises here if something doesn't give soon. The Kleenex is long gone and we have nearly decimated the toilet paper supply.)

The kids have little energy and I've allowed them unlimited afternoon television time. They've laid in bed, enthralled by their rarely watched video collection, for hours at a time. The boys sniffle and sneeze and periodically send Gabrielle, the only healthy one, to replenish the stash of videos. In the meantime I've been huddling on the couch, wrapped in my favorite shawl, listening to The Little House on the Prairie audio books and knitting. Yesterday, I started another hat.



I finished all of this in a single day. Who'd have thought I could accomplish so much. Michael went absolutely nuts when he saw me pull out the red yarn. He loves the color red. He paws and clutches at my red knitting whenever he sees it. He wants it, oh how he wants it. Fortunately, I'm making the red hat for Michael for Christmas. And thanks to my cold, I may actually get it done.

Right before we all got sick, we built the Christmas tree and started the ceremony of decorating it.



I get a sense of awe every time we bring out the decorations. A few years ago, after Hurricane Ivan stole most of our possessions, my Christian Artisans sisters sent me Christmas tree decorations. Many of them were handmade. As I lovingly unwrap each precious ornament, I remember the love my sisters in Christ poured out during the difficult time following the hurricane. I am reminded how blessed I am. There is nothing so sweet as true fellowship among Christians. Christmas reminds me not only that "our Redeemer lives", but that we belong to a world wide family when we opt into salvation through Jesus Christ.

For at least a year, I have wrestled with the idea of stashing some Socks that Rock sock yarn in the "Lunasea" and "Jailhouse Rock" colorways.



I finally gave into the temptation. These yarns are so pretty, so much prettier than I expected when I saw them online! I love the colors and can't wait until I am in a position to knit some socks for me again. I have a sock pattern called "Rivendale" that just begs to be knitted in the "Lunasea" yarn. Who knows, if my head cold lingers, I may actually get to it soon.

Making Cane Syrup

I'm finished! I woke up this morning with a song in my heart rejoicing. I didn't have to hastily face the cold morning. I didn't have to strain sugar cane juice. I didn't have to spend between 11 and 13 hours stirring and skimming at the stove. I am happy today.

Every day for the past 4 days, we lugged heavy 5 gallon buckets into the kitchen to strain the juice into large stock pots.



We brought 7 full buckets of un-strained sugar cane juice home from the Wilson homestead last weekend.



Miss Wanda told us to strain it with a cloth diaper. It took at least 4 of them each day to strain one 10 gallon batch. A colander easily supported the cloth.



We had to process the cane juice as quickly as possible before it soured. The Lord blessed us with very cold weather all week providing natural refrigeration. However, we still tried to get done quickly.

After talking to Miss Wanda about the need to process the cane juice quickly, we started Sunday after church. I have 1 six gallon stock pot and started with 5 gallons of syrup. I finished my first batch of syrup at 3:30 a.m. Monday and learned I would need to speed up the process. I cleaned out my water bath canner and inducted it into the process. I also used the lids to the pots to bring the juice to a boil faster.



Each bucket completely filled a pot with juice.



As the juice heated up, debris would foam to the top. I had to continually skim the foam from the pot as it rose up.



My husband searched the internet and told me not to skim the foam until after the juice boiled and the bubbles first broke through the foam. I tried that one day and found the churning caused some debris to sink back into the pot. The batch of syrup I did following this advice is not as clean as the batches where I started skimming before the boil. Mr. I.J. Wilson told me Saturday one did not learn farming from books. I will have to tell him he was right.

My husband Kurt also read the skimmings from the syrup making process could be used for natural fertilizer. This makes sense so I saved the skimmings.



Of course I don't have anything growing at present and I'm afraid to save the skimmings for long because I am sure they will ferment and turn nasty. I think I will mix them with the mulch I hope to spread on the garden beds after plowing under the weeds.

Each day, the cane juice slowly receded toward the bottom of the pot,



filling the house with steam.



Despite unusually dry conditions outside, humidity levels in the house remained high. Throughout the house, the windows stayed foggy.



By the 4th day, the kids reported rain in the house as condensation dripped from light fixtures and doorways. Thinking about it, I turned 35 gallons of juice into 4 gallons of syrup. This means I sent 31 gallons of water into the air! I begin to see some wisdom in processing syrup outdoors.

As the process of turning cane juice into cane syrup finalized, the liquid bubbled with an orange color. It also developed an orange tinted foam.



At this point I scooped a little syrup into a dish and cooled it quickly in the freezer. If the cool liquid had the consistency of honey, I turned off the heat and ladled the syrup into clean, warm jars.



Cane syrup needs no further processing and can be stored without refrigeration. I'm guessing it is shelf safe because it is a kind of dehydrated food.

In addition to the inside rain, there were a couple of challenges I faced while processing the sugar cane juice. The condition of the cane juice deteriorated as it sat, to the point my children no longer wanted to drink it. (I believe some of the sweetness disappeared as it started to sour. I'm thinking souring is simply a form of fermentation.) However, the juice never soured to the point of tasting sour and I can not really taste the difference in the final syrup.

Another challenge involved my 3 year old who didn't like having his Mom a prisoner to the stove for 4 days. (I ran to the bathroom once and my syrup boiled over. It really needs to be watched, especially while it is foaming during the first few hours and at the end.) In the end I compromised on my principles and allowed Michael to watch television during the day.



Normally we only watch a little television at the end of the day as a family (and then only dvds). However there are times when having a copy of "Chicken Run" in the house is a good thing.

My family presented another challenge. Seems they like to eat regularly. I am very glad I keep my pantry stocked with homemade foods. So, last night for dinner for example, I squeezed a sauce pan behind my stock pot and reheated a couple jars of homemade chicken soup.



I also took some homemade banana bread out of the freezer and re-baked it for a few minutes so it would taste fresh.



We survived on such fixings all week. Of course now that I am finished making syrup, I'm burned out on cooking and behind schedule. I really needed to bake some bread this morning, but all I did was make coffee and warm up some gingerbread I'd baked earlier this week (with some of our own cane syrup substituted for the sugar and molasses) for breakfast. Instead of making salsa with the tomatoes aging in the refrigerator, I spent hours at the computer catching up with email. With Thanksgiving coming, I really need to get back my cooking mojo.