I didn’t do too badly, considering that the big oven doesn’t work on the stove. (I have a dual oven stove, but the top oven can do cookies and not a lot more.) Lon had one of those big electric roasters that I keep threatening to throw out, so I used that. We picked up an extra turkey while they were on sale. I did not make my own pies and did manage to get a decent dinner done.

Still sort of in limbo on the river place. Lon has made a lot of progress in cleaning up the house. We will start moving things down to the river soon. We have help to get the place ready to sell. Really want to get it on the market soon. The weather change has affected my breathing again and I’ve had to use prednisone a couple of times. I’m trying to keep the sessions short. I don’t seem to be triggered as much, so I think my immune system is in better shape. I just want to be able to do more.

I picked up a couple of 7″ Kindle Fires during the sales. They were $34 and I thought they would be worth trying. I like it better than the Paperwhite, which surprises me. I find it easier to read. And, I have been reading some books on sketching and watercolors from Kindle Unlimited, so having a color display is great. Will probably hang onto the Paperwhite for awhile longer. Both Lon and I tend to read things on our phones when we are in the living room. I thought they might make a good replacement for that. I use Amazon a lot, so I’m okay with making it easier to shop with them. We might use the Amazon Video feature for a change.

We don’t seem to do a lot for Christmas, although I try and bake cookies. Don’t have any real plans and will likely just get a few small things for us. The focus is on getting the house on the market and getting moved. This should be our last Christmas at the house.

We have been busy. The dock has been mostly removed. The Aqua Home has been moved. Things did not pan out the way we thought they would. We have DNR out surveying the place this week. So just remains to be seen what happens next. We are starting to get the trailer ready to live in. We still intend to sell the house. We may be able to move quickly as we have lined up some folks to help with all of that.

I’m happy about the election. It’s going to be hard to make changes in the country, but there’s a possibility that we can still do it. I’m tired of people that piss and moan when they don’t get their way. And, having dealt with the Eco-Nazis in this state, it is about time that we put limits onto what they can do. Property owners do have rights. Allowing unelected bureaucrats power over them is a recipe for disaster.

Nothing new with the animals. Jake has discovered another hole in the fence. Lon woke me up at 3 in the morning to find him. We did and now we have him on lead when he’s in the yard. It’s not our fence and there’s only so much we can do to repair it.

Thought I should post some pictures of the dock that the State finds so terribly objectionable. It is in disrepair right now, as they keep telling us they want to rip it out.

Anyway, we have someone helping us out in exchange for the Aqua Home, which is the big boat in the picture above. We are having to kick out the latest group caretaking the place. It has been an ongoing struggle to get them to understand that they have to keep the place picked up. Everytime we haul off a bunch of junk, there’s more to take its place. We can’t leave the place vacant, as the thieves move in. We dodged a bullet as someone set fire to the back of the place this week. We think it’s the guy we had the restraining order out on. That expired last month. Fortunately, it was put out before the garage caught fire. And so, we have installed real gates on the driveway. Will be adding fencing and security cameras in the future. I’ve had a nice security cam for a year but Lon has been afraid it would be stolen if we install it.! If we  can get internet put in, we’ll be able to keep an eye on the place a little bit better.

Lots of work to be done on the house too. Lon is clearing out the garage. I can’t work on it  because I can’t be anywhere near the birds. I went to a memorial service for my friend’s husband on Saturday and was just wiped out. It’s been in the high 90s the last few days, and I just can’t deal with the humidity and heat any more. But we both keep at it a little bit every day.And we are still having problems with the truck. I have never had a vehicle as hard to start as this one. We’ve replaced all the sensors and the fuel pump. This time, we replaced the catalytic converters and it seems to run even worse. I guess the injectors are next. We still have to use starting fluid to get it to go. And so, we haven’t made any long trips this summer. And with the people still at the river, it’s not even a nice place for a staycation.

Well, we’ve fought the good fight and it looks like the bureaucrats will win. They are going to remove our dock. It’s been there since at least the 70s. We’ve removed every single thing they wanted and are down to two boats in the river. But it’s not enough. They want to “restore” it, which is funny because they are responsible for the fill. And they will be responsible for the erosion which will take out another part of the road. They are evicting the leaseholder next to us. I fully expect them to refuse to renew the lease for the marina at the end of the slough. There is a chance that the Republican could win the Commissioner of Public Lands position and rein them in a bit. But it will be too late for us. That’s what we are involved with right now. It will be such a blessing when we finally have these people out of our lives.

Ginger’s husband Ed died last week. He was in declining health but still was a shock. It’s a hard thing to deal with and there are so many things you have to do. I am trying to help with a memorial service for her family and friends to attend.

And…I bought my first brand new pressure canner! I’ve always bought old ones. Lon has an unreasonable fear of pressure cookers and canners. I really want to be able to can meat. He’d like some soup stock. I have dehydrated veggies on hand, so I can put together a quick meal if I have the stock. I find lots of deals on marked down meat but we have such a tiny freezer. This should help. It’s a 22 qt Mirro, using weights rather than a gauge. I would have liked the All American, but I really don’t need heirloom quality right now.

I have been going to the Naturopath for awhile now. I’ve managed to get back off prednisone and am feeling better. O2 levels have been good and I’ve found something that clears up the congestion better than the nasal spray I’ve been using (Lugol’s Iodine, in case you were wondering). The real test will be this winter.

I am moving the cats to a raw meat diet. I’ve been buying pre-made frozen meat. Fanny seemed to have colitis and she’s always had a sensitive stomach. Jack is prone to urinary tract blockage. They eat the raw stuff better if I mix it with canned. If this works out, I might look into getting a good meat grinder. I’ve been giving the dogs a good dry food with raw meat in place of their Alpo. Jake still misses the Alpo. We really can’t afford the expense, but I think that feeding them better quality food keeps them out of the vets. Jake was microchipped last visit and got a rabies shot. Loretta also got a new rabies shot.

finally move to the river. I am reluctant to put a lot of energy in this, but it does look like some things are starting to come together. If we could get this house sold, it would be a huge blessing. It’s a comfortable house and it has a lot of memories for Lon. But we just can’t afford two places. And we need to put some money into the place at the river, should we decide to sell it. So, we will see how this goes.

Have been doing a lot of knitting.Have been busy at work. We lost the prodigal cat, Oblio, this year. At least he died at home and not out on the streets. Not a lot of changes otherwise.

Really had no idea I’d gone so long without a post. I did buy the full size Midori. I like them both but can see the larger size is more useful. I have had some fun pasting some neat paper scraps on the inserts. Ah, inserts, I’ve already bought too many of them. And I’m onto my second Pilot Metropolitan pen. These are really great inexpensive fountain pens. I like the fine nib and they write first time every time.

Pretty much the same thing around here. I am going to a naturopath. I have been feeling better in some ways, but had had to use the predisone for too long. I just haven’t been able to get off it. If the weather would warm up for awhile, so we can open up the house, I might manage to taper off. I came down with a bit of the flu and missed a couple of days work. Have been coughing since then.

The neighbors did some work on their fence and didn’t tell us that they’d taken down the mesh that was on their side. The fence is in sad shape, old cedar and there was a hole which Jake promptly found. It was dark and a bit scary but we did find him. He hopped right in the truck. We got some material to fix the fence and he managed to get out during the daylight. Lon was able to find him but has not been happy about it. I think we have the hole patched and will try to do some more work this weekend. Doesn’t he look innocent?

And finally a picture of Loretta! It’s so hard to get a good picture of a black dog.


In non-dog related stuff, I have been helping out at the Decision Desk. It’s at decisiondeskhq.com. It’s a fun project. Folks volunteer to help get election results and we try to scoop the AP. It’s been entertaining and I enjoy it. For the record, I am a Trump supporter so go ahead and hate 🙂 I somehow have been working elections where he has lost, so was nice to do one last night that he won. Should have a couple of weeks to work on some of the other bits of this. We pull historical data into spreadsheets that is used to analyze the elections. That’s fun too. I won’t give away any trade secrets here, but it is an interesting group to work with.

Still trying to get moved but not much on that front. Finally have the truck running like it should. Ah, I wish the rain would stop and we could have some more sun.

  
I’ve run across talk about the Midori Travelers’ notebooks lately. It’s probably because I’ve been reading some analog sites that I haven’t visited for awhile. I seem to have missed this fad. I think I have my Moleskine reporter sorted out. I am using a 1920s mechanical pencil, so the paper is okay. And I like having a notebook I can archive. Still, I like nice letter and there were so many rave reviews, I gave in and ordered the Passport size. Spent the time waiting for it, wondering if I should have gotten the full sized one or maybe just order it and have two. 

It arrived today, so I did a little customization. I used a brass bead on the bookmark and a mother of pearl button on the band. I don’t have any additional inserts yet. I ordered the Tomoe River paper insert from Etsy and an additional blank insert. And I got the vinyl pouch and the bands to add notebooks. I’m resisting the rest for now. I have a Pilot Metropolitian and ink samples that should be here in the next day or so. 

I don’t have a purpose for this. I have a journal that I write in at night. I decided to use an old, partially filled Moleskine for morning pages. It’s nice to be doing those again. I also have a small Evernotes Moleskine that I’ve been using for planning. And I have lots of Field Notes. This may not see a lot of action this year, but I’ll carry it anyway. 

And I have been baking bread today, from The Homemade Kitchen book. I did the Honey Oatmeal bread yesterday. It rose well, but we went to Winco while it was rising. I had to do an extra rise, so it wasn’t as tall as I’d like. 

This morning, I did the Cinnamon Swirl bread, which looked like this:

  
I have the rye bread on the last rise now. I ran out of bread flour, so may not be as light as it should be. And I have turkey soup started. I think I need a break!

This has not been a fun month but we will live through it. Still fighting problems with the truck. It goes to the shop tomorrow. The grocery bill was outrageous as I couldn’t get in to do a proper shop. We finally have a bed to use at the river place. The plan is to camp out a bit, and start to move a few things in. I hold that we will be resistant until we make some cozy places. Right now, it’s just an empty rundown shell. I would love to have the wood burner part of the stove going. 

Jake managed to hit me under the chin, while I was leaning over combing Loretta. Fortunately, he did not put my teeth completely through my lip, but it was bruised. It’s finally healing up. 

I have a goal this next month to cut the food budget in half. “The Homemade Kitchen” is a great resource. I have cranberry orange bread in the oven. I have a turkey carcass boiling for stock. And I am trying Mystie Winckler’s bread recipe. I need a reliable sandwich bread. We eat better when we eat at home. I still have some potato leek soup leftover from this week. 

Let’s celebrate every small success we have this year!

We drove the truck to the river right  before Christmas. The starter died. We thought it was the battery, but no. Finally got it running well enough to get it home. Found someone willing to put in a starter for us. We used it a few times and it’s down again. This time, it’s either a fuel relay or fuel pump. We are having problems finding someone that will work on it. Taking it to a shop is more than we can afford right now.

Lon used a cab to go to the parts store. I’ve used Uber for a trip to the grocery store and back. Uber worked out well and is definitely cheaper than the cab. I also used Safeway delivery. I’d prefer to go in and shop, but it’s better than being out of food. (And I don’t mean we were completely out of food. When I am out of honey and cream for my tea, we are out of food. And we truly were out of dog and cat food.) At the rate we are going, I may have to do another shop next week.

We bought a Christmas tree but never got it up and decorated. We got each other a few things we really needed, like warm robes. It was nice. I would have liked to drive around and look at the Christmas lights but it didn’t happen. Oh well. And we got a bit of snow the other day, so that was nice. And I bought myself a Kindle Paperwhite. I’m happy with it and it was nice to have a new gadget for the books that I don’t want to own. It’s hard to read books on the phone. And I totally forgot…we replaced both computers. Lon’s old one finally died. My old Mac started having problems too. Got two from Free Geek, a desktop for him and a Thinkpad for me. Both running Linux Mint. I had to use the KDE desktop for him, as there seems to be a driver issue with Cinnamon. Mine works fine and it even has a webcam!

I hope we can finally get moved out this year. This house is very comfortable and lovely in its own way. But we truly need to have more income coming in and we can’t do that the way things are.

Okay, so I have been terrible at updating my blog. Hey, I still haven’t sent sent stuff off to my aunt yet and that’s been ready for a couple of months! Just the usual busyness. I took a week off in October with many plans and did nothing. Had a nice Thanksgiving, just for the two of us. Still need to get moved and have not made much progress there. Jake is still a crazy dog and we are trying to get him to settle down. Love him to pieces, but he just doesn’t listen.

We had a nice dry spell and now are catching up on the rain. Picture of it at the river. I’m told it’s much higher today.

We both have new computers from Free Geek. Lon has a Dell Desktop and I have an older Thinkpad. Running Linux Mint on both. The Mac has some power issues. And, to be honest, I’m tired of old Macs. Have used them for a long time, but I’m just done. I can run most of the Windows programs I need in Crossover. And it’s nice to have a modern browser again. Lon’s computer was just junk. I’d replaced the motherboard, but it was problematic. I have to run KDE desktop on it, but it’s definitely better than what he had. Some days, I just get tired of messing around with this stuff. I want a garden this year.

Will try and update before the holidays hit and that’s not far off!

Lon found this on Craigslist several weeks ago. I just wasn’t sure about it, because I have bad memories of moving a heavy propane/trash burner stove into the school bus many years ago. I reconsidered and we bought it today. It’s a Monarch dual wood/coal and electric. The folks we got it from had gotten it when their neighbor died. She’d raised five kids there but the stove had been in the garage a long time. 

The firebox is heavy and in good shape. It needs to be cleaned and the electric part may need work. Quinn came down today and helped us unload it. And it wasn’t bad at all. It was loaded on piano dollies using a tractor to lift it into the truck. We backed up to the porch at the river and put a piece of plywood on the tailgate as a ramp. I pushed from the back and Quinn pulled from the front. 
   
   

This is a Wheeler and Wilson, Number 9. Got it from a lady that picked it up when her neighbor moved. It’s in nice shape and will sew. The coffin top needs a little work. She thought this is from 1888 or 1889. It’s hard to date these models. The decals are there but faint. I’ll have to shuffle the machines and move it inside today. 
   
    
    
    
 

  
I have been messing around with Field Notes. I like the product. The quality is good and I am a fan of vintage style notebooks. I especially like the Ambition series and picked up several. 

But I am returning to my Moleskines. Yes the quality has gone down (although the new ones seem to be made in Vietnam). Yes, they are probably overpriced. I just haven’t found anything that works as well for me. They hold up better. I have been using an old Reporter. I used it for a year but still had a lot of unused pages. And I have a small Evernote Moleskine that was barely used. I’m using those to finish out this year. I have a new Reporter for next year and a larger Classic style that I want to use as a knitting journal. I get tired of digital stuff. 

I don’t have a terribly interesting life but I do want to leave a record. I’ll have to see how this goes. I always love my new system when I start. 

We are having an underbraider discussion at the Treadle On group. I wanted to post the one I received in a puzzle box that I bought. 
It’s interesting that this seems to have been mailed in the packaging. 

   
   Still haven’t tried it yet, but might be time to play around with it. 

Lon and I have talked about getting married for several years. When one of our Coot friends, Jim Ballou died suddenly last year, it seemed like it was time to get married before we lost any more of our friends. We are not getting younger! So we chose June 20th, which is the day we normally hold a Messabout at our place. The wedding planning did not go smoothly. Lon wanted to get married at the river place. We were trying to get things cleaned up from the previous tenant and make the place look presentable. We had a family argument and it seemed like it would never come together. I kept reminding Lon that it was a party and a celebration. That would be what would matter most in the end. I’ll be adding more pictures as they come in. Most of these were taken by Vicki Parker. She and Dan Walker made wood fired pizza for the party.

Wedding selfie. I used the Folkwear Gibson Girl Blouse, with lace inserts from a nice Ebay seller in Ponca City, OK. I used some lightweight linen and also used the Walking Skirt pattern in heavier linen.
Loretta was not at all happy with her headband. She was well behaved at the wedding. I did have to feed the two cats at the river to get them to stay away.

We made a quick stop at the ATM and headed on our way. Andrew, who presided over the wedding, wanted a nautical theme. What could be more nautical than a pirate? I ordered Lon’s vest from Majestic Velvets and they did a rush to get it to us on time.

I wanted a few nice flowers, but decided against a bouquet.

Getting the tables decorated for the feast.

Dan and Vicki made delicious wood fired pizza.

We waited while Andrew read the first part of the service. He had helpers.

Nautically inclined! Too bad the water was so low at the river.

Time for our entrance.

When this guy marries you, you stay married! Thanks, Andrew!

We decided to use my mom’s wedding ring. I’d worn it for a bit, after I’d worn out my original wedding ring, but it wasn’t a ring I used at my first marriage. This time, it’s my wedding ring.

Hard to believe, but it really did happen!

Share a kiss and it’s done.

Until we get the official pictures, this will do.

And the Coots doing what they do best, telling tales and eating pizza.

And finally time to relax. Thank you to all that attended, especially Cathy from work, Dave and Terry for helping with setup, Jennifer for also helping, Dan and Vicki for the pizza, Quinn and Shanna, and to all the Coots.

I’m feeling a lot better, although not completely off prednisone yet. My oxygen levels have been good and I have more energy. And that’s good because we have a lot of stuff to get done before the wedding next month.

I have a new old bicycle. It’s an Allegro, which is Swiss made. It seems to be from the 40s. It will need work:

I’ve made some progress on the White treadle, but still don’t have it sewing yet:

I have fabric ordered for my wedding dress. I plan to do some sewing over the Memorial Day holiday. I have been trying to finish up some of my old projects. I managed to finish the Gibson Girl blouse and am trying it out today. I didn’t order enough fabric for it and had to improvise. I need a better way to hem skirts. I don’t have any problems sewing them up, but it seems to take forever to hem them. I am really focused on sewing right now. It helped a lot, when quilting, to spray starch the fabric before cutting it out. I”m trying to do that on anything I cut out. I have a major sewing project planned this summer and think it will really improve my sewing skills.

I am able to get the head to work on this machine. The problem is the tensioning device. White has a unique tensioning system. All the experienced sewing machine people warn you against messing with it. There is a small loop of spring steel, that the thread runs through, which has rusted off. I can’t just replace this. I had a nice treadler offer me a newer White head, and was able to have the kids pick it up while on the coast. It’s from 1929, I believe, but does look similar. So I tried swapping the faceplate. It actually fits, but the thread tension bar on the old machine is shorter. It bangs on the faceplate. It might work for now, but would probably damage the face plate over time. For now, I am going to hang onto the old head and put the newer one on the treadle base. It will give me a working treadle and I can always try and finish repairing the old head at another time. I plan to tackle work on the base again today. I have been using wood glue to stabilize those drawers. I am not doing a lot of finish work on this. I am going for function.

I am still working on my quilting. I picked up a rotary cutter and board. I remembered to get spray starch. I cut out some blocks and did a bit of sewing, but started to get tired. I’ll try and finish them this week. It’s fun, but I am having to learn new skills and just need to let myself make mistakes while I learn.

On the health issues, I have been fighting another round of Bird Fancier’s. I had some things stored in the office that had been in the garage. I got a reaction when I started moving things around in the office. I finally convinced my pulmonologist to treat this like we did the first round. It seems to be working. My oxygen levels are good and I have energy again. I am starting to taper down, so will see if this holds. But I truly wonder about the medical practice. Prednisone causes bone loss and depletes the adrenals. We have our medical records digitized. There’s no reason why it can’t remind a doctor to schedule a bone density test or prescribe adrenal support. I did the adrenal support on my own. I was given Fosamax. If you read the cautions on this drug, it’s a vile drug that causes things like thigh bone fractures. I took one dose and stopped. I could tell that it was not a healthy thing to take. The good news is that I finally have enough energy to do things. We are going to start taking a Tai Chi class tonight. We need to start moving a bit more and build some muscle. Tai Chi is gentle enough for us and we will be the only folks in the night class for now. Will try it for a month and see. I also want to start setting up a small garden in the back yard. I want to grow a few things. I am tired of eating processed foods and spending so much on groceries. This is a lousy place to garden, as there is too little sun. But I’ve done this before and it’s worth the effort.

I managed to sew on my treadles this weekend. I am working on the Folkwear Gibson Girl blouse on my fancy treadle (now named Rosebud, because I got tired of trying to talk about the machines without names.) Still need to finish the sleeves and hem it, but it was pretty smooth sewing. I wish I’d had time to play with the attachments.

On the sphinx Singer (now named Cleo), I have been piecing quilt blocks. Now, I am not a quilter. The last time I did anything like this may have been in the late 70s. So I do not have any rotary cutters or any of the new tools quilters now use. I have been going old school with scissors and rulers. I need a working iron and I am going to need those tools. I have joined the Treadle Quilters group on Facebook and I am determined to catch up on the block of the month series. Here’s my attempts, so far, on January:

Notice that it’s a bit off where the patches meet in the middle.

This was better, but the square is much too small now.

Looking better but needs to be pressed!

I am having a lot of fun with this. It turns out that Cleo has a lot more use than Rosebud. It sews much smoother. It’s hard to describe how a well broken in sewing machine feels. The parts just sort of glide past each other. And, I would expect the machine with the worn decals to be the most used. I am happy to have both. And it is still hard to get the cats off of Cleo!

A long time ago, I used to have a treadle. I loved it. It was German made, turn of the century. I had it in the schoolbus, but when we moved into the Airstream, there wasn’t room. There was condensation in the trailer and I was afraid it would be ruined. I found a good home for it in Walla Walla.

I’d been talking to Lon about treadles and showing him pictures of them. He likes antiques and was fascinated by the decoration. I had a post from the Vintage Machines group on Ravelry with a link to a Craigslist ad in Seattle. It was the back of the machine and you couldn’t make out a lot. I sent the link to Lon. Then a day later, he told me he’d made the deal for it and she would hold it for us until payday. I used a vacation day yesterday and we went to pick it up.

This is a 1891 Singer VS2. That means is has the vibrating shuttle (long bobbin) instead of the more modern round bobbin. My old machine used a shuttle like this too. Singer calls this the roses and daisies decal. It’s one of the prettiest machines I’ve ever seen. It needs a belt, but she said it sews fine. It also has the “puzzle box”, as folks call these folding attachment boxes.

I’ve ordered a belt for it and will try and do a little work on it over the next couple of weeks. I’m just amazed to own this machine.