November Pleasures and Pursuits

Elv and I bought our first cook stove fifteen years ago. That one is called a Happy Meal and gives us warmth and meals at the cabin up north. Then this summer we bought another, a Monarch, which also provides warmth besides baking cookies and bread to perfection. That takes care of both my kitchens.

Now Lisl has caught on to the idea of having warmth and baking and cooking happening all at once. Hers is a pretty blue cook stove that needed a bit of shop time.

Elv loves having a shop. Not only does he get to do repairs for ourselves; he gets to let the kids bring theirs over, as well. So, Lisl and Elv spent a good part of the afternoon taking all the rusty pieces apart and what have you, on that cook stove. When they’re done, it’s going to be beautiful as well as functional.

I learned how to make honey and cream taffy yesterday. Yup, off the internet, sorry. Anyhow, it worked. Now I’ve a candy jar almost full of home made taffy. Bring on the grandkids.

This was my week to create things. Francis cut this tree from vinyl for me and Amy helped me apply it. This is a project in process and it’s giving us all plenty of pleasure. Except my mom, I think. She and I both realized that it’s going to take some effort to find or print a wedding picture of she and dad. So my little brainstorm to get all the wedding pictures together here is putting the pressure on to other people, too. Someone will thank me later, I hope.

Lacey needs a dog house. Cold weather is here. So while Elv and lisl worked on the cook stove today, I started building a dog house. I had scrap dimensional lumber from Clark’s truss company, foam insulation, tools, and Elv on hand. It’s going to take a derrick to move the thing, when it’s done, but I don’t think it will rot or fall over anytime soon.

Last but certainly not least, I crocheted a pair of mittens for Weston this week. Well actually, I made two pair. The first pair was a fail. The second pair is far from perfect …I had to abandon the whole pattern idea…the internet didn’t, this time, so I was on my own. But I think these are wearable. Either I must give up making mittens altogether or I had better make a few more till I get them right.