Monday, October 20, 2008

Odds & Ends

I just finished knitting two more pairs of mittens from scraps. They're currently in the washing machine felting away as I try to get caught up on laundry. There's never a shortage of laundry to be done around here even though the girls do their own.

I feel like I've accomplished very little today aside from laundry, finishing the mittens and spending almost two hours sorting out a problem with my antivirus software. Maybe that's enough for one day though. Sometimes we all need a break, especially after the circus that was our weekend.

Jim and I spent Saturday closing the cabin down for the winter. Since it was our first time, we knew it would take a bit longer than future attempts but we were totally unprepared for the eons each small task took to complete. Of course it didn't help that there was a huge amount of general cleaning to be done. You can't leave a crumb anywhere or mice move in. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. The moral of the story is, make sure you really leave plenty of time for trying new tasks and it helps to have really flexible babysitters. (Thanks mom & dad!)

Sunday was spent in a frenzy of outdoor activity with the whole family pitching in. Weed pulling, trim painting and lawn mowing (done by Rob with a manual mower) all got done.

There's been a lot of talk about depression era and war era cookbooks on several lists I belong to as people look to trim their food costs. Here's one that is free to download. It's called Foods That Will Win the War. Although I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, I like this one because it's free and it goes into details about the time. I really love culinary history.

Before I print out a copy, I intend to delete the recipes I will never use to save some paper (there goes the entire meat section!) I also intend to change the margins for the same reason.

4 comments:

AnnMarie said...

I'm confused--first time closing the cabin? But you've been going to the Adirondacks (is that the right woods?) for years--longer than I've been reading this blog. Did you buy a new place that I forgot about? (I don't think so because you talked about the berries you planted up there last summer I think?) Just feeling lost.

Also missed you talking about your Fresh Air girl this summer. Did she not come?

Katie said...

No Annmarie, it's the same place. It's just that in years past we kept it open and heated it all winter. We used to go up about once a month in winters past.

With the high oil prices, that became an impossibility for this year. So we've shut the place down until April or May.

You're right, our Fresh Air Fund visitor didn't come this year.

Anonymous said...

Thanx for the link for the book!
I've posted the link on a dutch website about consuming less.

Greetz Annikka from the Netherlands

Ruthie said...

You must be totally bummed about not visiting the cabin this winter. :(

I'm impressed by what you think "not getting much done" is. :)

Thanks for the link to the book