About The Country Wife Blog

Thursday, March 14, 2024

What A Day!!

 Today started moderately early after a not-to-bad night.  First thing both Dear One and I sent text messages to our child who turned 50 YEARS OLD today!  Hard to believe, but true.  I remember that activity very well.  It was a very long day, ten extra people in the delivery room (after all, it was a teaching hospital...) and finally he was born about 9 :00 PM.  Forceps delivery.  Lots of stitches then around 11:30 PM the nurse came in where I was still being stitched up and said, "Your little boy is going to all right, after all."  After all?!!  What the heck?  I had no idea there was anything wrong with him.  As I recall they told me he had a a"retracted rib cage."  I did not know what it was then and I still don't know.  All I know is that "after all" he is just celebrating his fiftieth birthday.  I am very glad for that.  He was a wonderful oldest brother.

After scripture study and a tiny bit of knitting I went downstairs to see what I could do to improve the kitchen.  The last two days were so busy and no dishes got washed plus the bags that came into the house were just where they were dropped since there was nothing cold in them. So, I put on my headphones, started listening to the Saturday Afternoon session of October 2023 General Conference to keep me company while I worked, and set to work.

We have an "instant on" or "on demand" hot water situation in our house but it is on the other side of the garage.  To get hot water in the sink, I put a 2-gallon bucket in the sink so I could collect the water for the plants and turned on the faucet.  The first bucket got emptied into the Greenstalk garden tower on the back deck and I came back for more water since the hot water had not yet turned up.  One more bucket out to the Greenstalk and then the water was hot.

Washing, washing, washing and by the time my legs and back gave out, I had filled the counter with clean dishes.  This was into the fourth General Conference talk...!  I sat down in my very old blue platform rocker that Dear One purchased for me in West Lebanon, New Hampshire in the building that used to house J W Barber's store. I have long since forgotten what JW had in the store, but I do remember the name.

Picking up some knitting I kept listening to the Conference talks and was touched by every one of them.  Elder Ronald Rasband invited more couples to become Senior Missionaries.  His talk was lovely and took me back to our time in the Oregon Portland Mission in 2017-2019.  How we loved that service!

As I sat there knitting, Dear One came downstairs, saw me sitting in my chair, saw the counter full of clean dishes then, without saying a word, he started putting them away.  He next opened the dishwasher and put away all the clean dishes from there...the whole reason I was washing by hand was that the dishwasher was full and I was afraid I would deflect myself from the dirty dishes if I stopped there and put away the dishwasher dishes.  I know.  Dumb thinking, but...

When the dishes were all put away I had recouped a bit of energy and we went outside where we bagged up some brush and I took the small hand saw that Dear One had retrieved for me on Tuesday and I started pruning the live oak tree on the front lawn.  With the branches hanging down low it was hard for the lawnmower man (Dear One!) to mow without getting jabbed by the tree.


This is the tree now with no low-hanging branches.  I am rather pleased with that job.  I wish I had opened the garage door and gotten out my new heavy leather gloves which would have protected my hands somewhat.  Slivers were not fun.

While I was sawing off branches I saw something that gave me great joy:

Last fall I found a package of daffodil bulbs at the dollar store.  After a few weeks I finally put them into the mulch at the base of that live oak tree.  Will you look at this!!!  One of those daffodils survived.  I would love to see the sweet face on this plant sometime.

Later in the day Dear One noticed that it was Pi Day and that Marcos Pizza was having a sale with a medium pizza at $3.14 if you bought a large one.  Dear One is a pizza guy.  You had to order online or with their app.  I had the app but could not order through it.  I kept getting the happy note that my password was wrong.  After about ten tries I went online to order.  Same story. I told Dear One today was not his day for pizza.

He went out to mow some more of the lawn and when he came in the second time he said he would try his phone. (By this I knew that he really did want some pizza even though we had some perfectly good food in the refrigerator...) He was successful in ordering a large pizza and a medium pizza.  Of course,  it was not the Pi Day deal!  So annoying.  But he got his pizza.

Many other things happened on this day but now I am calling it quits and will probably be in bed way before my usual time.

The pitsy thing about the day is that I had put my watch on the charger before starting the dishes so many hours ago and never picked it up again until 5:00.  I did not "get credit" for all that moving I did today...so sad.  I really like those little pats on the head from my watch and the Health app.  Oh well.


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Knitting Woes!

 The last few months I have worked on several small knitting projects.  One of the projects is some darling potpourri bags.  In the last two weeks I have now THREE TIMES cut the yarn before finishing the bind off!  I cannot believe it.  These are really not mindless knitting projects but I seem to space out.



You can see where I had to tie on some more yarn to finish the bind off.  This is, of course, the inside of the bag.  When the whole project is done, I will take a picture.  Except for this glitch, I am pretty happy with these little guys.  My first designed knitting pattern.

The way I knit these little bags is to cast on onto one Chiaogoo circular needle then pick up and increase with a second Chiaogoo circular needle.  The bag is then on two needles so I knit down one side of the tube then knit the other side with the second needle.... It is really like knitting socks on two circular needles.

WELL the problem has been that I get to the end of one circular needle and just merrily cut the yarn, pull it tight and get ready to weave in the ends.  Rats!  So very annoyed with myself and today I did it for the third time.  It may be about the end of the little potpourri bag project!

When I am done I will publish the pattern here in case anyone else wants to knit them.  They really are pretty cute.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

The Best Banana Muffins

 Today our former Relief Society presidency is meeting to finish up some old business. To sweeten the occasion I promised some muffin tops. When I went to bed last night I thought maybe I would ditch that idea and buy something at the store. Fast forward to 3:30 this morning.

Since I was awake I decided to go ahead, find a recipe, and make the muffins.  I did find a recipe called The Best Banana Muffins and decided to give it a try.

This is how they turned out:


Here they are in a nice glass dish ready to go.  I did use up the batter in a different pan which was not as successful. Rather, getting the muffins OUT of the pan was not as successful. Those taste pretty good even though they are not as pretty as the muffin tops.

The only thing I  did differently than the recipe called for was to shake into the batter some chocolate chips when stirring in the flour. Worked like a charm.

https://sugarspunrun.com/wprm_print/12105

The above URL should take you to the recipe…I am creating this post on my phone and don’t seem able to embed the address…Looking forward to being with my dear sisters again in a few hours. Now back to bed to finish my night of sleep!

Friday, March 8, 2024

Knitting Today: Mitered Square for Blanket

 It has been a very hectic week with many activities and lots of knitting in between. I noticed it has been a week since I posted...  Today's knitting was working on a mitered square to add to the Barbara Walker Learn To Knit Afghan I have been working on for some little time. Of course BW does not have a mitered square as I recall, but I don't like some her squares though they really are great for learning new stitches.  In this case, on this afghan, I am just trying to use up that Hilda Yates yarn on this afghan, There are supposed to be 63 blocks but I am hoping the yarn runs out before then...!

There are many different designers making virtually the same mitered square, just different yarns and either an even number of stitches cast on or an odd number of stitches cast on.  I saw Very Pink Knits had a mitered square with 40 stitches cast on. I liked that but then discovered she had you knit all the squares then sew them together.  NOT a fan of all that sewing together so I continued looking.

Then I found Snufflebean Knits had a Join As You Go mitered square.  Love it!

Cheryl Brunette also has a wonderful mitered square pattern/plan where you can knit small squares like this one and then make larger and larger ones, all sewn together...though I would Join As I Went.


This is where I am so far.  Because of my poor camera skills, the lighter green square looks larger, but it is not.  The lower left of that square is a little wonky because I was knitting from memory--not always the best idea--so I finally went online and found the Very Pink Knits video again and had my mind refreshed...  I had only been doing the K2tog and I needed to also SSK!  Made a huge difference.  Of course, in this case part of the wonkiness is because instead of only knitting K2tog, slip marker, SSK on the right side rows, I had to catch up with decreasing so I did the decreasing every row for about four rows then let it go. I thought it might be close enough.  Well, it is a blanket and is NOT going on display though I do plan to give it to one of our grandchildren...

So the knitting is going well, or at least well-ish.  I am about ready to do some knitting on the Brother KX350 flatbed knitting machine.  I signed up for a class on making a sweater in five days.  Of course I will need to give away that sweater because I do not believe I will be able to knit my size on the machine but then...I have not done a gauge swatch and might be surprised.  In this case, I would really like to be surprised.  I will be using up some of the Hobby Lobby yarn to give it a try.  When I am down to more empty yarn bins, I can then purchase some higher quality/wool yarn in good conscience.  Maybe by then I will be a different size.  One can always hope!

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Gardening Today!

 Some time ago a dear friend gave us some Mexican Petunia starts.  I did not get them planted immediately.  I did not even get them watered.  Having said that, the second day I set the bucket out in the front garden in case any rain might fall.  Well I guess Heavenly Father likes those little plants because the very evening I set the plants out the rain fell.

Now, finally, I have gone out to pull a few weeds along the side of the house and found a place for those Mexican Petunias.  I know absolutely that they will grow and thrive and take over that part of the border by the house!  I look forward to that.


Here they are!  In a few months they will be very happy I believe. 

The plan had been to plant them starting by the beautiful azalea plant another friend gave us years ago.  As I started pulling the pricker-y vines  near the azalea I nearly fell over into the weeds.  Dizzy for a moment.  So annoying.  Probably because I had not yet eaten.  Either way, I decided not to continue pulling weeds there and moved to a bit of virgin territory!  If not virgin, at least with many fewer prickers.  I did get a few out and put in the "Mex Pets" then returned to the house to find something to eat.

As it happens, there were dishes in the sink (you see a pattern here--lots of stuff left undone) so I washed them up.  Almost all of them!  The ones I did not wash were a couple of saucepans that needed a little more soaking before washing.  

Finally I was ready for food...and put some eggs on to hard boil and some cauliflower in the microwave to steam.  It is going to be a fun breakfast.  Not one Dear One will enjoy. I expect he will eat Honeynut Cheerios.  He really likes them.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Roots Tech Starts Tomorrow!!

 For years now I have been excited for Roots Tech to arrive. It is a three-day Family History and Genealogy conference in Salt Lake City sponsored by FamilySearch.  FamilySearch is the largest free online worldwide family tree. (Go to FamilySearch.org to sign up for a free account and start your family tree.)

Roots Tech has many many classes, a lot of which are available online. Not only are they available online during the conference but they are available for at least a year afterward so you can watch and learn at your convenience.  I have learned a ton from them.

If you are interested in checking your DNA, usually the major DNA testing sites have sales during Roots Tech.  It is very interesting to meet new family members based on DNA!

One year at Roots Tech there was a vendor I learned about who could print a 13-generation chart. Here is a picture of ours:



There are many empty spots as you can see!  Roots Tech classes help me fill in the blanks.

To register for free for the online classes go to RootsTech.org

Even one class can help you find family. Or help you write your own story. Or help you learn how to do research in a foreign country.


Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Knitting Today: Re-Knitting a Sleeve on the Mama Christa's Shell

 When I finished the Mama Christa's Shell last December, the sleeve was a little snug when I put it on over the dress over which I will wear it.  I did not make much of it at the time because I was thinking I was on a weight loss journey.  Well, last week I put on the Shell and found that my weight loss journey had dead ended.  Sort of like most weight loss journeys I have been on recently.

So...I found the remaining (12!!!) yards of yarn, pulled out the side seam stitches for a couple of inches, then frogged the sleeves.  There had been four rounds of garter ridges in those sleeves.  Before re-knitting I divided the little ball of white Plymouth Encore yarn that was left from the project and attached half of it to the unraveled yarn from each sleeve and balled it up again.

At that point I started at the shoulder seam and, using a 16" circular Chiaogoo lace needle in US 6, picked up stitches down to the side seam on the first side of the sleeve then back to the top and picked up another set of stitches until the side seam.  There were 65 stitches for each sleeve.  I decided to knit until there was just enough yarn left to bind off.  Then repeated for the other sleeve.  I knitted in the round and had enough yarn to knit three garter ridges for each sleeve.  There was a minute ball of yarn left for each sleeve, so this time the Yarn Chicken did NOT win!!!



This was not a very long re-knitting project and came out pretty well.  You can see that there is plenty of room in the sleeve, even though it is not worn over the correct dress.  I am happy with it.

This is the sleeve bind off. I just learned this particular bind off.

1.  Knit the first stitch

2. Knit the second stitch

3. Insert the left needle into those two stitches

4. Knit through the back loop

5. From there just knit the next stitch and repeat steps 3 and 4. 

Works like a charm and is nice and flexible and stretchy.