Thursday in August

I thought I would write a blog today. I hope your August is off to a good start. I think this summer has been one of replacing appliances. Our fridge went out in the garage. Thankfully, it didn't have too much in it. I had already moved most of the food to the upright freezer. All of the years we have been married and had a large family, I have always had two refrigerators. It dawned on me this week. Its only Ron and me. What do we need two? I could use that space in the garage for something else.
 

It sounds so simple on the blog. It took a week for me to finally figure that out. I cook everyday. I fix Ron's lunch for work everyday. I cook from scratch so I have ingredients. Lots of ingredients. I have two pantries and my large upright freezer. So having one fridge really does scare me. No clue why, we won't starve. I decided not to can and preserve or make jam this summer. I feel like a complete slacker. I of course have food I could whip up into a jar if it becomes to hard for me to not do. Its August. My whole life I have spent August in the kitchen, with my water bath canner, my pressure cooker and preparing for the snow, tornadoes and hurricanes. Oh wait, I live in California. Its been 69 each morning and I am freezing to death. I remember one of the last things I would order in October would be a cord of wood. Then I would feel safe. I could withstand even an earthquake. But not this year. 

I do have bricks I could make a rocket stove and cook outside if I had too. But then we have the travel trailer ready to go so I could just make it easy on myself and cook in that. Not canning food in August is harder for me not to do than to do it. Odd isn't it? I guess I like that feeling of putting food on my pantry shelves that I know whats in it and what I have prepared. 

All of this talk about food. But that is what I have done all week. I did order a new refrigerator. From a guy I have bought all of my appliances from for 45 years. He was too sick to deliver it. Which is so terrible for him. I felt so awful that I told him just to cancel it and just take care of himself. That was when I had my moment of why? Why do I need two? I just needed to work through it. 

Its grape season here. I just like looking at grapes on the vine. This is the garden where my daughter is a manager and she gets to work and see lovely things like this every day. When I look at that I see raisins. 

I hope you are having a nice week. I have hooked a tiny bit. Its been a summer of replacing appliances. I really broke my garbage disposal. I had to have that guy come out on Monday. I felt like I was in an episode of I Love Lucy. Lets say it wasn't pretty. Don't ever put old yeast down the drain. It blows up and makes a big mess. I cleaned and cleaned up my mess, then I discovered I hadn't thought about the ceiling. I have to do that at some point. We have ten foot ceilings. It was a big, big mess. 
 

I hope you have a lovely weekend. We have the master bath left to paint. That is going be the job to start in the morning. Then our whole house will have been repainted. I hope to get my dresser painted to match my bedroom set and my hope chest. Then the painting will be finished. Its such a nice feeling. 

Its nice to live here and get finished.

~Kim~

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

---The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien, 1937
 

A Delightful Week

What a nice summer it has been this July. In the past, we would have it seemed days and days of over 110. This summer we have had none. We have no 100 degree days the rest of July. But August is coming. Yesterday, we had that wonderful coastal breeze just flowing in, and we worked in the flowerbeds and the garden beds and I harvested the rest of my garlic, cut lots of mint to dry, found that the lemon balm had reseeded itself. I have tried and tried to get lemon balm and I might regret it in the future but I am so happy with all of it. I harvested red raspberry to dry. My rosemary was going crazy. I found a cinnamon scented geranium a couple years ago. It is also going to town. I am pretty happy with this year's garden.

I collected seeds and put them away to be dried and hopefully reseeded in the fall. So all in all a very nice day to play outside in the sun under the blue sky. Polly would make a great farm dog. She watches Ron for a bit to make sure he is doing everything the right way, then she will run to me and steal anything I might have dropped. She at one point took a clove of garlic that had fallen out of my hand and ran over to her spot on the lawn to taste what it was, and for awhile she smelled like that garlic clove. Having her outside while we work just makes us laugh and gives us hours of entertainment.

It was so nice last week, I even took my hooking project and hooked outside. I have to tell you about my little Indian neighbor next door. She is very shy. I have never talked to her. I have talked to her husband. She doesn't drive and she is very traditional in that she wears her sari when she is in her back yard. Their backyard is very tropical and they have a water feature that has a creek and a pond. We watch their house when they go to India. That is how I know that I was expecting Koi in the pond and they have big catfish. They love those catfish and they are so tame. But like I said, I have never talked to her. She watches me through the fence. So while I was hooking out there she stood and watched. I have wanted to say something, but she is skittish like a deer. So I just let her watch. I bet she knows more about me than I do her.  

Me trying to get a picture for you on my rug I am working on. She had just come back from a walk with Ron and she was all fired up and wanting to play.  

 

See the dog feet. She is a good dog and she does most often what I tell her. She doesn't get to get on my rugs like that but sometimes she just has her moments. I really do love working on chicken rugs and sunflowers. I hope to finish this next week. Then I will have to look in my stash and see what rug pattern do I have that I haven't done. I know I have a few. 

I hope you all are having a very nice summer too. I am thankful for days in which to rest and be thankful.

I hope wherever you are, your days are filled with sunshine, blue skies, and beautiful sunrises and sunsets. The lovely summer days that pass all too quickly. 

~Kim~

"Like all magnificent things, it's very simple." ---Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt, 1975
 
 

 

Odds and Ends

Its mid July now. I think its been a very productive month. The house is back to normal. I think it was worth the work. One of the things that happened while we were unhooking my computer and moving it back and forth during all of this painting project was my old computer, didn't like it much. Ron was afraid it was just going to die. I thought it was normal to get the black screen of death, every time I turned the computer on and then have to wait until it booted up. Like turn it on, go clean the house and come back and it might be on. I thought that was normal. It would take me so long to write a post. Sometimes things would go all wonky and I not being a power user just went on my merry way forgetting I was writing a post. Ron bought a new computer for me last week, so I had to wait until everything was moved over to the new one. Today is the day. I am back online.

I came in the morning to write this blog, and I turned on the computer, it was on. I touched the key board and I was into blogger. Just that fast. I went to find my pictures and again uploaded as fast as I can type. My goodness, I am just amazed. I don't normally like new tech but I think I am going to like this. 

 

I still continue to be enthralled with my sunflower. So are the bees and butterflies. Its just a wonderful thing to take pictures of each day. So you will see a bunch of photographs of my sunflower. This last week was fun because I got to play house. I have never been much of a decorator. Its not a skill I ever developed. I like a house that is comfortable and you feel like you can rest and put your feet up and stay and visit for awhile. I have always been about comfort rather than what is in style. I found a nice cover for my sewing chair. I just couldn't get rid of it. It looks nice now. 

I don't know why  I never thought of it before. I got my rug hung over the mantel too. I like it. Its different from my regular style but it is okay. Its what I wanted.

I read about Rugs and Pugs second day of her rug camp and Monochromatic rugs. Using one color and different variations. I really like that idea and I originally thought about it but because I have never gone to a rug camp, didn't really know how to go about it. I do now and I might try it in the future. I really like that idea of using one color. When I did my whale rug, I would only let myself use three colors and it worked.

That was last year about my fireplace. We had such a hot summer last year, I just wanted cool and ocean and it was so miserable. This summer is just the opposite. What an nice summer this has been. Hardly the heat that we have had in past years. But August is coming.

We cleaned the garage yesterday. I cleaned my laundry room and I am coming down to where I have almost reorganized my whole house. Have you ever heard of the book Swedish Death Cleaning.

I read it when we were selling our other house. I needed strength to be able to get rid of 8 peoples things and by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I still wake up sometimes because I had to get rid of the kids things. It still breaks my heart. I begged and begged them to take it and they kept saying they didn't have room or didn't want it. So I did, but it was terrible. So now when I am de-cluttering, I remember how I felt and I don't want my kids to have to do it. It strengthens my resolve. Or, just go watch an episode on You Tube of  hoarders and it works the same way. I know I have hoarder tendencies. I still need to be more ruthless on myself. A friend of mine was having to clean out her Mom's house. She had 900 boxes of dishes. I kept asking her, 900 boxes? She kept answering yes, and looking at me like I was hard of hearing. That was just dishes. When they had a yard sale, they had 200 tables of stuff in the front yard and the inside was filled. She had one whole room of nothing but children's tea sets. I know that person lives in me. I have more rug hooking frames than I need. I have two wool cutters. I would buy an Townsend in a New York minute. So yes, its there.

I should stop, do you remember writing letters? Or journals? Remember when you had a really good pen and it felt so wonderful to use it and keep writing. That is how this new keyboard is, I could just keep writing and writing. Plus the zippy computer helps a whole lot. 

I really need to go for a walk and water the garden before it gets to warm. I go back to work August 23rd. I really, really hope I can do it all this time. Not disappear for months.

I hope you have a lovely mid July.

~Kim~

"Just to know you could. That was enough." ---The Indian in the cupboard, Lynne Reid Banks, 1980
 

 

 

Now July

I had to show you a picture of my sunflower. The fences are six foot fences and this sunflower is that much higher than the fence. It was a volunteer. We grow comfrey in our flowerbeds. Since Ron has been going to school to be a Master Herbalist. We have more herbs than we did flowers or vegetables. Last year, Ron had read how healing the leaves are of comfrey for your garden. He picked off all of the brown leaves and buried them in our garden bed. We never gave it much more thought. Then this sunflower started growing and growing. Now it looks like this. I grew these at my other house, they are my favorite but they never got over six feet or so. So I am thinking there might be something to the health of your garden. Our orange trees have struggled since we planted them and now he has each one surrounded by comfrey and they are all growing like crazy and are healthier. 
 

I mentioned that we were painting the rooms because we were going to be carpeting the bedrooms. Everything got painted and then I decided my bedroom funiture needed to be painted. I started painting it last Wednesday. It was like everything a much bigger job than I thought it would be. Yesterday, Ron helped me to get the bed frame and the night stands all finished. We have the dresser to still do but that is going to be a bigger job and we ran out of paint. I had to order some more. I am using Amy Howard Miracle paint and I am in love with it. What nice paint. If I am not careful I could turn into a monster. I really enjoyed it and I was not expecting to, but my bedroom set turned out nice. No pictures yet of course. 

I don't know how well you can see that. My daughter Emilie drew this out for me years ago. This is going to be my next project. Its been awhile since I have done a chicken rug and I love doing chickens.

I think it will be fun. Every time I sit down I have been binding my mule rug. I have the last edge to bind today and then a very big job of steaming. It took quite a while to steam it when I did that first steaming. Then I will have met my goal of finishing it in July. 

 

Just an aside. On the 4th we met a man who was a veteran. We were talking how we didn't enjoy the Fourth of July fireworks like we used to because of all of the bombs people shoot off now. He told us that he really has a hard time because its so out of control now, that he feels like he is back in the war. It gives him flashbacks. I thought about that all day. When the bombs were going off I kept thinking about him. Then last night, on the 5th when the bombs were going off I thought about him again. Sometimes talking to someone, can change my perspective when I listen to life from another persons story. I think why I keep thinking about him, is the brokenness I could sense. Those chance encounters always give me pause. 

I will be moving furniture and all of the things in closets this week. Trying to find room for four bedrooms of furniture in the living room and kitchen and dining room. Then I have to move it all back. That is the fun part. When we moved in five years ago, I just moved in. I didn't really fix or do things because there were so many changes coming at us. It being 2020 and the crazy that brought. In 2021 our son moved in and all of the things that happened with his life. Now here we are in 2025 and I feel like I am finally living here and making this house ours. Life is always so full of twists and turns. Always none of it that I ever planned on or expected. But its all good. Because I never knew I could do the things I have done.

 I am kind of all over the place. I hope your next week is all that you would like it to be. 

~Kim~

"I think the smell of horses is the most exciting smell in the world. ---The Changeling, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, 1970 

 

 

Finshed the Rug

 I finished hooking my rug yesterday. It has been a good month for work. We finished painting our last bedroom on Friday. We painted four bedrooms. I have de-cluttered and cleaned and on May 10th we will get new carpet in those bedrooms and new baseboards. Our bedroom was so big and it was by far the hardest. It had been brown, so covering that was huge. The only thing left will be the master bathroom. It can wait. Yesterday I was so tired, but I had set my mind to be finished hooking the rug by July. My hands were sore from painting but not sore enough to hook. I sat down and decided I wasn't going to stop. It took me about three hours and then I thought, I am going to steam it. So I did.

Here it is. 

 

I don't know when I have hooked a rug so big so fast. I think it helps when you like what you are hooking, at least it is for me. I have done such smaller rugs that took me years, because I either didn't like the colors or I end up just hating the pattern. Or, I prefer hooking with wide strips, but the pattern has too many small fiddly shapes I have to stop can cut smaller strips by hand. 

 

Here is the original picture. As I look at the picture, it, it might have been nice to do it in Sepia colors. I didn't think of that until now looking at this. I really did enjoy it. Now to get it bound and the ship-lap above my fireplace painted so I can hang it.  

 

I am not going to even start another project until I get this bound. I am going to be doing some furniture painting projects next week, my bedroom set was my parents. They were so proud of it in 1960. It really needs some updating and I want to do it. We were moving the head and foot board into the spare bedroom before we  could paint and I told Ron, " I have been moving that bedroom set since I was seven years old." It was such a weird thought, my Mom loved rearranging furniture. She changed rooms in our house like people change clothes. My Dad remarked once," its a good thing I am not blind because I would be falling over funiture every time I get home." When I got about seven she thought I was big enough to help her move that bed. Its a king size and it was and is solid maple. Its heavy. When we got married, that bedroom set was in the guest bedroom in my Dad's house and I asked if I could have it. He gave it to me so its been mine for 45 years. Painting it seems like sacrilege but I am going to do it anyway. 

 

 

  

 

Here is something I read in a book while I was hooking. The book is called The Land Breakers by John Ehle. 

 

"He fastened the harness, which he had cut from the bearskin, which he, Verlin and Fate had tanned. He flicked a switch and the old horse moved, and he and Verlin and Fate lifted the plow and carried it up the hill to the field. "Whoa, here," he said, the horse stopped.

Lorry came to the door of the cabin and watched then. "How many rows you planning on making?" she asked.

"As many and we can fit in," he said, checking the harness. He and Verlin set the plow in place. He clicked his tongue at the horse, took the plow handles firmly in hand, and put his weight on the plow handles and weighted the blade, and the plow moved, the earth turned, the dark earth turned and the smell of the earth came into the air and the row opened to him and yielded to him and was ready. 

 

There is nothing to me as great as working with the land to plant and get ready and work with my husband. Its nice living here, but life was really so nice when we were out here playing in the dirt, dreaming dreams and planning. 

Having a tractor was really nice too. I hope your summer is a nice one. This has been nice for us. 

Thanks for reading and letting me share my rug pictures. I am very thankful to have this place to share what I have been doing. 

~Kim~

"Once I might have wished for that: never to grow old. But now I know that to stay young always is also not to change. And that is what life's all about---changes going on every minute, and you never know when something begins where it's going to take you."

---A Gathering of Days, Joan W. Blos, 1979

 

 

 

 

Moving Books

 I have spent two days moving books. I have been wondering about my sanity. Why on earth am I a book hoarder? Could I get rid of them? No, when we moved here I took 20 some odd boxes to the used book store. I hauled boxes to North Carolina, and Tucson. I left bookcases at the other house. She wanted to have a library like I had. I brought five book cases with me. They are stuffed with books. (Six boxes in one of the closets, I will have to move.)

One side of the room, this is the dining room now doubling as a library. 

The tall book case is Ron's for his office. A normal kind of bookcase. Mine are stacked books behind books.

My Anne of Green Gables set of books. I might rescue these if the house burned down. When my Mom died, and my Dad had remarried, I was really I think in a bad place. (I didn't know it of course.) The school librarian had worked for my Dad when I was five or six so she had known my birth Mom. We got to go to the school library every other Friday. It was the most favorite thing I did. After I had read all of the Nancy Drew's and I was at ends. She gave me Anne. I was enchanted. ( When Matthew died, is still one of the most traumatic things in my mind.) I didn't know there were others and the school library didn't have them. I credit that lady who knew more about my life than I suppose I did, she wouldn't let me get yukky books but would find books for me and put them on the end of her desk every other week. Now, I realize how much impact she had on my life and my character. She molded my mind. I always wondered if that was why I wanted six kids because Anne did.
 

These are jumbled but when I move them back, yes, after the paint and carpet, I will move them back. This is my hardback Little House books and my Mienert De Jong books. All of these I read out loud to the kids. I love that they read out loud to their kids now. When I bought those Anne books, I would have to talk and talk to get someone to take me to the book store. I worked in the summer for five dollars a week. It would take me awhile to save up and when I got enough money, then I would go buy another one. It took me almost a year. I remember when I went to go buy my first copy of Anne of Green Gables and I stood staring at the shelf and there was a whole series, I was just in shock. I think about it as I write this post, if it was me I would have bought them for my kids because it was something they loved. Not in my world, then I had to earn it. I wonder if that is why they mean so much to me now. 

I have been moving books, and cleaning and trying to find places to put things. They will re-carpet the closets. so I have to clean those out too. Its a good thing to do for now. All of this to say, I haven't hooked one single loop. 

Here is where I am as of today. I have my last strip of wool sitting here to be cut so I can finish, but I have to go buy food. I hate when life gets in the way don't you? 

 Just that tiny bit. I also had to order wool from Dorr. I had to wait for it to get here. Then I will hook a frame around the outside. I can't wait to get it steamed and hung. Then I have to go through that, what will be my next project? 

We only got one room finished last weekend. We hope to get two this weekend. Then the last will be the our room. Its going to feel so nice once its all done. 

Thanks for reading. I had all of these thoughts as I was moving books so its nice to get them out of my head. 

I hope you have a lovely day,

~Kim~ 

 

"Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one's life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one's side like and old friend through quiet ways." Anne of Avonlea,--- L.M. Montgomery, 1909

 

 

Odds and Ends

 Its early this morning. The sun isn't even up yet. We begin painting today. One of our son's was getting rid of old movies on his phone and he had taken a movie of this house the day we got the keys. We got to see all of the things we were going to change and haven't in five years! We were going to paint all of the house and get new carpet. But we didn't. There were other things that we had to do. We are now back on the trail now. Painting begins this morning. All four bedrooms. Then all new carpet. Then last of all, I am going to buy a new hooking chair. 

I won't even take a picture of my old hooking chair. I love my chair but it has seen better days, like maybe 10 years ago. My Mother-in-law got it at a yard sale in the 90s and then she sold it at a yard sale, and I bought it. It was old when she bought it. J.C. Penney used to sell them but its got harder and harder to find them. I finally had to admit, everything is worn out on it and when I am afraid for people to see it because its so ratty, maybe its time. Our son Peter just turned 30 and he said, I think you have had that ugly chair since before I was born. Time goes by fast doesn't it?

I don't know if Ron and I can do it, but we have great plans to paint two rooms today, and the smallest room tomorrow. Then next weekend the master. But you know that getting older thing right? So we will see.

I just thought I would check in, I am that close to getting my rug finished. I hope all of you have a lovely weekend, while I am here getting covered in paint. I can never figure out by the end of the day it will look like I rolled around in a paint can, and Ron will have no drips or anything. Same goes every time we work in the yard. He is spotlessly clean and I look like I dig ditches for a living. Sometimes things just don't change. 

~Kim~

 

Hooking Clouds

 

 The whole time I have been hooking the ground and the mule and the man, my thoughts were on the sky and the clouds. When I was dyeing wool, I was trying to picture the clouds in my mind. We don't get rain very often in June. But this morning, we have rain clouds and thunderheads and I felt so thankful when I walked outside. It felt like this sweet blessing to me to sit and watch the clouds as they formed, and filled the sky, as the sun began to rise, the clouds changed to rose and pink and then gold. The gray, the blue that shined in places. I sat and watched mesmerized as they became different shapes like the air ships sailing across the early morning sky. I tried to put them in my mind so that when I picked up my hook today, I could remember what I watched this morning.

When I hooked this doing the sea and the sky, took so much thought. I love whales but they are so hard to hook. Saundra, drew this out for me and she is so good. She drew lines for direction and it helped me so much. The men on the boat and their faces were next to impossible, because they are so tiny, I knew I couldn't redo them over and over. So I sat and stared at them before I hooked them. I reread my book on hooking animal faces and watched tutorials on hooking eyes. I think maybe I over think things to much. I am just saying, compared to this rug the rug I am hooking now, is much more complicated in my mind. 

The rug I am hooking is going to be called Zachery and his Mule. After my great, great, grandfather, Zachery Robbins.

He lived in Paul's Valley Oklahoma. He and his wife, were from Virginia. They traveled to Paul's Valley and were farmers. He was out in the field trying to get his hay in, there was a big thunder and lighting cloud coming and as he went through the barb wire fence, lighting struck the wire and traveled down the wire until it struck him. My great grandmother, on her dressing table, when I was a kid had a dish, with this welded money and glasses sitting on her table. I asked once, what it was and she handed it to me, while she told me the story. I was shocked to say the least. Its a picture in my mind though. 

Then my grand mother was born, on August 14th 1919. They were a superstitious bunch though. My great-grandmother, gave my grandmother to her mother who had just lost her husband to raise. So my grandmother lived with Mrs. Robbins. I don't even know her name, because that was all she was ever called in my mind. My great-great grandparents had been first cousins, and felt as if they lived under a curse and this was just part of the tragedy.  That was why they had to leave Virginia because of the family. As far as I can find, they never went back.

So its for this man I never knew. I have some really old pictures of them on the farm. I will see if I can find them. I have wasted to0 much time looking for this picture of his gravestone. My grandmother would cry and cry, so I stopped asking her about it. It was like she thought it was her fault that by being born she somehow was responsible for his death. I think that is why I don't know more about it. 

I mentioned I think I have been rearranging and moving furniture. I moved my Hoosier cabinet into my office. I love this thing so much. I can't change anything on it. The flour sifter has green paint on it so I have an idea it might have been green. I am going to leave it this color. Its so nice to have it where I can see it everyday. I am going to make it into my hooking/sewing storage area. It took me so many years to find one, its one of those pieces of furniture that I just love. I love that it even has the metal bread drawer. 

So I know I just wrote a post on Sunday, but I wanted you to know, about the clouds this morning and I didn't want to forget. Which I will of course. 

Have a lovely Tuesday,

~Kim~

Lisa Kleypas

"This is the smell of June, honeysuckle, green hay, wet linen hung out to dry."