Good Deeds

Hello, friends.  Last week, I cooked a bag of our frozen lima beans with onion and garlic, along with brown rice, and fried up some of our sweet potatoes.  A pot of smaller sweet potatoes was boiled for the critters.  Suet was made for the birds, and golden paste for the pups.  I finished up the toothpaste tube I had cut open, which lasted more than two weeks.  I forgot to mention last week, I used our last little tomato in a salad.  It's pretty nice to be eating our tomatoes until the end of November.  You may have heard about the county in NC that had a power outage, due to vandalism of two substations.  That county borders ours.  It was good to see all the businesses and churches that offered food, water, charging and warming stations, and shelter.

Isn't that a pretty moth, seen in the garden last week?  Lettuce and mixed winter greens were harvested for salads, and our small potatoes were steamed.  I tried a new MM friendly salad dressing, which I enjoyed.  When we received our telephone bill, there was a credit of $11.76 for internet service, lowering our bill.  We were one of the first in the area to get fiberoptic, as we were putting in our studio addition when they first started rolling it out.  We had to move the phone connection then, and were offered fiberoptic.  We're hoping the price has come down, as so many more are now connected to it.  In any case, it sure is nice to have a bill go down, rather than up, even if it's just this once.  I redeemed Swagbucks for a $25 gift card, which I'll be using for a gift, and received $6 in digital Amazon credits, for allowing slower shipping.  

J has been hard at work on the sewing room.  All the trim molding is up, and the painting finished.  Now that he's painted the new window trim outside, to match what we already had, I can wash the windows.  He's been pondering what to use as a threshold.  Like most of our house, it's a bit quirky, and we need a larger than usual threshold.  He brought two pieces of lumber we had on hand in the house to dry, but the first cracked, and the other warped.  He mentioned he had been looking for a threshold when customers came by his shop.  It turns out one of the men had a piece of dried white oak that he gave J, because at some point, J had given him a piece of metal, so his good deed came back to him at the perfect time.  Soapmaking oils were melted on the woodstove, to save propane.  A piece of my juicer was beginning to stick, so I followed J's advice to spray with a vinegar solution, followed by a soapy solution, and it moves perfectly smoothly now.  

Besides the usual Berkey stands to powder coat this week, there was an antique light we're refurbishing for a neighbor.  I think it's turning out nicely.  I gathered the few fall items I'd decorated with, took them to the attic, and brought down the gift wrapping supplies and mailbox bow.  The rest will have to wait until we're able to move the sewing machines into the new room, and straighten out the studio.  We hoped to find a tree, after meeting friends at a winery over the weekend, but there were none to be had in that town.  However, getting to visit with them did my heart good.  My sister and I visited a cidery Friday, and had a great time visiting as well.  The cidery had lost power in the outage mentioned above, so supporting them when they reopened felt good.  We made an unplanned stop at a thrift store we passed, but didn't find anything we needed there.  The coming week will be mainly focused on wrapping gifts, and planning and preparing food for the gatherings we'll be attending.  I hope your days are filled with people and things that bring you joy.