Working through the pain

I haven't stitched much in several months.  Why?  Because I've been struggling with "tennis elbow," or tendinitis since July.

Since I don't like going to the Dr., the diagnosis came from the resident PTA, who can't legally diagnosis.  But, I'm pretty sure he's safe from me suing him since I have intimate knowledge of his financial status, and I already have everything he owns.

The "Tennis Elbow" in my case should be called "Shifting Elbow"...or maybe "Moving-too-many-damn-books Elbow."  I'm guessing it's a repetitive stress injury from 20+ years of moving lots and lots of heavy books.  This summer, for example, I handled approximately 20,000 books.  All of them were picked up, 4 at a time, by me.  All within a 3 week time period.  Using the same arm...which led to the injury. 

It's one of those hidden aspects of librarianship.  I knew I was at risk for Carpel Tunnel, I was warned of that 20+ years ago.  And the primary culprit of Carpel Tunnel?  Shifting books.  No one told me I could also get Tennis Elbow.  Not that it would have changed a thing, because I have this tendency to think "that won't happen to me."  (Thinking that tends to get me into sooooo much trouble...) 

So, my elbow hurts.  It hurts when I lift anything with that one hand.  It hurts when I hyper-extend that arm.  It hurts to drive, it hurts to reach and grab things.  It hurts to put stuff up on a tall shelf.  It hurts to get things down from a tall shelf.  It even hurts to stitch.  The usual prescribed treatment?  To rest the elbow.  To not use it. 

Yeah...right.

My personal therapist also told me to ice it and to do some electronic stimulation on it.  We have a e-stim machine at home.  I've used it twice.  Ice?  Haven't done it.  Rest the elbow?  ...well...why don't you give that a try and see if you are better at it than I am!

I've just been dealing with it, and trying to not do anything that would make it hurt.  Not successfully, but I try.  Which means I've stopped doing a couple of things that would aggravate it, like shooting my bow and stitching.

So, I'm not bow hunting this year.  And I haven't been stitching.  Even though some special little girls have needed their gifts.  They are five months old and I had a goal of getting them their gifts much sooner than now.  BUT...this weekend, I finished up their project.  It's in the mail, and will arrive at their house tomorrow...

Here's a sneak peek...

I hope the girls, and their Mama enjoy them!

The first and final harvest of 2011

We've been expecting a freeze any day now, so on Sunday, Kev and I decided we'd better put the garden to bed...what garden there was.  With the excessive heat and the drought this summer, our garden lacked a lot.  We got a few potatoes, a very few onions and once the heat ended, we hoped we'd get to harvest something...anything!  So, we ventured out Sunday afternoon and harvested. 

I planted pole beans this year and bought a variety that grows purple beans.  They turn green when you cook them.  I chose these because I hoped they would be easier to pick than green beans.  However, the leaves have enough of a purple cast that the beans weren't any easier to find on the vines.  We picked over a 5 gallon bucket full of beans.  They are now sitting in the freezer, waiting for me to have time to can them.

This is a shot of most of our tomato crop.  We finally got a few tomatoes to eat, and quite a few cherry tomatoes, but not enough to can.  However, we have gotten enough to enjoy a few BLT sandwiches!

A new crop for us this year was peanuts.  Kev loves to snack on roasted peanuts throughout the winter, so I wanted to see if we could grow some.  Grandma B. grew them one year, so I was pretty sure we could.  Unfortunately, we have a resident mole.  Who ate most of my seed.  I had two plants left.  And we got a very few peanuts.  Not sure if we got enough to roast.  If not, we'll save them and plant them again next spring...if it rains...

 Mr. Mole also harvested most of my carrots for me.

 This one was a prime example of his work.  He ate from the bottom up and left the tops.  So, when we pulled the carrots, we'd find these...

Crazy, isn't it!

So, this year, we didn't grow enough food to live on for the next year.  Fortunately, I still have plenty of  products that I canned last year.  I'm saving  seeds for next year and we'll try again... 

If it rains...and if Mr. Mole moves away.

The living room...before...

The stair project is presently stalled.

Boy, do I know how things work at my house, don't I! 

Kev found someone local who owns a sawmill.  This person also thinks they have enough pine around to cut treads for us.  However, it's been 2 weeks, and we haven't heard from him, and we won't for another week.  He'll get back to us after next week...  Which is fine. 

I suppose.

Kev and I did run to Hutch last weekend to visit our closest Lowe's store (a two hour drive.)  We went to buy a curtain rod for the bay window.  We also window shopped for "stair items" and kitchen ideas and tile...remember, Hardware/Home Improvement stores are one of my favorite places to shop!

We got some ideas, but...like normal...this project is started, but not progressing...

And...I thought that maybe I should post some photos of the "before." Or should that be photos of the "during?"

 This is the current stair layout.  The wall they follow is the center of the house.  (Our house is a modular, so this wall is a supporting wall.)  So, in essence, Kev wants to remove that half wall which would move the couch back to the supporting wall.

 Just a view of the fireplace.  Note how nice and clean everything is...Oh, but we've also discussed replacing the fireplace surround and rock this entire angled wall of the fireplace.  Our house is just chock full of angled walls, like this one.  (And, doesn't everyone take pictures of what is on TV?)  But, you can see that there's not much space between the couch and the outside wall (that's the wall with the DVD player and the corner of the bay window.)  It measures approximately 5' 6" across there.  So, it's tight.  And that's the space that Kev wants to open up with this project.  He wants to be able to lay on the floor, in front of the fireplace and stretch out.  That is what  started this entire process.

 I took this view while sitting on the window seat of the bay windows.  Just to show how close everything is...and how dirty my couch is!  sigh...

Now this is the corner where the new stairs will be.  This is the main angled wall--the outside wall.  The door will be gone.  We'll have to take it out.  Which is fine, we never use it.   But, that means new sheetrock, and painting and flooring and...well, you know.  The stairs will be where this couch is.  Which also happens to be my favorite spot to sit and stitch...  (Can you tell which couch is used the most?  Yeah...me too.)

So, this is what my living room--upstairs looks like now...stay tuned for the next episode of...The Stair saga...

The Stair Saga

 Let me preface this post by stating loudly and clearly...

I love my husband.

I really do.  But once in a while he gets these wild hairs...and these wild hair ideas...schemes...whatever they are...drive me up the wall.

And this particular wild hair, he's had since we moved into this house. 

He wants to move our staircase.

And he's "started". 

Without a plan, without an idea of the final look of the plan.  And without my support.

This is what my basement looks like...it's all tore up with a partial project "in the works."  This is the wall that Kev wants to put the stairs on.  It slants.  Our house has a...peak? in the center of it.  Both walls angle from that peak.  Kinda like the point of a pencil.  And Kev wants to move the stairs to this wall.  See the stick sticking up in the middle of the picture?  Yeah...that's where the stairs will go...and that wooden monstrosity...that's the landing and then the stairs will turn and be a U shape, with 3 stairs coming to the floor.

 Here's a different picture of the "landing".  It takes up a HUGE amount of floorspace and I'm not convinced that it will ever look nice...

And another view. 

Now, Kev has been observant enough to pick up on my reservations.  he knows I'm not real supportive or understanding about this project...Cause, he'll take at least 7 years to finish it...and it will mean more work...like cutting another hole in the main level floor...and it will mean covering up the old hole and putting in floor joists and re-doing the basement ceiling and the flooring and some electric work and new carpet or something upstairs and relocate lights and...get my drift?  And I know from experience that "little" "easy" projects somehow never quite get finished.

However, I will give him some credit.  He's changed his mind on some of  his plans.  He's not going to have a closed staircase.  Instead, we're going to have open treads.  Chunky pine treads.  Because we like the rustic look, and I absolutely hate sweeping stairs with carpet and stairs with risers which seem to collect dirt and dog hair.  Open stairs will be much easier to clean.  And we've compromised on the balusters and the hand rail and even the monstrosity sitting in the basement right now that Kev calls the "landing."

So, we're compromising.  He's giving me some say in how I want this...thing to look.  And I'm letting him build this...thing.

Stay tuned for the continuing saga of "The Stair Project."

One of those days...

Yesterday was one of those very productive days for me.  I love days like yesterday, when I spend most of it in the kitchen, making various food items for my family.  I didn't have anything else that had to be done, so I could just enjoy myself and putter all day long in the kitchen.

I made jelly from our first ever picking of grapes from our 2 vines!  I had 5.5 cups of jelly, but somehow, only got 3 half-pint jars of jelly out of it.  I used a "low sugar" pectin and it took f.o.r.e.v.e.r to jell!  So, I guess some boiled away.  However, there are more grapes out there to ripen, so maybe I'll get more grapes for another and larger batch.  (Early taste tests say that the jelly is just scrumptious!)

We were running low on bread, so I made a batch of bread.  Not sure if I'll break open a jar of jelly now, or if I'll wait for a later date.  I really like this wheat flour I've been using, and I love this bread recipe.  It uses honey instead of sugar.  I've always loved baking bread and having a recipe for whole wheat bread that has never failed me yet makes bread making more enjoyable.    Someday soon, I'm going to try sourdough and a wholegrain bread and a rye.  I've got the recipes, just haven't taking the time to try them out.

Since my chickens are laying like crazy, I decided to make a couple of pies.  Mom is our expert baker, and I'd like to someday be as good of a pie maker as she is.  In addition, I also want to improve my pie dough skills.  Many years ago, when I was in 4-H, I could make an excellent pie dough...in recent years, it hasn't been good, and I've taken the easy road and used store-bought pie dough.  Well, yesterday, I tried it again, and came out with a couple of pretty good crusts.  Not quite where I want them to be, but definitely better than store-bought! 

I made a coconut cream pie for Kev and a butterscotch pie for Andy.  (Miss Kat doesn't like pie, so she didn't care what kind I made.)  Both recipes came from Mom.  The Butterscotch recipe came from my Great Grandma Woodruff.  Kev and I tried both pies...and both are just pretty tasty!

Now, I'd have taken pictures, but my allergies kicked in yesterday something fierce.  To be honest, I was afraid I'd sneeze all over my food, or sneeze while taking pictures.  Besides, you'd just get hungry from the photos!

Yesterday was one of my favorite kinds of days.  The best part was sitting down to enjoy the fruits of my labors.  Bon Appetite!