It’s been quite a weekend here at LivingSmall. First, the gimpy dog has not recovered very well — turns out that his achilles tendon is falling apart, and his “good” leg isn’t really good enough to support his weight — it’s full of arthritis in the hock. So I think he’s having more surgery on Thursday to repair the achilles tendon, and then we’re going to have to order him some braces to support the poor arthritic hocks. With any luck, this will at least get him back on his feet and allow him to get around the yard and…
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My Very Old Man has died. It was in the paper yesterday. His name was Harold Busby and he was 88 years old. I haven’t seen him in about a week — I pass his house while walking the dogs and I usually stop to pet his Very Sweet Brown Dog and to wave at him behind his picture window. I don’t know what’s happened to the dog — I’ll have to ask his neighbor Lynn, who has been taking care of Harold for the past couple of months. I’m sad about my Old Man — I liked seeing him…
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It’s snowing again. I woke up this morning to about 2 inches of snow and it was sort of exciting. I didn’t have a clue last night when I went to sleep that it was going to snow, so there was that little frisson of excitement, like the first snow of the year. It was pretty, every twig was outlined, and it’s not very cold. It’s still snowing — little tiny flakes. It’s a late spring this year and as much as I want to get out in the garden, well, I have a novel to write, and more sweaters…
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My friend Debra sent me an invitation a few weeks ago to join Ravelry, the social networking site for knitters and although I haven’t done much more than set up a page and post my one-and-only sweater, I’m sort of fascinated by the convergance of knitting and social networking. While I’ve fallen in love with knitting, as much for the magical way it stops that buzzing in my brain after a long day at work as for the actual product I’m creating, I’m not one of those people who wants to go hang out at the knitting store with a…
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My friend Max was telling me about his in-laws’ declicious ham salad the other day at the party. He said it’s really addictive and one of the things he looks forward to after a family ham. Since I have a lot of ham left, the thought had been niggling in the back of my head. And I often find myself scrambling to figure out what to eat for lunch. Hmm. Ham salad. I’ve never made ham salad in my life — so I did what anyone would do and googled it: Ham Salad. And because I’m me, I fiddled with…
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I hosted Easter yesterday — sent out invitations and invited everyone I know to stop by — it was great fun, there were probably 30 or 40 people over the afternoon, luckily not all at once since my house isn’t that big. I did a big ham, cured and smoked by our local butcher, Matt. He does wonderful hams (we keep trying to convince him to eschew CAFO meat, and while he does do some local sourcing, he’s unconvinced people around here will pay for it. Considering half the kids in the county get free lunch, he might be right,…
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I admit it, I love Martha Stewart. I love her drive. I love her insane love of crafts. She had Nathan Lane on the other day making plaster of paris bunnies — it was insane. She had these plastic molds she’d clamped together with binder clips and as she was making Nathan Lane file off the rough edges he looked at her and said “Martha! People aren’t going to do this! They have lives …” and her response was “Oh yes they will.” As though she was going to come over to each and every one of our houses and…
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Here’s what I woke up to this morning — welcome to spring! It’s prettier than you can see in this photo (must invest in new camera) — that pretty spring snow that clings to each little twig. It’s still snowing as I write — nice wet spring snow that will nourish all those bulbs that are just starting to poke their little heads up.
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Take one pint mason jar of leftover lentil/lamb/mushroom soup (made from leftover lamb braised with mushrooms), one pyrex half-pint dish of leftover braised cabbage/onion/carrot/tomato, and one of Matt’s Meat’s good homemade German sausages. Dump them all in a pot, stir, add enough water to bring to a soupy consistency and simmer until the frozen sausage is cooked. Chop up the sausage into smaller pieces, make some toast, and you have a delicious lunch that will last for several days. When we were kids, Monday was Garbage Dinner night, a name we found hilarious in that way that kids love a…
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During my blogging hiatus, I did a lot of little projects — and one of them was cleaning out the vegetable beds in prep for planting. I still need to order compost but I’m waiting for my new fence to go in because I want to build a new raised bed. But I spent a glorious warm Saturday cleaning out the dead stuff. I’ve learned the last couple of years that although it looks messy all winter, it makes more sense to clean up in the spring instead. If you also plan to clean your whole house, these quality home…