7 Quick Takes (Vol 235)

Here we are, gathered around the last of the Halloween candy, nursing our sugar hangovers. Right? Or is that just me. Nevermind.

Remember your weekly instructions. When you are finished sorting through the blather and keeping the good bits you need to click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of my ingestion of snack size Snickers bars, over to Conversion Diary to see what has been goin’ on.

Blather of an intensely chaotic nature.

1.
The refrigerator is finally fixed.

And the silence is deafening.

Which leads me to think that the refrigerator was dying even before we moved into Chez Knit. I do remember hearing it make a horrendous “clunking” noise when the compressor would cycle off and thinking, “That’s not good”. But it was around the time that we realized that the dishwasher was non-functioning, perhaps three weeks after we moved. And at that time the frig wasn’t making the gosh awful noise that sounded like we were living in the middle of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and it was always race day.

Repairman Bill kindly came and spent two hours doing the repair…and there was nary a refrigerator repairman “crack” in sight. AND we only paid the $75 service fee since the repair was covered under the home warranty.

Once Bill was done, the repair was tested and I had waived him a joyous goodbye I just stood in my kitchen and reveled in the silence.

And then I realized that I could actually hear noises from outside, something that I had been unable to do because of the horrendous racket in the kitchen.

Ah the beauty of silence.

2.
Today is the beginning of NaBloPoMo.

National Blog Posting Month.

And as usually I am going to give it my best to participate. This year I might actually use some of the writing “prompts” that they provide, just in case I get to a day that has me suffering “Blank Brain Syndrome”. It happens.

We will see how I do. I feel like my blogging has slacked off a bit. It has been that kind of year.

Of course, if life continues to give me topics like how not to iron a Stink Bug then I won’t need any prompts.

But I will need another ironing board cover.

3.

I might have picked more apples this week…….

Like maybe 20 more pounds of apples. I just couldn’t resist. LaurenLeap sent me a txt msg asking which orchard I had gone to for the last apple extravaganza. I told her and in the course of back and forth txts she told me that Thursday was going to be the last day for picking apples there for the season. Wednesday the weather was beautiful, the sun was out and the temperature was gorgeous.

I just couldn’t resist.

The picking was good for Rome and Golden Delicious. If I had gotten off my big fat bahookie last week I could have also had Winesap, which are some of my favorites. But alas those are all gone.

I do believe that I am not going to need to buy any apples from the store for the rest of the winter, which makes me very happy. I am trying to “locally source” as much as I can.

4.

This is what the weather looked like at about the time trick or treating was supposed to start. And in the end…..

We had not a single trick or treater come to the door. Nary a one. I don’t know whether to attribute that to the absolutely abysmal weather last evening or to the possibility that kids don’t venture into our little development to garner candy.

Either way we have A LOT of snack size Snickers bars now in the freezer.

5.
For those of you who come to the annual Orgy of Theft Ornament Exchange.

I am working on the ornaments and trying to get a jump on them so I am not running around like a crazy woman close to the end of November

They are going to be…..

You didn’t really think I was going to tell you did you?

But they are stinkin’ cute.

6.
I had been sort of, kind of, contemplating buying a “share” in a local, family owned and operated farm.

And by “share” I mean a share in what is produced, not an actual share in the land etc. We drive by a local farm on our way to church and I have long been intrigued by it. I can see that there are chickens free ranging and turkeys and pigs (ummmmmm bacon). And I knew the name of the farm so I got on the internet and found an email and emailed. I was actually just wondering whether they do a CSA but what Trapp Family Farm actually does is has shares in the farm. That means for a certain (rather expensive) price you get as much produce as you can handle on a weekly basis as well as a certain share of meat and poultry and eggs.

The price was $1500 for the year, paid in quarterly installments. Gulp. But when I ran the numbers I could actually see doing it.

And then I read the fine print. And the fine print told me that what was really required was for EACH family member to buy a share. Kids were pro-rated by age but each adult was $1500/year.

That would be $3000 for Chez Knit.

I think I will find another option. I love the concept and I don’t actually quibble about the price. It is just a bit too rich for my blood, and my pocket book, at the moment.

Perhaps I will just start by trying out their farm stand market.

7.

If you not a knitter you can skip this.

Someday my Knit Sibs and I are going to Rhinebeck. We are going to walk amongst our people and revel in all things fiber. But until then I love this video. I love how proud every single person is with what they created.

And I would LOVE the opportunity to do a project like this.