I guess there really isn't overly much to ramble about, but if I can hold your attention, I'll tell you about my day. :)

After the usual morning routine of dishes, etc. I settled in as the person-who-keeps-an-eye-on-Granddady. The reason someone has to be at least semi-vigilant is that he goes to get up and he might fall if someone's not there to help him. So, while he slept and twitched, I watched the last half of a Perry Mason episode. Shortly after Ironside came on, Savannah woke him up and did therapy with him. She really is the best with him. Regardless of the fact that he was nearly asleep the whole time, he did alright. I sat there, tossing a ball from one hand to the other or just straight in the air with either hand and catching it in the same hand (I guess I can catch okay with my left hand like that), and "dodging" Savannah to see the television. I enjoy Ironside so when she'd step into my line of sight I'd lean one way or the other.

I didn't do much else this morning beside stashing a box of Christmas bows under the Victrola in my room. I was going to put them under the bed, but they didn't fit, so I stacked the boot box (reenacting boots) that I had under there on top of the box holding
my new boots and stuffed the bow box down there.

Before lunch and for a while after lunch, I scribbled. There are three things I'm trying to get back into--my Latin, writing a little bit every day on one of my stories (I didn't ever really have a habit of that), and my music. Of course, I washed dishes again.

Daddy and I went out this afternoon and split some wood. He ran the splitter and I loaded the back of the go-buggy with wood and carted it off like that (then unloaded it, of course). We did four loads. The first two got dumped in the basement and the other two I stacked under the lean-to on the old garage. Daddy hurt his back when he went to unhook the splitter from the go-buggy when we were done and so I put it away (with some help from Daddy--I'm not sure I could have gotten the 'oomph' to get it rolling in the mud without him). He was going to help unload the wood but decided he'd better not with his back hurting. We got a little wet with some sleety rain. That stuff stings when it hits your face. The slush has quit now, but the wind is blowing harder.

When we came in, I slogged my way through a Latin sentence (I had a couple of breaks--one of which was to help Granddaddy onto the potty) and now I'm writing this...

I need to change the cat-box in my room, so I reckon I'd better skedaddle and do that. I meant to do it yesterday...

Over and out (for now)!

It was snowing when we went to bed last night and it was snowing when we got up this morning. By the time I tripped out to the mail-box and got snow in my cowboy boots, it was about 2-3 inches deep.

Shortly after that, Katherine and I went out with cameras in hand and got some some pictures of varying sorts...She took more of me than I did of her, but by the time I was done making a few snowballs with my barehands and all around behaving like a Southern kid who rarely sees snow and taking the ash-bucket up the hill to dump it, my toes were so freezing that I couldn't think straight. (That sounds kind of strange...) Anyway, I think my leather boots probably would have kept my feet warmer than the mud-boots I was wearing, but granted the tops are more open so I would have really swamped myself with cold snow-flakes. Neither did it help that the mud-boots have holes in them and that we lined them with plastic sacks to keep our feet dry.

Anyway, enough musing on the pro's and con's of particular boots...

As a subtitle, I might add something along these lines: "And Pepper Relish"...

Anyway, I'll get around to the pepper relish when I get around to it. I'd like to first start with yesterday's storm. Of course, as I write, it's getting on towards suppertime and I'm kind of hungry, so if things just seem to come out of nowhere, or go nowhere, blame that.

When I got up yesterday (Sunday) morning, Mom was already looking at the weather trying to determine if she should stay home from church. (I was already planning on it since I've been sick with something since Friday [I'm practically better today].) She decided to stay home, so we all were home for the wind and rain and tornado threat which thankfully never materialized for us, although the town seven miles to the west of us got some damage (probably when we were in the basement).

Right before the weather actually hit us, we brought the grandparents up from their snug little apartment in the barn. I wheeled Grandpa up backwards (and later took him out the same way) because it's much easier to pull a wheelchair through river rock than it is to push it. We couldn't get Grandpa into the basement, so we eventually put him in the little hall nitch area outside of my parent's bedroom. Not, of course, that that would have really been safe if we'd had a direct hit to the house.

Some of us spent a large portion of the afternoon watching the live feed weather report on the television. I tell you, those folks do an outstanding job covering their viewing area with up-to-date information. They have non-stop coverage during any serious (tornado threatening) storm. There were up to four tornado warning going at any given time through the central part of the state.

I am very thankful we didn't get hit with anything more than some awesome wind and rain. The rain itself wasn't overly impressive (not if you compare it to the multiple downpours we had several times this past summer in Florida with a tropcial storm coming over us), but it was blowing practially straight off (90* angle ) from the house as soon as it hit. Some dead branches fell out of the trees, but that didn't hurt anything.

After it was over, we  got a little "camera happy" as Savannah put it. Here are only some of the pictures:

Today, I tackled my first ever batch of pickle relish. Mom had made some earlier in the year and we all decided we liked it--so, Mum being busy with other things today, she asked me to take care of the box full of peppers that has been sitting in the garage for weeks. So I did.

First I washed them (I hate washing stuff up here because the water is so cold...so I turned on some hot with the cold and that kept my fingers from becoming ice-blocks). Then I cut them open and cleaned the seeds out and trimmed any rotten or moldy stuff away. I got done with this part just in time for lunch.

After lunch (dishes), I pulled down the food processor and chopped up the two dishpans full of peppers. When I got started I was thinking, "That pan [the big stock pot] is going to be way too big..." HA! My naivete was showing big time. I filled that large pot half-way up; but if I'd gone with the smaller pan (which I would have done if it hadn't had chicken stock in it), I would have had peppers spilling over by the time I got done with the first dishpan!

I put them on to cook and turned my attention to the onions. I peeled them, cut them into quarters, and pitched them into the food processor. I had tears running down my face and my nose was running by the time I got done with them. I decided that if anybody wanted to stop by all of a sudden, "now wouldn't be the most opportune time." Vain females...

Next I drained the pepper "mash" as it practically was by that point, then I added in the onions, and Mom measured (by eye) the vinegar and I dumped it in. Once that cooked for a little while, I poked it into jars, put the lids on and loaded the Conservo. They are still there, being processed.

Busy day...

P.S. By the time I got done with this post, we had eaten supper. :)