A Stitch in Time

Sunday evening came. Sunday evening went, deer season ended and yet, there is no deer hanging in the shed. For the first time in four years, Andy did not get a deer this season. On the bright side (?), barely anyone got a deer this year. The harvest in northeastern Minnesota was down almost 20%, thanks in part to hard winter last year that thinned the herd and some pretty terribly hunting conditions almost every day of the season. 

So there's no joy in Mudville. Actually, it's more like Frozenville around here. There's been a serious layer of ice on the bay since Sunday and since it's midday and just about 11 degrees F outside, I'd say that ice isn't going anywhere for the next four - five months. C'est la vie.  

It feels strange not having several evenings of sausage making ahead of us and I have to admit a little part of me is dying knowing I can't whip up a batch of venison stew on the first -20 below day in January. But I'm pretty sure we won't starve even if the freezer does look a little skimpy. (At least the freezer still has plenty of garden veggies, eh?) Yesterday I binned up all of Andy's hunting gear and schlepped it and the meat grinder out to the shed. What else can you do?  

This morning I wrapped up a project that's basically consumed me for the last week and a half. I finished up the very last mitten is an order of five pairs to be worn by a bride and bridesmaids at a wedding on the first full weekend of December. It was a rush order because the first Etsy seller the bride contacted backed out less than a month before the big day. I have to say, knitting a mitten a day is no way to live your life and I'm really over purple as a wedding color. (Sad, because I used to love it!) But I'm so thrilled to have the project complete and to have added another special element to the wedding day. Fingers crossed that they get a little snow to make the wedding photos even more fun with all of these crazy mittens! 

As you probably, I've been struggling with focus and creativity all year. (I know you're sick of hearing about it - please excuse the wallow.) But guess what?!

All of that time spent focusing on mittens seems to have gotten the creative juices flowing because on Sunday morning I sat down and tapped out what I think are the first 500+ words of a children's novel. The story's been drifting through my head since the summer, but I'd been doing my best to ignore it , partly because I didn't have time to write and partly because, a children's novel? Really? Then on Sunday, as I was bringing in firewood, the details of the story became so clear, that I knew I had to at least start it.   

I truly have not written a word of fiction since Spring 2011 which, come to think about it, might be the primary culprit in what shall be known as "The Funk of 2013." I'd stopped making room for creative writing, because, well, fiction doesn't generally make you mo' money, mo' money. But it turns out that a steady diet of freelance assignments and commitments is just a recipe for burnout. When I hit save on that little teeny piece of fiction on Sunday morning, my heart felt happier and more free that it has in a very long time.  Sure, I need to get on top of my actual "work work" very soon (November has been an unmitigated disaster, y'all), but somehow I think those 500 words of fiction each morning will actually make it easier to rise up and face the music. 

I'm off to town to tomorrow to bake pies and help prep for the annual community Thanksgiving dinner. Is it just me, or has Thanksgiving taken forever to get here this year? (Yes, I know it's late.) I'm ready for some Christmas music! Anyone celebrating Thanksgivikkah?!

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10 Degrees and Getting Colder

Can we just take a moment to note what a disaster this week was when it came to getting actual work done. Seriously - so awful. There. I feel better just having said it.

It wouldn't have been so frustrating except last week was the first week in a while where I felt like I gained some traction with work projects and life in general. But no sooner was I all like, "Finally, I've got my groove back" before the groove was gone. Then again, I'm starting to wonder if "my groove" is kind of like my sense of rhythm: nonexistent. 

Andy was home a good portion of the week, although the majority of his waking hours were either spent in a deer stand or scouting deer on foot. It's been all for naught so far, which feels a little strange considering how quickly last year's deer season was buttoned up. There's still another week left in the season and plenty of deer in the woods.

It's been a cold, snowy week. Running is officially hit or miss. I'm not sure I like it.
  
Despite getting next to nothing done this week, my Etsy shop took off like a rocket this past week. Sales galore, custom orders, oh my.  I thought I was ready for the holiday rush, but apparently not, especially since I was somehow sweet-talked into knitting five pairs of birdesmaid mittens for a wedding the second weekend of December. If you need me between now and the end of the month, I hope you don't mind my knitting needles tagging alone. Cripes.

Despite a little Etsy holiday stress, I'm feeling rather festive, which probably has to do with the fact that I spent yesterday afternoon perusing the local shops for gift ideas for the annual gift guide I compile. I have so many gift ideas swirling through my head at the moment and am inspired to do the vast majority of my holiday shopping locally this year. (Says the girl who says that every year and then ends up buying the majority of her presents from Amazon.)

I'm also thinking about doing all of my Christmas shopping with cash, to give local merchants a break on credit card fees and keep the pesky holiday credit card bill at bay. In other news, I'm completely debt-free at the moment. I finished off my student loans last week and vanquished my credit card bill this morning. Although I've never carried a balance on my credit card, it's rather exciting to have the total amount I owe anyone at the moment be $0.00.

I spent yesterday morning volunteering at our community Empty Bowls event, which raises funds for the local food shelf. (That's the bowl I took home, up above. If I'd photographed it in better light, you'd see what a beautiful sapphire blue it is.)  My summer schedule prevents me from getting involved with pretty much anything in the greater community, so it felt so nice to be able to give some time to a good cause, meet some new people, and reconnect with a lot of familiar faces. I contributed some treats to the bake sale component of the event and as I was cutting up my batch of Scotcharoos, it struck me that I may hem and haw about not getting any "work" done, but that those bars will probably do more good in the community than anything I would have produced at my computer. Consequently, I'm coming to believe that you can learn everything you need to know to get through life in a church basement (I'm not even talking about Sunday School here), but that's another post for another day. 

Today is Andy's birthday and I am not baking him a cake. After five years of trying to foist my family's tradition of birthday sweets on the poor man, I'm starting to realize he doesn't really give a fig if he gets a birthday cake, or pie. Perhaps a pan of cinnamon rolls are in the works, but we'll just see how this day goes, shall we. 

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It's The End of the World As We Know It . . .

. . . and I feel fine.

Does anyone know - was the world supposed to be kaput by the time we all woke up this morning or do we all have to awkwardly wait around for the end today ala Seeking A Friend for the End of the World? If the world happens to not ex/implode before midnight, does that mean we'll be living in a post-apocalyptic world for now on?

Since this is the third time (I think) in less than two years that the world was supposed to end, I'm developing a rather flippant attitude towards the impending doom. I'm sure you are too. Admit it. And honestly, I think anyone who survived the Y2K boondoggle is apt to apply a grain of salt to any forecast of doom and gloom. (I'm not sure how we'll be explaining the Y2K hysteria to our grandchildren. "Well kids, lots of people were really worried that the world would end because the computer chips in our coffee makers might not work. Oh humanity!)

I was talking about the apocalypse du jour with my dental hygienist last week (because that's the sort of thing you talk about with dental hygienist . . . am I right?) and she pointed out that she doubted the world would end today because she still had an unpaid credit card bill. Well played! I have a feeling that fate is not so kind that I'm going to escape my current holiday credit card bill. Ah well, better to pay up and face another day than to have both bill and myself obliterated. Besides, if I really thought the world was ending today, I wouldn't have gone to the dentist's! ;)

There is one thing that I know for sure about today: it's the winter solstice and the official start of winter. Hooray for days getting ever so gradually longer!

Not only was yesterday the last official day of autumn, it also marked the end of deer season at the cabin. At long last, all the venison from this year's deer has been processed and/or turned into sausage. Tonight we'll package up the last batch of sausage, squeeze it into the very full chest freezer and then we are done! *excitement!*

Usually we just make bulk sausage (Italian, wild rice, etc.) that can be used in lasagnas, egg bakes, etc. But because we had so much sausage meat this year, not to mention a snazzy new meat grinder, we actually tried our hands at stuffing sausage into casings. The process requires some patience, but really, we made a massive batch of potato sausage (tres Scandinavian, yah) in short order last night.

 

Here's an approximate breakdown of what our deer turned into this year:

20 pounds potato sausage
21 pounds wild rice sausage
16 pounds Italian sausage
6 pounds Chorizo
8 pounds breakfast sausage
Assorted cuts: roasts, round steak, ribs, sirloin

Hmmm, I wonder what everyone's getting for Christmas . . . .


 

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