Busy and Lots of Progress

When we moved into this house, our main goal was to get everything put SOMEWHERE! I can't say that we've done that yet because we still have three rental storage units but we would like to make progress and eventually get rid of those. There are several rooms in the house that have become "storage" rooms, aka . . junk rooms. The "sewing room" has become the biggest, messiest junk room of all. It isn't a fun place to be. All of the fabric from my quilting days is in there, along with ROLLS of batting, which takes up a lot of room. There were tubs and tubs of yarn. Most of my canning jars are now in the sewing room. There's a long arm that has never been put together in the 5+ years we've been here. Now there's cross stitching - tubs of linen, bins of charts, lots of floss. There's a large cutting table, several sewing machines, a serger, a cover stitch machine, an ironing table and, the latest, a tall shelf unit in front of the double door with my seedlings growing.

There's a bedroom in the basement but it's a "non-conforming bedroom" because it doesn't have a second way of egress. There are no windows in the room. Three walls are concrete. It's a very safe room, completely quiet and very cool. A lot of nights, I end up in the basement. Vince likes it way warmer than I like it. In the summer, he's very happy with the thermostat at 74 or 75. If the upstairs is 74, the basement is about 65 so many nights I end up downstairs. Or, Vince goes to bed at 10:30, I say I'll be up in a few minutes and the first thing I know, it's 2:30 a.m. I figure I'll wake Vince up when I go up and it isn't that long until he will be waking up - just as I'm getting to sleep so I just sleep in the basement.

The basement bedroom has no way out other than the door which leads into a little sitting area, then the family room, then the downstairs garage . . a long path to get to the outside if there's a fire. So, I asked Vince what he thought about moving all the yarn tubs and some of the food storage into the 'bedroom' and moving the bed into the sewing room. He was fine with it so we did it.

There's a double door that goes from the sewing room to the outside and there are two small windows that are plenty big enough to escape through, and two regular size long windows. 

Then there's the love seat. It's the one I bought when I rented the apartment in Nevada, MO before we moved here. I never used it because I only stayed in the apartment three nights and here. There's a recliner in there and I would sit in that with Boots so the loveseat has never been used really. So, it's in the sewing room and it had been piled high with "stuff". In fact, we bought blinds for all the windows in the sewing room and Vince had put them all up except that one because he couldn't get to it! Now that I have the sofa cleaned off and the space in front of the sofa cleared, he can move the sofa, get behind it, hang the blind and . . he'll be done with the sewing room.

The best news . . today I got an extra magnifying light set up, an extra Lowery stand set up and a tablet holder set up. Vince loves to watch TV. I do not. I don't like movies. It doesn't bother me for him to watch anything he wants to watch EXCEPT I don't like bad words and loud shooting and blowing things up so . . Mars vs. Venus I suppose. I guess the most important part of this story is that we only have one TV and it's in the basement family room. The dogs don't go upstairs so I pretty much live my life with the dogs in the basement family room so if Vince wants to watch TV, he has us to deal with. Now, I can take the dogs and go into the sewing room. I can stitch. I can listen to Pandora or have YouTube videos on my laptop and Vince can happily watch what he wants to watch with my "input".  :) The dogs are happy to sit with me and are kinda getting past the stage of getting into everything, although there's a lot of interesting stuff in there, especially if your'e a little dog.

There's still a LOT of work to be done in the sewing room but I feel like we've made some very useful progress.

Bread Baking Day

 Lunch has been served. Laundry is done. Supplies in the safe room have been checked, replenished and we're ready if we have scary storms tomorrow but it looks like they're either going south or north of us but . . we're ready.

I've mentioned here before that Vince loves Ezekiel bread and eats it every morning. I make three loaves at a time and freeze two of them. I don't keep up with how the supply is going but Vince will tell me when he gets the last loaf out of the freezer and within a week, I'll get more made.

I also made a loaf of whole wheat rye bread (about 60% rye and 40 hard white). I seem to be playing rye chicken with the rye berries. Since we're now having to drive close to 40 miles to get to the Azure pickup (80 miles round trip), I'm hoping to make an order every quarter instead of every month. The only problem with that is that often they're out of something one month and have it the next month. We'll see how it works out. I can order grains from other places but Azure has the best price and I've been happy with their grains.

The rest of today I'm going to cross stitch. I would LOVE to finish Independence Hall today.

Not much difference at all from the last time you saw it but yesterday was Stitching with Debbie Day so I was working on a piece on 36 count linen. I should be able to get 8 hours of stitching this evening .. let's see how much I can get done.

A Little Knitting Progress

 One thing you can always expect from me are very bad, non-staged photos. Today's post will not disappoint.  :)  I just decided to share a few photos of knitting projects; both dogs are asleep in my chair and I'm a firm believer in not disturbing a sleeping dog!  :)

Last night I did find my box of needles. There are several packages of interchangeable needles but many are not in the packages, which probably means they're in projects. So, the more projects I find and finish, the more needles I will have.

I ordered some stitch markers, cable needles - some of the basics from Amazon and they should arrive tomorrow.

A little backtracking story . . some of you may remember. I learned to knit in college - that was a very long time ago - 50+ years ago.  How did I get so old so fast?  I could knit basics but I never learned how to put sweaters together. There was a lady in Texas that we were friends with and she would put my my sweaters together for me. Thinking back . . I didn't know how to knit sleeves either so she would knit my sleeves and finish my sweaters. Probably in the early 80's, I stopped knitting.

Then in maybe probably 2002 - 2004, I wanted to knit again but I could not remember how to cast on. I don't know if there were youtube videos back then or if I just didn't know how to use them but more times than I care to admit, I would spend too much time on the knitting row in Hobby Lobby. Every lady that came along and looked at yarn, I would ask "Do you knit?" Most did not - they did crochet.  Finally, after many days of hanging out in Hobby Lobby looking for a knitter who would help me, someone told me about a group that met at one of the churches downtown on Tuesday mornings to eat. She knew the church, what time, etc. - I've just forgotten. So, I went down there and they got me started. Everyone had a different method of casting on and finally one of the ladies was doing it like I remembered so I was good to go. I knitted with those ladies for about a year - maybe two because we moved away from there at the end of 2006.

Today we took both of our vehicles in to get the tires rotated. We left mine, took Vince's to Hobby Lobby, then to Sam's Club; then took his to the tire shop, I left, he walked to some nearby shops and found some good deals while they were rotating his tires.

While in Hobby Lobby, I was on the knitting aisle and a young lady walked over to me and said "Do you knit?" Oh, my goodness . . I had come full circle. We stood there and talked for probably 20 minutes. I ended up giving her my phone number, told her it was fine to message me any time, told her I could meet her in Joplin and help her if we can't solve it on the phone.

OK . . back to the post.

I found several projects in bags that are started. All have needles and yarn together so these will be easy to finish - I don't have to look for anything.

I have no idea what this is - some kind of shawl. I will figure it out.

This is a cardigan and the body of it is about 3/4 done! I love this red Madelinetosh yarn. I could see this one being finished for next winter . . or maybe not!  :)

This is the one I started several days ago. I've made good progress. This one is knit in separate pieces - back, then front, then sleeves. At some point I will stitch the front to the back, then finish the collar/top area, then knit the sleeves and get them stitched in.

I will find a balance that works for me where I knit some, cross stitch more. The knitting gives my hands a break from cross stitching; and the stitching gives my hands a break from the knitting. A couple of days ago, I was happy to be knitting again; tonight I'm happy to be back to cross stitching.

I'm still working on America - 250. My plan is to finish stitching Independence Hall and fill in the flag before I put it down for a few days to knit a bit more.

The Rest of the Alpha Gal Story

 No one should ever listen to me when I talk about medical things. Got that? NEVER!

I probably wrote that I thought I was over alpha gal because I can eat anything I want to eat without having the itching, hives and breathing issues. My doctor here would not order a test, which costs $149 if I self-pay so I'm not real sure why she refused to do it. I haven't been tested since probably 2013 - 2014. I was so sure I was over it. So, so sure! 

Vince always tells me I live my life through rose colored glasses and apparently, he's right. I was thinking to myself that the CDC would probably be calling me to see how I had cured myself of alpha-gal. That's not going to happen.

I asked our doctor that we use through a subscription to order the test and he did. I had the test last week, got the results back within a few days and my alpha gal numbers have actually gone up - not down. When I opened the email and read those numbers, I actually cried. I was so disappointed.

This morning I saw a new doctor who will be my PCP - hopefully for the rest of my days. She's younger - probably a few years less than 40. I know this because I mentioned someone and they had graduated high school together.

I handed the new doctor my test results. She looked at them and said "Your numbers are high! I've never had anyone with numbers this high." Of course, the tears came rolling down again. I'm just being a baby because I know my problems are few. This is not life threatening so long as I keep my new epi-pen handy. When I think of medical problems suffered by many, I know I'm one of the lucky ones .. this is a problem that can so easily be controlled - I'm just disappointed that I allowed myself to be convinced that I was over it - kinda unrealistic but . . those rose colored glasses cause me to do/think crazy things!  :)

My numbers may be the highest she has seen but they could be a lot higher BUT, the numbers that show my "allergy level" don't have anything to do with how likely I am to react. I read that someone whose numbers are .4 may be more likely to react than someone whose numbers are 90. It's just crazy. There's an allergist a bit south of here who is supposed to be knowledgeable but I'm not sure what they can do other than tell me to not to eat beef, pork or lamb.

OK  . . enough of me feeling sorry for myself.

The Knitting Bug

 I should not have listened to that little voice that kept saying "Knitting would be fun. Finish some projects you have started. Maybe start something new!" But . . I listened.

There's a pretty major problem though. I cannot find the tub that has my knitting needles in it. I haven't seen it since we moved 5-1/2 years ago! I thought . . I'll just buy more but that's ridiculous. They have to be here somewhere but will I spend years looking for them and then the desire to knit will be gone?

I had not yet started cross stitching when we moved here so I have a couple of projects that have needles in them. Until I find more needles, I'll have to finish one project, find another project that uses the same size needles . . and go from there.

The good news is that I finished the body of this sweater a couple of months ago. I'm guessing this is one I started before I started back to cross stitching. I had been my 'knit in the car' project. I kept it in the car and if Vince was driving, I would knit. If I was waiting somewhere, I would knit. All I have to finish are the sleeves and that will free up a set of needles BUT . . I also can't find the stitch markers. Maybe when I find the needles, the stitch markers will be with them. I did order more stitch markers from Amazon and they should be here tomorrow.

I hadn't started the sleeves because they need markers but I've decided to just cut some pieces off colored thread or yard and use those for markers to mark where I've decreased on the sleeves. I would knit the two sleeves at the same time but the cables I have aren't long enough. Such problems!  :)

At least I kept the yarn together and I have more than I'll need to finish two sleeves. 

Next project I will start is Boulevardier by Baby Cocktails.

The yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca and tonight I hope to get the back side cast on and get started on the ribbing.

Husband Needs Cooking Lessons!

 Please read til the end and then tell me if you think my husband needs cooking lessons. I'm not complaining. I know  . . it sounds like a complaint. Some days I overload myself. Some days, if you're going to do something, it makes sense to do a LOT of something and get it over with and have only one big mess to clean up.

This morning Vince wanted pancakes. He's been wanting pancakes. Could Vince make pancakes? Apparently NOT! So I made pancakes with bacon for me and ham for him.

Then I started canning. We go through a lot of cannellini beans with using them in smoothies and we love them. I thought I had measured out enough beans to make 14 quarts but apparently, while Vince is in cooking classes, Judy should be taking math classes!  :)

I filled the 14 quarts and still had more beans. I filled 7 pints using the cooking liquid from the second boil of the beans and added no salt. Those will be for smoothies. One pint broke in the canner, dang it. Maybe Judy needs canning lessons too!  :)

While the canner was cooling down, and releasing pressure, I cooked dinner.

It's quick. It's easy. It's delicious and there's always leftovers. I like this recipe because it doesn't have any added sugar. The one I used to use had brown sugar added.

That's a half gallon jar so it's a lot of leftovers. We don't even serve it over rice - just cabbage, ground beef, onions, carrots and the sauce.

Once the kitchen was cleaned from that, I ran downstairs and buried today's veggie scraps. I do this almost every day. You can see that my garden soil is looking halfway decent. I do have a compost bin but . . mice have become quit a problem and I'm not sure if part of the problem isn't the compost bin. It's way back from the house and the neighbor has one too but they really made a mess in mine. I suppose there's nothing to keep them from digging through my raised beds but it seems like, with the compost bin, it's a constant buffet for them. Here, I'll use one raised bed one day, another the next and then I'll also use the mineral tubs. I'd like to think the mice don't get in those but I'm sure they do.

Then I came in, got the jars out of the canner. That's when I realized one pint that had broken. Had to let the canner finish cooling down and clean up that mess. Thank goodness it wasn't a greasy mess. I think I might have cracked that jar the other day. I remember hitting one and thinking . . I hope I didn't break that. The jar that cracked was one I got out of the dishwasher (because I'm almost completely out of jars) so I'm betting that's what happened. It was one of my Azure jars so that makes me sad .. sad about the beans and sad about the jar.

Nice looking beans.

Tomorrow we're having roasted chicken for lunch because I need leftover chicken to make soup for Tuesday. Got the chicken seasoned and in the fridge. Got the countertops sanitized and all the chicken germs/bacteria cleaned up. Whew I was tired!

One last thing to do was take the dogs out for a walk. Oscar will not go out with Vince if I'm home. Maybe our dogs need to to take obedience classes! I take them one at a time so that took a little while. Came in. It was about 5:30. I thought I would sit down and read my email and look what's in my inbox!

SEVEN emails from Vince with recipes he wants me to make. I'm thinking . . I have spent the entire day in the kitchen and you're sending me recipes to try. I think I'm going to propose that I'll be the canner and he can be the cook - breakfast and dinner . . and clean up the messes and I'll keep the jars filled and the garden going. Sounds reasonable to me. Thoughts??  :)

Thursday

 Most of my days are so normal and predictable that most anything that is out of the ordinary seems weird. Today was out of the ordinary and a bit frustrating.

When we lived in Nevada, MO and in Texas, I loved my doctors. Here . . not so much. Every year when I see the doctor for my annual Medicare visit, I say I'm not going back. We do have a doctor that we pay a membership fee and can go as often as we like. I go there for things like ear infection, or allergy shots but I don't go to the doctor but once or twice a year. If it's anything I need Medicare to pay for, I have to go to a Medicare doctor and the membership doctor isn't a Medicare doctor.

We also have a naturopath that we talk to every few months and she does us more good than any MD around here. Obviously, I'm not happy with our medical care.

You know I have alpha gal -- maybe I'm over it. I've read that can happen. I have a colonoscopy coming up and the doctor and anesthesiologist always ask questions about that . . When was my last reaction? Do I ever eat beef? Do I eat any products that contain or were made from beef? Their questioning always makes me nervous, though I know there won't be any problems. Yesterday I was thinking . . what if I get an alpha gal test done and it shows I no longer have it . . then I won't have to go through the alpha gal questions. I sent my doctor's office a note asking if they would order an alpha gal test. I explained that I haven't had any incidents in years, I'm eating EVERYTHING now and would like to know if I can stop going through the alpha gal protocol for every procedure - even dental work. 

NO. They wrote me back and said something like "We have no diagnosis of alpha gal. We can talk about this at your next visit." Next visit is AFTER colonoscopy - two months after. 

I looked back through my records and from my first visit with this doctor in 2020, I told them I have alpha gal and it's on all my records, in the notes of every visit I've made. Not only that but they prescribed an epi-pen for me to keep because the ones I had were expired. What on earth would it hurt for me to get a blood test to see if I still have it??

So, I thought . . fine . . I'll get my medical records. Called the hospital in Kentucky where I went at least three times between 2002 and 2006. Nope, they only keep records for 10 years. Called the hospital in Nevada, MO and they were by far the most helpful. They only keep records for 10 years and we've been gone from there 15 years. They MAY have them in off sight storage so they're checking that. The lady I talked to . . her son-in-law has alpha gal so she was understanding. 

Called the hospital in Louisiana where I had to go once while visiting family. Nope - they only keep the records 10 years.

Called the hospital in Texas, who would have the records from when I did get tested in 2013. Nope . . only keep the records 10 years.

I can go to Quest and get a blood test on my own and pay for it for $149. I will do that next week. I should have done that and not even bothered with contacting the doctor. 

When I think about this whole thing . . I got bit by a tick and got a disease that no one even knew existed. I had numerous ER visits to four hospitals and no one had a clue what it was. The last ER visits was July 15, 2009. I had one more incident in about 2013 when a neighbor gave us ground beef from a cow they had raised and had butchered and they were complaining because there was so much fat. Vince grilled burgers and he was complaining about the fat flaming up. About midnight, I had an episode. The doctor in Nevada, MO had told me he had no idea what was causing it but he told me to take a cold shower and Benadryl and that might help. That night I did that - took a Benadryl and a cold shower and that stopped the reaction. I didn't want to go back to bed because I was afraid after taking the Benadryl, I would fall back asleep and then not wake up if my air passages closed up and I couldn't breathe so I stayed up and played on the computer. I knew all I had eaten that day was the hamburger so I googled "hamburger, hives, itching". Alpha gal popped up, along with Dr. Platts-Mills, who pretty much made the connection between the reaction and the tick and is really one of those on the forefront of so much that's been done to help those suffering with alpha-gal. I sent him an email at about 3 a.m. and said something like "I think I have alpha-gal" and told him my story. He wrote me back and we corresponded a couple of times. 

The naturopath told me that there are other issues alpha gal can cause besides the anaphylaxis issues and she thinks I should get tested before I say I decide on my own that I no longer have it.

So, I kinda feel like I've done all the work with getting myself through these reactions, discovering what was causing it, and here I am, thinking I'm over it and my doctor will not even order a blood test. 

It's frustrating!

Then . . I got up this morning planning to make sourdough sandwich bread, which I make every week. Then Vince asked me to make the sourdough rye too. OK . . I can do that. 

The rye dough needs to spend about 24 hours in the fridge so I will bake it tomorrow. 

But  . . the sandwich bread . . turned into the dough on steroids! I did everything as I always do - every week!! I always use my wall oven for all the baking. I put the bread in there. It needs to bake for 45 - 50 minutes. About 20 minutes into the baking, I was downstairs and I could smell something weird. I tried to ignore it but decided I'd better go upstairs and check it. The bread had risen so high, it was touching the top of the oven!

It was too big to leave in the wall oven so I had to take all the cast iron out of the stove/oven, turn the oven on, let it pre-heat and finish baking the bread.

When I bake bread or cornbread in cast iron, I don't clean the pan. I just stick it in the oven, then when I'm ready to use it again, I use a brush, scrub it (dry), then wipe it out with a damp towel, oil it, and heat on the stove. Then it's ready to go again. So . . most of my cast iron pans have crumbs in them!

I can't get over how much that bread rose in the oven. Here's what it looked like going into the oven.

Has anyone ever had that happen before? It's just sourdough . . no added yeast.

The bread tastes great. I told Vince it should last twice as long because one slice is as big as two regular slices. Vince did volunteer to try a slice of it and he says it tastes great. Just weird!