Well, the cold in Texas has gone away for this week, but it has been replaced with rain amounts that necessitate any kind of local travel to be taken in a boat. We’ve gotten over eight inches of rain in three days. Where the hell is that in August? But moving on…
As I mentioned in my last post, due to the extreme cold a week ago, I took to sleeping in a sleeping bag. I unexpectedly discovered that I actually liked it. It’s like being in a snuggly little cocoon and I never get cold. However, I did find that it’s not without negatives.
First off, absolutely don’t eat any kind of food that causes any type of gastric distress and secondly, you must remember that you are in a sleeping bag, and not under sheets. I had the bright idea (not really) of getting in my sleeping bag while on top of our definitely-taller-than-I-remember bed. All was well for the first several hours, until I was awakened by our budgie peeping his head off and I tried to get out of bed, forgetting that my legs (and body and arms) were well-encased in an enclosed nylon sack. In one quick second, powered by nylon’s amazing “slide-i-ness” property, my entire body shot off the side of the bed like a just-popped champagne cork. I landed on the floor with a sound that could have been best described as “the ceiling collapsing and falling on the floor” (at least, that’s what my husband said). My knee and upper thigh took the full impact and somehow my knee was perfectly skinned even though I landed on a rug wearing a long pair of flannel pants and still wrapped in my bag.
Fortunately, I pretty much only bruised my pride and other than the skinned knee, I was fine. I wish I could say that I learned my lesson, but I still craved sleeping in my bag and tried it on the bed again a few days later.
Some people never learn.
It’s a balmy 17 degrees!
Here’s our hottest piece in the 2024 Late Winter Collection! This gorgeous ensemble is available in two color combinations: Leaden Skies/Frozen Eggplant and Glacial Pool/Frostbitten. You’ll be sure to be the talk of the town when you flaunt this sassy number! Pairs well with woolen socks or Uggs.
Welcome to January in Texas, where it’s 70 degrees on a Saturday and 18 on a Monday. A magical and wonderful place where there were bell peppers growing up until this past week and today it looks like a frozen tundra. It’s supposed to be a blistering -1 with the wind chill tonight. I don’t mind it getting cold, but negative digits? Even temps in the teens are rare here, thank God, or at least they WERE up until 2021. Now we’ve seen them almost every year since. Anyhow, I’m now laid up on the couch, swaddled in sherpa, flannel, microfleece, and F-Uggs (fake Uggs). Last night I decided to play “camp out” and sleep in our living room. I got into camping equipment a few years back and decided to break it out and give it a trial run.
If you’ve ever tried sleeping on an air mattress in cooler weather, you will have quickly learned that it will suck the heat right out of your body like a straw. So, for this experiment, I tried out my Klymit Double V sleeping air pad (see pic below)
and combined it with some camping quilts from Sam’s and a Kelty Mistral 20 degree women’s sleeping bag. I also got to try out my Flextail Ultra mini air pump that I bought in December of 2022 when I was in a flu-induced semi-psychotic state while laying in the sun on our front porch floorboards. Note to self: Disable my Amazon account when I have a fever of 102 degrees or more. I cannot be held responsible for purchases made under these conditions.
Anyway, the good news is that everything performed beautifully and I wouldn’t hesitate to take all of stuff on a chilly camping expedition. Now for the bad news…
If you’ve lived in Texas for any time at all, you will come across cowboy wisdom-isms…usually on a t-shirt or some sort of decorative wall plaque or magnet. One of those sayings is “Don’t squat with yer spurs on.” And after last night, I have another. “Don’t sleep in a sleeping bag after you have eaten two bowls of broccoli soup.” Please trust me on this. You do NOT wanna do this to yourself or to the ones you love.
Let’s chat about more pleasant things, though. Though this season is fairly blah in the garden and outdoors, there are still beautiful things around. One of the best things is firewood, and a heck of a lot of it. We brought up a lot for this storm and put it on the porch. Side note: Jason and I made grapevine wreaths and swags this spring, and then I gathered the yarrow you see here and made this wreath. You can’t tell, but it’s painted a deep gold with some gold glitter.
Purty Thangs:
So what grows in the garden in early January? Well, a lot, actually. Here is some Waltham broccoli (transgressor!!!). I won’t be planting it again. Not due to its effects, but because it didn’t form very good heads. I’ll go back to Packman if I can find it.
In this bed, which my daughter grew, we have Japanese red giant mustard greens, curled kale, snow peas, Dutch cabbage and Swiss chard.
Here’s one I haven’t tried yet: savoy cabbage. If it survives this stint in the deep freeze, I can’t wait to try it!
Here’s a closer look at that red mustard! It’s so pretty in the garden.
Next are some Asian greens that have just decided to replant themselves. I think it’s Chijimasai greens from Baker Creek, but they could be hybridized by now. Either way, they are delicious and laugh off the cold weather.
Last peppers of the season! It was a terrible drought year in ’23, so I wasn’t surprised that the peppers kinda sucked for fall/winter. Usually I get TONS in November and early December. Oh well. I am excited about the persimmons, too. They are delicious and seedless! Hachiya…that’s the variety.
Last of all was a view from today at our local lake. Anyone fancy a Polar Plunge?
Now, dear readers, it’s time for me to feed the fire and finish up dinner. One item which will definitely NOT be on the menu tonight is what I’m now dubbing “Toot Soup”. It was an experimental concoction that I dare not repeat.
I’m hoping that you all are staying warm, friends!
For the month of January, WordPress does a blogging challenge called “Bloganuary”. That word congeals in my mouth like old gross milk. Some words just don’t flow and shouldn’t be combined, BUT I’ll play along since I’m so terribly rusty on my writing.
As a kid, I loved stuffed animals. Memorable ones included Jake the snake (a 12 foot long green snake that I curled up in a circle and sat in), a Pink Panther rocker chair thing, a Ganz Wrinkles bloodhound puppet (see pic…I am positive I had this exact one), a Teddy Ruxpin, and many more. But my all time favorite was my giraffe that I had since I was a baby.
Not exactly cute, not exactly ugly…I had one of these Wrinkles dogs by Ganz.
He was made of a nubbly yellow material and had tiny brown felt nostrils and a brown cotton mane and twisted cotton tail. His eyes were black plastic. His ossicones (horn-like protrusions) were made of brown felt. I will never forget the fateful day I took him to preschool for show and tell and the teacher took him and was demonstrating how giraffes drink water. When she did so, she shoved his neck down which causes his poor little stuffed giraffe legs to splay out at 90 degree angles. I was absolutely horrified and I swear that the legs never were the same since; the front two had creases that always made him sit wonky. I don’t think I ever took anything to show and tell again.
As far as what happened to my giraffe, when I was in my 20s, my childhood home caught on fire and partially burned. The giraffe was in a glass case where we kept some memorabilia and he was perfectly fine. I took him out and to the kitchen where I sat him on a counter. Due to my ADD and all of the hubbub going on in the house, I forgot to put him in my car. I never saw him again, so I am sure he got thrown away. I know a little stuffed giraffe meant nothing to anyone else, but he did mean something to me. Then again, life goes on, and what would I really do with him now other than keep him in a box so my kids can throw him away when I die?
Several months ago, I bought a set of soaps at TJ Maxx. Two of the bars were pretty plain; goat’s milk and honey or something similar. The third bar was chock full of chia seeds. I thought it an odd choice, but stuck it in the shower anyway. I regretted that decision almost immediately.
In the past, I’d already banned dark colored soap bars. I found no pleasure in having a shower stall that ended up looking dirtier when I got out than when I’d gotten in, nor scrubbing off charcoal-laced smears and bits that always managed to make their way to every possible surface of our shower curtain and walls. I’d banned bars with coffee grounds and oatmeal bits. After all, I was just trying to lather up my skin, not remove it with tiny, insidious, knife-like particles of things I’d much rather consume for breakfast.
However, chia soap took the freaking cake.
If you are at all familiar with chia seeds, either by once owning a (Ch-ch-ch) Chia Pet or consuming them in your diet, you will know that when you add water to the tiny seeds, something weird and miraculous happens. They turn from a plain little dry seed into a gluey and strange concoction that sticks to any surface it touches. Knowing this, please tell me why the soap makers of the world would ever entertain the idea of adding chia into their bars?
Here’s what went down when I used the chia bar: First couple of uses, no issues. The seeds were well below the surface of the bar. Next use: I unleashed the Kraken of soap additives and found chia seeds EVERYWHERE. They were embedded in my wash rag, the curtain, the walls of the shower, the soap dish, the floor, etc. I need to also add that they look suspiciously like seed ticks which only made the situation more horrific.
Because I am a well-established member of Overthinkers Anonymous, I began to wonder…Will the seeds sprout? When I come back tomorrow, will I have a baby chia plant in my rag? Our shower drain? Even worse yet, WHAT IF a sticky, gluey chia became lodged in a crevice somewhere on my own person and I didn’t know it? I can see it now…
INT. LOCAL HOSPITAL – DAY
My husband waits nervously in an ER waiting room. It is storming outside and he is pensive and silent as he watches the rain coming down. Doctor enters and escorts him to an empty room.
DOCTOR (apologetically): I am so sorry. We did everything we could do for your wife, but it just wasn’t enough.
HUSBAND (weeping): My God! What was it? A stroke? Heart attack? Aneurysm?
DOCTOR (avoiding eye contact): I…I’m afraid it was…Well, we’ve never seen this before…(cough nervously). I’m afraid that she succumbed to septic shock due to a, er, chia seed that was somehow lodged in her urethra. Again, I’m so sorry. Please accept my condolences.
Here, soap opera organ music fades in and then we–
FADE OUT.
Needless to say, after that played through my mind, I chucked the chia bar in the trash. Never again!
In the future, I’ll be sure to be much more careful when I choose soap bars, and I’ll keep the ch-ch-ch-chia seeds confined to sprouting or smoothies, right where they belong, and far far away from my naughty bits.
It’s already the new year; can you believe it? It’s been fifteen years since my first post! I was so excited to be here, in the country with plenty of room to spare and a passel of baby chicks on the way. However, I was a little less excited about the cold house, but I’m happy to say that after fifteen years and thousands of dollars in renovations, insulation, and upgrades, our house is still cold in the winter. That’s okay! I am still loving living “out here”. I have discovered wool socks and invested in a woodstove.
When my WordPress account came up for renewal, I thought about just letting it go back to a free account and not worrying with it. I have never written as much as I’d like. But dang it, I LOVE to write! I enjoy making posts and hearing from readers. I like to share pictures and stories and document our stay on the farm.
Every New Year’s Day, I try to choose a special word to represent the year. Last year, I attempted “Extraordinary” and I defintely do NOT recommend that one…The year started off so weird and funky that I abandoned it by the first of February. For 2024, I have chosen “Consistency”. If I described myself, the word “consistent” would not make the first 100 adjectives I’d use. Maybe even the top 300. I have a very well-developed self-destruct button. After 40+ year of self-sabotaging, I’m over it. I’m ready to do something different.
Thank you so much for sticking around, readers! I truly appreciate y’all and always enjoy hearing from you.
One last thing: I started a YouTube channel in 2023 called My Little Country. I like to share tips, gardening videos, recipes, and lots more. This year, I am going to put out more videos as soon as I fix my phone storage issues. Free advice: Always go with more storage if you have the choice!
My Little Country 