Salmonella On Parade
7:04 a.m. - 2010-03-20


It seems to have stopped raining for a few days, so it occurs to me that I really should get busy with the seed starting. I need to patch up the little plastic cold frame we got two years ago, because the sun has rotted the plastic around the zipper closures. I have some silicone goop that can patch it up, hopefully. The yard is all overgrown but the spouse hopes to do a little mowing today. This year I am having a larger but pretty basic garden with all the usual suspects: basil, beets, carrots, onions, flowers, pole beans, and cucumbers. I tried swiss chard last year and it got very buggy, but I notice that it did not die over the winter but came up clean and green this spring. Maybe it is something to plant in the fall and harvest in the spring.

I have been busy helping out a relative in poor health so my time for sewing and knitting is less, but I am still able to get a few things done. The year of Abby marches on with more skirts being finished. I made her a red pencil skirt, a black/white pencil skirt, a denim-look A-line skirt, and a dark red peasant top recently. I like making skirts because there are no cuffs, collars or other somewhat finicky things to sew. I tried out the Hong Kong finish, and while it looks good, it also takes a lot of time.

The embroidery machine came back from the sewing machine shop all fixed up but I haven't tried it out yet. I am getting anxious to get the spare room all organized which involves getting the big long desk over from my dad's house and finally setting my sewing machines out where I can see them. I need help to move the desk, though, and as it is tax time, my help is stuck in an office. I have also decided to get busy and get a new foot pedal for my beloved old Kenmore sewing machine. I think the old pedal is lost in the garage somewhere, because I took the machine somewhere and forgot the pedal in the car, then there was a big spousal car cleanout and the pedal disappeared. Since it has been 15 years or so since that happened, I can declare it well and truly lost and just see I can get a new one. I also need to give the machine a tuneup and get the tension fixed.

My dad's fridge died quietly without informing anyone of its intentions, so there was a big cleanup to do and many many big bags of questionable food to discard. Luckily, the repairman was able to come out the same day I noticed the demise and fix the machine. It is not a pretty sight when you have a 5lb package of hamburger in the freezer portion of the fridge and then the fridge does not work for two days before you discover it. Thank goodness they make kitchen germicidal cleaners. That fridge hasn't glistened with such a sparkling, antiseptic beauty in years.