Infill, apples, and a new platform

 This is a quick post...about a recent CBC article that went up this past weekend on Winnipeg's Infill Guidelines:

Winnipeg infill guidelines need improvement to protect neighbours

I also had another article go live on the Vancouver Jewish Independent's website, about apple picking, and how to value what we've got--when so many are struggling with poverty and illness.

Need to value what we have

And, last but not least, I am launching my knitting designs on another platform called Payhip, for those who choose not to use Ravelry, because of its accessibility issues. I only work part time and this process has been slow, so I've only launched the first design, with an accompanying low vision accessible pdf (for those with vision impairment)...but I'm proud to say that Rosie McStrippit is now available in three places: Payhip, Ravelry, and on Lovecrafts.com.  It's getting cooler here in Manitoba, and I actually wore this sweater just a couple days ago...no snow yet,although my kids are asking when it will start. (I hope we have another month yet?!)

Take care and stay well!

September happenings

We're slammed with produce in Manitoba in August.  In July, it's a little berry jam warm up, but then by the beginning of September, there may even be frost.  So, this year has been something of a canning frenzy.  I've been canning for sharing, so my shelves are full now.  Some of it is mundane: apple sauce, chutney, cucumber pickles...and some is a surprise.  My kids found these (extremely long in the tooth) okra in a neighbourhood schoolyard garden.  They'd never seen okra before! (haha, I have eaten so much okra during my time in Kentucky and North Carolina...) So, I quickly shoved it into a jar and soon we'll try some refrigerator pickles. 

Meanwhile, I continue to write at night and whenever I can fit it in.  Here's an opinion piece I wrote for the CBC-Manitoba website.

It's fair to say that Manitoba's back to school options have left me very stressed.  We have been offered a "go back to school in person with some safety protocols" or a "withdraw your children and homeschool them."  This isn't a fair choice--we pay for our children's public education and kids with challenges can only get special needs support in school here.  It's hard to find privately and expensive.  There's no remote schooling option.  While I used to teach and hold a Master's in Education, I know when I do not have the training to meet some of my kids' needs.  So, today we sent them back.  I've been doing a lot of cooking to comfort myself.

Stuffed grape leaves from a friend's grape arbor... and pie.  Lots of apple pie from apples we picked at a neighbour's house.

Also, the hundred year old house next door has been demolished and there is excavation taking place for a new house.  There was no architectural salvage done, the shaking has been affecting our house, and the noise and motion have worn me out.  This photo taken from our dining room window is cock-eyed, but it sort of represents how I feel.  (Yes, that digger was 18" from the window.  Maybe 2 feet.  No kidding.)  This just makes me sad.

It's noisy and dusty and dangerous to sit around outside...but this is what Sadie the dog was doing before the demolition hit.  It has made me realize how much the out of doors helped us all this summer...and now who knows how long we'll be unable to use our yard again.

In an attempt to brighten up the inside, I wove this rag mat for Sadie's water bowl.  Making things makes me feel better....and keeps the stress level down.  Perhaps that's why I've been canning, knitting, weaving, baking and more...at this frenetic pace.

Stay well!  Happy and healthy new year to all who are getting ready to celebrate 5781!

Back to school

The last few days before school starts, well, it was all a big blur.  Although someone may have taken some, it's easiest to admit...there are no photos that I took.  It was crazy.

We've been picking an older neighbour's apple tree (and tidying up underneath it) and well, it's a lot of apples.  I have an enormous shopping bag of apples left in the fridge, and that is after countless dehydrator apple chip sessions, applesauce, peach-apple jam, a couple of crumbles, and at least an apple a day for everybody.   (We have also donated a lot of apples so others might eat them.)

Then, last weekend, we went out to a U-pick vegetable farm, because I needed to make some pickles.  I thought I needed maybe 12-15 lbs of cucumbers.  I spoke with the farmer, who is also a professor at our Professor's university.  I held Sadie the dog's leash.  And before I knew it, twins and their professor dad had picked:
Over 40 lbs of cucumbers
a dozen ears of corn
a zucchini the size of a cricket bat
one bright orange winter storage squash

I stopped them right then and there.  It's been a lot of putting up since then.  I've canned 23 lbs+ of pickles.  The rest of those cucumbers also got donated.  A family can only eat so many...

While this happened, we prepared for the start of Grade 2!

And, this article ran...(and I missed it entirely, so forgive the delay in mentioning it.)
The benefits from repetition

Soon-- it will be a new year!  If you celebrate it, wishing you a very happy and healthy Jewish new year! It's 5779!  Now it's back to catching up.  Thank goodness for school. :)

Getting their goat...

Here's my newest piece on the CBC:
Getting their goat: Manitoba Hydro could save money, energy with grazing animals

Other good news:
--My friends in Houston, mentioned in the last post, are ok.  Their home didn't flood and they are helping others whose homes have flooded.  I expect everyone in that area of the US will have some hair-raising stories to tell the rest of us.  (Perhaps more people will catch on to climate change now?  That it is a real thing?!)

--We picked some apples locally..but there weren't a lot this year because we had some bad caterpillar problems in the spring that ate many apple trees' blossoms and leaves. Thank you, Aurora Pizzeria, for letting us raid the unpicked apple trees in your patio garden!)

Yesterday, we drove out to Plum Ridge Farm, which is near Teulon, Manitoba.  (about 20 minutes from Gimli)  We came home with a lot of apples, plums, and cucumbers.  To give you an idea of how much?  Well, I've canned 14 pints of pickles (dills and bread & butter) today, about 9 lbs of cukes, but there is still maybe more than 5 lbs left.  We gave away two large bags of apples this morning, some crab apples last night and we still have so many that there is no room in the fridge for it all!  We've made some apple chips and applesauce already.  Chutney, frozen apple slices, and jams will happen too, I hope.

--Putting up food means there is more "fast food" off the shelf when it's cold this winter.  It's easy to make apple crumble, applesauce or pie when the apples are washed, cut up, and ready to go from the freezer.

--It's been hard to do any canning at all with two little boys home, but they will be starting Grade 1 at a new school on Wednesday.  Whew!  Very exciting stuff, but also, I know some guys are sort of nervous, too.  (I get that--I never slept before the first day of school either!)

--In an odd twist, I am not teaching at the Manitoba Fibre Festival this year.  I'd been scheduled to do one workshop, but not enough students signed up.  (too many spinning classes scheduled at once, perhaps?)  Anyhow, it ends up being a relief, because the Professor (aka, the twins' dad) is going to be away that week, so now I can just hang out with my guys.  I love teaching, don't get me wrong, but sometimes things just work out to make things easier, and I cannot complain about that!  Hopefully there will be other times to teach in the future...down the road.

Our air has been a bit smoky from fires burning in Northern Manitoba, and today, we've dodged a few thunderstorms, but we're all remarkably busy and cheerful, considering.  I will miss the warmth of summer but I'm also ready for little boys to be in school again. :)

It's also a little brisk...is it time to make and wear knits again soon?

 Pictured:
The Spire Smock (in Saffron)
Gigadistal (in Variegated blue/periwinkle)
Ploughed Acre Socks 

Apples, cider and beyond

In past years, I have rhapsodized about fall and apples....my first real date with the professor was to go apple picking in upstate New York.  We make a habit of trying to pick apples every fall.  For the last three years, that has involved helping pick a neighbor's tree.  She lives a block away, and the first year after the boys were born, I raced back and forth between two car seats, popping one boy into a sling to nurse, and then the other.  We're now, at age three, up to the point where they can sometimes pick low hanging fruit themselves, but mostly spend their time chasing windfalls and testing apples with one bite out of several apples...each!

So, apple picking is not quite as romantic as it used to be.  We are visiting family in Virginia for a few days, and the professor surprised me with two lovely gifts.One was Apples of Uncommon Character: Heirlooms, Modern Classics, and Little-Known Wonders, a gorgeous copy of a book that is like a love song to apples.  The other was a 6 pack of hard cider, locally made.  I was able to bring some of that cider to share with a friend...and saved one bottle of it, so I got to drink peacefully by myself, as I read this fabulous new book.  Well worth the purchase of a hardcover, just to enjoy a cider while looking at the luscious full page photos.

Happy fall!  I am really enjoying the warmth of a sunny fall holiday at "home" in Virginia.  Back to Winnipeg, and cooler temperatures, soon enough!

What I did on my long weekend...

by Joanne --who isn't starting school right now, but can't help but write the 'back to school' composition...
#1. We went apple picking at a neighbor's tree on the next block. (we asked permission first!) I put up a lot of food. Roasted tomatoes, pureed, tomato sauce in freezer, dehydrated tomatoes (sundried tomatoes...), 5 quarts of apple pie filling, 2 quarts of "everlasting slaw" and we still had this left over...3+ large bags of apples. I also gave a lot of apples away and I can now close my refrigerator again. Whew!

#2. The Professor bought me these cool bags from Shipley Cargo made out of upholstery fabric remnants. As some of my friends know, I love me some bags and have way too many. Of course, you can never have too many knitting bags, although I am eyeing one or both of these as purses. I only ever manage to carry around one purse and never change it out until it's worn out, so we'll see how this goes...

#3. By Monday, I was completely worn out and insisted on some quality knitting time on the couch. I listened to The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East while I knit on the endless purple sweater. The Professor caught this photo of me in my very favorite knitting location...the couch, with Sally on the left and Harry on the right. Sally was asleep too until the camera started to click.

#4. The sweater has now been blocked and I hope to start sewing it up this evening. In the best of all possible worlds, I would have it ready to wear for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which starts later this week. I may be dreaming, but then, I thought this endless project would be done in January 2010, so well, a person can dream...

#5. The end of this week also is the end of Ramadan, so it's an auspicious time for holidays! 'Eid Mubarak! L'shanah tova v'metukah!
(Happy 'Eid! Happy and sweet new year!)

September--already?!

I've really enjoyed all your canning and preserving comments so I am going to keep the theme going here.

This week, I made cornichon flavored pickles. Seven pints of them. I didn't have little tiny gherkins so instead I sliced up yellow lemon cucumbers and enormous, size of your arm, killer green cucumbers and pickled those. In fact, I felt sure that if I didn't get those huge cucumbers cut up and into jars they would become the superhuman monster cucumbers that took over Winnipeg and killed us all in the middle of the night. You know, so I made more pickles. (Yes, I am scared of vegetable monsters. I think a zucchini the size of a baseball bat might come out of a closet and kill me sometime, and I don't even like zucchini all that much.)

I felt ahead. I felt calm. Then Thursday came, time to pick up more veggies as part of my farm share, and my friend said--"Oh, my in-laws gave me these apples." Right. Some apples...think two enormous shopping bags' worth. I love apples, so she gave them to me. Today I made 6 pints of spiced apple sauce, and earlier in the week I made pie with some other apples someone gave us and....I feel a little out of control. We still have a full bag and a third of these apples left, and no room in the refrigerator.

In order for this to be a knitting blog, I need to post photos of knitting. Most of the knitting I do is top secret or if not top secret, maybe just boring. However, my desk looks about how I feel right now...this is only part of my desk, too. Every surface sort of looks like this. A little disorganized, but clearly a work in progress. A clutter work in progress, perhaps?

Last night in bed, the Professor and I were talking about all this. I haven't quite calmed down yet from teaching every day, so I guess I'm on warp speed. I mean, today I baked 4 loaves of challah, canned 6 pints of apple sauce, wrote the draft of an article (1000 words), vacuumed some, walked the dogs...it's a little much still. I kept saying, in my conversation with him, how I just needed to, ummm, get things a little calmer. more organized. Like, I want to settle down soon, you know?

"I understand," he said. "Do you think that you'll feel better when everything in the house is organized into little jars on shelves in the basement?"

Funny, huh? The sad part? Yes, I just might. Unfortunately, my first concern was that we might run out of jars. Time for a long weekend, you think?