Hope you follow me over there. I’ll be back here someday, but it’s too buggy for now and Sean hasn’t got the time to fix it for me this semester.
Recently in reskilling Category
Replica clothes pass Everest test (four years ago)
Wearing replica gear made from gabardine, wool, cotton and silk, he wanted to disprove the common myth that the 1920s climbers were ill-equipped to reach the summit.
“This is just another brick in my wall of evidence,” Hoyland said.
I’m getting back into the SCA. That’s the Society for Creative Anachronism,
…an international living history group with the aim of studying and recreating mainly Medieval European cultures and their histories before the 17th century.
Those guys.
I used to be in the SCA as a teen. I have thought about it for a few years but decided against it because the kids were too young. They keep growing up, these kids, so I’m going to take the plunge.
The two things that tipped me over the edge were S.M. Stirling’s novels of The Change - most particularly the first three, Dies the Fire, The Protector’s War and A Meeting at Corvallis - and the plan of study for the Gleeschool this year: the Middle Ages.
So I want things like this (hold the rayon, please)
Linen Fabrics at Dharma Trading Co.
and perhaps a pair of these, with decidedly non-period soles, thanks.
Of course we’ll need some outerwear from this
or this
The plan is for me, Faith and Abby to get set up first. Then, we can see whether we like it before going all-in as a family. Bede, while very appropriately named for a historical reenactor, is maybe not so much the fan. We’ll see.
I’m glad that the period I’m interested in has nice, simple clothing. I’m leaning toward ninth century Ireland. And at this point that means everyone gets ninth century Ireland.
This is completely insane.
Without further ado, I give you Sean, playing Rhapsody in Blue on the… the muted Gleeson horn*. Yeah, that’s it. With bonus helpless laughter from Sean.
*Gleeson horn built from a fill valve and a steel condiment cup.
I made socks for Gloria’s Bitty Baby, Baby Boo. Baby Boo is adored mightily by Gloria and I felt she deserved some handknits.
These are some teensy socks, folks.
I show them to Gloria.
Why, I think she likes them!
Arranging to her satisfaction.
There! Perfect.
I made laundry soap today. I don’t think I’ve blogged about that here.
One to one and a half cups grated (non-moisurizing) bar soap (any kind)
One cup Borax or other powdered boric acid
One cup baking soda
Use one to two heaping tablespoons per load, depending on water level. I hope to make our own bar soap soon too and be completely old skool.
I’ve given up Facebook. When I gave it up for Lent I got so much more done during the day. Coming back to it the last few weeks has shown me that I really can’t moderate it, so I’m cutting it out entirely. I read an article a while back about the addictive nature of Facebook and how each new update primes your brain to seek more, like a hit off a pipe. Yeah, that’s me. So, no more!
But that means I’ll be blogging more! Yay! I haven’t been blogging because I’ve been waffling about photo storage and haven’t wanted to upload pictures. And I feel like endless text is boring. But I’m going to soldier through that and just blog, pictureless, until I decide what to do.
We’re building a new playset with some of our tax refund. Well, by “we” I mean “Sean”. It’s the biggest carpentry project Sean’s ever attempted. It will look a lot like this:
Only with different kids playing on it, you know. I assume. Need to ask Sean.
was the O’Melays, who were the visiting friends! I didn’t want to out them until they got back to their lovely farm. It was such a delight to finally meet Tabitha who I have known for almost seven years. The kids all got along swimmingly. Tabitha’s children are generally between my kids in age: Tristan is one year younger than Abby, Kassi is nine months older than Gilbert, Toly is nine months younger than Trixie, and Rome is nine months younger than Gloria. This meant that there were multiple playmates for each O’Melay. Tristan flitted between the older girls and Gilbert and Kassi played with Gloria and Faith. Toly and Bede wrestled with each other like puppies, and Rome floated around the edges.
Everyone got a mild cold and stuffy nose but the only one really sidelined by it was Tristan, who spiked a fever too. Poor dude!
Overall the visit was wonderful. They came down so Karl could build a wall in our new garage to partition it off for Sean’s office, and that was accomplished. Karl is amazing. Tabitha and I made food, as previously noted.
I also got other gifts: Sean got me The Complete Sherlock Holmes
So all told, a Very Happy Birthday!
Gilbert’s favorite Wiggle is Sam Wiggle. (He is also partial to Greg.)
So I knit him this Sam Wiggle Sweater, which is to say, a taxicab yellow sweater.
He likes it very much!
Better shot of the actual sweater, vs. the boy in the sweater.
Our eyes are the same color, me and Gil.
Look, two little sisters as well!
Sweater pattern is the raglan from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns
I made taco meat tonight without a little plastic packet of taco seasoning. For the first time I made my own. And dang, it was goooood. I modified a recipe from AllRecipes as follows:
1 tablespoon chili powder 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1/4 teaspoon minced dried onion 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon black pepper
I used 2 tablespoons of the seasoning mix to 1 pound of meat. I also added a can of diced tomato and green chili. It’s pretty heated, but not painfully so. If you don’t add the can of tomatoes you’d want to add a half-cup or so of water. Very good! Next time a little less salt and a little more cumin. We used ground venison but I expect it would be great with pork or beef or turkey, too.
