Stair Railing and Knitting

Our view from the hay fields of what we call “our mountains.”

Let’s see–what shall we talk about? Bidet is installed amid much grumbling from the Cowboy–he had to re-plumb the toilet. Oh dear! But it didn’t take him long and his wife is happy–that’s important when you are quarantined together!!  This house has a basement with nice stairs–built by Nat–wide treads, not steep but at our age we need a stair rail. Let’s just say that for a while that railing has been on the Cowboy’s “honey do” list. He’s now working on our stair rail. My mother when she comes to visit next will be pleased!

The robins are hopping around looking for a place to nest–no lady you are NOT nesting on top our outdoor lights–go away! It’s too early for you to even think about having babies!

My knitting project isn’t going well. I’ve knit the same four inches forty times I’m thinking. I have a hard time looking at knit stitches and figuring out how to fix my mistake–so I rip–and knit those same four inches again and again–I’m wearing out the yarn. I did find an excellent YouTube video yesterday and the next time I make a mistake (and trust me, there will be another mistake) I will try to fix it instead of ripping. One of my quarantine goals was to learn to knit and I’m running out of time!

I’m going to make a few more masks for a friend with an auto immune disease–she is sticking very close to home, having her groceries delivered to her father’s house in town–he also doesn’t go out. Her partner, another cowboy, is being wonderful about taking precautions to protect her. He is helping with calving on a neighboring ranch and comes in contact with a few people–at a distance, but…..

My family in Arkansas as of Friday evening have power–it’s been out since Easter Sunday evening. My niece sent photos of her laundry hanging outside and the caption read, “been a long time since I’ve done this!” Her text last night before the power came on said, “I’m ready for peace and quiet (no generator running), my ceiling fan and my dryer.

I made the best spaghetti sauce Friday and paired with homemade bread and salad it was a great meal–one of our favorites. Earlier in the week I made a pan of Pioneer Woman chicken enchiladas and we are still enjoying the leftovers. Lonn and Katie made a grocery store run and were kind enough to pick up a few items for us. The Cowboy left a barrel and sign “please leave packages here until April 24th” down near the road in front our neighbor’s shed–Katie’s husband Michael delivered the groceries and left them in the barrel.

Saturday was pizza day and I made a chocolate cake–The Best Chocolate Cake, Ever and it is the best chocolate cake ever. The Cowboy and our granddaughter Katie LOVE Costco’s multi layered chocolate cake. When I baked this one they both said, “this is better than Costco’s cake!” I only have eight inch cake pans and the batter made enough for three layers. I froze two of the layers, cut the frosting recipe (link is included in the recipe) in half and we will eat just one layer–do you believe that??  I don’t!

Sunday was more of the same, fighting with the yarn although I’ve made progress in learning how to fix my mistakes by watching the same YouTube video over and over and over. I even started the longarm and quilted a bit before making lunch. The Cowboy is working on the stair railing. The wind is blowing, the temps are cool but at least the forecast was wrong–it didn’t snow, only a bit of rain.

The West Boulder mountains viewed from our hay fields.