Things I want to do

I have decided to make a list at some point of things I want to learn to do or thing I want to do better. A lady that writes one of the blogs I follow has challenged her readers to do a "want to learn list". I can name a few right now. The one thing I want to learn is to knit. When I was a teen an older lady at our church taught me the basic stitches and since then I have forgotten even those. I also want to learn how to crochet using patterns. As of right now I can look at a crochet pattern and it may as well be written in Greek. Maybe somebody has written a book "crochet pattern reading for idiots". I also this winter would like to finish my family cook book. I had started it on my computer last winter just putting in recipes for dishes that we make a lot and how-tos pertaining to doing things in the kitchen. I'm not doing this cook book for sale, mainly just for the benefit of the kids and family. As I was adding some of the recipes I was suddenly aware that my cooking style is very Appalachian with a southern twist. A lot of what we eat is prepared the same way my grandmother would have made it. And if any one has read the book "Nourishing Traditions" it explains a lot of why certain things are prepared a certain way. Around here when we fix pinto beans they are cooked with a piece of salt pork or ham in them. I always thought that's just the way po folks cooked. But really to unlock all the enzymes and nutrients in the pintos they must be cooked with added animal fat. The book sure explained a lot of things that were a mystery up to that point. Add reading the book again to my want to do list.
We did get out this afternoon and clean out the chicken house and got new dry bedding put in for the chickens. The cornish cross are eatin, drinkin, poopin machines. To get them to grow well and be strong they need food around the clock. And with a constant supply of food and water it is near impossible to keep their bedding dry. I had been adding more dry straw to the building every day to keep them happy and today I tole Rodger we need to just take out all the wet straw and start with a fresh layer of good dry bedding and that should hold them till next weekend when I will definitely be butchering them off. They just were not big enough to suit me today to butcher. In cooler weather they grow slower because they use a lot of their food to maintain body heat and not so much putting on meat. It was cold out today. Even working cleaning the building I had to keep my sweatshirt on and I was still chilly. Did I mention I don't like cold weather. I don't think we will see much of a warm up till next spring. I am just looking forward to getting all the outdoor things finished up so I can stay in a start on this want to learn list. I do know for sure I have some sewing projects that need to be done. Summer past when we went to the 127 yard sale we picked up some California king size comforters for about $5 each and I want to use those to make new covers for the cushions in the patio chairs. Lots to do, now how to motivate me.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella