The sheets supposedly chosen as being the finest (whatever that means – ‘best quality? Most comfy? Hardest wearing? No clue) in the world are supposedly made by Thomas Lee. They are 500 threat count pima cotton. best sheets They cost $239 regular/ $179 on special. That’s one fitted, one flat, and two pillowcases.
Now, it’s not that Aunt Toby and the DH are willing to sleep on burlap sacks. A good closely woven cotton (ok, perhaps with a bit of poly in it) sheet set is a joy to sleep on Continue reading →
Saturday was a huge day for us. We went to New York City for the day. The DH went to the Guggenheim and the Natural History Museum while I ‘took a meeting’ and took the aforementioned cooking class. The meeting was with one of my favorite bloggers, Geri Brin of FOF.
It was one of those experiences where you meet someone and you feel as if you’ve been friends ever since middle school. Geri is a New Yorker through and through. Though Aunt Toby did work in ‘the city’ for about a year during the period when no one knew if the city government was going to go bankrupt (they didn’t) or if I would stay (I didn’t), I left to go back to graduate school for a degree in accounting (which did not stick; the director of the program told me I’d make the worse accounting graduate they’d ever seen), met the DH at a softball game (he was catching; I was pitching), switched programs and the rest, as they say, is history.
And I have to say that her web site and programming on the site are first rate and thoroughly enthusiastic about a demographic that frankly gets zip in terms of attention and the credit that it (ahem, and me too) deserves: Women over fifty years of age. When you look at that group, it is truly mindboggling in terms of what we have achieved over the past 40 years. Unfortunately, American business still believe that the only group that counts is under the age of thirty, which given the general buying power of women over fifty, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Geri has put together a great site, filled with inspiring stories, great ideas, terrific giveaways and contests. Worth daily visits.
Anyone who knows me knows that Aunt Toby reads and participates in probably more blogs than she probably has time for, but what the heck. One of them, Fab Over Fifty has a site associated with it (interestingly enough, also called faboverfifty.com), which always has lots of terrific contests and giveaways (plus great articles about what women over fifty years of age are doing, creating, running, operating, challenging, combating, changing, winning and so on). I usually don’t enter contests but I did enter the one to win a free cooking class with Jyl Ferris, she of http://www.cookingforbachelors.tv/ . Continue reading →
As you might recall, Aunt Toby found some lonely little lost forgotten garlic plants last year and scrubbed out a little area and planted them.Second chances And promptly forgot them until they came back up in the spring. One of the wonderful thing about garlic is that they really are like potatoes, since you can’t see exactly what is going on; you have to just keep them weeded and watered and hope that you get something good when they are ready to dig up. Continue reading →
One of the joys of raising animals is really getting to know them in terms of behaviors and sounds. Roosters, on the one hand do crow with a sound that hovers in the ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’ range. Even when the roosters are just starting to feel their oats (or, their hormones), they can make a weak version of this, but crowing it is.
We’re brand new to turkey raising this year and it has been truly delightful to find out that turkeys make a bunch of different noises. But, none of them sounds like ‘gobble’. What I think that refers to is more like a ululation. ululation
They also cluck and make a noise that sounds a lot like a ‘ping’ – sort of a “Star Wars’ sort of noise. Again, I have no idea who’s doing what (supposedly the tom’s ‘gobble’ and the hens ‘cluck’ but I think they all ‘ping’.
As you can see, they look a LOT more like turkeys than the last time we took a look at them for you and they are starting to puff up and present ‘display behaviors’ a lot more now. But we have the rest of the summer and into the fall before they will be big enough to be recognizable ‘painted on a china plate’ turkeys.
Aug 12th, 2010
by htwollin.
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I know for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s still summer (for my readers fro the Southern Hemi- file this away) and it’s rather difficult, especially given the temperatures experienced this summer, to think about winter, but it’s out there. And for those of us for whom winter has, ahem, a ‘special meaning’ (as in it can get so cold that you’ll freeze the insides of your nose), soaking up the warmth is really nice.
We’re pretty loosey-goosey here at KCE; Aunt Toby doesn’t tend to promote or recommend products. A lot of that has to do with the fact that what works here at Chez Siberia just might not work for readers where in particular you are. But I’m making a special case here with Royal Burgundy Beans. For those of you in the UK, I know Thompson and Morgan has a type called “Purple Teepee”. Continue reading →
That’s really not quite the correct turn of phrase because we are basically moving most of the animals around in movable pens to new grass every day, but it will do.
As you may recall, the chicks and turkey poults arrived, aged three days, in the middle of May. Continue reading →
Jul 29th, 2010
by htwollin.
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There are places in sewing an article of clothing that I like to call “drop dead points”. These are places where if you make a mistake, you might as well pitch the entire deal as trying to fix the item becomes truly onerous. The first one is at the cutting out stage; if you don’t measure your important bits on the paper pattern, you could end up cutting out the wrong size. Even if it’s too large, it’s a pain in the neck to fix. One of my favs is putting on a waistband. There have been a number of times when I’ve made slacks or a skirt which ‘seemed’ to fit me perfectly and then after I put on the waistband, the item looked hideous. Continue reading →
Kitchen Counter Economics is a community where we can share ideas on how to save money, live more sustainably, and gain control over the stuff of daily living for ourselves and our families in the current economic environment. This started as a series of diary postings at the The Seminal at Firedoglake. Sit down, grab a cup of coffee or tea and prepare for a visit.
The sheets supposedly chosen as being the finest (whatever that means – ‘best quality? Most comfy? Hardest wearing? No clue) in the world are supposedly made by Thomas Lee. They are 500 threat count pima cotton. best sheets They cost $239 regular/ $179 on special. That’s one fitted, one flat, and two pillowcases.
Kitchen Counter Economics is a community where we can share ideas on how to save money, live more sustainably, and gain control over the stuff of daily living for ourselves and our families in the current economic environment. This started as a series of diary postings at the 
