Even when the water has been sitting out in a watering trough or water-er all day long and is the temperature of bath water, as long as they have access to it, livestock will drink it. And it will keep them alive. They might not like it; it might have slime on the bottom. But in 100 degree temperatures, it will keep them alive. The younger they are, the closer to birth they are, the more they need water and lots of it. And the greater the chances that if they don’t or if they don’t have access to it, they will not make it. The higher the temperatures go, the faster they will expire without water and access to it.

This past week, the temperatures up in our area were absolutely mind-blowing. High 90s every single day. The first day was a holiday and although we filled all the animals’ waterers full, we also took off to do ‘our own thing’ for the day, forgetting …that sometimes, things happen. The chicks in one of the pens tipped over the waterer. We did not get back until late in the day. You can guess the result, though we were lucky and only lost a dozen. These were not brand new chicks; these birds were 6 weeks old. But it did not matter. No access to water and within a few hours, overheating. For the rest of the week, our son was at home and every day, he went up a couple of times during the day to check on the animals, make sure they had plenty of water. No more losses.

Water – it’s what animals need. All the damn time.

(photo courtesy of oddobjects)

So, I was rescued by a couple of guys named Ernest and Carlos (father and son), who got me off the road, pulled my cell phone out and called the DH, and stayed with me until he showed up. Probably a half dozen other people stopped, inquired, or raced over to lend assistance. To everyone out there – my humble thanks especially to Carlos who held onto me while I was retching from the pain. I got lucky in the ER – mid afternoon on Friday is not so busy that I could not get seen right away.

Weirdest things about the ER:
The first question they asked me was not “Where does it hurt?” It was “Were you wearing a helmet?”
I was wearing my Rx sunglasses when I went in – they did not take them off until they sedated me
(and I mean “totally knocked me out”) to put my dislocated shoulder back in (which for some reason is referred to as a “reduction”). I must have looked very odd in my spandex shorts, bike shoes and sunglasses. Considering the amount of begging for painkillers I was doing, I do not think Lance Armstrong is going to be asking me to join LiveStrong any time soon.
The other thing is that I was apologizing constantly. I have no idea why.

I’ll be seeing the orthopedist on Monday. In the meantime, I’m discovering all the things I can’t do now because I don’t have the use of both hands.

Since the plants won’t be staying in that particular bed, I am not worrying about spacing at the moment; I just want to remember what I sowed where, so for memory’s sake, I drew a rather crude diagram that looks something like this:

===================Sugar Snap Peas====================
Chinese Kale============Brussels Sprouts=====================
Carrots================Beets==============================
Spring Lettuce Mix=========Starbor Kale=========================
Broccoli=================Chard=============================
Spinach================Red Kale===========================
Cabbage===============Curly Kale

Once they come up, I’ll be able to space the plants out into the other beds, but in the meantime, we will be digging over the other beds to get them ready. While I was planting the seeds, I found a lonely refugee potato that got left from last fall. Part of it is a little bit soft, but I transplanted it into another bed just to see if it will come up as a volunteer.

At the other end of the bed-under-glass, I’ve got two experimental rows going. A couple of years ago, I did a little experiment in hybridization with a hosta and with an iris (irises are actually really easy to hybridize). I’ve been keeping the seeds I collected in folded up paper towels in the fridge and I figure this year is as good as any to see if a) they will germinate and b) what we’ll get. So I put those in at the other end and we’ll keep an eye on that also.

Just a reminder, though; if you have a soil thermometer (and as you can see, I’m using an old meat probe there, so you don’t need anything fancy) and can get temperatures of at least 50 – you can put in anything from greens to anything in the beet and cabbage family and get them going. The soil is NOT warm enough for things such as squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, or anything like that, but for hardy spring crops, now is good. I know in various areas of the country, there are traditional dates of planting (in our area, Memorial Day is ‘get your garden in’ day) but with climate change, we need to be more flexible.

Until the next time..

But I saw something today that I just find so exciting that I have to blog about it:
Wooly Pockets. These are pockets and freestanding carriers which you can use to grow houseplants, fruits, veggies, everything.They are a great idea for people who want to grow stuff but don’t have yards or much ground. They are made in the United States, by a family-owned company, out of recycled plastic bottles. People are using them to make vertical wall gardens; they are being used for school gardens. Indoors. Outdoors.

Aunt Toby is speechless (and that is saying something).
Here’s the site. I love clever ideas that people bring to market.
Woolypocket

But the fragrance. On a hot summer’s day, it will lift you right off your feet.

Now, passersby might appreciate them, or not. But I am a rose rustler – I am not about to allow these poor ignored bushes – the remains of what was once a glorious mansion on this street – to disappear, so the other day, I walked by to examine them and see what was happening rose-wise. Now, most instructions on growing roses from stem cuttings tell you that you should cut when you see so many leaves on the stem and so on. Here’s a site with every method known, from the humble Mason Jar to more high tech methods.How to Root Roses

And I have used the cut a stem with so-many leaves’ method with great success in the past, but sometimes it doesn’t work and I feel that the reason is that I’m getting the cuttings too late in the season. The plant has, in its own way, ‘shut down’ and will not make roots. The earlier you can get to the plant when its starting to open leaves, the better your chances are of getting a stem cutting to root, IMHO.

So, when I walked by this week (and I think anyone will admit that mid-March is very early), looked closely and saw the stems budding out (see the photo above), I frankly whipped out my handy nail scissors, took some cuttings from both bushes, wrapped them in a plastic bag I keep in my purse for just such occasions, and put them in water when I got back to work. When I got home, I split the bottom a little bit, dipped them in water and rooting hormone and put them into growing mix in a four-pack. I then put them into a plastic bag and put the whole shebang on top of the warming pad under the lights in my basement and we will see how successful this is. when they root, I’ll set them in a side bed for this year to let them get their feet under them and then I’ll transplant them into final spots next spring. It’s a great way to obtain plants for the garden and you can use the same technique to increase bushes of various types that you might want more specimens of.

Rooting hormone is one of the wonders of the gardening world. There are more sophisticated formulations out now, including gel that comes in packs like pudding, and liquid and powders you can mix up yourself. The humble jar of rooting hormone, however, doesn’t go bad, I can always find it and I’ve used it to root roses and other plants that are not too woody, split and root stems on big woody houseplants, and rescue some iris corms that needed to undergo some of my more vicious surgery after I found them infected with bacterial rot (I carved off all the sloppy stuff, dipped them into hot water with a little bleach in it, rinsed them off, powdered their behinds with a bit of rooting hormone and put them in fresh, un-infected soil, where they obligingly rooted).

As Damon Wayans said as Major Payne, “Works ever’ time.”

What IS rooting hormone? Well, the original formulation, discovered by the Dutch in the 1930s, was a form of giberillic acid, but the common formula these days is indole-3-butyric acid. You can find this powder in many home and garden centers; if you are looking for something more sophisticated such as the liquids or gels, retailers who handle hydroponic gardening supplies usually have these. Or, try this site (one of many, believe me): Home Harvest
One thing to remember, though; these ARE chemicals. Wash your hands after using them, do not just dump left overs down the drain or toilet, and so on.

The amount of time it takes for roses to root is up to two months, so I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, I’ll keep my eye out for rose bushes in abandoned lots and old yards. Ask around, and ask permission – you never know what you’ll find. Figure it this way – if a rose has survived without any trimming, pruning, spraying or fertilizing for years – it’s a great candidate for your garden also. It might be one of the more rambling types, but they are tough and with training, you could end up with a fine specimen.

Until the next time.

There’s a whole lot of keeping score going on out there in Blogistan because it IS the end of 2009 and as creatures of habit, we seem duty bound to look behind us and try to get a grasp on ‘oh, what a good boy am I”. If Aunt Toby turns around like that, she gets a major spasm in her neck that no amount of hot showering, massage and drink will assuage. I’m reading great reams of lists of accomplishments – I am amazed that people had time for regular bathing and going to the toilet. Honestly.
Life ain’t a contest.

In my case, though, I will admit to a little bit of ‘what worked and what did not.”

Gardening:
Worked: Anything from the cabbage and beet families and potatoes
Disaster: Tomatoes and peppers (from the same family as potatoes but the blight carried everything off

Chickens:
Worked: Light Brahmas are still chugging along, though they do seem pretty sensitive to temperatures under 30 degrees in terms of laying eggs.
Disaster: Zip ties on the moveable pens. I think the plastic degrades in the sun.

Sewing:
Worked: Doing one thing at a time and finishing that.
Disaster: Can’t think of a thing at the moment.

So far, so good. Looking forward to 2010:
Chickens: We’re going to get more chicks in the spring, probably earlier than we did this year. The basement thing worked well until it got nice enough to put them out under the lights in the barn. I don’t know if we will get more Light Brahmas or go with something else like Delawares.

Gardening: I’m going to pay a LOT more attention to ‘blight resistent’ in the descriptions for seeds this time. It was very upsetting to not be able to get any tomatoes this summer when I wanted to can. We had no sources for local tomatoes at all, even up in the Syracuse area. Total washout.

Sewing: Well, the DH has already put in a request for several short sleeved dress shirts, so that is ‘on the spike’ as they would say, along with a gor-gee-ous piece of light weight tan wool shirting (with black reindeer!!), which I’m going to make a long sleeved shirt for him out of. I might even try making him a pair of dressy slacks that would go with the shirt so that he has a pair of slacks that he can wear that are not part of a suit. For me, I’ve got forest green wool jersey knit to make a dress and brown and forest green plaid flannel to make a jacket and a skirt for myself. Those three things will keep me going through to the spring.

But see..no resolutions…

It has been Aunt Toby’s great good luck in life that there were periods when I had jobs at the winter holiday season (or, as we call it here at Chez Siberia, “The Big Darkness”) in at one time a daily newspaper, and at another time, in the laboratory of a community hospital.

And today’s offering is in tribute to all of those good and dutiful souls (yes, I realize that most of them are getting some sort of ‘holiday time and a whatever” but they are NOT at home, with fam, sucking up ‘White Christmas’ on the tube) who are, depending on their jobs, watching the weather, watching the roads, watching out for us, watching out for bad guys, watching the patients, serving the needs of millions of people everywhere while the rest of us are snuggled up at home, doing whatever we do today, in the blind confidence of their service.

For several Winter breaks when I was in college (lo these many many years ago), I was able (and I admit to having pulled a few family strings) to get a job in the bacteriology lab of our community hospital. It was a very small laboratory, in the basement and we handled all sorts of specimens that Aunt Toby is NOT going to describe here (I do have the sensitive feelings of my readers’ stomachs at heart after all). There was a front hemotology lab, where the phlebotomists (isn’t that a lovely word?) would take the blood specimens, put them through the analyzer and also read the smears under the microscopes, clicking off the reds, whites, and so on with little keyboards next to them, while they did the ‘fields’ on the plates. There was also a chemistry department where they had an entirely different machine which took up most of the hallway in the back, and they would do the blood chemistries for people who’d had heart attacks, gall bladder disease, and so on. There was also, in the front, a department for the director of the laboratory, who was a pathologist with a staff person of his own who handled making all the slides for his studies. He was a big, bluff, crusty guy and his assistant was a big, bluff, crusty former nurse who was about 6′2″ tall, who used to dye her hair a ferocious shade of purplish brunette and who was devoted to the doctor.

This was truly a no-nonsense place, with a routine that was punctuated with crackling announcements of “code five” which would empty the place like a three alarm fire while the most experienced of the techs would rush down the halls with their equipment and trays to the emergency room. The first break I worked in the laboratory, there was a horrible snow storm through Christmas Eve night and I arrived for my shift at 7:30 a.m. to find the place abandoned except for the receptionist and the chemistry techs in the back getting ready for the onslaught of specimens that they knew would be flying into the laboratory from patients brought in from several multi-car accidents just before. I was assigned to get equipment, plates and record keeping materials set up in the other departments so that when the techs came back, we were ready.

That morning was a fever of activity. No chitchat. No questions about the kids. Just hard, grinding, careful work. No one got a chance to go to the cafeteria for any sort of lunch; we were making do with stale peanut butter crackers that one of the techs had stored in a desk drawer. By 2 p.m., the pace had slowed enough so that we could start to clean up.

At this point, magically, the pathologist and his assistant showed up, armed with a lab tray of specimen beakers and a bottle of scotch. The assistant poured a bit into each glass – the rest of the staff crowded into the bacteriolgy laboratory, leaning against the stone tables while the drinks were handed around. The pathologist saluted everyone.

“Merry Christmas,” he said, knocking it back. He waited a moment to see the rest of us join him (some of us coughing and spluttering a bit).

“Back to work,” he said.

So, for all of you out there who do the same on Christmas, who work, and watch, and care and do your duty for the rest of us. Thank you.
(photo courtesy ofJim Frazer)

The good news for us (bad news for Pam) is that her supplier sent her far more interfacing than she ordered…and she can’t send it back.

Oh dear. So Pam is holding a blow out sale. So, now is the time for all of us to think about all the different projects we want to sew this winter and spring. It’s a truly great deal on several different kinds of her very best interfacings which are frankly good for everything. Pam is offering up to 6 yards of each color of any sort of interfacing for $5.98 per yard. Fabulous Price!
For details, go here: Pam Erny Sew Exciting

Sewists – start your shopping lists!
(Let’s see now..I’m going to make shirts for the DH and knit dresses and …..)

Which is why this coat, once I really got cranking on it, has taken soooooo long. The fabric is, ahem, shall we say, not exactly wind proof. Which meant that I absolutely had to not only put some sort of fusible interfacing on it to hold it together and perhaps seal it up a little bit, I had to also interline it. I chose thinnish wool flannel (which I got from fabric mart), which I ran through the hottest water in my washer and steam pressed to shrink the heck out of it. And I’ve also gotten some wonderful heavy flannelized lining from Haberman Fabrics to line it.

This coat is going to weigh a ton.

There are a lot of other sewists out there who have made and are currently making coats. There is a level of expertise out there that is truly astonishing – having this available is one of the fantastic benefits of sewing on the web. As usual, however, your dear Aunty has decided to stumble through this activity, with nods here and there to what I think are the best ideas that I can use.

1) Modifications to the pattern. As you can see from the diagram, both the upper yoke and the back bottom of the coat have center seams. I took out the center back seams on the upper yoke and the back ‘skirt’ of the coat. The only reason I can see for having a back seam is to put a kick pleat in the coat and since this is a swing back, I did not see the need for it. Second, when you interline a coat, as you can see from the pieces in the photos, you have to sew the interlining just UP TO the seamline. Eliminating the center back seam eliminated some hand sewing. Yes, Aunt Toby has a major laziness factor to struggle against – and sometimes, laziness wins.
2) Modifications to the technique. Another way to deal with the whole ‘interlining to the seam’ business is to …ignore that. In the front of the pattern, there is a princess seam going from the shoulder down to the bottom. Not wanting any MORE bulk in the (ahem) front, I sewed the side and center front pieces together, steam pressed the heck out of them, put in the hair canvas pieces by hand and then used this complete unit as the pattern for the interlining piece, trimming off the center front edges . Yes, I had to catch stitch the interlining along the princess seam, but this did eliminate some hand sewing. In the photograph, you will see a piece of yellow paper with a grainline arrow on it – this is my coy method of letting you know that under that interlining is not only one layer of hair canvas there, but two, with the second piece in that shape of the yellow piece of paper. This is, in men’s tailoring, called ‘the chest piece’ and in men’s tailored coats and jackets, this supports the area of the anatomy between the shoulders and the widest part of the chest, which without some support would actually collapse. In formally tailored garments, they even pad that area. What I did was cut a chest piece on the bias grain (thank you Tailoring) and then I fused it to the already sewn in hair canvas using fusible web (see, I told you I was lazy).
3) Sleeve interlining. Some books advocate only interlining the top section of the sleeve, but I felt that with the outer fabric being so ‘air-conditioned’, I would be sorry if I did not get some interlining into that sleeve, especially on the outside. So, that’s what I did. As you can see from the photo, it is not only interlined, but also has a muslin ‘stay’ (thank you Erica Bunker) in it as well. Erika would have put a muslin stay in the yoke but I figured that the hair canvas being sewn right to the coat fabric was ‘stay’ enough.

The back is done. I sewed down the pleats and steam pressed them separately from the rest of the back. The fronts are done, as are the sleeves.

Next up? Attach the fronts to the back and then…

(Cue scary organ music)

Putting in the sleeves.

Until the next time….

Part of it is the price of the materials. I won’t be delusional about it. Good coating costs real money – and it’s not something you can find at your local ‘national craft store masquerading as a fabric store’ chain place. A lot of people who sew love beautiful fabric but don’t want to cut into it for fear of making a mistake. That’s why making a muslin is so important – if the muslin fits, then the item you make in the ‘real stuff’ will fit too. That is what it is for – to work out all the bugs before you cut into the coat fabric.

There’s also the ‘Oh, how can I handle this big, heavy thing’ aspect. When you work with wool (or any of the animal based fibers), you are looking for weight. Let’s not fool ourselves – when it comes to animal based fibers (wool, mohair, cashmere etc.), weight equals warmth. And the reason for that is because the reason this stuff is warm is that the fibers have scales (they are hair, after all) and those scales trap warm air next to us and help to keep us warm. The more scales you’ve got surrounding you, the warmer you are. To get a lot of scales, you need lots and lots of fiber — and that means weight. I realize that there are people out there that are devoted to wearing goose down coats – bless you for giving new homes to all those feathers and undercoats of birds. But I look like Bibendum (which is the name of the mascot of the Michelin Tire Company) wearing a down coat. Down is really not something you can actually tailor close to your body without losing a lot of the benefits. Down provides warmth through puffiness — Aunt Toby does not DO puffiness.

And then there is the whole ‘good wool coat’ thing – which is emotional, really. I was brought up with them and tried to foist them onto my kids as well. I’ve tried to get the DH to buy himself a black topcoat for 30+ years; the best I could arrange was a lined trench. Sigh.

From a plain old ordinary ’sew the seams together’ aspect, if you can sew a dress or a shirt and get the sleeves in properly, you can make a coat. They basically require the same technical proficiency at the sewing machine. Take a look at two different diagrams. One is a dress and one is a coat.

Both of these have common elements: set in sleeves, seams, buttons up the front. The only difference, really is that one of them is made with thicker fabric and is going to use different weights of interfacing on the lapels and fronts. If you don’t want to use sew-in interfacing on the coat, there are really good fusibles now on the market that you can use.

Another thing about animal based fibers like wool – you cannot burn them. It’s not like making a dress or blouse out of petroleum based fabrics like polyester or something like silk, where the wrong temperature on the iron and you are looking at basically a total loss. Wool is actually fire-resistent (which is why hotels and other public places use it in upholstery and rugs – even if you threw a can of gasoline and match out there, the fibers would smoulder for a very long time and would not catch fire). So, as long as you press with a moist cloth, all that is going to happen is that you will steam the heck out of it (which is a great thing for shrinking stuff into spots that they might not want to go into smoothly) and raise a smell like a wet dog.

No problems there.

So, how to conquer your Fear of the Coat?
1) Look at your skills at the cutting and sewing. If you can make a button down the front shirt and do a good job putting on a collar and setting in the sleeves, a coat is no issue for you. If you can do the sleeves, but the collar is not so good – then look for a coat with no lapels like this one, Vogue 8520: A coat such as this one is going to depend on good heavy coating. There are not even buttonholes to drive you nuts, either. A great first coat and in a good basic color like black, grey, tan, brown, dark blue, or dark grey, you can jazz it up with long leather gloves, scarves, and even do a little Michelle Obama thing and put a brooch at the neck.

2) If you have or can find an old coat at the Salvation Army or Goodwill, take it apart and see what they did. They’ve interfaced the edges of the front, the bottom hem and the bottoms of the sleeves. With iron-on interfacing, you can do that too. They put shoulder pads in – that’s not a hard thing (fold ‘em in half, line up the half-way marks on the shoulder seams, pin them in so the non-curved edges extend out about a 1/2 inch from the shoulder seam and baste them in through the shoulder seam with thread to match the coat fabri)c.

3) Lining. Is it Fear of the Coat? Or is it “How the heck do I put in a lining?” Ah — there are as many techniques on putting in a lining as there are sewists, I think. There are books on putting in linings. There are classes on putting in linings. Aunt Toby was taught how to bag a lining in her high school sewing course, lo these many years ago…and I still end up making the entire lining (which is basically like making the coat over again, only in lining fabric), sticking the lining sleeves into the coat sleeves, tacking it in in spots, trying the coat on, twitching it a bit, and then sewing the lining into the facings with her teeny tiny annoying hand stitches. Invest in a good tailoring book. Here is a great list of books for a sewing library: Erica Bunker’s Sewing Library
Here is also a complete site devoted to a coat sew-a-long: Coat Sew-a-long
If you are a devotee of sewing blogs (and there are many many wonderful ones out there), many of the bloggers have made coats over the past year – ideas a-plenty.

Trust me – this IS something you can do. And because you are going to pick good quality coating and good quality lining (heavy satin, preferably with a flannelized back if you can find it) and do a good job sewing it up, you are going to have a coat which will last you for years, will not fall apart, that you won’t have to reline after one year’s wear, and that you can be proud of. Oh, and it will cost you less than anything even approaching it in quality from the department store. And THAT, is a good thing.

Here are some of my favorite sources for stuff for coats:
Fabricmart
Gorgeous Fabrics
Fashion Fabrics Club

If you live in or near a place such as Philadelphia or New York, you have your own districts for fabrics — go, visit, and get the actual feel of good coating. You want something that is dense, heavy, as close to 100% wool as you can get it (or wool and cashmere or wool and mohair, etc.).

And don’t forget – buy the lining, the interfacings, etc. all at the same time you get the coating so that you can get lining that matches. Ask for ‘coat lining’ and don’t accept anything less than super heavy satin faced polyester. Do NOT buy acetate. It’s sleazy; it’s cheap and you will have to line the coat again one year from when you finish it. It is one of the ways coat manufacturers cheapen the product (to maximize their profits) and it is, as far as I am concerned, cheating the consumer. Don’t cheat yourself – make the coat to keep you warm and make it to last.

But don’t be afraid.
(photo at the top courtesy of The Wisconsin Historical Society)