There have been combines and harvesters about the area in the past few days. On one day, all the surrounding bean fields had been harvested. With the size of the combines, the beans were off the fields really quickly. the neighbour across the road has been harvesting some of his cord for silage. It's interesting watching him because every once in a while he starts harvesting a new area and his tractor and harvester just suddenly and unexpectedly pop up in a new area of the field.
We've not had rain for ages. Everything is dry. Hubby ran the lawn tractor yesterday, just to get a few weedy patches and a dense grassy area over a leach bed. It didn't really have to be done, but better that then giving any mice and other rodents an easy way to get into the house in the fall.
I've been prepping for giving a presentation on Inkle Looms for the guild. Somehow I thought that it was next week, but it's the week after so I have a ton more prep time. I've samples of different patterns but some of the bits that were left from other projects are missing. I think that maybe I tossed them out, thinking that I'd not have a use for partial lengths. It's either that or I put them in a safe place thinking I'd know where that would be a couple of years later! It's probably the safe place and I will find them after the presentation ! I'll bring my ukulele to show the wider strap I wove but I'd been hoping to have the sample of the banjo strap too. I'm not hauling it to the meeting, nor removing the strap for a short program.
I do have samples of several techniques though, including monk's belt, some plain inkle patterns and even a bit of a narrow band of tablet weaving, all of which can be done on an inkle loom. I was hoping to get a sample of Baltic or Latvian pickup as well, but this weekend turned out to be crazy busy. We tried to go to the local garlic festival, but the line up to get in was really, really long and it was really, really hot outside by 11 am. Neither of us wanted to wait out in the sun for that long, to get in. We went to the market instead and I picked up really nice cauliflower for a very good price. Hindsight being what it is, I should have bought more and frozen it. However, it would have had to wait until next week for me to have time to put it up, so I left it there. But really, I could have gotten it done on Tuesday, since I don't have to do the demo then. I picked up cat food, and it was a pet event. I got tons of cat food samples to use as treats, some treats, toys, supplements and even a nice new silicon cat food tin lid, in a kitty swag bag! There were two adorable orange kittens at the pet rescue display. I refused to go and pet them because I was I figured I'd bring at least one of them home. I'd like another cat, but maybe not so much a kitten, but a little bit of an older kitty needing a home. Not too old, but a couple of years old.
It's cookie day at Westfield tomorrow. I'm making Hard Gingerbread from The Cooks Not Mad. I used the 1841 version, but it's the same as the 1831 version. It's a highly spiced, very delicious gingerbread which everyone who has tried it has liked it.
• 1 cup fancy molasses
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp each baking soda, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions:
Grease baking sheets or line with parchement paper. Preheat oven to 350° F.
Combine butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in molasses until well blended.
Combine dry ingredients and stir into molasses/butter mixture being careful to not over work the
dough.
At this point you can refrigerate the dough divided into to discs for about 30 minutes to help make it
easier to work. You can roll it up into logs, wrap in plastic wrap and then foil to freeze for future use
or just roll it out and cut lovely little cookies.
Roll about 1/4 inch on floured surface, or cut logs into 1/4 inch slices.
Bake 8-12 minutes until done. Let cool for 2 or 3 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to wire
cooling racks.
( I sometimes don't bother with the cloves or the salt – it works nicely that way too.) Spice can be
adjusted to taste, but the joy of these is that they are highly spiced and very flavourful
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