At Last!

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At last we have a beautiful spring day! It is 15C out there, the sun was shining this morning, although it has disappeared now behind grey clouds, and there is a lovely breeze, as opposed to wind. Thursday and Friday were dismal indeed, cold, heavy rain, high winds… but today, beautiful! Attila just came back from a visit to the home building center. Attila was again the only person wearing a mask when he went to the building center. People were properly lined up outside the store, two meters apart as required, allowed to enter one by one, and the cashier was behind her plexiglass wall. No one was wearing a mask, not the staff, not the customers. Except for Attila, he wears his mask, he changes and washes his clothes when he comes home. We hope for a vaccine for the coronavirus, and accept that it might never come. In the meantime we intend on enjoying what we do have, and that we are relatively safe as long as we avoid other humans. Attila is just finishing off the last of the fiddly bits on the third wall of the basement. That makes three walls completely insulated, dry walled … Continue reading →

Mending

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Attila is hard on clothes. He is a very physical person, in that he moves all of the time, even when he is asleep. His trousers take a real beating. Yesterday we discussed what would happen when he is called back to work, which is terrifying because we are both in high-risk-for-complications categories. In the event that he must reenter the manufacturing building where he works/worked, clothing becomes an issue. We want him to have an outfit for each day of the week, one that can be stripped off as soon he arrives home, and thrown into the washing machine. This means he must have five to seven discrete outfits to wear to work. Currently he only has two. We won’t be purchasing any new clothes, our new budget will not allow such an extravagance. So Attila rummaged through the bottom of his closet and found three pairs of retired pants that were torn and tattered, that are 16/17/18 years old. Yesterday I spent the day repairing those pants, and adding patches where needed. Unfortunately one of the pairs needed patches of considerable size, and I don’t have suitable fabric to cut up for the patches, so that pair is … Continue reading →

Sunny and Warm

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We have just had a lovely day! The weather was sunny, the temperature was a warmish 14C, the breeze was light and delightful. Attila spent his day in the garden, preparing the soil for planting. This year he is expanding the garden, as he has time for such a project. Our hopes are high for a good growing season and harvest, but the weather and mother nature are really in charge, so we shall see what we get! I have now been in self-isolation for just about two months, since February 27th. Attila joined me in self-isolation about a month ago. We are both enjoying having this time together, as we have never before had the opportunity to have so many hours sharing day-to-day life. It is going rather well so far. Of course it is early days, while we still have enough money for food, and to pay the bills, so things are pretty good by our account. Our biggest challenge is maintaining no-contact outside of our bubble while obtaining food, but we will get that figured out eventually. Having Attila here during the day is a completely different way of life. Although it is a most welcome development, … Continue reading →

Grocery Whinge

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Being in the high-risk-for-complications category in this pandemic, we have been doing the online shopping thing. Our area has no grocery store delivery to home or vehicle, but they do offer grocery store pick up. It is very popular, and to get a slot I have to get up very early in the morning, as that is when the one day of available slots opens, and the slots fill completely, very quickly. Then we wait weeks for our allotted slot to come around. Products come and products go on the list of what is available, it like a carnival game, aiming at a moving target. So I have been choosing a product, and an alternative product, for everything that we really need, in hopes that one of them will be available. But what we miss the most, is the ability to take advantage of sales. We have always enhanced the variety and quality of what we could eat by shopping sales. There are several problems with attempting to shop sales when one shops online at our local NoFrills store, rather than in the store. One is that by the time our delivery day rolls around, and the order is being … Continue reading →

Vegetable Madness

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We can produce vegetables here at Mist Cottage, so going forward the focus for our diet will be on what we have access to, vegetables. Today’s project consisted of tweaking my very own recipe for Squash Sauce Maggie’s Own. The day before yesterday I canned Coleslaw, which uses cabbage, carrots, onions, and red pepper. All of these things are grown in Ontario, and hopefully will be accessible going forward. Our garden cabbage last year was amazing, so delicious, so we hope to get an even bigger crop this fall, and Canned Coleslaw will be high on my autumn canning list. The Canned Coleslaw was a big success, we have already eaten three jars of it, and there are three left. The wonderful thing about this recipe is that it could be made and canned, made and frozen in serving sizes, or made and refrigerated for immediate consumption. You wouldn’t have to can it, you could freeze it, or refrigerate it to eat it all up within a few days. I don’t know what the texture would be like if it was frozen, or refrigerated, if you try it let me know. We loved the canned product, which has a long … Continue reading →