Oh the weather outside is frightful… so the song goes. We have had spring snow, intermittently with rain, since Tuesday night [today is Friday]. It was even snowing lightly when I was out in the yard this morning, and the wind is brisk and chilly. It won’t be long though before things begin to warm up.
Attila finished installing the new electrical outlet in the kitchen. The drywall repair has been completed, all mudded and sanded and ready to paint. Now we wait for paint to go on sale.
The garden is awakening. The lovage plants survived the winter, and small leaves are bursting out. The wild geranium is greening and growing. The walking onions are about six inches tall, and the garlic is not far behind them. The rhubarb is up and the leaves are unfurling. The lungwort is has been blooming for a few weeks, but the plants have been very small, now they are reaching taller. The sun has just emerged from the behind the clouds, the pace of growth will pick up speed as the sun warms the soil.
Yesterday we processed the last of the 2023 fall harvest, squash. Attila peeled and cubed it, then cooked it in the instant pot. After it cooled I pureed it in the food processor, using the new electrical outlet. We froze 5 x 500 ml tubs of pureed squash. Since Ginger enjoys his squash every day, our supply has to be kept topped up.
I have finally come around to sewing again. The current project is mending Attila’s work pants. This task is not too arduous because it does not matter what they look like, so I can take a casual approach. A new pair of cargo work pants now costs between $60 and $100 depending on the brand, so repairing makes a lot of sense. I’ve repaired the pockets on one pair of pants, and the worn out knees on another pair of pants. An additional patch was needed above a knee patch I had previously sewn.
Attila had been setting aside pairs of pants with ripped knees and pockets for the last 25 years… that is a lot of pants to repair. Since I will be working on pant repair for a very long time, I am developing methods that will make the job a little easier. I now spend time ripping out the inner seam so that I can lay the fabric flat when sewing. The original stitching and edge finish are a real challenge to remove. Then the raw edges need to be finished individually. Since I plan on adding patches over the patches that wear out, this will make it much easier to open the inner seams for future repairs.
Originally my patches were made from material salvaged from pairs of pants that could not be effectively repaired. That material is becoming scarce, so I will be looking around for odds and ends of suitable material at the charity shops.
Sewing isn’t my favourite project, so I work on it in small steps, a little bit every day.
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Fri, Apr 5 at 11:37 AM
4°C
FEELS LIKE 0
Mostly cloudy
Wind 16 N km/h
Humidity 83 %
Visibility 20 km
Sunrise 6:40 AM
Wind gust 24 km/h
Pressure 100.6 kPa
Ceiling 700 m
Sunset 7:39 PM
Quote
“One is obliged to do a great deal of kissing in my line of work: air kissing, [butt] kissing, kissing up, and of course actual kissing. Much like hookers, actors have to do it with people we may not like or even know.”
Meryl Streep
1949 –
The hidden costs of success, they exist on the route to any high position.
I sure did a lot of patching jeans during my years as a seamstress! (Yes, LOTS of people pay someone else to do it, so you’re doubly saving money!)
Joan, who knew! I guess if you didn’t know anything about sewing, paying someone to patch jeans would make sense. I am positive you did a much finer job than I am doing, lol! They say that if you have time you have no money, if you have money you have no time. I have time, and have enough money, but I like to save it doubly!
In all the time I’ve known DH, he’s never worn out a pair of pants. The odd shirt and t-shirt, yes. Pants, no. I have no idea why. (I’ve known him for 19 years.)