Peggy's Jibber-Jabber: Scale My Mountain

Like enough doesn’t happen around here in one week for me to send you eight or ten or fourteen pages of jibber-jibber that I had to go and let it go for two weeks!

Geesh!

Be that as it may, I’ll scale my mountain by taking the first step and telling you why I didn’t visit with you last week.

It’s simple. I did a little Christmas baking.

Here’s the thing. If I’d’ve followed my normal routine, stayed in my rut, I’d write Sunday and wouldn’t be able to bake until Monday. I wanted to mail off my goodie boxes at the beginning of the week so they wouldn’t end up sitting in a post office someplace over a weekend so that’s how I came to the decision to forgo writing and bake instead.

I made my beautiful Aunt B’s Lemon Bars and Pumpkin Roll; she has the best recipes! Betty Crocker’s Sugar Cookies which were my mother’s favorite, a chocolate-peanut butter no bake recipe that I’d gotten from the internet, and a Sour Cream Sugared Nut recipe I found in a newspaper a hundred years ago. Those were a favorite of my beloved Aunt Marie. Thinking about my Aunt Marie reminded me of another recipe of mine she loved. Buttermilk Fudge. That one came from a woman I worked with a long, long time ago. But I still remember her name. Mary Patrick. I almost made that one too but making those five things took me into late Sunday afternoon and quite frankly, I was baked out. I didn’t want to make anything else — or wash another dish!

Aunt B, Momma, Aunt Marie, and Mary Patrick weren’t the only ones I thought of when I was baking. Looking for the sugared nut recipe took me to my old recipe box. Tucked in the back was this.

“What is it?” I know you wanna know.

It is — was a recipe card holder. It’s a wooden heart with a little thumbprint turned butterfly, attached to a clothespin. At some point it lost the stick it was attached to and its base, which I think was a plastic cap of plaster of Paris. But I’ve kept the top part all these years. I don’t know which of my kids made it for me because it’s not signed.

“What’s it say?” you ask.

It says, “Mom your like a butterfly.”

Monday morning, I divided the goodies into four piles, three of which were packed into boxes and the fourth went to my beautiful, feisty, redheaded neighbor, Miss Rosie.

While we’re talking about food, let me tell you about a couple of other things I made.

I made, for the very first time, borscht.

“What’s borscht?” you ask.

Borscht is red beet soup. Red beets are good for you and I like red beets but getting them into my diet is a bit of a challenge. I never think to just add them as a side to our meals, most often I eat red beets with a hard-boiled egg for my breakfast.

Then one of my Facebook friends posted a picture of a quick borscht she made. I asked her for the recipe and she shared it with me. I had to tweak it a little to accommodate the ingredients I had on hand but borscht is versatile and can be made in any number of ways, so you can’t go wrong.

I really like it and shared it with the Kipps.

“I’ve never had borscht before,” Miss Rosie tells me. “It’s really good.”

And I shared the recipe with her. The nice thing about this recipe is you can make it vegan if you want to.

The other thing I made this week was No-Peek Beef Tips. The tri-tips come with a pad of fat on them. I usually cut it off and toss it out for the roving night-time critters. This time, I heard Momma in my head.

“Why don’t you put it out for the birds?” she asked.

I have two suet feeders. I put the pad of fat with little bits of meat still stuck to it in one and a homemade suet cake into the other. They peck at both but have eaten three of the homemade cakes so far and there’s still half of the tri-tip fat left.

And just in case you’re wondering, this is a Hairy Woodpecker, a larger version of its twin the Downy Woodpecker.

>>>*<<<

We had a warmer day and took the golf cart up to the well pad.

Luckily, I had my big lens with me.

They have a fire coming from the top of a stack. I assume they’re burning off whatever gas accumulates as they’re drilling.

The whole time we were there, about forty minutes, this guy did nothing but cut open bags and dump them.

“What’s it say on the bags?” Mike asked.

I snapped a picture and zoomed in. “Snow-Brite.”

It looks like they use a lot of different chemicals in fracking.

On the other side they had a plastic-lined dump truck they were loading with contaminated materials.

Opening the valve on a sand truck.

We made a shopping trip to Tunkhannock this week. Going past the train yard I see this graffiti and it reminded me of my painting philosophy.

If you don’t like it, add more color!

There’s lots of color on this one, that’s for sure!

I spotted another gas rig through the trees along the Susquehanna.

The tree I thought someone cut to do something artsy with? It’s laying on its side.

Another something for the gas wells, I assume.

I love to recycle. I don’t necessarily love all the extra work involved in recycling but I do love that it saves our earth and our oceans from our trash.

The Boy Scouts set up a mobile recycling site once a month at the township building. It’s out in the middle of nowhere but only a few miles from our house.

The lady told us they earn about sixty dollars a month from doing this plus it counts as community service.

Mike took back roads on the way home and I took pictures for you.

See the gas rig? That’s the one by our house.

The beavers down by the Conservation building have built a new dam.

“Look at that!” I exclaimed to Mike. “Isn’t that impressive?”

“They’ll just blow it apart again,” Mike said.

The beaver or beavers had been building the dam right at the outlet pipe and the Conservation officers have removed it twice. Whether they ‘blew’ it up or not, I don’t know. This time it’s pretty far away from the outlet pipe so maybe they’ll let them live in peace.

In the past two weeks I’ve made two porch signs.

A commissioned sign reading Noel with the O being a snowflake.

“The O gets lost,” I complained to Mike.

“Put a circle around it," he said.

I did and stood back and looked at it. I didn’t like the skinny circle so I made it fatter. I like it better now but to me, from a distance, it looks like a ship’s wheel.

If she doesn’t like it, she doesn’t have to buy it.

On the other side I put LOVE for Valentine’s Day so she’ll have a dual usage sign.

I have another gal that wants me to paint a scene on the back of the fall board she’s already bought from me so she’ll have a dual usage porch sign, too.

I looked at it and saw all the birds and all the detail in the birds and all the detail in the snowman’s scarf and I’ve never painted birds or fawns or even snowman or snowman’s scarf before! It gave me a sinking feeling. “I don’t think I can paint that,” I told her. “I’ll look and see if I can find something similar that I think I can paint.”

I showed it to Mike. “You know what Leah wants me to paint‽”

“What?”

I pulled it up on my computer and showed it to him.

“You can paint that!” my handsome mountain man said.

He has more confidence in me than I have in myself.

“I don’t know about that.”

I spent a few hours online looking for something with birds and a snowman and couldn’t find anything. That’s when Mike’s words echoed in my head and I decided I’d give it a shot — just not on Leah’s board.

“I’ll try it on a board and if it looks good, I’ll give it to the Pastor and his wife for a Christmas gift,” I told Mike.

“You can do it, I know you can,” he said.

Leah wanted the scene to take up all forty-two inches in height, “And I don’t care if there are no words on it,” she said. I stretched the picture as much as I could but I wouldn’t be able to get all of the snowman on it.

“I’d like to see all of the snowman,” she said when I first told her I’d be willing to try.

So, I made him as big as I could while still keeping the cardinal sitting on his arm in the scene. And this was the best I could do. It left a space at the top and since this one would be for the Pastor (if it turned out) I filled the space with words.

Painting the words would be easy. So, I started there and decided not to overwhelm myself by thinking about all the birds I’ve never painted before and have so much detail in them.

Then I started.

I painted the first line. Snow.

I painted the second line. FLAKES.

I started on the third line. ARE WINTER’S and was working on the S in WINTER’S when I glanced up and saw a naked S. I’d forgotten to paint the S in FLAKES!

I laughed at myself and snapped a picture for you. It’s just one more example of forgetting, misplacing, and losing things that happens as we get older.

The battery on my camera was getting low and I decided to charge it. After making that decision I got distracted with something else. When I came back to it, I took the battery from the camera and opened the desk drawer where I keep the charger. That’s the thing right there. If you always keep something in the same place all the time you can find it when you need it, right? I opened the drawer and the charger wasn’t there. I opened every drawer in my desk thinking I might’ve put it in the wrong drawer but it wasn’t in any of them.

The next logical place to look would be the kitchen counter where I always charge the camera battery. It wasn’t there either.

When was the last time you used it? I asked myself. A vague memory of taking the charger with me someplace in case the battery died while I was out, I could charge it. I emptied my purse and it wasn’t in there. However, I did clean all the receipts out of my purse, so that was a plus.

I’m walking around here, shaking my head (probably hoping something will shake loose in the process) and what do I see sitting on my glass cutting station?

“Your charger?” you guess.

My charger. Sitting right next to Miss Rosie’s snowman that I still need to resolder the ring on. It’s like a three-minute job and in the weeks I’ve had it, I haven’t found the time to do it. Shame on me.

I’m guessing I’d gotten as far as getting the charger out and set it down before I got distracted, but I sure don’t remember doing it.

I finished the lettering on the snowman sign and without looking any farther down the board than the tips of the branches of the tree, I chose a color and went to work. Eventually, my branch painting took me to the top-most bird. A Gold Finch.

I had to self-coach myself. (Eye twitch from my editor there, I’m sure). I had to remember that I’ve already painted a mermaid that I didn’t know I could paint and it turned out good. And I did a much more complicated nativity for my best girl Joanie that I didn’t know I could paint — and I remembered how I did it. Just pick a base color and start, I told myself, and I did. One step, one bite at a time.

At the end of the first day, I was so excited about what I’d done that I just had to share it with somebody! I took a picture and shared it with all my somebodies on my Morning Love Note list.

“Beautiful!” I heard.

“Love it!”

“I can’t wait to see the cardinals,” came another reply.

“I can’t either!” I replied back.

The second day of painting went much like the first. I only allowed myself to look at what was next and not get overwhelmed. I did the male and female Cardinal and thought they were okay. When I got to the Chickadees, I couldn’t see the detail in the picture well enough to know what to do with the eyes.

Inspiration struck!

I got my bird book out and looked up Chickadee.

And I thought the Chickadees came out pretty good.

The Blue Jay was giving me problems, too. I just couldn’t see the eyes well enough. I turned back to my bird book and don’cha know? There isn’t a single listing for Blue Jay in the book.

That’s weird, I thought. But maybe Blue Jays are so common they didn’t bother putting them in the book. I pulled out a second, and not as well liked, bird book and checked the index. Nothing there for Blue Jay either! So, I went to the internet and found a picture, printed it out, and worked from that.

At the end of the day, I had the tree and all the birds done. I sent it to my peeps along with a note. “Bonus points if you can name all the birds.”

I had an ulterior motive. I wanted to see if I’d captured the likeness of the birds well enough to be identifiable.

Not everybody knows birds or even wants to know birds.

“They’re flying birds who shit in the air!” one of my peeps said.

Yeah, and it lands on your car, I finished her comment in my head.

Some of my peeps knew all the birds but a couple of them thought there was an Oriole in the tree. I was confused as to which bird they thought was an Oriole because I thought Baltimore Orioles were orange and decided it was the Finch. I pulled my book out and looked up Baltimore Oriole. Don’cha know? There’s no listing for Baltimore Oriole either! That’s when it hit me and I flipped a few pages back and found a listing for Oriole.

“There are yellow Orioles,” I told my peeps, “but I was going for Gold Finch.”

And something else hit me then, too, and I flipped back past the B’s for Blue Jay and went to the J’s. There he was. There are lots of jays and Blue is just one of them.

I’m such an idiot sometimes.

Three days in and I’m eyeing a snowman and a scarf I have no idea how I’m gonna paint. Luckily, I could put it off just a little bit longer and paint a black top hat. I had so much fun putting on the berries and greenery.

Again, I had to give myself a pep talk, picked up a brush and started the snowman. Only after I’d finished him and the fawn did I realize I should’ve painted the tree first since its behind the snowman. I tried to just be careful and not get any green on him but realized pretty quick that that wasn’t going to work. I got out my painter’s tape and taped off the snowman.

I’m not really very happy with my tree but it is what it is.

I have to tell you, despite my trepidation, I really had fun painting this. It’s satisfying being pushed beyond the limits of what you think you can do and succeeding.

Oh, and one more thing. When I stand back and look at it, I see Butterflies at an angle. That’s how the pattern is. But I can’t help but wonder if you’ll think it’s crooked accidently.

“I like it that way,” Mike says.

But I think if I do it again, I’ll make Butterflies straight.

Sunday, I gave the gift to Pastor Jay and Mary. Look at those beautiful faces, would ya!

“I love it!” Mary said.

“Very nice,” Pastor Jay said.

Something else that was very nice was our Christmas play. Actually, very nice is an understatement. It was the best church Christmas play that I’ve ever been to.

I only took a few pictures because once the lights came down, I was only going to get blurry pictures. I only use the auto settings on my camera and don’t know how to do anything else. Besides, several people were recording on their phones and the church was recording it as well. I’m sure it’ll be posted online sometime in the next day or so.

The show opened with an a cappella version of Immanuel. I’ll tell you what. This lady, Natalie, has such a beautiful voice that when she sings songs of praise and worship, I get goosebumps! I just love to hear her sing.

The house lights came down and I took a few more blurry shots before I sat down beside my handsome husband and just enjoyed the show.

The finale was Hallelujah, sung by a young girl, Eliza, with my beautiful Jody accompanying her, a video played on the screen, telling the story as they sang it. Listening to the beautiful voices singing the story of God coming to earth to save us, to having suffered as He did, and to die for us brought tears to my eyes.

Lynda, the wonderful, beautiful lady who made this whole production happen, was given a bouquet and a round of applause.

I can probably send a link if anyone wants it.

While I was busy painting, Mike finished putting the knotty pine up on the enclosed patio. Then it was clean up time and I only helped a little. Mike did the lion’s share of both the work and the cleanup. He did such a great job. If there was heat out there it could be another room in the house!

Speaking of heat and the reason you need it, we got snow! Not as much as we were forecasted to get but somewhere just over four inches.

I put my snowboard out and when the big fat flakes started falling, I laughed as this little girl jumped and snapped them from the air.

The next day I needed to run to town for sealer so I could spray a top protective coat on the snowman board.

Our pretty little creek.

A little fog as we came down Welles Mountain.

“They should plow this before it freezes,” my ever-helpful husband said.

The beautiful Susquehanna.

And just like that, a plow appears.

I took a couple of more pictures on the return trip.

“When we get home, I’m going to take Raini out without a leash and get snow pictures,” I told Mike. The last time I took Raini and Bondi out without leashes they didn’t mind me and ran off together. They came back ten minutes later, but I didn’t like that they didn’t come in when I told them to.

Raini got out of the fence one other time. She ran off and I wasn’t going to chase her. I waited for her to come back then I took the golf cart to look for her. I found her sitting by the gate to come back in.

I figured with the snow, and without Bondi, I’d take my chances that she would listen or at least not go far. And she didn’t disappoint. She’d run ahead and stop and wait for me to catch up. I didn’t try to boss her.

The branches, heavy with snow, hung over our path.

The red of the Bittersweet peeking out from under its blanket of snow.

Down at the pond, Raini stopped at the edge. She walked along the water line before testing the water. Finding it solid, she walked out into the middle. Not knowing how thick the ice was, I wondered if she’d break through, but she didn’t.

I didn’t say a word as I turned and walked up to the Bergamot patch, but Raini saw me go and followed. The spent flower heads are capped with snow.

Not all of the milkweed fluff escaped before being frozen in place.

I came back to the house through the dog run so I could take my boots off in the kitchen and not track through the house. Boots, by the way, that have a leak in them. I won’t say hole because I suspect it’s just a crack that was opening up and letting the snow in when I took a step.

“Maybe Santa will bring you a new pair,” you say.

Heck no! Why waste a Christmas wish on boots? Besides, I already got my Christmas gift.

“What did you get?” you ask.

You're going to be so jealous!

I got a MIG welder! WHOO-HOO!

This is a welder that runs on one-ten power and doesn’t require tanks.

Mike got us the welder because not only did I want one, we needed one. My giant spinner was coming apart and it would cost us what we paid for the welder to get it fixed.

When the box came and we opened it up, there were a few pieces that needed assembled. The instructions were wholly inadequate but they do preface it by saying you should be a professional before attempting to use it.

“Second,please let the earth clamp connecting the metal,” I read to Mike.

I read it twice, ignoring that there were no spaces after each and every comma. “It makes no sense,” I told Mike and threw the four page ‘manual’ aside.

Mike was able to figure it out on his own but he couldn’t attach the nut to the screw on the reel because there weren’t enough threads showing. “I don’t want to send it back for that,” I said.