Snow Day!

It is freezing cold here in Portland, and there's snow on the ground. This is relatively unusual, and a dusting of snow means no school. Sydney got to get a Hep A booster instead, lucky girl! I like snow, but I've definitely gotten out of practice. It's cold out there! I much prefer it 50 and rainy (and so do the kids - they kept wanting to go out and play in the white stuff but then would come back in crying about how cold they were two minutes later).

Here's our front porch with some poor blankets that were taken by surprise by the sudden storm:



We've also got some interlopers taking shelter in our basement temporarily...



They're probably just fine outside, but I'm not sure how cold hardy the Amerucana is (the other two are definitely cold-hardy and shouldn't have much trouble surviving cold weather inside their coop). She scared me yesterday when I saw her outside our basement window lying in a heap with her head down on the ground. I tapped on the glass and it took her a bit to get herself up and looking around. She was probably fine, but we decided not to take any chances and let them spend a little time inside. They're stinking up the place and getting increasingly cranky, though, so tomorrow we will be shopping for a new bulb for their heat lamp so we can get them back into their own house. It is fun to hear clucking chickens in the house, though!

I've been slowly climbing back on the work wagon (I actually got two patterns off to test knitters in the past couple of days and am almost through a sample from a new designer who will be putting a few patterns in the Gardiner Yarn Works line next year) but took a few hours off to crochet some dish scrubbies.



I'm trying to get away from plastic sponges all together and so I thought I'd try both cotton (the colored ones) and nettle (the brown scratchy-looking one). The nettle is a pain in the tuckus to work with but I think it will have great scrubbing power. We'll see how it holds up!

I also got three trays of persimmons sliced and drying away:



I decided not to go too crazy with the drying until we know if we like dried persimmons or not (Bill is on record as pretty much anti-persimmon, although I made some incredible persimmon-ginger cookies last weekend that he admitted were pretty good). I froze another five cups of pulp that I can use over the winter for sherbet or more baked goods. I've still got half a 5-gallon bucket full of these things and I'm just not sure I can take it anymore. They may end up feeding our tomatoes next summer. I should see if the chickens like them...

I'm hoping tomorrow will be another day as productive as this one. My plan is to make these (yes, I'm either totally crazy or stupidly brave). I'm really, really hoping they turn out to be amazing but I'm giving them about a 40% chance of edibility. I'll let you know how it goes!