Yesterday a friend of mine gave me a scarf she had just finished crocheting. Crocheting is a new activity for her – but the short scarf was very well made, and rather stylish. The best part… it was made from recycled soda bottles! She saved me the yarn wrapper to show me.

I remember as a child reading the Little House series. I couldn’t understand how the children could be excited about warm socks or a scarf. I now appreciate such things – especially when the gift is made or given because it really represents who I am. The scarf is so warm, it may never leave my neck.

Also, yesterday, I was given a small space heater. It had made its way to the church from the home of a member of the church who had recently died. In attempting to clean out the store room (so I could access items in it) I came across this heater. I asked the rector if she wanted it in her office (she freezes) – but she said her office was fine and didn’t want it – and she told me to take it if I could use it… and I can. I will close off my newly insulated office and be able to heat just the small space in which I spend so much of my time. All this in an attempt to reduce my carbon footprint.

Now, for those who may have followed my blog for a while may know, I keep the temp in my house in the low to mid 50’s during the winter. Most of my friends and chosen family know this about me, and while they give me grief for it and won’t visit during the colder months of the year, they also support this decision by passing along used warm socks and sweaters to wear. They know I appreciate the recycling factor involved in passing on clothing that one probably won’t wear again. Other than a few “personal” items and two blouses, I haven’t purchased any clothing for 5 years. This, quite frankly, is fine with me since I truly hate to shop!

This year the few gifts I do give will be much like other years: gift certificates for me to perform a task for the recipient. One friend specifically asked that his gift be a gift certificate to tear out all the old caulking on his tub, clean the area well and apply new caulking. In the past I’ve given gift certificates for landscaping or the crafting of a wooden bed frame and headboard.

If you can cook, a gift of a special meal is a wonderful gift, if you have music to share – share it.

Whatever holiday you may be celebrating during this last month of the year, have a joyous time and try and stay warm

A college friend of mine and I were talking yesterday. Her daughter was giving her grief because she “stocks” the car during the winter. Warm hats, socks, gloves, blankets, food, etc. This is how I grew up – never leave the house during the winter without a half tank of gas, coffee cans (not plastic) with candles, matches, chocolate and nuts and everything you might need to survive in your car should you get stranded in the snow.

Now, perhaps in the age of cell phones and with areas being built up as they are, this may not seem necessary. But, if I go out on a meeting a distance outside of St. Louis and am wearing heels and a skirt and a “dressy” top, if something happens and I have to sit in a dead car waiting for a tow truck for an hour or two during bad weather – I’m sure going to be glad I have the hat, gloves, blankets, and heavy socks and boots to keep me warm in the mean time. As a rule, I tend to keep a few magazines or a book in the car in case I need to kill a little time before appointments. All of this takes very little space and could be a life saver if the worst happens.

Well, the mild weather we have had here in St. Louis has given way to cold and freezing rain and lots of wind. We are expecting snow today.

As is usual for me during the winter, I have my thermostat turned to 52 degrees. I bundle indoors an have two tied quilts (made for my by my grandmother) and a comforter on my bed (which to me is the most comfortable way to sleep!)

On Sunday I was at church and it felt like I was in a roasting pan. Yes, I have gotten fairly comfortable in my 52 degree house, so when I go places that have the heat set on 68 degrees I am most uncomfortable. And, I had shed down to just one layer in preparation for the warmer temps – and it was still uncomfortable. Today I will be visiting my 100-year-old lady, and she keeps her house at about 75 degrees during the winter. I think I will wear a tee-shirt under my sweater and peel down to just the tee while I am there.

My office is feeling much tighter and warmer since friends and I insulated it a few months ago, I still don’t have all the new boards in around the window to add additional insulation (I’ve been busy and haven’t taken the time to purchase these) – so I have put up plastic over the single pain glass and metal windows. It helps. I still haven’t found my hair dryer… I’m not sure I own one anymore.

My toes have been cold lately walking around the house. Then I realized that I was still wearing my Crocs – those comfy shoes (that I live in) with all the holes in them. Great sole insulation, but lets a lot of cold air in through the top of the shoe. I think I need to invest in slippers with thick soles. A friend of mine who also works at home and keeps her house on the cold side wears insulated winter boots in the house all day.

Some days I take short walks in the back yard to collect fallen branches and twigs for kindling for future winter fires. I snap them into smallish pieces and put them into a old yard cart that I destroyed a number of years ago – one I have drilled holes in for water drainage so I can keep the kindling fairly dry outside near the house. Actually, it’s not a tough task – I have been picking up branches all year long and putting them in the back of the property – so all I have to do is wander over there and snap away.

I admit, I am already thinking about what plants to start from seed again. January can’t come soon enough!

A Thanksgiving Prayer

I give thanks for the earth and its gifts of grain, fruit, vegetable, and legume.

I give thanks for water. It is a part of me and I am connected to it. For the fluidity of life as expressed in lakes, rivers, oceans and the blood that runs through me.

I give thanks to the spirits of the animals who have given their life for the meat I enjoy throughout the year.

I give thanks for trees… for their ability to produce life-giving oxygen, cooling shade, the soothing rustle of leaves, and heat in the cold winter.

I give thanks for the flowers that remind me that rebirth is possible – life after death is a reality in the world.

I give thanks to the birds of the sky who show me that it is possible to soar and still land on my feet and be connected to the earth.

I give thanks for my faith community which has given me love, support, and shown me through actions, the true meaning of charity, peace, understanding and unconditional love.

Today, and every day, I give thanks for my family… my chosen mom, and my dear friends who are more family to me than those with whom I share blood, and who mean more to me than words can adequately express.

For my friend in the US – Enjoy your Thanksgiving. For those outside the US – have a wonderful week!

To follow is a post I wrote about this time of year two years ago. Since then my grandmother has died and I have explained how she made her tied quilts.

I love quilts – they are the ultimate form of recycling and they are just plain WONDERFUL!

…………….

One of my favorite things about this time of the year is that I start using all of my quilts.

I am most fortunate that my grandmother (who is also grandmother to 53 others) loved to make quilts – and I have been a fortunate recipient of two of them. Most of her quilts were “tied” quilts – basically two large pieces of fabric (usually flat sheets) with batting or older blankets that were worn and torn in the middle, and then with her cardboard template she would pull yarn through all the pieces and tie it with a knot, leave about an inch of yarn and cut. Many times I would help her with this. The true skill came in the hemming – all done by hand – and all done in one evening. Her nimble fingers would make quick work of that project. I have one which she did for my 16th birthday and one from my wedding (she didn’t approve, but still sent a quilt). I even have a quilt framing rack just like my grandmother’s that my grandfather made for me before he died, and I really need to take it out, set it up, and start making my own quilts.

I also have a friend who quilts. She made a beautiful quilt for her daughter and when her daughter didn’t want it anymore I offered to take if off her hands. It is the newest and the largest of the quilts I own.

My chosen mother had a number of very old and worn quilts that her mother and grandmother made for her. When she downsized, she gave them to me. I also use these from time to time.

Quilts are comfy and cozy and cause no additional carbon emissions. In many cases, quilts are the ultimate form of recycling. They can be used over and over and provide the same warmth… the heat from the furnace is here, and then gone, and then new heat is generated. Quilts (once purchased or received) are free warmth. They are fun to share with others, too.

So grab a quilt and someone you love and share that heat!

It is the second week in November and I am still picking tomatoes from my garden here in St. Louis, Missouri.  This weather has been unbelievable!

A friend of mine had a conference he was attending in Des Moines, and feeling the need to get away from everything here in St. Louis – if even for a few days – I tagged along.

First off, the city and everyone I encountered were just wonderful! There was a free shuttle that circled the downtown area that I jumped on first thing in the morning. But as the day progressed the weather was so incredible, I just decided to hoof it for most of my journey. I walked and walked and walked (alot!) and saw the capital, the East Village, the Botanical Garden which was very small compared to St. Louis’ AMAZING Botanical Garden, but lovely none-the-less, and that evening walked to a bar called the El Bait Shop for dinner.

What struck me about this small city was all the flowers and gardens and art – everywhere downtown! All the bikers and walkers – and large sidewalks. I think I could pick up and move there tomorrow.

There was a walking path along the Des Moines River and lots of incredible little gardens scattered along the path. I finally found a quiet coffee house in the East Village and did some thinking and writing. Then I wondered the shops. I did not bring my computer with me on this trip, nor did I bring shopping money – that wasn’t was this journey was about. This was thinking and breathing time. Enjoying the moments of time as they came.

As I journeyed through the town, I happened into a very small shop called Green Goods For The Home and had a wonderful conversation with Sharon the owner. A true soul-sister. She showed me some wonderful holiday note cards and gift tag cards which can be planted. There are seeds in the card and they will grow into flowers; she showed me products and told me about the people who made them – local people in many cases. I love the idea of the fire-starters.

About three-quarters through the first day I went back to the hotel to see if my friend (another art lover) had a break and wanted to go visit the new sculpture garden in town – and he did. We hopped the shuttle down the park and wandered around the sculptures. As I said, this town loves its art (individual sculptures on almost every other street corner.) I was in heaven.

I am back and refreshed and grateful for so many things. Sometimes I just need to get away from the distractions of life so I can listen to myself think – if even for just a few days.

The first part of October was winter-like; the second part was lovely… if you like rain. We had the wettest month in history – a week and a half ago – and the rain kept coming.

This past weekend was dry and sunny and lovely and I was finally able to get a little work done in the yard. I mulched the front yard on Saturday and most of the back yard on Sunday. Even with as wet as it had been, the leaves were dry enough to mulch pretty well.

Laundry One of the issues of a wet October has been drying my laundry. It has been difficult, but I have managed so far (doing several loads on those days when it is dry enough to line-dry clothes). For those of you across the globe who have never had a dryer, this is probably pretty common. It has been a little difficult for me. I spent my entire life with the luxury of a dryer at my immediate disposal, and making due without it has been a good lesson.

Insulating I have been doing a bunch of reading on how others have decreased their carbon foot print while investing just a small amount of money. Here are a few new ones on me that make sense:

1. If you have single-pane windows, use a spray bottle to create moisture on the window and place bubble wrap over the window to create an additional barrier. This will let light in, however, it does distort the view (and there are a few windows where I find this a real plus). You can put it up, and pull it down if company comes over – whereas the plastic that one normally puts over the windows is pretty much there for the entire winter (and I’m not a fan of the way it looks if entertaining). I had some bubble wrap sitting around and have used it on a few windows so far. I have also seen rolls of it at the dollar stores.
2. Door extenders. I have a storm door that is shorter than the door frame (it was this way when I bought it) and every year I stuff a towel in that area during the winter and step over it every time I use the door. I found a two piece door extender that expands front to back to different widths of doors, and was extra wide. I cut it to size, but was unable to get the screws (provided) to go into the metal storm door. I covered the inside piece of the this hard plastic extender – the part that goes against the door – with liquid nails, attached it to the door and let the door sit open for a day. I now have a very tight seal with that door, and I don’t have the bright white outside piece (that didn’t provide any insulating factor) up against my newly painted dark green door. It works very well. I love liquid nails!
3. Caulking the floor. I live on a slab (no basement) and in my sunroom I have noticed that there is a slight gap between the floor and one of the walls. I took some silicone caulk and caulked over it. I recently tore out baseboard heaters that hadn’t worked since I bought the house 10 years ago, and did not see these gaps until the baseboards were pulled. Who knows how long those gaps had been there to let in insects (ants especially appeared from no where) and cold air. No more.
4. Something as simple as finding all the heating vents and making sure they are not covered by some piece of furniture, sounds like a “duh” – but I found two vents that had been covered up almost since the day I moved in over a decade ago.

Here in St. Louis, Missouri the temperature had become unseasonable cold with temps in the 40’s already (and lots of rain!), and my house temp is hovering around 56. Today I almost considered turning on the furnace, but since the winter temp level I have set for myself is 52 degrees, I held off and put on another layer of clothes.

We had a very mild summer, and it almost felt like spring from April through, well, two weeks ago went when we went directly into an early winter. This takes a little getting used to.

My body had rejected the whole notion so far. I have been laid up with a knee that just went out on me while rolling over in bed one night. No injury, no trauma, nothing even in the last year I can think of. I don’t think my ailment really has anything to do with the weather (although when one gets to a certain age I think it is required that one complain about the weather and ailing joints) – but it does put me in a different mood and made it most difficult to do even the most simple of tasks – like bringing in my house plants – most of which are still outside. I’m working on bringing in some of the smaller ones and getting rid of the debris and (hopefully) bugs in the kitchen sink since the rain doesn’t look like it is going to stop anytime soon (and I’m not real excited about getting sick by doing all of this in 45 degree rain). Frost looks to be in the forecast this weekend. I’ll try and get my next door neighbor to bring in the three larger potted trees, since there is no way I could lift them with this bum knee.

This past year I feel like I have prepared for the winter slightly better than in the past:

• some friends and I insulated my office.
• I caulked around my outside doors.
• I discovered two heating vents that had been covered by bookshelves – one in my office and one in the sun room that have been covered for probably 10 years. (How stupid!) They have both been cleared.
• Tomorrow I will stop at one of those big box hardware stores and buy a storm door extender (I’m sure it has a much more technical name) to cover the 1/2″ gap under my storm door. In the past I have stuffed a towel or a draft dodger in that area to stop the air flow. I’m hoping this will do the trick without me needing to trip over something every time I go through that door.

I’m trying to get everything ready for the eventuality of winter – and hopefully when the first frost hits I will be ready for it.

On Saturday a few friends of mine came over and helped me to insulate my office. It is the room in which I spend the majority of my time and it is also the coldest room in the house.

My office has two outside walls. During the summer, all the trees in my back yard shade the hot sun from the office, however, the dense trees also block the sun (even without foliage) from my office windows during the cold winter.

I have not had a chance to replace the single-pane cottage windows (individual lites), but that was only part of the cold problem. What I discovered a few months ago when I finally decided to pull one of the pieces of 1950’s good wood paneling down was that there was no insulation between the cinder blocks and the paneling.

My house is a brick ranch built in the early 1950’s. And, maybe they didn’t think much about insulation back then – but I could often feel the wind come through the nail holes in the paneling. I KNEW that didn’t make sense.

Back to the project.

The crown molding and baseboards came off and the paneling came down.

Old termite damage was discovered – structural problems for holding the window in place, so a new 2×4 was placed in as a support, and two additional pieces of 1×6 were liquid nailed to the cinder block and supported by the footers which were still in good shape. (This is when I am very glad I only live two exits from one of those big box home improvement stores).

And this is what this looks like now. Of course, you can’t see the new brace boards and I still need to put on a new sill and do some finishing work — but the new 2×4 that was put in fits like a glove. We dated and signed this new piece of wood (it is something we just do from time-to-time when working on home projects).

1″ insulation sheets were cut to “sort of” fit – it is hard to fit when one opening may be 13 1/2″ wide at the top; 12″ wide at the mid point and 11 3/4″ wide at the bottom. And… none of them were the same size.

A foam expanding insulation was used to fill the large gaps between the ceiling and the wall covered by the crown molding. The foam expanding insulation was also used around outlets and at the bottom of the wall.

This foam insulation from a can was also used to put some much needed insulation into the window frame itself. I discovered there was all of an eight of an inch between me and the elements around the window. This is not the case anymore.

Next a black plastic moisture barrier was placed over the insulation, and the paneling was reinstalled.

It took the four of us almost nine hours to finish this job. Because of the insulation and plastic, the back counter top which fit like a glove before, now wouldn’t fit at all. I’ll have to get my hands on a belt sander and shave the counter top down so it fits.

The 1″ insulation only has an “R” value of 5 – but 5 is better than nothing! The moisture barrier will hopefully help with some of the moisture problems I seem to be having in this particular room, as well.

This job cost be right just under $100 for materials – all of which (except for the plastic) qualify for the tax credit in the US.