Transplanting

 

I don't know what I was thinking. I had planted my tomato seedling in pots that were too small. I also never even thought about having to stake them up so I ordered some big fabric bags that came with their own trellis. I think they will be much happier now. By the looks of their roots they had already run out of room.

The cherry tomato has flowers. That's exciting.

Out front I've got a pot of Shasta Daisies that I bought last year that I thought had bloomed and died. I was surprised when they showed signs of life in early spring. Now I've got a pot full of them ready to bloom. I'll have to put them in the ground next year. They've outgrown the little pot I've had them in. 

Before we did all that yard work, we hit the Farmer's Market before it got too hot. There was plenty to bring home again this week including a giant bag of kale. I haven't made kale chips in ages but I might give it a try seeing the amount of kale I have to deal with right now. 

Fifteen

 

I spent 15 hours on hold waiting for my video call with the ID Me people for my IRS verification issue. FIFTEEN HOURS.  When I got my notice that I was cleared for this next step in the process, they said the best time to get in line was at 7 am and I did just that. I sat with my phone all day Thursday and watched the hours and minutes refresh every 120 seconds. Every time I got down to 20 minutes, they added another hour. By 10:00 that night, when they started adding 2 hours, I was done, meaning I gave up. The only good thing to say is that I spent some of that time casting on some new socks for the Big Grand. I had the feeling he wasn't wild about the colors I had picked out. He said he wanted something brighter next time and he's getting it. Felici in the Rainbow colorway. An oldie but goodie from the stash. 

As for my IRS problem, it took getting up at 4 am the next day to run through their long list of available appointment times. I had done that on Thursday only to be told over and over that the day and time I selected was no longer available. I thought if I got up when most of the country was asleep I could snag one. It took several tries but I got one for Monday at 8 pm. 

I've got my fingers crossed this works because every other avenue has led to dead ends. The IRS won't touch this problem because they don't handle verification and they won't talk to me without it. The Advocacy group doesn't handle issues from CP5E3 notices which involves banking errors which is what set all this in motion. My crime? Not putting my direct deposit info on my return. The Mister and I, who file married but separate, always got our refund by check. He just got his 2023 check in the mail last month. He had to pay in this year but I was due a big refund and didn't realize that because of a recent "Executive Order", the IRS is no longer able to send out paper checks-hence the issue. To give the IRS my banking info I have to be verified. It sounds like I'm running in circles here and believe me, it certainly feels like it. I hope it ends on Monday. 

Friday Fluff: An Almost FO

 

How it started. 

How it ended. On my "day off" this week I kitchenered the ends of the lace border on the Pi Shawl together. All I have to do now is weave in those ends and block it. 

Once it was free from all the needles I was disappointed in the size. It's very small. I could have used up even more of that handspun I still have hanging around.  I thought I had followed the same directions I had followed for my first one but it seems I didn't.

I had the same four stockinette sections but I didn't add a large lace section so of course it would be smaller than this one. This one is a shawl. The new one is a neck warmer. I'm not ripping out that never ending lace border to add more length to it so I'll just have to happy with its petite size. 

Two Down, One to Go

 

I've made it through two days of this three day sitting week. So far, so good. No bending, twisting or lifting for me but the poor Mister is getting a workout. The Knitting Policeman is waiting at the door for me every morning to make sure progress is being made on the socks. 

We built forts in the morning.

Had lessons in the afternoon.

And hacked up a watermelon for snack. Don't judge me. Daughter has hidden all the good knives so I had to make do with what I could find.

After the many rain storms passed through, Big Grand got a lesson on why snapdragons are called snap dragons. He was impressed. 

Right before we pack up to leave it's snuggle time while sharing some screen time with Pingu. We'll be back tomorrow to do it all again and twice next week. 

Wednesday WIPs: Planning Ahead

 

Day one of the latest babysitting adventure is behind me and I survived it with the help of a couple of new lumbar support pillows for the ride. Earlier this month I finished the May section on the Doodle Cowl. I'm not sure where I'm going from here but I still have a few days of May to figure it out. 

After finishing all those socks last week I needed to cast more on. This all got done before the big back setback and honestly, I haven't touched them since. On Thursday I pulled a box of Uneek out of the stash and decided to give it a try. Someone commented a while back that this is a weird yarn and they were right. It certainly is.

I had a ball of KnitPicks Stroll in the Renaissance colorway already wound up so I started the socks the Big Grand asked me for.  That's his foot pattern in the basket. He wasn't too pleased when I showed what I had to him. He didn't understand why they weren't finished yet. 

I don't have much else to show off this week but The Mister did finish his Alice in Wonderland PbN.

On Monday, Daughter took the Grands to an Alice in Wonderland themed playground that's not far from her house. We may need to take The Mister up there one day so he can get a better understanding of what the Alice thing is all about. He still doesn't get it. 

TNT: A Setback

 

Ouf. This was a tough weekend. All that fun I had with the Grands and then all that work I did Thursday while The Mister was off golfing put me right back to square one with my back. I'm not kidding when I say I spent the whole weekend in bed with a heating pad. I could prop Patchwork Automne up on my knees so I did finish the edging on it. 

Most of the time I read or slept. I made a big dent in my latest Harry Hole book. Note that I had to make a bookmark out of all the main characters so I could keep them straight. Those Norwegian names are hard to wrap my brain around and it doesn't help that I'm reading the books out of order. We have three days of babysitting ahead of us this week with a grand total of 12 hours commuting time. I'm not sure how I'm going to survive it in my present state but I'm going to give it my best try. 

Excuse My Rant

 

Please forgive me. I'm going on a long rant here today. Let me start by saying that it took the IRS an entire year to get The Mister's refund check from 2024 here. They kept insisting he owed no taxes and kept sending him back all that he had paid in which was wrong. It was wrong by several thousands of dollars. It took a lot of going back and forth to get them to admit they made a mistake. They never actually did tbh. They made him file an amended return which I just copied line by line from the one we originally sent. 

Fast forward to this year. I cashed in my retirement account last fall and paid a boatload of taxes up front. Too much. The government owes me a lot of money. Almost $4000 but here's the rub. They won't give it to me unless I prove my identity and that I'm still alive. I've lost count at how many times I've uploaded my Real ID driver's license and Medicare insurance cards as proof I am who I say I am. The whole thing hinges on a biometric selfie they take of you. I never pass. I've been denied verification 4 times now. How insulting that the government thinks I look dead. I know I don't look great at my age but come on...I don't look dead either. 

Since I failed so many times, I now have to have a video conference so I can prove who I am and that I'm still breathing. The problem here is that I'm no good at these video call things. I can't even figure out a Zoom. I've tried calling for help but the recording says they are no longer taking live calls and sends me back to the website. It's insane. If any of you have had any experience with the IRS's ID.me account, sing out please. I can use all the advice I can get. 

Oh, and happy Memorial Day. It's been a washout here in the mid-Atlantic which is fine by me. Less sunshine equals less tourists. 

Little Visitors

 

It's been moth central out on the deck this year. The Luna moths don't usually survive cat attacks but this year we don't have any furry predictors to bother them so we've seen quite a few come and go. 

We've got a few Rosy Maples out there too. They look so soft and squishy. I want to pet them but I know better. 

We've got a lot of little brown ones in all sizes. There's one funny pair that plays together all day long. I wish I could get a photo but they never stay still. 

Speaking of little things, I'm terribly tickled that I've got a rose getting ready to bloom and several more in bud. The deer haven't found them yet although there was a big fella with lots of antlers out there the other morning. I tried to scare him off but he stood his ground so I retreated back into the house. Death by deer is not the way I choose to go but it would make an interesting legacy.

Ha Ha Ha....

 

Well now, I didn't exactly get black soap. I got dark gray. 

I was worried all night that I had used too much activated charcoal. 1 tsp per pound of oil is recommended and that's what I used but that batter looked awfully dark. Too much charcoal and your lather will be gray as well as your washcloth or sponge. I'll have to wait until it's cured to see if that happens. 

What I did learn from further research was that I should have gelled the loaf. That means to keep it hot during the saponification (hardening) process. I used to sit it on a heating pad in a cooler but I killed the heating pad last week with my back issues so I just had the cooler for insulation and it wasn't enough. Gelling would have made the loaf darker. You can see by the ring in the center of the first bar that it tried to gell but didn't get too far.  My fault. 

Someone asked me about the fragrance. I went digging through my stash and found some leftover Love Spell which I thought matched the theme I was going for. I only used a tiny bit but I still regretted it. I got carried away and forgot that this soap was just for me and I don't like fragrances in my soap. I only use my unscented bars. I still like to play with fragrances for other people though. The three bottles on the right are the new fragrances that just showed up for my next soap making adventure which will happen once we are through the next two weeks of babysitting. One was open and leaked so all the labels are coming off. What a mess that was. 

What I wanted for this batch was a fragrance that smelled like this. I've looked high and low for herbal fragrance oils that were just that....herbal. I've got several on the way so I'm hopeful.

Soap Tales

 

So what did I do on my big day off after vacuuming, scrubbing all the floors and doing four loads of laundry? I organized my soap shelves. I had a lot of soap left over from the last giveaway. I usually have around 30 people participating and this time I only had 12. My soap shelves were full so I had to get it all down, wrap it and then label it so The Mister can go hand it out in town on his daily meander. 

Then I went down to the soap room and made some more. I've been reading the last of the books in the Practical Magic series and they keep talking about the black soap they make. They talk about this soap in all of the books and I've always meant to make some. Since I now had empty shelves and a lot of leftover ingredients from the last soap making session, I decided to make up my own version. I'll see how it cuts tomorrow but I'll have to wait 4-6 weeks to see if it's actually usable. You never know.

Making soap is an awful lot like making sourdough. The two share a lot of the same equipment so I had to run up and down the stairs all morning to gather what I needed. I guess I need to buy another scale, temperature gauge and bottle of honey. I also had to use my kitchen bottle of olive oil since I had used up the last of the big bottle I keep for soap. I am happy to report that Betty survived another few days in the fridge. I hope to be making bread this weekend so to see her rising and full of bubbles so soon tells me she will be ready when I am. 

FO: Mountains and Fjords

This week's sitting is done and my reward is that The Mister is playing in a golf tournament and won't be back until tomorrow. I've got a day to rest and recuperate from all the baby yoga.....

...city building...

....and book organizing. The little one is fascinated with books. Not reading them. Shelving them. He takes them down, puts them in a basket and then puts them back. Over and over. Librarian in training I think. 

While the little one is napping, Big Grand helps me knit after we do some arts and crafts. He was a big help closing those toes and weaving in the ends of the latest pair off the needles. He also served as my foot model.

In return, he requested a new pair of "snow socks" so I guess sometime this summer I'll be casting on another bitty pair from my ginormous stash. 

 

Wednesday WIPs: Travel Knitting

 

As I mentioned yesterday, we are on babysitting duty again this week but this time we are commuting instead of spending the night. It's an almost 2 hour ride up to Daughter's so I needed to make sure I had plenty of car knitting ready to go. On Sunday, I wound up the Miss Bab's. Look at this photo. I'm winding yarn in front of my quilt with an oven in the background that's baking the week's bread. How Little House on the Prairie of me. 

I prefer to work with two socks on one needle when I'm in the car. Less to lose so I cast them on that way and gave myself a head start.

I finished my first pair of the new Arne and Carlos socks. The other pair are on the toes and they will also be car knitting.

Not much else will be getting worked on this week. I did finish the 4th row of the 1st section on the Hue Shift. When things calm down I'll start the next row and then this section will be done-minus all those ends to weave in.

 

TNT: Deja Vu

 

You may have seen this post before. I tried to blog ahead because we are off babysitting for the next two days and I didn't think I'd have time to post. Of course silly me didn't look at the date and time. Anyway, the Garden got some new doo dads around the trees. It's slow tedious work and I'm not a fan but I will power through.

Patchwork Automne got a branch and an upside down squirrel. I might be putting this away until fall. I'm losing interest. 

I finished that block on the Patchwork quilt. Time to move the hoop when we are done with the kid sitting.

Spiral Chicken doesn't count as a tiny needle project but I did get another corner of her finished this week. I'm pretty close to having all of the inside area done.  I've still got the big outer border to do so it's not time to celebrate just yet.