Post Cabin Fever

Well - the weather is typically fickle but at least it's somewhat warmer during the days.  We were snowed in for a couple of days when both snow and ice accumulated but the roads are clear now. Did manage to get to town and got Cathy some peach colored roses for Valentines Day.  She reciprocated with a box of chocolates, which neither of us need but oh, well.  Love that gal and I also love chocolate  ; )

 For the past couple of days I have been working on a purse to replace the battered one she has.  She picks out the design and I make the purse.  Here's how it goes  -  -

After she picks out the pictures she wants and the style of alphabet for her initials, I transfer the design on to a leather blank that will represent the back and front flap of the purse.

Just in case you didn't know, if you left click on the pictures, you can enlarge them..
If you look closely on the lower left corner of the blank you will see her initials (CME)  and on the right corner you can barely make out a horses head.  That is an image of the picture of our horse, Jim, that she has on her current purse.  On the top of the blank, which is back of the purse is another design of a horse running across a field in front of a fence.  This took a few hours to copy the designs and transfer them onto the tanned leather blank.  Next I have to carve the designs into the leather in preparation for tooling the leather to give the designs an embossed appearance.

Of course it's never as simple as it sounds.  You have to keep the leather somewhat damp in order to properly tool the leather around the design or pattern and you have to use certain tools designed specifically for that purpose.  What you see above are the lines cut or carved into the pattern of Jim.  The mouth, hair, eye and muscle will be done last.

This is the design that you couldn't see very well in the previous pictures.  This picture will require the most detailed work and a lot of free hand cutting/tooling.

Doesn't quite look the same, huh.  If you could see close enough you would be able to see the nails holding the fencing boards in place.

And lastly - the finished product after it has received an antique stain and leather sealer to help preserve the leather against weather and wear.  Now all I have to do is assemble the purse, adding a bottom, end pieces, a strap and a fastener to keep the purse closed.  Oh, I forgot to mention about the 30 yards of leather lace that will be required to lace this thing up to hold it together and that'll take about 3 days of work.  It's hard on the fingers.  I'll include a pic of the finished product when I get it completed.    Then I promised my brother, Bob, that I'd make him a personalized leather guitar strap.  He plays in a band and could use a new one.  So that'll be my next leather project.  Wow - that should be enough for now.   Later.

Food vs Weather

It's strange - every time the weather gets severe, particularly during the winter months, we seem to turn to food.  Well "turn" may not be the right word to use here but, in our house, here on the mountain, we do a lot of cooking.  My wife is a particularly good cook and I might seem a little prejudicial but I've been eating her meals for going on 48 years now.  I've seen them evolve from throw-away to freeze and eat again as leftovers.  She just seems to have the knack for putting things together or following a recipe that turns out right.  She's cultivated menus from our overseas tours and a lot right here in the good ole US of A, mostly southern I might add.  Anyway - today was another cold wintry day, with temps in the 20's, so we felt like making hot, oven baked bread.  So we did:

We made these two loaves, which is enough to hold us for about a week or so. This is the picture of them going into the oven for a spell of baking.  Since we were having lasagna for supper we decided to have some with our meal, even though it wasn't Italian with garlic.

 It had a real good texture, relatively soft crust and was sooooooooo good, especially sopping up the tomato sauce.  I can remember my Mom making bread, rolls and tea rings one Wednesday each month that lasted our family of seven about 2 days.  The guys on my track team and I used to run about an eighth of a mile to my house then around back to the porch where Mom would have buttered hot rolls waiting for us at about 1000AM.  Wow - what a memory and this bread brings it all back.  Wonder if they remember it as well as I do??
  Cathy finally got her disability approved through Social Security but not until after a lawyer and a fight.  Believe this - we fought with them for 5 years over $60 a month more on her monthly social security payment.  Admittedly  the payments went back to 2010 when she first applied for the disability but - come on now - $60 a month?????   Some might ask why we persisted in pursuing this even when we knew the payment was so small and I'll tell ya that it's the principal of the thing.  Social Security apparently automatically disapproves all disability applications, unless they're based on life termination illnesses.  They even turned us down on two subsequent appeals but finally saw the light when we got a lawyer.  Actually he helped us better organize and present our case to them and it wound up with Cathy appearing with her council before an Administrative Judge who heard the case and requested further outside opinions.  Anyway - it went in Cathy's favor and we're happy.  Our lawyer didn't get much by way of income from this case but in his words - if someone doesn't represent the lower claims, who will.  He said that there are a large number of claims exactly like ours in this county but most people just give up fighting against the "system."  I fully understand the attitude but refuse to give in to it.  Anyway - we're both relatively healthy with the normal aches and pains (Cathy has a few more than I do because of her replacement surgeries) and we're trying our best.  What the hell, life only comes around once - that I know of - and you'd better enjoy it while you can.  Age has a way of taking enjoyment away from you oooooooh so slowly.  Okay - time to lighten up

 

Found this guy sitting outside my back window this morning.  He's a little puffed up to keep warm but at least the snow is melting today.  It's supposed to warm somewhat for the next couple of days then head back down the hill into the teen and twentys.  Hey - we wanted four seasons - well we almost got it.  It goes from winter straight into summer then fall and back to winter.  Kinda wondering what the next few years of change will bring - maybe fall will disappear and we'll be back to two seasons, summer and winter - just like Florida!!!!