projects – The Hermits' Rest

Closet is clean enough

I did it. I packed up about half my clothing to go to the local thrift shop. Everything else is on hangers, folded, or in the correct drawer. Today’s push to the finish line took me three tries with some resting in between, but I did it.

Looking in from the door. The surface of the island/drawers is visible.

While some folding isn’t very good (ahem, the jeans and sweaters), it looks way better as it is. I know where my dresses and sleeveless tops that aren’t polyester are (polyester ones are gone). I can see my dress pants. Outfits are stored together. Lee wanted to know how I group things. It’s pretty idiosyncratic, but I’ll share. Here are my categories:

Fancy dresses/tops (small category)
Wraps
Dresses (long sleeve, short sleeve, sleeveless)
Tunics, same groupings
Button-up shirts
Nice work tops
Work ensembles (items with matching accessories)
Political t-shirts
Long-sleeve casual
Holiday and Buc-ees tees
Winter shirts
Long-sleeve plain t-shirts
Long sleeve state park
Solid t-shirts
Tie-dye t-shirts
State/national park short sleeves
T-shirts with birds, flowers, etc., by color
Dallas Cowboy shirts
Master Naturalist shirts
Sleeveless tops
Sweatshirts
Rock/folk music shirts
Dress pants
Vests
Scarves and belts
Jackets
Purses on top shelf
Boxes for bathing suits, gloves, etc.
Shoes. Yes they are organized, too. I’ll spare you.
This is ridiculous.

You can see the jean pile and jewelry area I still have to clean.

I even removed many shoes and the only ones on the floor are house slippers and summer sandals, which have a niche. That was a lot of work, too. I have about 200 empty hangers but do not plan to acquire that many clothes! Now I need to make myself hang clean clothing as soon as it’s finished. Wish me luck.

I found a couple of items to pass on to friends or family. But mostly I hope the good stuff I’m passing along brings someone else joy. I’m ready to pass out.

Is this not the most clueless selfie ever? The hair! The dirt and sweat on shirt! The eyes looking at who knows what! But I did my job.

Let’s just hope I can keep it going better than I usually do. It’s very hard to show people your closet. Makes you feel vulnerable.

Doing hard things can lead to rewards

I rewarded myself for all that closet cleaning I’ve been doing by saying yes to an invitation to meet our friends Mike and Martha at the bakery in town. Lee even agreed to come along, though he was displeased that screeching children were hurting his ears. Nonetheless we all had nice conversations.

The bakery is so cute and GOOD. Visit Shirley Mae’s Bakery if you’re ever in Cameron, Texas.

Since I am the lesser hermit, I enjoyed talking to Martha, my friend Mary who was there with her family, and my son and his partner, who also came in. Then I had to have a good chat with the bakery owner’s dad and their nice employee, who collects Native American jewelry and is a Master Gardener, so she knows some of my friends.

This, dear readers, is why small-town living can be pleasant. I enjoy it much more now that I’m not paranoid about gossip and mean-spirited people. I’m glad I’m better at not caring about people who aren’t nice.

After all that socialization I was fine with watching some TV (finished Hawk and got through much of Ride or Die today) in the quiet house.

Of course, I spent two more hours putting clothing into boxes and moving things around. I almost finished sorting everything hanging up, and I disposed of two garbage bags of plastic hangers from my old house.

This was a mess. It’s my work outfits, dresses, and what passes for dress-up attire.

I still have a big pile of stuff to hang, now that there’s room for it, and plenty of hangers! That shows you how big the purge was. Tomorrow the hanging stuff will be hung, and if I have time, shoes will be culled* and arranged.

The horror! Goal is to have the surface of this island visible tomorrow.

My teeth still hurt but it’s better every day. I think the dry socket is healing. I think I’ll join my sleeping beauties and indulge in my favorite activity, sleep.

Carlton and Benito are doing much better these days. B is healing.

(*Sue, that’s the word my typo was trying to be yesterday)

The difference between me and a hoarder is…

Sometimes I’m not sure. I’m more of a collector, or so I tell myself. And I have sentimental attachments to objects that seem to have meaning. Assigned by me, no doubt.

I should collect wildflowers. They disappear.

I decided I’d gone too far in my closet when it was getting to where it was just solid clothing with paths among it. It got that way partially because the contents of the “holiday closet” got shoved in there when the air conditioning unit was being worked on and no one put the boxes and weird foam mattress pad back.

That made it harder to hang clothing…and ugh. I also had been putting off my annual clothing purge, because I knew there would be things that had to go but meant a lot to me at one time (silly shirts I bought just to support a store, and horse show attire I’ll never wear again, for example). It’s my fault it’s painful; I need to get over my sensitive self.

Carlton is trying to look judgmental at me, but the yarn hanging from his mouth makes it look like he has a gang.

But, as I’ve mentioned, I got the process started last week and have made good headway. I have one whole side of the hanging clothing thinned out. I need to make space so I can rearrange clothing by my idiosyncratic categories.

Looks full? I culled this by at least half.

I still need to get the long wall of hangers sorted. I think there’s very old clothing Lee has brought in from storage, which also explains why I feel like a hoarder. Two separate wardrobes are crammed into one closet (albeit a very large closet). And I have always collected t-shirts. I purge them, and more magically appear with funny bird sayings and such.

This is long-sleeved shirts on top (right side is long-sleeved shirts from travels) and holiday shirts plus casual long-sleeves on the bottom. At left is the section of dressy tops that I have gone through.

I’m posting about this to keep myself accountable. Now that I’ve shared my project, I hope I’ll be more encouraged to complete it. And I know the local thrift store will be pleased. I have two more very large boxes for them. I’m not a hoarder, I guess. I just make piles and cull them.

My tooth still hurts a bit. I hope the dry socket didn’t dry out again.

Pleased with simple progress for all of us

While today wasn’t exciting, it was satisfying. The family got things done that they’d been wanting to do for a while.

As a result, our surroundings are more pleasant and will be even more so soon!

Yesterday my giant tree stump was sculpted into a multi-level bird feeding platform. It was fun watching the little chainsaw making all the cuts.

With the yard all weed-eated and mowed, things looked pretty spiffy. Thanks, men. It’s spiffier now, because Lee and I went to Lowe’s and got a few plants, a suet feeder and some bird seed. I moved my solar birdbath to where I can see it, and set up the suet feeder this afternoon. It looks very nice. Perhaps birds will even find and use it. I hope to get photos.

I haven’t fed birds before, since we have plenty of natural bird food here and I don’t want to attract unwanted diners. So I’ll only put out a little food each day to try and get pictures.

It’s nice that Lee has taken up gardening since we built the porch. The houseplants are cheerful. What’s not cheerful are all the plants growing on the pool deck and flower beds. There are some, like nut grass and fall asters that I can’t pull up. Plus the Bermuda grass from when our yard was a pasture won’t go away by pulling. So, reluctantly, I will have to make use of herbicide. All precautions will be followed. Once the poolside bed only has the plants we want, we have some native plants to add in. That’s my plan, anyway.

This will look much better tomorrow. It has to perk up. My favorite portulaca and Lee’s favorite, wandering dude (yes, that’s what it’s called now).

Work is also starting up again on the pool house project behind our house. I love discussing all the creative plans for building it out to look good and do creative re-use of materials.

Carlton and Benny were inspecting the work—you can see Carlton coming out.

I’m looking forward to my plans for tomorrow, which I hope will include more horse time than today. Kathleen’s keeping up with her Dusty work. I do a lot of petting and grooming. But I did see Vicki and her horse, Malone, today. It’s fun having a visitor on horseback!

Take that, giant data centers

Like many other rural parts of the US, the county we live in is having lots and lots of farmland bought up to either produce energy or use a lot of it. We have seas of solar farms stretching for miles that were corn or cattle just a few years ago.

Google’s largest solar farm. Right in our county. Opened in 2024. Photo from KTBX.

We are also seeing land sold for our benevolent buddies, AI data centers. There’s a big one going in north of here and I’ve noticed a new electrical substation going in down the road from us, as if there wasn’t already one a mile or so away.

This is under construction now. (I miss Micah Wilson—he was too good to be stuck in our small market)

As you may be aware, data centers use a lot of water. So do suburbs in the adjacent county. (I’m aware that data center proponents assert they recycle water, and I’m sure some of that does occur. But anyway, much of the water in our aquifer is going to people and places who aren’t us.

Many folks in this part of Texas are concerned about our water sources, and concerned about drought, as well. So, Lee decided we should get some giant rainwater storage tanks.

There are two 5,000 gallon tanks now in our back yard. Each will collect water from one of our roofs, the house and the garage. I’m told we can also supplement with city water if necessary, but the hope is to get all our water this way.

Yes, there are filters and stuff. I’m supposed to go to some class about it, after which I can speak more knowledgeably about it. Until then, I shall trust the family member who did take the class already to set it up.

The pad for the garage tank was already built, so now the second pad has to be built and the tank loaded on it. Because of how many water lines, gas lines, and such there are beside the house, the tank will have to block the guest room window. But the residents never open the blinds anyway.

I didn’t think this would happen so soon, but it’s good, I guess. Those data centers can take all the groundwater, but we will still have some as long as we get at least some rain. Yay?

Organization Overload

Oh my, I don’t even recognize myself this week. You see, one of my “features” is that I love organizing things, but paradoxically, I let things get very disorganized when I get upset about whatever it is. (Expect a disorganized tack room in the future).

When I was a younger person, all my books were organized by fiction, nonfiction, and crafts, and in high school I made my own card catalog and record album catalog. No Excel yet to make spreadsheets. So I’ve always liked cataloging and organizing objects I love.

As a teen, I also loved nail polish and organized my bottles by color, along with my friend Lynn. It kept us out of trouble!

We didn’t have such fancy stuff in the 70s.

I still love nail polish, an odd but fairly harmless hobby. I’ve found that I enjoy nail strips made from real polish to work well for me. I’m good at putting them on (due to being crafty), and they remove with plain nail polish remover—so much easier on my nails than salon manicures. Um, this is all to say that in the past 4-5 years I’ve worn and accumulated some strips. (understatement)

So, my pusher…I mean nail lady…hooked me up with an app that tracks the stuff I use. I entered all the ones I’d already used (I’d posted it in a Facebook group) and then entered all the ones I have, conveniently organized by color and such. I do like organization. Voilà.

and more

The ones in waiting. I use one set a week. I probably don’t need any more.

But hey. It’s organized! Now go off and laugh at me for having a weird and wasteful hobby. I don’t blame you and also don’t care. I think we’re all entitled to odd pastimes as long as they aren’t putting us deep in debt. And I’m not. I realize that this, and a few other hobbies (yarn, shoes) will have to go bye-bye once I retire and am on a fixed income. I’m already not spending as much on horses…

All this cleaning means my hat is moving slowly.

So instead of worrying about all that, I’m doing that organizing stuff I do every few years or so. Yep. That’s the rate at which I organize my craft material. Thanks to those fine new shelves I wrote about last time, I took advantage of having more space in my office closet to drag all my yarn and craft books out of the storage container and put them away.

I’m ridiculously proud of myself for getting this done. I got rid of a lot of stuff I don’t need, and collected many odds and ends of very nice yarn to share with my next-door neighbor. Many boxes went out the door! Yes! I de-cluttered!

Of course, the books are not in any order yet, and I need to sort the yarn by weight better than it is now. At least I have pretty stuff to look at, and all my needles are in one place. I had too many things in too many tote bags. That’s a common knitter/crocheter thing!

I also have my embroidery, needlepoint, and weaving stuff all together. I know where everything is for the first time since I left my house in Brushy Creek. That feels good.

Some bags have projects or future projects in them.

Here I go down my emotional wormhole…

In this big clean-up, I got rid of a lot of the emotional baggage from people who made doing my hobby less than fun. It’s like with the horses—I need to separate the things I love (knitting, horses) from people who hurt me deeply. It’s about time in that knitting thing! But I got through the La Leche League stuff, the mean dog guy here in Cameron, and (mostly) my psychotic sister. I can do this!

So, I wonder if I’m brave enough to tackle my clothes closet? I have so much to pare down there. It needs a cleanse of negative energy! Who’s hiding in there?

Craft Update

I have a couple of crafty updates on something other than my temperature blanket, for once. Oooh, aah.

First, my craft closet has been in a state of disrepair for a few months, because one of the shelves Lee put up for me collapsed and spread all kinds of mess, including hundreds of photos, all over the floor. And I admit that I had little motivation to fix it back up, because there just weren’t enough shelves in it to hold my vast holdings of books, yarn, needles, looms, etc.

Yes, I have two simple looms, one Cricket and one Navajo. I would actually like to make some tapestry and such. Later. You know, when I retire. Ha ha.

Anyway, my personal contractor/child, who’s been helping out with some projects here, made me a new, sturdier shelf to replace the broken one plus a few more to turn what was once a clothing closet into the craft closet I’ve been wanting for 12 years. I feel so pampered!

Shelving. Not showing the work in progress boxes of yarn on the floor.

There was a narrow area that just cried out to have more shelves, so he put some there, too. I thought it was nice of him to make them match, even though I said there was no need to paint them. I’m the only one who will be looking in there.

Now my den area is still full of yarn and endless tote bags of sad unfinished projects. I should be able to organize everything in the next few days though I may need to think about yarn organization. Some I’m giving

I got a good portion of the books up. Pardon the giant circular knitting needle holder at left. It works!

One of the good things about going through my yarn and needles is that I found things that I could used (in addition to my depressing basket of sock yarn that moths attacked). I located all my sets of circular needles, all of which were missing size 4, the size I use most. I suspect I’ll find those among some of my WIPs (works in progress). I think a few of those may end up being frogged (rip it, rip it) and the needles put back into circulation.

It’s okay, though, because I finally found the set of short size 4 tips and a shorter cable. This has enabled me to start a new hat with some beautiful red wool I found. So far it’s an inch of K1 P1 ribbing.

I already finished one hat of this pattern, which knitters around the US are making as a sign of solidarity with friends and family who are in places where fear is growing. I couldn’t find enough red yarn last week to finish my first try, so I made one in a gray gradient (Mandala) acrylic yarn. I added a red tassel. It came out great and I can wear it without looking silly.

I didn’t enjoy the needles I found, which were aluminum with pretty stiff cables for knitting in the round. The yarn is not annoying for acrylic, either. But I’m enjoying the nice Peruvian wool, wooden needle, and flexible center very much.

Really easy pattern, and probably best for four double-pointed needles, but I’m stubborn.

It’s pleasing to have more craft work to do, since I have no more horse lessons and it’s been too cold and soggy to walk or ride. I found even more red yarn (a beautiful Malabrigo) but I can see it’s a moth victim. Never fear, though, I ordered some inexpensive wool from Michael’s so I can make a couple more for non-crafty friends.

You can see the needles I didn’t like in this photo, sort of. And the cool yarn.

Naturally, looking at all my “stuff” reminded me of my unfinished needlepoint and some cross stitching I once wanted to do. Hmm. What will I switch to? I vow to pass some of my stash on to others though, especially since my next-door neighbor is crocheting up a storm.

I’m hopeful that life is settling down a bit, at least on the home front. It’s back to being normally cold for here. That’s a relief. And tomorrow I won’t write a post full of knitting jargon!

Happy Turkey, Grateful Human

Darryl Jr and Connie Gobbler are going to be happier this chilly weekend, because they are getting their very own Turkey Hut! It’s a custom-crafted abode made of the finest leftovers from construction projects.

The space is designed to be big enough for the turkeys to enter and exit but small enough to keep them warm. It will be placed against the henhouse wall once completed. The opening faces south, away from the cold north winds.

Lee wants it to look good, so it will have siding, a metal roof (it slants to the rear so rain will drain, and spiffy paint matching the barns here. I enjoyed hanging out with my son on my lunch break, getting supplies and treats from the bakery. Having some family fun helps remind me of the good in the world.

And this rock symbolizes how today felt to me. I’m deeply grateful to friends who have been incredibly supportive and kind for the past few days. I’m much more emotionally stable just knowing that I have real friends, including those from all over the political and spiritual spectrum, and from both inside and outside the US. And heck, my family have also been so good to me today—I feel a little more inclined to look forward to fun someday. I even had a great talk with a coworker about potential future plans after we finished writing some complex stuff.

Rainbow from earlier in the week, compliments of neighbor Vicki.

So yeah, it’s not the most peaceful time to be alive, but I’ve not been abandoned by all my communities, and I know I’ve led as good a life as I could. No one can take that away!

And tomorrow the turkeys will have a hut.

Yo-yo Weather

If you live in the part of the world where I do, your head is probably still spinning from the rapid weather change from yesterday to today (hoping you didn’t spin out on any ice). You know it got cold fast when the day’s high temperature was yesterday’s low, all occurring just before and after midnight.

This picture depicts sleet on our windshield, which looks like rain.

And of course, the blustery wind also returned, merrily tossing things around. We just missed snow, which visited Waco. All animals seem unperturbed—the horses went into their nice shelter until the wind settled a bit, and the fowl went into their nice and out of their coop, which has a heat lamp. I rushed out to toss food at them all. Brr.

This is from yesterday. I was trying to capture the green sheen on the Cochins.

Since I can’t work again this week, I luxuriated in activities I usually don’t have time for. I put together my bullet journal so it will be ready for Thursday (I saved the fun of adding washi stickers for tomorrow. I came up with color themes for each month’s journal entries and color/pattern themes for my nails, which I may or may not adhere to, since I won’t berate myself for changing my mind. (Dang, I come across as Susie Housewife here, but I’m just artsy, that’s all.)

I even went to the Big City with Lee and did some in-person book shopping at Barnes & Noble. I bought myself my own dang Christmas gifts, a fiction book, a feminism book, and three fun bird items. Also on-sale coloring books. I felt like a kid with new toys when I got home and could play with my new things.

A very funny bird guide that makes a good gift for a birder with a sense of humor

I got all the New Year’s meal ingredients at the grocery store (fresh collards) and stuff to cook for dinner. I don’t mind cooking so much when I am not tired from working. Susie Housewife is not Super-woman.

But I do glow (photo from Saturday, when it was warm yet breezy)

By the way, I cooked our belated Christmas dinner last night for Anita and “the kids,” and was very happy with a turkey breast cooked in my Pampered Chef clay pot thing. I gave everyone their painted rocks, which seemed to go over ok. My son made me lovely candle stands for the wall. I’ll share a photo tomorrow. I do love handmade gifts.

Tomorrow should be fun. Closet clean-out day with my son’s partner for help.

Fancy Birding

When I got home from Blanco, my “birding station” was just about finished, other than some painting.

The good news is that the siding is close to the right color before painting.

It has a cute little metal roof and gets lovely morning sun this time of year, which is good because it’s been close to freezing the last couple of nights. The siding keeps the cold wind off my legs while the sun warms my top half.

My chair is in there. I ordered a little stool and side table for my coffee, notebook, and binoculars.

Next I need to measure the openings so I can order bamboo blinds to block the sun in summer and when sunset is trying to blast my eyes.

So far it hasn’t disturbed the wildlife. This beautiful moth visited yesterday.

I also enjoyed visits from a Viceroy and Bewick’s Wren.

Today’s visitor was larger. She was very curious about what the heck I was doing.

I’m looking forward to enjoying the winter sparrows and wrens from my station, especially once it’s a little warmer. Harris’s Sparrows arrived today, so the gang’s all here!