Just when I thought this past week was going to be better than the week before, I found out that that was not going to be!
I had two bananas that I decided could be made into banana bread. I put these in the oven about midnight on Monday night. Everything was going fine. The oven did not shut off even once. But, then it happened on Friday after midnight, what I didn’t want to happen. I started the oven and quickly put one half of a crescent tube of rolls in the pan, beat up some cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar; put the other half of rolls on top and put melted butter over all. Into the oven it went for 30 minutes. It wasn’t two minutes later that Zachary went past the oven and said, “The oven is off.” I went to restart it and this time everything was black—no numbers or clock at alI. It had finally died after being used for over 26 years. I called Steve if he would start his oven and went down to his house to finish off the dessert.
So, those of you that got the banana bread earlier in the week—it will be the last until I can get another oven which could be forever. Money doesn’t grow on trees in my yard!
I had a baby quilt I was making for the baby shower on that Saturday. I spent almost a whole afternoon getting the room ready that I was going to work on this quilt. The long table there will only take one half of the width of the quilt. (Faith Lutheran Church basement has an ideal set up with two tables set up that can accommodate a whole quilt instead of just a half one.)
I had a Winnie the Pooh in the Part with Friends for the top and a green (that was one of the colors from the front) for the back. I had tied off the quilt and was going to press a wrinkle out at one corner. I had the front down, the fleece next and the back material with a wet cloth last. I was glad I did a spot that wouldn’t show as the fleece turned to almost cardboard! That settled it—I wasn’t going to press anything on this quilt—wrinkles or no wrinkles!
I have always had trouble with the corners. Finally, on Thursday I decided I was going to ask Faith Specht if she would help me with the binding. Friday morning she met me at the church and an hour later she had binding cut and took it home to work on. By 2 o’clock, she brought me back the quilt and I finished it off in time for the baby shower. Thank you, Faith for your help!
Faith had a mission of making 100 quilts starting during the pandemic. It kept her busy! All these quilts had 10 and one half inch squares and were tied off with a colorful string. All these squares met each other. Not one of them was bigger or smaller than the one next to it. I have found that when one is just a little off—it is time to cut another one that will match. It is better to catch the mistake from the beginning than to let it continue to be a problem.
Not all the unsurprising things happened at the house. Bethany went to do chores at the barn and found the female cat she hadn’t been able to catch to go to the vets, had five kittens just inside the barn! Like Ogden Nash’s poem, “A kitten is a kitten until it becomes a cat”! She has spent a lot of money to make sure this doesn’t happen but this was one she couldn’t get in time. It was a few days later when a neighbor was holding an older kitten and asked Bethany if it was hers. Her answer was, “No, and I don’t need another kitten!” Evidently it had come to this person’s house maybe after being “dropped” off.
This reminds me of a story that my grandpa told. He had been to town and was returning to the farm around noon time. He had to pass by the farm place of a bachelor before reaching his farm. He noticed that John was looking up at the barn. Grandpa stopped and asked John what was going on. Beside John stood a mother dog that was whining. She was whining for a reason. John said he had thrown up her newborn pups on the barn roof. They couldn’t have survived long with the hot roof. Grandpa asked him why he did this. His answer was that she shouldn’t have had them in the first place. Grandpa let him know that it was John’s fault as he should have taken her to the vets before so it wouldn’t have happened. I think of this story often when I hear of the way some animals are treated. Maybe this is why I like animals.
Kent Carlson is in a Sioux Falls hospital after being in an accident causing a leg injury. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers that doctors can do all that is necessary to help him recover.
Did you see where a former Sioux City woman is “super” at 110? According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, an estimated 60-70 super-centenarians live in the United States, 1 for every 6 million people. There are an estimated 250-300 worldwide.
We aren’t the only ones struggling with energy crisis coming up for this winter. In Europe as the energy crisis is expected this winter, offices are getting colder, statues and historic buildings are going dark. Bakers can’t afford to heat their ovens and fruit and vegetable growers face letting greenhouses stand idle.
In Eastern Europe where the poorer people live, people are stocking up on firewood, however in wealthier Germany, the wait for an energy -saving heat pump can take half a year leaving businesses not knowing how much more they can cut back.
Restaurants are running their grills no more than necessary and use motion detectors to turn off lights in storage, with some stores facing a 750% increase in electricity bills since the beginning of the year. They don’t want to shut off the lights and leave their customers eating in the dark.
With costs high and energy supplies tight, Europe is rolling out relief programs and plans to shake up electricity and natural gas markets as it prepares for rising energy use this winter. But will it be enough to avoid governmen -imposed rationing and rolling blackouts after Russia cut back natural gas needed to heat homes, run factories and generate electricity to a tenth of what it was before invading Ukraine.
Europe’s dependence on Russian energy has turned the war into an energy and economic crisis, with prices rising to record highs in recent months and fluctuating wildly.
The Eiffel Tower will plunge into darkness over an hour earlier than normal while shops and buildings shut off lights at night or lower thermostats.
Europe’s ability to get through the winter may ultimately depend on how cold it is and what happens in China. Shutdowns aimed at halting the spread of COVID-19 have idled large parts of China’s economy and meant less competition for scarce energy supplies. Andreas Schmitt, a baker in Frankfurt, Germany is facing the hard reality that conservation only goes so far. He is heating fewer ovens at his bakeries, running them longer to spare startup energy, narrowing his pastry selection to ensure ovens run full, and storing less dough to cut refrigeration costs. That might save 5-10% off an energy hill that is set to rise from 300,000 euros per year, to 1.1 million next year. Some some bakeries are giving up. Government help will be key in the short term, while a longer-term solution involves reforming energy markets themselves.
Neighbors in Madrid are looking to cut electricity costs and aid the energy transition installed solar panels in October to supply their housing development after years of work.
So, we in the United States are not the only ones facing higher prices this winter.
Remember in your thoughts and prayers those who have lost loved ones to death and have had their lives changed, have health problems with some being terminal, are struggling to make ends meet even if they have a job, encourage those to find a job, and be with those who are still trying to shorten the distance between friends/family with a bridge instead of a wall.
I will leave you with this quote from Jack Dempsey (1895-1983) American boxer, “A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.”