Have I mentioned the price of propane? There's a shortage, if you haven't heard it on the news; I don't know what our people are charging right now, but some people are paying as high as $5 a gallon. At night I turn the thermostat down to 60. Daytime, I try to keep it at 62, but sometimes wimp out and turn it up to 63 or 64, never higher. Next time I'm at Walmart I intend to find some insulated underwear to wear under my sweats around home.
Speaking of underwear (ha!): I once blogged about Cliff's underwear, which some of his lady cousins found great fodder for discussion when we gathered at the next reunion. He never, ever, wore any brand of T-shirts and whitie-tighties except Penny's Stafford brand, because that's how him mom raised him. However, in the past three or four years the quality of Penny's clothing has deteriorated badly. So we began searching for something else. We went through all the brands you see advertised, but they were very thin: Around home, Cliff's uniform is white t-shirt and overalls or jeans, and he likes a heavier shirt.
We have been buying his socks at Sam's Club for ages, so I suggested we check out T-shirts there. I would much rather be telling you about Costco, but they didn't have anything of the quality that Sam's Club has in the way of socks and shirts. Ten pairs of wonderful, thick socks with tops that never give out for under $10, and six T-shirts as thick as the ones we paid a small fortune for at Penny's for under $18: I'd say those are bargain prices. The T-shirts are a little longer than Cliff likes, but otherwise they are perfect. Guess where we'll be looking for men's briefs next time he needs them?
And then there's the problem with bib overalls. Cliff prefers Big Smith brand, but the quality of those has been sliding downhill for a long time while the prices climbed higher ($35). The stitching is uneven, ravels hang here and there... but no other brands had a fit that appealed to him. I searched the Internet, but found nothing that seemed to fill the bill until a Google search led me to Carhartt. We are both familiar with their tan, lined coveralls, but I had not realized that Carhartt made blue, unlined overalls. The price is higher, a little over $50. But we know Carhartt quality and believe this is a case of "you get what you pay for". I gritted my teeth and ordered a pair from Sears, and hallelujah, we scored again! He likes them.
The old weight still refuses to leave our bodies:
That's how the whole month of January went, and it appears February will follow suit. Up and down. *sigh*
As one of many Christmas gifts to myself, I got a DNA kit from Ancestry.com, spit in a little tube, and sent it off. The results were in today, and the only real surprise was that I did not get my curly hair from any African-American ancestor, something I often wondered about.
All of the research my cousin, Pauline, has done on my maternal family tree leads straight back to England, so this seems to bear that out. "Europe West" includes Germany, and Daddy was always talking about Uncle somebody-or-other who was mostly German; nobody has taken his family tree back very far.
I watched a video explaining that Scandinavian, for instance, could show up in the DNA of those who came through Great Britain, due to patterns of migration.
Of course, it could all be a big rip-off, but I choose to think it's legitimate.
Changing the subject: The way I keep water in the chicken house in freezing weather like we're having now is to switch buckets as often as necessary. I bring the frozen one in to thaw and take out a bucket of water with a rock in it. The rock is necessary because chickens will try to roost on the edge of the ice-cream bucket. If there isn't something heavy in there, they tip it over and have no water to drink. I never said chickens were smart. You can buy an electric heater-pad to put a chicken waterer on so it won't freeze, but I prefer to do a little walking a few times a day rather than run my electric bill any higher than it already is.
