Living Seasonally

I love this time of deep winter (remind me of this sentence in 3 months, okay?).  In summer, we're busy working outside 12+ hours/day and we don't have time for reading or hobbies but in the dead of winter, we have time to rest and pick up long neglected pastimes.  My husband loves puttering in his garage and is interested in cleaning up this old steam engine given to him by his Dad.  It works, but he's going to clean it and restore it to it's former glory.   He's keen on setting up some attachments that will be powered by it ~ the kids and grandkids will love it!  He's also been working on his vintage/antique radios (he's got a few that he's tinkering with).  There's a few woodworking projects waiting for when the mood strikes (beehives and mason bee houses among other things).   Kelly likes having a few projects on the go so he can follow his interest as he wants on any given day.  I'm exactly the same way!

As to me, I'm set on busting my stash of fabric.  My sewing machine is calling my name after a taste of recent Christmas gift sewing and there's a few things I'd like to make for myself.   As well, I'd love to spend a bit of time knitting each day to improve my skills.  I'm still a basic knitter and have yet to make anything useful from a pattern (which is something I want to change).  I've been practicing my stitches on several squares but it's high time I bit the bullet and tried to follow a pattern to actually MAKE something.  I think I'll join the knitters group at the library as they meet once per week and help anyone who needs it.  I will most certainly need it :)

I also want to get my seed/tree order in soon (early birds get the best selection) and begin some garden planning.  We have a large area that we are transitioning from grass to a food forest garden (this began with flipping sod and sheet mulching last summer).   The design plan will take some time to get right so it will be an ongoing project with lots of edits between now and Spring.

In the kitchen, there's finally time to bake more than the basics as there's no produce to preserve.  I'm currently working on perfecting sourdough bread (given my results, this will take all winter!) but I remind myself that all things worth doing take practice to get right.  I'm also having fun making recipes out of this "new" cookbook (giggle).

I picked up this little gem at the second hand book store over the summer and it's full of handwritten notes, reviews and thrifty family recipes.  It's a literal time capsule and I LOVE it!

Every night after supper, we both sit by the fire with the cats to read and watch movies (in stark contrast to summer when we're outside working until close to bedtime).   We welcome this rest now, but come April I know that we'll be sick of being indoors and we'll both be itching to get outside again (and so the cycle repeats itself).

Do you live seasonally, too?   If so, how do you spend your winter months?