Winter has returned, and I have managed to resign myself to the snow and the bad roads. Attila was nearly in an unavoidable accident on the road this morning; his truck slid backwards down a 500-foot hill on the road, barely missing the large trees on either side, in favour of the ditch. These conditions will only be with us for another week, and then things will change dramatically. I am determined to fill the week with activity.

Yesterday the kitchen was filled with wonderful smells. One crock-pot was filled with granola and the other with sliced apples and cinnamon for applesauce. This morning for breakfast we enjoyed reheated applesauce, topped with granola. Granola is great for breakfast because it has lasting power, and seldom does one become “peckish” during the morning, or find oneself rummaging around the kitchen in search of a snack.

Thinking this morning about buying a new frying pan has led to unforeseen events. While surfing through the cast iron skillet literature I ran into a series of recipes that looked interesting. Since we have a small portion of leftover ham and gravy sitting in the refrigerator, the idea of skillet corn bread served with ham and gravy seemed a fitting lunch for Attila. The corn bread was delicious, not only with ham and gravy, but topped with homemade cinnamon applesauce as well, as I ate mine.

I have decided to purchase an eight inch cast iron frying pan, to replace the non-stick Teflon pan we currently own (received as a gift). I considered titanium, stainless steel and aluminum as well, but decided upon cast iron as my tried and true solution.

Two rooms in the house are in dire need of attention. As the grand purge has continued, items to be left for later consideration have been piled into two rooms. The second upstairs bedroom has been a holding ground for all sorts, as has a section of the downstairs bedroom. Over the next week of winter weather I will make a daily foray into the chaos, sorting, discarding and piling for the rummage sale.

We have purged a small mountain of items in the last year, and have not missed one single item that has left our possession. It speaks volumes, our penchant for “waste not, want not”. This had been taken to the extreme, so much so that we had no idea what we possessed and therefore did not put it to any use. Out of sight was out of mind. It still is, after the purge. The difference is that someone else is actually using all those items that we no longer think about.

I continue to enjoy my genealogy project. Over the winter I have been entering data that was transcribed by another researcher, who posted their transcriptions to an email list. 60620, that is the number of people who reside in my database. They represent 43,213 families and 2,767 blood relatives on my mother’s side dating back as far as 1771.

My father’s side of the family has been well researched by one of my first cousins, who shares very little of her work. I am hoping she will publish a book, or at least donate her work to the National Archives. She is a meticulous researcher, who relies on primary sources; records with great care; and references her work. I spend little time on researching that side of the family, which has been traced back to the fifteenth century in England and Germany.

Most recently I have been focusing on birth, marriage, death transcriptions and census records for the entire District of Parry Sound. I have traced my ancestors on my mother’s side back to their arrival in Canada. However, lately I have been feeling an urge to probe more deeply into their European roots. This will cost money, as those records are not freely available to the public. I will start small and spend little.