Category Archive: Life
3 more cute little hedgehogs were my sewing for today. First though we went to the cardiac doctor. He gave DH approval to go to the gym as well as tell us things look good.Tested bag pattern
This is the bag pattern I tested today from the inside. I can’t show you the outside until it is published, but I did SEW today. This is a very roomy bag and I would use it to carry quilts to a show n tell or supplies to a class. I will give you more details when I can. Meanwhile, it felt great to be back in the sewing room.
We also had some company for a short while today. We have so many cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and beets to share today. It’s nice when someone appreciates them.
If you are in the US and planning to watch the eclipse tomorrow, please take caution and don’t get hurt.
Boredom?
Boredom? Doesn’t happen here!
This knocked me off my chair late last night. I really thought he would never find the right woman. He’s nearly 40 now, so he’s met a few and no one appealed to him enough to make him pop the question. Now he has done it! And we are happy for them. No date has been set yet.
I took Beau (dog) to the vet this morning to get the stitches out and he gets so excited with all the new smells, it is difficult to hang onto him. We came home from that and Bill and I went to the grocery store. I had a short list, but, even so, they didn’t have half the items on my list.
The UPS man dropped these 40# boxes off at the gate to the barn instead of at the front door. When DH went to get them, one of the dogs slipped by and did a neighborhood walk about. So I put the boxes in the back of the car and then went dog chasing. And this is why I go to the gym 3 days a week.
I made stuffed Rigatoni for a company lunch tomorrow. I simmered the tomatoes to half the amount and added vegetables to that. The filling for these is a vegan ricotta/spinach filling. Then I did get some basic house cleaning done and 5 pints of green beans canned.
When I went to feed the sheep, I found one with his head stuck in the fence and he didn’t want to pull back, so I called a neighbor to have him help me push the head back through. How is it these sheep can twist their heads to get to grass on the other side of a fence, but can’t twist it to get back out? Boredom on a farm? It doesn’t happen. Sometimes I wonder what I did for entertainment when we lived in the city, and then I remember. We had little children and music lessons!
Every day this week, I had allocated the afternoon to sewing, but every time an afternoon came, there was something else more pressing. I only have a week and a half of this month left and still have not completed any of my August sewing/quilting challenges, though some are started. The knitting challenge is finished. I just looked at next weeks and find that Monday, we go to the heart doctor and my helper that usually comes for 5 hours on Monday is taking the day off for eclipse reasons. Tuesday, the people are coming with the excavator to dig the hole to put a large water tank and a propane tank. Lines will be dug to connect the water to the house as well. Maybe Sunday, after I water the gardens, and Wednesday I can work on some of these projects. I don’t do well missing sleep, so that is not an option.
Boredom? I don’t even know what that is.
Right now, I’m ready for the Sabbath rest. You are welcome to join us.
Errands and food prep
Errands and food prep took my day. As soon as my helpers got here this morning, I had them unload the 4’x6′ stall mats that I had purchased. These are made from recycled tires and are they heavy! Each weighs close to 100 pounds. We put them down in the stalls which the former owner decided needed concrete. It keeps the moisture and cold from coming up through the concrete. That way our babies will stay a bit warmer when they are very young.
As soon as they were unloaded, I drove off to the feed store for a dozen bags of grain. Home again and unloaded. I took a brief half hour to make and serve lunch and went back to get the other stall mats. That was a lot of driving around.
These little shell socks are finished. I love them. Plus this yarn is so good about being tossed in the washer and dryer.
I made a batch of tomato sauce (including processing) with the tomatoes and zucchini in the garden. The string beans are cut and ready to cook. There aren’t enough to run a canning batch, so I’ll just partially cook them and put them in the freezer. There was a pound and a half of blueberries and another huge bowl of cucumbers wanting to turn into pickles, so tomorrow – maybe. I have been sharing the zucchini and cucumbers as much as I can. I really do love all the fresh food from the garden, but I think I just plant too many after a long winter.
The geese love their fresh drinking water. Remember how small they were this spring.
Ancestry.com and rabbit holes
Ancestry holes are prolific at Ancestry.com. One can certainly spend a lot of time and there are so many avenues to chase. Now if I had the $200 to purchase the international information, I’m sure I could find many more of those rabbit holes One whole day gone, but more ancient relatives found in my husband’s lineage which is a very difficult one with which to work.
Do any of you work on genealogy? It’s interesting to find the old, old stories as well as to whom you might be connected. I found that one of his lines connects to the Byrd family, but haven’t had the time yet to find if it is the same as the explorer. I have to be very careful not to open this site very often, because it is so addictive.
Dr. office visit
We spent the day going to Seattle to visit the doctor once again to make sure the replaced ankle is doing okay.. He likes to keep a check on anything that is bothersome and it appears that the tendon has become inflamed. So I’m to take it easy for a couple months (HA), wear an orthotic that I have to get approved by my insurance and then order. Wear it and return to see him in 8 weeks. (sarcastically -Lucky us, we get to make that drive again.) Really though, we are very blessed to have this medical procedure available. It has made the difference between living in a wheel chair or being able to go about my normal life here on the farm. But the trip didn’t leave me time for fun today. I think I’ll pull the socks out and see I can get a few rows done on the toes.
Starter locked in neutral
10 new friends showed up. About 1/2 are lambs. They were living in the eastern part of the state which is smoky right now. Tomorrow, we will go through them and decide if we want to add them to the flock. Meanwhile they are in quarantine.
I seem to be locked in neutral today, with the brakes on. I watched a food video and did some knitting. Already it is time to go feed animals. Sometimes, I don’t know what happens to the day. Even with good intentions, enough sleep, and getting up early, things don’t get done.
Embroidered hedgehog and garden
These embroidered hedgehog are from Hatched in Africa. They are darling (background on left is accurate color). It is a set of 10 that I will make into a baby blanket bit by bit. My aim is to embroider one or two each day between other chores.
The blueberries are nearly finished. I have 55# in the freezer and the rest that I pick we will just eat. This bowl had 4#15 oz this morning. My guess is that there will get another 3-4# this year and they will be done.
These sun gold and Oregon gold tomatoes don’t stop. There are a few Romas here. Every year I am not gong to keep any volunteers as they are always the little ones. However, every year, I give in and give most of them a place. This year they consumed about 45 linear feet of space. Please help me with my resolve next year to not keep more than 6 volunteers. I want only to plant half a dozen big tomatoes and half a dozen Romas. That should be plenty.
Day in the kitchen and garden
A day in the kitchen yielded another 13 cups of relish,
And an artichoke, potato, pepper casserole, that took too much time to create and was okay, but we won’t be having it again.
This one was hiding. But thankfully it went home with the daughter who found it. We now have 22 sizeable cukes in the refrigerator meaning over 8″ plus many more pickle size on the vines. I will be finding homes for some most of it. One hears about zucchini sneaking in people’s cars, on their front porches etc. Here it will be cucumbers. The zucchini have about the same number of plants, but are not out to win the race. But I am choosing not to complain too much because winter is on its way and I will wish we had the fresh produce.
More animal adventures
It was hot for here today. At 95 degrees, even the bees came out to get cooled off. See the mass of black on the gray box. That is just a mass of bees. I’ll check their box again tomorrow. Maybe they need another box for ventilation. See the fellow in the background? If they see me, their is one thing on their mind: FOOD. Yes, I am the food dispenser.
After all that fun and running around this morning, I was able to spend a bit of time in the studio (where it is also cooler) this afternoon. I think I will get this fellow finished on Sunday.