Category Archive: Life
Picnic time finish
This quilt was a lot of work, but now that it’s complete, it was worth it. I still have to make a pillowcase to keep it in, but that’s the easy part.
This is the label on the back, she doesn’t know about this yet and is on vacation, so will get it in about 3 weeks.
And this is how my quilts are signed.
Tomorrow, the plan is to work outside as it has been a bit neglected by me.
Planned parenthood?
Not our plan, I just sold 14 chickens. Yesterday 5 bantams and today 7 buff Orpington hatched. Obviously we thought we were diminishing the flock. In fact I thought we were down to 6. Surprise! As long as they stay in the chicken coop or pasture, it is not a problem as they are great for bug control. But both these who just hatched babies have been a pain around the house. The bantam is cooped up in a pen near the house and will be transferred to the coop as soon as the chicks are old enough – maybe another week or two. The new clutch was taken to the coop today and set up. Perhaps if they are raised there, they will get the idea, since there are still 4 hens down there that behave. If they don’t get the idea, we have a freezer and dogs who will eat chicken. Life is fun on the farm! Anyone bored, I have a coop that needs to be cleaned out.
And now back to the quilt, I’m trying to get quilted.
Oh, look! Babies!
She’s been hiding somewhere and this is what she brought to show us. Because they are bantams, they are so tiny and cute. Look at the one standing by a normal brick.
A day’s work has this table runner nearly finished. I just have the hand work on the binding to do, so will finish that tonight and call it done.
10 Things your non-homesteading friends just don’t understand
http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/blog
A modern homesteader is someone who might:
- Painstakingly research the remedies of generations-past to help their families heal.
- Get more excited going to the farmer’s market than the mall
- Spend all night in the barn checking on a new baby goat… and never blink an eye.
- Scour yard sales for old cast iron cookware and mason jars.
- Grow tomatoes and lettuce and basil on their apartment balconies.
- Find kneading bread dough almost as good as therapy.
- Close their eyes and take a long slow breathe whenever they smell freshly cut hay or ground wet from rain.
- Line up all their home-canned foods in a pretty row so they can admire the fruit of their labor.
- Rise at the crack of dawn to milk their animals, or drive 40 miles to pick up fresh milk from a farmer.
- Dig up their front yard, despite the raised eyebrows of the neighbors, to plant their first garden.
- Jump up and down and squeal when they finally find the first egg from their home-raised chickens.
This blog speaks so well about the times of my life that I have loved the best. Not that I ever considered myself a homesteader so much as I enjoyed he farming experiences.
I do hope you will go and read it. If you double click on the red, it will open in a new window.
Interesting art
At the medical office I went today, these sculptures were hanging. I found them fascinating. They appear to have each layer cut out of balsa wood and then they have very small wooden dowels that hold the layers separate. The dowels reminded me of the small tinker toys.
Baby hats
It seems that I was busy all day, but when I looked for photos, I didn’t have much. The mechanic came out again this morning and after another two hours had everything tuned up and a couple broken pieces replaced. It seems quieter. Maybe these quilts will be done next week and I can play with the embroidery machine again.
For diversion and since I didn’t want to tackle anything serious while he was here, I started sewing the hats. All of them have the long seam
And 40 of them have the seam across the top and top end sewn together. Then the two pointy ends are butted and zigzagged together.
These are now turned and ready to go. They are so cute when rolled up for a baby’s head.
Later today, a family came out to look at the alpacas, sheep and chickens. Bill wants them to be sold, I can’t imagine how lonely it will be here without them. We’ll see what happens. They want to discuss it and if they decide will have to find a horse trailer to take them home.
It’s picnic time!
The flimsy for Picnic Time by Lunch Box quilts is now done, ready to tidy up, press, quilt and bind. OH , that does sound like there is still a bit to be done. Does any one of you have a suggestion for quilting this. It challenged my skills in some areas, so I’m happy that I made it. And I really like it.
Sorry it hangs funny, I must get a wider board, so wider quilts will hang straight. This quilt is 62″ square. If you’d like to make one, click on the red words and it will take you to the link.
The service man came this morning and took this apart. Then he didn’t have a part he needed. He’s coming back tomorrow, and I really hope he can get it all done. Another day and parts will start getting lost.
baby hats and revitalized rooms
136 purple baby hats are now cut and ready to sew! These are 8.5″ high and 15″ wide.
I met a young woman with lots of energy who likes to clean house. So she helped me take these rooms from storage to usable. We started with the bedroom, which I hope to turn into a guest room
Then the used and abused kitchen area. It looks so clean and pretty now with everything put away and all the dish cloths and towels where they belong, as well as the pile of things on the table that didn’t seem to have a home. There really was a table under all of those items.
This is the other half of that room. The tables that we started the plants on this spring are all down and planting supplies are no longer in this room, for the most part. The lights are still here with a shelving unit, but out of the way. It feels so good to have this all done. I know you probably would have liked to have seen it before we started, but I forgot, besides I’m not sure that I wanted you to see.
The current plan is to have it ready for me to recuperate in. That will eliminate the steps for the first month or however long it takes to get up and down them again.
New recipes
How did our grandparents survive working all day in the heat to do their canning and cooking on hot days? Today, I decided to try some new recipes from Michael Klunker’s BlogSpot. I started with soaking black beans overnight. This was to have the beans ready to make Michael’s copy of Panera’s bean soup, which of course I forgot to photograph.
While the beans were cooking, I decided to try another recipe I saw – where one uses a very ripe banana per cup of oats to make quick cookies. So I tried them with just raisins added. They were fine for a breakfast cookie, but what about a dessert cookie.
I made another batch of them with chocolate chips and vanilla. They are a good, not overly sweet cookie. One could use granola as a base with the banana, or one could add seeds, nuts, whatever suits the fancy. So now there are cookies in the freezer and ready for breakfast tomorrow morning. If you want to try these. Bake 35o degrees for 15 minutes.
Next on the list was Michael’s Pierogies. I’ve been wanting to try them for a while, so why not pick a nice hot day (we do not have air conditioning) I made the McDougall sour cream recipe which Michael used in the mashed potatoes, then after cooking the potatoes, mashed them and also made the potato gravy recipe.
After lunch (of bean soup), I made the pierogie dough. which has a couple dough rest spots. They were then rolled out and cut.
Here they are, stuffed with mashed potato and closed. They are resting in the freezer for an hour and then I will go bag them. They were so labor intensive, tomorrow, I will take out only enough for one meal and the rest will be for special meals.
It has been one hot, kitchen day. I am going to bag the Pierogies and sit down and read.