Dirtiest Dog!

We have had several days of fog, which makes for muddy flower beds.  This morning when Baxter and I went out to feed Leo and check on the chickens, he discovered a mouse in the bull skull in one of the flower beds.  Or at least he thought he discovered a mouse in that skull!  He dug and fussed and chewed and over turned and over turned again, that old skull.  I just let him have at it.

When Reynald got up, he discovered a very muddy puppy, who had either gotten the mouse or gave up.  I'm going to guess he got the mouse, because there is no such thing as giving up where a mouse is concerned.

A few photos of my handsome husband and my very dirty puppy!!!

muddy puppy!

he's not going to like getting clean enough to come in the house

Feels like Spring!

Yesterday and today the daytime temperature was in the mid 50's.  Way too warm for this time of the year, but since there wasn't anything I could do to stop it, I decided to enjoy it!  Yesterday the honey bees were out stretching their wings and thirsty!  They found their usual water dish and drank their fill.  They did the same today.  They searched high and low for a flower to gather nectar and pollen, but found nothing!

It was a real struggle to stay in the house today and work on my deep cleaning project.  I opened windows to bring the outdoors in, and washed windows on the second floor.  Anything to be outside!!

daffodils starting to poke through

the girls getting a drink of water

i put some sugar water out for the girls

lots of coming and going today and yesterday

Leo enjoying the warm sun

Reynald is working in the shop, changing the reaction arm bearings on my tractor and his.  One of mine was changed this fall.  Both of his needed to be done.  Rawley came this morning, from Western States Equipment to help with the job.

rawley's service truck.  they had to use the huge crane to get the bearings out of the large back wheels

my tractor!  lots of jacks and blocks used to hold everything up while the bearing are being worked on

reynald and alicia's tractor, arthur

Rawley will return either Friday or next Monday, with the repaired reaction arms and new bearings.  Today it felt like we would be in the field by the end of the week.  We know that's not true, but I confess to feeling just a little bit of weather panic today!  Both Reynald and I are not finished with our winter work list.

I talked to Roni Jo and Alicia this late afternoon and they are all tucked in to their apartment, ready for the big storm that is due to hit tonight and all day tomorrow.  David is there also and no body has to go in to work tomorrow!  David can work via computer, but Roni Jo and Alicia will just have a day off, or maybe two!!!  Roni is working on a cross stitch project and Alicia has her knitting and flute playing.  There is no doubt that the three of them will keep themselves entertained and well fed!

Farmer's Wife

Yesterday some of the "Barn Chicks" came over for a sewing day in the barn.  Last year, at this time, seven or eight of us started this quilt called "Farmer's Wife."  It seemed like such a good idea, but for me it has turned out to be a bit of a challenging project!  It's a paper piecing project, something which I have never done, and probably will never do again.  In fact, I may never actually finish this project!

However, a few folks that started last year have finished!  Beth finished one for Emily and Brandon for a wedding gift and Brenda has finished hers.  Well, it's not quite finished, she just has the blocks finished.  She said she still needs to add the border, which she is also piecing.

Cheryl had 40 blocks finished when she arrived yesterday and I think she made three or four more yesterday.  Claudia has well over 50 made, Martha, around 40 I think, Nan probably has over 20 done, but has been distracted of late making baby quilts!!!

Lynn and I both have seven finished.  We are planning to work on it together when we are both in assisted living!

Anyway, here's a few photos of the project.  Cheryl and Martha were the only ones that worked on Farmer's Wife yesterday.  The rest of us played with other things.

cheryl's binder that she is keeping her finished blocks in.  she made the cover for the binder

one of cheryl's blocks

look how cheryl matched the stripes at all four corners!

i'm not a fan of blue, but I love this block of cheryl's

this block is called honey comb.  some day i would like to make a quilt using this block, with bee themed fabric that i have been collecting

brenda's farmer's wife quilt

a little closer view

brenda's favorite block!

i love this one.  it's called postage stamp.  she fussy cut postage stamps from fabric.  

another one of brenda's favorites

one of my favorites!

another cool block!

nan working on a wall hanging from a science themed quilt book!

the baby quilt nan made for soon to be born grandson.  Nan's son, Ben is a photo journalist.  the circles are camera lens aperture that get larger as they go along.  each aperture has an animal pictured    so cute

A super fun day for all of us!  A chance to visit, laugh and get a little sewing done!  Next sew day is February 21st.  If you are in the neighborhood, stop in and chat, or sew, or both!

If Life Gives You Lemons......

make a lemon meringue pie!  My little Myers lemon bush (can't really call it a tree 'cause it's shaped more like a bush!) gave us 7 beautiful lemons.  I harvested them yesterday and decided to use two of them in a lemon meringue pie.  It was soooooo good!!!!

Meyer lemon "bush"

a few of the lemons

the pie!

My dad finished my cutting table and he and Reynald moved it in to my room last night.  It's so beautiful.  I can't wait to cut out a new quilt!!!  It was a small gesture, but mom and dad stayed for dinner last night, and had a piece of the lemon meringue pie!  Didn't burn dinner this time, so I felt redeemed after the disaster birthday dinner earlier this week!

cutting table disassembled

dad putting some finishing touches on

dad and the assembled cutting table  

tucks right in to this space

or, it can be pulled out to flip up the end leaf, and to walk around on all sides

Pitching for Spokane Public Radio

Yesterday was a very interesting day for me.  I was asked to help pitch for Spokane Public Radio for their "Moving to a Sound Future" building fund.  It was a one day pledge drive and the goal for the day was to raise $175,000!  I was on air for one hour with a very nice woman named Bridget and Verne Windham was the host.  I was a little jittery at first but found my sea legs about half way through the hour.  After that,  I could have gone on for another hour or maybe even two!  It was fun once I got over being kind of nervous!  AND, thanks to the generous support of listeners, the goal was met, and then some!!

my first radio apprearnce!

a view of the very cramped quarters at KPBX

After I finished at the radio station, the general manager gave us a tour of the new building.  It's an old fire station, located on N, Monroe street in Spokane.  It was built in 1917 so it's almost one hundred years old.  It has been placed on the Historic Registry so renovations are being done, keeping as much of the historic feel and flavor of the building as possible.

It's going to be an amazing space for the radio station, and for the community.  Spokane Pubic Radio is indeed PUBLIC!  I believe that everything they do, is done with our community and region at the forefront.  If you have not supported the station, I strongly suggest that you consider making a donation either to the capitol campaign, or to the general operating budget, or both!  (Still pitching....just couldn't get enough of it!)  It's worth every penny that you can devote!

 Reynald was so excited to go to Spokane yesterday because he wanted to go to the big RV show at the fair grounds!  I put on my happy face and followed along!!  Didn't see anything that either one of us would trade the S.S. Rolinco for!  Sure, things are shiny and new, and they all look a whole lot better on the outside that the S.S. Rolinco, which is just about the ugliest motor home on the road, but inside, there wasn't a thing in any one coach that we liked better.  Well, perhaps most of the windows are bigger than the tiny one that Reynald shoved me through last spring!  Motivation to keep working out and not eat too much chocolate......just in case we get locked out again!

I took a few pictures of the new tear drop tow behind campers that all the rage now.  Would be really fun if you were young and childless!  They're cute and quaint and cozy, but I really love my queen size bed in the Rolinco!

reynald standing in front of a tear drop camper

the kitchen in the rear of the camper    kinda cute!

Discipline

Discipline.......I have none!  This morning I was going to sew until 8am then start on my cleaning.  I am planning to go in to the school this afternoon to finish up my tool room project.  I thought if I came up from my room around 8, I could get a few rooms cleaned before I went in to town.

So then, 8 o'clock came and I only had a few rows left to sew on to the main body of the motor home throw, so I thought....well, I'll just sew until 9am.  Then at 9 I had one more row left!  How could I walk away with just one more row left?  Impossible.

So, I sewed that row on.  Wondered if it was wide enough.  Reynald came down to see if I was alive, and he too wondered if it was wide enough.  I sewed on one of the side borders and we hopped in the gator and roared over to the shop to see what it looked like on the couch.

Happily, it is wide enough, but then how could I just leave it with one border on and one border off? Sewed that border on and took a few pictures!  Color Man also picked out a binding so I cut that and have it ready to sew and press.  I have a whole craft box full of bindings!!

Two pictures of the motor home throw follow.  I am going to do something constructive today, honest, I will.  I WILL NOT be sucked in to working on the Christmas puzzle, which is still set up in the basement movie room, where I was cleaning yesterday, and well......you can probably imagine what happened!  Like I said, NO discipline!!!!!

motor home throw close up

i thought i turned this when I uploaded, but it didn't twist like it was supposed to

All is Calm All is Bright

I finished cleaning and organizing my room late yesterday afternoon.  It's so nice to have order back!!

Mom and dad came out last night for dinner to celebrate mom's birthday.  In addition to dinner, we all discussed the plan for the sewing center.  The discussion was great, lots of good ideas. So many great ideas, such a long discussion, that dinner burned!  Mom and dad were kind and gracious about it all.  Such wonderful parents in so many ways!  Oh well......dessert was good though!  Warm chocolate chip cookie bowls with ice cream and hot fudge.  Salvaged the evening!

Anyway, unlike the cutting table, where I gave my dad very little direction, I have a few more ideas for the sewing center.  Though, my dad has such a good design eye, that I hate to give too many specifics.  It's fun to watch his creativity unfold.

a clean floor and everything in it's place  

this is where the new cutting table will go   we moved the bench to the shop yesterday

the icky cabinet and my sewing maching

the ironing center!

the new sewing center will go on this wall  

my stitching nest, when Baxter hasn't claimed the chair!

this is a fun little shelf that my brother made in high school shop!  the bottom shelf is a pin cushion collection

another view of the room!

I spent some time this morning sewing.  Beth quilted the Valentine quilt that I made for my mom for her birthday.  She did a great job!!!  This morning I sewed the binding on and will stitch that down either today or tomorrow.  Also worked on the motor home throw.  I have five more rows to sew together!  I really really love how this quilt is turning out.  Reynald also loves it!  Hoping to have a photo of the completed project soon.

chaos

For well over a year, no, maybe over two years now, my dad has been pestering me to figure out what I wanted for a sewing center.  I kept telling him that I loved my sewing space just the way it was.  I loved the old cabinet that he made for my mom years ago.  I was doing just fine with my modified cutting table.  I was just fine, content.  But he persisted...

One of the main reasons I put him off is because stuff like this makes me really tense.  What did I want if I could have anything that I wanted, in a sewing center?  No idea!  It was just so much easier to leave things the way they were.

Finally, my dad had enough.  He said he was going to start with the cutting table so I had better figure out what I wanted.  I started looking at photos on-line and came up with a rough idea of what I liked.  Dad took it from there.

He's almost finished with the cutting table and it is AMAZING!!!!  Photos will follow of course.....

Next he will start on the sewing center, which led to the following photos.  Reynald helped me verbalize what I thought I might want/use.  Then he suggested some room rearrangement, which led to total chaos!  It needed to be done.  I needed to deep clean my room.  I needed to be able to visualize what the sewing center would look like.  I just needed to take everything apart, and attempt to put it back together, but oh my goodness.......

Started this project on Saturday......was away from home all day Sunday, back at it today.  I have to finish today or my brain will explode.  The good news is that I am sorting, and pitching and organizing, and most importantly, finding out that I really don't need to buy another new project for about 10 years!

So this is the original arrangement, though I have moved a few things already.  Notice the sewing machine cabinet at the end of the room, in the corner.  The dark brown cabinet in the foreground is know as "the icky cabinet".  One day I will explain why!                                                                                                                

A little closer view of the sewing end of this room.  The machine cabinet, a built in ironing board and an old mangle that Auntie Marge gave me years ago.  It still works and I used it just the other day to press some cloth napkins.

This is the stitching end of the room.  Baxter's cozy chair, a reclaimed china hutch from an estate sale, a wooden drying rack, also given to me by Auntie Marge, and an old map case on the wall.

The view this morning!  It just keeps getting worse!!!  You can see the icky cabinet, in place, where the sewing machine used to sit.  Baxter is unfazed by the chaos!

 Another view of the room.  The cutting table will tuck in to the corner, under the crazy chickens and school kids on the wall.  That table and corner bench will be moved to the office in the shop.

And it spills out in to the hallway!

and out in to this hall way!

So, as you can see, I need to get back to work on this project.  I'm only slightly overwhelmed at this moment.  No way around it, just roll up my sleeves and find a place for everything, or help it out the door!!