Mama's got a new dress

'cept it's not ready to put on!  We finished fertilizing yesterday morning.  Got home, cleaned up and went in to Beth's for some best friend time.  We were going to start a new cross stitch project together.  Instead, we talked non-stop for a couple hours, then decided to hop in the car and drive to Odessa, to the quilt shop, to look for fabric that would work for a new dress!!!

I bought this pattern  over a year ago, and I'm a total neophyte when it comes to garment construction.  Beth is the expert and a really good teacher.  She's walked me through a couple projects in the past.  This pattern is a vintage Vogue.  The pattern cover says it is an "original 1954 design".  I'm crazy about clothes from that era.  The pattern also says "easy"!  We'll see.  Garment construction directions are written in a foreign language as far as I'm concerned.  Fortunately, Beth speaks that language.

Here's the pattern and here's the fabric that I fell in love with.  It was even in the sale hall, so it wasn't terribly expensive.

Sorry this is sideways, but you get the idea!

Sale hall fabric.  I really really love it!!!

As I said, we finished fertilizing yesterday morning.  Reynald got the applicator cleaned up and we moved it back to pumpkin center for storage.  It will stay there until some needed repairs can be done.

Fertilizer applicator washed up and ready for next year!  

Then we hooked up the coil packer to Colt.  We are thinking we will do this in the next few days, in an attempt to settle some of the super dry "fluff" and set a seed bed.  It's a thought, perhaps a little on the hopeful side, but we have to try something to save what tiny bit of moisture is out there.

Colt hooked up to the coil packer.  This will be my job for the next few days!

This afternoon, Reynald hopped on the Gator to go spray weeds on the road beds, AGAIN!  Seems like the weeds don't care about the drought.

The Gator with the sprayer on back.  This is the coolest spray rig ever!  Reynald and I split time on this.  He does the road beds in the spring and summer and I do morning glory in the fall before seeding.

While he was killing weeds with the Gator, I was pulling weeds in the garden.  For some reason, the purslane has gone crazy in my garden.  I KNOW i have not let any go to seed.  Since I have been planing a garden in this spot, I have had only a few plants each year, and I pull those as soon as I see them and put them in a bucket.

Purslane, growing happily in the garden, until today!

This spring, I spread some chicken manure on the garden.  My theory is that purslane seed is EVERYWHERE......ALL the time.  Once it gets a good dose of nitrogen it just take off.  This is the only reason I can think of that there is so much.  The good news is, that after several hours of hands and knee patience, I think I got most of it.  I'll do a walk through in a day or so, to pick up what I may have missed.