Sewing Center

A few weeks ago my dad delivered a brand new sewing center!  It still smelled of freshly applied finish to all the wood.   Dad started with rough quarter sawn oak lumber and ended up with this.....truly amazing and spectacularly beautiful.

You may remember that I started out last year with the new cutting table that he made for me.  Now my room is complete with the best equipment I could hope for.  I may never leave this room again!

Dad assembling my new sewing center.

Baxter is always willing to help!

You can see that we had to move the unit in to the basement in pieces.

Fully assembled, ready to be used.  

 

I'm still trying to decide what goes on the walls, and where it all goes.  Just kind of shaking hands with the new look.

I found these darling knobs on Etsy and I'm so thrilled with them.

Behind the above knob, is this drawer with the super cool insert that dad made for thread storage.

Another neat knob.....

and can you guess what is in this drawer?

Another favorite knob...

The first quilt from the new sewing center.  One of the "fall quilt" series!

A closer look at the blocks.  A scrappy 16 patch....all pieces from my stash so I didn't buy anything!

Sausage Grind 2016

Monday a group of us gathered to make sausage.  Reynald and I are rather new to this group, at least as sausage makers.  We've been doing it for maybe ten years?   Our relationship with this group goes back generations however, and we always seem to have a wonderful time, no matter what the reason for getting together.

This is a particularly fun event, because we get to take home, and enjoy and share, the fruits of our labor.

Here it is........Sausage Grind 2016!

This folder contains the recipes, and various other book keeping details.

Setting the stage

Cutting tables...

Grinding station....

Les set up an art gallery on one of the shop doors.  This is not your typical sausage making party!  Art is an essential element.

Del is touring the art gallery.

Les' art studio name is Pencil Farm Studio.  As you might imagine, he has collected some pretty unique pencils over the years. 

The watch is one of Les' newest art projects.  The mannequin hand is for display purposes.  Les labeled the box that it is stored in as "poison" so no one would take it!

OK, enough fooling around.....time to get to work.....

Here's Del inspecting the cutting station to make sure all is in order.

David trimming and cutting...

And Les doing the same.

This year Del and I were the garlic peeling crew.  Eva is giving him some encouragement!  Just look at that large bag of garlic!

Reynald is the grinder!

Apparently Chemyn didn't get the "enough fooling around" memo!

Louise and Eva have the most work of all!  They do all the cooking for the crew.  Lunch was lentil soup and fresh bread from a Spokane bakery.I forgot to take a photo of dinner, but it was equally as amazing with Eva's lasagna and all the trimmings!  Chemyn made a tiramisu tort that I also didn't get a photo of, because we are all too busy savoring each bite!  Oh my goodness was it good....

This was the lunch dessert plate!  

Enjoying our delicious lunch.

 Back to the grind, so to speak.  We were now ready to mix.

David mixing the spices in to one of the varieties.

After mixing each recipe (three this year) we do a taste test and then adjust the spices accordingly.

We rely heavily on Louise and Eva for accurate tasting.  You can see by the photographers shadow, that I had a constant companion that day! 

Cooking outside on the Coleman camp stove.  

The color of the sky was almost the exact color of Eva's vest!  There's Chemyn's dog Tucker in the background.

After we receive the taste tester go ahead, we stuff the sausage in to links, and then some in to bulk packages.

We all took a moment to admire the sun setting on the farm.

The next morning, after Les has smoked the links, we get together to wrap and mark the packages.  We all go home with an ice chest full of yummy sausage.  Such a fun time together we do have...

Smoked links, being prepared for packaging.

We all favor Louise's handwriting to any one of the rest of us!

And here you can see why!

 Guests staying at the Rolinco Road Resort are often served this sausage for breakfast.  No one has ever complained!  Book your reservation now!!!!

Here we go again....

only this time we got the equipment parked in to the storage side of the shop, parked even closer together!

This might be the most nerve wracking thing that Reynald asks me to do! I am terrified that I am going to run in to something, either the shed wall, or another piece of equipment, or even Reyanld.  So far, I have managed to following the hand signals that he gives, and get stuff parked in the right place!

So, all this, plus the two combines need to go.....

in this space!

One combine in....

Can you see how close it is to the wall?  Maybe a half an inch from touching!

And, the second combine.  Have you ever tried to parallel park a combine?

Next we tucked the ride on lawn mower back here.

And then little Colt slipped between the two combines.

Then Indy, and between Indy and the combine the air compressor fit.

Now Arthur is face to face with Indy.

And here's the one that made me almost as tense as the combines.  Parking the second semi truck.  It's almost as hard to parallel park these guys as the combines!

Oh, and now the S.S. Rolinco!

First time I have driven the S. S. Rolinco.  Reynald insisted on photo evidence of that!  He didn't take a picture of me driving anything else but this!

Look how tiny the jeep looks next to Starbucks!

Bertha drove in behind the Rolincl and to the side fit the gator, Little Eric and the Tonner.

I guess you can't see the tonner in any of these photos, but it's there.  AND there's still room for Big Boy, the other pick up!  

Walking over to the shop to help with this project, I noticed that the daffodils are starting to poke through.  All our snow is gone.  Daytime temps have been in the low 40's for the last week, and it gets just to the freezing point at night.  

Also picked up a few primroses in Spokane a couple days ago.  I just love them.  They shout "SPRING"!

And, to reward our efforts today, we were blessed with a spectacular sunset.  I didn't photograph the moon as it rose in the eastern sky, but it was equally as spectacular as the sunset.  Such beauty abounds.