A new member of the Rolinco Road team arrived today from Canada. This is Kal, a new to us, used Challenger 855 C tractor. This tractor is the same size and horsepower as Arthur. We were beginning to see the need to help split off some of Arthur's load and hours worked. Enter Kal!
There are a few cosmetic additions that we will install this winter, but we fully anticipate Kal to pull in to the harness at full strength this spring. Alicia and Matthew got the naming rights to our new fellow.
We got baby chicks the middle of September. The last several years I have gotten Barred Rock chickens. This year I decided to try a different breed and went with Rhode Island Red. I love their feather color, a deep, rich auburn.
They have moved in to the big house and are enjoying the room. No one has ventured outside yet. They will stand in the little door and look out, but so far the outside world is a bit too intimidating. They will get the courage needed one of these days. In the meantime, they are happy inside, knowing that they have the option if they choose.
You may remember that about a month ago I indulged and treated myself to a quilt retreat aka a me-treat.
I finished the toddler bed quilt for Ryan James during that weekend, but it was a few weeks later before I finished the snowman cross stitch and the summer wool applique.
And, not surprisingly, I am on to the next project(s) in the line up!
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| Next cross stitch project....Feast of Friendship. This is a really fun one |
This past weekend we put up our outdoor Christmas lights. The weather was gorgeous. Felt more like early October than late November. We enjoyed being outside and are especially enjoying the fruits of our labor, every evening beginning at 4pm when the sun sets!
It was really warm today, for the end of November. Warm and sunny and no wind! I took advantage of this beautiful day and did a late fall yard, or rather bee garden project.
All summer I have been looking at a spot in the bee garden to build a fire pit. I have changed my mind about that and we are now planning to build a pit in the trees in our pasture. That project will have to wait until spring. But today, I decided to build a small patio in the bee garden, with some left over bricks. I put the small wood chairs that we usually have on our east porch on this little patio and I moved the lard pot near the patio for small, two person fires.
The fruits of my labor were rewarded as the sun moved lower in the sky and we sat in our chairs, on the little patio, with a small fire burning in the lard pot, a glass of wine, and plate of tasty appetizers. And a cute little dog for extra company!
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| The beginning....choosing the site. |
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| I used these left over bricks for the patio. I've been moving these bricks around for the last 15 years, waiting for the right project to use them. |
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| About half way finished...... |
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| and completion |
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| OK, this is staged because we used our everyday porch quilts once we actually sat down a few hours later. These are a couple porch quilts that I made several years ago. The fabric is Christmas themed but wild colors. Definitely out of my box! A friend gave the fabrics to me as a joke, knowing full well that I was going to struggle, but in the end, these two little quilts turned out kinda fun. |
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| From this photo it looks like Baxter is interested in the fire, but he's really interested in the cheese on my plate. |
Here are a few photos from late September and mid-October.
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| My honey bees spent most of September and October stocking up for winter with sugar syrup fed in this old school lunch tray! |
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| Baxter! Such a regal pose. |
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| Delicata squash harvest. This is our favorite winter squash. Good thing!!! |
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| Fall flower bed clean up. Do you think I can get any more in my wheel barrow? |
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| Early fall cold snap. |
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| Snow, ice and roses blooming! |
This past weekend I took time to indulge in a fall quilt retreat. This is the usual time for our Stitchin' Chicks Retreat in the barn. That couldn't happen this year because, well.....2020, but I was missing it. Nan set up a Zooming chicks check in and get together for Sunday at 4pm. I decided that would be the conclusion of my retreat, which my friend Chemyn called a me-treat! So, Friday morning at 10am, my me-treat began.
Here are the projects that I worked on over the weekend.
This past spring I started piecing a quilt for Ryan James. Farming, yard and garden work got in the way of completion. With those three off the to do list for now, I turned my focus back to this quilt.
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| Building the pieced blocks |
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| More building..... |
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| I decided it needed to be bigger than I originally planned. This is what I thought I could do to enlarge. |
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| But the plain block was overpowering the pieced block. |
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| So I decided to try a nine patch and I liked it a lot better. |
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| Still liking the nine patch and now thinking about what to do about a border. |
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| All through this process, Reynald, aka Color Man was consulting. In the end, he chose a narrow green border and I will also bind it in the green. Now it's off to the quilter. |
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| This snowman themed cross stitch has been going on for awhile. I'm not really sure why I started it, but I did and now I'm too far along not to finish. There's one more snowman and one more tree. The two snowmen that you see, need to be filled in. |
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| And of course there are the never ending wool applique projects. I have fall and winter finished. Closing in on this one and then of course there is spring. |
I've taken a hiatus from blogging. I'm not really sure why. I wondered if my posts were becoming redundant. However, just in the last three days, more than one person has contacted me to ask why I have not been posting! I suppose I will leave it up to you to decide upon redundancy!
We've had some spectacular sunrises and sunsets this fall. Following are a few images of the beauty we are so fortunate to experience.
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| This one was so pretty even Baxter stopped to look! |
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| Sunrise |
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| Sunset |
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| Can't remember the name of this rose, but the purple is heliotrope. |
