Shop work

This week we've had snow and rain and wind and sunshine and the daytime temperatures are beginning to warm slightly.  Spring is making an effort to appear!

So, Reynald and I have kicked our shop work in to a little higher gear.  This was drill week.  Our goal is to finish up all that can be done indoors, by Saturday.  It's a reasonable and achievable goal.

Last week Reynald finished hard surfacing the billion harrow teeth, that someone has to now change out on the harrow!  Still too cold and wet to do that outdoor job, but you can see that we are ready to go when the weather cooperates!

A cute little cart filled with harrow teeth!

The gray color on the teeth is the hard surfacing.  This will make the harrow teeth wear much longer.  It took Reynald a long time to do this, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Once we finish the indoor work on the drills, there will still be a lot to do to have them field ready, but that all needs to be done out of doors.  Building the hitch, hooking the drills to the hitch, running hoses, running electrical for all the sensors etc.  It will be a several day project, but we hope, as of Saturday, we will be ready for the next phase of this project.

This is an empty drill frame.  Lots of stuff needs to be put back on before it is ready to seed.

These are the boot hangers.  Seven boot hangers go on each drill frame.  

Now the boot hangers are on!

I think this is called a lift arm.  There is a rod on the boot hanger, that you put a spring on then push that rod with the spring up through the lift arm.  

This shows the spring that goes on the boot hanger rod.  It is held in place with a cotter pin and cap.  

This is a Stoess Straightener.  They help keep the seed boot centered in the middle of the split packer wheel.

This is the drill boot.  Seed and fertilizer are delivered to the boot, which "drills" through the soil at a pre-set depth.  The hook on the boot is called the point.  We change these points every other year.  They wear quite a bit from dragging through the soil.  

This shows the boot hangers, the spring on the lift rod, the split packer wheels, the Stoess straighteners and the seed boots between the packer wheels.  You can see a round tube like opening at the top of the boot.  A hose will be attached to that tube that leads to the seed and fertilizer cart.  This is how the product is delivered to the seed boot.

We call this set of drill, Alicia's outfit, because this is the set that she will be running this fall when we seed our winter wheat crop!  My job will be to keep both seed and fertilizer at the ready.  But....there's a lot that needs to happen on the farm before we think even another second about any of this!

Spring Quilt retreat

This past weekend the Stitchin' Chicks gathered in the barn for our spring retreat.  A fun time was had by all!

Photos of the weekend follow:

Saturday morning sunrise to greet the Stitchin' Chicks.

It was such a pretty morning!

Brenda made this darling quilt from the Vintage Farmer's Wife book.

A close up of one of the blocks....a chicken of course!

Love these cherries, from the same quilt.

Nina made her first quilt top this weekend!  A darling sampler made from 30's reproduction fabrics.  I regret that I didn't take a photo of the finished product.

As a group, we decided to make some charity quilts to give to various groups. Some of the gals made these quilts ahead of time, and some worked on them at the retreat.

Charity quilts....lap size.

 More charity quilts....

and a cute one with cupcakes!

Claudia made this darling baby size quilt for us to put in the charity box.

JoAnn is on a mission to use up as many scraps as possible by making these quilts for give away.

Cheryl is also using up scraps to make these quilts.  

JoAnn sewed miles and miles of strips of fabric together that she then cut in to blocks for the charity quilts.

JoAnn showing off her stripping!

 And, as always, we eat well!!

This was such a pretty table, with the bright napkins and the happy primrose!

Saturday night was fiesta night!  Lucky that I have so many different colors of dishes!

Each place setting had a fat quarter sized piece of fabric.  I wasn't even paying attention when I sat at this place.  The fabric had little kitties on it.  So touching, since this was the day that our Leo kitty died.  Made me smile and shed a tear all at the same time,

A few more photos of quilts that were hung in the barn over the weekend.

Pictured here is the red and white winter lap quilt and the "woman quilt", made from wool scraps that I have been collecting for several years.  The woman quilt is for Alicia when she moves home to the farm.

This is the quilt that my cousin Margaret and I made at our fall retreat.  It's not finished and I love it!  It's so fun!!  Margaret decided it would be fun to piece strips of  the fabric together to make the back.  So cute!!

Great conversations this weekend.  Some on the couch and some at sewing machines.  All restorative and refreshing.

And look at how new mom Emily, can multi-task!

4 month old Hesstyn Grace, happy on mama's lap!

Next retreat is the end of October.  Can't wait!!

R.I.P. Leo kitty

This past weekend our Leo kitty died.  It was a quiet, peaceful passing.  Leo was 14 years old, which is really old for a farm kitty.  A testament to how smart he was, avoiding coyotes, farm equipment, cars, and visiting dogs.

Leo loved sitting on the fence posts.

Fence posts offered a great vantage point from which he could scan the horizon for trouble.

Trees were also a great place to retreat!

Leo was a friendly and happy cat.  He did a good job or raising Baxter to be as much cat as dog! They were the best of friends.  Both Baxter and we will miss him tremendously.   Leo was a super predator, keeping the rodent population in check here on the farm.

Baxter and Leo!

One of their favorite games.  Leo swiping at Baxter!

Here are a few more photos in memory of our dear Leo.

Leo stretched out in the late autumn afternoon sun.

He always kept a close eye on what I was doing outside.  

Rest in Peace Leo kitty.  

Sausage Maker's Dinner

This has been an interesting winter, to say the least.  Several factors have made it impractical for us to make sausage, but we all love getting together so that's just what we did this past weekend!  We had a sausage maker's dinner Sunday afternoon/evening and as always, it's just pure fun spending time with these dear friends.

Louise made menus for our meal.

She used an old cookbook that she cut apart and glued fun food facts in to the menu.

Louise spent several hours puttering in the kitchen, as we all visited in the dining room.  We have learned that Louise will ask for help, when she needs it.  We are to be available when needed, and not before!  We enjoy watching her work, and she enjoys listening to the conversation.

Louise, master of the kitchen!

Les and Ron visiting....

and David and Chemyn having a deep conversation about something!

A "South of the Border" food theme was decided upon by Louise and Eva.  Sadly, Eva and Del were not able to come, as Eva was feeling poorly, but she sent the things that she has pre-made for our event.

Chicken Tamales!  Louise prepared the tamale stuffing and then Chemyn and I did the stuffing and tying.

Look at this spread!  Everything was SO good.

Topped off with homemade tarts (made by Eva) with lemon sorbet.  A perfect finish!