Pruning!

A little over two weeks ago I started pruning some of my trees and also got a good start on the roses.  Then it got cold and I retreated back to the house!  It's a start......

Last year Reynald bought me this amazing battery powered chain saw.  I didn't get around to using until this spring and I'm in love with it!  

I've been looking at these trees for several years thinking they just needed a little bit of pruning up.  

So, I started and was very disciplined.  I did a little bit, then stepped back and looked.  I have been known to get a little carried away with pruning!

Still looking at this one and a few others!

And so it begins.....

We've had such a mild winter and now early spring that we are getting started in the field.

Sign of an early spring.  Two weeks ago Matthew and Alicia went for a hike on Crab Creek and they brought back this buttercup for me!  I planted it in a rusty lard bucket.

Reynald, Alicia and our new employee Tyler, have been working hard the last two weeks cleaning up some waste land that is part of the property that we bought.  It was an used equipment boneyard, lots of huge rocks, and a deeply washed water ditch.  I'll post more photos of the renovation later.  For now, here's a glimpse of what they have been doing.

More photos of this project to follow.  Imagine a junk pile of rusty, unusable equipment, huge rocks and a very deep drainage ditch.  That's the before.....this is the after!  A nice flat bottom draw with very little elevation drop.  The water will delta and soak in, instead of rushing away to the creek.  Reynald is in the big dozer, Tyler in the smaller one and Alicia is running the road grader.

 My grader girl!  Not surprisingly, she caught on to this finesse job super fast. 

The new property has been in CRP for the last 15 years and we intend to crop it.  Tuesday I began a tillage operation using a Turbotill.  This is a piece of equipment that we rented from a neighbor.  The idea is to slice the grass roots so that they break up a little easier with further tillage.  I finished this job yesterday and we're all pleased with the result.

We rented this piece of equipment from a friend of a friend.  It's called a Turbo Till.  It is designed to slice through sod and/or roots without too much disturbance.  The back basket gangs smooth things out.

A little closer look at the wavy disc blades and the churning, smoothing basket gang.

Another look.

This is what we are trying to break up.  Last fall Alicia and Reynald ran the deep till sub soiler through the grass.  This implement makes a narrow cut in the soil, 14" deep to allow maximum water penetration and break up compaction.  We do this to all our winter wheat stubble ground in the fall.

This is what it looked like after we ran the Turbo Till.  We like the job it is doing.

Today Alicia started running the cultivator and Tyler started on the harrow.  We are working the ground that we will be planting to spring crop. 

And now Alicia is running the cultivator over the ground that I Turbo Tilled.  I didn't get a photo of Tyler running the harrow but he did!

Pin cushion

I made this little pin cushion a few days go, using a small, Fiestaware cream pitcher.  I think it turned out kinda cute!

Puppy in a Sunbeam

We've had some lovely sunny days the past two weeks.  It's pretty chilly in the morning but by afternoon it warms up to the mid 40's.  Baxter manages to find sunbeams in the house, especially on chilly mornings.  This made me laugh this morning......resting his head on the chair rung, basking in the sunbeam with an interesting shadow.

Sausage grind 2020

This past weekend the usual sausage crew gathered to cut, grind and stuff some pork and a little bit of beef, some herbs and spices.  A good time is always had by all when we gather for this event.

Chemyn cutting strips of pork to go to the grinder. 

Leslie doing the same thing.....

and David too.

Matthew and Alicia spending Valentine's Day making sausage!

Reynald, the grinder!

Louise and Eva, part of the amazing kitchen crew. 

Del and Louise working on our lunch.  These folks spent the entire day cooking two incredible meals for the sausage crew.  

Lunch was broccoli cheese soup, three different kinds of frittata, celery and parmesan cheese salad and a kale salad.  I forgot to take a photo of dinner but it was superb.  

And Chemyn made an Opera Cake.  

Oh my goodness!!!

After lunch we were ready to process.  Here's Stephen manning the stuffer!

Matthew tying up the links 

Cosmic Crisp

Have you tried this apple?  It is new from Washington State University, over 20 years in development.  It's SOOOOO good.  I'm told our east coast family has not seen it in stores yet, and it's even a little hard to find around here, but do your best to track them down.  It will be worth the search.

A new rug

Almost a year ago, Brenda sent me a You Tube link to "Making a Jelly Roll Rug".  It seemed like a fun thing to make, and not that difficult.  I started it during the spring quilt retreat nearly a year past now.  I was tired of the mess hanging around so decided to make the up the rug.  It was a fun project and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

This is the "rope" that I made during spring '19 quilt retreat.  It's made from 2 1/2" strips of fabric, sewn end to end.  Next cotton batting is sandwiched and secured withing the 2 1/2" strips.  This took a long time!

Starting the rug by butting the strip together and then securing with a wide zig zag stitch.

You continue on in this manner, taking care to keep the rug flat.

I am lucky that I have a large flat surface to work.

The pile of rope is getting smaller!

And the finished product.  I really like how this turned out for the tub room.