Abundance

 The hubster loaned out his mini excavator Sunday afternoon and declined taking any rent for it.  So instead he was gifted with this wonderful array of fresh produce!

I've peeled about half the peaches and they are delicious!  BLT's are on tap for lunch today!

My 2 cucumber plants are still loaded with blooms even though I've already harvested enough cucumbers for a batch of dill pickles.

One of the poor apple trees has a branch resting on the ground because of so many apples.

And the sweet corn patch is being watched with anticipation by all, including this guy (well, he's not watching any more).

We have trapped 2 big coons.  Marshmallows make good bait for them.  Last night, we walked the perimeter of the sweet corn and dropped hair clippings I had picked up from the beauty shop.  We also dropped some of Willow's hair that I had been collecting when I brushed her.  We'll see if this works to protect at least part of the 12 rows of corn.

I have picked peas twice and should get a last picking today.  Esme is my lap sitter, but has found it difficult to get a good spot when I'm shelling peas.

She does much better with quilt binding projects.

I quilted this cute bunny pattern on a wall hanging for my neighbor.  It was so much fun to watch the bunnies be "born" in the sewing room.  It turned out really cute!

I also have this quilt top sewn together now.  It was a pattern I bought on vacation.  I used more of my collection of fabrics for Farm Girl Vintage quilts for it.  I have already made 2 quilts with those fabrics and the tub never seems to get any smaller.  I just finished piecing a backing for this from the same fabrics as well and there is still more fabric.  

When visiting my nephews, my sister-in-law cleaned out some of her fabric and passed it on to my mom.  She also had a big stack of old jeans - already deboned and ready to use!  I took those and have this large top pieced.  She is going to put it on the bed in their horse trailer.  I alternated the denim blocks with some of my homespun scraps.  You will see several pockets in the quilt.  That's so they have somewhere to put their phones at night!

I had laid it all out on the floor in Sarah's room, but the design team had other ideas.........

I was thankful that this was one of those really hot days and David was hanging out in the house, so he straightened it out and picked up the blocks in rows for me.  I have another throw size quilt with denim and homespun blocks to get sewn together.  There are still some pieces of denim left, but they will be smaller blocks.

I have also finished sewing my fish school leader ender blocks into 4's.  This is not a large quilt as they are laid out on my cutting counter (just hanging over the edges a bit).  I want to get this sewn together so I can decided on borders or if to even have borders.  

And back in the kitchen, David was making whipped cream for something and since we want everyone to feel like they are a part of the action in the kitchen, Willow was allowed to wash the mixing bowl.

She does a pretty good job, but the dishwasher will get anything she misses!

So as you can see, all this sewing, gardening, and cooking have left us exhausted here at the farm!

Christi

Family Times

So I'm way behind on this, but prior to vacation, we went to Iowa for Jackson's high school graduation reception.  He will be heading off to Iowa State in the fall to major in business.  He was heavily recruited for track, but has opted not to do college sports.  He already has a number of college credits and plans to graduate in 3 years and start making money!

His Aunt Jill crochets and made him this enormous throw.  I can't believe the time that must have taken.

And we got to see Tucker, their golden doodle.  At least Tucker will still be at home in the fall so the "empty nest" won't be so bad.  However, I think Tucker will miss Jackson as much as Jackson's parents will miss him.

And here is the relative photo from the reception..........

And it was nice to see Carter wearing something besides "track" attire!

And a couple of weeks after our vacation, we invited ourselves down to my brother's house in Lockwood.  His oldest, John, was there visiting from California.  We hadn't seen him in 4 years.  

And we saw Jacob who we hadn't seen in almost a year.  He is no longer in seminary in St. Louis.  He works for JB Hunt, the same company John does and lives in Arkansas.

And the family photo..........

 I'm hoping to work on some quilting today!

Christi

Vacation Wrap Up

 Sorry about the ranting about work in yesterday's post.  I should say that one good thing happened at work on Tuesday.  I was wearing my Birthplace of Kermit the frog t-shirt and one of the museum visitors was quite enamored with it.  Her husband's name is Leland, so they are trying to visit every place named Leland.  She hadn't heard of Leland, Mississippi, but it's on her list now.

So let's finish up the vacation, shall we?

After leaving Vicksburg, we drove north through the Delta.  It's a good thing we had a full tank of gas because there wasn't really anyplace to stop until we got to Kermit's place in Leland.  While we had grown weary of all the really tall trees when traveling south through Mississippi towards Laurel, we had a very different landscape now.  Corn fields and bean fields made up the majority of the scenery and for the first of June, they were some amazing crops.  The corn was already tasseled and the beans were gorgeous and it looked like it was all growing in sand!  Of course, they irrigate everything.  

After visiting Kermit, we headed to Belmont Plantation which was pretty close by.  It was built in 1857 and is open for tours and as a bed and breakfast and for events.  Our tour guide was very informative even though she was just filling in for Miss Camille who was on vacation.  I only took photos of the outside because I loved the big old magnolia trees.  (You should be reading in your southern accent here because the guide's accent was very thick.)

After the tour and grabbing some lunch in Greenville, we headed on to Batesville, Arkansas for the night.  The goal was Marshall Dry Goods, a fabric warehouse with over 6 million yards of fabric!

We were there bright and early when they opened at 8:30 am.  Here is the fabric I purchased for a backing for one of my mom's quilts...........$1.50/yard!

It truly was a warehouse.  I didn't count the bolts.

And it was very overwhelming.  

They had everything.........wholesale bolts, yardage, sale bins, upholstery, tractor seat fabric, trust me there was something for everyone.  I purchased one wholesale bolt ($2.75/yard), and then some flat folds and paid no more than 3.99/yard for anything.  We were there for two and a half hours.  It was kind of a relief to leave.

We headed north through the HILLS and CURVES of northern Arkansas and Southern Missouri.  We drove through Mansfield, the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder of the Little House books.  We stopped at Lebanon, MO at a quilt shop...........an actual quilt shop with a NORMAL amount of fabric!  This was our first actual quilt shop stop!  It was a cute little shop and I loved the way she was displaying some of her bolts!

I picked up a pattern and a quarter yard of a fabric I needed to finish up a project.  We made one more stop at the farmer's market in Sedalia for some strawberries and were home for supper with Sarah.  She had grilled pork chops for us.

So, wrapping it up........

1.  BEST RESTROOM AWARD goes to The American Tractor Museum..........Elvis was a close second.  Restroom facilities got progressively worse the further we went.  More on restrooms later.

2.  FOOD - So, have you seen the commercial about new home owners becoming like their parents and trying to save money.........where they pack food and snacks for trips? (my Mom hates this commercial because it makes fun of things she does)  Well, we did that.  We packed stuff for breakfast and lunch.  We had a nice shady picnic at a rest stop in Illinois the first day, the second day on the way to Laurel, we were parked in the shade next to a weed patch behind a gas station and ate in the car, and we ate our picnic in a park next to the river in Vicksburg.  While the hotels supposedly had breakfast, David doesn't consider a breakfast bar and coffee to be suitable.  We did try the hotel breakfast in Laurel because the clerk told us there were omlets...........turned out to be premade rubbery things and when I asked for bread to make toast, they were out.  We didn't want to eat at any chain restaurants or Mexican restaurants (we have 7 of those in Marshall now) and the only time we did this was at Burger King for lunch on the last day...........I was pretty carsick from all the hills, so it really didn't matter much what we ate that day.  We had BBQ the first evening in Mississippi.  It was ok.  Then in Laurel, we went to a seafood restaurant and it was delicious.  The rooftop restaurant in Vicksburg was also very good, and in Batesville, AR, we went to a local Italian place that was delicious.  We ate lunch out after the plantation tour in Greenville, MS.  It was a Monday, so the selection was limited.  We would have tried Doe's Eat Place had it been open.  We mentioned it to the plantation tour guide and she agreed that it would be the best steak you ever ate, but to not look at the kitchen as they walked you through to your table.  (Elvis liked to get a steak at Doe's.)  She suggested a local diner called Jim's Cafe.  Apparently President Obama has eaten there and Food Network's Alton Brown recommended it.  It has been around for a long time, and they haven't updated the decor or the eclectic memorabilia on the walls EVER!  The lighting was dim (which was probably good), they were the friendliest people, and the food was delicious.  David had a view of the kitchen and we don't know when a health inspector might have ever been there.  Now for the rest of the restroom story.  As I was using the dark dingy small restroom which would have backed the kitchen, I noticed a big hole in the corner of the wall down by the floor that was filled with steel wool.........probably to keep the rats away!  But again, let me say, the food was delicious.

MUSEUMS & TOURS - We did 9!  They were all enjoyable.  Some were free and none were really overpriced.  The only guided ones were the driving tour through Laurel and the plantation tour.  

UNPLANNED THINGS - In Vicksburg we went to the movie theatre to see the new Top Gun movie Maverick.  It was excellent and we loved the reclining seats.

WOULD WE DO IT AGAIN? - Probably wouldn't go to Mississippi again except maybe to Greenville/Leland to stay at the plantation.  When we toured that morning, they had cleaned up from breakfast, but it still smelled wonderful.  And I would love to eat at Doe's Eat Place.  I think there might be a few other small things to see in the area to make it worth a short trip.  I would highly recommend the tractor museum and would always go back to the quilt museum.  I would visit the quilt shop in Lebanon again and would definitely go back to Marshall Dry Goods...........with a plan for what I should purchase!  

So that's a wrap on the vacation!  Time to head out to pick my peas!

Christi

Crappy Start, Delicious End

 Well, it was a crappy start to my day yesterday.  Upon arriving at work, I (the first one there and on time) found lots of broken glass in front of the doors.  At first I thought it was from the doors and maybe someone had tried to break in over the weekend, but the doors were fine, I looked up at the outside lights, but they were fine, then glanced to my left to see my pot of flowers was filled with broken glass from beer bottles.  As I glanced around the front of the building, I saw many more bottles, beer bottle tops, and lots of other trash.  It must have been quite a wedding Saturday night.  Inside the door was more glass on the entry mats.  After chucking my stuff in the office, I scanned the event staff notes about the wedding and they indicated everything went fine...............I'm not sure how they managed to get out the door without stepping in glass.  So I gloved up, grabbed the broom and dustpan and started cleaning from the outside inward.  My first priority of the morning was going to be watering the plants as they are suffering in this extreme heat, but first I had to dig out all the broken glass and beer bottles.  It was already a very hot morning, and I was drenched in sweat in no time.  In sweeping and picking up all the trash, I came across some bright green gum on the memorial brick pavers.  Of course, with the sun beating down on it, it was nice and sticky.  I later found more of this wonderful substance on one of the entry mats inside.  All the while cleaning, I was photographing the evidence.  I'll spare you those photos.  Later when doing my walk thru inside, I discovered the trash hadn't been emptied from the women's restroom........diapers left over the long weekend can leave a lingering odor.  And I received a text from my coworker that he was having air conditioning issues (see, life could be worse!) and didn't know when he would make it in, and then the gift shop worker called to say that she had just gotten up and would be late.  When I finally got to my desk, I got to work on the quarterly payroll taxes!  I opened the museum on time, and kept working, but soon had museum visitors.  The first was a family of five from Texas.  I got them started on the video and dug out my museum script so that I could at least hit the highlights for them since the tour guide was at home with ac issues.  Then two more people walked in for tours, and it was a pretty much constant flow after that with museum visitors and people coming to book events.  Good thing I had cleaned up all the glass and gum!  When the gift shop worker showed up, she couldn't believe there were already visitors for the museum.......well, we had been open for over an hour already.  And when my other co-worker showed up, I finally got to my desk to get most of my Monday and Tuesday stuff done.  Of course, in the night, I thought of things I missed, so will probably be back in the office this afternoon to take care of those.  

Needless to say, it was a relief to get home and be greeted by Willow, Cici, and Esme...........not all at once, of course.  They don't get along that well.  It would have been really great to have a group snuggle, but I settled for the individual ones.  

Needing to put some sweetness in my day, I pulled out some egg whites I had saved in the fridge and mixed up angel food cake.  Once it was in the oven, Willow had the joy of licking the mixing bowl.  And a joy it was.  She had the sticky ears to prove it!  I made the hubs some lemon jello (his favorite treat is jello and lemon seemed cool and refreshing), then took the rotting bananas from the counter and the sour milk from the frig and made 2 batches of banana bread.  Willow was my faithful helper, ready to get anything that dropped to the floor for me.  Whenever she got tired and went to rest, Esme took over the job.  Cici just looked on from the window seat in a supervisory role.  

And then the hubs showed up.  He had to kill one of the market hogs that morning, so had harvested the loins and tenderloins.  So, we proceeded to pound out 28 tenderloins and bread them, a few chops, and some kabob meat.  We cooked 2 of the tenderloins for supper with a leftover pasta salad.  The rest were frozen and are ready to pull out for a fast and easy meal.  Of course, the greatest accomplishment of this meat processing endeavor was that Willow didn't manage to steal anything.  She was right there waiting to get anything that dropped though.

I make a good breaded tenderloin and without going into any secret recipe ingredients, I can tell you that after breading 28, there are no potato chips or ritz crackers left in the house.  A trip to the grocery store, hair cut, and other errands are on tap for today.  

There was still a big hunk of pork loin left, so after cleaning up the kitchen, we took the packaged loin, got in the Stampede with Willow and zipped down to the neighbors to share some pork.  They were impressed that Willow was able to ride that close to fresh pork and not bother it.  She LOVES to ride and couldn't care less about anything else while riding.

When we got back, I checked on the garden.

I will be getting up very early tomorrow (the hubster is getting up to load pigs at 5 am and then weigh 600 more) to pick the peas............hopefully before it's too hot.

The spaghetti squash and cantelope vines are blooming, as are the tomatoes..............yes,  all 16 plants are still alive.  I picked 3 cucumbers which was down a bit from the previous day's picking......

And we have 12 beautiful rows of sweet corn..............which will all be ready at once.  David is predicting in about 10 days or so.  I'll start checking in 6 days.  I know that seems like a lot, but when you allow for 6 rows for the coons and 4 for the deer, that really only leaves 2 rows for us.

I'm taking a couple of Walmart bags with me to get my hair cut this morning.  I'm hoping they will save me a couple of days worth of hair clippings.  Spreading human hair in the sweet corn will deter the deer somewhat.  Not a whole lot stops the coons though.  We have already caught a really big one in a trap.  I know the corn isn't ready yet because when I fed the outside cats this morning, I found coon poop in the shed and the dishes were empty and had been tossed around.  So, if the corn isn't ready, they settle for cat food.  I'm picking up more marshmallows at the store.  That is the bait of choice for the coon traps.

So that was my day yesterday...........from crappy to Delicious!

Christi

Happy Independence Day!

 We'll take a break from the vacation photos and celebrate the holiday with some photos of my patriotic quilting.............

Photo bomber above...........

I'll be continuing this theme today while quilting a small red, white, and blue quilt for one of my piano students as her 4-H project.  I know you've been wondering if I have been spending anytime at all in the sewing room, and I have.  Between Mother's Day and Memorial Day, I quilted 8 things for my mom, and have since quilted 5 more things for her.  I have quilted a couple of table runners for a friend, and she has me lined up for a couple more small items soon, I helped a 4-Her quilt a quilt for the fair.......even showed her how to put the binding on with the longarm, and a quilted a couple of small things for myself.  I'll show those items later.  

Bonnie Hunter announced her new leader/ender project for 2022-23 yesterday and she must have been peeking into my sewing room!  

The first step is 4-patches from 1.5" squares..............and I already have 360 of them made!  Yeah!  I had no plan for these, had just been keeping some by the machine and adding to the pile of squares when I processed scraps.  But Yippee!  I am so far ahead of the game here and that doesn't happen often in the sewing room.

My hammock sleeper is back.  I had been leaving tin foil on the longarm at night if I left a quilt on the machine and that had deterred Esme from sleeping in the hammock.  However, this past week she resumed her old ways and played with the tin foil and then slept on the batting that was draped over the rail.  Since it was only attached on one side, I figured it would just drop her through to the floor, but apparently she doesn't weigh enough for that to happen.  It would have worked on Cici though.  

Esme tried to convince me it wasn't her, but I had the evidence (lint roller and the color and length of the hair).

She tried to get back in my good graces by being cute and cuddly at my feet while I was cutting fabric for a new quilt pattern I picked up on vacation.

Here is the cutting table ready to cut that project.  I have the blocks pieced and am working on sewing them together.  Photos to come.

After I get the 4-H project quilted today, my TBQ closet will only have MY quilts hanging there to be quilted.  This is the first project up.  I'm using it as a practice for a large version of the same pattern in the same colorway.  I won a layer cake - not my normal colors - so put together a large version of this and had enough pieces to make a smaller version.  I even have a quilting PLAN for this one!

We will have a quiet Independence Day as we did our celebrating yesterday and last night.  We attended the Lyceum for a performance of Jersey Boys in the afternoon with some friends and followed that with a cookout and fireworks.  David and helpers are already in the hog barn this morning weighing 600 pigs individually.  I'll take them some burgers for lunch.  I need to check on the garden.  I have been getting 3-4 cucumbers a day and will hopefully have some peas ready to pick soon.  

Cici will be keeping vigil in Sarah's room during all quilting endeavors as always.  

And Esme, who knows what is going on in her mind...........

Willow will be holding down the floor on the back porch as it is supposed to be another hot one today and she'll appreciate the cool floor.

Hope you have a lovely day however you are celebrating!

Christi