Category Archives: The Chooks

Good-Bye 2020 Welcome 2021, I Think

What a year 2020 has been and it just keeps on giving.  When the new year started, it seemed like everything was so fresh and new and that wonderful things would happen and then,…. China gave us the present of the Covid Virus. I’ve heard that was an act of aggression on their part or even an act of war, but we Americans calmly accepted it and started the journey of quarantining ourselves, wearing masks and not gathering together.  It was all so strange. We are a people who like to do things in large groups.  This year we won’t even be able to gather in Times Square and welcome in the new year. Oh, the ball will still drop, but no one will be there to see it.  Is it kind of like if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there, will anyone hear it kind of thing.

I hate wearing a mask. I have breathing problems at times anyway and wearing a mask gives me claustrophobia and shortness of breath so I try to avoid places where I have to wear one.  Thankfully, we are not required to wear them in church.  I try to do all my shopping at once so I don’t have to go several times a month.  I try to spend time outdoors in the fresh air as much as possible. With three dogs, I have to be outside.

Speaking of dogs, they have been a life saver, keeping me company and giving me entertainment.  Lucy and Sugar have definitely become MY dogs. David can be outside playing with them and all they have to do is hear me open the back door and they are off to the races seeing who can get to me first and jump on me.  We are working on that jumping part because when you have two fifty pound puppies slam into you, you really feel it!  At least they are happy to see me and I am usually happy to see them unless they get muddy paws all over me.

Three needy dogs.  They are all three people pups. They love being with people.  The puppies have grown so much and they are still only about half the size they will be.  Our vet said they were slightly overweight, but they look skinny next to Molly and she has lost some weight. The vet told us Labs were always hungry and she was right. They act starved all the time.

They are so darn cute, I can’t get mad at them even when they tear up everything in the back yard. One of them dug up all the flowers I planted around our porch.  I hope they get that out of their system before next growing season.  Lucy still has those beautiful eyes.

They are all partners in crimes. Here David has a treat waiting for them.  All eyes on it!

All our dogs when they were puppies destroyed something. Well, our new pups tore the pool liner getting in and out of the pool so we are going to have to replace it next Spring. The pool is eighteen years old, so the liner was needing to be replaced.  David didn’t even act disturbed about it. Hmmmm.  When Molly tore up the pool heater he had built, I thought she was dead dog walking for a while.  He is attached to these puppies like no other.

Then there’s the chickens or chooks if you are in Australia.   They are such good little layers.  We haven’t had a period without eggs for a long while.  Our new layers are starting to lay some pretty big eggs.

One of these eggs is not like the others…..

I love our eggs. They taste like butter.  We have given away dozens of eggs this year. People always offer to pay for them, but we like giving them away.  As long as we are able, we will continue to do so.

I call this one our loner chicken because she stays outside looking in. When I feed them, she waits for all the rest to begin and then she will find a place to fit in. She’s not henpecked, just chooses to be alone.  I guess if some people live like that, so can chickens.

This is our bossy hen. She meets me at the gate every single time telling me I’m not feeding them fast enough. She has grabbed a bowl of feed right out of my hand and will peck me if she feels like it.  She is also a talker and will follow me around clucking up a storm.

Our only Buff Orpington left. She has been a good layer and the next time we get chicks, I’m getting more Buffs.  They are a gentle, sweet chicken.

No exactly sure what kind this chicken is. I thought I was getting a Silver Laced Wyndotte, but I don’t think that is what she is. She is a lot smaller than the other hens.

It’s been a little cold for bird watching although I still feed the birds, but the other day I got a few photos.

He looks well fed, doesn’t he?

Remember Frankenbird?  She has blossomed from an ugly bird.

She’s got a crest and more feathers. Here she almost looks rainbow colored.  I’m happy for her.

Sitting in the living room the other day I noticed the light at the window was beautiful through our lace curtains.

I took a few pictures.  “Scarlette, it’s the land you love.”  Does this look like that scene a bit?

The sky was on fire.  Just beautiful. God’s creation on display for all to see.

Back to the puppies. I couldn’t resist.  David had to build this gate because the pups were eating our shoes we leave on the porch and they tore the screen door out.  David didn’t seemed disturbed by that either. Hmmmmmmmmmm.  Is he getting soft in his old age?

In the new year I am starting a new quilt project. I have never joined a quilt along before. A quilt along, if you don’t know, is where several people get together online and follow instructions on how to make a certain quilt and we make our quilts together and when it’s over, we should have a finished quilt top. There are over 5,000 people all around the world getting ready to quilt with this quilt along.

We are using this quilt book by Kathleen Tracy.  All the blocks measure four and a half inches square and there are 72 squares and a middle medallion with a saw toothed edging.

It’s not too late to join, but you need Kathleen’s book and lots of different materials. You will need to follow her on her Facebook page. I’ve been going through my stash.

As you can see, I  am very well organized. I’ve got boxes and boxes of material and it’s like shopping for new when I go through them as I’ve forgotten a lot of these fabrics. but…

Wouldn’t you know?  I ordered more!  And I’ve ordered more again and am waiting for it to come!  And,… I will probably order more before this quilt is done. I always can find an excuse to order more fabric. One of these fabrics has chickens on it, too!  I’m going to try to make two of these quilts at a time. One in reproduction fabrics from the 1800’s and one from Christmas fabrics, so I will have two finished quilt tops by March, I hope.  It’s going to be so much fun.

Years ago, I use to quilt with a friend and all of a sudden one day I lost my quilting mojo. I just didn’t feel like making quilts. It was awful.  I could not get interested. My friend was worried about me. Thankfully, that little blip lasted a very short time and I was soon quilting again. We had just closed our quilt shop at that time and I think I was just burned out with quilts, quilting, fabric, the whole thing. But now I am as passionate about it or more. I love making quilts I can share with others and our house is full of them.  I told my daughter that was my legacy to her and she can do whatever she wants with them when I’m gone.  She already has several quilts I’ve made her as do her two boys.  I love knowing that when I’m gone people will still be snuggling under quilts I’ve made for them.

So I already know what I will be doing the beginning of the new year. These are a few of the blocks I’ve been practicing on.

Do you make new year’s resolutions?  I use to long ago, but I found that I could never keep them or I forgot all about them. I think it’s best to just live each year and be the best you can be. Be kind to people. Enjoy what you do each day.  Find a passion and stick with it. Take a walk.  Get a pet.  Grow something.  Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you.  Remember each day could be your last one. We never know.  I’m glad God made it that way.  I don’t think I would do anything much differently if I knew when I was going to die, Maybe patch up some broken relationships if I could.  I’ve tried before.  But the people I love know I love them so I’m good.  Make a new friend.  Go to church because we are to assemble together with one another.  Pray for your country and its leader. We still are not completely sure who our president is.  There was a lot of chicanery that went on with this last election.  I hope it all turns out well. It will be up to the electoral college so pray for those people.  Give money to a charity that helps people.   I’m all for helping animals, but we people are in need of help too. I find that the Salvation Army is one of the best charities to get the most  to more people.  Pray for a cure for all the illnesses in this world. I pray for a cure for MS because my daughter has it and I truly believe she will be healed one day, but pray for anyone you know who is suffering with any illness.  Pray this Covid thing will go away for good.  I could go on and on about what we could or should do, but you know all that.

While it’s been very different this year, I think it’s been a blessing in disguise, too. Families have had to stay together and do things together.  I know my daughter and her sons have had some real quality time. I do hope the boys get back into school at some time because they need that social connection with their peers.  I’ve enjoyed not feeling like I have to be on the go all the time. I’ve read more books, sewn more quilts, and had more free time than I ever have had before and I love it.  My life was not as interrupted as many have been and I know all you social people are ready for a BIG party so I hope you get it soon.

We will face this new year and we will live right through it like we did 2020.  Many did not survive, but we who did have been blessed and we should make the most of every day.  Thank God in Heaven for all you have because we do live in the richest country in the world.  I heard the other day that just one of our states, California, has the fifth largest economy in the world.  One state!  So we are extremely blessed and we really don’t deserve to be. So thank you, God.

I pray for all of you who read this blog that your year will be full of blessings. That your troubles will be few and your blessings many.  Hugs to you all.  Virtually, of course.  Happy New Year. Pray for 2021 that it only can get better from here.  Bye.

 

 

My New Sweet Tweets

I talked myself into getting chicks this week.  I know they are something else I will have to take care of, but since my flock is slowly diminishing, I decided it was time to add a few so the egg supply will continue next year.  I had certain kinds I wanted to get, but when I got to Rural King I saw that they didn’t have the ones I wanted so I chose two new kinds.  I got three Blue Barred Rocks and three Buff Orpingtons that are not buff colored, but will be black when they are grown. I looked them up and they look like they will be big, fluffy birds and good layers.  The Buff Orpingtons I have now are yellow and fluffy and good layers.

So then I had to name them, of course. My last six were named after ladies in my Sunday School class and this bunch are named after more ladies in my church and one is the name of another friend.  They will be Miss Wilma, Miss Shawna, Miss Nancy, Miss Erika, Miss Lori, and Miss Mary.   Now I have to decide who is who.

Before I introduce you to my new birds I have to tell you how much fun it is to have chickens.  After you’ve had them for a while, they get to know you and mine meet me at the gate every day and I have one that’s a real talker and will talk her head off until I get them some chicken scratch. She seems to be the spokes chicken of the bunch.  She also is demanding. She will jump up and peck the bowl with the scratch in it or grab hold of my coat sleeve in order to get to the scratch.  I believe she is hooked on scratch.  It’s like crack for chickens.   Which is why they only get a little of it every day.   Chickens can be as friendly as you want them to be, but you have to work at it because they usually are, well, chicken.   I don’t pick up the chicks too much because I don’t think it’s good for them, but you do have to handle the chickens a bit to get them use to you and to not run from you. I find that once I’ve caught a chicken and held her and stroked her feathers for a little bit, when I put her down she seems negligent in wanting to run away from me. I think they like being petted even though they fight it at first.

Having chickens means you have to get out of the house and take care of them which is good during this quarantine time.  It’s nice to get out in the fresh air and walk to the chicken yard and see my girls all waiting for me.   I like watching them as they scratch and peck around.  Free range chickens have to be the happiest creatures alive. They only live for that next bug, piece of bread(which they love also) or handful of scratch. They haven’t a care in the world unless a predator, like a hawk, comes around.   They are on a time clock with the sun, out at dawn and in by  dusk.  Anyone who thinks chickens are hard to care for aren’t doing it right or have never had chickens. Other than cats, they are the easiest pet of them all. They just need feed and water, don’t have to be walked or played with and will supply you with all the eggs you need.  Mine have never had any health issues except for one lame one I had who lived a happy life despite her handicap.   Sadly, I think a hawk got her or the other hens had a pecking party, I will never know for sure.  And yes, chickens can be vicious to other chickens especially if one has something that makes it weak in the eyes of the others.  I’ve never had that problem before to my knowledge.

So, anyway, here’s my new babies. Snug in their dog crate coop until they are big enough to go in with the other big girls.

I guess I’ll never get over how cute baby chicks are.  My daddy raised chickens on the farm and every Spring, we’d drive to the post office and pick up two boxes full of fifty chicks each and carry them home in the car listening to their peeps all the way. I loved getting chicks day.  We’d take them out to the brooder house, a little building specifically for keeping baby chicks, where there was a big heat lamp in the center of the ceiling. We’d let the yellow chicks out and they’d all rush under the lamp in one big clump. Daddy would fill their water jars and their feeders and then leave them to settle down.  I would go out to the brooder house several times a day just to look at all those baby chicks.  Sometimes I was naughty and would try to scare them and laugh when they’d all run in the one big clump to the other side of the room. My daddy would not have been happy if he knew I did that.  Baby chicks can trample each other if there are enough of them.  But they grew and grew and one day sprouted feathers and then were allowed outside with the older chickens and there were no more baby chicks until the next Spring.

This is a Blue Barred Rock. At least that’s what the sign read on the trough the chicks were in.  It doesn’t look blue to me right now, but maybe it will change.

They’ve got little fluffy white bottoms and white chests.

The lighter ones are the Buff Orpingtons, but again I’m not sure what these will look like or whether they will turn darker.  Sometimes it’s a mystery what you are getting from Rural King.

So now I begin the adventure of raising new chickens again. They will be in this crate for a couple of months at least until they are large enough to make it with the big ladies.

Molly sits outdoor of the cabin where we are keeping the chicks and whines while I’m in there wondering what I’m doing and not including her.

Belle could not care less.

Have to show you what one of my sons sent to me for Mother’s Day.

Good with a nice cup of coffee.

He’s a good son. I’ll keep him.

Here’s to baby chicks. Everyone should have some, sometime. Bye.

 

 

 

All Creatures Feathered and Furry

I have been surrounded with animals all my life.  I grew up on a farm where there were cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, guinea hens, cats, dogs, one horse and one lone sheep.  I was always feeding, playing with or doing something with animals every single day.  Feed the dogs. Feed the chickens. Gather the eggs.  Feed the calves.  Play with the new kittens in the hayloft.  I was never without an animal.  I grew to love animals and my daddy always taught me you take care of your animals before you take care of yourself because they are completely helpless unless we humans take care of them. My daddy loved farming and loved his animals.  He didn’t name any of them like I do mine because a lot of our animals ended up on our dinner plate at some time.

When I go out to feed and water my chickens, they run to meet me.  I like to tell myself it’s because they are happy to see me when I know for a fact it’s just because I’m the one with the food!

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As soon as they see me coming, they start running to the gate.  Here comes Bernice, Dorcas, Freedom, Shannon, Jan, Linda, Marilyn, Phoebe and Donna. Miss Mary Foster is always behind because of her little lame leg.

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And they act rather offended when I don’t immediately throw them some food.

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“You mean there is no chicken scratch in your hand?  Well, Hurump!”

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A couple of the new hens have started laying I believe. See those two little eggs among the others?   That usually means a hen has begun laying for the first time.  They are perfect little eggs, good enough to eat, but you have to eat three of them to make up for one of the larger ones.

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This is Shannon. She was supposed to be a Buff Orpington, but she got mixed in with them. I think she’s a Brahma. If you know otherwise, let me know because she was quite the surprise to us. Kind of like when you are expecting a girl and get a boy.

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This is Donna.  A Golden

 

 

Laced Wyndotte.  Her feathers are so shiny and have a teal color to them on her back.

 

 

 

 

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But on the front she is orange and black.

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We have three barred rocks now. My favorite one, Penninah died a few months back.  Yes, it made me sad.

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Freedom in her nesting box. She always screams when I open the door like she is offended that I looked in.  She screams every time she sees me.  Don’t know why. Maybe she is telling the other chickens I’m around.

The furry pets keep me busy, too.

After caring for the chickens, I often sit on the swing on the porch of a little cabin we have in our back yard.  I am never alone.

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As soon as I sit down, Molly Marshmallow hops up beside me and gets her bottom as close as she can to me without sitting on my lap.

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I sit there trying to mind my own business, but…….

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Sniff, slurp, lick and she is all over me with loving.   I love this dog despite the fact she has been one of the most worrisome dog we have ever had.  She demands a lot of attention and is very jealous of our other dog, Bonnie.

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Speaking of Bonnie, she knows immediately when Molly and I are sitting on the swing and she saunters over to see what trouble she can cause because she knows Molly is jealous of her.

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Before long there is a tussle on the porch.  This may look fierce, but both tails are wagging during the whole confrontation.

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Then Belle gets tired of it all and goes to lay under some grass with a bone.

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Then Miss Jealousy comes over to see if she can get the bone.

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And she always manages to do so.  It’s a constant battle with these two. I can give them each a bone and they only fight over one of them.   I just sit there and laugh at their antics.

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It’s tough being a dog, you know.

I need to finish up some things from my trip to Evansville a couple of weeks ago.

While we were traveling, we stopped at a quilt shop. Now I haven’t been quilting for quite some time as I have gotten involved in knitting socks.  Lots of socks.  But I actually bought some fabric.

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I found it funny the fabric had farm fresh eggs on it and only had roosters pictured. Don’t think you will get many eggs from a rooster. Heck, the hen doesn’t even need the rooster to produce eggs.   I guess whoever designed this fabric thought roosters were prettier than hens.

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Dream on.

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Yes, all chickens should be free to range.  Put on their little cowboy hats and over the range they go!

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Everyone wants healthy chickens.  Plenty of clean water, food and a large enough place to range and most chickens live a very healthy life.

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I just liked this fabric because there were several designs on it to use.

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I know I will be using this in something.

I had to stop at a yarn shop while we were out.  And this is what I bought.

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They had so many self striping yarns.

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Cute little markers. I am always losing mine.  Somewhere there is a yarn marker heaven where all my markers are waiting for me.  I don’t know where they go and I never find them.

And two other things that have floated my boat lately.

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My fairy godmother, Shannon, gave me this cute bowl to hold yarn while I am knitting.  I love it.  That book behind it, “Use it Up, Wear it out, Make it Do or Do Without,” is a book we sold in our store years ago and there is that particular quilt in it that I have planned for years to make.  I met one of the author, Mary, when we were passing through Iowa. She and her friend, Connie wrote books and patterns together and had the company, Country Threads and a quilt shop by that name which was wonderful and inside an old chicken coop. Now that I am getting interested in quilting again, maybe I will piece it. I did manage to pin two quilts together for quilting and I hope to get them done this year.

I didn’t plant much of a garden this year.  I do have a few tomato plants where I am getting loads of tomatoes.

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David also went out and cut some more rhubarb. We have had so much of it this year and I have frozen a bunch.  We won’t starve with rhubarb, eggs and tomatoes available just for the picking.

The main garden area is full of pumpkin vines.

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It needs rain.

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Several pumpkins are forming.  The vine has grown up over the fence and into the garden and Molly has picked a few pumpkins.   It’s even growing up onto the grape vine and over another fence into our neighbor’s yard. He may be picking pumpkins also!

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This one is turning orange already.   Hope it will last until Autumn when I will decorate with them and give some to grandkids if there are enough.

Still haven’t got my bathroom completely done yet.  I have one wall I am trying to decide how to decorate, but I did get this picture which hangs above me as I lay in the bathtub.

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I just think she is beautiful.   I have always loved the lore about mermaids.  I just watched the movie, “Splash,” with Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah which we saw many, many years ago at a mall in Georgia.   I love that movie.  Why can’t Hollywood make more movies like that with happy endings?  I loved the part where Tom Hank’s character asked Daryl Hannah’s character how they spoke where she lived and she started this high pitched screech that broke all the television screens in the store they stood in.

Here’s to all things feathered and furry and mermaids.  Wish they were real.  Bye.

 

 

The People in My Shop and Other Things of Interest(for me anyway)

This past week I got some people who arrived in my shop.  They are pretty quiet people.  They don’t exercise much.   They just kind of stand there and wait around. For what, I don’t know.  They didn’t have any clothes to wear so I have been trying to come up with things to cover them.

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They meet me at the door. No hello. No nothing.

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They stand by my work table and watch me work on my projects.   Gee, I wish they’d put some clothes on.

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I finally threw some lace tablecloths over a couple of them and I thought it looked kind of nice. Maybe I could dress them as brides with flowers and everything.

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Or I could take some Modge Podge and make them into patchwork people.

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I have hundreds of these two and a half inch blocks I could Modge Podge all over the people.  I could even Modge Podge  old maps on them.  There are so many ideas to dress these people up.

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Whatever I do, these people are probably here to stay for a while. Actually, where David works they were going to throw out these  dress forms and I offered to take a few off their hands. I got five of them. I could have gotten lots more, but there is only so much room in my shop.  I have all kinds of ideas for them to dress up my shop with these people.  I am going to do some major cleaning and painting and redoing this year and David is going to build me a large table where I can pin my quilts for quilting.   I want a shabby chic look because that is the look I am fascinated with at the moment.  Throughout the years, my decorating style has changed drastically.  I loved the country look, the primitive look, and right now our house has an eclectic look.  Every room has its own theme.   Maybe I will dress one like a policeman and set her in front of a window. I could have a police station theme!  There are so many things I could do.

I have chickens in my shop too.  Six little girls I am raising for my daughter although now I am becoming attached to them.

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This is Shannon.  I thought she was a Buff Orpington, but she isn’t.

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These are her wings. They look like angel wings.

 

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There is also cute little Mary Foster who is a Golden Laced Wyndotte. She has a hurt leg so I think I will have to keep her because she would go to a certain death at my daughter’s house. The chickens over there live dangerous lives with dogs and raccoons trying to get them.  Just when they think they have built a better chicken cage, the animals figure out how to get in.  I don’t know how many chickens they have tried to raise.  Right now the ones they have are hanging in there so I’m hoping for the best.

Speaking of chickens…..

 

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This is the chicken quilt I wrote about a couple of blogs ago.  The one I got a blue ribbon on at the county fair.  I always wondered what the judges thought about all those fried eggs on it.

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I hand appliqued every one of those eggs onto the quilt.

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It was such a fun quilt to make, I may have to make another without the fried eggs.

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The pattern came from this book I have had for decades.

I got this in the mail today.

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Self striping yarn. Yippee!

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Some more.

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Stroll gradient yarn.  Not exactly striping just a gradual change in colors.

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Love these colors.

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And I am loving this yarn.  I can’t wait to get started, but I have a pair to finish first. David and I cannot figure out how to get into this yarn to find the end.  I always let David find the start because I always get into a tangled mess, but this one has him wondering.  I am sure he will figure it out.  I have never bought yarn like this.

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Spring has burst out all over our front garden.   I wish Spring would last for months.  It’s been so cold and windy, it’s been too cold to sit outside and look at it.

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I love Flowering Quince.

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I love you too, Molly.  This picture makes it look like Molly is a giant or I am a very tiny person. And it looks like she has goatee.

David and I found a new antique store. At least it’s new for us.  It’s called The Happy Nest. I got a few things there and saw a whole lot more I would like to have.

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I found some fabric at very good prices.

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I found this cute chalk ware bunny and chick for five dollars.  I bought a book about the pilgrims and the crossing of the Mayflower to the new world.   It looks really interesting.

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These will be added to my bunny and chick collection. These are some chalk ware bunnies I have had for years. That little house has a tiny bunny in the garden.

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I cannot believe it is only one week before Easter.  My bunnies are ready for it.  I am ready for it.  We have about two hundred eggs for the grandkids to hunt. In some will be little papers with dollar signs and they turn them in for money and the rest have smiley face papers that they will turn in for candy.   Last year it was a big success so hope they will enjoy it again this year. We have an added surprise for them, but I won’t tell it here.

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I love Easter. The real meaning and the fun part too. We will attend church and then we will have a big dinner and somebody will jump in the pool(it’s really looking good now) and we will enjoy the grandkids.  The day before, our church puts on a big Easter egg hunt and I am taking two of our grandboys to it.

I hope you have a blessed Easter.   He is Risen indeed. Bye.

 

 

 

 

Good-bye March or The Day Before April

      The Day Before April

         The day before April

Alone, alone.

I walked in the woods

And sat on a stone.

I sat on a broad stone

And sang to the birds.

The tune was God’s making

But I made the words.

Mary Carolyn Davies

  I found this little poem in a really old, well loved poetry book for children I have had since childhood.  I think it belonged to my mother when she was a girl or maybe even her mother.  The pages are all torn, it has no cover any longer, but I remember reading this and reading this when I was a girl.  I memorized James Whitcomb Riley’s “Little Orhant Annie” from this book.  Yes, it was spelled Orphant.   I guard it with my life as I love this book.  Who knows what will happen to it when I die, but I hope it ends up in the hands of some child who will love it as much as I have.

March is almost over.  It’s gone as quickly as all the other months go.  Like a whisper or a breath and it’s gone.  So many people I know had birthdays this month. A great month to be born, I’d say.   So many celebrations of life.   Because isn’t it great to be born and live in this life?  No matter the trouble, the problems, the fears, the worries, there is still so much to be thankful for and so many beautiful things in this world that we should not dwell on those things which worry us or make us angry.  Life is too short.  I see young people so immersed in anger and rebellion when they could be accomplishing so many wonderful things.

Yes, the month has been busy.  Here are some of the things that have caught my attention or my eye.

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The weeping cherry in our front yard. We can sit on our porch and look at it.

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Glorious flowers. The daffodils came early this year and are prolific.

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The chicks are growing and some of them can fly up to their roost now.  This is either Linda or Marilyn.  

 

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This is little Mary Foster. She has a hurt leg and I am wondering if I am going to have to nurse her like I did the Rhode Island Red I did a few years ago, giving her spa baths and laying her out in the sun.  We shall see, but she is so cute.

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This is little Shannon the smallest of the peeps.  David and I are wondering if she got in the wrong group of chicks at the store as we thought she was a Buff  Orpington, but she is not colored like our other Buffs are.  Hmmmmm.  Did something strange happen in the chicken house?

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Molly is enjoying the Spring weather playing with her toys.  This is filled with treats and she is not letting ANYONE have it.

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I made a quilt for a little baby’s first birthday.

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Each square has a different picture in it of children and kittens.

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I hope Annalea gets a lot of use out of it and keeps her warm.   Isn’t Annalea a pretty name?

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Years ago when we had a quilt shop, we sold this book.  I have made several quilts from my copy.

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This was the company and these were the women who ran it.

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The one on the right lives on a farm in Iowa and she use to run their quilt shop out of an old chicken coop on her farm. I went there once and it was the cutest shop.  I met Mary and she was so nice and friendly.   I read her blog now.   It’s called, Country Threads Chicken Scratch.  She raises a lot of animals and dog sits for people.   Go there and see some of her quilt projects.

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One year I made this particular quilt, but instead of squares between the chickens, I made fried eggs and put them on the quilt. Out of fabric, of course!   I took it to the county fair and got a blue ribbon on it.  I will show it to you next time if I can dig it out of my pile of quilts.  Or should I say, piles of quilts.

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I have always wanted to make this quilt. It’s called Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, Or do without.  I like the idea of it and when I make it, I will add some things I cannot do without.

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My first pair of socks developed holes on the heels so I knitted up some patches and sewed them on. Now I think they would be cute if I put patches all over them.  In all different colors.

Of course I am still knitting socks when I should be doing something else.

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I will have a pile of them by next Christmas. Watch out, grandboys. You will get socks next Christmas whether you want them or not!

The garden has been tilled and the pool is being readied for the grand Easter splash down. It may only be fifty degrees, but I can tell you right now someone will go into the pool that day.

Hope your March was wonderful. See you in April.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

Chickens in the House

When I was growing up, Daddy had a sick calf who would not drink milk from its mother.  It was winter and cold in the barn so Daddy brought the calf into the house. It laid on a blanket in the kitchen by our old wood burning stove.  Mother would try to feed it bottles of milk, but it became weaker and weaker and one day it died.  We were all sad about it, but that was life on the farm. Sometimes animals died.    We took each death personally.  Or, at least, I did.

Look what I got this week.

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Today I have chickens in the house. Baby chicks to be exact.  We brought in an old metal tub and put pine shavings in it and with their food and water, the chicks are surviving nicely.   It’s been very cold the last few days and I usually would have them out in my shop, but I was worried they would freeze even with the heat lamp on them.  They eat, well, like birds.  Constantly.  I fill their feeder twice a day.  It won’t be long before I will have to cage them as they are testing their boundaries and one day I’m afraid we will wake up with a baby chick running loose in our house.

This time I bought two Golden Laced Wyndottes,  one Buff  Orpington., one Black Orpington and two Barred Rocks.  I won’t be keeping them all.  I am raising some of them for my daughter who keeps chickens also.  That is, if I don’t get too attached to them. David said I shouldn’t name them, then, because I would have to keep them all.   I haven’t decided what to call them.  My present chickens’ names are Dorcas, Beatrice, Freedom, Phoebe, Penninah, and Ada. Maybe I will name them after the ladies in my Sunday school class. Hmmmmm.   Shannon, Janet, Linda, Donna, Marilyn and Mary Foster.    I wouldn’t have trouble remembering their names then!

I love watching the little chicks as they act like, well, chickens.  They preen and stretch their legs and eat and eat some more and sleep and grow.  They already are getting their pinfeathers.   I wonder what they think when I tower over them and talk to them?  When we first got them, they would go into panic mode and try to hide behind the feeder or water jar.  Now they just kind of stand there and just look at me.  I pick them up and talk to them to get them use to me.   I don’t want my chicks afraid of me since I need to check them out for anything wrong.

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Aren’t they cute?

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Little. white, fluffy bottoms.

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“You lookin’ at me?”

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Fast asleep under the heat lamp.  The striped one is a Golden Laced Wyndotte. Isn’t she beautiful?

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Barred Rocks.  I just want to hold them and pet them.

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There are so many different kinds of chickens.  If we lived on a farm, I would try one of every sort.   I wanted some that laid blue eggs, but I chose these instead.  Their eggs will all be brown.  And delicious.

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Around the watering hole.  They eat and drink so much for such tiny creatures.  I fill their feeder twice a day and change their water once or twice a day.   They are growing fast. Next week they will be moved out to my shop and into a bigger cage until they are ready to join the other chickens.

I got this the other day when David and I were out antiquing.  It caught my eye and looked like something I would have loved to have had when I was a girl.

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A sewing kit.

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Inside were patterns for  “dolly” dresses,

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a plastic doll with dresses already cut out. I wonder who was the little girl who played with this?

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These cards were in the box.  I don’t think they were part of the original sewing kit.

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These were Disney button sewing cards.  Sew buttons on the balloon areas.  There was also thread in the kit.  I may make copies of the patterns and save the originals and try making some dresses for the doll.  I loved playing with dolls when I was a girl despite the fact I was a real tomboy.   I remember getting some tiny dolls on a trip we took that Mother bought at a little store along the way and she said I played and played with them the whole trip.  This doll reminds me of them.

Well, I must get some more feed for the chicks.   Between them, the chickens and the wild birds we feed, I am kept busy filling feeders.

Here’s to baby chicks and sewing kits. Bye.

 

 

This is Retirement?

I don’t think David and I thought very much about retirement when we were younger.  We were just trying to make a living and raise our three children and keep food on the table.  I always heard that retirement was the time when one could kick back and relax.  Do some traveling.  People picture Grandmas and  Grandpas sitting on the porch, Grandma with knitting in her hands.  Well, a little of that happens around here, but we evidently didn’t get the message about how to behave when retired.

It seems we are busier than ever.  Work just as hard and the days go by much, much more quickly. Here it is, June already.  Where did May go?  I spend most of my days outside in the garden or taking care of the chickens and playing with the dogs.  Between laundry, cooking, cleaning, and other household chores, I keep pretty busy.  I don’t know how our ancestors did it without all the labor saving devices we have now.  My great-great-great grandmother had to heat the water for the laundry, wash everything on a washboard, hang the clothes outside, weather permitting, iron all the clothes and by the time she was done with that, it was time to start all over.  She did this while raising a garden, canning enough food to get the family through the winter, cooking every single meal, and raising a family.  Whew.  I get tired just thinking about it.  I can stick a load of clothes in the washer, go outside, and when I come in, the clothes are washed.  It almost seems like a miracle to me.  But I see miracles in a lot of things.   Not all that long ago if you had leftovers, you had to get out pans and heat them on the stove and then you would have all the pans to wash afterward. Now, with the microwave, we can fill up a plate with leftovers, heat it for a few minutes and have a good, hot meal, almost as good as the original you cooked before.  Miracle.

But I got off subject. I do that all the time.  Here are a few things that we have been doing the last few weeks.

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We celebrated Memorial Day, a day to remember our fallen soldiers and also to remember loved ones who have died.  David’s grandmother always called it Decoration Day because it was the day she always took flowers and decorated the graves of family members.

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I fix a pot of grass for the chickens every once in a while.  They need their greens, too.

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“What are you looking at?  Can’t we eat without being disturbed?”

I’ve become a sock model.

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Why do I always have a bruise on my shins?

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See that pie safe in the background?  I took that step ladder there and climbed up to see if it needed dusting on top.  Well, since I  haven’t dusted up there in years, I found a dust storm up there.  I was a little amazed, thinking I kept a pretty clean house and there was such a dusty place almost right over my nose.  I took everything off it, washed what I could to include several American flags I had in a can.  I scrubbed the top three times until I felt like it was clean enough.  Now it’s good for another ten years!  I reckon if I looked hard enough, I could find several dusty places in my house, but I’m not going to look too hard.  The thing about dust.  It will always be there.  It won’t go away on its own.  I read one time that we could have the dust from the first Adam’s body in our dust bunnies under our beds because dust travels all over the world.  Maybe I have Moses under my bed or maybe Christopher Columbus.    If so, they will be quite safe there as I don’t like to dust all that much unless I really feel like it.

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We had sixteen people here for dinner the other day and the kids all played in the pool. I love having lots of kids in the pool.  They had so much fun.  Besides that, they stir up all the stuff on the bottom of the pool and that actually helps to clean it.   And the water definitely was stirred.

David and I have eaten at a couple of different restaurants lately.  One was called Stone’s Family Restaurant in Mihousen.  The food was so-so, but it was worth the trip to eat the fried biscuits and apple butter.  We could have made a meal out of those.  The restaurant is in this little off the beaten path town time has forgot.   We drove several back roads to get there and the scenery was so pretty.  I don’t think any place is prettier than Indiana in Summer.

The other one was in the little town of Vernon.  Vernon hosts a town wide garage sale every Labor Day weekend.  There are yard sales all the way along the highway to Vernon. We went one year and there was just about everything for sale, plus there were vendors selling their wares.   We have eaten at this restaurant before.  Really good food.

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We missed the Karaoke.

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This is what it looks like on the outside.  Nothing special, but I don’t think I have ever had as good fish as I did there.   It was done to perfection.  Not greasy and not fishy tasting.

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We ate there on the way back from this place.  Streamcliff Farm.  A nursery, winery that was having a flower sale.  I was not going to buy anymore flowers this year. But…..

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Of course, I did.  You took a little red wagon through the greenhouses to pick up your plants.

I bought several perennials and a rhubarb plant. By the way, our rhubarb has done wonderfully this year.  I have several packages of it frozen so that in the middle of the winter, we can have rhubarb pie and think of Spring.

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The plants sold here are so healthy and big.  I don’t know what kind of fertilizer they use,  but the plants sure do flourish.

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There are little gardens everywhere.  I wonder what it is like to wake up every morning and know all this is yours and you can walk through it anytime?

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Fish in the fishpond. Everyone needs a garden they can escape to whether it’s on several acres or on the rooftop of a city building.

There was a man there playing  and singing Johnny Cash songs and he sounded just like him!

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Man in black.  I love Johnny Cash songs.  He was a great song writer and singer.

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This is what I have been doing today.  David is replacing the fence boards along one side of our back yard so I decided to stain them.  There will be hundreds. Today I stained forty some.  He went and bought some more and some more stain, so guess what I will be doing tomorrow.

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David put up the original fence about twenty-five years ago.  It’s held up pretty well, but it’s time to be replaced.

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Just so they won’t think I have forgotten them, here’s the puppers.  Always watching for me to come out.  Playmate, come out and play with me, and bring your dollies three, climb up the apple tree.  Look down the rain barrel, slide down the cellar door.  And we’ll be jolly friends, forevermore.  My mother use to sing that song to me.

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Molly looks like she has a big cigar in her mouth.

Hope you are having a wonderful Summer(or Winter in some parts of our world.)  Soon the longest day will come and the days will start to shorten again.  It never changes.  Bye.

 

Where Did Last Week Go???

Where did last week go?  For that matter, where did the month of January go?  January use to be my least favorite month, but through the years I have grown fond of long winter days, making things in my shop, sleeping in late in a toasty warm bed, baking and cooking comfort foods, and feeding the birds.  January and I have grown rather fond of each other.

but January sped by this year like every month seems to speed by nowadays.  This was what happened at our house last week.

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I gave our living room a fresh coat of paint.  Through the years  I have painted every room in our house at least three times or more.  I love to paint although climbing up and down the ladder is a little harder than it use to be.

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The room was a light sage green and now it’s a sort of pinkish brown.  A few years ago I painted our bedroom and wanted a soft, darker pink.  It turned out Pepto Bismo pink.  We lived with it.  While painting with this color, I got some on my arm and looked at it and thought, ‘Ah, calamine lotion.”  So now I have a calamine lotion painted room, but I rather like it. It looks really well alongside the grayish diningroom.  We shall live with it.

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This painting looks really good on the wall.

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The fireplace mantle stands out better.  I am getting use to it.

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We had the wolf moon.  I almost missed it, but I got up earlier than usual last Sunday and saw it just before it set in the west.

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I love full moons.  They say people go a little crazy during them, but they have never bothered me.

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I have almost knit to the heel of another sock.  Now I will have to change to double pointed needles to knit the heel flap and then the dreaded heel turn.  I will have to try this when no one is around, all phones must not ring, the light must be just right, I must be well rested and alert, the moon must be in the right phase and nothing, but nothing must disturb me or the stitches will fall off the needles like they did the last time and I tore out the whole sock.  How did someone figure out how to knit the very first sock ever?  How did they teach themselves to turn a heel?  It boggles my mind that someone did it for the very first time without any instructions.  I have instructions, and it still boggles my mind!

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Finished piecing my chick quilt top.  It turned out even cuter than I though it would.

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I could make another one of these, it was so much fun.  It will get quilted soon.

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Today I finished piecing a basket quilt.  This was another really fun one, but oh, so many little pieces.

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I love every piece of fabric in this quilt.

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Of course, I continue to feed the birds.  They are a continuous source of joy for me.  Every time I see a titmouse or chickadee I just have to smile.

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Today I was keeping an eye on this cardinal in the crabapple tree.  She sat there for the longest time watching the other birds at the feeder.

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I kept trying to get a good picture.

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This is the best I could do.  The sun was shining on her making her feathers seem to glow.

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Walking around the yard I noticed that bulbs were starting to sprout in the garden.

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This little bush has stayed this color all winter.

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I’ve been doing a little coloring in this book.

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I have ordered a tin of seventy-two colored pencils to make my pictures more enhanced.

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There is something rather relaxing about sitting down and coloring a picture.  I loved coloring when I was a little girl.  So glad that adult coloring books are in vogue right now.  I love working with the colors and shading and trying to pretend I am an artist.   I saw in Sam’s Club the other day there was a Donald Trump coloring book.  We had our grandsons with us and one of them wanted one, but I said his mother would kill me if I bought him one!  But I thought it was funny.  He got a book, instead.

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I’m beginning to write stories about my two younger grandsons called “The Adventures of Tristan and Foster.”  I have several ideas for stories.  They always want me to make up stories about them when they visit, so I thought I would try my hand at writing some for them.

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We lost Abigail this week.   David went out to make sure they were in the coop and she was laying out in the garden.  No feathers around, no blood.

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We had been getting these really long skinny eggs lately and I was thinking one of the hens must have something wrong with her egg canal.  Since Abigail died, we haven’t got anymore of these eggs so I think she got bound up with an egg.  So sad.  That happens sometimes with chickens.  They can look really healthy, but have an egg stuck inside them and it kills them.

Besides all of this there’s been church going, cookie baking, roll making, grandboys visiting, laundry doing, book reading, dog playing, chicken feeding, Bible study planning, David’s birthday celebrating, and much more.  I haven’t been to the hair dresser for months.  I need a cut and color, but I keep putting it off.  I am getting so lazy in my old age.  Just love staying at home and doing at home things.  I feel blessed.  Bye.

 

 

 

Flowing Along

My very favorite month, April, came and went so quickly I hardly had time to turn around.  I wait for twelve whole months for the flowering crabapple to bloom and the lilacs to come out and now they are all almost gone.

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Now it’s time for peonies,

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and irises,

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and snowball bushes.  I have planted three more of these.  This one came from David’s grandmother’s garden years ago.

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Right outside our back door so we can see it as soon as we get up in the morning.

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The garden is almost all planted. Pumpkins, Indian corn, sunflowers are planted and tomato plants and cucumbers will be planted today.  I have cut back on vegetables and added more flowers.

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Our little patch of rhubarb has provided us plenty for pies.

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So yummy.

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I made this sponge cake for the Bible study that meets at my house.  It took eight eggs which made me thankful we raise chickens.  One of my friends made cucumber and egg salad sandwiches so I said we were having high tea.  It was all good.

Speaking of eggs, or, rather those that lay them.

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The hens give me endless entertainment.  Abigail is looking at me as if to say, “Why does Colonel Sanders get away with murdering all those chickens?”    Shhh, don’t tell her I love Colonel Sander’s fried chicken.

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This is chicken scratch, or as I like to call it, chicken crack.  The hens are addicted to this stuff.  They recognize the bowl in which I bring it to them.

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See, they are all crammed against the gate waiting for the crack.

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I set the bowl on top of their nesting boxes and first one hopped up.

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Then two.  Beatrice and Dorcas are always first in line.

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Then there were three.  Abigail came up for her fix.

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Then Ada says, “Where’s mine?”  It was getting crowded so I began to throw it all over their pen.  Chickens are funny.  They can be eating in one place with plenty of food, but if they see another one eating at a different place, they all run there.  I like to play games with them.

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First here.

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Then there.

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Then all in one place for a short while.

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Ada was not happy with me taking pictures.

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She disappeared behind the door.  She is so pretty.  She should be posing.

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Teal feathers are really standing out.  From afar she looks all black and then you see these feathers.

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Abigail has such pretty markings too.  There are so many kinds of chickens and I wish I could  have one of each, but my little plot of land could not sustain them.

Speaking of dogs.  Oh, I wasn’t?  I saw in the paper that there were chocolate lab puppies for sale.  David thought I was just kidding when I told him and told him I wanted one.  But, alas, I cannot have a fourth puppy.

We are still trying to raise this little lady to be a good, well behaved dog.

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What is this, you are asking?  This is a clean, fresh t-shirt that I put on one morning and went outside to start the day.  What you are seeing is Molly’s paw print, in perfect  outline, smack dab in the middle of my nice clean shirt.  Such is life when you have a puppy.  I have taken to wearing aprons when I go outside to protect my clean clothes.

Here’s to crack eating chickens and dog printed t-shirts.  Bye.

 

Textiles and Me Part2

Yes,  I love textiles.  There is something about walking aisles of fabric stores looking at all the beautiful fabrics, feeling their softness and silkiness.  There are fabrics for every taste, every color in the rainbow.  I feel the same way about yarns although I don’t use yarns very often.

Since Spring is coming(I hope) and I don’t plan on spending time in my shop sewing when the weather is warm, I have been sewing up a storm the last few weeks. I found fabrics I had forgotten I had and brought out some of the fabrics I purchased recently and began sewing.

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This is a skirt I just finished.  I paired it up with a little bolero jacket I made a couple of years ago.

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I used a handkerchief for its pockets.

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I made this skirt and paired it with a top I bought last year and a shrug I bought several years ago.   I love going through my closet and finding things I haven’t worn for a long time and find they go with something else.  I like wearing shrugs or bolero jackets because I am five foot one and long jackets just don’t look good on me.   I can’t believe I am five foot one. I feel about six inches taller.  Really.  But my doctor says that’s how tall I am so I can’t argue with him.

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This is the dress I wrote about a while back.  The one that I am not sure I like how it fits.  It may be because I am not used to wearing fitted dresses or fitted anything for that matter. I will buy clothes one and two sizes too big because I can’t stand anything close to my body.  This little bolero jacket is kind of a different shape also.  We shall see how much I wear this.  I love the fabric though.

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I just fell in love with this fabric.  Kind of wish I had made another skirt from it.  Maybe I will do some changing to the dress later.

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I put the quilt I hand quilted on our bed this week for warm weather.  Then it got cold again.

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I made these pillow cases from feed sack material.  I told David these are just for show as I don’t think these would hold up to washing after washing.  I do love how they go with the quilt.

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This is what I am wearing Easter Sunday.  I am also wearing a hat. I want to start a hat revolution.  Too many women tell me they don’t think they look good in hats.  I think it’s just because when they wear a hat, they are usually the only one wearing one and feel like everyone is looking at them.  If more would wear hats, then no one would think anything about it.  As it is now, if I wear a hat, someone always says something about it because it is a rarity.  I love hats and want to see them come back.  My mother had so many hats.  One day I will show you some of them which I have, of course.  I also have a little hat I wore when I was a little girl.

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I’m loving my purse.  This pattern is so easy.

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Now I will talk about Miss Molly Marshmallow.  Look at what she is doing to poor Bonnie.  Sitting on her head.  I know it’s a sign of dominance, but I wish Bonnie would bite her on the behind just once.  This is how she sits.   Like a queen on her throne.  David and I have been seriously talking about changing her name to Termite because this dog eats wood.  She brings up whole logs from the wood pile and gnaws through them.  She pulls branches off trees and chews them.  And I told you about the big hole she chewed into our house almost clear through to the inside.  David was not a happy camper about that and words like, “That dog is gong to find itself in a new home,” to ” Something has to be done about that dog,” were being said.  I was close to tears.  But, David repaired the hole and so far, Molly has not chewed the house anymore.  I think she may have heard what David was saying.  She is getting spayed in a week and I am hoping that will settle her down a bit.  Poor baby.

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Here are two eggs David gathered today. See the little one?  See the jelly bean?  What in the world happened with that chicken???  Smallest egg we have gotten since the hens all started laying.  Must have been a bad day.

Here’s to fabric, dog sitting dogs and tiny eggs.  Life is always interesting. Bye.