Time flys when you are having fun

Or at least that is what they say. I just know for sure time has flown by this year. Mostly this fall. It seems like I have been away from home since early last fall. I guess I kinda have tho. Starting in September with the hunting lodge, the loss of my Aunt Ann, home for a bit, house sitting, another hunting season at the lodge, home for a few days and the final round of the hunting lodge. I think the hunting season is over for this year till September at least. Unless Carl comes up with another brainy idea. And knowing him, its possible. But I do enjoying helping out at the hunting lodge and it keeps my aunts memory alive for me.

Back at home not much to do in the way of gardening or farming. Other than keep the chickens fed and watered. Water is not much of a problem with all the rain we have had and are presently having. The temperatures are nice tho. I wont complain at all about that. It was in the 60's here today. I even had the patio door open for a while. I guess it helps that the patio door is off the kitchen and I was cooking supper adding to the heat in here. Rodger came home from work feeling like crap. He said he had been so tired all day and just felt bad. I think he went to bed around 6 , right after supper. Not normal for him. But he was up a lil bit ago and said his back did feel better. He has had several people off work with the flu and such. Some schools in surrounding counties considered calling off school due to illness. For what ever reason my arthritis has flared up pretty bad today. Not sure if its over use of my joints, the weather or just plain age. But dang, its hurty. I guess the one joint that has most of my attention right now is my big toe. OK laugh it up. But do you know how annoying it is to walk with your big toes sore, stiff an hurting? Well it hurts. I guess if that is the worst of my problems, its all good. With all the work at the hunting lodge this fall, I feel really good about my over-all well being. I did well. Not as much pain as usual. Not as much soreness as usual. I can live with this. I do still have major bouts with fatigue but IF time and events allow I can most times sleep that off. That is IF I can crash and sleep 12 to 14 hours straight. It may take a couple days but I feel better after the fact. With fibro, rest is essential or your mental clarity goes out the window. It seems life and your whole body just stalls. I guess it kinda does.

Any who, its almost Christmas time and time to spend some quality time with family an friends. In our case mostly family. Our kids, Rob, Amoy and lil Liam will be home end of this week. Cant wait to see them. We have not seen our Rob since April when we were in Nevada for Liam's birth. That lil boy has grown bunches too and is crawling, pulling up, and will probably be trying to walk soon. Time flys when ya have a lil one, they change daily. So this grammy needs to get some junk food made to spoil the lil one with while he is home.

Oh its so nice to be home in my own world, sleeping in my own bed, on the down side, I have to eat all my own cooking. I have a mental list of several projects I want to get done this winter. Yeas I said
"mental" list. I have a couple quilts I want to finish. Some crochet projects I want to work on and a few embroidery pieces I want to do. Not sure where I got the silly notion I want to make a bunch of embroidery pieces to later set up into a quilt. But the idea is kinda stuck in my mind. Although it may change after I complete one square. But those projects are for when I am house bound in really cold nasty weather if we have any later this winter. But for now I really should be in the summer kitchen getting more of our potatoes canned up so we don't have such a large loss on them. They just are not keeping as well as they should. Not sure if it has to do with the wet growing season or a disease or just what their problem is. But if I get busy and can the good ones they for sure will stay edible till spring. We had to buy sweet potatoes this fall for the first time in forever. Ours did nothing. Well they did the best they could in the grass that took over. They yielded about 2/3 of a 5 gallon bucket in 2 rows 100ft long. May as well say they did nothing. But I got those lil fellows canned up last fall too so its all good. We can use the ones we have stored fresh first before they sprout and save the canned ones will we run out of fresh. They will keep in the jar. I never did but still want to make an can some goulash like my friend Rosie makes. I still remember the taste and it was so dang good. Meat, beef or in my case venison, cooked long with lots of onion in a tomato like sauce. I remember she served it with kraut. Oh my, so good. I guess I should get her recipe to make sure I can get close to the same taste. Nothing in life is more disappointing that having your taste buds set for a certain taste and then it not meet up to your specifications.

I think tomorrow will be a chicken noodle soup day. Rodger not feeling good, its cool and rainy. Yep a good soup day. Good ole comfort food. Nothing better.

Not much else happening here, so till next time, Merry Christmas and many blessings from the McGuire homestead to your family.

Stella

All done, on to the next project

I worked on the baby quilt last night till the wee hours of this morning. I got it tacked and it looked pretty good. The extra padding behind the lil bear blocks sure made a difference.

This  is with the tacking done. Now the tricky part is getting the borders on and finishing the whole thing. I worked on that today and finally finished.

 

Here it is, all done and ready to take with me this week and give it to Rob and Amoy for the lil one. You know how they say you cant always see the forest for the trees. My friend Anna and I were talking on the phone last night and she brought some differences to my attention. The bears are all the same at first glance, but upon looking at the details they are all different. Really the only thing they have in common is that they are all in some shade of blue. Each bear has a different expression on its face, their bows are different colors, and some of them don't have hands. Hell I had not noticed the lil things. I didn't see the forest for the trees. Thanks sissy  for bringing this to my attention. My poor lil grandson will get my very first attempt at making a quilt. I sure learned a lot making this lil project.

 I still need to get busy and crochet  the lil cocoon  and hat for Liam. I will work on that and ship it later. Hope I have more time to sit still when we get back from the wedding.  Its a good thing that I don't sleep much at night I guess. Come spring I will be busy with the greenhouse and gardens and outdoor stuff so the only time I can tinker with crocheting and such is at night when its too dark to be outside plundering around. I still don't really have my craft room/closet organized well yet. I think I need some shelves to store boxes for crafting stuff and shoes and such. At least it would look a lil better. Thas not really on any list of priorities at this point. It works for me and there should not be anyone in my closet anyway. 

I guess I am the worst for procrastinating. I did finally get out of town yesterday and get my nails done. I had planned on attending a friends Pampered Chef party but that did not work out. I had to wait 2 hours before they got to me to do my nails. Gosh the stupid stuff us girls go thru to look like a lady. I actually like the acrylic nails. They work out well for me. Lower maintenance than real ones. They even look nice if I have to work in the garden with em. Thas my kind of product that can stand up to my abuse. 

Not much else happening here on the farm today, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Pushing the deadline

Sounds just like me doesn't it? Always pushing the deadline. I have put off going out of town to find the thread to tack the baby quilt that I have started till dang it its not long till we fly to Nevada. If I keep messing around I wont have it done to take with me. I guess I will go out of town tomorrow and get the stuff to finish it up. I just need the thread to tack the quilt with and add the border and it will be done. I am going to get my nails done tomorrow anyway so I can pick up the thread while I am out and about. That is IF it don't snow. I don't do snow much less drive in it. Rodger cant go he is on call this weekend with his work so he must stay in town.

I was going to get those things done today but I am still having issues with leg cramps. I did go out to a friends house and got my hair cut today and on the way home I had to stop in the middle of the road because my right leg, the one on the gas pedal , started cramping really bad. So with it being 25 plus miles to the next town to the nail salon I thought I might not should try driving with muscle cramps. I didn't go. I came on home and puttered around the house. House cleaning, laundry and such.

Rodger picked up 20 lbs of ground beef from the slaughter house today and brought it home. I made about 15 lbs of it into burger patties and stacked those with parchment paper between the layers on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer to freeze solid. Tomorrow they will go into zip top bags and be stored in the freezer for later use. I did freeze 1 of the 5 lb packs into 1/2 lb patties so I can add a half lb to each lb of ground venison when I make meatloaf. Meatloaf needs a lil bit of fat in it to make good gravy in the pan. So we tried out the burger for supper tonight and it makes really good hamburgers. I feel good knowing we will not get food poisoning this time. Rodger said he stood there and watched them grind the burger for us. He had ordered it and it was to be ready today and as he got there to pick it up they had just started grinding. That is about as fresh as you can get right there. No ammonia smell , no pink sludge in it, and didn't spend who knows how long getting to our dinner table. I sure feel better serving that to the family.

Not much happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

No more for us

No more store bought burger that is. OR fresh produce either. Not sure which one made us both sick but either one could be the culprit. We rarely buy store bought meat or fresh produce of any kind. I guess I am gonna have to figure out a way to grow a small amount of lettuce for a sandwich on the window sill in the summer kitchen or just not have any. Dang that is really bad. After reading things online and researching how foods get to your local store it is no wonder people get sick. And die. Not to mention the detrimental effects they have on our bodies out side of food poisoning that makes you sick quickly. It really boggles the mind if you think about it. Anyone knows that a fresh garden ripe picked tomato would not make the trip for Florida or California, much less Mexico to us at our local store in any kind of decent shape. It is all transported by truck and imagine the thousands of lbs of produce on that truck a "real" tomato would be pulp on the trip. What do they really do to them to make them keep longer? I know, they pick em green and ship em and they get ripe on the way. But we all know it takes a week or more for a tomato to fully ripen on the counter, so the red store tomatoes are more than 1 week old.  Now how about that big juicy burger you just ate. How did that beef get from the mid-west to your store.? For it to stay nice and pink it has to be treated with something to preserve the color. Most times that is ammonia or formaldehyde. Google "pink slime" and read about what all goes in your store bought burger. Or not! You may not ever eat another one. I know I wont no more. And dumb ass me knew all this when I ask Rodger to pick up burger for supper Friday night. Prolly would have been safer just eatin the dang wrapper it came in. If you are interested in what your family eats and research and read about our food supplies, you are trying to figure out how to eat better. Find a farmer in your area, make a deal with a good ethical farmer that is honest, ask around, and buy from them. This will help your own local economy AND put better food on your table. If you really think about it, it is really cheaper. Hey offer to help process your food you buy locally. Most people who know how are more than willing to share their knowledge with you as to how to take care of fresh meat and produce and canning or freezing. I wont lie, its a lil harder when you do more of the work yourself but so worth it.

Rodger didn't work today either as he still was not feeling up to snuff. He did feel better after I got him to drink some kefir water today. He actually felt really bad yesterday but still got out on the tractor and plowed up our garden spot. It was ready to plant peas and stuff. He went over there this afternoon and planted our peas and carrots. It is supposed to rain and snow tomorrow so they are in the ground. I am hoping for a good pea crop again this year. We have used a lot of our canned and frozen stuff from last season. I am almost out of corn in the freezer. Or at least I think I am. I may have to dig deeper to find some. If not I still have home canned corn from the year before. Our potatoes are not keeping well at all. Well they are keeping, they just have foot long sprouts on em. It has been a warm winter and the cellar is not cold enough to prevent or at least delay the sprouting. I will use them for a while and as soon as we get back from Nevada I will try to get Rodger to help me plant a couple rows for early taters to use on this summer and buy some new seed potatoes to raise to store. I think we may have a fungus in the ones we have now. I am gonna try the trick my friend Rosie told me about. She says if you put cornmeal in the bottom of the potato row it will encourage microbes to grow that will destroy the fungus. I got homegrown cornmeal so I can try. Will never know if it works for us if we don't try. We will be putting the plastic on the greenhouse when we get back also. Then it will be about time to start seeds in there. I have to find some other odd thing or 2 to grow this year. Not sure what that will be yet tho. I was looking at my pitiful egg gourds that I use for nest eggs when I gathered eggs a bit ago and I do need to raise more of those to dry. They really work to teach the hens where they need to lay. The gourd eggs I have now are ones I picked up several years ago in an antique shop in Nicholasville when Jason and I went plundering one mothers day weekend.

Well my quilt sewing project is coming along nicely. I got the batting in and double batted the bear squares. Now it is pinned together and ready to tack. I just have to by the thread to tack it with. Not gonna find that in our town tho. Maybe I can talk Rodger into an out of town trip this weekend. And then I can get the lil quilt finished to take with us to Nevada. I would take a pic, but that someone who borrowed my camera has not returned it yet. Soon I hope.

Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Finally working on the baby quilt

I know you are saying "bout dang time". Well I know, I do procrastinate some. But I got my neat cutting mat and rotary cutter in yesterday and figured I may as well do some cutting and see what happens. It was not a hard project. But I learned something already. When making quilts, have all the fabric the same quality, I guess that's the right word. The lil bears that my Granny embroidered were on a thin sheet like material and the fabric I bought to set the quilt up with was a lil heavier cotton. I did the usual wash and dry the material before I started so it wont shrink later. But the squares the bears are on have a little more stretch than the fabric I bought. So I had a really hard time keeping everything straight. But I did get the sash pieces and border pieces sewn on today.

I

I think it will be kinda cute once it is complete. Not done yet. Still need to put in the batting and finish the edges. I really want to get this thing complete before we got to Vegas so I can take it to Amoy and Rob. Some of the things that Amoy has chosen for Liam's room have bears on them and the rest have lil monkeys. Its gonna be so cute. She has really good taste when it comes to decorating. When I get the quilt done I will start on the cocoon for the baby and a lil hat to match. Ya reckon I am getting in over my head here? Probably, but thas OK. Nothing I haven't done before.

Not much else happening here on the farm today, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Quilting and sewing

For a hillbilly that is one thing I have not done, make a quilt from start to finish. But some online friends are getting out their sewing stuff so am thinking that might motivate me to work on Liam's baby quilt. As far as needing quilts for use, I don't NEED more per se. I have lots of quilts, some new, some old and some even older. I thought I would share some pics of those with you all.

 

This is the quilt squares that my grandmother embroidered and the fabric that I am using to make the baby quilt for Liam. IF I ever get started on it. 

 

The quilt above was made and finished by my mom and her sister Connie, that is now deceased. Some too pretty to just store away.

 

This quilt is another one that mom and Aunt Connie made when Connie was sick and mom stayed with her.

 

This is a quilt top that Aunt Connie made given to me a few months ago by Aunt Ann. After I get the baby quilt finished I am going to try to finish this quilt. Maybe by then I will have enough knowledge to do it. 

 This is an applique quilt that mom made before dad passed away. She made quilts for a couple years when dad was not doing well and didn't get out much.

This is Rob's baby quilt that Rodgers mom made for him when he was born. I am taking it to them when Liam is born so he can use his daddy's quilt too.

 

 This is some pillow case sets that my maternal grandmother made. I am going to use them. I think these kinds of nice things last just as long being used as they do being stored. I gave Jason and Mary Kay a set to have and will give Rob and Amoy a set too. Just so they can have something made my a great grandmother.

This is an antique quilt that I have, not sure who made this one but it is in excellent shape.

This is a silhouette of Rob that mom used as a pattern to make a quilt for him. Pretty neat eh?

 

This is a neat farm quilt with the tractor and corn applique. Mom also did this one. This is in the master bedroom and the headboard that you see is one that Rodger built several years ago. He does some really nice wood work when he is in the mood. He has to get in the mood soon to build a toy box for a lil boy. 

Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella