Honor Thy Father

 Miss you, Dad.

Little Bo – The Super Goat

“Hi! My name’s Bo. What’s yours? Did you know I’m a super hero? No really, I am, just watch…”

“I can leap tall buildings with a single bound. I RULE this barnyard. Yeah, yeah, and not just this barnyard, I rule the WORLD. I’m MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE!”

“Yeah okay, Super Goat, look behind you stupid” said Luke.

“Oh, heh heh, hello Willa. I, uh, didn’t see you there. I, um, uh, was just testing the roof on your doghouse. I just, uh, wanted to make sure you would be safe. I'm really sorry I woke you. I won’t bother you any more, I promise.”

“MOMMY!”

I am the Project Queen

Here’s a bit of trivia for you, did you know that I used to be a professional project manager? I managed complex computer and telecommunications projects. Now days though I figure I’m doing okay just to manage to shower, shave and get dinner on the table. But over the past couple of weeks I reached deep and reconnected with my organizational roots and managed to actually bring a few projects to completion.

The wool appliqué piece is finished and ready to for framing. This was a block of the month pattern from Quilts Plus. I believe they are now offering this as a kit with borders and sashing if you’re so inclined.  (Why does Windows Live Journal not think sashing is a word?)

The quilt pattern below is Second Hand Clothes, I bought it as a kit from Quilts Plus because I thought the colors they chose were interesting. Then I modified it a little bit, adding my own fabrics because I didn’t measure twice and cut once. I just cut. Then I cussed. Then I decided to call it an “enhancement”.  Hey, that’s what they do in the software industry. Bugs and glitches aren’t called bugs and glitches, they’re enhancements.  This quilt will look great in my guest room.

Then, because Ethel thinks the guest room is actually her room, I made another quilt to cover the first one. The colors chosen have absolutely nothing to do with the room and everything to do with the cat. It will mask her specific blend of cat hair. I made it big enough to cover the entire bed and wrap the pillows to protect them from the hairy, little beast. When I’m expecting human guests I can take the whole thing off and toss it in the wash revealing the other, prettier quilt below.

“Are you saying I’m not pretty?” 

Now both of the large quilts are waiting for Dinah to work her magic with her long-arm quilting machine. (Everybody wave and say hi to Dinah, she’s out there lurking.) Meanwhile, I’m moving on to another project that’s been waiting for my attention.

I made a list of all the things I want to get done before school starts back up. I actually had to break it into two columns, but classes start again in a week and a half. I wonder how many I’ll get done?

My Daily Visit with Sophia

“Mummy! I’ve missed you so” said Sophia.

“Mmmm, a little to the left please?”

“Just ignore the girls over there, Dorothy is in one of her moods.”

“You can give me all the attention today, I’m always in the mood to snuggle.”

“You’re my favorite Mummy in the whole world. I love you.”

(twenty minutes later)

“Sophia, I love you too but I have to go inside now” I said.

“But, but, don’t leave me…”

I was bent over, busy picking burrs off of Blanche the other day when Sophia, in a jealous rage, reared back and head butted me. She’s starting to freak me out. Like in a Fatal Attraction kind of way. I may need to get this girl some sheep therapy.

Make Hay When the Sun Shines

It stopped raining, finally, after an entire week. Prior to that it had been cloudy forever. The sun yesterday and today actually burns my eyes. I am in the middle of a short break before summer classes begin and I have been hiding out in Sheville making the most of it.

Almost finished with my wool appliqué project.

 

Second Hand Clothes, a quilt for my guest room, is moving right along.

 

I finished the quilt top that looks similar to the one I saw while visiting Greenfield Village. Then I ripped the borders back off. I hated it. Now I’m waiting for more fabric to arrive. It will have to wait until the next rainy day.

 

Because the sun is shining and that means a fence needs to be built, weeds need pulled and somebody needs to fix poor Dorothy’s five-dollar haircut.

“Well, it’s about time.”

Rain, Glorious Rain.

I’ve never been so happy to see a wet and cloudy day. My body simply couldn’t handle another day in the garden. I can lift my arms to type, but if I have to bend over to pick anything up today it’s staying on the floor. The funny part of the weekend included a visit to my brother’s new maintenance-free condo Saturday night . I couldn’t help note the irony. Perhaps he’s onto something?

Anyhoo, Nancy asked why I planted marigolds along with all the vegetables and I thought that was a valid question. It’s all about companion planting. Some plants get along well and actually help each other, while others don’t get along at all. Marigolds just happen to be good friends with tomatoes because they deter whiteflies. Nasturtiums do the same and even deter wooly aphids and cucumber beetles. So I set up a barrier, so to speak, of companion plants to give the tomatoes a fighting chance. The fact that it will help make the garden look pretty is just a bonus.

Planted

I’m going to try posting this as quickly as possible before every muscle in my body seizes up. I feel it coming.

The pavers were left here by the previous owners, it’s nice to finally have a use for them. At some point I’ll draw up a garden plan, but for now I’ll just record here what I planted.  In the large bed in the rear we have asparagus, strawberries, roma tomatoes, basil, marjoram, parsley, marigolds, nasturtium, ornamental and birdhouse gourds. The small bed on the right contains grape tomatoes, 2 varieties of sweet peppers, onions, carrots, marigolds, nasturtium and pot marigolds. The center bed holds garlic, lettuce, Early Girl, Celebrity and Big Boy tomatoes along with nasturtium and pot marigolds. The small bed on the left contains Kentucky Wonder pole beans, Yukon Gold potatoes and marigolds.

A tiny bed on the far left will be home for sugar snap peas to grow up the fence. Please ignore the grass clippings, somebody wasn’t paying attention to what they were doing.

 

Burpless cucumbers are growing up a recycled bench that was missing a few legs. Mint will fill this barrel.  Other barrels have Greek and Italian oregano and sage.

And if that weren’t enough, I’ve also been filling in holes in the landscaping.

I’m done now. I’m going to go pass out. If you don’t hear from me for awhile it’s because I can no longer lift my arms to type.

“But wait, you can’t be done yet” said Blanche. “Where’s our corn? We need corn! Don’t forget the corn!”

Moving Right Along…

Behold! Dirt. Twelve thousand pounds of it to be exact. Hauled in 40 pounds at a time. We may never recover.

And So it Begins…

How many days ago was it that I said I wasn’t going to have a garden this year? And why then have I spent the past two days planning, shopping and getting ready for a garden?

As one of my gifts on Sunday the guys went ahead and built the raised beds. Right now the beds are full of newspaper and wet straw to kill off any weeds and whatnot lying beneath.

We’re calling this Extreme Obstacle Gardening. Note the dirt area with the bird bath in the lower left hand corner of the photo. There is a concrete slab under there, you can see part of it sticking up next to the first raised bed. The slab is embedded into the ground because of the generator explosion. That rusty thing behind the bird bath is the second generator. We had to arrange the fence around that slab as well as the garden beds. See that dirt area in the center of the photograph? That’s where the old apple tree used to be and where the stump remains. Just beyond that, running underground from left to right across the entire area, is an electrical wire. So if you’re wondering how the layout came to be as it is, there you have it. It’s not as willy-nilly as it looks.

I don’t know if you can tell, but the gate to enter the area is behind the generator. That area is left more open so I can navigate the area with a garden cart. It also allows me the opportunity to fill the half-barrel planters with things like mint or oregano or other herbs that like to take over a garden.

This coming weekend the beds will be filled with topsoil and manure and I’ll finally have a place I can actually call a garden instead of tucking my tomatoes into the landscaping. I’m so excited! I may have gotten a little carried away with all the excitement though. I don’t suppose I need all of the 32 tomato plants I brought home from the garden center…

Happy Mother's Day

Sarah

Elizabeth

Zora

Elizabeth

Anita

Cindy

Christine

Megan

The way I walk, I see my mother walking
My feet secure, and firm upon the ground
The way I talk, I hear my daughter talking
And hear my mother's echo in the sound
The way she thought, I find myself now thinking
The generations linking, In a firm continuum of mind
The bridge of immortality I'm walking, The voice before me echoing behind

- Dorothy Hallard

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

The View from My Window

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

Somehow I doubt the man that farms the land across the road appreciates the beauty of a lowly weed as much as I do. Or maybe he does and that’s why he waits to work this ground last? Either way, I think his field full of bright yellow weeds is kind of pretty this time of year.