Dawn's Early Light progress; a perfectly groomed pooch; some gardening and a cherry pie

Lots of little putterings these past few days...

Since much of my time has been dedicated to Dawn's Early Light, it makes sense to post my finished neutral strings first off.  Whoooowieeee, a dent actually WAS made in the bin!

Then, when I peered at the directions for the next part... Oh that Bonnie!

Laughing and shaking my head even now.  

Imma be here for a while with these considering I'm not even halfway done yet...

...so the big guns were pulled for the duration.  

Good ol' classic VHS movies where every line and song could be recited

-- perfect, mindless background noise --

This morning, however --> gardening!  These FREE plants from the local hardware store's clearance rack needed to find their home in the garden.  With yet again some glorious morning weather, all my tomatoes were trimmed, tied and some bare spots were filled with the free goodies.  By quick math calculation, 4 rows of 12, additional bonus row of 5 (or 7???, I can't remember and too tired to head down to verify), plus the tomatillo row that also houses 6 volunteers = 59-61ish.   OH YAH, and the bonus plant that sprouted at the end of the bean trellis, so... 60-62ish, give or take.

We haven't had a strawberry patch for a good strong handful of years, however, I spied a few isolated plants along the edge of the garden weeds.  Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!  We all know the saying: when there's a will, there will definitely be a way.  The three were dug up and moved to an empty spot.  Gardening patience has certainly struck in recent years, so I'm actually looking forward, excitedly, to see what these three lil' plants may result in a couple of years down the line.

Ugh!  Let them GO already, Amy... 
I reached out one final time to local friends and family to see if anyone is interested in some well-rooted rescue tomatillos.  I'm sure I could rig up some simple trellising for some potted plants if they go unclaimed (??).

Last night, Paul had mentioned that the birds were enjoying the cherries, and sure shootin'!  There were cherry pits strewn all over the garden.  There aren't any plans to complete a full picking, unless Paul says otherwise, but enough were harvested for a pie; this afternoon's project.

By far the FUNNEST project I had planned for the mid-morning was to
meet Peaches and give her a little sprucing up.

Oh.
My.
Preciousness!
Seriously!

Peaches is 10 years old, and lemme say -- she was SO well behaved!!! 

Her grooming lasted roughly an hour and a half; the easiest customer to date!

Saw this the other day and chuckled.  Working on it!  Always a work in progress.

Our quaint little town celebrates with fireworks on the 3rd annually, and with the evening looming, I'm not quite sure where it'll lead us.  We aren't ones to travel the 5 miles into town to catch the fireworks; we enjoy the quiet, people-free tiny little show we can view from our deck.  

Happy Independence Day, one day early.

 

Design Wall Monday and a day of putterings

The design wall was hung in its new location Sunday afternoon, along the full wall of the newly tidied guest bedroom.  A pile of blocks had been waiting for this moment and were organized straight away this morning.  No pattern is being followed for these, but they are a pairing that seem to play nicely together.
HOWEVER, I'm not sold on those large 3.5" plain white units.  I feel like I've cheated! 
So.... perhaps change them out....????? 

 --->>???

I suppose some fancy quilting could spice up all that white space down the line...?  It'll percolate for a bit yet before I completely decide since the neutral string blocks for Dawn's Early Light are flowing nicely through the machine, for now anyway.

Was already piecing away shortly after 7:00 this morning before I thought to document the time.  Just how long do fifteen 3.5" strings blocks take to piece?...

... 'bout 45 minutes.

At that point, the day of un-scheduled puttering took off.

I needed to shower.  #1.  
Then I needed to run to town to pick up some chick food for our newest hatchlings. #2.

And instead of using shredded paper, I contemplated using straw, but knew I needed some down in the garden yet, so.... off to the garden I went to putter.  #3.

Which evolved into a full-blown tilling endeavor after walking the paths for any final tomato and bean 'volunteers.'  #4.

Grow Baby, Grow!

It's not much to look at right now, BUT... having checked the garden's unplanned items off my list today, I'll be freed up completely for piecing and sewing and more piecing tomorrow!

After a quick late-lunch sandwich, I headed back to the sewing loft for another hour (or so) of piecing (#5) with one of my favorite background-noise shows: Grey's Anatomy, until Paul arrived home at 4:00.  The Log Cabin blocks (UFO #2) have been turned into the current leader-ender project.

We strolled the garden together and both 'grrr'd' at the potato bugs we spied.  So, he started picking the bugs off while I began weeding some of the corn rows (#6).

By 5:00, we broke for a quick bite before heading to town to catch some youth softball games (#7).  

Daughter's of the BB coach, 6th and 4th grade.

And rolled back home in time to catch the 400M Men's final race.  

I love these days that 'just happen,' and are productively full.  And while waiting for these photos to upload, I had a hankering for something SWEET!  Being one who has never tried a cookie-in-a-cup recipe before, I gave it a whirl.  I don't even know what (or how) I thought of it.

Cookie in a cup recipe

Not amazing, but hit the spot all the same.

Tomorrow -- quilting!  Yup.  That's the ticket, I think.
Happy Monday :)

Head over to Small Quilts and Doll Quilts to link up to Design Wall Mondays.

Rain, rain, go away... my tomato garden & clean carpets

Every day this past week has given us rain.  I'm not really complaining; I'm confident the weather will shift into warm/hot/dry soon enough, but lately--- it's been wet and cold.  Last Saturday, however, was nice and HOT.  I'm glad I used that day to get the straw around the tomato plants, because now... I just sit back and watch the garden grow!

In NW Wisconsin, we follow a rule -- "wait until Memorial weekend to plant."  Some cold tolerant plants can see the ground a week or so prior (ie: beans, peas, corn...), but tomatoes & peppers -- you wait!  

The tomatoes had adjusted nicely due to decently moderate temperatures, but we really have not had many warm days lately.  We have other crops in the garden, but I'm known for my tomatoes.  I love growing them!  I dare say I've pretty much mastered growing them too, without sounding too ego-ridden.   So last Saturday, they were weeded and the soil was built up to bury the stems before laying straw along the cattle panel trellis.

We rotate the patch around every year, so before tilling the rest of the garden, the previous patch location was strolled, all the while looking down for one reason -- VOLUNTEERS!

I think we have some cutworms in the garden, because I had lost half a dozen transplants.  Enter our volunteer rescues to help fill in the empty spots.  I also only plant heirloom varieties now.

And speaking of volunteers -- ha!  Next to our driveway, I spied this garlic chive plant!  I remember planting them in the old upper garden years ago, so... shrug... I don't know when or where this baby actually came from, but she's on my list to transplant into the lower garden.

With another rainy, gloomy day in today's forecast, quilting endeavors are certainly planned.  A design wall will be set in place in the guest bedroom (formerly known as Caitlyn's room) now that it's been cleaned.  ........ and OH!  Clean, it is.  The borrowed carpet cleaner got a workout in yesterday.  

Can you see the difference?  This is the center of the loft;  left side having been completed.  The loft area isn't excessively large, but three full 'loads' were used to clean up the carpet.

I didn't need to show this, but... ugh!  ick!  It's been TWENTY years that we've been here, with girls (and dogs for the past six) that have walked that carpet.  Annnnd, since we had the cleaner, I figured cleaning Caitlyn's carpet right next door to the loft would be smart.  I'd attempt Candace's, but she's still home (our recent graduate), and her room is occupied and fully lived in.  Caitlyn, however, has shifted into young-adult mode and is doing 'adult thiings' in her college-town.  

Off to putz to see where the days leads my quilting tasks...

A gardening post... and Celtic Solstice ;)

We're well into July of 2015, and I really haven't posted much of my garden-in-action this year.

The upper garden only saw a minor walk-through today since we've spent the past week focusing on it.
The lower garden, however, saw lots of action today in-between running to-n-from school to either pickup or drop-off one child or another (that was a LOT of hyphens!)  7:00, 8:00, (no 9:00 today -- she biked home), 12:30, 2:00.  4.9 miles away... it's a lot of to-n-fro, but...

• the plot of white potatoes were hilled up and weeded
• onions freshly weeded
• small row of tomatoes weeded and mulched (grass)
• the corn was fertilized with nitrogen
• the strawberry patch fencing was taken down, rolled up (I have a feeling it'll come in use again once the tomatoes start ripening--those silly chickens!)
• the strawberry patch was thinned/tilled from 3 ginormously wide rows (plus the new one) into 6 thinner rows (plus the new one). 
• raspberry rows were mostly picked;  we're starting to get tuckered out, so we're finally calling it a day

With the capability of pantograph photography, both of our gardens can be caught each in their own single snapshot.

Upper garden...

Back left corner:  lettuce, kale, chives, asparagus -n- the like...
Large plot of cabbage and broccoli right in front by the door
rows of carrots, kohlrabi, peas, basil, more lettuce
some rogue dill and parsley
berry bushes (currant, gooseberry, and two other varieties that Paul picked out)
tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes (in the background)

... and up close ;)

Lower garden...

the raspberry patch
the strawberry patch
red potato patch (mulched in grass)
rows of corn
dead spot -- nothing
more corn
white potato patch
more corn and beets
onions, garlic
trellises of cucumbers and beans (before the mobile chicken coops)
hills of melon and squash varieties along the back edge
grapes are back there too
... and Cassie, walking down to feed the chickens

Teens!  I tell ya!  It doesn't matter what species they are, it seems like all they want to do is lounge and laze the day away ;)

Oh yes--- and yesterday, we set ONE more set of eggs in the incubator ;)

Due date:  August 4th

 On the quilty side of things...
Celtic Solstice was loaded and quilting was begun yesterday.  It was another day of taxiing children to-from school, so not much was completed.  Tonight, it won't see any action, either.  We are headed out shortly for Cassie's volleyball league.  Love that sport!

Alrighty---Happy Wednesday everyone !

Beans and T'maters! Save 'em all!

5AM this morning, and it was time to get up to drive Cassie to her strawberry picking job by 6:00.  The temperature was already 74;  summer has officially hit Wisconsin.

The beans were calling my name upon my return!  I'll let the pictures and captions tell the story.

Beans too crowded;  6"-8" apart.

Beans thinned and weeded; now 12"-18+" apart

Rescued beans ready for their new location

Additional bean space prepped in the upper garden

Additional beans transplanted; 4 rows of 11

TWO lil' guys left over

Those lil' rogue Tomatoes amongst the weeds...STILLLL calling out my name

Extra beans and tomatoes "rescued" into planters on the deck.

 Those durn T'maters!  I simply can't resist saving them from their spots in the soon-to-be-too-weedy-so-bring-out-the-"BIG"-tractor-tiller locations, scattered in the upper garden.

Paul had these 6 extra green planters just collecting dust in the garage storage area.  "I have plans for them...." he said a month ago.  ....  Well dear, "I have PLANTS for them." :D   He's not here to roll his eyes at me;  but I'm sure that'll come later.  Besides, I've always wanted to try my luck with growing tomatoes in planters.  I've obviously never done it before, but I've seen others have success with it.

At the same time, I grabbed an extra windowsill planter for those two lil' extra bean plants :)  Gotta save 'em all!!!  LOL! So much for downsizing!  I counted just shy of 100 bean plants; last year we had 105.  Amy, Amy, Amy.  Next year, only ONE package of bean seed!!!!!!  OH!  NOT to forget...Paul is trying his luck with pole beans this year.  Good golly!  Forgot about them.  That's easily another 50-60 plants!  Oh dear...

The day is warming quickly;  10AM now and 84, with heavy muggy air, partly cloudy.  It's nice when the clouds cover the sun, but when it's shining full potency......whoooo-weee!  Time to call it a day for for garden work.  I expect Cass to be calling within the hour, finished with her day of strawberry picking.  Then the two of us will be heading north to pick up the two other sisters from their kidnapped time with Gma and Gpa.

In the meantime, I think I'll take a gander around my sewing space to see what fabrics aren't good enough for quilting, but PERFECT for a rag rug.  :D

Happy Sunday everyone!!!!!  Live it up!

A tomato-rescuer addict!

It's almost 5:00, and I STILL haven't made it down to the sewing room!!!!  LOL

I certainly hope to tonight, though.

Instead, I spent the afternoon helping Paul put up a fence for our tomato section and strawberries.  The chickens enjoy scraping through the grass mulch I use on the tomatoes and strawberries;  it was time to put that to an end.  

Also, although we usually never have had much deer trouble in the past, they have found my strawberry patch and ate off the tops of a couple of my plants :( :( :(  Ooooooh, those mean deeries!

And rather than put up fencing around the strawberries, Paul thought we'd give this method a try to see if it'll deter the chickens.  It'll definitely keep the deer from eating the plants.

Then, while Paul cleaned out his truck, I fired up the tiller to do some cultivating around the berry bushes and the rescued tomatoes in the upper garden.

I couldn't resist!!!!!  After tilling around the plants, I dug up a few more rogue Roma tomato plants to rescue!!!!

And looooooked at all the rogue tomatoes that are still readily available in case I feel I want to rescue a couple more!!! LOL.  So now..... we have 14 Roma tomato plants "rescued" in the upper garden.  Together with the 18 plants in the main garden, we should happily have a nice harvest come September.

Starz and Tristen (goats) were keeping up conversations with me as I was digging up the tomatoes.

Naturally, they baa and baa and baa until they get some attention --- in the form of weedy greens, of course.

I think Tristen is purposefully sticking out her tongue at me!!!

Cassie was finished picking strawberries at 1:30 and was pretty happy coming home with her first day's pay already.  So, 75% of it was put away in an envelope for her Savings acct, and the rest in her wallet.   She's spending some time holding the ducks...

...trying to get all of them a bit more accustomed to us.  The Mallards' feathers are starting to show nicely;  we're hoping the one (she's holding) is a male -- there is a bit of blue-green on the head and tail area -- keeping fingers crossed.   As for the Peking ---- ?????  I have no idea how to tell male from female.  And notice the one is kind of a tan color?  We're wondering if maybe we got a "mutt";  it has a purplish beak as well.  **shrug**