Jamestown Landing and the property

Summer 2015-16 quilting has finally been kicked off!  With a day of Hans Zimmer movie soundtracks, Jamestown Landing was quilted.  

I can't even remember anymore when I started this or when the top was completed.  Sad, sad, sad that I've become "one of those quilters" who has been around the block long enough to have a pile of UFOs percolating (and dying?) off in the corner.  LOL.

One at a time though.  One at a time.

Jamestown Landing ended up coming to the forefront since it will be a raffle quilt for a friend of the family.  The raffle kickoff will happen during a 4th of July celebration;  therefore, the binding will be completed today and (hopefully) we'll venture up to deliver the quilt to its destination this weekend.

Life around the yard is in full swing...

The ducklings are over a month old now;  only one has been officially named so far.   Meet Afro-Jack!!!! LOL

Only one pig of the six has been named this year;  Smudge.  Candace was out treating them to some Daisy treats;  what a beautiful moment!!!

A new, simple-n-portable, coop is being made for our ever-expanding flocks.  

After all, if you've got 'em, ya hatch 'em, right???  ;)

Our younger tomato plants couldn't wait much longer;  they were itching to be planted!

Although, when this visitor was seen, the planting endeavor was ALMOST halted for the day!

However, hero Paul came to escort this guy (or girl?) to a new location, and we were back to the planting!   

In the end, SEVENTY-THREE tomato plants are happily growing in the upper garden.  SEVENTY-THREE!  LOL.  Way to hold back this year, Amy :D

And TRUUUULY, I'm not one to do much 'gardening' unless vegetables are involved.  Pretty flower/shrub gardens aren't my thing----but.... THIS has become an eye-sore after spending ZERO time on it last year.  Plus... it's in the middle of the front yard!  What must the neighbors think?!?!?  (LOL!)

A few hours and sunburn later, with the assistance of my helpers Caitlyn and Candace, it is all clean and new again.   I had started some perennials (per Paul's request) back in February, so they were moved into this location. 

We have Achillea planted in the southern portion... 

Some Black-Eyed Susans and HolyHocks towards the west...

A plot of McKana Giants Columbine planted from seed on the northern edge.  *shrug* We'll see what they do...

and a section of Lupines towards the east.

Again, I'm not much of a perennial flowery/shrub gardener, so..... *shrug*.  At least the weeds have been tamed :D

On the topic of taming.....

Caitlyn has reached the age (crazy enough!) to learn how to mow with the riding law-mower.  We were in a win-win situation with her the other day.  She had fun learning AND our 'hay-field' was able to be mowed at the slower pace required due to the extra length!

Then sister Cassie took over with the yard-rake.  Right about now, having that mini-baler Paul and I talked about last year would be pretty nice.  I'm sure we'd be able to bale up quite a bit!!!!!  Cass seems to be enjoying her time on the mower, though, singing along with her iPod tunes.

A morning tour of the hobbyfarm...

 I grabbed the camera and headed outside after a morning cup of coffee.  This morning is GLORIOUS!!!!!! so I thought I'd see what the lens could capture...

Since there's nothing to show in the garden yet, I didn't bother heading that way.

First stop was by the rain gauge.  Yes, folks, WE HAVE HAD LOTS OF RAIN this past week.  We haven't emptied the gauge lately, so over the past week (or so?), we have around 3" of precipitation.  I just wish we could have had the garden in before much of this rain came.  Ah well.....

Directly to the left of the rock pile (where the rain gauge hangs out), the chickens were enjoying a breakfast of crumbs that Paul had just tossed over the deck ledge.  Two roosters and five hens here.  Our clutch is MUCH smaller than in years past :(  We lost quite a few to predators last fall.   We do have ONE more hen, but she wasn't to be found this morning;  off protector her two lil' chicks that happened to hatch a couple of weeks ago!  YAY RED MAMMA!  You'll be adding two more to our lil' clutch :)

Further along my journey, there was NO mistaking the squawking rukus of our ducks!!!  They came waddling right up to me as I neared.  We have four Peking and three Mallards, and all of them are reaching the stage of losing their baby fluff and growing feathers.

Squawk, squawk, squawk!  MY GOODNESS!

So, when I peeked into their covered section (hinged open here), it was NO WONDER!  They were out of water.  AGAIN!  Let me tell ya folks... if you have never had ducks before....HOLY MOLY!  They go through water so stinkin' fast!  Fear not, their waterer was filled to the brim.  I'm sure it'll be empty in an hour :)

Here's a panned out view of the duck pen Paul and Candace worked on the other day.  It'll eventually be a "tractor-style" contraption that will be moved throughout the yard ever-so-often.  For now, the ducks (and us) are simply happy to be out in the sunshine.

Right next to our duck pen is our lil' piggy area.  FOUR of them this year.  Already tamed to come a'running when they hear us coming, the runt of the bunch was the first to get his (her?) nose out for a handful of weeds.  TRULY!  Isn't the runt usually the one picked on???  NOPERS.  Not this guy.  He got his nose right in there, head butted away some of the others, and snagged up the whole handful of greens!  Therefore, I took the liberty of naming him "Lil' Bully."  

I can already hear Candace now......"Mom!  Look!  It's a pattern!  Black, white, black, white."  

That's it for this morning's tour.

In other news, I'm still trudging through my knee pain, probably to my own demise. :\

But the weather was SO BEAUTIFUL last night, I HAD to enjoy an evening stroll :)

Softball is still in its infancy of the summer.  Cassie tried her first night with catcher's gear since our normal catcher couldn't make the game.  Her Aunt Jen (my sis) was a catcher back in her glory years :) Taking right after her, I could say.

Okay!  Time to hit the garden to give my tomato plants some TLC before needing to head back to school for an extended half-day of our meeting from yesterday.  We made great progress, but still have items to tackle on the agenda, so.... it got extended into today.  Then, MORE softball directly following.  Therefore, another non-quilting day.  I'm okay with that, though :)

HAPPPPY TUESDAY!

Leader-Ender (Jamestown) & Blue-n-Gold updates...

I resisted starting the QOV mystery. At this point, only the fabric requirements have been posted, so I'm hoping I can get some progress done on others before the cutting clue is available. BUT, I am most definitely going to participate. I've done the last four mysteries; and it's always nice to work on a project along with others :0)

Instead, I spent a couple of hours this morning cutting up the rest of my HSTs for Jamestown Landing. 420 HSTs awaiting here, and will be my leader-ender until finished up with Blue-n-Gold Pride.

Yup.....BnG Pride is up next! :0)

While I'm doing that, Paul has potatoes on his mind for today. He checked "pigs" off his list yesterday. And even though he requested that the girls stay inside...."they don't need to watch this".... the girls had other thoughts!!! They were peering out the window, watching him with fascination, so he finally just said "Well, you might as well come out and learn something then!" They were pretty enrapt with how the tendons/muscles worked to move the pig foot. Besides, this is about the only "non-gross" picture I took, and I didn't want to push my luck here on the blog :0)

Progress-Cathy's Aunt Sukey

Once again---early rising: 6:15 am. Both Candace and Caitlyn crawled into bed sometime in the night, so at 1:30am, I hooved it up to Caitlyn's bed---there just wasn't enough room for DH, those two, AND myself. So...Caitlyn's room doesn't have a clock---the birds were singing, sun was blaring, I figured it was past 7:00 for sure! Oh well.....

Coffee, bagel, yada-yada. But I got basting Cathy's Aunt Sukey right away this morning before the sun realllly started blaring through our windows. Once 8:30 rolls around, we don't have a chance getting away from the sun upstairs until about 2:30, so those are the hours I usually like heading downstairs to sew or "hide" in our back bedroom. Verrrrry cool in those places. These are our windows that face South-East---VERY nice in the winter months though (on sunny days!). The heat that comes through these windows with the sun is amazing.....


Anway.....once I had the quilt (top corner piece #1) basted, the girls were getting a bit ancy (as I was using the kitchen floor), so I had them take up the tape while I fixed up some cereal and bagels for them. Wow---we really are a bagel family---Cailtyn loves bagels with cream cheese, and Candace any myself enjoy a strawberry cream cheese on ours.

But finally, around 8:30, I was able to head downstairs to put my first quilting stitches in the sandwich! Yeah.......
after half an hour of simple stitching in the ditch, it was time to move to an "outline" about 1/4 inch in from the seams on the light gold/yellow pieces. However, a simple straight stitch seemed to boring-----playtime with the different stitches followed for about 15 minutes. I decided on stictch #146. BOY---was that PUTZY once I finally started stitching the blocks. I had one block completely done and needed to take a break---girls were getting a little bored and ancy. So.....hmmmmmmm, an "outing" was needed; more thread was needed; PERFECT OPPORTUNIY! I'll be killing two birds with one stone. So, at 10:45 we rolled out the door for a "drive" and ended up the the LQS with beginning quilt in hand. Of course, the lady (who helped me pick out the mauve and light gold/yellow fabric) wanted the show-n-tell session and she helped me pick out some yellow, green, and mauve threads I needed to complete the quilting. It was a short visit, ONLY thread was bought. We stopped of at good ol' McD's for some lunch, and headed home.

Once the girls were settled after eating lunch, I was back downstairs to finish up the other three blocks with stitch #146 before getting to the FUN part of the yellow fabric flowers. WOW--that went so much slicker than I expected---I am VERY PLEASED with how well the flowers turned out! I FMQ inside the "center-piece" blocks (black/flowered fabric).

And....my first oiling was requested! I told my FIL (father-in-law) about the "oil" light and he chuckled! (He's a driver education instructor) So of course he joked about having a machine that was smart enough to remind the driver that it was time for an oil change!

Just LOOK at that lint! It's amazing, really, at what can get built up within a week's time.

By 4:30, I wrapped up most of the marked quilting, then headed upstairs to mark the green sashing. I had completely forgot about those yesterday, so......
I was only able to get a few marked before needing to throw together some supper and get ready for Volleyball. DH and I play on a league every Wednedsay---what FUN! I coached vball for my first 7 years of teaching; referee'd in college; played in HS---love the sport! DH never really played, but has REALLY turned into a great player----tsch! How could he NOT???? He's 6'6" for crying out loud! All he has to do is stand with arms straight up and he's towering over the net! :0)

But.....FINALLY------they arrived!

Of ALLLLL the nights to come home with the pigs, he would HAVE to choose a VBall night!!! He was already running late, so we hustled WARP SPEED to get them settled before bolting off to Vball---we were only a few minutes late.

Champion and Eddie were a hoot to watch once they realized they had new "farm mates." They pranced about; flared their nostrils; winnied like little spoiled brats; and just down-right didn't know what to think of them.

Grandma and Grandpa came for a short visit tonight on their way to the "Farm" up north. So, they packed up Cassie and took her with since we'll be coming up on Friday anyway. The two little ones weren't too keen on not being able to go with G-MA/G-PA, but we tried to be "smarter psychologically" and told them they needed to be sure the new pigs get settled and told them they had the responsibility of naming them (and not Cassie) :0) *wink* It worked. Amazing sometimes!

Looking forward to a quieter house tomorrow---#2 and #3 should play nicely together and I should be able to get some more quality time in quilting. I should be wrapping up piece #1 and hopefully start on piece #2 tomorrow (same size and shape for bottom corner.)

Happy Quilting!

You might be a redneck if.....

*chuckling at Angela's comment a few posts ago*

Ummm...no farm here...just LOTS of land to use. The horses were DH's idea for the girls; and I didn't mind one bit. I always wanted a horse as a little girl. We get the girls out on them when we can. This picture was taken in 2005; the first time we saddled up Eddie, the smaller of the two. Now, Cassie (oldest) rides Champion while Caitlyn rides Eddie. Champion is QUITE a bit more "spunky" and sometimes wants to go where HE wants..... This is NOT my favorite picture....Eddie is doing a great job hiding my belly that was pregnant with Candace. My algeries are so bad in the Fall, so I rarely wear my contacts in August!

Okay...back to being a "redneck".....
I told DH that I put a picture up showing the start of his Chicken Coop (which is now complete, but no chickens yet. Time ran short today!) And I told him about Angela's comment. He looked as me COMPLETELY serious, and said...."well, you know we're getting two pigs in a couple of weeks, right??"

OMG! He's nuts!!! But I think he's dead serious!

So....Farmer Amy I am becoming!