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.

 

Peach Wine with my sister

My sister has been visiting for the past week, and we've kept the schedule quite full between kayaking, Candace's softball scrimmages and all the fruit harvests needing our attention.

The one little bit of sewing that's been accomplished;  fixing up a split seam on Candace's sweatshirt.  Some darker thread was needed, and after digging around in my spare spool container, I found this gem. 

I wonder how old it is... I'm certain to have gotten it from Grandma Lee many many many years ago.

As planned, Sunday was the day we spent preparing the Peach wine, and taught my sister the steps along the way.   For anyone looking for recipes, the only book I keep on-hand:  The Winemaker's Recipe Handbook.  Just about anything under the sun is included in this book, and it's my goto for all of my wines now-a-days. 

It started with taking the frozen peaches out of the freezer the night before.  I purchased a steam-juicer last summer, so I elected to go that route with the Peach wine rather than ferment with the fruit pulp;  we'll see if there's a noticeable difference in the body of the final product (next summer).

I think dear sis was surprised at how much sugar is needed, specially when preparing a 6-gallon batch of wine.  Enough was added (about 12 lbs) to bring the hydrometer OG (original gravity) reading to 1.096 (resulting in about 13.5% once finished).  I also added the tannin this time around, but only at half the amount.  I've made wines without the tannin and most of them have resulted in nice, light wines.  I figured I'd give the tannin a try to see if there's a noticeable difference.  So far this spring, I've started 6-gallons of Strawberry and 6-gallons of Rhubarb, both with the full-recipe tannin included.  Four gallons of Lilac wine were also started;  THAT's a new experiment for me this year!  I'll dig up the photos from that day and post about it soon.


The Premier Blanc yeast was pitched just this morning, so now... it'll sit and ferment until about Saturday before getting transferred to the carboy.


The left-behind mash from the steam-juicer was then sent through our food mill, giving us about 10 cups of Peachsauce for freezing. 

Another fruit harvest that we are in the midst of -- Strawberries.  And the new patch is treating us WELL this year!!!  Since I already have a 6-gallon batch of wine started (from frozen berries we harvested last year), AND we've already made 2 batches of jam, AND have eaten (almost) our fill of strawberry shortcake, any remaining berries we pick this year will either be mashed with a little bit of sugar and frozen in 2-3 cup packages for winter-eating OR will be frozen in 3 lb packages for wine batches.

Although it's not much to look at right now, yesterday's GORGEOUS day of low 70s allowed me and my sis to weed the ENTIRE garden; tomatoes, corn, potatoes, sunflowers, peppers, broccoli, brussels sprouts, peas, carrots, pole bean, dill, more tomatoes, radish, cucumbers, watermelon, green onions ... The WHOLE garden has never been weeded in a single day before!  I was thankful for my sister's help.

And did you know..... 

It's Brussels sprout -- not Brussel sprout.  😲  Ya learn something new everyday.

And you know what else?.....

I apparently have a child with a sense of humor who felt it was important to request a new sense of humor for ME!  Does anyone else use an Amazon Dot (ie: Alexa) to create a shopping list?  It's a feature my sister introduced to us this week.  Slick!

Happy Tuesday

Talkin' Turkey centers and Strawberry patch chatter

It's not much to look at, but once the morning jobs were complete, a couple of hours this afternoon were spent in the sewing area tidying up some scraps and cutting the centers for the final 15 Talkin' Turkey blocks.  It was certainly a putzy job between taming the scraps and cutting because the size of the squares isn't the typical Bonnie "nice."  2 5/8"... yuck.

The morning was beautiful!  72 degrees and breezy, low humidity -- PERFECT for any outside work.  The strawberry patch was tilled under at the end of the last year's growing season, but not before transplanting the young 'daughter' plants shooting every which way. 

And we DOWN-SIZED!  I finally understand why most gardeners only keep their patches for two years (or 3 years max) before replanting.  Our strawberry saga began in 2012 (The planting post) with 18 plants.  18!  It IS kinda cool to think that our patches over the years started with one simple 'whim' purchase of so few plants!  We've moved the patch only twice before, leaving it stay at its new location 4 and 3 years, respectively.  Too long!  Our last patch (it was on year 3 last summer) was soooooo overgrown with all the new plants; our berries were so small.  But year two produced AMAZING fruit, in abundance! So, my new process now will be one of two things.  Either a) keep the patch ONLY two years; meaning set up a new patch after next year's growing season, OR b) keep the patch for about 3 years BUT thin out (cut away) some of the spreading daughters.

Regardless, the patch this year is smaller (by design) and producing ample fruit for the needs of my family.  Two batches of jam were already made with Sunday's picking, and now each harvest will consist of processing some into 2-3 cup packages of smashed and slightly sugared mash for freezing after vac-sealing, OR simply placing the berries in 3-lb bags for wine batches (my recipe used for strawberry wine suggests 3 lbs/gal.) 

And all those strawberry tops end up being treats for the ladies.  We lost all of our chickens after last year's (2019) winter, and with the crazy-busy schedule we had with a graduating senior and two other girls VERY active in Spring and Summer sports, we never raised any new gals for the year.  However, shortly after the beginning of the Stay-at-Home orders this March, a local neighbor and I struck up a conversation while picking up eggs from her one day, and... a week later, 6 new ladies joined our property.  Since, we've also hatched out a incubator full of eggs, and we have eleven 2-month old chicks in the adjoining pen.  Sadly, we had more chicks, but a hungry owl obliterated half of our coop before we were finally able to SECURELY "owl-proof" the roof;  those are some smart birds!!!

The rest of the day consisted of the normal household chores;  cleaning up the kitchen and laundry.  The threatening dark skies finally rolled in at early evening; thankful that the storms lost energy and only provided the much needed rain rather than severe weather.  Kayaking posts are certain to come this summer as well seeing as we've already been on the lake and rivers a good half-dozen times already.

Ahh... summer!

Jamestown Landing - completed [Quilting]

Jamestown Landing is officially checked off the UFO/WIP list! 

Jamestown Landing (84 x 96) - Bonnie K. Hunter design

Loopy Feathers

 

 

And what's a post without SOME kind of gardening aspect???
Yes, folks!  The strawberries are nearing readiness for picking.  Oh Lordy -- are we in for a large harvest this year.  Whose idea was it to expand to three rows last year?  Not to mention the 4th row that was added this year?  I have a feeling our neighbors are going to be thankful for the size of our patch ;)

Worried about frost; Jamestown Landing nearing completion

After spending hours planting portions of the garden last weekend, we sent up a simple wish for warmer temperatures and mild rain.

The strawberry patch was beautifully and dutifully weeded and mulched yesterday.

All week long, the temperatures have been typically decent, and the order of rain came through, but....... FROST last night.  Dag-nabbit!  We woke to a light frost this morning;  and the strawberry blossoms are now at-risk since we didn't cover or irrigate.  Drat. Drat. Drat.

Caitlyn and I covered the cucumber plants we had transplanted last weekend, so they should continue growing nicely.

Cassie had taken charge of planting corn.  Clearly, we continue to await for the ground (and air) temperatures to increase and stabilize before hoping for any germination.

The broccoli didn't have to worry about rain OR temperature since SOMEONE couldn't pass up the fresh leaves of the new transplants.  Grrrrrr......  EVERY LEAF -- stripped away!

And since my chickens can NOT pass up these delicious snacks, we need to come up with a simple fencing solution for our strawberry patch.  Otherwise, we'll lose any berries to our chickens that may end up surviving this frost.

In other news.... Mama Rock has successfully hatched out six babies on Thursday/Friday.  We expect to see another seven coming home from Caitlyn's classroom incubator this week (we offered some eggs to the class incubator), and we're hoping Mama will embrace them as her own since they are essentially the same age (3 days apart).  

Additionally, OUR incubator is coming due anytime over the next 3-4 days;  thirty-three eggs, which we do not plan on handing over to Mama.  LOL.  Instead, they will be raised as a new 2015 flock to be complete with a new coop too :)  (YET to be made).  The jury is still out on whether another full set of eggs will be placed in back-to-back incubator hatchings.  The vote in leaning towards, 'ya better start setting some eggs aside when you perform your daily collection.'  ;)

On the quilting front, a few hours have been spent in front of the machine when the weather has been less than garden-worthy.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge updated a little bit;  I'm still shy of a couple of colors, but I'm 'ahead' with the red.  ;)

A new deadline project for a customer has been loaded on the frame;  Bonnie's Jamestown Landing, one of my favorite designs she's come up with!

One more week of 2014-15 school year.  Or as Cassie says..."four and a half days, Mom.  Friday is only a half day."

;)

Cassie's track season completed and gardening underway

Cassie's ended up having lots to be happy for at her Conference track meet was this past Thursday.  She's been plagued with a nagging back injury for much of the season, and has unfortunately found herself sitting on the sidelines for many of the meets this year.  However, the downtime paid off and she was at her 100% for the Conference meet.

She started the day by taking 1st place in the high jump.  All of the competitors scratched out at 4'6", so the officials asked if she wanted to keep jumping.  With no pressure on her, coach gave the okay for her to keep jumping.  Neither Cass or myself knew the heights the bar was being set at; she just kept jumping.  Oh that sneaky coach!  In the end, Cassie tied the Junior High high jump record of 4'10" established by, none other than, her track coach 10+ years ago.

While on cloud 9, she moved over to the Discus area and set a new PR of 79', moving into 2nd place on the Leader's board, and then, when she was called for the 400M, she continued her record-breaking evening by running a 1:04.06, breaking the previous record of 1:05.4, and leading by over 4 seconds from the rest of the competition.  Yes, folks.  She's still on cloud 9, and I'm super super proud of her!!

The 8 ducklings we hatched out a couple of weeks ago have moved into a ground-brooding box. 

The plants I began as seeds in February have finally been able to be moved outside to the deck indefinitely.

Cherry tomatoes already being harvested, as well as peppers :)  Who said people in Wisconsin can't have two growing seasons?!?!  ;)

But now, we need lots of finger-crossing for all of our other tomato plants that have been hibernating in the basement for the past couple of months to see if they survive the transplant into the garden.  I've most definitely learned my lesson -- starting plants in February (tomatoes, specifically) is NOT in the best interest of the plants OR myself.  But -- forty plants were transplanted into the upper garden yesterday;  about 12 more wait patiently for more fence posts to be purchased.
(Mind you, we started 56 new plants last weekend from seed -- just in case ;)  I guess we're going to have two growing seasons in Wisconsin this year ???)

The strawberry patch was expanded and tidied a couple of weeks ago...

... and the blossoms are popping up in exponential rates.  In another 3-4 weeks, we should expect berries.  GOOD!  We just opened up our last strawberry jam container!

There's a saying....."there's no rest for the weary."  However, when the weather cooperates, taking a snooze in the hammock given to us by my parents was on Paul's mind before needing to start his night shift.

The yard is purposefully being left un-mowed, waiting for the dandelion season to pass.  Yes, yes... the bees' food takes precedence over a 'pretty-looking' yard.

The only crafting project I've been giving time to is a new afghan man-ghan for Paul.  A couple of months ago, I was sequestered into making a large queen size afghan.  Paul fell in love with the weight and size, so.... I took that as a hint ;)  At a width of 106", I predict the project taking most of summer to complete.

Today:  more gardening and planting.  Perhaps my blogging time will become more consistent again;  two weeks of school left for us in the northwoods!