Our eldest and two of his friends went hiking up Dragon's Tooth yesterday and this is a picture he took from the trip. I love the mountains where we live. I have always lived near these mountains, either in this valley or in the Shenandoah Valley north of here. The mountains played a big part in my growing up years and I have a love for them.

I finished embroidering the four shirts that ended up being five over the weekend. I digitized a design for a customer and that was about it on the sewing front. I still have these hankies to embroidery and a laundry bag to monogram. I have loads of ideas twittering around in my mind of things I would like to work on. First I need to get through school planning for the next year.

This is a bloom on one of our okra plants. Don't you just love the blooms of okra? They are so lovely. Last night I fried up some for the General. The little bee keeper picked a mess of green beans this morning and ask me to fix them with supper tonight. So I will snap those and cook them this afternoon. Oh, we have had three tomatoes off the vines! When I got the first one yesterday I came and made biscuits for breakfast. Oh, the taste of home grown tomatoes.

Sew Long for Now!

I can't believe it's Friday already! Boy, has this week flown past. I embroidered 7 shirts for a customer and then found I was out of stabilizer. Yesterday was Bernina club so I picked up some more stabilizer, big spools of black and white embroidery thread (which I seem to go through a lot), and a varigated with purple and green to try on a project. Don't you love the bright bag the store put my purchase in? I love the bags this store uses and save them to wrap presents in.

A customer had brought me 204 hankerchiefs to embroidery for a wedding on Wednesday with a swatch of the color used in the wedding. I totally forgot to find matching thread yesterday so I went back today and picked it up. While there she had another customer for me to digitize something for and a drawing to give me an idea. I love digitizing. It is so fun to play with stitches on the computer and then see what that produces when you sew it out. I also have another customer to call tonight to see if I can help digitize something for. I also have four more shirts to embroidery for some one by Sunday.

On the garden front, I picked more green beans yesterday. I put up another four quarts. There is okra and kale that I need to do something with. I am waiting for my tomatoes to turn. I can just taste a nice homemade biscuit with fresh warm homegrown tomato slices...yum.

Sew Long for Now!

I have been finding a strange insect on my green beans. I found it left the leaves full of holes and lacey looking. I decided to do some research.

Here is what it looks like. I found it is a Mexican bean beetle larva. I have never seen these before. I have been picking the leaves with these insects on them off and discarding them. Also, this morning while watering my herbs I saw my parsley was either brown on almost gone. I looked closer and found this culprit.

A black swallowtail catepillar. They love parsley and this guy had almost eaten all mine. I removed him from my parsely.

Part of growing things is dealing with the creatures who like what you are growing.

I redid that shirt yesterday for Captain Kitty. It isn't great, but it will do to wear around the house. It looks good on her so I think I will make her another one in a smaller size.

Stay cool today!

Sew Long for Now!

It is going to be another hot day. The last couple of days have been. I have been working on the shirt I was making myself. I am almost done, but I tried it on and had the General look at yesterday. We both decided it didn't fit my body type. Oh well. I tried to make a wrap around shirt, Butterick 4469. I have a strange shaped body; big hips, a tiny waist, no chest. I think I am probably a pear shape. I have a couple of other top patterns I wanted to try. Since this was some old material I had in my stash that I got on clearance I don't feel so bad that it didn't work. I will just cut it up and do something else with the fabric.

Captain Kitty and I picked beans on Friday and I snapped 11 quarts. I cooked some and froze the rest. I picked again this morning. My tomato plants are full of green tomatoes so when they turn I will have a lot to do putting those up. The children are taking care of a friend's animals while they are on vacation. I got an e-mail from them yesterday that there were some peaches off their trees that they forgot about on the back porch and for us to take them. I got a huge shopping bag full of peaches. I will have to do something with those also. We are just being blessed with produce!

Saturday the General, Captain Kitty, and I went to a homeschool book sale. It had new and used vendors. I found some books I needed and some I wanted. I saw lots of friends I don't always get to see. It was nice. Of course Captain Kitty was in heaven. I had given her extra money for helping me around the house and she bought books. She loves books.

I have lots of embroidery to do for customers so I will spend a little time on the computer and then I am off.

Sew Long for Now!

I sewed out the embroidery pattern I digitized yesterday twice. It stills needs a little tweeking. I fittled with it and then saved it. Today I am going to sew it out again.

I was so happy to get the bottom two gardens caught up on weeding yesterday. I was going to work on the top one, but I had a horrible headache this morning and when I came home from the paper route I took some sudafed and went back to bed. If I don't get to it today (it's suppose to be really hot) I will work on it tomorrow. I will need to be picking beans again anyway.

My parents stopped by yesterday. I didn't know they were coming. They made a trip down south of here to pick up something and came by on their way home. Today is my Daddy's 78th birthday. My sisters and I went together and bought him a Garmin. He was so thrilled. Men love toys! He put in his home address when he left to listen to it and see how it told him to go home. I was laughing because it's not like he hasn't driven from my house to his hundreds of times.

Sew Long for Now!

Nothing interesting going on here. I have been working on the digitize of a design still. I will sew it out today and if it looks good I will get it to the customer. Then I have four shirts to embroidery. I am almost finished my shirt. I haven't worked on it since Saturday. I crochet about two rows on my shawl everyday. We have been working in the gardens. Lots of beans coming in right now, okra and cucumbers also. Trying to finish up those last lessons still for school. We are just enjoying the sunshine and slow summer routine.

Sew Long for Now!

My day started at 2:30 a.m. when the alarm went off. I called to see if the papers were at the distribution center. They never arrive at the same time every morning so I have to call until I hear they have departed. This morning they were early and so I got dressed and got the the little bee keeper up, it was his turn to help me.

The paper route went pretty smoothly except during the last part the van started to make a strange noise. I was praying it wouldn't break down until I finished. I really didn't want to call the General this early since he had to work today. It didn't and we made it home before 6 a.m. The General drove the van to work to see if he could figure out what the problem was.

I decided to take an hour nap after he left for work. When I got back up I got up Captain Kitty because she had an appointment to get labs drawn. I made the bed and folded a load of laundry while another load washed and CK got ready. I had to get LBK back up before I left.

The visit to the doctors office was only suppose to take a few minutes to have some blood drawn. Of course with CK nothing is never works out that way. They couldn't find a vein. The first tech tried in the crease of her arm and dug around a little and gave up. She put us back in the waiting room until another tech showed up. He tried in the top of her arm and couldn't get it. Finally, he tried in her wrist and was able to get her blood. She was in tears by now. We left and I took her to Sonic and got her a shake. She deserved a treat for being a human pin cushion!

When we got home I hung out clothes. The oldest son was back from running with a friend. I had some calls to make and the General called me about the van. The idler puller needed replacing. He wanted me to check around and find one. So the oldest and I went online and found the part. The oldest went off to pick it up for me. I worked on making some calls and read some e-mail while I did that. Afterwards I hung out the rest of the clothes.

While I was doing those things LBK had picked a mess of beans in the garden and CK had cleaned the living room. I had to show her some things she missed and how to do a couple of tasks. After that we got lunch and started lessons. We read scripture and history first. Then while LBK practiced his piano I did Latin with CK. She had practiced her violin earlier. She did English while LBK did Math. I got the beans ready to cook while they both worked. LBK did English and that was it for today. We are only trying to finish last years school work right now. We would like to start with a new slate in August. By this time the General was home from work. I talked to him a few minutes while crocheting some on my shawl and then went to work on some sewing.

I am working on digitzing a design for some one so for an hour I worked on that. Then it was off to make supper. I had brought in one load of clothes earlier and there was still one on the line. While I put together supper CK brought those in. I had the green beans ready and I made Macaroni and Cheese to go with them. During supper the General's Dad called from Kansas and we talked to him a little bit. By this time I was really tired. I got ready for bed while everyone else cleaned up from supper. I went to bed at 6:30 p.m. The children each came to say good night and then the General. I wasn't feeling too good so he stayed with me until I fell asleep.

Sew Long for Now!

I found myself with the unusual situation of being caught up in my sewing for others so I grabbed a pattern and some material out of my stash and began a shirt for me.

Besides that I have been working on crocheting my shawl. With the General home from work I haven't gotten much else done, but spend time with him and run around.

Our a/c went out last evening. Eecks it was 90 degrees and humid. I called the service man while the General tried to fix it. The General is a very handy man and can usually fix about anything, but he thought the a/c had gotten hit by lightening. The service man couldn't come until today. We live in a brick house on a hill with no shade around. Our house was hotter inside than it was outside. We all had an uncomfortable night sleeping. I got a call from the service man at 7:30 a.m. and they were here by 8:30 a.m. He and the General went out and took the a/c apart. They thought they were going to have to replace a part. The a/c man just happened to spot a bug, an earwig, in between the contacts. It was blocking the contacts! They removed the bug and the a/c came back on. I was so thankful that was all it was. I told the General that was one area of going green I was going to have a hard time with. Living in this brick house on this hill with no shade I just can't stand how hot it gets in the house. I just can't give up my a/c yet.

Sew Long for Now!

My city children took a field trip to the country yesterday.

We went to visit friends who live on Bent Mountain. They collect antique John Deere tractors. I counted 23 in the building we where in. The couple let the everyone drive some of the tractors. Our little bee keeper drove every tractor they brought out. He was in heaven. One comment I overheard was, "It wouldn't be hard on us to move and live in the country."

This couple has helped us tremendously in our bee keeping endeavor. After the tractor driving the boys got to get suited up and look through some of their bee hives. They have 14 hives. They were trying to help show the boys how to see the queen and other things to check for. It was a very enjoyable trip!

Captain Kitty gets her first driving lesson.

The little bee keeper thinks he is a pro.

Sew Long for Now!

Sunlight reflecting off the water at the lake.

I reflect today also as I read,

"I would encourage every family to live within their means. If there be a way-and such a way there certainly is-of living as comfortably and happily, on very small means, as we now do on much larger ones, it is certainly desirable to know it, especially in times like the present. 'But suppose the means are very small, what then?' Why, then, live within very small means."

William A. Alcott, Ways of Living on Small Means, 1837

"No one will deny the importance of urging rich and poor alike, in the present state of things to try and economise the fuel and food which they may have at their disposal. The sooner we make up our minds that what we regretfully speak of as the 'good old times' with their good old prices will never come again, the sooner we shall cease to look fondly back on a cheaper past, and brace ourselves helpfully and bravely to face the increased cost of the necessaries of life."

Lady Barker, First Lessons in the Principles of Cooking, 1886

Sew Long for Now!

Stormy skies. We have been having quite a few storms around here lately. Last night it was lightening almost the whole time we delivered papers. Sunday and Monday they had those ticker tapes across the screen during the news for storm warnings with hail and flooding. I wish we could send some of it to California to help those poor people who are having such a terrible time with fires.

I haven't been able to get any sewing in yet today. I hope to later. I need to make a lot of cards today. Yesterday we had more cucumbers and I made a salad. We also had zuccinihi and I sauted that with sweet peppers, onions, and basil out of the herb garden. That was good.

Sew Long for Now!

We made it to the lake for the 4th. It was an overcast day, but beautiful all the same. I enjoyed getting away for the day from the busyness of everyday life. We swam, sat on the beach, and walked the trail around the lake. This picture is taken from the earthen dam on the opposite end of the lake from the beach. In the afternoon we went to my folks and visited for a few hours and then came home. I went to bed and did not get to see any fireworks. So sad because I really like fireworks. On Saturday we piddled all day. I did sew one thing! I finished a pin cushion. Besides that I didn't do much. I have been getting some crocheting done in the evenings before bed. I am working on a shawl.

Because it was stormy on Saturday most of the day the boys didn't get into the bees until Sunday afternoon. They are still trying to find the queen. She has been very elusive. The bees are busy though.

This is a picture of the lower garden. I picked my first cucumber this weekend. I have been getting kale, lettuce, radishes and lots of herbs. My tomatoes are looking good. I didn't plant as many as in years past. We have had some rain lately and that has helped me not have to water.

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday I embroidered four shirts for a customer. Since I embroidered both the front and back it was like embroidering eight shirts. I had a nasty time with two of the shirts because they were made out of some type of stretchy lycra type material. They were Izod brand. To embroider stretchy material you need to put an iron on stabilizer on the material to keep it from stretching while you embroidery. This material did not take the iron on very well. To top it off where they wanted the back embroidery was over one of those new labels printed on the fabric. You know it is on the inside like in t-shirts and undies. When I put the iron on stabilizer over that area and tried to iron it down the label words melted onto the iron and stabilizer. Yuck. Thankfully it didn't mess up the outside.

Tomorrow is Independence Day. It is also the start of a week off for the General. I am not sure of our plans, but I am hoping to go to the lake for the day and then stop by my folks in the afternoon/evening. I would like to see some fireworks, but I don't know if I can stay awake that late.

The General told me when I got home this morning that I have cucumbers and zucchini ready to pick. Oh, that makes my day. I don't know if I will get in any sewing today. This is payday and I need to get lots of groceries. Our cabinets are bare. Captain Kitty also has an orthodontist appointment today. I promised to take them by the library also. Today will most likely be errand running day. I hope every one has an enjoyable and safe holiday.

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday was such a great day. I worked in the garden, hung out clothes, spent time with my family, and got in sewing. I love days like that. I didn't have to leave the house after I worked in the morning and so everything went smoothly. I finished the hand work on the bag. I made a needlebook. I also made up some more napkins out of the homespun you see here.

This is a close up of how I finished the napkins. I did a rolled hem on the serger using wooly nylon in the lower looper. I used yellow wooly nylon and navy blue thread in the needle and upper looper. I love the way this looks. We never seem to have enough cloth napkins. I stopped buying paper napkins and paper towels a while ago. I have some pink, green, and yellow plaid that I bought around Easter and have never used; I may make some more napkins out of. When the napkins get worn and stained beyond repair I use them as dusting and cleaning rags. By then they have had so many washings they are soft and the homespun fabric seems to be nice and lint free. To wash windows and such I used newspapers. I get mine free for delivering them.

I had a customer stop by yesterday with some shirts to embroider, so I will have to get that done next.

Sew Long for Now!

Here is one side of the new bag I have been working on.

Here is the other. I haven't quite finished. There is some hand sewing left to do. The pattern called for using 7 different fabrics and I only used five. I think I would even prefer to use 3. I like things a bit more uniform and matching. I like the bag and I like the way it went together. I would just like more uniformity in look.

Today looks like it's is going to be beautiful. It is cool and there is a nice breeze blowing. Yesterday was quite lovely. I weeded some in the upper garden. I sewed, cooked, cleaned, hung out laundry, and crocheted. I spent time with my family. It was a nice day. For supper I made an egg casserole and used some sage out of the herb garden in it with some deer sausage we had. It turned out pretty good. I have some lemon balm and white peppermint cut to use in tea on the counter in a pitcher.

Sew Long for Now!

The past two days have been full. I have stayed busy and gotten in some sewing. I have been working on my project. It seems that I only get to work on it for small sections of time so it is not quite finished yet. It has proceeded smoothly though. I finished the machine quilting and put the sides together. I attached pockets and now am at the zipper.

The gardens look good. I have blossoms on my beans, small tomatoes and cucumbers on the vine, even okra starting. My spinach never came up. When we finish pulling the radishes we are going to replow that area and sow some more bed lettuce.

Friday morning the boys went in the bee hive. They are still trying to locate the queen when they check the hive. They find larva, but she seems to evade their eyes when they look for her. The bees are busy. It has been very hot here and the hive is on a hill with no trees around it, so no shade. When it gets really hot in the afternoons the bees can be seen all in swarms sitting on the front of the hive. It is too hot in the hive to do any work. The General put up a shelter with a tarp over the hive to give them shade. Since Friday morning when he did that it has been in the 90's and the bees have been busy all afternoon Friday and Saturday instead of sitting on the front of the hive in large groups.

Last night I made a dessert I found at Chas's blog called brown sugar cinnamon focaccia bread. It was easy and totally delicious! Thanks so much Chas for the recipe!

Sew Long for Now!

We have been testing. We finally finished. We haven't done much else. I have been machine quilting a little on a project. It is not finished. I did get to read a great book during testing. The Homeplace by Gilbert Morris. It is book 1 in a series called the Singing River Series. It took place right before The Great Depression. I ordered book 2 through the library website this morning! That is one advantage to testing. I have to sit quietly and man the timer while they do the work and so I get to read! It is probably the most I get to read in one sitting at any time!

Sew Long for Now!

Skunk part 2

Last night when I left the house at about 3 a.m. to deliver papers I heard a noise in the live animal trap. That pesky rabbit has been back in my gardens lately. He sits there in it most mornings and stares at me. I looked at the trap and there was our little skunk friend! I left him because I had to go and I needed to figure out how to get rid of him without getting sprayed. About 6 a.m. I called the General. Needless to say he was not happy I had caught a skunk. He wanted to just let it go in our back yard. I reminded him that skunks eat bees. I told him I would get our oldest son up in a little while and get him to help me take the cage somewhere and let the skunk go. At 6:20 when I got home the skunk had dug up all the grass under the cage and made a bed and was laying down sleeping. I think he was a baby skunk because he was so small. I waited until 8:30 and got our oldest up and ask him to come help me. Now you must know the trap never really actually was locked all the way. One of the bars that is suppose to fall so the animal can't open the door didn't function and so the skunk was never actually locked in. When we went out the skunk was gone. He had tore up trap also. He broke the tray that holds the food that also causes the doors to swing shut. He must have finally figured out that the door was not really shut because there was no other way he could have got out. The General calls and ask if I took care of the skunk and I told him what happened. Now he is worried about his bees! Off to find a natural repellent for skunks.

Sew Long for Now!

Friday I spent the day shopping. If you don't know I hate shopping. Saturday I embroidered three blankets for a customer to give at a soccer banquet today. I have also been working on a new bag and the fabric you see here will make that bag! It calls for seven different fabrics. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. I usually make my own patterns up, but I wanted to try this pattern after I saw some bags made out of it. JoAnn's had a 50% coupon and a 10% off your total purchase on some holiday weekend a while back. 60% was a good time to buy a pattern.

I need to make some cards, maybe I will get to that this afternoon. I hope so.

Sew Long for Now!

Perfect words to describe the my life. My life has been a precious gift from God. Some days I forget that. I need to remember to be thankful everyday for the all the precious gifts God has given me; Jesus, my husband, my children, my home, my friends.... Actually, there are so many more, more than I can count and list.

These words are on a pillow I finished yesterday for a baby gift. I love the color of the fabric. It is for a little girl with a very Irish name. A precious gift to her lovely parents.

Yesterday was another lovely day here. The weather was nice, the windows were open. I worked in the garden and it is looking good. I hung out clothes and worked with the children on school work. I did household chores and went to the grocery. I sew this pillow and pulled out fabric to try to decide about making a purse. Just an ordinary day, put a precious gift. How I love days that are ordinary. Today looks to be similar and I look forward to it!

Sew Long for Now!

It was a nice summer day yesterday here. The sky was that beautiful deep shade of blue with only whisp of clouds. It was not to hot and there was a nice breeze blowing. We shut off the a/c and opened the windows. I didn't do any sewing. We went to the post office, the library, the bank, and the gas station. I tied up my tomatoes. I spent some time sitting on the back verendah.

For supper I had ran out of salad dressing so I found a recipe for ranch dressing from a back issue of Country Home magazine and made that. It was good, not as thick as store bought though. I used parsley from my herb garden in it. I had also cut some kale earlier in the day and used that in stir fry for supper. Fixing supper was a nice chore yesterday because captain kitty and the little bee keeper both helped me cut up vegetables and get it ready. It was nice to have them in the kitchen and all three of us working together.

Early this morning it was in the 50's. Today promises to be beautiful. Temperatures in the 70's and sunshine. This is the kind of weather I love.

Sew Long for Now!

Poster from allposters.com

Yesterday I took the sleeves off this shirt to make it a summer shirt. It's 100% cotton. I had bought it at Goodwill and decided to make it sleeveless for summer. The other shirt I did this to took me two days and a lot of work. I was beginning to think that making a shirt from scratch would have been easier. I spent some time thinking about how to go about it before tackling this shirt. I knew there had to be an easier method than ripping the whole sleeve out and then either trying to hem it on the bias or using binding. I decided since I paid so little for the shirt I would try another method and see if it worked. I cut the sleeve off, but left 1 inch of material from the former sleeve attached. The I folded that material under once to cover the raw edges and again to make it even with the shoulder seam already on the shirt. I pinned it and then stitched it down using the seam already on the shirt as a guide. Since it was 100% cotton and lightweight already there wasn't a lot of bulk to the seam. It came out nice! It took maybe 1/2 hour to complete. I was happy with that method. I don't know if you can tell by the photo, but the shirt has a collar and buttons down the front. I would like to find some thin cotton, very thin and make some shirts for summer with long sleeves for myself. This one was for Captain Kitty. She always seems to be hot and wants sleeveless, but we have to find something decent for her to wear that doesn't show everything. Most of sleeveless shirts we have around here in the store are either too dressy (silky or some other unsuitable fabric) or too low cut for our standards. I would prefer something to cover up my arms from bugs and sun burn. As I was thinking about this project I was thinking that a really thin breathable cotton would be nice to try.

Sew Long for Now!

Today is the 14th and so I am participating in another day in my life with Jenny Wren and Co.

This morning I got up at 2:30 a.m. and our little bee keeper and I deliver papers. It was a nice morning. The temperature was not too hot so it was pleasant to deliver. We got home about 6:15 a.m. I was really tired for some reason so I decided since it was Saturday I could go back to bed and get a nap. I went back to bed until 8:30.

When I got back up I went out to check the gardens and water them. I decided not to weed today because I have them caught up pretty good. Everything is looking good. The General and I sat on the back verenda awhile and watched the bees. The temperatures have been so hot and this morning was not as hot with a nice breeze blowing. I called my Momma and talked to her awhile when I was sitting outside. The General was getting hungry so I came in to make breakfast.

We had egg burritos for breakfast. I made them with sauteed mushrooms, onions, and added grated cheese. After breakfast the customer brought me back the 12 shirts. She wanted the initial of the company embroidered on the middle of the back one inch below the collar. I went down to the sewing room to work on this while the General, Captain Kitty, and the little bee keeper went outside and cleaned the verenda and the basement stairwell. Below is a picture of the smallest hoop I own. I used this to embroider the initials on the shirts. I very rarely use this hoop because of it's size so it was fun to get to use it today.

We all finished up around the same time. I started a load of whites. The General and I next worked on our budget. We made a spreadsheet and worked on numbers and while doing this it started to rain! Yes, I was so happy to have rain. God watered my garden instead of me having to do it this evening. A friend called and his son was locked out of their house a couple of blocks away and he ask the General to let him in, but we couldn't find our copy of his house key so the General went and picked him up. Not long after the General got back the friend showed up and they went to have a chat so I went on line to read e-mail and blogs.

After our friend left I cooked supper. We had hamburgers, beans, salad, and fried ocra. The General came to help me with the hamburgers and ocra and I started making muffins because I have to help bring breakfast for Sunday School in the morning. We had supper and I packed the General's lunch for tomorrow, set up his coffee, and finished making muffins. I made 12 lemon seed poppy, 12 mixed berry, and 12 blueberry. The blueberry are for dessert here tonight. I laid out some frozen zucchini and thought I might make a batch of zucchini bread in the morning also. Captain Kitty put the laundry in the dryer. Whites are the only load I dry each week. I don't like my neighbors seeing all our unmentionables hanging on the line. Since she will be cleaning up the kitchen I came down to post this and then I am off to bed. It's a little later than usual, but since I had an extra nap today hopefully I will not be so tired in the morning. Sunday papers are a lot of work.

Here is a picture of Captain Kitty's cat Orion asleep on our bed. This is the life and how I would like to spend my days! I think I would like to spend my days like this, but I really know it would drive me crazy to lay around all day! He looks so comfortable though!

Sew Long for Now!

Our latest foe in the garden. Yesterday about 11 a.m. the little bee keeper went out to check something for me and he was growled at by a ground hog headed for our lower garden. The little bee keeper didn't take it well and went after the animal. Does that boy ever fear anything? After chasing it into it's hole he set the live animal trap back up.

What bees can do in a week is amazing. When they replaced the frames they couldn't do them all because the bees had filled up the lower plastic ones. On the second level when they pulled out one of the plastic frames it was dripping honey. They put that back. They only ended up replacing the ones in the top two levels. It all went well as far as I can tell.

I spent all day yesterday embroidering. I finished 12 shirts! Off to work in the garden.

Sew Long for Now!

I am trying to catch up on things. I finished making a table runner and three valances for a customer yesterday. Today I am embroidering 11 shirts for another. I have spent at least 1 1/2 hours everyday in our three garden patches. They are still over run with weeds right now. Why don't rabbit and birds like to eat weeds instead of the good stuff? That would sure save me a lot of work and frustration.

Last evening the General, Captain Kitty, and our little bee keeper went to our friend's home on Bent Mountain and made frames for the bee hive. I hear they will be replacing the plastic frames this evening.

Tuesday was a very hard day. We went to a viewing. One of our friends passed away. She was the wife of a man my husband used to work with. He took early retirement and so she was still young at 65. They treated us like part of their family and always included us in family celebrations and picnics. He has always been the one to till our gardens up until this year when we got our own tiller. She went to bed early Saturday night because she was tired and never woke back up. It has been harder on us because they had invited us to the annual Memorial Day picnic at their house and we couldn't go because we went to my neice's graduation from high school. The things you reflect on at times like these. I just pray it will help us to hold those we love nearer and dearer while we can.

Sew Long for Now!

Boy has it been busy around here. Lots of errands and outside work. We also went out of town Saturday and I ended up going out of town Sunday with the children. I am so behind on household tasks and sewing.

Thursday evening the General and little bee keeper opened up the hive for the first time by themselves and checked on the top frames. Not much was happening. On Friday the General's friend who is helping him learn this stuff came by and showed them how to take all the supers off and look down through them. They found brood in the main hive body. The queen is on this frame. They wanted to check on her and she is busy doing her thing. One thing they did notice was that we were given both wooden and plastic frames. The bees like the wooden frames better. They have not done as much work on the plastic frames. One day this week they are going to build wooden frames and replace all the plastic ones in the hive.

Saturday we went to Lt. Col.'s girlfriend's graduation in another county. We went to her folks house afterwards for a graduation party. It was mostly family and some friends. It was nice and laid back. I found out while there that she and Lt. Col. were singing a duet in church Sunday morning. While he is at college he attends church in that town and that is where he met this young lady. The General and I decided on the way home that it would be a nice surprise if I went up there Sunday morning to hear them. I called him when I got to the parking lot and he still didn't know I was there. Finally, I ask if he saved me a seat. He was surprised to find me standing there! He was really happy also. They sang beautifully. It was a Casting Crowns song off their new album, I think it is called East to West. Two more weeks and summer school will be over. Lt. Col. will then be home for a little while before heading back to college in August.

I cut out a matching table runner and three curtains for a customer last week that I need to get sewn up today. I also have lots of shirts to embroidery.

Sew Long for Now!

The perils of living in a big city! Last night when I went out to deliver the papers I was met by a skunk on the back verenda. I found two cucumber plants missing their leaves this morning. Hmmm, do skunks eat veggies? I will have to look that up. I know they eat grubs and we have found many holes dug in our yard this spring. I also know they eat bees and since we don't want this one eating our honey bees I will have to find a way to drive it away. Mothballs is one idea, but I don't know if they really work. Another may be to leave the back lights on for awhile. I doubt if that will work since I see lots of skunks while delivering papers and they don't seem bothered by peoples porch lights. I think we will move the live animal trap down the hill next to the where I saw it go under the fence and see what happens.

Sew Long for Now!

This picture was taken yesterday by the little bee keeper. A lone flower that popped up in our back yard. It had bloomed a few days ago, but by evening all the petals fell off. Yesterday we saw it again in the same spot. I think it may be a poppy, but am not sure.

It rained last evening. I was happy because we needed some for the gardens. It was a bit of a storm; thunder, lightening, and such. Last night I found out a tornado touched down in the Tanglewood part of town. We don't often have tornado's here in this valley between mountains.

Our little bee keeper's recital went great last night. I was so happy for him. He was nervous. This is only the second recital he has ever played. He took his books up with him when it was his turn, for security, but he had memorized all four pieces that he played. He really has a talent for the piano and I pray he will pursue it if for no other reason than music can bring such joy to lives.

I put the elastic in the casings of the bee suits. Thursday they will be opening the hive to check on the progress of the bees. They must be doing something up there they are always busy. Even during the rain last evening I saw them coming and going. Today I am hoping to work on a table runner and kitchen valances for a customer.

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday was busy, but not too bad. I hung out two loads of laundry. Captain Kitty and I worked on weeding the upper garden. We did lessons. I finished CK's shirt and put the casings in the coveralls of the bee suits. We went to the grocery and library. I made supper and all the other every day chores that it takes to make a home.

Today our little bee keeper has his end of year piano recital. I look forward to it because to me he is doing so well and plays beautifully. I could be biased I guess! BWG.

I had best be off,

Sew Long for Now!

Today promises to be hot and sunny. It was very humid and warm this weekend. We had rain forecast all weekend, but it skirted around us here. Saturday morning Captain Kitty and I went to the downtown farmer's market. They had peaches from South Carolina and we wanted some. I can't wait until our local peaches are ready. The man I always buy them from said about a month more. He said in two weeks he would have cherries ready. I am so looking forward to making a pie. I found cucumber plants and planted eight more. I also picked up some lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, and tomatoes. It will be about a month before ours are ready.

Saturday afternoon Captain Kitty and I helped a friend's daughter and her dance group dress at their recital. Captain Kitty has helped for the past three years and this year my friend ask if I would help. It was so cute. We had 5 and 6 year olds. They had two dance numbers. The first one they had these beautiful ivory ballet outfits. The second number they dressed like ducks for a tap number. We had nine girls and they were great. They listened and did what they were suppose to. They went when they were suppose to. I don't know if I could ever be involved in that field all the time though. The chaos of hundreds of girls back stage getting ready and the coming and goings was just too much for me. I am so used to quiet and calmness. Even our little bee keeper is easier on his most chaotic days.

Today I hope to be busy. The garden is going to need more work than we have had to give it so far. I have several loads of laundry to do. It's library day. Just puttering on and of course there is sewing to do. I had to take in the shirt I took the sleeves off of because without sleeves it had a bigger gap around the arm hole than we would let CK wear. I finished that part and now just need to bind the edge of the armhole.

Sew Long for Now!

One of my herb planters

Can you believe this is the last day of May? Spring has just been rolling along. I did some sewing the last two days. I completely finished and mailed one baby pillow and embroidered the other. I hemmed a pair of pants for Captain Kitty and ripped the sleeves out of a pretty cotton button up shirt that I am going to make sleeveless for her. I need to hem the arm hole areas and the shirt will be ready.

On the garden front I replanted three hills of cucumbers. I bought seeds. We had read that seed companies are having a problem keeping up with demands this year. I didn't know what that would mean to buy seeds. In the package of cucumber seeds I bought there were only nine seeds! I was amazed. I expected more. Just enough for three hills. At least the way the General and I had been taught. We grew up being taught to plant three seeds to every hill of cucumbers. I am going to look around and see if anybody has any cucumber plants for sale. I still would like to plant more. I had eight hills planted and I think I have three left. I also planted cherry tomatoes in two planters I have. I bought a pack of lettuce seeds because I used all I have and want to replant them later in the summer as we use up what we are growing now.

Our excitement for yesterday came in the evening. When I went out to work in the gardens last evening after supper I almost stepped on a black snake. It was about two foot long. It was a small fella. Some may not understand why this was an event, but when you live in the city you don't see many snakes, well not of the animal kingdom! LOL!

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday my husband called me from work with an idea. You see we live on a hill. We have for 18 years. Our front yard is all up hill then our home is on a flat spot and our back yard is up hill. It is a bear to mow. He or our oldest son do all the mowing because it is so steep. For years we have talked about what would work good on our front hill as ground cover to keep from having to mow it. We have watched our neighbors try different things like juniper. Nothing seemed to work for them. We have honeysuckle growing in our backyard wild. It has had to be cut down several times because it takes over the fences. His idea was to plant honeysuckle on the hill. He ask me to research it. The internet is a wonderful tool at times. I found information about using honeysuckle as ground cover. I found information about rooting honeysuckle. I found information about planting and then keeping honeysuckle under control. Cool! So here is some cuttings from our back yard honeysuckle that I am attempting to root and then we will plant on the front hill to see if we can get it to take. What is really nice is the price tag. Free. When we built our front porch they couldn't destroy all the concrete of the old porch and it looked messy to me under there. I wanted to get some of that crushed red brick and cover it up, but the price was not something we could pay at the time so we left it. Now a couple of years later nature solved my problem for that other great price, Free. Wild English Ivy began to grow under there. I have no idea where it came from, there is none anywhere near our home in our neighborhood. All I know is each year it spreads and now the whole area under our front deck is covered in English Ivy and looks beautiful.

Here is another thing I got for that great price, Free. One of my newspaper customers was throwing it away. It had a crack down one of the back slats. I brought it home. My husband spent $2 and some change took 5 minutes and put a metal brace on the slat. Works great and I love it. I wish I could find a couple of more for the great price. I don't want to get off on one of my soap boxes about our throw away society, so I will share what I found when going into the garden this morning...

The beans are coming up! Isn't that beautiful?

I didn't do any sewing yesterday so this morning I already have my embroidery machine sewing away beside me. I think the cloudy rainy day yesterday just left me feeling blah and I didn't motivate myself to do much. Today promises to be in the 70's and sunny!

Sew Long for Now!

This robin is living near us and is a very brave and forward bird. This morning I did some work in the gardens and then I sat down on the back verandah in my rocking chair and read scriptures. After I finished I sat there awhile and enjoyed watching a woodpecker going to town on a telephone pole in the corner of four yards. I was enjoying the coolness of the morning, the songs of the birds, and the next thing I know this robin was sitting there just talking to me. No, not in human words. It was just twittering away. It isn't the first encounter I have had with it in the last several weeks. It is a very brave bird. It comes very close to us. This morning it hopped around near me and then just went off on it's merry way. We haven't had many robins near our house. We usually have these two blue jays that live near and so they seem to chase others away. I don't know if this is the usual personality of robins, but it is interesting!

I did get the sewing room cleaned yesterday and the kitchen mopped. We got lessons done. I mailed my father-in-law his birthday present, went by the library, and took Captain Kitty to the orthodontist. It was a busy day, but it didn't feel too bad. Speaking of my father-in-law's birthday, we sent him a very neat present. He is 71 this year and I always have a hard time buying presents for him because he never really needs or wants anything. I took some pictures of the family I had taken since January on a cd to CVS. I used their machine and made a photo book for him. I was able to add captions also. It looks like a scrapbook, but was loads easier. I was very happy with the way it turned out. I hope he will like it.

I am going to try again today to get to some sewing I want to do done. Let's cross our fingers!

Sew Long for Now!

Sometimes I mention our homeschooling here. It is not something I go on and on about. It is and has been our way of life for 13 years. I do get upset at the ignorance of some people and I do often chose things because of my convictions. I know I cannot as an American consumer avoid every thing that offends me, some that are blatant I can though. Subway will be one of those. The article here will explain why.

Sew Long for Now.

I never got the sewing room clean. One thing led to another and I got sidetracked by stuff and then the weather was gorgeous so I spent some time outside. My sister tried to show me how to do Suduko puzzles when she stopped by. I spent some time trying to figure out a puzzle. Unfortunately, it was rated hard and I didn't do very good. She told me to try Monday's puzzle. They put them in the paper and the ones on Monday are easy and they progressively get harder as the week goes on. She loves them and so does our youngest older brother. She was all excited because our paper had three in it on Sunday and I told her to take them.

Sitting outside has been so nice lately, the weather is not too hot and there has been a nice breeze. The smell of honeysuckle is every where. Oh, how I love the smell of honeysuckle and Mimosa trees.

Yesterday the General had off for the holiday and so he side tracked me all day and I got hardly anything done. I have been watering my gardens a little to keep it from drying out too much. On the upper garden I have had to cover the cucumber plants every night because the rabbits ate several of them the first night we planted them. I cut the bottom and top parts off empty 2 liter bottles and put them over the plant. They act like a sleeve to protect the small plants until they can start vining. The rabbits usually leave them alone once they start growing vines. Every morning I take these plastic sleeves off, if you don't they magnify the sun's rays and that can wilt the plant.

Maybe today I will get the sewing room clean and some sewing done. Hope so.

Sew Long for Now!