One Week and Counting

So.... the final week before the half marathon. I ran 7.5 today and have increased the odd interval to 2:1 from 1:1 and guess what! My feet don't hurt as much as they used to.

Now my knees are killing me. When did this happen????? My left knee especially and for te first 4 miles my right ankle felt like I had been sitting on it for hours and had a kink in it I could not shake. Eventually all the bones and muscles stopped complaining and by the time I hit 6 miles, I felt fine.

We check in on Saturday and get our numbers. The "race" begins at 7:oo am Sunday morning. We figure it will take approximately 3 hours 20 minutes to finish. I wrote the word in scary quotes because I don't see it as a much a race as an event for me. My goal is finishing upright and with the minimum amount of pain. Oh and under 4 hours. Even if I had to walk the final miles I can do this now.

Still, no weight has left the carcass.... muscles are more evident but the pudgy middle remains. Ah age. You are so cruel.

I made a sample of a Lone Star for an up-coming class at the shop.

This is all I intend to do as a sample but I will ring the entire quilt with more stars around the perimeter and make it larger. So much so I might not be able to quilt it myself. That's okay..... there are so many splendid machine quilters in this area, I will hire one to the job for me. This is a quilt I want to keep for our bed (king) so size is an issue. The fabric here is mostly from Kathy Brown's new Abigail line. Very talented artist just over in Baton Rouge.

I have the Seasoned Quilter on the machine right now and will go finish her up this evening.

I got a little depressed this morning while searching for something in the closet where the quilts hang, waiting for quilting. Depressed because of all the unquilted tops, lined up and stagnant. There are so many more in the works as well that will soon end up that black hole. And so many more I thought I wanted to make but it is getting ridiculous now.

There are 6 huge quilts in there, all identical except the fabric selection, that are making me really crazy. I was hoping to have them done LAST YEAR!!!!!! Ha! Fat chance. They DID make a real dent in my stash but not enough of one to make me less crazed.

I have to get more finished before the growing season starts up. Once that happens, I will be so far behind. Yikes... jus thinking about it makes me nervous.

I better go talk to the chickens

Post Thanksgiving Day Post

Hope whoever reads this had a good dinner with family and friends and lots of pie.

Ours was outstanding but (and) this is both expected and commonplace. We have a tradition that includes perfectly roasted turkey, a stuffing so good people ask "what's in there?!", sweet potato casserole with pecans (is that not the best nut in North America?) and a new entry this year, a squash casserole. All of this is lovingly prepared by our SIL and BIL whom I have described in the past as my role models in this farm life.

The only thing missing this year was the youth factor as neither of our kids were able to attend but looked at realistically, this did mean more for us! Hey, it's true, right?

Now, add to this two flocks of chickens and terrific weather, and what we have here is heaven. In one coop were some 12-15 Auracanas and in the other a mix of Barred Rock and banty Cochin hens. Outside the coops was an additional flock of banty Cochin roosters that have their freedom to wander around, sleep in the trees and start crowing at 3:56am. This doesn't bother me at all as my hearing isn't that great to begin with and I happen to like the sound but as we lay in bed giggling at it, John kept telling me there was an owl out there as well adding to the cacophony. That low sound didn't register period but I strained nonetheless to hear. Maddening. Only once did I actually hear it and then since I could not catch it a second time, I questioned the first.

Pleased to report that I am still on schedule with the plogging, turkey and all. Today is an easy day with 2.5 miles to go and next Sunday is the 6.5 mile.

Okay, a post is not complete without a beef, right? So here I go:

We stopped by IKEA in Houston to grab stuff for Borgasmord and left completely baffled by recent events. They have stopped selling cheese, caviar in tubes, brown beans, cookies and worst of all (maybe) museli! WHY?????????? and to add to the insult, everything now has the IKEA label. No more independent purveyors are there. No ABBAS anchovy, no Lars mustard, no Marabou chocolate..... why????

I guess I don't have to go by there anymore.....

Well. That's a Shame

I love(d) the Olive Garden. I would go whenever feasible. I gave gift cards for this chain. I was thrilled when a branch finally opened within 20 miles of us just a few months ago!

And today, I read that in it's questionable wisdom, displaying the AMERICAN FLAG was deemed as potentially "disruptive" to SOME of it's diners and therefore DENIED to a group of Alabama Kiwanas members as they were preparing for a meeting/dinner.

Okay. Don't believe me (and why should you.... it does sound far-fetched) go here:

So,the possibility of a couple of people in ALABAMA being upset and whining or leaving in a fit was more aggravating than accommodating a large group of Kiwanas and EVERYBODY ELSE IN AMERICA that learns about it.

Okay. So, spread the word. And I hope enough people enjoy dining out anywhere else other than the Olive Garden, where "When You Are Here, You're Family*"... *unless you're an American who flies freely the very symbol of her existence.... then you are SOL.

Or better yet...... let's ALL GO and WEAR the American Flag. Then what are they going to do? Ask us to leave?

Thanks Daddy

I have been receiving the 18 boxes of stuff from my father over the past few days. I packed them up while mentally processing what happened.

Looking around the house, I was really really wondering, "What Happened Here???" There is so much 'things'. I hate to use the word 'stuff' because that just diminishes what one person valued and loved and nurtured for so many years. Let's face it; the man had 51 years to accumulate and I had 5 days to pack what was now mine! (Don't even ask what I spent in packing peanuts, bubble-wrap and postage)

Two boxes of books beat me back home but the others trickled in. Still awaiting 2 more boxes of books but as they are coming media mail USPS (thank you Marty!) it might take awhile.

Which is strange because the two which did arrive got here in 3 days! One is still sitting in Seacacus, New Jersey. Stuck, as it were. French books. I don't speak French and don't know what to do with these books but I'll get there. My brother said, "How to eat an elephant? One bite at a time"

It is a small comfort to be standing here in one room and looking at a poster (framed) that has hung on one wall in my father's home since 1965. Same wall, same position for 46 years. Til yesterday.

Well, mine looks better because it has a good frame around it but you get the idea. It's a Ben Shahn painting/poster and for whatever reason, it has always spoken to me. I just wish I had asked Daddy about what it was for and how it came to be in his home. I have a sense he picked it up in Italy on one of his business trips with Alitalia but that is all conjecture.

So, along with this I have 4 Fritz Rudolph Hug paintings of animals. And one exquisite oil of a man in a Jag speaking to a young woman standing outside a British pub. This is a photo of the Limited Edition print:

So, then there are boxes of "mint" car replicas..... Danbury Mint, Franklin Mint. I will unpack them, one by one and decide which I will be keeping, which I will be selling and and which I will save for my daughters to sell when the "market" for these sorts of things improves.

I mean, how many 1929 Bugattis does one woman need?

Midsomer Murders

I have Netflix as streaming video beside the machine as I sew and have been filling up on the British mystery series, Midsomer Murders.

Now this may be old-hat to most of you but with me I am always invariably late to the prom. I started watching Seinfeld and Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond, big hits back in their day, when they had about one season left to run. Always years behind everyone else, that's me.

So this Midsomer murders was very novel a few weeks ago when I stumbled across it. Great fun. DCI Barnaby is married to a most understanding wife who fills her days as a volunteer, shows up at every costumed "town event" and gets wrapped up in a few of the murders. Their only daughter, Cully, is an actress perpetually in search of a role and also volunteers throughout the county and remarkably is well informed of the goings on in any deviant village because that week she happens to man the mobile library. Or is working as a temp secretary for a hot-shot, or lands a spot hauling horses around town. And every time Father and Daughter see each other, you'd think they hadn't just had breakfast together that morning ."Cully!" he cries and gives a big hug, kiss on the cheek.

What I liked about it in the beginning was the scenery. All the action takes place in a mythical county in England. The shops and buildings line quaint, slim, curving streets; no-one is ever in a particular hurry; homes are usually either very grand or if not, they are thatched roofed and Tudor-styled. This is what you have heard referred to as "chocolate box"quintessentially English homes (or at the very least the way I think of as English) . Nothing is out of place, no mess or garbage bins. Lovely flowers. Trimmed hedges. Get the picture? Even cars are new. And washed.

Oh!, and all the people who live here are white, over 40, and can't stop killing each other. There is usually someone(s) terribly rich and "above" it all (or better yet, titled), the middle-class and finally those who live on the fringes of 'society'. And don't believe for a moment that any of them wouldn't kill to get what they want.

Now, the county may be Midsomer but the towns in the county have lovely evocative names: Midsomer Mallow, Midsomer Newton, Fletcher's Cross and the popular Badger's Drift. Wouldn't you want to be murdered somewhere named Badger's Drift?

Here is where it gets interesting. The murders are done in the most amazing techniques. Far be it for anyone in Midsomer to simply slit a throat or push an old lady down a flight of stairs. Oh wait... they did do that as well.

No, here in Midsomer, a terrific method for murder would be to drug your victim first, then tether him down to the ground with croquet wickets (naturally) and lob wine bottles at him with a medieval catapult. Ingenious! I would never have imagined THAT!

Or, if that takes too much planning, how about ramming a pitchfork through a chair? Drown someone in a cauldron of tomato soup? I especially didn't picture this one aged Russian (female) spy who knew some fancy jujitsu moves. (Note to self: never, ever, sneak up on an old lady in Midsomer Worthy).

And this one: Smash a man with a forklift full of bottled chutney, then scald him in the 200 degree bath to clean him up.

Once the first murder has been discovered and Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby shows up to take statements, the murderer's associates start dropping like flies! I mean, if you lived anywhere in Midsomer and someone turns up murdered, you better leave town because no one is safe! Pretty soon, there aren't going be many people to kill at the rate they're going!

His 'second', Deputy Inspector fill-in-the-blank, is usually a few steps behind this weathered master of all that is inscrutable. Barnaby's on the case, you're days of freedom are numbered!

I sound snarky but I do enjoy these episodes. Mostly because I never know what's going to happen next and can't guess who the true villan will be in the end. That, and the fact that each episode is approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Oh! Gotta go... another one just queued up!

I May Have To Rethink This.....

Nothing like waiting to the last moment to get ALL the pertinent information!

It seems I may have waited a tad too long to transfer the hen and eggs! My plan was to do this tonight, Day 19-20. The chicks, if indeed there are any at all, should begin to appear or pip tomorrow so I thought "let her stay comfy and with the others as long as possible."

But now I am reading that disturbing the nest, the eggs as it were, is quite detrimental to the success of hatching. Oh dear....but leaving her in the coop with the others runs the risk of cannibalism..... everything likes to eat chicken, even chickens!

SO the dilemma is at my feet..... move them now or wait til they begin to hatch...... even then is seems to be risky. One should not "help" hatch an egg.....and I am reading more and more that the eggs MUST maintain 99.5 degrees throughout the 21 days of incubation. I NEVER saw the hen off the nest but I know it happened because there are more eggs under her than I slipped her to begin with.

And yes, while laying the eggs, the chicken sitting on the other eggs kept them warm but still.....

Well, we shall see what we shall see..... come Wednesday this may have all been for naught and hopefully the chicken will have come to her senses.

I've Been Out-Foxed!

by a chicken, of all things!

You know I slipped eggs under the broody hen, right? The first two eggs came from our flock and I marked them with a date. Then I got 5 more from my friend and thought... well I will know all of those are her set. so no point in dating them. They were all laid on the 5th and begin incubating on the morning of the 6th.

Well that was Wednesday and today I went out there to see how Mama was doing, make sure she's eating and drinking.... she stood up at one point and darn if I didn't count 9 eggs under that mess of feathers! So now I don't know :

1. If there will be more eggs laid in that nest by one of our and

2. Which ones are later to hatch.

This might be the beginning of complications.

Have You Seen This?

Oh PLEAZEEEEE watch this:

HAHAHAHAhahahahaha

I love cats.... especially when they get caught out!

Bark Bark Bark BARK BARK COugh ark mark.. meow meow mewwwww

Has This Ever Happened To You?

I made several healthy vegan salads for a party the other night, one included pine nuts. Toasted pine nuts to be specific and this may also be germane to the issue, I don't know.

The next day, I ate a fried egg on toast for breakfast and thought the bread must be bad.

Few hours later I ate a couple of cherries and thought..... strange... cherries are tart and sweet but not these... and they look so good. What is up with that?

Then hours later I ate beans and rice and by this point I knew something was terribly wrong. My daughter looked it up on Google, (where would we be without a search engine?) and found that a metallic taste in one's mouth can be caused by several things.... but the only one on the list that referred to me was Pine Nuts.

Apparently some people experience this phenomenon and not all the time. It comes primarily from nuts processed in China and as I still had the package, I checked. Sure enough.

Now that was Sunday afternoon. The sensation grew worse as the hours passed and what is alarming is this can last up to 3 weeks! Nothing tastes good, including nothing in the mouth at all. Toothpaste? forget it. Wine is the WORST.

As it happens, I have been drinking aloe vera and juice for a few weeks to help alleviate what I think might be the onset of arthritis in two fingers (I think it is helping BTW) and John read on the net that aloe vera and activated charcoal are two things which might help this problem pass more quickly. We found one bottle of charcoal at the Walgreens where, interestingly enough, I also had purchased the aloe, and I am hoping I get some relief..... man alive, this is gross.

I thought, well at least since eating is unpleasant, I'll lose a few pounds. Then I read that not eating usually worsens the sensation. Great. I find myself in a Lose-Lose situation. So much for healthy living.

Such a shame too because that was a yummy salad.

On The Road Again!

Have you seen this alleged to be truthful story about Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando drivig themselves away from New York City after 9-11? Three of the 20th Century's greatest stars.......together...... escaping NYC.

(the is NOT a real photo... c'mon people)

Ok, you have to read the story to get the full story but supposedly Marlon was making them nuts having to stop at every KFC on the way. Of course! I believe that.

They drove to Ohio. Why not Ohio?

Here's how I know it's not true...... they didn't stop for gas at that station where Elvis works.

The Other Shoe Drops- Uo-Date

AH, the joys of home ownership.

We live on well water and have a pretty good system. The water tastes nice, lots of it in the ground. True, it is acidic and caused our pipes to corrode last year and flood half the house. But at least we had a great well pump! IT kept pumping that water through the system and out the broken end all over the place. It worked great!

True, we had to rip out plumbing in the wall throughout and replace the corroded pieces. And sheetrock the holes. Repaint. But at least we don't have to deal with Chinese Drywall, right?!

Yes, all the wood floors were ruined. And the carpet. and the baseboards.

But that was last year!

Yesterday, that great pump went out. Now we have no water.

Which is worse?

Up-Date: Oh yea!!!! It was not the pump, after all..... only the switch. It had corroded. (What is UP with that?) Easily fixed and much cheaper than hauling the pump out of the ground.

Still, it makes you think. What would we do without water? How well would a windmill work out there? How much would it cost to dig another well?

Slow

Applique is the sewing equivalent to cooking with a crock pot as opposed to a microwave.

I have been making quilts now for quite some time and although I don't race my way to the finished border, I can knock one out in a matter of hours. Okay, not hours at one long stretch, but still....

This is not the case with applique. It takes me hours and hours and hours to make one block! And I am working my way through several techniques, not of needle-turning, but of pattern marking.

So this is my 2nd block and instead of drawing the design on the top of the background fabric, I used a piece of carbon to trace it on the back of the fabric and basted every piece to the front.

After each piece was basted down on the line, I used those lines to draw the final shape and trimmed within 1/4" for seam allowance. Slow and redundant but effective.

As I sewed and needle-turned, I pulled out the basting threads and voila! I liked this technique and I really liked not having pencil lines on the fabric. However....

.....Mona taught her class in needle-turned applique last week and showed this technique:

Here you draw the design on a piece of light-weight RED DOT fabric and baste that to the top of the background fabric. After you trace the pieces on freezer paper, yo cut them out and use as templates for the fabric pieces. Then using the traced RED DOT as a placement guide, each piece is basted down and stitched.

Here you can see my attempts at lining up the pieces underneath that RED DOT fabric.

FAIL

And here you can see that I have succumbed to using reading glasses to applique with. I will be calling them applique glasses because I don't need for sewing on the machine or reading at all. BUT I SURE DO NEED them to do this tiny needle, skinny thread hand work!

Signs, I'm Seeing Them - Update!

... and I do mean everywhere, lately. It is weird.

I love applique.

Let me rephrase that. I love the way applique looks and I appreciate the work that experienced stitchers create with this technique but it has never been a friend to me.

I have done it. Badly. I have done every technique in applique as well and have never been able to do the one I like the best, needle-turn applique. I couldn't figure out way I was so bad at it, either.

I work at a shop that hosts the Applique Society once a month and I get to see some beautiful handwork over the years. It pains me to see this and accept that it is simply beyond my reach. I thumb through the books that arrive before the hit the shelf and marvel at the designs. I yearn for it and still, I know I can't do this. groan.....

And lately, it seems there has been nothing short of a plethora of books and BOMS and projects every day in front of me!

Now, I have plenty of projects that need doing so it isn't like I'm looking for something to occupy my idle hands but I am drawn like an insect to a candlelight. It burns in me.

Well, whaddaya think happened the other day? A woman dropped in the store on her way home form GSQA seminar, where she had been the instructor for applique ..... and brought in her lovely samples of designs. Again, the burn began and we talked about my lack of ability in conflict with desire.

So, Violet Newby gave me a 25 minute class. One on One and she was equally informative and patient and concise. She showed me how to hold my hands to minimize joint stress, how to thumb the fabric to get a crease and most important: "Look only at the two stitches in front of the needle. Don't worry about the curve or the point ahead or anything else. Not even dinner. Focus on the 2 stitches in front of the needle. All the rest will be there when you get there."

Can I tell you how illuminating that was?

and guess what?

I can needle-turn.

I can needle turn. AND I CAN MAKE FINE POINTS! Well, okay finer points, then.

There was a reason I was being inundated with all this applique. They were signs. It was to soften up my resistance to be ripe for that moment.

I'm am working on my first block now and can't wait to post a photo.

Update Ta -da!!

Don't look too closely... no, go ahead! zoom in. See the 5 small circles below? Compare them to the other two. I needle-turned the 5 and was frustrated at my incompetence!

Yesterday was Applique Society at the shop (signs... I'm tellin' ya!) and I slounched over at one point to see if anyone was sewing circles and ask questions. They told me about this "Perfect Circles" plastics and how helpful they were to creating a more perfect circle. So I bought a pack and you can see them on a metal ring in the upper right corner. They did indeed make the circle more round. Now it is up to me to sew them down a little better.

I am finding that tools, (the right ones, that is) are critical to this technique. The needle I have been using is a tad too thick to pierce this batik I am using. I will try again (soon) with a straw needle.

Now that block is crude applique, I admit. The pieces themselves are HUGE compared to fine designs these hard-core stitchers in the Society whip out. Here, check this out!

THese are from a Halloween BOM and if the blocks are 12" square, I'd be surprised. We are talking tiny.

This shot is of the larger center of the design. She is stitching down candy now and in the empty spot will be a cauldron. Look at the bats' wings. Look at the acorns!!!! Compare her hands with the design and you get an idea how small the fabric pieces are. It is a marvel!

Another Day Passes

and with it, February inches farther down the calendar.

I was just trying to remember what I did with myself yesterday. Weird. I could not recall.

I planted carrots and beets and leeks.... oh yes. I visited the Big Box stores in search of this powder called inoculant which seemed to help start ff the sugar peas so nicely last year. I think I might be a shade too late to get a great harvest of peas, but it had been so cold and harsh up til this past week, I was fearful of having young sprouts get nipped by a cold front or, like last year, that snow day surprise we had in Mid- February.

Anyhoo..... after I teach a Basket class this morning, I shall plant the peas and sprinkle the powders and let nature take it's course.

At one point, as I walked down to the coop/run, my heart skipped a beat. I saw feathers everywhere.

Oh no. And not a chicken in sight. You can well imagine my dread. I walked inside the runs, calling out to Stu who is usually the first one rounding the corner. He appeared cautiously, nervously from the exit flap and I opened the door.

There they all were, cowering inside and fearful of coming out so I could look them all over and figure out who lost the feathers and why. They were definitely from one of the goldies. Poor babies.

They were all skittish, and Stu didn't help matters by strutting on his toes and curkling. I know that is not a word.... but it fits as to the sound he makes when he is distressed about something. It is not a crow or a tuk-tuk. It has a trumpeting feel, very alarming. And the hens pay close attention. He and Ginger kept a weather eye out as the others moved slowly out to peck at some corn grains I used to lure them out into the light. Ginger is a sentinel.

I have to think it was a bird of prey. Or a cat that is now somewhere licking it's wounds. I found no evidence of blood anywhere but the spurs on Stu are over an inch long and I think he has a strop somewhere that he employs to keep them pointy and dangerous.

Good man!

That is a formidable bird.

Well, I Just Don't Know

...if I like this new look. I had issues with the last design in that the area where the posts appear seemed constrained (to me somehow) so I thought I would tweak it.

The first thing you're supposed to do (and I did) was to save a copy of the original as a back-up. Then start messing around with changes.

After you do what you do, to ht SAVE and go look. I did.

Then I noticed is it looked pretty much the way it did on the preview screen and I wanted to make a few more changes and did so.

Then I scrolled down and found that my counter has evaporated. I cannot retrieve it either. SiteMeter has no record of me existing so I no longer will know where the Gentle Viewer hails from. But when I tried to go back to me original layout and get the meter, I couldn't reload it. Go Figure.

I liked this feature because I could tell when our girls or family in Texas stopped by to catch up on the Chicken Farm.

ahem........ "IT IS NOT A FARM. I don't sell anything and I eat only the veg we grow and the eggs they lay. We don't harvest the meat.... I just call it Chicken Farm because that sounds retro and cute!."

Now, I will be shooting in the dark unless I decide to install another counter. The one you see down there now is GOOGLE meter and does not allow ME to see where people come from. *

Google on the other hand knows everything. Blogger is a Google product.

Now I am not a paranoid. I post these musings of mine for your entertainment (or not) and I hope I have enough filters between my head and fingers to not be typing inflammatory posts.

BUT

Do you know that the GOOGLEBOT comes trolling through pages several times a week? Didn't know that, did you? It does. I used to be able to see when it monitored me. I never knew what it was looking for or at. But, it's there...... reading through the posts and pages.

I wonder what it does with it's findings.........

Anybody know?

* I added a new meter from a google-approved site to track once more your comings and goings......... (I'm watching you!)

What Is The First Thing YOU Thought When You Watched This?

Okay, another interesting video of animals. Here we have a fox and a turtle

As I watched it the first time, I was struck by something....... something seemed a little off. What could it be......?

Oh! I know!!! WHO PUTS A COLLAR ON A FOX?

When did fox become a domestic pet?

Why didn't anyone tell me this?

So now, alongside anteaters, we have fox.

Lots of yipping and whining on that LONG video. Cut over to 2:30.... I know exactly how it feels when I can't open a jar of pickles. I just want to sit in a corner and cry until someone comes over and helps.