Getting Ready

While in one of the convenience stores in Big Timber the other day I noticed a brochure for a new quilt show being held in the neighboring community of Columbus on Memorial Day weekend.  When I contacted the person in charge I received a warm welcome and decided we would load up bag and baggage and participate in this show.  As I am a representative for APQS, the manufacturer of my longarm quilting machine, we are taking the longarm for demonstration.  Wouldn’t it be nice if I could sell one??  Or two??  We are also taking along some quilting kits—attractively packaged kits containing a pattern and fabric to make a quilt, some bolts of fabric and various other notions.  We will just see what happens in this first attempt to get our feet wet!

My wonderful friend Jeane came up today and helped me put together the quilting kits—without her I would still be downstairs cutting fabric.  Thank you Jeane—you are the best!

For lunch I made another quiche YUM!  And I made a from scratch low fat cheesecake that was delicious! 

When we took a walk last night this storm was approaching But, the storm went around us.  Big Timber was not so lucky—the town received about 2 inches of rain mixed with hail—power was lost and the streets flooded.  Jeane and Steve were without power for a while.

Isn’t this the sweetest little dog??

Mom & Chuck Are Off

Are we ever going to have warmer weather—another cool, breezy, cloudy, rainy day—the only saving grace—no snow.  As I write this at 5pm there is some sunshine—can we hope??

I think I had a cooking first today—I made a pie crust from scratch—if I have ever done that before, it was a long, long time ago!  And it was delicious—we had quiche for lunch with a salad.

Mom and Chuck left shortly after lunch headed for Gardiner, MT for the night.  Chuck has to check in for work at Yellowstone Park tomorrow, Mom doesn’t start until Saturday.  I was sad to see them go having enjoyed their visit very much!  But, they will be back some over the summer on days off.

After they left I put together another little quilt—it turned out well, too.  That’s three little quilts Mom and I made this week—now I have to get them quilted.

The Thimbleberry quilt is finished!!!  Lupine I think. Lazuli Bunting

Michael put a new bumper hitch on our dually pickup and then he washed both the truck and the Explorer. 

A good day.

More Rain Then Sunshine

It rained a lot during the night and most of the morning but this afternoon the sun came out!  Still cool but at least we have sunshine. 

Mom and I again spent the day sewing and quilting.  I finished the Thimbleberry quilt but didn’t get it taken off the frame—photos tomorrow Marti!  It looks good.  Mom finished one small quilt and this cute little quilt/table topper Doesn’t it look cheery??

Michael worked on Steve’s project and even got the engine to run today!!  Amazing! 

When a person goes to work for a company federal law requires that the potential employee submit two forms of photo ID.  Mom had a driver’s license but nothing else—she forgot her passport, so Xantera (Yellowstone Park) wouldn’t let her go to work until she had other ID.  My sister Ann FedEx’ed the passport to Mom today so now she is legal. 

And that’s about it for our day.

Our backyard waterfall and the small aspen leaves. 

Rain, Rain

It started raining in the night and I knew this because I was awake a lot—nightmares, terrible ones!  And, it has rained off and on all day today.  Made for a very muddy walk morning and afternoon!

Mom and I spent the day sewing and quilting.  She almost finished a quick little quilt from a pattern by All Washed Up.  When its finished tomorrow, I will post a photo. 

I am almost finished with that Thimbleberry’s quilt Marti!  One more row and then the bottom border and I will be finished, YEA!  It looks really great.

Why is it so hard to get good customer service any more???  Remember about a month ago I had my Pfaff sewing machine (my 10 year old, very expensive Pfaff sewing machine) in the shop—it had just stopped sewing in the midst of making a quilt.  The repair shop kept the machine for over 3 weeks and today as Mom was sewing the machine did exactly the same thing—made a noise and froze.  GRRRRR—now it has to go all the way back to the repair shop in Billings!  Thank goodness for simple little Singer Featherweight machines—Mom is using that machine to finish the quilt. 

Michael worked out in the shop on Steve’s project all day and Chuck read and played on the computer.  That’s about it for our day.

To answer some questions from readers:  No, we are not in Judith Gap—but our internet carrier shows up as Judith Gap, MT when we log onto blogs—don’t ask us why???

No, Karen—Mom and Chuck are going over to Yellowstone Park on Wednesday in their motor home.  They are both going to work in the Park for the summer—Mom is an auditor (counts the money) and Chuck works in one of the stores.  We will get to see them occasionally on their days off.

This is a recycled photo from spring 2008.

Celebrating Nat’s 88th

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, a little cool but sunny.  We took our walk then Mom and I headed to the quilting studio for some sewing time.  Mom altered some shirts for my friend Gemma and I quilted for a while.

We had lunch and spent the rest of the day getting ready to transport a birthday party meal to Nat’s in town.  I even made a from scratch birthday cake!

Lonn, LoraLee and Katie joined us at Nat’s and we had a wonderful family evening.  Drinks with cheese and crackers followed by marinated steaks, twice baked potatoes,  and salad with Boulder River Ranch poppy seed dressing.  But the crowning part of the meal was the birthday cake—our friends Jeane and Steve owned the Boulder River Guest Ranch and the cake recipe was a ranch specialty.  It is three layer chocolate with whipped cream filling between layers and a chocolate icing to die for.  I shouldn’t have had dinner and just eaten cake!!  And we won’t tell who had TWO pieces of cake (Lonn, Katie and Michael)!

Nat opened his presents and was looking forward to reading the new books he got.  At 88 his mind is still very sharp, he drives and lives alone.  He does his own yard work and pitches horse shoes for fun.  It was a wonderful day—Happy Birthday, Nat.

Burning and Planting

It was a long night—at 1am the phone rang—I didn’t manage to get it answered before voice mail picked up—I thought the number on caller ID looked familiar but the person left no message.  So, we struggled for a long while trying to go back to sleep.  This morning I realized I did have a voice mail but the message was only giggling girls.  Still thinking the phone number looked familiar, I dialed it—imagine my surprise when I heard my Granddaughter Katie’s voice mail!!!!  I highly doubt she intended to call us last night—did someone else accidently hit the wrong button?? 

While on our walk this morning we decided to plant the little trees I purchased at Costco a while back.  And we decided to burn some of the brush piles that accumulate when you cut down trees and clear brush.  Michael got all the equipment going while I called the sheriff’s department to notify them we were burning today.

We planted three of the trees down by the pond and one in the backyard.  Michael used the mini-excavator to gather up dead trees, stumps and brush setting fire to four or five piles.  Our weather is just right for this activity, cool, cloudy, spitting rain at times and windy.  So far he hasn’t burned down the neighborhood!

Mom helped with the tree planting and Chuck has been working hard all day trying to get their satellite TV dish working—finally, just a few minutes ago, success!

We had a great lunch—oven fried chicken, sauteed squash (all the way from Arkansas), onion and broccoli, salad and watermelon.  No more meals for us today!  We might finish off that fruit tart I made last night—it was so yummy!  This afternoon Mom made the cake layers for Nat’s birthday cake.  We are going to celebrate his 88th at his house tomorrow night. 

I sat down just a few minutes ago and called our friends Mary and Gene.  We met the two of them while participating in a shooting sport down in Arizona several years ago and became great friends.  We have traveled together, spent time at each other’s homes and in spite of the fact they live in Washington and we live in Montana, we stay in touch.  It had been a while since we had talked and it was just so good to talk to Mary today.  Hopefully they are going to plan a trip to come and see us this summer.

 

The little tree in the backyard keeping one of the rhubarb plants company.

Mom Is Here

Spent most of my day getting ready for Mom and Chuck’s arrival.  I did get the lettuce, radishes, chard and peas planted in the garden.  Michael tilled the garden with the mini-excavator—seemed to work.  And he got the larger garden site mostly done—the dirt there needs to dry out some before we can plant.  Memorial Day weekend is the soonest we can plant anything outside and even then we better be ready to cover it on cold nights. 

Can you tell what this is in the photo??  The indentations at the left of the photo are the bear’s claws and the flat round part to the right is the pad of his foot.  Seems like we have had a visitor!

Mom and Chuck arrived about 4pm—it was so good to hug my Mom!  We visited for a while and brought all the quilts inside that Aunt Margaret and Marti sent for me to quilt.  I absolutely love the “schnauzer” quilt and its backing they sent me!  Then it was time to make dinner—grilled pork chops, garlic mashed potatoes, peas, salad and a divine berry tart—one of the best desserts I have ever made! Now we are all sitting and relaxing—reading and computer stuff. 

Michael cut down some of the dead aspen trees today for firewood.  He worked outside a long time. 

My horse Red was taking a nap in the sunshine.  We have taught Emmi to not chase or get too near the horses but she just had to try and sneak up on Red this morning, she couldn’t figure out what that big, fat red thing was—it was so cute—this is as close as I let her get!