Quilting and Cutting Wood

The title just about tells you everything we did today!  I quilted all day—there is a challenging quilt on the frame and I have struggled for inspiration!  Today I just went for it, didn’t have to do much ripping, only a little.

Michael went up the Boulder and worked on his fireplace project until noon and after lunch he spent the afternoon working hard cutting up firewood.  And even harder splitting it by hand!  I bet he has some sore muscles tomorrow! 

It was another day with sunshine but cold, I think it was a balmy 10 degrees when we got up early again this morning.  Maybe by the end of the week we will have our internal clocks regulated???

While our granddaughter Laci was home recently the family took the opportunity to have family portraits made.  A young lady from Livingston, Jesse Sarrazin took the photos and the results were fantastic. 

Lonn is on the left with Laci, our USAF granddaughter, LoraLee, Katie and her husband Michael. 

I really like this one!

And that’s it for our Monday.

A Cold Sunday

Whew, sunshine coupled with a bitter wind does not make for warm temperatures.  Nasty outside today!  We did manage to get in a couple walks.  I am all ready envying Rick and Paulette their palm trees, green grass and sunshine!

Nat came up for lunch, when he arrived Emmi met him at the door and just “talked and talked” to him.  Made his day I think, he is quite fond of that Emmi girl! 

My iPod died!!!  My less than a year old iPod died!!!  Sure makes for boring quilting—I can’t listen to my audiobook!  Guess we will return it to Best Buy when we go to Billings.

Rod over at Retired Rod has been complaining about strange calls to his cellphone—foreign speaking people wanting loans, etc.  Yesterday when we were getting all the excavator calls the phone rang, it was a strange number we didn’t recognize and had no name attached.  We answered the phone as we were trying to sell something and it was my Mom!!!  Not her cell phone number and when Michael looked up the area code—the Bronx, New York!!!  Later in the day Mom called again, same thing—strange, different number and not her cell number!  Weird phone happenings around the country!

Photo of Michael’s stove he built—it is working well!

Our First Real Snow Fall

When I let Emmi out first thing this morning little tiny snowflakes were drifting down.  We probably accumulated about two-three inches.  It has stayed cold all day and now is snowing a little again.

Last night about 7pm I listed our old Komatsu mini-excavator on Craigslist.  The last time Michael used it—remember the story of me pushing the machine up onto the trailer with the backhoe—well, it needs a new engine and Michael felt as if he has done enough mechanic-ing lately.  So, he decided to sell it. 

By 9pm we had five or six calls about it with one guy committing to come look today.  At 9pm we shut down the phones—when we built this house my handy husband installed a switch—all we have to do is turn the switch off and all our phones stop ringing and go to voicemail. 

When Michael got up this morning there were two phone messages and two emails.  One of the phone guys said he would take it sight unseen if the guy coming to look didn’t buy the machine.  Before the looker got here we probably had another 5-6 calls!!!!  The guy wrote the check and left to return for the excavator when the weather is better.  Wish we had about 10 of those to sell!!!  Oh, and by the way, the buyer knows it needs a new engine!!! 

I finished one customer quilt and loaded another one today.  Spent some time just sitting in a chair staring at this one looking for inspiration.

And that’s about it for our exciting Saturday. 

All I Did Today Was Quilt

My Dad used to say, “I wore out my hide last night tossing and turning.”  Well, I think that’s what I did last night.  I’ve had another stupid cold or something—I’m beginning to think it is allergies cause I never give it to anyone else—and spent a great deal of the night tossing and coughing.  Feeling better today but still have the cough. 

Spent the entire day working on a customer quilt but that’s not quite true, I did sew the binding down on the table runner I made at quilt retreat.  A while back Judy from Patchwork Times showed how to sew a binding by machine.  Bindings are traditionally sewn onto the edges of the quilt’s front, turned to the back and stitched down by hand.  I tried Judy’s method of pinning and using the sewing machine once and wasn’t very successful but today I gave it another go on the table runner and was mostly successful!  And it is just a table runner and it is for me.

Michael went up the Boulder and worked on his fireplace/stove project again this morning then spent the afternoon out in shop puttering.

And that’s it for our Friday, snow is in our forecast for tonight—I could do without that!

Sewing Machine Day

Jeane came up this morning and we sat and stumbled through some exercises on our smarter than us sewing machines.  We enjoyed a lunch of homemade spaghetti sauce over whole wheat pasta and a great salad.  Then it was off to LoraLee’s (she has the exact machine Jeane and I purchased) for more sewing machine lessons!  Now, I won’t say I’m a computer expert by any means, I’ve been known to bend Rick’s ear for computer advice, I’ve been known to turn the air blue when the dumb computer won’t cooperate, but let me tell you, these computerized sewing machines are way smarter than me!  It was a fun afternoon and we gained a lot of valuable advice!

Back home we found Michael had installed the new stove he built for downstairs in our basement.  He put a glass door on the front, now it looks so welcoming when you go down the stairs.  Cool!!  And this stove is bigger so will hold wood which will burn for a longer time than the other stove.

And not much else went on in our world today—I did talk to Brenda today—hope she gets those jeep problems resolved!  And as usual, she was cooking away!

Sunrise over the East Boulder this morning.

Success, The Engine Is Out

This was at 2:30pm this afternoon—this little old thermometer read 10 above early this morning, BRRRR!

Michael went up the Boulder to do some more fireplace work and when he came home managed to get the engine out of the Ford truck.  He comes into the quilting studio and asks, “can you come help me a minute?”  Sure, why not—whoa, wait a minute, you want me to operate the backhoe????  What if I drop the thing???  What if I ding up the truck???? Success, the engine has cleared the truck and I didn’t destroy anything!  Michael finished up the job- Thank goodness we have equipment!

I spent the day working on a customer quilt and got about halfway—yea!  I have lots of quilts to finish before we leave for the winter and it makes my day when things go well! 

Emmi girl was outside all day—as long as the sun is shining she is a happy girl in spite of the cold.  She needed her coat this morning--

And since Mr. Rollie is way too busy to write a blog I wanted all you guys out there to see Rollie, Gina and their new grandbaby—Abigail Faith—she is absolutely adorable Michael remarked when he saw the photos, “she has more hair than her Grandpa!”  Such a little sweetheart! 

Congratulations to Kelly over at the Bayfield Bunch—she has a new grandbaby, too. 

An Upside Down Day

At least that’s what it feels like for me tonight!  We took a walk in the chilly morning then Michael headed off to work on his fireplace project up the Boulder. 

I loaded a customer quilt, talked on the phone and fixed lunch—the Pioneer Woman corn chowder and a spinach salad.

Then it was time to head to town—we had an appointment with our attorney to re-do our wills which hadn’t been reworked since we sold our ranch almost six years ago—kind of past due!  Several more errands and off for home.

The weather had been strange all day—sun, then clouds, spitting rain and snow.  When we started home from town our little valley looked as if winter was arriving but by the time we drove in the driveway the sun was shining.

We hadn’t been home long when the phone rang, our friends who own the little “inconvenience” store in Neihart which we visit often were in Big Timber visiting their daughter and wanted to come up.  Nancy has never been to this house and Royal wanted her to see it.  We invited them for dinner—after all, I had made three batches of spaghetti sauce yesterday.

Royal and Nancy arrived bringing a nice bottle of wine—we had a great evening.  Sometimes the “new” spouse feels left out of the conversation—not understanding all the old stories, etc.  Not so with this couple—they are just the nicest people to talk to.  I enjoy listening to Mike and Royal’s stories even if I have heard the tales before!   Royal and Nancy have experienced a tragedy, the loss of a child, and it seems to have strengthened their sense of right, wrong and what is important in life.  They are special folks without a doubt. 

As they were leaving a few minutes ago and we all stepped outside, we were greeted with white stuff—yep, the ground is white for the first time this year.

Paula, this is for you—I finished sewing the binding on this little quilt today—isn’t he just the cutest turkey???