Forget Me Not

Every year I get some forget-me-nots. Sometimes I try plants and sometimes seeds. I haven't been able to get them to grow for years.

I used to have them growing all over my iris bed and spreading everywhere else. They filled in blank spaces and kept the weeds down.

When my father-in-law would visit, he always worked on projects of some sort. When we first moved here he helped us put in flower beds around the yard and worked on many of our house and barn renovation projects. If we were at work while he was visiting, he would keep himself busy with projects until we returned. He liked to be helpful.  One day I came home to find that he had cut the old electric wire to the barn with my kitchen paring knife. Another day, I found he had weeded in my iris bed-- and pulled out everything that was not iris. I have not been able to grow the forget-me-nots since! I learned to leave a list for him.

I also fussed at him for using my good scissors on whatever project he was working on. I started hiding them. One year when he came, he brought about a dozen pair of scissors and instructed me to leave them all over the house so that he could find a pair when he needed them.

He had alzheimers but I think we didn't really know then.

So, every year I try to get the forget-me-nots to grow again. I chuckle to myself each spring when I plant them. I feel that the two of us are having a little battle over them and this is his way of making me not forget. Not that I would. It makes me smile each spring when I plant them.

I don't have much hope for these flowers. Yesterday I caught the chickens nibbling them while they were in the wagon.

Plant Sale

Today was the Chelsea Garden Club's annual plant sale. I try to get to this sale every year. I like that the plants are all taken from local gardens so they will not have "culture shock" when I plant them in my gardens. By supporting the local Garden Club I get beautiful flowers and plants for my yard and beautiful gardens in town. There is also the added bonus of visiting with friends while I shop and knowing which gardens my plants originally grew in.

I got a few plants for our white garden- white daylilly, a few ferns, some white astilbe,  sweet woodruff,  silver edge ivy,  and jack in the pulpits.

The plants for the white garden are in the ground. But, I had to deal with the "gardening creep" phenomenon. This is when one simple gardening task leads to many others. Those star-of-bethlehem bulbs that have multiplied to bunches so thick that they won't even bloom had to be divided and planted around the white tulips. The iris that had grown so close to the chicken barn that the leaves are growing up behind the siding had to be moved too. Actually, that one was on my list for several years. Then, I noticed that the tree by the herb garden has grown so much that the area is not as sunny as it used to be so I moved the lovage and sage from the shade to the sunny side of the garden. I also weeded lots around the yard. It was such a beautiful day that I stayed out working all morning and afternoon.

I still have a bunch of plants to put in the other gardens in the yard.  I should have done it today.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain.

Good News!

We have been using a dial up connection here to get to the internet. It has been very slow and frustrating.  We frequently get disconnected.

It takes so long to upload pictures that I want to scream.

We searched for other options.

Cable is not available here and we did not want to buy a satellite dish.  We tried the wireless phone connection but it was expensive and we only got "one bar" reception.

Now, we are celebrating because we have DSL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

We are speeding along now!  We can even talk on the phone while being online! Woohoo.

It's a Perfectly Cromulent Word

I love words that kids make up to fit a particular thing or situation. 

Yesterday, as P was playing with her "easy blocks" she was also giving a running dialog. I heard her say that her blocks were "betwards" my spinning wheel. Betwards- that would be her new word for between her and something else.

When my nephew was little he coined the word "smurgled" to describe the clean laundry that has not yet been folded.What fun words have you learned from the little people in your life?

The "Doll" Quilt

P and I did some sewing yesterday and got her big girl quilt top finished.

She calls it her "doll" quilt and is now talking about having the quilt in her room. I think it will help her make the transition to the big bed.

Maybe I can have it quilted and finished by her third birthday.

Patience

Saturday, we found this dove who had made a nest in our supply of twine in the barn. She sat patiently on her nest all day as we went about our business getting tools, and starting the tractor and lawn mower.  She will be a mother soon.

We will keep an eye out for the babies. The incubation period for dove eggs is 17-18 days.

Back in the winter, we ordered baby chicks to be delivered on June first.  The incubation period for chickens is 21 days. That means that our little chicks started their incubation at the hatchery on Saturday, as we discovered this dove.

We will also be waiting and watching for these grapes to flower and grow. This will take a lot longer than incubating chicks.

That is the way it is.

We have to wait for some of the best things in life, it helps to have a lot of things that we are anticipating along the way.

Mom

My mom at the age P is now.

There are so many things I would like to ask my mother now that I have a daughter.

I also wonder what kind of grandmother she would be now. How would she have been with teenage grandchildren?

What kind of old woman would she be?  Would she have been like her mother?

Believe

We have been enjoying the warmer weather lately. I have been sitting out on our back porch to knit and read during P's naps. I even ended up taking my own nap out there one day.

This afternoon, P and I were out enjoying the scents and colors of the flowers. We ended up, as usually happens, weeding on one of the flower beds. I was discouraged by the amount of grass and weeds in the garden. I also had to keep reminding P to keep her feet on the grass and not in the garden. She would respond with, "It's a gard'n, honey." I guess she was trying to correct my pronunciation! After several reminders to keep her feet out of the garden, gard'n, I explained that different people say it different ways.  That seemed to satisfy her and she busied herself pulling the yellow (dandelions) out of the white (all the flowers are white in the garden we were working on) garden. A little while later she stood up and said, "You can believe it's a garden if you want," and then walked away.

I will keep believing it is a garden. Maybe one day it will be free of weeds and grass. Maybe I will see that it is lush with foliage and flowers. Maybe I will see it as it was in our minds when we planted it. I just have to believe that it is a garden.

Generations of Love

P is getting big but she has so far resisted the idea of getting a "big girl bed." She does not want to give up her crib. She likes to read books in her crib at night and to stay in her crib long after she is awake in the morning. I thought that she might like the idea of a big bed better if we made a quilt for a big bed.

My Grandmother and her neighbor, Margaret, used to make quilts together for the babies in the family.  They made D. this Dresden plate baby quilt when he was born.

Margaret was also the one who helped my mother make "Dutch Girl" blocks using feed sacks as background when she was just a child. My sister, G., now has those blocks.  I thought it fitting that I ask Margaret to make the blocks for P's quilt. We have chosen 25 from the blocks she sent and they will be put together with sashing and cornerstones. This is a special family project for me. Though neither my mother nor grandmother lived to meet P., she'll soon be sleeping under a quilt they have both had a hand in creating. I like to picture her sleeping under three generations of love and stitches.

Uptown Boot Socks

I have had these socks on my knitting list since the pattern appeared in the Winter 2003 issue of Interweave Knits. The pattern, Uptown Boot Socks by Jennifer L. Appleby, is also included in Favorite Socks from Interweave Press.

A. and I knit this pair from Garnstudio's Baby-ull 100% Merino. The mustard color is delicious. We used size 2 needles and 64 stitches.

It is good that I enjoy knitting with the baby ull as I have a pillowcase full of it in my deep freezer. We won't mention that the ENTIRE freezer is full of wool or that I actually purchased the freezer when the yarn shop where I used to teach went out of business and B. suggested that I buy a 10 year supply of yarn while it was on sale! Since the freezer is to keep the yarn moth free I only store the animal fiber yarns there. The cotton and other yarns are stored in other areas of the house, like in old suitcases that are not in use...It does make it interesting when looking for a particular yarn and can't remember where I stored it.  More often, I'll be looking for something else and I'll come across a stash of yarn I had forgotten about.

I know I am not alone. I bet you have yarn, fabric, beads, or some crafty supplies stored in strange places too. What creative storage ideas have you come up with?

Just keep spinning, spinning, spinning

Yesterday and today, I have been spinning the big ball of fiber into yarn.  I will make the yarn 2 ply and hope to use it for a pair of socks.

Frost

The chickens are not the only obstacle to getting plums from our trees. Last night we had a hard frost. We went out in the dark and put tarps over the trees.

B also put an old coal burning stove under the larger tree. He got up several times in the night to add some wood to the fire.

Let's hope it worked.

Fields of Fire

About fifteen years ago we planted two areas of native prairie grasses in our fields. We burn a portion of the prairie occasionally, primarily to discourage invasive plants such as the autumn olive. Yesterday was burn day. The weather was beautiful and there was not much wind.

We start the fire so that it burns into the wind, this way it does not burn too fast. When everything goes as planned, there isn't much to do...

I am often mesmerized by the flames while we watch the fire and listen to the popping and crackling sounds it makes.

This area of prairie is below the barns. There is a cluster of locust here that we are trying to kill. It is also an aggressive invader in the prairie areas and is sending up saplings in our raspberry row. We cut the larger trunks of the locust for fire wood. 

There are bursts of tall flames when there is a gust of wind or the fire comes to an area of thick tall grass. Some of the big bluestem grass can be eight feet tall.

Burned locust.

Now we watch the regrowth of grasses and flowers. The native prairie plants make great landscaping because once established they can endure long periods with no rain. According to some references, some of the native grasses can have a foot of root for each inch of plant above ground.

Fruits of our Labor

We may get plums this year! We will have to keep the chickens out of the tree if we want to eat any of them.  Just before the plums are ripe the chickens make a plan. They all gather under the tree and a selected few jump up in the tree to knock the plums down.  The others are ready to eat as they fall. Last year we didn't get a single ripe plum.

Planting Time

It seems a bit early, but today is apparently the day according to the farm saying, "plant corn when the oak leaves are as big  as squirrels' ears."

Will it be "knee high by the fourth of July?"

Doll Quilt Finished

I finished the doll quilt for the swap this afternoon. This quilt will be mailed far away!

I really like hand quilting with that hand dyed perle cotton. Like the other doll quilts, I quilted free form without marking the quilt.

Chicken Girl

One of the boys chores is tending to the chickens. They alternate days and fill the water container, make sure they have food, bring in the eggs, and close them in at night. When D. and M. get home from school, I often ask, "whose chicken day is it?" so that I can ask that person to take care of the special items for the day, like putting fresh straw in the nests, or dumping the compost. P. has started answering this question,  "Mine, it's MY chicken day."

Every day is P's chicken day.

We go over to the barn together and she tends to them in the morning.  She loves to give them their chicken scratch which consists of cracked corn and other grains.  Even when the container is almost empty she enjoys this job. You will notice that her feet are not touching the ground. She is doing a big, important job.

We keep the big door latched and the hens go in an out of a small door on the side (it is pictured in the photos above).  When we are out in the yard playing or working in the garden P goes to check on them.  She has discovered how she can get in to feed them corn.

Yep. That is the other side of the wall shown in the top photo.

I hope that as she gets older, she will continue to think that helping around the "farm" is fun.

A Place to Play

My sisters and I used to play for hours at a time under the hemlock tree in our back yard. We had a pretend town under it. We played with sticks, nuts, and other found objects. We felt like we were very far away all on our own but we were really just a few feet from the house.

When my husband and I moved here 20 years ago I tried to imagine where our children would play. It was all open - just barns and fields. We did have two lilacs right by the house, one purple and the other white.  Our first spring here we dug some of the small plants growing at the base of the established lilacs and planted them other places in the yard. In one area we planted them in a ring with an opening away from the road. I thought this would be a fun place for children to play when the lilacs grew and filled in the ring.

The lilacs grew slower than the boys so they never played in there.  It has become a chicken hang out. P likes to visit with them there.

Her favorite.

I think P will like it over there even more when all the leaves are out and the flowers are in bloom.

Ties That Bind

I have a big shopping bag of neckties that belonged to my father-in-law. I plan to make some wall hangings from them for B., his siblings, and mom.

My first step will be to take them apart and wash them. I haven't decided anything past that. I would like to try some applique and also pieced. I think they would look good in a log cabin pattern with narrow logs. They are of all different fabric content so there will be some challenges there.

Have any of you made a quilt from ties?  I am open to any suggestions you may have.

Three Ring Circus

Springtime here is often like a three ring circus. It becomes difficult to keep up with it all. I am still trying to work on some needlework projects like this quilt I am finishing up. 

My grandmother embroidered the blocks and I am finishing the quilt for my aunt.

The weather is warm so we are also trying to get the garden planted in the bits of time after school and work before it gets dark.

B is laying out the irrigation hose and D is tilling.

M spreads mulch for potatoes.

P wants to be a part of everything, even if that means she doesn't have dinner until we all come in after 8:00 p.m.

There is always an adjustment for us at this time of year. The longer days are very welcome and we want to stay out and enjoy it.

More flowers are blooming every day. There is, however, still the usual indoor list of things to do too, house keeping and homework.