Monday, July 14, 2008

Weather, weather, weather!! Sooo many difficulties brought on by weather! And yet - we're nowhere near the slaves to weather that those who came before us were. We've just become so accustomed to air conditioning both in our houses and vehicles. Running hot and cold water everywhere. Light at the flick of a switch. The ability to cook at a moment's notice.

I managed to come by a bushel of green beans -for which I was very thankful as we have no garden this year. Beth and I planned to spend Saturday in the pool breaking beans on that oh-so-conveniently-placed concrete surround. We were interrupted 3 times by thunder and rain . . . retired to the porch each time till the sun was shining strongly again.....we finally finished on the porch! Our power was out for over an hour at one point. After power returned I decided to work on a couple of powepoint slideshows for church Sunday morning - one with songs so we could stand and sing with the use of the songbook purely optional and one with welcome and announcements and suchlike to just loop around continuously as folks were coming in. Sounded good except for the power outages that managed to come every time just as I'd added something really good and had truly had no chance to SAVE!!! This went on for a while but I got something usable and decided to quit! and then power was once again gone for good. Or at least for a while. I managed to shower and wash my hair and even shave my legs almost completely blind. Since I'm mostly blind in the shower anyway, I actually managed to get through this without doing myself mortal harm with the razor! There was no unending stream of blood going down the drain or anything dreadful like that.

By the time the power came back it was after 8:30 - toooooo late for me to contemplate starting the canning process.

So canning had to wait until after church Sunday. Even with a few rough spots along the way, I managed to get 19 quarts canned using the pressure canning method, not the water bath. (We only do tomatoes with the water bath method.) And green beans are the only motivation for me to do the whole pressure canning thing. I cooked at least 4 quarts to divide with Beth and Joshua before starting the canning. Finished around 8:30-9:00 last night. pooooooped! On the right is Evan's mother's old canning book put out by the Kerr company. The price was $1.00.

It is well-worn, used and loved. Lots of handwritten notes, extra recipes from family friends, etc.
Mrs. Grace Buntley was a neighbor down the road...we knew her and her daughter who was close in age to Evan's parents and her granddaughter (and husband and family) is a good friend of ours (and a contemporary - she's in that magic period after 50)


Didn't get laundry done, didn't get dusting or vacuuming done....didn't get anything done but beans. Oh - and haven't mentioned the additional 4 dozen ears of corn we froze on top of the 3 dozen I froze last week after eating over 2 dozen!!! - but we're taking the lazy route recommended to us by some folks who can be trusted of freezing it in the husk (yes, you heard right - no blanching, etc.) and then just taking out what is wanted and shucking and cooking just before eating.
Next year we WILL have a garden again somehow!!!

While I was timing the cooking of beans and the pressure canner and such I managed to get the most recent round of postcards fused to the stiff backing but did not have time for the quilting because I had to wet them and let them dry to make sure none of the blue marker lines remained. I did get pieces for the back cut out, though.

Inch by inch, as Pete Seeger used to sing.

Have a great week!
<

Sunday, July 6, 2008

One of those seasonal pop-up thunderstorms forced me out of the water yesterday, so I finished sewing my Wee Play charm squares to the white squares! (and what possessed me to put them on the table with the white tablecloth for the picture??!!) Then I cut them apart and pressed them open. (still have the bunny ears to get rid of, though) The more I look at these fabrics, the more I like them. Can't remotely decide which to get for border/binding! Seemed like whichever one I was pressing would be the best one . . .

These are postcards-in-the-making. (is it obvious I'm still on my turquoise/red jag?) I finished all I had in my little project sack upstairs, and now it's time to trim them and finish them up and get them in the mail. I have managed to trace some new ones in spite of last week's fiasco, so there are more to take upstairs for my evening handwork.

Beth is progressing nicely on her new quilt, and when she brings it out here next, I'll try to get a picture of it. She took it to Mississippi when she and Joshua went down to visit his folks for a couple of days and in spite of his mother having been a home ec major, Beth had to explain the quilting in the ditch. They thought she was sewing the pieces of fabric together even though it looked like they were already sewn together. tsk tsk task Guess no quilters in their circle of family and friends, huh?

Our 4th was great, as usual. Lots of good food and good fellowship and then great fireworks! We are so blessed to live in this place.

Yesterday I heard the katydids for the first time, and they make me a little bit sad because they always make me realize our summer is running down.

Gratitudes:
  • my sweet family
  • my ladies' Sunday School class
  • the glories of this earth

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Oh, No!


What a dope! The last post should be removed from blog history. So dumb.
Quick...let me show you something better...Beth's first quilt...ALL hand-done from piecing to quilting to binding, etc.....she picked 2 fusion fabrics we already had for the body and then just some leftover yardage from I-don't-remember-what for the border and binding...just to have something to work with...this is a whole "learning experience" and all that jazz....quilted with dark thread and used a muslin backing for economical reasons and then realized the dark quilting didn't look so hot on the back...ah, well....a learning experience is how she termed the whole thing.













Some good fabrics I got on sale to use in a quilt from MaryQuilts, which has some great free patterns. Boxed Squares is what I want to do with these 30's prints. I'm hoping to have time this weekend to get the fabric cut. Or at least to get started on cutting it.

We've got a big 4th at the home of some friends who live down the road and who have been doing fantastic, unbelievable 4th celebrations for over 20 years now. Everybody brings food and they take care of barbecue and hamburgers and hotdogs and there are lots of folks and lots of food and LOTS of good times! Started with the dad and his sons doing the fireworks and then moved to the sons and now a grandson or two is involved....really neat....and the fireworks rival that of most towns!! And we're just out in the country having a good time!!
Everybody be safe over the holiday. And enjoy spending time with family and friends.