Beans,beans and more beans

As all of you know who raise a garden when the vegetables are ready they must be taken care of at that moment. Not when one has the time to spend hours picking and canning, but right now. This year has been a good year so far for us being able to plant the garden, getting needed rain with out too much and the bugs have not been too bad. Right now we need rain for the tomatoes and corn that are just setting, but it is an abundant year for the green beans. So for the past few days and also today we have been picking, snapping, washing and canning green beans.

So far I have canned 35 pints and 4 quarts of beans. I think I may get another 6 or 7 pints once the pressure canner has cooled enough to do another batch.

We will have many more pickings of beans, but other then a few for table use I am finished with the beans. We have already started giving beans away. I wish my friend Beverly still lived close, because I would be sure we would get some to her. May need to think about this and do some talking to family about maybe taking some to her. We will be fairly close to her on Saturday celebrating my Aunt Shirley's 90th birthday.

Just think, I have an Aunt whom will be 90 years old soon. Only 2 of her sisters have already passed. That leaves 3 sisters and 4 brothers still alive. They all have some health problems, but to the best of my knowledge they are all still at home either being taken care of by their children or fully independant and on their own. Their father passed what I consider young at 63 or 64, but their mother lived a long active life as did their maternal grandfather.

I used to love to go visit my Great Grandfather McGraw. He lived in a tiny house in the front yard of his landlord's home. I remember the yard at least to me was large with lots of trees. It was a "long" trip. All of about 25 miles, but we were gone all day. He would make us a nice meal. As far as I am concerned he was famous for his meat loaf that had hard cooked eggs right down the middle of the loaf. He knew that I was intrigued with those eggs baked right in the loaf and kept it a secret from me about how he made it so it looked so perfect.

A few other things I remember about his house was he didn't have "running" water. Well actually he did, but it was by a hand pump at the kitchen sink. As I am sure you have figured out by now that also meant that he had an out house. I HATE OUT HOUSES! I am very sensative to smells. It doesn't matter if it is perfume that if overly applied or the "smell of money" as you travel the back roads and go by a farm too close to the road, but an out house is sometimes smelly, but in the summer too hot and enclosed. He knew I had this problem and would allow me to use his chair in the bedroom. The seat would lift up and there was a hole with a little champer pot below. I hope someone in the family still has that chair, because it was a life saver for me.

I also had another connection to my Great Grandpa. I was born the same month and year that he lost his wife, my Great Grandmother. She passed at the end of the month of March 1950 and I was born a week or two earlier.

The beans are now finished. A grand total of 41 1/2 pints and 4 quarts. Whew! Glad that is done. Now I can get some other work done.

Peggy

One Busy Day

This has been one busy day. We are in the process of installing a new, larger window air conditioner in the basement area. The problem is we don't have a window to just set it in like the instructions suggest. So we needed to enlarge the hole we had put into a wooden door that we used to fill in the space of one of the opened sliding glass door that leads to the "patio". Enlarging the hole was not a problem, but we didn't think about having to consider the shape changes from an open window to a flat square opening. We now have all that figured out, extra support in place, but were just too tired today to finish up the job. It is cool right now, so not having AC in not a problem. We know that shortly we will not only have heat, but more importantly we will have humidity. That in a nutshell is why we used some of the money I received from making a quilt and pattern for Quilting Treasures for a newer, larger AC. here is a picture of the quilt that will be a free pattern download in the near future at http://www.quiltingtreasure.com/. Look under projects. The last quilt I made for them is now also on their website. Look in More QT Products, then scroll down to the Paddington Counts Quilt Tin. They are selling the Tin with my pattern and fabric to make the same quilt.

While working on the quilt for Quilting Treasures I learned how to transfer large pattern pieces from my EQ6 program to a pdf file. I downloaded a free program pdf 995. I went to the block in EQ6 that I needed to have templates to use on the web or it could also be used for just printing. I then clicked file and click on printer set-up. I then changed the printer from my default printer to the pdf995 option. Close that window and again click on file and then print. The menu brought up options and I click on templates. At this point I checked and changed if needed the block size, seam allowance and line thickness. I then clicked on preview. In the preview area In I then deleted patterns I did not need and moved the rest so they were closer to the left. (This helped to keep the regular printer from printing pages not needed.) When I was happy with everything I clicked on print. The computer will then print the file to a pdf file that you can look at with a free adobe reader download. Fast, simple and easy. I know someday I will need to invest in another program that will allow editing of these pdf's, but for now this works.

I also received an interesting e-mail today with an opportunity to work a booth at a quilt show. The owner's of the booth would have it all set up and would take it down. They would pay $150.00 and 2 meals for each day worked at their booth. I am not able to work during the show due to other obligations at that time, but may in the future.

The garden is doing really well. We are already eating green onions, lettuce and spinach. The green beans are about ready to bloom, so it won't be long to canning season. The tomatoes are blooming a setting fruit. The corn is growing by leaps and bounds.

Tonight we had fresh blue gil filets for dinner. They were so good. Bill has gone to the lake to see if he can catch some more. We want to be sure we have enough fish froze to have plenty for winter.

Catch everyone on a less busy day.

Peggy

Enjoyable day

Today I was with my friend JoAnn. While at her house an electrician was also there finishing up some things that needed to be done on her new home. He and his helper were working in the craft room that we were in as well as other places in the house. She was not happy with the light on the ceiling fan and just explained to him what she wanted. They went to get some supplies and picked out a new light for the craft room. When they came back they showed us what they bought and we both said at the same time......that is perfect!



I was working on a quilt binding and JoAnn worked on a quilt she is making for her Granddaughter out of the GD childhood clothing. We kind of bounced some ideas off of each other about the quilt she was making and a quilt block I need to applique for a mutual friend. I confirmed that she could do what she wanted to do with her quilt and she helped me solidify my idea for the quilt block I need to make. She even had a pictures to help me with my idea. Now I just need to draw it and pick out the fabric to get it made.

Our kitten, Gordo, is growing my leaps and bounds. He is able to leap to places that gets him into trouble being there and he bounds under feet so he sometimes goes sailing across the floor. He is learning our rules, but sometimes I think he is very hard headed and must learn the hard way. So far Gordo has been a very good kitten. Thank goodness he doesn't whine like his namesake. He is still in the chewing stage, and I will be glad when that ends. All in all he has adjusted well.

Bill caught a good mess of fish. We ate them night before last. Unfortunately it took a few days to have enough to bring home. He again went fishing today, but didn't have enough to bring home. We still have plenty, but like to share with others. It has been tough fishing this year due to the cooler wetter then normal weather. I am not complaining, because I would rather have cool weather then the heat and humidity of the summer in this part of KY.

I will post a picture soon of a quilt that is almost finished.

First Day Home

Today is our first day home from a quick trip to the Talladega NASCAR race that were held over the weekend. We were with many relatives during the trip and we had lots of fun. I did not go to the two races. I stayed with Bill's Nephew Bryon, his wife Leann and Great Nephew Bradley. We chatted and watched TV including the races. Bill stayed home from the race on Saturday so Bradley could attend. Bradley was happy, because his favorite driver Tony Stewart won.

Bill's son, JR and grandson Devin and another nephew Eric and his girlfriend Melisa were in Alabama for the races also. It is fun for all of us to get together once or twice a year. Sunday I was fortunate to see Bill's great niece Cassie and her two little ones. The came back for a few minutes on Monday prior to us leaving so everyone could see Cassie, Cheyenne and Calley.

Today JR and Devin left here for their home in WI and Bill and I went to town so we could have a little "Our" time together. While we were in town we found a new kitten. He has not received a name yet, but I think by the picture you can see that Bill and him are going to be best buddies. I told Bill he can not name the new kitten Buddy, because we had a cat in the past named Buddy.

I think we will need to put a bell on the kitten. Bill woke up enough to put the kitten in the kitty bed. I saw it sleeping there, but now it is gone. It may be under the quilt again with Bill, but I don't know. Hopefully Bill will realize the kitten is there, if it is there, when I wake him up for dinner. I will post later.

Peggy........worried about the safety of the new kitten!

Parting of Ways

Things change in life daily, but sometimes changes are dramatic. For instance births, deaths, marriages, new jobs or having to leave a job. No matter what the dramatic change is in one's life each of us need to look at the good that comes from that change. The good in my most recent change in life allows me time to help my family with the out door work.



Most recently I parted from a job that I truly enjoyed. I was a two way parting. By that I mean I needed to not do part of the job so the gal I was working for decided she no longer needed my help on the other part of the job. So I call this a mutual departure. I am not mad or even sad about no longer having this job. What does sadden me is I am not sure the person I worked for understands that the stress she was dealing with (not directly related to the job we were doing) at the time of the departure was the cause of the departure. Sometimes we need to delay projects, ideas or plans to be able to do one job well before starting another job.



I work under the rule that when one door closes another one opens. Sometimes people need to look a bit to find that open door but doors are open for each and every one of us. For me a door opened last night. It is not a big, long term project, but I have a small job. I also have a pattern and quilt to make for Quilting Treasures in the next week or so and a baby quilt to finish. My step son and grandson will be visiting next week and we are all going on a trip to Talladega to go to the NASCAR races.



The weather has changed so the past couple of days we have been working outside planting the garden. I think we will finish with the most of the seed planting tomorrow and will wait a week or two until we plant the tomatoes and peppers. The local co-ops have not received their bare root cabbage plants, so we may not plant them this year. We have a few cabbage plants, but not as many as my Dad thinks we need.

Today is Bill's Birthday. We went out to eat lunch and since Bill usually doesn't eat desert Pam, the waitress, put his birthday candle on his hamburger. I thought it was so funny to see the candle right there in the hamburger meat.

Tonight I need to open my EQ6 Quilt Design Program and check the design I have drawn for the Quilting Treasures project. It includes a setting sun, but that is all I am going to tell you until I can post a link to the fabric and pattern.

So don't forget to value all your experiences and always look for the good in situation instead of dwelling on the bad.

Where or where have I been??????

I have not posted since my birthday, but with very good reason for my lack of publishing. Shortly after my birthday Bill and I left for a vacation in Wisconsin. We had many people ask us WHY are you going north in March. The main reason was our 10 year old grandson was to be on vacation from school also. The other reason was we had not been back to my husband's home state since last summer. So for more then a week we were not near a computer.

We stayed at a Condo in Wisconsin Dells. This way we didn't bother anyone else and could have our grandson visit with us. We went out to eat a few times, but we had also brought food with us so we didn't have to leave the Condo if we didn't want to leave. Some people like going out to eat on vacations, but I don't mind cooking. We also did some pre-preparations so most of the time the cooking was easy. On Friday of our visit two of Bill's sisters, a brother-in=law neice and son were visiting for most of the day. We had a great time visiting, eating and playing cards. This was also Bill's son's birthday, but we didn't celebrate it until the next day.

The Saturday party included Bill's son, his wife and son, a nephew and his girlfriend, Bill and myself. Again this included a meal, card playing and lots of chatter. We had a great time and actually celebrated Bill's son and nephew's 34 th birthdays.

Upon arriving home early early in the morning Monday we checked the computer for messages and to actually find out the time. (The electric had been out while we were gone). I managed to get the computer to boot up once, then it froze up and would reboot. Monday a neighbor told us that most likely the power source in our tower was shot. I called around trying to find the part, but everyone wanted to fix the computer, not just sell the part. I finally found one that was larger then we needed, but available to buy. This is how computer dependant our society is today. Every store or computer place I called said to me after I told them I could not boot up my computer and the part I was looking for......."You could go ON-LINE to buy the part" My response to them was "If I could get ON-LINE I would not be calling you looking for the part." Then I immediately hung up. Monday evening we had bad electrical storms, so I didn't want to work on the computer. After the storms calmed down I shakenly installed the new power source. Working on our computer is something I do, but am always worried about it working correctly after I am done. With lots of prayer I finished the installation and plugged everything back in and turned on the computer. I was so thankful to see the screen light up and the disk turning, lights flashing etc. Our computer works again!!!!!!!

The rest of the week was spent at Patti's getting things ready to take her store to the Quilt Festival (I think that is the name) in Chicago. The show is actually in Rosemont west of the city, but close enough to be considered Chicago to those who don't know. Patti and I are leaving Monday. We plan to stay south of the city Monday night and go to the show location Tuesday mid morning. Then the work begins. We have a trailer full of store stuff that will need to be unloaded, unpacked and the booth looking attractive by Wednesday evening. I hope to see many people I know, as I used to live just across the Indiana border from Chicago. I know I might not recognize former friends and relatives, but maybe I will.

Must get going. Dinner is calling.

Happy Birthday to.......ME!

Today I am blessed to be one year older. I like to spend my birthday with my dh Bill. To reflect a bit on this our first year together was in 2003. It was a mild spring day on March 18, 2003 and we decided to spend the day fishing at the pier in our neighborhood. We did well catching fish, enjoying each other's company and making the day special. Many people would have been upset with the day, because we sat through a misty rain most of the day. The way we looked at it was we were together, no one was bothering us and we were enjoying the day fishing. We have repeated several birthdays fishing, but none was as special as that first birthday we were together.

We do try to spend my birthday together. The place may vary, but one constant is we talk about our life together.

Bill supports me with my love of quilting. He encourages me to do what I enjoy doing and to be with people who also enjoy quilting. If it wasn't for Bill I would not be working for Batiks by Design or going to National Quilt Shows or designing again. He also makes sure that I don't overextend myself. I have the tendancy to work too hard to please others and forget to take care of my own needs. I love Bill for taking care of me (and my parents when I am gone).

Today was a totally different birthday for us. I woke very early 4:19am. We had an appointment for 9:15am 65 miles away from home. I was also concerned about today's weather, because we were to get thunderstorms and lots of rain. For the most part the bad storms and heavy rains did not happen where we were, but it was very windy. Our appointment went well, but we won't really know the results of it for a while.

On our way home we stopped at our favorite local restaurant to have some lunch. A man from our neighborhood was also there and sat to talk with us for a while. We are neighbors, but don't see each other often. To make this long story short we spent several hours talking. We got home just in time to make some baked potatoes and grill some steaks to enjoy a family dinner together with my parents.

After dinner we drove down to the lake. We could not have fished from the pier today even if we had the time. The lake is up over the pier and the waves on the lake were white capping. With all the rain north of us I think they will need to hold the water in our lake to allow the flooding above the dam to go down. This makes us happy, because fishing is usually better during a flood and for the summer after a flood.

Tomorrow it is back to work. I think we will be assembling some kits and cutting fat quarter for the April shows. Stop by the International Quilt Fesival at the Batiks by Design booth # 1241 & 1243 to meet both Patti and myself. The fesival is April 11-13. We will also be set up at the Kentucky Oaks Mall during the AQS show in Paducah, KY, but I will only be there thru Thursday April 24.

See all of you soon.

Peggy