Finish #4 by the end of July

Okay - I cannot stand not posting these pictures anymore. Lynsey, if you are reading, stop now.

A few months ago, I made an adorable capri pant/top outfit for a friends little girl who was turning 5. It didn't fit (see why I hate making clothes?). So Lynsey has a little girl about that age - maybe I can send them to her....

I made Jessie a similar outfit - which she trashed in 10 minutes of wearing it (seams were ripping, buttons were flying, fabric was ripping). Jessie is hard on clothes. She is such a girly girl, but also, such a slob. And I hate sewing clothes - they seem so fragile when I am done with them.

So I didn't want to send this cute outfit to Lynsey, to have it rip and fall apart while Kaylyn is wearing it.

So I made these:

Little dresses out of old sheets. of course, Jessie saw these and said she wanted one, but I'm not sure I want her trashing one of these either. Although these actually seem sturdier than the clothes I have made this summer....

Sew many uses for old sheets. And I've put on my list to do a quilt like this one. After I get my Seeing Stars quilt and my 30's pinwheels done.

Kris

Hay

Todd mowed hay on Saturday and we baled it Monday. 200 small square bales and 12 round bales off of 9 acres. Not bad.


Of course, the fun part comes now in that all the small squares need unloaded. And I got drafted to help, as everyone that normally helps is on vacation or busy with their own hay. My job is to toss them from the wagon (or the ground - wherever they end up with the kids dragging them to me at the front of the wagon) to Todd, who stacks them. I moan and groan about it, but really, it's not bad - a great form of exercise...

bales we unloaded last night:

bales we will unload tonight or tomorrow night:

15 acres to go - but that hay is not ours. The guy we "rent" the field off of, we get first cutting, he gets 2nd cutting, we get 3rd, and we bale it (he has kids to unload it).

My finish #5 is just about done - I just may get it done this afternoon when I get home. Hopefully.

PS - and to my winners - I'll be contacting all of you within the next couple days - I can't email you from work with my home email, so I have to do it from home, but we've been so busy...

See ya,

Kris

More Halter Breaking of Calves

I had to work Friday (7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.), and Saturday (6:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.) due to our district conference for the Church that I work for - what a fun and inspirational weekend it was.

And while I was working, Todd manned the farm:

This is the AMAZING chute Todd built - we brought the self-locking gate on the front this spring, he built the sides, back and floor, and even I can run a calf up into it, lock them in, put the halter on and walk them out the front - though I have been told (and told again) not to do this on my own just yet). Fine with me - I like to supervise - at least in the initial phase of halter breaking! And the great thing is, with the help of the skidlaoder, this sucker is portable all over the farm.

look at that nice butt!

The calves are doing better. Not great yet, but .....Todd can at least walk them without getting drug all over the place.



The girls who are showing them at the fair in just about 6 weeks came over last night and washed and blowed them out (think high powered hair dryer). Both calves are so calm, really - we have had some really wild ones in past years, but these, they just might do the trick.

I also spent some time on finish #5, and freezing more green beans. I'll have pictures of finish #5 by tomorrow hopefully.

Tonight we are going to look at some new calves to possibly buy - more on that later, but never, ever let hubby convince you after 15 years of raising cattle that it is necessary to switch breeds....

Kris

Brilliante (?) weblog

Thank you to Lyn, Lib and Arizona for this wonderful award! And I pick..... wait, does that mean I get to pick more than 7 since I received this from all 3 of you? While I can certainly think of that many, here's as many as I can do:

Angie, Amanda Jean, Katie, Jacquie, Spoonful of Sugar, AJ Quilts, Kristie, Crazy for Primitive Quilts, Amy, Lynsey, Gina

And really, anyone who has ever commented on this little old blog is SO deserving of this reward - you all have made my day! I do go and read each of your blogs, and enjoy ALL of them. I've loved having a whole new circle of friends here in cyberspace.

Kris

And the Winners Are:

Thanks to all of you who have posted here - so I drew 4 names:

Jacquie

Dawn

Lib; and

Beth

I have so appreciated everyone's comments over the months I've been blogging! And since I am now settling back into a more relaxed life style (read kids camp, weekend working, and girl scouts are done) - I'll be making something special for each of you. I'll be contacting each of you via email - or you can send me an email (tkjtbair at verizon dot net) with your address and any color preferences you may have.

What We've Been Up To

Our county fair is in 43 days. We have friends who girls are showing 2 of our calves as feeder calves at the fair (and then Jessie will show them as steers next year at the fair).

We've been halter breaking these 2 calves:

With 1 more coming in to be halter broke this weekend.

And I got these dried and in my spice cupboard:

I found the tags buried in the center of each plant: cilantro on the left and flat leaf basil on the right. Of course, the cilantro I am going to have coming out my ears - this is about a 1/3 of what I dried the other night (the basil has a little bit of a burnt smell to it, so the next batch I'm going to have to watch closer and see if it's just the basil, or if I actually burned it in the dehydrator).

Such fun.

Kris

P.S. Unfortunately, the 30's pinwheels will probably not be one of my 5 in July - but it is getting closer to being done. I have another project in the works for my 5 by the end of July - and it's fitting for a patriotic couple of months.....more later on that though.....

Finishes #4 for 5 by the end of July

Here's a sneak peak at finishes 4:

I can't show them fully, until the person they are intended for receives them, but....there are 2 done. And while not necessarily quilty, they are something I've wanted to try for a long, long time (since Jessie was a baby). so....

1 more to go, and that should happen over the next few nights....

Kris

A Call for Help

I finally made it out to my garden - I start harvesting my herbs....

and the little tags I put in the garden are no more.

I think this is cilantro:


I think this is some sort of basil:


And I have no clue what this is:

Edited to add (10:00 p.m.) - the bottom one is a weed. I had it all picked to put in the dehydrator after the cilantro and basil, and Todd came home - why in the heck are you drying a weed?!?!?!? LOL - like I said, the weeds are growing good!!!

Anyone think I am wrong??? If so, please speak up!!

Some of my herbs were flowering (the oregano I think) and if I am remembering correctly, they aren't the best harvested when flowering, so I just cut them off below the flowering parts - is this true? Or can I dry them in the dehydrator while flowering and use them???

Like I said....HELP!

And it's amazing how quickly the weeds take over after being away from the garden for a week!! Oh well - I know where I will be for an hour or so each evening for the next week....


Kris

And then there were 24

The hatchery where I get my chicks from - Meyer Hatchery - they are AWESOME!!

I got there today after work, and one of the hens I had ordered had a reaction to the Marecks vaccine, so they gave me a replacement chick (an Ameraucana) and didn't charge me for it, and then I got 25% off of any supplies I need (Todd asked me why I didn't get a crested hen as that is what I have been campaigning for, with limited success - but honestly, I didn't even think about getting one).

So I got a crate to put the babies in:

And a 4 gallon water font for the bigger chickies:

And our bigger chickies have been escaping to have the run of the whole buckeye barn - no wonder when they like to do the high wire act:

I think it's time for them to go outside some....

Well, I'm off to get dinner and try to do some sewing.

See ya,

Kris

Weekend Tidbits

Well, I had hoped to get some sewing in - but I spent several hours in my flowerbed and garden Saturday morning (when the thistles are taller than I am it is time to do something out there) - I was out there at 8:00 a.m. Saturday and came in when the heat got too bad at 11:00 - then I spent several hours cleaning my house - still not "clean" to my liking, but better. Then I went to a neighbor friends - their kids are the same age as Jessie and Tyler, and they are going on vacation so Jessie and I are bunny sitting. One thing led to another, we swapped kids for a few hours, and ended up eating dinner with them and going swimming last night from about 8-10.


Todd baled straw, we unloaded straw Saturday as well, then loaded some of it back up Sunday morning before church for my FIL to take some home for his donkeys. We spent all afternoon Sunday moving cows around, getting rid of our rent-an-Angus-bull, loaded up a steer to take to the butcher (since I am totally out of beef), went to a farm about 15 minutes south of us to look at heifers, and came home.


And my water garden has blooming water lilies:




2 blooms Saturday, 3 on Sunday. It looks a little wild in there - this weekend we are hoping to dig another pond - right now you cannot find the fish for all the vegetation in there.




The 3rd and final batch of chicks comes today - and the first 2 batches are growing amazingly fast. I think I can tell the roosters apart - there are 3 that have very definite combs compared to everyone else:




But - I'm planning on working on my 30's pinwheels this week - I've sent my registration in for our County Fair, so there is no backing out now. That and another picnic quilt for my Mom. And working on my seeing stars Quilt A Long Quilt.


See ya,
Kris

Whew. I think I'm back.

Okay - our week is over - but you know what? I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Jessie love, love, loved girl scout day camp. It helped also that she had 6 other friends from her troop there (but then again, she enjoyed it last year and she was the only one from her troop). It was funny - it was my job to pick them up most afternoons and ferry them all home - the first night they were wound - and each night got a little quieter until Friday night no one made a peep.

VBS was great - both kids liked it and are ready to go again. Water balloon fights (that our PASTOR initiated by taking water balloons into the sanctuary and getting the kids to run outside where he pelted them). Todd went with me 1 night to VBS - and about died watching all these kids run wild through the sanctuary. But as 1 lady told him - our church wants the kids to enjoy coming and participating. hmmm. I believe we belong to a very laid back church.

Tyler is in the green tshirt - Jessie in the pink tank top.

Of course, by the time I got home from dropping all the girls off, it was 4:30 usually, and we had to leave for VBS by 5:30 - so dinner was a LOT on the fly. For myself, I forget what dinner tastes like....maybe tonight.

I did find some time to do a little retail therapy - on my way to pick up the girls, I drove right by my favorite quilt shop - so of course, I had to stop and support the local economy, right? And they were having a Anniversary sale - 30% off of all fabric!






11 yards doesn't look like much, does it (she sells a LOT of fat 1/2's and a few fat 1/4's)? This will be made into a bagsket, pincushions, knitting needle holder and who knows what else.


We also did 4-H on Wednesday night - field trip to a local dairy - before VBS. Jessie was impressed, and came home asking if she could show a dairy calf next year at the fair. We'll have to work on that one....


And Todd decided to bale straw. Actually, we have friends that combined their wheat, and didn't want the straw - so it was ours for the baling. 14 big squares and 200 small squares. He arranged with a local farmer to bale the big squares for us - at $10 a bale to bale it, I'm happy.


Now this weekend it's clean my house, harvest some herbs to dry, work with the 2 calves going to our county fair (more Todd's job than mine), and do some sewing. This will seem relaxing after this week!
Kris

Week from %()#&%)(#

I may or may not be around this week in bloggyland - this week will be insane! I'll try and check in with ya'll, but....no promises here.

I work from 8-2 every day (and we are gearing up for our District Conference the last weekend in July, and guess who's job it is to get everything ready for that? - MINE), Jessie is at girl scout camp every day that is done at 3 each afternoon, so I run to the next town from work, pick her and 3 other girls up every day and run everyone home, and then Jessie and Tyler have Vacation Bible School every night this week from 6-8:30, Jessie has therapy tuesday and thursday from 4-5 or so, and the kids have 4-h tomorrow night at 5:30.

Can I cram anything else into this week? no wait, don't answer this.

I also want to thank everyone for their comments on both my give-away post and the Quilt to Finish for the Fair post - this post is 136 (I said I was not paying attention) and I am going to finish the Pinwheel Quilt for the fair, and, time permitting, my Seeing Stars quilt as well. We shall see. Jessie wants her Log Cabin quilt to go in as well, so .....

4 more weeks until school starts and then things may calm down......no wait, both kids are in fall soccer........

And the photo above - that's half of a table runner that I made oh about a year ago, and my Mom confiscated it for her house. I have enough to do another one for me - maybe someday....

OOPS

I just thought to look - and I am way over on 100 posts.

So, for my error, a give away is in the works. Haven't a clue what I will make the lucky person, but leave a comment before July 25th (on this post or any post after this one) and I will draw a name or 2 and make the lucky person(s) something.

Enjoy,
Kris

Weekend work

We (ahem, rather TODD) turned this:

(Asphalt grindings from a recent-road-resurfacing- around-the-corner-dirt-cheap-turned-into-barn-flooring to prevent a pond in the barn when it rains).

Into this:




Which we will stack our roundbales on once it is packed down (eventually the whole barn floor will be like this - no more mud).

And we finally got calves weaned, which I will post about later. And I worked out in my garden, and we had friends and Grandparents over for dinner both nights. But that has been it for the weekend.

And of course, it was so stinking hot, we had to do this as well:




Kris

A. Very. Important. Question.

A good quilty friend called me last night. Entries in the Quilting division are down for our County Fair coming up the middle of September (8 weeks away - at least she gave me plenty of time!).

Do I have anything I can enter?

I have this:

Patchwork Block of the Month

This:

Seeing Stars Quilt A Long

(for a finished version, click here)

Or this:

30's Pinwheels

Which one do you think??? Am I insane?


(And of course, none of them are finished yet - I do have the backing, batting and binding for the pinwheels - I'm just procrastinating on actually finishing it).


Leave me a comment or vote on the sidebar. Help me decide if I should stress myself out and do this, please!!

Kris

Blah.

Now it's time for a little rambling ranting:

What a crazy week. Between these insane rain showers that dump an inch of rain in 45 minutes, and then send the temp. back up to the high 80's, and our idiotic neighbor who actually sued us for keeping our cows and baling hay - if I could say "chuck it all and move to the city, I would."

But then we wouldn't have these (which sure do taste yummy in our freezer - and we are the only ones of our friends who can truthfully say we eat steaks once or twice a week for most of the year):

So we deal with the neighbor (who isn't actually a neighbor, but he is 3 properties away from ours - I think he needs meds - heck, there are days I KNOW I need meds myself) by going to our attorney, getting every other lot owner in our allotment to sign an Affidavit saying our cows and our farming are not obnoxious and offensive, and pulling out all our tax returns to prove that we are not farming commercialy, this is not our main source of income (or even a second or third source of income), pulling our property's zoning ordinance that shows that we are zoned in an Agricultural District (and are thus exempt from stupid restrictions), and we claimed he just filed a nuisance lawsuit, and with any luck, his attorney will convince him next week to back down and life will be good as we know and love it.

Just to give you an idea of how ignorant he is - all of our cows are beef cows - he also alleges in his Complaint that we are selling the milk we get off of our DAIRY COWS privately to individuals for human consumption.

Note to self: Never, ever, ever again buy a 20 acre lot in an allotment where there are very unclear and vague restrictions governing said lots, one of which is "no swine or poultry shall be harbored on said lots, nor any other commercial operation that becomes obnoxious or offensive to residential use." I certainly did not buying 20 acres to look at weeds and spend every day on a lawn mower. Unfortunately for us, this neighbor thinks these restrictions are gospel.

Fortunately for us, our neighbors who are actually adjacent to us love our cows, love us, and love to see Todd and Tyler out there on the tractor baling hay. Our neighbors must not be able to hear the cows and calves bawling when it is weaning time:)

And you can bet your butt those stupid restrictions are being changed as we speak, as we only need 2/3 of the lot owners to agree to change them, and we have 21 out of 22 lot owners agreeing to change them (and you can guess who the one is that doesn't want them changed!!)

No sewing has been done since earlier in the week - but I'm hoping to pull my 4th finish for July out of my hat by Sunday night!! We'll see how successful I am. And I do have a package to mail off to a dear friend, hopefully I will get it in the mail tomorrow-I am the loser now!!

And you're seeing the daylillies because they have just started to bloom, and I love the colors!
Kris

Farming Down Time

Every year, we get a little bit of a break in farm activities - which is always nice.
Our corn is growing:


The calves are growing:


Hay is made:


The garden looks decent (note - I did NOT say my garden looks wonderful - I need to get out there and control the grass in some spots):



But, we are at the point where we can take a little breather.

Of course, straw will be ready to bale in the next couple of weeks, and probably our second cutting of hay will be ready at the same time.

On the game plan for this week:

*wean calves
*get a few cows ready to ship to auction (we are upgrading our herd in anticipation of the kids showing steers at our County Fair)
*garden, garden, garden
*AND try to avoid the rain!! Last night coming home from Jessie's physical therapy, we were deluged with a horrific lightning storm/rain combo. Bad enough that even I pulled off the road to wait it out. 1 inch of rain in 45 minutes. No power for most of the evening so we enjoyed a nice, QUIET evening.

That's about it 'round here.

Kris