Week 17 - Another Quiet One

Not a whole lot went on this past week.  That may prove to be a good thing...we don't always appreciate when our weeks are uneventful.  But I sure did this week.  No crazy stuff. 

I recently saw this picture come across my Facebook feed.  Gave me a chuckle, I must say.

We got some fabulous news yesterday.  Our son has been juggling family, work, school, and the Legislature for the past many months.  The Legislative session is over for the next 8 months with meetings once a month till January 2017. He is running for re-election and yesterday was the Utah Republican Convention - he received an overwhelming 84% of the delegates and will be the Republican candidate in the election in November.  We are so proud of him!

Additionally, our amazing son has been going to graduate school for the last year-and-a-half to obtain his MBA.  He told me yesterday he has formal classes till June 23rd and then one more online class to take in October but will 'walk' for graduation on May 6th.  Caps and Gowns and tassels and pictures!!! More proud parents can not be found anywhere!!! Congratulations, John....so proud!

A bit of set-up for this next photo.  The military requires clothing to be folded a certain way in boot camp...when my John came out of boot camp in 1973, he showed me how he wanted his t-shirts folded and frankly, I've folded them that way for the past 43 years.  One can always tell a military folded t-shirt....our son just sent us this picture of his youngest son folding a t-shirt....we recognized it right away.  This almost 6-year-old is folding his t-shirt the Navy way!  

Go, Hewston!!!

More next week.  Until then, thanks for stopping by. 

Week 16 - Strings and Movie Names

I promised I'd tell you what names the grands decided to call their two calves....and totally forgot last week.  Since I don't have a lot to tell you this week, it's probably a good thing I forgot - at least now I have something to say.

The little heifer is to be called Belle...she really is a beauty.  And the little steer is to be called Beast.  I wonder what movie the kids were watching when they were choosing the names. 

I was right last week when I said I'd be knocked out of the Sock Madness competition.  Tuesday morning I saw that there were no spots left, in spite of having only 1/2 of the second sock complete.  I promptly put that sock in time out and went about the rest of the week working on other things.  Things I wanted to work on...things that needed being done.  Fun things!

I got the monthly block done for the Saturday Sampler I'm doing thru a local quilt shop.  And I worked on an online Block-of-the-Month that started in January.  I've kept up with the monthly blocks on both of those.  Today I spent working on the online blocks...I even got the next two months done so I can devote my time to a big project I will be starting this next week.  Here are the two April blocks for the online project.  Same blocks, different fabrics.  

Sorry I haven't anything else this week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Week 15 - The Orchard and a Sock

Three years ago John planted 5 fruit trees - 3 apple, 1 crabapple, and  1 nectarine.  All except the nectarine flourished.  He decided to replace the one nectarine with  2 more.  So now we have 3 apples, 1 crabapple, and 2 nectarines.  And they are all starting to bud...so pretty, don't you think?

 Those trees are only about 3 1/2 feet tall, and I don't think they will produce any viable fruit this year...but I suspect we might have some next year...Can anyone say applesauce and apple pie filling?  I'll have to break out the book on preserving.

The 3rd Round of Sock Madness came out this past Monday.  I didn't get a chance to cast on till Tuesday afternoon.  The spots are filling up fast and I really don't believe I will finish these socks before the last spot is taken.  Again we have a toe-up cast on....moving cables, and a super-stretchy bind off.  I'm using a yarn whose colorway is called Sandpiper.  

The progress is coming along on preparations for Mom's moving in with us.  Only 3 weeks more to wait.  The room has been painted a lovely shade of palest teal-green and now it's just wait for her to arrive!

Last year when the Row by Row Experience concluded, I decided to not be so focused on getting patterns this next year.  The theme is Home Sweet Home and I can picture all kinds of homes patterns.  I decided NOT to ask all my various friends and family to make special trips to get patterns for me.  And I think I will keep that decision.  However, it appears they are expanding the shops to several in England and Netherlands....and one of them is near my friend, Eve, in Hampshire - I think I may need to ask her if she could make a trip to that one particular shop and get the pattern for me.  I have time to figure it out; the program doesn't start until the end of June.  

I leave you with wishes for a wonderful week, filled with good work, good food, and good friends!

Thanks for stopping by. 

Week 14 - In Which We Become Cattle Barons!

 I used to think that rain was an annoying weather condition.  It made the road slick.  It made my clothes damp - or downright wet - and that made me uncomfortable.  Puddles made mud and that was tracked into the house and made a mess.  That was before.  Before I moved here to Missouri and began living in the country and saw what the lack of rain did.  Before I depended on my well for the water we drink and wash our clothes with and clean our floors and bathe in. So, now, I get excited when I hear there will be rain in our future.  I love seeing the clouds gather in the sky and become grey and heavy with moisture. Moisture that will make the grass grow to become feed for cattle and grow vegetables and increase our water table.  

 These pictures show what I saw when I drove home from work on Wednesday....gathering clouds with masses of water inside...and we got 1.75 inches of rain overnight!  Can I hear a Yeah!!!

I think we can now take on the title of Cattle Barons!  On Friday, we took delivery of 2 more calves..one heifer and one steer.  The little steer is the solid black one and the heifer is the black with white face on the right.  They were born on October 13th and October 1st respectively.   Admittedly, they belong to our son and daughter-in-law but they will live on our property and so I'm claiming the Baron status for ourselves!  The male will ultimately become freezer fodder and the female will be bred for ongoing food production!  We don't have names for them yet...our grandchildren and their parents get that honor....will let you know the names once we have the Naming Ceremony (that consists of the Utah family telling us the names and me writing it down in the Cow Journal that I keep).  

 Here is the entire Herd in the south field.  That's Garnet, new steer, Aggie, new heifer, and Rosie.

 The cutest picture came across my Facebook page the other day.  It represents perfectly how I feel about the current choice of presidential candidates. 

Given the choice, I wonder which I would pick?  How about you?

Did you know, when we use the word try, we are giving ourselves permission to fail?  

Yoda said it best:

 Always say you will do it, not try to do it.  Your brain will know that you intend NOT to fail.  And success is within your grasp.

I leave you today with the following word play picture. Can you figure it out?

Thanks for stopping by.