HEY, i’m back!!!

Well, finally getting back into the swing of things around here….had a quiet Christmas and New Years…here are some pics of my Christmas tree..i rather liked it this year!! 

 

and because i really like taking close ups with my camera, here are a couple…..

 

 

i have been enjoying the interaction of the animals here….mostly the barn cats with the blue jays…..

Here is a Blue Jay at the feeder….

 

and watching it very closely……

 

there is also our resident flock of pigeons…and, the very hopeful cat…

 

The other morning, i was excited to see a fox hunting mice in the back field….i caught him here in mid-jump!

 

ok, a bit of quilting news….

My quilt, Celise, is down in Los Angeles…(wish i was too!!) in the Road to California quilt show…i am presently waiting to hear how the judging went……

The garlic is harvested….finally!

We spent the last couple of weeks finishing the garage…

Nine pot lights in the ceiling just in case I get it for a studio some day.

The hanging rack and fan ready for garlic

…and harvesting our garlic crop

 

We tied them in bunches of 20. This is the first variety.

Here they are with the tops chopped off and tied in place. You can see that every other bunch is tied to the back side of the rack.

Jump forward…here is the whole crop on the rack…

 

Very cool to have it finally done! Now they dry for a month.

The other evening about twilight, I looked over to the barn and saw this sight…

 

 

It seems we have a raccoon living in the barn and he gets along with the kittens!!

He headed across the driveway-

 

I was interested to notice that both feet on this side are off the ground at the same time!

He proceeded to one of our sour cherry trees and climbed up…

 

 

After that, all I saw was the branches shaking as he helped himself to a snack!

Here is another spot that Max has decided he likes…

 

Leo (or Spook as I sometimes call him!) is a loyal companion.

I missed the entry ‘window’ for the Houston International Quilt Festival so I will try to get ‘Celise’ entered into the Road to California show  which is early next year. We’ll see how she does there.

 

 

 

Farm stuff…(whatever happened to the quilting??)

This entry is just to show you that we have been doing things. Yeah, I know I should be in my studio coming up with my next ‘masterpiece’ but farm things keep ‘cropping’ up and have to be done!

Here is what has been going on in our garage reno…

We poured a cement floor. Remember, Trev put down heating pipes and those had to be suspended in the cement. We ended up by placing long strips of styrofoam under the wire grid to hold the whole thing up.

The truck arrives…I love the paint job!

Just before he began to pour, I asked him to put some dish soap into the mix in the truck. He said no-one had ever asked him to do that! I told him that a crazy neighbour said that it worked to keep the cement a light colour and makes it harder. (See, we tried it, Gord!) He added it and I must say that even now, a week or so later, it is a very light, almost white colour.

Trev rented a power tool to smooth the surface. Then, they leveled it off with a long, heavy metal strip…

I might add here that, while cleaning this metal bar off later, it fell on my head giving me a concussion!! Ouchh!!

The final product…

After the floor hardened, we were able to get in and start framing the walls. ( When I say we, I mean Trev!)

Here’s the BEFORE shot…

And the AFTER shot…

See that window on the floor? It went here…

So yesterday, we started putting boards onto the ceiling. (this time, I really mean WE!) It didn’t go very well. I may take pics today so that you can see how it’s going.

Other news…

We bought a new (to us) square baler. It arrived on a truck because the tires were in no shape to pull it home.

Work has been continuing in the garlic patch as well. I finally got the last of the scapes taken off. It almost seemed like they grew back overnight because I could do a whole row and the next day, there were tons still to cut in the same row! We got a whole, heaping tub full for each row. I didn’t really know what to do with them all. We found out that they taste really good if tossed in oil and bar-b-qued but what else?

I looked up some recipes for pickled garlic scapes on-line and found a likely one. I made about 19 quarts before deciding that was enough!

The recipe…

Cut the long tips and flower heads off the scapes.

Put them into sterilized jars.

I left them whole because I like the look of them in the jars. Some people chop them up. Your choice.

Cover them with boiling vinegar mixture. 5 cups water, 3 cups vinegar and 1/4 cup pickling salt. (This is for about 2 quarts)

Process them in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Here’s what they look like now.

And the cute shot for the day…

What we’ve been up to…

Well, to start with, I want to share some interesting pictures that I took recently…

When I was hunting around in the attic for some drawers to use for library shelves, I came across this written on the bottom of one…

Neat historical document!

The other day, we had this wonderful sunset…

I love the tree silhouettes.

I saw this great, orange full moon recently as well…

I think that’s one of our power lines in front of it.

I snipped off some tips from my mini rose and rooted them. They all look like this now with one cute little bloom…

Alright, enough of the random shots.

We have been able to pick up some farm machinery in the last week. We drove a couple of hours into New Brunswick to get this sickle mower.

The proud new owner! (boys and their toys, eh?)

Here it is in action…

That was the up close shot. Here it is in the back field. The grass was really high!

Can you spot my hubby in this one?

That was pretty funny, I thought!

The next piece was picked up two days ago. It is a tedder. The two wheels with teeth spin around and fluff up the grass so that it dries evenly.

And here it is in action…

The other project we have been working on is converting our garage into an insulated, heated building for whatever we need. At the moment, we will need a place to hang the garlic crop to dry. Trev started by borrowing the neighbour’s skid steer to break up the old cement floor and pile it outside.

That worked really well and saved hours of work with a jackhammer! He was happy.

Then, we had to level the gravel floor and then a layer of plastic was put down with sheets of styrofoam over that.

This shows the steel grid that was then put on.

We then had to tie on some plastic tubing (eventually, hot water will be running through this to heat the floor).

I don’t have a shot of it, but we then added strips of styrofoam under the grid to lift the whole thing up. It will need to be embedded in the cement. We should be able to pour that in the next day or two. We should also be able to bale our hay tomorrow!

Next, I want to show you what our garlic crop looks like now.

We have started to cut the scapes off now. These are the flower stalks that grow up from the center and have to be removed so that the plant puts its energy into the bulb. Scapes taste really good in stir fries, bar-b-qued, or just chopped up fine in dips or potatoes. They have a mild garlic flavour if cooked and a nice, spicy flavour if eaten raw.

They are also really pretty!

These are the scapes from just one row…

Alright, last but not least, the cats continue to become comfortable in the house and have found many spots to laze away their days.

They both like the window ledge in our bedroom. When the window is up, they can smell lots of things through the screen!

Max likes the chairs in the sunporch…

I’m beginning to see that this is Leo’s favourite position!!

Recognize the rug, mom?

Pfun with the Pfaff…

I’ve been playing. Yup. The Pfaff Creative Performance Embroidery machine that I won at the quilt show is really great!

So far, it has been doing all the work while I (the assistant) just hang around, change thread, ooh and ahhh, and invite friends over to watch the show!

It came with loads of attachments, tons of on-board images, and 3 hoops of various sizes…

You can see some of the earlier playing around I did. I started small and then went for broke and did some of the bigger ones.

It did not come with a dust cover so I decided to make one. I found this really cool picture with butterflies and set it up. Here it is just getting going…

And a bit later…

And…

I also found a neat scroll and it stitched that on…

So here’s the front of the cover…

The lettering I did (that’s why it’s not as perfect as the rest-I’m still getting used to the free-motion foot)

Here’s that big butterfly…

Such incredible detail!

The back…

I love how the gold outline looks like beads…

OK, I made a peacock feather as a request for my daughter.

And I’m throwing in this cute one for her daughter…

I’ll need to find something for her son, too!

I didn’t get the purple accessory bag with the machine so I took a purple lunch bag that my husband didn’t want and stitched this Victorian design and hand-sewed it on to cover a logo that I didn’t need.

Works for me!

I also finished knitting a beaded purse in the last week. I ordered the brass purse frame from Hong Kong. Here is the purse with one  end sewn on…

And the finished product…

I have also been plugging away at the scarves but when it is hot out, the wool sticks to my fingers so I don’t work on them a lot!

Last, but not least, I have some recent pictures of Max (Maxwell Smart!)

And Leo…

Such a hard life!! They’re tired all day because they run all over the place at night. That includes my bed! I’m glad their hard, catnip ball is finally downstairs. That was REALLY noisy when it bounced down at 3:00 in the morning!

I am trying to think of a great quilt idea for next year’s show….anyone???

Venus!

I just found a great site that will be streaming live during the whole transit of Venus in front of the sun. Here’s the address if you are interested…

Here is a shot of the screen that I just took…

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/watch-transit-venus

You will probably have to type the whole thing in as it didn’t underline like I hoped it would.

Enjoy!

Oh, by the way, that interesting piece of machinery that we just got…

is a ‘side delivery wheel rake’  which basically means that after we cut the grass for hay, this implement rakes it into rows so that the baler can pick it up easier. Good guesses, though!

Halifax and Lunenberg

OK, here are more details and pictures of our trip to Halifax for the Canadian National Juried quilt show.

We began, as any driving journey must, by paying @$43.00 just to get off Prince Edward Island. Our journey took us through New Brunswick (not much to see on our route but trees) and into Nova Scotia.

We began to see rolling hills and lovely, picturesque farms…

…some interesting places…

…another sign and a huge native holding a torch…

We arrived in Halifax,

checked into our hotel, and got back in the truck to head out to Dalhousie University. It was a rather grey and drizzly day so the pictures aren’t really pretty, but they give and idea of the area.

Loads of wonderful, old buildings – many of them built out of brick or stone (mostly granite) with ornate details. The houses (at least the older ones) are painted in bright colours and all look very cheerful. It was really hard to find a parking spot at the university but we finally did and made our way to the building housing the quilt show. I already described the award ceremony.

The next morning, we went back to the university to get a picture of me with the quilt. Pictures of the show were not permitted as a booklet will be coming later. Here I am…

I think she won partly on the ‘cuteness factor!’

Anyway, we spent the day there as I happily wandered around the merchants mall. I was able to check out the embroidery machine that I won and got an informative tutorial on how to use it.

The following day, we took in some of the Halifax sights. The most interesting one was the  Citadel. This is a stone ‘fort’ on top of the highest point that overlooks the harbour (incidentally, the Halifax harbour is the second largest in the world!)

Here are some shots taken there…

The outer buildings all have dirt and grass on top. You can see the chimneys sticking out of the grass…

New recruits…I believe it was ‘bayonet day’. They spent the whole time we were there marching and lining up and thrusting.

People walking around in period costume made it feel like stepping back into history…

This lot were supposed to fire off the canon at noon…

It kept misfiring and didn’t go off until around 1:00, making everyone jump!

What is it about men and big guns?

The whole citadel is surrounded by a ditch (not a moat as it was never filled with water) There are narrow windows in all the walls so that every square inch of the ditch can be covered by guns.

We were fascinated by the incredible, carved granite drains everywhere!

There were bagpipe bands wandering around playing the most lively pieces. They were in full costumes…

This fort was designed and built so well that it was NEVER attacked!

The harbour. The city behind this ship is Dartmouth which is just across the bridge from Halifax.

Alright, I wasn’t falling over or anything when I took this shot. The ship was so long that I could only fit the whole thing in diagonally!

I include 2 shots of this next building because, as an artist, I really love faux painting. Take a close look at them…

It really looks like a large canvas was attached to the building and is peeling off. NOT! The whole thing was painted on.

On Friday, we drove an hour south to the city of Lunenberg. This is a very lovely and picturesque place. We wandered around the waterfront for quite a while.

The Bluenose II is here in a huge tarp building. It has been rebuilt over the last 2 years and will be back in the water sometime in July this year. I couldn’t get the whole thing in my lens so here is just the bow…

Instead of hanging flags or banners on their posts down the streets, they hung painted metal sea creatures…

I love them! Anyway, it’s a lovely place that you will have to see for yourself! We’ll be going again.

Before leaving for home on Saturday, we picked up my quilt and then picked up two cats who are going to be making their home with us. They were very quiet on the trip home and settled in quite well in the sunporch. I will be introducing them to the rest of the house slowly.

One is a year old blue-point Himalayan called Leo (so far)

I did let them into the front entry for a bit today. Here’s Leo on the stairs…

The other cat is a very large gold and brown tabby. His name is Maxwell Smart…

I’m sure you’ll be seeing more shots of them in the future!