Smoothing Out The Divots.

The back part of our property was not kept mowed.  It was just bush hogged a few times a year.  I wanted it mowed regularly so we bought a zero turn mower and we've been trying to dig out all the roots and rocks.  This has left divots and bumps which slows down the speed you can mow. We don't want to tear up our new mower!

   

The new shop had some excavation done to accommodate the footings and slab.  We have a large pile  of dirt...and rocks and roots.  Lee has been using the tractor to take buckets of dirt around the yard and filling in the depressions.

   

I expect the grass will take some time to fill in.  At least we'll be able to speed up the mowing.

   

A New Garage

When we moved to our new house it was missing one thing.   A shop/garage for Lee to store and work on his cars and trucks.  Fortunately we have plenty of room to add a building for this purpose.  We are now in the process in correcting that.

   

There was an old abandoned well too close to the new location, so we had to cap it.

   

This involves filling the hole and capping it.  

   

We also had some glue lam beams delivered.   The are beams made of layers of wood laminated together to make a super strong beam. These are stronger, yet smaller than a solid beam of wood.

   

Next they brought us some trusses.  These will hold up the roof.

   

We had to remove a tree, which wasn't my favorite part.  We now have the permit and the construction will start soon.

Rosalind's Quilt

My sister Rosalind started a quilt. It is a cathedral window pattern and is all hand stitched.  It is made with triangles of a light fabric.  You fold the edges of the triangles over a square of a patterned fabric, to sew it to the fabric in a diamond shape.  Like this.

   

Roz hand stitched everything.  I don't know if she even owned a sewing machine.

Then she passed away and the pieces were forgotten in a storage space.  Her husband remarried and then he got cancer and passed away.  His widow contacted me and as she went through the storage unit and has Kindly sent me several boxes of Rosalind's keepsakes.  The quilt squares were in one of the boxes.

I decided the quilt needed to be finished.

   

The finished squares had a lot of issues in terms of evenness.  I tried to fix them with ironing.  This was minimally effective.

   

There were over 100 squares.  The original pattern called for all the finished squares to be sewn together and then continue adding in the colorful squares. There was enough fabric to do so and I thought about finishing it that way.  ButI didn't want to hand stitch a quilt that was going to end up King size.   If I machine sewed it, there would be an obvious difference between the triangles.  Also, it would be more my quilt, at the end, then the quilt Roz started.

   

I decided to keep the squares as she made them and assemble it as I would any other quilt.

I also chose to take the advice of the folks at my local fabric store, Web Fabric.  They suggested  breaking the quilt up into two smaller quilts.  It would be much easier to do the quilting on my regular sewing machine.  It meant that I could make the second quilt for my niece.  She and Roz had started the quilts together and she was a thrilled when I asked if she wanted a finished piece.

I chose some pink fabric to be the sashing between the squares and to try to even them up. My sister's nickname was Pinky, so this was an homage to that.  I'll get to that next.

Please, Not Yet

   

I recently found a broken egg in a nest box.  The shell was so thin that just the weight of the hen was enough to break the eggs.  This is not normal.  This can indicate there is not enough calcium in the diet. But I give them a high quality feed with plenty of calcium.  I also crunch up and return the eggshells to the chickens with their food.

But a weak shell can also be indicative of an older hen.  I think that is the case here.  I just lost one hen and another may be on her way out.

This is my least favorite part of owning animals

Poor Little Girl

When we bought this house it came with 12 chickens. By the time we moved in there were 10.  Chickens only live 4 to 5 years and the former owners explained some of them were nearing the end of their life span.

The last few days I have been finding one of the hens lying on her side and not even attempting to get up.  Each time I have set her on her feet and left her with food.  Tonight she was stuck on her side.  and is looking worse.  I gave her some water which she drank, propped her up and left her with food.

   

This time she was so light that I truly don't believe she will still be here in the morning.  It's sad, but it's life.

Lee, on the other hand, will be happy to see the end of the chickens.  They are just one more thing we have to arrange to have fed and cared for when we travel.

I haven't had them long enough to name them or to have them like me.  They no longer run from me, but we aren't buds.  We will still have 9, which is quite a few chickens, but it is sad.

Update: The Little Red Hen passed away overnight.

And then there were nine.

Finishing The New Craft Room

   

After the polyurethane dried on our finished counter tops, we attached them from underneath with screws.  The cabinets have little plastic doohickeys in the corners for this.

   

You'll notice a lower section. This is where I will use the sewing machine.  A taller counter is too hard on my back.  It is at 29 inches and works well for me.  Lee screwed 2X2 pine to the wall at the right height to support the counter top.

   

I used caulk where the top met the wall to hide the places where the wall wasn't perfectly straight.  The cut, on the other hand WAS perfect, she said modestly.

Then I could start clean up and putting away my crafting supplies.

   

Lee found some great shelves and brackets.  He installed them over the sewing table so I can reach for supplies from a sitting position.

    

I ordered some colorful drawer pulls to give a bit of whimsy.

  

The things you can find on Amazon!

   

   

I am ready for my next sewing project.  I have a quilt my sister started.  I may finish that.  Or make a new basket.  So many possibilities!

Behind the work station I set up the table with my Cricut.  It is now ready for card making.

   

What will I do???

A Borrowing Of Bones

   

I just finished A Borrowing Of Bones by Paula Munier.  It was a really good mystery and I highly recommend it.

On her last deployment, Mercy Carr was shot, her fiancé was killed and his bomb sniffing Malinois developed PTSD.  Yes, dogs can get that, too.  Mercy was able to retire with the dog, Elvis, and moved home to Vermont to heal.

But a mystery isn't mysterious without a puzzle to solve. While hiking in the woods, Elvis alerts on a pile of debris and finds a baby.  She gets the baby to the hospital but she soon disappears.

Mercy and Elvis find themselves trying to find the missing baby and her mother.  She meets Troy,  a U.S. Game Warden with a Newfoundland trained in Search and Rescue.  They join forces to solve the multiple, yet connected, issues that arise as Mercy uses her investigative training from the military.  This causes trouble for Troy as Mercy is a civilian and needs to stay out of the investigation.

This book is the first in a new series and I'm excited to see the next one.