Whaaat?

We’ve been very busy here at the Stone House getting ready for the grandkids to arrive… which may be as early as tomorrow – or when ever they can catch a military flight back to the mainland.

Last night after a busy day moping wood floors The Engineer and I decided a trip down to Boehringer’s Drive In was the perfect choice for dinner.  It’s a little hamburger – ice cream place set along the side of the road nestled in next to a shallow creek.  There are lots of tall trees and the picnic tables that spread out along the creek provide a view to watch the ducks and kids play alongside the creek.

As we sat at our table last night a mother from the table next to us called to her son (10 – 11 years old) who was down wading in the water. 

Mom: Don’t get your shorts wet.

Kid: What?

Mom: Don’t get your shorts wet!

Kid: What?

Mom: Don’t get your shorts wet.

Kid: What?

Mom: I Don’t want you to get your shorts WET!

Kid: What?

Mom:  You heard me…

I snickered to myself… and we continued our meal.

A little later the Mom called out again…

Mom:  Are you ready for your ice cream?

Kid: What?

Mom: Are you ready for your ice cream?!

Kid: What?

Mom: Do you want your ice cream now?

Kid: What?

I couldn’t help myself… I laughed right out loud!  I looked at her and said… “Apparently not”.

Mom to kid again: Get up here!

Kid: What?

Mom: GET UP HERE NOW!

I don’t know about any of you… but he wouldn’t have gotten an ice cream cone and I can guarantee that if I were his mom my shorts would have gotten wet chasing that little twit down the creek!! 

This and That…

We’ve been busy around The Stone House is week.

We got all the beds moved around to their new rooms… twin beds in pink room went up to the sewing room – double bed in blue room went over to pink room – day bed and trundle in sewing room went down to blue room – baby bed assembled in the pink room.  Yes we played musical beds!  We still need to move The Engineers desk out of the blue room and get a new office area set up for him – he works from home so it’s important he has his space.

My sewing room is a wreck – but the beds are put in place along the wall and The Engineer has helped me by putting in some heavy duty wire shelving in one area.  After everything else is done I will talk him into more shelves… until then it’s just going to be a wreck up there.

I spent some time today mixing my fertilizer up and working in the raised beds.  I pulled those (leftover from last year) onions out – they look like jumbo green onions.

 

I dug out the oregano plant and kept a few sections to replant.  Then I tried to tackle the sage… it was 3 years old and very woody.  It kills me to have to take it out because it’s a beautiful plant but I needed to raise the soil level in that bed so I pulled it out I asked The Engineer to dig it out for me.  I hate to waste all that beautiful sage so I brought a big bunch of it up to the house and it’s now hanging in the laundry room to dry. 

Sad to say but three times that amount went into the compost heap.

We backfilled 2 of the beds with sand and peat moss but I need to pick up some more peat moss on Monday to finish.  I’ll get these 2 beds mixed up some more tomorrow and get them watered down good.  There is no way I’d be doing any of this gardening if I was working with real soil / cow manure / or compost – it would be too darn heavy. 

I will be getting some of the water lines installed tomorrow and I need to get the fencing up in the bed for the running plants – maybe I can tackle that job myself.  I need to get plants in sometime in the next week or two.

Oh and speaking of fencing… I think I need to get the fencing up around the garden as well – I did see a red strawberry today but some critter had nibbled on it…

Along with all of this stuff going on around the house I've got an appointment with an orthopedic guy for my hand on Monday and I begin working again this week with my Chiropractor to strengthen my leg more.  I can almost walk normal as my limp is barely there but my quad in that leg is still very weak.

I need to go back to getting up at 5 am so I have enough time in my day…

Oh I almost forgot… I heard someone the other day on the Dr. Oz show mention using zucchini like a pasta and so I tried it.  I used my potato peeler and sliced long strips from the zucchini and yellow squash I had.  The first time I cooked it I sautéed some onion, sundried tomato and marinated artichoke in olive oil then tossed in the ‘pasta’ for a few minutes.  YUM that was good (sorry but no pictures).  The second time I made it I heated some pasta sauce and meatballs and served that over the ‘pasta’.  Again YUM!

The Engineer didn’t know it wasn’t real pasta the first time…

Mid May… Really?

Goodness where does the time go?

We lost a good 2 weeks around here being sick… not sick, sick – but whatever bug we had tapped out our energy and left us doing more sitting around than being truly productive.

We do have a deadline of sorts around here for getting projects done.  Our daughter and grandkids will be moving in with us in just a few weeks.  She is busy getting her house packed up in Hawaii… my SIL is out to sea and she figured it made sense to move here so that someone could help watch the kids we could enjoy our grandkids!  Although she has a great support group with the Navy community she lives in… when your spouse is gone and you have 3 little ones – there’s no place like home with Granny & Pops!

But here is just a sneak peek at what we are in for… the 10 month old is walking… well actually he’s running.  My daughter figures he started running as a means of staying ahead of falling down… and he just loves it!  Now he chases his older brother around… here they are in a sprinkler park the other day.  Yes… 10 months… he won’t be 1 until mid July!

But before he started walking he was climbing…

And then he started climbing into his walker…

backwards but in…

sometimes he’s just in… like a pretzel… which he thought was pretty funny.

My granddaughter had her first communion this past weekend… look at that sweet floral wreath on her!

We did get some work done in the garden.  The Engineer built another raised bed… I will move the strawberry plants over to that bed in the fall but in the mean time I’ll use it for other stuff over the summer. 

I need to order some more peat moss to mix with sand to finish filling that bed and to top off the others.  I also need to mix up my fertilizer mix and start planting soon.  I based my garden on the Mittleider Method that I stumbled upon several years ago.  I will also need to reset my sprinkler pipes in each bed… oh and I guess I need to make another for this new bed.

We The Engineer put in a wood edging all around the garden and I put down some new landscape fabric in the outer walkways – we’ve managed to chew up the edges with the mower over the past couple years – so this will keep that from happening.  I can’t wait to get tomatoes growing.

Even with all these other projects going on The Engineer has been working on a new cabinet for the kitchen.  Where we now have a table that sits 4 we will have 4 1/2 feet of additional cabinets and a eating area that will sit 2. On the sitting side of the new cabinet will also be a can cupboard for all the overflow I don’t know what to do with.  The counter top – cherry butcher block – is in the background.  It sure was pretty once we put the mineral oil on it.  The 36” cabinet will have 2 – 20” deep pull out drawers and at this point he’s going to install just one pullout in the 18” cabinet with a drawer above.  I will get acres of new storage space and we will use the dining room more often… a win, win all around!

Finally got the sink finished up – water dispenser on the left – soap on the right – faucet and control in the middle – oh and please ignore all the stuff in the window.  That is the inherent problem with having such nice deep window ledges.  One thing that I do leave there is the vintage enamel dish drainer.  I use to set stuff up there to dry all the time anyway – so this makes good use of my drainer!  I just need to put stuff away once it’s dry… or at least before I take pictures - LOL.

The next couple weeks I have beds to move – cabinets to clean out and rearrange - move all the ‘baby latches’ back into locking position – put plug protectors back on outlets – rearrange the living room – set up a playroom area for the kids in the foyer – put a baby bed together – and, and, and… oh probably a dozen other things to get ready!

My New Faucet!

What do you mean you don’t see the faucet?

Let me start at the beginning…

When we moved into The Stone House nearly 4 years ago I just couldn’t appreciate the special features of the existing faucet.  It had a removable handle… yeah… really… came right off in your hand every time you used it.  A bit of an inconvenience when you are spending so much time cleaning a new to us old house.  So The Engineer picked up a cheap kitchen faucet and I’ve made do these past several years.  My biggest gripe with that faucet was that it wasn’t tall and I use lots of tall pots. 

Last year I saw the Delta Faucet Touch2O advertised… and I LOVED it.  It would give me the height I want and the touch feature would turn running water on and off thereby saving water (shhh - I tend to be a water runner)… and water is expensive here so that is a key feature for us.

I ordered the faucet last week and The Engineer set about the business of installation the other day.  We had a large Stainless Steel sink with a small bowl on the left for the disposer.  The drain for the large bowl was showing some wear and needed to be replaced and I wanted the sink lifted and resealed to fix a leaky area – since all the stuff under the sink was removed already it seemed like the time to do it all.

Well… nothing is never as easy as it should be!  The Engineer is perfectly capable of doing the work… it is just that the equipment didn’t cooperate. 

The drain was indeed in sad shape but had apparently been GLUED in place and we couldn’t remove it.   So off we go to buy a new sink.

Fortunately Sad to say they didn’t have the same sink so we looked over the available styles and this cast iron one was our favorite – the large bowl is plenty big for my canning pot and (woohoo) deep too - and the small side is actually big enough to be useful.  But goodness gracious this guy is heavy!

The person who installed the old sink apparently cut the hole too big and that sink was sitting on just a quarter inch of counter all the way around… which explains why I had a hard time keeping it sealed.  Since this new sink is so much heavier we decided to add a little support underneath.  I’d really like a new counter… but that’s not happening any time soon… LOL

The plumbing will need to be reworked as the drains don’t line up with the previous drains… and the disposer needs to be switched to the other side – which means it needs to be rewired… oh and I need to call the fella that installed the water filter because that spigot needs to be moved as well.

It’s clear the old sink was installed by an idiot a not too handy handyman and not a plumber… This is exactly why Plumbers make so much money… they are worth it!

Hopefully today the plumbing will be finished up…Hopefully…

Garden Work

Oh man what a mess my gardens were after a year of neglect!

I’ve spent a little time out pulling weeds here and there in the front garden beds – wild onions have taken over and I’ve easily pulled a dozen butterfly bush startups.  The Engineer and I cut back the two overgrown butterfly bushes a couple weeks ago… couldn’t walk past one on one side nor drive past the other on the other side – that’s how bad it was.  The chickweed is terrible around the pond… I may just cover it with plastic and hope that smothers it out – the winter wasn’t cold enough to kill it…. hmmm maybe a torch if all else fails?

Out back at the raised beds I needed some help…

I went through a couple weeks ago and pulled the overgrown grassy weeds hanging in the beds out and pushed them over into the paths.  It was clear I was going to need some help pulling the weeds and finishing the clean up.  I have 4 raised beds… they are 12” tall and measure 2’ wide x 16’ long.  In the picture above – the two on the far right have strawberries, the next one currently has leftover onions and at the end of the box is sage and oregano.  The box on the far left with the T-poles is for tomatoes.  We built these boxes back in May of 2009 – and added the T-poles in May of 2010.  We have a fella we hire when we need a little extra help getting things done – great guy and a hard worker.  I couldn’t have gotten this all cleaned up myself.  First some before pictures…

Strawberry bed #1

Strawberry bed #2other 2 beds

My daughter put out some onion sets last year when she was here with me – then the weeds came and I didn’t pull but a few.  These are what have come back this year.  My overgrown sage plant is at the far end with an oregano plant coming up just this side of it.  Amongst the weeds in this strawberry bed there was a rabbit nest – there were bunnies in this a couple weeks ago when I first worked out here but they were up and gone within a few days of my finding them.

Nice and clean!  The strawberry beds needed some reinforcing – something we apparently did with the other 2 beds before.  The Engineer added the boards on the outside at the joint and added some rebar spikes that we can screw to the boards on the inside.  The wooden spikes we used originally to build the beds a few years ago had rotted out in several spots.

We will be building a new bed for the strawberries which will run in the other direction at the far end of these current beds.  I’ll collect the new runners this year and put them over there and then the strawberries will be pulled and we will backfilled to bring the dirt level up again so they can be planted with other stuff.

I’m not sure how long I’ll give these onions to get going – lots of leaves but not much bulbs yet… maybe getting my watering system in will help.

Still lots to do…

Yoga Ain’t for Sissy’s…

I went to a Yoga class yesterday at the gym… and I’m here to tell ya… Ow… LOL.

These things I know…

• I’ll get over my aches and pains – Tylenol will help
• I will go back – but once a week is probably more than enough for awhile
• I think I need to take Greek lessons so that I understand what the instructor is saying… do what? LOL

My sister is here visiting today and we are going to do a bit of shop hopping around to the Lancaster Area quilt shops… like we need fabric… LOL!

Design Wall Monday 4-9-12

I am happy to say that this is finished… It’s the quilt from my last DWM post.  It’s called Twisting With the Stars by Little Louise Designs.

Here is a closer look at the border ribbon detail.

Amazing that the quilt above started out looking like this.

I am so happy to be quilting again… last year at this time I had a whole different existence.  Only good thing about that time of year is that my daughter and grandkids were here taking care of me!

Check out what other quilters are working on this week at Judy L’s Design Wall Monday post today.

Design Wall Monday 4-2-12

Monday all over again!

Today’s project is from a pattern called Twisting With The Stars from Little Louise Designs.

I know this picture doesn’t show much.  I have one block with all the components but not sewn completely yet… but I had to see the star before I continued with getting the other blocks going.

This was one of the patterns I picked up at the AQS Lancaster Quilt Show a couple weeks ago.  It’s designed to use Layer Cakes (10” precuts) or Jelly Rolls (2 1/2” strips).  The pattern showcases some beautiful bright fabrics… but since I had no precuts I just grabbed a bunch of my Black & White FQ’s and cut what I needed.

A few of these B&W’s go way back… long before I was really careful about the quality of fabric I bought.  With a strong light I wonder if one couldn’t see right through some of these.  I probably should try and cull my collection – but I’m a sucker for the print design and the last time I tried to weed out FQ’s I only came up with one… LOL

Be sure to go check out other Design Wall Monday posts at Judy L’s Patchwork Times.

Quack, Quack...

We've seen a pair of ducks around here over the past week...

The female startled out of the front garden when The Engineer went out to get the mail. She has made a nest in the vines - about 2 o'clock from the dandelion flower. There are maybe 8 or more eggs in there.

I will try and get a better picture another day. It's cold and windy today so I didn't want to make her stay away from them for too long.

Oh My…

Do you suppose if I sit right here being annoyed with myself the problem over there on the table will fix itself?

No - I didn’t think so either…

Those of you who know me… or if you’ve read this record of my misadventures in quilting long enough you know that I have a mantra that goes… “I haven’t met a border I can’t screw up!”

And you know that I am nothing if not consistent.

I have no idea why I have more than one piece of black yardage…  Yesterday I picked up this piece and tore the 3 yards lengthwise into 4 long strips to use as borders for the 4 Patch Stacked Posie I’m working on.  Last night before quitting for the day I pressed them all so that I could put the borders on today – there was enough length to miter the corners – Yea!

Today after putting 2 opposite borders on I realized that the black was not right!???  That was when I found the yardage I needed over there with the other fabrics… you know - over there where ALL the fabrics for this project are sitting!!

AAAaaaaauuuugggggghhhh!!

So I now have 4 nice strips of black fabric approx. 10 1/2” by 108”… but I’ll have to find a use for them another time.

Hmmm?  I wonder if this is the black fabric I thought I had for the Bouillabaisse project?  NO… I don’t want to think about that… I do know that I need to quit moving fabric around this sewing room – oh and maybe get better lights… and maybe check and recheck when I’m using black…

I think tearing these new border strips out of the correct black fabric will be good for my psyche… such that it is…