February Photos

Monday, June 9, 2025

Journal: Sows & Kits -- Raccoons, That Is


 

Last week one day, Levi texted, as he periodically does, to ask, “How goes it today?”

“Dine and fandy!” I answered.  “Except I’m working my way through some iced caramel coffee that’s waaaay too strong.  Gotta add more water!”

A minute later, I added, “There, that fixed it.  🍺

“Isn’t that a tankard of ale?” inquired Levi.  “See, it’s fizzing!  Yipes!”

“No, no, no!” I retorted.  “It’s Christopher Bean’s Caramel Macchiato iced coffee!  ’Cuz I said so!”

“Alright, then!” he responded quickly, probably laughing as he did so.

“Coffee DOES fizz,” I told him indignantly, “if you add water vigorously enough, with the faucet on full blast.”

Last Monday evening, I could hear two raccoons chirring – one in the middle of my sewing room ceiling.  A mother raccoon (did you know they are called ‘sows’?) has somehow gotten inside and had what sounds to be a couple of babies.  Larry has been trying to find their point of entry, but has so far been unsuccessful.  I heard an adult raccoon in the front yard, so I opened the front door to listen and possibly determine where they are getting inside – and got hit, ka-splat, by a June bug.

Now that’s just adding insult to injury.

It rained Tuesday morning, and was cold and windy – 53°, with a real-feel temp of 44°, and wind gusts up to 25 mph.

Hannah came visiting that afternoon.  Their family is planning a vacation to the Washington, D.C., area.  Friends have invited them to stay with them, and always refuse any monetary return.  Hannah was wondering what she could give them, and if she had time to make anything, when I suddenly remembered this beautiful framed song with paper flowers hanging on my bedroom wall.  She made it to display at my mother-in-law Norma’s funeral in 2020, as I Will Sing the Wondrous Story was her favorite song.  After the funeral, Hannah sent it home with me.  A little dusting, and it looks like new.



Hannah also mentioned that she needed a rolling suitcase, as the zipper on hers had bitten the dust – and whataya know, I had three of them, saved from Loren’s house when we cleaned it out.  So Hannah has a like-new rolling bag, and I have one less TIDN (Thing I Don’t Need).

By bedtime, I had 104 tall rectangular patches added to all the two-piece units that make up the ‘Striped Grooves’ blocks for the next border of the Wolves’ Dream Catcher quilt, and 104 contrasting patches cut to add to the opposite sides of the units.  (It makes sense, truly.)

I spent an hour and a half working in the gardens Wednesday morning, and then worked on Lyle’s quilt until time for our midweek church service.  The peonies are still going strong, and there are more blossoms on the Wild Prairie roses.




We had Panera Bread’s loaded potato soup that night.

Thursday morning, I started a load of laundry, and then worked in the flowerbeds for nearly an hour and a half before getting rained out.  The Double Knock-Out roses are blooming. 



It sure is hard to get a picture of red roses that actually shows the true vibrancy of the color.  I take my camera out with me when I work in the gardens – which is another reason I really got in gear and hurried to put things away and come inside when it started raining.  I don’t want that camera to get wet!

After a shower and some breakfast, off I went to the quilting studio.

That evening, Larry got videos of a mother raccoon and two kits out in his building, scrambling about in the rafters and staring curiously down at him.  We were hopeful that that meant they had exited the upper regions of the house, but by 10:00 p.m., it was clear the attic raccoons were still in residence.

I finished putting together the ‘Striped Grooves’ blocks for the next border of the Wolves quilt, and had all the separate units together for the corners.  

Here’s the clematis, looking droopy and bedraggled in the rain. 



Friday morning, I washed another load of laundry, and then it was done.  Temporarily.  Laundry is always temporarily done, when it’s done.  I have twice the amount of clothes to wash, when I spend mornings working in the gardens.  Another hour out there that morning, and I finished weeding one large flower garden on the west side of the house.

The honeysuckle is in bloom!  Amazing how such a tiny blossom can smell so sweet.  I have both white and yellow honeysuckle.



There are a couple stands of milkweed that I let grow for the monarch butterflies.  They have buds all over them now.  (The milkweed; not the butterflies.)



That day, I learned from the Craft Industry Alliance that the parent company of the Big Four sewing pattern brands, Simplicity, Butterick, McCalls, and Vogue, had sold its U.S. division, IG Design Group Americas, to Hilco Capital, a liquidation firm.  DGA also owns other craft brands, including Boye needles, Wrights trim, and Perler fusible beads, among others.  Hilco has also been involved with liquidating Joann Fabric’s assets after it filed for bankruptcy in January.

Over 50% of DGA’s products are manufactured in China, although the sewing patterns are made in the U.S.  The company mentioned a softening market over the last several years, as well as the bankruptcy of Joann, as factors in the sale.

DGA was sold to Hilco for a cash payment of $1, plus 75% of any proceeds Hilco generates from future sales of the brands.

Now I’m sorry I gave a big drawer full of my patterns to the Goodwill.  I was cleaning out my brother’s house, and I was heartily tired of ‘stuff’, so away went a bunch of patterns.  I haven’t used any clothing patterns at all since making the bridesmaids’ and candlelighters’ gowns for Victoria’s wedding, and only a scattered few things for Victoria before that.  I was going to take the last two big drawers of patterns (they’re in a cabinet like the ones at Joann’s Fabrics), but was already regretting my rash decision by the time I got home.  I hope the bottom drawer of that cabinet had my least favorite patterns, and the top two have the ones I like better!  😕  I have purchased boxes of patterns both vintage and new for very good prices on eBay.

The following day, I was glad to read the news that Michaels has acquired Joann’s intellectual property and private label brands, and plans to expand crafting supply to meet demand.

These are the corner pieces for the next border for the Wolves’ Dream Catcher quilt.  But wouldn’t they make a pretty quilt, put together into blocks like this?  EQ8 labels these blocks ‘Striped Grooves Corners’.  Each block measures 6 ½”.  If sewn together, they would make a 12” block. 



I was ready to attach the border to the quilt!

The windows in my sewing room were wide open, and the birds were serenading me.  Right that minute, I could hear Eurasian collared doves, blue jays, house finches, goldfinches, robins, Baltimore orioles, English sparrows, house wrens, European starlings, and Common grackles.  A couple of robins were having a fuss in the mulberry tree out in the front yard.  It’s a huge tree, all full of not-quite-ripe berries, but they evidently don’t believe there’s enough for the both of ’em.

A papa house finch brought his fledgling to the feeders, and while Papa patiently and diligently cracked black-oil sunflower seeds to feed his youngster, Baby set up a continued howl – er, squawk – for more, more, more.

Baby cardinals, fledged a few days earlier, were making their high-pitched, metallic cheeps, and young grackles were croaking like bullfrogs.  Sometimes a parent crams a bite down their gullets right when they’re screaming for food.  There’s a muffled squawk – and then the screaming immediately reconvenes.  “More!  More!  More!

There was also a long trill of a bird I didn’t recognize.  Field sparrow?  Possibly.

A papa English sparrow in the apple tree just outside my sewing room window was being besieged by his three very young fledglings as he worked furiously to catch insects and stuff them in those gaping maws.

By 7:45 p.m., the last major border was on the Wolves’ Dream Catcher quilt, and only one narrow, lighter blue border remained.



I got it done by a quarter ’til eleven. 



This is a peony that I separated from a large plant and put in another flower garden.  The blossoms of the original plant were all pink.  The blossoms on the transplanted peony have white centers and pink outer petals.



A cousin commented, upon seeing pictures of all the flowers, “The butterflies must be happy around your house, and probably the bees too.”

“Yep, there are quite a few of both,” I answered.  “Not too many just yet, though; but there’ll soon be more.”

“I have been stung by a few bees and it doesn’t feel good,” she remarked.  “I am not outside a lot.  I try to avoid biting insects.”

I’ve been stung twice – once as a child when I stepped on one running barefoot.  (That is, I was barefoot; not the bee.)  (Actually, come to think of it, the bee was barefoot, too.)  The other time was as an adult.  We were in a tourist center by the big Mackinaw Bridge leading to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and I was wandering along the aisles looking at all the pretty books and postcards.  The top of my head itched.  I scratched it – and got bitten on the finger by the bee that was in my hair.  I hastily brushed him onto the floor and squished him into the floor with a great deal of animosity, vengeance, and spite.  (Hope nobody noticed that small tantrum.)

Here’s a Cabbage white butterfly.



Saturday, I was glad to find that the backing I’d ordered for Lyle’s quilt was 108” wide – plenty wide enough that I wouldn’t have to do any piecing.  It did need to be ironed, though.  Ironing a piece of fabric that’s 108” x 144” on an ironing board – even if it is an extra-wide Rowenta ironing board – is not exactly a picnic.

I loaded it on the frame, discovered happily that I had enough Quilters’ Dream Wool batting for this quilt, loaded it, and then put the quilt top in place and rolled it onto the front bar.  I chose the thread, ordered some 40-wt. silver Omni thread I would be needing, threaded the machine top and bobbin, and commenced to quilting.

Here’s a progression from the light blue border and diamond halves to the dark blue-violet diamond halves to the mottled dark blue stripes.  At 9:30 p.m., I quit for the night, as I needed the abovementioned silver thread to continue.  It was scheduled to arrive today – all 6,000 yards of it.  That oughta be enough, ay?





It was raining Sunday morning when it was time to go to church.  How did all the umbrellas, save one, wind up in the car?  Fortunately, the one left in the house didn’t have any gaping holes in it.

Larry fixed waffles for lunch when we got home from church.

As promised, the silver thread came today.  It was in the mailbox, over on the Old Highway.  I picked it up after taking daughter Hester a gift for her birthday.

When I got to Hester’s house, I showed her, Keira, and Oliver this picture of a car I’d taken on the way. 




“What kind of car is it?” I asked.

Oliver took one look and told us with a good deal of assurance, “That’s what you call a sportscar.”  😂

Hester grabbed a shot from my camera screen, put it into her Identify app, and was promptly informed that the car was a Corvette.

See, I can recognize Corvettes circa 1953 to 2000 or so, easy.  But the newer ones?  I’m liable to think they’re Lamborghinis or somethin’!

When I got home and was editing my photos on my large laptop screen, I discovered that the letters spelling out ‘CORVETTE’ can be seen right under the center light string.  I passed this information on to Hester.

“Lol!!” she responded, as Hesters are wont to do.  “It says it on the license plate frame, too!  And ‘Accelerate’ on the plate.  😅

“Sure enough!” I replied.  “I hadn’t noticed the plate frame.  And I pondered over the vanity plate – and decided the guy’s name must be Axel Rate.  (A bit too literally-minded, I am.)”

I’m editing pictures... and smiling at my screen.  The first shot shows Keira and Oliver with the little bags of freeze-dried Apple Crisps I gave them.

In another picture, Oliver is sitting on a Percy engine that his other grandpa made of wood.  Oliver’s middle name is Percy, after his great-grandfather.

Oliver always wants to see his pictures after I take them.  When he looked at that one, he raised his eyebrows and said, “What’s that.”  hee hee

I think he didn’t approve of his not-smiling-very-much face, because in the next shot, he grinned so big his eyes squinted shut. 

In this photo, Keira is on her tree swing, wearing her Carmen Sandiego carmine trench coat and red felt fedora.  She has an early computer game of “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?”  The first release was in 1985.  And yes, the early games and episodes are a whole lot nicer than the more recent ones.



Keira brought out the basket with the ‘Paper Dolls of Fabric’ to show me the basket Hester found for her to keep the dolls and clothes in.  They fit so perfectly, you’d think the basket was especially made for that doll set.

Oliver informed me, “Those clothes come off and stick back on with Velcro!”

Hester then told him, “Grandma sewed all those dolls and clothes!  She made them herself!”

Oliver’s eyes got big, and then, walking over and pointing at the items in question, he said to me in great sincerity, “Grandma!!  You made these things!”

He’s so funny and sweet.

We went outside and looked at all the pretty flowers in Hester’s yard.  They have such a lovely home.





Every time I made a move to walk toward my car, or mentioned heading for home, Oliver hastily found something else to show me – another flower, another tree, saying, “You’ll wanna take a picture of that!”



It’s a nice feeling, ’tis, when somebody doesn’t want you to go yet! 

Oliver calls this giant stand of giant-leaved hostas ‘the jungle’. 



When he couldn’t find any more flowers that I hadn’t already taken a picture of, he pointed out a whole flock of mushrooms at the base of a big, old tree in the road verge (aka curb strip or parkway or a host of other regional names describing the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street).

I showed him the mushrooms climbing up the base of the tree.  “These look like little houses built right up the side of a mountain!” I told him.



He looked at me, looked at the mushrooms, and bent low to peer under the mushrooms’ caps.  Then he straightened back up and grinned at me.

Reckon he expected to see little people under those things?

A raccoon was on our back deck last night, chowing down on the bird seed.  



Once my camera’s flash went off, though, she decided, “Okey-dokey, I’m outa here.”



She paused on the second step to look back at me.  “You goin’ back inside so I can finish my snack?”  



I didn’t, so she bobbed on down the steps and across the yard, pausing to look over toward the hostas and lilies, where one of her babies was chirring.



One raccoon family can clear the sunflower seeds out of a whole raft of feeders overnight.  They’ll take the whole works, suet and all, if I don’t bring in the feeders.  The only thing they don’t eat is Nyjer seed.  They don’t generally eat safflower seeds, either; but I don’t buy those, on account of the price.

Wouldn’t you know, after taking pictures of the raccoon, I forgot to take down the feeders.  Fortunately, I have a couple of feeders that are ‘raccoon-and-squirrel-proof’, and they didn’t get much of the seed in those.  You can see in that first photo that the feeder nearest the raccoon is nearly empty, and the suet is plumb gone.

A few minutes ago, I heard a baby raccoon chirring his lungs out in the front yard somewhere.  I grabbed a flashlight and went to take a look.  The poor little kit was under the chokecherry tree, screaming for his mother.  



Where was his mother?!   This is a very young baby.  He barely knows how to walk yet – and still, he tried climbing the side of the porch, evidently convinced we were part of his family!



I took pictures and videos while Larry held a flashlight; then we came back in the house, and shortly thereafter, we heard no more screeches and chirs.  His mother must’ve found him.  She was probably just waiting until we went back inside the house; she surely had no trouble hearing him.  That little critter is LOUD.

Bedtime!  I need to do a whole lot of weeding in the morning.  It’ll have to be early, because we’re expecting quite a warm day.



,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,




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