February Photos

Monday, August 12, 2024

Journal: ♫ ♪ Getting in Tune ♪ ♫

 


Last Tuesday, I spent the majority of the day upstairs sewing on the Nine Kittens quilt.  My new laptop is up there, so I don’t have to carry a laptop up and down the stairs.  This feels safer – both for me, and for the laptop.  My laptops – especially the slightly older Acer and its humongous charger and unwieldy cord – are big and heavy.  Both laptops, both tablets, and my phone are synced.  I’m well-connected!

And with that remark, the electricity went off for about five seconds.  Gotta be careful what one says, hmmm?!

I fixed broccoli cheddar soup for supper that night, using a box mix I got at Cabela’s.  I put chunks of pork ham roast in it, and a small bag of broccoli, too.  It was really good.  We finished the meal with applesauce and Oui mocha and chocolate yogurt.

Larry kept me awake part of the night bouncing, kicking, and jerking all over the place.

Me, all indignant:  What are you doing?!

Him, defensively:  “I don’t have anything to hang onto!”

Since it’s fun to converse with sleep-talkers, I asked innocently, “Huh?”

He started to repeat himself; then, evidently awaking enough to realize that that sounded goofy, he said, and I quote, “Grum grum grum grum grum.”  😄😆

It was a pretty day Wednesday, just 73° by noon, on its way up to a high of 82°.  I spent an hour and a half working in the flower gardens that morning, when the temperature was in the low-to-mid 60s.  Very nice.

After a shower, shampoo, and hair curl, I ate breakfast, paid some bills, and headed back to my quilting studio to continue working on the Nine Kittens quilt until time for our midweek church service.  We picked up groceries at Wal-Mart afterwards.

Later, I was looking through pictures from the game cam on our back deck.  There are the usual birds during the day – and the usual raccoons at night, anytime I forget to bring in the bird feeders.



Then I came upon this picture and thought, What happened to that raccoon’s ears??



Next pic... Oh.  Yes.  Quite so.  Cat.



The other day, grandson Levi sent me a quote, then said, “If you can tell me which book that’s from without Googling, I’ll give you the piano wire free.”

“So that means I can use Bingo?” I asked.  “Uh, Blimpy.  Uh... Bing.  Yahoo!  Yandex.  DuckDuckGo.  Baidu.  Ask.com.  Naver.”

Levi then launched into explanation:  “Googling is an umbrella term for internet searching.  Young-people dialect.”

Yeah.  I knew that, old as I am.  I told him about a lady who used to be on one of my online quilting groups some years ago who would say she was going to ‘Goggle’ something.  Every time.  “I Goggled it.”  I thought it was merely a typo, the first few times.  But she wrote the same thing, every single time.

A little after midnight, it thundered so loudly, it shook the house.  And then the rain came pouring down.

Thursday was another nice morning for working outside in the flower gardens.  The weeds were easier to pull, because of the nighttime rain.  It had only made it up to 65° when I came back in, mid-morning.

I went back to working on the Nine Kittens quilt.  Whew, it takes a long time to paper-piece 108 small Log Cabin blocks, each containing 21 pieces!



That evening, I got a notice from Verizon that Larry had used up all the high-speed data on his phone’s hotspot.  What in the world?  He couldn’t blame me, as he’d been at work all day, and I have used very little of his hotspot when he was home throughout the last month.  It doesn’t work all that great coming from his phone in the first place, unless the phone is right next to my laptop, lying face up.  I think his heavy-duty case partially blocks the signal.

Turns out, it’s his hearing aids drawing all that data!  Aren’t they supposed to be connected via Bluetooth?? 

By 8:00 p.m., I had only 144 more ‘logs’ to sew onto the blue and white set of 72 Log Cabin blocks, and I would be ready to start putting this quilt together.

Victoria sent me a couple of pictures.  “My umbrella broke my patio tabletop today right after we ate lunch out there with Hester and her kids.  Fortunately, it came with an extra NIB tabletop when we got it locally secondhand.  My knitting project (she’s making a little dress for a distant cousin’s new baby girl) that has many hours in it had been on the table, along with a special cup of mine and a few breakable plates.  We had taken those things in.  Only one or two jars broke.”




Yikes, imagine if they had all been sitting around that table when it broke!

Kurt brought home the shop vac; he’ll scoop up the majority of the glass and vacuum the rest.

I made a little outfit for the uncle of the aforementioned new baby, when he was born.  I had the pieces for vest, pants, and shirt lying on my bed as I was sewing it together, and one of the boys came strolling into my bedroom with a glass of milk, and just as I said, “Hey, you aren’t supposed to have —”

>>trip<<  >>SPLAT<<

So the outfit got hand-washed before I was even done sewing it.

I used a piece of olive green for vest and pants that I’d been wondering what on earth to do with.  It looked like suit gabardine, but was brushed cotton and soft.  The shirt was a soft poly in olive and dull mustard and cream stripes that blended into each other.  Sounds terrible (well, it does to me, since I’m not fond of olive green or mustard yellow, either one), but it all coordinated, and the pattern was really cute.  Plus, I thought the baby’s mother would like the color, since she’d had an outfit in those very colors.  I saw a picture of that little outfit on my screen saver the other day, and thought, Oh, that little outfit was cute, after all!

Here’s another picture that scrolled through, reminding me of how, when Hester was wee little – just past 1 – and Aleutia was still a puppy (a big puppy, but a puppy, nonetheless), we’d let Hester give the dog a little treat.  Trouble was, she’d clench it in her fist, and then try to give it to the dog like that.



I’d tell Aleutia in a quiet, calm voice, “Be reeaalllly carrrefulll...”  

The dog’s ears would go up, down, up, down, up, down, while she sniffed Hester’s hand --- and then she’d use her tongue to carefully extract the treat from Hester’s small fist.

Hester would laugh, because it tickled and because she loved the dog, and Aleutia would wave her big plume of a tail, because she liked it when people laughed, and she liked the baby.

Friday, I put together a fruit basket for Andrew and Hester, as Saturday was their 16th anniversary.  After lining the basket with a soft, colorful towel, I filled it with a bag of Sugar Drop green grapes, two bags of black grapes (there was supposed to be a bag of red grapes, but Wal-Mart sent a notice saying they were out of red grapes after I placed this curbside order, which I sincerely doubt; probably the pick-up clerk merely neglected to look on the other side of the grape-display table), strawberries, bananas, Natural Strawberry jam, and a package of sliced Colby jack cheese.



I took the basket to Hester’s house, and was let in by Keira, who’d been sitting at the front window waiting for me.  Oliver came hurrying to greet me, too, carrying a couple of thick slices of soft French bread, and holding one out to me.  I took it carefully by the edges, admired it, and gave it back, because, just as I’d surmised, that second piece was supposed to be for his sister, not his grandma.

Keira stood by, smiling and waiting patiently until I’d handed the piece back to her little brother.  She then asked him, “Could I please have a piece, Oliver?”

“Oh!” said he, seeming to suddenly remember what his mission had been in the first place.  “Sure, here-a-go,” he said, handing his sister a slice with a smile.

Leaving Hester’s house, I went to pick up Levi and bring him home with me so he could tune my piano.

By the time we got here, I had a note from Hester:  “Keira says Grandma did a good job with the food basket.  😁  She thinks you must’ve gotten it somewhere special because it all looks so pretty.  The black grapes are so, so good!  They’re over half gone.  😅

Now, in addition to the opossums, raccoons, squirrels, and woodchucks getting into the bird feeders outside, there’s a mouse raiding them when I bring them in at night!  I have a gazillion mouse traps set around the area where I store the bird feeders overnight, but the mouse fastidiously avoids the traps and goes for the black oil sunflower seeds.  I put fresh peanut butter in the traps, but even that didn’t help.  He’ll have black-oil sunflower seeds, thank you kindly!

I posted this picture of an old-fashioned quilting bee on my Quilt Talk group Saturday.  Notice those boys on the far end of the quilt.  I wonder what has them so intrigued?  And I wonder if the lady at top right skipped any stitches while keeping her eagle eye on those boys?  😆



My parents were married in 1936 in the home of a preacher they knew.  My mother told of how some ladies had to lift a framed quilt, via a pulley system, up to the ceiling to make room for their little wedding party in the living room.

While Levi got on with the installing of a new piano string (with all kinds of difficulties, including cutting it too short once, poor kiddo), I washed the dishes, cleaned the bathroom, swept the stairs, and then put all the embroidery pamphlets my friend Sue had sent me into two big three-ring binders.  These pamphlets go with the embroidery CDs she sent.

That done, I washed grapes and strawberries and put them in a big bowl on the kitchen table for Levi to snack on.  I gave him some cheese and crackers, too, and pointed out yogurt, applesauce, juice, and carrots in the refrigerator, should he want some.

He was now well into the tuning, progressing through the bass strings.  After making us some ice tea (and making sure he knew the ‘No Liquids Near the Piano’ rule), I headed upstairs to my quilting studio.

A while later, I came quietly downstairs, put a Marie Callender cherry streusel pie into the oven, and then tiptoed back upstairs just as quietly.

Twenty minutes later, Levi texted, “You baking something?”

Nothing wrong with the boy’s nose!

“Yep,” I answered.  “Cherry pie.”

Never one to give predictable responses, he wrote back, “How much sugar did you put in?”  😂

A little later, he sent me a short video clip of a couple of keys so far off tune they were each playing two notes.

As I sewed, I listened to him adjusting the tones of the notes and thought, Yesirree, that boy is going to be good at this; he has a definite talent.  If fact, he’s already good at this.  He’s planning for this to be his work.

Some time around 6:00 p.m., I fixed supper:  broccoli cheddar soup with pork roast chunks, a thick slice of buttered 12-grain toast, Alaskan salmon, and cherry streusel pie with frozen whipped cream on top.  Despite the earlier snack, Levi scarfed it all down like he had an empty leg.  

Reckon this will encourage him to keep tuning my piano?  😅  (I do pay him for doing it, too.)  I took his picture while he was at it.



Levi got the majority of my piano tuned.  He still needs to come back and finish a few notes in the upper registers; he’ll do that tomorrow.  This wasn’t an easy job, as it has been too, too long since the piano was tuned.  This is the piano that had to be restrung after it got hot, smoky, and damp during our house fire in 1988.  The poor piano was only about five years old when that happened.  It should’ve been tuned three or four times a year after that, but we couldn’t afford such luxuries.

I’m not sure why Levi had such a time getting that last string replaced.  When he cut the wire too short, I consoled him by telling him that his Grandpa Jackson had done the same, back when he first started putting new strings in my piano.  Live and learn.  He’ll get better.  Maybe there are tools that would help him with that job?  Maybe Grandpa can give him some tips.

I told Levi about the excellent piano tuner I had when I first got my Kimball grand piano... how he moved away or retired and another man came – and he was too large to reach the floor and gently lay the song rack down, so he pretty much just tossed it down with a terrible clatter.

I was so astonished and upset, I hurried into the kitchen to tell my parents – and I, who never cried, burst into tears.  My beautiful piano!

I was 13 when I got my piano, so probably 14, possibly 15, when that happened.

By midnight, all the 5 ¼” Log Cabin blocks for the Nine Kittens quilt were done and trimmed, the kitten picture blocks were trimmed, and one big 21” block was complete.  Eight more blocks to go, plus the sashing, which will be comprised of 5 ¼” blocks in the ‘confetti’ fabric.



Cutting and piecing the 108 Log Cabin blocks alone has taken somewhere around 100 hours.



Saturday, I prepared to go visit Loren.  I needed to take him a gift, as his 86th birthday was Friday.  Since he loves grapes, I sliced some for him and put them into a Ziploc bag.  I don’t think they give the residents grapes at Prairie Meadows, as they could be a choking hazard.  Sliced, they should be fine.

I rummaged up a pretty birthday card picturing a mountain waterfall, and with verses 3, 5, and 8 from Psalm 71 printed inside:

3 Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.

5 For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth.

8 Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.

I also tucked three pictures of two of Loren’s dogs into the card.  That was all, but he was delighted with these things.

Maybe I’ll find some cheap cardboard frames for the pictures so we can set them on his dresser.  He somehow broke the majority of the framed pictures I had put in his room, so I brought them home.  He managed to extract one of the plastic sleeves with a picture in it from a small album of very old pictures Mama put together about 25 years ago, and then he wrote on it with a green pen or fine-tipped permanent marker.  I have no idea where he got a green pen or marker, and I can’t read most of what he wrote; it’s just gibberish.  I think one of the words might be ‘Janice’ (his late wife’s name); not sure.  Fortunately, I have copies, both paper and digital, of everything he has there.




When I got to the nursing home, I found Loren lying on his bed, awake.  He greeted me happily, and was quite surprised to learn that it was his birthday, and even more surprised to hear that he is now 86 years old.  I tried to help him sit up so he could eat his grapes, but failed miserably, as he didn’t even try to help me help him up. 

However, he did get a grip on the bag of grapes.  He fumbled with the opening, and I said, “Do you want me to open the bag for you?”

“Yes,” he said, not relinquishing the bag.

I tried to take it, saying, “Here, I’ll open it for you.”

“Okay,” he said agreeably, hanging on to it.

He got it open.

I figured he would choke on those things, if he tried eating them whilst lying down.

“Hey!” I exclaimed, grabbing the bag, “you can’t eat those lying down!”  I tugged on it. 

He tugged it back, laughing.

“Noooo!!!” I said.  “Give me those!  You can’t eat them lying down!!!  You’ll choke!!”

I practically had to jerk them out of his hands; he’s surprisingly strong, for being so frail!

I tried again to get him to sit up, but failed.  I gave up and put them on his nightstand, later telling a couple of the nurses about them.  I do hope he got to eat them before they fermented.  🥴🫢

I hastily distracted him with his birthday card.  When I read it to him, he smiled and said, “Those are such good verses!”

He looked and looked at the pictures of his dogs, remembering what good dogs they had been.  I then confused matters by showing him old pictures of our 1966 Holiday Rambler and our Siberian husky, Aleutia, on my tablet. 



Before leaving Omaha, I stopped at Hobby Lobby to get another yard of that white confetti fabric.

I got home a little before 7:00 p.m., and fixed a supper of vegetable beef soup, some of that yummy Nature’s Own Perfectly Crafted 12-grain, thick-sliced bread, toasted and well buttered, mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, watermelon-kiwi juice, and cherry pie with frozen whipped cream.

I worked on the Nine Kittens quilt for a bit until bedtime.  The 108 Log Cabin blocks are now sewn into the 18 sets of four and sets of two that are needed to go around the kitten pictures.  I wonder how long it’s going to take me to remove the paper from all those blocks?  I paper-pieced them, as the ‘logs’ are .437” wide.



 Change-of-Plans Announcement!  I have just found (and ordered) this Chihuahua puppy panel and all-over Chihuahua design, and will be making a quilt of this for granddaughter Juliana, who got a Chihuahua puppy for her birthday in April after one of their other Chihuahuas died.  




As for the Nine Kittens quilt?  I am going to save it for granddaughter Carolyn, since she loves kitties, and I’ve known all along that I need to make her and Violet better quilts after the other grandchildren’s quilts were done.  If you’ll recall, I’ve always been a bit dissatisfied with the pink and turquoise quilts I made them.  So now I have a head start on that.  The Chihuahua quilt won’t take nearly as long as this Nine Kittens quilt (I already have a design in mind); so that’s a plus.

I’ll just fold up the Nine Kittens when it’s complete and save it for the County and State Fairs next year... and when I’m done with the other grandchildren’s quilts, I’ll make another one for Violet, and for Willie and Arnold, too.  Their quilts were never quite up to snuff – or at least not up to the level of their cousins’ quilts.  Maybe... perhaps... I’ll change the label on the Fisherman Fred quilt, and save it for Willie.  It’s made from the fabric Victoria gave me, after all.  We’ll see.

I’ll have to come up with something of equal scale to the Nine Kittens quilt, for Violet.  But I’ll worry about that when the time comes (or if I stumble on something sooner).

According to Victoria, Violet thinks all things purple, and flowers, too, are automatically for her.  😄  She also loves butterflies.  And I’ve always wanted to make one of those old-fashioned handkerchief quilts, using fabric origami methods to make butterflies from the hankies.

(I thought I was going to worry about this later?)

15 seconds later.  That is ‘later’, right?  Right.

Yesterday afternoon, there was a cute little half-grown bunny out front racing madly around the big flower garden and a couple of the Blue spruce trees.  He’d pause then for a split second before taking a high-flying leap, spinning out, and ripping down the front sidewalk.  He completed three circuits in half a minute flat.  



After our evening church service, Hannah was telling us about filling Joanna’s car with gas after driving it a few days ago.  Shortly thereafter, Joanna drove the car.  Upon returning home, she informed Hannah that she had filled her car with ‘Check Engine gas’.  🤣

Larry chuckled about that all the way home.

By 5:30 p.m. this afternoon, the last load of clothes was in the dryer.  The bathroom was shined and polished – and I finally, finally got the rubbery stuff from the bottom of a rug off the bathroom floor.  Larry would be horrified to know what I used to get it off:  his cute little Ulu knife that I ordered for him, years ago, from a store in Alaska!



He has never actually used it; it just sits on his dresser looking cute, and has now been joined by another, bigger one with an Alaska design on the blade.  The second Ulu was one I once gave Loren for Christmas.  I brought it home when I was clearing out Loren’s house.



Tonight I cooked the last pork ham roast in the Instant Pot with potatoes and carrots.  It tastes scrumptious... but why do I not like the smell of cooking pork? 

I got this Instant Pot for the sole purpose of cooking those pork roasts from Teddy, because they were turning out too tough in the regular oven.  It’s been a very useful purchase, as I use it often – sometimes twice a week or more.

 The downstairs freezer is now completely empty.  I need a Schwan man! 

No, I don’t.  Their prices have gone up so much, we can’t afford to buy from them.  Sad, because I have found no substitutes for most of their delicious foods.

Bedtime!

 


 

P.S.:  I get periodic emails from Nuts & Bolts Fabric Store in Edgemont, South Dakota.  There is always a good quote at the bottom of the email.  Today’s quote is as follows:

“What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?”



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




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