Still no camera

And this is really driving me batty.  I would love to have a camera around to take some photos of the house or even some of the quilting I'm doing. 

I'm about halfway through with one of the wallhangings that I have planned for the house.  Its getting there.  I'm making time in the evenings to sit and quilt.  Sometimes its hard because I'm exhausted but it is relaxing to sit and hand quilt so I have been getting more done.

I started back to school this week.  I have this class and one more to complete my bachelor's.  I've started looking into masters programs but not sure when I'll start.  Next year, I'll have five kids that I will be homeschooling.  It keeps me really busy and I need to stay on top of it so not sure how a master's class would fit into that.  I would definitely only be taking one class at a time.

I have started planning out my garden.  Next month I am ordering two plum trees, two pear trees, two peach trees, and two cherry trees.  The good news is that they are dwarf trees so they only get to be about six feet tall and as soon as next year I could get fruit off of them.  The bad news is that I wont get alot of fruit, but that's okay too.  I plan on buying two more of each next year and two apple trees.  We have three full sized apple trees on the property now but they haven't been pruned in years.  The advantage of a dwarf tree is that it is easier to reach to pick and prune.  I'm not looking forward to pruning these big huge trees.

I'm also ordering four blueberry bushes and six raspberry bushes.  Fifty strawberry plants will finish out the fruit planting.  I hope to add more of these on next year too and include some blackberry bushes. 

I have been drooling over the seed catalogs since they came in last month.  I have picked all the veggies that we plan on growing and will be ordering those seeds as well.  Its going to be busy here with all this planting, but it will be fun and worth it in the long run.  I plan on building raised beds to garden in.  Getting too old to plant in a traditional garden and then have to stoop down over to weed will kill my back.

Hubby will be home in early June so I may wait for him to come and work on the chicken coop.  I think I'll be all gardened out by then especially since I have four flower beds to take care of.  Thankfully, they didn't have many beds, but they are massively overgrown.  I dont plan on buiding any others; well maybe one out front because there isnt one.  And of course, an herb garden as well.  I want to look into drying them and using them for medicinal purposes.

Take care everyone and happy quilting!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Christmas came and we were very lucky to have both my hubby and father here for two weeks.  With dad here, we were busy doing projects.  Seems that he really likes to drive to town to go to Home Depot.  I think he was worried that the rest of the world had disappeared in our little town of about 150 people. 

Dad bought me a dishwasher for Christmas.  Its wonderful to be able to throw the dishes in there and not have to hand wash everything anymore.  I've been doing more baking because of it.

He also moved the thermostat for me.  With it being so cold (Christmas week, the average temp was 8), we had fires going every day all day long.  The temp is CA where hubby is was 60 when he left and it was 65 in VA for my dad.  They were dying in the cold temps.  Our thermostat is located on the wall directly across from the fireplace, not the most ideal location.  Dad just moved it to the wall behind it in the dining room so now it will stay on when the fire is going.  The living room gets to be 74 or so with the fire, but the rest of the house freezes because the thermostat wasn't kicking the furnace on.  It was particularly cold upstairs.  This old farmhouse doesnt have any insulation upstairs I think, so its about 4-5 degrees cooler up there.  We have a plug in heater for the kids to keep it warmer up there.  I don't think the heat travels well up through the vents either.  The heater keeps things much warmer so I'm wondering if the vents need a good cleaning.

We also redid some lighting issues.  The schoolroom has this little light with four tiny lightbulbs and only one worked.  We replaced it and now I can see!!  We also replaced the light in my son's room.  The room had duck wallpaper which he is keeping but kind of a girly light, so we changed that out.  I still have to replace the horse (yes, I did say horse) chandelier in the dining room and a few other lights throughout the house.

Hubby was busy hanging up things upstairs.  I didnt have him hang anything downstairs because I still have to paint down here.  I would love to show you pictures, but not only is my camera broken so is my son's.

I have been busy organizing my quilting projects so that I can get some done for the walls.  I have a civil war wallhanging for the dining room to work on.  The dining room has some pieces of crystal and milk glass that have been handed down to me.  I also have some old family photos so I'm hoping to go with an "antique" theme.  I have an american revolution wallhanging that's almost completed and then I want to work on a 1930s wallhanging.  I think the wallhangings and photos will go nicely.  Eventually, I want to finish our genealogy charts and put them up too.  I have my dad's family traced back to the early 1800s in AL and NC, but haven't been able to get any farther.

In the living room, I have two wallhangings that I want to work on.  The first is the bald eagle with the flag (its a popular panel right now) that I'm going to use on my hubby's "I love me" wall.  I am going to put all of his plaques and things from the navy on there.  The other wallhanging is from Debbie Fields and is the outdoors theme.   I want to go with a more "cabin" feel in the house....kind of strange for a farmhouse I know.

I start school on the 14th.  Two classes left to finish up my bachelors degree.  I'm not sure if I'm going to go on to my masters or look into getting my genealogy certification. 

And because I have nothing else to do, I'm reading Quilt or Innocence by Elizabeth Craig.  So far I'm really enjoying it.  The character Miss Sissy is a hoot!

Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!!

Temperature wise anyways.  Its about thirty here. 

I just finished painting the big girls room.  I would love to post pictures but my camera is not working.  I need to order a new rechargeable battery for it.

I am working on Christmas cards and my painting project this weekend.  I hope to have all that done and lesson plans for the week.  I have to finish cutting batting for my brother's rag quilt that I'm making him for Christmas. 

I have started to hand quilt a wallhanging I  made a while ago so that I can start hanging some things up.  I have very few wallhangings, but lots of fabric and patterns to make them.  Unfortunately, I think most of my fabric is still in CA and I won't see it until June when hubby brings it out.  I hope to work on the quilts for the kids bedrooms at least and get them done.

Have a wonderful week.  I hope to start decorating for Christmas this week.  Probably closer to the end of the week, the kids' schedules are really busy!!

whew!

Two weeks ago today, I got really ill with the flu.  Coughing, headache, chills so bad I couldnt stop shaking, and then the fever so high I was covered with sweat.  I was in bed from Sunday till Saturday.  Thank goodness we homeschool, I don't think I could have made it without the big kids to help me out.  They nursed me and took care of the two little ones.  I also threw up during the coughing fits so I didn't eat for almost a week.  A week after recovering and I'm still gettting my strength back.  About nine at night, I'm so exhausted that I could fall asleep immediately.

Its taken me a week to get the house back into shape and work on laundry, I'm still playing catch up with that. 

I did manage to buy a shelving unit to put up in our foyer.  Not an ideal place for my scrapbooking and quilting supplies, but at least its out of boxes and neatly organized in one place.  I can't take a picture though because my camera battery has decided to die on me.  I need to get  a new one.  This is a rechargeable and I guess after about ten years, its bit the dust. 

So, here's some photos of the new house:

Lots of cabinets.  Really old cabinets, but they will do until we can do a kitchen remodel.

The back patio of the horse barn.  It has nine stalls all set up in there. 

TL standing in the front yard on the south side of the house.  That fencing goes around the entire property and divides the front four acres into five different pastures.

Morning glories climbing up the chicken barn

View of the horse barn and the garage. 

Our navy friend who lives about thirty  minutes away walking out of the driveway.  Pretty view.

Front of the horse barn

Back of the house

This is the smaller barn on the north side of the property.  We  hope to put our chickens in there.  Right now there's three stalls set up.





 

I hope to get some hand work done this week so that next week I can work on quilting the littles' quilts.  The big girls' quilts will be hand quilted but I need to sandwich them yet and don't have the energy yet to do that.  Tomorrow night is super busy with Taekwondo and Boy Scouts.  Tuesday night is American Heritage Girls so I won't be home until late then either.  I hope to get some hand work done with at the AHG meeting on Tuesday so at least it won't be a total waste!!

Hope you enjoyed the photos of our new home.  We're very excited and I'm already planning a huge garden and a grove of fruit trees.  Can't wait!

Trying to get organized

Now that we have FINALLY closed on the house, I'm trying to finish unpacking and getting organized.  Since we will never move again (thank goodness) I am trying to make sure its done and organized correctly the first time.

I'm down to my scrapbooking and quilting supplies.  I dont have a room or closet to put my supplies in.  This house is 75 years old and although I'm very impressed that we have such large closets for such an old home, there aren't any extras. 

Hubby wanted me to put my supplies in the basement.  The old limestone basement.  Uhm, no!

We have a large space that could have housed a closet by the front door.  To be honest, we will probably never use that door at all.  I'm going tomorrow to buy a shelving unit to put up there and hopefully get some of my stuff organized.  I need to start getting settled so I can work on some Christmas projects.  I also need to work on the kids' quilts.

Have a great weekend!

Finally

after weeks of delays, we are finally closing on our house on Thursday.  Kevin had come at the end of August with all of our stuff which we had to load into his cousin's garage.  Thankfully, the sellers had moved to KY last year and knowing our situation, allowed us to move into the house a few weeks ago.  All we had to do was switch over the electric....we have well water so we didn't have to switch water.  I waited to order internet and phone until we had the all clear.  It was supposed to be hooked up on Monday, but the gentleman had an opening today, so yeah.....internet!!

Kevin got to spend a week with us before he had to head back to CA.  We got all moved in and most of the boxes unpacked.  We were also able to do some minor repairs and get some things winterized.  Things are starting to come together now and we're excited about our new home.  The first night we stayed, we enjoyed the sunrise out of our bedroom french doors....the view from the bed which faces out was breathtaking!!

Off to clean up and do some unpacking!!

We're enjoying WA

We ended up driving up to WA.  Our plans of flying TL up to summer camp didn't fly....sorry, hehe!!  It was cheaper to drive him.  We leave on Monday to head to IA.  We close on our new  home in MN on the 31st.  Can't wait!!

We've spent the week visiting lots of friends.  Not alot of sightseeing as the kids just really wanted to play with their friends.  I did run over to the quilt shop in Anacortes to pick up some backing for the girls' horse quilts.  I could have spent a fortune buying fabric. 

Here's some pictures from this area.  We will miss it; the people and the beauty of the area.

Enjoy your weekend!!  We're having gorgeous weather here in WA.  The kids are having a  blast here!