I am finally able to stop working full time.  The kids need me at home more and quick frankly, with hubby out of town Monday through Friday (and sometimes Saturday), someone needs to be home more to take care of things around here.  Owning 12 acres with a huge garden and lots of animals takes a lot of work and time which neither of us has had.

In celebration of this and my birthday, I was able to buy a new Bernina machine with an embroidery module.  I am so stinking excited!!  

AND, while I was at the quilt shop, the owner and I were talking and she offered me a job.  I am so excited.  I cannot wait to start working there.  I'm not sure that I'll take any money home, but I'll have a great supply of everything!!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Busy season

 May through September is always super busy here on the farm.  This year we added potatoes and corn to our garden.  Unfortunately, the green beans and zucchini did not do well this year.  I did manage to make 50 quarts of spaghetti, 19 quarts of chili, 8 pints of pizza sauce, and 8 pints of salsa so far.  We've added 40 quart sized bags of corn to the freezer and I'm not sure about what to do with the potatoes yet.  We have so many and I'm afraid they will go bad before we can eat them all.  Our basement is not the driest so food down there doesn't do well.

In July, the girls were able to attend a very small prom that was put together for homeschool students.  Hallie attended with Courtnee.

We added ducks to the farm this year.  They are certainly entertaining....but they poop everywhere!

On the cutting board:

Working full time with farm life in the summer hasn't been very productive.  I've decided that next year, I will take time off.  Kevin's been hauling sileage so its a 12 hour day 7 days a week gig, for about 10 weeks.  There's just not enough time to get everything done.

Today, is my birthday.  Kevin surprised me by buying a accuquilt machine and some awesome dies for it.  I've been playing all morning long.

Hopefully, I'll be able to use it soon to make some nice projects.  Its just too busy these next few weeks.

Stay at home order

Our stay at home order has been extended until May 18th.  I am really  not surprised about that.  I'm almost enjoying getting some projects done around the house, although, the weather has made it difficult to clean the garage and barns out.  I hope to have the garage done this weekend, but I need to go and get some shelves to put all the toolboxes and other items on.  

I have made it a point to work on Courtnee's quilt every night for at least 30 minutes.  I hand pieced this quilt 6 years ago and it still isn't done.  I am working on quilitng the borders now, so my goal is to be totally done by the end of the month.  I hand pieced another just like it for Hallie, but she'd prefer a more grown up quilt now, so Kailyn will get this next one.  I need to get one made for Hallie and Tylar.  I don't know if they will be done by the end of the year, but I'm trying. I need to get into the habit of working on them, even if its just for 30 minutes each day.

Here is the quilt I'm currently hand quilting

The above kit is on my cutting board.  I need to get this done.  Living in a farmhouse, I'm decorating lmy farmhouse and I'm enjoying the different wallhangings and such I'm finding to make.  I also have a wonderful fabric to work on a new quilt for the living room.  The current one has been used by us for about 12 years and its about done.  I had found a wonderful barn wallhanging but I'm not sure if I am going to get that or not.  I'm not sure I need another project to do at this point.

I hope to also complete the following projects this year:

• Halloween quilt
• pumpkin wallhanging
• Christmas wallhanging

Have a wonderful week everyone!

I have returned......

It's been almost two years since I've posted so much has happened and our world is upside down now the covid-19.  We are in our fifth week of quarantine and it certainly has changed and challenged our lives.

Update on the last two years:

• We added cows and goats to our homestead.  We've had several calves and kids born this last year.  
• This year, we're adding more chicks (egg layers).  The last two years, we raised meat birds but decided not to do that this year.
• We are increasing our garden this year by adding corn and potatoes.  I am excited to add both of these.  We are also adding 70 strawberry plants and 4 raspberry plants.  We added two pear trees last year and we're adding another one this year along with 2 plum trees and two peach trees.  
• I finished an introductory course on herbalism this year.  I am adding 6 different herbs to our gardens; echinachea, st. John's wort, mullein, calendula, chamomile, and yarrow.  I've found a nice mulberry bush on our fence line so I'm excited to pick those this year.  I've also foraged elderberry and nettle on our property.  And I can't wait for the dandelions to come in so I can make some dandelion jelly.  I only made one batch last year and it delicious; tastes like honey.
• I'm working fulltime for a little over a year.   A nice retail job that gives me time to homeschool as I work mostly nights. 
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Quilting projects:

• So many projects so little time. I'm working on hand quilting the quilt for Courtnee that I started several years ago.
• I have a hen wallhanging I want to get done by the fall
• A pumpkin wallhanging to get done by the fall
• I hope to start handquilting Kailyn's quilt in the next month or so.  Hopefully, it won't take me years to get this one done

Have a wonderful day everyone!

still here

November and December are always busy when you work retail.  I started working full time in January.  This and homeschooling has really made me tired.  Too tired most nights to drag anything out to work on.  I've pulled out some hand items to work on and organized them in a bag next to my chair.  I'm also still working on Courtnee's quilt.  Hand quilting takes a while, especially when you don't work on it for months.  So, my focus is to get this quilted this summer and hopefully start quilting Kailyn's quilt.  Tylar likes the Sunbonnet Sue blocks I've worked on so I need to finish those up to start quilting that for her.  

First things first though, I need to get my house in order.  Time to spring clean and declutter.  Its getting crowded in here with all this stuff.  I hope to clean a lot out this summer to enter the winter months in a much better spot and frame of mind.  The schoolroom will also be transformed this summer into a family room with school items in a corner.  This should make a big difference.  I can't get things done when I am overwhelmed with the house being messy and disorganized.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Fall is here.....already!

I am so excited.  The kids got me a gift certificate at a quilt shop for my birthday.  I went on a weekend when it was 25% off and got the supplies to make two really cute wallhangings.  I would take pictures of the kits but I am too tired to drag out the camera.

I am working a lot lately.  I am now the shoe lead at the local Kohl's store.  I like it.  It's been pretty busy lately and I like to keep busy.  The department hasn't had a lead in a while so there were some fires to put out and I'm just now (six weeks later) getting things under control.  It will take a little bit more to get everything squared away but that's okay.  Keeps me busy.

With the garden wrapping up and homeschooling starting, I haven't quilted at all lately.  I hope to have Courtnee's quilt quilted by the end of October but we will see how it goes I guess.  

Take care and have a wonderful week!

13 months

It has been 13 months since I last posted.  Probably longer since I've done any quilting.  That saddens me deeply.  Quilting is a great creative outlet for me and an opportunity for me to have some "me" time.  It seems as the kids get older I have less time than when they were little.

I'm still homeschooling and that takes up a good chunk of my days.  I was also attending school online full-time since last summer.  And I started working a part time job in December.  I have many things to do here, around the farm also.  There just never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done.

The garden is planted but we've had five inches of rain since Monday.  I'm successfully growing a bumper crop of weeds.  The flower beds haven't been touched yet (We had a very late winter here and then 6 inches of rain in May that I'm still trying to play catch up from.) I want to redo the flower beds so it may be August before those are done.

We bought 3 more goats (7 total now) and bought 3 pregnant cows.  One has calved and we bought a bottle feed from a neighbor.  We bought 35 laying hens.  My slackers from the past few years, stopped laying well last year and so we have new fresh hens, although it will be September before we have eggs.  We also bought 110 meat birds.  I found a couple that will butcher them very cheaply so we went with it.  Only 55 of the birds are ours, the rest are for 2 friends and Kevin's cousin.  

I have several projects I want to get done this summer.  Many are quilting projects but I really want to organize my genealogy stuff and enter in all the sources that I have.  I also want to get some scrapbooking done as Hallie graduates this next June and I want to have most of it done and not be scrambling.  

I hope to keep up with my blogging more and of course, my quilting.

Have a wonderful day!