This is a re-run post of a quilt I made a couple years ago for #4 Child. Now it's time to make a jeans quilt for #5 who is the last chick to fly the coop. I'm re-running the post as a refresher course for myself as I am doing the same quilt-as-you-go style with this next quilt. I'll be glad to show you the results when I get it done. I have a deadline of August 17th, the day before he flies to AZ, but it we'll see how it comes together.
Blue jeans quilt #4....
It is finished! My Fourth Born's jean quilt is done just in time for him to take it to college. He doesn't leave until end of August, but I'm glad he will be taking this with him. The jean quilts are a family tradition. Each child gets one when he or she leaves home, and each quilt is made up of the family's worn-out blue jeans that are trimmed up for quilts and other uses.
This quilt was fairly simple -- it's a four patch block that was sandwiched with a thin cotton batting and backed with a larger block of batik in gold, brown, or green. After the blocks were stitched-in-the-ditch, I did a "quilt-as-you-go" assembly method that involved sewing a row of blocks together so that the backing was at the top (think rag quilt). I then pressed the seams open on top, folded the back fabric over the denim, folded it under, and top stitched on the jean side of the quilt. By the time all the blocks were sewn together and top stitched, the quilt was completely done, except for the top stitching around the outer edges. This worked quite well since denim can get very heavy and unruly to sew.
My embroidered quilt label.
Here's the back of the quilt. It 's a coincidence that these are the school colors of the college that S. is attending. I never even thought about that when choosing them.... a mother's unconscious consciousness....or something.
Golly it has been a busy summer -- just as it is for everyone. We've spent lots of time in the hay field and still cutting. The second cutting of alfalfa is going to be incredible, and we rarely get a second cutting. From the garden front, I am seeing a little bit of production in the veggie garden. It's been a slow start in my garden spot, but I'm glad for anything I can get. Just now the snap peas are producing. Normally, peas are a very early veggie and are long past by the end of July, but this year is different. I also picked a handful of green beans and I'll save those for a couple days in hopes of a few more handfuls so I can cook up a mess of beans & bacon for us. As you can see by the photo above, I've got a few carrot thinnings to enjoy. I love the first, young, sweet carrots we get. Is there anything like it? (Besides the first peas, lettuce, tomatoes....and the list goes on.)
Here's a sideways view of my garden spot. On the back fence I have a squash and pumpkins and some meagerly little luffa goards that I doubt will come to fruition. The tomatoes are just now setting blossoms and so my hopes for a big tomato crop are slim, but I won't quit until I must quit! I'm asking God for a long summer, and I'm pouring on the Miracle Grow.
From the flower gardens there are lilies. Lovely colors of white, yellow, and pink. The Black-eyed Susans are in full force and so are the cone flowers and larkspur.
We had a full weekend with our youngest son as he was golfing in a USGA Amateur qualifier in SD. He did quite well with 74, 67 and those scores were golfed in one day. Eight hours of golf in a row, minus a half hour break for lunch. Hubby calculated that we walked at least 10 miles. The tough part of walking this tourney was the heat and humidity. It was in the 90's and with humidity in the 70's and the biggest heat factor was that the golf course was surrounded by corn fields. Yep. Corn fields. We were totally soaked after the first round and totally drenched after the second. All in all, it was a good day, but J. did not win this tourney and only the winner could advance to the National Amateur Championship. The winner was a Texas A&M student who shot 67, 67. There was some impressive golf played that day!
I'm not really a golfer although my kids say I'm a "natural." I'd rather look at the flowers, the trees, the birds and the butterflies. Here's a pic I snapped while waiting for our group to tee off. She's a Monarch and she likes to drink the nectar of the milkweed plant. We have a few Monarchs at home, but I've never been able to snap a good picture of them yet. I hope you like this one.
Now it's time to go clean up so I can take those carrots to my daughter and SIL. I'm going for a grammy visit to see Miss Cupcake! I can hardly believe she's 3 months old already!
This week I made one of our most favorite summertime treats -- Frozen Lemonade Pie. It's chock full of sugar, but hey, it's a treat after all! It's easy-to-make but looks like you fussed. A refreshing dessert. I hope you enjoy it.
Frozen Lemonade Pie
Graham Cracker Crust
2 c. graham cracker crumbs
2 T. sugar
7 T. butter, melted
Combine and press into greased pie plate. (I do not bake it)
You could also use a pre-made Keebler crust from the store.
Lemonade Filling
1 6 oz. frozen can of lemonade (keep frozen)
1 large Cool Whip
1 can sweetened condensed milk.
Fold ingredients gently together and pour into crust. Do not allow ingredients to get soupy. I sometimes slice lemons very thin with a mandolin and make lemon twists to lay on top for garnish. You could also use candied lemon for garnish.
. . . how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! —Matthew 7:11
Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct in this passage for those people who have His Spirit. He urges us to keep our minds filled with the concept of God’s control over everything, which means that a disciple must maintain an attitude of perfect trust and an eagerness to ask and to seek.
Fill your mind with the thought that God is there. And once your mind is truly filled with that thought, when you experience difficulties it will be as easy as breathing for you to remember, “My heavenly Father knows all about this!” This will be no effort at all, but will be a natural thing for you when difficulties and uncertainties arise. Before you formed this concept of divine control so powerfully in your mind, you used to go from person to person seeking help, but now you go to God about it. Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct for those people who have His Spirit, and it works on the following principle: God is my Father, He loves me, and I will never think of anything that He will forget, so why should I worry?
Jesus said there are times when God cannot lift the darkness from you, but you should trust Him. At times God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. Keep the thought that the mind of God is behind all things strong and growing. Not even the smallest detail of life happens unless God’s will is behind it. Therefore, you can rest in perfect confidence in Him. Prayer is not only asking, but is an attitude of the mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural. “Ask, and it will be given to you . . .” (Matthew 7:7).
Did you ever receive embroidered tea towels or pillowcases as a wedding gift? I did. My sister-in-law made us pillowcases (praying hands) and Hubby's grandma loved to embroider things to give away. There were dresser scarves, pillowcases, and later on she made embroidered quilts for the babies. The volunteers at the nursing home put her embroidered blocks together for her and sewed them into quilts. I remember visiting Grandma one Sunday and she was not embroidering. She said she did not work on Sunday so she didn't embroider, but instead she wrote her letters on her day of rest. Grandma embroidered until she was 103. I hope I'm still embroidering at that age.
Every morning and every evening and sometimes at noon, you'll find us in the saddle. We're sorting out cow/calf pairs as they come into heat for breeding. Hubs is the main sorter. He sorts out the cows from the big bunch of cows, and then we (who are holding the bunch) help bring them out and across the pasture away from the herd. It works well. I remember one time we were watching a rodeo on TV and the kids saw the event called team penning. One of them jumped up and said, "Hey, that's we what do when we're AI-ing." Most rodeo events started from jobs done on the ranch.
Yesterday we were wearing our jackets and hoods as we rode. It barely reached 70* all day, but today we've had the heat move in and we hit 95* for a high. It sounds like we are in for a hot, hot weekend, with temps reaching into the 100's. We live in the land of extremes. I'm so grateful for A/C on these hot summer days. When you come inside from working outside, it's the nicest feeling ever to feel the cool air wafting over your body.
Here's proof that I actually do ride, but I am always about getting a few pictures during the times when I'm just holding cows and don't have any action.
Pete loves me
and my dirty boots.
As I was hanging out the wash on the line, I noticed a LOT of golden dragon flies zipping around everywhere. They didn't mind me at all as I was pinning the laundry. They happily lit on the lines and watched with their big buggy eyes. I remember summer days swimming with the kids at one of our regular swimming holes. The dragon flies - blue, gold, and black & white spotted -- would skim across the top of the water in search of mosquitoes and bugs to eat. There certainly are plenty of mosquitoes around for them to feast on now.
There's a full moon tomorrow night. Have you noticed its biggness lately?
According to the Farmer's Almanac, July is the Full Buck Moon, a time of the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.
Isn't this a pretty sight? We were bringing cow/calf pairs in early this morning just as the sun was coming up. There's a golden glow over us at this time of day and we were riding right in the middle of it. Sounds a little like a fairytale, doesn't it? But it's not, really. Just ask my sons if they enjoyed getting up at 4:30 a.m. Never mind the fact that while we were out there riding horseback we had deer flies biting us, mosquitoes and gnats flying in our ears, noses, and eyes, and then there are the bugs that you breath in through your mouth! (Do you remember the OFF mosquito repellant commercials where the guy puts his arm in a square box that's swarming with mosquitoes and not one bites him? That was what it was like in this particular pasture today -- swarming mosquitoes.) But never mind all that.
I sure have appreciated all your comments lately -- I enjoy each one -- but something I've been noticing is that many of you think that I live on a farm. Well, I do not. I live on a ranch. I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Farm, ranch. Ranch, farm. What's the diff?" Let me explain the differences.
A farm is a tract of land (including buildings) that is mainly used for raising crops like corn, wheat, rice, fruit, veggies and such. There are also farms that raise livestock, like dairy farms or pig farms or chicken farms, but farms usually produce the grains needed to feed their livestock. Ranches, on the other hand, are large tracts of land (including buildings), typically found in the Western US and Canada (I'm also thinking about large sheep and cattle ranches in Australia) that are used primarily for grazing livestock. Some ranches raise crops like wheat or hay, but most often, typical ranches are arid to semi-arid with no irrigation and sparse rainfall for growing crops. Of course, there are always a few exceptions, but in short, ranches produce livestock, farms produce crops.
(a pic of the same pasture in 2007)
Out where we live, the average annual precipitation is 11-12 inches. That's not very much, is it? Our area is typically very arid, and cows and sheep graze native prairie grasses. It takes about 40 acres of land to graze just one animal unit per year in this ranch country. Some folks try to plant a little wheat here. Sometimes it works, but more often, it doesn't. We raise our own hay for our livestock for the cold months when the snow buries the grass and there is no grazing to be had. Most years we can put up enough hay for the winter, but sometimes we don't due to the weather conditions. A year like this one, however, we're getting triple what we normally put up in hay in an average year. We have been in a wet weather pattern the past three years and have had bumper hay crops, but before that, we were in a serious seven year drought and had to buy most of our winter feed.
The thing that farmers and ranchers have in common is that they live off the land. Both raise protein. The farmer raises protein in the form of grains, and the higher the protein levels in his grain, the better the prices. The rancher raises protein in the form of meat by grazing native grass. The more pounds of protein he can produce, the better his paycheck is.
I was thinking today of how a farmer and a rancher would use a horse. You recall that Old MacDonald had a horse. Well, John Wayne had a horse too, but he was a rancher in the old movie "The Cowboys." The farmer used the horse to plow the ground, to plant crops, and to harvest crops. The rancher, on the other hand, used his horse to move livestock from pasture to pasture for grazing, and then used the horse to move his livestock to the markets to sell them.
Some of you who are reading already know this stuff, but for those of you who aren't familiar with farming and ranching, I just thought I'd share a tidbit of agri-culture with you! Now don't you feel more cultured? For more ranch knowledge, check out the original movie trailer (below) for The Cowboys, starring John Wayne. It is one of our family's favorite movies. (note: There is a bit of rough, cowboy language in this movie.)
How about a run through the creek? We had to bring the heifers through a pasture that is wet, wet, wet. There used to be a time when our cows hardly knew what it was to cross a full creek, but now they lumber right in. The horses do too, right behind them. The wet weather has caused some hoof rot to plague part of the heifers. We put out mineral and some salt treated with organic iodine that usually keeps the hoof rot at bay, but now and then it can't be helped and the critters must be treated with a dose of tetracycline.
A couple of the bulls were due to come out of the heifers too so we sorted off two heifers and the two bulls and brought them into the corrals. The bulls got a free ride ( in the horse trailer) home and the heifers were turned back out to pasture.
Here were our rides for the day .... Tommy, Texas, and Pete. PC was already loaded in the horse trailer so I didn't get his picture. Wait. Yes, I did. He's the buckskin in the photo above this one.
On the way home, I just had to snap a picture of the neighbor's pasture. It's full to the brim with sweet clover. It is beautiful to the eyes and is sweet to the smell. There's just nothing like the fragrance of sweet clover in bloom.
The rest of our day is spent in the hay field. Eldest son mows, I rake, and Hubs bales. Actually, I don't want you to think that I rake ALL the hay. I mostly spell someone for a few hours every now and then. But it seems I am spending more time on the rake all the time. There is just so much to do these days and it's something I can do (and I like to do) to help. The rake is connected to an open-air tractor and I love being out in the fresh air, smelling the hay, and feeling the heat of the tractor motor and the sun. I don't mind the heat at all, so it's a good job for me. I take lots of water along and wear a brimmed hat to keep the sun off my face. Otherwise, I wear shorts, sandals and a tank top -- catching some rays. If I know I'm going to be out there for several hours, I always grease up with some sunscreen and take along a long-sleeved, lightweight, cotton shirt to cover up when I've had enough sun.
There is so much hay yet to cut and bale. An unbelievable crop for us this year. The haying has been fairly slow going for us since we seem to get a rain shower about every other night. We can't bale wet hay so it must lay out in the sun and wind to dry before we can turn it and bale it. It is very satisfying to see all those rows of raked hay to the side of me. I know that I've contributed a little bit to help to get the hay in.
Next week we start to artificially inseminate part of the cows. For me, that will mean more hours in the saddle, which I like. There will be sorting to do on horseback and then all the cows and calves will be taken out to summer breeding pastures. It is just so lush and green and all the waterholes are full of fresh water. We know we are blessed.
The LORD is my shepherd; I have everything I need. He lets me rest in fields of green grass and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water. He gives me new strength. He guides me in the right paths, as he has promised.
~Psalm 23
Who likes Marty Robbins? Raise your hand and sing with me....
This was our view from the front porch a couple nights ago. There is just nothing like watching a thunderstorm build on the horizon and finally arrive. This ominous sky ended up producing 1.5" of rain and some marble sized hail all in just a few minutes. The wind raged at approximately 50-60 mph so the damage that can be done by hail at those wind speeds is incredible.
S. took these first two photos. He can do amazing things with the the exposure of the camera and can get a super picture even in the dark. Catching lightning on film in digital is not an easy thing to do and catching it without it being a total blur is even cooler.
My veggie garden took a hard hit and 2 of our best hay fields were practically demolished. We are not sure whether or not we can still go in and cut them or not. The hay is flat and most of the alfalfa is broken off, but a few days will tell us a lot about how or if the field will snap out of it. Evidently it was a narrow strip of hail, because very few folks out here had the hail. Those who did had damage.
We figured it had to have rained more to our south because about the time Hubs and I lay down to sleep, we heard a gurgling from our window. And then a rushing-gushing sound. We went downstairs, turned on the outdoor lights and found that the water had come down the draw so big and so hard and so fast that we had water rushing over our road grade. We pulled on our boots and jackets and went looking around with flashlights. I have never ever seen this happen here before, and Hubs said he had only seen it happen once in his lifetime. Even our front yard was flooded half way to the front door. Incredible. I guess you could say we had a mini flash flood right here. It has since gone down but we are wet, wet, wet! Last night while all of us were in town, DIL saw a funnel cloud come out of a cloud and captured it on her camera. She showed us the picture when she joined us for supper.
This morning Hubs and I went out to check the livestock and make sure nothing had been forced through the fences during those thunderstorms. There was a lot of water puddled all over out in the pastures, but nothing had gone through the fences. I loved seeing this picture of the cows and sheep together. It is so very green out there on the range for July 2nd. And wet.
As we made our way back home, it started to shower again. The view through the ranger's window has been typical this year. We are so grateful for the moisture, but wish we could share some of it with the folks down south who are suffering severe drought.
Tonight we are under another severe thunderstorm warning and tornado warnings too. So far all the severe stuff has missed us. That's how it is. One ranch gets hit hard and another ranch never has a sprinkle. It's so nice and calm now this evening that I think I'll take a walk. Tomorrow the weatherman predicts we will have very hot weather -- in the upper 90's -- so by evening, we'll be in the severe thunderstorm warnings once again. That's the weather from the prairie. Tune in again tomorrow -- same prairie station, same prairie channel.
