Is Multi-tasking a Good Thing?

Remember when Joel and I tapped our maple trees several weeks ago?

Well, I lost track of how many gallons of sap we collected, but it was quite a lot.   While we were building the decks we put the sap on to boil outside.    It was very windy that day so we set up a piece of plywood as a bit of a wind break to protect the flames of the propane burner and moved our comfy chairs near the flames to keep us warm.  

 Boiling down the sap is a simple task.    We usually put about 4" of strained sap in each of two huge pots onto the burners and crank up the heat.   The goal is to get the sap boiling so the water evaporates.   As the sap boils down to about 1" we add more sap until we once again have 4" in the pot.   Wash, rinse, repeat.   For hours.    And hours.   It takes a while when you have over 15 gallons of sap to boil off!

 So instead of sitting around for the better part of the day we got to work on the deck, making sure to check on the sap every so often.

 Remember this pic?    We were quite busy with the deck.   There was just one itsy bitsy problem.   I got so involved with laying down boards that I temporarily forgot about the sap.   Until I smelled something really sweet in the air....and when I looked down at the pavilion where the sap was boiling off....I saw something horrible.   SMOKE!!!  Holy cow!

 Joel and I ran down to the pavilion and quickly shut off the propane to that burner and when we looked inside the pot, this is what we saw.   Yes.   A charred mess.   And all the gallons of sap we had boiled off in this particular pot were gone.   Aww, man.....can you hear me whining from where you sit?    Yes, I was not very happy with myself.  What a stupid mistake.

Needless to say, from that moment on I paid much closer attention to the remaining pot of sap happily boiling away.    Once the remaining gallons of sap were boiled down and had turned this amber color we shut off the propane under the pot and moved our operation indoors.   The sap needs to be finished off inside where the temps can be more closely monitored.   See how large the bubbles are?    It's not quite syrup yet.

And then all of a sudden the bubbles get smaller and smaller and the whole business froths up.   I checked the temperature of the syrup to make sure it was 7 degrees above boiling water temp and we were done!   Just that simple......

And these are the pretty bottles filled with the luscious gold liquid.   I do believe that is more than enough syrup for us for the next year.   And just think how much more we would have had if I hadn't been preoccupied with the deck?   Sigh.....well, live and learn.   And there's always next year.  Maybe multi-tasking while cooking sap isn't such a good idea after all.

You can bet I'll pay much closer attention to the sap boiling process next year,
Deb

Beef Cake the Steer

 Meet Beef Cake, our steer.   Isn't he adorable with those big brown eyes?  And oh, those eyelashes!  Beef Cake has been a short term visitor to our homestead.  When we purchased him early last summer it was with the express purpose that he would soon fill our freezer, so, even though I named him we didn't allow ourselves to develop an attachment to him.

His time on our farm had finally come to an end.  Last Thursday Joel and I went out to the barn a little before 3pm.   We wanted to allow ourselves a few hours before dark for the task at hand.  The moment had arrived to round up Beef Cake and prepare to take him to the slaughter house.   How hard could it be?  Giggle....

But first things first.   We had to figure out some logistics such as do we have the right ball on the hitch of the car to haul this particular stock trailer?   Check.  Now, to hitch and back up the trailer at just the right angle so as to block off any access of escape from the barn that Beef Cake may try to take.  Check.

Swing open the large heavy back door of the trailer against the hog panel that blocks access to the long corridor leading out to the pasture.  Check.  Hey, we don't want to have to chase a steer all over creation to get him inside the trailer.   We closed off gates as best we could to control which areas he would have access to.

That  included penning the girls inside the barn so we didn't have to contend with them running interference as we tried to push Beef Cake in the direction of the waiting trailer.    Check.   Ha!  

Sounds easy, right?   Except you weren't here when we got our boots stuck in the muck trying to get all three cows in the barn.   Then, Joel went into the pen, separated the girls from the steer and drove Beef Cake ahead of him as he shot out of the gate I was holding.  I quickly shut the girls inside the barn.   At least now everyone is separated and all we have to do it get Beef Cake into the trailer.

What you're looking at is Beef Cake....he's a little put out that the girls are in with the hay and he's stuck outside with us.   Let's take a moment to catch our breath.....Check.

Um, yea.....the grin on Joel's face is because we spent almost half an hour chasing animals around the pasture.   Why were we chasing cows, you ask?   You thought the girls were all penned in the barn???    Of course it wasn't that simple!  After rounding up the girls and isolating them inside their pen, Joel had walked out of and closed the gate he is standing next to.....the gate that keeps the cows in the barn.  

Now we thought we were ready to herd Beef Cake into the trailer.   There was one slight problem, though.   Joel forgot to latch the gate and as we were working on getting Beef Cake up to the trailer, the girls pushed their way thru the gate and escaped, creating havoc with all three cows running around the small pasture next to the barn.  Instead of just one cow needing to be herded, now we had to start all over again.

Oh, yea, the three of them loved this new game.    I had scattered the cows' favorite corn, molasses, and grain feed in the trailer and both Buttercup and Baby Belle casually waltzed right into the trailer and began munching on the feed.   The girls had no compunction about getting in the trailer whatsoever.   All the while this was going on Beef Cake was stubbornly hugging the back fence line.  Uh-uh.  No way.  He wanted absolutely nothing to do with that trailer no matter how enticing the feed inside was to him.

Ok, so we managed to secure the girls back in their pen, only this time Joel latched the gate so there would be no escaping for them.   By now Beef Cake was fully on alert.  He knew something was happening here that he didn't want to participate in.   And add to that the fact that he has had very little contact with Joel and he was not going to come into the little pasture next to the barn.  

Our idea was to lead him into the little pasture and close the gate behind him, giving him smaller and smaller areas from which to plan his escape as we pushed him closer to the trailer.  I stood in the trailer shaking a bucket with his feed in it, calling to him the whole time.   Usually he runs straight for that bucket as he greedily gobbles up the feed.  But not this time.  He kept looking at Joel and was not about to fall for our ploys.
 

Finally he walked into the small pasture and Joel was able to close the gate behind him, cutting off his escape route.   Ah-ha!    Our plan was working.   NOT.   I got tired of waiting for him to come to me and walked up to him with the bucket and shook it, willing him to smell the feed and take a few bites.  He actually ate right out of the bucket for me and I continued to walk backwards, inching ever closer to the waiting trailer.    I would get him to within 6 feet of the trailer and then he would spook and run back into the small pasture.   This happened over and over again.   And if Joel tried to sneak up to the gate Beef Cake would sense his nearness and back up into the small pasture, thwarting our plan to trap him up near the trailer.

I guess it was another 20 minutes that passed with us trying various tricks to get him into the 9'x9' area we had cordoned off behind the trailer, making it hard for him to go anywhere else but inside the trailer.   I went inside the trailer again and dumped more feed in there, hoping to entice him on his own.   There was no way we could push him in because he was so quick on his feet we had to dodge him on several occasions so as not to accidentally get bumped into.

For some odd reason, by chance Beef Cake walked right into the 9'x9' area....probably trying to get away from Joel.   Joel shut the gate behind him and walked into the tiny 9'x9' area with Beef Cake. The steer took one look at Joel and bolted right into the trailer.   Huh!   It was that simple.  Beef Cake just didn't want that "guy" to get anywhere near him.   Joel quickly latched the heavy trailer door shut and gave a victory chant.   Check.    We had successfully trailered an animal all by ourselves!

All that was left for us to do was to remove the hog panels that had served as fencing to block Beef Cake's escape and pull the trailer up to the house.   We were both really glad that we had planned ahead and corralled the steer into the trailer the night before our appointment instead of trying to accomplish that early in the morning.

It's nice that our plan worked this time.    We may have had to alter it a bit as we went along, but we got Beef Cake into the trailer alone....with no outside help.   Not like when we had to get the pigs to slaughter and it took a couple of days and 7 of us to round them up!    Holy cow, I don't ever want to have to repeat that process.

The following morning we drove down off the plateau to the slaughter house where we had an appointment to process Beef Cake.   We learned a lot about rounding up animals Thursday, what to do and what not to do.   And I have to say we were pretty pleased with ourselves as we gained some new found confidence in our ability to wrangle these animals on our own.  Life here is one giant learning curve, one that we love to experience every single day.

Beef Cake is at the slaughter house and they called to say he weighed in at 643 lbs.   Now we wait to see how much beef that translates into and will it all fit in our freezers?    Guess I had better get busy and make some more room for all the beef we're about to bring home with us next week.

Blessed indeed,
Debbie

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Tractor

Remember the movie Jaws?    I"m sure we're not the only family that quotes one of the best lines in that movie.....you know the line.....when the guys on the boat get a close up look at Jaws and utter....."We're gonna need a bigger boat.".   Well, that's been Joel's line here lately, except replace the word boat with the word tractor.

When you first move from the city to the country, you have absolutely no idea exactly what size equipment you might need to invest in.   Sure, we knew we needed a tractor.   But since we had no intention of sowing seed on 50 acres we surmised a sub-compact tractor would be sufficient to take care of our hobby farm needs.  

But then we had a few alpaca die......sure would have been nice to have a tractor with a backhoe (or as I fondly call it, a "digger tool") to dig their burial hole instead of using a shovel.   That phrase usually elicits hoots and howls from Joel.   And then there is the never ending supply of manure for our compost piles.   We used to shovel the poop from the alpacas out of the barn by hand and Joel schlepped it in the wheelbarrow to the compost pile.

Then we sold the alpaca and got back to our original intent.....animals that produce food we can eat.   And so now we have our sweet Jersey cows who will provide us with milk, cheese and other dairy goodies for many years to come.   After breeding, if one of the calves is a bull, he will provide us with meat.   There's just one thing, though, about cows.   They poop....a lot.....in huge piles.....seriously!    A lot more than alpaca, that's for sure.

Dairy cows need protection from the winter elements, and so we put the cows in the side of the barn where the female alpacas used to live.   Now the cows have the barn to keep the elements at bay and that works just fine, with one exception.   When it was nice weather I used to go inside the pen with the cows and walk down into their pasture to drop their morning and evening ration of hay into the hay feeder.    But when Old Man Winter arrived, it was slick walking down hill to the feeder and I really didn't relish the idea of slipping and falling on the icy, snowy incline.....littered with, you guessed it, poo.   Now that creates an image, doesn't it?

Joel came up with the idea of building a manger inside the barn attached to one of the walls where I could simply pop the hay over the top of the wall into the manger, thus eliminating the need to walk anywhere slippery.   We spent an afternoon a few months ago building and tweaking the manger and it works like a charm.   With one exception.

Now the cows hang out in the barn a lot more hours of the day.   You know what is coming next, don't you? It would stand to reason that if they hang out in the barn more, they will also poop in there more.    Aw, man.   Thus bringing me back to Joel's lament....."We're gonna need a bigger tractor.".

Yeah, that's a mess.   And we like to keep this area as clean as possible since the cows sleep in here at the far back corners of the pen.   There's no way we can muck out the barn using shovels and a wheelbarrow.   Well, we could, but it would take us hours and hours by hand.

And even when we switched to using the tractor we realized we should have a bigger tractor with a bigger bucket on the front.    As it is now, Joel makes trip after trip picking up the  contents on the floor of the pen and running it back to our newest compost pile.

I should backtrack a minute here.   See the cows watching Joel?   Well, we have learned by experience that the cows are very curious animals and when we have worked in the barn in the past, they hang out with us.   They generally get in the way, stand behind the tractor as Joel is trying to back up with a huge pile of manure-strewn straw in the bucket of the tractor and walk all over the areas we are trying to clean up.   Now I know that before we start any work in their pen, I have to round them up and drive them into a small pasture with a gate.....where they stand and watch our every move.   Funny critters!

So, back to the tractor.

Joel loves to extoll the virtues of all he could accomplish "If I had a bigger tractor..."   I just smile at him and nod my head in agreement as I visualize huge dollar signs in my head and think, "No Way!".

Even with the use of the tractor, mucking out the barn still requires some hands on work with the shovel....and that's my job.   You know, as the assistant barn mucker.   Giggle.....On this particular day, I had to shed my barn jacket as the exertion of shoveling out the corners and sides of the barn warmed me plenty.

I had to show you this pic.    When we first walked out to the barn Joel spotted two of our barn cats sitting nice and comfy, one each on the seats of his tractor and my mower.   Can you see the black and white Mama cat on the seat of the mower in the background?

Miss Chloe was quite cozy nestled on Joel's seat.....that is until he shoo-ed her away so he could use the tractor.   The cats love to sit up there where the dogs don't think to look for them.   It's been so much fun to watch the interaction of the four, wiley barn cats and the Pyrenees puppies.  

Once we are finished cleaning out the barn I walk back to the cows in the pasture and open the gate for them.   They are so funny!   They immediately head for the barn......I believe (unless you can prove otherwise) they are excited to check out their newly cleaned  pen.   First, they get a drink of freshly drawn water and then they look at their salt lick and, of course, they wander over to the manger to see if I put in some fresh hay for their treat.

The last place they check out is the fresh bed of straw where they will lay their sleepy heads at night. See what I mean?    Don't you agree they are curious and smart animals?

This coming week we have a new challenge to meet.   It will be the first time we have to round up one of the cows and get him into the stock trailer.   You see, Beef Cake, our steer, is going to the slaughter house on Friday.   But we think it may take us (ahem) a little bit of effort to coax him into the trailer, so, we plan on working on that Thursday afternoon so we are prepared to leave the farm first thing Friday morning.  

After Beef Cake is gone, I guess one good thing about us only having the two much smaller mid-mini female cows is .....you guessed it......a whole lot less poop to scoop.   See, we may not need a bigger tractor after all!

Wish us luck,
Debbie

Farm Life= Boring?

Ha!   So, you think living on a farm is boring, huh?   Ok, so I admit life here drifts along at a much slower pace than our lives did back in the hustle bustle of Tampa Bay.   Now, a traffic jam is more like 4 cars ahead of me at the stop light when I go to town to grocery shop instead of the never ending line of cars we experienced daily whenever we pulled out of our Florida driveway.

But if you think things are boring here let me tell you about our experience yesterday.   Sure, I can go for days just hanging out here with Joel and tending to the animals.   I can decide to sit and read a book or go for a walk to visit the cows and chickens....all the while enjoying the peace and quiet of the woods surrounding the farm.   No sirens or car horns to disrupt my thoughts here.    Thank goodness!

Now for some of you that would drive you crazy, but for me, I relish each and every peaceful moment.    But then something happens that makes us jump into action.   Things such as dogs getting loose.   Oh, no!   Yep.

It was almost dusk last night and Joel was making a last minute run with the Polaris.  He had loaded a heavy bag of chicken feed onto the back of the Polaris and was taking it to the chickens so they could have their evening meal.   That required him to open a gate leading to the back of the farm.  We've been diligently working to train the Pyrenees to "sit" and "stay" when we are working with the gates and Joel thought he had the dogs under control as he maneuvered the Polaris thru the gate leading to the chickens.   But before he could close the gate behind him, the inevitable occurred.

Shadow decided to test the waters and she snuck past Joel before he could close the gate.   All she wanted to do was check out the tree and look out over the bluff.   But then real chaos began.   Of all things, 2 white tailed deer popped out of the field adjacent to our farm and began running for cover and that was all it took.   Yes, Saber and Shadow took off like lightening, chasing the deer all over creation.

One of the unfortunate traits about Pyrenees is that they love to roam.   That's one of the big reasons we fenced in a good portion of the farm last summer.   We love these dogs and don't want any harm to come to them.   And now they were loose!    And running heaven knows where?   And the dark of night is starting to descend on the farm.   Our biggest concern was that they might roam into the road and get hit by a car or truck heading home for the evening.

Joel and I quickly hatched a plan and I ran inside the house to retrieve 2 flashlights, 2 leashes and some dog treats that the puppies simply can't resist.  Joel took the leashes and a flashlight and started off on the trail with the Polaris where he last saw the dogs running along the woodline.   I grabbed my car keys and went out our lane and onto the road down in the valley, slowly scanning the fields and woods and calling the dogs.

As I rounded the corner at the bottom of our valley, I spotted Saber, way up on top of the hill.  I started calling him and he came running down to great me.   I was so grateful he was heading my way and grabbed some treats to reward him as soon as he reached me.   While he was gobbling his treat I latched onto his collar and started looking up the hill for Shadow.   In the enveloping dark it was hard to see her but I could barely make her out....up on top of the same hill.

I started to call out to her, too, and she came running down the same path that Saber took to my car.  I didn't realize it at the time, but Joel was up on top of the hill calling to Shadow at the same time that I was.   Apparently the only reason I won out was because I had the treats....thank goodness we trained them to obey using treats since we first brought them home at 8 weeks old.

Now I'm trying to hold onto a 75 lb. dog that doesn't like to be "captured" and juggling treats with my free hand, calling Shadow and willing her to come to me.   Pyrenees are very aloof and do what they want to do, not necessarily what their masters want them to do.    I started calling for Joel at the top of the hill to please hurry and join me because I knew I'd need his help manhandling both dogs.

Eventually Shadow came right to me and I rewarded her with lots of praise and treats.   But now I was hanging onto two very large rambunctious puppies.   Hurry up, Joel!   When Joel met up with me he quickly leashed both dogs and then he had to lift them, one at a time, into the back of my Suburban.   For some reason the dogs simply will not jump into the back of my car!   Seriously?    I know they could do it if they wanted to, but they refuse.

Ok, at least now that it was dark, we had the dogs safely tucked away in the car.    Joel started driving the Polaris back up the road toward our farm in front of my car and I followed him with my flashing lights on so no one would barrel along and smash into us in the dark.   We were halfway up the hill to our house when I noticed smoke coming out of the Polaris.   A lot of smoke.   Seriously smoking now.   Uh-oh.

He stopped and I jumped out of the car, afraid the Polaris might be on fire.   Hmmmm.    It was dead. And I mean it wasn't going anywhere.   Crap.  Now what?   Joel and I just looked at each other and started laughing.   What the heck else is going to happen next?   Luckily, my very prepared husband opened the glove box of the Polaris and produced a nice sturdy, long yellow tow strap.   So I pulled the Suburban in front of the Polaris and we hooked up the strap to both vehicles and I jumped back in the car to pull him back to the farm.

We knew if we left the Polaris where it was it would surely cause an accident so we had to get it off the road and back onto our land.   Sure enough, it was easy pulling it and when we approached the gate at the end of our lane I jumped back out of the car, opened the gate, and drove us thru.   Then I jumped back out of the car, closed the gate and towed Joel to a coasting stop in our yard.    Meanwhile, the curious puppies watched Joel from the large back window of my car, fogging it up with their puppy breath.   Boy, were they ever happy to jump out of the car when we opened up the back of the Suburban.

And so, today we have a new lawn ornament sitting next to the lane.   Yup, don't know how long it will be until we figure out what broke down on the Polaris.   Oh, well, that's work for another day.   Needless to say, we both walked into the house with a sigh of relief that we were able to find the puppies so easily.  

Now was there anything boring about that story?   Nope, I didn't think so.    At least it certainly wasn't boring for Joel and I.   You just never know what is going to happen when you live on a farm.

Glad to be here,
Debbie

Where Have I Been?

It's more like, What Have we Been doing?   Well, I'll tell you.

• I drove 2-1/2 hrs. north to Johnson City with my quilt friends to check out quilt shops for the day.
• Joel and I drove over an hour away to pick up hay to prepare for winter, and then unloaded it all in the barn.
• Joel drove well over an hour to pick up a new farm implement to create pastures.
• We took the Pyrenees puppies to the vet.....every three weeks for shots(three times).
• Joel had several dentist appts. to replace a crown.
• We drove to Knoxville for a day so I could compare different sewing machines to replace my old one.
• Then, another day, I drove to Chattanooga to buy a new sewing machine at a dealer there.
• We spent 2 days loading up our alpacas to deliver them.....yes, we sold all of our alpacas!
• I drove several friends to Loudon quilt guild (an hour and a half away).
• Next day, Joel and I drove to Land Between the Lakes in KY to pick up a steer and another mini-Jersey calf.  (9 hours on the road that day!)
• Went north to a friend's house to spend the afternoon making items for the quilt guild Christmas party.
• Collapsed for a few days to recover from all the driving.

Um, yeah, that's what we've been up to.  I have no idea how many thousands of miles I put on the car this last 5 weeks, but it's a lot....especially if you add the impromptu trip to Florida onto the total miles driven.   In between all of the above, we still had our normal appts. and daily routines to fit into the mix.   And, of course, there are the animals that need to be taken care of as well.

Oh, yes, and we also worked on some more fencing.    See me on the tractor below?   We had many more holes to dig to put in the posts to try and finish up the entrance to the farm.   And this summer we are on track for it to be the third hottest summer on record!   Yuk!   Have I told you before how much I hate the heat?    Any temps above 75 degrees are just too danged hot for me.

But we persevered....and brought home more posts to put in the ground.

Those things are monsters to handle!

Pole vaulting anyone?

This required a lot of grunting and groaning.   From Joel, too!  hahaha

And into the hole you go!   Now, we plumb the post and tamp in the dirt around it.  Wash, rinse, repeat.

A couple of days later this is what we ended up with!   Not too bad, eh?

Now we have fencing on both sides at the end of our lane by the road.    A few days later we cut off all the posts to the same height and I started applying stain to the whole shebang.   Yup, that's fence talk.   Shebang.   Gizmo.  Lollapalooza.   Anyway, this project is almost done.   We have ordered 2 black powder coated gates to install at the end of the fencing that will secure our property a bit and help to keep the dogs on our land.   Hopefully.   Well, maybe.  We'll see.

Yes, it's these little cuties we hope to coral.    You should see how big they are getting.   Each time we take them to the vet for their shots they have doubled in weight.   Yup, they're going to be over 100 lbs. by the time they are all grown up.

And speaking of cuties, here's a last look at the alpacas in with Miss Buttercup.   Next post I'll try and show you pics of the two latest bovine additions to the farm.   Um, yeah, Houston, we have a problem.

You see, when we picked up the hay I was taking pics as usual.    I stupidly placed my camera on the left trailer fender you see here and proceeded to help Joel unload the hay.   As one of the bales was falling to the deck of the trailer I heard a sickening crunch.   Yes, you guessed it.   My precious Nikon fell off the slippery fender onto the gravel below and split apart.   Horrors!   It still makes me upset just to think about it.   So, now, I have no camera to document our comings and goings.  And finding a camera repair shop has been a bit difficult.  

In the meantime, I'll try and make up for it with pics from my cell phone.   So, you see, we've been just a wee bit crazy busy.  Oh, yeah, and I've been squeezing in canning and dehydrating in between all this all over "stuff".    Whew!   I think I'll be glad when it's nice and chilly outside and all I have to do is think about what to make for dinner.

So, what have you been doing lately?
Deb

And then we.....

Yes, not only did we practice shooting while Sydney and Jackson were here.....Jackson also put up the volleyball net and let the competition begin.

Well it wasn't long before the volleyball game descended into a soccer match.   

Unfortunately for Sydney, Jackson is very adept with a soccer ball and he took command of it immediately.    It was so much fun to listen to their giggles and taunts as they ran around the yard, all the while chasing the ball between Jackson's feet.

Can't you see the delight on Jackson's face as he keeps the ball away from Sydney?   He is a bundle of energy that never seems to quit.   And he's a darned good soccer player for his team back home.

And then he ran away with the ball.....literally...and that was the end of the game.    Much teasing ensued.....and then they were onto other fun "stuff".

All week long we kept talking about doing a nighttime fire in the fire pit.   But with temps in the 90's and high humidity none of us felt much like sitting by a blazing fire just so we could make s'mores.   Ha!   The next best thing is to be in Grammy's air conditioned kitchen and use the vintage stove's broiler to toast marshmallows.   And so we had s'mores after all.....on some of them we used the old standby Hershey's chocolate bar and on others we put Reese's peanut butter cups between the marshmallow and graham crackers.   Yummy!

Before we knew it the week was over and Julie and Cameron were winging their way back from London to Orlando.    We had discussed several ways of getting the kids back home and I just decided that it wouldn't be fair for Julie to spend her birthday alone in the car driving all the way up here to get the kids, less than 12 hours after flying internationally.   Talk about jet lag added onto a long drive!

So, I drove them back to Sanford.   It's very interesting how many times one can stop with two teenagers at Starbuck's while driving down interstate 75 for over 11 hours.   giggle......and yes, we played all the usual car games while trying to make good time on the highway.   By the time we arrived at their house Julie had prepared a wonderful meal and we all enjoyed some quality time together as Julie and Cam told us all about their trip to England.

We had some ice cream cake to celebrate Julie's birthday and then it was time for Sydney and Jackson and I to give Julie her present.

Wow!   Was she ever surprised to get a quilt made by the 3 of us.   AND, it totally matched their newly decorated living room.    Several months ago I offered to make Julie a quilt to use while snuggling on the couch at night with the family and she let me know what colors she would like....should I ever get around to making her another quilt.  I don't think she believed it would happen any time soon.

It was uncanny how much this new quilt matched the living room in their new house.   How about that beautiful dove grey leather couch?   I love it...as a matter of fact I loved it so much I slept on it that night....and Julie even let me use her new quilt to cover up with.    Morning came all too soon and after a wonderful homemade breakfast that Julie put together I was back in the car once again.  With so many animals on the farm it's just not fair to saddle Joel with their care, so, I was anxious to get back home again. 

I'm so grateful Joel and I had this precious time with our constantly growing, two oldest grandkids.  I keep telling them to stop growing!   But they just don't seem to listen.  Ha!  So I figure we had better enjoy every single moment we are blessed to spend with them.   And we do.

Now we just need to get Julie and Cameron up to the farm....I'm working on that!

Deb

Guess Who Came to Dinner?

And breakfast and lunch?    Our two oldest grandkids, that's who!   Our daughter and her husband attended a wonderful conference in London for 10 days and we were thrilled to share "kid watching" duties (they're too old to call it babysitting!) with their other grandparents.   So after the kids spent a week in the mountains of North Carolina, we met them halfway and brought them here to the farm for the remaining week.

 As soon as we had the kids in our car we whisked them off to Chattanooga to meet up with their Uncle Jeremy.    He picked a Japanese restaurant as a fun place to have our lunch and then it was off to the Chattanooga Aquarium.    We spent a few cool hours escaping the heat and humidity walking thru the fresh water side of the aquarium.....chatting all the way as we all caught up with each other's lives.   Joel and Jeremy hadn't seen the kids since we moved here 2-1/2 years ago!   That's just way too long to go without spending some quality time together.

 We said our good byes to Jeremy and headed up the Plateau to the farm.   And it wasn't long before Sydney and Jackson were playing with the puppies.   Everyday.    Several times everyday.   I'm not sure who enjoyed playing the most.....the kids or the puppies!

 It made my heart swell to peek out of the back screen door and watch the kids carrying the puppies back to their pen as their giggles floated to me thru the air.   I love to see our grands taking advantage of the fresh air and freedom to roam our farm whenever they feel like it.

 Then we got the brilliant idea to watch some movies.....except Joel and Jackson had to rearrange some wires in order to try and make that happen.   They were trying to get things set up so we could use Netflix.    Don't even ask how long they worked on that project!    And we never were able to make it work.  Oh, well, we went back to our little library of movies for movie night.

 It was exhausting for Molly to watch the guys work so hard.....so exhausting, in fact, that she had to take a nap.

 Meanwhile, Sydney continued drawing.....mostly faces this week.   Instead of having her work at the kitchen table I cleared out one of my sewing machines and repurposed the cabinet for her to use as an art space.   She spent hours drawing faces on fabric!   Pretty cool, huh?   She is so talented....and sweet....and......well, you get the picture.

 We decided we might turn some of these into fabric dolls on their next trip up to see us.

 And then the kids and I worked on this project together throughout the week.    I had already made the blocks just before they arrived here.   Because it was going to be Julie's birthday the day they were scheduled to be back home in Florida, we three wanted to have a present for Julie.   So we did a joint project.....a quilt for Julie!  

The kids helped me to arrange the blocks on my design wall before I sewed them together.    Then, I loaded the quilt onto the longarm machine and showed them how to sew thru all 3 layers, creating a quilt.    As a finishing touch, Sydney made a label that I sewed onto the back of the quilt.   Now Julie has a permanent memory of her 45th birthday, complete with a present from her mom and her kids.  

As a finishing touch, Sydney made a label that I sewed onto the back of the quilt.   Now Julie has a permanent memory of her 45th birthday, complete with a present from her mom and her kids.   

It was so sweet to sneak onto the sleeping porch each morning and watch Jackson sleeping soundly.   He seemed to enjoy his own special place tucked into the corner of that room. 

As I came around the corner one morning I cracked up when I saw this......

Yea, that's a lot of shoes, wouldn't you say?   It was great to know the kids were relaxing here and fit right into our routines.   And now we are hoping they can come back up real soon....and bring their mom and dad with them!

Grateful Grandparents,
Deb and Joel