I am a retired 44-year veteran of the Real Estate Assessment field. As with real estate assessing and how it applies to real estate taxes, one can make many acquaintances, but not many real friends. It was a great career choice.
It has been nearly 10 years since I reclaimed my home and my real passions within my home. I enjoy it more each day and tip my hat to those who I left behind.
Each day I try to stretch myself with the use of my computer as it relates to this site and using it to print out labels for quilts for trying to incorporate photos into my sewing. Life is so full and I know that I have room for more.
It is suppertime and I am home after a great day with the stitchers. Seven of us met at Baker’s Square for lunch that turned into a mid afternoon gathering.
I also did several errands before lunch. I have come home spent. It was a long day, but by golly, I am up for it again next month.
Catch you all tomorrow.
Today is Thursday and the little red pickup headed east today.
I am planning on doing a group of dish towels for an event in the future. A very charming gal in her 90s spoke highly of the old fashioned feed sack dish towels sold by Mills Fleet Farm. She said they were the best ever. At that time a car load of friends drove to the Rochester Mills store. What a treat when they could now drive from St. Peter to Mankato for towel shopping and still enjoy a meal out.
Sure enough. Dennis watched people from the little red pickup and I shopped. I was picky in the selection of towels. Some were not as white as others. I got the job done. The store was very busy with only two checkouts. Huge signs telling everyone they are hiring.
Hy-Vee is on route coming from Mills. It didn’t take me long to run in and I had a tied grocery bag to set in the backseat when I came out.
The next stop was Sam’s Club. Our meals are not what they used to be. At noon a bottle of a 30 gram protein drink suits us just fine. All the additional nutrients beats snacking with little to no advantage in the snack for us older ones. Yes . . . Lewis Drug sells the same brand in 8 packs but the price is astronomical compared to a case at Sam’s of 15.
Tomorrow is my ole cowboy’s 85th birthday. I had remembered a comment from him some time back. We did it today. We had a late lunch at Red Lobster. Very enjoyable. It pays to listen when people talk. Lots of tips can be picked up.
When we got home, I hustled the grocery bag from Hy-Vee into the house and into the refrigerator. Dennis did not have a clue. We will start celebrating his birthday early by having a piece of chocolate cake with a sliver of vanilla ice cream on the side this evening. Our late lunch was the meal of the day. Tomorrow there is a very small lemon cake to be enjoyed. Why not! Dennis has weathered many storms and he has come out of them with a great attitude.
There were two claps of thunder during last night that shook the house. We had the radio on going to Mankato today with a report that St. James had anywhere from 2 to 2.5 inches of rain.
This is the start of the weekend. Make the most of it and may you find joy.
Wednesdays are sweet. I have made it through half of the week and the remainder looks doable.
Did I realize Wednesdays are senior citizen’s day at the grocers when Dennis said he would let me ride shotgun today as he had errands to run. No, I did not remember that. All I did know was that after we had made a stop at the post office, the drug store, and the Fleet and Farm store, I did have several items on the grocery list.
No way was I getting out of the grocery store quickly. There were many people I had not seen in some time. Yup . . . we were all in the same age bracket. As I headed back out to the little red pickup with my one bag of goodies, Dennis had snagged someone to visit with a while just by sitting in the parking lot. This will definitely go down as our social outing for the week.
As it has been some time since I have taken inventory of my stabilizers for the embroidery module, I took a cup of cold coffee leftover from breakfast and headed down to the studio. Later in the month of October, the sewing machine and I will head to Bird Island for the machine is to get a grease and lube job. Every six months that trip had been taken. As I got busy with medical appointments in 2021, it has now been a year. Kelly does a bang up job as he also replaces all of the cutting heads of the automatic thread cutters. Between the automatic needle threader and the thread cutters, it saves my hands and fingers a lot of the pinching movements.
Kelly does the repairs and Amanda runs the retail aspect of the shop. That includes fabrics, threads and kits. Amanda puts out a newsletter every month via an email. I picked up on her last one that there was an upgrade for my model of sewing machine. I phoned her and asked her to save an update package for me. This machine and I are in it for the long haul. There were items for the sewing aspects, including more fonts and more decorative stitches. The embroidery had enhanced placement while projects were in the hoop. I look forward to finding out more when I visit.
I have not as yet been in a quilt or supply store in 2021. I am looking forward to it, if for nothing more than to take in the ambiance of the Bird Island shop. I have felt cloistered. The grocery, drug and clinic have just not been cutting it for me. That tells me I am more back to normal than not. Sweet!
Dennis is doing supper. I am staying in the studio, keeping busy by cleaning my machine of threads and fuzz since finishing Megan’s quilt. I do plan on doing some sewing machine stitching before the trip to Kelly and Amanda’s. A new needle is warranted as well. There is something to be said that too many cooks in the kitchen might ruin a good thing.
Our neighbors to the north, Jan and Randy, are good neighbors. Jan came over numerous times to take home some greenery that was by no means a flower this growing season. When snow falls Randy hits our drive with the tractor and snowblower before he heads in to John Deere for work. Randy’s mother was having a 90th birthday party today. They had been at a loss as to what to take as a memento gift. Friday after Jan got home from her work at the public school, she came over to see what I may have in my stitched out embroidery stash. Nothing for use in a kitchen would do. I told Jan to come back Saturday morning, that was yesterday.
My Bernina is now five years old. Shortly after I had purchased it, I purchased the Bernina software product called Tool Box. On my HP laptop, I can configure any type of wording into the size of embroidery hoop I want to use on the sewing machine’s embroidering module with a selection of over twenty fonts. Being able to have multiple lines of text and adding in a design all in one hooping is fantastic. No guesswork for placement. That’s great as I do have a bit of a problem lining things up.
Yesterday morning, I spent time on the laptop working with the project in hand. Wouldn’t you know my multiple lines of text were 16.5″ in length and the maxi hoop will only do 15″ in length. Back to the edit and it was shrunk down for a doable fit.
When Jan came over, she took a lot and gave thumbs up. I had several place mats on hand. She chose the brown one and then . . . on to choosing thread colors. “We Don’t Count the Years – We Keep the Memories.” A small flower in fall colors was added. Jan had her eight-year-old granddaughter with her and they joined me in the studio to take in the stitching process.
As we were stitching, Dennis’ granddaughter, Sadie, and her two small girls stopped in from Mankato. The studio was just buzzing for the afternoon. With Dennis’ help, cookies were served while the three little girls got out the buckets of Schleich animals to play with on the carpet. Megan and Nicholas had picked out three ice cream pails of animals over time at the Fleet and Farm store when they stayed with us. Best investment ever.
Sadie is full time military. With the studio jumping with activity, Sadie and Dennis got a bit of quiet time in the patio porch for some commiserating; his Korean experience and what Sadie has experienced during her three tours abroad.
Neighbor Jan did a great job running interference with the three girls. At the end of the afternoon, Jan and her granddaughter walked back around the picket fence with gift in tow as a 90th birthday gift for today.
Dennis and I wrestled up a light supper for Sadie and the girls. It was a very busy day, probably the busiest day I have experienced thus far this year since the health issues.
Everything went well. All of our guests left satisfied and with smiles. Sadie’s two girls got to make a new friend in Jan’s granddaughter.
Dennis helped with the supper dishes. For me . . . I could not wait to shower and find my bed before nine last night. A good day was had.
The fluttering of the leaves has begun and this is before we have even had any frost. The sound of the leaves brushing past each as they are in flight takes me back.
Harvest is early this year just as it may have been decades ago on the farm in Boon Lake Township in Renville County. We had since sold the dairy herd. The calves, hogs and chicken chores, I could handle with the kids. Orlin was free to work in the fields.
Carrie was dropped off at the end of our driveway after a day of kindergarten by the Hutchinson school bus. Three-year-old Kevin had the time down pat. He and Snoopy would sit on the edge of the brick planter at the “Y” of the drives waiting, but not very patiently. When he had no more sit, I had given Kevin a small rake and encouraged him to rake some leaves while he waited. As soon as a small pile had been pulled together, Snoopy would bury his nose in it and tussle the leaves here and there. What a pair.
Orlin worked shift work at 3M and we were keeping up with fall field work as well. If Orlin had been at it in the fields without a break, the kids and I would take out a lunch for him that also counted as a break from being on the unforgiving tractor seat for hours. Both kids on the pickup seat as we drove the field road north of the farm place. Carrie on the outside nearest the door and Kevin standing beside me so as to see where we were going. Orlin would stop the tractor pulling the mole board plow and sit next to the tractor tire on the dirt, opening up the black metal lunch box. Of course, I had packed in some cookies for the kids so they could join in. Snoopy had followed the pickup and sure enough he got a cookie as well.
Back at the farm yard, the kids played outside while I finished outside work and then it was getting them in the house for baths and their supper. The school bus was at the end of the drive by 7:30 each school day, Carrie needed to be in bed early. Kevin had been busy all day following me, he didn’t need much coaxing to follow up to bed shortly thereafter. Oh for the quiet. Orlin did get a hot supper when he closed down the field work for the day and the drone of the tractor was over . . . until the next time.
Those were the days! Sweet.
Here we are in the fall of 2021 and the leaves falling are just as welcoming today as they were then.
On a side note: I did wash the quilt I finished yesterday. I was rewarded using the Shout Color Collectors as the two sheets had definite hues of blue on them. The white blocks of the quilt had zero blue that had run. Sweet.
I spent quite a bit of time cleaning the area in the studio as well as the sewing machine. It is amazing for the threads and fuzz that can find its way everywhere. Whatever I decide to do next . . . I will have a clean slate . . . after I remember to put a new needle in the machine. Needles are so inexpensive and make the world of difference on how well the machine works.
Dennis is having boiled potatoes with some Hormel pork roast with gravy and green beans for supper. I shouldn’t speak too soon as me and the potato peeler have not been on speaking terms lately. Of course that was a while ago . . . things may be different today. Every day is different than the one that went before . . . but the fluttering of the leaves will continue for many more days to come.
Seriously, come on folks . . . leave this Grammie alone. Down here in the studio on my ancient Dell, I was going to click on a YouTube for a tutorial on quilt binding. Wham! There were all sorts of flashing screens with verbal warning that my computer was locked due to someone using my IP address. I was warned not to try and shut down the computer as it would not. Immediately I was to call the number flashing. What did I do? I shut off my computer. Screw them!
A few minutes later, I turned the computer back on and the screen allowed me to know that the computer was still in use and not to log off as information could be lost by that user. I logged off. Good grief!
Here I am using my old Dell. I did have Webroot scan the unit. Nothing showed up. There was no way I was going to use a phone number by some unknown snake in the grass. If we have problems with computers we bundle up and head to Best Buy to the Geek fellows.
Today I finished the quilt I have been working on for Megan. It is 50″ x 69″. By the time I was turning the last corner on the binding, I felt like one of the cowboys that Dennis watches on the RFD television channel as they hog tie steers. The process of manhandling bulk under the needle does make for a workout of the arms and hands. It feels so good finishing what was started. I am puzzling one last item on this project. Each of the embroidered blocks had Shape-Flex ironed on the back of it to allow for the smooth dense stitching on cotton fabric. Shape-Flex is a woven product with a light starch in it. Hopefully some of that starch would wash out. As I had pre-washed the dark blue for the top and for the backing, I would still use the sheets that are added to soak up extra coloring in the laundry. The embroidering holds up in laundering as I have one embroidered kitchen towel that I use all the time and launder often . . . it looks as good as the day I did the stitching. Everything is stitched and quilted in this project, so nothing can shift. I would rather know now how it does in the laundry, as this is intended to be used, than Megan have a surprise.
I am looking forward to doing some dishtowels on the embroidery unit. Slow and steady before tackling another large project.
This morning, we got a phone call, checking to see if Dennis had an extra cup of coffee. Dennis responded he was in the patio porch. He than had come in to make a small fresh batch of coffee.
Dennis’ friend, Doug, was at the Veteran’s clinic and was planning on stopping in. Doug has been doing this off and on for several years. Today when Doug drove up, he had a passenger, his wife Lynette. I had met Lynette at the Madelia quilt shop at a time in the past. Lynette had never been to our home.
The fellows had a morning ahead of themselves solving the world’s problem and us gals were going to try to do a good job of our own. Lynette offered to take out the fresh coffee with a tin of cookies to the patio porch. She came back in laughing. Doug had always said he had coffee with Dennis in the garage. Lynette had envisioned the two fellows sitting off to the side of one of the vehicles. She was not expecting to find them in a cozy porch complete with surround windows to our backyard.
Lynette wanted to see the studio. Lynette doesn’t quilt, but she does paper crafting that often takes her to quilt shops that may carry small charms that she could use on her greeting cards. We had a wonderful visit. She left with several ideas for organizing her crafts. Their two story farmhouse allows for the physical room, but not great lighting or shelving.
At noon, when Doug came to check if Lynette was ready to leave, she commented that words had allowed for her to think Dennis had to spend a lot of time in a lowly garage drinking coffee next to a vehicle. Dennis countered with, “Noreen lives in our basement.” Both visuals are quite different than the rest of the story. Our guests left with the invite for us to come and visit at their home in rural Madelia. As Dennis had turned his tables for gun show events over to Doug, Dennis knows where they live. Sweet.
Dennis grabbed some noon lunch and went to pick up Dwayne for coffee. Dwayne had called earlier. He was ready and able to get out of their apartment. Moving into an apartment when he had been accustomed to his rural building site with various buildings to putter in is still being adjusted to.
I went into the studio and continued with some stitching. It had taken me some time to figure out how to quilt the nine inch borders on each end that allowed it to be a good sized rectangle for utility. Stitching the baffled look was easy to maintain straight lines. The project is shaping up. Two hours is about my limit of juggling the weight under the needle.
Tomorrow is hump day! It may be cool outside, but as we bid summer goodbye, may the fall season allow us to realize the blessings He has given us in these first nine months.
We were geared to enjoy the patios today. That lasted until noon when the hot dry winds became uncomfortable.
Dennis headed for the patio porch where the fans were on helping the breeze to blow through one open door and out the other. He did have feathers to clean up. Snuggles had caught a bird and was playing with the wounded chirping victim. Dennis scooped up the bird and flung it to the skies. The bird looked like it was going to be just fine as it began to fly . . . until Snuggles beat feet it outside and caught the bird in mid air. Dennis didn’t think the ten pound plus cat had it in him to jump that high. Needless to say, all patio porch doors closed as to not have a repeat of a bird dragged inside.
I headed for the studio. I had not turned on the sewing machine in some time as I had gotten busy with cleaning flowerbeds. This seemed the best option for me as it was too warm outside. As I stitch, my mind still seems to wander . . . right back to pies and farm days.
Thinking on those pie crusts made with that great white lard that we rendered. I used it for all our baking and even had a small crock for pan frying. We never had a shortage. Orlin’s two brothers, Frank and Eugene, had the meat market in Hector. Orlin’s mother, Esther, lived in Hector. We visited often, many times coming home with trimmings from the meat market ready to render out.
I had a huge blue speckled roaster that the trimmings went in . . . never more than three forths full. On a low temp of the oven, stirring often, the crackling needed to be watched. When the liquid was very light, and the crackling had shrunk down from their bulk, the cracklings had been roasted out. If the cracklings roasted too long the liquid would be a dark yellow . . . not good. Rendered trimmings that were done correctly delivered pure white lard. It was no light task having the crock ready with cheese cloth stripped over the top and secured with butcher’s string.
Orlin would be on hand to carry the roaster, holding the boiling hot liquid, to the the table, slowly pouring the hot liquid lard over the cheese cloth that was straining out the small bits of cracklings. Towards the end, squeezing the cheese cloth for the very last of the lard . . . sweet. There may have been more than one batch done on these days, with more than one piece of cheese cloth used. After the lard set up to be in the solid form, it found its place in the cool cellar in the basement. Generally, a huge kitchen dinner plate was kept on top on the crock.
Obviously, no small people were allowed near this process. There was bound to be cartoons on the television with boundless snacks for Kevin and Carrie.
It was a normal part of the day when baking was being done to make a trip to the cellar and retrieve that wonderful white lard.
Hmm. Even with a wondering mind, I got a fair amount stitched on Megan’s blanket. It is bulky and there is only so much time I can spend on it before the arms and hands need a break. There is always another day.
This next week looks like temps that I really enjoy . . . I hope you do also.
This morning at 8:30, we got a call from the Mayo Store that Dennis’ new CPAP machine was ready for him. That was a no brainer! We were in Mankato by ten. The technician was very helpful in explaining options on the machine that were different. Also allowing us to know that the cost of the machine is done through Medicare and it is as if we are renting it and in twelve months the machine is Dennis’. At that time the cost of $7,640 will be covered at no out of pocket for Dennis. Wow.
This would be the motivating factor of most to work until they are old enough to qualify for Medicare.
Conversation never is at a loss as we drive. One small thought brings Dennis to talk about Korea. This was brought to the forefront when there was a blurb on the radio about some parents not doing the vaccines for childhood illnesses. Dennis went on to say, that on the way to Korea with 2,500 army solders on a ship that needed to stay at sea for additional time due to an outbreak of measles. Though it was called the “three-day measles,” it took a long time to run its course. There are more stories that come to light when least expected. Interesting info with more road trips in the future.
I knew that we needed to stop at Best Buy. The roller ball on the wireless mouse was having issues. The foam housing around the roller ball was flicking off tiny little pieces and thus . . . not so smooth rolling. For the cost of $19.99 we are back in smooth business.
We got home in time to get appointments at the Curry Comb for two much needed haircuts. It had been five weeks. The cost of a dog licenses here in town would have been more than what the haircuts were. Dennis’ niece does a great job and it is very convenient for us and it gave us a chance to visit and catch up. Brenda was Roger Curry’s daughter.
I am now heading into the studio to work with the wireless HP printer and get it back online. It has been a contrary printer from day one.
I am back on the first floor after working with the wireless printer in the studio. Mission completion. With enough quiet time and patience, the printer and I are now in sink again.
There is still some time before supper to take in some patio sitting. Great temps today. We didn’t get much rain overnight . . . maybe another time.
When you first open your eyes and realize it is 9:30 on a sunny day . . . what can I say! Happy short day.
I looked out the bathroom window and Dennis was vacuuming his patio porch. Hmm. I know since Dennis’ sleep CPAP machine has quit, he is not sleeping the night through. He was up at five and I got up to use the bathroom, he was heading for his recliner. I did go right back to sleep and slept through a lot of the morning traffic as well as the garbage truck that stops for us just not so many feet away from the house.
Friday we head to Mankato to talk to the pulmonary doctor for a new prescription for a new machine for Dennis. Thus the go here, go there will ensue. We have no choices but to jump through those hoops. Medicare covers the cost of the machine. The last one six years ago was a bit over $6,000. How that is handled is, there is a rental fee charged per month to Medicare until the cost has been covered.
It might have been close to noon until I had the first floor of our home tidied, I did get some positive stitching done in the studio. As I have often thought and said, five steps forward is still a good thing going forward. Dennis’ take on my “sleeping in,” you must have needed it. Yup. As healing continues, I do have a sensation across my chest as if there might have been the flat portion of the shovel end of an aluminum scoop shovel that whacked me a good one. A bruised feeling with some burning in the deep tissue. Weird feelings. I have no idea what is usual and customary after open heart surgery. Not many acquaintances to compare notes with. I do know I have more good days and feelings than not. Sweet life!