Me, Myself and Memories

Updates from May, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Noreen 1:42 pm on May 21, 2023 Permalink  

  Successful Sunday 

  There are some days that feel just right!  Today was one of them.  It was my usual tidy, tidy on the first floor.

  With a cup of coffee, I sat on our new front deck.  We had opted for a wide top board, just for a morning such as this, when I had that cup of coffee.  After receiving a cherry red reading chair, the black non-functioning retired reading chair was put out onto the deck.  The awning on the house is the perfect extension for shelter of said retired chair if and when rain comes.  That has already been tested.

  I kept an eye on temperatures.  When it got doable, I was going to try out my dandelion poker that Dennis fixed for me.  It’s amazing what a sturdy nail wedged between the metal poker and the wooden handle will do.  The east end of the acre still had Hosta coming up.  Within that batch were some beauties of yellow.  The fixed poker and I headed east.  With all the rain we have had, every single one was poked and flung.  None had as yet gone to seed.  We spray the grass with weed killer, but no so much where there are sweet plants. 

  While I headed east, the second string of this team, Dennis, headed for the studio.  I had completed 16 t-shirt blocks, complete with the quarter inch trim.  Those 16 blocks will make up one of the twin sized quilts.  Dennis’ job is to arrange them before the orange sashing and black corner stones are sewn on.  I have always put Dennis in charge of this next step in t-shirt projects, as well as color choices in other sewing items.  It gives Dennis a vested interest into what happens in the studio.  I never stick around when he is making his decisions.  The end results were . . . that I achieved my goal of clearing out unwanted dandelions, giving myself a good physical workout outside, and the blocks have been decided on the first of the two twin sized quilts.  Headways have been made.  All the lights for sewing were turned off for the day.

  There had been one chair on the new front deck . . . now there are two.  Dennis had retrieved an old metal folding chair from the garage.  It has been cleaned and is sporting a new coat of black paint.  Sitting out front on evenings . . . sweet.

   
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  Noreen 2:13 pm on May 20, 2023 Permalink  

  Check That Off 

  Today we had another item to check off of our “to do” list.

  My hand signals were good enough to help Dennis hook up the implement trailer to the little red pickup.  We had gotten a call that the 1968 Cub Lo-Boy was ready to come home with three brand new blades on the mower.  Charles told Dennis he greased everything that needed it once it was up on the hoist.  Charlie can no longer work in his shop due to a severe back injury that occurred when he was working for the county.  Charlie was servicing a pump on a county ditch when the area around the pump caved in on him.  Charlie has good workers in his shop and oversees everything.

  Dennis came home and unloaded his tractor.  It went right into the back garage, the trailer was parked and all was right with the world.

  After Dennis had left for Charlie’s this morning, I walked back home across the acre.  The heavy rains did a great job of dissolving all the deer pop from the winter.  Hmm.  There were tiny little biting bugs.  Not surprising.  I do have some sweet little yellow flowers to take care of on the east Hosta garden that wants to make a showing.  So be it.  Just not today.

  I had a good handle on getting some 16″ blocks tricked out with the quarter inch trim.  As I whiled away a few hours, it was great reflecting on how far we came this last week getting the basement back in good stead.

  We are having a scramble egg, sausage and toast supper.  Sweet!

   
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  Noreen 12:42 pm on May 18, 2023 Permalink  

  Drippy Day 

  I knew a drippy day was coming.  I put my garden shoes on and went after the sweet yellow blooms that were in my Hosta beds.  Of course when Hunny Bunny and Harriet saw me amongst the plants, they needed to check things out as well.  When I finished one area, before moving on, I made sure to break off some of the cat nip plants.  That was all the invite the kitties needed.  They each tied one on.  The first trip fantastic of the year. 

  The photo is of the Star of David flowers that volunteer each spring.  When the greenery comes up, it looks like a sea of chives.  Each sprout puts out a sweet little white flower.  After the blooms are spent, all the greenery dies off.  They spread like crazy from the seeds of the blooms.   I have worked hard at digging them up where I don’t want them . . . forget it.  Ironically when dug, there is what looks like a little onion set, thus they look like chives when they first come up. 

  Two winters ago, Dennis had gotten a bale of road ditch hay to put under the Maple for the deer to nibble on.  Last spring, there were spears of long grasses that had had the seeds carry over.  This morning, I took out a huge patch of cocklebur young plants.  Dennis was right on, weed seeds can lay dormant for a long time.   The heavy rains had sent a lot of clusters of the Maple seeds to the dirt.  I raked up some as they can root so fast and easily to show a group of little trees.  Each day I will do a bit outside. 

  This drippy day is the best day to re-introduce myself into the studio.  All the lights were turned on and the threads and fuzz were beckoning me.  I did finish embroidering the last design times two.  It was time to get to the next step.  That step would be adding a quarter inch of trim to the 16″ square blocks.  I had done this with AJ’s quilt and it really brightened up the t-shirts.  It took me a while to remember how wide each strip had to be cut to be feed into the bias tape maker.  The next thing was to set the zig zag stitch to sew the four strips onto each of the 32 blocks.  All systems were a go for trying my plan out.  Yup, I’ve got it.  Perfectly cut 1/2 inch orange strips.  When they have become bias tape strips they are sewn around each block, two inches from the edge.  This photo is one of the blocks I created to fill out what would be needed.  I love my Bernina Tool Box software.

  It felt good to get back in the groove of the studio.

   
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  Noreen 1:43 pm on May 17, 2023 Permalink  

  Back to Normal 

  My precious studio is back to normal.  It looks fresh and it smells fresh.  They are talking about possible rain tomorrow.  As I looked everything over, I did close all the basement windows.  They are so easy to operate.  No taking a chance of having rain find its way in.

  When Dennis came back from having coffee with Dwayne this morning, he had been to Fleet Farm and brought home two new filters for that sweet shop vac that had done its duty with the water seepage we had experienced.  We will be back to sucking up threads and fuzz.  From the sounds of it, more people than not had had water coming into their basements.

  Dennis put in three hours of mowing yesterday.  He felt very pleased as well he should.  It’s not hard labor but our old Sears rider does not have power steering and the seat is sat out.  There is a lot of trimming around the house.  My push mower has the season off.  Hopefully the mowing will not be more than a once-a-week task.

  I am looking forward to doing some stitching tomorrow.  It seems as if I will need a refresher course.  If I recall, I have one design to stitch twice and then the 32 total blocks, 16 in each of the two twin sized quilts are ready for the next step.   

  The oven dish of last night got a thumbs up.  There won’t be a problem serving it again this evening.

   
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  Noreen 2:12 pm on May 16, 2023 Permalink  

  Tuckered 

  Today began the washing/damp mopping of hot bleach water on the concrete floors in the basement.  The stairwell closet has ceased with the seepage.  Good deal.  The cistern closet was also dry.  Both were homogenized.  

  I had lowered the setting on our huge dehumidifier Sunday.  In time it will be set to its usual which Complete Basements recommends at 52%.  We are scheduled for them to check the sump pump system later on this spring.  It has been so wonderful to be able to open the basement windows that Complete Basements of Mankato put in at the same time of the tile around the perimeter of the basement and the vapor barrier under the bathroom.  What we really appreciated was going with Complete Basement for everything.  One stop contact if something goes amiss. If the city’s system had not been overwhelmed, we would not have had any water problems in the large basement room, aka: my studio.

  Dennis began mowing at 12:30 today.  He has been by to re-fuel.  I think his hinny will be ready for a break this evening.  It’s easy to think there is another day coming for some additional mowing, but once Dennis starts, not so much.  

  After the damp mop was retired until more of the same tomorrow, it was oven dish prep.  I had one bag of the rotisserie chopped chicken in the freezer.  There was also a bag of pepperoni that was close to the “sell by” date.  A can of white kernel corn and Alfredo sauce was folded into the sha-bang.  One jar of sauce was not going to cut if for this batch.  Pouring on only half of the jar of Alfredo, I poured into the jar some heavy cream and gave the jar several hard shakes.  Folding all ingredients together for a good moist dish.  Between butter and cream, you can never go wrong.  As Dennis doesn’t care for pizza, this oven dish is close to a pizza.  Pasta in exchange of a crust.  In times past, Cassey’s had a chicken alfredo pizza.  To top things off, I threw in a handful of sharp cheddar shredded.  It made a huge batch, so I split the full blue speckled roaster contents in half so the freezer also has an offering for another time. 

  Folding the prep of an oven dish and mopping of concrete, I am going rest the arms to sit on my bright red reading chair for a bit of a break.  It is a partly sunny day with 79 degrees.

   
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  Noreen 2:24 pm on May 15, 2023 Permalink  

  At Last 

  At last the sun is out.  

  It was an early morning for me.  The bulk of the water debacle was over by supper of yesterday.  We went down every several hours to vacuum up the water from the closet that had seepage.  This morning I was set to handle the five by ten jute carpet that of course was wet.  Yesterday Dennis and I took turns folding the carpet in half and vacuuming off the back of as it had a backing of canvas.  That worked quite well . . . better than being able to get a lot of water vacuuming the jute side.  

  I used up the majority of our canned goods by folding the carpet over by half and then putting down the cans.  The carpet was tented.  My plan was to get the carpet off of the floor.  I did that with both ends.  The fan that we had running in the cistern closet was set on the north end of the carpet.  A fan that Dennis had had in the patio porch was running on the south end.  Getting air to the top and bottom of this carpet will help it dry.  Once the carpet is dry it can be folded and moved so we can clean the floor with bleach water.  After that I will shampoo the jute surface.  Patience is all it takes.

  By ten I had motored to New Ulm for servicing of my car and the renewal of the warranty on it.  I was amazed the amount of standing water in the fields.  Where there were culverts, the water shot out of them.

  By noon I was back home.  Dennis had checked the yards and the yards are too soft for mowing.  In fact, there is an area that still has standing water.  Did I mention?  Patience is all it takes.

  I do believe this Grammie will be ready for bed by the time the street lights come on this evening.

   
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  Noreen 3:52 pm on May 10, 2023 Permalink  

  Sweet Treat 

  This afternoon Dennis and I made a trip north.  The kids had spied with their little eyes when they were out and about, a chair that might fit in nicely into our little home.  Today that bright red cheery chair settled right into my bedroom which is also my reading room.

  When we were settled, I tried out the adjustments on the chair . . . a total of six of those.  I have never had a chair with which to read by that actually fits my body.  In times past, I never gave my body a thought.  Now, I know that teeny tiny voice that can be ever so annoying . . . is my body voicing its opinion.  I now know to listen to it.

  What made our road trip complete was stopping at the Dairy Queen for small sized ice cream cones.  Yum!  Our first of the season.

  Dennis decided to mow our original lot this late afternoon.  He heard of possible weather coming in for tomorrow.  It is the last of the “first of the season” areas to trim.  Dennis mows this first quite high to give it all a leveling out.  He does have a method to his mowing.  Early on, we decided I would not be doing any mowing.  Using the weed whip is a movement of twisting at the waist like waving a wand for success.  The push mower involves hitching up the shoulders as mowing in one straight line isn’t going to happen . . . not a good thing, lots of turning corners. 

  There was a half bag of pasta that I decided to cook up.  Some all beef meatballs were thawed.  A jar of Alfredo, a huge hand full of shredded cheddar cheese from the freezer, the pasta and the meatballs will be put in at 325 degrees at about 45 minutes.  I always use my thermometer to make sure the dish will be piping hot.  Thus is our supper.  There is determination to continue cleaning out the freezer.  Fear not . . . we will not go hungry whilst on Stauffer Avenue.

  Good thing we had our sweet treat early in the afternoon.

   
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  Noreen 1:14 pm on May 9, 2023 Permalink  

  Yellow Beauties 

  This morning after Dennis went out to his PT appointment, I went after those yellow beauties that were determined to be in the Hosta bed off of the patio porch.  Our spray on the grass areas seems to have a good carry-over compared to the yard south of us across Stauffer Avenue.  Some of the Hosta are slow to show, so I kept my size nines out of the area.  With all the deer that trampled the snow in this same area, it will be interesting as time goes by.

  I knew Dennis would be picking up Dwayne after the PT appointment this morning for a coffee at McDonald’s.  It’s good for both of those fellows to keep up with the rest of the crew.

  The static on the radio might mean a thunder shower coming.

  A friend of mine called this morning for the information on the fellow that did our front deck.  I was more than happy to give him a great reference.

  After taking a long walk down Stauffer, I went to the studio.  Putting forth effort to make each and every project that comes out of my studio the best that I am able to is very satisfying.  Trying to keep two piles of blocks as similar as possible for the twin-sized quilt can be a challenge.  Michael’s sweatshirt, hmm.  I tried to replicate as much as possible.  I used by Bernina Tool Box to bring my created block a close second.  I am happy with it.

  When I looked out, I saw Dwayne and Dennis with the heavy implement trailer hooked to the little red pickup.  There were ramps engaged.  I knew that before long, the Cub Lo-Boy was going to be driven up onto the trailer.  I stayed on the patio making sure I could punch 911 if needed.  Dwayne was off to the side using hand signals.  Here we had two 86-year-young fellows, doing what they used to do in a heart beat.  After the tractor was loaded and chained down, Dennis stopped at the house to get his wallet.  When he came around the front of the pickup with a wide smile . . . his favorite snap western shirt on, a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth,  it took me back thirty plus years when this ole cowboy knew no challenge.  Today, Dennis was in his element.  The Cub L0-Boy is going out to the fixit shop north of town for new blades on the mower. 

  I am quite sure that sometime this late afternoon will find Dennis in the patio porch with Snuggles on his lap.  Snuggles will get to hear all about the day’s activities, well maybe not all of them, as Dennis slips in a nap.

   
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  Noreen 1:40 pm on May 8, 2023 Permalink  

  Happy Monday 

  I was wide awake at six this morning ready to have a happy Monday.  With one load of laundry under my belt, the studio was my targeted destination.

  Just as early, Dennis took his breakfast box and coffee out to the patio porch.  His breakfast box holds a banana nut muffin that came out of the freezer last night, several cookies from the counter container and a plastic fork with which to eat the muffin.  The muffins from Sam’s Club are huge.  With very cool mornings, a nap may very well ensue with a cat on the lap.  

  My breakfast is usually an English muffin with jam that can fill all the holes in the English muffin.  All the items on the computer that I check each morning include, Outlook emails, Facebook, the blog site and our bank site.  By that time I had enjoyed two cups of rich coffee with cream.  Studio, here I come!  All the lights that can be turned on . . . are.  I don’t have the radio on every day.  Sometimes, with the dehumidifier going, the occasional running of the sump pump and the embroidery module going . . . enough is enough.

  We checked in with each other over a sandwich at noon.  By that time I had finished all the coffee and settled for a glass of water and Dennis had his glass of orange juice.  Dennis’ plan for the afternoon was to mow the east portion of our acre.  There was a strip of Hosta in this east part that included the Plume grass that comes up every year, much like quack.  Dennis burned off the grass earlier.  The birds had pretty well taken all the seeds off of it during the winter.  I gave him my thumbs up to mow over the strip that might have had Hosta coming up.  I offered the Hosta to two of Dennis’ family members for two years.  Lots of good intentions on their part with nothing forth coming.  I don’t care to take care of anything more than what is around the patio porch and the patios.

  The studio work is really going well.  With what is stitching out today, I will need to find two additional designs for each of the twin-sized quilts, making sixteen blocks for each.  As the stitching was going on, I downloaded one design that included, a fire hydrant, a fireman’s hat and a fireman’s hose.  I also liked a design from another site that had a nondescript heart with the word “Family” in the middle of it.  The jury is still out on that one.

  Enjoy this 8th of May.  My goodness, when I did catch the news of several small tornados that touched down on Saturday, I gave thanks that we and our families were safe.

   
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  Noreen 1:59 pm on May 7, 2023 Permalink  

  A May Sunday 

  A cool Sunday, but much going on.

  Dennis and I have been doing some surveying work this afternoon.  One of the lots that we purchased on a tax forfeit is the backyard of our friend Edna’s home.  Edna’s house is now for sale.  Dennis wanted to have a marker where our lot extended to the north.  I agree with Dennis that with Edna having moved, he will no longer mow that lot around the home and to the street.  Dennis has plenty to mow and the realtor getting his percentage when this home sells can nicely mow it or find someone to mow it.

  We went on to check out our lot line of the barn acre.  Dennis was relieved when stepping off going from west to east, there is a whole bunch of mess that is not ours to the south.  We have made strides in this newly acquired acre.  The mowing that Dennis did on Friday made a huge improvement. 

  The studio lights have been on today.  Having worked with my computer software, I will now be able to add a block, actually two blocks, to each twin-sized project.  I had Michael’s dates that he was with the Gibbon fire department and finding a helmet to download, this will make a nifty addition.  The block stitching out at 85% made for little to no puckering.  In time when quilt blocks are sandwiched with backing and batting any puckering is quilted out.  I have one down and the second of the same design is now stitching.  While the module is at work it gives me an opportunity to iron stabilizer and trim those ironed blocks at 16 x 16.  The blocks had to be that large to capture as much of the designs on his t-shirts as possible.

  Supper is going to be tuna sandwiches and soup.  I had a thumbs up on that choice.  Neither one of us have done enough today to warrant anything heavier.

  A new week with new possibilities as to what will present itself.  Enjoy, smile and find something to bring about hearty laughter.