Craft Updates

My Faux Fabulous project is growing a foot to go along with that toe.

This project is being done on 25 count Luguna 1 thread over 1 square.

My other project is this birth announcement for the new Jackson baby. 

I had a 50/50 shot on boy or girl when I started. 

Hence the flowers to go along with the soon to be cute animals.

Turns out there will be another boy in the house.

He will like it anyway. Or it will make him tougher.

Rolling the Sub Soil

One of FabHub's latest projects is using a subsoiler to loosen up the bottom of the pasture.

It is an experiment to see if that helps with grass hay production.

It looks messy, but when it rained the day after he did this the water pretty much stayed in the field. 

When it rains quite a bit our driveway tends to get washed out as the water from the field runs across it. 

That didn't happen this time and there was enough rain do it.

Why isn't the whole field done? FabHub hit a rock and broke the subsoiler.

We don't have many rocks out there. He found one.

Here is the crew headed out with the roller to do the job. The roller is filled with water and should weigh about 900 pounds. That won't close the soil up completely, but should level out the lumps.

HA! I just noticed. Do you see the fence and flower bed at the top of the picture? 

That lump of dirt on the other side of the fence? That is where he hit the rock.

Here is proof that the roller is working, which makes it safer to walk around down there.

Now we just have to wait for proof that more grass grows.

If it would rain some more the rest of the lumps would settle back down.

The new part for the subsoiler should be ordered soon. 

When he does the next section the roller will be trailing along behind the tractor as it digs the trench. 

That will save some gas.

The other project has been the hilltop from the previous post. 

The road up the hill is looking good now. I really like the gravel.

There is a whole lot more space up there. 

The next project is fencing off the road. The cows would break down that edge pretty quickly.

So we are going to keep them off of it this time.

My second red Angus cow Apple had her baby today.

It's a Girl!

Meet Pie 2. 

My other red Angus cow Cherry had a Pie a few years ago.

It is only appropriate to carry on the name.

The two oldest Grands, Emily and Sean with Pie 2 and FabHub. 

That is all for the day. 

Poochy says Hey!

Changes to the Hilltop

FabHub decided he needed to rearrange the top of the hill.

It was hard to get around with the hay and cattle trailers.

The loading chute was set up awkwardly.

The head chute didn't quite work.

The corral needed adjustment.

So we called in the heavy equipment.

This is where the old loading chute and corral were located.

Sorry, I missed that picture.

Now all of that dirt is gone and some trees were removed to make more turning space.

The bank where the loading chute was located just to the right of those branches.

Now it is all cut way back for the turn.

There should be plenty of room to move up here now.

From the bottom of the hill it used to look like this.

Sort of narrow and hard to navigate.

Now it is like an avenue through there.

That space by the garage used to be dirt bank out all across the front of the truck.

Now that it is open maybe FabHub's project stash won't collect there so much.

We can hope. At least now there is a better space to work on equipment.

I don't think that gate is going to reach across the road anymore.

The truck is parked in its normal space. It didn't used to be in the way of anything.

Across the top of the hill there was a path.

Now there is lots of space.

This was just a cow lounge.

It is not much different now, other than the pile of trees that need to be cleaned up.

The biggest changes here will be coming this summer.

The new corral /loading chute /head chute will be built here.

That should be interesting to watch grow.

Oh, and yes the equipment is stranded up there because of rain and snow.

This is the second of two gravel loads for the hill.

YES! No more sliding up and down the hill when it is wet.

I have been trying to get gravel on that hill for about 15 years.

Looks like a lot left in the bed as he gets to the top right?

It will disappear soon.

The road up is mostly shale bank where the gravel should settle in nicely,

 but here at the top there is lots of dirt that the gravel will sink into over time.

And then we buy more gravel.

We also got a load of smaller gravel for in front of the garage.

FabHub made it home just in time to see it getting packed around.

AND We had the contractor fix another road in the woods.

See the horizontal and angled lines with the cows on it in the woods?

FabHub started the lower part of that with a tractor a few years ago. 

It connects the front of the woods with the back of the woods.

Over time the guys discovered they needed a better and gateless connection between the two fields.

So we had the contractor cut that angle while he was here.

That is the project to date. 

Building the corral will be next.

Update on my Frog Project

I made a Faux Toe.

And have a long way to go.

Crafting My Time

Yikes! Yes I need to use the daylight lamp when taking pictures.

This is the restart of the birth announcement for the second child of K and S. 

I didn't like the original fabric so I started over.

We should find out if this is for a niece or a nephew this week.

I can't wait!

This is my other project.

It is a Heaven and Earth Design called Faux Fabulous.

It isn't a full wall-to-wall design like a lot of the HAEDs, but there are 89 colors and it will probably take me eight years to finish.

Just kidding. I hope.

It will be fun, I like funky frogs.

I basted and marked some points of reference to get started.

I will be starting the project on March 1st with a group of other stitchers from all around the world.
We are all planning on starting similar large projects at the same time.

Internet groups are great!
I have discovered new ways of stitching, new inspiration for projects, and lots of new fun people.

This is one of my new things. 

An ORT jar. 

Old Ratty Tails

Why go to all of the trouble of making little piles of thread tails on the arm of your chair when you can have a cool ORT jar to put them in.

I don't know for sure where I got this one, might have been part of FabHub's stash when we got married, but now it has a purpose.

I plan on putting the strings out for the birds.

They should make some colorful nests.

That is my craft update for the now. Later.

Signs of Spring

It was beautiful out today so I went out looking for signs of spring.

The first thing I found was this very pale crocus mixed in with leaves for hyacinths and tulips. 

Then I found some chrysanthemums starting to green up. 

The daffodils are thick again. I separated them a couple of years ago. There are a bunch of tulips in this bed too. We shall see if they survived the moles and squirrels.

Then I got busy and cleaned out the front flower bed. Mostly anyway. 

The mums are growing and the peonies are peeking out of the ground.

FabHub has been busy too.

He is getting ready to change this road up to the barn so he had to clean all of his "stuff" out of the hole on the left there next to the garage.

Somehow it all ended up on the trailer and on the end of my garden. 

He said he needed an out of the way flat spot. 

I said that spot didn't need to be any flatter.

 I lost.

Then he got to work fixing a round bale feeder that the cows had torn up.

Did you notice Old Blue is back?!

Ok, you probably didn't know it was gone.

After FabHub bought his new truck, the BIL's truck had a major problem.

Since Old Blue is still road worthy they traded farm trucks for a while so that BIL could still get to work.

He got his new truck now so the beast is back.

That's all the farm news for now. Later.

Making some changes

I saw a blog where someone had added tabs to the top of their page. I thought that was awesome since I share so many varieties of subjects on this site.

So I have added the feature here.

The newest blog is always under Home and the newest of each subject is first under each tab. Yay!

Starting the New Baby Gift

I finally got started on the Birth Announcement.

Can you tell what pattern it is yet?

I know, probably not and since this is a gift that is the secret for a while.

I am sure some of you CCS fans out there can see where I have already done some "frogging" (rip it, rip it out). I got started and then realized I needed to move the whole thing to the left five spaces.

The pattern is intended for 28 count Monaco 2 over 2. I had a package of 12x18 Charles Craft 22 count Hardanger in my stash and figured I could make it work. Then I did the graph on and realized the fabric was pretty small, but since I will be attaching another fabric to the edges anyway to make the album cover I don't need extra space for framing.

Then I got started and after the first section was done realized I had measured out 101 stitches instead of 111 and since my sides are so tight, I decided to move everything to the left a bit.

This is what I meant by album cover. I have shown it before, but I am really happy with it.

On this album I attached the pattern to a denim type fabric "pocket" that slides over an expandable photo album. I thought it might make a much longer lasting memento as it can be filled with pictures over time instead of just hanging on the wall.

So that is my project as of today. I will post updates and hope to be quick about it. July is coming soon!

Back to Stitching

Back in 1992 I was in a craft shop with Mom and FabHub.

I wasn't really thrilled to be there.

I didn't DO crafts.

Then I found this counted cross stitch pattern of my favorite classic car.

I said "I can do that."

They laughed.

I said "No really, I can do that."

So they bought the pattern, fabric, and floss and said "Do it then."

And I did.

Then I went to the local needlework shop and found some more patterns that I liked.

And I did those.

Don't look too closely. They need to be cleaned.

All I did was finish and then wrap them up sometime between 1993 and 1994 or so.

Some of them were started and finished while I was stationed in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War.

That didn't help with keeping them clean.

This one is called "Happy Together" doesn't it look like FabHub and me?

Ok, quit laughing. I am not blonde.

This one was meant to represent our farm.

It still does. I love it here.

This is from a series that Grandma Klein sent me. It is called Midwestern Barn.

There are more in the series. I should find them.

This one was absolutely done while in Saudi Arabia. 

I distinctly remember craft nights in the common room. 

One of the girls knitting or crocheting, another doing some embroidery, and me doing this CCS.

This one, I don't know why I did it. It turned out very nice though.

After I got out of the Air Force I also did a couple of Indian dream catchers. I gave them away as a Christmas present in '94 or '95. I haven't seen them again. They were nice though.

This is my latest purposeful start and finish.

Garrett's Birth Announcement

I bought it a few years ago with intentions of finishing it for my sister and her husband's first baby. 

They finally told me there was a due date and I had to hurry to finish it. 

They were on time. I was late. 

But at Christmas of 2009 Mom and I added the denim border and wrapped it around a photo album. 

It turned out really nice.

Guess what.

They are pregnant again.

I need to make another birth announcement.

Which has inspired me to finally complete a project that I started in late 1993.

And finished on 30 January 2011.

Completing it was originally inspired by FabHub's desire to have and hunt beagles.

We don't have or care for beagles anymore. They are kind of whinny.

The one in the picture is slightly modified to resemble my pup Wrinkles.

She was killed by a neighbor dog many years ago.

It was a really bad experience.

SO ANYWAY...

I just felt like I had to finish that one before I started anything else. 

I have a pattern to start for the new baby.

I also have a pattern coming from Heaven and Earth Designs.

Some day. 

It went to the printers several days ago and status finally changed to In Print.

So I am hoping tomorrow it will be shipped.

It is a full coverage picture. No backstitch. No partial stitches.

Hours and hours of work.

Once it gets here I will have to figure out what fabric I need and make sure I have all the colors.

Then I will have to find some fabric.

The local store doesn't carry what I think I will need.

I am sure they can order it, but the store is 25 miles away in a town I don't go to very often.

And if they are only going to carry the most basic and common fabric...

So, while I would like to support the local store, I will probably end up ordering online.

I have to get to sleep now. Our gym opens early in the morning and I have been procrastinating on that too.

To finish up our trip to Iowa I have a few more pictures to share. The evening before we left Uncle Billy, otherwise known as Bibby, found some spare change in his pockets and wallet I think, so he and Garrett took a sit on the floor to feed the pig.

As you can see that is one of his favorite activities.

Another of his favorite fun things is to read.

He loves to pretend and has quite a supply in his basket to work through.

Garrett is a pretty happy boy most of the time. 

We really enjoyed our visit and look forward to seeing him and his parents again soon.

Luckily there is a trip being planned for July when we hope to meet another family member.

Garrett will make an awesome big brother.

The next day we headed home. 

This time instead of the snow there was lots of fog.

This was taken at about 10am. At least traffic was light. We had good luck with that pretty much the whole trip. It seems no one else wanted to be driving north for the holidays.

We stopped outside of Dayton, OH on the way back. There is a shorter route, but we wanted to stop at the Rocky Outlet store in Nelsonville, OH, so we took the long way around.

The Hampton Inn that we stayed at had an attribute that I wish could be in more hotels. It is pretty simple. I don't know why they don't all do it. 

Put a hook or three on the wall in the bathroom so that a person can hang their travel bag. Pretty simple right?

Makes a big difference in my hotel happiness. 

This was a welcome sight after nine days of travel. 

Back across the border.

And now a week later we are back to this.

At least it is Saturday.

Have a great winter be back later!