We celebrated our 31st anniversary today--just the two of us. Another fishing trip. My choice. I think hubby felt sort of strange, but that is really what I wanted to do. We did try a couple different creeks...one I really, really like. I want to go back there through the week--might go by myself. The other is a nice creek, but I don't have luck there. I think this is maybe my 2nd or 3rd time going there...it has probably been 10 or 11 years since I last went to it. We didn't catch anything to brag about at either place--not in number nor in size. But it was still a pleasant way to spend the day.

I told my brother I think fishing is relaxing to me because when I fish, I concentrate on fishing. I am always thinking of what lure I want to try next, what color, or where I am going to cast. Fishing is one of the few things that keeps me really focused.

I was gone all day yesterday--just running around. Went down to the south end of town to see my friends little house that she is working on. It is tiny, but she wants to move to it because it will be less to take care of as she gets older.

From there I went HERE This is not a fancy website and needs to be updated...but it contains several pictures I have taken. It is my former place of employment...I just went to visit with the owners...it was and still feels like my home away from home. It felt like home the first time I set foot on the place 20+ years ago--and I worked there for 19 years. Only part-time, but most of the years were part-time year round...there is always something to do. Pruning, preparing for the coming season, planting new trees, cutting down old trees, etc. Go to PHOTOS and look in the album titled Orchard and see more pictures from there.

Today I got up and went to my daughter's house and we did 15 dozen ears of corn...we blanche it, cut it off the cob, bag it and freeze it. They love it...we did Six dozen ears last weekend and she is still not sure this will be enough. I told her she would be lucky if it lasted till winter.

I also got to see the baby kitties again....I am in love! They are so cute. I plan to get one soon as they are old enough.

Dumb, dumb, dumb! I am so disgusted with myself. That lining I pinned in the quilting frame a few days ago--I ended up getting it too short for the log cabin top. In ways I can't believe I did it, but in others it is typical of me to make a dumb mistake. I am not taking it out to sew a length on, but will do a different quilt top. Not sure which one yet...I am leaning pretty strongly towards a flying geese quilt top I did a few years ago. It really upset me that I did that. Maybe tomorrow I will feel more like doing something with it. Today when I discovered the mistake I had made, I just didn't feel like doing anything at all.

So, I made myself do laundry, vacuum and mop. At least those are done and won't have to be done again tomorrow. That way if something else don't happen, I can concentrate on something fun for a change.

Just finished canning these 5 quarts of salsa a few minutes ago!

I wish I had a bigger garden--both my daughters love my homemade salsa. A quart of it does not last very long at all at any of our homes. So I am hoping to get to make more.

Our car, a 1998 Toyota Camry with 140,000 miles on it has decided to give us some problems. We cannot complain though, as this is only the third thing we have had to deal with it since we got it in 2000. The other was the water pump and as it was time for it, the mechanic just went ahead and changed the timing belt while he had it. They both had lasted much longer than is normal. So, with the problem now, which my husband and son-in-law think is the starter, my husband had to drive the truck to work. Leaving me without wheels till it is fixed.

Otherwise, I would be very tempted to go on a hunt for a bushel of tomatoes. There are several Amish families in Parke Country that sells produce. If we get it fixed, I may try to go next week....I have promised to go help my daughter freeze corn again on Saturday. Her stepson wants to come and help, but don't know if his mom will allow him. He would be my daughter's shadow if they had them all the time. It is so strange, he is so much like her that it isn't even funny.

I definitely need to go start on some laundry now...it has been waiting patiently for 2 days. I was hoping it would decide to do itself, but no such luck.

Grandmother's Flower Garden

I decided to at least take a picture of this Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that I bought at a yard sale a couple of years ago. It is actually the first pictures I have taken of it I think. It is approximately 5 ft. square. One side of the hexagon measures 5/8's of an inch finished. The quilt has a couple bad spots--one is a little tear and the other there is a spot where top and batting is missing--I just found that this morning. I cannot remember if I gave $1 or $2 for this quilt--either way it was one of the best buys I have ever come across.

No quilting today. Nor did I take a single picture. I did can 6 pints and 4 quarts of hot peppers...5 pints of jalapenos and the others were hot hungarian wax peppers. I am really wanting to get down in the basement to sew, but have other things that keep getting in the way. I thought I might get down there this evening but my daughter and her husband came by...we went out to eat. By the time we got back, I was just out of the mood to do much of anything.



We have a new neighbor to our north...and she seems like a nice, normal girl. Just maybe I will have a good neighbor once again. When we moved to this neighborhood, we were the youngest couple here. Gradually, almost all the original bunch have died. There is not a week goes by that I don't miss the neighbor, Lilly, that was to the north of us when we moved here.



She first moved out to a senior living place, and her house came up for sell. Another neighbor bought it, as well as the house to the south of us and is using them for rentals. I cannot think how long Lilly has been gone from here--at least 7 years since she moved (she passed away in 2003 I think), anyway, this is the first time I feel like we might have a good neighbor there.



I am so sick of the people that we have been getting for neighbors..we did have a couple that were nice to the south of us for a while. Now we have someone that lets the grass grow about a foot high before it is cut. I think the landlord makes them cut it when it is cut....



My mind is wondering right now...thinking over all the people that have come and gone. The new neighbor's first name is Shelby, and that is the name of our dog! At least it makes it easy to remember her name. Our new neighbor enclosed part of her back yard right away with fencing. They were out there as we were leaving this evening and Roger asked her if she had a wolf or what...she said no, a beagle but he is just as bad...likes to dig out and run away.



Well, he was out there when we got home and I just want to go give him a big old hug. He just has that friendly beagle look and his tail wags nice and slow when you talk to him! Yes, I think I am going to like this girl! I done like the dog--he doesn't bark and go nuts, though I did hear him bark a time or two. I don't mind legitimate barking...I just cannot take it when a dog barks non-stop for no apparent reason.



But this beagle brings back memories of Ray, a neighbor that lived diagonally across from our corner. He raised beagles and sold them. For rabbit hunting. He had this one little beagle that was about 2 or 3 months old and for some reason out of all the dogs that he had, it was the only one that somehow managed to get out of the pen every week or two, and every time it came over here to us. Probably more to get to the girls cause they were young then. He was adorable...



Enough reminising for tonight...hopefully I will either get to sew some tomorrow or at least take some pictures.

Fishing is another love of mine, though I have actually spent very little time on that hobby the past few years. But today, we went fishing. In the creek pictured here. We go upstream from this dam a couple miles, park, get in the creek and fish with our ultra light rods and reels with artifical lures/jigs. We spent at least four or five hours in the stream today, and it was just so enjoyable.

For the past few years, I could not wade and fish because I got so dizzy seeing the ripples in the water. Then, I got to thinking maybe it was looking through my bifocals that made it affect me so bad. So, today, I put my glasses on top my head--I have to have them to be able to see when I change lures. But otherwise, there they stayed. And I fished to my heart's content. Well, almost. I would not have minded staying a while longer but my husband has to go to work tomorrow, we had not eaten since morning, so we headed home.

It was such a wonderful day though. We caught a little bit of everything--bluegill, small mouth and large mouth bass, rock bass, and of course I caught creek chub. I detest those things, and I honestly would rather catch nothing as to have to take one of those of my hook. I think it is cause they make noises when handled. It sort of makes me shiver just to think about. And I swear they are slimier feeling than a normal fish.

Have been away from blogging for far longer than I ever planned. I have favorite blogs that I read and sure miss it when they don't post. I have not been accomplishing much in either the quilting dept. or in taking pictures. I am trying to get back on track...

I do have a lining in the frames and plan to get the batting and top pinned in sometime in the next week. It is a log cabin and going to be quilted very simply. I had planned to machine quilt it, but it is going to be a while before my Juki's desk is ready so just thought I would see how doing the quilting by hand would go.

I have also made 73 nine patches--still unsure of how I am going to arrange them. That is something else to decide. I am pretty sure they are either going to be on point, alternated with a plain block, or else put half-square triangles on each side. (Square in a square?)

My husband goes back to work light duty Monday...so today we decided to take one good long drive before he has to go back. We went south to Jackson-Washington_State_Forest here in Indiana....we really enjoyed it. And being that it was still a weekday, not many people were there.

From there we went to Spring Mill State Park. This is a picture of the mill...it was quite interesting. The walls are 3-ft. thick...in order to stand the vibration from the mill wheels.

I have been listening to music HERE



They have a little bit of everything...sometimes I would not give two cents for what they are playing but other times they introduce me to new singers. When I was a child I HATED bluegrass music...but when I went to college for a year or so, a professor played the banjo and others filled in the band. And hearing it live gave me a total different view of it...so now I love it, although I tend not to like the old style bluegrass unless it is live.



WAGON_WHEEL is one of the songs I heard on there! No, I am not crazy about the video, but I don't watch them...I just turn them on and listen while Ido other things. Anything that mentions Tennessee in it gets my vote...then night before last I heard NORTH_KNOXVILLE by Todd Steed and Sons of Phere...there is a rock copy and an accoustic version. This link provides a link the the latter! Anyway, besides being gone a big part of the time, I have been messing around with music.



In my search for some group, I ran across John Denver songs at YOU_TUBE!

And that led to Neil Young....you get the drift. I did not even think of looking there for the Foo Fighters--though I get them at Yahoo's Launch. But for years I searched for the accoustic version of TIMES_LIKE_THESE. I bet if I had thought I could have found it on the web somewhere, but instead I just looked at music sites.

Took these photos of flowers over by the railroad yesterday when we took Shelby for a walk. I don't know the name of either, so if you know please leave a comment and tell me. Isn't the one so delicate?

We went to Indianapolis yesterday to visit my nephew and his wife...he is the son of my oldest sister and is a month older than me. I was a change of life baby....muscular dystrophy runs in our family from my dad's side of the family. We have a very rare kind...it has been studied at the IUPUI Medical Center in Indianapolis. Actually, I think we are the only family known to have it.

We could go and be tested for free...and you could either ask to know if you were positive for it or not. I was too chicken to be tested...I could not have done it without finding out if I had it. And I really didn't want to know if I tested positive for it. I might have acted different if we had not had children already.

The nephew we went to visit yesterday has a brother and sister and they are both positive for it...so far they are the only ones that show they have it. It is hard seeing him like that--he only has 20% usage of his lungs. But he used to spend summers with us in Tennessee. So we are more like brother and sister.

We, my husband and I, went on a little scenic drive today. We stopped at two quilt shops along the way: The Stitchery in Oblong, IL and Angie's Nine Patch in Effingham, IL.


Both are excellent quilt shops--I think that The Stitchery has more in both fabrics and gadgets, but I love the way the cloth is measured at Angie's Nine Patch. She gives at least an inch extra, and a couple inces on one, 1 1/2 inch extra on another. And she has lots to choose from as well.

Anyway, I bought the half yard of batik and the 3 fat quarters at The Stitchery and the other five 1/2 yd. cuts at Angie's. I just thought I would show them--I am slowly but surely adding some lights to my stash. I could spend a fortune of batiks!

I took a few pictures of small projects from past years and thought Iwould show them here. I should have more of my things displayed instead of packed away somewhere. I even forget things I have made.

I raise my cucumber by planting them near the fence...then the vines climb the fence and the cucumbers hang down like this. I got that idea from two places--I think Victory Garden has shown the idea of planting vines with upright supports.

Also, my former boss always told the story of someone one in his childhood hometown that raised pumpkins by growing them up a tree...they would get so big he would have to wire a bushel basket to hold the weight. My boss just could never get over it...


Guess you can tell I have my camera back! I was so excited to get the kids home that I could not sleep Friday night. My daughter knows me well--she got me 4 books from/about Alaska:
1. A Schoolteacher of Old Alaska...The Story of Hannah Breece I have read this one but will read again.
2. No End In Sight: My Life as a Blind Iditarod Racer
3. Alaska's Wolf Man: The 1915-55 Wilderness Adventures of Frank Glaser ( I have wanted this book for a LONG time.)
4. The Best of Robert Service (his poem The Spell of the Yukon is my favorite of all time. http://www.geocities.com/heartland/bluffs/8336/robertservice/spell.html )

On top of that my DH has been having problems with his diabetes. Then he got something in his eye and we had to go to the doctor yesterday to get that removed. It has not been a fun time around here.

His sugar just is not coming under control...he has not been eating right for sooo long. I think yesterday was the first day he didn't eat too many carbs. I really don't know what to expect.