From down home...

This is the doorway of the barn on property that adjoined some of our farm...we rented the house that this barn belongs to in our younger years.  The house burned down a couple years or so ago...and everything is just so grown up it did not even feel like home.  Always before, when I would go up there it involved a certain amount of heart ache...this time I guess it still did.  But more in the form of heartache that things have changed so much.  The barn is falling apart....and it is full of junk.

When young, our family raised the tobacco allotment to this place....raised it on the halves.  They supplied fertilize, seed for the tobacco bed and all that included, and we supplied the labor.  Some of my earliest memories are of going there to grade tobacco.  I was too little to do anything much at all, and can remember my mom setting me in hay and telling me to be good.  And it was loose hay.

And out the road just a bit is a spring house, and we had milk sitting in it to stay cool for dinner.  And I think we had bologna sandwiches...I do not know how they washed their hands, unless it was in the water running from the spring, or else, just kept the wax paper around the sandwich while they ate.

In case you have never been around tobacco...when you grade it, your hands get this sticky, yukky tar like substance on it...and it is hard to get off, and very bitter to the taste if you happen to have it on your hands and try to eat something without washing good.
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I did more laundry yesterday.  Funny, when I hang out laundry, it makes everything seem alright with the world.  Even if just for a little bit.  It is something that  is calming for me.

And I have been trying to get started quilting...yesterday I prepared my machine.  Cleaned all the lent out, oiled it, and also experimented with this thread I had gotten.  I will not name brands, but is is one of the higher priced ones...and it is the second time for it to be almost impossible to quilt with.  I got to looking and had some King Tut thread from Superior threads...in the color that I needed and it just sews like a dream.  I just fall in love with this thread every time I use it.

Then I had to change color, and this time I went to Aurifil....really expecting to need to change something if only a little bit, but in my testing it, it sews just great.   Which I didn't expect it not to sew, but thought with it being slightly heavier that I might need to adjust the tension.  I have always had good luck with Aurifil, too.

Well, it is back to work for me...got to make decisions about how to continue the quilting.  Wish me luck!

Back to daily life...

In case you haven't noticed, I have been absent from blogging for a few days.  We headed to Tennessee last Thursday  and got back Monday evening late.  I have no one to take care of the kitties, so don't like to stay gone any longer.

On the way down, we took a scenic route and went over the Ohio River at Madison, Indiana.  We definitely want to return there when we can spend a night or two.

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Since being back, I have been trying to get things caught up.  Doing laundry is the main thing.  And I have been sewing just a tiny bit.  Plus, we went to the Covered Bridge Festival yesterday.  I really would love to have a nice little P&S camera to take with me to things like that because I don't feel like carrying my DSLR around with so many people.  And yesterday was not bad crowded till late in the afternoon.

I go to stuff like that, see so much stuff, and then bring home very little or nothing.  It is just too much for me to see and pick and choose...unless I go with something definite in mind.  Roger wanted to talk to this guy that makes black powder rifles.  They had a nice visit and took each others names, phone numbers....the gentlemen would like for Roger to teach/tell him how to case harden metals.  And Roger wanted to know where he got some of his supplies for making/working on black powder rifles.

Anyway, will try to start visiting again, but I may be slow to get caught up with everyone....

Tipped in red....

This is another from our drive...

I was out taking photos of it when Roger got my attention and pointed to my left.  I looked and this is what I saw coming.

I messed around till he got to me...he was an old, old doggy.  A Siberian husky I assume since his eyes were blue.  He walked stiffly...but at least I got to give him a pet.  I miss having a dog, and always enjoy chance encounters with them.  I have got to get some doggy snacks back in my car...though he did not try to get in with me.  I have only had that happen once when taking pictures...and it was a big Great Dane...he was huge and would have jumped in in a heartbeat if given the chance.  I was so glad to have something to distract him with.

So far, I have been fortunate to only have nice dogs to deal with...though there have  been one or two in the distance that I was glad I didn't have to decide if they were bluffing or not.  One time I paused to pet this one dog and didn't pay attention....took a few more photos, and looked down and I was engulfed in mess of them...well, 4 or 5 were surrounding me and waiting their turn for a kind word.