making it all snug at the cabin

 Here is one of  my cabin updates for this year.  The master bath needed some attention and I have been going back and forth for a year and half as to what would please me.  My inspiration was the boarder.  So I took down old fixtures, repaired the walls, touched up my previous paint job, and then painted the cabinet, new fixtures, curtains and I love the finished result, so much better.

Before

I also got crystal knobs and they just please the girly girl in me.

After

 I've had 4 baby quilts to do this summer and here are two of them.  The forth is on its way out the door today and hopefully I will get a photo of it.  Two girls and two boys.

I fell for this wildlife flannel hard!  Its just so sweet and I have a bunch for future projects, like more girl baby blankets or even a set of jammies for....well me!

floating feathers

As time passed and my mothers illness finally came with a terminal diagnosis. We talked about signs. We had discussed them before but it always involved signs from others that had passed before us.  Now we were talking about signs from her to me. 

How I would know she was still here with me.

Believe me they were not easy conversations.  I kept a stiff upper lip, because I knew that they meant a great deal to her and brought her some comfort.  I would wait for the drive home to have my hysterical fit of crying and trying to process the inevitable outcome.

Signs are a huge part of our beliefs and I pay attention all the time.  Almost everyday there is a hawk sitting on a phone line during my commute to work and I say "hello" to mom.

You see its been two and a half years and until my dad's passing I had not gone through much of anything at my parents home.  My dad was happy that everything stay as it was.  But now I don't have much choice.

I picked to tackle the bathroom first.  Mom had some lovely violet prints that hung on the wall over the toilet and as I took them down to give them a good cleaning the second one gave me the gift of a blue jay feather.  It floated down to the lid of the toilet and I lifted my face upward and sighed "oh, mom" I figured it was a "Thank you" for finally cleaning the bathroom or she wanted to say "Got Ya" , I can guarantee that at sometime my mother placed that feather there knowing someday I would find it.

I looked up the meaning of blue jay feathers and it had a particular meaning for what was happening in my life that very week.  So we find signs when we are meant to, not before.

I have found notes in various places, one in particular was on grief, just jotted down on lined yellow paper, folded and tucked in a bunch of papers,  knowing all of us would need it as we dealt with the blow of losing dad.  Gone two and half years and she still finds a way to mother us.

Even now I feel like the luckiest kid in the world.

Hawk was one of my mothers favorite birds.  The day after my dad's accident, my brother found a very large tail feather from a red tailed hawk on his deck right in front of the door.  He knew mom was letting him know she was on the job and taking care of things.

Rocks....shall we start with the rocks

As the spring gave way to mud...as it usually does.  This year the mud was excessive.  It came with the rains that also were excessive and flooding in nature.  We faired better than most but it did put our new drainage systems to the test.

Trailer loaded with a lot of BIG rocks.  The rocks are coming from the foundation of a dismantled barn.  My dad had the Amish come in a few years ago and dismantle the barn, salvage the beams and some of the good boards.  These stones are ripe for the taking, despite what the possessive grape vines have to say about it.  I took one nasty fall with a 70 pound rock after a grapevine wrapped around my ankle.  I landed backwards on a pile of rocks with the 70 pound rock on top of me.  I thought it all went quite gracefully, as I did not really get hurt.   Joel begged to differ and put me in timeout.

 Here is a new side garden along the driveway and wood line using some hosta's from the farm that I had originally shared with my mom years ago.  They needed to be divided and it all came out lovely.

 It's amazing what a boarder and mulch can do.  I estimate that this year I moved about 8 yards of mulch by hand.  We get it in bulk with the trailer and I unload it into my little trailer on the four wheeler and shovel it out again.

 This is the bed I started last year on the front of the house.  I did add some new plants to this as some of my bargains from last year did not grow.  Mainly the Shasta daisies (broke my heart) but the Black Eyed Susan's made up for it with a GRAND display this year, and my grass came back.  Thank goodness.

now on to Life in Lodi

because that is what is going on these days.  Some wonderful, some good, some horrible, but that is what it is Life in Lodi.

Since the last post, I have hauled rocks, built and planted new gardens, painted this and that, quilted, got a promotion at work, helped move a friend, added a new kitten to the family, found some wonderful antiques, gone back to school and lost my father in a tragic farming accident.

Ya, that last one has changed everything and nothing all at the same time, how is that possible. The worst phone call of my life, a fleeting 2 seconds, stopped the universe and in some ways its still stopped at that moment in time for me.  But yet I continue to watch everything moving around me.

 My dad and his crazy mule that he be bopped all over the farm in, getting wood, gathering sap and hauling feed.

 Dad and my younger brothers.  There don't seem to be any photos of me and dad, which makes me sad, but I was the one always on the other end of the camera making sure everyone else was in the shot.  So....

Yes, this is my daughter after she was sworn in at her new job with a police department and she is currently off at the police academy. 

There are several reasons she is my bestie

and not just because she has offered to help me hide the bodies...on more than a few occasions.

What can I say I'm very Irish...and Scottish but lets not forget the Italian and Native American so I speak of the utmost consequences when my feelings are poked with a stick. Unfortunately, usually out loud.

She gets this about me.

I was lucky enough to get her as a coworker for a few blessed years (we were already friends of several years).  She talked me off many a ledge during a few of the dark days.

She continues to be a cohort in my antics, like the following exchange this week.  We ususally chat everyday via text and email and it started like this.

From Me:

Subject: Re: I want my old stapler....I should have taken it...damn it!

Reply from bestie:

LOL, I CAN TRY AND STEAL IT, NOT SHE IS EVER IN HER OFFICE TO USE IT.

From Me:

That makes me want to cry…I am sure it misses me too…my poor blue baby, in that bitches clutches, makes me CRAZY….

Reply from bestie:

LOL

From Me (4 hours later):

Now I miss my scissors, but that is because I have none L.  

Reply from bestie:

Oh lord!   I'm at XXXXXXX's office.  (sorry had to blank the name for besties safety)

From Me:

Good tell her , that I would like my stapler for my years of working the call schedule in her favor….pleaseeeessssss…..

Reply from bestie:

Lol

From Me:

No, its not funny this is serious….the one I have is a total crap waste of tin, I am loosing muscle mass because my old one was ancient and heavy….ITS A TOTAL EMERGENCY!

Reply from bestie:

Easy now, it'll be okay, lift some canned goods when you get home

From Me:

It’s not the same..WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.  Id so be on the floor kicking and screaming right now, if we didn’t have security in the building

Reply from bestie:

May have to take you to mental health

From Me:

As long as I get my stapler, I don’t care……

Reply from bestie:

Lol

......before anyone gets any crazy notions, no crime has been committed.  My stapler (I used it for 18 yrs, its mine) is still being held hostage by the ungrateful organization that caused me to leave my snug happy place...bastards.... I know, I know... I chose to move on but until you use a crappy stapler that you want to throw through a window, you don't realize how you had it good in the world of staplers, umm and scissors.  I might mention tape dispensers too. 

But I shall persevere.... I have no choice, there is still paper to be stapled and taped back together after I rip it because I really do not have a pair of scissors.

Now, on the off chance anyone out there has the power to persuade the communist sect that has my relished desk utensils to release them, for they are old and heavy and NEED ME, I would be forever grateful.

Now you all can see why she is my bestie.... gem of a woman...Mental health my ass....

ps... this isn't the end of the bestie conversation (to be continued)

​

As we dig out

from the snow, I've kept myself busy.  I did miss a day and half of work last week

due to the snow storms.

So I cleaned and rearranged.  My new spring mantel.

I kept hooking...

I

I finished the small table top rug.  Yes, the jelly beans were ONLY for size reference.

the fact they disappeared soon after the photo, is of no relevance.

Karen from Waterloo Woolen's told me I should be very proud of my first hooking piece that I did excellent work. That really made my day on Saturday.

 I started a few small quilting projects as well

Rick Rack Roses, work in progress.

and this log cabin pumpkin in the process of machine quilting.

both will be small wall hangings.

We have been working on ways to cut back financially.  Next on the chopping block is our television service, Direct TV.  Out in the country we only have a few options as cable doesn't run out this far.  The price we pay for the few channels we watch is a joke so to save $140.00( this is just for regular, no movie channels)  per month we have been trying our hands at watching programs from the internet. we both agree its time and I usually turn on the TV for noise and never actually pay attention to what's on so I have been  not turning on the TV and trying to enjoy the quiet and be purposeful in my media use.  I have been reading a lot more. 

Samantha showed me how to use my nook to borrow eBooks from the library and I have been enjoying it very much.

Today being the first day of spring, started with a nice Hoarfrost and a very foggy ride into work.  I hope spring doesn't keep us in suspense for to long.  I am looking forward to seeing all the tulip bulbs I planted in the fall make their appearance.

Never ever love tap a spider

that is on your wife's leg.  First of all, a spider doesn't understand the little hint of a love tap (move away dear friend you are causing my wife to try and crawl out of the car going 60). 

No, a spider takes a love tap as a challenge.  Please forgive me but my lap is not the place for a challenge to the death, especially when it could be mine.

The spider when love tapped turns into a super sumo spider all eight legs turning in unison to visualize the threat, no, not my husband whom so gently smashed him, but me.  His little pinchers clicking with instant anger, looking for a place in my thigh to sink them in revenge.

Me, I was already trying to get away from the eight legged freak before there was a hint of danger, NOW I'm freaking the shit out!

Sweeping at his hairy little body until it fly's into the dash board and with the other free hand

smacking him to a satisfying bloody pulp. (note to self: need wet wipes in the car)

I then turn to my husband, who by the way is looking at me as if I had lost my mind and pronounced, "That is how you kill a spider!"

His lame reply: " I know honey I didn't think you wanted his guts on your pants."  Geeze, leave it to Joel to be sensitive at time like this... I could have been killed.

How did this all come about on a Thursday?   I went into work this morning and was told to leave, have a nice day, you will receive full pay.  They had to close the building due to a water main break and no restrooms. 

Nice... I wonder if tomorrow I shall be so lucky????

So I hung out with my husband and now we all know how that turned out. 

45 Allis Chalmers

This is what my dad and brothers started with.

This is how it looked this past weekend.

These guys amaze me.