2020 Part 2-April

 Lots happened in April.

Some great, some not so great.

Elliot was finally gifted a new quilt.

He loves it. But he doesn't use it because it is special.

So I explained that I can make him more and go ahead and use it. 

Ugh, Pandemic forces the use of masks so I got busy and made lots and lots of masks.

I truly do hate making masks but Cousin Julie needed them for the nursing home she worked at.

Frolic became a finish and not a UFO,

which was quite exciting for me.

Because pandemic was not enough to deal with, our old house was rotting away in the corner.

The water heater was leaking and and almost fell through the floor, taking the chest freezer with it.

So my wonderful husband had a huge project.

Ordering lumber online for pickup was a new challenge.

Not only did we need a new water heater, we needed to replace our kitchen range and the washer!

Home Depot to the rescue! Order online, sight unseen, no touchy feely. And they delivered.

I tell you, that man is amazing. 

There is not much he can't figure out how to do. 

I offered to help but there was not much I could do,

 so I stayed out of the way and came running when needed.

I'll share the finished room next post.

Stitching often saved my sanity during this time.

I missed my family so darn much.

Didn't we all!

We are a huggy huggy bunch and not being able to do that was a bit rough.

We were all learning our new way of life. 

I'm going to keep this post short. 

I'll be back soon.

Until next time. 

All Work and No Play

We found out it costs a lot to have a chain link fence installed.

We are do it yourselfers so we got busy.

After plans were drawn up, submitted and approved for a fence around out beach lot,

we picked up the parts and pieces (most of them 😉) we needed and 

headed to the beach for a few days of hard work.

Our friend Bill showed up and helped so much.

I didn't have to do much.

Ernie and Bill worked their hinnies off on Phase 1 (100 feet between the neighbors and us)

and got it completed in a few hours.

Day 2, Phase 2, Part 1 was the front of the lot.

It went along without many hiccups,

we ran out of concrete!!!

There had to be a Home Depot run.

We decided to go ahead and put up one of the gates now.

So we needed to get the gate.

Day 3, Phase 2, Part 2

We started out by putting up the wire for Part 1,

then turned the corner and darn! we are short on wire.

Another trip to HD.

While he was gone,

I hatched a plan...

Could we move those clumps of Pampas Grass???

Why yes we can.

But first the old fence had to come down.

. 

2 plants went into the corner.

It's amazing how just a bit of something gives you a nice bit of privacy.

And the usable space with that fence out of there is amazing!

Then Ernie suggested we put the big clump in front of the window of the neighboring trailer.

Oh, that's a great idea!!!

Sure it is until you have to excavate out bamboo roots!

That stuff is so invasive and so nasty!

Lots of sweating and swearing and just plain hard work!

After all of that work,

The big clump is planted and it looks great.

Or it will, as soon as we get that dried bamboo has gone through the chipper.

Oh yeah, that deck he just rebuilt,

That goes too.

There is a new plan for that thing!

Thanks Pam and Bill for that suggestion!

Now our kiddos and dogs are more secure

and we are very happy with our open space.

This is how we spent our evening,

feet up, easy dinner of cold beverages, roasted hotdogs and smores at the firepit.

Phase 2, Part 3-The Deck-will happen next week.

Fence Phases 3, 4 and 5 will wait.

There is some brush clearing that has to happen first.

Bring your gloves kids, 

Gramma has a little project.

It may or may not involve building a fort. 😉😉😉

NSM 23-25 And Life On The Farm

I had so much fun making string block Tuesday that I decided to make more. 

I have not made a dent in the neutral string box.

Some days call for mindless sewing in front of the TV.

I had so much fun on Tuesday, I decided to continue Wednesday.

These are 4 1/2" blocks.

They have all been depapered and trimmed to size.

Friday is another string block.

I thought I would put these away but decided to make just a few more.

A few more turned into 25.

36 blocks this week has made a little bit of a dent in this string box.

A very little dent but a dent. 

How cute is the rooster block!

Life on the farm has not been fun this week. 

I thought I had run us out of water.

Turns out it wasn't me.

There is a leak in our old water line.

For the past 30 years we have talked about replacing that line.

We no longer could put this off.

Day 4 without water is almost over.

We were able to turn the pump on and take quick showers

but couldn't leave it on for very long.

Ernie and his friend have worked hard all day to get this done.

I stayed out of the way and sewed.

Ohhh Nooo

Yesterday, I discovered the floor to the back porch aka utility room aka laundry room was a soaking wet mess. I discovered our water heater has a leak! Yikes. What a wet, nasty, stinky nightmare.

I spent yesterday afternoon going through a bunch of crap that was stacked out there. Lots of stuff got tossed! If we haven't bothered with it in all this time, we aren't going to bother with it now. Out it went. It was very therapeutic.

Tonight, hubby and son in law headed into town to buy a new water heater! We wanted a fancy tankless one but they were special order and we need hot water today. So being installed now is a fancy schmancy 80 gallon, lifetime warranty, energy smart water heater. I do have fabulous men in my life!

You know what they say, things happen in 3s......one down! Pray what happens next isn't anything serious!

Can You Believe It!

100 Days I am a non smoker!

I've Got Socks

I am quite impressed with myself! My arm hurts from back patting! I cannot believe I can knit a pair of socks. I can read a pattern and figure out the simple things, know who to call or where to look (Socks 101) for the things I can't figure out. I can drop stitches and pick them up. I can find all the mistakes I made, sometimes I backtrack to fix them. Other times I say it's a lesson. When doing the next pair, I will count my rows on sock one twice or three times before going on with the next step on sock two. Maybe they will turn out the same length and not 2 rows short!!!

But I don't care, I have a pair of socks.

My next pair will be a on the needles this week. I am going to use the same pattern but only rib the cuff. Now I need to find the yarn. The TLC yarn I bought is a little hard to work with because it has bumps of color in it. I think I'll save that for something esle. But in the mean time I have alot of dishclothes to work on.

We will be leaving in a few days to spend some time with Crystal, Mike and Elliot in Arizona. I will take my knitting with me to work on if I have time. I'm going to be pretty busy smooching all over Elliot. I have to do it now because in no time, he won't let Gramma kiss him at all! Boys are like that!!!

Now, I have to do the weekend stuff--you know the stuff you have to do to survie until next weekend. And I have to start packing and getting the house ready for the house sitter. I don't see much knitting in my future for today. But I am still training a new person at work so I get to knit there!!! Some days I love my job.

TaTa For Now. 

Socks, I'm Knitting Socks...

...or I've Started A Sock! Whichever!!!

Socks 101 has the most awesome sock demo. I have been searching online for a basic teach me to knit socks site and this is what I found. So on my day off today, I made a mad dash in to town to get some more printer ink (I need this to be portable), double pointed needles (couldn't remember what size so I bought 4 sets--just in case!) and some Lion Wool Prints yarn and some TLC Wiggles sport weight. The wool color is Autumn Sunset and the TLC is called Cherry.

I start to wonder what I am thinking at times but this has become an obsession. I have dishclothes #9 and #10 started. #9 is on the couch for TV time and #10 is at the computer for pokie ole dial up load time. Mind you, I'm not getting bored with the dishclothes. Just yesterday, I bought a book and 6 more balls of cotton yarn. I love using them and want to share with my friends and family. It's just this stupid sock thing I have going on in my brain. I even dreamt about socks last night.

So I've jumped in with both boring white sock covered feet and I'm determined to knit some cool socks. I've never used double pointed needles and that was a challenge. After some serious lip biting, I think I have the hang of it. I just kept refering back to my Socks 101 photos on how she hold the needles. I guess what I'm really saying is I am not afraid of the boogie man. The worst that can happen is I'll have to rip them out and start over. Would that be worse that just giving up?? I'm not going to do that, I've seen too many photos of cool sox. Check out these photos from the Socks 1o1 Lady. I want to be just like her when I grow up! Like that's gonna happen anytime soon.

I was just so excited about my bit of progress that I had to share. With any luck at all, my next post will have a photo of my foot/feet decked out in an Autumn Sunset Wool sock/socks. Hopefully one of those feet won't be in my mouth.

TTFN, gotta knit before I start dinner.

PS Happy Birthday Mom 

My Latest Obsession

I want to knit socks! Everyone else is knitting socks. I want to knit socks.

Fun, funky, bright, warm, useful socks. I am going to make socks. Only problem--I don't know how to knit. I don't have time right now to take a class so I am teaching myself to knit.

I am making dishclothes. Do you know that there are a gazillion free dishcloth designs on the web. I Googled free dishcloth designs and opened a few pages where I found Knitting Pattern Central whick led me to the Dishcloth page. So on my next trip to town (so I made a special trip--I have a new obsession!), I bought some cotton yarn, some knitting needles and a teach me to knit book. I'm doing pretty good. I am on dishcloth #5 now. I gave one away and am using one. I also picked up a few more balls of cotton yarn.

I'm getting braver. I am actually following a pattern now and I'm doing a pretty darn good job. Only problem is my arm. There seems to be muscles in there that haven't been awake for a while and constant knitting is playing havic with them. Today I will try to rest my arm a bit but tomorrow they will work! I need to knit. I want to knit socks!

Have a great day. 

It Was Soooo Worth It!

Look at my spare room now. Isn't it pretty? I love the floor. I love the paint color (although some one else didn't like it at first) . I love the new bed. I love the new pillows and pillow cases. I love the new comfortor. I love that I can display my flannel wonky log cabin quilt on the bed and it looks great.

Now I want to make a couple wall hangings for that room but that will have to wait for the bathroom and hall to be finished.

Until then, I will work on my next HIP plan!!!! 

H.I.P.s

My Darling Husband hates HIPs (Home Improvement Projects)! I come up with a brilliant idea, share my idea with him, jump in with both feet, then scream for help!

My favorite phrase "Alls ya gotta do is...!" He hates that phrase. Everytime I say it, I imagine him with his fingers in his ears and singing lalalalalalala until I go away.

I painted the tree on the wall several years ago when I turned this room into a play room for the Grandkids. Now that Crystal has moved, we need a guest room for when they come to visit. The room needed a new floor and new paint.

See the shelf in the right side of the picture? That is the shelf you must slam in to when you go in the room. I don't know why I put it there at that height but I did and it stayed there for a long time. It will not be going back into the room.