Dear Mother Nature,

I just have a quick favor to ask of you. Could you possible give us a week - maybe 2 of some nice weather. You know the kind - a little sunshine, no rain, some warmer temps. We still have painting to do on the house and a couple of other projects that we would like to finish before you know what comes, you know that 4 letter word (SNOW).

That's what I'd ask for right about now. Its been raining, drizzling, cold, damp and just not very nice out now for about a week. We still continue to work on the back of the house, Tom worked on the new garage peak over the weekend when it wasn't raining. We have already had a fire in the wood stove, Marley and I have walked 2 days in the rain and tonight its supposed to frost.

I was really hoping for a little more Fall weather.

The picture above is from our walk today. We have been going further all the time. We now walk by our hay field - as a matter of fact it looks like that needs to be cut again. The people who own the property mow a path around the 7 acres of hay so its really nice for walking. The other way we usually go is getting so high its hard to see where your stepping.

Be back tomorrow with some knitting...

Knitting and Fall

Finally, some knitting pictures. Don't those socks remind you of Fall - these are actually my birthday socks so they need to be done sometime in October. Its going to be one of those milestone birthdays you don't want to think about. Next up is a complete pair - just need to bind off but am waiting until I get to the LYS for some help. All I hear is you can make them so tight they are hard to get on - don't want that after all that work.

Don't you just love the white pumpkin?? At the end of November I throw all my pumpkins on a manure pile that we have at the back of our property that backs up against some woods. I always seem to get pumpkins from that process for the next year - some years better than others. This year I have gotten 18 pumpkins. Some better than others. I had a lot of gourds last year and I have some really funky crosses going on but they are still good, although unusual. Don't worry - over the next couple of weeks I will show you what I did with all those pumpkins.

Below are just a few photos I snapped from my walk with Marley today. My goal is to keep up with her after she stops all the initial running. I am progressing. Today I even managed to stay ahead of her at one point. Of course, the last part of the walk, as we get closer to the house we are both dragging.

Talk to you soon!!

Before Pictures/Marley

You can see by this picture what Tom did on his vacation last week. He sanded for something like 47 hours total. We spent more on sand paper than we did on paint. Just a few more things to go and the back of the house will be somewhat done. We were hoping to get a few new windows in but all this sanding took more time than he anticipated. Hopefully there will be no more peeling - or at least a minimum of peeling. This was another project from last week - 2 loads of wood delivered. Now all we need to do is stack it.

Today is one of my broken up days - I work until 10:00 a.m. and then go back from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. I can actually say I really like the break - sometimes all that typing without a long break wears you down. Marley and I have already walked the back fields. I am in the middle of making applesauce to freeze and just enjoying the day. I do have to get out and do some clean up on the back of the house - that would be my job - cleaning up all the mess that sanding created. Wait until you see the after pictures -- it has been so worth it.

Below is Marley snoozing the morning away while I type. There are lots larger spaces to lay in my office but today she managed to cram herself into this little space, almost under my chair. She tried to change positions but there was not enough room. From the amount of snoring that went on I don't think she mined being cramped one bit.

Enjoy this first full day of Fall!! Feels more like Summer around here - its almost 80 and so, so humid.

Jackie

Tidbits and fair photos, quilt results

Here is Jessica showing her cow - look at that face. She was trying not to cry - obviously cow showing is not as much fun as pig showing. Cows were at the end of the day, pigs at the beginning. She had an infectious smile all through the pig show with the judge even calling her Smiley at one point. These are the quilts Kris entered in the open show. Second on the one below- it didn't even have the wool appliques on it - think of the possibilities if it had. It Trail to Kansas.

Below is the Best of Show - pretty impressive. Kris, Sara and I several years ago got up very early once a month on Saturday mornings, took Jessica, a 1 year - 2 year old and went to the quilt shop to get our free blocks when we had completed one. Sara and I also have the same quilt.

Tyler with his eggs. No ribbons but we needed a picture nonetheless.

Tyler with is corn - the class was tallest corn in Wayne County. It was pretty dang tall.

Heres the pig show. Kris also has a few more pics on her blog - just a few!

All in all they had a great fair, but they have worked all summer at this so all that hard work did not go un noticed.

Tom is off this week. We are painting the back of the house. We are getting to many comments about the front being gray and the back yellow. Not that we have been slacking - we did put a roof on in between painting years.

Colleen you giveaway package is on the way. I hope you enjoy it!!

I said I would be back with another giveaway and I will soon. The plan that I had for the next one fell thru. Have to see what else I can come up with. There will be 2 more over the next 2 months though. Last year when I tried to do a Pay It Forward no one signed up - so instead I am doing 3 giveaways. I feel guilty that I never completed it.

Well I am off to make lunch and work in the yard. Tom will be sanding - so I'm mowing grass.

See you next week.

Jackie

Tidbits and fair photos

A Day At The Fair

Here is everyone getting Jessica's cow ready. Amazing how many people it takes to get one little girl into the show ring. The 2 older girls in the picture are good friends who came down to cheer Jessica on - they also grew up showing cows and Todd always helped them with their steers.

Tyler - in the yellow cap there (really its orange but here it looks yellow) was on poop patrol and was always running with the picth fork and wheelbarrow. He was really busy as they have 4 cows at the fair. He so wants to do this but is still to young. He did enter some corn in a class at the fair and got second place. The class was tallest corn stalk.

See that big smile in the picture below?? This is her second class. The first class was lots of nervous tears and then her cow stepped on her foot, got loose, etc. The friends that were helping made all kinds of bets with her about not crying for the second class - like buying her a snow cone and taking her to the tractor pool. So - she put on that big smile, which never left her face the whole class. She did really well for a first year kid - I was impressed!!

Tom and I did not stay for the last class but if you go over to QuiltedSimple you can see the results of the last class - Reserve Champion first year showmanship!! I am impressed. If you interested in seeing more of the day Kris was using her phone to send pictures to her blog - What Did We Do Without Cell Phones?? All I can say is - their hooked, they will be back at it next year. Now its on to her pig - Oinkey Doinkey- and more cows on Monday and Tuesday.

Enjoy your weekend!

Jackie

Our Sunday Road Trip

Last Sunday we left pretty early in the morning, went to breakfast and then headed to Bucyrus, Ohio. We had heard about some murals that they have painted on their downtown buildings and figure what the heck. It was well worth the trip. The buildings were awesome. The one that looks like the town way back when looks as if you could drive down the road as they are in 3D. I did not get a full view of the town as a young man who had helped on both murals was there doing some restoration work.

The Statue of Liberty represents all the men in their county who fought in I think World War II. The background and all the columns are faces of those men.

Not much has been happening here this week. Monday I had to work - Tuesday we were out of work - I think those doctors could have planned it a little better so we were off Monday!! This week starts the fair for the grandkids. Brings back memories of all those years of 4H we did, I'm thinking 15+ or even more. One good thing - we are not doing all the work. I am going to enjoy watching Kris and Todd get all these animals ready while I'm sitting in my chair drinking lemonade.

Tom is on vacation this week also. Hopefully by next weekend I will be showing before and after pictures of our house going from yellow to gray.

Have a good weekend.

Jackie