Happy list

1. Last night there was 6 at my dinner table
2. Tonight there was only me
3. Whatever, it is always a blessed time. Food on my table.
4. After eating soup my daugher prepared and sent over I was sitting on the back
porch watching people come home. I was already home
5. The biggest ol' moon came up and a Sahauro Cactus was silloeted (I cannot find
the correct spelling for that) in front of the moon.
6. We had two very cold days last week. Freezing at night and not above the 50's
in the day time. It was in the high 80's tonight after dark. Love my desert.
7. I sat on the back porch that my loving baby brother built for me listening to a
classical station on the radio, Chopan, Beethovan (sure wish I could spell)
8. Saw the porch light of my son and baby brother's house come on. Someone must
have forgotten something out in their pickup.
9. Going to bed soon with a good book. TV is for the birds and I am not a bird.
10. Speaking of birds, my cat (Kat by name) likes to go on the back porch with me.
I put her up on the tall table so she won't run away. We had a bat circle us
several times looking for the fairy winged bugs that were circling our heads.
Kat was very interested.
11. A chicken finally layed an egg in a cabinate I put out there. Too many chickens
for the laying space they have available.
12. After 7 p.m. My bed and book is calling.

This and that

I haven't had very much to share in quite some time. Today I thought I would find something if I just started typing..........nothing yet.
A rattler crawled out of the bushes heading for under the porch last night. I was sitting on my front porch at dusk watching the sun go down and my temporary house guest was walking home from my daugher's house after a brief visit. I called to her to watch for snakes ( just being silly), her eyes dropped to the ground and thankfully, saw that very snake. She was as antimated as I have ever seen her. She is usually very quiet and reserved. She went to the garage the next day and dug thru her belonging and found 3-three-many flashlights. :-)

I have about 50-50 roosters to hens and one duck. Poor duck... the roosters believe she is a chicken. I am beginning to think that we may end up with Duckins! I keep telling her to sit in the tub of water I have out there for her and she will be safe. She tends to ignore me.

I am still walking every day that I can. I believe I will be more inclined to walk more often when it cools off a bit more. We are promised it will be in the 90's next week.

Choir practice starts on Sept. 2nd. I am looking forward to it. I have the choir area rearranged (with the help of our church handy man) and all the music at the ready, including the Christmas cantata. I have arranged the Christmas and Easter cantata for the last 3 seasons but just couldn't get inspired this time so I ordered it. It is 'The Love of God at Christmas' It has a bit of a special meaning to me. When I was just out of high school and getting ready to start San Jose Bible College, I was in a trio. We sang one Sunday morning at Curtner Ave. Church of Christ (where I was married several years later) and my future husband was in the congregation. He saw and remembered me and remembered the song we sang.

Our record heat for yesterdays date was 106 degrees. We reached 105. That may happen again today. I am staying in the house a lot. I had to make a run to the bank yesterday. Sometimes life just required being on the run. I plan to be in the house all day today!!

Now I will try to find a picture for you that you may not have seen.


The following picture is of two of my granddaughters. The one with the big smile is my AZ granddaughter and the little one trying her best to get her picture taken is my TN granddaughter. This picture was taken in June when some of us were able to go to my TN grandsons graduation.

Watch, oh watch please.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k

Such a pretty sunset

I am 'throwing you a bone'. I have been walking more and more and it is becoming much more enjoyable. A couple of months ago when I first started walking it was because I had to. Now, I sometimes look forward to walking. I walked both yesterday a.m. and then again at p.m. I don't leave cornrows anymore dragging my heels the last part of the way home. I have almost no problem with my knee anymore. For many years, when putting on a pair of slacks, I had to balance just right, lift my left foot as high as I could (which was not very high) and then pull the foot the rest of the way up with my hand to get it into the leg of the slacks because the knee just simply would not bend enough. Now I have no problem bending that knee. Happy day.

While I am walking I am composing things to write down for you. By the time I get all the way home everything I thought might be of interest to you seems inane so it disappears from my mind. So...for today, below is the 'bone'. Something that is so very NOT inane. Enjoy my desert sunset and I will try to find something to share another day.

MEANDERING

I haven't had anything of any interest to the whole group of you for several days so...nothing here.

Sitting here, working on my newest project, I have been thinking of things that I might put here, so, taking a meandering path, here is what I have thought of.


TECHNOLOGY:
I accidently was able to transfer pictures from my camera to my new computer one time, now I can't find the path. My baby bro told me last night he would show me AGAIN, but we both got distracted and we forgot AGAIN. I have a few pictures on the camera that you might be interested in but they, sadly, remain on the camera for now.

CHICKENS:
I lost a chicken several weeks ago to a trap. It got caught inbetween the hogwire fence (wide weave to keep the larger wild animals OUT and the chicken wire to keep the chickens IN) and It was hidden and not found until the ants had feasted very well.
I almost lost another chicken to a similar trap. I went out to feed the chickens yesterday and there were chicken feathers all over the ground. I looked for chicken parts, believing that an owl or some such thing had gotten in and feasted once again but no, not so. Last night when I was filling all the containters with fresh water, I spotted the poor little chicken trapped between the large basin that I have in there for the duck to rest in (not big enough for the duck to swim but enough for it to get it's duck longings fulfilled), trapped between the duck basin and the fence. I pulled the basin away from the fence and out the chicken popped. Poor thing had spent the whole day trapped in that place. Fortunately, it was protected again the sun for most of the day.

GROWING OLD ALONE:
Another 'fortunately' I am not really alone. besides my Father in Heaven, I am surrounded by people who love me and have people who love me that live far away. But, being a widow with a GREAT attitude I can count the benefits.
I CAN DO WHAT I WANT TO DO WHEN I WANT TO DO IT.
DON'T HAVE TO CONSULT ANYONE ABOUT PLANS.
CAN GO TO BED OR NOT WHEN I WANT TO.
CAN LET THE DUST AND CAT HAIR BUILD UP UNTIL I, ME, MYSELF, CANNOT STAND IT.
COOK OR NOT IF I WANT TO OR NOT
HAVE WHAT I WANT TO EAT AND NOT WHAT SOMEONE ELSE WANTS TO EAT
GO OR STAY WHEN EVER I WANT

I would love to have my HONEY back again but I try not to look back. Loving life the Lord has given me.

Thats it for now, until I can pull those pictures off the camera and on the computer to share with you

Way too funny

These pictures came into my email this a.m. entitled
NEVER LEAVE YOUR MOTORCYCLE AT GRANDMA'S HOUSE WHILE ON VACATION
I couldn't resist sharing.............:-)

July 18, 2009 Storm in the desert

We had an amazing storm blow through here last night. I won't even bother to tag each picture, just look, enjoy and even perhaps be happy you were not here. As for BB and me, we danced in the rain and tried to stay out of the lightenings path.

Old age and Peek-a-boo

No pictures today, I am too tired to fool with trying to find the proper one to post.
Old age and peek-a-boo? Here is the relation. Peek-a-boo, meaning that diabetes is playing peek-a-boo with my body. I have been very healthy all my life. Now that I readily admit to being an old lady, I have to admit that he body is not what I wish it would be. I have had a couple of blood test, the first when having my yearly physical. The second was a follow up on the results of the first test. I won't bore you with the numbers on the glucose test but the doctor didn't like them. I am not a huge sweet eater but do indulge when an occasion arises. I have cut out the honey in my oatmeat every morning and try not to be tempted with other sweets. I have started walking 1.8 miles every day that I can. The second test showed that I had knocked the number down about 11 points and the doctor said 'No treatment needed at this time and see me in 6 months". Yeah! But oh boy! That walking is sure hard on me. My body tried to lose about 3 lbs but I am fighting the weight loss,
I put it right back on again. Sad. I walk every day that I can. Sometimes I just can't make myself get out that door. Too tired,(go to bed tired, get up tired) too hot,(it was 106 degrees when I went to bed at night, no way was I going to walk last evening) not time enought today,(Church) but I will keep trying because I have a dear sweet friend/neighbor that is a nurse and tells me that just a bit of excercise with beat back the disease.

Tomorrow, if I don't find an excuse not to walk, I will take you on my walk with me with my camera.

Hodge Podge of pictures

Here is another picture of the esteemed graduate and a friend at the reception at the school where he graduated.




This is my AZ granddaughter and my China Doll stretching her neck to be sure to get in the picture




Lily and one of Spencer's best friends. Note the hat. In Music City area the kids pretty well set the style. Whatever appeals to them at the moment is what they wear I suppose. He is a cutie. I know someone who wanted to get better acquainted with him but I won't tell you who she is.



I like to call this picture, "Show me the way to go home..." Some of you may remember the words to that song.



Spence




My favorite TN son-in-law, Kala's sweet dad. Sadly I didn't get any pictures of Kala's mom at all. At least none that she would appreciate me showing the whole world.



This is a picture of all my baby chicks and one duck who thinks it is a chick. They are all fully grown now. This picture was taken the early part of June. My baby bro and my favorite AZ son-in-law both have jobs at grammer school's (I don't know what grammer school is called these days. When I mentioned something about the grammer school I attended my AZ granddaughter ask me if I was especially poor in grammer and had to go to a special school) At any rate, as a science project it is a common practice in grammer schools here to hatch chickens and the teachers have to find homes for the new babies. We have them :-)

New pictures

Below is 'Sam the Man' with chocolate on mouth and I don't know what the hand sign is for. It was in another picture I took also




Below is Lily, our Little China Doll, modeling a back pack I crocheted for her. The hat was supposed to be for Sam but he declared it was much too babish for him to wear for crazy hat day. He wants one with crocheted spikes. I am going to have to figure out how to do that.







My almost 19 y/o high school graduate. Looks like a college grad doesn't he?



My sweet daughter, her very sweet hubby, proud parents of the grad



The loving and lovely older sister of the grad



Whoops. A bit out of order. I zipped you up to Indianapolis. This is my 94 y/o mom-in-law. She will be 95 in December.



This is of course me and my oldest granddaughter. Wish I had her back in Marana with me. I don't believe that will ever happen but I can dream can't I? She was MINE, MINE, MINE for two years while she went to school here and many people at church came to love her and often ask about her.

There you have it for today. Maybe I will get back to 'farm' issues tomorrow.

Dust storms

A long time friend who lives in OR ask me to discribe a dust storm because of a comment I made on my Facebook page. I typed in 'dust storm' on google and clicked on 'pictures' and found that most of the pictures were in a far away desert and the storms there are much more daunting than the ones we have here.

I am remember a great and very fun dust storm 2 or 3 years ago because I was seeing in thru my grand daughters eyes. Kala is very excited about weather. Extreme wheather that is. This was one of the finer dust storms. It came right across our part of my desert. People with swimming pools hate dust storms. It brings in all kinds of contaminates along with the dust and does a nasty number on swimming pools.

In my desert you can see where it is raining a long way off. God sends a column from His Heaven down to the earth and you KNOW there is a lot of rain falling in that area.

A little aside: When my husband and I and two of our kids were traveling from CT to CA on our motorcycles (Suzuki 850 full dress touring bikes) we got to AZ and here was a column like I described above. I zipped up to him and yelled "I am NOT riding into that" and he zipped away yelling, "Give HIM a moving target". Silly me, I followed

Anyway, when there is a dust storm, caused by a lot of wind in the storm, starts kicking up you can see that column but it is a dirty brown instead of the cloudy gray that is usually there in just rain.

When Kala was here, after the storm passed by (does that remind you of a song?) we looked at the sky in it's passing and the sky was fuschia and lavender and purple in color and very beautiful. I am happy to say that Kala didn's sprout wings and fly away from me nor get very much dust under her contacts.

There Idy, hope that is enough description for you. I wish I knew where the pictures were of that mighty & beautiful dust storm.

Since I don't know where those pictures are I will give you a little eye candy. This picture is right outside my kitchen door. Are you jealous?

I am still learning to use this new computer with the new thing-a-ma-jiggie picture doo-dad. Below is one many of you will have seen already because it is on my Facebook page. It is a picture of me and my AZ granddaughter. She and her brother are going to summer school. She had a project to do and the subject she choose was pirates. So of course I had to try the hat on. This was a Sunday night after church. Sun. a.m. Sun p.m. Wed p.m. and some in between. Bet many of you haven't attended a church that has that many services in a week in many a year. We have a new minister who is only 58 years old and is very old school and I like that. We have a new web site that is in the 'construction' stage right now. You might like to take a look.
www.lwbcm.org

The Ol' Desert Dweller

So sorry my good friends, I have not been a good friend to some of you for a long time. My youngest daughter set me up with Facebook over a year ago and though I didn't believe I would be interested in it I spend my recreation computer time there which is at the very minimum about an hour a day. I have caught up with MANY friend, some whom I have not seen in over 40 years! Most of the time I play Facebook Scrabble with several different people, one of whom is my TN daughter. It is so nice to have contact with her even if it is only a sentence or two each day.

I have a new computer, compliments of my AZ daughter and her sweet hubby BUT I don't have it all set up completely yet. I started to put some pictures of my trip to TN and my family there but can't (or don't know how) to do it yet.

I have all my pictures from my last computer on a disk and will try to figure out how to put some of them on here for you (and just to see if I can do it.

Bare with me while I get the computer figured out and also until I get real tired of Facebook.




HA! I did it :-) The picture is of Spencer (Kala's brother to some of you) It is his graduation picture from high school. Looks like it should be his graduation picture from college, right?

That is all for now. I will try to get this computer set up so I can get more pictures to you sometime in the future.

Guess who

Yep, it is I. After having been absent since Mar. 24th here I am again. I guess I have switched my sentiments from blogging to Facebook. I play Scrabble every day with my Tennessee Songbird and having that bit of connection each day is wonderful.

I have a new computer, a gift from my AZ son-in-law and daughter. He couldn't stand it anymore having me have such an old relic of a computer that is even slower than this ol' lady. They knew I wouldn't buy one for myself because the old one worked and I learned to deal with it. This new one is amazingly fast and I can't seem to tear myself away from it. I guess that is why I am entering something on my blog.
I can't put any pictures on my blog yet because the computer is not completely set up, so no pictures yet.

I went to Fresno, CA the last of May for a 3 day Southern Gospel concert. Loved it.

In June, my daughter and her two children and I went to TN to see my oldest grandsons graduation from high school. I spent about 2 weeks there and then the 4 of us journeyed on to IN to visit with my 93 y/o mom-in-law and my sis-in-law and family. We were there almost a week then I put daughter and kids on the plane for home and I followed in my car. I would so much rather drive than fly. I love driving and hate flying. When my computer is all set up I will put some pictures of our trip for you to see. For now, look for me but don't hold your breath :-)

Never too late.

The following is part of a note I received from a friend of mine in Phoenix. This is something worth sharing...........
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh ... I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you this: My mother was out here with Claudia and I since December, and recently returned on March 10th. Since living in NJ she has been attending a Christian Church, and had come to the realization that she should be baptized by immersion (she was sprinkled as a child). So, we made arrangements for her baptism. Wouldn't you know it, my sister decided she wanted to be baptized as well, so she flew out her for the baptism. But before their baptism, Claudia and Albert decided they wanted to re-affirm their faith and be baptized as well. So, on Saturday, March 7th, I had the privilege of baptizing my mother, my sister, my wife, Albert ... and at the last minute a fellow from our Monday night Prayer Group decided he wanted to be re-baptized as well ... so I also baptized Richard ------. There were about 24 people that came from the church to witness the baptisms. What an incredible evening that was. Mom will be 90 this year ... which goes to show you it's never too late to get baptized!

Let's start at the very beginning......

I have discovered, after making maybe three crazy quilts and starting in a fourth, that I LOVE making crazy quilts. I told a friend of mine in TN the other day that these are the reasons I enjoy making crazy quilts but not the structured ones.


1. I am accomplishing something with a goal in mind
2. I am very GREEN! I never throw away scraps of material. I make them into quilts
3. It is not repetitive. It is a different thing with every seam sewed.
4. It is like watching a flower bloom. You don't know what it is going to look
like until it is completed.

If you are a neat freak this would drive you batty. It doesn't bother me. I don't
expect any company. Only those around me who love and accept me the way they find me



The mess you see in the first picture is a pile of scraps and threads that is only about 1/3 the heap it was in the beginning. I emptied my 3 boxes of scraps, sorted double knit from woven and light weight from heavy. Then started matching sides and sizes.





I love my Baby Lock machine when it is behaving. It is very tempermental and sometime I would love to toss it through the window but it is working beautifully right now.

The first seam goes together on the Babylock which works with 4 threads and trims every seam very nicely at the same time.



The next step is ironing the seam but I know you don't need to see my beautiful new iron I bought at a yard sale a few weeks ago. It is the greatest iron I have ever had. I love it.

After ironing the first seam I head for my Bernina and top stitch with the Chicken Foot stitch Then back to the ironing board and then the cutting table to match up where the new seam is going to be, trim it on my new table. Well, maybe not so new. The school where BB works discarded it and he brought it home to me. Great cutting table. Keeps the mess out of my big kitchen.




This is all repeated over and over and ..... until the quilt is completed.

The last two pictures are of the block growing and growing, soon to become my Summer Crazy Quilt. It will be nothing more than the top of the quilt which is light weight and backed with a sheet. That is all I will need on the bed all Summer. I will take a picture of it when I am finished.

Hope most of you didn't get too bored with this blog.