Time at my sewing machine

 Because the spring was a bit slower around here, I had time to get into my fabric stash and do some fun things.  I  made a couple of rag blankets out of flannel , just to have ready for baby gifts as needed.  They are fun to sew and once I got started came together quickly.  This one will be going to a little boy, the first grandson of some good friends of ours.  The mother of this little boy grew up with our daughter.

 On this next blanket I tried something new, for me anyway.  Instead of the same old style for the rag quilt I added some sashing in between some of the blocks.  I felt the quilt needed something else and so I decided to add the brown sashing and I really like how it turned out.  It was fun and I loved seeing how it came together.  Felt good to be a little creative again. This blanket may be saved for the next little girl to come along in our family :)  

 On a less creative side, I also got my mending basket emptied out and did some mending for the kids and grandkids.  Nothing has changed, jeans still get holes and need mending.  I also got started on another baby quilt that I had wanted to do for a long time.  I will post some pictures soon, I have the top done, and now to the finishing part.  We will see how soon that happens, summer is not the best time for a lot of sewing time.  I also have a quilt ready for binding.  I pieced it before Christmas and handed it off to the quilting committee at church for quilting in winter.  They didn't get to quilting till April so I got to help with that too, and now it is back in my possession to finish, and then it will be donated to our local MCC relief sale in September.  I will try to post some pictures of that one too before I hand it off.

Spring, Seeding, etc

 Backtracking a bit....it has been an interesting spring.  We got home in early April to things covered in snow, cold and with a threat, or talk of another flood.  Slowly the weather warmed up and the snow melted and we watched the river levels and melting and wondered if it could really flood again.  Everything proceeded just right and we did NOT get a flood, except for the usual flooding of the low levels and bridges, and there was some overland flooding on some of our land.  Not so much different than other springs, and we were very thankful for that. 


 Meanwhile, as we waited for the snow to melt and the fields to dry, work on seeding equipment happened on the yard.  We thought we might get a late start, and we did, starting in May instead of April this year. Once things dried up we got our seeding done in good time. 
 There was still some snow in the tree lines on the yard and fields the day we got the seeder loaded up and ready for work.  Things were a bit sticky out there when we started but by the later fields things were getting dusty again, as you can see on the picture.  We had some very windy days as well, where we were on edge, thinking that the fields might start to blow, and that is never a good thing, and a stressful time for my farmer.  We had to do a bit of cultivating to prevent blowing.   We put in wheat, canola, soybeans and some corn, along with the winter wheat that was seeded last fall, and slowly coming to life.  Right on the heels of the seeding out came the sprayer.  With out low till system we use now, we have to do more spraying and so most fields got sprayed before the crop was up to get any weeds that were getting too ambitious.  That was a couple of weeks ago, and now we are into our second round of spraying for weeds,  the crop is growing, the fields are greening up and we could use rain again.  We got a couple of rains of about 2 inches each and had to get out on the fields with the four wheeler and trench wheels to help the water run off, and we thought it was enough, but we are dry again, and could use a nice rain.  Farming is always a challenge and a test of patience, and an exercise in trust.  We do what we can and have to leave the rest, and the outcome to God.

For the grandkids

We are in the process of landscaping our yard.  The front yard is making good progress but the backyard is still mostly in the dreaming and idea stage.  Kerry has some plans but so far we hadn't gotten too much done.  A while back we were in the city shopping and we came across a fun looking playstructure.  We decided that maybe our backyard could use something for the grandkids and so on a bit of an impulse we decided to purchase this playground structure.
 We brought it home and it sat in the garage in boxes for a couple of days till one morning early I woke to the sound of something happening in the garage.  Kerry had decided it was time to get to work.  There were a total of 6 boxes which contained MANY pieces of wood, LOTS nuts, bolts, screws and other hardware, and some plastic parts.  Nowhere on the box did it say SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED.  We quickly found out there would be LOTS of assembly required but we figured that if we took it one step at a time we would get through it.  And we did!  Between the two of us it took a bunch of hours over the course of nine days to get it done.  And we had to get help from our son for a couple of things, like putting on the roof.  It was mostly fun.  I learned to use a power driver, how to change bits and batteries on it, and even built some of the parts on my own.  Once we got started it was hard to let it sit and do our other work.   The most frustrating part was getting the slide assembled and attached.  Luckily that was the finishing step or we might have given up.  Anyway, we got it done Saturday,  and we are calling it good.
 The kids were all home on Sunday and so the grandkids spent a good chunk of the afternoon out there playing on it and testing it our. I think it passed their inspection too.  We saw some very interesting expressions of excitement when they first saw it.  It was a lot of fun to see them playing and enjoying it and they even convinced their moms and me to try out the slide, and that took some doing.  But eventually we did get brave enough to one by one go down it.  There were pictures of that but we will not be posting those.    Now we are just waiting for our BC grandkids to show up so that they can enjoy it too.  Enjoy the pictures, I think they speak for themselves as to the enjoyment that was had by all.

Easter

 We had celebrated Easter in Palm Springs with Kristy, Graham, Norah and Shae with a rib BBQ and an outdoor easter hunt.  When we came back home, it was time for our easter gathering here, but there was still lots of snow and winter here, so we had an indoor lunch of roast beef and an indoor easter egg hunt.  The grandkids all happily participated in hunting for their own color of eggs.  The little ones had an easier time of it than the older ones who had to hunt a little harder.  They did get some help from the grownups at times.  Afterwards it was discovery time as they opened each egg to see just what was inside, and to taste and enjoy.    Mmmmmm.......chocolate and jelly beans and gummies.