Busy busy busy 2 weeks

It has been a very busy 2 weeks. I had cataract surgery in the other eye a week ago and then the rest of the week was crazy busy. Put up tomatoes and made peach jam.

I was so blessed with the Daughter-in-Love Jackie bringing me not one box but 2 big boxes of tomatoes from the tomato farm down south. These are Arkansas pink tomatoes. They are not near as acidic as most. 

I managed to put up 43 pints of salsa and even saved a few to eat. 

This has been an awful year for gardening of any kind...just too wet and cool. Our tomatoes have not done well at all. We will get a few to eat along the way but not much to put up.

As for the peaches and plums. I did put down 3 gallons of pulp of plums to later make into jam. Three of our peach trees were stripped by the squirrels so we declared war on them. We managed to get enough off another tree to make about 19 pints of peach jam. The other 2 trees are late ripening and now they seem to be rotting on the tree. Hopefully I can get enough to make 36 more pints. This was to be my Christmas presents this year. 

We have been picking blueberries about every other day and put up about 10 quarts in the freezer. 

We will hopefully have apples and pears. One of the pears has been dying off some as well so not sure what is going on. It was supposed to be an Asian pear which is blight resistant  but it looks more like a Bradley which is bad to get blight. Our Arkansas black apple tree is strange as well. It has very few leaves but it does have fruit..we will see. 

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Another 2 baby quilt linework tops.

These 2 are blue puppies.

I have 2 more finished sets in the embroidery but haven't put them together into tops. I'm also still working on the wedding ring quilt top and the sunflower quilt top. These 2 will go to the long-arm quilt shop to be quilted. 

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I have been gathering things for my Daugher-in-Love's yard sale and came across a bin filled with old hand dyed chenille bedspreads. I plan to use them for the baby quilt backings. 

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I have a few old photos I have wanted to share. This first one is a picture of Sonny's grandparents old home place in the delta area. They were rice farmers. 

The house is long gone but the trees still stand. 

This next picture is of what is called the "Hog Trail". The University of Arkansas's mascot is a Razorback. It was also my high school mascot and so there is a road in north west Arkansas that is named this.

It is not a real easy drive but fun if you take your time. 

And then there is a place in north Arkansas called Hawks bill crag. My sister is wanting her ashes dropped here when she dies. I told her she would have to get someone else to do it as I don't plan to attempt it myself. In fact a woman did fall off here last year to her death. 

And last this is the Little Missouri falls. The Little Missouri River heads up near where I live and these are some low water falls near us. It is fun to play in them but they really aren't big at all. Just a fun place to visit.

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And as always....

Wild daylilies

Many years ago I dug up some day lilies that were growing wild and planted them in my yard. They spread like wildfire and finally dug many up and put in some raised beds. We had a turnaround area in our yard for our vehicles and there were many planted in that area. I hurriedly dug them up and threw them in the ditch beside our road. Every year Sonny uses the weedeater and mows them down against my objections but this year there were so many that he finally conceded and left them and just cut around them. I am so happy as they look so good this year. 

We also got around to pressure washing our house and porch. We try to do this every 2 years but it had been 4 years instead. It was so needed. Here is a section that is before and after.

After cleaning the porch, I finally got my pillows out. (No picture of pillows.)

This is looking out from the porch. We trimmed up the vine that forms a canopy.

Another shot of the porch

You know my love of fungus and mushrooms. We have a stump at the back of the house and it has many of the shelf fungus.

These look like a fairy land.

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Lately I've been picking blueberries and peaches. I am freezing the blueberries and I make peach jam. 

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Here are a couple of the baby quilt tops I finished. 

Top one is Mammy's little helper and bottom is Curious George. I made 2 of the Curious George ones. 

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And as always............

Green green green everywhere

One good thing about all the rain we have been having is that everything is so green. Here are some green shots around our place. 

Our muscadine grapes were pruned back severely and they are already lush again. When they get too thick they won't produce much fruit.

We have another vine that is like a tunnel. It rarely fruits as it is too thick and also too shady. Here is the front going into our porch and the back coming out of our porch.

I promised I would put up photos of my wheel barrow and also my comodes.

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I can't believe how much Kinzey has settled down. She is about over her ear infection and loves sleeping in my closet at night now. She has gotten where she doesn't get up and follow us to the bathroom at night anymore. At 19 months old she is doing great. She comes to the command of "Come" now and will sit and lay down. We are still struggling with her harness. But that is because she is so big. At right at 80lbs, she is a big one. She is almost twice the size of her litter mate sister our older granddaughter has. O and she has become quite protective.

We will keep her crate in the house as we have to have somewhere to put her when it rains and we have to leave the house. 

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Another photo I found on the internet..think this is in England.

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And as always.....

more baby quilt tops

Things have been wet around here and seems it won't let up. The vines and trees just hang with so much moisture. 

We have begun to get our plums picked. We have to pick every day and get them a little unripe and ripen them on the counter as the squirrels have been awful this year. I think Sonny gets out every day and kills at least 2 per day. I did cook down some of the plums and de-seeded the pulp to put up into jam..or I may make fruit leather too. But I just put it all down in the freezer for later. 

I have managed to get a few photos when the sun has shown up.

This is our front right side of the house with the gazebo over the firepit. I love how green everything is and the clematis is in full bloom on the trellis. 

The spider wort has begun to bloom. I love this wild flower so much so try to keep it around in the yard.

I have a real love for wildflowers and have a few different kinds in my yard. Sometimes it looks like my yard is infested with weeds.

Sonny hates it and mows every time he thinks it needs it.

I have a couple of old washing machine tubs ...you know the insides of the old metal washers..I usually plant them with the faux sweet potatoes as they look so wild and lovely sprawled across the yard. But this year I planted cantaloupes...they really aren't doing that well with all the rain we have had but hopefully they will pull out of their slump.

My old comode planters may have to be redone. One is completely cracked and falling apart so think it is time to be removed. I keep creeping jenny and a hairy looking succulent in them along with my wheel barrow. I'll try to get photos of them to post later. 

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On a crafty note....I finished 2 sets of Curious George linework embroidery and have one sewn into a baby quilt top and the other is half sewn. I also am working on the sunflower quilt top for the daughter in law. Lately I've been more focused on reading. The wet dampness makes me ache so haven't had much energy to do much else. 

But here are 4 more of the quilt tops I finished.

This one is redwork kitty twins.

Another sunbonnet sue

Precious moments Noah's ark

Precious moments angels

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VBS is coming up soon for our church. We usually average around 90 children every night. We serve them supper as well. I've not helped out much due to my bum hip and back but I talked to our preacher's wife and she will put me to work in something I can do sitting down. I have a couple of friends around my age that do this each year so will have someone to fellowship with as well. Sonny has always gone up and helped in the kitchen a few days each year so it will be nice for us both to be there together. 

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Keep me in your prayers as I have cataract surgery this coming Tuesday. I'm hoping it will help me be able to drive again. I've not trusted myself with my eyesight the way it has been so we will see.

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And as always....

baby quilts and yard shots

I've been busy lately working on putting together some baby quilt tops from redwork blocks I've worked on over the years. I've just mainly stored the sets of blocks into themes as I've finished them and decided that I needed to go ahead and set them into a top. This way I will have some finished tops to grab when I need a baby gift and put together with batting and backing and then tie. Quick and easy. As I finish each set, I've folded them and store in gallon ziplocks and all into a bin. I plan to show photos of all I've managed to finish and will post a few here each time I post. So here are my first few. 

This one is a duckling and I used a plaid seersucker I had in my stash. I used this same fabric in the next one that is a sunbonnet sue standing on hills.

I will show a few each time I post so this is all for today.

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A few shots around our place....

We have had so much rain that the toadstools have popped up. These were so strange looking. This was the largest and is large as a salad plate and flat. It looks like a purple ring around the edge.

We have a catalpa tree that I bought for Sonny for a father's day present years ago. It has gotten huge and sadly no worms. Sonny loves to catfish using the worms but we have only had the worms the trees are known for 2 years. This tree leans terribly but is gorgeous. It is in full bloom and the blooms look almost like a cross between an orchid and a trumpet. They smell heavenly and draw tiny white butterflies. 

The blooms look like snow and that is what draws the butterflies.

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More photos coming later.

And as always.....