People…I do not know the day of the week. If I do not look at my iPhone or ask Alexa, one day might as well be the next. It’s crazy. I’m just drifting. I saw a little thing somewhere that says..
#coronavirus has turned us all into dogs. We roam the house all day looking for food. We are told “no” if we get too close to strangers. And we get really excited about car rides.
I’ve been working on a quilt top, and I have several other quilt/sewing projects to start and finish; and since it is so easy to have numerous unfinished projects, I wanted to finish this before I took on anything else. Here’s my completed quilt top. It’s comprised for four-quarter blocks of reproduction vintage 30’s fabrics. Many of the fabrics are from a designer named Lori Holt and her Farmgirl Vintage series.
Tippy Jo helps me every step of the way. She thinks she knows a lot about everything, and she’s right, I somehow got my machine stuck in reverse. It’s fine now, but there was a moment….
I just make the quilt top. I don’t even try to quilt my quilts. Someone else can do these on the long arm quilter far better than me. I don’t hand piece them either. I have arthritis in my right hand that would make this difficult. However, I do enjoy putting the color combinations together. This is a scrap quilt so there really isn’t a pattern.
The backing of the fabric is a large print with the same colors. It has a nod to the 30’s as well, but instead of the tiny 30’s patterns, it’s a large pattern. I like the contrast from one side to the other. I am binding the quilt in red. Even though I use good fabrics, I washed and tested the red to ensure it does not run and fade onto the fabric.
This quilting and working with fabrics reminded me what a mess my sewing notions were in. I have several sewing notion storage containers, but this is my favorite. In this picture, it’s all tidied and ready to be closed. Isn’t this amazing?
And look how small it gets. This is important as, like many, my dining room is also my sewing room!
I realized as I typed this heading that I did not know the day of the week! Mike and I are practicing “self isolation” so we are staying home. Without the normal cadence of doctor’s appointments, planned trips to do this or that…the days drift from one to another.
Here’s some random thoughts in no order…
While reading the online edition of the Bristol Herald Courier, I feel as if I’m looking at pages that many years from now, others will read as they learn how Americans coped with the COVID-19 pandemic. Did we do well? Did we do poorly? How many succumbed? I want to quit reading this stuff as it makes me anxious, but I cannot seem to stop taking occasional peeks.
Groceries. I have plenty but I’m not hoarding. The temptation to book an online pickup order is difficult. If Mike were not here to tell me to stop, I’d probably be booking an order of $30-$40 of more canned goods. I’m questioning why I did not do as much food preservation in 2019. I had a good reason — I was working at Adventure Mendota and the summer months are when you home can and that is when we were very, very busy.
We closed Adventure Mendota this season. We did this early, and some folks raised their eyebrows. However, I’ve been following COVID 19 closely since its onset in China. What many fail to understand is that a small outfitter or bike shop pays for liability insurance and vehicle insurance 12 months of the year yet we only operate 3-4 months (outfitters). These expenses were both due, and at the time, while I did not know if COVID-19 would be a pandemic, Mike and I both felt Adventure Mendota would be adversely affected in terms of guests. If we paid those large amounts out, we might not get any benefit and would not receive a full refund. Likewise, we are in the “vulnerable population” age group, and we didn’t want to expose ourselves or our community to an onset of guests from elsewhere. It just made sense. At first I felt sad, but now, I’m so glad we made that decision early. For tourism in Southwest Virginia, it will be a challenging year.
For everything in Virginia except the grocery business, medical professional and delivery business, it could be a challenging year.
I’ve been cooking and I’ve been trying to be thoughtful of how I cook. Admittedly in the past, I’ve been wasteful. Today, not so much. If I have a green pepper that looks “at risk” for spoilage, I chop it up and place it in a small freezer bag before it goes bad. While I do not think our food chain will stop, it definitely is under pressure and there are shortages. I searched for bread yeast and could not find it. I ended up buying it through eBay at about a $1 more per pack.
And what is this with toilet paper? I’m not part of that chase. Since we live 17 miles from a grocery store, we always have toilet paper. I assume at some point everyone’s houses will become saturated with toilet paper, and I will venture out and buy more. As of now, I’ve not bought any. I’d bought quite a bit on sale in early January so in the area, we are good.
My biggest concern on shortages is dog food. How do I explain to my dogs that we don’t have dog food should that occur?
“Flatten the curve” is a term I’d never heard until about 10 days ago. Now, we are all (hopefully) doing our part by staying at home. This means that Americans are cleaning closets! Everyone I speak with or text with is cleaning a closet. We have a guest bedroom that easily becomes a “holding spot” for things we aren’t sure what to do with. Yesterday I went in, put things in their proper place and vacuumed thoroughly. I pulled out the items in the closet and vacuumed the baseboard inside. Yikes it sure needed it. We are going room by room cleaning, and Mike is painting and doing small projects that we intended to do but never got around to.
I normally attend Bible Study Fellowship on Wednesday in Weber City. It’s all online for the coming weeks. If I spend just a few minutes with this daily, I feel more peaceful and less anxious.
I’m working on a quilt. I’ll have it ready to send to the long arm quilter next week. I’m looking forward to that.
What are you doing? If you read this, regardless of when, please comment and leave me a book suggestion. I’m hungry for good books. The physical library is closed but there is always e-books I can check out and I am upping my Audible membership.
We started on the Mendota Cemetery Quilt about eight weeks ago. We named it Mendota Crossroads because of all of the fabric crossing back and forth. The majority of the fabric was donated by local quilter Chris Schanzenbach; my sister’s friend, Judy Shannon; and a few pieces from a friend of mine, Edwina Proctor, in Naples Florida.
The fabrics used are blues, reds, green, golds and browns and muslin. Lots of strips sewn together followed by lots of cutting with the rotary cutter. Those rotary cutters are ‘the thang!”
More…
The blue really pops when the quilt is all laid out. We started laying the red blocks and the muslin squares. Doing this is easier when done on hardwood as you have a straight ruler of sorts to work with.
Added a few more pieces here…here’s where it started coming to life.
Below is where we ended it. This is the center of the quilt. We are swapping colors around to ensure that we do not have a lot of “like-minded” colors grouping together. Lots of foot pushing during this phase as we use our feet and toes to move the blocks! Again, I am loving how the blue really pops. I like bold colors.
So that is where we are on this March day. After this picture was made–plus a few more shifts of color– the diagonal rows were all pinned and the sewing began. It’s going to be a beauty.
Last winter I started making a quilt top. I love old, scrappy quilts where nothing matches. Mine is not old and scrappy, but very little matches on it. A friend on Facebook suggested naming it “The Quilt of Many Colors.” I liked that name and that is what I call this quilt top. Here it is…
What I”m working on today is a 5″ border of a small black print that will go all the way around the quilt. I’ve laid the fabric beside the quilt.
Finally, the quilt will be edged in a black and white stripe fabric…
So the whole thing will look something like this..
And the best thing yet, is that this quilt will be backed in this fabric…
I’ve tried making a quilt top before with little success. There are some really good quilters in Mendota, and I am intimated by them. I saw my cousin, Alisa Lamb, put together one of these quilts with triangles sewn together for her daughter, and I thought..”I can do that!” So..I did. I’m also going to sew the 5″ border on it, but that’s it for me. I’ll be taking it to someone to do the actual quilting, put that cute dog backing on it, and to add the striped binding.
After this, I’ve gained even more respect for quilters who do the whole thing.
I rent our guest house as an AirB&B, so this quilt will go in that space. With white Euro shams, white bed ruffle, white pillow shames, it should work pretty well.
Best of all, I finally made a quilt top!
Update! So after I wrote this I planned to just whip out the machine and sew the borders on the quilt top. But no…wait! Because I have the attention of a gnat, I sewed the right side on the wrong side of the quilt. Here’s what it looks like and I”ll be spending the evening seam ripping.
It is Memorial Day and since the river was not suitable for kayaking, Mike and I had “Garden Day!” It started at 7:00 am. Like all “Garden Days” we have, it began with a trip to Home Depot or Lowe’s. We go more to Home Depot than we do Lowe’s since Lowe’s moved from Exit 7. We had to get some mulch for the back yard.
My back yard has been a source of great enjoyment or great neglect depending on what I’m doing during the summer. This summer I believe, even though we’ll be kayaking ALOT, it will be a source of great enjoyment! Here’s what I’ve been doing.
I cleaned my fence a few weeks ago. It was filthy with mildew. I did a blog post about how I do that a few years ago; and surprisingly, a lot of people–oh okay one or two– have sent me emails thanking me. I am serious. Really!!! Apparently, there are people who do not live in an area where they must fight mildew each spring and are not as experienced as we Mendotians!! Here’s the post called “Cleaning Your Vinyl Fence.”
Since I’ve never mastered weedeating, Mike came behind me yesterday and weedeated the border garden area. It left me with sort of a blank slate. I’m intermingling green beans, green peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers in this back yard. The cukes are going in a pot on the stairs. And flowers everywhere.
One of the problems with our back yard is that it is fenced in for the pets so it has to meet their needs first. It keeps skunks out, and it provides us an easy way to let River out to use the “facilities.” The funny thing is that he will not poop in this yard. He refuses. Dr. D’Amato’s place which is just up the road? Now, there’s a good place to poop!!
While I want it to meet their needs, I also want it to look nice. Here’s one of the problem areas. River has dug himself a bit swath to lie in during the evening when he goes outside to sleep. He loves to sleep for a few hours out in the back yard.
So..for me to have anything back there that looks decent, it’s going to have to have a trellis protecting it or be in a pot. I’ve got green beans planted out there … an heirloom pole bean that will grow up the bamboo trellis I made. I don’t put mulch around seedlings. Behind the green beans, I planted cosmos and a few zinnias. I think the small bamboo trellis’ will be enough to deter River from messing around over there.
I’ve even got the Foxglove protected by topiary things. River would love to roll on these. Not happenin’ little buddy!
Got these labels to put in the ground. This reminds me what is a weed and what is flower, and it also lets me know if someone decides to dig around and move stuff. River isn’t my only digger. I have cats. Z is for Zinnia. PB is for Pole Bean. C is for Cosmos.
See how well they work?
Lots of hanging baskets this year. This is a bleeding heart. $10.99 at Cecil’s Market! I think I’m going to have to figure out a way to repot this thing.
I went back in the barn and found a bunch of baskets that I bought TEN YEARS ago. The one in the picture below that is in the center is one of them. I planted Black Eyed Susie seedlings in them. They’ll be pretty this summer. 4
Here’s the seedlings…soon they will climb all over that basket with happy yellow flowers with brown eyes.
I’ve got a lot of New Guinea Impatiens. I’ve been finding the best selection at Walmart. These are planted right outside my steps and apparently snails don’t bother them. It’s a good thing because there are a zillion snails out on the patio at night. I used to stomp them, but a physician friend gave me a new perspective and I allowed them to live; but then this year, because they ate my basil, I went back to stomping them.
And here are the succulents I’ve repotted. I am selling these at Adventure Mendota for $2.50 per pot. I think Mike thinks no one will buy them. Bet he’s wrong. I’ve got about 20. So when I’m $50 richer, he’ll be sorry!
And I love these little pot stands I found at Walmart for under $4 each. They will keep the pesky snails away from my pots. Those green plants you see below are Mandevilla that I over wintered. They look healthy but where the heck are the blooms? They’d better get busy are they will find themselves in the compost pile. Did ya hear that ya lazy girls!?!
Hope you and your family are having a great Memorial Day!!
I love snow. It’s magic. We had a little magic this morning! Al Archer, the weather guy for WXBQ, said we’d have about one inch of snow. We had anywhere from about two to five inches throughout the Tri-Cities. I went into work and decided to leave at 10:00 am, because I was concerned about the slippery roads. When I got home, I felt guilty because it stopped snowing!! Later, however, I was really happy with my decision.
Here’s a picture that I took on the way home…Caney Valley.
If you look closer in the picture above, you’ll see the big icicles…here they are up close…
When I got home from work, I asked Mike to drive me down the road in the truck with four wheel drive. We had a bit of a traffic jam…
We got through all this goat business and saw the river. It looks cold!! It reminds me of the funny weather forecast that Rita Quillen posted on Facebook. Rita is a teacher, a poet, a musician and the writer of one of my favorite books “Finding Ezra.” She’s an Appalachian Queen. Here’s Rita’s weather update for Scott Count and surrounding areas..”Slicker-n axle grease on a pump handle. Partly crashy with widely scattered KA-BLAMS this afternoon. Caution is advised.”
This is the North Fork of the Holston. This is the river that runs through my world…Mendota and then Hiltons. We love this river. I double dog dare you to say she’s not beautiful!!
We are supposed to get a bunch of snow on Friday. We’re all getting ready. People of Mendota…Start Your Generators!!
This is my redemption video–I’ll tell you more about that in a minute. It’s a wonderfully done piece by Two Rivers Multimedia’s Tim Ivy and MK. I want to thank the Appalachian Spring initiative for including my “baby” called Adventure Mendota. We are at about the 9th minute. I hope you like it.
I call it a “redemption video” for those of us who have had to answer the misspoken and sometimes mean question “Why do you live in a place like that?” The answer is clear. It’s because we’re smart…and we value beauty…and we’re very, very lucky!
I have two things to write about, and they are both different. I’ll do them in the order they appeared today.
Mike and I arrived home from church this morning and saw a car parked near our entry gate. It was my cousin,Terri, and she told me her brother-in-law, Pastor Sammy, was going to baptize someone in the river in front of the house and asked if I wanted to come. I did. I always do. It is very common to baptize in the slow moving North Fork here in Mendota.
My sister Pat and I used to play in the very spot where this morning’s baptism took place. We took turns playing John the Baptist and baptizing each other. No sprinkling for Pat and me–we believed in full, repeated immersion!
In case you’ve never attended a river baptism, here’s how it works…
There is a sense of waiting. It’s a reverent occasion. We stand there listening to the sound of the leaves. The river is flowing quietly. This is followed by singing. Sammy leads the small group in singing Amazing Grace. The voices are naked and beautiful. I love it.
There is a prayer. Since I attend church elsewhere, I do not know the young man being baptized, but I learn that his name is Caleb and he made his commitment to Christ during Vacation Bible School.
They are in the water now, and I can tell it’s cold. Someone whispers…”I hope Gordon and Sammy remembered to remove their wallets.” This is followed by a nervous giggle and then quiet.
And…
And…
It was over soon. It was time to get this young man home into dry clothes.
I walked up the hill following the baptism. I’m glad I live where we still baptize in a river. I started thinking about my week ahead.
One of the things I started thinking about was our honeybees as today is the day I will start feeding two of the beehives.
Beekeepers have so many different instructions. One beekeeper says do it this way, and another says do it a different way. Some feed the bees and some do not. We have two hives that appear to be weak and to help ensure that they have an adequate supply of honey for the winter, I’ll be feeding them for the next 45 days.
Here I am…getting suited up to go put the feeding apparatus on the hives and to start them on their beloved sugar water. They love this stuff. I have to take my shoes off to get them through the bee suit. Check out those nasty shoes.
When the hive is new, we add a vitamin supplement called “Honey Bee Healthy,” but today I’m giving them only sugar water. Five pounds of sugar will make up four quarts of sugar water. It’s not cheap.
Each day I’ll zip up to the apiary on the golf cart and feed these little guys and girls. I don’t mind this feeding system because the swap of the empty jar of sugar water for the full jar is easy and I don’t kill any bees.
They will get used to me after about a week and won’t take much notice when I’m around. Our previous system held more sugar water but was very harsh on the bees. I dreaded feeding them, and they chased me out. I had to be fully suited up to feed them. I’m glad we’re returning to the old feeding system.
Once I’m comfortable, I will not wear the entire bee suit. I might wear the veil and gloves, but unless they appear aggressive, I won’t feel the need to suit up.
Last year, I think I got overly comfortable because I was feeding them in my shorty pajamas…not veil, no gloves, no covering on my arms and legs. I think that might have been a little risky. I won’t do it again.
It comforts me to know that the bees have plenty to eat…they forage in a two-mile radius. This yellow flower is everywhere in Mendota right now. It’s around the apiary, and I could hear it buzzing as I walked by. The bees were foraging. Is this goldenrod? I don’t know!
I imagine them flying up Clinch Mountain, over the North Fork for a sip of water and into my neighbors flowers, trees and vegetable gardens. There is a cultural move to stay away from pesticides here in the valley. I’m glad.
This past winter we had a bit of a crisis. It was a mild winter, there was too much room in the hives, and they did not cluster properly, and we lost a lot of bees. I was in Georgia and I got an email from Mike saying that Gerald had looked in the hives and while there was honey, many of the bees had died. I was sick. Gerald was sick. We were all depressed.
Learning from this, we removed the top supers last week. This leaves the hive more crowded..they must keep the queen at about 85 degrees year round, and the closeness will facilitate proper clustering.
My father was a tobacco farmer…not a large scale farmer…a very small farmer. We just got by. I left southwest Virginia in my 20’s and when I returned around the year 2000, I wondered…”where’s Mr. Burley?” Tobacco had been on every patch of land in Poor Valley, and it was gone! He had his faults but Mr. Burley kept us warm in the winter and we got new shoes for school in the fall.
Companies work so hard to develop teamwork today. and I think know the real secret…necessity builds teamwork. Small farmers helped one another in every aspect of the tobacco crop’s life…they worked as a team because they needed one another to succeed.
I was too little to do the hard work of tobacco. I remember only having fun riding the tobacco sitter and singing songs…keeping Pepsi Cola cold in the creek. If a mule team was involved, I rode the mules.
In my home, there are bits of my tobacco heritage throughout the house…
The dining room table my husband built me..it’s a beautiful table, but it’s the barn siding from a local Mendota tobacco barn that was being torn down that makes it unique.
In the den where I cleaned yesterday (finally), there’s wormy chestnut from old Burley tobacco barns everywhere…the table, the mantle, and the picture frame are all wormy chestnut. Soon an entertainment center will join them.
And is there any home in Southwest Virginia that doesn’t have one of these hanging somewhere?
I love home decor and like changing things out. However, I’ve found when I stay true to things I love or are a part of my history, I am the happiest with the results.
I like this red room. Do you have a tobacco basket? Do you have it hanging somewhere?
I have had two golden retrievers. I lost one in February. Her name was Annie. I’ve posted her picture. Wasn’t she beautiful? She loved the snow. It’s almost June and my husband and I still miss her. She could be a stinky girl but if I could place my face in her fur and breathe in her doggy smell, I would be grateful. Do you believe dogs go to heaven?
