Happy Thanksgiving

 I just wanted to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving. It will be a lovely day for us. Our sons and wives and significant others will be having dinner here today. The weather is lovely, and fall is for here in a blaze of glory. 

I baked pies and made cranberry sauce yesterday and today I will make the rolls, potatoes and smoke the turkey, well not me of course, Ron will. I am just the helpful hint person. 

I have lots to write about, but not the time. Ron is getting ready to remove the spine from the turkey so we can have a Spatchcock Turkey. I didn't know what it was until yesterday, so we are having that. I left a link for a recipe if you were like me and didn't know what it was. 

I will be back soon. I wish you all the best day ever. I am so thankful for all of your friendships through the years, you have all been such a blessing to me. Happy Thanksgiving.

Kim

The last week of August

 Here we are at the last week of August. I am so glad. August has been hot and then we had that hurricane. Oh and the earthquake.

 It was just a nice rain storm. The ground was so dry, even the next morning, there was hardly any puddles. Really, last winter we had lots more scary storms than this "hurricane." But it was nice to break records.

Our grand daughter finally got her pillow from her Grandma. I miss them all so much. I have three to make for the other grand children. Some how I missed my daughter's youngest three kids. There are birthdays at her house in November so I need to get on it. I started out when I was getting grand children with quilts. I stopped around six I think. Rugs go faster than quilts. Plus I am just not a good quilter. 

My pantry is filling up with all of the things I have been canning. You know I don't know if I will ever not be jumpy using the pressure cooker. I wish I could just relax when I do it but its an all day job and after its done and put away I am just exhausted. I know no one that ever had a pressure cooker blow up, but that is always my fear. I have been canning food since I was a kid with my grandma and my Mom and I am still jumpy. I think though, this next weekend, I am pulling out my garden and getting it ready for a winter one. We will see though, once I get that mess that my tomatoes vines have become, I am tired of gardens. 

I also finally finished my stitch book. I have had these embroidery pieces I did for a challenge I did on Face Book eons ago and I just never knew how to put them together. So I sort of cobbled it together.

I learned how to do all of these neat stitches, but without watching a You Tube video again, I couldn't do it. But they are finally in a book and I can now put it away. 

Now my rug I have been working on. Its such a fun rug. 

 

Its from Crow Creek Farm. I really do love all of her cute patterns. So that's what has been going on and keeping me from the computer. Microsoft keeps loading upgrades, and I am almost at the point of as my husband calls it, "Planned Obsolescence." Where because the computer is getting older and the software is taking more and more room, you have to end up buying a new computer. Its giving me fits so I find other things to do instead of dealing with it. 

I hope you all have a lovely week. Thank you for stopping by it really is a joy to me to read your comments. 

~Kim~

“And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.” – Oscar Wilde

Now August

 Here we are at August. I sometimes feel that August is the month, that I really try to ignore. I don't even ignore January the way I try to ignore August. In January or February there are seed catalogs, good books, and fires in the fireplace and warm cozy jackets to enjoy. There is the promise of spring. But, poor August, is right in front of September, who brings with it a promise break in 100+ degree weather. The garden is tired. August is just 31 days of days, not even a single holiday.

This morning, I went outside, secretly hoping for the smell of fall, but it was still the smell of August. The sky was still dark, but I could see that it was still going to be the sunrise of again a summer day. In September the sunrise is golden and nothing feels as good as days when I can open the windows and leave off the air conditioner. The sounds of children laughing as they come home from school or  riding bikes and birds and the sound of lawn mowers. So I will try to enjoy each day, instead of racing in my mind to fall. 

We, Ron and I got to take a drive to Shafter, Ca. Emilie our daughter manages the garden out there for Grow Academy Shafter. It used to be a private school but now is public. I wish all schools were like this one. 

The school is built around the garden. When the kids walk out of the class rooms, there is the garden.

Gardening is one of the electives and it is the kids garden for class. They plant seeds, they clean and weed. They get to have cooking classes with the food they grow and harvest. 

I just loved the little tool shed, where all of the tools are stored. The school is K thru 8. The Kindergartners get to use the little rakes. 

 The kitchen was just lovely. The list of foods the kids are going to cook this year was really impressive. Sushi, home made tortillas, lasagna. Things that they can harvest  too. They were making tomato sauce this week, from the tomatoes out of the garden.

Emilie told us about a class day, when the little kids brought blankets and rested under the grapevines and a little boy laid down on his blanket and fell asleep. When it was time for his next class he got his teacher to let him come back with his blanket and we went to sleep again under the grapevine. You just never know what home life might be and Emilie is always conscious of that. She has children, that the teachers just don't know how to handle, and they send them to her and she gives them work to do, and they are much happier than sitting in class. So they plant seeds, they harvest produce, the pull weeds. Or they just sit with the chickens.

I know that when my Mom died and I was in the sixth grade, if I had had a place to go to like a garden I would have done so much better. So I thought about that as I walked around the garden and I was so thankful that there is a place like this. The city schools here in Bakersfield are looking to implement gardens in their schools. Which I think would be so much better for kids than labels and medications. 

I loved the green house. Emilie said, that when it was raining so much that she would bring the kids out to plant seeds and they would be out of the rain, and they would be all so busy as the rain hit on the roof and it was such a nice place to have school. 

You can't really tell by my picture how purple this purple kale was, I picked a leaf and it wasn't even bitter nor had it bolted. I might have to grow some of it. It had a nice taste. Out here we have such a problem with squash beetles we have a horrible time ever  getting pumpkins or squash, unless you spray. This is a complete organic garden so they don't spray with pesticides but focus on pollinators and keeping the plants healthy 

 

My son, and his family who have The Hollar Homestead on You Tube found that by planting  Luffa Sponges around his squash plants it kept the beetles away. So Emilie did that. I was looking at her pumpkins and not a single bug or eggs. Then she said, this last year because of so much rain they had a plague of frogs. The frogs ate every single parent,and larvae. Now the Luffa is growing strong and still no bugs. 

I heard someone I was listening to last week, remark that man is always trying to get back to the Garden of Eden. I knew that when we had our garden in our other house, I spent so much time trying to do that. I am so proud that Emilie and her team have accomplished just that. She says the hardest workers are the little kids K-3rd. They will do everything, plant, weed and pull out the old stuff so they can replant. They will gather eggs and harvest and pick fruit. There is something to that phrase, "Time began in the garden." 

Its true and my happy place is still fooling around in my garden. 

One of the things I didn't get a picture was of a Gazebo out in the middle of the garden with vines growing all around it with benches in a circle and the kids for class get to sit out under there while they get taught. I just thought how wonderful it is that the kids get to be outside. Its a garden for children. So they can touch and taste and learn how they can feed themselves by what they grow. I just love that.

Okay, I will stop now, its something that I am passionate about can you tell? I always thought the best place for a child to grow up was a place that he or she could walk down a dirt road, with no place to go but to be able to see things growing or maybe having a garden of their own. To live outdoors and climb a tree. To listen to the trees as the wind blew and felt the seasons change by watching the tree sleep in the winter, wake up in the spring, bloom and bear fruit in the summer and get ready for rest in the fall.

I have had two adventures this summer with Emilie. She does really live an Extraordinary life. 

Thank you for reading along if you have made it to here. I have had this blog going around in my head since I got back yesterday afternoon.

~Kim~

  “There shall be an eternal summer in the grateful heart.”
-- Celia Thaxter                                                                             

Odds and Ends

 Here we are at the end of July. I need to get myself in gear if I am going to get lots more things done that were on my to do list for summer. 

I managed to dye wool this last week. My first batch it was nice colors but not what I wanted. So I started over on Tuesday. I went back and read Lauren's post. Rugs and Pugs. One of the things that I have never done, was used purified water. So on Tuesday, that is what I did and I got the colors I saw in my mind. 

So I finally got to start on my granddaughter's pillow for her upcoming birthday.

 

It works up just the way I wanted it to look. Letters always test me, but I think this is working out okay. I will change the hearts around a bit. 

My next project is going to be from Crow Creek Farm. When she released that pattern we were getting ready to leave on our trip and I had to wait but the first thing I did when I got back was order that pattern. It just tickles me.

I always lay my future rugs out on the floor so I can sit and stare at them and think of which wool I am going to use for what. I was doing this and my helper wanted to go outside. No matter how hard I tried, he just wouldn't leave my rug alone. So guess who won and I went and sat outside with him. He really is the boss.

He was intent on getting my attention. When I am writing a blog he comes in and walks on the keyboard and causes all kinds of mischief. You can tell he is the only animal in the house. He gets away with stuff that no other animal I have ever had did. 

The garden is going strong. 

Our teeny little garden is growing so much food. I think we only have six tomato plants. We are finally learning how to grow things in garden beds. Its been such a learning curve to go from a garden as big as this whole lot to tiny beds in the corner of a yard. So this year has made me so happy to be able to make and can food. 

I hope you are having a nice summer. Its been nice here, even if it is hot. I just have more time to putter and do things in the house. 

Have a lovely day, thank you so much for stopping by,

~Kim~

"Hot July bring,

Cooling showers,

Apricots and gilly flowers."

---Sara Coleridge

Hot Days of Summer

 You know I am only about 2 1/2 hours from the beach. Its a beautiful 66 degrees, 50 at night. Today here at my house it is supposed to be 109. Why don't I go? Because a million people have the same idea. 

So I am going to turn the house into a cave and find things to do. Its a good day to write a blog. We have a river in Kern County called the Kern River. It goes by other names like The mighty Kern but mostly this time of year its called the Killer Kern. This year because of the rain and the snow pack, it is unlike anything that I have ever seen in my life time. Yes, I was born here. My daughter Emilie house sits for her In-laws and she invited me out. It was a fun little field trip. I always wanted to live out in this area, but when we were looking at houses out there, I knew I would have children driving that road and decided against it. Its still a terrible road. 

In normal dry years, the river at this point is a safe, little area. You might see people going down this place in inner-tubes. Not me, I grew up on too many horror stories. Its higher than I have ever seen it and the wild life just love it. We walked around down there and there was so much to see. 

Its not a very good picture, but there is a beaver family, making dams in the river. We found three houses that had been abandoned as the river is changing its course, as the water levels are rising and going down. My son-in-law the night before had been skipping rocks and the beaver came out and slapped his tail really hard on the water. That was how they found out he was there. 

Along the side of their property, is this foundation. Its really old. No one knows who built it. Down the way is a old park. Its called Hart Park and the WPA ( The Works Progress Administration.) built lots of stuff in there so I wondered if that was built by them in the 30s. 

Coming up from the river is this old stairway, to kind of an island up on top. There are three other stair ways going in other directions from the top of the island. Its the same masonry as the one that is in the river like a dock. 

 Can you see that buzzard sunning himself on the fence. We had walked up to the top of the island and I could see two of these parents sitting there and when I looked up the babies were in the trees. Just watching us as we roamed around. I couldn't get any closer. In the mud next to the water I saw, a freeway of tracks, raccoon, possum, fox and coyote. There were deer and things I didn't know. My tracking skills are getting rusty. 

This is the fireplace there on the island. So does that look like a face? I didn't notice it when I was standing in front of it, but in my picture could it be a Big Foot face. ;) The top picture is the back side and the rocks that build it up you can see. The river had rose so high this was in the water. It was still muddy when I was there you can see a little pond behind it for when the water was even higher. 

 

This is one of the beavers homes that he has had to leave as the water level drops. Now you know where the saying comes, " A busy beaver." He is a really busy guy.

On the other side of the river, up on that hillside is a camp ground. I went there once when I rode my horse out there. Its been years and years since I had been that far. 

I know its not a very good shot, but there is a family of owls that live down there and as we walked under a tree they flew off. The male flew up here and the mom and baby flew down the river to get away from us. I was enthralled. Its really a lovely place and even though its not that far out of town it still took me an hour to get home. I bet this spring it was just lovely. My son-in-law grew up out here. So when he gets to house sit for him its like being at home. I enjoyed myself so much. 

I hope you enjoyed your visit too. Thanks for stopping by,

~Kim~

“July is hollyhocks and hammocks, fireworks and vacations, hot and steamy weather, cool and refreshing swims, beach picnics, and vegetables all out of the garden."

~Jean Hershey---