Progress

 This has been a beautiful May. Just blue skies and warm temps. I normally sit down and by May I know what kind of projects I want to do for the summer. I haven't even planted my tomatoes. I hope to do this for this long weekend. I can't believe we are already to Memorial Day. 

I have been working on my rug. Its funny that I feel like I have worked on it every day for hours and it seems that its not going as fast as I thought it would. Robin asked how big it is. Its 30 by 38. Is that big or have I just turned into the slowest hooker in the world? 

As I am hooking, one of the things I thought to myself, was how on earth would you hook sweat on a working mule? How would you hook, turned earth? How do I hook so it looks like spring planting? 

I have been reading old books, one of them is called, The Land Breakers, by John Ehle. Then I am also reading The Trees by Conrad Richter. But, they don't use the mules or horse to pull the plow. They do it themselves. Maybe when I get further into them they will go into it more. I am so fascinated by The Land Breakers, we have lost so many skills. I was so intrigued by the gathering of herbs in the wild, by the spinning and the looms and the dyeing of the wool. I keep reading so I can find what it looked like, felt liked and smelled like by a man working hours breaking the land, in order to take care of his family.  

Our son and his wife were leaving, and he just stopped and took this picture of Yosemite. I just thought it was breath taking beautiful. I thought you might enjoy seeing it. 

My plan is to work on my rug today. I hope your day is filled to the brim with pleasant things.

~Kim~

---From The Land Breakers---"The wash of color flowed down toward the clearing, reached it in the sharpness of an early morning. And about them now the woods were changed into a fairyland of color.

The Buckeye turned yellow and dropped its eye-shaped seeds. The box elder near the spring spring turned into a bank of yellow leaves and pods; the maple in the valley just to the edge of the clearing got red as fire and beside it a white oak turned into the color of old wine; the sourwood was a rich red, the red oak was orange, and the possums climbed higher every night into the persimmon trees."( John Ehle)
 

Back from Roaming

 

We are finally back from Arizona. I had mentioned we would be going there after our daughter had her baby. She had another girl. The girls are ahead now. Eight girls, seven boys. She weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and she was 20 inches long. Her name is Rebecca Rowan. Mom is doing fine. 

 

We spent a lovely time with her and the whole family. Her children are from 18 to new born. So I was pretty busy and loved every minute. The hardest part about any visit is going home. I took all of my hooking and all of my sewing projects. Did I do any of it? No, I don't know why I bother. I always have this idea that I am going to sit in the campsite and hook and do all of that. Do I ever? No, we always hike or do things and sitting is something that we don't do very much. 

 

I really did take pictures of our newest grand daughter. I thought. Ron must have taken the pictures and as I write this blog, I do not have them on my phone or on my computer. She is such darling little thing.

I never had babies that small. She has all of this lovely dark hair. I held her and rocked her. Kessie would hand me the baby and say, " Don't let her go to sleep." It was such a sweet place to be, with all the different ages of kids and to be rocking a baby. Just a sweet time of life. Now the drive home was different. The wind through the desert was so crazy. We stopped for gas in Barstow. Then had to stop again in Tehachapi.to get gas before we could get home. We were getting less that 4 miles to the gallon because of the wind. It was so nice to get home though. Polly went crazy running and running in the back yard.
 

Before we left I slipped in two days of dyeing wool for my rug. The is for land, and sky and the mule.

The sky I want to look like the skies when we are driving from New Mexico into Texas. The sky is so big and endless. But I also want the clouds to look like the thunderheads that build over Oklahoma in the afternoon. This winter one of my friends traced my family history for me. It was such an amazing gift. I found out that as far as you got back in my family history, my family were farmers. Farmers who farmed with teams of horses and mules. It so captured my thinking that I wanted to see what I could do with the picture in my mind. One of the interesting things was they were some of the first settlers into North Carolina and Tennessee. Which I found extremely interesting because they lived first close to the place our oldest son, Ben and his family live now. Its like those mountains called Ben to come back home. But you can follow their track as each generation kept moving west. 

 

 I am working on the mule and thinking about the generations that worked and poured out their sweat and tears and sometimes their lives to raise each generation. While I try and tell a story that lives only in my mind and try to transfer it to wool. This is the biggest rug I have ever done. Its going to be what I work on this summer. 

I hope its been a nice May for you all. Its just been a beautiful spring here. I still haven't got my garden in yet. I did manage to get it ready to plant some things. I hope you have a wonderful time doing what ever you love to do and thank you so much for stopping by, my once and a while blog.

~Kim~

 

 Then followed that beautiful season…Summer…Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

April in all its Beauty

 I am off this next week, so I thought blogging would be a good start to my vacation. Its been some wild few weeks. We will be off to Arizona in the coming days, for the visit with our newest grand baby. No, I don't know what it will be, its going to be a surprise. At this count though, We have seven boys and seven girls. This next one will be a tie breaker. Really, I didn't know that until I wrote all the names out on a post it. I am a happy grandma.

Our son got married in March. This is him and lovely Amanda. I am so blessed to have another awesome daughter in love. Weddings are just so much work. I think she must have spent days and days getting all of the details figured out. 

 

This is our family that live here. We have a pretty large family. Now that they are all married.

I wanted a picture with Ron and I. We just celebrated our 45th anniversary yesterday. I look way different in the picture from 45 years ago.

See the thing behind us? Amanda's Dad built it. I just thought it was so cool. When I saw it all put together, I wanted our picture in front of it.

I really hope to finish this rug, so I can get it bound and put our while its still April. I love these rugs by Whimsy rugs. I enjoy doing each little picture. So that is on the list of things I hope to get done and finished this week.

 Last weekend it was different for me to do. I have this rug I want to do so bad. I had decided just to see if I could just buy a projector and draw it out that way. Ron, most talented person I know, said, " Why don't you see if I can just draw it out on a grid". Since I am so fancy, we got butcher paper and taped it together and he drew a pattern with a grid on it for me. Just by luck, I had enough red dot tracer and backing to draw it out. He helped me with both, because its the biggest rug I have ever done before. That will be my new project. This week I am going to dye my wool for it. I am so excited and it was fun because he got to see how the whole thing goes together. He never knew how much work there is to getting a rug drawn out. Plus it was fun working with him. He thinks of easier ways to do things that never entered my mind. 

The rug? Its going to be a secret for awhile. I am still in the midst of rug planning. I will show you at some point in the future. 

So that's it for today. I hope its a lovely day for you all.

~Kim~

“The sun was warm but the wind was chill / You know how it is with an April day / When the sun is out and the wind is still / You’re one month on in the middle of May.” – Robert Frost

Mid week

 We have our first sign of spring. This is our Oklahoma Red-bud. Its the first thing that seems to wake up this time of year. We had a nice bit of rain yesterday. It rained all night too. Maybe thundershowers this afternoon. I really do love all of the unsettled weather in March. We have birthdays and now a wedding in March. Our three oldest grandsons will be 18 next week. I can't believe how fast time has flown. Eighteen years ago, in one week, I went from being a Mom to a Grandmother of three. In April, I will be a grandmother of 15.

Who knew I would be blessed with such a family. Not me of course. But its all good. 

I have hooked a tiny bit this week. Not like I hoped. But getting any hooking done this week of all weeks I consider a win. 

I love these rugs by Whimsey Rugs because I can just do it in squares. I have done the Halloween one and I have done the Easter one.

 

This one was fun, but after I finished it I put it away. I didn't look at it for a year, then I got into my rugs and found it again and I liked it. Do you rug hookers do that too? Just put them away and then next time you go and get into your rugs, its like finding treasure? I do. I also find myself cringing at some of the monstrosities I have created. 

This is our grandson who lives here in town. Our only grandson. In California. He comes over on Thursdays.

He is so sweet and its so nice to get to be in his life. We didn't get to see him until he was 4 so its such a blessing to get to see him now.

Some one has been very patient while I write this blog. So we will put on rain shoes and go out into the rain. At least the sun has come out for a tiny bit. Its very wet and muddy.

I hope you have a lovely rest of the week. I hope I have cute pictures to post from the wedding.

~Kim~ 

"Help me to live this day quietly, easily; 

To lean upon Thy great strength trustfully, restfully;

To meet others peacefully, joyously;

To face tomorrow confidently, courageously."

Taken from Secure in The Everlasting Arms, Elisabeth Elliot, from her aunt Anne Howard. p.162

Well Hello March

 I just thought I would stop in, maybe this should be a once a month blog. I really never mean to let blogging get away from me.

I will just let you know a tiny bit of what takes my mind away and in different directions. My step-brother passed away totally unexpectedly. Our son that has lived here, moved to his own place and will be getting married next weekend. We had a lovely shower for her last weekend.

Among other things, I had to find a dress. I know that sounds pretty shallow but finding a dress and shoes just sends me into a panic. I finally felt the day I found one I could take a breath. We have a local shoe store that I in desperation went to and thankfully they are like shoe stores used to be, a man came and took my shoe size, went and got shoes and helped me to find shoes I can wear all day and not come home crippled for a month. I only buy shoes when I can no longer go out in public unless I have something wearable. When did I change I wonder. Do you know I still have dresses I bought when my almost 30 year old son was a baby? I can still wear them and I do and luckily for me they never went out of style. I just  don't buy clothes very often. In fact, my husband noticed the other day when he came in from work and I was still in my nice clothes, " Wow! its so nice to see you in clothes without holes and paint. I guess I should do something about that. I can't be alone but I would rather buy wool and patterns instead of clothes. 

My neighbor next door has these flowers that grow on the fence. They are the only thing around here that looks like spring. I am working in the flowerbeds and in the morning I hope to get my raised beds ready for spring when it really is spring and not this fake you out time of year. It was 85 yesterday so its really tempting but I am not going to fall for it.

Just a short post. Just to keep my oar in. Thank you Lauren for always encouraging me to post. I don't know what I would do without you. Get well soon, Robin, I am praying for you.

~Kim~

 

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."

[Meditations Divine and Moral]”
― Anne Bradstreet, The Works of Anne Bradstreet

 

Hello February

 Hello! Happy February. I think it was just my imagination, but this morning I thought I smelled spring. The birds around here sure think it is, I almost got hit in the head by two hummingbirds. They were so mad they had lost all reason, they actually fell on the ground they were fighting so hard. Our cat and Polly the dog ran to the scene to break it up, and they flew off. This youngster, (above) is very brave. He or she freaks me out because it doesn't have any fear of me. It nests in my neighbors tree next door. The poor doves have forgot about this bird and have let their guard down and will soon be fast food meals. With all of the drama going on who needs T.V. 

I had planned on hooking a lot more than I did this week. Life just seems to crowd in and I never get to my hooking. I did also manage to dye some wool too. 

Just that little bit. It takes me longer because I had to order wool and then I had to dye wool before I could finally start. This rug is called April Showers by Debbie @ Whimsyrugs.com. I have had it forever. I did this one last year.

 

I think why I like doing this rugs is because its squares. I use to tell Ron I could conquer the world in squares. It works with my mind. I think it stems from making play houses as a child. Find a small place, hidden in some place no one else would think to see and there would be a hide out. 

I didn't have any purple so I knew I needed to dye some. Its always a happy day when I can dye wool.

I judge my state of mind that way. I also have never dyed a whole yard at once. I just do it in little bits so I get to do lots of different colors. I just wanted purple this time. 

It doesn't look very purple but it is, I am excited to cut it and see how it works with my other

colors. My next rug will be this one. When I saw it I fell in love with it. 

I loved that rug so much. A friend of mine for Christmas researched my family history. So much fun stuff. I could sign up for Daughters of the American Revolution. I thought that was so cool to find out all of this history. Ron's family goes even further back. When we go to Ben's house again, I am going to go find the grave yard that is close to him with one of those men. So that was cool. Most of my family were farmers so I think that is why this rug speaks volumes to me.  Here is the original picture.

I have thought of nothing but that rug for weeks. Its February now, so I should be getting notification for it to be shipped. 

So in a nutshell that is why kinda went on last week. I always look forward to February, we get our biggest storms and snow and rain this month. 

I hope you are all able to stay warm and safe. Weather has been pretty intense lately. We have an atmospheric rain storm coming. 

I wish you the best,

~Kim~

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Now I Am Back

 

Doesn't that look like a giant footprint? When we drive by here, I always think of some giant walking over these wonderful hills. Finally, Ron who I am so thankful for, figured out how to get my pictures from I Cloud. I would sit at the computer, for a solid year, and no matter how much voo-doo I tried couldn't get my photos from my phone to my photo editor. I bought a new phone, I think in October and it was for me just too much technology. Plus there are new/old changes to blogger and by the time I fought with everything I just gave up. One of my goals was I was going to start blogging this year. It may be the 25th of January but its still January.

We have used our travel trailer a lot. We took Polly with us every trip. She is a very good traveler.

I have never traveled with a dog before so that was a new experience but such a nice one. I am so happy I have her because I have to walk. It got really easy to not walk like I did when I had chickens and big gardens to take care of. 

On our way to visit Ben and Megan we had left really early to get to North Carolina and this was going over the long bridge over the Arkansas river. Little did we know that in two weeks, North Carolina would be hit with Hurricane Helene. We saw so many beautiful places, and now they are gone. It still makes me sad, and I do hope this new administration will not forget those people in Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina, like the past one did. Wasn't last week a nice week?

 

 Polly

She knows she isn't supposed to get up on the couch, but I was doing something and she wasn't happy about it. Like right now I am blogging and she is ready to go outside. 

I don't think I ever showed this rug that I put on the wall behind my fireplace. I love this rug so much.

Thank you Saundra, for drawing it out for me. Dyeing that wool for this was hard as I saw colors in my mind that I didn't have recipes for. That rug was such a labor of love. 

I will stop for now, I am just so excited I can write again. I can't wait to go back to Tucson.

I have another grandbaby to visit in April. I can't wait. When this next baby comes, We will be grandparents of 15. I am so blessed and so thankful for all of the precious gifts that we have had the joy of being grandparents and that is just the oldest three. The girls are winning. We don't know what the next baby will be, so it will be interesting. Seven girls and five boys. 

I wish you all of the best, I will track down the rugs I did last year.

I guess because I couldn't upload pictures, I just didn't take pictures of them. I would 

finish them and just put them in the closet. 

Have a delightful day, we have our first rainstorm coming. Yay!!

~Kim~

 "Be the person your dog thinks you are".

 

The New Year, 2025

 I thought I might try to write a blog. Its really like sitting down and doing something I am so unfamiliar with now. I want to say thank you to sweet Lauren for checking on me. I really never thought I would ever take a blogging break that lasted a whole year. 

I am good, and happy and loving having Polly my dog. My family and my extended family are all good. 

As soon as I can figure out how to get pictures out of the cloud and onto my computer I will be back to blog more. 

That is next on my agenda. I have been hooking and dyeing wool and all of that stuff I enjoy, I just can't show you and you know how important it is to show you pictures. 

I just wanted to say hi and its all good. I have missed you all.

Kim