I can not beleive that i have not added to this blog since June 26. There is so much to tell. We built a wonderful hen house this summer. Actually I designed it and Josh built it It is harvest break and Josh doesn't have a harvest job so we will finish it off in the next two weeks. We have siding to put up, window frames with plexi glass to build and install and painting to do. We have 30 hens; 10 Rhode Island Reds, 10 Barred Plymouth Rocks and 10 black sex links. They are 12 weeks old today and all are doing great. We have no roosters and that is the way we wanted it. All three breeds are quiet breeds so we seldom hear anything unless we are right in the hen house.

The garden didn't do so well this year. We had plenty of green beans but almost no tomatoes and only one cucumber. Onion production was good. The corn also grew well but no corn. We are going to change the way we do things next year. We are going to build all raised beds 24 in tall so that it is easier for me to weed. We are slso going to use the square foot method of gardening in the raised beds. We tried egyptian walking onions and potaot onions this year and when we replant them this fall we are doing it in the first raised bed.

Family wise this was an interesting summer. Bobs wife, Lori died in August after an almost 5 year battle with breast cancer. Bob and the kids are doing well and understand where Lori is .

Bob and Loris oldest, Valerie was married 3 weeks before Lori died and Lori was able to fly to Idaho and attend the wedding.

Our other bride this summer was John and Denises oldest, Elise. She was married in early September in a lovely ceremony in her parents back yard.

WEDDINGS

Just recently I made the remark that only one of my 11 granddaughters is married. Now two weeks later comes news that Elise is being married in sSeptember and Valerie is being married the end of July.

Andrea

andrea graduated fr 8th grade this year and where they live it is a big deal with a ceramony etc. Her Dad took lots of pictures and sent them to me so I will post some here. This summer she is working at a nursery with plants and loving it. She has also planted a veggie garden at home and is so proud of it.

Another garden in my life

Recently we decided to have chickens again. Josh is helping me build a hen house and the chickens arrived on Tuesday. There are 10 Rhode Island Reds, 10 Plymouth Rocks, and 10 Black Sex Links. They are so adorable and right now so tiny. Eggs are so expensive and soooo old when we buy them in the store and this way they will be fresh. Liza has already had 2 people at work tell her they want to buy eggs from us.

News From Elder James

Last week we received our weekly e-mail from James who is serving a mission for our Church. He is now on the Island of Curacao in the ABC Islands-- just 42 miles off the coast of Venezuala. He will be learning a new language called Papimento-- it is a combination of French, Dutch and Spanish. So he will also be be learning enough Dutch and French ( already speaks good spanish) to learn the new language. The Book of Mormon is only half translated into Papimento. James sounded pleased but a bit scared about learning a new language. We know he will do great with whatever the Lord gives him to do. I am so proud of him for serving a mission. I don't think there are many missionaries on Curacao as he will fly to Aruba for Zone meetings. The Mission President told him he would be there a good portion of his mission. Curacao has only had missionaries since last October. What a great opportunity for James.

Our Newest Garden

This year we are adding chickens to our little farm. We have had chickens in the past-- both here and in Connecticut and we love having fresh brown eggs. We do not have a chicken coop here on this farm so Josh is building a new one with my supervision. On Saturday afternoon we poured the floor for the part that will have a floor. The coop will be 8 X 14 with 8 X 4 being a storage area and place for new babies to be under the lights until they feather out. We have ordered the chickens and they will be here next week. We are getting 6 Rhode Island Reds, 6 speckled sussex, 7 buff orphingtons, , 6 light brahmas, and 6 barred rocks. All but the RIRs are coming from a hatchery and the RIRs are coming from a local source. I had wanted Giant Black Jerseys but they will not be available until mid July and that would make them alot younger than the others. So I will wait until next time for them. We have always had Rhode Island Reds in the past but I thought that a variety of hens that lay brown eggs would be interesting and pretty. Any roosters will end up in the freezer-- although we paid for all hens and they guranteed that 90% would be hens. It is difficult to sex a chicken when it is 1 day old. Next year I think we are going to build another coop and raise chickens for the freezer. As well as some more laying hens. Liza was not totally thirilled about having chickens again but she now has a few people at work who want to buy their eggs from us so she is happier about the hens. This will also give us a good source of eggs for our collies who absolutely adore boiled eggs.

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Spring

Well I think it is finally Spring. It has been warm the past few days and today it will be 72 and very windy. But tomorrow's forecast is for rainy weather and in the 40s. But that is Spring for you-- warm one minute and cold the next. We have started burning off the gardens and alon the fence line. The grass is turning green and the collies have been able to stay out side all day for several days now. I have bought my onions and my pea seeds and have ordered potato onions and Egyptian Walking onions. Corn seed is so exspensive this year . We will grow tomatoes, peppers, onions-- red, yellow and the two new kinds, beans-- both romas and regular green, carrots and radishes and lettuces. I am also going to start some herbs this year. We have chives already and I am adding several others. The strawberry plants are beginning to look better and I may add some new ones. Last Saturday the raspberries were not looking so good but it is still early. The new neighbors down the road have a couple of goats that periodically come up here and we are going to have to fence our garden as they do nothing to keep them home.

My grandchildren garden is growing nicely. Wendy writes to me via e-mail fairly often and I love hearing from her. James is enjoying his mission in Puerto Rico although he is working hard each day. They had their first baptism last Saturday.

I have done alot of quilting this winter. I quilted a couple of small lap quilts and Wendys quilt is finished as is Sarahs. I just have to quilt Andreas and Michaels and bind them. And I finished the quilt for the Collie Club of America and it auctioned for $600+. That makes 12 that I have done. Next years quilt is going to be a signature quilt and at the National this year they collected all the signatures they could and others have e-mailed them to me. It should be a fun quilt to make.

I am still loving serving in the Family History Center each week for two days.

my grandchildren

I have not written since my Birthday on Nov 27. I get busy and forget that I need to write. Alot has happened in the past 6 weeks. The holidays were wonderful and on January 2nd we took James to the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah to begin his two year mission for the Lord. He was so excited to be finally leaving. We are so proud of him and know that he will do well. He will be in Provo for 3 weeks and then goes to the MTC in the Dominican Republic for 6 weeks of training before he goes to Puerto Rico for the rest of the two years.
Josh has made the 8th grade basketball team and is so excited about that. He is now 1/4 inch from being 6 feet tall and he is still growing-- he wrote a letter to his brother last night and signed it "your little brother-- no I mean your younger brother". He is enjoying having his own room and we have discovered that he is a neat nick about his room when he is not sharing.

I am busy making quilts as usual. I have most of the quilt for the Collie Club of America National done and am working on the lettering this week. The theme this year is something about a circus-- the show is being held in LaCrosse Wisconsin where one of the circuses winters over-- so I have used 16 inch bright blocks in all primary colors. I am also working on t shirt quilts for Wendy, Andrea, Michael and Sarah. Two of the quilt tops are finished and the other two are just about ready for the borders.

So much has happened in the Family History area the past few weeks-- we are Beta Testing several things that will make genealogical research on the internet so much easier. We are also indexing all the East Idaho Death Records-- it is a big project and many of us have put our own research on hold in order to help with this huge project.
My kitchen is finally done-- at least the painting and the floor is next. We have the tile and just need the backer board and the glue and the big item-TIME. The breakfast room will have to wait for awhile as we are going to put random width old pine plank flooring in there. I grew up in old New England homes with pine floors and am excited about reproducing them here in parts of this house.

I am beginning to plan for this years garden-- we will have tomatoes, peppers, onions, corn, peas and a few other things. The garden will be much smaller this year until we see how my back reacts to gardening after last years injury. I have missed the peace and solitude of spending my summer mornings in the veggie garden and look forward to being able to garden again. Judie

My kitchen has needed redoing for a long time. So this Fall we painted it-- the cabinets are now a deep New England Red and the walls are blue denim color. James and Josh have done a great deal of it and I just love it. In the Spring we are planning to get new counters. Last year we moved the fridge into the breakfast area and this past weekend James built me shelves and a temp counter where the fridge used to be. He also built me a cute shelf to put pretty things on and made a scalloped apron for the shelf.

Bob and Lori and the kids were here on Sunday for dinner and the afternoon. We had a great time and it was wonderful to have them here for a visit. They fly back to Vermont tomorrow.

OOPs I forgot to brag about Josh and his soccer team. They were undefeated all season and in the playoffs and brought home the Championship Trophy. We are so proud of all the boys.

How can it be October 16 already? I keep meaning to write and have been so busy that it somehow never gets done.

James has his mission call! He is going to Puerto Rico, San Juan West Mission. He leaves on Jan 2, 2008. He is sooo excited about this. He will spend 3 weeks in the Provo, Utah Mission Training Center and then go to the MTC in the Dominican Republic for his language training and to learn about the culture -- he will be there 6 weeks. We have applied for his passport and he has been to the Temple-- what a wonderful day that was. We have purchased his shirts and still have socks, shoes and slacks to go. He will only need one suit and he already has that as it is too hot to wear a suit all the time there. He will travel in his suit to and from his mission and will wear it while in the Prov MTC. He got his luggage for a Christmas present last year. All his immunizations are finished and he is busy working to earn the last of his money to pay for this wonderful adventure.

I am busy making t shirt quilts for four of my grandkids for their Dad to give them for Christmas. T shirt quilts are a new adventure and I am enjoying learning about this method of quilting. Bob has saved all their tshirts from track and ski meets for years now and brought them to me before they moved back East and asked me if I could make quilts from them.

My kitchen has needed redecorating for a few years now and we have started on that. I never think I have enough kitchen cabinets but when I started painting them I may have changed my mind-- 23 cabinet doors and 14 drawer fronts is ALOT of painting. I am doing them a few at a time-- one section at a time. The cabinets are a deep reddish brown color and so far I just love them. They were white and 12 years has made a toll on them. We won't do the new counters until after the first of the first of the year-- maybe in Feb or March.

It will soon be time to start putting up the Christmas Villages for the Holidays. It takes several weeks. James built me cupboards with wide counters around three sides of our family room. During the Holidays we display our Christmas Villages on the counters and during the remainer of the year they and all our Christmas decorations are stored under the counters. My husband started the Villages and we have continued them over the years.

It has been awhile since I have written on this blog. I have been very busy with many things. I am working on five quilts right now. One is the quilt that I make each year for the Collie Health Foundation that will be auctioned off at the annual auction that takes place at the Collie CLub of AMerica National in March.

The other four are quilts for 4 of my grandkids. Their dad has saved all their t shirts from every meet for cross country skiing and track they have ever gotten and has asked me to make quilts for all four of them. I have cut out all the things on the jerseys now and have most of them reinforced with iron on sizing. Next I will have to lay them out and decide how to make them look the most attractive. I will use different fabric for the sashings on each quilt. Michael is working on a farm near where they now live-- helping with the cows and haying etc. I have some fabulous fabric with holstein cows on it for the sashing on his quilt. I have not decided what I am going to use for the others but one of them will be navy blue with little tulips on it. So when I am finished with this project, I will have blended my grandchildren garden with my quilt garden.

This is a quilt I made from a kit I purchased a few years ago. I love all the various colors in this quilt. It will be a bedspread for my daughters bed.

Liza is grown. She is careering while she waits for Mr Right to come along. When she comes home at the end of a long day at work she likes to collapse on her bed and spend time with her collie Corrie. At one time she had a lovely white duvet cover that had embroidered flowers on it. It turned out to be VERY impractical. This will be much more servicable and won't show smudges like the white one did. And at the same time be pretty. She and Corie will be much happier with this.

My Garden of Grandkids

I have been blessed with 20 grandkids. They are all wonderful people. Here are some snaps of some of them cross country skiing.

Josh & his quilts

Josh and his quilts. Josh loves the quilts and especially his. He takes his quillow everywhere he goes and loves to rollin his big quilt. Josh did all the photography of my quilts for me. He is a wonderful young man who excells in school and in the many things he undertakes.

Christmas Quilts

CHRISTMAS is an exciting time of year at our house. We are all Christmas fanatics. I have made many quilted items for our home to use during the Christmas Season. Several years ago I decided to make a Christmas Quilt each year. Here are some of them.

This is the 2006 quilt-- I havenot quiltedit as yet.

The quilt to the right I made two of. One for my sister and one for myself for Christmas 2000.

Beautiful Table Runners

Here are three table runners I have made-- they are all the same pattern but different fabrics.

James & his quilt

This is James and the quilt I made him. I am raising James and his younger brother Josh. James has turned in his papers to serve a mission for our Church. We will be excited to find out where he is going. He will be gone 2 years.

Fat Quarters Abounding

This is another lap quilt that I made entirely from Fat Quarters-- except the background. I had to be careful to cut the fat quarters carefully to ensure that I would have enough fabric. You may have noticed that all my quilts have rounded corners. I do this because I wanted a trademark and because I really don't enjoy making mitered corners. Sometimes I make fans for the corners like in this quilt. I have been machine quilting for several years now and really like the results.