Redwork Quilt

I'm playing around with some pictures this morning.  I have some in e-mails that won't let me copy and paste so I'm trying to figure out how to put them in something else so that I can put them in my post.  I should be doing my homework for my board meeting on Friday but I'm goofing off.  What can I say?

Well I didn't get very far with that as here it is Friday and I have already been to my board meeting this morning.  I think I am over the worst of my headcold as I have only sneezed once this morning and that was when I had a mouth full of vitamins and they went all over the kitchen!

It is bitterly cold today with the wind whipping around the house making drifts out back.  Noodles and Munchie went out for a short time and then headed right back in and are curled up in their favorite spots in the sun on their blankets.

I watched two operations today after my board meeting.  A little girl cat got spayed and a little boy cat got neutered.  It only takes about 6 or 7 minutes to take care of the boy cats but longer for the girls.  It was very interesting and I can see why most vets prefer to do small animals rather then horses or cows.  Thank goodness we do have our large animal vets though!  Nick is coming along good with the hand walking.  Next week he will be able to go out in the inside arena by himself and move around as he wants.  I hope he takes it easy for a while but time will tell.  He does have to have a couple of shots in that hock on the 10th of February.  I just got the call from my vet. 

What I really wanted to write about today is one of my possessions that I consider a treasure.  My Aunt Joyce and I were very close for many years until she passed away a number of years ago.  We both loved horses and she ended up with one of mine in her later years and found much enjoyment in having him there at her home.

She also loved to do redwork quilting and drew many of her squares by hand or copied them from a greeting card or a picture she found in an old book or magazine.  She wanted this quilt to show things about her life and some of the things that she enjoyed the most.   

I was the lucky recipient of this quilt one day when I was over at her house visiting and I was thrilled!  She wanted to give things to people that she knew would enjoy them and take care of them.  Here are just a few of the squares that I particularly like.

She always tapped the maple trees in the spring to make maple syrup.

She always skated on the lake in the wintertime.

Growing up there were always pigs and piglets on the farm.

She loved Arabian horses and always went to watch the shows.

She loved wildlife especially the eagles that flew over.

This is Smokey Jack the appy that I had for many years until he retired to her home.  She loved to take him out in the sleigh for a ride.

This is my grandfather, her father, ice fishing on the lake.

Going down the hill on the toboggan with my mother and her other sister.

She and her family lived in California for many years and they loved going into the dessert and camping on the weekends.

She loved the rodeo and went as often as they could.

This is my grandparents house, it had a horseshoe shaped drive way and my grandmother had beautiful flowers all around it.  The tall things on the left are the gorgeous hollyhocks that she grew.  I have never been able to grow them anywhere near like hers.

This is the old barn that was on the other side of the drive way.  It had vines going up one side of it.

There was always a swing in the tree to play on.

My grandfather made stilts for the kids.  My father always made stilts for us too.

This was the block she did for me on the quilt, a picture of Smoky Jack and my initials. Probably 1993 was the year she got Smoky from me.

They really did ride the pigs on occasion!  Probably when my grandfather wasn't home!

Another square dedicated to horses.

This was in each corner.

This was her block with her initials and a spider web.  She loved spider webs and her antique shop was named Joyce's Web Antiques.  I have the big sign that hung on the front of the building out in my barn hanging on the wall.  If it wasn't so cold I would go out and take a picture.

This quilt has many more blocks, with a meaning to each one.  It took her years to make as it was all done by hand except the sashing around each block and that was done with her old treddle sp? machine.  I have all of the patterns that she drew for it and consider them a treasure too.

Thanks for going down memory lane with me via this quilt.

We've been invaded by Miss T and Mr. D!

The Grands were here this weekend.  Son and DIL had things to go to so both T and D got off the bus here on Friday after school.  The first thing we did was go sledding over at Great Grampa's house next door.  He has the best hill in the neighborhood and loves having the children make good use of it.  This is Mr. D starting down the hill.

It's a long walk back up the hill.

Whew!  Made it!

Of course Noodles the cat who thinks he is a dog had to go along with us.

Miss T picked him up and said he was shivering.  I thought he was probably purring but when I held him I could tell that he was shivering so I took him home.

Opps!  Somebody lost their hat on this trip down the other side of the hill!

Yep, it was Mr. D!  Guess it was time to go in the house for some hot chocolate and dry socks!

If you are honest and over a certain age you have done something really regrettable.  I'm not talking about anything illegal.  I'm talking about the sleds with the runners and the metal part that held the top together...........and the fact that some of us, me included, just HAD to stick our tongue on that metal to see if it would really stick!  Am I right?

We had a fabulous place to slide called Town House Hill when I was a youngster.  It was a couple miles up the road which at that time seemed like nothing, now I would groan at the thoughts of walking up a steep hill but this was 'back in the day'.  I vividly remember the cold day that I was zooming down over that hill and the thought struck me that I should try touching my tongue on the metal on the way down.....  Man oh man did that ever stick!  I spent the rest of the way down trying to get it 'unstuck' without pulling half of my tongue off.

There really is nothing you can do in that situation when you are two miles from home but bite the bullet and just yank your poor stuck tongue as hard as you can and it does come off, mostly.  There was a small layer left on the sled forever to be part of it.  Needless to say I never did that again.

Now back to the present.  The kids wanted Grampie to get out his old trumpet that he played in high school.  I was cleaning up from dinner but could hear awful sounds coming from the playroom!  The Hubs did a pretty good job of playing Taps and then the kids were giving it a try. Yikes!  I'm glad I was upstairs!

The kids went to bed about 8 o'clock and were in lala land in minutes.  All that nice cold air and walking up and down the hill was good exercise for them and they slept like a rock.  Well....until about 6:30 AM when they came giggling into our room!  Grampie was already up but I was still snoozing until two little ankle biters climbed in bed with me! I certainly didn't mind though, wouldn't have it any other way!  :o)

And the winner is..........

The winner of my contest is The Happy Cottage Quilter!  She was the first one to comment and she guessed correctly, I am the first gal on the left hand side front row.  Some of the others guessed the same one but she was the first so a Christmas Table Topper will be going her way as soon as I decide on the colors I want to use.  Thanks for entering!

You know, I remember that day like it was yesterday.  Now don't ask me what I had for breakfast this morning as I can't remember but I can remember that day.  Notice how my hand is kind of on my hip with my wrist bent a little?  I remember doing that and the photographer snapped the picture and I was totally mortified that he did while I had my hand that way.  I was sure the whole school would laugh and carry on that I was so dumb to do that.  Well, not one noticed and I let it be my secret until today.  ha!  Isn't it interesting the things that go through a youngsters mind.  You never know what they are thinking.

I loved our little school that I went to up to 8th grade.  It was in walking distance of our home and I could walk home for lunch and not have to eat the hot lunch prepared for the students.  Thinking back I know they did the best they could with what they had to work with at the time.  When I saw what was offered at my son's school for lunch I was surprised.  Things like salad and even pizza!  I thought that was amazing.  Now the schools are much more health conscience due to all of the childhood obesity which is on the rise.

Which brings me to another rant, which if you read my blog you know I tend to get on one every so often.  I know I have gotten onto this one before but this morning on the news they talked about how many hours per day that our young people are spending on the computer, texting, television, Ipods and playing things like DS.

It is outrageous!  AND then I see the ads on televison reminding children to be sure to play outside at least an hour a day.  An hour?!  What has happened to a big segment of our youth? Think about all the hours and hours we spent as children playing in the snow in the wintertime, just coming in for a pair of dry mittens or for lunch?  Or the summertime when we were out from after breakfast until lunch and then out until dinner time and then out even after dark playing hide and seek and now they have to be reminded to go out and play for an hour?  Good  grief!

What have we done to our children to allow this to happen?  From all of your blogs I see that your children aren't in this catagory thank goodness.  I see good healthy kids playing and working outside,  riding their horses, doing chores, running, swimming, playing sports, doing the things kids should be doing.  Yesterday my two grands came over and went sliding on Grampa's hill.  It is a great hill and they had a blast.  A couple of the other neighborhood kids were there too and the four of them just had the best time.  I was bundled up but not enough to go down the hill and end up in a pile of snow as I had jeans on and no snowpants but they more then made up for it going down, walking back up and going down again. Where was my camera you ask?  On the kitchen counter. Sigh.... Anywho, I think I got that out of my system.  For now.

All is 'stable' pun intended, on the homefront.  Nick is doing well without his stitches and bandages.  I'm glad it's been a little milder as his shaved leg still hasn't grown much hair.  Hand walking starts Tuesday.  Skipper has not had any more episodes and feet seem to be okay so far.  Little Bud got himself hung up in some deep snow and the stable owner found him with his feet in the air!  Did I tell you this already?  Evidently he wanted to roll outside and got into deeper snow then he should have and got stuck!  This happened last year to my friend Ann's horse and he had to be shoveled out so that he could get out!  Finally after some hooping and hollering from the stable owner to encourage him he got himself out.  What next??!!

Guess that's it for today.  I know lots of you are having bad weather so I hope you stay safe and dry.  Keep the country of Haiti in your prayers, some things are getting better but they have a long, long way to go.  It was good to see that gigantic medical ship arrive there yesterday.  A young man and his wife from our church support a small orphanage there and he has gone over and everyone survived the quake.  He and a friend were on their way to get supplies when the big aftershock hit so they had to go back but hopefully they will be able to get out today for food and supplies.

Horse Updates and other news.

It was a good day!  It was a busy day.  It was a snowy day. It was a good day to have 4-wheel drive.  I woke up this morning and looked out the sliding glass doors to see big flakes of snow coming down and piling up quite quickly.  Munchie had her vet appointment at 9:30 so I was hoping the roads would be clear but the time I had to leave at 9:15.  Not to be, but with careful driving and my big tank of a car we made it just fine.

Munchie was NOT happy.  How can a cat fly all the way to Maine from Florida and not make a peep but yowl all the way to the vet's office every time we go?  I tried singing to her, I tried sticking my fingers in the carrier, you name it but nothing worked.  When we got there and checked in she quieted right down and enjoyed watching the cage of finches that hung above her on the wall.

We had a long wait but I enjoyed the Great Dane named Grace and the Airdale named Chester who were on either side of me in the waiting area and were very friendly sorts.  Grace had pulled out a toe nail and was in for a check up and Chester was having blood work for some reason.  Munchie ignored both of them, pretending she didn't even see them.

She got her three shots and we headed back home.  She was a good girl and didn't even budge when she got her shots.  She weighs a little over 9 lbs.  Noodles is doing great and finished his meds today! Yippee!

Next I had to head up to the stable to meet with the horse vet and the farrier.  Nick's stitches were taken out and the vet said everything looked really good but he has to have one more week of stall rest before I can start hand walking him.  No more bandages, thankyouverymuch!  Skipper had a check up and his feet trimmed some more and was walking very nicely without any pain it would seem.  Stu (vet) cut his bute back to 1/2 gram once a day for five days and we will see how he is then.  Kevin (farrier) put the pinchers on his feet and there was no sign of discomfort........go figure!  Possibly the rotation in his feet was from an old case of laminitis.  We will know better in another week or so but at this point it looks GOOD!

The other issue is still a mystery.  Stu has his opinion and I hope he is right.  Maybe this is an isolated incident where his feet hurt when he moved just right, slipped, fell, panicked which produced the thrashing, got to his feet and settled down.  I don't know. His heart rate was good when they checked him when we got to the vet's office the day of the incident and was good today.  He was bright eyed and alert.  We will wait for the blood work to come back this week and then there is more blood work that can be done to check a few more things.  Both ponies are too fat so are having chopped carrots instead of their handful of grain twice a day.

Next Kipper and Nick got their feet trimmed.  Nick's back leg didn't seem to bother him at all when Kevin worked on him.  He was being very careful with him so as to not injure anything.  Kipper tried to bite him on the behiney while Kevin was trimming his feet.  We call him Jaws as he does like to nibble!  So that's where everything stands for now...........to be continued for sure.

No one got the song right!  If you Google 'where oh where has my little dog gone'  it comes up as:  oh where oh where has my little dog gone, oh where oh where can he be?  With his ears cut short and his tail cut long, oh where oh where can he be?  A couple of you were very close but no one hit it right on the head.  Guess I will have to look things over again and see who came the closest..............to be continued..........

Okay, I have another contest for you.  Who can pick me out of this school photo?  First one to correctly pick me out will recieve a table topper from me.  It will be either Christmas, horsey or something else like spring or dogs/cats, whatever you want.  Good luck ! 

Friday Night Sew In and other updates.

The sun is shining this morning which is so nice as it's been gray and overcast all week.  The temps are better too, seems like a heat wave.  I don't have to wear so many layers when I go to the stable to see the boys.  Skipper seems to be okay.  The vet will come on Monday and meet with the farrier to go over his feet.  He seems much more comfortable with his toes trimmed back and even went out yesterday with Kipper and played in the snow.  No more episodes like the one earlier in the week.  We just don't know what happened.  Don't know if we ever will but we are waiting for several blood tests to come back that may give us some information.  Thank you to all of you that have prayed for us this week!

I have been trying to get back into sewing regularly.  Several of you belong to the Friday Night Sew In so I have been doing that unofficially along with you.  I must get signed up but haven't figured it out as yet.  There has just been too much going on this week to concentrate on anything remotely confusing.  Will get to it though.  What I worked on this Friday is a simple Dresden Plate table topper.  My DIL made me a Christmas one that I love so decided I would try my hand at it and make some horsey ones.  This is the Christmas one and I set either a candle on the middle or an arrangement.

This is the one I made out of horse fabric.  I have lots of horse fabric that I have picked up whenever I see some.

Isn't this fabric the cutest for the horse lover!?

This one says rodeo.

I want to thank Valerie, her mom Alice Grace, Granny and Needled Mom for inspiring me to dust off the sewing machine and getting to work!  I have several other projects lined up that I will be putting in the Friday Night Sew In, some complicated and some not.  I don't always think it's the complexity of the project that's fun but just being in the sewing room and enjoying what you're working on.

Speaking of horsey things,  Funsize gave me the cutest set of votive holders for Christmas.  Guess what they are made out of........yep...... horseshoes!  She found these while on a trip at a Crac*ker Barr*el.

Then DIl came over last night and brought me a gift that she picked up while she and son were in Texas!  It's a set of salt and peppers that she found in the gift shop at the hotel!!  How cute is that?!

Guess I need to get a few things done as tomorrow is going to be taken up with vet and farrier appointments.  Munchie has to go in and have her yearly shots and check up.  She doesn't look too concerned about it does she?!  :o)

Oh where oh where has my spellcheck gone,  oh where oh where can it be???  What is that song really about????  The first one with the right answer will win a prize!

More horse issues..........

This has been the week that was.  You know how sometimes things just come in bunches.  Now compared to what is going on over in Haiti this is minor but to me it is a big thing.  Anyone who knows me knows that my animals are part of the family and treated as such.

Monday I got a call from the stable and Nick's bandages had slipped down again.  I may have already blogged about this but my head is spinning so don't know which end is up about anything so bear/bare with me.  Which is it, bare or bear?  One of those deep questions, but I digress.  Also we thought Nick was having problems urinating.  Sorry, this is probably TMI but it's my life and how it's going right now.  In the aftercare it said to look out for this so we called the vet and he came over.

Things were okay and it was a false alarm on the p-ing front which is the good news.  Leg bandaged again by the vet and is staying in place.  Really Needled Mom, I need you!!!  :o)  Tomorrow I have to change the bandage so we will see how that goes.  Stu suggested a baby diaper instead of the thick bandage that they sent home with us and then put on the other layers.  I spent 20 minutes yesterday in the disposable diaper section trying to figure out which would be better.

Noodles has a UTI.  Again I may have already written about this.  The vet said to get him right in as soon as possible as male cats can get blockages very quickly so off we went with Noodles howling in his carrier all the way there.  He totally disliked having his temp taken, again TMI, but that's the way it was.  He's on two meds which he dislikes intensely but we are getting the job done.

Last night the stable called again and Skipper was acting like his feet were sore.  He's never had an issue with his feet since I have owned him, always is barefoot and has great feet.  Soooooooo  I called the farrier and got his voice mail and told him the situation.  No call back so he may be on vacation in Florida.  I knew he was going but didn't know when.  So Jean, stable owner, bedded him up really well and we were going to see what today brought. 

I called there when I knew she was done feeding to see how he was and was planning to go up and she was very concerned and thought he may have had a seziure in his stall.  Also still sore on front right when turning.  I called the vet and he said bring him right in RIGHT NOW.  It's below zero so I bundled up, went out and hooked up the trailer and headed up to pick him up.

When I got there he seemed calm and fine but I put his blanket on him and Jean and I headed out.  We got to the vets office and they got him right in, checked him over, did some xrays of his feet to check for laminitis and all the other stuff they do.  He does have some rotation but having never had xrays before we have nothing to compare it to.  His toes were a bit long as he is due for a trim next week so the vet trimmed him and he seemed a bit more comfortable.  He was so good having all that blood drawn even with a tech doing it and having to poke him several times.

I am waiting for a call about the blood work.  He's being checked for Lyme disease, Cushings, and several  things that could cause a sizeure even though the vets gut feeling is that he just slipped, fell down and got all panicky.  To say that I am a bit anxious is an understatement.  It is so hard waiting for an important phone call.

 This is the life of someone who owns horses and other animals.  Things go along great for months and months or even years and then things start to happen for some unknown reason.

Jean, (stable owner) just called and said she got the bute in Skip with some applesauce.  He lapped the dish clean.  You can't use a syringe with him to put things in his mouth as he is scared to death and freaks out due to his horrible former owners.  I know this isn't the christian way to think but I'd like to do to them some of the things they did to this beautiful little pony!!!! 

So it's a wait and see time.  He was moving better after having his toes trimmed up a bit and still needs his heels trimmed so hopefully my farrier will be back soon.  If not Mrs. Mom and Co. will have to make a house call to Maine!  Long Johns will be in the mail!!!

Pioneer Woman Cookbook Winner!

Today was the big day for the drawing for my Pioneer Woman Cookbook Give Away!  Thank you to so many that entered and to all of you that put it on your blogs!  I've had fun visiting so many blogs and meeting new people.  The winner is, drum roll please, Pam over at Pamsponderings-hippochick.blogspot.com Congratulations Pam, I hope you enjoy your copy as much as I am enjoying mine.  E-mail me your snail mail addy and I will get it right out to you!  thediz@roadrunner.com

The Hubs and I headed to Foxboro yesterday morning about 6:30 to see the last Patriots game of the year.  If any of you watched the game you know it was a disaster from the first play.   :o(    We had a good time anyhow and the most fun was going down on the field at half time.  Let me tell you, looking around at 70,000 people is a bit overwhelming at best.

This is BIL, me and The Hubs with our passes on that we had to wear to get down on the field with a host. It was VERY cold!  The people in the stands we so bundled up they could hardly move.  Fortunately we were in a heated sky box but they do open the front windows during the game but it's still not that cold.

The windows slide open but there are sofas further inside the room so that you can sit back there and watch the game on a tv.  I sat by the window for half the game but then prefered the warmth!

They have all kinds of goodies for us to munch on but I made use of the hot chocolate the most.

After the game we drove three hours and then stopped to have a nice dinner in Augusta before finishing the trip home.

Our deer have arrived for their winter feedings.  A family of five has been coming regularly for their grain and don't mind driving off the turkeys to get it.

Opps!  I've been caught!

I'm waiting for a call from my vet.  He is going to come today and take a look at Nick's leg and some other issues that he seems to be having.  We can't seem to keep the bandages on, they slide down and the stitches are exposed.  Hopefully he will put them on for me and they will stay or maybe he will think things have healed up enough so that he doesn't need them.   He's also having some other 'personal' type issues so I hope he doesn't have a urinary tract infection which can sometimes go along with this. 

Last weekend T and D stayed with us while Son and DIL went to Houston.  They wanted me to take some pictures of their rooms here.  We had two guest rooms that we converted over to their rooms so that they didn't have to sleep on the floor in our room and they were timid about sleeping in the guest rooms.  I decided to let them make them their own and now they sleep there without a problem and love having their favorite stuffed toys with them.  This is T in her room with all of her stuffed toys.

D's room has more of a wildlife feel to it.  Notice both kids beds have a purple and yellow quilt from my purple and yellow era.  Don't you quilters find yourselves going through different times when you seem to gravitate to the same colors or is it just me?

Well the vet's office just called so I need to get ready and head to the stable.  Never a dull moment around here!