Garden Robber

Dana plants a garden at the edge of the field just east of my house.  When school starts she seems to end any garden work.  Last year there were a lot of peppers on her plants in October when a frost was expected.  I talked to Derrick and asked if they were planning to pick before freezing or if they wanted me to do it.  He told me Dana was going to pick them.  I left it alone.  It froze and she had not picked the garden before hand.  It was a very hard freeze.  I was very upset that all was lost when it did not have to be.

This year seemed to be the same.  Since mid August I could not tell that Dana did anything with the garden.  During September, I watched the plants and their production.  When the first frost was forecast, I checked the garden again.  Nothing had been picked so I went out late in the afternoon and picked the 6 quart kettle full of peppers. 

I sorted the peppers by type and put in bags and into the freezer.  This will be wonderful during the winter or to make salsa later.  That night we did have a mild freeze.  Mom's garden in front of her house had damage.  I could not tell that Dana's garden was hurt, though.  Maybe I should not have picked and left them there to see if she would pick them later.  Last week we had another forecast for a freeze.  I checked the garden and there were more peppers and a few tomatoes also there.  I picked again.  This is what I got this time.

There was probably another 6 quarts of fresh veggies but I put them in other types of containers.  They are also going in the freezer.  Once again Mom's garden was hurt more but Dana's was not.  The freezes have been very mild so far this fall. 

 

I kept the twins last night.  Layne saw these sitting on my table and asked where I got them.  I told him I stole them from his mama's garden.  That did not concern him.  He just wanted to eat some of the little tomatoes.  So maybe I can count telling Layne I picked their garden and his reaction to that as a confession and forgiveness.  You think?  Well, if not, this is my confession.  I do not like to raise a garden but I love to can, freeze and dehydrate its produce.  I am the Garden Robber.

 

Rose

My Baby's Back

A week ago, my cow, Molly, had a baby.  The next day Dad & I went out to tag it. Dad found it tucked in the grass in the pasture.  I totally missed it till he pointed it out to me.  Can you see it there? 

As I said in a previous post, we spooked the little thing and it ran-through the electric fence, into the heat field and we could not find it.  That evening Molly  (the mother) was pacing along the fence where the baby went through and crying for her baby.  I really hoped that the babe would return to it's mama for milk.

The next morning when Dad was out checking cattle and saw Molly with her calf nursing.  I was so excited that the baby was back.  It looks like Molly will be a good mother after all.

 

 

I went out with Dad again to try to tag the little critter.  Molly kept herself between us and her baby.  We will have to wait till they are both in for water to catch them and run them through the shoot to tag it.  Dad thinks it is a girl but we could not get close enough to tell for sure.  Either way I have a grandbaby calf.

 

My baby is back.

 

Rose



 

Temple Garments

I was raised in a strong Catholic home. Thank you, Mom & Dad, for raising your family with a strong faith in God.  I have taken additional classes as an adult to better understand my Catholic faith.  I took a trip to Israel and to Rome to visit religious historical sites.  I am now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Do not get me wrong here.  I have not rejected the faith that I grew up with but have taken that faith and knowledge and expanded upon it.  I now have a better understanding where before I had a lot of unanswered questions.  I do not know it all nor have all questions answered and do not expect to while living upon the earth.  This is the first time I have spoken so boldly outside the church about my faith.  It is a little scary to put myself out there for fear of rejection.  I think we all feel the disapproval from others at times but that can be another entire post topic.

When I began investigating and attending the LDS Church, my family was not too happy (that's the understatement of the century!)  Mom said a lot of negative things before storming out of my house, my sister-in-law did not want me to spend time with her children, others just thought I was crazy (but that was nothing new).  I did not share this part of my life with my family.  We just did not talk about it at all.  I knew I could not explain in a way they would understand and that I needed to live my life as an example of my faith before them.  They have come to see that I am not evil or possessed, I do not put them down for their beliefs nor am I 'preachy' about my faith.  I hope they know that my family is so very important to me and that I love them all more than words can express and would do anything within my power to help them.  I also love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and am grateful for the plan of salvation and the atoning sacrifice Christ made for my sins and the sins of all mankind. 

The last time I was in Wichita at Karen's she said that one day at school some of the teachers were talking about "Mormon magical underwear'.  She stood up for the LDS faith by saying to these ladies that her sister (me) is 'Mormon' and that their garments are for modesty and an expression of their faith.  Well, she was right to a point and that was a good enough explanation for these teachers at that time. When she was telling me this, my heart swelled with appreciation and awe that she would do this in defence of the LDS faith when she is not a member of the church but that I am. 

Ever since that day I have wanted to post about this topic.  I talked with my home teachers about this asking what would be appropriate and not appropriate to say.  There are so many types of religious clothing in many different religions that display faith in God.  Are these made fun of as much as the LDS temple garments?  I do not know. 

The other day I found this article and video which explained the topic of temple garments much better than I could ever have done.  Since it is put out by the church I know that I am not saying anything that I should not.  Maybe this will help others to have a little better acceptance of what they do not know or understand.  There is nothing to fear. 

Sunbonnet Sue Babies Quilt

A few years ago Karen and I were at the Newton outlet stores at the Charlotte's Quilt Shop.  She bought an embroidery pattern pre-printed on fabric of Sunbonnet Sue Babies.  The fabric was pretty cheesy so she made copies on the copy machine at school and used that to trace onto fabric she wanted to embroidery them on.  She bought all the threads in the colors according to the pattern directions.  I loved the pattern also so we decided to share it.  When she was done, she gave me the pattern copies and all her threads.  She said there was no point in me buying all the colors when you only use a little of most of them.  As I embroidered the babies, I would purchase any thread colors that I ran out of.  When done the pattern and threads were returned to Karen.

I worked on the babies all winter a couple years ago.  I like doing hand work when I watch TV or just sit around and wait .  These could be put in a zip lock bag and tucked in my purse and go anywhere with me.  They were so cute an really easy stitches to do.  When I got them all embroidered, I put the set away to finish later.  Someone needs to have a baby girl as their first baby now.

At the first of the year I added this quilt to my list to finish this year.  Even if nobody is having a baby girl, I can finish the quilt and have it ready for when the right baby comes along.  I have told all my nieces and nephews that when they have their first baby I will make them an applique quilt for their nursery.  If they have 8 babies I do not plan to do 8 quilts!  I try to make the quilt special to go with the nursery theme or a theme that means something special to the family.  Some quilts have been made from purchased or free online patterns but others have been my own creation. 

In June, Emily, Karen's daughter, announced that she was having a baby in December.  A few weeks later she found out she was having a baby girl.  Oh, goody! I can make the embroidered Sunbonnet Sue Babies quilt for her.  How fitting it seems to me.  Emily is into retro things, natural things, artistic things, and besides that I got the pattern from her mother.  She saw some embroidered blocks that Mom got in some stuff and fell in love with them.  Mom made them into a quilt for her.  She loved it.  She said her nursery is painted teal and she promised Ryan that she would not go all pink girly in her décor.  I think she will like this embroidered baby quilt.

 

Sorry the picture of the embroidery work and the quilt itself is not very clear.  I'll try again to take pictures of it and if I can get a better one, I will replace this later.

 

I wanted to add a little pop at the border of the quilt but everything seemed to be too much.  I found a tutorial for "Susie's Magic Binding" and thought I'd give it a try.  It added just what I needed and turned out great.  The tutorial was so easy to follow.  Look at the results.



On the bottom picture you can even see some of the machine quilting I did. 

 

Emily's baby shower is not until November 1 so don't spill the beans.  Can we keep this a secret from her?  You are getting a sneak peak.

 

Rose

PS: Look what I made from the scraps.  Baby Flora will have a doll quilt that goes with her baby quilt. (Dec 14, 2014)



I am a grandma (of sorts)

Monday morning Dad called to tell my that my cow, Molly, had her calf.  I was beginning to think she never would even though Dad thought she might.  If no calf this year, she was going to the sale barn.  She was just saved.

Yesterday morning Dad & I went out to find the baby and tag it so we know which one is mine instead of being one of his or one of Derrick & Dana's.  We found Molly but her calf was not with her.  I was concerned if she was taking care of her baby since we lost her calf last year. 

Last year we moved cattle to the north pasture and there was a tiny little calf struggling to keep up and was trailing (what looked to me to be) a first calf heifer.  When we got to the pasture the little thing laid down in the grass and panted and panted but no mother came for it at that time.  I wanted to pick it up and take it home to make sure it got something to drink and then bring it back when a mother was looking for her baby.  Dad said to leave it alone because the mother would come looking for it.  The next day he said the baby was in the same area and he did not see a mother with it but believed that it was being taken care of even though he did not see it being done.  I still wanted to bring it home to take care it the little thing.  Dad said he'd keep a watch on it.  The next day it was not in the spot or area it had been for the prior two days so he felt it was with its mother even though he did not spot it but there were a lot of cow/calf pairs in a small pasture intended to only be there for a very short time.  The following day he found the calf in the draw bottom, dead.  My baby died.  If only I had been more insistent about bringing it home to care for it.

Well, back to this year's new baby story...We found Molly but the calf was not with her.  Dad has the cattle spoiled by bring them corn every day that all the cows come right up to the Ranger looking for corn and will take it right out of his hands.  We got corn and gave some to Molly.  She stood still and Dad checked to see if she had been nursed on and if she was giving milk.  He said all was good there.  We went driving around the pasture looking for the baby.  We finally found it when we almost ran over it tucked in the tall grass in a terrace channel.  Here is what we found.  No wonder it was hard to find.

 

 

We stopped and the calf just laid there where it's mother placed it.  I got tags ready for it and the castrating band ready in case it is a bull.  The baby never moved the whole time I was doing this and Dad and I were talking.  We decided we may be able to walk up on it since it was so calm there.  That would be better than trying to chase it with the Ranger and hook it's leg to catch it especially since Molly was not there with her baby.  I was standing at the back of the Ranger and Dad began to slowly walk towards the baby.  All of a sudden it shot up and took off on a run away from us.  That away was to run south.  As it came to the fence it stopped a bit and paced the fence line before going through it into the wheat field.  After running a ways into the field it stopped running and turned to look at us.  We were on the Ranger but not moving.  It turned around and began to run again.  No point chasing it as it will only run further away.  We drove to the fence then through the pasture along the fence line looking for the baby.  We did not see it.  Dad hoped it laid down in a terrace in the wheat field and that it would return to where the mother laid it.  We scanned the hay field and wheat field but could not see it there either.  We decided to check on it later.

 

Late afternoon Dad went out again and found Molly pacing the fence line in the area the calf ran through and she was bawling for her baby.  Hopefully the baby will be close enough that it will hear its mother calling it and be hungry enough to come looking for her.  I had to come to school to sub this morning and Dad had gone out early to rake hay so had not checked cattle before I left.  I hope the baby is back with its mother. 

 

I hope not to lose this baby like I did the one last year.  Dad felt so bad for not letting me bring the calf home last year and he believed it to be Molly's calf that he gave me one of his calves to replace the one he caused me to lose.  He did not need to do that but it was very kind of him.  I'm afraid that if we do not find this baby, he will feel really bad again.  After it ran, he said he knew better than to approach it from the north because it naturally would run in the opposite direction which would be away from home.  He thinks if we would have been on the south side of it and it ran it would have run towards home and maybe not get lost.  Also we would have been coming from the back of the critter instead of from the front.  When we came across it and stopped, we just happened to be in front of it. 

 

As much as I love working with the cattle and especially with the baby calves, maybe I am not meant to have any of my own.