A memorial for a sweet puppy

Teddy or Teddy bear as we fondly called him was born in 2004, his mom and dad were Maltese and Pomeranian, he had 2 siblings in the litter. Teddy was a very happy little dog, always looking at us with a smile on his face and a wage of his tail. Teddy got along with all the other animals and had a very mellow nature. My older daughter just fell in love with im from the start.So we kept him for her, she had to go to school and move out and was not able to take her so he just became one of the clan. He was a bit the chicken tho not wanting to do alot of the things the other dogs did. He would stay close to home when the other dogs were out adventuring. He would love to sit with us when we would have our bonfires inthe back yard, and hes was the one that stuck close to us when we fired off the fireworks like he wanted join in on the fun, not scared by the loud fire crackers. When ever we were out side doing something he would always be there to help, including trying to catch grasshoppers with me. We had some pet names for him, Sean called him Rubbler lips becasue of the shiny black look of his lips and I nick named him Theodore Dumdum, a silly fond name for him for his silly things he would do. Teddy always tried to show that he was top dog over the others but we all knew where he stood in the pack. The other dogs would just let him think that he was. He was a very funny little dog, and a joy to have around.

With heavy hearts we layed Teddy to rest yesterday July 28, 2007 after being hit by a truck. He was for the first time in a very long time tagging along with the other dogs out by the road.The other dogs are car smart but he wasnt to much, I don't know what possessed him to follow them, but he did. The man did not see him and by the time he did it was to late. He didnt suffer at all which was a blessing I guess.

Little Teddy will be missed very much by all of us even the other dogs. He touched all of our hearts from the start. May he rest in peace and god bless his little soul.

What to do on a hot Saturday afternoon

Well it was just one answer to that, cut out a quilt. Yes I got 200 parallograms cut and started cutting the strips for the ninepatch.The quilt above is not by me but its what this pile of fabric will look like when I get done I hope. Only the burgandy takes the place of the green. My problems now is going out side my comfort range in colors matching. I'm already seeing im trying to do everything in burgandy shades and that isnt what I wanted so ive got to search my fabs for colors that go with it but that dont really have to blend totally. Im hoping this will be for the new bedroom when its done, the colors will be copper, burgandy, and brown. It took me most of the late afternoon and night to get those cut out.

Also what I did today was work on my around the world, Ive got all the blocks cut into strips for the other 3/4 of the quilt. Now I need to sew them and then pick them apart and sew them togeather. Really dont have alot to do for this one it just sitting down and doing it.

Anyway I guess for all the fabs ive been buying (but got some really great deals) I really need to sit my self down and do alot of sewing. (looks around at the other things that need to get down)
SO much to do and so little time it seems. What did I ever do when I was working, I cant imagine how I got anything done.
Oh well Im off to bed.......

Bigger than life Skeeters!!!

ok every time in the last week every time I go outside this is what attacks us, a skeeter larger than life. A few of these could carry a small dog away im sure. I thought I saw a swarm of them carrying away a cow earlyer today. LOL. No really this things hurt when the bite and when there flying around your ear it sounds like a whole swarm of the small ones. They are very very agressive! I'm thinking the Alasken skeeters have nothing on these. See that thing that its pointing at the dime well that is what bites you.And yea they bite right threw your clothes like there not there. I had this one in the house last night, it was hard no to squish him before taking his picture. I ask nicely please pose for me but nothing doing he just wanted to suck my blood. Yes that leg is his. I have never seen a skeeter this big before, and oh yea they bite all day and hang out in my garden. We havent been able to find out exactly what brand they are but we have done our own research and we are thinking it is the largest North american skeeter there is and only comes out here when there is a wet year. And yea we have had a very wet year. Want a better look at him click on the pix and get a close up.

Cats,Dogs, Jellybeans and deals.

Ok you will probably think im crazy after this post but this is a small introduction to some of my animals I daily take care of, Below is Falcor and our newest puppy Sugar. All our animals have to know each other and have to know it ok to be friends. Falcor has no fear of the animals we have intro'ed to him as you will see. Foxy loves Falcor well until he bite foxy on the tongue.
Sugar being only 8 weeks old when we got her, has made friends with all the cats and Falcor.
The dogs sleep with the cats and vise versa. I think sometimes the dogs think there cats.

This is Falcor and Red, Falcor is warming him self on Red, Red just layed there not having a problem with a lizard laying on him. Red when he was born I had to give mouth to nose resussatation to, it took him along time to breath. From this hes a bit slow, hes scared of strangers all the time and it has taken along time to get his trust, hes suspious of every thing. He will disappear in the house and we cant find him unless he wants us to. But he is a very gentle cat and loves to take care of the younger cats, licking and cleaning them.

Each one of our cats has a special story to go along with them. And each one is very special. We have one cat that we promised a little boy we would keep her for him, he was moving and wanted to make sure his cat was safe. He was never able to get her back but we still have her and we will have her till she passes.

When Im feeling low or feeling bad at least one of our many animals will see that and jump on my lap and try to make me feel better. When im hurting, a cat purring on my lap can be very relaxing and it makes it better some how. These are just 3 of our 10 special cats that live with us in the house. We have 5 boys that live out side, they just couldnt get along all togeather in the house and are much happyer out ruling there roost. Plus there great mousers.

Tigger and Little girl have some wild cat in them Tigger has a very short tail and we belive he has bobcat in him, Little girl we are not sure she does look like a bobcat in the winter with her full winter coat. Below Lacy she doesnt really even know she is a cat, shes alot of fries short of a happy meal. Her mommy is Little girl up above and she is not a very good mother. She didnt take care of lacy when she was first born and when I found the kittens they were cold. I warmed all 6 kittens and saved 4 of the six. Lacy was one of the worse, she was very small and had lots of trouble for the first 4 months, we almsot lost her a few times. And from that she is a bit retared. And she has may genic problems, her nose is not big enought so she has problems smelling and breathing, she is very skinny all the time also. She is a cat that can never go out ever, she has no fear of anything at all. She goes into any open door including the refrig.

One of our little girls Foxy, she is a daddys little girl mostly. Shes a very calm quiet dog. Very loveable, she would just love to sit in your lap and cuddle.

All of this fab came from goodwill in one big bag, there is some yardage and at least half a yard and its all in good condition and the best part it was only 4.00 for the whole bag.

We are always looking for a good deal I think. Yesterday and a few days before that I found a few really good deals. The hoop was 50cents at goodwill and the fab fq were 1.00 a piece at a new place I found that was not a quilt shop but a store private owned what had a little of everything, the place has been in busness since the 60s and walmart didnt put them out. There is tables and tables full of fabs that are quilt quality fabs. We had gone to a quilt shop just up the road from this store and they didnt have but about maybe at most 100 different fabs if that.The lady at the counter told me that they were already getting more busy with fabric from walmart starting to cut down on how much fabs they carry. Walmarts loss there gain I feel.

We go to the one goodwill and its has some really nice clean stuff, better than most Ive seen. They always have alot of fabric and crafty things in big bags for like 3-4 dollers.

I think the hoop was a huge find and its in new condition. I do love finds like this specally when I need them.

Well off to do something .........write more later........

Turkeys,turkeys and more turkeys

If you click on the picture, and look really close there are 3 of 10 baby turkeys that live im my yard. In the evening they roost in the trees out front of the house. The other pix is the mommy turkey. They are really easy to spook so I couldnt be very close to them.

Veggies,Trolls,Grasshoppers and Dragons

Hi everyone, well this week has been busy, I did get my stuff ready for the appy swap and troll is ready to travel around the world. Lets see I cleaned my sewing room, changed some things how I had storage. I worked in the garden some, here are some of the fruits of my labor. The middle of the sweetcorn was blown down in one of our thunderstorms we have had, so it doesnt look good for that part of it, I tryed to stand it back up but it just falls back over. A funny thing is going on with the corn anyway, its tasseling out with any ears on the stock, I thought you had to have silk on the ears to catch the pollen. Pretty soon ill have tomatoes,I cant wate. The watermelon has jsut started putting fruit on and I have gerkin size cucumbers. If I had a crock id pickle some of those but I dont so Ill let them grow to full size.

We mowed yesterday just intime for an other storm so since the day before the 4th we have had 5 " and 2/10. For July that is suppost to be the dryest month its off to a bang. One of the fields a bout a mile from us was just distroyed by hail with the last big one we had a few days ago. We had some of that hail but nothing like they did just a mile away.

I went to find fabric pens yesterday, and ended up in a town that was haveing sidewalk sales so I found some good buys at the quiltshop there, a book called Great American quilts 1994, there are some beautiful quilts in this book with patterns. I got a few FQ for 1.00 each also. In an other place I found a neat ruler, is a wedge ruler for making cheverons and spectrum quilts. I had been eyeing it for a while i t went from 26.95 to 10.00 great buy! I did get my fabric pens to but there wasnt much of a choice.

With my Troll for the swap, Ive made siggy blocks, ive appliqued runes stones on to the block and beaded the symbol on the stones. Each stone symbol has a meaning which I thought was kinda neat. I picked ones that I thought was more for the group of the swap. I wish I could go all the places my troll will be going... lots of states and off to Canada and then to Australia. That would be so much fun to follow him all those places. And hes going to meet some really great people along the way. Any way the swap is going to be alot of fun to do. One of the girls at Quiltchat.com is trying to get me to join a few of the other swaps that are going to be coming up, I wish I was going to have the time to do that, but wiht remodeling and the other quilts Im having to get done its not a good idea to start anymore.

Im still taking care of my daughters Bearded dragon, wow he can eat, he chomps down grasshoppers like there candy, he also likes the sweet snap peas. Hes like a little kid and a candy shop with watermelon, he cant have much but he sits there sucking on it. You should see me out catching grasshoppers and yes they do bite. I take out a small aquarium and catch about 20 of them at a time I guess they dont mind to much becasue there still mating in the tank. I think these grasshoppers carry their eggs on there backs. its like a bright red round things. I guess ive never payed to much attention to them other then cursing them out when they eat my garden.

We are so thankful we have the A/C now the house is staying real nice even when its humid and hot out. Day seem to go so fast now days, I cant believe its almost half way threw July already.

We have to get the bedroom done before it turns cold and it may take us that long. We have the siding off out side on the norht side of the house with just tar paper covering the wood. Once we get the bedroom done then we need to start on the bathroom and im sure that is going to run into winter. The electrician will have to come out agian and rewire these room and the electric company is going to come out and give us a better service than what we have now. We are converting over to all electric and we have a generator we are going to tie into the system for when we loose power. Right now with the old wireing its hard to get a insurance company to insure us so Ill be glad to have that done.

Well im going to go do something ... not sure what it was now lol. i'll Write again sooon....

holiday and family

Its been a few days since last posting, hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th. My oldest daughter come for over night, it was nice to see her even tho her visits are so short. With working and all her reptiles and other animals, ie her rats and dwarf hampsters. She has hairless rats that are really on the cute side, Ive never been one to like to hold a rat ( would rather hold any other of the mammals ) but hers are really kinda neat to hold. She has assorted frogs and turtles, snakes and lizards. Also the 2 cats and birds I cant for get to mention. Its sorta like walking into a small zoo in her house. Samantha was the one that got Jessica into having her bearded dragon, which im taking care of for the next month. So im going to be catching grasshoppers and turning music on for Falcor, and hand feeding him this goo stuff that he loves. Jessica will be staying with Sam for the next month in the big city, she looks forward to this, going shopping and all those things that she misses living out in the country.

We shot off fireworks last night (the 4th) and had a great time, today we went out on one of the lakes with the boat, It was a bit warm but not to bad with the breeze on the water. We fished but didnt catch any keepers, it was just a nice layed back day out there.

We got our A/C on for the holiday !! They arnt totally done but at least we have it cooler in the house seeing the temps are suppost to be right at 100 degress this weekend.

I didnt get anything quilty done today or yesterday, just no time. I did pick up some crates things that stack for putting my fabs in, Im going to change how I have them so I dont have to dig threw drawers all the time. I probably keep my yardages in the drawers still tho.

I have no new pix to add, I forgot to take my camera with me today.... so didnt get the great shots of the little fish we did catch.

I did update Samantha's pix on the side here on her request.

Well im hoping to get something done tomarrow but I do have to clean house again from the guys being in and out of the house the last week. And of course I need catch grasshoppers and turn music on for Falcor. and oh yea stand the sweet corn back up after the storm the other night bent it over.

Out door life in summer....

Well this week I didnt get anything quilty done. We went Wed. to get the boat from Kansas City, that ended up to be a very long trip. It was poring rain the whole time there and for 100 miles west of the city. The boat is a Starcraft 1995 and the motor is a 1994. We got a really good deal for it or we wouldnt have driven 400 miles to pick it up. On Saturday we took it out to the lake to see how it ran (only ran it with the muffs on the motor out of water). We had a pretty good time, it was over cast and a bit cool when we got out there, we took advantage of that and tested alot of the things on the boat. We had a little trouble at one point but it jsut needed new spark plugs, and the motor once we changed them seemed to run fine. We need to work on the trim motor we couldnt get it to trim. So now we know for the next time what we need for out on the lake like suntan lotion or keep covered up like I did. Jessica and Sean both got toasted.

I went to a flea market type thing and found a ton load of fabric from one woman that had just gotten it from an auction, there is alots of vintage fabs and 99.% was really nice clean cotton. There is alot of bits and piecies but thats ok for scrapy quilts,There is even a panel of Charley brown. Be nice for a center for a quilt for the babys at the hospital project. Think I only spent 11.00 for a big box full. Also found some old quilt magazines that have alot of the patterns right in them and also the appy patterns to. Seems like alot of the magazines today have more advertizing in them then patterns, or you have to send away for them and pay. The older magazines have alot of really neat ideas. I left some laying on the bed and sugar the puppy started chewing on them, Bad Bad puppy!

We have had a repreave from the heat for the last week its been so nice specially at night. Im hoping the heat doesnt come into bad before the air is done. Samantha my oldest daughter will be coming for the 4th, and we will be firing off the fireworks we got from SD while up there.

I have also been working in the garden seems the weeds are growing faster than the plants I planted. I had my first stuff out of the garden swiss chard and I pulled an onion today, its still kinda small or a large scallion. I have set now the squashs, tomatoes, and the carrots are growing unlike last year they never did anything. Jessicas snap peas are blooming and I saw that one of the first watermelons I planted is blooming. I sit back looking at the garden and feel such accomplishment from it. After living in Az for 21 years, where you have to plant gardens in the winter and some times it gets to warm before everything is fully done, also the sand is so bad to grow in you have to do so much to the ground before growing anthing. Little by little im going to start planting some flowers in the garden more, there is enought room for a flower garden with the vegetables, and maybe some herbs.

Im so enjoying living in Nebaska again, being able to do the things here that you cant in Az because you die from the heat. And seeing all the wild life and flowers that grow wild here is so special I think. Its so nice to enjoy the small things in life, and feel content while doing it.

Sitting back and listening to the sounds of the country and haveing fresh air and a cool breeze in the evening is all well worth it. It so brings back the feelings of being a child on my grandparents farm, a much easyer slower way of life. Adventuring for hours, watching the bird or just laying in the grass watching the clouds putting names to shapes. My child hood was very special I think living 10 miles out of town and most time only have me to play with. Looking for lizards or frogs and even a snake everyonce in a while. Even as a child I was very close to nature and what was around me, Id go into the creek and pick wild violets for Grandma or just adventure up the road letting my imagination run wild. Id hang out in the crab apple tree and get a belly ache from eating so many, or go eat tomatoes or carrots right out of the garden. As a child I would never spend all day watching tv inside we barly had the tv on. It was only for special nights or sunday night to watch disney. I could watch cartoons some but I wasnt glued to the TV for hours, I was out side all the time in the spring and summer, away from the house for hours. Id swim in the cow tank when I got hot, or for special times my grandparents would take me to the public pool in town. We would always go to town on saturday night, Id go to a movie and they would talk with there friends that gathered on main street. We would also sell the eggs for the week to the market, my grandma made everything pretty much so we didnt shop in the market to much. Going to the big city once a month was a big event in my life, we'd get dressed up and go to Hastings, Grandma could get some sewing materials or what ever she need from Ben franklin, and Grandpa would get stuff for his tractors or what ever was needed. I spent hours with my grandpa at the grainerys in the summer, and id go out and help bring drinks to the combiners while they harvested. When I got older they would put me in the back of the grain truck and Id help push the grain around. I have so many special memories from living on the farm, I guess I was very luck to have such a wonderful child hood as I did. I so miss the child like feeling I had while living with my grandparents.

I just wish my daughters could have experenced the farm life and country life at a earlyer age.

Both like the city and city things. They both get bored out here finding nothing to do.

Well I think I'll go figure out where im going to put all this fabric I just got, I really need to do some thing quilty..........