optimism

If having a garden means believing in the promise of tomorrow, then having an orchard means believing in many, many tomorrows.

Specifically, this means I believe in August, when I will have the opportunity to swelter in my kitchen putting up quarts of peaches by the dozen.

Sunday Sampler - Just a Bit Late!

This week's block is just a little late thanks to the latest excitement at chez tarabu!  As a result of a failed water heater my basement (home to my sewing space) now looks like this: 

Fortnately it was only a few inches of water that only got sucked halfway across the room.  Also, quite fortunately, it wasn't raining that day and I was able to put all my bookshelves outside to dry while I tore up the carpet and pad.  In fact, other than my checkbook, the only realy damage was to my precious pin pot, who suffered a blow to the lid when I knocked her off the table trying to fidget my ruler out from under boxes of fabric that used to be on my bookshelves:

So this week's block is a variation of the In Alignment block from the current issue of Fons & Porter's 'Easy Quilts'.  You can find the original pattern here.  The large focal block is 8" finished and the smaller prints are 2" finished.  I like the look, but (and I cannot believe I'm thinking this), I am not sure if I like it for this project - not unless I add white to a lot of other blocks as well.

chez tarabu - baby it's HOT outside!

If you've not noticed, I live in a bit of a backwater.  We don't have sidewalks, but I do have peach trees and hens.  

We had a recorded high of 99F yesterday and about the same the day before, with heat indexes in the triple digits.  None of which was good news for my backyard flock:

In addition to some frozen watermelon ends and pineapple cores I had been saving for this, they also got large blocks of ice in their water bowls, ensuring they would have plenty of water throughout the hot day.  One of them was tucked in the shade of their chamomile forest:

Even broody Brigitte got a bottle of frozen water by her side to help keep her cool in the coop.  Honestly, I don't know why she cannot go Broody in March when she's not at risk for heatstroke with not eating or drinking much for weeks:

Farm report

I really should have kept up with the farm report this year - strawberries, asparagus, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries - and the first yellow squash of the season already!  Not much beats those first few berries, except if they are served with whipped cream, cinnamon and chocolate cake:

Of course I'll be singing a much different tune when I eat that first warm peach right off the tree!

Strawberry Season is upon us!

I've not posted the farm report this year - we stopped weighing strawberries at 70 pounds, so it woud not be at all accurate if I started again now.  This was about thirty pounds worth spread out on a 4.5' table:

Weather for the spring shows so far has been fabulous - and it looks like an awesome Father's Day Weekend for the Columbia Arts Festival Lakefest, as well.  If you've never been to Lakefest, it's great fun - and if you can time it to be there for a performance of the MarchFourth Band you won't regret it - I can't imagine anyone being disappointed with them!

Oh, yes, and I will have plenty of Calico Jack pirate quilts available!

Spring has sprung (and is almost done)!

I assure you these are not the gore-stained hands of a particularly tidy zombie who's just taken down another don - they are the hands of a woman who has just hulled twenty pounds of strawberries. The sidebar tally is not up this year - we gave up weighing after the first 130 pounds of strawberries harvested. By volume we're up to about 200. All I need to know is that I will be set with bright fresh strawberries from the freezer in February.


I've also spent a great deal of time getting yelled at every time I walk out the back door, by the momma robin who built her nest under my deck. I am quite possibly dying from the beady-eyed cuteness:

They are much more charming than the broody hen who's gone all bitchy and pecks at my arms everytime I try to steal her babies for my breakfast.

Also, my roses are in full bloom. I love my roses nearly as much as I love spring pea plants - possibly more, actually, since roses don't require harvesting.

And, lest you think they are tidy little tea-roses, here's the overgrown bush in all it's wild glory:

oh, where have I been?

Well, first I had to clean my kitchen and lay out the spongy floor squares. Yes, I have playmats. They are incredibly usefuly for all manner of applications and I think everyone should get a packet or three the next time you happen to wander in to the toddler/baby section of your local toystore. They are great for standing on for long periods and an excellent surface for doing yoga or other exercise, just attach three in a row and you're set




Then I had to peel two bushels of peaches and make spiced peach sauce. I mean, peaches are in season and I only have a few weeks in this heat to get the best out of them. That's right - two pressure canners going at once:

In just a few days my mother will have those cookers at her house putting up pasta sauce with some gorgeous roma tomatoes.

Bunnies!

A few weeks ago we moved the hens from their winter pen (high sun, near the house) to their summer pen (deep down in the fir trees) and just got around to taking down the old fence. There was a good bit of grass sprouted since the hens left, so my husband pulled out the lawn tractor and to hack it all down.

And ran over a nest of bunnies.

Fortunately, my husband has always been of the opinion that you cut the grass high, because if sun can't get down to the roots it can't germinate weeds as well and the high grass helps prevent moisture loss.

As we've learned this morning, it also protects itty bitty baby bunnies:

Look - they don't even have little puffy tails yet:


We tucked them into an older rabbit burrow under the shed, with some of their nest fur and grass. Assuming mum didn't get taken by a critter last night, she should find them in their new home:

oops!

I popped out to get the camera out of my purse and inadvertantly left open the door to the pit.

This is what I came back to:

Seriously, I was out of the room for two-minutes - tops!

Fortunately the quilt squares she's sitting on are going to a friend who has multiple cats. In fact when I asked if grey would be alright for the quilting, he answered that that would be fine as the primary colour in his home's decor was 'fur bunny'

I think she looks appropriately guilty about this, don't you?

deliciously poorly lit

wellies? check
early morning stomping in the dew? check
breakfast? check

This is what I've been doing

when I'm not quilting:

I'm picking and eating green things:

and when I'm standing in the field eating raw peas I think I'll put up with the weeds for the joy of eating organic vegetables with the dirt still on them.

Then there's this little guy - who I found in the yard this morning. He wasn't there this evening, so I'm hoping he found his way back up to the nest:
And for my sewing friends, I have to ask: When was the last time you cleaned your bobbinator? Well, if you don't remember (as I didn't), then it's been too damn long. Put down the mouse and go clean your machine's innards.

Because, honey, that's a fire hazard.

Strawberries!

I picked 10 pounds of strawberries this afternoon. From my garden.

Yes, I had another bucket, but this one was clear, which is why it got it's picture on the scale.

And yes, I am gloating.

Chez tarabu: Chick Pics

Last time we had a broody hen we got her a rooster and some fertilized eggs and damn if all three of them didn't turn out to be roosters!

So this time, when Brigitte went broody we called the hatchery and ordered up a bundle of chicks that are guaranteed to all be girls. Because chez tarabu does not want to be a home for cockfighting.

So here they are:
arriving from the post office:

being freed from the shipping carton:and trying to swim (yeah, they're supposed to be drinking that water):

and meeting my mother's Russian Blue, Myriah:

Shadow, who is part Russian Blue and part Maine Coon, didn't know what to think of this foolishness:

Unfortunately, Brigitte rejected them, two died the first night and they are now living in my kitchen.

Snowy weekend!

I accomplished nothing artistic last weekend, unless you consider my deft shoveling and snow-throwing to have achieved new heights of aesthetic greatness (which I do not).

We had, depending on which local authority you ask, 18-21 inches. Out here on our hill, it felt like the high end of that.

I didn't even manage to bake cookies, but there's always this evening!

chez tarabu update

They grow up so fast! Here's a look at the three hens Myrtle hatched a few months ago:

That first one's Junior, he's a rooster and he's got to go before he and his father discover the territorial drama of cockfighting. We figure we've got a few months - Foghorn seems a little more subdued now that the days are shorter, but the solstice is coming and the days are just going to get longer and more active soon.

puppy update

When I arrived home from work today I discovered the lad had ripped a whole in my fence and someone had taken down the 'Dog Found' sign nearest my house.

I can only hope that he heard his people hollering for him and when he came running they took down the sign.

I hate to think that someone took down the sign maliciously and that he's running around trying not to get hit by a car somewhere.

chez tarabu update

There's been some minor interest in the goings on at chez tarabu, so here's your update:
* I'm a lousy sidewalker - I netted nothing this week. I am slightly excused in that half the path on the way to work has been ripped out and has lovely new brickwork that has yet to be sullied by much debris.

* One of our new hens died. Did I tell you we got new hens? Possibly not, I've been busy. Well, we got five new hens and a rooster and one of the hens, who happened to be the rooster's special friend, died. We know she was alive at two in the afternoon and dead by seven in the evening, so she got buried instead of eaten.

The rooster's name is Foghorn (although he's not a leghorn breed) and the girls are Madeline, Brigitte, and two other French names I forget at the moment (they were named by their last family).

* My girlfriend's baby is due in six days and I'm just now starting her quilt. sigh

* I've signed up for five shows this fall and committed a quilt to a local school's anniversary raffle.

Evidence would suggest I am an idiot who does not know how to manage my time.