Quilting Bug

Going to the county fair in Fairview, ND and then my hometown county fair last week I'm afraid I picked up a bug.  After looking at all the wonderful quilts that were entered in these fairs I've been chomping at the bit to get back into quilting.  I guess it all started when I worked on this little block from a previous post.

When we got back from Prairie Cairn Cottage North, I got out some shop hop blocks I'd purchased years ago and put one together.  After that was done, I contemplated working on another when I spied a quilt I had started a long time ago.  I had taken a few classes back then and felt the confidence all new crafters experience so thought I would make my Ever So Handy Husband a quilt.  I got the blocks put together and sewn into vertical rows.  The first two rows I joined didn't go together as easily as I had anticipated and I got intimidated by the project.  It naturally got pushed aside for something more in line with my experience. 

Fast forward to the present, I couldn't remember how far I had gotten on this quilt or how bad it looked.  I pulled it out and placed it on my bed; it didn't look as bad as I had thought. 

I have much more experience now than I did back then and have made two bed size quilts (sorry for the out of focus picture).

I've decided to go ahead and finish my old UFO.  I hope to get it done before the end of the month or at least by the end of September.  It's an odd size so I'm adding some extra borders to it to make it fit one of the beds at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  Stay tuned for updates.

   



Blackberry Pie

When I was a little girl, we'd spend summer vacations at my Grandparents ranch in Southern Arkansas.  There would usually be a family reunion of sorts during those hot days and always cousins around to play or do chores with.  One of our very favorite chores was to go down by the creek, each of us with pails, and pick wild blackberries.  We'd pick one for the pail and one or two (or more) for us.  By the time we'd get our pails full our faces, hands and shirts were stained purple and we'd all be itching from the pricks we'd received from the blackberry thorns.

We would proudly take our pails and show our mothers our hard work.  They would then turn the buckets over to my Gammer who would magically transform those delicious berries into a more delicious cobbler.  Gammer's blackberry cobblers were the stuff of legend in my family.  Though I haven't tasted one of Gammer's blackberry cobblers in probably 25 years, they still rank as my favorite dessert.  Many have tried to duplicate the cobbler but sadly, all have failed.  I think the magic of her cobbler was a combination of Arkansas wild blackberries picked at the peak of ripeness and the love that only Grandmothers can put in their creations.

My pie in the pictures above was a tribute to my Gammer and those lazy summers of my youth. 

Note to self:  We must plant blackberry bushes at Prairie Cairn Cottage!  This pie was delicious!  Even Little Black Brindle thought so.   

Home Ground Beef

I know a lot of you are already doing this, but I finally jumped on the bandwagon of grinding my own hamburger when I picked up a package of pre-ground at the big box retailer and read the label.  Vague terms like "all natural ingredients" were predominantly posted on the label.  Then I saw that it was packaged in S. D. and that triggered a memory of a former big named politician from S. D. doing a tour of one of the plants that made "pink slime".  Even though this big box retailer stated that it doesn't sell hamburger that contains "pink slime", I quickly put that package back on the shelf and walked towards the roasts.  I picked up a chuck roast with some nice fat on it and put that in my grocery cart (or buggy as my Momma called them-but that's a topic for a whole different post).

I sliced the roast into small chunks, fed the chunks through the food grinder attachment of my Kitchen Aid Mixer and voila!  Home ground beef.  I had enough for two good size burgers and another pound went into the freezer for a future meal. 

 The color alone of the home ground beef made me a believer!  It was rosy and fresh looking, unlike some commercial packaged beef which can be almost brown in the middle.  I fired up the gas grill outside and cooked the two burgers.  Divine!  It actually tasted of beef.  I don't know what they use in the pre-packaged chuck hamburger, but it sure never tastes this good! 

If you haven't done this little experiment for yourself I urge you to do so.  It may be more expensive but knowing what is in my hamburger, how fresh it was when it was ground and how good it tastes makes it worth the extra cost in my opinion.  Little Black Brindle gave it two paws up!

Near Disaster!

My poor hens!  I stayed at work late on Monday and when I got home I didn't go check on the chicks like I normally do, I instead went and fixed dinner for the inside crowd.  After dinner and relaxing in front of the telly for a bit, Little Black Brindle and I went outside to check the girls.  We came upon this sad picture:

Yes, that is their coop blown over!  I've had the roof blow open before but never had the entire coop blow over.  This is the bottom and as you can see the floor of both the coop and the next box collapsed.  The wailing and keening of the hens was too much, "Our poor house!"  "Where are we going to sleep tonight?"  "What shall we do?"  "Who will help us?"  The poor dears were traumatized.  I don't know if they were inside when it blew over but they seemed to be all right physically.

I went straight to work pulling out the pieces of flooring and perches.  Emptying the used shavings, righting the structure.  All looked salvageable.  The worst damage was the roof itself.  The hinges were all torn and unusable but the roof was in one piece and sat on the building fine.  Some of the siding had broken towards the roof where the hinges attached but for now it's called ventilation. 

As I worked the hens perched on the walls surveying the damage.  The keening and wailing continued.  I finally got everything back in place and put some fresh shavings inside.  The poor dears had cried themselves to sleep perched on the walls so I gently lifted them into the coop.  They were confused and disoriented at first put finally crawled into the nest box with some whimpers.  I put the roof back on top and then put some concrete bricks on top of the roof to keep this from happening again. 

The next day, they were still whimpering and in shock but seemed to have spent a good night in their damaged coop.  Today when I checked on them they were back to their old friendly selves.

Thank goodness they were not hurt!  And thank goodness I was able to salvage their home.  This just reminds me that this was only meant for a temporary home for the girls.  In this coop, there is no way they will be able to withstand the rigors of the winter on our part of the Prairie and summer will soon be over.  Looks to me like it's time to do something about their permanent home.  Stay tuned for construction updates.  

Home Again, Home Again

We got back to Prairie Cairn Cottage late Friday.  Everything was ship shape thanks to our caregivers.  I went to see the chicks and I do believe they were happy to hear my voice again.  Or could it be that they are just friendly birds?  I'll go with them happy to see me!  Little Black Brindle was ecstatic to be back on his home turf!  He ran around and checked on everything.

We did bring home a new addition to the Cottage.  When we first arrived at Prairie Cairn North, I opened the garage door to the house and there was this little creature.  Don't know how it got in the garage or how it survived but I released it that same night.  I think the poor thing was abandoned or lost as it never left, just kept coming back.  Finally on Saturday we went and bought necessities. 

We spent 2 weeks looking for the owner.  No one claimed it, no lost ad, no posters.  So, it looks like we belong to a cat once again.  We brought Tabby back to Prairie Cairn Cottage and so far so good.  

It's good to be home, even when it's a new home for some. 

Fair Time

We went to the Richland County Fair tonight.  What a fun little outing.  We got to see 4H horses, cows, poultry and swine.  They were showing the rabbits so we stopped and watched a couple of the entrants.  The exhibits showed that there are some very talented young people in this county.  There were handmade quilts galore and aprons and dresses; jars of preserves, loaves of breads and fat round cookies; scrapbook pages and other paper art, pictures of friends, family, pets and wildlife. 

I love county fairs.  I always felt deprived because my family never went to fairs when I was young and when I finally could take myself as an adult, the county we lived in tore down the fairgrounds and didn't rebuild them for many years.  When they did finally rebuild they built a horse race track but never brought back the fair.

Do you have fair memories?  I'd love to hear how many of you have ribbons won at your local fair.   

Still at Prairie Cairn Cottage North

Little Black Brindle and I were supposed to head back to Prairie Cairn Cottage last Friday but as frequently happens in business, schedules got changed which pushed our trip back by a week.  Darn, I'm forced to endure more of my working vacation!  Lucky for me, our chick caretakers agreed to another week of duties. 

In between working, we've been able to play tourist.  We've been shopping (and buying) in downtown Williston, toured the historic fur trading post financed by John Jacob Astor, walked across the Fairview Lift Bridge and the only tunnel in North Dakota, drove through parts of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the Little Missouri National Grasslands.  Tomorrow or Thursday I hope to catch a bit of the county fair and see some of the exhibits.

There are a lot of things to see and do in this part of the country.  I hope I'll be able to squeeze a few more sight seeing trips in before we head back to the original Prairie Cairn Cottage.