his and hers...

...weekends, that is!  Hubby just returned from a 4 day trip on the Appalachian Trail, I'm happy to report that he brought my camera back in one piece.  Here's some photos from his weekend:

hubby's on the left

 Below is the cabin they hiked in to, they hiked approximately 25 miles total.  Not exactly roughing it, but a nice perk - the members of the Appalachian Trail Club (ATC) that are responsible for trail maintenance are able to use these cabins owned by the ATC.  No running water or anything, but it has a cookstove and fireplace so it makes for a nice destination for a winter hike.  The house was built from materials scavenged around the area since there are no roads in - which means the heavy cookstove and cast iron cookware and primitive furniture was all hauled in over time by ATC members... pretty cool!

Fireplace inside cabin

the white blaze indicates the Appalachian Trail

Vista from Spy Rock, a little bleak this time of year!

Unshaven and unshowered, but he's all mine - I'm sure this beats the heck out of deployment to the Middle East any day.

he also came home with a few random video clips on my camera:

someone new to the cookstove thing...

feats of strength!

spring melt

What about me?  This was my weekend...

Friday started off great, my toes got to see the sun!

True to my word, I had a glass of wine outside with my new quilt/table topper, temps stayed very comfortable that night.

Saturday came and with it, the WIND!  I know lots of us are in the same boat with this, what - do we live on Neptune now?  Sustained winds at 45 mph meant the whole day was spent inside working on the quilt.  It almost looks like a real sewing diva lives here with all the tools strewn around-  looks are deceiving!  :)

Happy times with my new machine - spent all day Sunday too finishing the quilt.  Still windy...

 Finished quilt for my niece has been bagged up just in time and is on it's way to Minnesota right now.  With the big snowstorm they have had the past couple of days, I hope it brightens up her day with the spring colors.

And lest you think I am still running around in flip flops, don't worry - one last evening of grilling steaks outside and we are expecting snow/sleet tomorrow!  What is this crazy weather all about?  74º one day, 33º the next!

Flying solo again!

 Hubby left this afternoon... I had him doing all sorts of chores and even had him get a load of mulch in the trailer and park it next to the garden - and then I realized that he was leaving on a hiking trip, not deployment - so I basically had him do a months worth of chores to prepare me for 4 days of him being gone!  LOL, I don't know any other way...

The computer issue turned out to be an easy fix (macs rule!) I did myself, but it did finally light a fire under me to get my computer backed up.  I've finally purchased backup and have been running it for the past 2 days, should be another 2 days or so and the entire hard drive will be backed up.

 LOTS of stuff getting done the past couple of days.   Temps of 65º yesterday and 76º today has had me outside nonstop, and loving it, I couldn't tear myself away until now!  I did a good job of reminding myself it's only February and not sowing any flower seeds or anything, but I did get lots of planting done!  I checked my calendar, and I sowed peas last year on Feb 10th, it was much colder outside and we had a fantastic crop, so in they went.

Cleaned up all the beds in the small fenced in garden.  The only plants to survive the winter (other than leeks, scallions & garlic) were half of the spinach and the below:

Brussels Sprouts?  LOL, figures they would live through the whole winter... yuck!

Below, felt good to have my caddy along today armed with markers, shims for plant tags and SEEDS!

Below:  back right bed has Oregon Sugar Pod II snap peas, broccoli will go in the front of them when it's time, the back left bed only has brussels sprouts right now, front left bed has another trellis with Cascadia snap peas and carrot seeds, and front right bed contains parsley, scallions, Olympia spinach, Mizuna greens, Mignonette Bronze lettuce, Tango lettuce and mache'.

Signs of spring: pansies planted last fall are coming back to life in some of the beds - I usually plant rows of them between the varieties of onions and garlic.

I was worried that I planted my garlic too late (I did) and that the bulbs would rot before they had time to grow since they are usually about a foot tall going into winter, but here they come, behind the red and yellow pansies.  

Below, all of my artichoke seeds sprouted or are just peeking up, and only took a couple of days - much bettter luck than last year!

Below is hubby's light setup - I laughed when he brought it in and asked him if he thought I was growing  "another kind of plant" since he made the frame so TALL, LOL... good thing I had enough chain to lower the lights and a booster seat for the trays hahaha!  There's only one flat in there now but it will fit 4 flats in it - it's parked in the kids' room, there was nowhere else for it to go!

Here's hubby taking off this afternoon for the annual "Guys Only Winter Hike" on the Appalachian Trail.  The guys come from a 75 mile radius or so, they will all meet after work in Williamsburg and then head out the Blue Ridge Parkway until they get to the trail head and leave the car there and hike in at night tonight.  Although I love hiking, I'm not jealous - I want no part of this nonsense:  you should see what gets packed for the guys only trip!  Survivalist homemade pop can camp stoves, 10 different ways to "make fire", flasks of scotch, cigars, they are probably going to shoot and eat squirrels LOL... whatever... he even used my sewing machine to make himself an ultralight hammock to sleep in.  One of the last things he said was how this nice weather was going to put a damper on the fun hiking in the cold, wet, snowy trail - yes, he's happiest in "survival mode"!  I sent him with my camera so I expect some good photos when he gets back, that is if he doesn't turn it into some kind of snare trap or firestarter.  

Me?  I'm going to light a few candles on the back deck and enjoy a glass or two of wine and the lovely 60º evening we are in for!  I'm hoping for the energy to work on the quilt after the kids go to bed, but after the full work day I've had outside I'm not sure that will pan out!  I'm hoping to get some sweet pea seeds into the ground tomorrow...

just a little glitch...

...or a BIG glitch if you are a mac fan and are familiar with the "sad mac" face or the "chimes of doom".  I am having issues with my mac for the first time in 20 years and may be on borrowed time right now!  Just a quick note to say "I'm still alive and well"!


Very busy here this week, good weather for outside work such as pulling weeds, burning debris and getting the yard ready for spring.  The seedlings are coming along nicely, although still in their little cells for the time being.


Still quilting every chance I get as the one I'm working on has a birthday deadline of the end of February.  The computer issues have put my quilting in the back seat for the day however, the computer definitely takes priority!


I'll be spending the rest of the day backing up files and then tomorrow doing a reinstall that will hopefully fix the issue.  Mac's are known for being pretty user friendly to troubleshoot and repair, however I'm worried about backing up the thousands of photos I have before I do something stupid while reinstalling LOL, it's usually user error with these :)


Still keeping up with all your blogs on my hubby's little pathetic netbook, but I can't blog on it!  No photos today because I need to keep all the extra riff-raff/non essential cables off the computer.


Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

Weekend Forecast: Mud & Quilts!

Temps in the 50's today have all of our snow drip-dripping everywhere and creating lots of mud.  Good for the plants, not so good for working outside and kids running in and out of the house!  The warm temps did let hubby get out his tools and finish my light setup for my seedlings so I'll get around to getting the lights hooked up and hung to it later today.

terrible photo, but can you see the 2 artichokes peeking up?  Center & top right cell.

Below, over-engineered in typical man-fashion, it weighs a hundred pounds I bet, but when I connect the chains and lights it will work well.... but where the he(( am I going to put this contraption LOL?

This may be my last weekend to play with my sewing machine for more than an hour at a time since temps are expected to be in the 60's next weekend - so I'm taking full advantage of the mud outside now to get started on a quilt for a very important little girl in my life - any guesses as to who it is?  Here's a hint... she's the only little girl in our extended family, and her birthday is coming up very soon!

here's the colors I picked for the mod-tod(dler)-

Below, no - Loch hasn't taken up yoga - "Thing 1" has been playing chess like a pro lately and requested a "chess bag" so he could take his mad skillz on the road.  This is what I came up with, it is kind of like a yoga bag, I didn't use a pattern but I'm really happy with how it came out.  I used the skull fabric on the outside, a pale gray lining, and interfacing to stiffen up the bag and strap.  Drawstring cord with a toggle finished it up.  Took about 2-3 hours total probably, but I worked on it in 2 sessions yesterday so I wouldn't get too frustrated :)

Here's a close up of the fabric, I also used a flannel remnant to make a drawstring bag to hold his chess pieces, his chess board is one of those roll-up tournament size ones.  Some parts of the fabric could have stood to be a little more masculine, but I'm digging the skulls, flames and barbed wire.

Now I'm off to start cutting quilt fabrics.  The fun part was picking out the fabrics, and now is the stressful part, cutting the shapes out perfectly.  Then comes fun again when I can spend some time changing the pieces around until I'm happy with the design.  I'm sure I won't come up for air until Monday, so have a good weekend, y'all!

My quilting plans foiled again!

Woke up to this!  About 3-4 inches fell last night and early this morning.

I had plans to go to the quilt shop for some fabric after sending the kids off to school, but snow in Virginia Beach means.... school's cancelled!  My plans foiled yet again.

I had some other sewing I could have done, but with my 2 boys & their friend in the house itching to go outside and play, I resigned myself to the fact that my house was going to be a wet mess and decided to "live in the moment" as they say, and go outside with them.  One of the things I am trying to work on this year is not being so schedule/task oriented and to start trying to take things as they come and enjoy the little things, I know I've heard many times that when it's time to leave this life nobody ever says "I wish I'd had more time to pick up the house" LOL...

 Bonus:  when the boys have a friend over, they are actually much better behaved with no fighting, and happy kids = unstressed mom!  How cool is it that our new neighbor's son is in my son's kindergarden class and they are already good friends? - they'll have a nice time this summer being able to just head out the back door to play with a friend instead of me hovering over them in the front yard where I don't know all the neighborhood kids/or their parents.

 I think Loch needs E.G. to come visit and help him out with the structural engineering here!

Finn in the background showing his friend some winter footwear fun - I'm glad we forgot to leave these at mom's house over Christmas!

Meet Neptune, he's the neighbor dog - he fits in really well around here, now we have a whole "herd" of herding dogs!  I let them all inside this little house afterwards to have a biscuit and they were doing figure 8's with wet paws and snow filled nostrils and I was able to just laugh it off, see - I'm improving!

The thing I miss most about living up north: MUDROOMS - this is actually my bedroom!

Mama bought a round of hot chocolate, I think these guys will sleep well tonight, they played for hours!

Other news:  "Early Purple Sprouting" Broccoli wins the germination race!

Check out this trashy light setup - hubby hasn't been able to finish my "light thing" he's been constructing since he's working long hours and we don't have a garage so the weather has been holding him up.  But the seeds wait for no man... they needed lights this morning!  So I just rigged this in the meantime, luckily I only have this one flat right now, if it was tomato time I'd be in trouble.

Here's Loch just doing his Loch thing, I didn't ask LOL...  I walked by him and just said "hey Loch, why don't you go be a 7 year old for awhile?" he just scowled at me.   :)

The "official start" of seed season for us!

I realized with a bit of panic that since I kicked the LG front loader out of the house and bought a top loading washing machine, my old seed starting area was gone!  I used to get 4 flats on top of the washer & dryer and hung lights above it, it made for great warmth and vibrations too and was nicely out of the way.  I decided to repurpose the kids' computer desk that was on its way out of the house too.  It works for the one seed flat and heat mat for now, and I was going to suspend a light for the bottom rack too, but hubby has decided to build me "something".... yet to be determined LOL!  I told him I need it in a couple of days because these babies are going to need light as soon as they sprout!  Looks like this year will be a trashy setup that will be smack dab in the middle of my bedroom, but oh well, it's not like it's an option to not start seeds!

 

This is just round one, the "big deal" stuff will be started in a few more weeks. 

Sown today:

Purple of Romagna Artichoke

Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Piricicaba Broccoli

Olympia Spinach

Val d'Orges Lettuce

Mache' 

Tango Lettuce

Greed Salad Bowl Lettuce

Large Leaf Sweet Basil

Sweet Peas (just a few, most will be direct sown soon outdoors)

As I was cleaning out The Garden Binder of last year's plans, I came across these:

On the bottom are my plans, Loch's on the top left, Finn's on the top right.  I think I'll save theirs from year to year to look back on someday.  One thing's for sure, I didn't grow carrots as big as Finn obviously wanted!

I came across a good buy also - if any of you live near a Borders, all their calendars are now $1.00!  Even big planner type calendars.  I typically use the computer/phone calendar for my day to day stuff, but I always have a regular size one for the garden to mark up with planting and weather notes, and I need a separate one to keep track of Master Gardener volunteer hours.  Normally I don't care what's "on" these calendars, just that they're cheap, but I found some good ones!

Border Collies for the garden, naturally - a "Knitting" box calendar that serves no purpose other than it has over 100 laminated card knitting patterns for $1.00, and the last one was an odd find but perfect for me - it's a Minnesota weather journal/calendar complete with the local-back home Minneapolis/St. Paul news team on the back... wierd here in VA but will be nice for the volunteer hours log!

Found a poem in the kids' room...  I'm going to stop cleaning in there, it's getting wierd.  Loch has retreated into a world of chess, math & science.... sigh.... where did he get this gene from, certainly not his parents!

Speaking of which, we are to attend open house tonight for the "Math and Science Academy" school Loch has been recommended for next year, what should I wear, argyle or plaid?  LOL... oh and where did I leave that pocket protector and tape for my glasses...?

I've been in hiding the past 3 days...

Thanks to my wonderful hard working husband who worked 18 hour days in 120º heat in the Middle East for the better part of a year to earn some tax-free bucks, meet the newest member of our family:

 (lots of husbands come home and spend their money on big screen tv's, video games, etc... not mine - he's definitely a keeper!)

The IRS delivered the refund early (I'm still in shock over that), and I was able to bring her home on Friday!  I researched about 7 machines over the past month and finally settled on this one.  I will admit that I used my experience in sales to score quite a bargain on this and got some expensive accessories thrown in, too.  I'll probably write about the machine at a later date since I know how hard it is to have to search and search for reviews and recommendations.  I'll work with it for awhile so I can provide a more experienced review on it.  Right off the bat though, OMG I HAVE A MACHINE THAT WORKS!  I took a cue from Mama Pea's self-imposed quilting retreat and took the whole weekend to read manuals, play with all the features, and finish my very first quilt.


My binding wasn't wide enough but at least I know what to expect next time.  I also found I need to seriously work on an ergonomically correct table/chair for next time as my back and neck are very sore from quilting for 6 hours straight... but at least I got the "very first quilt" out of the way without any serious property damage or suffering any panic attacks LOL!


Below is the big reveal... it's a bit Marsha Brady (whom I love!) and I think will look fantastic on my patio table with a bottle of Pinot Grigio and a few glasses.... now if that sun would just come out already!

Close up of the "Marsha Brady"-ish floral print :)

 Here is the back side for the quilters out there.  Not very exciting, I know - a simple grid pattern.  I don't trust myself to stitch in the ditch quite yet.  My technique still resembles winter driving, it's more of a "slide into the ditch"... LOL

Below is what happens when hubby and kids decide to cook dinner so I can quilt.  Pizzas of course, but also Finn made pretzels and Loch made some cinnamon rolls with daddy's help :)  Nobody said things would be healthy when mama's busy, but it sure was delicious!  At least it wasn't Ramen Noodles.

Sadly, I have to put the new toy away for a few days while I take care of some garden-related things.  The mess in the attic (lights and heat mat, chains and ext cords) got hauled down and I can now start my first flat of seeds for 2011.

See - there's plenty of messy stuff in the house, it was just stuffed up in the attic!

Now I'm off to spend some quality time with a notepad and the garden binder/seed stash!  Tomorrow's the big day.