I Only Have Eyes For You

I posted this picture in 2017. This is the Mister's mother and stepdad. They were married in 1986. This was the second marriage for both of them, having lost their respective spouses to cancer. 

Elizabeth Scott Pride

Nathaniel Tru Bartholomaei

On the occasion of their 31st anniversary.

Nat and Betty used to 'travel' in the same social group. They knew each other from various get-togethers. When the Mister's dad was hospitalized, Nat began helping Betty with the 'man' things around the house., arranged for oil changes and new tires for her car, as well as basic house needs.   

What was very special for us is that he came to visit, when he planned to ask the Mister's mother for her hand in marriage. He shared his financial information with the Mister's mom, and brought us a gift with the following message: 

I use this plate on special occasions and always think of Nat and how he contributed to our family. 

We have lost both Nat and Betty, but know they are in a better place.

My life is richer for having known both of them.

Horse Face

I couldn't resist stopping to take pictures of this Percheron as he was being harnessed.

I apologize about the quality of the pictures, he was in the shade of the barn and I was outside.

He made the funniest faces! 

 

Grandview Invitational

We wandered over to Ocala, the horse capital of the world, to attend the Grand View Invitational draft horse show. Teams of horses came from as far away as Prince George, British Columbia. We had a good time, first wandering around the barns and then heading into the arena to watch the various classes. 

This is a Clydesdale from Grandview Clydesdales. We met him when we went on the Christmas tour of the farm. He is the largest Clydesdale at their farm and is only five years old. 

There was only one Clydesdale farm at the show. The show is run by this farm at the Florida Horse Park.

Later in the month they will have another show called, "Grandview Nights".

Although this was a driving show, one farm demonstrated Percherons under saddle, both Western and English. They also wowed the crowd with a Roman riding demonstration.

 

I loved this stables' colors, especially on the black horses. 

All of the horses' manes are braided and have 7 'flights', 

colorful decorations that stand up above the mane.

This is how they make the hooves so shiny! 

The shoes are larger than the hooves, and the hoof flares out to the sides of the shoe.

This is done to spread the weight of the horse over a greater area. 

Only the Percherons and Belgians have their hooves 'dressed'. 

The hooves of the Clydesdales are covered in long hair called 'feathers'. 

There were three different teams of Belgians. 

The first class was Percheron Ladies Cart.

There were two heats of three carts in each heat. 

Then came the Clydesdale Team class. The horse closest to us is the one pictured earlier.

The 'Unicorn' hitch is special. Evidently the third horse adds some speed and agility, 

but it is harder to handle a single horse out front. 

Here is one of the 6-horse teams.

Twenty-four hooves from high-stepping horses creates quite the 

cacophony of sound when the teams trot by.

There were three heats of 3 teams each to give the horses more room in the arena. 

At the end of all of the heats, all of the teams line up in the arena. 

54 horses

9 carts

all lined up for the presentation of awards.

 

Snowflakes

My cold weather 'barn quilt' is on display. 

The wind blew it down a few days ago.

I wonder....if I replace it with my 'spring' barn quilt, 

will the weather turn warm?

We did see some Robins passing through. 

They certainly didn't get a good weather predication for traveling! 

After the barn quilt blew down, I brought it into the house.

Our irrigation system had run, 

and got it wet.

I think the system was trying to improve on my work.

Do you see it?

Here's a close up:

The minerals in the water left tiny white spots on the blue background,

making it look like it's a snowy night.

I think it is vastly improved!

Speaking of snowflakes....we have heard a few rumblings 

that we may get some flurries over the weekend. Oh, my! 

In a Bind

I finished quilting this project around Thanksgiving. Actually, I finished telling the computer on the long arm machine how and where I wanted it quilted!  I am beginning to feel a bit more proficient in communicating my desires to the machine. 

Next step...binding. 

For the uninitiated, when you quilt the project by sewing a backing, batting (some folks call it 'wadding') and the quilted top (some folks call in a 'flimsy') together, the edges need be trimmed and bound together. 

My quilt is draped around 'Shirley', my roll of batting. It needs to be trimmed before I can bind it. 

The next step is to cut strips of fabric, often 2 1/2" in width and sew them together. To eliminate bulk the strips are sewn together at a 45 degree angle. 

When binding a quilt I press the long strip in half, sew the raw edges of the binding along the raw edges of the quilt, and then bring the folded edge up and over the quilt edge and secure it, by hand or machine.

My binding for this quilt was about 200" in length. I have adopted this technique to make that process of ironing it a bit faster. I use my silicone iron mat as a work surface. You might notice that Vickie decided to reshape the silicone mat! It still works for my purpose. (you can also use your ironing surface without a mat - but it might get scorched)

I fold a bit of the strip in half, and using a long pin I make channel slightly larger than the folded strip for to guide the strip across the ironing surface. I do this on each side of the mat. 

The hot iron is placed on the pad, covering the folded strip and I simply pull the strip from one side to the other, feeding the fabric into the pin channel on the right and pulling it out on the left. 

The result: A nicely folded and pressed strip of fabric that can then be used to bind the quilt. 

I can't take any credit for this nifty and quick way of pressing fabric strips. I saw it on the Internet  a few different times. Someone was ingenious! 

 

Raking Leaves

Raking leaves, and discovering a lawn obscured underneath is always satisfying.  One can see the results of their labor because of the dramatic change. But I also remember the aching muscles....and the blisters. They are definitely not fun. 

We live on a sandy ridge just east of the gulf coast in central Florida. We fell in love with this piece of property partly because of the nice mix of pasture/grass land and trees. 

Most of our trees are Sand Live Oak and Turkey Oak, Slash Pine and Sand Pine. The pines are evergreen. The live oaks keep their leaves all year and in the spring drop most of their small, hard leaves as new leaves emerge. The Turkey Oaks drop their leaves in the fall, after a less than glorious display of color. These leaves are the large, lobed leaves one thinks of when you think "oak". We have oak leaf puddles under each of the trees.  The leaves really need to be removed so that whatever skimpy grass we have there has a wee chance of surviving! 

A few days ago I thought that I should rake them up. But no, I'm not going to blister my hands raking the darn things! I turned to a bit more modern technology....based on old standbys! 

Do you remember these? My parents might have had one....in the 60's. I vaguely remember my mom pushing one around our yard. 

But, the Mister found one to pull behind a riding mower. 

So, off I went trying to drive the zero-turn radius lawn mower, pulling the leaf rake....it wasn't pretty! I rarely use the mower as the Mister delights in cutting the grass and pastures. I sometimes find it difficult to negotiate turns, and find my self wildly swinging left-right-left for a bit before I get straightened out and proceeding smoothly in a straight line. Were there any police in our yard I would certainly be pulled over for drunk driving! A few shrubs have fallen victim to my poor driving skills!

However, I do have a buddy who likes to go with me and keep watch. When the mower starts, 

Kaitlyn trots up and asks to hop up on the deck of the mower. If I do have a wobble, she turns and gives me a dirty look! 

We had a low spot in the pasture where I dumped the leaves.

Miss Kaitlyn had to hop off to check the area out! 

At some point in time, these leaves will provide a smidgen of organic matter to our sandy soil as they break down - assuming they don't blow away in the interim!

Keeping it Green

The Mister hates seeing some of our plants turn black and die when we have cold weather. He decided that we needed a greenhouse. Cobbling together a frame of scrap wood and covering it with plastic was not what he had in mind! After looking around online he found a kit that was on sale, and could be shipped directly to his Home Depot. (He visits often enough that my friend has suggested he simply take a job there!)

 

The Mister began putting the pieces together in the skeleton of what will be his workshop. 

The greenhouse can sit on blocks on the ground, 

or a frame can be made and a floor put in. 

You can see what his choice was!

The planks he used were some of the ones purchased to reinforce the fences....

Yay! I don't have to paint them! 

The Mister figured out that by placing the boards diagonally he would 

have less wastage and could use fewer boards.

At this point I was called in as a reinforcement. 

We carried the finished sides and ends out from the workshop,

and connected them, per the instructions.

Plastic panels slid into grooves in the wood...most of the time!

Some of the grooves needed a little redesign by way of a sharp tool.

It is almost finished. The Mister attached the vent panel.

Ta da!

It has a door that opens and closes.

The strangest thing??? Whenever I go near the greenhouse all I can think of is hamsters!

The frame is made of cedar, with a strong scent of cedar shavings. 

All I can think of is hamster cages we had in the past!

And yes! I am basically proficient using most of the Mister's tools. 

I had a very handy mom, who made certain we all knew which end of a hammer to use! 

She and my dad built their home when I was in utero! 

Maybe that's where my skills came from!