Time sure flies

 I’ve been MIA for a long time it seems.  

Do people blog and read blogs like they used to before things like Facebook came out?

I may have to learn this blogging all over again.  

Last year this owl laid three eggs in our unused grain bin.  It was fun checking on them now and again.  Momma owl did not like when we would check on them. 

Yolanda

I put a response to your comment in the actual post.  Can’t seem to figure out how to do it like you do.  Anyway, scroll down to see what I said.  Best wishes.

Moving the garden to the old chicken coop

We’ve been working on the old chicken run and coop as a new garden area.  I’m mostly planting in wicking buckets so the area will work well I think.  First we cleaned all the chicken structures and stumps and such out. Then Zammy cleaned out the coop and dismantled the nesting area and roost.  She then cleaned and swept it out and finally ended with a good vacuuming with the shop vac.  That girl is a lifesaver to us.  After Jeff sprayed all the weeds in the run and we let them die, Zammy laid down the landscape fabric.  Then Jeff sprayed for bugs and today we began moving the wicking buckets. I tied up the few tomatoes we have and one pepper that was tall.

There is a lot of room for plenty of plants and wicking buckets there.  I’ll be using mostly the lick tubs my brother in law saves for me from his cattle, but for this year I had to get something planted so I used buckets.  I knew even they would be heavy to move and after actually moving them, whew, I’m glad we did use them.  I’ll be transitioning to the big tubs later on.

I’m not sure why all my photos loaded sideways and I don’t know how to fix them. It’s probably because of the way I oriented my camera when I took the pictures.
Anyway, hope you can get the idea of the work Zammy is doing.

Wicking bucket garden

This is the third year I’ve used wicking buckets. I usually use the lick tubs from ranchers but as I will be moving all my garden I thought using the five gallon buckets would be easier. When we get the area I want for our permanent wicking bucket garden ready, I will begin using the lick tubs too.

This morning I planted the last five of the 26 buckets I have planted so far.  Making the buckets is the most time consuming part.  It’s not hard, just takes time.

For some reason the finished bucket photos won’t load just yet.  I’ll come back and load them when it decides to load.  These pictures show how I make the wicking buckets.  I used smaller buckets for some and empty creamer bottles and milk jugs my mom saved.  And some I used number ten cans. If you want to see the expert on wicking buckets, look up Leon Sloan from Oklahoma on YouTube.  That is one smart man.

Until next time.

First box ready for Operation Christmas Child

Mom and I sorted through all the purses and headbands we’ve been making and filled a large packing box with items to take to the local OCC place to be ready when they fill the boxes. We wanted to see where we stood on the items we had been making. We didn’t count but I think there were about 75 little purses.  We put a hair band or a piece of jewelry in each purse. We also had several wash cloths and soap sacks.  And a few miscellaneous items.

I think we will be sewing backpacks for OCC next.

Response to my friend Yolanda.  I wonder if you can put something on Facebook or call churches who participate in OCC and ask Them Who the local board members are?  They should be able to help you find any groups who pack boxes.  I hope you find someone.  The local lady actually found me after I donated a bunch of stuff to some local charities and someone took some of the items to her.  She hunted me down and asked if I was interested in helping.  It’s what I like to do. Make a bunch of this or that.  Let me know how it works out.

I bought a new serger

The baby lock celebrate serger was on sale at a great price so I ordered it. It’s wonderful and worth every dollar.  I can make masks so fast on it.  It’s one of those air threaders.  I can thread it so quickly. My old one doesn’t make near as pretty stitches and takes me a long time to thread. I am very pleased with it.

I’m trying to arrange to get some mulch for our garden.  I need to go pick up a bunch of those lick tubs from my brother in law too.  We will be planting most of our garden in them.

Sorry today’s post is so short.
Until next time.

Life at home

Life at home now isn’t much different then before the stay at home order.  I’ve never liked shopping and was delighted when Walmart started the grocery pickup feature.  I began to use it regularly, so when they advised to social distance it was no transition at all for that. The only store I went inside of was the dollar tree. They offer online shopping too but you have to buy large quantities of the same items, so it didn’t work for me. 

What changed is that for some reason I’ve found more time to write here, on my blog.  I’ve sort of changed the essence to more of a journal type of writing.  So I can look back and remember things. 

Yesterday mom helped me sew about 37 ladies masks for donation. Today I will sew about that many men’s masks. I also want to try a new pattern.  I’ve changed up how I’m making masks several times.  The way I’m sewing them now I can do the entire thing on my serger so it makes them very quick to make. I made a new video and posted it on my YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/8C0dmA9SVW0


Jeff planted two rhubarb crowns the other day. I sure hope they take off because we love rhubarb. The tomatoes I started from seed look pretty sick.  We will see. I may have to try again.  The squash look good though and getting their true leaves which is a good sign.

I’m ready to sew something besides masks.  Mom and I had been crocheting little purses and making headbands before all this started for Operation Christmas Child and I’m ready to get back to that.  I’d like to sew some shorts, skirts and peasant dresses to donate.  

Oh, I found a great source for fabric that is quite reasonable.  Marshall Dry Goods in Arkansas. I bought four bolts of fabric and with shipping it averaged about $2.75 a yard. This is a great price.  They sell quilting bundles too at very reasonable prices, like $1.95 a yard.  Those are six yard lengths.  They also sell by the yard for less than $5.00 a yard. 
I bought 3 bolts of prints with 15 yards each and one of muslin with 25 yards. The fabric is quality and I will be ordering from them again.

  I now need to find a supplier for thread. Both serger and sewing thread.

Well it’s time to get ready for my day. Mom will be over soon to sew so I’d better get around.  Mom lives next door on the farm so yes, we are always together and yes we all practice social distancing when we go anywhere besides here.  

Until next time. 💜

Seeds are unnecessary?

I saw that some states are roping off what they deem as nonessential items. Clothes, boots and seeds and plants.

They say if you want to control the people, control the food.  We all need to plant a victory garden, even if it’s just a pot of lettuce by a window.  Take some control of you life.  We love to garden and can so life is as usual for us.  I do hope that if I can’t get my tomatoes to do well that I can buy starts. One year I kept dividing my tomatoes until I had almost a hundred plants. It was a good harvest that year.  I hope we have a good harvest again this year.

Are you planting a garden this year?

Take care.
Until next time.

Busy making masks

I’ve been busy lately making masks. So far I’ve made about 125 or so.  I started out just making them for my family and friends. Then my cousin wanted some for the nursing home where she works and so on.  I am not able to sit and sew for hours on end so I make as many as I can.
I don’t think that I have mentioned that I have a YouTube channel.  If you would like to check it out it’s under DebbieO. I’ll see if I can put a link here.
https://youtu.be/w9PFZ8Y30tw

I cut her hair

Mom said she wished that she had gotten a hair cut before all this happened so....I cut her hair. It’s been a while since I cut a woman’s short hair. Mom was a beautician and taught beauty school back in the day.  She would always have me cut and perm her hair and then she would give me a grade. I never asked for a grade, I didn’t want to cut hair.  Anyway, she lives on the same driveway on the farm as we do so she went home and washed her hair.  She just called and told me that the cut looks good.  Whew.
I wanted it to look nice but not so nice that she will quit going to her beauty shop.😀

Also today I made up a 3/4 gallon of thieves oil and bottled up several one ounce bottles and some two ounce bottles. I’ve been making this for many years. It keeps us healthy.

After lunch Jeff and I went out and planted the last seven elderberry roots.  I hope they take off. I would like to get more berries and fruit trees very soon.  The sooner the better.  They take a couple years at least to give fruit.

Tomorrow I will start the tomatoes and pepper seeds. I hope I figured the dates right. If not I’ll have to buy plants.  We will see.  The lettuce I planted in a pot on the porch has yet to sprout.  I hope the seeds I just bought are good ones.  Once it starts growing I will plant another pot of lettuce and spinach so we can have salads for a while.

I’m looking forward to getting our raised beds built and the a hoop house put over them. It will only be about 9X12. I have several windows I’d like to make into cold frames as well.

I hope you are all safe and healthy.
Until next time.❤️

Planting elderberry bare roots

Yesterday, Jeff and I planted ten elderberry bare roots that were given to us. We have seven more to plant but pooped out before we finished. I put the last seven in a wet paper towel in a baggie. I did not close the baggie. I think tomorrow the weather will be good enough that we can plant the rest of them.

Today I made a few masks. I keep making mistakes. I don’t seem to have the mindset for making these masks. I love to sew, so it’s odd that it’s been like this. Here are a few that I made today.

What are you doing to fill your time at home?

Until next time. 

Well that was easy...except for the mistake

Picking up the grocery order was somewhat easy except, they said that they substituted the pork rinds and asked if that was okay.  I said yes as long as they are plain and not flavored.  The guy said okay and then loaded the groceries into the car.  When we got home and we’re sanitizing the items before bringing them into the house, I discovered the silly pork rinds are bbq.  Shoot. I grind them up in my Tupperware power chef and make bread crumbs for meatloaf and such.   I don’t think the bbq ones will taste as good, maybe I can put bbq sauce as a topping and make them work. We are trying to eta low carb and the pork rinds can take the place of oatmeal or crackers in meatloaf.  I guess I’ll give it a try.

Today I’m meeting a lady who is giving me some elderberry starts.  I’m going to give her a wash cloth and scrubbie in exchange because she doesn’t want anything for the starts.  

I think I’ll also start cutting out the fabric for back packs for the OCC Operation Christmas Child Boxes today.  It’s a good way to use my fabric stash.  I love having a cause to create and craft for.

It’s supposed to get up to 51 degrees today but it’s windy so it will seem colder.  We enjoy having actual seasons in Kansas as opposed to hot and hotter in south Texas. I know many love that but I do enjoy having changing weather. Maybe because I grew up here.

It’s also nice living up the driveway from my mom.  We live on her farm. She comes over every day for lunch and then we have prayer, bible study, hymn study and then I read from a book.  We are reading about Theodore Roosevelt right now.  I’m very thankful that I have quite a few books to choose from.

Well, I’ll close for now.  I pray that you are all taking precautions, staying home as much as possible, not going to visit others and washing your hands.

Until next time...

Grocery pickup and crafts

After trying to place an order for eight to ten days I was able to put one in at Dillons. I’ve never used the Dillons pick up so I will learn how it’s done this morning. We still have food but there were a few little items we wanted.

I was contacted a while back by a board member of our local Operation Christmas Child boxes program. I decided to help by making items to put in the boxes. It’s been a great way to use my creativity during these days when it’s too cold to go outside and the evenings. Mom has joined me in making little purses too. So far we have made the little purses, hair bands with flowers, a few soap sacks and ponytail scrunchies. I’ll try to keep track so when we turn it all in we can have an idea of what all we have made. Just for e fun of knowing that.   Here are a few pictures of some of the items so far.

Finally found one I like

After several trial and errors I think I have finally hit on the pattern for a face mask that I like. I made it partially with the server and partially with my sewing machine. I’m not making these for anyone except my own family.
I wanted one that didn’t use elastic and I like this because it only has one continent tie so it’s easy to put on and adjust.
I know these won’t prevent the virus but they might help me not to touch my face when I’m forced to go out and not able to wash my hands.
Today I sanitized all the door knobs and light switches as well as the toilet flush lever.  
I hope you are all safe and staying home and away from people. May God bless and keep all of you.

Makin hankies

Since we are social distancing and the tissues are running low, as I said previous I made up some flannel hankie. I’m still deciding if I like flannel or if I’d rather have cotton. These are flannel in the picture. The purple ones are single layered and the light blue are double. I think I’m going to like the single layer. I can get more out of my flannel by using one layer and I’m also going to be using several a day so there is no need to have double. My grandpa carried one and used it over and over all day. I don’t think I need to do that. Plus his were about twice as big as the ones I made. I felt I didn’t need so large of ones if I was going to use several a day.