Mud on the Mountain

 Praying for rain is a daily occurance in our lives. When you ranch in the desert, where annual rainfall averages 11", rain is measured in drops. 

We've had 2 really nice years, with lovely rainfall, mild winters and lengthy autumns...and we got spoiled.

This year, we had a good spring and then not a drop of rain from May 27th until September 16th. We kept hearing about a Super El Nino. We scanned the brillant blue skies, every day, for any sign of it.

Patience grasshopper. Your prayers have been answered.

7.5" in 10 days! 

Not a lot of growing season left, but enough.

 This country bounces back quickly and the grass here is nutritionally strong. 

The sound of the water rushing through the canyons on both sides of us was music to our ears as we tended to chores Thursday evening.

The spring that comes into our property stopped flowing so we went up to the spring box to problem solve. 

The end of the pipe came up out of the spring and DH welded some pipe as weights to hold it down

Part of it pulled apart in another spot, but DH is good at engineering solutions

And we're back in business

It's such a pretty spot to spend a morning

Skeet concurs

From Saturday to Saturday

Another week keeping me out of the sewing room and out of trouble. 😉

 Saturday the 12th: Our son and DH put in another day working on fence

So I spent a fun-filled day with our grand-daughter

I was wiped out, but I'm so grateful we get to build such precious memories together

Sunday: Many hours in the kitchen. 10+. I didn't make breakfast, but started in on apples by 7. Streamed church services as I peeled apples and made and canned another 9 pints of applesauce.

And another batch of apple cookies...the kids each get a gallon bag, plus one for us and a quart bag for grandpa.

I made a quick dinner at noon of chicken cordon bleu (frozen from Sam's), perogies, and a bean salad. Too busy to really cook. Then I made Chicken Salsa Verde Pasta, a salad, and mixed up cookie dough for Monday. I turned out the kitchen light at 9:57.

Monday: Left the house at 6 to pick up our granddaughter and eat breakfast with her at school for Grandparents Day. It's just shy of an hour to get there.

Scooted over to my in-laws to pay the housekeeper (we started paying to have someone come in 1-2X a month) and I did some extra cleaning, laundry, made cookies, and served them the dinner I made on Sunday.

Came home and helped DH add a second box to our hives

Excited to see frames filling with honey!

Tuesday: DH spent most of the morning loading and unloading pipe.

While I cleaned floors, windows, did laundry and planned a menu for a Friday birthday, plus extra company.

Wednesday: Fencing again. Leftovers for dinner and I made dough for cinnamon rolls. DH's BIL arrived and stayed the night. Quesadillas for supper. But I finished my S'mores Quilt. Yay! A little bit of binding is all I seem to have time for lately. This one took me a month to bind.

The most popular room at our home. 60 degrees with rain showers makes it even better.

Celebrating 2.0" of rain (just 0.6 when I took this shot)

We got caught at the barn. Rain on a tin roof is one of my favorite things.

Thursday: DH had an appointment in a town 2 1/2 hours away so that fills up a day quickly. We stopped at the farm store for feed, Sam's for a handfull of groceries and grabbed a larger pick-up order at the grocery store before heading home. We had to dodge raindrops as we had a load of feed on the back.

My BIL stayed another night and the boys visited over pizza that night while I made Texas Caviar and Almond Joy Cake

Friday: Breakfast on the deck is the best way to begin the day

Planned on having everyone over to celebrate my MIL's birthday, but my FIL called me and said they weren't coming. My MIL didn't want to so DH called his dad and asked if we could bring stuff and cook steaks over there. So change of plans. I baked the potatoes before we left so we wouldn't be there too long as we try not to upset my MIL, but I baked the corn casserole there. I take all my own pans as she doesn't like for us to use her things, but that's a simple thing. 

They'll talk about the grass in the pasture and the storm that blew in in 1945, but they will avoid hard conversations at all costs. Alas, those are now needed, but not today. Let's put that aside - we have a birthday (88) to celebrate! 

I love how these two 

engaged with each other

Saturday: DH drove in to a horse sale. I was running on empty and begged for a day to recharge. May need more than one. This is a good place to start.😉

S'mores Quilt Finish

 This project started back in 2013 when I saw this quilt 

in this magazine.

I made 1 block immediately 

And then started pulling fabrics

Then, for whatever reason, it always ended up getting pushed aside, but I loved making the blocks whenever I would drag it back out. I enjoyed making them so much that I made more than the pattern called for so my quilt is bigger.

It was fun to use up scraps

Then I stalled out when it came time to choose fabric for the sashing. Nothing felt right. I don't have a lot of options locally, but I'd always look and pop into quilt shops when I was on the road. I finally settled on this sale fabric that I found online. I still wasn't convinced it was the best choice, but it was what I was going to use.

I reaĺly dislike piecing quilt tops that are on the diagonal, but this one was worth it. The little economy blocks are a favorite of mine

I shared this shot in a previous post, but it made the cut for this one again...Skeet's too sweet.

Sandy used a design called Mother Goose that shows up nicely on the back.

I pulled a print from my stash for the binding

At 88"x88" it will be a good fit for the guest room bed or a nice addition to a fundraiser although DH has taken a liking to it.

I am so tickled to have this one finished after all these years!

The Week in Review

 Besides adding a few stitches to the quilt I'm currently binding in the evenings, I haven't been doing any sewing although I did drop off 6 quilts with my longarmer on Monday. That ought to keep me busy through the winter.

Apples have been keeping me busy in the kitchen

The last of the apples simmered for apple sauce while DH was off checking our cows.

The chickens got a clean coop earlier this week. DH installed some panels over the nesting boxes because we've had a few chickens want to nest there at night instead of sleeping on the roost and that makes the nesting boxes nasty. We just flip the panels up in the morning so they can lay their eggs. 

DH captured this shot of the little jungle family the other morning when he went out to feed horses.

And the never-ending fencing project continues

After all these years, I still marvel at DH's work ethic and ingenuity

Every post is square and level

When it's just the 2 of us, it's a challenge to take pictures because I'm helping, but I told DH I want to document our days

The fence is coming along, and we're a long way from completion, but we did bring a few heifers over from our lease country.

We've still got old grass, but we've had a really dry summer here. We had a good May, but have just had 0.4" since then.

We even thought our bees might leave so we started feeding them.

The garden's still gifting us good things 

We also picked up 4 more fruit trees from the White Oaks nursery. Jaimee had grafted 3 of them for us earlier this year and then gifted us a 4th.

It was a busy week. No time to twiddle thumbs, but plenty of time to be grateful and thank God for His abundant blessings

And as we do so, we also bow our heads in remembrance of 9-11 and of the lives lost and families forever changed. 25 years...it doesn't seem possible.

Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning