Love You S'more x 2 Quilt Finish

 Raising our family, we never had much money. We had enough and we were richly blessed in so many ways, but we never had extra and we were pretty frugal with what we DID have. Plus it was almost impossible to leave the ranch as it was just us taking care of things and we couldn't leave everything unattended. So we didn't take vacations, but we fished on the ranch

We swam on the ranch

And we camped on the ranch

Now that we recently 'retired' from ranch management and moved to the mountains, we want to continue those traditions with the grandkids.

When I stumbled upon a crazy deal for Love You S'more Layer Cakes for $10 and FQ bundles for $30, I knew I needed camping quilts. LOL

Last year I made this one as I thought the little hst flying geese looked like tents

And then, in January, the FQS posted about this Scattered Stars pattern and I knew that would be my 2nd camping quilt.

I down-sized the blocks to 10 1/2" in order to make the best use of the fabric I had and made 1 test block

I loved it and stitched every chance I got for a week. I reached a point where I began to second guess my decision to down-size the blocks. SO many little flippy corners!

I had cut too many of the little black squares and figured I'd use them in the star centers to make them more prevalent. I like the original design and will make it at some point, but for this project, I liked the variation.

42 blocks gave me a 60" x 70" quilt. Enough room to grow into, but not too big to haul on a camping trip. I'm tickled with how this one turned out

Sandy quilted a design called One Cloudy Day on it

I backed it with a print from the collection that I found on a good sale and bound it with a green Grunge from my stash.

I'm looking forward to breaking them both in this summer.

Why Isn't the Fire Out?

 With 1100+ folks working the fire that began on May 14th, I am getting this question a lot. Along with, why wasn't it put out then it started?

The short answer is that these mountains are rough. There are no trails. Yes, folks who climb mountains can navigate them, but putting out a fire is a different story. They pretty much have to wait for the fire to move to an area that allows them to engage with it.

I think a lot of people are asking the same questions because the incident command team put out a short video a few weeks ago that explains the nature of this fire in this very rugged terrain, along with some of the challenges they encounter.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DeUeUVMPM/

So, it'll be some time before it's really all out, but we've had some rain and they've downsized the crew to less than 500.

No homes or structures have burned and they have been able to keep the fire contained to the national forest and national wilderness area. Very little private property, if any, has burned and we haven't seen or smelled smoke in a week. The fire currently sits at 31,860 acres, but it is 94% contained.

So thank you for your prayers and for checking in on is. We're so greatful for your kindness. We are safe and well and we continue to keep the team working the fire and the families of those who lost their lives in the Medi-vac accident in our prayers.

Our rainy season is generally July and August and our average rainfall here is supposed to be 11", but those 'average' years are rare. Many years we get half of that...or less. That's why you get so many celebratory rain posts and pictures of rain gauges through the years. 😂

Here's hoping this will be one of those over-average years!

Branding Our Calves

Our cows were temporarily in pens at a friend's feed yard and last Monday we headed out well before dawn to brand the calves before hauling mamas and babies to grass across the state line in Texas where they would join our heifers. 

We just had 66 calves to brand

So we called up some friends for the crew

It'd been 16 years since our son had been on the crew

But he fell right back into his flanking position...66 times so he was probably a little sore the next day.

Good horses

Good help

They are handy when it comes to swinging a rope

It takes just 30 seconds for the calf to be cut (if he's a bull calf), vaccinated, and branded

The crew has been doing this for a long time

Cows and calves were loaded on the truck and headed for green pasture

With a little ingenuity, I managed to set up a spot to keep the queso warm in the crockpot. 

I hauled a table and chairs and we had a good, shady dinner spot

It was a good way to spend the day

What We've Been Up To

 Last Thursday we had our HVAC system serviced. Thankfully, it just needed to be rewired so that it would communicate with the thermostat so it won't cost an arm and a leg, but service calls are not inexpensive since it's 50-60 miles out here.

As Joseph was leaving, with cookies 😉, the dump truck with base material for some road prep showed up.Traffic jam at the end of the dirt road

Fabric is expensive these days, but so are rocks.

DH wanted to build up the road a bit and change the grade

to help divert rain water away from the  cattle guard he and our boy installed on Friday

I told DH I felt fancy

We've got another cattle guard to install later this week, but we were pulling everything together to brand our calves on Monday so other projects were postponed.

That means lists and phone calls were made on Friday. Brand inspectors, health papers, vaccine, trucks, confirm dates and times with everyone on the crew as well as the owner of the grazing lease. Lots of moving parts.

A trip to town in separate rigs filled up Saturday for both of us, but lunch out was a treat

I never enjoy going to town, but being in there on Saturday makes me break out in hives. It's just too people-y out there. 😉

And I was in the kitchen on Sunday.

I made salsa

Queso

 48 Buckaroo Bundles

And Cookie Jar Gingersnaps (an old photo, from when I first posted the recipe, that still makes me smile). I was going to make Special K Cookies too, but DH didn't think I needed to make 2 kinds. I was running out of steam by then anyway. 😉

And loaded coolers and everything else I'd need in order to be ready for Monday as DH loaded his rig for everything for branding calves.

I put a note on the fridge to remind us to pack the vaccine in the morning because I don't trust myself to think clearly at 3:30 a.m.

Time on the deck to visit and double check our lists is a good way to close out the weekend