We've come a long way baby!

First I want to say how excited I am to have the blacksmith back at home. He's been on a week long hunt. I sure missed him.

Remember it wasn't too long ago, if you wanted to know something about a particular subject, you pulled out the World Book Encyclopedia. Well last night I had the grand kids for dinner. Brady the 10 year old and I were discussing the spider that had camped out on one of my windows. I told Brady, I couldn't remember what kind of spider it was.

He said" Grandma put the information in your computer and find out." A couple of bites later he went to the computer room and he asked, "Grandma, do you use Yahoo for information?" I told him it was google in the top right hand corner.

Pretty soon the 10 year old was giving me facts about the spider. It is know as a garden spider. It eats it's web every night and makes a new one. It is yellow and black, has 3 claws on each toe and on and on.

Okay so I've been out smarted by a 10 year old!

Tonight for dinner I used Google. I found this recipe for round steak thanks to Pioneer woman. I made fried green beans according to a google recipe too. I had picked two patty pan squash this week and I wanted a fat free way to fix them. I found this recipe for roasted patty pans.
Now I also made blackberry pie and I tried to find a recipe using whole pearl tapioca on google. There I didn't have much luck. That's a mission I will try again.

How did we ever survive without the internet????????

Saturday's work

Three quilts for three sisters. There once were three sisters, who's Mother had embroidered 6 identical quilt blocks for them. I was chosen to set them together. After looking back (thank you blogger) I see it is usually a year apart that I have been asked to make another quilt.

This one is today's project. I've been working on it this week. This one is for Joanie. As you can see I machine appliqued a rose in the plain white center blocks. I love this fabric. Yes it was a little more expensive. But in this small town with only 3 places to buy fabric, you are limited to just how many blues you can find.

I don't quilt them. They take them to a high school friend of mine and she machine quilts them. I will then bind them.

First I made Roseann's quilt in October of 2008. I sewed Mary Jane's quilt in September 2009. After Joanie's is finished, I think my job is over. Unless I find out that their Mother made blocks for the only brother! But that might not be until 2011.

I love Thursdays

On the Thursdays that I don't work, I get to take care of Miss Elizabeth.

She came dressed so cute today, as she does most days.

She loves to feed Bentley cookies.

That is what she calls the dog treats.

She goes and gets them herself and then stands at the door and calls puppy over and over.

If he gets fat, it's going to be her fault.

Her grandpa taught her where the cheerios are stored.

She can get them too.

It takes just a few to satisfy her.

But if she gets fat, we can blame Grandpa on that one.

Here she eats them by the handful.


Aw Grandma are you taking my picture again?

See why I like Thursdays?

Update on Lane: He had surgery #2 yesterday.

Today they took him off of life support and he is holding his own.

Please continue to remember him

and

his parents

and

grandparents in your prayers.

To Westphalia

Today my sister and I took our mother to the small town of Westphalia to see her 91 year old first cousin. They both enjoyed their visit. At times it was like playing jeopardy. They even commented what they miss most in their later life is their minds. And then they laughed . . .

The town located between the Osage river and Maries river is picturesque. It's a town of less than 400 and probably almost entirely made up of German descent.


I captured this barn as we drove out of the driveway at the nursing home.

Going "up" into town, I stopped at the Bruns house. The house hasn't been lived in for years and years, yet someone maintains the lawn. This half timber house was built in the mid 1830s for Dr. Bernhard Bruns.

The doors at St. Joseph Catholic Church. The church was established in 1835. The blacksmith was baptized here, therefore he appreciates the iron work for more than one reason.

This is the Westphalia Inn. The name might fool you, it's not an inn, but a restaurant. The menu consists of pan fried chicken and country cured ham.

It was a beautiful day in the country, Missouri that is, not Germany.

Happy 60th Birthday

Mr Blacksmith!!!

Day 1 W/O the Blacksmith

It was Cheerios for breakfast!

I should have washed windows today, but this guy scared me off!

So instead I went shopping. What's a girl to do?

I bought this dress home with me.

It might stay.

I will have to think about it for a day or two.

I also bought home this new clutch and a necklace.

Turquoise must have been the color of the day.



This little pan made my dinner.
It made it all in one popping.
Well sort of!

Look what I got!!!

The blacksmith made us a pot rack! We had wanted one for years. We never found the design that would work best in our timber frame home. However, last week he came up with this design.

Here is the studio picture our DIL took. It's so nice having a professional in the family.

Elizabeth today with her cute sunglasses on.

This picture might look like this one. That was from 2009.

Or like one in this post. That was August 2008.

The blacksmith left today on his annual muzzle loader squirrel hunt. This is his 40th year to go. It's a free week for me! I hope I get a lot accomplished.

On a personal note, Lane had surgery today to have shunt put in. Keep him in your prayers.

Lane

Just a quick update.

Lane has opened his eyes several times and he is eating.

Your prayers are working.

Don't quit now!

Thank you for all your prayers.

Osagebluffquilter

Prayers needed

Remember my BFF from a few days ago?

Her 7 month old grandson Lane, was injured at day care yesterday.

It's a head injury.

He is in ICU.

Please take a moment and say a prayer for a miraculous recovery.

Thank you

Osagebluff quilter

Busy day canning and freezing

Yesterday there weren't enough hours in the day.


Maybe that is why this post isn't happening until today.



We left home about 9:00 and headed for town. I first stopped and picked up flowers for my friend Giggles and Bits. I dropped the blacksmith off at the barber shop. I then went to pick up my tickets from Giggles and Bits for tomorrow nights production of Men of the Club. Of course, I gave her flowers for her kind gift.



It was then on to the Mennonite grocery store, Mel's for breakfast/lunch, Aldi's, Hobby Lobby (yes I did get him inside there), Wal-Mart, and finally Menard's. (They had pint canning jars for $5.99, lids and bands included).

Last week my brother and SIL came for dinner. They went "yuck", when the blacksmith asked for his usual tea and lemonade drink for dinner. We explained to them that it was a drink made famous by Arnold Palmer years ago.

Look what we found a Wallyworld yesterday. Now here's your proof Bob, we weren't dreaming, or making the sh_ _ up! LOL







Here's the half bushel of peaches we bought at the Mennonite store for $12.00. They are so juicy and sweet, like a taste of heaven.



I then froze 4 quart bags by adding fruit fresh and sugar. So there will be 4 pies. I made 3 1/2 pints of peach jam, and canned 7 pints of fruit. I even had about 12 peaches left for eating fresh.

It was about 5:00 pm, when I realized that we had tomatoes that had to be worked up. So as my pizza dough for dinner was raising, I cut up the tomatoes and got them cooking.

The end result was 5 and one half quarts of homemade tomato soup. The blacksmith finally took the jars out of the pressure canner about 11:00PM.

So it was a very long but productive day!

BFF

You have one, I have one, almost everyone has one. A BFF.

Mine happens to be my next door neighbor. Well almost, there are no houses in between us, but we are about a half mile apart as the road goes. But on a clear day, if we yell really, really loud, we could probably hear each other. When the leaves are off the trees in the winter, we can see each other's lights.

Over the 16 years we have lived "side by side", we have borrowed plenty of things from each other. We each have boys the same age, and our girls are just one year apart. So there have been the usual things to borrow . . . school supplies, computers, printers, even substitute parenting I'm pretty sure.

Then we adults have borrowed things like sinker molds (it's a guy thing) or a bag of water softener salt. Okay I was out of salt, but she still called to see if I had a bag to borrow. We are always raiding each others cabinets for cans of cream of something soup, onions, potatoes, oil to fry fish or chicken, breading for the fish, an egg, a cup of milk, and so much more.

Today was no different. She called me to see if by chance I had any cream cheese. I said "sure I do". She said she'd be right over. I yelled "wait, do you have a stick of butter?" "Yes", she said. I said "okay, I'll trade you".

Over she drives. (Remember I said we're a half mile apart). She said we were life savers again. They were making blackberry torte. We started laughing since we were making blackberry crisp!

It's scary sometimes, how much alike we are!


Our blackberry crisp.
Recipe courtesy of Ree at Pioneer Woman. Click here for the recipe.

Okay so we changed it a little, we used blackberries and Missouri black walnuts. Otherwise it was the same.

What's old, is new again

A co-worker asked me if I would do some sewing for her. Her parents had passed away earlier this year. She found her mother's wedding dress and ask for some mementos to be made out of it.

Together we brain stormed and came up with memory pillows. She gave me free rein as to what I could do with the dress. She had laundered it and it was almost as good as it was 60 some years ago.

It was a full length satin dress, more than likely homemade. There were gathers down the front to accent the bust. The skirt featured a lace overlay with a train made into it.

The front of the skirt had flowered appliques.

The back had 24 hand covered satin buttons. I found it interesting that they were sewn on with a heavy string, not mercerized thread. Notice the gathers in the sleeves at the elbows.

I came up with four pillows. There are two daughters and two grand daughters in the family.

Being a quilter, I had to piece the pillows. I was left with very few scraps of satin. This pillow
has the front bodice with the gathers, on the top left corner.

If you look closely at this one you will find the sleeve, snap on the cuff and all. I found it interesting that one sleeve had silver snap and the other one had a black snap.

On this pillow I used a lot of the lace overlay. The bottom right hand corner has part of the back of the dress. You can see the string used on the buttons.

All the buttons left over were sewn to this pillow.

I think the girls will really enjoy their pillows made from their Mother and Grandmother's wedding dress.

Old Munichburg Oktoberfest is coming . . .

Check out what the Blacksmith is working on . . . .






and then become a follower too!

Auction

Sunday morning came way too early. I was up at 5:00 AM, although I had been awake most of the night.

Here is what the trailer load of auction items looked like as the blacksmith opened it up at the auction house. It was packed to the gills.

There was a crew of guys, including my son and brother, to help unload. It went so fast. By 8:30 we had most everything unpacked and laid out.



Here is a shot of some of the tables.

Here the son surveys the outside "guy" stuff.

Let the auction begin. It must have been 110 degrees on the parking lot. I didn't spend too much time out there.

Deanna and Jim from My loves, my life stopped by. They too, thought it was too hot to spend much time on the concrete. (Thanks for your moral support).

Back inside the building, auction ring #2 was going. I don't know if the crowd wasn't there, the dealers weren't there, or if it was the economy. But things were going way too cheap. The only good thing is, it's all gone now. We no longer have to box and move the stuff around.

We are hoping that, down the road, we kept all the family items of sentimental value. Being totally exhausted, the blacksmith and I, my sister, and my brother and his wife left before it was completely over. We had seen enough.





After going home, showering, and taking a little nap, we all met at 5:00 at Steve's restaurant near Lohman. Brother Bob and his wife Bev (who reside in the state of California) picked up mother. We enjoyed a meal of Burger Country ham and golden fried chicken served family style.





After the meal, we drove to a park in Jefferson City. There, daughter-in-law Lori, took lots of family photos for us.

Bev, Bob, Mother, Lona, Patti and Bernie

Jeremy, Lori, Brady, Alex and Elizabeth

Alex, Elizabeth, Mother, and Brady

Let's say this is our belated 40th Anniversary picture.

Brother Bob, Mother, sister Lona and me.

Elizabeth was taking a picture of her mother.

Thank God we all got through this without too many tears.

Tuesday I closed on Mom's house. We really like the couple who bought it. We hope they have many happy memories and years in the house.

Mom continues to do well at her Assisted Living facility. It's a beautiful place.

The next chapter continues.

Auction tomorrow

It's been a busy week. Tomorrow will be the worst, or so I think.

My mother has been in assisted living now for over a year. Thank you God for letting her like her surroundings. The last house her and my late father shared for almost 40 years has been sold. That closing is Tuesday, the last big hurdle to get over.

Wednesday evening, the hottest day of the year so far, we packed the contents of the barn and house up. All of the contents of the house had already been picked over and packed up in previous weeks. My sister and I had seen to that. However the barn was left to tackle.

Thanks to the blacksmith, the son, the oldest grandson (who is 9 now), a nephew and a great nephew (yes I'm old enough for some of them too), we got the hot job finished. No one had a dry stitch of clothing on. My sister and I were included.

The old shed was next. Many spiders went scurrying away.

This is the truck we filled to the brim. Seriously, it was packed to the ceiling.

I only wished I had taken a picture of that. However, exhaustion had already set in by then.

A few things did not fit, and a few things we didn't want to include. So my sister, being the pyromaniac she is, took care of that! (She inherited this trait!)

On Sunday, we have to be at the auction house at 6:30 AM to unload and unpack boxes. My brother and his wife from California flew in to help. Cousins from across the state will be there, as well as other relatives and in-laws.

So if you are close to Jefferson City join us for auction day.

Here is a link to the sale. Mom's auction