Sam brought her preschool class to visit the quilt shop today because they’re studying the letter Q. Then we walked on the wilderness trail to the garden. The kids loved Hazel and Hazel loved the kids!

We also visited the barnyard and looked for eggs.

The visit ended with a game of miniature golf.

See the bucket of soapy water – the kids washed their hands after touching everything in the barn!

FYI – the Orkin supervisor was here to inspect the work done in April – all was as it should be. They checked the bait traps in the barn, too, especially where it smelled like dead rodents and sure enough there was a dead rat in the bait trap. They warned me again that this will not be a quick fix which I of course hated to hear. But it is what it is and Orkin knows what they’re doing.

I enjoyed one nice warm day on the porch – today it’s just 60 degrees – too cold for the porch so I’ll sew instead. I found two more projects that need finishing so instead of starting something new I’ll have to work on a UFO. For those wondering if we’ll do the Dirty Dozen again starting July 1, YES! We definitely will start again so be looking for those 12 projects to number 1-12.

We unexpectedly have a funeral at our church Monday – Patty lived at Concord Care and every time we played there she came to the dining room to listen.

Here are 3 reader quilts – I haven’t gotten many pictures lately and for those trying to post your own pictures in the blog comments section, you can’t. How could I control content if nearly 4000 readers started posting hundreds of pictures? The blog would crash for sure. Send your quilt photos to my email – found in the blog home page.

Did I tell you Hazel got rat #46 the other day? The one that Orkin found in the trap was #45. Now that doesn’t mean Hazel killed 46 rats because I got some of them in the electric trap which I’m going to start using again if I can get it to work with new batteries.

Do any of you follow Louisa Enright’s blog? She lost her little dog named AC Slater two days ago – I know she is grief stricken right now as he was only 4 years old and died of complications of Lyme Disease. I hate that she lost him so young and so very loved.

I know as soon as I hit “publish” I’ll think of something else to tell you but for now I’ll head to my sewing room to work on those UFOs.

The Orkin supervisor visited today – I knew the barn smelled like dead rodents and sure enough there was a very disgusting dead rat in one of the bait traps. A reader wondered if I had considered a professional exterminator – Orkin IS a professional exterminator! I will say no more.

I am sitting on the porch with a beer and my IPad writing to you – it is just perfect out here – no wind, the mourning doves, the woodpeckers, goldfinches, nuthatches, orioles and even a cardinal in the grove are all singing and chirping. This is good for the soul – anyone’s soul but mine in particular.

Our Xerox copier has been on the blink for several days because I needed a toner waste container – the copier gave me that message. I have tried repeatedly to reach Xerox online but I had to tell them my password. I’ve never had to contact them so I didn’t have a password. Our Xerox rep is no longer with the company but nobody told me and I’ve also never had a new rep call on me even though we have a leased copier and a contract. No copier = no patterns. I had our past repairman’s phone number so I called him. He gave me an 800 number for Xerox – it was all automated and my call was dropped twice after being on hold for 12 minutes each time waiting for customer service. Called the repairman again – he can’t place an order unless he is responding to a service call into the company. I can’t make a service call – nobody will answer. When I tried online of course I needed that password – no password ever. I finally came apart at the seams and told the repairman – who was nothing but helpful, I might add – that I was hauling that ———-copier to the landfill for as much good as it’s doing me! We have been a customer in good standing for 40 years. The final word? The repairman ordered the part for me – like he should have done 5 days ago. How much frustration can one person handle?

Had a simple doctor appointment today – she has banned me from taking Ambien anymore – I can’t remember anything- sound familiar? I told her I wondered if I had early onset dementia and she informed she that early onset dementia happened in young people – not people my age. Oh for cryin out loud – hahaha!!!

On this day in 2016 our little dog Faye died. My friend Jane in Michigan also lost her little JRT named Ember the same day. Faye was not old – about 4 when she died of kidney failure and nobody knew why. I can still feel that heartache of losing her – tears in my eyes as I write this.

Bear with me – I’ll get over this rough patch – thanks for letting me vent to all of you. I do appreciate my blog friends so much!

Today was a better day but still stressful. The overhead door guys came and my garage door is operational again. The poor barn swallows that used those few days to build their nest in the garage will have to find another spot. I go through this every year.

Then one of the turf companies showed up – after their receptionist was reluctant to even give them my request. When I say I have some spots in my yard that need reseeding, she thinks I mean a 20” x 30” spot – haha! No – the spots I’m talking about are as big as a lawn in town! A second company is coming to give me an estimate, too.

Then I needed to get groceries which is pretty discouraging – if the item is on the shelf, it’s much more expensive. And I’m not really complaining for the two of us – I can’t imagine how families are managing.

No dead rats today but….the 4 small poison cakes I left in the feed room last night were gone this morning and I put 4 more in there which were gone when I did chores tonight. I am mortified!

I’ve been just waiting to move this glass cabinet into the front room for my overflowing pincushion collection – I will take pictures as I unpack them and fill the shelves.