When it turned cold two days ago, it was a shock to all of us. It remains chilly, in the 40’s, and very rainy. We’ve had hardly any rain all summer and now when the farmers don’t need it or want it, we get rain. Many are trying to chop sileage which can’t be done in the rain. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful – I know our lawns need it but how important is a lawn compared to a crop? Not very.
When I moved plants into the house on Monday I walked over 11,000 steps that day alone! I repotted many – here’s one that was totally potbound. I’m surprised and grateful that the pot didn’t break.
These big plants become a problem that all people with a green thumb end up with – plants grow too large to move or find a place for. When the light is better I’m going to take pictures of all my plants to post here on the blog.
Remember all those tomatoes? We’ve been eating a lot of salad like this along with BLTs and cornbread salad.
Here are the Dirty Dozen quilts for today:
I’ll bet if it weren’t raining these guys would have taken off – they are just too big for the nest any more!
No quilts to show you – I’m sorry. Both of us are working on projects to present but neither of us are finished. I could see how much you enjoyed seeing all of Julie’s quilts! Hang on, we’ll get there!
Hope my VOTE pattern is in today’s mail! So want to sew two pillows!
The new Quilt Sampler has arrived. Some good eye candy and quilt patterns, too!
No VOTE pattern today, Mary.
Launa – maybe I should send it again!
The rain is always an issues with harvest time. I’m in Osage with my mom and we have been cleaning up the flower beds for her and hope to wash the windows and clean her small shed before we head home to TN. I wish the rain would stop! its miserable working in the rain.
The chicken (My Girls) quilt is so cute with the selvedge edges and the snowman on point is also darling, what nice finishes.
So you love Cornbread Salad, too? That is one of my favorites, too. I first had it years ago at a cute little deli in Clear Lake; then found a recipe for it in our P.E.O. cookbook. It is a recipe I like to make for a salad potluck because it makes a huge amount. Bailey doesn’t like the cold wind and rain. She does not do well in the winter either. Maybe I should get her a sweater?
Lois Ann – Starboard Market was my first taste of cornbread salad, too!! We make it up except for the tomatoes and then serve it with fresh tomatoes on top so it doesn’t get so soggy. We have also decided cornbread baked with green chilies is wonderful!
If we don’t get some rain, we will have a huge fire problems combining corn and soybeans! You are such a busy lady 💕
What a strange weather week. Snow in Colorado and South Dakota and here in “rainy “ Oregon
We have huge fires, high winds and multiple evacuations in our mountain towns.
What would you take with you if you had 10 minutes
To pack?
Karen J- I would have to round up as many cats and dogs that I could find in the 10 minutes. So sad. Surely they have more warning than 10 minutes – we see it on the news. Why don’t they leave when they can? And before it changes directions and rages toward them? What am I missing here? I have no experience with fires. Inform me, please!
Mary, we had 40 mile an hour winds several
Days ago that fanned the flames in the mountains
And created huge, fast moving fires in dry forests.
Many rural residents have horses and had to get they animals out. Hundreds of animals and people
housed now
at the Oregon State fairgrounds. Luckily the wind is
Easing but the fires statewide still burn uncontrolled.
Karen Juergen – horrific!
Iowa will never know what forest fires are. The pine trees burn like gasoline. The fires make their own weather system, tornadoes, horrific winds. The winds spread the fire thru the tops of the trees burning everything in their path. They go uphill in a minute and if the winds switch, you may be trapped. The higher hills make fighting worse as the terrain is hard for fire fighters. Even on the open prairie, they can really move – 40 miles in 20 minutes. When the region is tinder dry, disaster is a minute away, with nothing to stop it. Fighting fires is a complete science all it’s own. Sometimes they burn til God puts it out with rain or snow. Iowans have their own disasters, but thankfully forest fires aren’t on the list.
Betty K – I appreciate the lesson in weather because I don’t understand those fires. Do people just gamble on the fire not coming in their direction? And then it does and they’re trapped?
All three dirty dozen quilts are wonderful! I wouldn’t be able to pick a favorite.
Could Diane share the cardinal quilt pattern name and designer?
Thanks so much!
Love “My Girls” and the uses of the selvage edges for the background. Simply Grand.
Your swallows look so much different than our swallows. We have two kinds here and neither of them look like yours. Miss the swallows. Now we are getting those darned white butterflies again.
We are having lots of BLTs too. Love them.
Mary…have you seen the Ore. fires on TV? This is the second day of very smokey air here. I don’t think there is anywhere in this state that doesn’t have terrible air quality right now. It’s very hot too. We have been staying inside rather than breathe in that smoke. So many have lost their homes and thousands are being evacuated. Please pray for Oregon.
So while you have had cold and rain, we have had fires and sweltering hot, dry, low humidity weather. I am hoping you will send us some of that rain.
Love all of the DD quilts. Chickens are wonderful, especially with the selvedge background. The snowmen are adorable and Diane…the snowy white and Cardinal quilt is gorgeous.
I love all the dirty dozens!!
Here in northern California it was 104* on Monday….today it was 67. Love the cooler temp. The sun couldn’t get through all the smoke so the sky was grayish orange. Very eerie! The smoke is 2000 feet above the ground so we couldn’t smell it but there is light ash on everything. My dusk to dawn lights were on all day. I feel so bad for the people that have to evacuate. I think we are in the Twilight Zone!
I’ve been quilting most of the day!!
Hi Mary, the quilts are wonderful, especially the chickens! Sad for all the people with the forest fires.Stay safe everyone, best wishes from sandy
We’re cold with snow, well below a hard freeze. The ice was rather thick. But we will take the moisture. Now the Aspen leaves will turn black and fall. Normally they are a beautiful golden for a couple weeks before they fall. Oh well.
The DD’s are so creative today, thanks to all for sharing.
Jo in Wyoming – we watch the news and just shake our heads! It is way too early!
To the comments about weather and fires, I live only an hour from where fire destroyed two small historic towns in Washington in just a matter of minutes last weekend. Hard to believe, but, yes, sometimes there are only minutes to gather and evacuate. Sometimes escape routes are closed due to the fire downing trees and power lines, trapping people. Our dry vegetation and pines are fast burning fuels. The fires create their own winds. Our air is often grey or brown for days on end, very unhealthy to breathe. One fire was less than a half mile from our house a few years back; tanker planes and DNR crews worked so hard to contain it. We had pets and meds packed and ready to leave.
It seems every part of our country has its particularly hard or devastating types of weather and so many are affected. Sometimes it is hard to imagine what others experience. The flip side of this long comment is that quilters, by nature, always seem ready to help others.
Sandy – I just told Betty I don’t understand those fires – they are so dangerous!
You don’t live in this part of the country so you don’t pay a lot of attention to the news. Do you remember when there was a big fire near the Glenwood Springs area of Colorado? A group of Hot Shot firefighters – the very best – were caught when the fire turned? I believe they were from Prineville, Oregon. They did all they could and didn’t make it. And the fire in Arizona a couple years ago (?) when another group of the Hot Shots died the same way?
About 20 years ago we had a fire in Custer State Park. About noon it was 7000 acres. Four hours later with awful wind it had raised to 50,000 acres! It was in the park so very few buildings. At Christmas, 2018 (?), another fire started in the park. It moved so fast some the wild life, including the buffalo, couldn’t get out if the path. Some didn’t make it. Others were taken to the barns for the winter and given medical care. It burned a lot of the park fencing that had to be replaced.
Part of the problem is the pine type of tree. The sap is very flammable. Try burning a Christmas tree! Not pretty. When I came out here there was a team of Indian Hot Shots called the Black Hats. They were sent all over to help fight the fires. There would be a emergency call on the radio for the Black Hats to report and off they would go. Then there are the teams that are dropped by parachute into remote areas impossible to reach by ground. They are all paid very well.
Iowa has it’s problems, but thankfully not forest fires.
Betty Klosterman – we were just talking about those guys that got caught and died a few years ago – honestly it is just tragic that so much has been destroyed in the western states. Stay safe, Betty! We’ll keep watching the news and praying that the fires will go out.
I have appreciated living in New York more and more these past few months. Honestly when I hear hurricanes slamming the coasts and Families evacuating from surges of water and then I see the devastation and heartbreak these wildfires cause, I am even more grateful I can stay inside my home safely when a snowstorm is coming.
People grumble about snow which we don’t even get much of any more but I will take a pot of soup simmering with a sweater looking out a window on versus trying to round up my pets to evacuate. We can always find a way to be blessed in so many ways. My prayers for all those dealing with the severity of those fires around their homes.
Kathy – I’m with you 100%!
Your swallows remind me of my niece raising a nestful a few years back. Her kids were at piano practice and the teacher’s house was being painted. The painters just knocked down the nest and my niece found it on the ground. She scooped it up and took it home, handfeeding those little buggers in a spare room. They had those same kind of expressions yours do and I always found them so funny. When they started flying around, she got one of those woven flower basket things and took the babies outside and hung on the porch so they could practice outside. They finally flew and never returned to the basket but she’d see them flying over the house all the time and even for the next year or two.
Sherrill – oh my goodness, such a sweet story! When I got home from the grocery store just now, one of the babies was dead by the door – I suppose a cat got him. When they begin to take off I always hope I’m home so I can corral the cats
Oh no! Poor thing. Well, hopefully the others will fly unscathed and make it out of the garage.
Mary, would you share your cornbread salad recipe? Never heard of it and googled it and there are so many different ones. Would like to try yours. Always enjoy your blog, thanks for taking the time and energy to keep us all connected.
Delores – sure will – later today!
I am praying for rain to quench all those fires, I can’t imagine being in the middle of something like that. I love the baby swallows. They are sweet, thank you, Mary for providing them with a place to make a home! Beautiful finishes and I love the chickens!
100 degrees last week & woke this morning and was 49….Texas Weather !!! Yesterday received over 3 inches of rain, more predicted for today. Cold snap has even invigorated me. Bound quilt this morning, have a pot of Chile simmering on stove & vacuumed entire house, bathrooms cleaned, bed stripped & sheets in washing, think will change out bed quilt while I’m energized. Hopefully will get housed dusted before this mood wears off. Coffee finished so back to my autumn sprint.
Nikki m – whoa, girl! You’ll hurt yourself working that hard!
We went this far, we might as well finish the story. After the fire has passed and things have cooled off, the people go back to find their homes. People have already been there searching for bodies. In the pictures we’ve been seeing, all that is left is ashes of homes, cars and whatever they had to leave behind. In some cases, neighbors are gone. What a horrible thing they have to do. Pick up the pieces and start their lives all over. They search thru the ashes for what they might find.
In some area homes may not have been touched by the fire, but the surrounding heat will have melted everything plastic in those homes, wiring, dishes, toys, fabric……. This is what the people will do.
Betty K – and how do they manage to build again? How are there enough contractors and supplies to rebuild whole towns? And why would they rebuild if fire has destroyed their property? Won’t it just happen again eventually? I can’t bear to think of going back to find bodies of pets and wildlife, precious possessions and nothing but rubble.
Mary, I don’t know how people start over again. Probably just put one foot in front of the other. They just take a deep breath and go for it. About 4-5 years (?) ago the town of Paradise, California was burned to the ground. Ron Howard, thinking this would be a very touching, inspiring story decided to follow the whole process. He has filmed a piece called “Rebuilding Paradise.” I have not seen it, but it would be very uplifting. All the forest has been burned so there won’t be another fire there. All the fuel is gone.
Here in Western South Dakota, we had so many dead trees from the beatles. The powers that be told the tree huggers to get lost and we started cleaning out some of the forests. Cut down the dead trees, cleaned the branches, etc off the ground and cut off trees and branches overlapping power lines. The branches come down with the strong winds breaking power lines and a fire is started. Also selective thinning of trees. Young trees get more light and can grow tall. This makes a healthier forest. I’m sure California has not had any preventive measures in it’s forests for at least 30 years. Well, this is God’s way of “cleaning.” The spring after the fires in Custer State Park, the burnt areas were so green with new growth. The environmentalists won’t appreciate it, but that is the way it is.
One thing I forgot. So many of the firefighters are volunteers. They are men and women who have regular jobs. When the call comes they drop everything and go to help their friends and families or strangers. Even worse when they loose a person who is a friend, family, neighbor….. They don’t get paid, they just help. They have training and everybody is trained the same way. This way if other departments come to help, they know in a second how it is done.
Love the chickens on the selvage. Paula in KY