The sale is going great guns!  We have been so pleasantly surprised at how many customers have visited us since we announced our closing.  Janet at Buggy Barn is saying the same thing – it is very, very satisfying that we have so many customers who have become friends over the years.  I hope we can keep in touch once in awhile after the shop closes.  My email remains marye@ncn.net

After that very fast cool down in our temps, the weather has changed to those wonderful warm fall days with cool nights and the smell of harvest in the air.  I’m not sure just what it is exactly but I think it’s the corn drying.  Within a few weeks the farmers will all be harvesting – a very busy  but wonderful time in North Iowa.

Connie and I are spending our days in the shop helping customers and in the evenings our sewing has lost some of that anxiety and pressure.  Connie has just finished the September Civil War quilt which is also the quilt we will be working on in Camp the end of the month.  I have an order for 5 Grand Piano Pincushions for a lady out East who gives them as Christmas gifts.  The first quilt I’m going to make in my retirement is The Gypsy Wife which I have admired for several years now.  I can’t wait to clean up my sewing room so I can pull fabrics for this quilt and then jump into this new project.  What fun!

This little boy visited the shop last week with his grandma and he was just delighted with Colton.

Remember the rooster struggle for dominance some years ago?  When the weaker one passed on I was relieved so there wouldn’t be any more fighting between the two.   Here’s the guy who won the battle but I can see by his “posture” and actions that he is not 100%.  I doubt he will be around much longer.

I went to the barn to see Susannah this morning and I think she’s feeling quite well.  At 5 o’clock she and Emma make a bee-line for the garage where I keep the crackers.  Emma still likes to stay up late – after dark even before she goes back to the barn for the night.

 

Someone on the blog asked about Sweet Annie.  It is a very fragrant herb that many gals like to use in their fall decorating.  Rick insists it is a weed and when I let it grow up in the fence lines, he is embarrassed that I am encouraging it.  Connie and Mary Baker sold every single one of the 83 bouquets at the Country Living Fair – at $5 a bundle!   I am going to pull it all up so we can use our gate which has been out of commission for the summer because of the Sweet Annie growing so thick.

Remember when Rick moved the carport?  Well, here is his new project – pouring a foundation and floor so the carport can be moved into place and used as a garage.  The carport is sitting off to the side in the grove right now and since Rick has only one day or so every week to work on this project, it’s slow going.

Rick made 2 corn shocks for me and I hung my corn husk wreath on the door – now all I need is some pumpkins and my entry is good until Christmas.  The grass was mowed for the very first time this week and it’s looking pretty nice – still sorta soft and cushy to walk on but that will firm up over the winter.

 

That’s all for this week, folks – never a dull moment around here.  Our choir started practice last night so now I need to start practicing, too.  Pretty soon I’ll have plenty of time to do that.

Meet me on the blog!

Mary