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dooley's Blog
Amish quilt update-July 8
Category: Amish quilt | Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:36 am This afternoon, I sat and worked the rest of row two and row three. That took an hour. Then, I finished a book that I had started. After we ate supper, I took my basket and went out to the little backyard and sat at the table and sewed for about an hour. Then a thunderstorm rolled around us and I had to come inside. I finished the row that I was working on inside. Now, I have six rows finished. Let's see, 17 squares to a row makes that 102 squares finished. But, I made a mistake the other day. There will be only 289 instead of 320. I cut too many purple ones. So, I can add 3 hours for today so that makes 7 and 1/2 hours to date. Coming along nicely I think. I only made one mistake so far. I got the row doubled under and sewed a block in with the seam that I was working on. Had to take that one apart. Oops! Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 604 times
Amish quilt update-July 7
Category: Amish quilt | Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 3:01 am Tonight after we ate, I took my squares and needle and thread and went out to the table in our little backyard. I sewed 27 squares together in 75 minutes. That's approx. 3 minutes per square. There are approx. 40 stitches across the four inch square which makes it 10 stitches per inch. Anyway to add the 75 minutes to the 4 and 1/2 hours makes it 5 and 3/4 hours. It got too dark to do anymore. I decided to sew them by hand on the machine because I can do it sitting outside in the evenings. My sewing corner is hot. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 492 times
Amish quilt July 5, 2007
Category: Amish quilt | Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:21 pm I bought the material last Wednesday and yesterday I cut all 320 squares that I needed for the Amish quilt that I am making for my oldest son's expected baby. Today, I went row by row down the grid and put the blocks in order that I will sew them. Wouldn't you know that when I got to the last row, I was short three blocks so I had to go back and recount each row to find the three blocks. I had just enough material so I couldn't cut any more. In any case, if I didn't find the three missing blocks those rows would be out of order. So, row by row I counted until I found the missing blocks. Now, each row is in order in a bag so they won't get mixed up with another row. I will still match the grid when I sew so they will be in the proper order. So, I've spent about 4 and a half hours which includes buying the material. Maybe I can keep track of the amount of time it takes from start to finish here. I will start and end each blog with the time. No more today. I have to think about what to eat because I work 6 to 9 today. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 525 times
Gray Day
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 7:59 pm It's a gray day. Forecast is for scattered thundershowers. I do so hope they will scatter this way. I went out and watered this morning hoping that would help. It will probably wait until we have to go up the hill for work. A good rain or even a small rain would help all of the plants. They perk up when I water them but by the end of the day they look droopy again. I check the ones in the pots everyday to see if the soil is dry. I hate when I plant something and it stays the same size because the food and water seems to just be keeping it alive but not growing. The neighbor gave me some apricots this morning. Our trees were hit with frost and all the little apricots fell off. But a few miles from here and a slighly lower altitude the frost missed so there were lots of apricots. Our neighbors got apricots from some people who weren't using them and brought them to church. There was enough for two apricot tarts. So, I made one for us and one for the neighbors. Sugar free of course. Both of them. The neighbor lives in a small trailer so in summer they don't bake because it really turns the trailer into a furnace and even their cooler takes ages to cool it. Our house stays cool for the most part. We don't use any cooling, cooler or air conditioning. Only ceiling fans and one or two floor fans. One for the computer corner. Usually if I open a window a breeze comes through the house. Today, the door is shut for some reason. Guess I should decide what to make for lunch. The tart is still too hot. It will make a good snack after work, I think. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 877 times
dooley's day
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 4:29 am I was going to write about my day, but I think my nap is wearing off. I may need to make it an early night. I was really tired when I got home from work last night but my knee was aching so I didn't sleep well. I woke up early and since we were planning on going up the hill for a few things today and I hadn't watered anything yesterday I got up and went and watered everything. Chance usually loves to "help" but when she sees me hooking up the hose she disappears. Water is definitely not her favorite thing unless it's in her water dishes. She has several of these around the yard and house. We went to breakfast while we were waiting for the bank to open. Then, went up the hill. dr had a list of yard sales. But, it heated up early and he decided we would only do one or two. But, it seemed like every time we turned a corner there was another yard sale. We had to stop a couple times for something to drink because like a dolt I didn't take the cooler with water bottles with us. In summer, we almost never leave home without water with us. It gets too hot. Some sales were bummers but we found quite a lot of things. dr found stuff to resell at the flea market. I have to work 8 to 4 tomorrow or I can leave a bit early if it isn't busy. I can't decide if the street fair will make it busier or not. It's a couple of blocks away from the library. It may just make people put their stuff in the drop box. Monday may be twice as busy. Our volunteer for tomorrow isn't coming so we will be short one or two hands. We stopped for pizza for lunch and bought the few things we went up the hill to buy and came home. I bought new pillows for myself and I'm going to cover the old ones to put on a bench out in the little back yard. We have a back yard, a little backyard and a lower backyard. We have the workyard, the driveway yard, the "herb" garden, the upper front yard and the patio front yard and in front of the house. These are all definite, distinct yards or areas. Oh, there's the garden area too. Most are fenced except some run from one to another. Since I hurt my knee a lot of them are in sad shape. Since it's been getting better I've been trying to get things caught up. dr helped last week when he cut the bee plants down. He says he'll run the lawn mower over it this week. But, I'd rather he didn't since he has allergies that kick up and then he loses more of his hearing. Oh, well! It will get done as it gets done. I do have most everything planted now and a lot of it is in pots that don't have to be weeded. Some things need more water now that it is getting hotter. It will be 93 tomorrow, it was 95 today. But it is in the 90's or above, probably until October. With no rain some of the problems will take care of themselves. I just keep watering where I want things to keep growing. I took a nap when we got home. Chance woke me up. I think she was trying to see if I was okay because I don't usually sleep during the day. Dan stopped to pick up the beer glasses we bought him and Laurel at a yard sale today. They were German and really nice glass with a silver rim. Only $2.00 for both of them. Those people were really high for the ordinary stuff but cheap on the better things. It's like they didn't know what it was all about. I only paid a dollar each for those wooden planters. I paid 50 cents each for the garden books. They had a lot of craft books but I don't do crafts so much anymore. After my nap I took a few pictures and then went and made supper. I made battered cod and cole slaw. We decided to eat outside. But, the orioles sat in the grapevines and chattered at us because the feeder was empty. So, in the middle of eating, I got up and went and filled the feeder. Did they appreciate it? No!! They said they couldn't eat with us sitting there. So, I got up and brought my plate inside to finish eating. Geeze, Louise! Now, I'm thinking I will have to go to bed because my nap has worn off and I have to get up at 6 am and that is a lot earlier than I usually get up. Mayer Daze is tomorrow but I won't be here. Dan's library is having a book sale. They have started the new addition to the library. It's going to be a 26 by 40 room. It takes up almost all the lot space they have. Only, the county is buying computers this year so there isn't a budget for furnishing. They are going to put out a donation jar and see if anyone will donate to it. They generally do fairly well. Someone will give them some money to help with it. They were building forms for concrete footing and the floor today. They were hoping to pour the stuff on Monday but he didn't think they would be done by the end of today. I bet that tomorrow a lot of people will stop to see what is happening. The parade goes right past the library and the barbecue is across the street at the recreation center. Well, that's it for this day. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 823 times
Didn't get finished!
Category: Yard work! | Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 3:32 am I didn't get finished. The day wasn't long enough or I took too many breaks. I did get the 20 or so pots filled with a mix of garden soil (bought in 2cu ft bags) and composted manure. I used three bags of soil and two and a half bags of the composted manure. The pots ranged from three to five gallon and 4 long rectangular ones. I have 20 tomato plants so I can put one to a pot and maybe two in the two larger pots. I want to put vegetables in the rectangular planters, starting with lettuce. I think I may still be able to grow it in the shade. It is supposed to be in the 90's for the next 10 days anyway, probably for the whole summer now. No rain in the forecast though. i may have said that in the earlier post. dr used his new gas grill to smoke some ribs. I finished them inside with some Dr. Stubbs barbeque sauce. Couldn't get sauce all over the new grill now. LOL. Made shortcake with strawberries and blueberries topped with coolwhip for red, white and blue dessert. It was actually purple by the time the juice from the berries mixed. But the berries were still red and blue. I think maybe I can plant the tomatoes in the morning if my knee isn't achy. I don't have to go to work until quarter to five. I start at 5:30. I don't want to lose the tomatoes because I didn't get them planted. I don't have my squash planted yet either. I need to send Glenda some seeds and some from the poppies too. I think I need to send someone elsse seeds too. I need to look back and find the address. I'll do that on my break tomorrow. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 751 times
Taking a break!
Category: Yard work! | Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 8:36 pm Today was not a lazy day. It's beautiful out though it is getting warm. Going to be in the 90's for at least the next 10 days. Didn't see any rain in the forecast though. I've been watering everyother day but some things have been getting water everyday. I only water the trees once a week. This morning the apple trees got a good soaking while I was in the lower back yard cutting the bee plants out of the 50 ft flower bed that runs along the back fence. I let the hose run in it as I was cutting stuff. Kept moving it so the whole thing got a good soaking. I also done the butterfly bushes and the rose bushes. Those rose bushes that we bought just when my knee got hurt didn't get planted right away. One is about two ft tall and has yellow roses on it. One has died. One isn't doing well. I trimmed it back some this morning. I have some rose food I'll put on it later this afternoon. It's in full sun now so don't want to stress it. One butterfly bush is being chewed on by ants or earwigs. I suspect earwigs so tonight I will put out some earwig food. I have some already mixed up. I saw some crawling out of the mulch when I was watering it. I put the soaker hose on the new asparagus. It is growing well and I don't want it to die back yet. It should grow all summer and turn golden in fall before you cut it back. I forgot it so it got a good long soaking. I need to go and poke some holes and plant some squash. I haven't done that yet. I just haven't kept up with things. My knee is getting better. Just that one spot that still hurts if I do too much or do something I shouldn't. Like stoop down to look at something or twist is when I turn too fast. It will just take awhile to heal completely. I'm finally off most pain medication and the anti-imflammatory stuff. I don't like taking it for too long. I just quit after awhile. It doesn't swell unless I'm on it too long. Oh, well! Off that subject. I went to get my hair trimmed on Wednesday. I told her just to here and put my hand where I wanted it cut to. Well, she said oh, chin length. I should have known. Her idea of chin length and my idea of chin length are two different things. It's too short. dr says it will grow and my hair does grow fast but I don't like it. The people I work with say it looks good and they like it and maybe it's just because I don't wear my hair short that I don't like it. She didn't layer the sides like I wanted it either. I wish I hadn't paid her. Well, maybe just the tip. Guess I will go out and unstack the pots and fill them with dirt and see about transplanting the tomatoes. I have some miraclegro just for tomatoes to give them a start. dr is smoking pork ribs on his new grill. I can't wait to eat but it's going to be awhile yet. I'd better go get some exercise so I can eat a little more today. Doolely This blog entry has been viewed 735 times
Lazy
Category: Yard work! | Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 10:35 pm I know there is yard work to be done but I am being lazy today. My knee hurt when I got up but we went over to Cordes to get the propane tank filled so we can finally use our new gas grill this weekend and the driving actually made it stop hurting. I can't figure what makes it hurt and what doesn't make it hurt. Mostly moving too fast I think. They changed things around at work and there is four of us working from 6-9 now and 6 or 7 on Saturday. Saturday's are fine but we have to really work to get things done in the evening. We manage to get it done with all of us cooperating to man the checkin and checkout and shelve and watch the reference desk and the regristration desk. We're good. (Patting self on back) One of the librarians went to visit someone at the local hospital last Saturday and they were having a craft sale to raise money for the hospital and she bought everyone a bracelet. They are all on the same theme. People noticed this week that we were all wearing matching bracelets. It was really nice of her to buy one for everybody. She said it was to break the monotony of the month. I didn't think it was too monotonous with all the changes but I like the bracelet anyway. I don't wear jewelry much. My watch is broken so I put the bracelet on my left wrist and caught myself checking it for the time. dr went and cut the bee field this morning. He didn't see many bees, but it is very windy today so they may be in hiding. We saw a very large dust devil when we went to the bank and stopped for lunch a bit ago. I can imagine what a tornado is like. The dust reached way up in the sky and was so thick that you couldn't see through it. We have them here frequently, dust devils, not tornado's. They can do some damage if they are big enough. Anyway, the lower back yard is usable now. He said I need to cut the clover or whatever out of the flower bed and I need to drag the hose out and water the rose bush and butterfly bushes. One is being chewed on by ants so if it is calm later I will have to spray it with something. I am going to take my book out to the little back yard and finish it in a bit. I may take the camera and see if the orioles come around. I've been trying to get a new picture of them but Chance seems to have put them on her list of things to keep out of the yard. I almost got a picture of a curved bill Thresher but again it was something that Chance didn't want in the yard. Birds and cats! Well, lizards, too but they moved too fast usually. We did have a three legged lizard last year because it didn't move fast enough. I thought it would die but I saw it later and it was still moving around so I guess it healed okay. I haven't transplanted my tomatoes yet. Maybe later today but I think more likely on Sunday or Monday. I will water them again. I need to put the Miraclegro sprayer on the hose and feed everything. I may need to have dr buy some of it tomorrow. He isn't going to go to the flea market. With all the holiday things going on it wouldn't be worth it. Holidays seem to be outside family days here. It was busy at the truck stop when we went to fill the propane tank this morning. It was full of RV's, fifth wheels and trailers pulled by trucks. None of them seemed to know how to turn them around and were getting in the way of everyone. I was glad to get out of there without getting ran over by one of them. When we went camping it was with a tent and sleeping bags. Now, you have to have all the comforts of home with satellite dish and little quads to get around the camp ground. They go and park in regulated parks with neighbors driving the same kind of rv's and it's just crazy. Other than that are the ones that pile everything on a quad and take off across the desert or national forest, tearing up the terrain and leaving destruction in their wake. Guess I'm getting old because I don't understand all of it. But, with them all on the highways and in the country? I'm enjoying the quiet at home. Kids are getting out of school in Prescott Valley and vicinity but here in Mayer they still have two weeks. They had a day added this week because vandals slashed tires on all the school buses on Monday night so they had to cancel school on Tuesday because there was no way to transport the kids to school. Makes you wonder what they thought they were doing. Oh, well I had better take my book and go get on with finishing the book. Night Whispers by Judith McNaught. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 811 times
I've been thinking?
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 4:59 am I've been thinking (I do that now and then) that it's been awhile since I wrote a blog. I'm not sure why other than I've been keeping busy with things. I keep finding things to plant and then I have to water them. It's been so dry here that I've been watering a lot. I still haven't figured when to water the plants in containers. Sometimes they are too dry and sometimes I drown them. Some days I'd rather not water but then I think that I bought those plants and someone else would have enjoyed watering them so I'd better get myself out there and do it. Some are growing and some are just sort of sitting there. It's been in the upper 80's and low 90's and no rain. We see lightening and hear thunder but no rain. There was a lightening caused fire about 40 miles from here but it's out now. It wasn't a cause for us to worry. Sometimes things seem close in miles, but there are mountains between us so it isn't a worrisome thing. They are issuing warnings and closing things early this year. Wouldn't you know there are still city people throwing their cigarette butts out along side the roads. That's a sure way to start a fire. The other is stupid people thinking they can prevent a fire by putting their fire in a ring of rocks. They don't even think about the sparks that fly into the air when they THROW another log on the fire or stir it up with something. One of those sparks has to land on a dry piece of grass or bush and it's an instant fire. But, they didn't cause it because their fire was inside a ring of rocks. Stupid people! I've been busy at work. When we get a slow day, I've been re-arranging things and putting the paperback book section in order. When I started things were in order only by author. I worked and got the fiction in order by title and author. Then, I did the large print section and worked on the nonfiction section. It has to be done first by number, then by author and then by title. The paper back section seems always to be out of order. But we had a couple slow days this week so I did a row at a time. I moved the books to a table, put them in order and put them back on the shelf. I only have N thru Z of the mystery section to do. Westerns are done, SciFi's are done and the first half of fiction are done. The last half of fiction is being sorted through and some are being deleted. So, I will do them after so I don't have to waste time on books that are coming off the shelf anyway. Gloria has been working on nonfiction. We both still have our regular shelving and the check in, checkout and regristration work to do. We are getting a three percent cost of living raise the lst of July. I have an evaluation coming up so I'm hoping for a raise there too. My knee is getting better. A couple of days last week it was really painful but Saturday and today it was better. Today, I left the brace off of it. Some days I think it is the brace that is irritating it. When it's hot, it gets sweating up it and rubs the wrong way or something. I guess I will need to wear it to work though. Friday was a busy day. I had a meeting from 9-10, then I had to go get some bloodwork done, then we went to five yardsales. Then, we had lunch and took the truck for a check. Then went and bought potting soil and some blocks dr needed. Then to the grocery store and home so we could go to the bank before it closed. We've been working on the little backyard to make it more livable during the summer months. We bought an "Instant" canopy and put it up. dr tied it so the wind won't blow it away. Chance loves the extra shade during the day. I'm going to make cushions for the bench and put some flowers out there. We found a little round table to use for a plant stand. It doesn't look like much but it's heavy. It should hold plants quite well. We want to get a load of river rock to put down so it won't be dusty. dr is going to build Chance a new deck under the grapevines. Since I cut out dead wood and fastened up the vines they are really growing. I've been watering them with the rinse water off of my dishes. I went out to the other back yard today to water the apple trees and the butterfly bushes and the rose bush. I stopped and watered the long flower bed, too. It has Mexican Primrose in it. They have been blooming for awhile now but I haven't gotten a picture of them. I almost didn't want to go out there. We put some pasture mix out there last year so it wouldn't be just rocky dirt. We didn't get it cut yet and it's about two feet high and blooming yellow flowers. It if just full of bees. But, they didn't pay a bit of attention to me and I got things watered. I put soaker hose along the asparagus bed. The new ones aren't very big and I don't want them to get too dry. I have a few other seeds scattered in there and all those hollyhocks. They aren't growing very big this year because it is too dry. I could put soaker hose through them too I guess. But, I've been trying not to do too much and delay the healing on my knee. As it is, I probably do too much. I bought all those pots and have to fill them and transplant those tomatoes. I had 20 of them but something ate the top off of one so I had 19. Today when I was watering, I saw that it is getting new leaves so I guess I have 20 again. I have ten pots so that will be two to each pot. Maybe tomorrow, but I do have some other things I want to do. When we went to a yard sale on Saturday I got enough material to start on Jacob's dinosaur quilt so I've go to come up with some sort of a design. Darn! I meant to call Andy and I forgot and it's too late now. I'll have to do it on Tuesday. Better go and see if Chance is ready to go out to bed. She must be in the bedroom with dr. She isn't under my chair. Later Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 806 times
Yardwork!!
Category: Yard work! | Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 7:20 pm I finally finished working on the grape arbor. We haven't done much with it since we moved here and there was a lot of dead wood and the vines were growing every which way. One is way up a tree and I left it there. But, I cut out all of the dead wood and tied up the vines hanging down and moved some that were escaping the arbor. The ones on the fence were trying to go up a tree so I pulled them down and tied them to the fence. We want to turn the little back yard into a patio area. dr is going to build Chance a deck under the grape arbor to replace the old dog house. She can see the alley from there and keep an eye out for things that don't belong. She barks them away. We are thinking of putting up an awning of sorts and putting our lawn table and chairs under it. We bought a gas grill and dr got it all put together. We just have to get a gas bottle for it. But, we thought if we were going to cook out there we should be able to eat out there too. We'll need to get some of those candles for mosquitos and bugs. We don't get too many mosquitos here because it is pretty dry. Maybe we'll get some river rock to put in the area. That's what we put in the front patio. I need to make some cushions for the bench that's there. I can put some of my potted plants there and it will look nice. That little candle lantern thing we bought at one of the yard sales will go nice out there on the table. We sat out there and had breakfast the other morning. But during the day the sun is hot there. There is just so many things that need to be done and I still have to go slow because of my knee. It is a lot better but still going to fast and doing too much makes it ache at night. So, I'm done for today except for work tonight. 5:30-9pm today. Well, I bought some begonia's and petunias last night when we went for patio blocks to set the grill on. I guess I should put them in pots. That's not work, is it? I should water the small tomato plants since it's getting hot and they are in the sun. I think I should move them where it's not so sunny all day. Until they get a bit bigger anyway. That might be termed work though so maybe I will just water them today. Chance gets worried when we start changing things around but this will give her more shade during the day, too. The orioles are getting used to us being out and around the area and were sitting in the grapevines while I was trying to work there. They were mainly worried because the feeder was empty. They empty that big feeder everyday. I should buy sugar by the 50 lb bag instead of a 5 lb bag. The little hummingbird feeders don't go empty so fast unless the orioles try to eat out of them. I think I will go and see what dr is doing now. He went back outside. It's too hot to do much outside now. Dooley This blog entry has been viewed 750 times
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