Last week I enjoyed a ride through Thunder Bay Resort's Elk Ranch with several children in our community through a summer children's activity. Jack, co-owner of Thunder Bay Resort guided the tour along with Al, the teamster. The kids loved seeing all of the elk and riding on the horse drawn carriage. The resort hosts elk viewing gourmet dinner rides throughout the year. If you are looking for a fun activity I highly recommend you check out the event. Thanks to Jack and Al for a fun activities for area children, their parents and grandparents.

Our garden is going crazy

Or perhaps I should say Steve's garden is going crazy. I don't know why but for some reason I wasn't very involved in planting our garden in the spring. Steve did a great job and the weather has been very cooperative too. Last week I picked and froze these 9 bags of swiss chard. This was my 3rd time of freezing swiss chard and we had enjoyed several meal of fresh chard too. And it looks like I need to be cutting it again. I did tell Steve that we may have to dig up a row or two as we will soon run out of freezer space. Last weekend I also put green beans in the freezer. We prefer canned beans but there wasn't enough in the first picking to pull the pressure cooker out. Our zuchinni plants have been producing like crazy too. I have given away several zuchinni and also put some of them in the freezer (I stir fried them before I froze them). So far I have picked just 1 cucumber and 1 picking of pea pods but I need to get out in the garden again real soon. Not much time for sewing but that usually happens in the summer.

Blotto Blogs

Last week I attended our annual Quilter's Guild picnic. Although we had a little rain the comraderie and food were both excellent. A couple of months ago I challenged our members to participate in a red, white and blue log cabin blotto block exchange. Members were invited to make the log cabin blocks and then we would have a drawing. Each member would go home with the same number of blocks they arrived with. Because of circumstances beyond my control I wasn't able to promote the exchange as much as I would have liked. As it turned out I was only able to get two blocks made. And Lenore was the only other willing participant - she made 25 blocks. During our conversation she stated that she had a little problem with coming up with blue fabrics that really read as blue. That started my thought process. I think I will add to my list of "things to do" to make more blocks to make a quilt using the red, white and blue fabrics. I don't know how big I will make it nor when I will do it but I think that sounds like fun. I have managed to get back into my sewing room for an hour or so in the evenings lately. I have 16 more Christmas stockings in various stages. My new goal is to get those finished, thus donating 50 stockings to my Guild.

A Quilting Hiatus

I feel as though I have been on a quilting hiatus (and a blog hiatus) for several weeks now. I have been so busy with family :) and work that I haven't had much time for sewing. I did manage to make 4 more Christmas stockings and 2 little draw string bags for a little auction at our family reunion. My Mom had some extensive surgery last week and has been having some complications with her recovery. I am trying to do what I can to help her and my Dad. My "other job" is Township Clerk and one of my responsiblities is that of election administrator. Since we have a state primary election on August 3rd I am also knee deep in absentee ballots. Last night I did sit down and try to do some hand quilting but was just so exhausted that I didn't get very much done.
While I am taking a little down time with my sewing machine my husband gave my main sewing machine a little D & C (dusting and cleaning). So now she is ready whenever I have a little free time to sew.