Another beautiful Sunday

Fall seems to be one hold once again.  Sure, the leaves are falling but temperatures are back in the mid 80's.  Dang, I put my sweet tea pitcher away already....

Life has been pretty low key lately.  John and Josh did some heavy duty yard clean-up with the tractor.  They moved the band saw mill and relocated the log pile.  They dug a bit deeper in the rain "relief" pit.  And they put a door on the greenhouse.  Now, I need to get to work on the inside.

I've been spinning and weaving and crocheting.  Here's my current weaving project.

Ariel's first ever weaving with 2 shuttles

Making me proud! She's only 13!

Friends Chevelle & Christa come to visit & weave.

I showed my granddaughter Ariel how to use the warping board, and she wound a 5-yard warp.  I had given her rather specific instructions on how to tie it to prevent tangles.  She isn't very attentive, so her warp twisted itself into a huge tangled mess.  So she had to wind another warp.  This warp made it over to the loom in good condition.  While sleying the reed & threading the heddles, she again lost focus.  So she had threads all crossed, out of order or broken off.  That warp also went into the burn box.  Warp number 3 actually made it onto the loom.  We got it wound on without too difficulty, and she started weaving.

Look mom! She's weaving!

She wove a dish towel for her mom before the summer visit ended.  So, I took over weaving.  I finished 3 & got them cut off the loom and hemmed.  I sent one to her other grandmother, Margaret.  And I sent one to my mom, Ariel's great grandmother.  I have several more to finish.  There are 3 wound onto the cloth beam at the moment.

My current crochet project is coming along well.  I've been working on a "crochet along" project, Mandala Madness.  My cousin's wife, Maggie, made a Facebook post about it. So I decided to do it too.  It's coming along very well.  I'm almost finished.  I post my projects on Ravelry; user name is PennyTeem.
PennyTeem

An Autumn walk in the woods

It was nice and cool yesterday, so Cricket and I took a long walk on the west side of our property.  I started out thinking I would take some pictures of Fall colors.  I found some really interesting patches of moss and lichens together, and these really interested me.

Cricket & I start out on our walk

Continuing down the lane, heading west, through the center of our property.

Some interesting rocks & moss

Rocks & moss 

I like the color and texture of this lichens.

Interesting colors, textures & shapes

Moss & lichens... a fern too.

Great colors

How many varieties are in this picture? I have no clue

 I love the soft, feathery texture of this moss.

Small, round moss. Very compact and firm

That fathery moss again

Two different compact mosses

Interesting

Venison backstrap recipes

Now that we have a backstrap, how shall I cook it?

Sure, cutting it into medallions and wrapping them with bacon is always wonderful.  Put those babies on the grill... Yum, yum.

I could cook it in the pressure cooker, adding potatoes & carrots for the last 10 minutes is another good old standby.

I could cook it in the dutch oven.  I'd have to build a fire first to do it really old style.

Here's a few recipes from Wide Open Spaces

Another good source for recipes & meat (should you be an urban dweller or non-hunter) can be found at Broken Arrow Ranch.

Pinterest is also a good resource for recipe ideas.  I have a board for Fresh Yummy Food.  There's also  Cooking Tonight.

Butchering a deer

Our neighbor, Jennifer, loves to hunt.  Bow hunting, muzzle loader, or with a modern rifle.  She is part of the River View Farms hunting club, which adjoins our property to the south and west.

She arrived yesterday afternoon and went out to sit in her tree stand soon after arriving.  She  sent me a text at 5:30.  She'd gotten a deer, and would be back at her cabin after dark.  I offered to help her butcher the deer.

Growing up in NE Pennsylvania, the men in our family all went deer hunting.  I was never involve in the butchering.  I remember loving to eat venison, but I don't recall how my mom cooked it...

Our first winter together, John went hunting with his brother Jim.  They both got a deer.  The meat was divided among all the family.  I cooked our portion, but didn't participate in the butchering.

Once we got settled in here, John helped Jennifer butcher a deer.  I learned how to butcher along with her.  It's not difficult work, just messy. The deer we butchered last night took us about 30 minutes...

Our favorite cut, of course, is the back strap.  Any venison is good venison, in my opinion.  Steaks, roasts, stew... We've made deer sausage links in the past.  Yummy, Yummy, Yummy!  Check out my previous post on dutch oven  cooking.

I strongly believe that any animal you kill should be eaten.  Trophy hunting is just wasting good meat!  Rabbit, squirrel, quail, duck, turkey, venison - we've eaten them all.  Waste not, want not is our motto.  Arkansas has a program, Hunters feeding the hungry, the uses donated deer to provided ground meat to local food banks.  They have a website & a Facebook page.  Check them out.

Arkansas hunters feeding the hungry

Quilting

About once a week, I get together with a local group of ladies and work on a quilt. We make 1 quilt a year and raffle it off at our annual Homesteaders event.  I've been involved in the quilt making 3 or 4 years now.

The quilt we raffled off on October 1st was very nice.  The design is called "9 patch".  Here's what it looked like.

2016 raffle quilt

We using the "strip" quilting method.  For those who aren't familiar with quilting, "strip" quilting means all the fabric to be used is first cut into uniform strips (in this case 4 1/2 inches).  Then the strip is cut into squares (again 4 1/2 inches).  These squares are sewn together into "blocks".  The squares in the blocks are now 4 inches wide, the 1/2 inch being the seam allowance. The blocks are then sewn together with another strip, the background color (here it's orange and 6 inches wide). These are then sewn together to make the "field" of the quilt.  Then the border is sewn on (brown in this case and 6 inches wide).  The quilt "top" is now complete.  We sent the top off to a local lady who has a larger sewing machine specifically for quilting large items.  She added a layer of cotton batting, and a "backing" (in this case a king sized sheet), and then sews all 3 layers together - the actual quilting.  The border is folded over and is attached to the backing, giving a nice finished edge.  She did a great job on the quilting.

We used new 100% cotton fabric, washed it and ironed it before we started any cutting.  We used a rotary cutter, ruler and cutting mat to make the strips and blocks.  This makes the cutting much easier.  We take turns doing different tasks, but I normally do the ironing.  I can't cut the strips straight with my wiggly hands...

Last year's quilt was a big more difficult.  We still used the strip method but the sewing was trickier.

2015 raffle quilt

This quilt came out very well, it was also king-sized.

This year's quilt to be raffled off in 2017 will be another 9 patch, in blue/red/yellow.  It will also be king-sized 100% cotton.

Several years ago, I saw that the Parkinson's Disease Foundation was seeking 24 inch quilt blocks from people with Parkinson's, which would be put together and displayed in Scotland.

I was really enthusiastic about this, and make a square to be included.  I used 100% cotton fabric, already dyed using the batik method.  Batik dyeing uses more than 1 color.  The fabric is bunched up, folded or waxed to make the pattern.  I love batik fabric because of the wonderful interplay between the colors.

I used the applique method of quilting.  This is done by cutting all the pieces into the proper shape, and then stitching them fast to the background fabric.  This is done by hand-stitching rather than machine, using the blanket stitch.  I sewed the pieces down the embroidery floss.  The color range on floss is amazing!

Asus Chrome C200

Slowly, but surely, I am entering the cyberworld.

Several years ago, my laptop died.  My husband was kind enough to let me use one of his older taptops.  Now the battery on that laptop had dies.  When I upgraded to a smart phone 2 years ago, I also got a tablet for $10.  Now, that battery won't hold a charge.  And so, my step-son Josh took me to Walmart in Ash Flat to get a new tablet or laptop.

I came home with a Asus Chrome C200. Here's a link on Amazon...
Asus Chromebook with Convertible touchscreen

So, I got myself a glass of wine and started the set-up tutorial.  This laptop doesn't work quite like other's I've had before.  Every file and photo are stored "in the cloud".  Now, this is a challenge for me.  What is the "cloud"?!  Where is the "cloud".  Why do I want to store my stuff there, rather than on an internal hard drive?  Who can see my "cloud"?!  Ahhhhhh!

It's taken me some time to get all my information off the old laptop and tablet.  I've had to get my bookmarks, accounts and passwords organized.  I had to investigate how to get apps and extensions on Google Chrome.

I even challenged myself yesterday.  I took a picture on my phone, saved it to the cloud, opened it on the tablet and posted it to Ravelry.  Wow!  It actually showed up.  Isn't technology amazing?!

Thankfully my phone didn't decide to die along with all my other devices.  I would really have been challenged then!

The weather is still warm.  We had to run the air conditioner yesterday.  We'll probably have to run it again today.  We had over 3 inches of rain Thursday and Friday.  One particular bolt of lightening made all 3 of us jump!  The air conditioner made a snapping sound, and the power went out for half a minute.  Our power continued to flicker for the next few days.  I called the power company yesterday and someone came out.  He found the problem and had it fixed in 15 minutes.  No more blinking lights.