It's Hard to Say "See Ya Later"!

We have been spending four days and three nights by my good friend Rosie's house in Bethel, Mo.   We have been weaving buddies for a long time, and try to get together as often as we can.  It's too few and far in between gatherings!  

Steve was looking for some projects, so in between meals (and ice cream) we managed to find a few tasks around Rosie's to keep him busy.

He worked on moving around some van seats from her barn into the older van she is getting rid of, and put her newer van seats into the barn.  She often takes her llamas in the mini-van for vet visits and demo outings, and lays down an oriental rug in the back of her van ... minus the seats.  The llamas walk right in and get on their knees to lay down in the back!   They are very good riders....    She also is known to throw in a big bag of llama feed in town, get to her house, slide it out onto a kid's plastic sled and haul it to her barn!  What a gal!   I won't mention age, but she has earned her grey hairs.   LOL

Steve also worked on a few ideas for revamping her barn doors, and helped build a shelf for over her stove.  He also assembled her new drill press, worked on her commercial sewing machine, adjusted her cabinet door... besides waiting patiently while we gabbed gabbed gabbed and gabbed some more!

Of course, she talked us into going back up to Heartland on Tuesday noon for lunch with her bunch!  She has a creative batch of good neighbors and friends who all try to meet on Wednesdays for lunch there.  But because we were going to leave on Wednesday morning, she managed to get them to ALL change their plans and come on Tuesday, just for US!

left to right- Sue, Rosie, Me, John, Steve, skip to front- Joanie, Joe, Mike and another Joe

we were missing Lisa who is in St. Louis

It was good to see all these wonderful people, a tight knit group who all watch out for one another, care for each other's pets when folks are gone, and generally rely on each other to help out... we are so glad that Rosie is part of such a great group of folks!

Speaking of her neighbors, here is the yard we were parked in to stay for three nights... thanks again so much Joe and Sue!

If you have any desire to support 

American Made Products 

from artists with their own studio and creative 

art work of their pottery pieces, please visit:

SJ Pottery LLC
Susan Skinner * Joseph Jostes
Traditionally inspired Redware, Mocha and Salt Glazed Stoneware

http://www.sjpottery.com/

317 N Main Street
Bethel, Missouri  63434
660-284-6549
sjpots@marktwain.net
on Facebook: SJ Pottery LLC

The items they create are just amazing.... 

and it's so hard to choose what you want to bring home! 

Here is Sue working custom designs on some of the clay "green ware" 

and Joe throwing a pot on the wheel

 Rows and rows of glazed pots ready for the kilns.... 

More "green ware" ready for then next firing in the kilns

 Some more of the finished items in other colors and designs... 

ready to be packed up and shipped out all over the world! 

(Rosie helps with the packing, so if you buy something, she may well have had her hands on it)

As our time drew to a close, Rosie and I were trying to get in as much gabbing as we could... she also had an extra sewing machine that she was not using, and managed to convince me to take it home!  It will be great for more detailed stitching on my quilting endeavors.   Rosie is also an accomplished painter, and insisted we take this lovely framed landscape oil painting to hang in our new home!  WOW!

Last spring, Rosie also had taken one of my large Union rug looms off my hands when we were preparing to sell the house.  She insisted it come back with us again, now that we have a house.  Oh boy... so that is loaded up into the Tracker and she tossed in one of my dye pots too.  She is trying to retrofit my weaving studio back to the way it was, I think!

For our "Last Supper" I hauled out my pressure cooker, tossed in some tenderloin (thanks to Paula!)  and some onions, garlic, taters, carrots, peas and a few envelopes of gravy mix, a good dollop of Andria's Steak sauce and set it to cooking... yummm it smelled so good on a cold wintery windy day!
 

Rosie whipped up a batch of crescent rolls, and took them over in a homemade bread cloth in a basket.  Inside the basket she had a clay disc from the potttery that Sue and Joe make to keep rolls warm!   And she gave us THAT too!

 (of course, we followed up the meal with more ice cream.....)

Toddled off to beddy-bye with full bellies and hoped to get an early morning start! 

In the morning, at 7 a.m. it was cloudy and grey skies heavy with snowflakes... dang! We got the motorhome road-worthy, got it out of Sue and Joe's drive (thanks again you guys!)  and hooked up the Tracker.  Steve noticed some antifreeze leaking on the ground behind the motorhome!!!  OH OH ... that is NOT GOOD!   He is hoping it's just the overflow, because he did add some distilled water to the radiator back in the warmth of Del Rio, TX by the Mexican border.  Because it was 22 degrees this morning when we reluctantly started the engine, we hope it's just the overflow before the thermostat warmed up and opened.  We are carefully watching the gauges and computer readout on the Vmspc panel and stopping every so often to check for any more leaking. 

Snapped a few more shots in Rosie's yard as the sun was coming up in the east... such a peaceful tranquil little farm on the edge of a quaint little town.  Her llamas were enjoying the morning and we said our "see ya later"s to each one.  

See you soon, Rosie, and next time Linda will be along with us... 

so all THREE of us can eat ice cream! 

We are heading east and then north, with snowflakes swirling around us but nothing really sticking yet... hope to make it to the border of Wisconsin today--- stopping at weaving buddies Jim and Norma Burket of http://www.paandmasrugs.com and Juanita and Normie of http://www.vavningstudio.com

(more artists who make things in America) 

The snow has finally stopped as we are in central Illinois now while I type this.  

Almost to Bloomington, so will probably make the border to Wisconsin by 3 or 4p.m.

Gusting winds from the west are making it a "2 hands on the wheel" drive for Steve.....