The motorhome is parked in the driveway for a couple days. We are going to handle a few haircuts, a dentist appointment, and then we will refill and regroup to go out again. Depending on the weather, we might take off Wednesday or even Tuesday afternoon. We will see. I think our next goal is to go to a National Forest campground that we know of in northern Wisconsin. We haven't been there for a number of years. It might be nice to get back there one more time before the leaves are down and the snow begins to fall.
For right now, we have a couple things to take care of in the house...
A month or two ago, my good friend Vicky had been sorting through some of her late mother's craft items. She came across this adorable chickadee wall hanging that was only partially finished. She asked if I would mind finishing it up, in honor of her mother to make it for her and her father to enjoy in memory of their beloved mom and wife.
Of course, I jumped at the chance. Beloved Evelyn had already done the hard work of all the adorable little chickadees. All I had to do was finish up the border, sandwich it together with batting and backing.... and run over it with my quilting machine. I put pretty swirls all over it in muted grey thread. Then I put the binding around the edge and four little hanging tabs on top.
It was a lot of fun to finish it up, and I felt thrilled to be asked to complete it for them to remember her and her beautiful work.
Two weeks ago we spent the day with Vicky and I was able to personally give it to her so we didn't have to ship it in the mail. I could tell she was pleased. We had a great day together, hitting all of our favorite old thrift stores, and a bit of silliness for lunch.
Her father does the most beautiful stained-glass work and we have been gifted with a few of his pieces in the past. She handed me a big box and inside was the most beautiful large array of holly leaves and bright red berries with a very delicate beautiful chickadee in the center!
How wonderful is that! What a thoughtful beautiful thing to me as a thank you gift. He really didn't have to do anything, I enjoyed working on the quilt hanging.
Now that we were home for a couple days, I decided to find the right spot to hang it. I walked all around the house looking for the perfect place.
At the top of the stairs in my She Shed, there's this horizontally shaped window that cranks open awning style. It's just the perfect place to hang the chickadee! The hook is securely attached to the glass and it will slowly descend as the window is cranked open and shut. I used to hang a smaller blue blown glass heart from Mexico, and this would fit the space better.
Little Binney watched me put it up into place.
She approves.
Today is Sunday, which means it's a Packer Game Sunday. We do enjoy watching the Packer games, but often I will just listen to them while Steve watches. I will turn around from time to time to watch the good exciting plays. In the meantime, I usually sit my butt right down by the sewing machine or on the bench of my Sanna Kangas Finlander Barn Loom. Time to turn out another rug---
I was looking back in my records and I've already woven 11 rugs from this loom since I got it in mid-July. Two rugs became gifts, seven are already sold from my Etsy store, and I only have two left in my inventory. Time to get some more rugs created. I like the colors in this newest one, is kind of Hit and Miss with some flashes of turquoise, bits of gray, and a few little shots of other colors here and there. I love how the colors undulate from one to another.
I weave with two strips of rags together, doubled up which makes for a thicker rug. It lays flatter on the floor and doesn't rumple up as easily. It also gives the opportunity to make more random color changes, without abrupt endings of one color and beginnings of the next color.
Before the Packer game started, Steve thought maybe we should start planting the three new trees we picked up the other day. Happily, the trees made it through the four days while we were camping without being attacked by our backyard visitors, the deer!
We had stored them close to the garage by the pergola where we hoped the deer wouldn't find them. We were happy to come home and see that none of the branches had been munched off. The first one we got planted was the cute little Japanese maple. This one was smaller than the other two and it is a tree that will stay smaller, more of a dwarf tree. We decided to plant it in the middle of Binney's little fenced-in potty yard. We thought it might give some nice shade to the area where the picnic table is on the patio and add a little color to that portion of the house.
I know it's small now, but hopefully it will spread its branches and reach up to the sky and fill out and become a nice little tree. The leaves are so delicate and dainty and quite small. I've never owned a tree like this before so it will be nice to see it grow and mature.
We quit for the morning and went in the house to watch the Packer game. I worked on my rug while Steve kept good control of his team with some armchair quarterbacking. Of course the players listen to him, and rallied around at the end to win in overtime with a free-throw kick. It was rather chancey but they finally pulled through, with Coach Steve's urging.
It was pretty hot and muggy outside. The temps were in the seventies but the humidity was 79%. It was heavy and grey and cloudy and damp. Not the type of weather we really want to be planting trees in. But they needed to get done.
The next tree we decided to tackle was the red maple tree. This one started losing some of its leaves already, as it is meant to do this time of year. So it might look a little scraggly in the photo. By looking up close we did see some new growth on the leaves and buds so we know it's a good healthy tree. We found the perfect spot for it in the backyard near some of the other maples that we had already planted two weeks ago. We immediately circled it with a new fence and posts and secured it from all three directions with gentle ropes to keep it centered and not bend over in the heavy winter winds.
Here is an up-close pic of some of the maple leaves. It will be nice to see the new fresh ones break out in the spring and fill up the tree. This one seemed more balanced and symmetrical with more branches than the other two maples we put in a couple weeks ago. I think it will be a beautiful shining glorious tree, based at the northwest corner of our backyard.
Now it's time to tackle the willow tree. This was the tallest of the three trees, about 7 feet or so. I was quite excited to get a willow tree. They are generally pretty messy but they are beautiful--- dipping and swaying in the wind as the weeping branches spill over and down like a shower of leaves. We had one when we lived on the river, and I really wanted a willow tree again. We carefully chose a place where the roots would stay very wet. They do the best in that type of soil condition. Along our fence line we have lots of damp land, and there was a perfect spot to put this tree.
We got it into place and filled in the ground around it and gave it a few more bucketfuls of water. Although the ground was already moist and damp, little bit more water doesn't hurt. I think this will make a nice backdrop for our yard, back behind all of the apple trees that are already planted between there and the house.
These thin wispy willow leaves are really messy. They are not easy leaves to rake up if you keep them in a well manicured landscaped yard. With locating it this far back on our two and a half acre plot, the leaves can blow willy-nilly and I won't care. I was looking close at one of the branches and there's even new growth at the tips. That's a good sign for the tree. Hopefully the roots will get a good start this fall, before the cold weather creeps in and freezes the ground.
While we were working on the trees, we heard a cacophony of crazy sounds in hoarse sounding squawks. Overhead was a big flock of sandhill cranes flying to gather in the nature preserve and the state wildlife marsh behind our home. Group after group flew overhead, screaming raucously and calling to each other.
They know it's time to get going and head south. They know better than any of those educated weathermen, don't they? As we were working on the trees we probably saw 200 or more of the sandhill cranes fly over head.
So here's our backyard apple orchard. There are five different apple trees and one cherry tree. All of them have been surrounded by six foot high fences to keep out the deer. After a number of years worth of growth, we hope to be able to take down some of the fences. Closer to the house are 6 new maple trees and a burr oak in memory of my mom. We are doing what we can to keep them safe and give them a good start.
Inside one of the circled fences around the damp moist land I saw this great big mushroom had popped up overnight. It was about 12 -14 inches high and quite delicate and pretty. I don't even know what kind it is. We'll just leave it there to do its thing. I won't bother to pick it or dispose of it because it evidently needs to grow there. It's inside of a fence, so the dog or the grandkids won't get to it either.
After we were all done with our tree planting, we were debating on what to make for supper. It felt too hot and sticky to cook. We turned on the AC in the house for the afternoon, and I didn't want to heat it up again with the oven. There is a little crossroads country bar and restaurant called the Cream City Country Club. It really isn't a country club at all. But it's a cute name. It's only a few miles away. We ordered up some broasted chicken and barbecued ribs for take out. They sure give you plenty of food!
There will be enough left over for lunch tomorrow, for sure.
This evening, we will catch up with some of our favorite TV shows that we missed while we were camping. It's nice that Spectrum TV App allows us to go back in our library in find the favorite HGTV shows that we enjoy watching. So now that the Packers have won, the rug weaving and tree planting is done, it's time to act like couch potatoes and watch a little TV tonight.
Ahhhhh the First Day of Fall!!! Just as if right on schedule, our temps dropped and it's a beautiful crisp fall day. We woke up this morning and noticed that some of the trees are just starting to turn along the edge of the nature preserve behind our home.
Hot coffee tasted especially nice this morning, looking out into the backyard from through the windshield of the motor home. Soon we had to crawl out of our cozy warm motorhome bed and head on into the house. Our plaster guy was coming over to do some more work and we wanted to get inside and take some quick showers and get started for the day.
It was such a pleasant morning, we kept the heat on for a little bit to warm things up in the she shed. I decided to work a little bit on my big Finlander Barn Loom. Working on another "farmhouse rug".
A fellow blog reader purchased one of these farmhouse rugs from me yesterday, and although she lives in Arkansas, she was up camping along the Wisconsin / Michigan border. So what did we do? We saved her having to pay the $14 postage shipping fee and took a ride to her campground and personally delivered her rug to her. It was so fun to meet her in person and to share with her puppies and her travels. Thank you, Deanna!
So it's time to get back to the loom and weave up a couple more rugs. I only have a few left in my inventory so I should get a move on. The summer has passed quickly, and now with this cooler weather, I feel more like creating and exerting some energy to weave more rugs.
Sliding onto the bench of this great big contraption just puts a mesmerizing trance on me. I start weaving ---- the inches grow from underneath my fingers. The shuttles fly back and forth, and the fabrics keep up with the flow of the loom warp. I get up from time to time to advance the work for the next section to be woven.
I have my shuttles numbered so I can flow from section to section of the rug and not put too much of one color in one area and not enough in another. I alternate among the numbered shuttles weaving half of it off in each phase and then going back and weaving the other half off again in rotation.. It makes a nice harmonious blend of colors throughout the rug.
I love the nubby texture of where the seams of the rags are joined. It creates such an interesting surface for a farmhouse rug. I am really enjoying making these rugs. They may be simple in nature of plain weave structure, but to me they are artistic in the flow of the colors. There's something soothing to my soul when I weave these rugs.
While I was working on the rug, Steve was in the garage double-checking the amounts of siding that we are going to put up around the window on the outside of the house. I think I have enough pieces of siding painted up in advance. The new trigger valve part is due to be here tomorrow, delivered by FedEx for his special siding air nailing gun. We really can't put up the siding without that. We called around to some places to see about renting one, but nobody has them. We really didn't want to have to buy another gun, they are over $200.00. He's not about to hammer it nail by nail. So once the new part comes, hopefully he can fix the air gun and we can get back to the siding.
The plastering is going well! He got a lot done this morning, and then left for a few hours for the newest surface to cure and come back later in the evening to spread the final coat. We are having it "skip troweled" so no sanding, no dust, no mess. It will be the same technique he used in the She Shed and we love the muted soft texture which can easily hide flaws or new damages that may happen over time.
The amount of lightness and brightness is so refreshing to see. Soon this will be all done and cured. Then I can prime and paint the white ceiling. The wall color is still up in the air. I like the ligher cream color with the slightly "pearl" color of trim. But then we tossed around the idea of a pale light blueish white. Hmmmmm Not sure yet. We have a few days to decide.
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In between all our recent adventures, something else happened. I might be cleaning up this loom, giving it a good tune up and getting it ready for sale to a new happy owner? It's a Kessenich 4 harness loom with the bench, warping rack and other assorted goodies. Stay tuned. It might be available as soon as I get my butt in gear with my Howards Feed N Wax and some rags and who knows what else it will take???
For now, I am happy with the looms I have so this one will need to find a new home.
Tomorrow I will work on more weaving, but I think tonight is a good one for a long soak in the bubble bath, and relaxing and taking a little break.
Earlier this year, Steve had been up in the attic removing all of the old insulation on the south attic portion of the house. At that time, he could tell there had been bats for quite a while up in that attic. We had been told by the previous owners that they had them eradicated and there shouldn't be any more up there. We couldn't tell if it was new or old bat doodoo, but there was a lot of it up there on top of the old insulation.
Steve had gone around and sealed up everywhere that we figured they could have been getting in and thought we had the problem handled.
But then, a few weeks ago, Steve and I we were up replacing the siding on the front gable of the house. Then I was painting over the new siding and older window frame and attic vent to "pretty up the place". Steve even replaced the screen on the vent and things looked nice and sealed up.
I had noticed a piece of trim that was loose and there was bat poop dangling down out of it. We sealed it up tight and thought that was the end of that. (NOTE: at the same time, I washed that window both inside and out, so it was clean and clear) ....
I think when we sealed up that entry point, we evidently sealed a couple bats up there that couldn't find their way back out!!!
Much to our dismay, a few bats must have been trapped. We didn't know it until two of them managed to crawl down INSIDE of the wall and appeared underneath the staircase in my she shed ... Flapping around and making an awful ruckus!!!
Steve was the hero and got them chased out the door each time. We looked closely at that nice clean window, and now the inside was covered with bat pee streaks and new bat poop sitting on the sill inside. Yup... we still had bats!
Now it was time to call in the experts.
Who do you call?
The Batman of course!
Ryan came and did a complete assessment around the house, and located every single point of entry that he felt that the bats were getting back in. He found 5 or 6 that we missed. Then he erected little external cages with one-way doors. The bats can get out, but not get back in. He sealed up everywhere that he saw that was an entry point. It was interesting to learn about the bats and the spaces they can get through. Their bones are hollow like birds and they can squeeze themselves down flat and get through openings smaller than a quarter of an inch!!
He even found spots along the chimney
that they were squeezing down between
the bricks and the liner.
He also said they leave a little trail of their bat poop (guano) or a trail of pee at the entry points to mark where they are getting in. This signals as a "roadmap" for other bats to also find their way in.
He put up all the gear and left the house set for two weeks to make sure all of the bats were out before coming to remove the cages with the one-way doors. This was the trickiest part of the house in the pic below. He got in a tiny one-way door in the opening up near the eave.
Ryan also suggested that we remove the rest of the insulation in the northern part of the house. That old insulation is actually tiny styrofoam balls and is a real mess to deal with. We were going to kind of ignore it, but Ryan said it's full of bat poo and pee, accumulated for many years. It's another road map to signal those bats to come in and find a way to a safe haven.
We contacted a company to come and give us an estimate of using a big vacuuming device to remove all of the old styrofoam ball type insulation. It's similar to the same stuff that's inside of bean bag chairs --- in other words, dealing with it is a real mess! On the 13th day, Steve was up in the attic with the insulation guy, to investigate changing out the insulation on the older side of the house and guess what they found???? One more bat!
Ack! They only saw one. They had disturbed it's sleep, because it was the middle of the day. It was squeaking and squawking at them and trying to snug itself up tighter into a corner of the attic.
So we called the Batman to let him know there's one more up there and to leave the one-way trap doors on a little bit longer. He came over and double-checked and said yes, it's best to leave it on just a little longer.
Once all of the bats are gone, he will seal up the last space where the one way door is. Then we are guaranteed for a whole year that the bats will not come back. What a nice way to get rid of them without any sprays or poison or killing them.
Bats are valuable and keep down a lot of the insect and mosquito population. That is fine. We just don't want them in our attic!!!
So our next big project will be having the insulation guys come and suck out all of that messy stuff on that north side of the house and blow in all new insulation on that side up to an R50 value. It's such a low roof height on that side, so it's hard to roll out more batt insulation. So we will opt to have blown in insulation done instead. They said they can get it all done in one day. They suck it all out directly into a huge covered dumpster and dispose of it. At the same time we will be adding a second layer of batt insulation to the new insulation we put on the south side of the house which is at R35 right now. There is more headroom there and we can easily unroll the batts ourselves. That way everything will be snug and tight and sealed in. And hopefully, no more bats!
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On my weaving front, I just completed a very interesting rug. Originally, I was just making it to sell in my Etsy store. But as I started weaving it, I realized I was really, really liking it. It was making a visual pattern of interest, and also I realized it was matching our stained glass light fixtures that we have throughout the house.
So I decided that I'm going to keep this one.
Steve was outside walking around in the dark (LOOKING FOR BATS!!!) and he snapped these pictures looking in through the window of me working away on my loom in the she shed. It's kinda cool looking in the big windows at night from outside.
This is such a comfortable cozy room. We spend a lot of time down here, more than we ever do up in the living room or the kitchen or the dining room. I'm so glad that we converted over this attached garage and mudroom into the she shed. It's almost more like a family room with a craft corner?
What's nice is that my looms can be set up all of the time, as well as my sewing machines and my big quilting frame. I don't have to put away all my stuff in between working on projects. I think it lends itself to more impulsive and creative work, because I can just pick up right where I left off --- instead of having to unpack and reset everything each time.
Yesterday, the rug was now done and cut off the loom. I triple fold the hems over and sew them on this very sturdy Singer sewing machine. I own three newer fancier machines and none of them can sew through the thick hems like this good old Singer.
It was a gift to me from my grandmother many years ago. One day, out of the blue, she told me to come up to her house and she had something to give me. This sewing machine made many, many of her quilts over the years, and also my Aunt MaryJane and Auntie Elsie had sewed their school clothes and even their high school formals on it.
It's from 1942. I still have the original manual book that came with it. I just love the formed bentwood case over the top. It is such a rugged but classic Singer.
For a while, I had lost the key to it and that just distressed me so much. For a couple of years, I had to open the case with a tiny screwdriver jammed in the lock. One day, we discovered the key had fallen back behind the cabinet shelf where it was stored in the old buffet at our old house. We pulled the key back out with a magnetic wand and now I keep it securely clipped to the handle on the sewing machine case. Then I will never lose it again! You can see the key in the photo below, hanging off the end of the case which I had just unlocked. As soon as I was done taking that photo, I took the key out of the lock and clipped it back up to the top handle!
The rug is now hemmed up and put in front of our two mission recliner chairs in the She Shed. We sit here all of the time to look out the windows, play cribbage or Yahtzee, or curl up to watch a movie.
This is what we sometimes watch out of the windows....
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I also hemmed up two other rugs that are going up for sale in my Etsy store.
This one I think I'm going to call "A Walk in the Woods". The colors just seemed to suggest little flecks of sky peeking through the green leaves, the gray and brown of the tree trunks as you walk past, a bit of tan in the middle of a foot beaten path through the center of the woods. And then the colors go back off into the trees again with flecks of blue in between the greens on the browns.
This other one I'm thinking is more like the waters on a beautiful northern Wisconsin lake in the middle of summer. You get the dark colors of the trees overhanging the water reflecting on the ripples. The bright blues are the summer sun shining down and reflecting off the water, as well as the darker blues of the deeper sections of the lake. I think this one will be called "Northern Wisconsin Lake" rug.
Earlier this week, my little baking assistant was here to help me get rid of a bag full of big green Granny Smith apples.
It's her job to make them go round and round! I just love this apple peeler corer slicer. There's one version out there that clamps onto the edge of a countertop. This other version is the type that sticks to any smooth surface with a big suction cup that I can engage by pushing a lever over. I like this one better. I've had both kinds over the years and this design I think works better overall.
That little stinker had all the apples done in no time flat. I have to help her remove the center cores, because that's a little hard for her to disengage them, but the rest of it she does all on her own.
Her bonus, of course, is to eat all the long stringy apple peelings. Well, not all of them, but she gobbles down quite a few.
I cut the slits in the top crust with the knife, and she sticks her finger in to widen them for air vents. She thinks that is kinda funny... I have started baking my apple pies now in a deep dish pizza pan. It prevents them from running over the edge and dribbling juice all over inside of my oven.
She carefully sprinkles
the cinnamon and sugar on top
before we start baking
We popped the pie in the oven and waited until the house was filled with wonderful aroma of fresh-baked pie. Yummmmm
Perfection!
Later on in the day, her parents came over for dinner. She was so very proud to show her mommy what she had made.
This very proud little girl
served apple pie
to everyone for dessert!
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We had great big thunderstorms come through early this morning. The thunder was rumbling and lightning was flashing --- soon our power flickered. Happily it came back on, because I was baking apple turnovers in the oven to go with our coffee. Otherwise I would have had to wade through the storm to put the half baked turnovers out in the propane oven in the motorhome.
I made a little video of my rain chain working, with the buckets just overflowing from the huge deluge of downpour.
It didn't last long.
We are now out on the front porch enjoying a little bit of the cool weather this morning before the heat rises later today. The heat index will be well over a hundred, and I'm sure our air conditioning will be chug chug chugging away to keep the house cool. For now, we'll enjoy a little bit of the cool air on the front porch before things change.
Another big storm is to come through later on tonight, and that will bring in a cold front and things should cool down again. We hope.
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