Productive quilting retreat

Last weekend I had a quilting retreat and had a very productive weekend! First, I finished the 14 place mats that I started in August from some fabric my mom bought for the purpose. People kept asking me if I really needed 14 place mats, but the answer is yes! We usually host at least that many for thanksgiving and occasionally host over a dozen for other events (like Easter or Mother's Day). I really like to host gatherings, although it always works better in the months when our sun room (poorly insulated and not on the main house's central air system) is neither freezing nor a sauna.

I also finished a baby quilt that I started at the retreat a year ago, although it really seems like a baby boy's quilt and we're expecting a baby girl. I haven't decided what to do with it yet, perhaps it will just join the stack for the next baby shower I land at or relative who has a baby.

The farm is running OK, but Ryan is working on everything double time so he gets stuff done before the baby is due at the end of April. He's been chain-sawing daily to clear room for the fencing that has to be done, and he's making great progress. We had some "feeder rage" last Friday and lost an ewe and one of our ram lambs; we think the big ram killed them. The little ewe we lost was no big deal, but the ram lamb was a real loss because we were hoping to finish him out for sale this summer. We will still have one lamb now, but that will be it.

The relentless winter & taxes

I think I'm going to remember this winter as The Relentless Winter. For those of you not living nearby us, we have a record number of days in a row with more than 5" of snow on the ground, and every time we turn around it's either more snow or ice.

On this note, we bought a new truck. We are now the proud owners of not one, not two, but three trucks. We bought another one mostly because I just don't like the way the Ford drives. It's the

truck on the left (anyone want to buy a '94 Ford with 4 wheel drive????). The truck in the middle is Ryan's grandfather's truck and is 2 wheel drive (translation: it doesn't make it up the driveway easily between November and March). The truck on the right is the "new" one and is the first truck I've driven that I like to drive! I can actually understand the whole chick-in-a-truck thing with this one.

On another note, we got our taxes almost done yesterday (I say almost because we're missing a form because companies don't have to mail them until Feb 15th this year). This picture is what it looks like when Ryan balances the business books, and it looks this way for at least a week or two. Last year he made it until August before they fell apart, which is better than 2008 when he only made it to July. Considering a vast majority of our business is done after October, we have a way to go before we keep up with things as they come. The final books say the business lost money this year, but we're just on year three so we're optimistic. If you don't count buying the cows, sheep, or water system; we came out ahead by a tiny bit. When we start selling sheep this year they will finally start paying for themselves and we are continuing toward the goal of making money at our five year mark. Bit by bit, we will make it!!

The Fox and Kate's quilt

Maya has been earning her keep recently (along with my mother's golden retriever who is visiting for the week) by going ballistic at random times for no apparent reason. Today we figured out why the two of them were barking their heads off in the sun room: we have a couple of red foxes hanging around the farm. This picture is blurry because it was cropped and taken from a ways away and from inside the house. I'm surprised at how big it is, it probably stands taller than Maya. As long as it stays outside of our "bubble" that is the farm, I'm not inclined to shoot it or trap it or anything. Maybe it's the city girl in me, but I just view it as part of the ecosystem. It's probably the same one we spotted during a walk last spring that we suspect ate one of our ducks. Although we're OK with the whole duck thing because if the duck wandered off that far, perhaps it deserved it....

The tree in the foreground is our peach tree, I really hope we didn't get cold enough this winter to kill our peach blossom buds like last year! I think our low temp for the year so far has been -20 deg F or so, which should still be OK.

On a quilting note, I'm posting a picture of this quilt I finished for a friend a long time ago. I saw the fabric and thought of her, but didn't send it because I was waiting for a BIG EVENT in her life to happen that would warrant that kind of a gift. But I realized that was stupid and it was just sitting, wrapped, on a shelf in my closet for the last year and a half when it should be out and enjoyed by someone! After all, I did finish the darn thing. So I sent it to her and now I'm posting the picture.

Stay warm everyone, at least this last week has had 30 deg+ days and hasn't been nearly so miserable as the week before. We've had some snow melt, so perhaps we're ready for the next round whenever it comes!

My increasingly ambitious project

I started this quilt in the summer of 2007, and it has become my increasingly ambitious project. It started life as a twin sized quilt, which is just the inner section of fans and the first border of ribbons. Then I decided that it was going to be a queen sized quilt because I was going to keep it and we have a queen guest bed. So I added the second set of borders and now it's about 92" x 96". I've finally finished the applique on this sucker and it's time to start quilting it. So even though I don't usually post quilts until they are done, this one will probably be done far enough in the future that we're calling this a sufficient milestone.

I laid it out to make sure I hadn't missed any spots and of course our cat Nermal woke from his slumber because he sensed that somewhere a gigantic bit of cloth that had a ton of work in it just waiting for him to come shed on. My dearest husband started playing with the cat until I told him that if Nermal sunk his claws into this quilt that I would hold him responsible...

"Eve" Lambs

We bought our most recent ewes about 4.5 months ago in August, which brought our flock up to 12 ewes. We also got a ram a couple of months ago and put him in with the ewes at the end of November. Well, it turns out the gestation period of sheep is about 145 days, which comes out to a little over 4.5 months. So surprise surprise we have lambs! We are up to three now. We had a little ewe lamb surprise the heck out of Ryan on Christmas Eve and today (New Year's Eve) we have two more little ram lambs. The ewe looks like she was sired by the previous owner's Barbados ram, which is good because Ryan did want more of that breed's blood in our little flock. She's the cream colored lamb with brown and black spots around her edges.

The two ram lambs look like they take more after their mother, so perhaps they were sired by a Katahdin ram? We really don't know! I guess the word to the wise here is that if you buy new ewes, they could already be knocked up....

Christmas gifts & California

Well, our neighbors are taking care of the farm for a few days while we are visiting my dad in California. I have to say it's nice to get a couple of days away from heavy snow and difficult driving. Ryan flies back tomorrow so I hope he doesn't have too much trouble with the forecast, which currently promises to be dismal. The joys of living in Iowa.

I finished some Christmas gifts, which are the first thing I quilted since August. I hope I can pick quilting up again a little better, I have really fallen off the horse there. These were for my grandmothers, it is always so hard to shop for them and I think they like getting something I make. 'Tis the season for homemade gifts! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and that no one gets stuck in a snow-filled ditch!

Hiatus over & egg carton extravaganza

First, I have to apologize for my long hiatus. I'm so sorry! I have been absent because I'm now about 5 months pregnant and have discovered I am NOT one of those lucky women who feel like a million bucks when they're expecting (they're out there, I know a few!). So instead I have been a huge lump for the last few months and Ryan has been picking up the pieces. On a related note, Ryan HAS kept his blog up very well; it can be found here: http://beginningiowafarmer.blogspot.com/

Now, on to farm business. The growing season is done for us, but the egg layers have really kicked it into high gear recently! We are practically drowning in eggs; although we are continuing to find people who want to buy them. So we ran out of egg cartons and had to order some more. If you ever wanted to know what $150 in egg cartons looks like, this is it. I came home to this ginormous box in my living room and had to share the way the egg cartons seem to come in "columns" within it!

Anyway, it is not my intention to become one of those non-blogging bloggers, so I am hoping to get back to something resembling my bi-monthly-ish update frequency. Wish me luck!!