Mystery Beans and Thread

I got the dry beans planted in the garden yesterday morning. A little bit of rain overnight helped considerably; I was able to run the wheel hoe through the bed to loosen the soil and remove the few weeds that had popped up. I put in a row of Great Northern beans (seeds from the batch I grew last year), some unidentified pinto-style beans (also from last year’s crop), Jacob’s Cattle Bean, a variety called Kebarika bush bean, and just for giggles, I threw in some Verde Valle beans that I bought at a Mexican market a while back. They look like green pinto beans. We’ll see what happens with them.

[It’s really amazing how much work you can get done in the garden when you no longer have a full-time job. Things look really good out there. I am able to stay on top of the weeding. The husband lends a hand as needed for the big projects—he’s going to put up a more permanent pea trellis—but the garden is largely my responsibility for the summer.]

I would have continued on and planted the corn, but I needed to get started on grocery bags and I’ve also been having back issues. The husband has a tendency to sleep diagonally across the bed (he’s 6’4” tall) and one morning a few weeks ago, I woke up twisted into my corner of the bed like a pretzel. Ever since then, I’ve been getting spasms in my back muscles. I have a request in for an appointment with the chiropractor. The stretching and bending of working in the garden often helps, but not this time. It really feels to me like my spine needs to be realigned before those muscles will release.

While I was cutting fabric in our bedroom, I kept hearing gobbling noises from the woods. (The window was open and it looks out over the front yard and woods.) A tom turkey was out there strutting around with his feathers up, cruising for females. I don’t know if he ever found any, but he sure was making a lot of noise.

I have a dozen bags cut out and assembling those is on the schedule for today.

My mother brought me a present last weekend:

These come with a story: When I was growing up, there was a lady in our church who worked as a seamstress. Apparently, she used to alter my father’s suits and she brought this thread to my mother so she could work on them, too. (I think that’s how it went. If I messed that up, my mother can correct me.) I don’t know what kind of thread this is, and it’s old, but it will be great for basting.

When I got to Spokane last Thursday, I was driving past a building just north of DD#2’s house and noticed a sign out near the sidewalk that said, “Sewing Machine Operators Wanted.” I was half-tempted to stop in and see what the qualifications were. The name of the company is K-L Manufacturing and apparently, they’ve been around since 1932. The Justus Bag Company is also located in Spokane. They make polypropylene and other kids of storage bags.

It’s just about time to take my Janome 6600P back in for service. I really want the tech to clean the foot pedal, too, as it’s been squirrely lately. Those foot pedals are notorious for problems, like running at high speed even after you take your foot off the pedal. Even though I have a couple of quilts basted together and ready for free motion quilting, I want to wait until after that foot pedal is cleaned and behaving more appropriately to work on them.

I drove the BMW to town last night. It’s nice to have the ultimate driving machine operational again.