Secret Sewing is Done

I finished the secret sewing project yesterday and can cross that off the list. Yay. It was a fast, fun make and I am thrilled with how it turned out.

These arrived in the mail:

I can now begin working on the appliqué apron project. I probably could manage the appliqué project just fine without these “super nonstick” needles, but they came highly recommended and I’m at the point in my life where I don’t like to monkey around if I don’t have to. In fact, it occurred to me more than once while working on that secret sewing project how much I appreciate having the correct tools for the job. When I needed to round off some corners, I grabbed my 6-1/2” Creative Grids round template and boom!—it was done. No messing with cardboard templates. When I had to make narrow double-fold bias tape, I got out my bias tape maker and ironed the strip of fabric perfectly in seconds.

My time is valuable, especially in the fall.

I dutifully entered my 19 pints of carrots into my canning journal. That has been so helpful for me—I can look back and see when things ripened last year and how much I was bringing in and preserving. We are right on schedule for 2020. I put 25 gallon bags of tomatoes into the pork freezer yesterday and they are still coming in.

And while I was going through some of my MIL’s things, I found this:

It’s her canning list from 1973. The husband would have been seven years old. Sixty-one quarts of tomatoes sounds about right; I usually do between 50 and 75 quarts. (With the bumper crop of tomatoes this year, I may go up to 100.) Sixty-three quarts of peaches also sounds reasonable given how much the husband likes fruit and especially fruit pies.

I was talking to our renter the other day and he mentioned that when I came home from Seattle, he noticed how excited the animals got. He said, “The pigs were running around, the chickens were crowing, and your domestic turkeys were making noise.” I thought to myself, “Domestic turkeys? I don’t have domestic turkeys,” but I was standing outside with the husband yesterday before he went to work and one of the wild turkeys—one of the mamas with the babies—walked up onto the porch.

Apparently, I have domestic turkeys. And they must have sent out a memo because there has been another mama with half a dozen tiny ones hanging out here lately. They must think the yard is a safe place. The free scratch grains probably don’t hurt, either. It’s fine. Lila sees them as additional livestock to protect and leaves them alone.

Speaking of Lila, we’re on bear alert here—she went berserk yesterday morning and started in with her “Danger, Will Robinson!” bark that she saves for bears and giant toads. I ran upstairs to grab the shotgun while the husband went out to see what was happening. (He had the can of bear spray.) Several deer and turkeys ran out of the woods in our direction but we didn’t see a bear. This is the time of year when the bears are out fattening up for winter. No doubt they’d love a chicken dinner.