Ground Squirrels Don't Like Squash

This has been a good year for squash and cucumbers. I hauled in my third wagonload of cukes yesterday. The pigs and chickens got some of the larger ones. The husband continues to snack on fermented pickles. I made him a raspberry/tomatillo pie the other day—Sarah’s recipe—and he had some for dessert last night with vanilla ice cream. I do love the zing the tomatillos add.

I see more spaghetti squash:

And butternut squash:

I am delighted by the dry beans, which promise a bumper crop:

I need to take a peek at the currant bushes today. I think they are probably ready to harvest, too.

Gardens are miraculous.

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The husband has done a bit of research on the BMW issue. He thinks it may be a solenoid in the transmission. ETA: This morning, he tells me that he thinks it is actually an issue with the gearbox. He drove it last night and said it shifted fine when he was shifting it manually. In any case, I expect to be without that car for at least a couple of weeks while he chases down this problem in his spare time. (“Spare time.”)

I am still casually shopping for another car, just in case. There does come a point of diminishing returns.

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I started quilting the log cabin top yesterday. Choosing the design always takes me a while, and I’ve been thinking about how to quilt this one ever since I finished the top. I quilted loops on the version that is on our bed. Loops are fine, but they are easy for me and I don’t improve my skills by always defaulting to easy. This “lollipop” design is one that was stuck in my brain:

It is made using one of Amanda Murphy’s large Lollipop rulers. Log Cabin is a traditional quilt block, yes, but the neutral colors lean modern. I thought a more modern quilting design—streamlined, with rounded lines to complement the blocks—was appropriate.

This was not as straightforward as I thought it would be (things never are), although I got better at it as I went along. My brain kept wanting to make the straight lines between the circles follow the seamlines. However, the “logs” in the blocks are not all straight. Some are a bit wonky, which is part of the charm. I had to force myself to stop seeing the seamlines and concentrate on making the pattern.

[The rulers have registration lines to make it easy to align the current line of stitching with the line that came before it. I am not freehanding these.]

I am quilting this one quadrant at a time because wrestling a king-sized quilt through the Q20 takes a bit of effort. I am glad I bought the hydraulic lift table when I got that machine. I raised the table and brought in one of our kitchen chairs to sit on. We have a “gathering table” with taller-than-normal chairs. By raising the table, I was able to keep the quilt off the floor.

I quilted for two hours yesterday—about all I could handle—and got half of one quadrant done. At that rate, the quilt should be finished in a week or two.

We’re getting a lot of smoke from the surrounding fires. I am going to have to run the air scrubber today because my eyes are very irritated. If the forecast holds, we are in for a cool and rainy weekend, which would be wonderful.