Am I Sewing Anything?

I still haven’t sewn anything on the 1541. I’m not afraid of it; rather, it is more that I don’t want to learn by making stupid, avoidable mistakes. I am watching lots of YouTube videos. Jess, at the Jess OklaRoots channel, makes bags on a 1541 and her videos have been helpful. She calls her machine “Beasty” which is the perfect name for it.

I also decided to organize and reacquaint myself with the utility fabrics section of my stash. I took all of those bins out of the closet. One of them contained parts of canvas grocery bags—abandoned halfway through the assembly process—so I spent some time cutting more duck canvas and making a stack to finish.

I don’t like half-finished projects. They weigh on me. I want to finish my Ravenwood Messenger bag, too. The outside shell is done:

I have to finish the lining and sew it in. (The color is a bit more green and less yellow.)

My thread order from Wawak arrived yesterday. Their service is amazing. I placed that order Monday afternoon. I ordered needles from Cutex and they are supposed to arrive Monday. That’s assuming we don’t have a substitute mail carrier who decides to quit and go home even though all of the mail hasn’t been delivered, which happened this week. I made a quick trip into town yesterday afternoon to look for more duck canvas at Joanns and to pick up some concrete supplies for the husband. I left Joanns empty-handed, which seems to be the way of things lately. I don’t think I have bought anything there for almost two months. They had no black or navy duck canvas. I went to Hobby Lobby instead. I also stopped at the sew and vac place in town hoping they would have some industrial needles, which they did, so I picked up a few more packs. I have an irrational fear of running out of needles.

I have to plant beans this morning and get some hose lines laid out, but after lunch, I am hoping (finally) to sew on the 1541. I’ve got plenty of projects stacked up. I have thread. I have needles. I understand the basic operation of the machine. I am out of excuses.

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The CenturyLink saga continues. They disconnected our internet per my request, but then our long-distance phone service stopped working. I contacted them to find out what was going on. The customer service rep said they would have to send out a tech to check the line. She said that if the problem was inside our house, we would be responsible for the repairs. Would I like to add “inside line insurance” to our account for $15 a month? I declined, saying that I was pretty sure the problem was on their end. In the meantime, I’ve gotten a barrage of e-mails from CenturyLink asking “How Can We Make it Right?” Apparently they have never heard (or heeded) the advice that it is easier to keep an existing customer than to woo back one who has left.

I don’t know how some of these companies stay in business. And I know that I am starting to sound like a broken record but really, some of this nonsense is getting ridiculous.

My complaint to the insurance commissioner of Montana yielded stunning results. Not only did Liberty Mutual issue the check they had been promising for six months, they sent a second check for interest AND they responded formally by letter to the insurance commissioner. The letter acknowledged that they had failed to process the claim properly and that upon further review, they concluded that they owed us another several hundred dollars in interest and would be sending a check for that amount. It pays to be a squeaky wheel.

Prepping Projects for the 1541

My Wawak thread order is on the way. I ordered 2” wide twill tape from an Etsy seller for a curtain hemming project for my neighbor and that’s been shipped. I ordered some yardage of polyester Ottertex waterproof canvas because I want to see how it behaves compared to waxed canvas. And I am about to put in an order for some 1680 Denier Traveler nylon from Seattle Fabrics because that is the fabric I used for the first generator cover. I made that generator cover in 2016 and it’s still going strong. The second one hasn’t held up quite so well—it was made from a lighter-weight Cordura—so the husband has asked for a replacement made from the Traveler nylon. I also have to make a cover for the Miller welder/generator that powers the house when we’re off the grid. Its cover is beginning to disintegrate. This is my sketch for that one:

My drawing skills are nonexistent. I know what all those lines and measurements mean, though, and that is what is important.

The best way for me to get comfortable with the new machine is with a smaller project. I pulled some waxed canvas out of the stash for a Forever Shopper by Spencer Ogg patterns:

This is a no-fuss shopping tote with French seams. The pattern has both a large and small size. I prefer patterns that have cutting instructions by width and height rather than ones with pattern pieces that have to be taped together and cut or traced. This pattern had to be taped and traced, but I was willing to do that because it has some interesting shaping at the bottom. I prepped the pattern yesterday. I’m going to make the smaller size to start.

I also organized my bag patterns. I have a lot of bag patterns. Some women love shoes; I love bags. I’ve got every pattern that Anna Graham at Noodlehead has put out, because her stuff is so good. I’ve also got a lot of byAnnie patterns.

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I finished trimming the yard with the push mower yesterday morning. Full bags of grass clippings get emptied into the chicken yard for the clucks. I thought I could empty the first bag without turning off the electric fence, but I managed to shock myself on the wiring along the door. The jolt is enough to make one utter a few bad words.

After that, I took the push mower out to the garden and mowed the perimeter. Those grass clippings get dumped onto the potato patch for mulch. However, I slipped on the grass clippings I had put down the last time I mowed and fell down—very gracefully, I must say—onto my right hip. I have plenty of padding there and my fall was cushioned by another pile of grass clippings. I’m not feeling sore this morning, which is good.

I was already down on the ground, LOL, so I worked on weeding the potato patch until it started to rain. It did occur to me that perhaps I just ought to sit in a chair and read a book for the rest of the day so I didn’t injure myself further.

The beans I started last week are up in the greenhouse and almost ready to transplant, as is the corn, and those will be the last crops to go in. I am going to start some trays of lettuce in the greenhouse next, and I’ll also clean out and restart the lettuce-growing system in the basement. Theoretically, I can keep lettuce growing in that system indefinitely, but the jars get covered with algae and have to be cleaned every couple of months. The lettuce I grow is so superior to store-bought in terms of taste and texture, though, that it is worth the extra effort.

Competing Interests

This is a bad time of year to get a new sewing machine. I have too many activities vying for my attention, some of which—like growing food—are time sensitive and cannot be put off. I did oil the 1541 and run it, without needle or thread, for about 10 minutes on Monday. That machine came installed with a servo motor, which is supposed to be easier to operate than a clutch motor. The speed of the servo motor can be adjusted. I might slow this motor down a touch, but I didn’t feel like the machine was running away from me.

I also cleaned, oiled, and re-threaded the industrial Juki serger. That machine lives in the basement. Right now I have it set up for a three-thread overlock stitch. Getting the tension dialed in took a bit of fiddling as the tension knobs have no numbers on them. I backed all three of them all the way out, then adjusted them one at a time. I was getting a goofy wave stitch, though, where the tension on the lower looper alternated between tight and loose, thus making the upper looper “wave” back and forth across the seam. Fun fact: BabyLock has a proprietary Wave Stitch setting/dial on some of their higher-end sergers. Second fun fact: The manual for my domestic Juki serger gives instructions on how to create a wave stitch (lowercase) manually.

Because I know how this stitch is created, I examined the threading path for the lower looper to see if it was getting hung up somewhere. (The wave pattern was regular and repetitive.) Sure enough, I noticed that the thread had gotten twisted around one of the thread guides twice. I untwisted it, serged another sample, and the stitch was perfect.

I have to decide if I want to add the left needle and the chain looper to make a five-thread stitch. (This machine cannot do a four-thread stitch, only three- and five-thread stitches.) Adding the left needle and chain looper makes a chain stitch about a quarter of an inch away from the serged seam. Do you have on a pair of jeans? Look at one of the leg seams. You should see a straight line of stitching—the chain stitch—as well as serger stitches.

The chain stitch adds a second seam for durability. It is the same kind of stitch found on feed bags and dog food bags, and will “unzip” from the bottom to the top.

Threading the chain looper on this machine requires that I stand on my head and whisper softly to it as I attempt to feed the thread through the correct guides. I’ve done it before but I’m not sure I want to do it again. Some of it depends on how I plan to use that serger. Will I be seaming or just finishing edges? Will I be working with light fabric or heavy fabric? While I was making up my Wawak order, I added a new-to-me serger thread. I think I’ll try the new serger thread and then decide how many threads I want to use.

[The number of different threads I have for all these machines is mind boggling.]

Interestingly, the industrial serger has an old-fashioned clutch motor on it. To hear people talk, clutch motors are the spawn of Satan. I don’t find them that objectionable, perhaps because I am used to driving manual transmissions. The serger’s clutch motor is smooth and quiet and I don’t feel the need to replace it with a servo motor.

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I’ve been meaning to mention how much I like the finger stiletto I picked up on one of my Seattle trips last year. This little gadget has come in very handy when assembling those log cabin blocks because of all the seams:

The stiletto can be worn a couple of different ways; this is the way I like to use it. It keeps the seams from flipping back as they go through the machine. I have a long, pointed needle stiletto, too, but I prefer the control I have with this one.

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The rain stopped and I was able to cut the grass yesterday. I’ll finish the trimming this morning. I said to the husband that perhaps it is my imagination, but it feels to me like the ground underwent a lot of frost heaving over the winter. Our yard has never been level, but riding that mower around yesterday was like four-wheeling in Baja. And it isn’t just in our yard; I noticed the same thing out in the garden.

I have not yet—fingers crossed—seen any rodent damage in the garden. I have a motion-detector solar light pointed at the row of peas and I keep moving the fake owl around near the spot where the ground squirrel tunnels come out. The turkeys have steered clear of the garden, and I suspect it is because they are scared of the pigs.

I have a new friend:

It was in the path between the herb garden and the chicken yard when I went out to feed the clucks. I delivered a stern lecture on staying out of the chicken yard lest it get eaten by a flock of fluffy velociraptors. I haven’t seen any snakes out in the big garden yet, but I keep watching.

Learning to Sew (Again)

I am chatty this week, with everything that is going on.

I have not yet sewn on the 1541—you would think I’d be itching to get started, but I want to get my ducks in a row, first. I can quote chapter and verse on needles and thread for domestic machines—I am teaching a three-hour class in August on nothing but needles—but industrials are a whole ‘nother field of study. Thread weights are labeled differently. Needles are much larger (the 160/23 needle in the machine looks like a spear) and come with specialty points for leather and vinyl. I reached out to my friend Cristina, who owns Bumbleroot Design, and she provided helpful guidance on her favorite thread and needles. I do have some thread on hand already, but it’s thinner than what I am probably going to need for some projects. I’m doing my research, first, and putting together a shopping list at Wawak.com.

The 1541’s big selling feature is its triple-feed system—this foot is what allows it to sew through the heaviest materials like butter:

Like a domestic machine, it has feed dogs that grip and move material. It also has a walking foot that feeds both pieces of fabric at the same rate. Many domestic machines have an integrated walking foot or can be fitted with one. A walking foot is what allows sewists to match stripes and plaids more easily without fabric shifting.

But wait, there’s more! The 1541 also has a “needle-feed” system. Vintage sewing machine enthusiasts know needle-feed from machines like the Singer 78, which is the machine I’ve borrowed occasionally from my friend, Tommy. Needle-feed works just like its name—the needle advances with each stitch and helps to feed the material through the machine.

If you’re curious about what this machine can sew through, watch this video and prepare to have your head explode.

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I am also trying to stay ahead of weeds in the garden. The black plastic helps a lot, but the weeds still manage to get a foothold. The potato patch needs some work. And with all the rain we’ve gotten, the grass keeps growing and needs to be cut. We should have strawberries soon.

The billboard tarps are down in the herb garden:

They will stay here until next spring. In the meantime, I will dream of the possibilities of a kitchen/medicinal herb garden that doesn’t look like barely-controlled chaos.

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Susan’s daughter came over yesterday afternoon with her husband and two little boys, who will be 4 and 2 this summer. The boys wanted to see the piggies, and the older one is especially fascinated with construction equipment. (Do not tell me that little boys and little girls are not inherently different, because I have eyes as well as common sense.) Susan’s daughter and SIL are building a house and they would like the husband to do the foundation. While the adults talked, the little boys played with the set of wooden trucks my father made when I was pregnant with DD#1. (He was hoping for a grandson, obviously.) The set includes a loader, a grader, a bulldozer, a tractor-trailer, a scooper, a lowboy, and a few other pieces. I keep them in a box in the living room. They have provided hours of entertainment for Ali and Elysian’s boys. When the adults were finished talking, we went out and let the kids climb up and sit in the forklift, the backhoe, the track loader, my tractor, and the golf cart. Their mom said to me, “Your place is a paradise for little boys,” and I laughed and said, “It’s a paradise for big boys, too.”

A Productive Day on the Homestead

I was out in the garden bright and early yesterday morning and got the broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage starts planted. It looks like I am growing enough food for a family of eight, but the piggies on the other side of the fence will be happy to eat any excess.

Just as I finished planting, it started to rain. Wonderful timing! The husband had gone to check on one of his jobs, so I headed to the garage to finish putting the 1541 together. It is quite the beast:

Thank goodness for the Juki Junkies video or I would have been lost. The machine did not come with a manual, for some odd reason. I downloaded one off the Juki website. I tried to print it but our printer choked on it because the manual is 96 pages in five languages. I have to get a couple of sewing patterns printed at Kalispell Copy this week, so I’ll just have them print me a copy of the PDF at the same time.

I’m hoping to fire up the machine and try it out this afternoon. I need to catalog the supplies I have on hand—I do have needles and some thread—and make a list of what I have to order. The factory makes sure the machine can sew before it is shipped, and it arrived with a piece of heavy vinyl under the presser foot with some stitching on it.

The husband returned from the jobsite, got the tote that we use for pig feed, and headed to a local farm to have them fill it. We buy a thousand pounds of feed at a time and the farm loads it right from the grain bin into the tote. When he got back, he unloaded the tote from his truck with the forklift and hauled it over to the other property to drop it off by the pig pasture.

I had remembered that there was a currant bush still in the old herb garden, so I dug it out and moved it over to the big garden with the rest of the currants. I did some weeding around the berry bushes and put down new cardboard from a stack I had saved in the greenhouse. The cardboard is great for keeping weeds down around the bushes and the previous layer had almost completely disintegrated.

After lunch, the husband tackled the herb garden demolition. We put that garden in when we built the house in 1996. A few years later, the husband doubled the size of it with a second, separate garden for vegetables. The veggie garden had raised beds. Over the years, everything rotted and disintegrated and the plants took over—herbs on one side and quackgrass on the other.

I asked him to take down the fencing between the two gardens to make one big garden. The whole area needed to be leveled, too, as there was more dirt on one side from the raised beds.

He brought in the track loader and started the demolition.

I love to watch him work. He went back and forth, pulverizing the vegetation and leveling the ground.

When he finished with the track loader, he rototilled the whole garden. “Now you have a blank slate,” he said. We will put down billboard tarp for this summer to kill whatever is left underneath and I will redesign and replant it next spring. I plan to put down new weed barrier, new gravel, and install new beds.

By then, it was time to clean up for date night. We have a stack of gift cards to local restaurants courtesy of some of his customers who like to show their appreciation for his work. I made reservations at a place in town called Mercantile Steak. This is a newish business, in a location where several restaurants have been before it.

We will go back, definitely, although their menu is not friendly to people who don’t eat wheat. I just need to remember that and plan accordingly. Our meal started out with a popover hot from the oven, with chive butter to spread on it. The husband wanted to order the onion ring appetizer until our server mentioned that they were fried in a cilantro batter and I had to remind him that he thinks cilantro tastes like soap. (I, on the other hand, love cilantro.) We got mushroom toast, instead, which was fabulous—sautéed mushrooms and roasted garlic on crostini. He ordered the smoked prime rib for his entree. I am not a huge fan of red meat, so I opted for the blackened halibut. It was done to perfection and served on a bed of farro risotto. Farro is a kind of wheat, so I didn’t eat that. We finished off the meal with dessert. He had cheesecake and I had the peanut butter and chocolate mousse. I was stuffed by the time we rolled out of there, but the entire meal was excellent. A storm was rolling in, so we opted not to go to Lowes or Home Depot and headed home instead.

The 1541 is Here

In between rain showers yesterday, I dug some plants out of the old herb garden, mostly lavenders and one columbine that I particularly liked. The husband now has free rein to go in there and tear things up. I also swept out the old garage and made a space for the 1541.

All 64 blocks for the quilt are done. After lunch, I organized them into groups of four and started sewing huge four-patch blocks together. I’ve done 8 of 16 so far. I’ll have to get a backing for the quilt—probably a wideback so I don’t have to mess with piecing one—and I’ve started thinking about how I want to quilt it. This top might be a good candidate for the Amanda Murphy Baptist Fan ruler set. I want a certain density to the stitching but I don’t want the quilt to stand up by itself.

Around 2:30 pm, the freight company truck pulled into the driveway and the driver unloaded my machine:

We still have a bit of work to do before I can sew on it. After dinner, I got as far as taking off the shrink wrap and putting casters on two of the table legs. The store I purchased from has some great YouTube videos on putting the machine together. The oil pan has to be attached to the table and a few other pieces have to be assembled. I could do it, but it will go faster with the husband helping.

I got an e-mail yesterday that Sew Expo has opened submissions for class proposals for next year’s event. Proposals have to be submitted before September 15, 2023. I’m going to make a list of at least half a dozen classes I could teach and start working on those. I will concentrate mostly on knitting classes. For all that I haven’t knitted much in the past 10 years, I’ve got a solid background in that area. (Yes, it’s called Sew Expo but they offer classes in other textile arts, too.) We’ll see. I might be able to come up with some sewing/serging classes.

[Tera, you have been warned. We’re going to Sew Expo again next March.]

It feels good to be settling into the summer routine—gardening in the morning and sewing in the afternoon.

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We lost a friend of ours on the fire department this week. Billy was always quick with a smile or a hug—the first time he saw me after my week-long vacation in the ICU, he said to me, “Hey, I came to see you in the hospital, do you remember?” and I laughed and said, “No, Billy, I was unconscious.” And he said, “Well, you look a lot better now than you did then.” (Our EMS friends were able to get into the ICU so several of them stopped by my room.) In addition to being a volunteer firefighter, Billy worked with Dream Adaptive, a local organization that provides recreation opportunities to people with disabilities. He was one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. I last saw him at the Auction in April when he sat and visited with Amanda and me for a bit in the equipment sale trailer. He will be missed.

I have another friend—one I only know from online, but she is also a special human being—who has just been diagnosed with leukemia. Her doctors want her to have an autologous stem cell transplant. The bone marrow harvest was scheduled for yesterday but then postponed. This poor woman has had a run of hideous bad luck not of her making, and this diagnosis was just the icing on the cake. I do wonder, sometimes, why the universe decides to throw certain people into the meat grinder. For fun? If you would, please spare a few moments and send good thoughts to Jenni.

Perfect Gardening Weather

I downsized the tomato patch and only planted 32 plants this year. Last year, I put in 40. I reserve the right to add a few more, though, if I run across any others I’d like to try.

Planting required that I get down on the ground, cut an X in the plastic—it’s a new sheet—bend the flaps back, get up, dig the hole, get back down and plant the tomato, get back up and put the tomato cage over the plant, then move to the next spot. It was a lot of moving around, which is good for me, but after 32 plants, I decided I had done enough calisthenics for the day.

[I have been mildly anemic for years—probably because my bone marrow took a beating when I had chemo—and it’s driven my naturopath and me nuts because we couldn’t get my iron levels to budge. I think I’ve finally gotten them up to something resembling normal, though, because I’ve noticed that I have more stamina this spring than I’ve had in a long time. I take an iron supplement called Perque and it seems to be helping.]

Half of the plants are Oregon Star, which is my preferred paste tomato variety. I did stick one Roma in there, too, which came from the kids at the elementary school via the plant sale. We’ll see how those two compare this year. I also put in a couple of Aunt Ruby’s Green, some Dirty Girls, a Weisnicht’s Ukrainian, two Cherokee Purple, a couple of beefsteaks, half a dozen unique varieties that Sarah gifted me, and a cherry tomato called Blue Boar Berries. I don’t usually plant cherry tomatoes, but Elysian grew these last year and gave me a plant. I loved them so much that I put one in again this year.

I went heavy on the paste tomatoes because this is a tomato sauce year. Last year, I did salsa, and we still have plenty. We’re getting low on sauce, though.

The weather has been perfect lately—not too hot, with intermittent rain showers—and it looks like it will continue for at least another week. The strawberries are looking fabulous:

The peas are up and the potatoes also look great. I still need to put up the bamboo teepee and plant the pole beans, and I also have to put in the cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli. I will plant all of those today if we get a break in the rain. The cucumbers and melons are going to spend a few more days in the warm greenhouse as they are a bit on the small side yet.

The husband is going to run the track loader through the old herb/veggie garden here by the house this weekend. That whole space is terribly overgrown. I am going to take out a few plants I want to save, but then that area will be dug up and covered with a billboard tarp for the summer. If all goes according to plan, I will be able to start over next spring with new beds (on level ground) and new plants. I don’t mind having the vegetable garden on the other property, but it would be nice to have herbs closer to the house to use when I’m cooking.

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The Juki 1541 is supposed to show up today. Let’s hope.

After lunch yesterday, I worked on the scrappy log cabin quilt that is destined for the craft co-op sale. I finished the half-dozen blocks that Robin started for me last week, then began laying out blocks in groups of four to sew together. This project has spanned almost a year, and the blocks from the beginning have completely different fabrics in them than the more recent blocks, so I’m trying to mix things up as I go.

Today is our 33rd wedding anniversary. (Where does the time go?) I think we’re going to have date night tomorrow to celebrate.

What Feeds Your Soul?

Our interim pastor likes to ask this question of people: “What feeds your soul?” I love this. It’s a good way to cut through the chit-chat and get to know someone. Asking this can also help someone who might be struggling to meet other’s expectations instead of their own, or reveal parts of their personality they might not have realized existed.

A few years into working as a medical transcriptionist, I had a conversation with another woman whose child went to our local elementary school. She had just finished the same training course I had taken and wanted to know how I liked working from home. For me, medical transcription was a dream job. To her, it looked more like a nightmare. She was very outgoing and people-oriented. The thought of working alone for eight hours straight was terrifying, and I wondered why she hadn’t considered that outcome before she took the training course. Being stuck at home by herself all day certainly wasn’t going to feed her soul.

Someone snapped this photo at the Bernina Meet and Greet on Monday. I borrowed it from the quilt store’s Facebook page:

I must be pontificating about pillowcases. The lady in yellow was my first student and I probably used her pillowcase as the class sample.

I looked at that picture, and the one Sunnie took of me at the plant sale, and thought how interesting that there were two photos within days of each other in which I was doing something I love. Very different activities, to be sure, but ones that feed my soul. And if I’m going to be thorough about it, I’ll throw this one in, too:

This was taken at the wedding of my friend Susan’s daughter. I am playing Susan’s mother’s piano, which resides in our church. I get to play it every Sunday. Music feeds my soul. So does gardening, and so do sewing, knitting, and other textile arts.

That is your philosophy seminar for today.

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In other news . . .

The husband got a phone call from Liberty Mutual yesterday. Apparently, reporting an insurance company to the state insurance commissioner puts the fear of God into them. Not only are they sending the check for the $6000 they owe us, they are sending another check for the interest that accumulated from them not sending it when they said they would.

And after realizing that no one from the freight company was going to respond to my e-mail or call and ask when I wanted the machine delivered, I called them on Tuesday and set up a delivery for tomorrow. I also let the store I purchased the machine from know about the issues with the freight company so they could let Juki know. (The machine was shipped directly from Juki’s warehouse in New Jersey.) I need to clean the garage before the machine gets here so we have a place to set it up.

I started putting plants into the garden Tuesday morning but had to stop and meet the driver from the Food Bank at our community center. He came out to get the leftover plants from the sale. The Food Bank was delighted to get them and we were delighted to pass them on. It rained hard yesterday morning and I had an appointment in town, so I didn’t work in the garden. I am still ahead of schedule, though, and I should have everything in the garden by the end of the weekend. I have three flats of beans and one flat of corn started in the greenhouse. They won’t take long to germinate and get big enough to plant.

I picked up two solar-powered motion detector lights in town yesterday. These can be mounted low to the ground on stakes. I am going to put them in the garden and aim one at the peas and one at the rows of broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. If the forest animals want to sidle up to the salad bar, they are going to have to do so in full-spectrum spotlights.

Yesterday morning, I said to the husband—only half-jokingly—that I would see him again at the end of the summer. We’ve reached that time of the year when we’re together and awake for about 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening. The poor guy had to pour concrete at 6:30 yesterday morning. It is getting harder and harder to schedule pours because the batch plants are so busy.

Thumbscrews

The husband’s truck accident was in February 2022; his work truck and the dump trailer he was towing were totaled by the insurance company. We received payment for both items from the at-fault driver’s insurance company (Safeco/Liberty Mutual) within about four months. We also had submitted a list of damaged/destroyed tools for compensation. That list got batted around for over a year. We were assigned to claim agent after claim agent—five in total—and each one wanted the list and documentation, sometimes multiple times. Finally, around February, I was told that the claim had been approved and we would be getting a check for $6000.

Then, nothing. I e-mailed the agent, only to be told that we were being assigned to ANOTHER agent. The new one also wanted documentation. (I had all of this scanned into a file on my computer, so re-sending wasn’t a big deal other than the ridiculous repetitive requests.) He hemmed and hawed and delayed, telling me he would follow up on the claim and get back to me.

Around the middle of April, I’d had enough. I e-mailed him back and threatened to report him to the Montana Insurance Commissioner. I got an immediate response via e-mail. Could he call and discuss the claim? I was on my way to Tennessee, so I gave the date when I would be home and said I would expect a call that week.

Did I get a call? No. And when I tried to contact this agent to set up a phone call, I got an out-of-office reply. I noted the date when he was supposed to be back in the office and tried again. I got another out-of-office reply, so yesterday morning, I filed my complaint with the Montana Insurance Commissioner, e-mailed the backup address given in the automatic reply, and attached a copy of the complaint, helpfully provided in PDF format by the insurance commissioner’s office.

And then I went to town.

The Bernina Meet and Greet Event was great fun. I had listened to an interview with Paul Ashworth, CEO of Bernina, on the Sew & So podcast about a year ago, and yesterday, I got to meet him in person. Literally all I got to do was say hello and shake his hand, because he and the district sales rep were only there for an hour and I was busy demo-ing the L890 serger. The store had set up stations with different machines for customers to try, and put together pillowcase kits so that anyone interested in trying the serger could make one on the machine. I would have chosen a smaller and less complicated project, but I made it work. I got people lined up and churned them through, so that by the time we were done, about a dozen customers had made pillowcases on the serger.

[This was despite being told by one attendee that I was “doing it wrong” when I was showing people how to roll up the pillowcase burrito-style to make an enclosed seam. I am not unfamiliar with this woman; she seems to have a need to parade around the store and show off how much she knows. Her method works, yes, but so does mine, and I’ve made probably a hundred of these things.]

I had something of an epiphany yesterday while watching all these customers make their projects on the serger. There seem to be an awful lot of people who were taught by their sewing teachers to hold their fabric in front of and behind the presser foot and guide the fabric through the machine, except “guiding” sometimes morphs into “pulling,” which makes me very nervous, especially on a serger. Pulling the fabric as it’s going through the machine increases the likelihood of deflecting the needle enough that it will hit the throat plate instead of going down into the hook area, and that increases the likelihood of damaging the timing of the machine. (Judging by the number of chewed-up throat plates I have seen on sewing machines, this happens frequently.) I also had a couple of customers who were pulling on the top layer of fabric—a technique I’ve seen used on the sewing machine to keep the layers even when sewing—but that method isn’t necessary on the serger. My preferred method of serging is to hold the layers of fabric loosely with my right hand and support them with my left hand, allowing the serger to feed the fabric through.

After the event, I ran a few errands and came home. Guess what I found in my e-mail inbox? A response from another agent at Liberty Mutual, apologizing profusely for the delay in processing our claim. He attached a copy of the check for $6000 and said that it would be mailed today.

I also checked the tracking info for the sewing machine—the system sometimes recognizes the tracking number and sometimes not—and found a note that the freight company is holding the machine in Missoula, where it has been since the middle of last week, until they find out when I would like it delivered. Has anyone contacted me to ask? No, they have not. I e-mailed the company and said I would be home all week and that I’d be happy to take a phone call to arrange a delivery time.

The level of incompetence out there stuns me anew every single day.

The blog needs a picture, so here is one of yours truly with Jim, one of our dedicated helpers—he is on the fire department with the husband, too—at the plant sale. Those things on my arms are my Farmer’s Defense UPF sleeves for sun protection. The apron is one I made from fabric I bought at Sew Expo.

I will be planting the garden today as we’re supposed to get periodic showers for the next several days.

Bags and More

The Juki 1541 hasn’t even arrived yet and I am already taking reservations for repair and alteration jobs. One of our volunteer firemen came to the plant sale on Saturday and asked if I could fix a boat cover for him. On the list of jobs this week is cleaning the sewing machine area of the old garage and making a space for the machine. I still don’t know when it will arrive, though, as the freight company hasn’t updated the tracking information.

I also want to make some bags. I’d like to make another stack of canvas grocery bags because I still get requests for them. And I have a stash of waxed canvas begging to be used. I bought this Spencer Ogg pattern last week:

Do I need a pattern for something like this? No, I could figure it out on my own, but I like to support fellow designers and there is something to be said for not having to reinvent the wheel.

I’m thinking ahead to the craft sale and to having items available that other people aren’t making.

I bought a Husky rolling tool crate last fall for hauling my serger supplies to class when I teach. Tera has something similar, and we both took ours to Sew Expo where they worked beautifully. The husband and I were watching a Den of Tools video a few weeks ago where the Tool Bear—he’s out of costume now—mentioned that these tool bags were getting harder to find. I went ahead and ordered the 16” tote that rides on top of the rolling bag:

Now I have additional storage, or a smaller tote to use when I don’t need the large one.

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I did not stay for the potluck and congregational business meeting after church yesterday. I was “peopled out” after the plant sale and needed some alone time. Rain was in the forecast, too, and I wanted to cut the grass before the rain moved in. I mowed the garden perimeter with the push mower and mulched the rest of the potatoes with grass clippings. I then worked on the yard around the house—on my John Deere tractor—which took a bit of maneuvering as my mowing route has been altered by the work the husband has been doing on the property. The stupid ground squirrels have done a lot of damage, too, making new holes and tunnels in the front yard. They won’t be around much longer because the husband is systematically demolishing all the ground squirrel condominiums out in the woods. They live in piles of logs and downed trees, and those are either getting cut up for firewood or burned if rotten.

The yard still needs some trim work but I ran out of juice. It will have to wait. As the husband reminded me, though, we’re not trying to be on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The woods, where he has been working, are looking great. Our neighbors across the road are having some clearing done on their property, too. We’ll be as ready as we can be for fire season.

A Good Kind of Exhausted

Yesterday was a busy day and I came home fairly worn out. It was a good kind of exhausted, though, because the plant sale went extremely well. We had an exceptional group of volunteers making light work of all the tasks. The weather was stunning. We got to visit with friends, neighbors, and lots and lots of customers. And a preliminary tally of the proceeds shows that we exceeded even my loftiest fundraising goal.

Our volunteers putting plants out:

We displayed plants by variety, with signs that Susan and her grandson made:

Susan, Elysian, and I had a planning meeting early in the year and decided who would grow what. It’s not an exact science, as some plants didn’t germinate or grow well and some did, but it gave us a good selection of most everything. I was pleased to note that many people came looking for heirloom varieties. We were able to tell them that most of our vegetable starts were heirlooms, including many from which we save seed each year. Sarah contributed quite a few unique tomato varieties and said that she will do more next year.

This is the event I most enjoy being in charge of and I plan to chair it again next spring.

Planting my own garden begins in earnest this week. I went ahead and scheduled a massage for a week from Tuesday, because I think I am going to need it by then.

Susan brought me two apple trees on Friday that she grafted for me. She has a Duchess of Oldenburg tree and I love that variety for apple pie filling. Now I will have two of my own grafted from cuttings of her tree. I also bought a Spokane Beauty apple at the plant sale; she is not sure that we will get apples from it as it ripens late in the season, but I said I was willing to try it.

The husband spent the day cleaning up the property and burning slash piles. People comment to me that “He works all the time—does he ever relax?” without understanding that for him, that kind of work IS his form of relaxation. Neither of us relaxes by sitting around doing nothing.

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Our Mennonite conference annual meeting will be held in Portland in June. Elaine and I plan to drive over together. We have rented an Airbnb for two nights and will be joined there by Libbie, who is finishing her term as our Leadership Team chairman. Our interim pastor and her family also plan to attend. Miriam was raised and ordained in the Presbyterian faith, but she is a Mennonite at heart and I think she will find a warm welcome in our conference.

After the conference, Elaine and I head up to Seattle for a couple of days. I will visit DD#2 and Elaine will stay with her sister.

When we made our plans, we did not realize that one of the conference days was set aside for gatherings of credentialed leaders. Elaine could attend those meetings, as she is a credentialed pastor, but I am free for the day. I think I will be doing some fabric shopping. I’d love to go downtown to Powell’s Bookstore and wander around for a few hours, but Portland—and Seattle—are no longer the tourist-friendly cities we used to know.

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I received a very weird blast from the past the other day. This showed up in my e-mail with a note:

TKGA has developed a logo for you to use as you market yourself and/or business. It will officially and visually demonstrate your achievement in earning the status of Master Hand Knitter. Please do not share this logo with anyone else.  It is for your use only!

I’m not sure when or where I would use this now, and truly, I thought TKGA was defunct. Oh, well. I appreciate them sending it to me, for what it is worth.

Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation Plant Sale

Today is our 3rd Annual Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation plant sale. This was Elysian’s brainchild and it has been a consistent fundraiser for us every year. She and I raise the bulk of the plants in my greenhouse:

Susan provides a goodly number of plants, as well, and we get donations from community members who have extras to share. The local elementary school has a plant sale on the two days before our sale and gives whatever plants are left—usually flowers—to us. When our sale is over, we donate whatever plants are left to the local food bank.

Yesterday afternoon, a crew of half a dozen people ferried plants from the greenhouse up to the Community Center, then went to the school and picked up their unsold stock. This morning, we’ll set everything out and wait for customers. The weather is supposed to be fabulous today—about 80 degrees and sunny—which is a far cry from last year’s cold and overcast day. We’ve done a lot of advertising on local social media sites, so I am hoping for good crowds. The first year, we raised $1500. Last year, we raised a little over $2000. We’re getting better at this every year.

The greenhouse looked very empty after we moved the plant sale stock out. The only plants left are the ones going into my garden and Ali’s garden. I’ll be starting more corn and beans for myself and Anna this week. They won’t take long to germinate and should be ready to plant in a week or two. I’ll also start some lettuce to put out in the garden. The indoor lettuce system is still producing well and we’ve been eating those greens this week.

Planting happens this week. It’s supposed to rain Monday, and I’ll be at the Bernina Meet and Greet that day, but Tuesday and Wednesday are forecast to be partly cloudy before more rain moves in. This is perfect planting weather.

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I’m still not sure when my sewing machine will arrive. The freight company—XPO—has a spectacularly awful tracking system. Sometimes I can’t access the tracking information at all because the system tells me it doesn’t recognize the number. Sometimes the tracking information still says the machine will be delivered on May 17. I do know that the machine is in Missoula, but it could sit there for another five days. Once it arrives, it will take the husband and me a few hours to get it set up for sewing. I’m trying to get all the planting done this week so I have time to play with it next weekend.

Visiting with Friends

My friends take good care of me. Robin said she would come over this week to help me with anything I needed because I had mended a dress for her granddaughter on my serger. She showed up mid-morning yesterday bearing lunch. I had already been out in the greenhouse for a few hours labelling and organizing plants for the sale, so I suggested we go in and sew. I pulled out the blocks for the king-size quilt I want to put in the craft co-op sale, dumped the strips of fabric onto the bed, and we got to work. I sat her down at my Janome 6600P—she has the same machine at home—and I sewed on my little Necchi. The two machines sit perpendicular to each other, so we were able to sew and visit at the same time.

When we started, I had 36 of 64 blocks made. When we finished, around 3 pm, we were up to 49 blocks with another half-dozen started. Getting this quilt done for the sale is well within reach now.

She brought the most delicious chicken dish for lunch. It has three ingredients: diced chicken, a jar of jardiniere vegetables, and rice. That’s it. So simple, but so yummy that I had two helpings. I may have to add jardiniere vegetables to my list of things to can up this fall.

After she left, I did chicken chores, tidied up the sewing area, and threw together a meatloaf for the husband for dinner. At 4 pm, I went across the road to my friend Anna’s house and we sat and drank lemon balm tea with lavender honey and caught up with each other. She has a small garden plot in front of her house and wanted some suggestions about what to plant there. We did a bit of brainstorming and I am going to start some beans and corn for her as soon as everything is out of the greenhouse.

I don’t often have a day like that, but in the midst of all this madness, it was a welcome break.

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We are getting the smoke from the Alberta wildfires. The husband called me outside yesterday morning to “look at the orange ball in the sky.”

The picture doesn’t do it justice, although you can see how smoky it is here. This is bizarre for mid-May.

My new sewing machine appears to be stuck in North Dakota. The tracking number goes to a page that still says it was supposed to be delivered on May 17, but its last known scanned location is May 12 in West Fargo, ND. If I don’t get an updated delivery date soon, I’ll call the store and see if they can find out what is going on.

It is supposed to be in the 80s through the weekend before a cold front comes through and drops the temps a bit. Considering that I was wearing my wool peacoat at last year’s plant sale, I’ll take the weather this year.

Watering and Pest Management Systems

I’m in the process of getting the watering system set up in the garden. Our rainy months are May and June, and we’re already behind in rainfall for this month. If June isn’t rainy, we may be in a world of hurt for the rest of the summer. It isn’t uncommon to go through July and August with not a drop of precipitation. There will be moisture in the atmosphere, but it will evaporate before it hits the ground.

The peas went in yesterday morning—finally—and then we got a couple of hours of rain after dinner, so that worked out well. I also filled in the empty spots in the strawberry bed with runners from a few of the more vigorous plants.

We likely will have to resort to shooting at some point, but I am trying to give the rabbits, squirrels, and turkeys an opportunity to see the error of their ways. I am auditioning a variety of pest management systems this year. (Bugs are the least of my worries.) The fake snakes are over by the peas. I bought a fake owl, put crushed walnut shells in it for weight, and set it by the ground squirrel holes:

I am supposed to move it around every couple of days.

I’m also putting decoy strawberries in the strawberry bed to confound the turkeys:

The husband does not believe this will work. We shall see. In any case, painting rocks is very relaxing.

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Knitting peeps, did you hear the sad, sad news that XRX, Inc., has filed for bankruptcy? So many great memories from the days of Knitters magazine and teaching at Stitches events . . .

Yesterday’s mail brought the gift of a pair of lovely spiral cable needles from Mama Sauce (Nicole Sauce’s mother).

I had the great fortune to spend time relaxing and knitting with her at the LFTN Spring Workshop a few weeks ago, and now I am feeling the need to cast on a project so I can try these out.

However, once this plant sale is over and the garden is in, I am devoting a couple of weeks to sewing. It has been almost two months since I have worked on anything substantial. I’ve got inventory to finish for the craft co-op sale—including a quilt—projects I want to make on the new machine, and some clothing patterns I want to try. I have about three currently-not-scheduled weeks on the calendar and I am going to do my level best to keep them clear for sewing. I should be able to get quite a bit done if I put my nose to the grindstone.

I’ll be at the Bernina Meet-and-Greet with Paul Ashworth, CEO of Bernina, next Monday at the Quilt Gallery. I offered to help out as I was planning to be there anyway. I will be assisting customers with the sergers.

To Be a Pig

We didn’t raise pigs last year, and I had forgotten how much I enjoy having them around. They keep me company when I am in the garden and their antics are entertaining. This group naps a lot:

Joel Salatin talks about “the pigness of pigs,” meaning that animals do best when they are allowed to express their inherent natures. The pigs’ favorite activities are rooting up the pasture and napping—wash, rinse, repeat. We try to give all our animals a good life.

[I may be going to Self-Reliance Festival in Camden, Tennessee, in October. The keynote speaker at that event will be Joel Salatin. (!!!!!) The husband suggested that if I go, I take our copy of Everything I Want to Do is Illegal and ask him to autograph it.]

It has been annoyingly windy here lately. I don’t like wind. It sets my teeth on edge. The wind seems to have subsided since last evening and I’m hoping it stays calm this week. People are already talking about fire season as it looks like we’re in for above-average temps and below-average precipitation this summer. And given that we seem to have a lot more stupid and selfish people living here now, the odds of someone doing something that sets off a big fire are increasing.

I know I sound like an old fart, but the makeup of this valley has changed drastically in the past couple of years. Apparently, many of the transplants came here thinking “Montana = no laws and I can do whatever I want.” Wandering dogs are a huge issue. One of our neighbors’ goats was killed by a dog belonging to another neighbor. Montana law allows landowners to shoot dogs that harm or kill their livestock. The owner of the goat shot the dog, and the owner of the offending animal was given a hefty fine.

Trash is everywhere. I’ve seen video of people dumping trash in the woods. People hit and damage vehicles and fences and just drive off. Theft is commonplace. Last week, a 71-year-old man was beaten up in a road rage incident south of us. He ended up in the ICU. (I heard he has been released, but the assailant is still at large.) These kinds of incidents used to be rare here. And then there is the case of the San Diego couple who built a house on MacDonald Creek up in Glacier Park without getting the requisite permits, because who needs permits in Montana? Surely one can do whatever one pleases, right?

It’s hard to watch a place you love being destroyed. Our road used to be a slow meander along the mountains, perfect for cyclists and walkers. Now, drivers get to the north corner of our property, make a slight turn, and accelerate to ridiculous speeds down the straight section past our house. (I wish spike strips were legal. That would resolve this issue.) People drive as though they are the only ones on the road.

We’re failing as a society.

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This week will be spent getting ready for the plant sale on Saturday. There are always a thousand little details that have to be attended to. I’ve got three pages of running lists for all the projects I’m managing at the moment. I spent a few hours in the greenhouse yesterday afternoon, making up labels and organizing plants. Some of what is in there will be planted in our garden, so I need to have those trays of plants separate from the sale inventory.

I haven’t sewn anything in almost a month. I’ve been knitting more, just because it’s portable and easy to pick up and put down. I’m looking forward to sewing again, though, especially on my industrial machines (lockstitch and serger).

Ready to Plant

We may have had a cold spring, but we’re ahead of schedule on garden prep. The husband helped me yesterday. (I do as much as I can, but some jobs just need extra muscle.) We burned a small pile of brush early in the morning and he fixed the south fence line, which has decided that this would be a good year to fall apart. We moved some black plastic to a different spot, then moved a billboard tarp to the part of the garden that will be fallow this year. Once everything was in place, I cut the grass perimeter and used the clippings to mulch the potatoes. The garden is looking good:

The potatoes are on the far left. Next to them will be the zucchini and other squash, on that piece of black plastic. The bare spot will have rows of beans, lettuce, and the brassicas—cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage. Just out of the picture on the right side is the row of berry bushes. Next to them is the raspberry patch, then the strawberry patch. The berries occupy the middle of the garden. On the other side of the berries is the lavender hedge and then the spot where the tomatoes will go this year, along with any squash that does fit in the first section. I like to give the vines room to spread out. I also try to plant the potatoes and tomatoes on opposite sides of the garden if I can.

I started laying out hose, but that’s a big job and I need to think about how to set up the switching system.

Today, though, I am going to rest and do things that don’t require heavy lifting, like making labels for the plants for the plant sale.

Since about the middle of March, these are the projects I have been involved in:

• The husband and I ran the equipment sale part of the fire department fundraising auction.

• I wrote the quarterly newsletter for the homestead foundation and Susan and I made 2400 copies for mailing.

• I made chili for and served chili at the spring pie social for the homestead foundation.

• I have been planning for the plant sale (the majority of the inventory is in our greenhouse) and co-chairing a picnic fundraising event to be held in August, again for the homestead foundation.

• I have continued my ongoing duties as chairman of the homestead foundation fundraising committee, webmistress for their website, and pianist for our church.

And during that time, the only things I really did for me were to teach a couple of serger classes and attend the LFTN Spring Workshop. It doesn’t require a rocket scientist to see the imbalance in my schedule. I’ve already passed off the fire department job to someone else. I told the homestead foundation board that I will not chair the fundraising committee next year. I may not do the newsletter, either. I will agree to chair the plant sale and continue website maintenance and that’s it. Hopefully, the picnic fundraiser will be a success—my co-chair is a ball of fire and the planning for that has gone smoothly. Although I believe strongly in its mission, I am no longer willing to allow the homestead foundation to be an unpaid part-time job. I took on some of those responsibilities when our pastor retired from our church and also from his work on the homestead foundation board because I didn’t want us to lose momentum. Now it’s time for others to step up.

I’ve also said no to chairing our church’s leadership team, which would have been a four-year commitment. Truly, I am tired of being in charge.

[I did agree to be on the pastor search committee, but that is a time-specific commitment and one I was willing to make.]

Once the garden is in and growing, I want to spend time working on sewing projects. The word of the year is NO and I am putting that into practice.

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I’ll have to see how the week after the plant sale shapes up. I’m feeling the need for a road trip, maybe to Missoula. On Monday, May 22nd, the quilt store south of town is hosting a meet and greet with Paul Ashworth, CEO of Bernina. I’ll be in attendance for that one.

Berries

Our raspberry patch was horribly overgrown. I’ve been trying to clean it up over the past couple of seasons but it has been slow going. The canes took a beating from all the snow this winter. I decided that was a blessing in disguise. I cut almost everything back to the ground, even the bearing canes. That means foregoing a berry harvest for a season or two, but the result should be a neater raspberry patch that is easier to manage. I can dig out the quackgrass, too. And the ground squirrels will lose any cover from which to launch their mid-garden assaults—for this year, at least.

Down in the right front corner of that photo is one of the currant bushes Cathy gave me. It produces prolifically every year.

I pruned the grapevines and saved the cuttings for my friend, Ginger. She makes lovely wreaths out of them.

The new strawberry patch is looking great. That spot had potatoes two seasons ago and was mulched with a lot of rotted straw. Last year, I put down black plastic and planted three rows of strawberry starts in holes. Yesterday morning, I cut the black plastic, folded it back, and anchored it down so that it continues as weed control. Now the plants have a bit of room to spread out:

Black plastic has been a game changer for weed control. I haven’t found anything else that works as well, and judging by the number of gigantic earthworms I saw yesterday, it doesn’t seem to hurt the soil. The snakes also like to sun themselves on it. I am waiting for the big Montana racer snake to put in an appearance.

I need to put some painted red rocks in the strawberry bed to discourage turkeys from eating the berries. The turkeys are becoming almost as much of a pest as the ground squirrels. This is what the ground squirrels have done over by my grape vines:

They live in the woods by the house, but this is their off-ramp into the garden. That post is holding up my grape vine trellis. (The husband put it in, so it isn’t in any danger of falling over.)

The guys finished work a little early yesterday, so one of our employees came over after lunch to get a few more hours on his time card for the week. He helped me dig out some unwanted raspberries. We also spread out the rest of the black silage plastic. The garden is now ready for planting.

Hopefully, peas will go in today. I also might try to get a row of lettuce and some cabbage and broccoli starts into the ground this week.

This physical activity feels good. I am tired at the end of the day, but it’s a good tired and the work keeps me limber.

The pigs are thrilled to be out rooting around the pasture all day. This group is still rather skittish around people. If I crouch down on the ground and wait, though, eventually one or two will come over to see what I’m about.

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The Juki 1541 is scheduled to arrive next Wednesday. It may be another week or so before we get it assembled and running, depending on how things go. I ordered a whole slew of industrial and outdoor fabric swatches from Seattle Fabrics to keep in my swatch library. I have some thread on hand, but I need to go through it and organize it according to size. I am hoping that once the garden is in, things will ease up enough for me to do some sewing again.

A Thursday Roundup

I attacked DD#2’s bedroom yesterday and got the bed taken apart and moved out. Along the way, I dusted, vacuumed, washed curtains, and rearranged the layout. I still need to move one more piece of furniture to storage and put up a shelving unit, but already I can tell that the workflow will be much more efficient. And if we ever need to put guests in that room, I can fold up the cutting table and put an air mattress down on the floor.

I wish I could be like those people with minimalist lifestyles. I can’t. I am not a hoarder, but I do like to have enough supplies on hand to do the things I want to do when I want to do them. And it seems that the minute I toss or donate something, I need it again. I’ve decided that the best I can do is to be as organized as possible and have everything sorted and labeled clearly. I’m also going to be better about not saving every tiny scrap of fabric. I’ll donate what is usable and won’t tie myself up in knots about putting smaller pieces in the trash.

Cleaning and organizing the upstairs rooms will be an ongoing project over the summer.

The potato seedlings are starting to come up:

I have a lot of work to do in the garden this weekend.

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Have you heard about the 75Hard program? I know a few people who are tackling it. This is a program intended to help develop mental toughness. It is a fairly rigorous program. For 75 days, participants are required to adhere to a nutritional diet with no cheat days—their choice of keto, carnivore, vegan, etc.—abstain from alcohol, work out twice a day for 45 minutes per session, one of which must be outside, drink a gallon of water every day, read 10 pages of a nonfiction book, and take a progress picture every day. If one or more of the requirements is missed, the whole program resets back to day 1.

The husband and I were talking about it over dinner last night. I have nothing but admiration for people who are willing to improve themselves in whatever way they find most helpful, and some people need programs with a lot of structure. It occurred to me that during the summer, I follow this program reasonably well. Working in the garden certainly meets the physical activity goals. The husband and I both gave up drinking alcohol almost a year ago. We eat good, nutritious food, although I am not above having some chocolate or other treat every day. I stay well hydrated, and I always read before going to sleep.

[I don’t get as much exercise in the winter, although I certainly am not sitting around, either.]

Food for thought. After everything I’ve been through in my 57 years on earth, I think I’ve got the mental toughness thing mastered. The husband mentioned that he signed up for The Daily Stoic e-mails. Every day, an e-mail meditation on stoicism is delivered to his inbox. He said that I should sign up, too, and then we could have a discussion group on each day’s topic, because that is what we do for fun here at Chez Schuster-Szabo, LOL. (I did sign up.)

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We let the pigs out into the pasture yesterday evening. They needed to get out and run around and they also needed to become familiar with the electric fence. It did not take them long to go up that learning curve.

They are packing on the pounds. Already, I can see a difference in size from when we brought them home on Saturday to last night.

The hummingbirds are back—almost a month late—and the husband spotted Little Bunny Foo-Foo chasing another rabbit around the yard. He suspects we will be overrun by baby rabbits shortly. I continue to be entertained by the determined tom turkeys with all their feathers up, trying to catch the attention of the flocks of hens. No bears yet, but I know they are out.

I Ordered a Machine

I had my choice of industrial machines narrowed down to two brands: A Juki 1181 or 1541 and a Consew 206RB. The Juki 1541s are popular with bagmakers and Jukis are good, solid machines. My industrial serger is a Juki. The older Consews are fairly sought after but hard to find. I messaged my friend Cristina, who makes bags and bag patterns under her label Bumbleroot Design, and asked her opinion. I know she has an older Consew 206RB and loves it. (She also has a Necchi industrial just like mine.) She said that if the decision came down to a new Juki versus a new Consew, though, she’d choose the Juki. That was the direction I was leaning and it was good to have that confirmation.

We have a Juki dealer here but he’s a slimy operator with dirty sales techniques. I won’t patronize his business, so thank you, Melissa, for the Juki Junkies recommendation. I phoned them yesterday and had a lovely conversation with Boki. (Once I decide to pull the trigger, I don’t waste time.) She asked a lot of questions about what I wanted to sew, which I appreciated because I wanted to know if the Juki 1181 would be a better fit. Ultimately, I decided to go with the more powerful 1541. (Photo from their website.)

Boki placed the order for me and got me set up with extra needles and bobbins. I added the needle positioner option because I have automatic needle up/down on both my Janome sewing machine and my Bernina serger and I like that feature.

The machine will ship from New Jersey. It comes with the table fully assembled. I expect it will arrive within the next two weeks and then I can get started on the list of things the husband wants me to make, LOL.

I am now a Juki Junkies fan—they offer great service and that is hard to find these days. I also joined the Facebook group.

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I got my summer tires put on yesterday morning. Even though I was on the list, I had to wait two hours. I don’t mind the down time. The tire place has a nice seating area, so I just take a book and some knitting with me and the time passes quickly.

When I got home, there was a message on the answering machine from the copier tech. He wanted to stop by and look at my copier. (I noted that it was Tuesday, not Monday, but whatever.) I called him back and said he could show up anytime. About an hour later, a young guy pulled into the driveway. He cleaned and inspected the machine, which probably was built when he was in kindergarten. He told me he had never worked on a machine that old. He agreed that the fuser should be replaced, but then launched into a song and dance about how it would be better for me to buy a new copier.

I don’t want a new copier. I like the one I have, and besides, I would rather put the money into fixing something that was built to last more than five years. He promised to give me some options once he got back to the office. For now, the machine is working again.

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I’ve got the to-do list down to just a couple of items. It has been raining since yesterday afternoon and that will keep me in the house for a bit. I have some homestead foundation website and publicity work to do this morning followed by an alteration/repair job. The repair is not complicated, but I need to look at it closely and decide how best to proceed. If the rain lets up and it isn’t too soggy, I’d like to plant peas this afternoon; otherwise, that will happen tomorrow. I repotted more tomatoes yesterday afternoon.

I woke up around midnight and the husband still hadn’t come to bed. That usually means he is focused on some project out in his shop. We have had Sarah’s Volvo here since Saturday night. He has been doing routine maintenance on it and replacing worn parts, but one of the parts he thought he needed turned out to be for a different model. I sent that one back Monday and the correct part came yesterday, so he stayed up to finish the job. If he ever decides to stop doing concrete and work on cars instead, I suspect I will have to get used to him keeping odd hours. He is most definitely a night owl.

Down the List

I’ve finally reached a point where my calendar is empty, but I’ve got a bunch of miscellaneous tasks that have to be dealt with. I made a list yesterday morning and then started hacking away at it. I am hoping to have everything crossed off by the end of today. I’ll have to go into town for a bit for an appointment and to get my summer tires put on. I checked with the tire place yesterday morning—shortly after they opened at 8 am!—and they were already booked. I am on the list for this morning. Most places won’t take appointments, but this particular shop gives preference to their long-time customers.

I spent yesterday afternoon repotting tomatoes. Being responsible for growing the inventory for this plant sale has been weighing on me. It has been a cold spring and plants either didn’t germinate or they germinated and grew slowly. Our greenhouse is not hermetically sealed, so even though we can heat it, the environment isn’t entirely like a commercial greenhouse. I am hoping the predicted warm temps coming this week will encourage some of these plants to get bigger.

The plant sale is May 20. We will have a good selection of different and interesting varieties; they just will be smallish plants. This weekend, I’ll dig some of the established plants out of my old herb garden.

The piglets have settled in; they will get electric fence training soon and we will let them loose in the pasture. I contacted the processor yesterday about getting onto the schedule for this fall and am waiting to hear back.

Getting people to respond to calls and inquiries has been a huge source of frustration lately. I filed an insurance claim for last week’s accident but have yet to hear from the insurance company. I am still fighting with another insurance company to get them to pay the last part of the claim from the husband’s accident in February 2022. I have made three phone calls in the past month to the copier company to try to get the fuser replaced in my copier. I have to deal with a place in Missoula. The first call was to see if the part was still available (yes) and to have a service ticket created. The second call was to see if there was any update on the service ticket. The third call was last Thursday, to find out if I could get a date on the calendar. I said to the husband that it was obvious that the guy on the phone was pulling stuff out of his armpit because he said, “Oh yes, we’ll be in Kalispell in May—wait, that’s Monday,” and when I said I would be home all day Monday, he said," “Okay, we’ll come fix it then.” Did I get a phone call yesterday? Nope. Did anyone show up to work on the copier? Nope.

I’d order the part and do it myself if I thought it was something I could tackle, but I’d rather have the machine serviced. Calling them again today is another item on the list.

I’m also at the place where I’m about ready to order a new industrial sewing machine. Used ones are rare in this part of the country. The ones I have been able to find need—at the least—a new motor. Some of them need new motors and tables and who knows what kinds of service and adjustments. The closest machines are in Spokane, and without someone to help me, these machines are too heavy to load into my car. I was discussing it with the husband yesterday morning and I commented that there was something to be said for the big brown truck of happiness pulling up to deliver a machine that was all ready to sew right out of the box.

[I am not an impulse buyer. This is both good and bad. It means I don’t spend money unnecessarily, but I also take forever to decide on bigger ticket items. The husband used to tell me that the new model year of vehicle would be out by the time I made a decision to buy the current year’s model.]

I’ve got it narrowed down to three machines, and I’ll probably knock another one off the list soon. The husband said he could make me a spot in the old garage for an industrial sewing machine and my industrial serger. He even installed new lights in that area. We’ll see. If a used machine doesn’t show up soon, I’ll go ahead and order one.