The Foundation of a New Fire Hall

Our fire district has been in need of a new fire hall for many years. We have outgrown our current main station (we have four stations altogether). Fortunately, we have a fire chief and a board of trustees with a great deal of vision. They were also committed to building this station without raising taxes on the residents of our district. Our firefighter’s association members have worked tirelessly over the past 8 or 10 years to raise the money to build this station.

The footing pour was scheduled for yesterday morning. By the time I arrived at 7:30, the first truck of mud and the line pump were already in place:

This is looking north up the Swan Range. Glacier Park is somewhere up in the middle of the photo, behind the mountains. We are getting a lot of wildfire smoke and by lunchtime, temps are pushing 90F. The mornings, though, are actually quite pleasant.

[Yes, Montana is breathtakingly beautiful in the summer. Don’t move here thinking it will be like this 12 months out of the year. March is horrible. Also, it gets cold and we have snow, which actually sounds wonderful to me right now.]

About a dozen volunteers showed up to help, including many of the current firefighters. One of our employees came and helped because he lives here in the district. Our former tenant came to help because he also has construction experience and his dad was a firefighter for many years. They poured the footing for a shop on his property (around the corner from our house) on Friday afternoon.

Everyone here had at least a little bit of construction experience (or could take direction). Even the chief, who has many skills besides chiefing, got in there with a trowel.

That’s our chief in the maroon hoodie, talking to Rich, who is a former firefighter and now one of the trustees. Rich and his wife, Libbie, are heading up the bike tour planning for our church.

The footing pour was done mid-morning. I am not sure what is next on the schedule and when (walls?), but I am sure the volunteers will show up to help again.

This is how things get done in Montana.

I did two more grocery runs once Costco opened, then helped out at the church with the final cleanup. Seeing everyone come together to help with this bike tour and the bathroom construction project has been such a joy. When our congregation decided to become lay-led at the beginning of 2026—the preferred term is “congregation led” but I find it so cumbersome to say “congregation-led congregation” so I just use “lay-led”—we wondered if it would work. Our former pastor was there for 26 years and then we had a transitional pastor for three years. We are still searching for a pastor, but I think this time has been good for us as a congregation. This is going to be a long week but we’re going to have fun.

Ready to Welcome Riders

I believe we are in good shape for providing meals for the bike tour. I have one more shopping trip this morning for meat and bread for Monday and Tuesday. Everything else is already at the church. I’ve also taken half my kitchen over there; we have a commercial kitchen, but it’s a bit thin on the equipment that makes cooking easier and more efficient for me. I’ve got a lot of large stainless steel bowls and pans that I use for canning and they will be a big help.

I should note that this bike tour is a big fundraiser for Mennonite Central Committee, and the funds raised from this particular tour are going to benefit Ukraine. Our church has some strong connections there. Donation information is on the linked website.

I will have to do another shopping trip, probably Tuesday afternoon, but we’re waiting to see how much food we go through on Monday.

I was relating to the husband yesterday how my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and my great-aunts did all the cooking for the reception hall owned by my uncle. (Gargus Hall in Lorain, OH, for my Ohio peeps; we had our wedding reception there.) They made copious amounts of roast beef, chicken paprikas and dumplings, stuffed cabbage, parsley potatoes, kolache, kifli, ladyfingers, and other foods almost every weekend for many years.

[In the months leading up to our wedding, my two grandmothers engaged in what I referred to as the kolache wars; one of them would come to church and say that she had made a dozen kolache for the wedding and the next week, the other one would come to church and say that she had made a dozen kolache for the wedding. We had plenty of kolache at the reception. LOL.]

Today is a work day at the church. The new bathrooms are done (and look great!) but the church needs a good cleaning before guests arrive.

The husband is heading over to the new fire hall soon because he and a crew of volunteers (other firefighters) are pouring the concrete footings today. I will try to get some pictures.

Obligatory flower photo:

These are some echinaceas from a few years ago.

Don’t expect many blog posts this week. I’ll be at the church at 5 am every morning getting the coffee going.

More Baby Robins and Bike Tour Groceries

We’re not done yet with the baby birds. I’ve seen two in this nest, although only one popped its head up for a picture:

I can’t remember the robins ever having clutches so late in the summer. It’s about that time of the year for baby chimney swifts to be falling down the chimney, too, so I have to keep an eye out for them.

The husband tells me that the two yellow plum trees over at the guest house are loaded with fruit this year. Last year was the first time they had borne anything (a whopping five plums between them) since we planted them over 10 years ago. I think plums need different varieties for pollination and those are the only two trees we have, so I am not sure what’s going on.

I stayed home yesterday. I have to do more grocery shopping today, tomorrow, and Saturday, so I thought it was best to give myself a day away from the insanity. I am so worried that I am going to forget something we need. I’ve got a veritable notebook of lists and recipes and more lists. This initial supply is only for Monday and Tuesday; I’ll do another shopping trip on Tuesday once we see how quickly things are disappearing. And I discovered that one of the riders has food intolerances to raw onions, corn, and MSG, so that’s going to require a few more alternative offerings. One thing we don’t know is if people are going to want to have lettuce on their sandwiches or if the recent cryptosporidium scare is going to mean they’ll avoid it.

Someone gave me half a dozen leftover grocery store cookies from the church potluck last week. They were still sitting on the counter, uneaten, so I asked the husband why he hadn’t hoovered them down. He said that he thinks that he has been eating my cooking for so long and it’s so clean—no gluten, soy, canola, or high fructose corn syrup—that when he eats processed food, it doesn’t sit well with him. (This is a ploy for more pies with homemade pie crusts, I know it. 🤨) Even our chickens get a soy-free feed.

For the bike tour, I’ve also got prep schedules made up because everyone who is helping is a volunteer and I want this to be as easy as possible. When a task is completed, it can be crossed off the list and we know it’s done. All of the supplies are sorted and labeled by the day that they will be needed (Monday’s dinner, etc.) so that we can grab only what we need.

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I don’t have enough time to do any kind of sewing, but I did spend an hour yesterday putting away class samples and organizing my sewing supplies. I placed a wholesale thread and stabilizer order with Wonderfil a few weeks ago and that box arrived and needed to be emptied.

I am still thinking about my dress for DD#2’s wedding. I haven’t settled on a style yet and I need to do that soon.

Pretty Flowers

The flowers are blooming in the herb garden so I got some photos. I am enjoying the pops of color here and there.

This yarrow is a lovely pink:

I planted borage once and will never have to plant it again, as it has escaped the beds and is making itself happy all over the garden. (Someone should deadhead the marigolds . . . )

And the black hollyhock bloomed. I love hollyhocks and this one is my favorite variety (Nigra).

The raspberries are ripe. My Tacoma friends Mike and Kathy—we went to conference in Oregon together—have been staying in the guest house for the past couple of days. They stopped here on their way to South Dakota and Mike preached the sermon on Sunday. I gave them a container so they could pick raspberries to take with them on the next leg of their travels. The husband has been snacking on raspberries, too.

I mowed and ran the string trimmer around the garden yesterday morning. Look what I found:

And a few minutes later, one of them appeared:

The snakes like to hang out underneath the zucchini plants, so I have to remember to announce myself before I look for any that are ready to harvest.

I am a bit concerned about the apparent decline in pollinators this year. The lavender hedges are in full bloom but there aren’t as many bees as usual. And our apple trees are going to produce a lame harvest. My Lodi tree—the older one that produced enough apples two years ago for a dozen quarts of apple pie filling—has a measly 3 or 4 apples on it this year. The State Fair tree should be producing this year, too, and it isn’t. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I don’t like it.

I went to town yesterday afternoon to do some of our grocery shopping and to check on prices and availability of items for bike tour. The amount of traffic in Kalispell this summer is insane. Our infrastructure just isn’t built to handle this inflow of people. I am going to do another run today to begin buying non-perishable items, but I am going to do it first thing this morning. The husband was working on the new fire hall foundation yesterday and said he waited for five minutes yesterday to be able to pull out of the property onto Highway 35 because it was just a long string of traffic.

Bike Tour and ChatGPT

I may not be posting much for the next two weeks. This week is bike tour prep—mostly grocery shopping—and next week is bike tour. I am going to try to mow grass today and get as much other stuff done around here as I can. None of that makes for interesting blog fodder.

I painted at the church on Friday and Saturday. The flooring installation begins today, so we wanted to have all the painting done beforehand. I spent three hours on Friday afternoon putting primer on the ADA bathroom ceiling and walls. We had a crew of seven working all day on Saturday. I painted the ADA bathroom and helped paint the men’s bathroom. We were all pretty wiped out by the end of Saturday, but we got it done. I should have taken pictures.

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I will tell you about my experience with artificial intelligence because it’s rather amusing (and, frankly, a little bit terrifying). I thought I would use ChatGPT to help me organize the shopping lists, prep schedule, and recipes for the bike tour. I am pretty good at setting parameters and being specific in my commands. I started out by giving it the recipes and asking it to upsize them for 110 servings. It did that. I gave it the menu for each day and asked it to begin assembling shopping lists and prep schedules. Everything seemed to be going well, but then it started tinkering with the recipes “to make them more flavorful.” It suggested that we create a manual that other groups could follow so they wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel. I thought that was reasonable; if I am going to do all this work, others should benefit from it. However, that’s where it went off the rails. It began producing chapters and putting in a “kitchen philosophy” and before I knew it, it was up to 48 pages. I told it to “scale this back to the original recipes upsized for 110 and don’t do anything else unless I specifically ask for it.” It sent back a comment saying, “You’re right; we’re not producing an operating manual for a NASA rocket launch.” (Do ya think?)

I’ve constrained it to the point where I’m getting concise shopping lists and prep schedules. My commands are specific and business-like. I am not conversational with it. This will still be a useful manual when it’s done, but it’s not going to be 100 pages long.

We also have to make sure we are accommodating dietary needs. A handful of cyclists are vegetarians and only one has indicated gluten-free, but no one has indicated a specific food allergy. We should be able to offer several alternatives.

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And because we need a pretty picture, here are some hollyhocks:

I will try to make sure I get some pictures this week.

Hot and Sweaty Weather

The Big Secret Project has a deadline, and that deadline has been hanging over my head. I haven’t been procrastinating so much as I have been trying to find a dedicated block of uninterrupted time to work on it. The BSP involves some software with which I only have a passing familiarity. I wanted to be able to focus and work my way through it slowly and methodically. Blocks of uninterrupted time are a scarce commodity right now. I also wanted to have it done before bike tour preparations start in earnest this week.

Fortunately, I was able to work on it Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning and was able to finish it before the deadline. The project has been submitted, so now we just sit and wait.

It’s been a bit of a stressful week all around, for lots of reasons. The husband had a job that had a firm deadline yesterday—a manufactured house was arriving to be set on a foundation and the foundation had to be ready for it. Normally, that wouldn’t have been a problem, but one employee was at his sister’s wedding, another got sick, and the third one has had a bit of trouble getting himself to work on time. The husband had a few late nights this week.

And it’s hot. I keep asking if it’s January yet. 🫤

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The Lou Raincoat assembly is underway. I worked on it Thursday afternoon as a reward for finishing the BSP. The pattern begins with making the pockets, which is a relatively low-stress starting point.

And then I attached them to the fronts:

I wanted to finish the pocket flaps and attach them, but I ran out of time. We will have to see how much sewing time I have during the rest of July. It might not be much.

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The church basement bathroom renovation has reached the point where we are ready to prime and paint. Flooring is getting installed on Monday, so we would like to have the painting done before then. I was there yesterday afternoon and got primer on the ADA bathroom ceiling and walls. I’m heading back over this morning for another shift. Hopefully, we will have some additional helpers.

We’ve had enough rain that the grass needs to be cut again but it may just have to wait a few more days. The plants in the garden are loving this weather. I should have zucchini soon. The raspberries are ripe and the blueberries should follow soon.

Woodpeckers in the Trees

Robert and Deana are on their way back to Tennessee. They both work with the local high school band and band camp starts next week. Robert helps out with the band and Deana is part of the crew that feeds everyone. I made dinner for all of us last night and we spent some time talking about plans for next summer. I will see them again at the end of August as we’re all going to our high school reunion in Ohio.

We got some rain yesterday. I ran the soaker hoses on the garden in the morning, too, before the rain started. These continued pulses of monsoon moisture would be very welcome over the next week or so. I’d be happy if we didn’t get the scorching temps that are predicted. The plants that survived the deer invasion look good, and the apple trees are leafing out again.

I was sitting outside on the porch yesterday afternoon, waiting for dinner to finish cooking, when I heard a commotion in the trees. It was two pileated woodpeckers—hopefully a mating pair? I was only able to get a blurry photo of one of them:

We’ve had them here before. I won’t let the husband cut down all the dead trees because the woodpeckers need them.

I am seeing (and hearing) some birds I haven’t seen before. Unfortunately, we can’t have bird feeders here because of the bears. Our neighbors across the road have had a black bear in their yard a couple of times this week. They have a game camera and I am thinking we just need to give in and get one, because the bear has probably been in our yard, too.

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As it turns out, I do not need to help with the drywall at church. One of our members who is heading up the project got a (professional) friend of his to come and help. I am going to stop at Sherwin-Williams this morning and pick up the primer and the paint. We’re hoping to get a crew together to paint on Saturday, so I’ll help with that. I definitely know how to paint.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon messing around on the serger. I am playing with decorative threads and edgings on chiffon and other lightweight fabrics. Something is going to come out of this; I’m just not sure what. I haven’t forgotten about the raincoat, but this is all part of another project that has a hard deadline and I need to devote the next couple of days to finishing it.

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I see that the debate about changing the clocks has reared its head again. I would prefer to stay on standard time but truly, I don’t care as long as we eliminate the time change altogether. You would think that a country that has accomplished so much in the past 250 years would be able to resolve this issue once and for all.

Teaching Advanced Serger Techniques

I taught an advanced serger techniques class yesterday in Missoula for six students. The class had been requested by several of the ladies who took my mastery classes over the past year. I chose Gail Yellen’s Christmas stocking pattern for the class. Although we weren’t able to complete the project in the time allotted, the students were able to try every technique—or see it demonstrated on my machine—and each of them should be able to make a stocking at home. Sometimes, class is not the best place to try to make a project. Some of these techniques require practice and it is unreasonable to expect perfection right out of the gate. Still, we all learned (even the teacher) and had a lot of fun. I wish I had remembered to take some photos.

The Montana Department of Transportation has a major construction project on Highway 93 between here and Missoula, and travelers were warned to expect up to one-hour delays. I left at 6 am yesterday morning even though class didn’t start until 10 am. Even without construction, tourist traffic sometimes adds time to the commute and I wasn’t taking any chances. I got to Missoula in time to make a quick stop at both Walmart and Hobby Lobby before I had to be at the store for class. I picked up two more pieces of fabric from the Walmart remnant rack and snagged a remnant of green Kona from Hobby Lobby. I also bought thread and a few other items at the store.

Class ended at 5 pm, so I didn’t get home until about 7:30 pm. It made for a very long day, but an enjoyable one.

I am helping out at the church this afternoon and all day tomorrow. We need to get the new basement bathrooms finished before the bike tour, so I am going to be taping and mudding drywall. With projects like this, it’s all hands on deck, even the unskilled labor.

[We have a story at church about Margaret Kauffman going on a Mennonite Disaster Service trip. Apparently, when the MDS project director heard that an 80-year-old woman was going to be helping, he said, “And what am I supposed to do with an 80-year-old woman?” Someone from our church responded, “Hand her the tools and get out of her way.” Margaret knew what she was doing. I will be channeling my inner Margaret Kauffman while I work.]

I am going to be working on my own projects on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I am going to pretend that I am away on vacation and make myself unavailable. 😇 I’ll make some huge amount of food Thursday morning so I won’t have to cook for two days.

Also, I keep forgetting to mention Deana’s blog. She has done a great recap of their time here in Montana and she is much better about taking pictures than I am. She has four entries, one for each week that they were here in Montana.

Obligatory flower picture (calendulas):

I need to get out and look at the garden this morning.

Hither and Yon Around the PNW

I had a quick appointment Friday morning and left Kalispell at 9 am to head to Spokane. There is a lot of road construction between here and Spokane, including work over both passes and in several spots in between, but I arrived just after noon local time. (I gain an hour going over.) The reason for this trip was to see DD#1, who was in Spokane with her in-laws for a church conference. We all spent the afternoon together. I had dinner with her in-laws because she had another event to attend, then we went to the evening church service where she and her MIL sang in the choir.

[I love DD#1’s in-laws. They are wonderful people and have been so good to her.]

I stopped at the Spokane Valley Walmart yesterday morning at 6 am before leaving Spokane to come home. The Kalispell Walmart just finished a big renovation project, rearranging the entire layout and moving the pharmacy to the front of the store. Crafts are now in the back of the store, and it appears that the remnant rack has been eliminated altogether. I am unhappy about this. I can’t figure out why some stores have remnant racks and some don’t. I certainly have done my share of shopping from the Kalispell store’s remnant rack. The Spokane Valley Walmart has a great remnant rack and I was able to find several two-yard cuts of fabric for my Sew Expo serger class kits.

The Missoula Walmart also has a great remnant rack and I plan to investigate it tomorrow after my serger class ends.

Because I left Spokane so early, traffic was not unreasonable and road crews don’t work on Saturday. I was home by lunchtime. The husband was putting shade cloth on the chicken yard when I arrived because it is supposed to get hot this week.

The shade gets let down during the afternoon and gives the chickens a place to get out of the hot afternoon sunlight. We had a summer five or six years ago where it was in the 90s for weeks on end and I had to rig up a misting system in the chicken yard to give them some relief.

Robert and Deana treated us to dinner last night at our favorite restaurant in Kalispell. They are leaving early Wednesday morning and I will be sorry to see them go. 🙁

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Obviously, there has been no action in the sewing department since Thursday. Part of this week and all of next week are going to be devoted to getting ready for the bike tour, although I might have to schedule a few hours of sewing time here and there just to maintain my sanity. I may also have to close the curtains and turn off my phone and isolate myself as much as possible.

Birthing Creative Ideas

I go through these cycles every so often where I have an idea gestating in my brain, and waiting for that idea to develop and be born is a bit uncomfortable. Even writing about it is difficult. It’s a process of researching and accumulating bits of knowledge and hoping that my brain will synthesize something coherent out of those bits. The good thing is that I have learned to recognize the process when it’s happening, and I have learned to sit with the discomfort, even if I don’t enjoy it. If I had my druthers, I would lock myself in my sewing room and do nothing but work on that idea for hours—or days—on end. Unfortunately, the realities of daily life intrude. People need to eat.

I was going to go to town first thing yesterday morning. I wanted to be home by late morning so I could spend the rest of the day working on this brain worm. Just as I was getting ready to leave, I got a shipment notification from FedEx for a delivery I needed to be here to meet. They could only give me a general idea of the time, which was anywhere from 10 am until 2:30 pm. Lovely. I rearranged the schedule and decided I would go to town after the delivery arrived.

Nothing annoys me more than to get into a big project and be interrupted, which means that if I don’t know how much time I will have to work on something, I won’t even start. I looked at the list of smaller projects that needed to be done.

I paid bills and did construction company paperwork.

I cut the lining for the Lou Raincoat:

I still haven’t decided on interfacing. Construction begins with making the pockets, so I might interface those—the pattern calls for it—and see what I think.

I was going to sandwich and baste the Kaffe Fassett quilt top from last fall’s workshop but I didn’t have batting, so that had to be postponed.

I packed for my trip.

One of our neighbors stopped by for eggs and wanted to visit for a bit.

I collected and began organizing my class supplies for my serger class on Monday. That was a good excuse to find all my decorative threads and sort them. I have thread storage bins, but thread gets taken out and used for various projects or it goes to a class and doesn’t get put back where it belongs. I also needed to re-acquaint myself with the pattern and decide how I want to structure the class.

Finally, around 1:00 pm, FedEx showed up. We got everything sorted and I headed to town. There is a reason I run my errands early in the morning, before the zombie hordes come out. The traffic was insane. The people were insane—most of them wandering around with their noses in their phones, not paying attention to what was happening around them. I know I am being uncharitable, but people need to stop behaving as though they are the only ones on the planet.

It was almost 4:30 pm by the time I got home. I passed the husband on the way; he was heading over to lay out the foundation for the new fire hall and then attend the fire department business meeting. Our fire district is building a new (much needed) station and it was very important to our trustees and chief not to have to ask for a tax levy from the residents. The supporting association has been raising money for the station over the past several years. Community members are donating when and where they can. One gentleman donated the excavation services. The husband is donating his time and labor to do the foundation, although our employees will be paid for their work.

I made dinner and sat down to research serger techniques in a few of my reference books.

The brain worm is going to have to gestate for a few more days. I won’t have time to work on it again until Tuesday.

A Pretty Herb Garden

The herb garden is so lovely right now. Many of the flowers are blooming. I also cut lettuce yesterday.

This bed is especially lovely with the purples and greens and whites. I wish I could tell you I planned this, but I just plant stuff where I can find a space for it.

The bee balms are blooming:

The echinaceas are just starting to open up. I’ll get a picture later this week.

I am drying some chocolate mint for tea:

I have a dehydrator, but the mint—and lavender, if I get to it in time—dry nicely like this. It helps that the humidity here is only about 25%.

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QuickBooks was down for a couple of hours yesterday morning. I couldn’t log in through the desktop app or through a browser. We also got a quick surprise thunderstorm and some rain. I spent the time working on the menu for the bike tour. I asked ChatGPT to upsize recipes for 80 people—that, to me, is an excellent use of AI. When I am all done, I will have it create a shopping list and a prep schedule.

I also edited next week’s podcast episode. I won’t have time to do it before Tuesday. I am driving to Spokane tomorrow because DD#1 and her in-laws will be there for a conference. I’ll spend the night, then come home Saturday morning. I’ll see DD#1 in the afternoon. She has a dinner to attend so I’ll have dinner with her in-laws. Sunday is church, and on Monday, I am going to Missoula to teach an advanced serger class. I have six students. I am going to have to leave early in the morning because there is roadwork along the way with delays up to an hour. There really is only one way to get from here to Missoula and I’ll have to be prepared to wait.

I was going to cut out the lining for the Lou Raincoat yesterday but realized I hadn’t traced the lining pieces yet. I did that before I had to stop and make dinner. I’ll cut out the lining first thing this morning so it’s ready to go.

In the Thick of It

Summer is in full swing here. My schedule has eased up slightly, but I don’t dare relax too much, at least not until the bike tour is over.

I’ve had to make my peace with this year’s garden issues. I was cutting the grass around the perimeter yesterday when I spotted a ground squirrel sitting about 50' away, watching me. If I have the opportunity—or the husband does—it will get dealt with. I am not putting out any more cabbage seedlings until that happens.

The husband repaired the fencing and took some other steps to keep the deer out. She has a baby and she seems very persistent, but there is plenty of foliage for her to snack on outside the garden.

So no peas, no cucumbers, fewer beans, and not as many cabbages unless the second planting survives. Hopefully, the apple trees will be okay. We will have tomatoes, potatoes, raspberries, butternut squash, buttercup squash, zucchini, possibly Hubbard and Blue Kuri squash. I have made a list of things to change/add for next year, like netting over the strawberries. And I won’t be chairing the plant sale again, which should give me a lot more time to concentrate on my own garden.

We did get some showers overnight, which was wonderful. The longer-range forecasts have noted that depending on how far north the monsoon moisture makes it, we might continue to get rain through July. Every little bit helps.

I haven’t done any further work on the Lou Raincoat. The stuff going on behind the scenes is taking up time and brainpower and I am going to have to make some decisions here soon. This is probably the worst possible time of the year for a situation like this—in the middle of summer when I have a thousand other things happening and it’s hot and I am cranky—but I didn’t make the schedule.

I did play around with my serger the other day. Some of this is related to the behind-the-scenes project but the samples will also be useful for my Sew Expo serger class next year. This is a thin jute edging attached to some muslin using the cording foot.

Robert and Deana leave in a week. I can’t believe how fast their visit has gone. They are talking about being here for two months next summer, which would be wonderful! I am hoping some of our other friends can come out and visit, too.

If the blog is a bit light on content for the next couple of weeks, just know that it’s not for lack of wanting to post. I may not have anything noteworthy to say.

Montana is Beautiful in July

Yesterday morning, Elaine’s niece, Becca, came over to see the snakes in the garden. I told her that I was delighted that someone else appreciates the snakes as much as I do. She was brave enough to pick one up so we could visit with it up close.

She said I also have Pacific Chorus frogs in my garden. We looked for one where we were hearing it but could not find it. Good to know, though. I will keep an eye out.

That deer did far more damage in the garden than I first realized. It had pulled up about half the bean plants after nibbling off the tops. I replanted them and hope they will recover. The deer also ate about half the cabbage plants. Fortunately, I still have cabbage seedlings in the greenhouse, so I can replace them. I don’t know if the peas will survive, let alone produce anything.

This has been a tough year so far. The cucumbers gave up and died—I put them in and we promptly had a cold snap, and then it rained on them for five days straight. I think they decided it just wasn’t worth it. Of course, I am teaching a pickling class in August, so I will have to get Hutterite cukes.

The potatoes, all of the summer and winter squash, and the tomatoes are doing splendidly. We’re almost out of both sauce and salsa, so a good tomato crop is crucial. I don’t think that will be a problem.

We should also have a great raspberry crop. Every year is different, but I am a bit dismayed by how difficult gardening has been this year because of the animals. I think that replacing the fence on the south side of the garden is going to have to go on the infrastraucture list for next year. It’s not in good shape and that is the side where the deer was getting in.

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Robert and Deana and I went out to the Glacier Symphony Orchestra’s America 250 concert last evening. It was held at Rebecca Farm, which is a large equestrian venue west of town. The evening could not have been more perfect. We arrived around 5:45, which gave us plenty of time to locate good seats on the lawn and avail ourselves of some food truck fare. We all had fish and chips from The Codfather. Delicious.

The performance was excellent. Some of the pieces were familiar to me but some were not. The concert lasted until 10:00 pm and believe it or not, it was just getting dark as we were leaving. I had hoped that we might see some northern lights as we drove home, but it wasn’t dark enough yet.

We are off to the parade and the community band concert this morning in Kalispell. I am hoping to do some sewing this afternoon, or at least cut out the lining for the Lou Raincoat. I have a big sewing-related project that needs to be done some time next week. It is the kind of project where I am going to need a couple of hours—or better yet, the entire day—of uninterrupted time. That project has a deadline and I also have to be getting ready for the bike tour our church is hosting, so I want to have it completed sooner rather than later.

More Baby Robins

I heard a noise on the porch outside my office yesterday afternoon so I went to investigate. I found Yet Another Baby Robin; this one must just have fallen out of the nest because it seemed a bit disoriented.

I kept an eye on it for a while. I did not hear Mama calling, which surprised me. The baby toddled over to the corner by the wall and sat down to wait. About an hour later, I heard Mama calling it and eventually, it flew off.

I thought we might be done with baby robins, but I spotted another adult sitting in a nest in the porch rafters—on eggs, I presume. I can’t remember robins nesting so late into the summer.

******

My one goal for yesterday was to cut out the Lou Raincoat. Cutting took me about an hour and a half. I wasn’t rushing, but I also had to be a bit careful because I can’t use pins on the dry oilskin or they will leave holes. Even if I had could have used pins, the fabric is thick enough that pins would not go in easily.

I spread out the yardage on the floor of our bedroom and laid down the pattern pieces. I used large clips to stabilize the pieces before I cut them, and added smaller clips to keep the cut pieces together.

It was slow going, but it worked. The pieces for the shell are all cut and stacked.

I cut judiciously, so all I have left is a small pile of scraps and a large one-yard remnant that I can use for another project.

Assembly cannot begin until I cut the lining pieces. I am trying to decide what to do about interfacing. The pattern instructions call for interfacing the outer shell pieces. I would have to use sew-in interfacing—fusible is not going to stick—although the dry oilskin certainly doesn’t need to be beefed up. I could interface the lining pieces. I will cut the lining pieces and make a decision. I don’t want the raincoat to be too stiff to wear comfortably.

******

All that rain made the grass grow, so yard duties are on the list for this morning. Robert and I are playing several piano-trombone duets for prelude at church on Sunday and I need to practice my parts this afternoon. If I have any time left, I’ll work on cutting out the raincoat lining.

Riddle Me This

While I was at Pacific Fabrics last week, I picked up a copy of this book:

Pati Palmer, one of the authors, is also the Palmer of the Palmter-Pletsch method of tissue fitting patterns. I am not a huge fan of that method, mostly because it seems nigh on impossible to tissue fit a pattern to one’s body without assistance. I am almost always working solo. But I do know people who swear by that system.

This book contains a wealth of information. I got a giggle out of a paragraph on page 7, where it says

We learned a lot by seeing so many sizes, shapes, and ages. We even saw size trends in various parts of the country. The average size was smaller in San Diego than in Chicago, for example. Lots of high hips in Cleveland. Who knows why?!

I know why.

In his trouser drafting book, Kenneth King notes that

There are figures where the fuller part of the hip is about 3 inches below the waist. I see this in women of eastern European ancestry.

Being one of those women from Cleveland with high hips and eastern European ancestry, I can tell you that the reason there are so many high hips in Cleveland is because it is such an ethnically-rich area full of women with eastern European ancestry. Solved it for you.

This book will be a nice addition to my fitting book library.

******

I was hoping to cut out the Lou Raincoat yesterday afternoon but I ran out of time. I did do a quick fit of the pattern pieces on the dry oilskin just to make sure I had enough fabric.

I will cut out the raincoat pieces today and begin working on it. This is one of those projects where the prep work easily takes as much time as the actual sewing.

******

My friend, Robert, who is here visiting for a month, is playing trombone in the Flathead Valley Community Band this weekend. Deana and I tagged along and sat in on rehearsal last night. The director is DD#1’s band director from high school and it was nice to see him again. When we arrived, he asked why I hadn’t brought my trombone and I told him I am retired. I haven’t played in about 15 years. However, I will go to my grave not being able to hear the Stars and Stripes played without singing along to the low brass part. 🫤

******

A very persistent deer somehow managed to find its way into the garden while I was gone and nibbled on the apple trees. The husband went out last night and restrung some wire along the top of the fence line. I am hoping that will keep it out. The trees should recover, but I get tired of all these animals thinking I plant this food for them.

Fabric Shopping in Washington and Oregon

I am back from my trip as a delegate to our church’s annual denominational meeting for our region. It included a surprising amount of fabric shopping.

I left Wednesday morning and powered through to Seattle, arriving around 3 pm. I was aware that there was a soccer game scheduled at noon. Pacific Fabrics is only a short distance from the stadium. DD#2 had suggested I avoid the area altogether, but I thought the game would be over by then and I could sneak in. Unfortunately, I was behind some idiot on I-90 who thought it was a good idea to STOP in the middle of the highway in an attempt to merge into a line of traffic heading south on I-5. I was worried someone would come around the curve and smash into my car, so I had to make a quick detour to a different exit, which put me right next to the stadium just as the game was letting out. 😩 That required me to take a slightly circuitous route to Pacific Fabrics, but I did get there, eventually, at about 3:20.

DD#2 said she’d probably be home by 4:30 and I said I had no doubt I could poke around Pacific Fabrics for an hour. I didn’t buy much, but I did score a two-yard remnant of some 100% linen in black and three yards of a print from Marcia Derse’s new line called Plaid. That will become a Vernon Shirt one of these days.

I had dinner with DD#2 and got to see her new apartment. I waited until the worst of rush hour was over, then headed down to Puyallup to my hotel, not far from the fairgrounds where Sew Expo is held. I spend so much time in Washington that I almost don’t need GPS any longer.

On Thursday morning, I popped over to Tacoma and picked up my friends Mike and Kathy, who came to the conference with me. Mike was scheduled to give a presentation on Saturday evening on his work with the Tacoma Refugee Choir. The three of us drove down I-5 to Albany, Oregon, and arrived around 11 am. We had lunch, then I left them at the hotel and went to the church for the pastor’s retreat. I am not a pastor—nor do I play one on TV—but a third of the congregations in our conference are lay-led or currently without a pastor, including our congregation, so representatives from those congregations were invited to the pastor retreat. I enjoyed the session even though I felt a bit like an odd duck.

After dinner on Thursday, we had a hymn sing. Mennonites will sing, in four parts, at the drop of a hat. I know this, but it still blows me away. And because I did not have to play the piano at all this weekend, I got to sing. What a rare treat.

I was up early on Friday morning with an hour to kill before we had to be at the church, so I went to the nearby Walmart Supercenter to see if they had a remnant rack. Did they ever! It was huge. I got some sweater knit for a Harper Cardigan—I know, it’s a bunch of weird colors but I like it—some black rayon/spandex because one can never have enough of that, and the turquoise-and-black knit, which I suspect is an ITY knit. (ITY = Interlock Twist Yarn.)

I ducked out of the Friday afternoon session so I could meet JC Briar in Albany. JC was the tech editor for my books and patterns and we don’t get to see each other very often. (We are going to try to fix that.) I met her at Brigitte’s Place, which is a phenomenal little fabric store specializing in apparel fabrics. Brigitte is a lovely woman who knows her stuff when it comes to fabric and sewing. I indulged myself and came out of there with some black fabric for a pair of Style Arc Linda Pants, some royal blue cotton eyelet fabric, a bit of cotton/spandex knit for a T-shirt, and a couple of yards of a cotton Japanese fabric in a gorgeous gingham print.

After we left Brigitte’s, we went a few doors down to The Quilt Loft. I did not buy anything there as I have plenty of quilting fabric. We did pet the resident dogs, however.

Wonder of wonders, Black Sheep Gathering was happening at the fairgrounds, so we went over to check out the market. BSG used to be held further south, in Eugene, and I actually taught there back in the early 2000s. We walked around the market and visited. I don’t spin anymore but it was fun to see all the beautiful fibers available for sale.

We ended our visit with dinner at The Barn, which is a collection of food trucks. It is a very clever setup and I saw a few other people from the conference there as well.

I spent all day Saturday in delegate sessions and seminars and Mike gave his presentation Saturday evening. We left Albany on Sunday morning and headed back to Tacoma. Oh, the traffic! We didn’t get back to Tacoma until 3 pm and I still had to drive to Spokane (four hours) to spend the night. Thank goodness it stays light until about 10 pm. And it was light again at 5 am, so I hit the road early Monday morning and was home before lunch.

Now it’s back to reality. July isn’t supposed to be nearly as busy as June was, but our church is hosting the bike tour at the end of the month and there will be a good bit of prep for that. I’m not trying to rush time, but I will be glad when September gets here.

We got a lot of rain over the weekend—East Glacier flooded yesterday and the hotels and campground had to be evacuated. I need to go look at the garden this morning to see how it looks.

Scout Tee Summer

I did some garden work yesterday morning because we had thunderstorms in the forecast after lunch. I cut the grass, then used the string trimmer to clean up around the edges. I enjoy the exercise. The snakes were out for a while so I talked to them, too. The plants are taking off now that they’ve had some heat and sunshine, although it is supposed to be cool and rainy this weekend. We’ll take as much rain as we can get for as long as we can get it.

After lunch—while it rained—I finished the latest Scout Tee. I think this will be the last one for a while. I have plenty of warm-weather woven tops in my closet now. This is not a color I wear often but I do like it.

I still had some time after finishing this top before I had to start dinner, so I traced off the narrow-leg version of the Free Range Slacks. Those are on the list for later this summer, probably in some Kona Crush.

The lining fabric for the Lou Raincoat arrived yesterday. It is the dark purple. The raspberry is the dry oilskin. I would have liked a punchy, bright print for the lining but I was having trouble sourcing a good lining even in a solid color. I saw this and went with it.

The raincoat will be the first project in the queue in July. I also have a couple of projects in the works behind the scenes. Hopefully, I will have some news about those by the beginning of August.

I wish I could get the AI-generated sewing slop to stop showing up in my Facebook feed. All it does is irritate me, and there is so much of it out there. Now it’s even coming in the form of videos. A post over the weekend showed a video with a young woman wearing a strapless dress/bustier-type costume. It was both anatomically (her body) and structurally (the bustier) inaccurate. I try to scroll past these posts or mark them as “not interested” but I still want to see the good sewing content.

How stupid humans can be sometimes.

A Road Trip to Oregon

Last week was very busy. I have two days to breathe and recoup before I head to Albany, Oregon via Tacoma on Wednesday. Robert and Deana are staying here. Our church’s regional denominational meeting is in Albany and I am a delegate. My friends, Mike and Kathy, who live in Tacoma, are coming with me. Mike is giving a presentation on the last evening of conference about his work with the Tacoma Refugee Choir.

I was going to make a stop at Pacific Fabrics in Seattle on my way to Tacoma, but there is a soccer match at noon that day. Pacific Fabrics is only a few blocks from the stadium, so DD#2 suggested I avoid that area. I am bummed about that but I am having dinner with JC Briar when I am in Albany and she suggested a visit to two local fabric stores there. JC was the tech editor for my knitting patterns and books and I don’t get to see her very much anymore, so dinner with her will be a treat.

I am also looking forward to a long drive in the car by myself. I haven’t had one for a couple of months and I always get a bit twitchy without a road trip to clear my head.

******

On Saturday morning, I was a guest of the Teakettle Quilt Guild in Columbia Falls, Montana. I gave the short version of my thread talk there. Such a welcoming group of people! I only knew a few of the members but they were all very gracious and attentive.

I did have some time yesterday afternoon to start making a Scout Tee from some of the fabric I bought in Spokane on Thursday. I am using a pale lavender chambray fabric. Purple is not usually a color I gravitate to, but this is very pretty. I just have to bind the neckline and hem it and it will be done.

Cali Fabrics just got in a shipment of deadstock fabrics and it included some black lightweight 100% wool fabric. I ordered enough to make a pair of Rose Pants for winter.

******

The husband continues to work on the deck at the rental house. I helped by staining some of the trim boards on Friday afternoon. I can’t do much but I can wield a paintbrush.

After the crew poured the concrete last Tuesday to fill in the holes in the bathroom floor, the guys from church got busy framing in the new bathroom and showers. It’s looking good:

When I get back from Oregon, I have to start thinking about the bike tour that our church is hosting at the end of July. I am in charge of food for that event. We will be feeding about 75 people for four days. The new bathroom needs to be operational for that event, but it doesn’t have to be painted or completely finished.

Interfacings, Where Art Thou?

I am in danger of making myself a Flintstones wardrobe—the same patterns over and over again—but I think that’s okay. That doesn’t seem to me to be much different than a capsule wardrobe. I made another rayon batik top, one that I absolutely love.

I got the fabric at A Clean Stitch in Missoula the last time I taught there. This will work nicely with a pair of navy blue pants (the Rose Pants!) or capris.

I am not going to start the Lou Raincoat until July as I have too much going on between now and July 4. I might knock out another Scout Tee from the purple chambray I bought in Spokane but that will be it. By the time I get the raincoat done, it will be time to think about cool-weather projects.

*****

When we were at The Pink Thread in Coeur d’Alene, I checked out their selection of interfacing and found one I hadn’t seen before, Pellon 281. It is not on my master list of Pellon products. Is it a new offering? The Pellon website has this description:

Pellon 281 Woven Stretch Fusible is a lightweight, woven, two-way stretch interfacing. It is sheer and silky, offering a luxurious hand and soft support in blouses, dresses, lightweight outerwear and lightweight suit fabrics. Woven Stretch Fusible fuses easily to hard-to-fuse fabrics such as rayon and acetate. Great for both lightweight and midweight fabrics.

I think it will be awesome for facings on these rayon batik tops. I had already fused interfacing to the top I just made, so I haven’t had a chance to try the Pellon 281 yet. I bought three yards. It’s only 20" wide.

While I was on the Pellon website, I ran across two other new-to-me interfacings. One is SF568. The description says:

Pellon® SF568 Lightweight Shape-Flex® is a lightweight woven, fusible interfacing and part of our popular regular Shape-Flex® interfacing line.  It provides lightweight, yet crisp support for collars, cuffs, yokes, pockets, facings, and other detail areas of a garment. It can also add body and permanent stability when used as a backing for needlework and punch embroidery. Lightweight Shape-Flex® is intended for light woven and knit fabrics.

I am excited about trying this one if I can ever find it. Shape-Flex 101 (SF101) is great for many projects, but it is too heavy for some things.

And the last one is Pellon 460, which sounds like it would be great for activewear:

Pellon® Stretch Fuse™ is a lightweight, multi-directional, stretchy fusible interfacing perfect for fabrics of all kinds. It provides soft and supple results, while maintaining body and shape!  The protective liner aids in the fusing process with stretch fabrics.

Unfortunately, an internet search for online retailers carrying either SF568 or Pellon 460 isn’t yielding much. I tried to order some of the SF568 from one of the online retailers and got an e-mail saying they didn’t have it in stock. I have an order in for the Pellon 460—the retailer’s website claims it is in stock, so I guess we will find out.

I sent an e-mail to Pellon customer service asking them what is going on with these two products. This is not the first time I have tried to order a Pellon product only to be told by the retailer that it isn’t in stock and/or they can’t get it. I wish these companies would stop teasing sewists with unicorns that don’t exist.

If I were in charge of Pellon, I would do the following:

• Simplify the naming system so it makes sense

• Make up comprehensive data sheets for each product like Vlisilene does (the European interfacing supplier) that show usage, temperature settings for fusing, etc., and offer them as downloads on the Pellon website.

• Figure out a way to educate consumers about the products, whether that is with updated YouTube tutorials, brand ambassadors, posted information in big box stores like Hobby Lobby, or something else. (I would sign up to be a brand ambassador! 🙋🏻‍♀️)

• Replace the ubiquitous nonwoven interfacings (ick) at all big-box retailers with the higher-quality specialty products.

Let’s hope that these three interfacings are new products and that Pellon is making a step in the right direction. I think they got lazy when they were able to sell their products through Joanns and now they have to up their game.

A Great Day for a Road Trip

An over-and-back trip to Spokane is very doable in the summer when it gets light at 5 am and doesn’t get dark until 10 pm. Deana and I left here at 6:30 am and pulled into The Other Janet’s driveway at 7 am. The three of us hit the road and made it to Spokane about 15 minutes before The Quilting Bee opened. The Other Janet checked her serger in to the service department and we were off again.

Coeur d’Alene, ID and Spokane, WA are only about 25 minutes apart, so we headed back toward CdA to visit a couple of stores there. Between the two cities is Post Falls, ID, which is home to Shabby Fabrics. You may have seen their YouTube channel. Last year, they opened a retail showroom in the front of their warehouse. They specialize in kits, but their showroom also has individual items for sale, and the merchandising is top-notch. The showroom is a fun place to wander around. I bought five half-yard cuts of 1930s reproduction fabric to add to the stash, because I want to make a 1930s-style quilt one of these days.

The Pink Thread opened last fall in CdA and carries garment fabric as well as quilting fabric. The Other Janet quilts small pieces but is more interested in making garments. I was pleased to see that the store had expanded its selection of garment fabrics. The Other Janet bought some white knit fabric for a T-shirt and I got two cuts of lightweight wovens for tops, as well as some Pellon interfacing that is destined for my Sew Expo 2027 interfacing class and a skirt pattern.

By then, it was time for lunch, so we went to a nearby Panera for sandwiches and salads. On our way back to Spokane, we stopped at Becky’s Sewing Center, which is the local Bernina dealer. I got two more cuts of woven fabric—Tilda chambray—for two more tops.

We got back to Spokane around 1 pm. I took the Jeep through the car wash and we popped over to Value Village to see if they had any machines or fabric. That was the store where I found a BabyLock serger for $13.99 a couple of years ago. They didn’t have any sergers, but I got three yards of a very nice black-and-white knit fabric for $3.99. It’s perfect for a Burda knit dress pattern I have in the stash.

While we were poking around Value Village, The Other Janet got a text that her machine was ready. We did a bit of shopping at The Quilting Bee, but I didn’t see anything I couldn’t live without.

Getting home took longer than getting there. Summer road construction is in full swing and we got held up in a few places. We delivered The Other Janet to her house around 7:30 pm and took a quick peek at her sewing room. Deana and I were back here around 8 pm. It was a long day but a productive and fun one.

This was my haul—most of it, anyway.

I am staying home today to do paperwork and housework this morning and some sewing this afternoon. Tomorrow morning, I give the condensed version of my thread presentation to the Teakettle Quilt Guild in Columbia Falls.