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TGIF and Getting Going on X&+

I’m glad it’s Friday. It’s been a tough week and I’m happy to see the tail end of it.

It was a rainy day today and it was wonderful. During our walk last night I felt a few rain drops here and there. By the time I went to bed there was a very light rain falling and it fell pretty much all day. And it was wonderful. I think it’s been at least a month since we’ve and rain and we need it.

After our evening walk tonight I finally hit my sewing room and started trimming some of my X & + blocks in anticipation of getting this top finished.

I’ve been thinking about trimming these blocks for a few days. I wanted to be really careful so I would be able to sew them together and have the arms of the pluses match on all four sides of each block. So I pulled out y 12.5 inch square ruler and marked all four sides for lining up with the plus arms.

I used some transparent and easily removed tape that is made specifically for this purpose. The one I have comes in a package of three different colors. The package has lasted me many years.

I place the ruler on top of the block and line up, as closely as I can, the marks on all four sides of the ruler and then start cutting off the excess fabric.

Since I have two extra blocks I practiced on those first. I’m not having to cut very much off these blocks to get them squared up, but it will make a big difference in how easily the top sews up.

I actually really like squaring up blocks. This surprises even me! I just love taking a somewhat wonky and uneven block to near perfection. Look how gorgeous this is when it’s all squared up!

And there’s something so pretty and cheerful about this…

It would have been more convenient and efficient to square up all the blocks before I tossed them up on the design wall, but since I was indecisive on whether or not I was even going to square them up, I am where I am. So I started with one row, squared up each block and put it back not the design wall. Once I had a row of six blocks done, I started sewing them together.

The first seam didn’t match as closely as I would have liked

After this first block didn’t turn out as nicely as I’d like, I used a pin through the seam of each block to match up the seams.

The next blocks turned out much nicer! I’ll be sticking with this method on the remaining blocks.

So I managed to get one full row trimmed and sewn together. And it looks pretty nice!

I’m just loving looking at each block as I square them up. The fabrics are really gorgeous!

I received photos of another finished quilt from my long arm quilter a couple days ago.

the quilting design combines horizontal bars and swirls. I love it for this pattern with all those horizontal bricks. Here’s the back where you can really see the quilting design.

I’m loving that quilting design! I’m pretty sure I’ve never used a quilting design that has straight lines like this.

The roses are in all their glory right now in Portland. I ran across this beauty tonight on our walk. This must have been nearly six inches across!

Rico has his regular sheep herding lesson tomorrow morning, then we’ll high tail it home to drop off the dogs so I can meet friends for lunch at a new restaurant one friend’s husband manages.

Sunday I have a pickleball class on how to add spin to your shots. I’m looking forward to it.

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More Noodling and Some Really Fun Stuff

I’m still moving X & + blocks around on my design wall, but I think I’m close to calling this thing done.

I moved some stuff around to lighten that dark bottom left corner. The problem is that every time I move something, I create a problem in a different place. But I’m feeling pretty confident that I’m at that “good enough” stage.

Here’s this layout in black and white.

That bottom left corner still looks dark in the photos, but in real life it looks ok. So I grabbed my LED sewing light and put it on the floor to light up that section for a photo.

So that corner actually IS lighter now. And the black and white photo to see how it looks with better light.

Like I said… good enough.

One of the things that stopped me in my tracks on making this quilt was thinking about how wonky these blocks were and how careful I’d have to be in squaring them up so everything lines up. I even considered adding sashing at one point so I wouldn’t have to be as concerned about that. But I knew the sashing would ruin the effect of the Xs and pluses. So I’m back to no sashing.

The blocks are a little over 12.5 inches square. And they are a little wonky, but not as bad as I thought. I do believe the entire quilt will go together much more nicely if I square up the bocks.

I’d have to trim off a little less than 1/8 inch all the way around. I also think it will be doable to line up the center pluses to make all the blocks line up nicely. But I’ll need to be mindful as I cut.

The arms of the plus would square up with the outer edges 5 inches from the outside edge of the block. So I’m thinking I can pull this off and have the blocks come together nicely.

I’ll wait to start on that when I’m fresh.

Now onto the FUN stuff!

I’ve been getting messages from my long arm quilter with ideas for quilting designs for my six quilts. I’ll share those in a minute, but first… the best part of my day…

MY ICE STORM QUILT IS QUILTED!!!

I just love the way quilting transforms a quilt top! And I love this quilting design. It feels like the winds that blew during that scary ice storm when I could hear branches breaking and falling all around my house. But in a nice way. Hahahaha!

This quilt will have some sort of insane whimsy since the backing is Brandon Mably’s octopus!!! it’s a little crazy, but so absolutely perfect!

So, now onto the quilting ideas the long armer sent me today. She sent several options for each quilt. It was really fun to choose the ones I like.

First off is the orange, pink and purple Another 16 Patch quilt that I made on my Featherweight machine.

And the quilting pattern I chose.

Next up is my Jumble Quarter Log Cabin quilt.

And the pattern for this one… (I love all those little circles with the jumble!)

Next up is my Red Algorithm quilt.

And the pattern I chose for this one. . .

Next is my Red Fractured quilt.

This was the hardest one to decide on, but I landed on this…

And finally, my “black” KFC quilt.

And I just love the pattern I chose for this one.

How much fun is that? It’s going to be the most chaotic quilt ever made!!!

We finally had a hot day today. It got right up to 90. So we didn’t get an afternoon walk and had a two mile evening walk after the sun went down. I finally turned my air conditioner on at around 9 pm because it had gotten up to 78 in the house. I had my furnace on a week ago!

It’s supposed to be hot again tomorrow and then it’s supposed to cool back down to the mid 70s to low 80s. I’m ok if we stay away from the really hot days for a while.

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A Good Weekend with No Sewing, But Some Noodling

I think I felt such a sense of accomplishment by getting that Wensleydale quilt top finished that I deserved a break from sewing this weekend. So I got nearly nothing done in my sewing room since Friday.

Nearly nothing. I did stand in my sewing room and look at that Japanese X & + quilt a few times and noodle over the arrangement of the blocks, moving squares around to separate places where one fabric showed up a lot in different blocks, balance the darks and lights, and make sure my favorite blocks had prominent placement.

Here’s where I’ve landed as of tonight.

This is feeling pretty good to me, but I see at least one thing I want to fix.

My brain wants to make every other block brown, with the alternating blocks yellow. But I have more brown blocks that yellow blocks. So that just won’t work unless I make more blocks and that’s just not going to happen.

It looks pretty balanced in this black and white photo.

The bottom doesn’t look as dark in person. It’s all how the light hits it. But I am going to have to look at that lower left corner next time I’m in that rom.

I wish I had taken a photo, but I looked at this when I got up this morning and opened the blinds and saw it with the bright morning sun coming through the window. It looked so bright and cheery and makes me really want to see this done and on the bed.

Yesterday was pretty much a wash. I took Rico for his sheep herding lesson and we did some driving work in a smaller field. He was a good boy and his brain was tired by the time our lesson ended.

On the way home we stopped at the field with the creek so the boys could get a good run. I only walked about a mile but they must have run six or seven! They love running through the trees and bushes to get to the creek. Then they come tearing out all wet.

I love to play a hide and seek game with them when they tear into the bushes to get to the creek. I’ll hide and let them find me.

They usually find me pretty quickly! Rico is a little better at following his nose.

They do love a chance to run and having access to the creek is even better.

It was a gorgeous day and wasn’t too hot. But when they’re running they get heated up.

That walk in that field took me back to my childhood. There were wild roses all over the place. The air was full of their scent.

The hot air, the bugs buzzing, and the scent of wild roses reminds me of summers at my grandfather’s home in Hudson, Wyoming, when I was a kid. It brought back all kinds of memories.

Here’s my boys posing in front of some of the roses.

Other than taking the boys for a walk later in the evening yesterday, I really can’t remember what else I did. I think I probably wasted a lot of time.

Today I slept in a little and then went and played pickleball for 3.5 hours! I had so much fun! I went to a different place and there were more courts so that I got to play more ad didn’t have to wait my turn as much. I may go back to this place on Sundays. I’m pretty wiped out tonight, but I did manage to take my boys for a three mile walk after dinner.

It was a gorgeous evening. Our weather has been pretty perfect the last few days. With the exception of Tuesday and Wednesday this week, with temps at or near 90, the next ten days look amazing!

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Wensleydale Quilt Top is DONE! And What’s Next?

I had a great day off today. Started with some morning pickleball, then stopped by the racquet store and bought a new pickleball paddle. Then headed home for a nice lunch on the patio, then a little bit of personal to do stuff on the computer.

Then I hit my sewing room to start working on the final four seams to complete my Wensleydale quilt top.

First, I sewed the bottom three sections of two rows together. Then I ran a line of stay stitching around the perimeter of this section of the quilt, about 1/8 inch from the edge.

This line of stitching will hold the edge pieces together and prevent the stitching in the blocks from unraveling with handling. I don’t typically do this line of stitching, but with this quilt and all the angled points. I wanted to make sure they all held together.

I did this when the quilt top was still in two pieces because it’s easier to not have to wrestle then bulk of the enter top through the machine.

It really did go together quickly. Here’s the final two sections as I’m pinning them on my cutting table.

I really love the look of these blocks from the back! Everything is so clean and incredibly consistent from block to block.

Once I got that final seam pinned I rolled the two pieces up so the entire piece is about 14 inches wide, then accordion folded it all to help make it easier to move that bulk through my machine for the final seam.

Then I just put that stack on my lap and feed the fabric through.

I really enjoyed the final pressing of this quilt top. It’s so fun to look at all the fabrics close up and enjoy how they all play together.

I mean, just look at that!!

And here’s the finished flimsy! It measures 66 by 73 inches. I wish you could see it in person. The blue batiks are so pretty.

Before I put that finished flimsy up on my design wall for photos, I rolled up the front design wall and rolled down the back one and then put this on the back piece.

Why did I do that? I wanted to get my Japanese X & + quilt blocks up on the design wall so I could decide whether or not I have enough to move forward and complete the top. I put these blocks on the front design wall.

That’s six blocks by seven bocks. So a total of 42 blocks. I thought I had 42 blocks made, but I actually have 44.

I adjusted a photo of these blocks to see how the values balance.

I’ve already moved a couple of blocks around after I saw this photo. There’s a few more things I’ll change, but it’s close.

I’m sure this will be plenty big for the double bed in my guest room. So, no more blocks needed. I’ll decide on a final design tomorrow and will start putting this thing together.

And, of course, I have to show you some close ups of these blocks so you can see the amazing fabrics… all Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics.

It was actually Liza Roos Lucy, who works the the Kaffe Fassett Collection, who suggested using that green/turquiose spot for the background. Of course, I love it and love those little pops of turquoise!

I can’t stop!

And one more for good measure.

I might have to do some minor trimming on these blocks. But they are big and should go together pretty quickly.

Tomorrow, Rico has a sheep herding lesson and then I’ll take them for a nice field run in the park with the creek. They will enjoy a chance to run and get in the water.

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Cool Video Tutorial for Cutting Fabric for Wensleydale Blocks

Ok, I messed up my previous post and since so many people read my posts through email I wanted to make sure this info was clear and get it into people’s email boxes.

So here we go… again.

I happened across the video linked below today. It’s a really cool method that the Quilted Chicken on Youtube came up with for cutting fabrics for paper piecing the Wensleydale blocks. And it looks really great to me.

I will definitely try this when I make my second Wensleydale quilt, but I’ll probably make one block with the fabrics cut with this method before I commit to cutting a bunch, just to make sure the pieces are generous enough to make paper piecing efficient. But it looks really promising to me.

And now I have a place to send people when they ask me how to cut the pieces for paper piecing Wensleydale blocks!

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Four Horizontal Seams Left On My Wensleydale

SPECIAL NOTE: If you’re one of the people who asked how I was cutting my fabric pieces to make these Wensleydale blocks, read all the way to the bottom for a special treat.

I decided that I will actually take tomorrow off as I had planned. It’s not very often that I get a day with no meetings so I decided to go for it. Besides, it’s nearly the end of the fiscal year and we’re in the time of year where we have a bit of a lull.

I did work later than I had hoped tonight so I could get a few things done that have deadlines of tomorrow. Now I can relax and enjoy my day off. I’m going to play pickleball in the morning, then have the rest of the day to do whatever I want.

One thing I want to do is finish my Wensleydale quilt top. I hit my sewing room tonight and sewed together the blocks in the four remaining rows, then sewed those rows into two sets of two rows each.

So all I have left to do on this is sew the final five sets of two rows together. That’s just four horizontal seams and this baby is done!

As I was sewing rows together I came across one block that I must have fallen asleep on…

Oops.

I did take a few minutes tonight to enjoy these blocks sewn together. It’s really fun to see the fabrics close up… see all the variation in the blue batiks. They’re pretty amazing!

You just don’t see all that gorgeousness when you look at the quilt top in its entirety.

Here’s some more eye candy.

I just love how those dark and light values play together!

And a little more…

And one more, just to be sure. . .

So, now for the special treat I teased at the top.

I happened across the video linked below today. It’s a really cool method that the Quilted Chicken on YouTube came up with for cutting fabrics for paper piecing the Wensleydale blocks. And it looks really great to me!

I will definitely try this when I make my second Wensleydale quilt, but I’ll probably make one block with the fabrics cut with this method before I commit to cutting a bunch, just to make sure the pieces are generous enough to make piecing efficient. But it looks really promising to me!

You can all thank me later for finding this!

Have a happy Friday! I intend to!

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A Lovely Long Weekend… And a Bit of Sewing

It was a nice long holiday weekend. It all started Saturday morning with two hours of pickleball. It was a really gorgeous day and it was a great way to start the weekend. I really don’t remember what I did Saturday afternoon. I’m sure I took my boys for a nice long walk but the rest is a blur.

I had to get to bed REALLY early because I needed to be on the road at 4:30 am Sunday for Rico’s sheep herding trial.

I did manage to finish the binding on my NY Beauty wall hanging. I’m pretty happy with how this came together and I’m really glad to have it done. It’s been a lot of years in process.

Sewing on that binding was much easier than I thought it would be. Makes me feel not quite so horrified about the six quilts that will come back to me soon needing binding finished.

Since I had to be up at 3:30 Sunday morning I took some Advil PM at around 8:00 Saturday night and found myself ready to go to bed around 10:30. I was pretty groggy when my alarm went off Sunday morning, But I got out of bed and got moving. We were on the road at 4:30. I was surprised the sky was as light as it was.

I’m happy to say that getting up that early was totally worth it because Rico was a very good boy at the herding trial. He got scores in three of his four runs. That basically means that we didn’t make any mistakes that disqualified us. In sheep herding you start out with a certain number of points for each element of the run. then they deduct points for the parts you don’t do correctly.

Here’s the score sheet for the novice class. Rico had his regular run, and then a non compete run (basically an exhibition run).

This is a trial that allows training in the ring, so that’s really the reason I go. And I really wanted to see Rico do some nice outruns in this trial. it’s where he’s struggled in the last couple of trials. And he gave me beautiful outruns all day. In his first run he lost 7 points on the outrun. On his second run he only lost three points!

Here’s the score sheet for his ranch class. His second run featured a perfect outrun and lift. Those zeros are a very good thing! They mean he did such a lovely job they couldn’t take any points from him!

I was so happy with how he did. Definitely worth the trip. And we started so early that we were on the road home at 10 am!

You can learn all about sheep herding trials at this Wikipedia page.

Here’s Rico watching another dog work the sheep.

He was a good boy and waited patiently for his turn.

Bender got to join us for a nice field run before we hit the road for home.

I was so tired when I got home that about all I could manage to do was a little grocery shopping for my Memorial Day pot luck dinner. I also got my pork tenderloin and chicken thighs in their marinades and in the fridge.

I went and played pickleball again on Monday morning and had a blast! My knee is feeling so much better… thanks to the power of ice and CBD oil!

I had a wonderful time with my friends at our Memorial Day pot luck dinner. The food was good and it was really fun to see friends!

My yard looks pretty perfect right now and we were comfortable outdoors the entire time.

I got up early again today and played 3.5 hours of pickleball! The last four or five games were the best. A lot of people had left and I got on a court with three men and we had a bunch of really fun and competitive games. None of us wanted to go home!

But once I did get home I grabbed some lunch and then headed out to a nice, big garden center West of me.

It’s a beautiful place and it’s huge!

I bought two red grasses and a lavender plant. And I quickly got them planted when I got home…

I also planted a couple of hostas that I bought last week.

After dinner I took the boys for a nice three mile walk. The weather was so perfect! It was really an amazing day.

Then I hit my sewing room to work on the Wensleydale quilt top. I sewed together four more rows of bocks, and sewed the six rows that were done into sets of two rows each.

So just four more rows that need to be sewn together.

And I’m pinning pretty carefully to make sure these blocks all come together nicely. It’s working well so far and I’m liking what I see.

I’m a little anxious to get this quilt off my design wall so I can decide what to do with my Japanese X#+ quilt.

Back to work for a few days. I had planned to take Friday off as well, but I’m not sure that will happen. I’d like to make it happen!

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About Time for This UFO

I’m glad today is Friday. I’m glad I have a four day weekend coming up. I’m glad the weather is lovely. I wish my knee didn’t hurt. So do my boys. Another day with no walk to let it recover a little.

I had a wonderful lunch with a former co-worker today. We talked for three hours! It was really fun to catch up. I had a couple quick meetings when I got back, then chunked through some email, then I was done for the day and the weekend.

After dinner tonight I had a nice phone conversation with a friend as I sat on the patio on a gorgeous evening. Then I decided to dig into the closet in my sewing room and pull out a quilt that’s been sitting unfinished for way too long. It’s a Japanese X and + quilt that I’m making for my guest room. I’m pretty sure I started this at least five years ago and I’m pretty sure I haven’t touched it during the pandemic.

This is made from all Kaffe Fassett Collective Fabrics. I was thinking I still needed to make four or five blocks, but in counting the blocks I found that I have 42 done. The blocks will finish at around 12.5 inches. I think that’s going to be plenty big for the double bed in my guest room. I was planning on adding substantial borders to get it up to size. I have lots of fabric for borders, backing and eventually pillow cases.

So now I’m motivated to finish sewing the Wensleydale blocks together so I can get that off my design wall and get this one up and decide if I have enough blocks.

Here’s the pattern I’ve used for the Japanese X & + quilt.

I did manage to sew two rows of the Wensleydale top together tonight. Since there’s only six blocks in each row It will go pretty quickly.

I’m taking the time to pin carefully so my points line up nicely from block to block. I don’t want to do all that work and have this last step look messy.

It’s worth the time.

I also decided to press the seams between blocks open because there’s bit of bulk where the points come together. I do not enjoy pressing seams open.

I stopped at two rows sewn together and decided to sit down and do some hand sewing on the binding for my NY Beauty wall hanging while I watched some TV and wound down for the evening.

I actually sat down first and watched a couple videos on how to hand sew bindings and they were really helpful. I got nearly three sides of this little quilt done and it was easy and pretty quick.

Of course, the KFC fabrics are really silky and soft so the needle goes through them nicely.

I’m supposed to go play pickleball tomorrow morning but I’ll play it by ear and see how my knee feels.

Sunday I’m heading up to Olympia, WA, for a sheep herding trial with Rico. The start time is 7:00 am, which means I’m going to have to be on the road at 4:30 am!!! I can’t believe I just typed that!

One of my boys is very farty tonight. I’m not sure which one but there’s a definite prolonged pungent pong around here.

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Wrapping Up Another UFO

I met a consultant I know through work for lunch today at a restaurant we love in Lake Oswego, OR, for some yummy tacos, chips and guacamole, and spicy Margaritas. We used to go to lunch at this restaurant every couple months before the pandemic hit. I saw her for the first time since the pandemic hit a few weeks ago when we had a lunch meeting with a vendor we both work with. It was so much fun to see her so we agreed to meet for lunch today. The food was so good. The margaritas were soooo delicious, and the company was wonderful.

After having a couple of cocktails with lunch, I wasn’t worth much the rest of the afternoon. So I spent a few hours catching up on emails and my to do list.

I’ve had a sore knee this week so decided to not walk today to give it a break. My boys don’t like this at all, but they got several play sessions in the back yard so that helped.

After feeding my boys dinner I hit my sewing room to make the binding for my NY Beauty wall hanging. You know how much I like making bindings!

It didn’t take very long because the quilt is only about 36 inches square. So before long I was wrestling it all through my machine.

Sewing this binding to this small quilt makes me really glad that I don’t have to sew binding to a big quilt!

Once I got it sewn on I had to find a video to remind myself how to join the two ends of the binding together. I do it so rarely that I always forget how to do it.

It’s really simple to do. I once purchased a special ruler to join bindings and this method is so much easier!

Once I got it joined I pressed and sewed that final section.

Then I pressed the binding and got it all clipped in place. I’ll hand sew it later.

I really like that pop of orange for the binding. It’s such a wonderful color with the blue border. It’s also in the quilt.

I’m not putting a sleeve or other hanging devices in this piece. I’m going to hang a small curtain rod on the wall above my sewing machine and will hang this using curtain rings with clips. That will make it easy to switch out different pieces when I need a change.

I didn’t walk today but noticed some lovelies on our walk last night.

More and more roses are blooming.

The peonies are starting to open up. Look at this gorgeous monster!!! It must have been more than six inches across!

I think this might be some kind of Lupine.

And the threes are showing all kinds of new growth…. so soft and so green.

I’m meeting a former coworker for lunch tomorrow. He retired at the end of last summer and I haven’t seen him since. I’m looking forward to it. But there will be no Margaritas tomorrow!

I have Monday off for the Memorial Day holiday, then I’m taking Tuesday off. Some friends and I are planning a get together here at my place on Monday.

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Wensleydale on the Design Wall and a Corgi Puppy

After dinner tonight I walked to a friend’s house to see their new corgi puppy and to take her a toy I whipped up for her.

Meet Bella. She’s just 11 weeks old.

It seems like it’s been a long time since I got to hang out with a little puppy. And I have to say, there is no puppy cuter than a corgi puppy!

She really liked the toy I made her!

And of course, I had to take a little video.

GAH! So cute! It’s nice to get a puppy fix.

After our evening walk I hit my sewing room and stacked all my value sorted Wensleydale blocks in preparation of getting them up on the design wall.

I like sorting by value or color, combining into a stack as it makes getting blocks arranged on the design wall easier. I feel like this first attempt is pretty good.

It always helps to make the photo black and white to just look at value.

I can see a couple areas here that I’ll want to adjust. But I’m really glad I made the last ten blocks really light and really dark. This quilt top needed those stark blocks.

Here’s an area that feels flat and too gray.

The entire column on the left side feels very gray and flat to me as well. It’s entirely possible that it’s just the lighting and photo. It very well may look completely different in real life. But this shows me areas to take a good look at.

I’ll leave these blocks on the design wall for a few days while I noodle over it and make some changes. But I’m not going to agonize over it. I feel pretty happy with this as it is.

And you shouldn’t be surprised that I put block #59 in the center of the quilt!

It’s likely I’ll have this sewn together this weekend. I’d like to check this off my list.

I think my next project will be a quick and easy one. I want to get the binding on this lovely that will hang above my sewing table.

That’s an easy evening’s project and it will feel good to finally finish this. I think I started this at least six years ago!

I’ve been thinking a lot today about this Magnificent Beast, Forrest. He was born 20 years ago today.

Most people I know have that one dog that was THE dog of a lifetime and mine was Forrest. He’s been gone for 5.5 years now and I smile about him often. It’s Forrest’s paw print that I had tattooed on my left arm a year ago.

One of my favorite photos of Forrest…

This photo was taken by my friend Heather during a hike in May. It was rainy and cool and I was going to leave Forrest at home because he was 14 at the time. He would have none of it… he wouldn’t let me leave the house without him. So I grabbed his little coat and took him along… knowing that I’d have to carry him for a god portion of the hike. I’m so glad I took him along. He had such a wonderful time… and so did I.

Forrest on the far left with Bender next to him. Rico is on the far right. He was only about six months old in this photo. His left ear hadn’t yet decided to stand at attention!

After the recent heat we’ve had, I had to break down and turn on my furnace this morning! I’m glad the heat is gone, but I’m not feeling positive that we’re going to have any delicious Oregon strawberries this spring.