Busy, Busy

Wow...so much has happened since my last entry. We're going to be grandparents again in February. The baby is due Feb 29th - Leap Day! Isaac will be a "big" brother! LOL We find out 9/22 whether we're having a grandson or a granddaughter. I've been knitting while I've been waiting...do you think I'm doing a little wishful thinking? LOL

Isaac is growing like a weed...

Sleeping is the only time I can take a picture of him with my camera on my phone...otherwise he's just a blur! LOL

I've also been learning to quilt, and my wonderful hubby and I worked on a hand-quilting frame together.

I'm working on a Civil War Soldier's Quilt for him.

I've been working on my first Civil War dress...I've got the bodice finished...here's a picture of it right before I finished it (it has the hooks & eyes and buttons on it now).

I've also been putting up things from the garden for winter...green beans, zucchini, and peaches (actually those were from Huber's). I made a bunch of sloppy joes/coney sauce and put it in the freezer. I made a pie from scratch from the peaches; Rich said it was the best peach pie he's ever eaten.

We've been busy with this season's Civil War reenactments. We went to the 150th anniversary of First Manassas. Being there on the actual date when the battle occurred was an amazing feeling. We toured the battlefield and the surrounding areas where the fighting was done. It was pretty humbling to be there walking the same ground where so many of those brave soldiers died.

Well, back to working on my handmade items for Christmas presents. I will have to post pictures of them after Christmas, though. :)

Civil War Sack Coat

I finished Rich's new sack coat today. Finished sewing on his Corporal's chevrons. I bought the sack coat kit and chevrons from Wambaugh and White. The pieces for the coat are cut out and sent to you with instructions, thread, and beeswax. It was a challenge, but I think it turned out pretty well for my first sack coat. Every stitch was handsewn. There are a few places I would have liked to have laid a little flatter, etc., but I'm overall pretty pleased.

Civil War Chemise

I just finished this project, which is a chemise. It's from a book called The Dressmaker's Guide 1840-1865 by Elizabeth Stewart Clark. If you are a woman interested in Civil War clothing, it is a must-have! Here is a picture of the chemise I made:





Now I'm working on a pair of underdrawers. A lady can never have too many!

Civil War Stuff

We attended the Civil War Days at Billie Creek Village in Rockville, IN on June 12th and 13th. It was in the high 90's and very, very humid. Dakota went with us. It was a challenge trying to stay cool and keep hydrated. By Saturday evening, we all had headaches and were getting dehydrated, so we went to town and ate at Pizza Hut just to get out of the heat for a little while. We felt much better when we left there. There was a storm coming in when we left Pizza Hut, and by the time that we got back to Billie Creek Village, it was raining. It actually felt good to walk in the rain back to the camp, and I had my work dress on, so it wasn't a big deal. We couldn't decide whether or not to go to the ball, because we were all so tired from the heat. We finally decided to go and watch. Dakota and I entered the gown competition with our dresses. Dakota was wearing this dress (although this photo was taken at Conner Prairie).I was wearing this dress, and I won!

I got a certificate of appreciation. It was very cool! It would have been even more cool if I had made the dress myself, but I will get there one of these days.

Last weekend we attended an event at the Hesston Steam Train Museum in LaPorte, IN. I will post about that later. Have to run a couple of errands.

Catching Up

The raised garden beds turned out beautifully! We had lots of produce...green beans, tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, onions, basil...The broccoli didn't do well, nor did the corn, but we were overjoyed with the success of this project. The only problem was that we had just more than we could eat, but not enough to can (tomatoes or green beans), and I didn't have enough cucumbers to make pickles. So we'd like to try to expand next year. I did take pictures, but I've saved everything to disk to free up some computer space...and I don't want to take the time to hunt for the disc this morning. (sorry)

I am currently on medical leave from work. I had to have a hysterectomy. Pathology all came back showing nothing cancerous, so I'm thankful. I wasn't worried about that so much as just having all of the pain I was having. I'm glad it's over. A big thank you to Dr. Fish for fixing me!!! It's back to work in 4 weeks, but in the meantime I'm getting caught up on some nursing journal reading, and studying for the certification exam for SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner). I take it right before I go back to work. I also have to plan a baby shower for right before I go back to work...
Baby Isaac is growing like crazy! This picture is actually from 8/9/09. He's much bigger now! Only 10 weeks from yesterday and he will be here! Chey is feeling good...just tired a lot, which is understandable. I remember those days! Ha!

I've knitted him some cotton bibs, a jacket and pants set, and a gown. I'll try to post pictures of those before the week is out. I'm working on trying to finish up a sweater today (for me). I've had to rip it out twice, so I'm ready to be done with it! It's a mock cable pattern, and I'm tired of the same stitch and ready to move on to something else. I'll have plenty of opportunity. I've joined an email group of Civil War needleworkers. I'm finding lots of patterns and information to use to take with me to knit at re-enactments. On that note, back to it!

Happy knitting all!

Now the wait begins...

Well, we got the rest of the raised garden beds done. We planted seeds in the first bed a couple of weeks ago. Last week we finished putting dirt in the other 2 bigger beds, and last Sunday after church we planted the rest of our seeds. We also went ahead and planted our tomato plants, bell pepper plants, onions, garlic, and jalapeno pepper plants. Hopefully Jack Frost will stay away and not bite us in the butt for planting before Mother's Day.



















Things are really greening up here. Our one apple tree is just covered in blossoms. The second apple tree has blossoms for the first year ever - just a few - but it has some!































The grapevines are growing...

















The wild blackberry bushes are getting green and will be blooming soon...















And the strawberry bed is doing very well so far. We planted some starts, as well as about 6 bigger plants. There is a mixture of huge June-bearing strawberry plants, and some Ozark Beauty everbearing. I can't wait until we can actually harvest strawberries from them next year! I want to try making jam, as well as having fresh strawberries to eat.















The seeds we planted in the first bed are coming up. The green beans are the latest to start popping through...















The peas are starting nicely...














As is the leaf lettuce...














Some broccoli is showing up....














And the carrots are starting...















I'm still waiting on the turnips and cucumbers to pop up. In the far left bed we planted some mammoth sunflower seeds, some Honey Pearl sweet corn, a couple of individual-sized cantaloupe seeds, and a couple of pie pumpkin seeds. We ran out of room, so we're trying to start the Giant Magic Pumpkin seeds in hills to the left of the last bed.














So....now we just water when it doesn't rain...and we wait. Hopefully we'll have a good harvest from our garden this year. It's really nice working in the garden with Rich...being outside in the sun and working on something together.

I'm also still knitting on baby (aka Peanut) clothes. I'm working on a baby gown right now. I'll post pictures of it when I'm done. Well...that's about it for today. The bus just pulled up, so Kota is home. Rich will be home soon, so I need to start thinking about dinner. I hope God blesses your day as much as he has mine!

News Flash!!!

Sorry for the long delay in posting. So much has been happening! The best of which is this...(click on the picture to make it bigger)

I'm gonna be a grandma! :) Although the timing could have been better (i.e. marriage before pregnancy and a little more financially stable), I'm very happy that I'm going to have a grandbaby. He or she is due November 17th. Here is a picture of Chey and Will (baby's daddy).

And I've already started knitting baby things! I started this blanket the day I found out Chey was pregnant.
I love making Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ), so I already had one of those knitted and put back for "someday" grandbabies. I made a pair of socks...they turned out a little bigger than I thought they were going to...
Guess we'll have some socks for when the baby gets a little older! I've made one bib in a neutral color, since we can't find out the sex of the baby until the 18th week of pregnancy.And I've just about got another bib finished in another colorway.

Now I just have to figure out what to cast on for next! I think it's going to be some of EZ's "longies" or baby leggings and another BSJ to match.

Rich hasn't been getting a full work-week because of the economical downturn. We're limping along budget-wise, but hanging in there. I'm sure glad that we started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace program when we did. We've paid off several debts so far, but we still have a ways to go. Rich thinks things are going to pick up soon where he works, so hopefully we'll be able to start paying extra on debts again soon and get even more paid off. We are trying to live as frugally as possible. We haven't been successful in trying to get vegetables to grow in the clay soil we have here at home. We've tried multiple times. So this year we decided to build raised garden beds. To save money, we used 8-10" diameter cedar trees for the sides of the beds and then used 2x8's for the ends to hold the logs together. The beds are 4 feet across so that I can reach them from either side to weed, pick things, etc.
The smaller one in the back is a strawberry bed. I can't wait for fresh strawberries next year! We bought some dirt that was $20 per truckload and mixed in some "miracle grow" style enriched garden soil with fertilizer, and some manure. I invested in a $15 soil tester, and the numbers look pretty good. I think this might work really good! We are planning to do "square foot gardening" and "companion planting" - putting plants together that benefit each other. We're going to try growing green beans, cucumbers, peas, sweet corn, leaf lettuce, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers for salsa, and tomatoes. Then we're going to try to put some small cantaloupe, pumpkins, and watermelon in the ground to see if we can get them to grow. I'd really like to make some pumpkin butter and freeze some pumpkin for pies. Our apple trees are growing...hopefully one day we'll have apples for apple butter. Our dwarf peach tree is doing well, and we planted another one last year. We won't get peaches off of it for another couple of years probably, but I can't wait to have peaches. Next year we're planning on building a chicken house so we can raise our own eggs. We're thinking of raising some rabbits for meat, too. We have a rabbit hutch. That would help to supplement the deer meat we have each year.

Rich is as handsome as ever...although beginning to get a few gray hairs in the mustache and sideburns. You can't see his gray like you can in my hair (thank goodness for Loreal! LOL). Our 20th wedding anniversary is this September - I can't believe it's been 20 years already. Seems like just yesterday we were getting married! As they say...time flies when you're having fun!

Dakota is doing great...she's a beautiful young lady. She's a freshman, and I know she will be graduating high school before it seems possible. Time sure flies. She has a boyfriend right now named Anthony. He seems to be a good kid. She's not allowed to "date" yet, but he comes out and plays video games, goes to church with us sometimes, etc.
I got baptized on February 22nd in my new church. Although I was raised in the Nazarene church, I've found a new home in a small, country, Lutheran church. I really like it. The pastor is great, as are the members. Rich has been going with me nearly every Sunday (YEAH!!!), and Dakota is going more frequently all the time. We went to the sunrise service on Easter. They are starting a new bible study tonight, using The Shack. I'm going. I think it will be very interesting.

I also just completed a 3 month course as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE). Completing the course makes me a forensic nurse examiner for our hospital. I will take the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner certification exam this Fall. I'm spending a lot of time right now getting our hospital's SANE program up and running. I was our hospital's first Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) and I hope to become their first SANE. It is very fulfilling nursing work. I've completed 5 cases now, and each one has made me more glad that I invested the time in the course and this program.

I took an ABATE riding class and learned how to operate my own motorcycle. I am the proud owner of a used Harley Davidson Sportster 1200. It is soooo fun to ride! It's cold and rainy outside today so I don't want to get it out. Here is a picture of it...I'll post another one once I can get it out in the sunlight.
I also asked for quilting supplies for Christmas 2008. Santa obliged, and I was blessed with a new sewing machine, quilting supplies, and enough material to make my first quilt. Here is one of my first quilt blocks.

I haven't had any time to work on quilting since right after Christmas, because I started the SANE class. I'm hoping to get back to it soon, but right now, my priority is knitting baby clothes.

Well, I need to get working on some things here at home, work on the SANE policy for work, KNIT BABY STUFF, and re-read my chapters for the bible study tonight.