RUG HOOKING BLOG

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I'm a mother of four grandmother of seven and great grandmother of three. I live with my husband in the house that we built with the help of my brothers and will have been married for 57 years this February.

Monday, September 15, 2014

MR SEPTEMBER IS LOOKING PRETTY COOL



I can feel the changing of the season, it's getting colder with every passing days.  I've changed my bedding to my cosy warm  fleece New Brunswick sheet and warmer blankets on my bed and it feels so cosy until I get too hot. There's no happy medium with me. I'm either too cold or too hot. It happens at every change of season. My inner thermostat is slow to adjust to the rapid change in temperature...

I've been getting a lot done this past week and today but the house still looks messy and upside down.
I've added another couple of more big piles of molds from my garage to be carried away. Today's pile was so big that the men couldn't take it all before they ran out of place in the car and truck but they'll be back for more this week.



I made a batch of Sweet Relish to use up some of my extra cucumbers and my husband love it on hot dogs. It turned out ok even with only one red pepper instead of two.


Here is a pile that was going today, however the pile was so big they had to leave some behind until another time.

When I edited my photos, I  somehow put them in the trash by accident and I went to retrieve them I could only retrieve one and all the other disappeared and my trash bin is empty. Oh well, it was just another big pile of molds that was picked on Wednesday.

They are coming back for more sometime this week and that should take care of all the molds that were in my garage and then I will start bringing  more  molds from my basement. I have to vacuums every mold as they have been sitting there gathering dust for quite some time so it's very time consuming. I'm determined to clear my basement too and I'm not looking back at this stage of the game.


Look at this happy little sunflower... Can you tell, I need to cut the grass...
I was gifted this sunflower by the birds and squirrels that left it there to sprout this summer. It came from bird seeds under the bird feeder and grew in the grass. It's only about 2 feet high and it never turns toward to the sun but is always turned toward the house instead. I love it.



Sunday, I went shopping at long last for Josephine's underprivileged children in Uganda and  I was having a great time putting supplies in my cart.
The picking was slim as school has started and some items were depleted but I still found something the kids could use.

I have two large package of stickers, 6 Friskar sissors, 6 glue sticks, 6 rolls of scotch tape, a big case of 72 pencils,  5 packs of 24 colored pencils with sharpener, a package of Bic Ball pens, 12 erasers, a bag of buttons, a large assortment of needles, 10 package of sharpeners with 5 extra sharpeners and a big bag of floss that I no longer needed.

I'm sure that it will cost plenty to mail this to Vicki but it's going to a good cause so it's OK. I will pack it all up as soon as I have some free time. There is still time for you to help Vicki round up some supplies from her long list for Josephine's underprivileged children. Here is a link to her blog  if you didn't had time to visit last time. 2 Bags Full

 We have so much more than we need and these kids have nothing extra to call their own.  We are called to share what we can. Will you help Josephine help these beautiful children.

On the farm, things haven't slowed down as far as having new calves born. We had a string of bulls born and now we are having a string of heifers.

Sunday morning around 6:15 am when I arrived at the farm, I noticed that the pregnant overdue heifer was calving and was in distress and I also noticed that there was only one hoof showing and to make matters worst, it was sideways. Not a good sign.

 I quickly called my son Vaughan to come right away and he arrived shortly after I called. Vaughan is my hero. He knows exactly what to do and gets right to it... He should have been a vet.

 I got things ready to pull the calf  but it was very difficult for my son to find the other foot. It was nowhere to be found and after about 15 minutes of trying hard and the sweat dripping off his forehead on a cold morning he found the foot bent around her pelvic bone. He quickly attached the chain to pull the calf and hooked it to the winch and started to pull as I held her tail up and pushed on the heifer to try to prevent her from falling the best I could. Her legs were getting weaker by now.
She was bawling loudly and it was a very hard pull abut finally as the calf was pulled out she fell and  I just got out of the way as fast as I could and ended up falling the other way, lol but unhurt, thank goodness.

The slippery calf's head was held upside down to clear the lungs of mucus from mouth and nostril  and the  cleaning was done by the mother and I resumed my chores came home to brew coffee and eat breakfast.

This morning another heifer gave birth by herself and she had a heifer calf and this afternoon there was another new born heifer waiting for me when I arrived. The one that was born on Sunday was called Harvest Jazz because The Harvest Jazz and Blue festival was winding up in town.
Tomorrow is another day. Now I have to come up with  names for these two babies so they can be registered. Of course there's no time for taking pictures as there are no spare hands to take photos.

Thanks again for coming by. You know how much I love your comments.
Have a great week.
JB




23 comments:

  1. the calving would make me a nervous wreck. :) sadly, the only calving i witnessed ended terribly for both calf and heifer so i doubt i'd ever believe they'd do okay. :)

    i like your sweet sunflower facing you. :) good going on the molds! holy cow, you had a stock!

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  2. I feel so bad for those Mamas when their calves get stuck. You do so well saving them. You are so strong.
    I need to go shopping for the things I am sending. I am sending to the person down south. Such a great idea and way to help.
    The Country Living Fair is sponsered by the magazine. No animals are there. Just love going.
    Have a good week ahead .

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  3. you are going to have so much extra space when all of those molds are gone. Those poor cows it never seems to be easy for them. Glad you got your relish done and what a nice thing to do for the children
    Cathy

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  4. You can name one of the new Heifers Josephine. And the other one can be Vaughanna (or maybe Vonna).

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  5. Julia, you always have the best stories to tell...so happy everything turned out well for the little heifer and her mom. Wish our weather was turning a bit cooler! Love the little lone sunflower!
    Robyn

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  6. I get SO excited about Fall! I forget how cold it gets in other parts of the world. Here, winters are cold but not unbearable. I think our summers are unbearable. (90-100 degrees for months at a time.) When people here say they love summer, I don't get how they can stand to be that hot all the time! I just basically hide indoors. I love the sunflower. So pretty!

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  7. Here I thought you were going to show us a Mr. September picture! Ha! Just kidding!! I am like you, my inner thermostat is never the same as others. I am cold or hot, never right. I love the purchases for Uganda. You are wonderful. Hugs.

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  8. No happy medium for me either. Too hot or too cold. Covers on or covers off. I do so much better in cold weather. What were all the molds for? There are so many!

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  9. Julia,
    You are really getting 'er done on your basement! Wow! It is such a good feeling to get rid of stuff... we are making a little progress on ours.
    Your sweet relish looks awesome... can only imagine how good that's gonna taste!
    Bless your heart for taking time to help others and when you are so busy there on the farm! Glad the babies all came out healthy!
    Love the gifted Sunflower too... there is always that one ray of sunshine and Julia you are blessed to be one!!
    Hugs!!
    Cathy G

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  10. Hi Julia!! Wow a lot of work must have went into canning all of that sweet relish. I'm sure there will be some tasty rewards to be reaped from all of that hard work!

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  11. I have never liked relish, but you make it look so good! Maybe I'm missing something! Now, tell me again why you have all those molds. I'd like to know your ceramic history, if you have time. I'm a new reader, so you've probably explained all this before.
    You work so hard! I hope you are getting a "feet up" every so often, JB!

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  12. Love the sunflower and how it faces the house and not the sun. It is a nice gift to you for feeding the birds sweet Julia.

    Your sweet relish looks beautiful and I bet it tastes wonderful. I use relish in chicken salad, tuna salad and potato salad. Hubby likes it on hotdogs too.

    That poor cow, I feel so sorry for those that have to have their calves pulled because they just don't want to come the way they should. So much pain, I actually saw a cow crying tears once when she could not push her calf out and it had to be pulled.

    I guess I missed your post about 2 Bags Full, I will go check it out.

    I see you are making headway on the molds. Your basement is going to look quite large when you get them all out.

    I hope you are remembering to rest and take care of yourself. You are just always busy and doing. How you find time to sleep I do not know. You even find time to stop by my blog, I feel very honored that you do that with all you have to do around your place.

    Enjoy the fall weather, we had some about 3 days but now we are back to full-blown summer.

    Hugs!

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  13. That was a hard calf to be born. I am glad he was alive and the cow is okay. We used those chains and the pulley so much when we had cows. It was such a lifesaver. Us and the cows.
    Your relish looks wonderful. As does your sunflower. You are always so busy and have so many things going on. I am so glad you were able to sell all of your molds. I bet you will be excited with all of that room once they are gone.
    You had so many. I was showing Ron them last night in your picture. He is getting ready to start making his own molds so he was very interested that you used to do it in such a big way.
    I hope you have a lovely day today.

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  14. You lead an amazing life, Julia! I am totally in awe of what you accomplish daily!

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  15. What a life you lead, so busy, so rich, and still with all that's going on, you have time to buy all that stuff for those children. You have a big heart my friend. And I am glad we have become friends. Love that sunflower.

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  16. Never a dull moment in the life of Mamoo!
    It is good to get rid of all your moulds! What a burden lifted. I wish that I could convince people in my house to get rid of things!
    There is so much need in the world. There is a woman at work who goes to Mexico on her vacation time and helps poor women and children there. She has taught women to make jewelry and christmas ornaments among other things and has arranged for a place for them to seek their work. She has also set up a place called Happy Hands that does art classes for street kids. I have been giving her some money from time to time for some supplies for the kids. We have so much and so many have so little.

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  17. I too love sweet relish. I'm not sure why we don't make some ourselves.
    In looking at all those molds, I thought that if I hade a basement, cleaning it would be a never ending chore because I tend to keep stuff.

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  18. LOVE the little Sunflower! it's saying … and? jeeeeeez that's cute. what an expression! and a gift from the birds and squirrels…. LOVE IT

    What a lovely thing to do, Julia…. we have a Stuff the Bus here on a parking lot for us to help the kids… just so ridiculous that kids here in America need school supplies. Teachers furnish a lot of their own supplies… hate it

    Can't read about your baby cows and such … but it seems all ended well… aw Harvest Jazz … how cute!

    It is still HOT and humid here in Alabama! ohhh baruther… with GNATS … did I mention I hate, loathe AND despise Gnats! …

    Your relish looks deeeeelicious and George likes it on his hot dogs… ha! don't know why I didn't think you would eat hot dogs… just so unhealthily American … HAhaaa

    Have a wonderful week m'dear!

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  19. Can't believe how busy you are, Julia! You get so much done! The relish looks delicious...I remember making some when we lived in Vermont many years ago! My husband loved it too! I am happy to feel the cool weather sneaking in here bit by bit...but I haven't changed my bedding to Autumn just yet! Hooray, finished my mystery rug today!
    Hugs to you, Sunnie :)

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  20. Always love to read your stories, Julia. Please tell me what those molds are from, I am just curious!

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  21. Hi Julia, no Fall bedding yet, but I suggested to my husband a wood fire would be lovely this evening...Colds and Flu are beginning to make their appearance in our neck of the woods...You have been as industrious as ever (the relish looks so good) and I have missed reading your farm stories...glad to catch up...James and Daniel are growing like weeds!!! so very cute...Have a good weekend...Hugs from Maine, Julie...

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  22. calving. just something so heroic about people helping with that.
    I have a thing about little calves:) so gentle and those beautiful eyes.
    and those school supplies....swoon:) I love your life. And you:)
    -Jennifer

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  23. Wow looking at all those molds you really had quite the business going on & now it's the farm with all those cows & wee calves! You weren't doing both back then were you? It would be like burning a candle at both ends!!
    Your relish looks great & George will just 'relish having it' on his hot dog. lol I made Lady Ashburnham Pickles for the first time this fall, so much work cutting up the vegetables but the outcome is oh so worth it, it's my husbands favourite right now.
    The days sure are shortening with fall. Stay warm & cozy Julia.
    Hugs, Cynthia

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