Amazingly, I'm Back!

The 4th of July weekend is upon us and it has cooled down from the triple digits to the nineties which seem much cooler in comparison.  We were even able to open all the windows last night, which I love to be able to do.  

I continue to work on my autumn cross stitch picture and here's where I was earlier today:

Isn't that just the cutest house?  As I mentioned in my last post, simple but with details that take it a step above primitive.  

And here are a couple pictures of the completed Christmas tree quilt top.  So glad to finally be done with it! I do like it very much in spite of the fussy nature of all the triangles.  

Of course it still needs to be quilted, but I can wait on that.  Now it's on to making Daniel some new boxers for his jammies.  They're all cut out and ready to go.  

Maybe I'll get going on them tomorrow. That sounds like a good 4th of July project!  Too hot to be outside much and my sewing room is air conditioned.  :-)  

And that's it from the resort today!  ♥

Meanwhile . . .

Yes, April came and went, and so did May and now we're on the last day of June.  Boy, time sure flies when you just puttering along!

So what did I do?  Just the usual.  Cooking, cleaning, baking, you know, the usual household chores.  And reading.  Lot and lots of reading. I've always loved to read and having that Kindle Unlimited subscription just put lots of fun books at my fingertips.  So I indulged.  I'm a fan of cozy mysteries.  A few murders, but no gore, ugly violence or bad words.  Just entertainment.  And I was entertained.  

So now I'm slacking off the reading a little and working on some counted cross stitch.  A number of years ago I did three little Prairie Schooler seasonal scenes and I found the fourth one last winter. Unfortunately I had to buy a booklet that included the ones I had already made to get it. It's an autumn one so I decided to get cracking on it so I'd have it ready when fall comes.  Guess what?  It's as much fun as a cozy mystery!  

Here's a picture showing all of the four seasons:

I'm working on the one in the lower left and here's where I was earlier today:

These little designs just make me happy.  Prairie Schooler is the company that does the yearly St. Nicholas's I have been stitching out for years.  I love the colors they use and the simple yet detailed designs.  Primitive but not excessively so.  (And I love borders!)

The weather here has been hot.  HOT I say!  It was over 107° today and yesterday, and it's supposed to last through the weekend.  I'm so very thankful for air conditioning!  

And finally, what about that Christmas tree quilt I started last winter?  Well, I finally got the last of the top pieced today.  Hopefully I'll be back to share about that soon!  ♥

It's Zucchini Season!

Every summer since we've owned our own home, we've planted some type of garden.  In the early days, it really was for "survival" in that we certainly didn't have much money and a garden provided much needed food for us and our little ones.  And every garden included zucchini and yellow squash (which we called crookneck) even though as years went by, and locations changed,  it was more for the fun of it rather than cheap food.  

It seems that we always wait in great anticipation for the plants to finally produce something big enough to eat. Then, all of a sudden, there's too much!  And there's always a few zucchini that hide (how do they do that?) and turn into torpedos.  Ah, but they are perfect for zucchini bread and zucchini relish.  Until your freezer is full and so are your cupboards. This year Dan has tried to beat the system by picking the squash when it's very small, and for the most part, it's worked.  Mostly.

We've had Summer Squash Skillet; bread; steamed, blackened, and topped with cheese; PW's Simple Sesame noodles with chicken and squash added; and so on.  Last summer I discovered a spice cake that was extremely well received when we had company over a weekend.  I think one will be in the works later today.  

We've also grown green beans over the years, usually very successfully until this house.  The soil isn't very good, apparently, and Dan's often so busy with his consulting that the garden usually gets short shrift.  This year we were determined to get beans enough to can. Here's a photo of our crop.

Yes, that's it.  Seven jars.  The bunnies ate the rest. Sigh. Such is life here on the edge of town.  ♥

Puttering Along

This week started out with a fun evening on Monday.  It was my belated birthday party!  Dan and Ann finally found a time when all the local family could get together so we celebrated with pizza and cake.  We had such a good time! If I don't make our pizza (and who does for their own birthday party?), we get Papa Murphy's.  Our gang of boys love the 5-meat stuffed pizza so we had one of those and then our usual "chick" pizza with the addition of sausage to keep those boys happy.  Dan bought me a beautiful cake and we ended with it and ice cream.  Mmmm...

At this stage of our lives Dan and I rarely buy one another a birthday present because there's not much we don't already have.  He won my heart by buying me a box of Hostess Orange Cupcakes which are my guilty pleasure.  

Ann got me a bag of goodies from the stationery department--flower post-it notes, and another package of colorful ones,  a beautiful journal and a pack of gorgeous felt-tip pens.  So much fun!!

I love, love, love colorful pens!  I've started on the journal and used two colors so far.  The journal cover says "grand plans", and as I wrote, I don't really have any besides knitting, stitching and spending time with my family.  Enough and more!

Meanwhile, the week was a scorcher!  After moderate weather most of the summer, true August arrived this week.  

Not quite as hot as the day I was born which Mom said was 109°. And in an unairconditioned hospital.  I've disliked hot weather ever since.  ♥

Weekend

We had a lovely weekend.  Perfect weather and time with family.  We had the little man yesterday afternoon while Eric, Cameron and Keaton did some white water rafting and Ann helped with a wedding.  Papa and I had fun!  When Cameron, Keaton and their cousin Ryan were little, they all loved to play on a pathway down the east side of our house.  The path is covered with tiny pea gravel and is perfect for making roads and shoveling into buckets.  They spent hours there over a number of summers.  Yesterday, Daniel discovered the same fun and spent hours running up and down it with trucks and then filling the same buckets.  Don't you just know it made this grammy smile?  

Later in the afternoon we took D back to his house so he could play in his little pool, and after Ann came home we spent the rest of the day enjoying her shady back yard, visiting, and then eating pizza followed by key lime pie for an early Father's Day treat for Dan.  Our last treat of the day was watching CarTunes featuring Mater the tow truck "Tow Mater" from the Cars movie (and giggling away at subtle humorous phrases thrown in to keep grownups amused).  It's D's favorite.  ♥

Home Again

It seems that for the past few years, August is our month to travel.  We're not very adventurous, often preferring to remain home after years of both of us working long hours away from home.  In fact, I distinctly remember sitting in my living room one morning four years (!!) ago when I first retired and thinking, "So this is what my house is like on a Tuesday morning in September!"  And I loved it!

But, I digress.  We had our wonderful trip to the coast a month ago, and we returned home for a week or so and then it was time to leave again.  Dan had a talk to give in McCall and we used it as a springboard to further adventures.  We had a leisurely drive to McCall and it was my first road adventure in our new truck. Let me just say that it goes!!  What fun to drive!  And the six-speed automatic transmission was amazing as we blasted up and down the grades between here and there.   So fun to kick it up and down the gears--Dan may be wondering if he's lost his truck to me!  

After a night at the hotel and Dan's talk in the morning, we headed for Boise where I requested a stop at Target for new sheets for our bed (I think it's a sign you need a new set when the thin spots are so thin that hole might be a better word...)  Following that, a little visit to the Quilt Crossing was in order, and yes, several purchases were made, but none were fabric.

We met special friends Michael and Suzanne for dinner and had such a great time!  Michael is the pastor who married both our kids and Suzanne is a dearly loved friend.  We chatted and shared as the time flew by. After three hours, we had to leave because our next spot was Bruder Bear's house, two and a half hours further down the road.  

Suffice it to say, we had another great time with John and Karen.  We did a little shopping in a neighboring town, drove to Sun Valley and on to Stanley on Sunday, and did no labor on Labor Day!  It was a lovely, restful visit and we loved every moment.  John was looking for a new pickup so some time was spent perusing the local dealers with no decisions made.  He did find just the perfect truck the next weekend, though, and is happily getting acquainted with his new Dodge diesel.  

Monday afternoon John, Dan and I spent a little time down at their dock.  You'll remember that Dan and John put in the framework for the adjoining deck two years ago.  It's a wonderful spot, right on the water, and the weather was perfect.  John snapped this picture of Dan and me.

We drove home Tuesday after Labor Day and had two days at home before we drove to Spokane to take part in Dan's high school's 50th reunion.  By the time we got home from that, we were ready to stay home. However, work beckoned both of us and I've worked two days this week and Dan is in Coeur d'Alene doing another tour. It's good to be busy, but it's also good to be home. Maybe next week.  ♥

UPDATE:  Just visited the tour FB site and snagged this photo of Dan doing his "thing" (the caption they had on the picture was "Dr. Dan's bus classroom").

Of Gardens and Zucchini

When we were young marrieds with two tiny children, we moved to the valley where summers are HOT. Dan put in a garden and we had a wonderful crop of corn, beans, squash (summer and winter), beets; you know, all the standards. And it was a good thing because we didn't have much money! The first year we froze everything but in those pre-microwave days, it was not always easy to thaw what was needed unless one thought ahead. I usually didn't. The next summer, we invested in a pressure canner and from then on, veggies were processed that way.

Zucchini was always a good producer and both Dan and I have always been fond of it as a vegetable. Steamed, breaded and fried, no matter--we love the stuff. The summer of 1975 my friend Roxy offered me a loaf of zucchini bread, which I had never eaten before. Yum! She copied the recipe for me and I've made many loaves over the years. Every summer when I get it out, I see her handwriting and I miss her--she and her family moved to Oklahoma twenty-five years ago and there they've stayed. I'm reminded that handwritten recipes are a double gift--the recipe and memories of the friend who wrote it.

Zucchini has a reputation. It has long been believed that just a plant or two will produce more zucchini than one family could eat in a year. Sadly, our plant production the last few years has forced me to repudiate that claim. Last year we got nary a one. This year we have grown a few, but not nearly enough to satisfy me. What gives?!? And I really needed them--our supply of zucchini relish gave out last winter, an unheard of disaster in our home since 1979 when our pastor's wife gave me the recipe. So, the few zucchini that managed to set were left to grow to giant size for their noble purpose: to be shredded, mixed with onions, peppers and spices, cooked, and canned. I am happy to report that twelve jars are now in my pantry; they should last us until next summer. I made two batches, six jars each, and used the extra shredded zucchini to make double batches of the bread. Yay! Here's a picture of the first batch.

The first years I made both the bread and the relish, I grated every cup by hand. Then along came my first food processor and I was thrilled! This year I used my new Cuisinart and I must say it made even shorter work of the shredding process. And so quiet!

Only the mess in the sink remained. It's such a blessing to have the right tools! ♥

Nothin' Much . . .

is going on here, hence the lack of posts.  Cooking, dusting (well, that's pretty amazing!), ironing, laundry; that about says it all.  And you thought the fun never ended here at Miller's Last Resort.  

I did capture this picture of the full moon rising over the butte the other night.  It was beautiful!  Love, love, love summer evenings.  What a gift!  ♥

  

July, And It's Summer!

Just snapped this photo a few minutes ago.  

Yes, here in the west it's HOT, even in our corner of the world.  I am so thankful for air conditioning!  Of the four houses we've owned, two had it and two didn't.  If I have a choice, we always will.  Heat and I have never gotten along--it makes me physically ill and always has.  In the old (olden??) days when I was growing up, I tried to hang out in the coolest, darkest corner of our house and just read.  Thankfully the pool was close, so afternoons were spent there most days and that seems to work, too. Later, when we spent our summers at a Forest Service Ranger Station, the river ran right beside it, so afternoons were spent at the beach.  Beautiful, cool, clear water!  Well, I'm too old the public pool (don't want to frighten the children!), and no river runs by, so our air-conditioned house in the answer.

I finished a new little project the other day using the leftovers from the small patriotic Schnibbles quilt I made for the living room.  Our family room continues to be morphing back to it's original function (more on that in a minute), and I decided the chest Dan made years ago for a coffee table needed a little runner to spruce it up. 

I like it!  Just the umph needed to make me smile.  Yes, gentle readers, the family room is now just a family room. If you'll remember, about a month ago I was frustrated and attacked some areas to improve what had become the "dump room."  Well, it seems I inspired my sweetie, too, because he decided to move his office to a bedroom down the hall.  He'd been intending to do it for years, but you know how that goes.  Later.  :-)  Anyway, over a series of days, the area where he's worked for the last five-plus years was cleared and it's made such a difference!!  I am in love with that room again!  I keep going down there and watching TV (DVR is the greatest!!!) and fluffing the pillows on the sofa! 

Life is good.  ♥

Patriotic Summer

It's June and the house is decorated for summer.  My loyal readers will remember that I do a patriotic theme for the summer months so let the pictures begin:

It's a beautiful early summer morning here.  The mowing service is at work in our neighbor's yard, Dan is outside working, and the sky is blue and the windows are open. Welcome summer!  ♥

It's Smokey Out There!

As beautiful a summer as we've had, those who fight forest fires, or wild fires as they're now called, are not as thrilled with the weather.  Fires are burning in Idaho and Washington; huge fires.  And the smoke is blowing in and laying low.  Yesterday was horrible, and today isn't much better.  

Looks like we live in a wide-open area, doesn't it?  But normally there are hills and a butte in that white area in the center top (you can see what it should look like in this snowy picture here), and if you click on the photo for a larger image, you'll see that it even looks a little "fuzzy" just beyond the fence.  They are warning people to stay inside; Keaton said they couldn't go out for recess yesterday.  The smoke smell is strong, too.  This is amazing, considering how many miles we are from any of the fires.   

Meanwhile, Dan got the last deck chair painted earlier this week, so here is a photo of all our newly refurbished pieces.  They look so good and they finally match!

Dan will be home from his tour tonight and I'll have my beloved Explorer back.  The truck and I have been doing just fine, but I'll be glad to turn it back over to Dan.  

So what's up for the rest of my day?  Starting a new quilt with those fabrics I bought in McCall last month!  I'm excited to start.