daily yarns 'n more

i love a good rodeo

The Wisconsin High School State Rodeo was held this weekend and loving rodeos as I do we had to go.  It's been a long time since I've been to one and I really have to say that this was the best rodeo that I've seen in a very long time.  These High School kids were awesome and I had to keep telling myself that they were just kids.  They worked hard trying to make it to Nationals that is being held in Wyoming.  The participants were not only from Wisconsin, but Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan.  I didn't get any shots of the bull riding event, but one of the kids was just a freshman.  These young men and women were simply amazing.

The winner of each event wins a saddle.  How awesome is that?

The rodeo barley started and this little one was yawning.

Our son came on Saturday to visit, our daughter-in-law had to work so he just came.  So what did we do? We headed back to the fair grounds to see another round of rodeo fun.

old wash tub

A couple of weeks ago Jim and I went to the Dells to shop, and on our way home we stopped at a farm where the gentleman had a bunch of items laid out along side the road for sale.  This particular item caught my eye, so we turned around and went back to take a look.  The guy was really surprised that this was not snatched up by the Amish when he had bought this.  I didn't take any photos before I put the dirt in it, but both tubs have drains and one drain if you look closely still has a rubber hose connected to it, just don't look too closely at the dirt that is underneath it.  I did get all the leaves out of the corner before I put the tub there tho ;)  Not too sure why I didn't take the hose off.  The Amish want these because they still use these to wash their clothes in.

This tub is not going to stay here though, this is just it's temporary home.  I plan on putting this next to the sauna when the landscaping is all done.

to the eagles nest

Heading to see the eagles nest when my cousin was here was a bit disappointing because the nest was empty, but other things made up for it.

I hope you all have been having a wonderful summer so far.

b :: u :: s :: y

That is what it's been around here, between the company we've been getting, working out in the gardens, tho I have been managing to get in some sewing time.  My cousin came to spend the weekend with us.  It was fun, we thrifted, crafted and just spent the time catching up, it's been awhile since we've done that.  Growing up I spent a lot of time at her house, probably more time there than at my own house.

I thought to make a new wallet, so I dug out the pattern that I had origianlly found over at Thimbleanna's blog a few years back.  I did make it and thought I had posted about it but I just can't seem to find it, oh well.  I had some batik fabric scraps leftover from another project and no I just can't seem to throw them away.  But hey, someday they do come in handy.

I added a check book cover since at times I still need a check.  Living in our area there are some businesses that don't take debit/credit cards, so I need a check, and there's that awesome garage sale stop where I may not have any cash on me where they'll take a local check.

I added a bit heavier interfacing so that the pockets and check book cover aren't so flimsy, and I added velcro in a few spots that my stuff tended to fall out of in my other wallet.

It looks bulky but it really isn't and it's surprisingly light, even with all my junk in it.  Now I'm off to work on the other project that I've started, and it has to do with the fabrics below.

cutting the hay

We have 8 of our 20 acres in alfalfa, and our neighbor Joe is taking the cuttings from it, now and again in late summer.  Joe wasn't able to bale it up himself with his own machinery as his tractor broke a bearing of some kind, so he had to hire it out.

Here is Joe, coming to collect the big round bales of hay.

Off he goes, taking them to the area where he'll store them for the winter to feed his cattle with.

He got just over 10 big round bales from our fields.

Joe is the neighbor who watched our place for us when we were in Texas for the month of January.  He checked on our place everyday and even plowed our driveway when it snowed.  We have no use for the hay right now since we have no animals, so I think it's a pretty fair exchange for watching our place.

zapped

Heading home the other day I spied something that I thought was a bird hanging from the wire.  So Jim was kind enough to turn around for me to satisfy my curiosity.  He does that for me a lot :)))

Well as we were coming up the the heavily vined pole, sure enough there was a beautiful owl hanging from the wire.  Unfortunately I didn't have my zoom lens, but I was able to get some shots and figuring that I was planning to head to town later in the day I would grab my zoom lens and go back for some closer shots.

By the time I got back for some close up shots I saw the owl was no longer on the wire but had fallen down and got caught in the trees.

I was sick and saddened to see that this happen to this beautiful bird.  I'm guessing the owl had gotten zapped when it landed on the wire.

barn swallows

They have been trying to build nests in our garage.  We have to keep the doors closed otherwise we are constantly shooing them out.  While we were out voting yesterday Jim showed me where many barn swallow nests could be found.

You can see under the eaves of the roof all the mud nests where the barn swallows live.

The nests are pretty neat looking and I'll show you something else we spied on our way home, only that isn't as nice, so stay tuned.

sweet :: pea

Our peas are doing wonderfully, and taste so good in a spinach salad.

The twigs that Jim stuck in the ground for them to climb up worked like a charm.

I wish I could have a garden all year round, there is just nothing like fresh food you grew yourself.

doggone deer

Our strawberry patch is not doing well.  Not doing well, because the deer have eaten about half of our patch.  We are trying a couple of things the try and keep the deer away.  I bought some wind chimes that I hung up in the patch and Jim found some deer repellent.  You don't spray it, you just stick it in the ground around the patch and only the deer smell it and they apparently don't like the smell, problem is, dogs and raccoons like the smell.

So, this is what we plan to do as soon as we can, make a deer fence.  You can't see it very well in the photo but there is barbed wire around the top above the varmint fencing on the bottom.  We spied this on our way to the Dells.

So, with the berries I can gather up, I'll be making strawberry jam and we've been enjoying strawberry shortcake.

a walk out to the bench

We passed a few colors.

Sitting on the bench we faced one way for awhile.

Sadie of course has to sit near us, so I took a picture of her.  It looks like she's smiling.

She showed me her serious side.

Then we turned and watched the sun go down.

Another day ends.