machines

I took a class this weekend (Thursday night show-n-tell, aka "trunk show", and Friday actual class time), and during the class the instructor, who also happens to be a representative for Bernina made the comment that in Europe people actually trade their old machines in for new ones. (Like trading in a car) But in America the reps laugh that the Americans only collect machines. And we all paused, then sheepishly laughed.

So I found it a bit funny today when one of the quilting blogs I followed asked how many machines people owned, as well as the story behind them.

I have an old singer that belonged to my Grandma White. She was having problems with the tension when she gave it to my mother while I was in high school. Mom had my uncle, who had been a sewing machine mechanic for Arrow Shirt Factory, look at it. He made some adjustments to it, but before she could finish sewing a garment the problem had returned. I "inherited it", and my mother-in-law took it to a man who repairs all the old machines she has bought over the years. He said it was working fine, but I ran into the same problem. Half of all the seams sewn have to be ripped out because the tension won't work correctly. I read several things online offering suggestions from trying a specific kind of bobbin (hard to find due to the age of the machine) to actually replacing some of the hardware inside. But the  machine sits inside this incredible desk-like cabinet, which I have stuffed full of things, and the machine still sits inside.

Singer was having a sale around the same time we gave up on making it work, and my mother-in-law actually purchased my "first" machine for me. I think we paid around $150 for it. It worked well for many years, until I started quilting with it. I almost killed the motor, and the free motion work I was doing ruined the needle holder. Yikes! It was becoming dangerous, so I upgraded to a Janome 8900, designed for quilting. But I still kept my old Singer because while it refuses to quilt, it can still do basic seams.

And  my dream Janome 8900, which is not cheap and VERY heavy, is not ideal for taking to class. At the same time I was supposed to teach a young girl to sew who was unable to use her legs, so I purchased a small machine with a start/stop button from Hancock's (also a Janome) that was very inexpensive. After I learned to use it with the button and not the foot pedal, the family decided not to do the lessons. So I kept the machine to use for classes and quilt meetings. It's lightweight and does basic seams okay, so it protects my larger quilting machine from traveling abuse.

When Bobby's aunt (his dad was one of 10 kids and 6 of them were girls) died, no one else in the family wanted the old pedal sewing machine. I think it was purchased the first year Bobby's parents were married, because my mother-in-law remembers teaching Bobby's grandma how to use it. Go guess who has it? :) There was a receipt inside where the belt was replaced in 1982. I've not tried to sew on it, though I did make a skirt on one in China. It took me a long time to get the rhythm down of pumping the pedal back and forth while sewing with my hands. My Chinese friend who owned the machine kept saying "It's just like riding a bicycle!" I thought she was implying it was easy, though now that I look back on it I don't remember learning to ride a bike as being that easy, so maybe she was simply reminding me that it took practice and coordination - both things I'm not great at.

Then a few months ago my mother-in-law gave us back a Featherweight Singer (very lightweight machines that quilters used years ago because they could take it to quilt gatherings; it came in a small metal suitcase) that we gave her several years ago for her birthday. She's no longer quilting, and decided it should be returned. I know many older quilters prefer them because they are simple and "make beautiful stitches."

So I have three machines that semi-work, and three that work well.  That's kind of sad. We have a friend who would call that hoarding. I have actually considered gifting my Grandmother's to someone, but I'm not quite ready to do that yet, especially since I do use it as a desk in my quilting room. Maybe one day.

the end of the month

I cannot believe that tomorrow is the last day of February!!!! I've been trying to get the grapevines pruned before warm weather hit, but didn't quite make it. Bobby had some young men come and plow up my garden area and move all the grape vines I had pruned this past Saturday while I was working, and I think I disappointed him a little by promptly going out when I got home and finishing off the grape vines, without hauling my clippings to the special place in the woods (he had the boys leave a path because I told him I might be needing the vines). The vines now look naked. I'm starting to seriously doubt that I'll work on the posts and wiring this year.

And my current project:

Little Dog felt the need to cover the smell of the new wood.

The old pen to the little chicken house.

Side one halfway finished beside the old part of side two.

Today I hope to finish the base of the pen, if not the whole thing, then start on gutting the small house tomorrow. The basic framework of the house is still good, so I just need to recover it, repair the nesting boxes, then cut, paint, and reassemble the new parts. We hope to buy biddies next Monday, and I have a quilt class most of the day Friday. Realistically though, I do have an extra week as the biddies will be fine in the brooder box the first week at least. I usually move them out into the small house between weeks 2-3. I don't want to put anything off though since election stuff starts next week. (We won't talk about all the other projects I had hoped to have completed by tomorrow!)

Today

Despite all my yearnings for more cooler temps, despite what the calendar says, nature is screaming "It's spring!" I was able to finish pruning one line of grape vines today, and they were weeping with each major cut (which means their juices are NOT lying dormant!). Sweet gum and oak trees are budding, tulips and crocuses are popping up their heads, our late daffodils are up (we have one set that comes in January like they should and the other doesn't appear until February), and we had our first goose egg today.

This Saturday marks the first meeting for election trainers. Thankfully we have two weeks or so before we have to start with staff presentations, and actual classes won't start for another week or two after that, but just the fact that it is here reminds me that life is about to get busier. I'm excited about working again, even if it just a few hours each week, but primary elections are my least favorite. I'm having a hard time mustering up excitement for this round. Hopefully once we have the run-through I'll feel more excited about the process. I need to write a bio for powerpoint they show before classes, and I'm having the hardest time writing it. There's nothing about myself that I really care to write for the world to read. I thought about copying my blog bio, but I know they won't use that. Religion and politics are taboo subjects.

Many family and friends struggling with illness and unusual situations right now. The flu has been very bad in AL this year, my niece and a young woman at church are having difficult or high risk pregnancies, and so many others are suffering and grieving. And yet, with the death of Billy Graham, it was a refreshing reminder that death is sometimes welcome. He definitely lived an "abundant" life, and I know that although his family will miss him terribly, they're rejoicing that he is not suffering anymore.

It's late, so I'm signing off....

coops, plans, and thoughts...

We have two chicken coops, and both of them are in need of repair before we head into the spring season. Biddies go on sale at various places a week from today, and we normally move them into the smaller coop outside when they're between 2-3 weeks old (depending on the weather, etc). So I'm on the fence between trying my hand at repairing the smaller coop and building a pen myself or purchasing one. I'm feeling my ignorance and inadequacies greatly as I there's so much about wood and building that I don't know. I don't want to waste my time and money on supplies to build something that won't hold up, but I also don't want to lose biddies to snakes, rats, raccoons, or hawks. So there's a lot to research and think about during the next few weeks.

It's also getting closer to time to start planting early peas and putting up fences and such for the garden to be planted in March and April. So while people around me are moaning and groaning for warming weather, I'm inwardly panicking and saying "NO! Not yet! I want 3 months of no yard work!!!!"  But I don't think nature really cares what I think.

And in case I forget to post pics another day this week....we had two hawks at the house this morning. One is the larger one I photographed last week, and the other one is the smaller one we've been seeing for some time.  Time marches on...

oh my!

This morning we got up earlier than normal, and I pulled the curtains back so Bobby could see the fog, and was greeted with this guy:

He appears much larger/fatter than he was last month, and I'm wondering if his swollen chest might have something do with our missing chickens. Usually hawks only eat the pullet sized (teenagers) chicks or younger, but we had three grown chickens go missing last week. He can eat all the squirrels he wants (and there's still plenty hanging around), but leave my birds alone!

 Though I suppose it's possible there are more than one, and this is just the grandpa/grandma of the flock.

And the view above is not zoomed in on the bird, but from the kitchen window. And for those of you wondering, no neither the dogs nor the chickens were in the dog pen.

a new place in town

Garner has a "new" restaurant. I don't know how long it's been there, but we discovered it today, and tried it out tonight. I was reminded of two things:

1. Jimmy & Janie Aldridge teaching our Jr Church at the Cordova Free Will Baptist Church. One of the things we learned was the "missions" chorus to the hymn Where He Leads Me I Will Follow. 

Where he leads me I will follow. What he feeds me I will swallow. Though I may be sick tomorrow, if I can get this down today. 

and 2.  eating at banquets in China. Except there I HAD to eat everything served, or at least half of it, because my hosts were sitting across from me.

We've tried Peruvian chicken before at a place in Raleigh and LOVED it. This place is also Peruvian and sells Rotisserie chicken, with other things. It's called Chio's Rotisserie Chicken.  The chicken here was good (not as good as Alpaca Peruvian Chicken, but okay), and their stir fry and noodles was good. We also tried swiss chard pie (like a quiche) which I had a hard time eating. And the tamale...first two bites were good, but the remaining bites were a struggle. It had a date in it. I don't think I've ever eaten a date before, and I'm not sure I'd try one again. If we ever go back I'll try the chicken sandwich and yucca fries. They had empanadas, which I like, but theirs had raisins in them so we didn't try them. Our taste buds are a little set in their ways, so this was a bit of a stretch for us. But I'm glad we went, even if we were the only ones voluntarily speaking English.

hot pot

There's a new restaurant in Cary, http://www.goodharvestny.com called Good Harvest. It was featured in the paper today. I just watched the video on the website and looked through their menu. It reminded me so much of China! Except the hot pot restaurant we went to there had a large buffet where you went through and picked the food items to take back to your table instead of a paper checklist, and the pots on the tables were connected to gas tanks instead of electric plates. But other than that, it's very similar.  I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to take Bobby or not.

The raw egg...one of the things they had on the table in China was eggs. I forgot that the Chinese "drop" eggs into their soup for flavor and protein, and I put the entire egg in the broth so I could have a boiled egg. We had two directors in the "foreign affairs" department (the area that was in charge of/responsible for us). One of them thought the boiled egg was hysterically funny; the other asked which broth I dropped it into and then refused to eat out of that side of the pot. I guess even though the eggs were clean and washed he didn't consider that very sanitary. I was also reprimanded by the security guard for putting raw meat and raw vegetables on the same plate at the buffet line. I wasn't sure what the big deal was since they were both going into the same pot to cook, but I made sure not to do it again.