Rose Prairie Quilts and Farm

This summer has been far from average. We are having extreme heat in NE, oh heck, in all of Oklahoma. And it is causing a lot of problems. There is the pastures browning up, causing stress on the cattle. The plants outside are stressed, it taking a lot of water just to keep them alive. There is the man of the place stressing over it all and trying to work out in it. Which makes me stress. And then there is "the girls".  The past couple of weeks has been stressful for them. With this heat  it's causing the younger girls to shed some weight by losing feathers. The older girls (so like me) are hanging on to most of theirs. But with the heat and the invasion of snakes last week they are not laying as many of those beautiful eggs. And also this heat has taken the life of a couple of the older hens. I lost two of them. It is also affecting how the wildlife is acting. Last night I went out to lock up the hen house and about half way out there I could here all this squa

Boy did a lot of us shown up yesterday for the 1930"s club at Sager Creek Quilt Shop . We had a great time, we were so busy chatting that we forgot to do show and tell until Betty came it to share one of her quilts. She was here visiting a family member and found the quilt shop there in town. She had won awards with this quilt and many others she had made. She has a website you can go to to veiw her gallery of quilts. She is amazing with what she does on her domestic machine and she has only been quilting for six years. She also brought in one she is still working on.  Here is her website Betty New Till next time Kat =^..^=

I tried a new recipe again. This one is a blueberry jam with a little kick of spice to it. Pretty good stuff. I found this recipe on the blog food in jars . One thing I love about making jams, is that it is one of the easist stuff to can. Plus they are just down right yummy. The recipes called for the blueberries to be smashed and than measured out to 6 cups.  They are just so pretty, I had to take a picture before I squished them. Then you put them in a non-reactive pot with 6 cups of sugars. Bring to a boil. Then add the zest and juice of one lemon, 2 tsp. cinnamon and 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg. Bring back to a boil and boil for 15 min. Then add 2 pouches of liquid pectin  and boil for full 5 minutes. Remove from heat and pour jam in prepared jars. Add lids and rims. Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes. While this is all going on in the kitchen, my cat Pete is working hard in the livingroom. Just too much for him. Remove jars from canner and place on a towel. My Aunt J

Latest update from the war room. All quiet on the veggie front. Have had no invasion since those first times last week. I believe they are just watching and waiting. And Bunny Foo-Foo Must be getting a meal somewhere else for now.  The way things are drying up around here due to the over 100F temps. (it has been that way all of July so far), they will be looking for so green fresh yummies. Hopefully I will not have to give any reports of invasions in the near future. But I still would  like to get a dog.       Till next time Kat =^..^=

I get this magazine called Mary Janes Farm. Maybe you have seen it. It has some really neat ideals. This one was in the June-July 2011 issue. It's on pg. 74. I have seen others sort of like this one before. And I just had to make this one. Got so anxious to make it that I did not take pictures while making it. I'm sorry. But I'll try my best to write how I did mine. I did make mine a little bigger. I used fat quarters, (18 x 22) instead of the 17 x 19 suggested. I figure we all have fat quarters and not sure what the heck we are going to do with them. This is a good project just for them. You will need some poly batting (fusible) and fairly thin. That way it's not too thick so your glasses and such will not become unbalanced. That needs to be the same size of your fabric. Then for the ruffle you'll need about a 1/3 of a yards of some coordinating fabric. You need to cut 3 or 4 strips 3.5" WOF. It just depends on how much ruffle you like. I used just 3 strips.

Posting again from the war room. Reporting that there has been no attacks in the past 24 hours.  That is a good thing. Sorry to report thou the hen house has been under attack from a different invader. The black snakes are back. I have lost 5 golf balls this week. And countless number of eggs. I probably have gotten only a dozen and a half eggs this week. You know, I do not know how they did it. To be able to raise enough food to survive. Between the varmints, snakes, bugs and weather it is a tough job. They must of know tricks and ways to beat these obstacles. I would like to know a few of them. I did get a suggestion on how to put up a greater defence around my veggie patch. It was one of those DUH !!! moments. Cliff suggested that I put up some small holed chicken wire around the bottom of the fence. Like I should of thought of that. Oh well, I guess we all have a lapse in smart thinking. Till next time Kat =^..^=

 Cottontail company    Postings from the war room. I believe I'm fighting more that one company of varmints. I know of the groundhog company. But after reading about  groundhogs  behavior, I took notice a section with pictures of damage done to green beans.  They looked just like mine. It was not done by groundhogs thou, but was an example of what those cute, little adorable cottontail rabbits can do. Now I'm fighting a detachment of bunnies. My new plan of defence is to fill in all gaps around the fence, no matter how small. If that doesn't work I might have to invest in heavy artillery. A DOG .  But I do not think the man of the place will go for that. But it would work. I already know what kind of dog I want. I just love Basset Hounds. So sweet of a dog. I'll keep you posted.                                                         Till next time                                                              =^..^=