Tevis!!

Tomorrow is the start of Tevis. Tevis is the most famous and probably the hardest endurance race in the world. It is 100 miles long, beginning at Tahoe and ending in Auburn, CA. You begin the race with the full moon on Saturday morning at 5:15, and you must be to the Auburn fairgrounds for the finish by 5:15 Sunday morning.

Dennis completed Tevis in 2004; I did it in 2005. We will do it again one day, but this weekend is all about our good friend, Lucy (Rider #170). She's riding for the first time. If you're interested, check out the webcast --its a fun way to "watch" if you're not there.

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts.

Since this blog is supposed to showcase my quilting as well as my horses; thought I'd better post a few pictures.

This is a "Frog" quilt that was made for a lady in my guild. Several of her friends got together and made her this quilt with a frog in the center of each star. She's had it put together for some time now, even started quilting it but then gave it to me to finish. I did small loops in the background to outline the stars and SID around the frogs and sashing. Another loop design was done in the center blue sashing with red/white/blue Superior Rainbow (LOVE Rainbow) thread. The mostly white block was added to balance the quilt. It was empty, so my husband embroidered a frog for me...isn't it cute??













Next I worked on an Eleanor Burns design Victory Quilt. This was "R's" first quilt ever and she did an excellent job. It was pieced perfectly and I loved her color choices.















I just finished this quilt today for "K"...it was a rush that she wants to enter in our local fair. She did a great job piecing and I like my quilting design...but. It was a litle busy, so the quilting really shows up nicely on the back. I'm thinking she should enter it with the back as the top. I used Superior Lava for this quilt in variegated browns and blue.

Missing Kate

This is my girl, Kate.
We actually bought her two years ago for me to ride while my mare, Elly, was pregnant. Didn't happen--we never actually got her started. We did do groundwork and built up her confidence, but we never got on her.

This last Friday we took her to a friend that starts Arabs. We've ridden with her before and seen what calm and well-behaved horses her training turns out. So now Kate is there and I'm missing her. She and I had a special deal; she'd give me a "hug" (basically allowing me to wrap both arms around her head) and then I'd scratch her belly. We'd do this repeatedly while feeding.

I hate that she's not in our pasture, but I love that I'll be riding her when she gets home.

Wildlife Wonderland

Nothing about quilting, but I thought I would share about the beautiful place where I live; it is a wildlife wonderland. We have the normal wildlife, deer and skunks and squirrels and snakes, but we also have some less common. Every spring a pair of ducks and geese lay eggs in our pasture. They are in the outside pasture that the horses aren't allowed into until the grass is not quite so fresh, so the eggs are safe from being stepped on. There are two swallows who have a nest at the back of our shop porch...this makes entering and exiting quite the challenge. If you don't look first, you're likely to be dive bombed!

The other day when we went to get hay, the truck and trailer were parked on our main road about 20 feet from the house. Because its been so dry, there is a fine layer of dirt everywhere. I looked down and saw bear tracks....apparently, he'd been checking things out to see whether there was any good trash in the trailer. Of course, our ever present Border Collies had slept through the whole thing!


Later that night when we went down to feed, two Sandhill Cranes flew into the outside pasture about 30 yards from the horses. Sandhill Cranes make the most interesting noise...its very unique. The four adult pones were far more interested in the hay than the cranes, so they all started heading in.
Emma, however, is almost two and very curious. She started walking toward the cranes, who didn't move until she was about 20' away. Then they split up, so she followed one, closing the distance. When she was about 10' away, she looked over and saw that we were almost to the field with the hay so she ran as fast as she could toward the crane, turning at the last minute to come in and eat. I wonder if she was disappointed--the crane wasn't intimidated by her at all!

Fabriholics Anonymous

I am the President of this influential group...currently, I am also the only member! Even though I did quite good and didn't buy anything from Fabric Depot this weekend; today I got an e-mail from eQuilter.com and I just couldn't resist. I love Kokopelli fabric, I couldn't help it. I'm sick, its an illness, but its less destructive than cigarettes and better for me. See...I can justify anything!
Of course, I had to buy a few others to go with...

Busy Weekend...

This has been an incredibly busy weekend. First, Friday we were up early, worked out and then headed to Reno to pick up an order for Dennis at SanMar. While there, we stopped at Harbor Freight and I got another container like this for my bobbins. (I love having them in the little drawers)
On the way back, we stopped and loaded another 4 1/2 tons of hay. We didn't make it home til almost 5! Best of all, I got a Wacom tablet from Best Buy...I've been wanting one for ages. Now I just need to figure out how it works!

Saturday, I got busy with the SID on the frog quilt. Its turning out rather cute; but Dennis couldn't find a good embroidered frog pattern in all his stuff...so I'll be free-handing. This is the latest attempt...not too bad.



Then today, best of all, our friend is here with his baby backhoe digging the trench for the yurt. Hooray!! Things are actually getting started. They've been out there for hours. I was there just in time to hear a really odd crunching sound...guess we'll be replacing a bit of sewer pipe this weekend (oopsie!!)


Don't they look like busy little bees??

Hay Time

Its that time of year again. This is the first of at least four loads for our five ponies. Those critters can eat! Luckily, the price of hay has come down a bit. We brought this home last night...guess what Dennis did most of the evening??


This is Dennis contemplating unloading, which, with this first load is more complicated. He has panels to move just to be able to turn the rig around and get it to the barn. Glad this part of horse-ownership is his job!




I, on the other hand, was inside where it was relatively cool fixing dinner (shrimp salad) and organizing bills (yuck!). This is a picture of my latest quilting project. Norma was given this quilt as a gift for being starting and being president of our guild for several years. She collected frogs at that time so all these blocks are different stars with fussy-cut frogs in the middle. There is one block that is completely empty, so I'm thinking of embroidering a frog in the center of that block. Okay, *I* won't embroider it; Dennis' PR600 will do that for me!!

Happy Birthday America

And to celebrate, when you live in Plumas County, you have several choices. You can go to the High Sierra Music Festival, or the "Hippie Fest," as we locals call it. My husband is there now listening to music and having a good time. Or you can go to a little community called Chester and attend the Mombosa Festival...Reggae music, I think, but I've never gone.


We always start our 4th with the Pancake Breakfast in Taylorsville. Taylorsville has a huge population; the sign says 154 but I think they counted the dogs and horses too. However on July 4, the town has literally a thousand people. All the locals come out for the breakfast, parade and rodeo that follows. We always do the breakfast and parade, but not the rodeo. Since I own horses, I'm too much of a softy to watch rodeo. This is a picture of the town...by Monday, it will be back to normal with no one around. While the rodeo and team ropers are in town, you'll even see horses tied up outside the bar...

The rest of the day included a ride on my boy, Socks (I'm trying to build up his butt muscles for an endurance ride in August) and finishing a rush "Barn Chicks" quilt for a client.