Tech Woes and Weirdness

I'm feeling frustrated by technology. I currently cannot email anyone with a Yahoo email address, which includes ATT and SBC Global amongst others. I have a general idea of what the issue is, but without spending a lot of money for additional email services, I can't fix it. I will post responses directly on my blog post if I can't get my email to go through. I am sorry.

In other news, I have done some really boneheaded things in my sewing lately. Somehow I managed to suck a piece of batting off a table and get it stuck in the long arm bars while I was loading a quilt backing. Sadly, this is not the only dumb thing I've done.

I decided to take a break from all the binding and spent an afternoon working on my own things. Here's how my updated to-do list looks.

1. Add last two borders to Finding Neverland quilt. Seam backing. 🔜

I have the inner borders on. One more set of wider borders and the backing seam to go!

2. Make any amount of progress on the race car quilt. ✅

I forgot to unfold a strip set I was sewing and then realized I had been sewing without bobbin thread for like 100". At least the fix was easy.

The strip sets are now all sew and cut, so it's time to start making blocks.

3. Fix the elastic in the gingham skirt. ✅

Of course this didn't go smoothly. I put a safety pin in one end of the elastic and forgot to do the other. The safety pin opened while in the waistband channel and hooked in the lining. The other end shot way back in the channel. I had to undo more seam to be able to fish both out. It was not fun at all, but I stuck with it and got it done. 💪 I removed 4.75" of elastic.

4. Resume work on the sloper. 🚫

5. Work on the postcard from big guild. 🚫

6. Cut Meadow Mist Mystery quilt. 🚫

All the fabrics are washed now.

7. Figure out the Beach Bumz class quilt. 🚫

8. Continue working on the behind-the-scenes tasks for business. 🚫

Like I started off with, I am feeling very frustrated with technology and the services I use right now. I'm waiting a bit til I cool off, plus I have other things that are more urgent.

Out in the garden, there's more weirdness in this odd growing season. I had harvested enough cucumbers to make a batch of freezer pickles. {Link to recipe. Note that it says they keep only 6 months in the freezer, but I haven't noticed much degradation in a year.} I had part of them laying on the counter because they had a ton of dirt on them. I had the cleaner cukes in the crisper drawer. The ones in the crisper drawer got moldy and had to be discarded. 😫 I did have enough to make a half-batch of pickles, so I guess it turned out okay.

My daughter was home over the weekend and I asked her to go out in the garden with me Sunday morning to plant another crop of peas and lettuce. We had heavy rains Saturday night into Sunday and the soil was too wet to also plant lettuce. I was looking at my tomato plants and I discovered hornworms. 😫😫 She got the two I found onto the shovel and fed them to the chickens. I couldn't bring myself to look for more.

After she fed them to the chickens, she looked them up and discovered that they grow into hummingbird moths. She was sad to have destroyed them. I was not. There are also army worms on my vegetables. 🤮 We think we found a few spongy moth caterpillars on the road. I really hope Google's ID was wrong. No more scourges!

On the plus side, we are growing several baby watermelons.

We have three pumpkins growing (that I can find).

Several of the sunflowers are blossoming. Most of them got eaten by the deer and the ones that are blossoming are plants that regrew after being nibbled. They are resilient.

I wish I was wealthy enough to hire a gardener. I don't do well with bugs and critters and snakes. I can't keep up with my big flower garden by myself. I haven't even tried to deal with it since I hurt my foot in May. Speaking of the foot, my podiatry appointment is this week, three months after the injury.

Most of the repairs are complete on the house. My husband is now moving towards re-forming the front porch. The step heights will be different than before and we're trying to wrap our heads around how they should be spaced. We can't actually have the termite treatment done until all repairs and porch forms are done.