Pioneer Days - August 25, 2007

Antique Car
Antique Car
Shirley refilling water bottles!! Too cheap to pay $2 for a bottle of water!!

Rich - I love the way is hair and goatee are growing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rich eating his Chili Dog for lunch.

1957 Ford Thunderbird
Riders from the South Umpqua Rodeo
The Shriners
Shriner's Mascot
My favorite - John Deere Tractors

Boy Scout Honor Guard leading the parade!!!!! I'll never learn how to upload these photos in the order I want them.
1958 Ford Fire Truck
Float carrying the Pioneers of Canyonville
South Umpqua High School Cheerleading Squad doing their routine.
This is one of the residents of Canyonville. This is his everyday attire. I spoke with him at the park after the parade. I asked him how is was today? He told me that he was standing up so he was doing great. We talked about the parade a little and he went on his way.

This was the 41st annual Canyonville Pioneer Days Parade and Celebration. Next year they will be celebrating 150 years since Canyonville was founded. Canyonville is the third oldest town in Oregon.

Rich and I had so much fun watching the parade. I do get a little irritated with the lack of manners of some of the parade watchers. It is so disrespectful when our flag goes by to see people wearing their hats. Another thing that bugs me is people walking or standing in front of you when you are taking photos. Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After watching the parade we took our chairs back to the van and went to the City Park. There was all kinds of boothes set up. We looked at each and every one of them. I was able to purchase some marbles for Mae. She collects them. I found some pretty ones. We met some members of The River.......it's a Foursquare Church in Tri-City. They invited us to attend Sunday services. Rich and I really liked them...........we'll check them out. We've been looking for another church to attend. The one we go to has the music so loud it really bothers me. I go home with a earache every time. I'm deaf in the right ear and the left one is sensitive to sounds.

After walking around looking at all the boothes Rich decided it was lunch time. We bought Chili Dogs at one of the vendors. We found a picnic bench and enjoyed our lunch.

After eating we walked across the street to a yard sale. They have it every year. I found a Ronald McDonald figure and Winnie the Pooh figure for 10 cents each. Then I found a Chinese Cookie Tin for 25 cents. Rich found a Odie Pez dispenser for 50 cents to add to his Garfield collection. Total spent: 95 cents. Last of the big spenders!!!!!!!!!!!

We took off for home through the backroads. It was beautiful along the Umpqua River between Canyonville and Riddle.

We arrived back home and Misty let us know that we had been gone too long. She was very vocal as she is part Siamese. A treat of canned tuna made her happy.

In two weeks we are going to the Cranberry Festival in Bandon, OR. Will post about our adventures.

Nine-Patch Quilt

Nine-Patch Quilt
Aunt Della's Block

I finally had a chance to take a photo of the Nine-Patch Quilt top I finished. It is all hand-stitched. Each block is different. There are 64 Nin-Patch Blocks in the top. Each block consists of 4 blocks color A and 5 blocks of color B. I first stitched all the blocks and then joined them together to make the top. I'm getting ready to put it in the quilt frame. I'm not going to hand quilt it........just tie it out.

Aunt Della's Block is a very special block that I made for the quilt. As you will notice it is not uniform with the other blocks. The center block is a different color than the 4 corners........it should be the same. The block is made to honor Aunt Della and her quilting. I'll explain why.

Grandma Shaw and Aunt Della were sister-in-laws. Their husbands were brothers. They loved to get together and quilt. I loved to join in with them and quilt when I visited and they were quilting. I noticed that Aunt Della would always have a block that wasn't just right. It might have a little different color, different pattern or a piece sewn upside down on a block. I asked her about it. She replied, " Only God is perfect! I make a small imperfection in my quilts to remind me that I'm not perfect nor is the world we live in.". So making 1 block in my quilts with an imperfection is my way of honoring Aunt Della.

I have so many patterns for quilts that I want to make...........so many patterns - so little time. I have several tops already stitched together I just need to finish them off. Now that I'm feeling better with my new medicine I will try to get some of them finished.

Update on Homemade Cat Food

I gave Misty a second helping of the Homemade Cat Food.......once again she decided to cover it up like it was yesterday's news. The fishy smell didn't work this time. Rich and I talked it over and we decided that the Chicken Stew would be better off in the trash. And, that's exactly where it went. So much for Homemade Cat Food. We decided it would be better just to give her canned tuna, salmon or chicken for occasional treats.

The photo above is a close up of Misty. She loves to sit on my desk and watch me craft.

Homemade Cat Food

Rich read an article about making your own cat food for a healthier cat in AARP magazine for Sept/Oct 2007. It's called Chicken Stew. So we decided to make a recipe of it and see if Misty would like it. I should have know better to start out making the whole recipe. I should have only made half a recipe. It smelled really good cooking. It has chicken.............thank heavens it was on sale, garlic, green peas, carrots, sweet potato, zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, celery, kelp powder, rosemary and spring water. So I proceeded to cook all the ingredients for 2 hours like the recipe directed. It still smells really good!!!!!! After cooling stew.......as they called it.......I deboned the chicken. Then you are supposed to puree everything in food processor in batches. It's almost ready for Misty to sample. She's rubbing up against my legs and reaching up. Her way of asking for a special treat. I let it cool just a bit and put about 1/4 cup of the stew in a dish. She was excited as I placed the dish on the floor....................until she smelled it. She then took her little paw and tried to cover it up..........does that tell you what she thought of her new stew? Okay, here I am with all this time and money for ingredients invested in this bowl of cat stew. What am I going to do????

By now Misty is again asking for a special treat. I opened up a can of tuna and put just a little in the bowl and stirred it up. She smelled it and decided it was okay to eat. She finished it off and jumped up on the freezer and proceeded to clean herself and went to sleep. Whew!!!!!!!! I'm not going to have to feed the Cat Stew to Rich for dinner or throw it out. I added the rest of the can of tuna, a can of sardines, and a can of minced clams to the stew.

It must be the fishy smell that made her think it was okay to eat. I put the rest in the refrigerator and will see if she will eat it again. If she does.......I'll freeze most of it in 1/4 cup servings for her.

For a joke I should put some in a bowl and tell Rich that Misty won't eat it and since I spent good money on the ingredients he is going to have to eat it for dinner tonight. ROTFLMBO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Busy Weekend

Corn Cob Jelly

Grandma Grissom's Dill Pickles
Sliced Peaches
Corn for freezer

This weekend was quite busy for me. On Friday it was major shopping trip of the month for me. I stopped at Sugartree Farms in Winston, OR and bought 1 dozen ears of corn and 20 pound box of peaches. I then bought 10 pounds of pickling cucumbers at Thunderbird.

On Saturday I made 8 quarts of dill pickles using Grandma Grissom's recipe. Grandma Grissom was Rich's favorite Aunt Jo"s mother-in-law. I know.........I'm my own Grandpa!!!! I was able to take care of half the peaches.......7 pints canned, 3 1/2 cups diced for jam and 9 - 1/2 cup diced peaches in packages for smoothies in the freezer. I blanched the corn and then cut it off the cob. I was able to freeze 3 - 4 cup bags. To use the corn I just drop package on counter a couple of times and then I just pour out how much I want to use and put bag back in freezer. I cooked the corn cobs in water to get juice to make Corn Cob Jelly.

On Sunday I finished peaches.......10 pints canned. I made a recipe of Corn Cob Jelly. The juice from the corn cobs is very pale. I added just a little yellow and red food coloring to the juice before I made the jelly.

I have Concord Grape juice thawing out in the refrigerator. It is the last of the Concord Grape juice I made out of Bobbie and Mike's grapes last year. I'll need to pick some more this year when they are ripe. I hope that I can also get some Prune Plums from Bobbie and Mike this year. I better email Bobbie and check on status of grapes and plums.

That reminds me I need to go blackberry picking!!!!!!!!!! I only have enough Blackberry juice in the freezer for 1 more recipe of Blackberry Jelly. Rich's favorite.

Seahorse Artist Trading Cards

This is a set of 3 Artist Trading Cards I rencently finished for a Swap. The seahorses are underwater photos that I found on the internet. I tore the photos around the edges. I used cardstock for the background. I inked around the edges of the cardstock before mounting the photos.