The weather is sunny most days, but the wind has a bite, making me pull out my mittens and tam in the mornings when the chickens are awake and want their breakfast. The nice thing is that two of the Rhode Island Reds always have two eggs waiting for me. The other girls have no set time; they just lay their eggs later in the day or not.
A huge surprise for us when a hen laid a huge egg, we'd never seen one so big!
Bill decided he wanted a fried egg sandwich for breakfast & the curiosity of what was in such a large egg was to be revealed.
It was indeed a double-yolk egg! Bill said it was very tasty!
Our youngest son Nicholas celebrated his 35th birthday on the weekend & I made & gifted him this labour of love quilt of 168 images of Pokemon I Spy Quilt a pattern by Primitive Gatherings.
The backing of his quilt was too narrow & I did not have enough fabric. Nick came up with the idea to use a Pokemon panel to sill the shortage & it worked out beautifully! Rose, the longarm quilter did a wonderful job on the quilting. Happy Birthday Nicholas! xXx
Last weekend was a busy one with Bill & the boys, Nicholas & Donald installing the steel fence that Bill had purchased at an auction a couple of months back in Fredericton. Both Nick & Don had to work that morning & didn't start till 1pm but by suppertime, the fence was done!
The fence is 7ft tall & each section is 10ft long.
With the Autumn colours behind it, I think it is beautiful!
The ground was not level & this part is lower as you can see with Don being 6'2". lol
Bridget the Boston terrier was so excited with all the activity at the end of the lane.
They started working on the east side of the property corner after the smaller area on the west side was done.
Nick had the job of mixing water into the holes to make the cement harden.
Then Bill & Don did the fence installing, it was hard on Bill's shoulder as he's waiting for a shoulder operation that I hope comes soon.
The three worked well together getting this big job done in just several hours!
Here's the before look at our front property before the fence.
Mitchell worked on levelling the front area for the fence installation on his last visit here.
Having that all done made for a much easier installation of the fence, thank you, Mitch! (He's our middle son who lives in Alberta)
This is the west side that has the draining ditch & a very high water table when they dug down for the cement holes.
Beautiful, one of my girlfriends called it 'magical'.
The lane is long & some fencing is left over but we'll see if it is going by the two-car garage that is being built next spring.
And here is the finished fencing with Bill leaving the laneway, lots of room to come & go making the plowing easy this winter.
Bill made this bridge for the chickens to cross over to another area that he had opened up for them.
It too has fencing around & over it to protect the chickens from predators.
See the chickens left of the photo, they enjoy sitting in the sun.
I made wee Liam a Winnie-the-Pooh crib quilt & used the leftover fabric from his crib sheets to put in the border.
Bill was in Alberta last week to meet Liam & took this picture for me. He was born September 5th & is doing very well.
The quilt after I had sewn the minky roses backing to the front as binding.
The backing is oh so soft! Rose, did a beautiful job quilting this in my favourite wind pattern.
Liam on another quilt that I made him with soft velour-like pinwheels.
This is the 100 100-acre wood pattern that I am doing with Art East Quilting Co. You receive one chapter a month, the first for October was Winnie-the-Pooh & now I'm working on Chapter 2 - Piglet, I'll post when he is finished. Two were made last month, the one on the left is for the big quilt, and the other is the one you viewed with Liam on it!
Bill with Liam in his Halloween costume, Bill is over the moon with this beautiful baby named after him!
We love auctions these days & at the last Auction in Loggieville Bill bid on outside Christmas ornaments. These were older ones that had been commercially glued at the factory & over time the glue dried out leaving the fabric hanging. I took the time, yes, hours & hours of whip stitching the fabric back onto the wire. I keep hearing the sound of the lyrics in a song "If it's broke around here we fix it" & I was so pleased with the time spent doing just that!
The tenants at the Eel River Apartments are going to love these decorations this year.
The snowman had a lot of work done too! See the red whip stitch around the mitten, I used acrylic yarn to hold the fabric to the outline wire, it was strong & I think will weather several winters.
And here he is together, black yarn to hold his hat together, white yarn to hold his arms & body together. I sew things together rather than glue as I know it only falls apart when the glue is old.
Isn't he friendly to put in front of an apartment building?!
This very large pom-pom tree was taken out of the Anniversary Garden & is heading to the apartment to be rehomed in the large horseshoe area out front!
I asked Bill to move it as the tree needed more space than it had & was now coming onto the back deck.
Here is the void in the garden to where it was. The blue-muffin bush got a big trimming too. When we purchased it several years ago it was to be 5ft x 5ft, it is out of control!
Bill loves any opportunity to use his equipment to get a job done, and Mitch is so like him for that too. He used this to level the front for the fence last year. lol
The squirrel is tormenting Baxter again, Bridget doesn't care, she just likes to smell the autumn smell.
Baxter sat there for hours looking at the little red squirrel as it chirped at him.
When I finally insisted that he leave the tree, he was so numb that he was walking on three legs!
Last winter I kept saying that the squirrel was going to kill him, but he did end up with near frostbite!
Such a love-hate relationship with them!
Bill used a tarp to wrap the rootball for the large bush to be moved to its new home in the next village.
It worked out beautifully.
And the day was a beautiful one too. This fall has had wonderful weather, although it is calling for snow tonight but in a couple of days it will be 17C (62.6F) crazy weather!
Here is the pom-pom bush in its new spot at the apartment, it will be stunning this spring/summer when it blooms!
In the horseshoe grassed area Bill also installed a flag pole to hang seasonal flags!
The chickens have cleaned all the area outside their coop out, just trees left.
We weed through the yard & throw it into their fenced area, such a win-win but the weather is changing & soon the weed greens will be gone too.
Rusty is such a nice rooster, I'm thankful because he is huge & has grown past my knee height!
It's a joy to see them out in an area in our yard that was just dead space, now it is alive.
Leslie gave me sewing things from her auction box & this red cotton is truly geranium red!
I winter my geraniums inside over winter, and the colour of the flowers makes my heart sing.
Makes me think of my Aunt Lousie, my Grandma's older sister, she always had red geraniums across the front of her house every year, Aunt Louise's favourite colour was red & Grandma's was green, those two sisters were like 'day & night', I loved & missed them both!
Plants are now all out of the sunporch and are in the great room for the winter until the sunporch is warm again next spring.
This solid maple blue dresser I got at the auction for $3.00, with the highboy & matching mirror for another $3.00. I love solid wood for its strength & durability & could not pass this bid up!
Bill had the idea to place his 5/8" thick plexiglass workbench on top to protect the wood and take the weight of all the plants. It all worked out!
It fits in that area perfectly! Bill covered a board in the back again with a cotton quilt from Cracker Barrel to keep the west winds from blowing in as this is the old part of our house but with the firebox in that room it does get cozy & warm.
With all the drawers out you can see the storage that we will have with this new furniture piece that works great with Christmas coming. I have already started filling the drawers with Christmas goodies.
No peaking from the kids if you're reading this, Santa knows!
The extra quilt layer really does make a difference!
The outdoor board is sturdy but oh so cold with drafts until the snow covers the whole wall which did not happen last year, I saw out the window the whole winter!
I'm not getting into Christmas until after Remembrance Day, so I shall show you what I am up to this year.
Thank you for stopping in for a visit & yes, I know I'm not doing well at keeping up with my blog but so much is going on with the prep for winter & I'm savouring the beauty of Autumn & getting outside when I can.
Thanks again for your visit!
Hugs, Cynthia
