Trust Your Instincts

Since we moved to Idaho last year, my husband's been spending a lot of time working on timber management of our acreage. We don't have a lot of forest on our land, about six acres or so, but it was in pretty rough shape. Dead and fallen trees needed to be removed, and areas that were overgrown needed to be thinned to help stronger trees get more sunlight. Forest fires are dangerous, and good timber management helps keep them from spreading. It's hard work, but my husband really enjoys it.

Normally I normally keep an ear out for him...if I don't hear the tractor or the chainsaw in a little while, I go out to check to make sure he's okay. He thinks I'm paranoid, always expecting the worst, but my biggest fear was that he'd get injured and I wouldn't know it.

Well, my biggest fear came to pass.

Buggy Barn Quilt Show

Living in the Pacific Northwest offers so many opportunities to enjoy gorgeous quilts. Every summer is filled with a plethora of quilt shows, craft fairs, and folk art fairs, all within driving distance. Yay!

This weekend Hubby and I drove out to Reardan, Washington, for the annual quilt and folk art show at the Buggy Barn Quilt Shop. Located about 20 miles west of Spokane in the midst of wheat fields, the locale is absolutely perfect to show off the time-honored tradition of handwork.

Shredded Barbecued Chicken

Sometimes we get a hankering for homemade barbecue, so I pull out my old reliable recipe for Shredded Barbecued Chicken. I honestly can't remember where I got this recipe, probably from Allrecipes.com. I've changed it a little to suit my family's tastes, so it's not exactly the same. I tend to put the chicken breasts in the crock pot whole, because they're going to fall apart anyway. It's an easy recipe—give it a try!

To make it fun, we like ours on hamburger buns, Sloppy Joe style, with a slice of American cheese, and served with cole slaw and french fries.

What I've Been Up To

When I started a separate blog for quilting earlier in the year, I reserved the right to come back and share with you my completed projects. The work-in-progress details were all agonized over on my other blog, so you can relax now.

Remember the quilt kit for the cupcakes runner that my son and his girlfriend gave me for Christmas? It was the very first project that I started but unfortunately was not the first one to be finished. I finally completed it a week or so ago, and learned a lot along the way:

Springtime Can Be Cruel

Yesterday I sat in my kitchen, watching as wind-lashed raindrops 

pattered against my newly washed windows, 

and thought about springtime.

 

Even with a foot of snow still on the ground, 

I felt that spring was just around the corner, buds waiting to open. 

Two days of rain and warmer temperatures lifted my hopes 

that soon life would begin anew, 

and we'd see colors in nature again other than 

blue and white and deepest green...

New Digital Design Freebies

My friends over at My Memories have come up with a new freebie for you guys! Click here to download the two pretty quick pages pictured here, plus all of the elements that were used to make them.

The quick pages will be in .JPG format and the elements in .PNG format, so they can be used in any photo editing or scrapbooking software, including My Memories Suite. If you want to use them in My Memories Suite, you'll simply need to visit the link above to download them to your computer, then import them into your layout just like you would a photo. Easy!

This download will include:

• 2 digital papers
• 4 page elements
• 2 quick pages

These quick pages can be used to start a digital photo album that you can print or share online, or you can use the individual papers or elements to create other projects.

Don't delay...these free quick pages will only be available for a limited time. Start preserving those memories!

Hugs,
Pam

Living With Snow

You remember the joke that traveled via email several years ago...Diary of A Snow Shoveler. It was about a fellow who moved up north and was all excited about the snow...how lovely it was. Within a few weeks he went stark raving mad and was ready to murder the snowplow driver who kept plowing snow into his freshly shoveled driveway. If you don't remember it, click here to read the whole thing, but be prepared for some salty language.

Everyone thought we would be the same way...moving from central North Carolina where the average annual snowfall is 6" to northern Idaho where the average is measured in feet: usually over six or seven feet per year. So far this winter we've had about seven feet, but rather than getting it in drips and drabs we've had three major snow events and not a lot else in between.

Do we hate snow yet? Actually, no...at least I don't. I have the luxury of sitting inside where it's nice and warm, cradling a hot cup of coffee, while Hubby is outside either shoveling or snowplowing. It's starting to wear a little on him, but he's not complaining. If he still had to go to work every day, though, that would be different. But for now he still thinks it's fun to fire up the quad with the snow blade attached and buzz around for a couple of hours.