2011 October 03 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

October 3, 2011 · by JudyL

This drought is so sad! The hygienist who cleaned my teeth this week told me they’ve had cows forever had just sold them all off on Monday. Almost everyone here has had to get rid of their livestock and some that have the desire and the funds have sent some of their best stock to farmers in other states to raise til the situation gets better here. I surely hope it happens soon.

This is a picture of the lake I had taken off my deck and posted on September 6.

This is what it looked like yesterday from my deck . . a bit over three weeks later.

Not sure how easy it is to see from the photos but the water is dropping amazingly quickly considering that lake is our area’s only water supply. By referencing the little boat dock with the red roof, it might help to see how much farther the water has gone out. I don’t know if anyone is still drinking the water. It doesn’t stink terribly but it doesn’t smell good. I have a hard time even taking a shower in it some days. We were at Wal-Mart yesterday and there was no bottled water on the shelves at all.

We do have rain in our 15 day forecast and I pray it does rain here and it rains enough to make a difference!

My Scrappy Aunt

October 3, 2011 · by JudyL

My Aunt Gail lives less than 2 hours from Brownwood. I probably haven’t seen her since 2007 when we were up at mom and dad’s farm and I wrote this post. If you look at the picture where my mom is sitting by Johnnie (with the purplish/blue pants) and then look at the next picture where my mom is sitting by Aunt Ruby (in the pink), I think mom looks so much like Johnnie who is mom’s dad’s sister. I think the older I get, the more I look like Aunt Ruby, who is my dad’s sister.

Aunt Gail is sitting on the floor in the picture with my dad and she’s also my dad’s sister. Aunt Gail loves scraps. She’s been begging me for years to save my scraps for her. I’d save them and then forget to take them to mom’s and end up giving them to someone else. When we found out we were moving here, I began saving my scraps for Aunt Gail. This HUGE Ziploc® bag is a bag Vicky sent a project in years and years ago! It is full – there are scraps, blocks that didn’t get used, bigger chunks of fabrics I’ll never use and several pretty big pieces of flannel. This bag will keep Aunt Gail busy for weeks!

She was going to meet us at the BBQ Goat Cook-off in Brady last month and couldn’t and she’s been asking us to come see her. Last week she called and left me a message: “If you don’t come see me, I’m coming to see you!” I told Vince . . this weekend, we’re going to see Aunt Gail!

We went yesterday and I think she was more excited to get that bag of scraps than she was to see me! She sat down and immediately started going through the bag, telling me what she would make with every piece. Then she realized I had brought her a loaf of homemade bread and some cake and she lots interest in the scraps! We stayed several hours, took her out to lunch and I think by the time we left, she was pretty happy to see us go so she could get back to her scraps! Gotta love family.