2012 March 23 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Coop Progress

March 23, 2012 · by JudyL

Vince has all the walls done and ready to put up. The builder and his helper will be here in the morning to finish . . I hope!

Notice how I always try to get lots of background in the picture so you can see how pretty it is here!

You can see the house. It’s not nearly as far as it was in MO from the house to the coop and you can bet I shouldn’t be walking through 20+” of snow . . ever! The water faucet is close . . just over to the left is the hookup for the RV and there’s a faucet there. There’s also electricity there and there are outlets on the outside of the shop which is just to the right.

Where the blue bucket is . . in the background to the left, that’s where the RV hooks are.

This coop is 2′ longer and 1′ wider than the last one was. The wall Vince has standing is the wall that has the vent that we open and close for cross-ventilation. The wall laying down is where the egg boxes and the two windows will be.

It will be a wonderful coop . . built by my wonderful husband!

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 12 Comments

Border #1 Added

March 23, 2012 · by JudyL

This morning was a bust as far as accomplishing anything. I’ve cleaned chicks’ vents – I guess it’s all that long fuzz on those little bantams but I’ve never had vent issues before . . aren’t you glad to know that? I’ve dealt with the iron, I’ve done laundry, I’ve fixed lunch and I intend to spend the rest of the afternoon sewing. About an hour before dark, I’ll go work in the garden so that by the time I’m about to drop dead, it’s time to take a shower and knit for a few minutes before bed time.

Vince took off this afternoon but he had to go buy landscape timbers for the strawberry patch and he had to buy a printer. We looked at them yesterday but he had a Staples gift card at home so he didn’t want to buy it without the card. By the way, they’ll take $50 off some of their new printers if you bring in an old printer. It doesn’t even have to work! We had one that I think was a free one when you bought a computer . . from years back and I can’t remember if it had quit working or if it was too slow or what the deal was but there’s no telling how long we’ve had it and how many times we’ve moved it so Vince took it in to get a $50 discount. Just goes to prove that you should never throw anything away!

I did manage to get the first border on the March Color Palette quilt.

The pieced border is now pieced but I’m switching over to the other quilt for the rest of the afternoon.

· Filed Under: Quilting · 8 Comments

They Have The Same Expressions

March 23, 2012 · by JudyL

Is Vince spending too much time with the cows? They’re eating out of his hand now.

But what I’m more concerned about . . is that they’re starting to act the same. Look at them. They’re both looking down with the exact same expression.

Not once . . but twice!

Is the cow mimicking Vince or is Vince mimicking the cow?

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 17 Comments

Digital Velocity Steam Iron Update

March 23, 2012 · by JudyL

Edited to Add: I did call the company before posting this. They say “It’s out of warranty!” They’re pretty sure it’s a circuit board and with shipping, it will cost me about $40. Vince can change the circuit board. That may or may not be the problem and I cannot return the circuit board if that isn’t the problem. So . . my review below is based on my overall experience with this iron.

When I bought my Digital Velocity Steam Iron in September, 2010, I wrote this review and promised followups. I loved this iron. It steams like crazy and while I know some don’t use steam, I do and I love lots of it.

Today when I went to the sewing room to turn it on, the switch appears dead and it does nothing! I tried unplugging it and plugging it into another socket that I knew had working things plugged into it, and still nothing. Dead! Considering that for about 6 months or longer during this time, I wasn’t sewing at all and this iron only gets used for sewing, that leaves me not liking this iron a whole lot right now.

I will pull out one of my older irons and use it while I stew about whether or not to order another of the Digital Velocity irons. In the long run, as much as I liked it, if I have to replace it every 12 – 18 months, maybe that’s still better than using an iron that lasts longer but I only halfway like. But, I expected more.

When things slow down for Vince, I’ll see if he’ll take it apart and see if he can fix the switch but if I ask him to do one more thing right now, well . . I’m just not going to do that!