Someone asked about the quilt in this picture the other day and seeing it makes me miss my house in Missouri.

I’m happy in Texas but what I wouldn’t give to have the space I had there and to be able to keep the house halfway clean without all the dust and dirt we have here with the drought and almost constant wind blowing.  I loved that framed tin that’s over the fireplace and have absolutely no place to put it in the current house.  The entertainment center doesn’t fit anywhere in the current house.  We made a choice . . we went with the acreage here and a small house but I still miss this house with the big kitchen and two ovens, all the bathrooms  . . even if I didn’t like cleaning them.

The leaves were beautiful in MO last week, even though they’ve had a drought too.  We won’t see much (probably none) leaf color here.  Every now and then I ask myself . . why did we move to Texas?   Between missing Chad, Nicole, Adalina, the house, the season changes and being less than an hour from a major city, I can start thinking about it all and let myself get disappointed that I’m here but then I remember that for as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted 40 acres in the woods.  I have 45 acres here.  I have my chickens, a garden, no close neighbors . . that means a lot and I never ever want to live in the city limits again . . even with a close to perfect house.

Now that Chad is leaving Nevada and I won’t be back there, I won’t pass by the house again and in a while, I won’t even think about it any more.  With Chad no longer living there, in my mind, it will be more like we all moved on with our lives and not like we moved off and left him there.

I feel bad for Nicole’s grandparents. They’re pretty elderly and live in town just a few miles from Chad and Nicole.  They come by to see Nicole often.  Chad cooks and takes dinner to them often . . they all eat together at the grandparents’ house.  They’re so going to miss them.

The really good thing for Chad and Nicole is that they’re going to be 18 miles from Joplin.  They can get there to shop or eat or do whatever they need to do in the city without having to drive an hour to get there.  They’re going to love that.

OK . . pity party is over.  Time to fire up the longarm!

Yesterday I quilted the pink top for my friend.

It’s amazing how well the quilting shows up the way the light was shining through the window, just casting a bit of a shadow across the quilt.

It was nice that I had visitors while quilting.

This is completely on the opposite side of the house from their coop and where they mostly hang out but I do see them over here occasionally.  I threw some grain out to them so they hung out in this area for a while.  Occasionally they would walk up to the door and look in to see what they could see, though after having been gone for a week, I’m still a stranger to them and they’re scared of me.  Goofy chickens!  The big rooster is flapping his wings, just proving to me that he’s top dog out there!

These chickens are so pretty but Vince says they’re way dumber than our other chickens.  Not so sure about that but I know their days of running loose are about to end.  While I was gone, Vince had to clean the chicken poop off the porch and he’s tired of stepping in it all over the yard so as soon as he gets their run secured, they’re going back to being inside a fence.

I guess that means no more visits from them while I’m sewing.