Fishing and Tortoises

One final photo of the new hatchlings as they are sunning themselves in the morning. All are now hatched and eating on their own so they will be going to their new homes this week.








Our fishing trip to the Sierras was wonderful. The children (and adults) made some wonderful memories that will carry them through the years.

First fish!!

We started going up to the same campground in the early 1970s. It is a spectacular place to visit with incredible mountains, pristine lakes and a nice campground. When we first started going up it was a first come system. Nowadays one can make the reservations online and be guaranteed of getting a spot to camp. This is a nice change because the location is six hours away and rather difficult to make a change with so many people going.







We always went up with another couple, Ken and Barb, whom we knew from our Navy days. There were many laughs and great memories made. They brought their daughter who was the age of our sons and she was a champ. She would gladly clean all of the fish while the boys happily observed. We keep trying to arrange for them to join us for one of our trips so we can make more memories with this next generation.





It was wonderful this year as the children are now old enough to go down and fish on their own. It is soooooo nice when you do not have to spend your fishing hours untangling fishing line. The older children now help the younger ones.

Nightime stories and sm*ores around the campfire are always a highlight of the trip.

Heating rocks to warm the sleeping bags before we crawl into them. Does it look familiar, Barb?

All were ready for bed early and some even fell asleep before dark.

Who could tell that the new parents were missing their little guy the first time they were separated from him?

Our sons left a few days early and backpacked into the campground. Starting at an elevation of 7000 feet, they ascended to 9700 feet and had many tales to tell once they arrived. Their first night was spent at the trailhead near their vehicle. During the middle of the night they were awakened to a bear attempting to break into their vehicle -- less than ten feet from their tent. I know they must have been a bit more apprehensive about the remainder of their journey after that. Again, many memories were made. Here they share pictures with Dad.








Some of the best things about the trip are returning home, climbing into a warm shower and sleeping in your own bed. The tent sleeping in the cold is getting harder each year. Perhaps it is just because I am getting too comfortable in my life. Each year I say that it will be my last of sleeping on the ground, but I surely would hate to miss the great times.



In other news this week.......my correct tub has been delivered and installed!!!! So, thirteen months, many battles, wasted time and $$$ passed, we appear to have a functioning tub once more. I know for a fact that I would never buy an Aqua*tic appliance again and will now work at putting the bad memories behind and enjoy my relaxing baths.



And now I must go and check out what everyone else has been up to this week. Thank you for visiting.

And Hatching Continues

The hatching continues. At this time in posting, we now have two completely out of the shell and another one who just pipped this afternoon.

This is the progress after forty eight hours. We can now see the darling face, one forward arm and one hind leg. Notice the yellow yolk sac is still visible.

Next twenty four hours - yolk is now mostly absorbed and the baby walks away from the shell. Remains of the yolk sac can be seen on the lower plastron. The shell has been folded in two while inside the egg so it will take several days for it to become completely straightened out. Don't they look as though they are made out of porcelain?

Next day.....sampling some food for the first time.

This whole process will be repeated for each one and it never ceases to amaze me. As you can see, each shell has some distinct features so it is possible to tell them apart.













We have adoptive homes for each one of the babies. The one thing that people interested in them must realize is that these tortoises will live to be over 100 years old. It is certainly not a small commitment.






On the non-tortoise side of living......







Pattie and I went to the county fair today. It is such a wonderful fair and this one did not disappoint. The quilts and other displays were fabulous. It is completely inspiring to see what others are working on. I came home with a million ideas for my "next" quilts.





It is incredible to think that Pattie and I actually met through blogging. I really enjoy getting together with her and getting to know her better. She is an incredible gal who does a ton of volunteering in our community. Be sure to check out her inspiring blog when you get a chance.






I have been able to spend a little time in my sewing room working on a mini quilt this week. I have always had the desire to do a black and white quilt. This is what I came up. It is a little subtle but then has a shock of color in the poppy. I was thinking of naming it "Clarity Through the Fog." Any other ideas?











The garden continues to show off it's colors. This is my tuberous begonia. The color is just striking and it is huge as well.











This is a pot of streptocarpus that I have grown for many years. The original belonged to my father and it is always a very showy plant in my pot. It has been divided many times and continues to be just a fabulous plant.











Friday we leave for our annual family camping trip. We camp and fish up in the Sierras at an elevation of 9,000 feet. I am always amazed at how winded I get just trying to do anything up where the air is so thin. It is always a good time, but I dread the sleeping on the ground in a tent. After doing it for forty years, the bones are not what they used to be. Plus, and this is a "biggy," it is cold up there. I really do not like being cold. But, we will all go and we will have many laughs and make great memories.





I hope that everyone has a fabulous weekend and I will fill you in on baby count when I get back.

We Have Pipping!

The anticipated day has arrived. Our tortoise eggs have started to hatch. Yesterday we saw several crumbs of the shell on the ground next to one of the eggs. The process will take about three days to complete, but it is great fun to watch the progress.

Each baby has a pipping tooth to break the shell. Once we notice that the shell is pipped we move the egg to a hatching tank.

That tank continues to provide the heat that was used for the incubation period, but it also has a smooth surface for the process to continue. Waxed paper is put under the egg and the egg is stabilized on top of a disc - one of the kids old toys. This prevents the egg from rolling over as the baby is emerging from the egg.

This is twenty four hours after pipping.

Over the next few days we will see just the nostrils from the small hole. It is during this period that the baby tortoise is absorbing the yolk sac which it will live off of for several days. We once had a baby who was way too eager to be free from the egg and ended up "sitting" on top of the yolk for the several days that it took to absorb it. As you can see, and please pardon the blurry photo, his feet did not even reach the ground. It's tough to get around that way! In the photo he also still has some egg membrane stuck to his face.

Gradually the egg will develop cracks throughout. As the baby stretches out, the egg shell falls away. Since there is still a small yolk on the plastron (bottom shell) the wax paper provides an area where the yolk will not stick and rupture which could kill the baby.

Once they are completely free of the egg they do a lot of soaking in shallow water. Their shells are very sensitive to the touch and they "jump" each time they run into each other. They are also very high maintenance during the initial outing period because they climb over everything and end up flipping themselves upside down.

I try to imagine them hatching in the ground. They would have to go through all of the above, make it to the surface and then be prey to every bird flying overhead. I guess we baby ours.

I will keep you updated on the progress.

Too Long Away

My time away from blogging ended up being a little longer than I had originally thought it would be. It has been such a busy week and I have simply not had the time to spend on the computer. I don't know how I can constantly convince myself that there will be more free time ahead for me, but somehow my mind actually believes that.

As I said in my last post, we were blessed to have our son and DIL's ten children spend four days with us. Although there is not a moment of rest, we had so much fun with them. Our DIL is very well organized and the children have regular schedules for everything. This actually makes things much easier. I have not spent so much time in my kitchen in many weeks. Breakfast is served, followed by snack at 10:30, lunch at noon, mid afternoon snack at 3:30 and dinner at 6 p.m. The dishes are hardly cleaned before it is time to think about that next food preparation. The three year old would ask each night as we tucked him in bed, what was for breakfast the next morning. That was the last thing I wanted to think about at night but I couldn't help but think how excited he must get at the thought of his next meal.

The children are wonderful help and each wants to do their own share of whatever it is we are doing. I showed the girls how to make a great monkey bread and that was such a hit that we made it three more times while they were here. EVERYONE wanted to help with that project and I must say that too many cooks did NOT spoil the soup.

We did all sorts of wonderful things together. Grandpa took the boys to pick blueberries one afternoon while the girls stayed home to sew during nap time for the little ones. We made wonderful blueberry muffins and a delicious blueberry coffee cake once the men brought us their harvest.

The girls have been wanting to make harvest aprons for working in their garden and collecting the chicken eggs. I think they did a great job on the project and they were thrilled with them. The aprons are generally worn long except when they have an item to wrap up inside of the apron. At that point they gather up the apron by stringing ribbon through buttonholes on the bottom and securing at the waist.

We picked some corn in the garden and it was great fun to peel it for cooking. It was also fun to play with the corn silk. Green hair anyone?

And how could someone not enjoy getting up to a face like this each morning?

I had a day to clean up, wash bedding and pack up for a trip to Paso Robles -- about three hours north from us. My brother and his wife want to eventually retire up in that area and have just purchased a home there. My sister, her husband, my husband and I went up to see their new place and spend a few days up in the area.

They were having the Mid-state fair while we were there so we all attended it one afternoon. It was fun, but I must say that our local county fair is much better with many more folks entering their items for competition. We did watch some of the livestock events which was fun. Alan Jack*son was performing last evening and I would have begged to see him if we weren't returning home that day. One event was where a horse rider had to separate one calf from a small herd and keep it apart from the others for a certain period of time. The horses were simply amazing in their actions to keep the calf separated. I'm sure the rider had something to do with the success as well, but the agility of the large animal was so interesting.

We stayed at a wonderful hotel in town and enjoyed some delicious meals at local restaurants. The hotel provided us with transportation to and from dinners -- a carriage ride. Chester delivered us in style but we always chose to walk home afterwards. I am not sure that Chester could have carried us all after we had feasted. Plus....we needed to walk back.

My sister thanking Chester for getting us to dinner safely.

The night before we left I was up sewing into the wee hours of the morning. Our granddaughter turned eight and so wanted me to make her some dresses for her birthday. Since I didn't have much free time while they were staying with us, I had to do an all-nighter to get them done in time for the party yesterday.

I found these darling labels at a quilt shop in Paso Robles. I couldn't pass them up.

Ms. H opening her gift.

Today was a day of wheelchair adjustments, banking, shopping and lunch out with my mother. It is amazing how the time goes by so quickly when we have so many errands to run. We are always amazed when we look at our watches.

That was my week and this week will be busy again as we are trying to get my FIL's home ready to put on the market. We have had several months to sort through boxes of letters, photos and what not. Now we have to get serious about it and get it listed. It would be nice to see a quick sell on it but with the market the way it is, I am certainly not counting on that.

I apologize for this post being all over the place and hope that I have not put everyone to sleep reading it. Guess that is what happens when you don't post very often. Now I am going to check to see what everyone else has been up to for the past week.

A Random Week

I am sure that most everyone has a week where nothing seems to be in sync. This has been my week. I just seem to have been pulled in a million different directions and end up feeling as though a decent job was not done on any of it. My mind was in so many places.

Our week started off with very sad news from our friends whom we just visited in Colorado Springs. He was diagnosed with lung cancer. News like that always hits like a ton of bricks. They have had such a difficult year and now they receive this news. Please keep them in your prayers. My thoughts have been with them since we heard the news and it is difficult to focus on much else.

We traveled to Lompoc, CA. on Wednesday to attend a Little League tournament game that our grandson's team played. It was such an exciting game as they came back in the last inning to win the championship with a three run home run. It was a chilly game as the fog had rolled in and the winds were really blowing. I was glad to have had a blanket in the car.

Coming home along the beach with a full moon was a delightful part of the trip. I loved how the moon was shinning on the ocean.

Lompoc is about two and a half hours from us and the drive is beautiful. The area is well known for growing seeds for companies such a s Bur*pee. There are fields of flowers that will produce the seeds that they use in their packets. This is one of marigolds. You can see the fog coming in behind the mountains. This is also an area where they grow a lot of pinot noir grapes for wines.

Thursday I took six more of the grandchildren to see the American G*irl movie. It was such a great movie and each one of them loved it. Afterwards we went for lunch at the local pizza parlor. I know that I enjoyed the day as much as they did.

I have managed to get a few hours of sewing time in this week. There was a great looking quilt in one of the magazines this month and I thought it would be perfect for this fall. I managed to get it pieced and ready for a backing and quilting.

As I mentioned before, our quilt guild is very generous with providing quilts to our community. There is a Veteran's home currently being built and the guild is providing a patriotic quilt for each bed. At the last meeting I picked up a packet with a quilt pattern and fabrics to work on one. It is now pinned, layered and ready for the quilting. It would not be my choice of fabrics or pattern, but it will fit the need perfectly. I need to remember "scrappy."

We have a busy weekend ahead for us. Our son and DIL are in Hawaii for their anniversary and their ten children will come tomorrow morning and stay until Tuesday when their parents get back. I have been busy setting up the inflatable beds and sleeping bags as well as grocery shopping for their arrival. It will be busy but delightful at the same time. So if I do not check in on blogs for the next few days, I am sure that everyone will understand. Right?

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

The Birds are Running My Life

I am convinced that the birds are trying to take over my life.

We have a pair of cockatiels in a small aviary (large cage) in the back yard. They dote on each other all day long. Last week when I was tending to them, I apparently did not latch the door completely. Needless to say, the female managed to "fly the coop." I could hear them calling to each other as she flew freely about the yard landing in the very tops of the biggest trees. There was no way to catch her and her mate was so forlorn looking. This went on for four days. Finally she flew off and we heard nothing from her. This week as I was sitting in my sewing room within view of the aviary, a shadow passed in my vision. I looked over and, sure enough, she had flown home. I immediately went out and she jumped onto my finger and wanted back in the cage. Life is now back to normal. Perhaps she just needed a break from him.

Our nights really cool down here so each morning when we wake up we open the doors and windows to let the cool air fill the house. Tuesday was no different. However, when I went to close everything up to keep the cool air inside I found a female oriole sitting on the floor of the sunroom. I figured that it would be no problem as I could just encourage her to fly right back through the double doors. Who was I kidding? She took off flying - not outside, but right up to the high ceilings. Why do they always want to fly upwards? Naturally, I was trying to get out the door to go to my monthly quilt guild meeting so I was not in the mood for chasing orioles around the house. She managed to run out of steam eventually and dropped behind some blocks that are set in one of the high windows. I got a ladder, retrieved her, placed her on the feeder and CLOSED the doors. She sat there for a spell and then flew off. I assume she was none the worse for the adventure.

Caught at last.

A few feathers short on top of the head and a little stunned, but seemed fine after sitting a spell.

The quilt guild meeting this month had a wonderful speaker, Karen Combs. Not only is
she a charming gal, she is a very accomplished quilter. Her works are very three dimensional. She brought many samples of her beautiful quilts along with her and I would like to share a couple of photos of them. The look that she accomplishes by using diamond shapes and color shades is just amazing. It really makes me want to try one of them. She is doing Celtic quilts as well using just three block designs and changing their directions within the quilt. Those too, are stunning.

I love the tumbling blocks on the quilt below.

I had a wonderful day yesterday going to lunch and a movie with my eleven year old granddaughter. We went to see the American Girl, Kit Kittridge, movie. It was such a wonderful, wholesome, good morals movie and I highly recommend it to anyone with young girls. Bring a tissue because there are a couple of very touching parts in it. I do hope that the company will keep producing movies like this one about the other American Girl dolls.



Am I weird or has anyone else ever had a thought about what they would do if they saw a plane crash close to them? It has always been somewhere in my mind and I have no idea why. This week I came pretty close to experiencing it for real. I was leaving my mother's house and saw this crazy small plane towing a large banner right in front of me. It was so low that the banner was actually touching the trees. In my mind I was thinking that the banner was going to pull that plane down. The next morning I picked up the paper and saw where the plane had crash landed and flipped just a couple of blocks further up the road from where I saw it. Apparently, it had lost power and what I witnessed was it's descent into a more open area than the residential one. The pilot, I am glad to say, was able to walk away from the plane. Pretty crazy event though.


Lastly, I have to share what two of my granddaughters made for me this week. I always enjoy having the girls over for sewing and they love it as much as I do. The two girls spent the night at each other's home and sewed this all by themselves. They are six and seven years old and I think they did a great job with no pattern and a great imagination. They told me that I cannot eat that delicious looking cookie pocket. Too bad! Thank you Ms. M&M.

Post Holiday

The week has been so busy with festivities and company. All of the activity is so much fun, however, it certainly can fill the time that I would normally spend with the computer. Hmmm. I do realize that I am not alone in this dilemma as I read of so many fellow bloggers taking breaks from blogging at this time of the year.



Our July 4th holiday was absolutely perfect. We always have a big family get together for games, great food and evening fireworks for the little ones. The firework show is very low key with sparklers, worms and fountains but the kids love it. This year we had around one hundred family members who attended and many laughs were shared. One would think that we never see each other and yet we all live close by and see each other often. We are blessed with a family that gets along well with one another and cousins who have best friends who are other cousins.



The afternoon starts off with a sand volleyball game. That gets the competition rolling. We had perfect weather and fun was had by all. This year my husband cooked tri tips and brats on the big Santa Maria BBQ while we set up all of the side dishes that my DILs brought. Everything was delicious.

Waiting in line for your turn at sparklers is always the highlight.

A few of the red, white and blue flowers from the yard for the centerpiece.

By the end of the evening everyone was exhausted and ready to head off. Several of the group went on to watch the public fireworks display, but we were ready for bed.

Sometimes you need a good place to rest and grab a few chips to snack on.

Even our old dog needs a little TLC while resting.

This is our rescued tortoise, Cooper. As you can see, he apparently was munched on by some animal as he is missing a part of his shell covering his hind foot. He loves a party and will instantly come out when people are around to see him. The kids love the big tortoises. They are well fed when the little ones arrive.




Our son and DIL were down for a few days with the youngest grandchild. It is always fun to have them here and catch up on their busy lives. The baby has started to eat solids and it is always such fun to watch the faces when they eat. You would think they were eating some horrid food with the espressions they make. They do, however, keep opening their mouth for more.

This is the highchair that his daddy, aunt and uncles all used.

With the house quiet again, I have had a chance to get into my sewing room and work on a few projects. There was lots of mending to do but also a little fun stuff. I finished my small quilt for the Four Season's Summer Quilt Swap and will get that in the mail later this week.





I received my class brochure for the Road to California Quilt show next January. There are so many wonderful classes to take and I find that I want to take them all. I will have to limit which ones I take because the days overlap. It is a fabulous show with incredible quilts.


And now....the continuing saga of my whirlpool tub. As I wrote before, the Aq*uatic company decided to replace my defective tub after months of fighting with them. The new tub was delivered last Wednesday when they picked up the old one. The plumbers arrived on Thursday, uncrated it, water tested it outdoors and installed it. It works perfectly EXCEPT the company sent the wrong color. It is white instead of biscuit like the toilet and sinks. Of course everyone whom I need to speak with is out of town this week. What would I expect???? Do you think they could finally get it right? This is definitely a company that I would NEVER do business with again. On a positive note, we do have a tub that is working until something is done about getting the correct one installed.


My tortoise eggs are coming along nicely. I candled them over the weekend and it appears that I will have seven hatchlings from seven eggs. They should be out sometime around the beginning of August.


The fires in California sound numerous. We have been lucky enough to have most of them north of us which frees us from the smoke and ash. I know how awful it is to breathe that air and I really feel sorry for the folks with fires in their area. I have to hand it to the brave firefighters who do an incredible job fighting them. To imagine over 1400 fires all burning at one time is almost too much to fathom.


I hope that everyone will have a great week.