Quilting FUN

This winter I have been able to make a little progress in my quilting studio. This is a baby boy quilt I gave it to a girlfriend who just had a bundle of joy.

 All I used is a little charm pack. I love the blue and brown together.

 I went to a quilting retreat in January and I ended up working on this project. Great big 25" star blocks, both of which I LOVE. The colors are yellow, brown, oranges, with a white background. I still have some work to do on the blocks, along with adding some sashing as well. When it's all finished it will be a queen size, and have a new home on my bed in the fall seasons.

 Miss Julia has always been interested in my quilting, but lately she has really been struck with the bug of wanting to make things herself. She also has a complete LOVE for fabric. After brainstorming with her we have decided that we will make some baby doll quilts to sell. With that money she wants to buy her own sewing machine (with protective guards) for her to sew along side me.

 She has been sitting on my lap doing the actual sewing herself while I control the speed and foot pedal. She giggles a lot, she asks me how she's doing, and then admires her work.

 We are having a lot of FUN and enjoying our time together.

 After several hours of sewing (yes she actually will sew with me for hours), this is what we came up with for our second quilt. We used some 5" squares to make this bright baby doll quilt. Now we need to sew the rows together!

 Julia and I also attended a quilt club meeting this week and scored some really great (free) fabric! This is just what I collected.....she had her own stash she collected. She came home flying high and ready to go back again next month.

When we finish a few more baby doll quilts we will be sure to post them here in case any of you are interested in supporting her sewing machine fund, and fabric accumulation habit.

60 degrees in the Middle of January!

Say what? Topping out around 60 degrees in the middle of January in Indiana just doesn't happen.

It did this past Saturday though, and I took advantage of it and headed out with my neglected Canon Rebel. (Since inheriting my Iphone I've been lazy at getting my "big camera" out and using it.) So here we go on our stroll of the homestead on the beautiful, but unusual January day. I followed my hubby out to woods without him knowing it. I loved this shot of him got hanging out looking over things.

 Flowers blooming in January...seriously? Yep in my little chick trough feeder...LOVE IT!

 I know this picture is a little weird to some, but it's really exciting to me.....COMPOST BABY!!

 When it gets as warm as 60 degrees my girls decided to come out and enjoy the sunshine. I can't even  begin to tell you what an blessing this was to me. I haven't been able to check on them at all since I harvested honey in September. Once the temps stay below sixty your not suppose to open the hive box anymore (to cold for the bees). I still didn't open the hives up this weekend,  but to see so many of them out flying around was just about the best thing ever! The fact that I know they are still alive and thriving makes me so very grateful!

 I love looking across our 24 acre field beside us and seeing GREEN! I has all kind of beans and greens that were planted last fall to help replenish the soil with nitrogen naturally.

 There is something that gives me warm and fuzzy feeling about seeing all the wood piles we have around the homestead. I'm thinking it has something to do with my LOVE of a good campfire. My father in law says it might have something to do with me not cutting the wood, but burning it at a rapid pace. Ya maybe, but who's keeping track right?

 Jasper thought the whole day outside with all his favorite people was quit grand....

 I think this picture should be calle, "Where there is a will, there is a way." I'm sure others might have an entirely different name for it. I think it's awesome: Crutches, feed sack over his foot, and riding one of his favorite toys. I'm thinking this is what memories are made of!

 Our egg laying ladies are so happy to see the snow melt and scratch at the ground again! Our rooster, "Feather Foot" is keeping his ladies close, he's not sure about the weird lady with that black thing in front of here faces following them around.

 Our Ducks seemed to jumping out of their skin with excitement. Quacking the whole days while milling about from here to there. They found a little water wallow where our 4-H pigs were last year.

 I didn't take them but a second to decide it was a perfect day for swim. Unfortunately, warm weather in January was never expected to last and now we have highs in the 30's all week. It was great while it lasted, and I think it's safe to say EVERYONE at the Homestead took advantage of the day!

For the rest of January we plan to maybe visit the farm show, order some flower seeds for our nectar loving bees, amd order our veggie seeds as well. If I get really ambitious I might even start to map our layout of the veggie garden.

 

Christmas 2012

I know everyone has moved on  and is over Christmas, but I couldn't let the whole month of January pass and not post anything. We love to start off our each Christmas celebration reading Luke 2.

 Caleb was excited about the Lego set he scored.

 Julia loving her Hello Kitty slipper

 Zach sneaking a peak into what he might have under the wrapping

 Lance was glad to add a hatchet to his tool collection

 My in-laws got a beautiful quilt from Grandma Gaerte! The picture doesn't due it justice at all.

January 2013: The Game Plan

It's been awhile since I've logged onto my blog. Not because of lack of want to, but mainly because of time retraints. If I'm being real honest since starting school in September and schooling all four of the kids extra time has been hard to come by. I knew schooling all four of them would require some sacrifices in some other area, I just didn't know it would be my blog that suffered the most. I love blogging, aka: scrapbooking, but I refuse to feel like I have to do it all and run myself so thin I have nothing left to give my family. Thus my reason for being A-Wall for the last month, give or take.

At the end of 2012, three days before Christmas, my sweet hubby fell off the attic stairs backwards and broke the heal of his foot, and my oldest two sons had a severe allergic reaction to poison ivy after a day of woodcutting. At the same time, my oldest son was suffering from severe somach pains which led us to the pediatrician on Day 6 and the to the ER on Day 7 and then two more days until he found relief. The verdict: a weird virus which brought no other systems other than stomach pain. After a couple days of thinking we were on the road to recovery for everyone, I had a puking daughter, and a son with an ear ache. I know it just keeps gettting better right? So there you go all my excuses wrapped up in one big sob story. Although it sounds like a horrible senerio, it has been a priceless time of our family really working together to help serve one another.

On a happy and encouraging note, we had a lovely Christmas with family amongst the "mess". I have been able to work on a few quilting projects....yahooo for me! I finished a baby quilt for a dear friend who just added a fourth child to their family. I just finished binding my first ever mini-quilt last night. I also currently have a lap quilt top in the making. This has been the most quilting I have done all year long! It feels great to ecaspe life for little bits of time to be creative and make something beautiful. I am looking forward to next weekend when I am whisking away to a quilting retreat with a great friend and my mother-in-law! This will be my second year at the retreat. If only I could figure out what I wanted to create. Then if the fabric would just go ahead and cut "itself" out, that would be just lovely (thus the reason I adore pre-cut fabrics). I can't wait for what God has in store for us.

HOMESTEAD GAME PLAN:

I'm very excited with what 2013 has in store for us. Justin and I had a little farm meeting and set some goals for our homestead. We have made our list of projects we would like to check off our list. We have even made our list of "garden must haves". We plan to start on these lists once we get our first hint of Spring weather. (It might be a while we know.)

BLOG GAME PLAN:

I will blog when I can, which might be slim in this season of my life. Then again maybe we will continue to improve our daily school schedule which would allow for more time for me to blog. We shall see. Serving my family must come first, scrapbooking has to be later on the list. Thank you to those who follow us on our adventures and encourage me with your comments.

 

Much Love, The Gaertegang Homestead

Our Trip to Missouri

We were very excited to get to take a family vacation and see Aunt Jessica. 

OFF WE GO!

 Our first stop was St. Louis, MO...The Arch

 Crossing the Mississippi River....

 Our walk to the Arch....gorgeous view!

 Welcome to big city...

 The view from the top of the arch.....

We are way up there....

bye-bye arch....

 again gorgeous....

Once we arrived to see Aunt Jess took us hiking and to see the springs.

 The gorgeous springs...

Caleb  checking out the super clear water.....

 Aunt Jess & Julia......

Such cute guys!

Our favorite part of vacation is always taking off on the back roads and checking out the countryside.

 We saw lots of grazing cattle...

 While out sightseeing on the Army Base we found this fun Arcade Game...

 Fun was had by all......

 While Aunt Jess and Justin took off to a bluegrass jam, the kids and I went to watch a FREE movie on the base.

Justin got to try on some Army gear....

We had such a great time!

Barn Project

In October we marked another barn project of our list. We have been in the process of replacing rotten posts with new pressure treated cemented posts. The project has come along nicely thanks to all my hubby's hard work. The other project we wanted to get done before the snow started flying was cement another one of the stalls. Here are some pictures of our progress.

 Grandpa Gaerte is always such a helper

Here we go.....

 Justin smoothly it all out

The boys are making sure this spot is already ready to make a concrete pad.

Our Thankful Jar

The couple of year for the month of November we have done a couple of fun activities to help our family focus on being thankful. This is a character trait we always strive to focus on in our home. This year I decided we would do a "Thankful Jar".

 A simple jar with pieces of paper to write on.

The top of our jar reminds us who we give our thanks to!