There's Good News (Sutherlin, OR)

And of course, there is bad news. I'll start with the good news. Dan saw his VA Podiatrist on Monday. The doctor did a comparison of the 3 week-old x-rays with the recent ones taken on Monday. He believes the fractures are healing on their own. Dan has three separate fractures in his left foot's Cuboid bone . No surgery necessary unless something shifts or it doesn't heal as expected.  We should know more in January at his next appointment.

Eastern Towhee

The bad news is no weight on the foot allowed and he should wear the boot as often as possible. 12 weeks total expected for healing. He is only into his third week.  It is going to be a long winter for Dan.  It is a good thing he likes to read and spend time on his computer.

Scrub Jay

Until Dan can walk on his foot again, we will probably be staying in Sutherlin, OR at the Escapees Co-op.  The people here have been wonderful by offering to help out with shopping and even driving Dan to his appointments.  

Scrub Jay

I'm happy to stay here for Dan's healing time.  I know this area fairly well and don't mind taking care of business on my own.  I had looked forward to spending our winter on the coast, but there will be plenty of time to do that in the future. 

Dusty:  "Birds?"  "Birds!!"

Plus, we are not too far away for Shaun to drive down during his holiday break.  I'm looking forward to his visit.

Bird - not sure what kind

For some different entertainment, I have been feeding the local birds.  Our feathered friends are keeping the cats and us happy with their bird calls and all their little shenanigans to eat more seeds than their pals.

Eastern Towhee - side view :)

We watched the turkeys run in circles around the scattered seeds trying to get the best spot for the feed.  They act like the turkey next to them is getting more, so they keep pushing each other over and no one eats!  They finally do get smart enough to stop though and when they do, they eat everything in sight.  I'm not putting out a lot of feed since they would eat the whole 25 lb bag in a day, but they are certainly funny to watch when they come by.

- and from the back

In-sync Quails?  The two males would scratch together......

Good!  You're getting the hang of it!

...then eat together.  

And again 1, 2, 3 and 1, 2, 3!

On The Cutting Board
I never heard back from the one customer wanting a second black cat quilt.  Which is fine.  I listed the quilt this week and I'm sure it will find a new home soon.

Between taking care of Dan, running errands, and keeping up with the motorhome,  I received a large custom order request on December 2.  The customer wanted to order 6 vintage trailers with family names.  I wasn't sure I could finish them in time for a Christmas delivery.

 I explained my tight schedule and this customer was so understanding and such a sweetheart that I could not say no.   I really did worry about the limited time for the first week.  Since the customer did not have special color requests or wanting extra embroidery, the work went very fast.

 I surprised myself by finishing all six within two weeks!  I mailed them yesterday.  Now, I know that I could finish six mug rugs in a two week time.

Having this Etsy shop has given me great opportunities to meet some wonderful people.  Not just customers, but some very talented artists as well.  It has been a wonderful experience.

Merry Christmas!

It Has Been One Of Those Weeks (Newport, OR)

Well, we managed to survive our four nights in the motel while our motorhome received its solar panels.  Now, we have plenty of power when we are dry camping. 

Solar panels being installed

Look at that innocent face.  Hard to believe that every night we were in the motel, this little guy turned into a banshee.  If the howling did not disturb us enough to please him, he would stand on my chest and nip at my chin or use his claws lightly on my cheek.  Just enough to make me roll over and cover my head.

Who me?

We packed up our cats and headed back to the coast.  This time we moved to Newport, OR.  All I can say is that I was very happy to be back in our motorhome and to get back to a normal routine with a couple of good nights of sleep, but little did we know that we were entering the SNAFU twilight zone this week.  It started with Dan falling off the ladder and landing on his bad ankle.  After four hours in ER, Dan has a sprained ankle with multiple fractures in his foot.  There's a chance he might need surgery to set the bones.  Hopefully, we will know more by the end of this coming week.

Shaun in Newport, OR

That was the beginning of a strange week for me.  After a sleepless night for both of us, I had to take the car to the Honda dealership to get the airbag recall replaced only to find out the part had not arrived.  So, I made another appointment for after Thanksgiving knowing our son Shaun would be here.

Wednesday, I was discovering mold growing on our wood panel walls and along the window frames.  About a quarter inch thick in some spots!   How fast does this stuff grow?  I have been using Lysol spray to kill the mold.  Usually I will spray some on a damp paper towel and saturate the area while cleaning away the mold, but the carpet in the corners also looked like it had mold so I started spraying the bedroom carpet.  The next thing we knew, an ear-piercing alarm sounded throughout our rig!  It was so loud that it was disorienting as to where the sound was coming from.  Not the smoke alarm.  We finally figured out it was the propane leak alert.  Wow!  There is no worry of ever sleeping through the motorhome's alarm system!

Yaquina Lighthouse

Thanksgiving day turned into a long one while waiting for Shaun.  He ran into very heavy holiday traffic and arrived after dark.  Which turned out to be a good thing because he noticed the dome light on in the car.  Yep, the light had been on since Tuesday when Dan had his accident and the battery was dead.  Lucky for us, Shaun had brought along a small car battery charger.  He had our car purring like a cat the next morning.

After dropping off the car, Shaun and I went to Yaquina Head Lighthouse to view the natural tidepools during low tide that I had checked the day before.  What I did not realize was that the tide wasn't going to be all that low and we could only walk the beach area.  At least, we had some beautiful weather and some gorgeous blue skies.

No tidepools today

The lighthouse did not open for a couple of hours, so I thought we would eat lunch at Izzy's while enjoying the view of the beach. OF course, it wasn't open!  We were too early because I miscalculated the low tide.  So, we ended up at Super Oscar's Mexican for burritos that were quite good and filling.  Just no view of the beach for Shaun and I to enjoy while we were eating.

Saturday was better despite the cold drizzle.  Shaun and I walked around the downtown area to view the marina,  and to see the sea lions.  The sea lions did not disappoint us with their entertaining barking 'move over' and 'stop moving, I'm trying to sleep here'.  Looks like they are quite happy with their new cement floats.  Beats the old wooden ones that were rotting away.

So, all in all, it has been a very strange week for us.  I can only hope that things will get better and Dan will not need surgery on his foot.  We will be leaving Newport early and heading back to Sutherlin for Dan's next appointment at the VA hospital in Roseburg.

On The Cutting Board

Before all the odd things started happening, I opened my shop with 21 new items with two of them being the quilts I showed in my last post.  Tis the season to find that unique gift, so I am hoping people will be stopping by my shop soon.

I have already mailed out four mug rugs since opening last Monday.

I hope the others will soon find a new home!

Well, time to catch up on my sleep so I have energy to do some more quilting.  It hasn't been that long, but I am already missing the touch of fabric and a needle in my hand.

Happy Quilting!

Back To The Oregon Coast (Florence, OR)

First I want to thank all our Veterans today and to my husband who served in the USAF.

We left Sutherlin to go to Eugene for some repairs on the bedroom's slideout.  The air bladder that seals the slideout has been leaking air for the last two months.  Dan had slowed down the air loss, but it was time to get it replaced before winter set in.

The cats were not happy campers when we spent the night in a motel.  Because it was a last minute reservation, we ended up in a room at the end of the building with the staircase along our headboard's wall.  Every time someone went up or down the stairs the whole wall shook.  Dusty growled several times until he finally gave up and sat as far away from the wall as possible.  Hitch and Dusty slowly adjusted to their new surroundings while Max found a way to hide inside the bed.  He finally came out late that night to nuzzle me several times for reassurance then to eat and use the litter box.  Come morning, he was once again inside the bed.  We had fun lifting the bed to get him out when we were ready for checkout.

Don't tell the cats:  this coming Sunday night, we are going back to the same motel for another four nights while we get solar panels installed.  We have asked for a room away from the stairs.  I doubt that will make a difference for Max.  It will be a very long week for everyone.

Dusty and Hitch claiming their spots

Our two weeks in Florence has been nice if a little foggy and wet.  The best part about the weather has been the red mushrooms popping up.  We are not seeing as many of the red mushrooms as we have in the past.  This is the best grouping Dan spotted while on one of our walks.  

 We visited the South Jetty (South Beach) park to check out the beach that we could barely see and the dunes which were buzzing with lots of activity.  We found the fog had added drama to the sand dunes and to....

the beach.

We drove up Hwy. 101 and stopped at the overlook to view the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

Heceta Head Lighthouse

I never tire of seeing Oregon's rugged coast.  It's amazing what a little fog can do to change the atmosphere of a welcoming lighthouse to spooky feeling. 😊 I took this one a couple of days before Halloween. 

I noticed about four of these statues around Florence.  I took photos of the two sea lions in the downtown area.

Dancing with Sea Lions artwork

I found this article about 20 "Dancing with Sea Lion" statues that are scattered from Florence to Newport. I will be keeping an eye out for more when we come back to the coast.

On The Cutting Board

I have closed my Etsy shop for the next week while we wait on our motorhome.  I will have quite a few new items to list when I open back up on November 20.

I finished my True Lover's Knot.  All hand done with scissors, pencils, and needles.  No machine was used until I sewed on the binder.

It did take a couple of years from cutting out templates to quilting the layers, but I feel it is one of my best quilts.

I finished the binding on the other two and they too will be ready to be listed.  I was worried about binding the rounded corners.  I was very surprised by how easy it was and the corners are not curling from being too tight.

I love the way my playful cat quilt came out.  I tempted to keep it for myself!

I have also finished up quite a few new Happy Campers to be listed soon.  I just need to spend some time taking photos for the listings.

I have more mug rugs waiting to be embroidered so I will have something to do while sitting in the motel room when I'm not soothing nervous cats.

Happy Quilting!

Signs of Fall (Sutherlin, OR)

We extended our time in Sutherlin for one more month while Dan wraps up some doctor and dentist appointments.  We will be leaving in less than two weeks.  After we leave here, we will spend the next four weeks bouncing between the Oregon coast and Eugene for upgrades on the motorhome.

The weather has cooled off quite a bit and we are seeing more rain.  Nothing like going to sleep to the sound of rain on the roof, right?  Rain on the roof during the day tells me: 'more quilting time!'  😄

Below is a photo of Dusty watching a feathered visitor talking turkey to Dan.

The turkey spent a good 5 minutes chattering to Dan.  We both think someone has been feeding the turkeys and this one was begging for a handout.  Or maybe...this one knows we are vegetarians and was asking for sanctuary.  

If that's the case, I'm sure Dusty would have put all four paws down to this big guy moving in.  😼

Dusty

Hitch ignored the turkey while

Hitch

Max sized him up and decided to stay on the far side of the car.

Max

On The Cutting Board

I tried all summer to restock my Etsy shop with no luck, but this is not a complaint.  No!  I stayed quite busy filling custom orders!  Just as I was finishing the binding on the ABC quilt, 

I received a request for two Owl mug rugs.  I mailed them last week, sooo

I was able to get back to sewing up some more Happy Campers.  I really thought the sales for Happy Campers would slow down by now, but people are looking for anything with campers on them.  Vacationing in your own RV has become one of the most popular family past-times.  The vintage camper craze is stronger than ever with renovations and camping.

And I digress.....back to my mug rugs.  They still need some buttons and stitching before they are ready to list in my shop so I should get back to my thread and needle!

Happy Quilting!