Bluebird on My Shoulder (Patagonia, AZ)

We did not get the snow that was in the forecast for last weekend.  Instead we got some much needed rain and yet, it was still too cold to go for walks.  I kept myself busy with projects instead of walking.

Monday turned into a gorgeous day plus the Preserve was closed so Dan and I went for a walk.  When we left, the House Finches were busy eating up all the birdseed...

 The Western Bluebirds showed up for a little while near the office...

 A good sign that the winter birds are finally returning.

Oh, and our new neighbor was resting near a game trail near the Preserve's Railroad trail.  How Dan spotted him..I have no idea.  I often look along this trail for deer, but I did not see the mountain lion.  We are suppose to haze him, but he probably did not realize that ol' eagle-eye Dan had spotted him.  We took some photos and decided to leave the sleepy cat alone since he looked like he just wanted to take a catnap.

One visitor told me that it wasn't unusual for a mountain lion to be sitting near trails and watching unsuspecting humans.  They blend in so well with the background.  Now, I give myself whiplash on my walks while looking for the lion and I still did not see him.

 I need to work on my "eagle-eye"!  I spy a big kitty!

On the Cutting Board
I have been spending quite a bit of time in the evening working on my granddaughter's quilt.  I would really like to finish it soon.  I have been hand-quilting this one for too many years.  It's time to get it done!

And in between hand-quilting, I got the machine-quilting done on this quilt.  I still need to make the binding.  I might use some pastel scraps for a multi-colored binding.

I'm also experimenting with designing some new mug rugs using different royal free cliparts.  I'm getting a lot of ideas on paper, but nothing in fabric.  I finally took the leap and here's my first try - a sneak peek of Ms. Belle Cow...

Clipart designed by Fayette Terlouw

She's almost done, so I should have a photo of a finished project for the next posting.

Happy Quilting!

Winter of The Lion, The Quilt, and The Snowmen (Patagonia, AZ)

The Saga of Our Mountain Lion Continues
We have not seen our lion since Thanksgiving, but on 4 December, two lions together were spotted at Patagonia Lake State Park 6 miles south of us.  The creek on the preserve dumps into that lake with ranches in between. It is unknown if these 2 cats were siblings, mother and offspring, or mates.  Hmm, maybe ours went for a visit.

Apparently in other areas of the nation a few cats are also near humanity.

 On 6 December at 5:15 pm, a lion was in the backyard of a house 1 mile north of us on the outer edge of Patagonia.  The caller's wife saw the lion checking out their rabbits.  She banged on the window and the lion left.  So, now we are wondering - are there two or three full-grown mountain lions living here.

The hills are dry, so the deer, javelina, lions, and other critters are staying near the water source and food supply.  I have a feeling there will be more sightings before we leave here.

Motion sensor activated wildlife camera shot across the creek, 
about 100 - 150 yards from the motor home.  

The Giving Quilt: An Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini
When I finished this book, I felt sad and depressed.  I did not get my usual warm-fuzzy feeling from listening to each newcomer's life story sprinkled with moments of quilting.  I feel like Jennifer has lost her quilting muse.  Instead of quilting, I got Jennifer's views on our bad economy, uninformed government/taxpayers, and misguided social values.  I agree with some of her opinions, but that is not why I bought this book.

According to part of the description from Amazon:  featuring not only well-loved characters but also intriguing newcomers, The Giving Quilt will remind us all: Giving from the heart blesses the giver as much as the recipient, and while giving may not always be easy, it is always worthwhile.

I thought there would be at least one quilter sharing a Project Linus experience as a donor or as a founder for their region or even as a receiver.  Instead, each quilter mulled over their own problems - a little too lengthy at times.  What about the problems of the "giving quilt" receivers?  Where were their stories?   Am I wrong to think a child battling a life-threatening illness has bigger problems than a woman in a guild battling a member's bad attitude and short funding the guild?

I bought this book to enjoy some special moments with quilters and making quilts for children in need.  I was very disappointed.  My suggestion is that you read some of the reviews - good and bad before you decide to buy " The Giving Quilt".

On the Cutting Board
While listening to "The Giving Quilt", I have been keeping myself busy with different quilt projects.  My latest quilt project has been layered and pinned.  I will sew this one on the machine.  I am hoping to have a couple of quilts ready for Project Linus by the time I leave here.

I recently discovered that the Project Linus website has a list of drop-off locations as well as contact and chapter information.  I found several drop-off locations in Tucson.

This is a mini quilt or wall hanging by Nancy Halvorsen.  I just love her designs!  This is one of those projects that I hate to finish because I am enjoying the process as well as the outcome.  I think I am going to add some fringe to the scarfs....and maybe a little puff ball to the end of the pink hat.  Oh!  and hand-stitch quilting!  That'll take a little more time.

I wonder what it is about making snowmen that I find so enchanting.  I know I don't like being in the snow to make a real snowman.  Brrr!

Happy Quilting!

Awww, Nuts! (Patagonia, AZ)

Well, the days are finally getting shorter and the nights are getting colder.  It actually got down to 28 degrees last night.  I even feel a little sluggish today.  Maybe, my body is getting ready for hibernation.  I'm more likely to blame our busy Sunday with visitors thanks to our mountain lion.

Do you remember our mountain lion?  Well, he made the news in Tucson.  Not just one newspaper in Tucson, but on the TV news as well.  A Nogales paper also ran the story.  Some of our visitors were telling us that they had seen Dan's famous portrait photo of the lion on TV.  Many confessed they were there because of the lion and wanted to hear about the sightings.  I repeated the where and when we sighted the lion many times and got to hear of others experiences with different wildlife.  It was fun, but exhausting.

I took this photo and the one above a couple of weeks ago.  The trees have lost most of their color by now.  I should have taken more photos.  Eh, lesson learned.  Don't wait until tomorrow...

The World According to Squirrels

The Squirrels have been busy stashing away nuts and acorns.  They certainly are not waiting until tomorrow. They are not shy around humans.  I swear they were stopping to pose for us.  Look a camera!  Make us famous!

Awww, Nuts!  Humans!

yea, I'm watching you - watching me - watching you...

whew!  all tuckered out from watching you, watching me

If you are going to take my picture,
you must get one of my beautiful tail.

I can act too.   "Myyy Precioussss!"

Happy Holidays!

Lion Around (Patagonia, AZ)

On Friday, Dan walked up on a Mountain Lion on the nature trail, about 30 yards across the creek from him and approx 150 yards from the motorhome.  We think it is the same lion we posted pics of just above in our October blogs, but some of the facial markings are different. Perhaps it was dried blood spatter last time and he cleaned it.  Dan shot lot's of pics and some short videos which he  posted to YouTube.

The YouTube videos came out fuzzy, even though on camera and computer from the sd card it is clear.  The camera was zoomed in about 30 - 40 X so it is shaky footage (handheld, no tripod or monopod). The one labeled Mtn_lion is the one to view first.

5 videos of the lion taken on Frid, plus other critters from videos we took last year:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AC7880

The cat isn't stalking us. It might think Dan is stalking it - second time he has walked up on it. If there were not so many deer and fawns around we would  be more concerned. It looks well fed.

Dan and the cat watched each other for 10 - 15 minutes.  Dan called me on the cell phone, and I was able to walk over in time to see the cat leaving.

This makes Dan's 3rd sighting and Sandy's second within the last 25 days.

This is the photo from the first sighting.  Could be the same one..

My brother sent this to Dan and I.  Good one!

Sorry Mittens.  You need to stay outside.  Happy Trails!

I Got The Computer Blues (Patagonia, AZ)

It's a good thing you can't hear me singing (off key)...because I am singing the Blues about my computer and Webshots.

I'll start with Webshots.com closing their site.  Webshots is owned by American Greetings.  Right the "greetings card" company.  American Greetings decided to sell the rights to the original team that built this site, but apparently they cannot keep the same format or don't want to keep it.  The new owners have opened Smile By Webshots and they have embraced the Cloud system.  From Wikipedia:  Cloud computing entrusts remote services with a user's data, software and computation. Which means you can access our photos from your iPhone, iPad, etc.  We can connect our Desktop and Facebook to Smile.  Connecting Facebook has been a disaster so far.  Dan loves to share political cartoons with his FB friends...well, they are showing up in our new Smile account!  Great.

So, our 97 albums with 10 years of photos (4626 to be exact) have been moved to Smile.  BUT! there are no albums/folders and none of our information transferred to the new site.  Not even the dates.  I don't know about you, but my memory is not that good.  I often used the photos to remind me of when we were in a certain location or visiting friends and family.

Sometimes we did more than one album in a short time frame like our travels with remodeling the motorhome.  Now those photos are meshed together.  I can't work if my area is disorganized and I find this website a real fiasco!

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta 2007

Smile suggested that everyone should download all their photos to their PC.  Which I did to both of my external hard-drives.  Dan and I want to keep sharing our experiences through an online photo site, so I am uploading them into my Flickr account.  Uploading is slow and I often have to refer back to Webshots for information.  I'm scrambling to get this done before they close Webshots on 1 December.

San Carlos, Mexico 2008

I will not be adding more photos to Smile and since I don't plan to pay for a scrambled mess, they will probably close our account before the end of the year.  If you have any photos with them, you better retrieve them now.

2009 Custer State Park on Flickr

My computer decided this was not enough stress for me....it keeps crapping out.  One minute everything is moving along real smoothly and then !POP!...it has shut itself off.   Dan did research on this make of Toshiba  and found they have a tendency to overheat and shutdown.

This has been going on for over a year.  As long as our motorhome was cool, my laptop worked just fine.  My fingers were stiff from the cold, but the computer was alive and well.  Now we are in a warmer climate of 70+ degrees and it is shutting off several times during the day.

Very frustrating when I am multi-tasking at high speed of a Super Woman on a Mission - uploading photos, edit photos, trying to write my next blog, answer emails...!POP!....ARGGGGGHHHH!  bang head several times..

White Sulphur Springs, MT 2009

Okay, deep breath....Dan also did research on how to fix this problem.  He plans to start working on my computer Sunday evening.  He has done great in the past with our computers, but just in case - I might be skipping my next blog and not answering emails for a few days.

One more quick note:  The Mountain Lion seems to have moved on so the preserve will be open for business starting today - Saturday.  At least, I got a week off from work to take care of my personal business.
Happy Trails!

Close Encounters With a Mountain Lion (Patagonia, AZ)

The Preserve will be closed for the following week:

The Mountain Lion returned two nights ago while Dan and I were finishing our dinner. He was stalking a doe and her fawn.

We first saw the doe and fawn running by the front of our motorhome. They stopped just past our rig. Mama was looking very agitated by stamping her hooves and making a loud blowing or crying sound.

old photo

Her attention was towards the back of our rig. Dan saw him first...yes, we are quite sure it is the same Mountain Lion that Dan met on the trail.

Dan's photo from the trail

He was hunched down under the tree and he was focused on the deer. Within seconds of discovering the lion hiding so close to our rig, he leaped out at the doe and fawn. The doe took off towards the open fields while the fawn escaped into the woods behind the lion's hiding place.

Mountain Lion here

At first, it looked like the lion was going for the mother, but quickly changed his mind and disappeared into the woods where the fawn had gone.

For the next half hour, Mama wandered around the field making the same crying sound. It was so heart-breaking. I'm not sure if she was calling to her little one or still hoping to get the lion to come chase her. I know this is part of Mother Nature's circle of life, but to have this happen right in front of us...well, it was hard to accept. I have a hard enough time watching a wildlife show when it is following a predator on a hunt.

Right now, the realization that just hours before we were sitting outside with the cats and seeing this Mountain Lion so close to our home...it is a little unnerving.  Dan and I have been walking together on the trails, thinking there was more of a chance of running into the lion on the trails.  We have heard stories of people sighting big cats (Bobcats) on the nature trail just across the field from us.  Doe and fawn have been passing by our motorhome almost every evening.  It never occurred to us that the Mountain Lion might follow the doe and fawn since there is plenty of game spread out over the 320 acres. 

The Following Morning:
Dan saw a doe cruising the edge of the woods - probably the mother looking for her fawn.

Dan along with the Preserve Manager, and his ranch cattle dog walked the entire preserve trail system, checked part of the creek, and checked the area where the cat and fawn had disappeared. No sign of the kill, if there is one. But the fawn was small, the cat large, so it could have eaten some and carried the rest off across the creek a distance - where the men did not go.

The Manager has closed the Preserve for at least one week to visitors. He may contact fish and game who may or may not come out for a look. I'm hoping they will just monitor the Mountain Lion and not kill him for doing what comes naturally.  He looks young and hasn't learned how dangerous us humans can be when threatened.  He hasn't shown any interest in humans, but he doesn't seemed to be skittish of us either.

Dan weed whacked more vegetation all around the motorhome - 30 yards out for a better visual range. Most of it was already mowed, except under the trees were overgrown with 3-4 foot tall grass.

In the meantime, kitties will not be allowed outside and we will be taking walks together with our pepper spray.

Merlins and Lions! Oh My! (Patagonia, AZ)

Yesterday was filled with a couple of surprises....

photos by Dan

During our morning breakfast, a female Merlin landed in the tree right outside our dining room window.  It was one of those "Wow!" moments that makes you forget what you were doing.  She hopped from one limb to the other looking for the House Finches that had been eating bird seeds just seconds ago.  She kept getting closer and closer to our window.  It was amazing!  Of course, I was thinking "too bad I can't take pictures through these dark windows"...

The biggest surprise was what Dan captured on his camera today.  Yep, a Mountain Lion sitting in the middle of the trail.  The same trail I had been walking on only a couple of hours earlier.

Dan was walking with one of our preserve visitors when they saw this Mountain Lion sitting right on one of our trails.  He estimates they were 20-30 yards from the cat.  The  cat ignored them at first, then looked directly at them for a bit before it slowly sauntered down the small hill off the path. 

Since there have been no signs of a Mountain Lion living on the Preserve (scat, fresh kill), our manager plans to check around often to make sure he or she was just passing through the area.  Of course, he also mentioned that their territory can be up to 150 mile radius, so this one might show up again this winter.

I know!  I know!  I can't adopt this kitty...

Happy Trails!!

Working On the Delighted! Fabric (Patagonia, AZ)

And the Final Decision is.....

I made a decision to use the Cake Mix pattern from Layer Cake Recipe.  I'm making the blocks half the size so I will have more of the quilt pattern shown below.  Instead of 10 inch blocks.  I will make 5 1/2 inch blocks for a lap-size quilt.

I took a chance and cut some blocks up and did a quick test to see how the blocks would look.  So far, so good.

Sewed one together.  There are 3 color variations of each pattern, so I am going to have 3 different blocks to give it a more uniformed look.  I'm still a little worried that this quilt will be too busy.

Now that I have made that decision, my mission at the Squirrel's Nest quilt shop was to find a matching border and backing.  I was having a very hard time.  They did not carry a lot of this kind of design fabric and I certainly could not find any Riley Blake fabric.  They are more of a Thimbleberries quilt shop which I like...a lot. I did find 3 shades of green that was not too busy, but I could not decide.  I was about ready to give up when Dan came in.  I asked for his opinion and he thought this fabric would work without making it too busy.

What do you think?  I think I should get hubby's opinion more often, don't you?

**I would have asked one of the employees, but no one even bothered to say hello when I walked into the store or ask if I needed help.  Why ask an opinion from someone who can't be bothered to say hello?  Despite the unwelcome feeling, I still enjoyed looking through the fabrics and notions.

A Surprise Visitor

This photo is from the wildlife camera taken on 11 Nov 11 - the same day we arrived.  This Mountain Lion crossed the creek a couple of hundred yards behind our motorhome.  Our manager, Matt has found signs of the cat in the area recently so now I carry Pepper Spray....just in case.  Considering he has been here all month, I'm hoping he likes to stay hidden during the day and does his hunting at night.  I would not mind seeing him at a distance...a very long distance or from the car.

Some more photos from the Preserve...

My favorite Gnarly Tree

Red-tail Hawk

Red-tail Hawk

Female Pyrrhuloxia (Cardinal Family) hiding

Happy Quilting!