Author: louisaenright

I am passionate about whole, nutrient-dense foods, developing local markets, and strengthening communities.

Turkey Tracks: Hope’s Edge CSA Sheep

Turkey Tracks:  September 18, 2018

Hope’s Edge CSA Sheep

 

A few weeks back when I went to pick up my weekly produce from my Community Shared Agriculture Farm (CSA) Hope’s Edge, Farmer Tom Griffin had penned the sheep near the working buildings–presumably so that they could “mow” the grass there.

They had, and now they were ready to move to new grass, which they were loudly communicating.

I always find animal behavior fascinating, so took this video and pictures:

 

This mom had two lambs this year.  Not uncommon at all for sheep.

Love her face.  They stick so close together.

And they are patiently waiting for Tom to open the fence.

 

 

Turkey Tracks: A C Slater is In The House

Turkey Tracks:  September 12, 2018

A C Slater is in The House

My beloved rat terrier Miss Reynolds Georgia died two years ago.

I had been thinking of adopting again as Penny (No No Penny) is now 15 years old.  She’s doing great for the most part, but…

My kids thought it was time.  And, Penny could help train a new dog.

I was looking for another rescue rat terrier female, between 2 and 6 years of age.  NO PUPPIES!

Then I saw this online picture from Rock City Rescue, Arkansas, and fell in love.

AC Slater was a 5 1/2 months old male.  Mommy was a 40-pound “hound,” and daddy was a 30-pound terrier mix, with some Jack and some rat involved.  I needed a dog big enough to be safe on my property, and most rat terriers today have been bred to be smaller–unlike my No No Penny, who is a standard size and weighs about 25 pounds.  I am wondering if Slater actually has fox hound genes.  He doesn’t really act like a Beagle mix.  But who knows…  And I don’t care really.  The upper middle picture reminded me strongly of Miss Reynolds Georgia–and friend Gina Caceci saw that too the other day when I sent her the picture.

AC Slater came from an unintended litter which was turned over to Casey Carter.  All AC’s siblings have been adopted now.  They were all named after characters on the old tv show, “Saved By The Bell.”  AC Slater is a real musician who was also a character on the show.  I like the name and will keep it.

Casey Carter of Rock City Rescue down in Arkansas worked with me to make the adoption happen.  These people are so amazing.  Their dedication to this cause is awesome.  When Casey decided I could have AC Slater, she put me in touch with his foster mother, who has had Slater since he was about 4 weeks old.  Ashlyn was and is an amazing foster mother.  Slater clearly has been loved and nurtured.  He is so sweet and gentle, and he’s good with people and other dogs.  Ashlyn shared with me all the information I needed to make the decision to adopt AC Slater.  And she sent him “fully loaded”:  collar, retractable leash, food he was on, bed, blanket, favorite toys.  I was moved to tears when I saw her generosity.  It was already clear she loved him from our conversations, but now I saw how much she wanted him to be happy in a good home with another person who also loved him.

Casey, pictured on the left below, rented a van and with a friend, left Arkansas on a Friday morning and dropped off dogs and cats all along the way to people who were adopting them.  That’s Casey’s friend in the white shirt on the right.  The couple in between were adopting a cat–they live in Portland, Maine.  I drove to Kittery, Maine, down on our southern border, and met Casey about 7:30 Saturday night.  AC Slater and the cat were the last two animals in the van.

Here’s my first look at this adorable creature.

And Casey took this picture of us when he let me pick him up.

I had rented a “pet friendly” room nearby, so I took him there, and we began to bond.  You can see his bed and his blanket and toy, sent by Ashlyn.

 

 

The next morning, AC Slater was my co-pilot for the 3-hour journey home.  You can’t see it well, but he does have a safety chain attached to the seat belt.  By putting him near me, I could talk to him and pet him all along the way.  And we did stop often in case he needed to go potty or just stretch his legs a bit.

He LOVED the basket of dog toys:

And Penny let him into her bed at some point in the next few days:

And so it goes.

My life has been incredibly busy as I walk this high-energy puppy, which Penny loves, and take him to our local dog park where he can really run with other dogs.  Then there is the potty training, the leash training, and, lately, the gentle introduction of the radio fence collar so he can have full run of my property.

He’s doing well.  I’m doing well.  Friends are helping.  It’s all been really good.

Here’s a picture taken this morning of Slater outside of my house–with his radio collar on:

My thanks to my family for encouraging me to take this risk, to Casey Carter for the work she does, to Ashlyn who gave AC such a good start, to friends who are also helping me when I need help.

 

Turkey Tracks: Blackberry Treat

Turkey Tracks:  September 12, 2018

Blackberry Treat

Betsy Maislen is here, volunteering on the windjammer J&E Riggin.  She and Co-Captain Annie Mahle love to cook together.

Betsy comes to stay with me when she is off the boat on its turnarounds.

Betsy always plans a hike or a bike ride after she’s organized clean clothes for the next trip.

She picked the last of the blackberries on a nearby road as a gift for me during a bike ride.  She discovered this roadside patch last year and gifted me with berries then too.

What a gift!  I love–and always have loved–wild blackberries.

I divided the berries into three portions to make them last longer.

THANKS BETSY!

Turkey Tracks: Hot Weather Lunch

Turkey Tracks:  September 3, 2018

Hot Weather Lunch

I am way, way, way behind on posting to the blog.

But life has been busy for me lately.  I’ve had a lot of lovely rich life experiences taking place.  Among them a visit from old Falls Church, VA, friends Terry and Bob Zawacki—after 14 years.  They took pictures, but I, as often happens when I am busy and happy, did not get a single one of them.  Betsy Maislen arrived the same day for her annul volunteering on the J&E Riggin windjammer boat. (She comes to me when the boat is in port.). We all had a lobster dinner here.  AND, I have been preparing to take in another dog—a rescue from Arkansas.  More on that ongoing adventure in another post.

Up here in mid-coast Maine, we think we’re truly suffering when the temps go up to 80+ and humidity rises.  Few people have air-conditioners, so the heat is…felt.   Suffered…  We do a lot of whining.

I also make “hot weather lunches.”  Here is one:

Salted ricotta cheese (find one that does not have additives), apple, beets, cukes, carrots, orange bell pepper.

Turkey Tracks: Making Your Own Fun

Turkey Tracks:  August 15, 2018

Making Your Own Fun

My two families have come and gone, and summer is winding down slowly up here in Maine.  Container pots are looking scraggly, and the garden looks like someone’s uncombed head.  We got some good rain these past few days though.

One of the things I love about my two families’ visits is that we all “make our own fun.”  There was very little tv and no entertainment consumed that someone else did for these children.  Both sets of parents spent their vacation being with their children.  I suspect that this kind of thing is a rarity these days.

For the younger crew, their visit always starts, once they’ve been retrieved at the airport, at the LLBean boot in Freeport—for the annual family photo.  Inside LLBean are a whole range of stuffed animals—huge ones—so the kiddos can really see the size of a bear standing up.  Or how big a moose really is.  There are all sorts of wild cats as well.

This crew plays hard in Maine.  They hike, picnic, swim, and nap or have quiet time after lunch.  They hit the Ducktrap river estuary at low tide at good times this trip, so a lot of time was spent poking about tidal pools and capturing green crabs.  Buckets were filled with beach life many times this trip.  Their grandmother didn’t get many useful pictures of this endeavor as she was too busy playing.  The raspberries came in strong while they were here, so there were some “breakfasts at the bushes.”  Also, it was REALLY HOT and humid during part of their visit.

The older kiddos are now old enough to work adult puzzles and play serious card games with their grandmother and parents.  They, too, swam almost every day, either in the lakes or at Ducktrap, where the water is MUCH colder. They do like to ride the incoming or outgoing tidal current in the river though.  Thank heavens parents were taking some good pictures because the grandmother was playing or organizing food.

Ducktrap river:

Warming up after swimming in Megunticook lake at Barett’s cove:

There are two card sharks in the foursome, but all four learned a Kelly family ELABORATE card game called Hand and Foot.  We played as late as midnight once or twice.  The competition is fierce and hard!  I didn’t win a single game.

We had ongoing puzzles–which will be saved for the younger kiddos who will grow into them very soon now:

And this one below which had very hard pieces–so they had to learn to look at the shape of the piece in addition to the color.  We lost a piece along the way.  It probably stuck to someone’s arm and fell off somewhere.

There was time for relaxing:

And for the first time, they all ate lobster.  Well, Mina tasted lobster at least.

And time for art work:

And time to love on No No Penny, who is 15 now.  The girls have decided that Penny needs a dog friend.  She misses Miss Reynolds Georgia who died at 15 last August.

The girls went with me to the Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild’s reveal of our mostly completed traveling quilts (see other posts).  We strolled through the harbor with ice cream cones after the meeting.  The boys were “rolling” at a local Brazilian martial arts meeting.

I found lots of secret notes left for me in my quilt room and in the garage, along with art work made especially for me.

It’s been a really, really good summer.

Turkey Tracks: Mt. Battie Modern Show and Tell, July 2018

Turkey Tracks:  August 16, 2018

Mt. Battie Modern Show and Tell, July 2018

Nancy Wright has been working on the English Paper Piecing Brimfield Block.

Gorgeous!

She says she has a dozen done and will probably call it a day.  The blocks are floated on an Essex linen blend, as I recall.

We look forward to seeing the finished quilt.  Maybe in September???

Turkey Tracks: Mt. Battie Modern Traveling Quilts August 2018

Turkey Tracks:

Mt. Battie Modern Traveling Quilts August 2018

The NINE traveling tops are either done or mostly done.  Some are missing a stray block and lots are missing labels.  But these quilts are back in the hands of their owners to be finally finished with “squaring off” methods of their choice.

Here is Tori Manzi’s, which started with the color wheel on the left.

Margaret Elaine added the birds.  Lots of beautiful birds.  The fan and circle block are new as well–I think they came from Nancy Wright.  I was in a daze of joy in seeing these finished tops, so my details might be a bit sketchy.

Here is Lynn Vermeulen’s, which started with the work “quilt” on the upper right.  I had it last and did the border on the top and right, the word “joy” bottom left, and the churn dash blocks above joy, which is meant to be a kind of mini quilt like the ones below it.

Here is my quilt.  Vicki Fletcher added the bottom strip, which also incorporates Becca Babb Brott’s spider/selvage blocks.  Vicki’s addition tells a pictorial story and is made with Cotton_Steel fabrics, which we all know I love.  I will wait for JoAnn Moore’s final block before deciding what to do next.  I love, love my quilt.

Here is JoAnn Moore’s quilt, which started with the blocks below the tulip on the right.

Vicki Fletcher’s quilt is HUGE!  And, wonderful.  Tori Manzi added the green leaf strip on the right, topped by the crosses under the snow igloo that Margaret Elaine Jinno did–as Vicki and Mike Fletcher homesteaded in Alaska for many years.

 

Here is Linda Satkowski’s quilt, which started with the row of houses on the middle right.  Linda moved around quite a bit as her husband was in the military.  She wanted to build a community.  I think we did that for her.

 

Becca Babb-Brott’s quilt is in pieces as she wants to put it together.  She started with the separate words that say “The More I Wonder The More I Love.”  Can’t wait to see this one finished.

Here is Margaret-Elaine Jinno’s quilt–which is going to need some work on the bottom right.  We are discussing making a lot of trees for a forest for her to the right of the florist shop and the turtles.  She started with the houses and trees on the left, beneath the upper banner.  M-E’s granddaughter made a drawing that M-E made into a block.  Linda Satkowski added the final block–the red and white lighthouse on the upper right.

Our Megan Bruns, who has a full-time job and who will graduate from college in May 2019, dropped out, but not before we had a good quilt going for her.  Here is what it looked like the last time I saw it–some sections are joined.

I know

Turkey Tracks: My Yard Smells So Sweet

Turkey Tracks:  August 14, 2018

My Yard Smells So Sweet

 

This clump is one of several in the garden.  All of them just get better and better each year.  One clump came from Bellevue High School classmate Kay Rood.  You can see I pulled some of the stamens as I didn’t want the pollen on my clothes or anyone else’s.

Books: Elizabeth Kostova’s THE SHADOW LAND

Books:  August 14, 2018

Elizabeth Kostova’s THE SHADOW LAND

 

LOVED Kostova’s THE SHADOW LAND, which is set in Bulgaria–a country the American author loves.

The story takes place in a very fraught period in the country, where corruption and racism/antisemitism run rampant.  Violence, of course, comes with intolerance at the behest of power.  But what is encouraging is the human determination to not be smashed in the process.

An old mystery is unraveled as the plot unfolds–and the core of that mystery is eerie reading in our present American moment of Trumpism and Russian interference in our 2016 election, our democracy, and our society.

The novel is beautifully written.  I downloaded the audio version and listened while I sewed.  I’ve put Kostova’s earlier novel, THE HISTORIAN, on hold and look forward to listening to it.

Here is a review–with which I have to say I do not really agree.  We are in an age of speed, and this novel is not about speeding through the plot to get to the reveal.

https://www.npr.org/2017/04/16/522778257/a-strange-odyssey-through-bulgaria-in-shadow-land

 

Turkey Tracks: Creative Grids Ruler Pineapple Blocks

Turkey Tracks:  August 11, 2018

Creative Grids Ruler Pineapple Blocks

Heidi August taught me how to use the Creative Grids Ruler for Pineapple Blocks at our May 2018 retreat.  We are both working on Jen Kingwell’s “Long Time Gone” quilt—as a Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild (Camden, Maine) challenge that will end in December 2018.  This quilt calls for SIXTEEN pineapple blocks.

One needs the SMALL ruler for this project.  But I loved the ruler and the block so much that I bought the large one as well.  There is a quilt lurking in that large ruler.  Certainly there are blocks for the “parts department” that is getting big enough to try to put together a “improv” quilt.

Here are my finished blocks—with their cute fussy cut centers.