Design Wall Monday and I Need Some Goals

These are the blocks currently on my wall.  The start of a baby blanket for "Petey".  I know Laura Beth is rolling her eyes--the baby expected in December hasn't a name (okay--his parents may have picked out a name) and somewhere I heard the name "Petey" mentioned.   So for now his name is "Petey". 

Design Wall 10-9-2011

Taking pictures at night yields awful color!  But I'm not a morning person so....!  I still need about a dozen more blocks--I'm making two sets--one will be an extra quilt.  On those white diagonal rows bright rick rack is sewn like a winding vine--and appliqued leaves from the block fabrics are sewn along it.  

I need to start setting goals every week.  This week they will be small.

1. Make more Petey blocks
2. Load quilt for Henrietta 
3. Finish blue/white swap blocks

Its been very dry and harvest everywhere has had field fires.  The dry grain dust + hot machinery + dry crop leaves/stalks has been very dangerous.  

Field Fire South of the Campground

About 1200 acres burned less than two miles from my camper.  This picture shows what looks like smoke--but is really blowing sand.   This picture was taken the day after the fire, see the sand dunes already on the road??  The fire burned all the crop residue from the field and the high winds made a dust storm.   Crop residue (what's left after you remove the corn, soybeans etc) is normally left in the field and you won't have the blowing soil--but the fire burned all of it.  Luckily we've had some good rains over the weekend.  Slows harvest but a fire is worse.   The weather the last month has been both "unseasonably cold" and "unseasonably warm".  This afternoon I had the central air on--in October!

Here is a picture of my boss at the Visitor Center-Karla-with Toni and Eddie and I.  Toni and Eddie have left heading for winter in Texas. 

Me, Karla, Toni, and Eddie

It will be lonely at the campground the next few weeks.  Soon I will be done for the year.  But we'll be back next year!  

And a few random pictures---

Katie and Award

Katie received an award.   Congratulations Katie!

Spillway Gates Closed

There are still some spillway gates open.  They closed them while they were putting a buoy line across with a boat. Doesn't it look peaceful?

I'm Holding a Bat

Yes, my hands are inside those gloves.  We have "bat gear"--a long handled net and heavy leather gloves to catch the bats.   We take them outside and transfer them to a tree.  

Bat in Tree

He quickly crawled about 10 feet up the tree after I released him.  


I'm not a squeamish person.  The Visitor Center has three story glass windows.   Birds bounce off them all the time.  Once in a while we have a casualty.   This bird was unusual.  Yes, I took the corpse and measured it with lots of photos.   A bird we usually don't see--a Merlin.  This was either a female or an juvenile.  The pictures went to professor in MN who could identify it.

Merlin

And if you are wondering what happened to the bird, it went in the freezer!   Since it is a somewhat rare sighting for that area, it may go to the taxidermist and be mounted for one of the displays.