etienettebluet | Entries tagged with campgear

Friday I got a slow start but I did what I had to do loading up and finally got out to site around 4:30 [instead of the planned 2 or so]. It was a hot day and putting up the tent and settling in wasn't much fun. It was nearly seven before I went to relieve troll. I didn't get nearly as much sleep as I'd planned as three waves of intense storms blew through at midnight, one and two. In spite of the vigorous winds the tent stayed secure but it leaked in the heavy rain.

I was surprised Saturday that it was not sloppy in the fairgrounds. The storms had cooled things down and we had a good day for outdoor activities. I worked list for the steel fighters and lingered to listen in on the post-tourney discussions. The rest of the day was visiting with Sally and company, attending a very satisfactory court [in the auditorium] and one of Gwyneth's great feasts. I helped with some of the clean up In the hall after feast before calling it done and headed off to bed.

After a good night's sleep [no more storms] I broke camp and loaded up. When I went to the hall for gold key everything was finishing up already. The 'teams' must have started cleaning pretty early. I dropped Ingaborg's bedding at her house around noon and watered my lot at the community garden before heading home. The rest of the day was dedicated to some serious loafing. I did put together several 4-patches in a pink theme with Leofwyna on the computer while we caught up with television recordings.

Monday I waited for 'the phonecall' until Leofwyna woke up, then I went to pick up catfood, deliver tomatoes to Sash, and water the community plot. While I was gone she fell back to sleep so she took me to supper on a Groupon. Back at home I worked on the pink blocks again.

Monday after dealing with grocery shopping in the afternoon I sat out in the driveway replacing the tie-downs on the tent and then started on the sunfly. Only had that about half done when a rain shower blew through. I threw everything into the garage and ran into the house. Actually the timing was good because I found it was time to start supper. I made apple crisp and fried chicken tonight. In the midst of the apple crisp the glass on the ceiling light fell and barely missed me! Fortunately I had just stepped into the next room for my keys so I was able to put on shoes and get the broom and dust pan with no damage to my bare feet. Later it turns out the electric skillet wasn't heating up the oil so I had to use the two small Mirror skillets on the range. [That's two, what's next?] While I was frying the chicken I cut my foot on a piece of the glass I'd failed to get wiped up; and I was so CAREFUL about it since I prefer to be barefoot in the house. Anyway life is full of adventures and supper was great.

I arrived at the camp in Smithville about 6pm, delivered Leofwyna's power-cookies to Owaine and had my tent set up and the van unloaded before dark. I took the van out to the lot and visited awhile in the baronial pavillion before heading down to put my bed together and get my stuff organized. I had to go up the hill to borrow an air pump as the one I brought died after only 90-seconds and a change of batteries didn't remedy the situation. Kat's pump worked better on my current air mattress than any other has since I got it; I didn't have to refresh it but once midweek.

Early Saturday morning a storm blew through with some sincerely heavy rain (soaked right into the dry ground) and winds (I didn't feel anything of it by my belt of trees). I had a leak problem I need to remedy by re-sealing the sunfly on the tent. That was also the coldest night of the week but my wool blankets kept me warm in spite of the wet. When I went up the hill Saturday morning the barony was busy putting things to right and re-raising the pavillion. Fortunately they'd brought it down themselves before much damage was done to THAT but the red (smoker's) sunshade was blown-up, Cookie's took a little damage and the GI group rebuilt their sunshade just up the dale from me. At opening Court Saturday Ingaborg got called forward to receive her Lily for her singing and verse.

Sunday-Monday-Tuesday I stayed close to camp in the shade sewing for Gold Key and myself. Tuesday Saraphina and Randwulf hosted a thank you dinner for MagMor and Lonely Tower for our good work at the JAV demo last month.

Wednesday I ran Sash into Smithville and since I had the van I went up to the hot showers and went back to Smithville for supper at Lowman's where I was disappointed to discover they no longer have baby back ribs for their most excellent bbq sauce. Unfortunately I just don't really care for regular spare ribs as they're tougher and greasier so I probably won't be going there again.

Thursday Chandra was determined to get me to Heralds' Point and we checked if my heraldry plan might manage to clear Laurel. It looks promising and I agreed to get my entry sent in real soon. During the afternoon I was feeling progressively ill and quarantined myself to my camp, by 6pm braved the tent so I could lay down. That turned out well as the heat actually eased the cramping muscles in my back. I put the fans to good use until the shade reached me and pretty much slept through until 9am except for occasioally rousing to drink water and be sick. So I missed both court and the MagMor Party.

Friday recovery and a glorious fireworks display.

Saturday break camp early to beat storm and head home where I didn't do anything at all... Well, I caught up on email, blogs and kitty lap-making. Oh, and btw I did run into the very major rainstorm half an hour up the road... bad enough visability I stopped for 15 minutes to let the worse of it go through. Leofwyna slept quite late but made me supper when she got up. Later we did a tick check and found a couple on the backs of my legs. It also seems those hours in the sun breaking camp gave me quite a scorch on neck and face.

Sunday we went to a movie, Snow White and the Huntsman, wonderfully rich and complex. Back at home we quickly unloaded the van into the garage and discovered the AC isn't working. Ouch, predictions for tomorrow are for temps of 101 degrees.

Friday I made the decision to skip the 99-cent sales this month. When Leofwyna got up early to do a turn-around for her weekend plans, we headed over to Shelly's to watch Falling Skies on the CD player it was recorded on. It wasn't working on either of our machines. I think we're going to enjoy this series but we have several episodes to catch up on.

Saturday while Leofwyna was at her scrapbooking 'crop' I worked several sessions in the garage putting up camping equipment, sorting through stuff, and carrying totes into the house. I weeded in the veggie beds before putting the sprinklers on to thoroughly water both veggie beds and the little elm tree.

Sunday I spent the day on the computer, keeping very quiet while Leofwyna slept. Her turn-around went well which was a good thing as she got called in to work a partial shift tonight. I went out late to do another session in the garage while it was cooler, which wasn't really much cooler when you come right down to it, but the garage is beginning to look pretty fine.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday evenings out in the garage getting a replacement sunshade cobbled together from the two old 'blown-out' sunshades. I still need to harvest the webbing from the big one. I made it long and narrow so it can work well off the garage during rummage sales and it's a moderate size we can use for a general camp sunshade. During the day Thursday I got three-quarters of the lawn mown and then Leofwyna finished up the front (which part I really hate doing). We agree we need to get the front wheels replaced on the mower as they are bald and the self-propelling feature isn't accomplishing much the way they are now.

We went to Leofwyna's household get-together Thursday evening and still managed to get the van mostly loaded when we got back home. Friday she overslept and we didn't get out of town until 2pm so when we pulled into Valentine she hired a motel room for us and we waited to set up our campsite at Brewer's Berry Bridge camp Saturday morning. We were fortunate to get the shadiest site in the campground and the layout was good for the four tents and still have a commons area around the table and fire-ring with shade over it all. Isadora, Volkmar, Oliver and Sally arrived around four and we got the rest set up while Leofwyna finished getting supper ready. She had pre-cooked and planned suppers all three nights tor everyone and we sure did eat well.

We did the 'tubing' on the Niobrara Monday when traffic on the river was slower and had a nice afternoon. I managed to get my ankles scorched in spite of the 50 and 80 count sunscreen we were using. Daytime temperatures all three days were well over 100 but as long as we were down near the river and in shade it wasn't too bad. And I was 'specially pleased the natural history book I'd found last month in KC and gotten for Oliver was a great hit Saturday evening when his i-pad ran out of power and couldn't be charged back up [the power cord had gotten left at home].

After breaking camp Tuesday morning, Leofwyna and I stopped in North Loup to take our step-mother, Laurel, to supper for a brief visit before heading on home. There was a message on the answering machine when we got home in Tuesday night reminding me of court Wednesday morning for that traffic ticket I got last month. I got up early Wednesday and headed downtown to deal with it before Leofwyna and I headed to Omaha for the day. It's the last of her vacation days before she turns her sleep cycle back around and we hit five Thrift Worlds and a scrapbooker's shop. I found bamboo poles for the garden, a couple cotton tops, a couple cotton cutter shirts, four of the brand of puzzles we like and an elaborate house figurine to add to my collection. We also found two years of Mary Tyler Moore TV shows to add to our veiwing stash. Turned out we didn't use the sunshade in camp at all. The new bedrails were SOLID!!!

Leofwyna found water in the spare bedroom last week. Turns out she knocked the downspout off putting the flag out and taking it in over the Fourth of July weekend. Then it rained rather hard a couple times the following week. There is a crack in the foundation we'll need to deal with eventually, but primarily we need to secure that downspout for the time being. She had to wash up most of her garb in that closet. I took two boxes of quilting fabric from the bottom of my stack to the laundrymat to wash and dry... this all turned into a big ironing job which will have to wait until we get back from our next trip.

Joe called the other day to ask for more details about what needs to be done in my veggie garden and we've agreed to do the job after Leofwyna and I get back from our Niobrara trip. I'm be making up the linen he bought at Lilies into a couple pair of pants and a few simple tunics so he'll have them in time for Cattle Raids. This will work out very well in that I'll be able to get my fall and winter garden planted early in August as well.

It only took three trips to Manards over a couple days but I finally got new siderails built for my camp bed. It's never been so solid... and quite a bit heavier than it was.

THURSDAY

I was so achy this morning I was going to cancel the walk myself but when I called Sash he was feeling worse again and beat me to it. After catching up on email and lj I headed out for lunch and errands. A stop in at a thrift store to pick up a file Leofwyna wanted; glad it was still there. Returned library books at the bin, too, and decided other errands could wait another day. Back at home got a call from Chase and had to deal with that mess. Finished up the day cleaning up the threads on the disassembled sunshade and sewing area floor and then with cotton cutters.

WEDNESDAY

I spent a quiet day on the computer and Internet 'cause I knew once Leofwyna was up we'd be out doing yardwork. She was up early and winterized her roses while I raked and raked. Together we got the leaves from the entire yard moved back to the compost bins and I spread wire fencing over the piles while Leofwyna cut back the peonies. We then treated ourselves with a trip to Valentino's for the buffet.

I've spent time the last couple evenings taking apart the small sunshade and finished that up tonight. I wanted to be able to reuse the cotton webbing off it's edge and found only the two black panels and one of the tan panels damaged. I think I'll disassemble the larger sunshade too and reassemble the best of the panels into a single sunshade and get a few more year's use out of the fabric.

THURSDAY

Today i sewed up the new divider for the tent to replace the drab one that came with the tent. I need to go buy twill tape and netting to finish the project. This is going to be so cool! I finished the day by pulling out the box of silk samples to start stripping them for a couple crazy quilt tops. This, too, will be engrossing.

FRIDAY

Today was a day we put on the calendar to work together on digging out the living room. And surprise, we found a floor under there with carpet and everything. It's not totally done but BIG progress was made. I have about two yards of closet rod of clothes to take to the consignment shops... the fall-winter things I couldn't take before. We priced and boxed up half a dozen boxes of stuff for the next garage sale and piled them in Leofwyna's bedroom. We swapped out the new coffee table and put the old one downstairs... and guest bedding went downstairs, too, along with a big pile of empty paper boxes we're not quite ready to let go yet.

SATURDAY

I had intended to get up and out early for an annual textile garage sale put on by the UNL home ec department but when the alarm went off I decided I had enough fabric and went back to bed. It remains to be seen if I regret this when I hear stories about great buys. Leofwyna and I spent the afternoon working with several others here in MagMor making pretzels for the Cattle Raids feast. There were seven of us and a couple from Lonely Tower so the work went easily.

This evening Isadora called about borrowing a sewing machine while hers is on the fritz so I pulled out my second best 301 and oiled it up for her before she stopped by to pick it up. More silk stripping ensued.

MONDAY

Leofwyna started me off right with a tuna salad stuffed tomato for lunch. When she left for work I got busy and loaded four bags of Little Sister's clothes in the car and headed out. Dropped audio tapes off at the library (renewed one set I'm still listening to in the car), dropped those four bags at the Salvation Army and dropped the dozen (or so) wool blankets at the LaunDry to be washed and picked up again tomorrow. Stopped back at the house for a fistfull of clothes on hangers to take to the consignment shop... couldn't leave them though (closed on Monday) so they're still hanging in the car for tomorrow. Stopped at Hancocks for black thread from their clearance bin; I wonder how much longer that bargain will last as its been about three years so far. Went to the store for some groceries and found wonderful fresh hams at Manager Sale prices and got one to put in the crockpot for barbeque meals this week. Back at home I dug out the crock pot and put the pork on, washed up a sinkload of dishes including a huge pile of plastic storage containers, and took out the compost bucket and trash. This evening I got the last of the camp carpets sewn up... that's three more we can use now. And the pork is defatted, boned and tucked up in the refrigerater. In hindsight I'm kicking myself 'cause I forgot to drop off the serger at the shop but that'll go tomorrow too. All in all, a very productive day and I'm pleased with myself.

PART THREE

Okay, let's try this again...

I woke up earlier than I wanted Sunday and alarmed by the clouds talked Leofwyna into getting up and loading early to avoid wet packing. Turned out I was an alarmist but it got us on the road to Banff in good time. We stopped again for ice and fruit and studied the maps. Found our best route took us past the event site so stopped back in for further good-byes and hugs all 'round. They hug good in Montegarde, too.

Made it to our campground at Kanaskas (selected because they advertised enforced quiet hours) and previewed our assigned campsite which was right across the road from a big military bivouac. Having mental reservations regarding revele and early morning forced marches we headed back to the office and was pleased to be given a list of available campsites to look over. After driving the loop a couple times looking these over, pros and cons, we selected our best choice... big level area for the tent, well off the road but still able to back the van well in towards the tent. An excellent choice. Also turned out the military bivouac was quiet as well. After setting up the tent we headed into town for supplies, planning campfire suppers. Peregrine, lady moose Back in camp Leofwyna built a campfire and prepared smoked turkey stuffed pasta with pesto sauce and grilled zucchini while I sorted and 'furnished' the tent. We finished the evening with S'Mores over the campfire.

Monday after a cold night (should have packed more wool blankets) we hit the HOT showers (Wonderful hot showers!!) and headed up into Banff where we took the Bow Valley Parkway. We saw lots of beautiful scenery and wildlife. Back in town at the end of the day we located a resale shop where, joy of joys, we found two wool blankets. Bank in camp between heavy rain showers I managed a big campfire while Leofwyna prepared foil-pocket potatoes and carrots and grilled salmon steaks with dill. Cooking was completed and the meal whisked into the tent as the next rain began pelting down. Leofwyna added a couple logs to the fire as she came and that kept burning for the next hour; I would never have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. Later Leofwyna went out in the rain and toasted marshmallows over that fire and put things away in the van for the night. Blessings on her as I was able to stay dry in the tent beefing up my bed with the 'new' wool blankets.

Tuesday morning it was raining again and again. I had slept much warmer, thank you very much! We finally got up and by the time we'd dressed and packed up inside the tent the rain stopped long enough for us to load up. Wet tent, blech! Needless to say, we didn't bother setting up the back for sleeping this time. The hot showers were appreciated though and we were checked out in time and on the road back to Montana. We did manage to get into Great Falls early enough to visit with Jodi a bit before heading to bed.

Oh yes, I was driving when we came back across the border. Their lanes and stuff are rather confusing and I missed a stop sign. You'd have thought I'd crashed a barrier or something 'cause half a dozen guards poured out of the building. There was only one car in front of us though and we were through after the normal questions and a brief, "Watch the stop signs, we put them there for a reason."

TUESDAY

While Leofwyna spent the afternoon with a friend I lazed about and accomplished nearly nothing. Well, I did finish up the laundry from last week but I still need to get it all put away. Late in the afternoon she called from the mechanic's shop asking me to pick her up. Apparently she thinks her a/c needs recharging before our trip (I had no problem with it last week); the mechanic said he could get it done before she needs the van for work Wednesday.

WEDNESDAY

When I got up this morning I slipped quietly from the house while Leofwyna slept. I returned the wrong size serger needles and while there bought not quite two yards of linen-cotton at half price for another pair of breeks. I want to try an alternate pattern I'd run across a few weeks ago. Came out ahead on the transaction by more than a dollar. Stopped in at a few thrift stores and found a nice pair of brown ankle boots that will work for winter shoes at events though I may switch out the buttons fastening them. I also found a print linen-cotton dress I'll make over for a choli. Mostly I picked up cotton shirts for a quilt project I've had in mind for awhile. I also remembered to stop in at the hardware store for shorter bolts for my camp bed as well as some 1/4" stock to remedy the slat slippage.

Made a point to get to the Barony social so I could get Gyda's looms to her (I provided travel space to get them back from Lilies). While there I finally finished the celtic dog embroidery I've worked on occastionally over the past year or so. I'd tried doing this project without the black outline and don't like the results so asked Master Gerald if he still wanted it after pointing out the flaws. He's delighted to take it off my hands. Once I have the banner finished I'll start over again on the celtic dogs and I will forevermore start with the black, or at least dark, outlining on my embroideries.

NOTE: Years later Gerald told me his wife had put the embroidery on one of the kids garments to his intense frustration.

SUNDAY

I awoke earty to the sound of gentle rain and went back to sleep smiling; camps around me were quiet. Got up just in time to throw on some clothes, grab a fruit juice and get to the Exchequer meeting on time at eleven.

Ran across Isabeau and Carlos in the A&S tents. He told me Leofwyna had a message on the list asking for help getting a package to me in camp. I'd forgotten the apricot power cookies she'd made me and Owain. Oops! They'll bring 'em back with them Thursday. Isabeau was hurting and Carlos needed to get to the food merchant area so since I was going for the van anyway I offered to came back and give them a lift. By the time I got back she'd gotten involved with some feltmaking so I took Carlos to fetch their lunch before heading into town myself.

Now begins the continuing saga of the bed. The slats had slipped a couple of times during the night and I'd had to carefully climb out of the wreckage and put it all back together. A trip to town was in order to get additional slats, enough to prevent them all from shifting at all! I was pleased to find the hardware store open and that they had what I needed and could cut to length for me. Then, since I was in town anyway, I stopped at Lowman's for barbeque. Love their barbeque!

Back at camp I dropped off the boards and ice, returned the van to the parking lot, and on the way back in visited with Owain and others at the Chirgeons tent. Back in camp again I relaxed in the living room until the weather blew in near dark and I retreated to my tent to organize it a little more before retiring. All through the night there was some major rain coming down 2-3 different times, lighting and thunder, too, making quite a show.

MONDAY

With the morning I had some mopping up to do but nothing terribly major. I think half of the problem was I hadn't gotten all the zippers completely closed and sealed. The bed was much improved but still some concern with slats near the middle slipping off the rail a couple times during the night. I tried rearranging them with the longest ones in the center. It was only a matter of scant fractions of an inch but worth a try.

Also decided I wanted to limit the number of trips up the hill each day so I organized myself, my basket, my munchies (cranberry granola bars, dried pineapple) into my cart. Spent much of the day in the MagMor living room since it was muddy and humid. Just took it very easy all day. Isadora invited me to join them for supper so I had her beef-barley burritos. The weather did a repeat, blowing in about dark again, so I retreated to my tent and read awhile. I love the sound of distant drums in the night... and the neeker-breekers... thunder... rain...

FRIDAY

Today Leofwyna sat with the rummage sale and I made a shopping run for things I need to take to Lilies. A few groceries, more bolts for the bed (needed eight, not four), and tried to find an adapter for Leofwyna's camp stove. The camp stove turns out to be something foreign (and old) and nothing could be found for it. Leofwyna had bought it at a rummage sale a couple years ago... I did what they should have and trashed it. When I sell something it works or at least can be made to work.   In spite of the rain we had a respectable second day and our third of five rummage needed some good bucks.

At end of day we pulled everything back into the garage and unloaded the stuff stored in the van during the sale into the garage.  We loaded the sunshade poles, tote of ropes and stakes, camp pans, ice chests, and then headed out to supper.

SATURDAY

I got myself going earlier than usual to finish loading the van. I was fairly well organized, I thought, and shoved off by two o'clock. Dressed at home for court on the hope I'd arrive in time for it. I thought it was scheduled for five o'clock. Remembered to stop for Leofwyna's package for Owain. Traffic was rough though and getting out of Lincoln took longer than I thought it would. By the time I got to St. Joseph I'd thought of half a dozen things I'd forgotten and it was already five.

At this point I'd thought about and decided against backtracking home for pillows, airbed, and camp table among other things. As I thought I'd missed out on court I stopped in St. Jo and got 'em there; because of this I didn't go anywhere near the merchant's during the war. I figure this was excellent use of Laurel's Christmas check.

When I pulled in at MagMor camp at seven o'clock I found everyone headed for court; I hadn't missed it afterall! However, couldn't hear much of anything from the back as I had no chair unloaded and didn't want to block anyone's view so I wandered off back to camp; I really can't just stand that long without getting a backache. Scoped out the situation there and decided I'd camp at the bottom of the hill near the treeline so I'd have morning shade to help me sleep longer. (This meant there was a substantial climb out of camp every day and I had to be organized to minimize the number of trips up it each day.)

HE Cat has a tent similar to the one Leofwyna bought a couple years ago; one which we haven't used yet and only put up once in practice. I didn't want to have to spend any longer than necessary wrestling with it and asked Cat's help getting it up with minimal false starts. Turns out our framework is significantly different (ie: harder to raise) and we enlisted a couple guys from the encampment upslope from me for the assembly of the tent's support. After that doing all the staking and tie downs went along better. Having Cat's help with all this was hugely appreciated.

I unloaded everything into the tent and assembled my bed before removing the van to the parking area. It was full dark by this time so after a short time in the MagMor living room greeting everyone there I headed down to settle in and fall in bed.   (Forgotten also was my copper wash basin, straw hat, shampoo.)

Present at this time were Volkmar, Isadora, Arthur, Oliver, Cat, Oz, Terry (now Rheinhart), HalfTroll, Gyda, Jessica (now Moira), Zino and Chiara. MagMorons camping in other areas were Owain, Mikhail, Vasilla, Calien and Callaghan, Isabeau, Carlos, Dwolm, Aibhilin, Agnes, Sabi, Amanda and Raimond. Folks that arrived later during the war to MagMor camp were Saraphima and her family, Natalya, Theron, Gwyneth, Rosa and Bristol.

MONDAY

Got back to work on mending the floorcloths this evening and was nearly done with I broke a serger needle so stopped to run for replacements before the store closed. Wasn't sure what size to get so I got one of each available. Back at home I learned neither size worked... darn, I wanted to be done with these floorcloths.

TUESDAY

Went to the bank to make my JAV deposit for the barony and took money out of my account for change at the rummage sale. After eating lunch I dropped a bag of clothes off at the thrift store, dropped a few dozen items at the second consignment shop and dropped off aluminum cans at the recycler. I also stopped and made copies of forms before sending off checks for insurance certificates for Cattle Raids. I stopped in at Husker Sew and Vac and picked up the right size serger needles. Didn't stop at the fabric store to return the others 'cause I left them laying on the dining table. I remembered to go by Ace Hardware and switch out the wrong sized lag nuts for the right size so I'll have a bed at Lilies. It'll be much easier to get up off the air mattress with it raised off the floor. Spent some time with Leofwyna in the garage prepping for the rummage sale and late tonight I finished the floorcloths repair and nearly finished replacing the seats on a pair of metal folding chairs for camp using the canvas from old sunshades. Leofwyna made apricot-oatmeal breakfast cookies and canned brownies for me to take to Lilies... Ymmm!

SUNDAY

I started sorting for packing for Lilies but when my back got to aching I took a break downstairs. I got involved in repairing the first sample tapestry floorcloth I'd made up years ago. Actually they're wearing pretty well. I replaced seven blocks in one. The second is okay, nothing to fix in it. After supper I made a run to the grocery store for staple supplies. When I got back I started repairing nine blocks on the big one; now that's not quite done either. It's time for bed so I'll have to clear it off (the bed) losing the partial sort I've done 'cause I didn't get back to it. Mainly what slowed me down was the serger was periodically breaking one of the needle threads... not all the time, just enough to be annoying, esp. due to having to rethread everything because it would know up in the mechanism for some reason. Argh! Two steps forward, one back. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day.

TUESDAY

I put the beef in the crock pot this noon with an onion and tangelo peel and the boiled down broth from the roast a couple weeks ago. Did another couple laundry loads to finish up.

Leofwyna's up for jury duty for a couple weeks but she didn't get put on the bench today so we worked in the yard this afternoon. Anyway, I got the rest of the two compost piles moved into one pile back by the garden and Leofwyna seeded the former compost area to grass. She moved daylilies along the back property line and a truely sorry looking nubbin she'd purchased that's supposed to be a pink peony. We'll see how that works out.

The beef with barbeque sauce, Bush's beans and corn turned out a great supper finished off with pears and some shortbread left from Sunday's potluck. That beef was just as tender and flavorful as I'd anticipated. Tomorrow we'll probably do the rest of the beef stroganoffed with noodles and mushrooms and the Byzantine peas left from Sunday..

I got the second linen quilt top pieced up tonight so now I need to find backing for them and decide if we want thin batts in them or not. These will be summer camping quilts and not planned for warmth... more to prevent evening's moisture from settling on the other bedding which include wool blankets.gear