Little Susie Homemaker

Author: spfled

  • Garden – August 2026

    We have had a bumper crop year in the berry department! I added up everything I’ve weighed that had “berr” in the word and we’re at almost 43 lbs!!! The one boysenberry plant is still ripening and the huckleberries and raspberries are still growing. We might end up with 50 lbs of berries this year.

    Now, if only I could get vegetables to be that prolific.

    Sweet Pea Blooming
    Zinnias
    Zucchini

    We had a few blooms in time for the wedding, but not enough to make a bouquet. My stepdaughter ended up buying buckets of flowers and then she and her bridesmaids made their bouquets the night before. They turned out beautiful!

    Now I get to enjoy what few blooms have come up. I don’t usually plant flowers so it’s fun to enjoy them. I might have to plant a few in amongst vegetables next year.

    The zinnias have done the best and they are in and around the asparagus.

    The summer squash has started to produce, but certainly not what I was looking forward to. I’ve harvested 3 small zucchinis. And right now, I have 3 more miniscule zucchini and 3 very small yellow squash. I’m finding that my squashes start, then the blossom dies on the end and the squash stops growing.

    Even my spaghetti squash in the side yard is doing that. I’ve had 3 spaghetti squash start, but before they are even 2 inches long, the blossom dies and then the squash dies. Any ideas from other gardeners out there?

    Hydrangea
    Side Garden w/beets
    Dying spaghetti squash

    The side yard garden looks good, but seems to have the same issues as the main garden. Things will start, and then seem to just stop growing.

    The beets in the side yard still look good – as in the tops are still looking good, strong and upright. But the actual beets under ground seem to not be doing much of anything. The golden beets are better than the bulls blood beets this year. Since the tops are still going strong, I’ll leave them in the ground until later in the fall and hope that cooler weather will help them grow.

    Peppers
    Tomatoes
    Ripening tomatoes

    I harvested a couple of peppers. We have several more out there.

    And the tomatoes went gangbusters. That is the only part of the garden that we start the year with adding chicken manure. And then my husband said he’s been using Miracle Grow on them all year. (Maybe all the garden areas need all of that in order to be successful) We’re starting to get a few tomatoes that have ripened. We have a lot more to come!

    Apples
    Grapes
    Quince

    The apples are doing well. Per usual, as they get closer to ripe and get bigger, we lose quite a few as they fall off the trees. We should probably thin them just after they blossom.

    The grapes were transplanted earlier this year, but we have 1 small bunch of grapes. I’m glad they didn’t die with the transplant. I expect future years will have quite a few more grapes.

    Quince are still doing well, but we don’t have nearly as many as we did earlier this year. My husband said he took a few off the tree to lighten up the branches. But there are quite a few more missing than what he took off. And oddly, there aren’t any quince laying on the ground. It’s the mystery of the disappearing quince. With what is still on the tree, if they all ripen, we’ll have a few more than we had last year.

    And the berries….(so many berries)

    Boysenberries
    Goji Berries
    Mountain Huckleberries
    Lingonberry
    Logan Berries
    Raspberries

    We have a single Lingonberry this year. I noticed quite a few blossoms earlier, so it’s very possible the bunnies like the lingonberries and we just haven’t caught them in the act.

    I’m noticing that the Logan berries seem to produce well every other year and this is the producing year!

    Our raspberries are everbearing which means the second-year canes give us berries in the spring and then die. And the first-year canes give us berries in the fall. The fall berries coming in so far have been almost double the size of the spring berries.

    I definitely continue to learn lessons in gardening and am VERY thankful we don’t have to rely on me growing food for us to eat. Maybe one of these days something will start working better and things will grow for me!

    Total harvested so far – 50.8 lbs. We still have tomatoes, potatoes, apples, quince, more berries and hopefully squash to harvest so it’s possible that we could double that number and end up with 100 lbs from the back yard. We’ll see!

  • Garden – July 2026

    July has been quite abundant in the backyard! The vegetable part hasn’t been much, but the berries ripened early this year and have been producing like gangbusters!

    In the main garden, we have had enough asparagus that we’ve been able to have it added to a bunch purchased from the store. This year has been the most we’ve harvested, so hoping it continued to grow even more in coming years.

    The summer squash have come up and are just now producing blossoms. I’m hoping we get some zucchini and yellow squash here soon.

    The spinach all started really well but then bolted. 🙁 Oh well. I didn’t get it planted early enough and we had some hot days.

    I had left a kale plant from last year that grew about 4 ft tall and went to seed and at the base, it started growing again this year. So we have had kale once and I can go pick more!

    The right side is all flowers planted for my step-daughter’s upcoming wedding. I’m not sure we’ll have blooms in time, but I’m seeing 1 zinnia bloom beginning and 1 sweet pea bloom coming along. Hopefully we’ll have at least a few blooms ready at the right time.

    The 3 berry bushes at the back of the garden have done really well this year. The Logan berry still has a few blooms, so more are coming. The Tayberry has finished up. And the Boysonberry is just starting to ripen.

    The blueberries have done great this year! I’ve picked almost 12 lbs so far and we still have a couple of plants still ripening. For the most part, they’re wrapping up. The blueberries usually ripen STARTING in July, but this year, we were half done with them by July 1st. It was an early year for the berries!

    Mystery Bush
    Boysonberry
    Tayberry

    In the side berry patch, we have blackberries, boysonberries and a mystery bush that are all producing well! The blackberries have now finished up.

    The mystery bush is producing more this year than I’ve seen in past year. But that bush is covered in thorns. I wear a leather glove to hold up the vines so I can find the berries. I have some bamboo cut that I’m going to use to make a trellis for this one. Hopefully next year, I’ll be able to get into that bush a bit better.

    The two other tayberries have produced alright, but they’re not as prolific as the one at the garden.

    The tomato garden is going gangbusters too! This picture was taken in early July and now those tomatoes are several feet taller! We have a lot of blossoms and a couple of green tomatoes so far.

    In front of the tomatoes are 4 pepper plants. They are producing blossoms, so hopefully the peppers will have time to ripen before fall.

    There’s basil planted in there too, but it is coming along slowly.

    The parsley I planted last year is continuing and now has started to produce seed. The thyme next to it is great and has pretty little blossoms that the bees love. And finally, in that area are chives. There’s a whole boatload there, they’ve blossomed and died off and then a few new blossoms are growing.

    Apple
    Apple
    Quince

    The fruit trees look good! The columnar apple trees are pretty loaded. We probably should have thinned them a bit as I think we’ll have some drop as they grow. We’ll see what happens.

    The quince tree is also fairly loaded. Last year, we had 13 quince. This year, I think there about 50. We probably should have thinned the fruit. This tree is still young, and I think we may need to prop up branches as the fruit ripens.

    Not pictured, we added an espaliered pear tree which has 3 different types of pears on it.

    The stuff in the side garden that actually grew is doing well. I harvested 5 whole pea pods from the ONE pea plant that grew.

    I thinned out some beets and transplanted what I took out. So far, most of what I thinned is growing where I replanted it. They’re behind the rest so I may be able to still have some beets last into the fall. I was able to harvest two of the golden beets yesterday.

    Of the two melons I got from a friend, one died and the other is growing slowly but is growing.

    The spaghetti squash that grew is finally getting bigger and has found the trellis and working its way upward. Hopefully I’ll start to see some blossoms on that soon.

    (Ignore all the weeds – we tend to pull them and then throw them in a pile in this area.)

    Again, if we had to rely on what I am able to grow in the garden, we’d starve. But, we’re learning and will keep trying and keep adjusting what we use and add in the soil to help things grow better.

    Total harvest from the backyard so far this year – ~31 pounds

  • Garden – June 2026

    So much is growing and I hope it isn’t too far behind.

    Hubby & I took our trailer out for 2 months (April & May) so we weren’t home for the usual planting timeframe for our region. I planted peas and beets before leaving and put chicken wire around it to keep any bunnies out. I also planted 2 potatoes and an onion that had sprouted inside.

    My stepdaughter & her fiancé checked on the house for us while we were gone, and she let me know that there was nothing growing in the side garden. She did say we had a bit of asparagus coming up.

    Just before we got home, a friend messaged asking if I wanted any of her starts as she had more than she could use. I told her yes, I’d love them!

    Once we got home, I walked around the yard to see what was growing. The asparagus was sparse but growing. The side garden had 2 peas that took and they were about 3 feet apart from each other. The beets were all growing, but were only about an inch and a half tall after 2 months (with a lot of weeds!).

    Beets
    A Pea plant

    The parsley and sage from last year were both going gangbusters. I cut the parsley back but left the sage flowering as the bees were all over it. There were 2 volunteer potato plants coming up.

    Parsley, Thyme and Chives
    Sage, Dill and Potato

    I went over and picked up tomato, pepper, calendula, dill and melon starts and got them planted. And then we planted dahlia and ranuncula tubers for the upcoming wedding. Around the area that we planted the tubers, we also planted about 6 packets of flowers.

    Melon
    Tomatoes and Peppers

    Around the flowers, I planted kale, spinach, zucchini, yellow squash, strawberries, carrots, basil and spaghetti squash. Around the flowers, I planted kale, spinach, zucchini, yellow squash, strawberries, carrots, basil and spaghetti squash.

    Asparagus
    Spinach and volunteer potato
    Squash
    Wedding flowers planted

    About a week and a half after planting, things started to pop out of the ground….very slowly!!!

    The rest of the yard is well on its way to a good year! Berries growing everywhere and other fruit is coming up as well!

    Berry Corner
    Berry Blossom
    Blueberries
    Boysonberries
    Currants
    Honey Berry

    The fruit trees are also coming along well!

    Apples
    New Pear Tree (3 kinds)
    Quince

    As I’m writing this, it’s a few weeks after I took the pictures and everything is coming up well! I’m looking forward to seeing how the garden does this year!

  • Away from home – Pinnacles National Park

    Have you ever booked a vacation without any expectations of what the destination will be like?

    Pinnacles National Park was a bit like that for me. The hubby & I planned a 2 month trip taking our trailer out and we would be stopping at about 11 national parks. We planned out all of the campgrounds. For Pinnacles NP, we stayed at the park campground on the east side of the park.

    As we drove into the park, I kept wondering why this was a national park. It reminded me a bit of the property where I grew up. Grasses and big oak trees, but certainly nothing warranting national park status.

    We got settled into the campground which turned out to be really nice. We had regular guests stopping by behind our trailer each evening and morning.

    We saw quite a bit of other wildlife including turkeys, turkey vultures and California condors. (We learned later on that not all the big birds circling are condors. The white underwings indicate the condors versus the vultures)

    The day after we arrived, we headed up to do a hike and the parking lot was full before 9:30AM! For a Tuesday, not during spring break, we were surprised that it was so full. We found a parking spot down a mile from the trailhead. We followed a lovely trail up the mile to the ranger station and were pleasantly surprised that there was something really beautiful about the trail. (The road up was fairly unimpressive, so we weren’t expecting much from the trail except just a way to get from point a to point b.)

    On the trail up, there were spots that were very lush and green. The stream flowing provided quite a bit of needed water for everything in that valley.

    We noticed on the way up, the stream would be flowing, there were small waterfalls and then the water pooled and just stopped. In spite of seeing the water flow into the small pool, it didn’t continue to flow. Then further up the trail, there was new stream that hadn’t been the one from below. I figured the water went underground and then came back out elsewhere, but the ranger said that the water we were seeing was the result of recent rains and it wouldn’t continue to flow. Strange!

    We’re glad we stopped at the ranger station as she gave us some really good tips on where to hike. We had planned one hike, but she said the High Peaks Trail was a much better option if we were comfortable with hand railings and steps cut into the rocks. We were comfortable with that!

    We headed up the Condor Gulch Overlook trail and then continued on to the High Peaks Trail.

    View from Condor Gulch Overlook

    The views just kept getting better and I will say, the photos do NOT do it justice! This is not a park that is a drive-through. For one thing, you can’t. The east side and west sides of the park are not accessible to one another by roads. They are only connected by trails.

    As we continued toward the high peaks, the views out showed a very different topography than was visible from below.

    From the top, we were able to see the east side of the park. I was surprised at how small the park is. With a couple of days, we could do all the hikes and easily hike from the east side to the west side.

    As we got to the top, we got to the railings and stairs cut into the rocks. It was pretty cool and the views were just beautiful!

    As we rounded the top, we found a bathroom and then as we started to head down, there were wonderful switchbacks built into the trail making the descent fairly easy. (That is one nice thing about most national park trails. Trails are well done and usually have easier grades than other trails)

    As we finished up, there was a small side trail to a cave with a waterfall which we went to find. The cave was much cooler inside. It was a nice way to almost end the hike (we still had about a bit to go to get back to the truck, but the biggest part of the hike was done at this point)

    trail to the cave with moss on the rocks
    waterfall inside the cave

    The flowers along the way that day were very pretty. The thistles were a really pretty pink and we saw a Mariposa Lily as well.

    yellow flowers
    paintbrush
    thistle
    Maripose Lily

    We also found a massive pinecone along the path as well. Greg picked it up and it was the size of his palm!

    Overall, we loved Pinnacles and will plan a trip to go back and spend more time there. It is a long drive from just about anywhere, but once you’re in the park and start hiking, it is beautiful!!

    As we started out that day, I questioned what Teddy Roosevelt saw in this place, but by the end of the day, I figured it out and completely agree with him! I’m glad he saw enough when he visited to later reserve this land as a national park!

  • Hibernation

    Sometimes, I want to be a bear. Hibernating during winter just feels right somehow!

    For some reason, this winter, I have felt a bit more like hibernating than I have in the past. Even though we don’t have harsh winters and much snow at home, the colder, darker days just called to me to take things slower and stay home.

    With the fall wrap up of the garden, and heading into winter and getting to stay inside, I have enjoyed spending quite a bit of time in my sewing room (aka, the little bedroom).

    My local quilt shop has an annual UFO (unfinished objects) contest that I decided to do this year. You write down a list of 12 unfinished or not yet started projects that you want to finish this year, with an optional 5 extras and submit it to the quilt shop. They then choose a random number from the list to be finished each month and you either email in photos or can take the item into the shop to show its finished.

    I wrote out my list of just random stuff I wanted to work on or finish with the first 3 on the list almost finished (needed long-arming) and submitted it to the shop. Here we are with February not even finished and I have 10 of my 12 items finished.

    I guess that is one of the perks of hibernating – being able to focus on projects and stay in my sewing room.

    Here are a few of the items:

    This is a pattern I’ve now made 3 times and each of the quilts were gifted to my brothers & sisters-in-law. This gray one was the last one to go and was #3 of my UFO list as I started the year with it needing to be long-armed. It has now been sent to my brother and his wife so I can now show the photo. (The ones finished last year had one that was more yellow and the other was more green. I have enough of the material from the layer cake I purchased to make one more that would be pink)

    This “Chandelier” pattern is one I have loved since the first time I saw it. It was fun to make it once and see how it went together. I’m looking forward to getting this one on the long arm to finish it.

    The scraps of the Chandelier quilt were used for the Dresden pieces to make a spring table runner (pictured below). I hadn’t ever done something with rounded edges and had to figure out how to turn the edges under to sew it onto the square. Thank you YouTube for tutorial videos! I also tried doing some free-motion quilting on my sewing machine. While it was fun to try, I definitely need a LOT more practice to get better at it.

    One of the items on my UFO list was to finish 3 insulated RV window covers. (We need a total of 9, but I thought I’d just put 3 on my UFO list). We plan to be using our trailer more often and in early spring, the weather can be chilly.

    I finished the initial 3, then realized a 4th window was likely the same size and quickly finished the 4th cover. While these aren’t very pretty, they will help insulate around all the single-pane windows to keep the cold air out. Once they are in the windows, we’ll pull the blinds down and won’t really see much of them anyway.

    Since I’ve started quilting, I’ve seen quilt a few “sew-a-long” or “block of the month” (BOM) projects. A pattern is released on a regular basis, and you make that one square before they release the next pattern. It gives you a lot of patterns to try all while building skills and leading to a finished sampler quilt at the end.

    I decided to try the Riley Blake Designs BOM pattern this year. I was able to get all of the material cut and have everything organized by block for the whole quilt.

    It has been fun to try new patterns and see how something seemingly complex can be really simple to put together. Some of the blocks, I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out until I literally pieces the last bit.

    Here are a few more of the projects from the UFO list that I’ve finished (or at least gotten to where they are ready for the long-arm) so far this winter:

    As winter is wrapping up, I’m starting to look ahead to the garden. We’re only a few weeks away from the early, cold-weather stuff being able to get planted.

    Plans for the garden in the next few weeks are to expand the existing rows. Amend the soil (we’ll go pick up some horse manure to spread over everything), and get new supports put up for a couple of things.

    We will also be growing some flowers this year for my step-daughter’s wedding in August. I hope things will actually grow for us so she has a large variety to use for her special day!

    Winter hibernating has been fun, relaxing and needed. As the days are getting a bit warmer, spring is coming and I look forward to what it brings with it this year!

  • Rendering Tallow

    Beef tallow – I see it everywhere these days. It’s getting the bad rap removed and the benefits are coming back to the forefront. Our ancestors used this for so many purposes, and I decided to give it a try.

    Hubby & I recently bought some sirloin and ground beef at CostCo. As the hubby was cutting the sirloin into steaks, he was cutting off quite a bit of fat and throwing it away. I stopped him and told him to save the rest and put it in a bowl. I would render the tallow.

    I then was going to cook up the 5.5 lbs of ground beef and freeze it and decided to use the fat from that as well. (Of course, I poured off the fat before I did any seasoning of the meat)

    (Aside – I cooked up about 3 lbs as taco meat and portioned out into vacuum sealed bags to freeze. And cooked up the remaining and kept it plain to be able to throw into other things that call for ground beef)

    I put it all into a crockpot and let it go on low all day. It didn’t liquify quite as I expected it to, but there was still a lot in there.

    At the end of the first day, I strained it into a bowl and refrigerated overnight.

    The next day, I took the bowl out of the fridge and turned it over onto a cutting board to be able to scrap off the stuff that would have gone to the bottom of the bowl.

    Well, that didn’t go quite as planned. I wasn’t expecting so much gelatin in the bowl, so the fat layer came off the top and gelatin went all over the counter.

    Once I got that cleaned up, I scrapped off the non-fat bits from the bottom of the fat layer and put it back into the crockpot to go for another rendering.

    When I took it out of the fridge, there were small yellow circles randomly across the top of the fat. (You can see some in the picture above) And I knew there would be beef bits hanging out below where I could see in the bowl.

    I’m expecting it will take 3 renderings to get it to the pure white I’m expecting. (But, given that this is likely not grass-fed, grass-finished really cleanly raised beef, there’s a good chance it won’t come out as pure white as I hope it does. Time will tell.)

    (I’m writing this post as I go, so at this point, I don’t know the ending!)

    Day 3 rendering has been done. The tallow still had a beef smell to it but looked right. I did a bit of digging on Pinterest and it turns out to “purify” it, I needed to melt it down with some salt & water.

    After doing that, I poured through a fine strainer into the bowl again and could see a bit of impurities at the bottom as well as water droplets.

    Once it cooled in the fridge and I pulled out the fat, the water and impurities stayed at the bottom of the bowl, and I was able to melt once more to pour into the mold I wanted for keeping it until I use it.

    Since I purified it, I will be able to use this for cooking or making soap or other beauty products. I’ve been wanting to make soap and will likely use at least some of this tallow for that.

    It’ll be fun to use it. There’s something satisfying about making things from other things and not having as much waste or having to go to the store.

  • Things you don’t want to think about

    We experienced a death in my husband’s family over the holidays. Because of that, I decided to write about the things you don’t want to think about.

    Until you experience a death directly, you don’t realize how much ‘business’ there is in dying. (Bills, wills, estates, last wishes, etc.)

    I’m writing this as it’s fairly top of mind but writing it in hopes that it may help someone else who doesn’t yet have things set up.

    While it’s never a fun conversation to have, it’s important to discuss things with your loved one(s). It’s important that someone knows where to find your important documents, has knowledge of your accounts, has a way to access things in case of your death.

    I’ll try to do this in a way of having you ask yourself questions.

    • Have you discussed end of life medical decisions? Do you have a living will with power of attorney to ensure that there is someone designated who will work with doctors to ensure things go as you wish?
    • Do your loved ones know what you want done after you die? Do you want to be buried or cremated? Is there a specific place that is important to you to either be buried or have your ashes scattered?
    • Have you written a will? Does it make sense to create a trust?
    • Do you have your financial accounts set up correctly with assigned beneficiaries to be payable upon death? (You may have someone listed, but has anything in life changed that you need to make any updates?) (Listed beneficiaries will trump what you have written in a will, so keep those up to date.)
    • Do you want anyone to help handle anything on behalf of those left behind and have you asked them to help?

    These are just a couple of things that have come to mind over the last few weeks.

    You maybe wondering ‘what does this have to do with homemaking or frugal living?”

    The business of dying can get quite expensive and leave quite a gap for your loved ones who will be trying to figure things out while grieving. No matter your age or situation, you can help your family one last time by ensuring that these things are taken care of which can lessen the weight of this.

    If you’re unsure where to start, the internet has so many free resources. I wrote up a will and power of attorney and living will several years ago through www.legalzoom.com.

    When my husband & I knew we’d be getting married, I had a benefit at work for legal services that I had the cost withheld from my paycheck. We opted for me to do that and then after we got married, met with an attorney to set up a trust.

    After we got married, we also reviewed and updated all of our accounts with beneficiaries.

    We have had those tough discussions to let the other know our wishes. We have let my stepdaughter know these things as well.

    Just because we don’t plan on going anywhere for a good long time, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be prepared.

    Take a weight off by taking care of what you can ahead of time. We’ll move back to happier topics going forward.

  • 2025 – the year of the quilt

    Today is the last day of 2025 and what a year of quilting it has been!

    Hubby gifted me the sewing machine in November of 2024 and I have been thoroughly enjoying it ever since!

    I took the first class on how to use and maintain it in December of 2024, then the class to learn how to use the embroidery attachment in January 2025. But, for all of its abilities, basic quilt piecing has been what I’ve used it for the most.

    RV quilt using the Riley Blake ‘The Grand Circle’ national parks panel

    The year started with making “The Grand Circle” quilt for our RV.

    I then made three quilts using the same pattern (Bee Charming) and squares from the same fabric line (Bee Garden) for my sisters-in-law (one hasn’t received hers yet as it is waiting for the long-arm). The one not yet pictured is black & grey. I have enough left over from the Bee Garden layer cake (precut 10″ squares) to make one more quilt in this pattern.

    In the spring, I made quilts for my parents for Mother’s and Father’s Day. I embroidered the occasion and the year on each of them.

    Father’s Day Quilt
    Mother’s Day Quilt

    I purchased some musical fabric in Arkansas in February while visiting my college roommate to celebrate her 50th birthday. I then used some of that fabric and embroidered a bird on a table square for her.

    That table square used some black and white scraps I had in my stash that were left over from a quilt my mom had made for me more than a decade ago.

    After posting a few pictures of quilts, a friend reached out to ask if I could make her a rag baby quilt for her new baby boy who was due later in the year. I met her at Michael’s to pick out fabric and made a really cute blue blanket for her. It was my first rag quilt and it was pretty easy to do!

    There was enough leftover in the scraps from the rag quilt that I made a small take-along blanket that matched.

    In the spring, while on vacation at Capital Reef national park, I picked up a couple of quilt panels that I made into quilts that are still waiting to be long-armed. For some reason, I didn’t have a picture of first one I finished.

    I also made myself a throw quilt using squares I started more than a decade ago. While my points on the star aren’t very good, I love how this quilt turned out and am enjoying covering up with it on a chilly evening.

    I participated in a couple of mini mystery quilts through a group on Facebook. It was fun to do each step and then see how it all came together. The patterns will make great blocks to pull together into a full quilt. But, for now, I have made them into small wall hangings.

    I went through my stash one day and decided to use a pattern that came with some templates and made a small wall hanging and then machine quilted it myself at home. I was pretty impressed with how it turned out once it was quilt. Prior to quilting, it wasn’t laying flat so I thought it wouldn’t turn out, but thankfully, it did!

    In May, I visited my parents and my mom sent home some of her needle point panels with me. I quilted one of them into a throw blanket and love how it turned out. It quilts that one in straight lines on my machine at home.

    I pieced together the other squares into a king-sized bed coverlet for their master bedroom. I took it when I went to visit for Thanksgiving and they loved it.

    In October, I came across a pumpkin with a black cat pattern and decided to make it for my step-daughter and her fiancé as a table runner. They have 2 black cats so I thought this fit them perfectly.

    And finally, I purchased a pattern for a table runner that used mini charm packs (pre-cut 2 1/2″ squares). It can be done however you want, but the pattern pictured on the card had ombre ‘ed the colors. I have MANY mini-charm packs in my stash, so I pulled out one with a fall design. I loved it so much, I pulled out another one for Christmas and made a couple of table runners.

    There are a few more things I made over the past year that I don’t have pictures of. There are many more things to be made in this coming year!

    Quilting is really fun! I love the process of taking something on its own and combining it with other things to turn it all into something beautiful!

  • Away from Home: Jewel Cave National Monument

    Our plan on our Thanksgiving road trip was to stop at several National Parks and National Monuments along the way. Our thought was “we are in the area, why not take advantage of seeing these places?”.

    If you read my previous posts (Part 1 and Part 2), you know we encountered less than ideal weather conditions throughout the entire trip. We didn’t do any hiking along the way as we had hoped.

    One thing we were still able to see was the Jewel Cave National Monument outside of Custer, SD.

    No matter what the weather is doing, Jewel Cave is a great option to explore. The cave is protected from the weather (obviously underground) and a constant temperature.

    The cave monument consists of over 200 miles of known caves in about a 4 square mile area. In the map in the picture above, you can see the extent of the cave system. The colors indicate the depth of that portion of the cave.

    We opted to take the 20 min tour with a ranger that day. The other option was a few hours later and would have been around 90 mins. We’ll come back in the future and do the longer tour.

    The tour took an elevator down to the main cave entrance to a large chamber. They have airlock doors between the elevator lobby and the chamber because the cave “breathes”.

    This chamber is quite large. Stairs are installed throughout the areas that the tours go, and this chamber is the starting point.

    The variety of colors and features in this chamber are beautiful!

    The ranger gave us a history of the cave explaining that the Native Americans in the area knew of the cave for hundreds of years, but the original entrance was about the size of a basketball. Then at the turn of the 20th century, some gold prospectors found it and blew the entrance open with dynamite.

    They explored the caves extensively and never found gold or any other mineral worth mining. After that failure, they tried another venture only to have one fail as well. As a last-ditch effort, they began offering cave tours. They asphalted paths for the tours and eventually were able to make a bit of a living with that.

    Once the park service took over, the asphalt was removed, and other materials were used which are more friendly to the environment of the cave. The tours continue to today.

    She then talked about the formations within the cave pointing out a couple of them that I can’t recall the names of. But one was something they referred to dogtooth crystals. They definitely look like teeth!

    She also pointed out another mineral that shows up looking like tree limbs or snowflakes depending on exactly where. She said people often think they are fossils but are actually this particular mineral. It was beautiful!

    I highly recommend a stop at Jewel Cave. We will be going back when we’re in the area next time. Check it out!

  • Thanksgiving ’25 adventures (Part 2)

    To read from the start of our trip, click Thanksgiving ’25 adventures (Part 1)

    As we started back home after spending Thanksgiving with my family in WI, we had good weather and clear roads.

    Beautiful red barn against the snow – GORGEOUS!!!

    We made it to Jackson, MN that first day driving back, headed into town for dinner, and then went to bed early. There was plenty of snow on the ground from the storm that had blown through a few days earlier.

    When we got up to leave Tuesday morning, the truck said it was 3 degrees!! I always tell my husband when either of us complain about the gray, rainy days in the Pacific Northwest, that I’d take that over blindingly sunny, take your breath away cold back in the Midwest. This was one of those days – beautiful, clear day (from inside) but brutally cold!

    As we headed west that day, we knew we would end up in warmer weather as we were driving out of the polar vortex.

    ‘Dignity’ statue at SD rest area.

    On our way to Rapid City, SD, we stopped for gas in Mitchell, SD and I made Hubby drive past the Corn Palace. I remember stopping here as a kid and knew he needed to see it. (He’d argue otherwise. His life is complete without seeing or stopping at tourist traps).

    The Corn Palace is literally made out of corn. Husks, cobs, stalks, etc. I was there on a family vacation when I was 13, and it had been around long before that.

    From there, we continued west and took a quick drive through the Badlands National Park. I had also been through here on that same family vacation. This time of year is beautiful with the snow. But, because there wasn’t much sun that day, the color striations in the hills didn’t stand out quite as much as I remember.

    In the 20ish miles we drove, we saw more wildlife than all the years combined we’ve been in the North Cascades National Park. We saw pronghorns (like an antelope), bighorn sheep, turkeys and bison!

    We will definitely come back to this park in the future and explore it on foot. It is also a dark skies park, so we’ll enjoy trying to see the night sky while staying there.

    Continuing west, we headed into Rapid City. (Coming out of the Badlands NP, we were in Wall, SD but I couldn’t convince hubby to even drive past Wall Drug)

    We stayed in Rapid City for 2 nights in a cheap Travelodge motel. (This was the trip of cheap motels.) It had been updated but definitely had opportunities. It was a sufficient place to sleep and that was what mattered. (And it was pet-friendly)

    The next morning, we headed up to Mount Rushmore and then drove through Custer State Park. It was a day of adventure! The views of Mt. Rushmore were NOT.

    From Mt. Rushmore, we headed to Custer State Park, but due to winter road conditions, we had to take a detour route (there’s a 7 mile section that is closed in winter). It was a pretty drive.

    We stopped into the Visitor Center and knew that the wildlife loop was open, so we kept driving through. The drive through Custer State Park was quite foggy. We were able to see quite a few animals, but no views of the surrounding landscape.

    Foggy drive thru Custer State Park

    We were glad to get back to the motel that afternoon and relax.

    The next day was much clearer. We drove back up to Mt. Rushmore and were actually able to see it.

    From there we headed to the town of Custer and then out of the area, back to I-90 heading west. We did stop along the way to see the Jewel Cave National Monument. (I’ll do a separate post about this) We stopped for the night in Sheridan, WY.

    I wouldn’t mind going back through Sheridan and exploring it a bit more. When we left the next day, we stopped into Java Moon coffee shop. It was very cute. I love a small-town coffee shop where all the old folks gather for morning coffee and friendly catchups. This seemed to be the place for that.

    We then drove to Missoula, MT for the night. It was a beautiful day driving through Montana and getting to see spots that we had driven through in the dark on our way east. By the time we got to Missoula, it started snowing. As we pulled off the interstate, it got pretty heavy.

    We pulled into the CostCo for gas, and then hubby suggested we go inside and check out what they have that is likely different from our CostCo. We left with a Christmas tree as we figured by the time we got home, our CostCo would be sold out. Turns out, the Missoula CostCo had sold 6 trees in 4 days. People there, spend $5 to go cut their own from the forest rather than buying them. Last year, our CostCo had sold out in less than 4 days.

    By evening, the snow seemed to have stopped, but the next morning as we were leaving, it looked like it was still trying to start snowing again.

    Thankfully, the drive home that final day looked worse than it turned out to be.

    It rained through the mountains, then to a bit of snow at Lookout Pass (Montana/Idaho border), but road conditions were good.

    We took advantage of the lower gas prices in Idaho before crossing back into Washington and stopped at a rest area. We had to park in the trucking area and saw these guys idling at the rest stop.

    We were glad to get home. While we loved getting to spend the holiday with my family, we will never drive cross-country at this time of year again.

    There are gorgeous areas across this whole country that we look forward to revisiting in the future. We will do it with our trailer so we can spend time exploring on foot and not just driving straight through.

    As my husband & his daughter say when things aren’t going quite as well as hoped, “we’re making memories”. We definitely made some memories on this trip! 🙂