golfjane wrote:
It is a beautiful quilt. Mother is 85 and is making the CW for my Christmas! (this year!!!) I was floored and ecstatic. I called her yesterday and she said she had finished more 50 windows since I left. WOW! She's one in a million and has a lot of patience. I've been telling her about all the compliments from across the globe and she's so happy. I'll make a pillow to go with it.

Millboroquilter wrote: Go on!... change the subject, it happens all the time around here

Not to change the subject but I wanted to let you all know about this "other" swap I belong to and really enjoy.
I am a member through my "facebook group" but I understand you can do it even if you do not have a facebook page... here is the info link.
They are doing the churn dash block next.. If you are over seas you might want to get a wiggle on it so the snail mail will get there on time...

http://uselessranch.blogspot.com/2012/04/dash-it-all-light-bright-for-june-2012.html

Good luck all, Bren

Loving all these stories. Margarita I would not have found that funny either :shock: Sue (or should we call you mouse-trap), that is so funny.
And Annis, talk about a sledgehammer to crack a nut! Riverowl, thanks for the entertainment first thing in the morning with your elephant stew recipe too on the recipes thread!

I don't have a mouse story, but I do have a good one about a snake. This was after we'd had some heavy rains. Many years ago I went into the bathroom and there was a large snake, about 4' to 5', on the glass shelves above the toilet, and yes I saw it before I sat down. I calmly walked out of the room, put a towel at the bottom of the door, took my 1 year old son out of his crib, went to another room on the other side of the house and called my DH on the cb radio (this would have been around 1980) and walked outside and waited. When my DH got there he shot the cabinet full of buckshot while shooting the snake. Later I found out if I'd called the neighbors they would have come and removed it alive. I don't remember what kind of snake it was but it wasn't poisonous.

When I was 10, my older brother got three baby mice as pets. Of course I couldn't resist trying to pet one - and it bit me. The next morning it was dead in the cage. My mom shipped the body off in dry ice to the State of WI lab for testing. The shipping was $25, and I don't know how much the testing cost. The lab report came back negative for anything lethal to me. Years later I realized that she didn't take ME to the doctor for testing! But I guess MY blood is lethal to mice!

I got a kick and laugh about the mouse stories. But you have to hear mine.
Years ago when my youngest was 6 or 8 years old his brother and sisters convinced
him to bring MOM a gift. They all came in the house and said "mom" close your eyes,
Mike has a present for you. He had a dead mouse. I tell you it was not funny.

Margarita

Dear Sisters;

Love your stories, thanks for sharing. I am reading them out loud to my husband & we are having a good time laughing at all the adventures with critters. Gotta run, my four chi’s are outside barking up a storm at something. Gotta go check it out before they get into trouble. I think I have the only 5 pound dog in the neighborhood that when she goes outside she looks up. We think she’s been buzzed by a large vulture or one of the many barred owls we have around; so she looks up to be sure it is safe for her to proceed. Our barred owls have a 5 1/2 ft wing span & carry cats off as heavy as 25 pounds! I was told by our naturalist it is one of their favorite foods! Hopefully ,the cats we have here are very fast!!

idaho wrote:
Yep! All part of the same slippery family!

Well, Rita, the garter was about a foot long and fat as a sharpie marker...still was glad it wasn't moving very well !!
I DON"T like them. We have bats here,too...but haven't had too many adventures ! Love them, as they eat so
many mosquitoes! About those new ones in Ireland...are they like the ones near our capitol?

Renata wrote:
I consider myself MOST lucky when I get the bat OUT of the house!!

rehak wrote:
Nancy, you are a really lucky person! In Chinese culture, the word for bat bianfu is considered lucky because fu also means luck (different Chinese character to write the words but homonyms). So, when a bat comes through your house it brings you luck! But I would still keep my bat scoop and gloves handy...
Renata

Nancy, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall, but I fear you might have swatted me too! Rita, I chuckled at the romanticized notion I might have conveyed in describing after-school sessions in my mom's workshop. Back then, I never thought of it that way: because my mother was a working mom, either I went to the nuns after school for help with homework and embroidery (which I was already doing at home) or I went to mom's atelier and sat with the seamstresses and my mom while they were working until time to go home. My younger siblings had no choice--they went to the nuns. The local nuns ran an after-school program as well as asilo, which is a form of pre-kindergarten. But I suppose I was old enough to behave properly in her workshop, so she let me come. Often, I would sit quietly and crochet or knit (dropping a lot of stitches and asking for help too often) and when dropped stitches became too onerous for mom to deal with while she was trying to work, she taught me how to baste. In any event, I don't remember loving it because I had to be on my best behavior , but I do remember things being done that you don't see a lot of today--like silk hand-made buttonholes. Now I wish I had loved it more and learned more back then!
Renata