Pecans, Time, and Cording

I am going to try and get out a quick post this morning on things I have been doing.

First up is pecans... well, mostly just farm talk. I haven't been to the farm much at all this fall. Football season has kept me away. There wasn't as much grass to cut, so I let Jeff attend to everything. This weekend I went up with mom (who is still sickly and I am headed to the doctor with her this morning). I went out to check on the pecan trees. You may remember that they haven't produced since we purchased the farm two years ago. This summer I noticed lots of blooms up there. It rained lots here, but not as much inland, so I wasn't sure if that helped or not. I missed the deadline to fertilize.

I picked up pecans under three of them. It appeared that they were all skinny and dried up...duds. I have done my research. Two things I have discovered from my little research yesterday is that they are nutrient deficient and if it doesn't rain in August and September that they will be shriveled as that is the months they fill out.

Mother found a piece of paper with my grandma's handwriting on it with instructions on fertilize proportions. My plan is to do that this year ON TIME. Jeff keeps telling me I don't want 100 pecan trees producing at one time.

Anyway, as I got them home I started cracking a few more. Some of them were good, so my plan is to go back one day this weekend. I am going to go around and crack a sampling from the trees and if I find a good tree I will pick up the rest from that tree.

The ones I collected will be used for decorations this November. I thought a little Mason jar full with some brown and green ribbons would be cute. I can used them on my Thanksgiving table.

Mother. She has been sickly between tooth and ear. I don't think they are related as the ear has been an issue for a good while. The tooth got hot and bothered after some dental work. The tooth situation is scheduled to be fixed in two weeks, but we are headed to immediate care this morning for the ear.

Time Management... I realize even though I am retired that I seem to have a bit on my plate. Some of which is self made. Trying to own a piece of farm land, having season football tickets, a large home, two adult kids that I still dote on, an aging mother, and taking care of my husband and myself's health by being making sure most of our meals are home cooked is a lot. Even as I type it I know that is kind of insane. Jeff and I have been talking lots lately about making some changes after the first of the year. oh, and throw in getting a puppy. I really must be insane, but he is so cute.

All of that to say, I decided I must be wasting time somehow as I seemed to never get my to do list done which causes stress. I decided to do a detailed list of where my time was going a couple of weeks ago. What came out of it was that most of my days are chopped up with duties. I don't seem to have too many of those blocks of time I crave. Even if I think I have them scheduled in, mom calls upset about something or other family members need help with something.

I decided to think on that and came up with this. I have to learn how to make the most of 15 or 20 minutes and make those short blocks of time scattered throughout the week. I am trying to do just that. I may share more on this later as I am about to get dressed to take mom to the doctor.

Stitching --- A post is coming on that soon. I have been stitching in the evenings and yesterday I tried my hand out at making the cording that Vonna at The Twisted Stitcher does so beautifully. I haven't quite got it mastered, but I am way closer after giving it some time yesterday.

The red is the color I think I will go with and no this is not how it will look. I have figured out better than this.

Forgive me for any mistakes. I have no time to proof it...
Say a prayer for Mama if you will and I will be back sooner this week than later.
Sandy