When a Quick & Easy Job Takes All Day

We had a good plan for the day. Walter would install the new stove hood, and I would go visit my friend Kim. (Not my neighbor Kim B, but a different Kim—Kim A. When I was growing up half the girls I knew were named Kim, Debbie, Karen, or Kathy.)

So anyway, I set off in Quicksilver for Kim’s farm, which I hadn’t been to in over ten years. She lives quite far out—several miles north of my friend Robin’s rural property. I was worried I wouldn’t remember exactly where their entrance gate was, but you know, it all came back. I was very glad to have an SUV as I’m not sure our old Camry would have been able to handle the very bumpy driveway!

Kim had her dulcimers out and played me some tunes on both her “regular” dulcimer and her bass dulcimer.

She is a very skilled musician and has been playing her whole life. She also showed me her new spinning wheel. Spinning is a new hobby for her, so she is still learning.

Eventually we went outside so I could meet all the critters. That farm is dog heaven. They have 3 Great Pyrenees who guard the chickens, ducks, and goats. They have four little ankle biters—mini dachshunds, who are inside dogs. And they have three magnificent giants:

I have been dying to meet their Irish Wolfhounds!

Notice the relative height compared to Kim!

There are also rabbits:

We didn’t go down to see the cows or horses—maybe next time. I did see Kim’s horse, Cat Ballou, on my drive in. She’s 32 years old now.

We also toured the garden and picked a bunch of tomatoes. I have always enjoyed being up there.

We said our goodbyes and I drove home, thinking Walter would be done with the stove and might want to go shoe shopping to replace his old sneakers, which have parted company with their soles.

Not so much. The stove project turned out to be MUCH more difficult and time consuming than expected. And the old backsplash couldn’t be salvaged, so I had to order a new one from Lowe’s and then go to pick it up.

Lowe’s pick-up system needs some serious upgrading. We had trouble yesterday getting the stove hood, so I came home and updated my phone number on their website. And today, when I ordered the backsplash, I requested curbside pickup so I wouldn’t have to go into the store and repeat the rigmarole we dealt with yesterday.

All went well until I tried to check in on my phone. The system refused to recognize the order number that they sent me in an email. Over and over and over. So I went into the store (deep sigh) and tried scanning the barcode in the email as instructed. It didn’t recognize that either. I had to wait for an actual human to show up and sort it out.

But anyway, I ended up walking out with the correct item and bringing it back to my frustrated husband. If he were a different sort of man, there would have been a great deal of profanity flying around today. Nothing was as straightforward as it should have been. And the hood itself was very poorly constructed. A job that should have taken an hour took all day and was finally finished after 5:00. Walter told me that this is the last stove hood he will ever install for me. Which is fine, because I’ve been thinking all along that this one ought to last until I die.

So obviously, I didn’t get a lot of sewing done, but I did some before leaving this morning and after going to Lowe’s this afternoon, and I did end up finishing two more bags, so I’m halfway done:

As you can see, I use some of the same fabrics but combine them in different ways, and each bag has a contrasting lining.

Parting Shot:

I posted this on Instagram, but in case you didn’t see it there I’m including it here, to show how tall our flame lilies are compared to our 6’4” son. In the wild, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them much more than three feet tall.