A Bear Was There

We have a path from our property through the woods to the other property where the greenhouse and garden are located. I walk that path multiple times a day. I know immediately if something is different. Yesterday morning, I asked the husband if he would walk out to the garden with me when I went to turn the water on. It was about 6 am—early enough that I shouldn’t be out wandering around by myself. As we walked down the path, I spotted some pieces of rotted tree stump spread around. They hadn’t been there the day before. I pointed to the stump:

“A bear did that, didn’t it?” I said.

“Probably.”

“This is why you are coming with me to the garden.”

The bears like to dig for grubs in the rotted tree stumps. This stump was only about 100 feet from the chicken coop, but presumably, the bear has figured out that it will get a nasty shock on the nose if it goes looking for a chicken dinner. The husband opined that it would be great if we could get the bears to dig up all the tree stumps for us.

It has taken a couple of days and a lot of hose dragging, but I think I finally have my watering system in place. We just had a thunderstorm rumble through, but not enough rain to fill a teacup so I’m trying to be diligent about watering every morning.

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There has been no sewing. None. I had Ali’s little guy for a few hours yesterday; it was too hot for me to be outside, so the scheduled activity at Auntie Janet’s Summer Camp was watching Jurassic World Legos on YouTube. The boys don’t watch much TV—which is a good thing—so when they come here, it’s a treat I don’t feel too bad about providing. I sat and watched, too, and knocked out a few hexies.

I’ve got the Love Notions Laundry Day Tee pattern and Tessa Sheath Dress pattern in the queue. (I might still do the Vivace Dolman, too, but I’m going to start with these.) Part of me asks myself, “How many T-shirts and dresses and ponte pants do you really need?” but then the other part points out that in order to understand pattern drafting and alterations, I need to sew these garments in actual fabrics, not simply theorize the construction in my head. At some point, I will have to do a ruthless purge of my closet. I am getting closer, though, to being able to sew the things I want to wear, in the colors I want to wear, and have clothes that fit me perfectly.

The last time Joanns had thread on sale, I picked up a spool of this:

Some of the patterns I’ve made recently—the Easton Cowl and the Renee ponte pants—require that some of the stitching be done on the sewing machine. I’ve been using regular thread and it’s been fine, but I’d like to try this on the next batch of patterns. This is stretch thread that can be used in both the top and the bobbin. I am curious to see how it behaves.

Blog posts may be few and far between for the next couple of days. I still have a lot to do to get ready for this garden tour. I’ll try to remember to take some pictures, though.