This is Our Crew

We have a good group of guys working for us right now. They are all kids in their early 20s and they adore the husband. Their ringleader—the one who has been working for us the longest—reminds me so much of the husband at that age. He has ambition and ingenuity and has started doing small concrete jobs on the side. The husband lends him tools. This kid also buys and fixes up Dodge diesel pickups and resells them. The only thing he is missing is a 22-year-old version of me to go with him.

Yesterday, they asked if I would take a photo of all five of them, wearing their toolbelts, in front of the husband’s truck (he’s in the middle).

They want to get custom T-shirts made, too. I heard all their ideas yesterday. The boys make me laugh and I have to be careful when they are here working that I am not out there being a distraction. I try to keep cookies on hand for them. The tall one—he’s even taller than the 6’4” husband—likes to grow things. He works at the farmer’s market one evening a week and I gave him a flat of vegetable starts back in the spring.

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I made a muslin of this blouse pattern yesterday morning and I am extremely happy with it.

The pattern came from this Etsy shop. The pattern is solid. There was a small issue with the bust darts not being rendered correctly, but I had to move them down half an inch anyway so that problem was easily corrected. This is the first pattern I’ve made with back shoulder darts, and I do think they improve the fit. The sleeve cap was drafted well and went into the armscye without issues. This one and Simplicity 9469 will now be my two hackable blouse patterns.

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Today should be the last day of really hot weather. The high on Saturday is only supposed to be 80. I do hope this is the end of it because I am miserable and losing productive working time. Unfortunately, we’re supposed to get gusty winds this afternoon. We had another fire department call for a rogue campfire last night. People are idiots.

Susan says her Duchess of Oldenburg apples are just about ready. I think I am going to go up there early tomorrow and fill a couple of crates. One of the problems with canning is that food needs to be processed when it is ready, and that doesn’t always line up with free days in my schedule. If I don’t do apple pie filling this weekend, it’s going to be another ten days before I can get to it and I don’t want to wait that long.

I’m excited about my T-shirt class in Spokane next week. The group of us who got together for dinner with Nicole Sauce when she was passing through in July are getting together again while I am there (sans Nicole, who is back in Tennessee).