Visitors!

Carol here ~

We had visitors on Wednesday! Friends Jano from Eustis and Laurel from Carrabassett Valley stopped by as they were out and about participating in the State of Maine Quilt Shop Hop. We had a lovely lunch at the picnic table by the pond as we caught up on each other’s lives. It sounds like Jano is giving Dan some competition in the number of quilts finished during the past year.

Jano, Me, Laurel

The best part was ~ HUGS! It’s been so long since we have been able hug someone we care about. Plans were made for a summer visit from them and a couple of other friends from Rangeley ~ hopefully a hot summer day we can spend on the pond.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here, all is well here on the pond. Monday was quite chilly and breezy. Well not really breezy, it was down right windy. Even Winnie the Pooh would have thought it was more than blustery. The wind the last couple of days have blown a decent amount of debris to clean off the beach. Again.

Might get to it later today. Or not, time will tell.

I walked around the pond yesterday with daughter Erin. 

 We found a few Mayflowers on our journey. 

I'm Still Alive

Carol here ~

Just a short post so you all know I'm still alive...

This past Friday, Vanessa, Kailey and Jakob came for a visit. While they were here, Erin, Evan and Parker stopped by on their way to Portland. The last time all four grands were together was at our garage Christmas at Vanessa’s house. It was great to see them all. Before they left we had sister Terri snap a photo of us all. The wind was howling but why am I the only one with messy hair?

L-R Parker, Evan, Erin, Dan, Carol, Vanessa, Jakob, Kailey

Thank you to all of you that have sent well wishes on my back situation. It is slowly improving but I still can’t do much. I’m bored. And impatient. This is my new favorite mug…..I’m almost at the hissie fit stage.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here again, sick of me yet? Been asking Carol that about every day for over 50 years. Still here so I guess she ain’t yet, although I’m sure some days she was close to being. She is still under the weather and not up to doing much of anything. You probably figured out that anyway, what with me rambling away again.

I had to take my truck for service yesterday, seems the car dealerships get slower every time I go. I was only at the dealers for an hour and a half but it seems that after my walk the day was done. Yesterday, being Thursday, means another week of 2021 is in the books. This week completed week 15 of the year. 

This week just completed was my worst all year as far as my totals. That said, I still managed to walk 4.9 miles more than the 38.9 needed to be on schedule. Being on schedule is becoming almost comical, I currently have almost 162 miles saved up by walking well over that needed to be on schedule.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan again, I write this on Tuesday evening. I am no longer off my feed, I just can’t seem to get a good rhythm going the last few days.

Carol, however, is off her feed, under the weather, laid out flat or hobbling with a wheeled walker. Painful to watch but I bet a lot worse for her. Somehow she has “put her back out.” In my opinion, a very painful situation.

This happened several days ago. Probably why my rhythm has been off. She has no idea what is going on with it or how she did it. There are many “normal” everyday things that Carol does. Making the bed, changing towels and doing laundry, keeping the kitchen cleaned up and on and on ~ I’m sure many jobs I’m not even aware of. Many of these things she does as I spend a chunk of every day walking.

Nessa's Chicken

Dan here ~

Hi, Dan again, I have been off my feed the last couple days. Isn’t that what the old timers said if they were a little under the weather, they were off their feed? I don’t really know but that’s what I’ve been told anyway. After two days of barely getting beyond my 5000 step goal, Sunday found me back on track again with a day over 25000 steps. Lets see how the week goes.

Some of you may know that these days I do almost all the cooking and grocery shopping at our house. Pre-covid, Carol would go to the store and if she had a list, she would get what was on the list.. nothing else. What is with that? The grocery store is where meal ideas begin, where you see something and read the labels and see what goes with it and think about how it could modified to be something we would actually eat. 

Well, maybe that is how I used to shop, no more, I now shop from a list as well. Any daydreaming about meal planning has to be done online and then items placed on the grocery list to get local. Different process, different experience.

The Woodpile

Dan here ~

Me again, glad you’re back to read my rambling. My walking has been off this week I ended up with just under 46 miles for the week. This brings my year to just under 750 miles walked since December 31, 2020.

I have been raking and cleaning brush up by the septic system and relocating my woodpile. Why would anybody relocate their woodpile you ask?

This and That

Carol here ~

Well, I haven’t accomplished much of anything this week. My back is acting up. Again. It always seems when I can’t bend that everything I touch I either drop or spill.

This is the mess Dan got up to yesterday morning ~ yep, my oatmeal all over the floor.

I have managed to get my minimum number of steps by walking around the house or around the driveway, not much fun though.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

The weather has been lovely, lets hope it continues. Over the weekend Carol and I went to our oldest daughter Vanessa’s family and had a nice outdoor visit. We watched grandson Jakob shoot his arrows and use his BB gun at the target in the driveway.

Vanessa made home made pizzas that her husband, Lucas, cooked up in his propane pizza oven. 

All was quite tasty.

This and That

Carol here ~

Daughter Erin had an appointment earlier this week in Freeport. I met up with her after her appointment for a walk and talk around town. My hair is a mess ~ can you tell it was windy?

I finished up the quilting on Rona 7. 

Rona 15

Dan here ~

Good Morning, all is well here on the pond. The ice is all gone and the ever present wind daily brings a new supply of stuff to clean up from the beach. 

Saw the eagle flying over yesterday morning, always fun to see.

I guess they are still Rona quilts although I have begun to view them as my “Can I use up my stash?” series. The Rona quilts then become part of that whole group of original, scrap quilts.

I guess this one is Rona 15. I think I’ll also call this one “Dash for the Stars”. Hopefully you’ll know why a little later.

As I mentioned before, I decided that I would throw something together based on the brighter fabrics that Carol had used on several of her recent projects and had ended up in my get rid of pile. 

Plan B

Carol here ~

We were suppose to go to our daughter Vanessa’s yesterday for homemade pizza’s in their outside pizza oven and cake to celebrate Vanessa’s birthday (the 7th) and Dan’s birthday (the 17th). Unfortunately, both Kailey and Jakob’s schools have gone to remote for this week because of COVID cases so…..we went with Plan B. We decided to postpone until this coming Sunday. I was so looking forward to seeing them all…..

Kailey & Jakob

We almost had to go to Plan C. Dan put a pork loin in the crockpot. He decided to wait until 1:00-ish to turn it on. We went for a walk and while we were walking he said he forgot to turn the crockpot on. It was 1:30 at this point. That’s OK said I, I’m doing the short walk today so I will turn it on when I get back. Well, between the driveway and the kitchen I totally spaced it. My back was hurting so I went upstairs to sit in the recliner for a bit then started puttering with Lena Longarm.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Good Morning.

The ice is almost out. I don’t really know when technically it is considered gone. Carol and I are new to being here during this time of the year. I know in Rangeley, Rangeley Lake is considered out when you can navigate by boat from Greenvale Cove to the Oquossoc dam. By that same justification I would think that to be considered out I would need to launch a boat from one beach and land it on the beach on the other end. We are almost there. Only large chunks ice exist right out in front of our place. 

Green Pond

Another day should do it. Then Carol will want her kayak out from under the porch. 

Mud or Mirror pond, the other pond across the driveway here at the house still has 150 yards of ice on the far end, so I would think another day or so as well. 

Mud/Mirror Pond

Then if memory serves me correctly the breeze off the ponds will not be so cold.

Walking continues, having just lived through another Thursday (this year started on Thursday) it means that another week is in the books for 2021.