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.

This week I walked 48.5 miles, bringing my total for 2021 to 653.1 miles. Hopefully, most of mud season is behind me and no more grippers required on my shoes until next winter. Now it is just rainy weather that can make walking not as much fun. It’s ok though because I now have 147 miles “in the bank” or in other words I could choose to not walk for 26 days before I would fall behind my scheduled goal. Must admit it did not seem like a realistic goal when I started but now … not so bad.

Making progress on latest quilt top but as I mentioned last time I guess I’ll reveal all at once. I will say that construction takes a lot longer when all parts and pieces must be assembled and not just pull a lot of blocks from scrap bins and build around them. 

Carol has stated that she is leery of letting me go to the heated storage facility where our fabric is currently being stored. Along with all the remaining bolts of fabric, it contains some rather large storage containers of small units, partially completed tops and orphan blocks. I think there are three more like this one.

I brought this one back and smuggled it upstairs a couple months back. This bin, along with a bunch of scraps from some of Carol’s recent projects have given me the inspiration and fodder for the current project. It was also the source of orphan blocks used in the last few projects.

It snowed last night and I just about froze bringing in the bird feeder, but lets hope that the bulk of that type of weather will be behind us soon. I’m anxious to figure out what will be planted where and what else is needed before summer gets here. Warmer weather will spur on those thoughts as it becomes a rush to beat the black flies, mosquitoes, horse flies etc. Maybe the cold is not all bad.

Still, spring projects need to be completed before summer gets here. We all know what will happen when summer gets here ~ the exact same thing as is happening now but we can wear less clothes doing it and complain about the heat instead of the cold.

Enjoy every day. Quilt a little every day, you don’t need to sew multiple hours every day like I do. A little bit every day, as long as the steps are carrying you forward, you will get there.

Remember, where ever you go, there you are, if I’m supposed to meet you there and you get there first, draw a blue line where we planned to meet. If I get there first, I’ll rub it out.