Dan's Ramblings

Dan here, Sunday evening, no fire this evening. My body is still getting used to the sudden drop in temperatures. Much colder on my walk today. Only walked a little over 4 miles. Enough to reach my mini goal of 5000 steps and stopped at just over 12000 steps. Last Wednesday my fitness watch hit the milestone of 550 days. This means that I have made my goal of 5000 steps for 550 days. Actually I have made it for a lot longer than that, this marks the day I reset my goal from 10000 down to 5000. This was also the day I broke my collar bone and further messed up my shoulders in the great sledding debacle of 2020. I haven’t been the same since. That 550 days represents a lot of miles walked. Since December 31, 2020 I have walked 1514 miles, not bad for an old dude. This was as of last Thursday, with 19 weeks left of this year that means I only need to walk about 26 miles a week to get to my goal of 2021 miles for the year. Still thinking I’ll make it, we’ll see.

Pretty calm out this evening, probably should have had a fire. 

On the Pond

Carol here ~

I managed to get a kayak ride in earlier this week. I counted sixteen turtles as I paddled around the pond. This little guy made me laugh. He jumped off the log he was on when he saw me coming and tried to hide in the hollowed out log under water. He kept poking his head out to see if I was still there ~ probably could of reached my hand in and caught him a couple of times.

Can you see him?

Dan's Ramblings/What's In My Pocket?

Dan here, from the fire pit Tuesday evening, the sun has set, and Carol has gone to bed. The evening is dead calm, a very pleasant end to a beautiful day. It was a busy day. Walked about 6 miles, did my watering chores and went for a ride on the trike. Went and found some apples, carrots, beets, corn, some string beans and some beans for baking. Also picked up some filet mignon for supper, overall a good day. 

This and That

Carol here ~

Vanessa, Kailey and Jakob came over on Friday. We had a lazy afternoon sitting under the awning on the patio. The kids swam and Vanessa even went in for a bit of floating.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here, Thursday night, no fire this evening. Raining out there and everything is wet. Oh well, I suppose I don’t need to sit out there every night. No audio book tonight anyway.

Had a beautiful sunset last night 

Not much happening tonight though. It was actually a very quiet week. My walks were a little off this week. There always seemed to be an excuse to not walk enough to make my ultimate daily goal of 5.5 miles.

More Visitors!

Carol here ~

Yesterday, friends Michelle and Stephen rolled in on their motorcycle for a visit! They are RVing, staying in Scarborough, and cruising the back roads of Maine on their bike. We enjoyed lunch at the picnic table and a relaxing afternoon on the front patio, chatting and catching up. It was a beautiful day, not a ripple on the pond. So good to see them!

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here, Sunday evening, still waiting to see if the wind dies down enough for a fire. I’ll give it another hour then will head up to the studio. Would rather sit by the fire for a couple hours first. Guess I was not given a vote of when the wind dies down, or else I would have said by 6:00. Good time to be calm ~ good time to be heading outside for the evening. The winds are dying so guess by the time I’m through rambling it will be calm enough for a fire, albeit a bit chilly out.

Not been much going on here, we have pretty much hunkered down again, going out when we need to, otherwise staying close to home. My walking challenge continues. At the end of last week on Thursday I was at 1441 miles since 12/31/2020. I haven’t done the math to see if I’ll make it to 2021 by 12/31/21, time will tell. When I checked on Thursday, since 8/19/2020 I have walked 2174 miles, I’ll take it. 

Scary though when you think about it. I walk between 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 miles per hour. 2174 miles represents 290 hours if I use an average 2-3/4 mph, 2174 miles means I spent about 790 hours or about 33 full days walking. No wonder I’m always tired.

Rangeley Quilt Camp

Carol here ~

As some of you might remember, we passed on our Annual Quilt Camp event to our good friend Michael Hiatt of Sew On The Go when we retired from Threads Galore Quilt Shop. Fall Quilt Camp is coming right up and she has two spots that have opened up. If you are interested she needs to hear from you by August 15th. Fall Quilt Camp was always our best weekend of the year!

Two Spots open in Fall Quilt Camp! Wednesday, October 13th - Sunday, October 17th.

Therefore, there are two quilter spots open, for any one that may be interested. First come basis. If you are interested, please complete the online Registration form ASAP.

This retreat is for 5 days/4 nights and is limited to 24 retreaters. Please note that all safety measures are being taken.

Our rooming list is due by August 15th, so we will need to cut off sign-ups at that time. So, don't waste any time!

For more information and to sign-up: https://forms.gle/nWv3ZuqxyZb5vHW5

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here, Tuesday evening, by the fire. Little bit of a breeze, hopefully enough to keep the skeeters away.

There are two Loons still out on the pond fishing. I was thinking earlier that they must eat whatever they get before they come up, because I never see them eating anything. With the amount of times they dive down I hope they are catching something, but if they were to catch something every time, where do they put it all? And while we are on the topic, when the fish eating ducks are on the pond what is their success ratio of catches to dives? If they are 50% successful, how are there any fish left in the pond? Just little things I wonder about while I go through my busy days.

A Busy Weekend

Carol here ~

We had a busy weekend. Granddaughter Kailey was here for a couple of nights ~ I even swam with her yesterday. Well, sort of. I got wet and sat on a floaty for a bit.

Kailey has an orthodontist appointment this morning so am meeting Vanessa there to drop her off then going to my PT appointment.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here, was a rainy afternoon but cleared nicely after supper. I dried off my chair and table and got a fire lit then it clouded in black as can be again. I hope I don’t get rained out real quick. So at least for now coming to you from the fire. 

We have pulled three dead big sucker fish, with their round mouths, out of the pond. We have also had a couple bass float up to shore. I won’t do pictures. We know that there are big snapping turtles in the pond. We see them fairly regularly as they come up for air and to sniff around. Each time when I left the fish at the water’s edge, the snappy would sniff it out before the evening was over. Tonight I found another sucker about 16” - 18” long. I have been trying to keep an eye on it, missed Mr. Snappy when he was close to shore. I did see where he dragged the fish out into deeper water and was slowly devouring it. And then it was gone. I thought it was cool but maybe that’s a guy thing.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Carol here ~

Yup, today is my birthday. The best part of today is no trip to the oncologist ~ I get a week off from treatment! I am now having one injection every other week and the second injection three weeks on, one week off. They just happen to coincide with each other. I’ve had a rough couple of weeks so hoping this off week gets my feet back under me again.

Dan took off on the trike for a ride yesterday so I grabbed a quilt from the “to be bound” pile and sat out front on the patio stitching the binding down. I believe this quilt is Rona 8, one of the smaller of his Rona quilts. 

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here coming to you fireside Sunday evening. 

The weather man has been postponing the rain all day, first they said rain by 5:00, then later. Now they are saying 9:00 before it gets here. So I said to myself “might just as well have a fire until I get rained out”. I knew it was me cause I was outside all alone and besides I recognized my voice.