Dan's Ramblings

Dan here, Thursday evening. 

Another week gone, at this rate spring will be here before you know it. Snow in the forecast though, hyped up big time when they first started talking about it. “Major storm could be several feet of snow”. Now that the day of the storm is almost upon us, snow amounts have been reduced to 4-6 inches. Not complaining, gone are the days when I lived where snow was welcomed, because with the snow came money. Money in the form of skiers, hikers, snow snowshoers, snowmobile riders and others who played in the snow. This meant there was snow to be removed, (and were paid to do so) camps and second homes to be brought up to temperature and water turned on and made playable for the timeframe that the players were to be in Rangeley.

Kinda miss those days. Now I only hope we get enough snow to replenish the water table and prepare us for a safe summer and hopefully a full pond in the spring. Now, snow is just something to relocate and try to remember what it was like when I was younger.

More Quilting

Carol here ~

I have been getting quite a bit of quilting done. I finished up the binding on DOUBLE TROUBLE so that one is completely done. I love this quilt!  Probably because it has so many fabrics in it that we carried in the quilt shop. 

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here…again. Sunday evening. It has occurred. I have gotten old and worthless. I knew I would reach my useful end eventually, but like most doers I was in hopes I would get hit by a bus first. One problem with living in the boonies… no busses.

Carol has wanted a show quilt of ours hung on a vaulted type ceiling in the living room.

I use the term living room loosely as it is also the kitchen, dining room and the pantry, but for the purposes of this blog, living room works. Anyway, as soon as she saw what the carpenter was creating as he closed in part of the upstairs during construction, she said,”that would be the perfect place for “Spotlight on the Stars” to hang.”

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

The precipitation we had on Monday is over and what a mess it was. First we received 7-8 inches of snow, nice and light and fluffy. Then it started to rain and rain and rain. Snow settled down to about 4 or 5 inches and then turned to concrete. Road and yard is extremely crunchy. Headed for the deep freeze again, meaning it will stay that way for a while. 

Due to circumstances beyond my control, the area around the house and lower end of the driveway did not get plowed until Tuesday morning ~ long after the snow and slush was completely frozen. As I am now at the mercy of the Plow Dude to show up and clear the snow, I have to deal with the clean up after it happens. It is what it is.

The Weekend

Carol here ~

Our neighbors up the pond got a bit of ice skating in on Friday. It was fun watching them. Looked like they were having a great time.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here, Thursday evening. Beautiful day today, chilly but not like the last couple days. Earlier this week we saw a neighbor up the pond out shoveling on the ice for a place to skate. 

This and That

Carol here ~

I finished up the quilting on DOUBLE TROUBLE over the weekend. It came out good, I really like the quilting design. I snapped this picture yesterday morning as the sun was coming through the window. It really shows the texture of the quilting.

I then got the binding ready and stitched it to the front of the quilt.

Mt Bumpy

Dan here Sunday evening. Stormy day today, supposed to get real cold tomorrow and the next few days. Oh well it is winter, whatever.

When I was a youngster ~it was long before video games and the like ~ summer and winter us kids were encouraged to spend our time outside and come in for meals. In the winter a snow drift would develop behind the barn. Some years it would get 6-8 feet tall and would be 25’ or more long. I used to like to tunnel in it. Digging into it then branching out both ways to hollow out the snow drift. I would play in it by the hours. Fast forward many, many years and I was again allowed to play in a wind driven snow pile. Only in my later years I got to create the snow drift with my tractor and snowblower.

Double Trouble

Carol here ~

DOUBLE TROUBLE and ORDER IN CHAOS were the first two scrappy quilts that Dan pieced, probably in late 2018, thus beginning his obsession with scrappy quilts. CHAOS got quilted but DOUBLE TROUBLE never did so this week I got it loaded on Lena Longarm.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here, Tuesday evening. Can you believe it ~ Christmas is over, New Year’s is over and 2022 is off and running.

Not much is going on here at the pond. The area on the pond that I cleared of snow now looks much like the rest of the pond. The rain and warm weather melted all the snow except for the snow piles I created when I shoveled. It would be a fun ride on the pond with an iceboat right now. I doubt the conditions on the pond will remain the same very long. Warm weather and rain tomorrow and snow on Friday.

Sunrise

Whatever, as I’ve said before, if it rains it will run off or soak in. If it snows I will relocate as necessary. It is winter in Maine.