Dan's Ramblings

Dan here, 

Thursday evening, no fire as we got home from Parker’s soccer game after dark. They played a good game but they lost this one 3-2. Possibly heading to Rangeley on Saturday for the next game. We’ll see, time will tell. There are games in Rangeley Saturday and Monday, we may only make it up to one though.

We saw many leaves starting to change in our travels up to Waterville today. Mostly along the interstate where it is wet. The season is changing every day, I notice the nights are getting chillier. Some nights it is a struggle to not freeze to death getting into bed.

Remember Carol goes to bed long before me and with the fan in the window running for 3-4 hours before I go to bed the transition to bedtime can be very awakening. Glad to have the electric blanket to aid in the process. I remember as a kid there was no heat on the second floor at my folks house. I would crawl into bed and curl into the fetal position and then after feeling warmer there to ever so slowly begin to straighten out to warm more of the bed. No electric blanket in those days, just a small bed and lots of blankets. Seems I remember a few wool quilts. (I still have one or two ). Wool quilts with heavy fabric backing and of course tied, not quilted.

The flower boxes are hanging on although they are showing signs of age. The watering and fertilizing this year was challenging to say the least. Never knowing how much watering we had for rain or it having rained on my normal schedule of fertilizing on Sundays. I am still picking a few of my tiny tomatoes for Carol along with a few pole beans every couple days to add to our nightly string beans. String beans are pretty much a staple in this house the entire time they are in season. Unfortunately that won’t be around for too much longer.

The tractor is still out for repairs so I have been working under the house. The picture was taken as I began the process. 

 

I have permanently set the sump basin in stone since then. Now I’m leveling out the dirt and removing some more in order to place plastic in an attempt to try and seal off some of the moisture. I am putting down sheets of plastic and sealing the seams then most will covered with 2-4 inches of stone. Hopefully this would keep the crawl space dry even during a high water year. Then I will put my 1/2” pressure treated plywood 2 x 8 sheets back down in the areas where I may need to crawl. With the beach as large as it is now it seems unlikely water could be an issue. The water would need to rise about 16” vertically to get there. It could happen, you got it, time will tell. 

Tried to take a picture of the beach out the window with the light on. It came out a little weird but you can see how big the beach is. 

In the studio, where I would much rather be than in the crawl space, I am working on #23 for 2024. That’s right, I finished #22 for 2024 a couple nights ago. As I mentioned last time, I created the top from 2 blocks. A star block and a chain block. 

2024-24

 Careful placement of the blue fabric gave me my pop of color I was looking for. Blocks are 7-1/2” finished and I again limited myself to polka dot fabrics. I thought that the addition of the blue balls added an interesting pop.

#23 is being made of a repeating star block in a variety of colors with a limited number of backgrounds. This one will again be all polka dots. I will be adding sashing strips and corner stones to further add interest and lengthen the construction process time.

The weather for the weekend is supposed to be dry, seasonal weather. Warm days and cool nights. Remember it is the middle of September, enjoy the nice days when we get them. But remember, there may only be 6 to 7 weeks left before real cold weather is upon us. I need to have all projects completed before then. Do you have some you need to remember to do?

Stay safe and enjoy your weekend. I will try to do the same.