Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening, a nice sunny, chilly day. Carol said it was foggy when she climbed out of bed. (It was fine by the time I got up) We took my truck to the shop yesterday afternoon so I did not have to get it in there first thing this morning. I’m not a real big fan of early morning. I try to let the day get started on it’s own and stay out of the way. It seems to work ok that way.

I have still been working on the driveway. I made up a screen today and screened out some of the larger stones from the gravel. I’m going to want the stone to fill a hole I’ll be creating for drainage down at the bottom of the hill. I am using the finer gravel to “top off” and cover the stones from the other loads. The snowblower will appreciate it come winter. The smaller gravel also helps level out the small ruts. Time will tell how it works out.

Yesterday I entertained myself with collecting snails from the pond. I may have mentioned earlier, unfortunately Green Pond is infested with Chinese mystery snails. I noticed when Carol and I went out in the kayaks yesterday that they were very plentiful. I put on my waders and proceeded to collect some. I use a long net and scoop them off the bottom. 

I proceeded to collect a full sheetrock bucket of the things.

Great, now collected I needed to dispose of the dang things. My normal method of disposal is to burn them up. I got a good fire going, getting rid of a lot of collected sticks and scraps of paper. I then started to dump in the snails a few at a time. The idea was a good one and progress was being made eliminating the snails. Add a few snails, build the fire back up, repeat. It was working well until on the dump in some snails phase the handle broke off the bucket and emptied about half of what I had left. This was way too many so the build the fire back up step was lengthened considerably. No harm done, eventually all the snails were in the fire and a hot fire built over them. They sizzled and popped and I doubt any survived. The best I can figure out, is they were brought in by the ducks but unfortunately they can’t keep up with eating them all. This is the second big batch I have pulled this summer. Didn’t really make a dent in them though. A diver would be a good collection method. Waders are the best I can do.

In the studio I am still working on quilt #46 for 2026. The center part is done and I am now working on making the top ‘unsquare” This will require borders top and bottom but not on the sides. Design complete and am now working on piecing those borders. Here is what I have so far.

2026-46

More of the story about the truck that we took in yesterday for repairs ~ they said it would be ready late afternoon today. We decided that we would go into town and have an early supper and pick up the truck. While we were eating, I got a call from the garage saying the truck would not be ready until Friday. Now we will need to go into Auburn again to get the dang thing tomorrow. Supper wasn’t even that good.

Time will tell what we get regarding the Nor’easter they have forecast for Saturday through Monday. We could get lots of rain and high winds. Hopefully my new road holds up ok. More driving on it would have been nice before heavy rain. Like the song says, “you can’t always get what you want”. Fingers crossed. I wonder how many times I go check and how wet I get checking it during the storm.

Stay safe and hopefully none of us wash away in the storm. I’ll do my best to hold on to something so I don’t blow away.

Stay safe and hopefully none of us wash away in the storm. I’ll do my best to hold on to something so I don’t blow away.