Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday, a nice cloudy calm day. Not too cold, not too hot. I used up the last of the gravel that had been delivered for me to use as I rebuild the driveway. That makes 20 yards I have spread so far. I have 12 more on order that hopefully arrives before too long. Hopefully that will be enough. Time will tell if it causes the water to do what I intended. 

I have enlarged ditches and created new ones as I strive to get the water to not run down the road. Sitting under the heating pad currently. It is supposed to rain tonight and maybe tomorrow so I might get to see what happens before I spread more gravel.

Not much else going on around here, my brother Greg stopped by yesterday for a visit. We set out front and I brought him up to date on some of the changes around the pond. A lot of years have gone by but much is still the same. 

Greg and Dan

In the studio I have completed quilt #45 for 2026. 

2026-45

As I think I mentioned last time this top is made up of stacking squares. There are a lot of time consuming steps in their construction but they use up a lot of small pieces and for me at least they are kind of addicting. The outer two times around for the 6” and 8” and 12” use up many larger pieces and strips off the scraps and half yard cuts that still are abundant here in the studio.

For #45, I took the 8” stacked square blocks and framed them to 10” then used a 2-1/2” sashing. I then proceeded to play with the sashing to keep the blocks happy and feel needed. The red pops were done with my Corner Pop III at 7 and the blue stars were done with Corner Pop II at 2-1/2. I used these in an alternate pattern and the Square Squared corner stones finished out the look I was striving for. The blue was cut from the length of fabric instead of across so the stripes would not be an issue. (Carol’s idea) I was pleased with the results. 

Clean up continues now and many more 6” and 8” stacked square blocks are being created. I have a couple ideas bouncing around in my head of what I will try next to use them up. I do have one idea I am leaning towards but still have a couple details I haven’t worked out yet. I think I can figure it out.

It is too early for a sunset but last night’s was pretty nice. 

I had a rare fire last night and emptied a barrel of sticks and twigs. I also got rid of much of the paper and light weight boxes that was taking up space in the shed.

As I mentioned earlier, it is supposed to rain this evening so I’ll be in the studio not in front of the fire.

The latest weather I saw showed sunny /partly cloudy with temps in the 60s by day and 40s during the overnight. Still scary that it does not show any rain after tonight’s showers. That will not help the dry conditions we are experiencing. When I was digging the trenches, even right after it had rained for several hours, the soil was only damp down to about 3/4 of an inch. Mostly dust below that. Part of the reason for few fires. The other reason is the reduced size of the woodpile. I’m sure we’ll get rain sometime just like I’m sure the woodpile will grow. I have a few cord of seasoned hardwood I may try to sell. It is probably split finer than most want but you never know. It would be great for a small wood stove or a cook stove. If it doesn’t sell I can always throw it in the fire next summer.

There are very few birds coming around now. I guess the chipping sparrows that we had in abundance have migrated and I guess the gold finches we saw so many of are breeding and being busy elsewhere as they like to feed there young thistle seed.  Yesterday, while sitting out front with Greg there were several hummingbirds around. I think “ours” have left and these were passing through. Hopefully we get the birds back again, be a lot cheaper if the don’t.

So enjoy the cooler fall weather and stay safe. I haven’t seen a black fly in days.