Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening, it has been way too windy for a fire. Way too windy for a skinny old man out there. There was a stretch today when I was turning my flowers sideways to the wind so they wouldn’t blow over that I had to bend over double to keep from blowing over myself. I’ll wait until tomorrow to rotate them back to where they belong. Here is my view of them for tonight.

Blueberries

Carol here ~

Dan and I headed out to Goss Berry Farm yesterday morning to pick some blueberries.

This and That

Carol here ~

I almost made it outside for patio binding yesterday.  We washed off the chairs and end tables  so they would be clean enough for a quilt to lay up against as we had not done that since they were brought out of storage.  But it ended up being way too windy, I couldn't keep my hair out of my face and the thread kept getting tangled.  Oh well.  Of course, I could of come inside to bind but decided a nap sounded much better .

I did finish up the binding on 2025-28 last week.

2025-28

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening, no fire tonight, raining out. Had a nice one last night, not cold out and no bugs. The good fire evenings will be harder and harder to come by as time goes on. Not much I can do about it, I’m still in denial that fall is here already. The leaves are changing fast and I’m seeing some of the oaks turning brown already. Oh boy, I’ll have something to do most days real quick besides sewing. Truth be told, I would prefer to sew most days. It still wears me out but I’m already inside where naps are taken. I wonder what age I was when I realized that naps were an OK thing. I predict some in the future as autumn takes its annual dump on us.

Hot!

Carol here ~ 

Holy hotness!  It's been way too hot for me to be outside so I decided to stay inside in the A/C and wash the outside of all the kitchen cupboards.  I was down most of last week with a cold so it felt good to be productive.

All this heat with no rain is making the water go down and the beach grow.  You can see the difference in the size of the beach from one day to the next.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday. Inside tonight because of the intense wind. There is no fire tonight as a result. I did refill the wood box today so it is all ready to go. The wind has caused a lot of pollen to fall and the edge of the pond is very yellowy. 

The wind also has caused the pine needles to fall with a vengeance. Today I blew them off the driveway again. If they are left they can divert water during a downpour and cause washouts. I would rather avoid that if possible. 

Plus it is very satisfying process seeing them blow away, leaving the ground bare.

Sunshine!

Carol here ~

Finally we have sunshine and warmth!

Sister Terri had grands Annie and Alex and neighbor Jeff had a gang in on Sunday.  The kids had a ball playing on the beach and swimming.  Too cold for me but they didn't seem to mind.

Dan and I have gotten a couple kayak rides in.  The black flies are relentless ~ pesky wee buggars.

Humanities Night

Carol here ~

We headed to Readfield last night to attend Humanities Night at Maranacook Community High School where grand Kailey's amazing artwork was displayed along with other artwork from other classes.  We also stayed to hear the Jazz Band and Concert Band in which she plays bass guitar.

I'm just going to do a photo dump of last night ~ enjoy!

Kailey's Art

Carol here ~

It sure has been nice to see sunshine the past couple of days!  It's been a little breezy but that's OK as it helps keep the black flies away.

We have had Gray Catbird and a Red Winged Blackbird visiting the feeder this week.  I got a pic of the Catbird but the Red Winged Blackbird is a bit more skittish.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. Not much going on around here. Today started out another wet rain/snowy day until cleared about noon. Wasn’t too bad after that though, still a bit chilly. As Carol told you, the ice is gone. I have not seen any fish yet, but there are several ducks out there fishing so I guess some still exist. Thankfully the ground is bare and hopefully will stay that way for a few months before we start the process all over again. More rain/snow etc. expected for Saturday and Sunday along with next Tuesday. Hopefully those storms will get the S word out of our forecasts. Who knows, time will tell.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday again, I guess. In my head it has been Saturday all day since I went to bed last night thinking it was Friday. 

We had our taste of “boy it’s nice to be able to go outside and not freeze” and back to “Damn if the wind isn’t howling and it isn’t back in the 30’s again.” Short spring. Is knew it was too good to last, but there is always hope. The weather people are talking about more snow and wet weather over the weekend and the first of next week. Good studio weather, as if I need an excuse to sew.

This week moving around with my eyes open, I spied a piece of tail. It looks to be from a red squirrel. My guess is it was no longer needed. 

Ugh, Still Cleaning

Carol here ~

I'm still cleaning so no quilts to show this time.  Whose idea was it to spring clean anyway?  It's exhausting.  I've got the bathroom done, the drawers and bottom cupboards in the kitchen done and most of the top cupboards before I ran out of steam yesterday.  Then I had a nap.

Sunday we went to Readfield to The Gallery to check out Kailey's artwork she had displayed there.  She is so talented.

This and That

Carol here ~ 

What a change in the weather temperature!  I have definitely had too many clothes on the last two days on my walks.  It was also nice to not have the wind howling in my face.  I have been pretty consistent with my walking this winter, have missed a day here and there when it was storming or the wind was crazy.  The fresh air always feels good.

The Bluebirds have been back at our feeders the last couple of weeks.  We think there are eight of them.  They do not like to have their picture taken, in fact, if they sense any movement at all by us in the house then they take off.  I did manage to get this one picture of a pair of them.

Proud Grandparents

Carol here ~

We are so proud of our two high school seniors, grands Parker and Kailey.  Parker will be continuing his education in the fall at Bates College in Lewiston and Kailey will be attending Maine College of Art and Design (MECA) in Portland.  So exciting!

Chickadee by Kailey

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday again, was cold this morning. I don’t know how cold, but cold enough that the leaves on the beach that I did not get picked up yesterday were frozen in place. I did the best that I could but unfortunately the enjoyment of raking and transporting the 109 loads up back into the woods will soon be transferred to snow shoveling. Nothing in the forecast, but remember, before I can relocate snow, I get the enjoyment of the process of removing the loader bucket from the tractor and attaching the snowblower. Not really difficult in theory, only in application. The first sentence of the directions states you must be able to easily lift 50 pounds. Therein lies the problem, that may be doable on a good day not necessarily true every day. I can only hope that when needed to happen it will be a good day.

While I was raking the multitude of leaves from the beach yesterday I found something rather strange. Well I guess not strange really, I just never saw one washed up on the beach. It was either a girls bathing suit top or a bra. It was green but I guess that doesn’t matter. There were a lot of leaves and I kept a real sharp eye out but never saw the rest of the girl.

What I've Been Doing

Carol here ~ 

I got the binding finished on quilt #15 the other day and got it washed yesterday.  Love the blue border on this one!

2024-15

And I discovered I must of skipped #14 so still have that one to do before I move on to #16.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. Another windy day with at least part of which I spent raking leaves on the beach. 

The total tractor bucket count to date is 39 counting the three from today. Most of today was spent doing errands. BJ’s and some groceries.

The Bluejays have been pigs at the feeder in the mornings. I only have a seed tray and some suet out now but the birds are loving it. The Bluebirds have been around some mornings and when I came home from errands I saw two Cardinals, a male and a female. The female took off right away but the male hung for a couple photos. 

 

Applesauce

Carol here ~ 

I made the first batch of applesauce with this year's apples the other day.  One container for Annie and Alex, one for Evan and one for us.  I will make quite a few batches in the next few months, some to eat now and some to freeze to eat throughout the year.  We just finished up the last container from last year.

Alex and Annie

Flowers

Carol here ~

We headed up to Young's Greenhouse in South Paris yesterday to get our first batch of flowers.  Dan fills the boxes that go on the edge of the retaining wall with Sunpatiens ~ forty of them! 

Go Away Rain!

Carol here ~ 

Ugh, this rain, it doesn't quit! The water is up to the top of the bottom step on the steps to the beach. (or what should be the beach)

Probably higher this morning after yesterday's and last night's rain.

My sister's grandson, Alex, wanted to know where the beach was. I think it's going to be a while before we have one bud.