Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. It has been a cold, wet, rainy day. However, right now it is beautiful out and I am waiting to see what (if anything) we get for color in tonight’s sunset. The last two nights have been phenomenal. Time will tell. Here is two nights ago  

6/16

On the Pond

Carol here ~

We have a Momma Duck with six babies that has been traveling back and forth out front.  She is very protective, all I have to do is come up to the window and she ushers them out and away.

Kayaking

Carol here ~

We finally got a warm day with not much wind so took advantage of it and got out on the pond in the kayaks.

The water is still pretty cold so I'm wearing my boots as I need to get in the water to get into the kayak.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday again. The weather is still miserable and cold and is destined to stay that way a while longer. I think the ice is trying to melt but the progress is slow. 

Spring?

Carol here ~

Happy last day of March!  Yesterday was beautiful but I think that's all we're getting for warm temps for a while.  Sheesh, it seems like it's taking forever to get consistent spring temps.

The birds were enjoying yesterday's warmer temps as I was surrounded by birdsong when I went for my walk on the ridge.  I stopped to listen to them and could see them flitting about in the trees.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. We have returned to cooler weather with the next several says showing the full spectrum of spring weather. The forecast is for mostly on the cooler and snowy or wet side. Most of the snow is either gone or is disappearing fast. It is almost time to start wasting my time picking up the winter’s debris and beginning the cycle all over again soon. I’ll probably wait until it warms again.

The pond is changing every day. When we get a couple warmer days the water on the surface melts along with the ice along the sun-collecting edges of the pond. Now with the colder temps again, the ice is back to groaning and rumbling with those temperature changes. Many rumbles are accompanied with loud cracking as the ice complains about the changes. Here is the picture I took while making my kitchen sink soup for supper.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. It has been a very quiet week here at the pond. The weather warmed up a little and they are calling for relocatable snow Friday evening into Saturday. The very idea of it has me wicked excited. Almost as much as the dentist appointment I have tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully this is the last one for a while, a long while. Snow storm and dentist.

No color to tonight’s sunset, still pretty.

This is from later. I like the time lapse night shots better myself.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~


Apparently it’s Thursday again. Not a great deal has been happening around here. The weather is too cold to hold much interest for me to go outside to just “find” something to do. I did think about going out on Green Pond today. I looked out at the still virgin snow on the pond. No tracks of animals or anything. The neighbor up the pond has not been back since the storm that left about a foot of new whiteness on what he had previously cleared off for skating. I have only had fleeting thoughts of clearing off a portion of the pond. I wouldn’t be skating on it afterwards, so really, what is the point. Mud Pond is covered with snowmobile tracks. I thought of going out on Green Pond with snowshoes and making some tracks, maybe spelling something or drawing a picture or something. I then checked the temperature and the wind and looked out across the pond and was amazed at how wonderful it looked with no tracks all over it.

A Birthday

Carol here ~ 

Thanks to all of you that sent me birthday wishes for my birthday yesterday.  I don't pay any attention to the number but I am grateful I am still here and able to be fairly active most of the time.

Erin, Vanessa, Kailey and Jakob came over, Evan was already here as he had worked the previous night.  I didn't know they were coming over until just a few hours before they showed up.  

Vanessa, Me, Erin

Summer Fun

Carol here ~ 

Erin had to have her car in for service in Auburn yesterday so Parker followed her down, picked her up and they both came here.  Evan was already here because he worked the night before.

Erin and I got a kayak ride in, it was wicked hot!

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Been nice and at least partly sunny the last couple days. I like it much better than all the rain we had in the recent past. The heavy rains reminded me of a project that has been on the back burner for quite a while. 

When it rains, the water from the roof gutter on one side of the house leaves a track from the rip-rap down to the pond. I have not liked this since it began about three years after the project of the retaining wall etc. was done. 

I proceeded to remove the rocks and try and find the end as left by the landscaper. I finally found it way back at the edge of the dirt before the rip-rap even started.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~ 

Thursday evening. A beautiful day, not as warm as yesterday but at least not as windy.  

Ice Out

Carol here ~ 

Good Morning and Happy April!

The ice is just about gone.  What is left was blown down to our end yesterday as the wind blew all day.

I'm always surprised the first couple of mornings when I open the shades after ice out to see water.

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.

Lotsa Bindings

Carol here ~ 

I spent most of last week at my sewing machine making and stitching on bindings.

Here is the pile of quilts waiting for the binding to be hand sewn to the back. I guess those will keep me busy for a while.

Santa and Mrs Claus

Carol here ~ 

My sewing bud, Annie, was back again over the weekend.  She is continuing to sew 6" squares together practicing her 1/4" seam allowance.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. Today was a sloppy day. Pretty this evening though. 

It was snowing hard last evening and just starting to rain when I went to bed. By this morning most of the snow was gone and mostly slush remained. Carol and I had appointments to pick up new glasses this afternoon in Gray. I am still trying to see out of them. New progressive lenses seem to take awhile to find where the “sweet” spot is. Let’s just say, I haven’t found it yet. Time will tell.

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.

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.