Brenda's Blog
Entry 20 - December 20
Weather continues to be changeable but
for now it is bright and sunny. The freezing fog from this
morning coated everything with a frosty white layer so it is very
pretty outside. At this point it is a guess as to whether we will
enjoy a white Christmas or not.
I have been busy finishing commissions,
new designs and personal projects. Not only did I get the blanket
done but also the large needlepoint and some scarf projects as
well. I recalculated the time spent to make the blanket and it is
actually closer to 300 hours for the complete project and it fits the
king sized bed. I plan on doing a few more scarves over the next
week or two as well as dig into the pile of unfinished projects and get
to work on finishing something else. It is rewarding to tidy up
unfinished items and I hope to clean up that pile this winter.
I've included photos of those projects below.
There have been ups and downs over the past couple of months
but other that working on various projects, a very quiet life. We
did find a place somewhat local to roller skate so one a month we have
been enjoying one of our favorite activities again. There has
been a change for the magazine article, two bead designers will be
featured in the 2015 issues so the only thing I need to do for that is
edit their work. We have no special plans for the Christmas break
but will be visiting with family and friends.
This month Arianna will be applying to universities and we all
are hoping that she gets her first pick. She is happy that she
has chosen a career path and happy with her choice. She mentioned
that some of her friends still don't know what they will be
doing. She has been working very hard and has super grades to
reflect how hard she has been working. She is also volunteering
with a local organization to help out in their second hand store.
So far she is enjoying the experience.
I am happy life is quiet. It gives me more time to work on various projects. I would like to wish you all the best of the season. A very merry Christmas and an even better New Year.
Brenda
Entry 19 - October 24
We are not seriously into fall with freezing temperatures
overnight and cooler days. There have been some very gusty, house
shaking winds that make me think that winter, which is just around the
corner, could be a nasty one. Rag weed season burned itself out
this year and relief came before the frost but at least it is over and
Kodi is back to being playful again.
I continue to work on some larger projects in my spare time and
they are still not finished so again nothing to photograph however, a
customer sent me a jpg of a recently finished afghan using the dog sled
design and it is stunning.
It was a huge amount of work but I think the results are
wonderful. I don't like intarsia knitting well enough to tackle a
project like this one. It was enough just to do up the design
twice. Once as a cross stitch pattern and again as a knitting
pattern. I have a lot of respect for someone who would not only
tackle such a complex piece but also stick to it and finish it.
Congratulation Ginger!
As for those personal projects; I continue to work on the woven
blanket. I finished all 320 four inch squares and then put four
together so that I had 80 squares. I then did a single crochet
edging around all the squares. Once that was done, I connected
all the squares together to make the blanket. I am now in the
process of crocheting a lace edge around the blanket. It took
around 400 hours to get to this point. I started last winter and
I hope to finish before Christmas. I am also back to stitching
the very large, Oriental needlepoint. It is coming along nicely
and another project that has been in the works for some time.
Another one I hope to finish before the New Year. I am planning
on working on 'unfinished' projects throughout the fall and winter, in
my spare time and hopefully tidy up most, if not all of them.
Once that is done, I have lots of other potential projects to fill my
time.
The latest project for the magazine has been completed and I'm
looking at the spring project at this time. There are a bunch of
ideas kicking around for possibilities but I think I've settled on one
and now have to make the model and do up the instructions.
Fortunately it is a smaller project so won't take as much time.
All commissions have been completed so I am working on the backlog of
photos and requests. I also squeeze in some painting when I am up
for it.
Other than work and personal projects, there really isn't much
new or exciting to write about so this is a short entry.
Hopefully next month will bring something new to my blog. In the
mean time, enjoy the season and your stitching!
Brenda
Entry 18 - September 17
Fall is in the air with a definite
threat of frost overnight. I look forward to this time of year and
the cooler days and even colder nights. Partially because it can
give relief to my poor ragweed allergic dog but also because the
trees are turning, which adds colour to the scenery and a wonderful
spicy scent to the air. Every season seems to have its own special
set of attributes for the senses. The world we live in is truly a
gift from God.
I have been working an various
personal
projects, most of which are not finished so not much to photograph. I
did finally finish the painting of the peony and I did finish
weaving a bathroom mat for a wedding present but forgot to photograph
it. I will continue to work on the blanket, more paintings, knitting
and stitching and try to remember to photograph them as they are
completed. For my
'job' work, I currently have a few commissions as well as design
requests on the go and with a show coming up I will be putting together
some class kits and packing up for that. I also need to tidy up
the instructions for the magazine project, which means the rest of
this month will be super busy.
As for the wedding, it was lovely. They even managed to get the '57
Chevy finished enough that, as Glenn
would say, it got it's five minutes of fame. I photographed those
involved with fixing it up for the wedding. Since I'm running the
camera, you won't see me in the photo but Glenn, his brother,
parents, nephew and girlfriend as well as Ari are in the photo. It
was a beautiful day and since the wedding was held outside, that
was a bonus. I did struggle at the reception because it took them
more than two hours to serve the meal. Normally I don't eat after
7:00 pm but had to make an exception to my rule. Although they
started the meal shortly after 6:00 pm, it was after 8:00 by the time
they began serving the main course. The food was very good and also
hot so no complaints about that. I would have been more comfortable
with better timed food service.
As busy as my month is, Glenn asked
for
help to prepare the roof on his parents' house for steel tiles. It
appears that the shingles were ready to be replaced and after some
water in the house during a heavy downpour, we worked on getting
it far enough along to stop the water from coming in during the next
rain storm. Now that Glenn's brother is back from his holiday, he
and Glenn will be finishing the job of putting a new roof on the
house. He has not requested more help from me . . . whew. The
roof does not
have a steep pitch and the house is only a raised bungalow so not
that high off the ground but I was still uncomfortable when I was
working at the peak of the roof. I think the worst moments for me
was when Glenn appeared to slip or lose his footing although he never
actually did. Years ago I watched him fall about eight feet when an
extension ladder separated out from under him. He didn't break
anything but the fall did give him a nasty sprained ankle that took
years to fully heal. I told him then not to ever do that again. I
was not up for a repeat performance in any way.
Canadian Thanksgiving is in October
so
once I'm finished with my show, that will be the biggest priority for
my spare time. I will be organizing my family's get-together this
year. I'm going to keep it simple and call it 'pot luck'. After
Thanksgiving, we start thinking about Christmas. This year my family
will be celebrating at my sister's new place. I guess it is time to
work on figuring out those Christmas gifts that I either need to make
or to purchase.
Wishing all a wonderful fall and
hopes
for finishing your Christmas stitching in good time.
Brenda
Entry 17 - August 21
Summer seems to bring along what I call 'silly season' in the
automotive hobby world and best laid plans can change and adapt to fit
the crazy schedule silly season creates. This year was no
different than any other year except that we were working on holiday
plans. Normally summer is all about work and no time for holidays.
Arianna
was spending five weeks in Quebec for a French immersion course and
since we were driving her out and picking her up, and also half way to
New Brunswick we decided that after picking her up we would then
continue on our way to New Brunswick to visit with family and grab a
short holiday. Glenn didn't want to stay in motels so he thought
about building a tent trailer. Time quickly ran out for that
project and I decided it was time to look for alternatives. Even
if we built a tent trailer, we would have to make a tent so we found an
older tent trailer that needed a new tent and purchased that. It
was certainly more work than we had planned so after the day job,
evenings and what time we could scrape out of weekends was spent fixing
up the slightly neglected, old tired tent trailer. We did manage
to get it done in time to pick Ari up in Quebec and continue on our way
to New Brunswick but . . . just . . . with no windows in the ends
of the trailer because we didn't have time to sew them in. We
left at 10:30 pm the night before we were to pick her up after about 3
weeks of working late nights and early mornings and weekends as well as
being on our feet most of that time. The good thing about a long
drive is that you don't have to do it on your feet. We finally
ran out of steam near the Quebec border around 2:30 am and grabbed a
nap. Well at least Glenn got a nap. I didn't mention that Kodi,
the dog who hates to travel in a vehicle was going along on this
trip. He gets somewhat anxious in vehicles and sat in the seat
behind my head, heavily panting while I was curled up in a reclined
bucket trying to sleep. Since I'm a light sleeper and he decided
that transport trucks were scary, neither Kodi nor I got any
sleep. We did manage to pick Ari up on time and headed off to New
Brunswick, only to get stuck in nasty construction and traffic around
Quebec City. It took us two hours to travel about ten
kilometers. I hooked into a web site with the tablet called 'beat
the traffic' and found an escape route if we could just get off the
highway. Thankfully there was an exit nearby and after some
interesting maneuvers, we managed to get off, tour around a business
and residential section and soon after return to the highway, past all
the nasty traffic. The rest of the drive was quiet and easy.
We enjoyed a few days visiting family and friends on our way to Fundy
National park where we planned to camp and do some of the local
sights. We also had a day in Moncton not only to visit more
friends but I also got to spend the afternoon at a wonderful needlework
shop 'Because You Count' and
visit with some eastern stitchers. It was a super afternoon, and
a real treat to chat with other embroiderers as well as checking out
their latest projects. Shelley certainly knows how to put a party
together. Thank you to all who attended. It was a highlight
for me and a joy to meet you all.
I had a deja vu moment when I found out we were staying just outside of
'Alma' only this one was in NB. Anyway, it is a very beautiful
place and we enjoyed the trails and the local sights. The trails
come in three levels, easy, moderate and difficult. Funny how
they are also coloured the same as ski runs - green for easy, blue for
moderate and black for difficult. We found that some of the
trails should probably have been listed as double black because at one
point Ari suggested that maybe she'd enjoy them more if they didn't
always seem to go up. Climbing up continually for what seems like
hours can not only be wearying but the thrills can go stale rather
quickly. I took many pictures and expect that some of them will
be used for either painting or design projects.
Fundy is a very interesting place with the highest tides in the
world. There are stands under those boats to keep them off the
ocean floor when the tide goes out. Unfortunately I wasn't there
to see what happens to those stands when the tide comes back in.
Oh and that's Ari mugging for the camera at the Alma sign.
At Fundy National Park, we found a waterfall 'Dickson Falls' where the
water seemed to fall forever. This is just the top section of
that falls. The other picture is the gang taking a break from
climbing up a steep trail. Actually most of the trails we were on
were steep.
We also spent time on the ocean floor, exploring the flower pot
rocks. Ari and I found a small tide pool and watched a pair of
hermit crabs have a bit of a tussle. They always look so much
bigger when you see them on nature shows on the television. We
stayed until the tide started coming in again. There are amazing
things to explore in this world around us and I'm happy that we got the
chance to do some of that this summer.
One other thing we did was visit the longest covered bridge in the
world. New Brunswick is home to a large number of covered bridges
and although Glenn and I had been to Hartland many times in the past,
this was the first time for Ari.
I'm glad to be home again. Vacations are fun but also
exhausting. You work so hard to get away and then there is so
much to do when you get back. Sometimes I wonder if the effort is worth
it but after looking and the great collection of pictures, I am happy
we made the trip. Thankfully
Kodi managed to
learn how to sleep in the car. There was also another
great thing about New Brunswick, no ragweed. Kodi actually had a
break
this year from the worst of his allergies. He is still being
medicated
because that noxious weed is in full bloom all around us but I
haven't had to put his Victorian collar on yet this year.
On
the home front, I've been working on various projects. A gift for
an upcoming wedding, more painting as well as knitting, crochet and
weaving. I would like to squeeze in some time to do some
stitching as well but that current project is on the back burner
probably until after school is in full swing again.
School is starting soon and I know that Arianna probably feels like she
didn't get much of a summer after spending 5 weeks of her summer in
French classes. My summer wasn't typical either. Normally I
spend it working on UFO's (unfinished objects) but this year it was
spent refurbishing a tent trailer along side Glenn. We still have
more work to do on that tent trailer but I see them leading to other
possible adventures in our future.
I am currently working on more critter and more floral paintings and
who knows, maybe even some landscapes and seascapes too. I'm sure
September will be busy with Ari starting grade 12 and thinking about
University and wishing we could get an early frost so that Kodi doesn't
have to suffer much longer.
Hope you all had great summers and lots of time to do the things you
love best.
Happy stitching!
Brenda
Entry 16 - June 25
Spring definitely showed up by June and now we are securely into
summer. The weather improved to the point of actually feeling hot
and muggy which also brings those violent thunderstorms that frighten
Kodi. Summer also brings the weeds that Kodi is very
allergic to so once ragweed season is here, we'll be giving him
medication to help ease his itchiness. The other thing that the
warm weather has brought is the bugs and they are more vicious and
hungry this year than what I can remember. I am happy to see the
birds and butterflies. We've even seen a few Monarchs floating
around the milkweed. We've also spotted a few other critters that
we don't see as often. When Glenn and I were walking, we saw this
strange thing moving around on the road and were trying to figure out
what it was as we got closer and closer. It finally dawned on me
as to what we were looking at once the style of movement triggered
memories. It was a snapping turtle.
We've actually seen two snapping turtles. One on our side road
and one around the corner on the concession. Not sure what they
were doing, strolling down these roads but maybe they were looking for
each other.
We have some new birds in the neighbourhood but most are a bit elusive
and more difficult to catch on camera. I've seen both hermit and
wood thrush and Ari actually recorded the wood thrush singing on her
phone. It has a massive vocabulary and I we really enjoyed
listening to it. We also have yellow-shafted flickers and they
are pretty interesting to watch as well. They feed on the ground
but perch on trees like a woodpecker. Lots of birds I couldn't
possibly identify unfortunately but will keep trying. I managed
to get shots of the Oriole and a Bobolink which I haven't seen in the
area for quite a few years. I'm happy they are back.
I also managed to photograph a couple of swallowtails that have been
hanging around.
Now that school is finished, Ari is happy to soon be headed for Quebec
and her French immersion course. It will be an interesting and
exciting time for her. This past weekend she also purchased a set
of drums from her cousin and is in the process of learning how to use
them. I don't mind hearing her practice, I've always liked drums
and may give them a try for myself on occasion. I think in some
ways she'd like to stay home and learn more drum techniques but Quebec
is too important to miss.
Glenn is in his busy season with customers all wanting his help, time
and expertise. Sometimes he is stressed and working long hours
too. Hopefully things settle down soon so he can get a bit of a
break.
I've tidied up most of the commissions I needed to finish and now just
have some small things to do. I've also been painting, weaving
and knitting as well as doing a bit of beadwork. A friend picked
up some beaded ornaments and loaned them to me so I could see how they
were put together. I made models of my own from her ornaments and
see possibilities for other styles as well.
I changed up the butterfly a bit, made minor adjustments to the fish,
changed the colur and feet of the rooster and plan on doing some
changes to the snake to turn it into a cobra version. I would
love to make different types of fish so will eventually have some fun
with that one. There was one other ornament in her collection
that I did make a pattern for but since it is not clear as to what it
actually is, I decided not to make one. I may do something with
it in the future but will probably turn it into a polar bear or
something similar since that is what it appears to represent.
Other than designing, my work has involved doing a new project for the
Festive issue of ANPT magazine. I finished designing the pattern
and am in the process of making the model. I also have a friend
who is testing the pattern and making a second model. This I hope
to complete for the end of July. I'm glad my workload is as light
as I can keep it. I try to use the summer to tidy up unfinished
projects that have collected through the winter. I also have to
work up some new possible articles and even find designers to submit
more projects. We'll see how that goes over the next few
months. I'll be teaching at the Fringe Elements
Tatting event in Cambridge at the end of September but it doesn't look
like I'll be doing any other events or shows this year.
I hope all are enjoying the weather and your crafts. Keep on
stitching!
Brenda
Entry 15 - May 17
Okay, somewhere in my blog entries, I missed April so I guess I have a
bunch of catching up to do. April was a bit of a rush since I
managed to sneak away for a little break with a friend in the middle of
the Month. We visited Northern Michigan and I knew it was going
to be cold but seeing snow every day was more than I had
expected. The fact that we were staying in a condo on a local ski
hill probably helped with the snow. Too bad I didn't bring my
skis, the hill was open every day we were there. No surprise with
all that snow. Being far enough north to actually be
near Sault St. Marie was also a new one for me.
Some of you may know that I'm a bit of a rock hound and finding out
that the Michigan had a state stone and we were staying very near the
area that this specific stone is found was a treat. We managed to
do some shoreline treasure hunting for this particular rock once we
figured out what they looked like. It is called a Petoskey stone,
named for the city where they were discovered. None of the
beaches in Petsokey were open when we were there but there was a rocky
shore access just outside of Petoskey that we checked out and were
happy to find some of these special rocks. There wasn't much for
wildlife so I had to limit my photography to some of the local colour.
Shortly after I returned from Michigan my daughter left for a school
trip to Montreal for a few days, and then suddenly the month was
finished and after squeezing in a 'last minute' one day show, it is now
the middle of May. All of the snow is gone in my area but the
weather still manages to be cold at times. We've also had some
very warm and muggy weather just to make sure we haven't forgotton what
summer can be like. I've managed to go for walks as often
as I can and some of which have been interesting and even
bizarre. We've been seeing a variety of birds this spring that we
haven't seen in the area before. A Dickcissel was singing it's
little heart out one morning while perched prominantly on the corner of
the storage barn. A pair of wood ducks that has now been joined
by a third continue to hang around the drainage ditches at the back of
the property. A meadowlark was looking for something to eat in
the back yard and orioles brighten the trees as well. One
surprise was a pair of Northern Yellow-shafted Flickers that keep
flashing their wings at us. They sure can fly fast but are very
shy. These are just a few that have been spotted in the area.
During one of these walks, Ari and I heard a very strange noise and all
we could think of that would make such a sound was a wild turkey.
Since they are very cautious we froze and stayed quiet, hoping it would
show itself. We heard some more noises but it didn't sound like a
turkey. After a short wait, out of the ditch nearby strolls a
little red hen. Ari and I looked at each other in disbelief,
seeing a chicken in an area where we figured a coyote or fox would have
snatched it up and she asked if I thought we could catch it. I
handed her Kodi's leash to give it a try. He was very interested
in catching it. I slowly strolled closer to the chicken, making
clucky chicken noises. It moved away from me along the edge of
the ditch but not as fast as I was going so I slowly and calmly closed
the gap. We had a lot of fallen trees along the ditch from the
winter ice storm so when I was close enough and it was somewhat
cornered by tree branches, I reached down and picked it up and then
tucked it under my arm. It accepted this treatment without a fuss
and Ari and I decided to take it home with us. Our walk was a
little short that day. We ended up walking Kodi in front rather
than behind me as I carried the chicken just to make things easier on
him and Ari. Halfway home, Ari asked to carry the chicken and we
continued on our way. Once we got home, I called a friend who I
knew had chickens and asked what to feed it. It was acting very
hungry. After finding out they'd eat just about anything, I found
some things I figured would work and fed the chicken. It was so
tame it would eat out of our hands. Ari figured someone dumped it
on the road side. I called around to some of the neighbours but
no one had misplaced a chicken. I asked if the friend who has
chickens would take it and eventually they said they would. Good
thing because otherwise Ari thought it would end up being fox or coyote
bait for sure. By the next night, our little red hen had laid an
egg and I was told that I no longer needed to find the owner of the
bird, it had been adopted. This made Ari very happy and we hope
to visit the little red hen soon.
I've been working at keeping up with commissions as well as tidying up
project articles for ANPT magazine. I seem to be on track for the
deadlines involved in both jobs but have not had as much time for
personal projects as I'd like. We'll see how the summer unfolds
since I like to dedicate my spare time during the summer to finish up
those unfinished projects that end up piling up as other things take
priority. I will continue to walk as often as I can and enjoy the
local birds and the greening of the trees.
Hope spring has arrived warmer for those of you not living in
Ontario. Happy stitching!
Brenda
Entry 14 - March 17
Happy St. Patty's day for those who celebrate the green in their
lives. The only green I was seeing this morning was what the
visiting cottontail rabbit was finding on the front lawn for
food. I was surprised that it found something green in all of
that brown. The bunny blended in well with the dead looking grass
but Kodi still knew it was there when we got back from walking Ari to
the bus. I wouldn't let Kodi chase him away so managed to get
these shots before his belly was full.
Good thing Glenn got the tractor
back together and has been able to use it for blowing snow. We
have been getting storms every few days that dump more snow on
us. The mound at the corner of the parking area is huge and the
snow banks on the side road are like driving through a tunnel. We
have a lot of snow. Fortunately there have been some warmer sunny
days and some of the snow is either melting or evaporating - can't tell
which. There is still a lot of ice on the road and our driveway
but some gravel is beginning to show up.
During the last week of school before March break we got a serious
storm so I called the school and asked them tell Ari not to stay for
choir practice but to come home on the bus since we were snowed in and
couldn't get out to pick her up. Shortly after that, the school
sent out an announcement that choir was canceled and the buses were
leaving early to bring the students home. Not long after that,
Ari called to ask us to pick her up in Fergus because that was as far
north as her bus could go. I suggested she stay at the school
because if we couldn't get the driveway cleared, we'd get her
grandparents to pick her up. Glenn then got to work trying to
clear the driveway so he could go and get her. In the mean time,
someone got stuck on the road just past our driveway so we wouldn't
have been able to get past them anyway. I dressed up for the
nasty weather conditions, grabbed a shovel and while Glenn continued to
attempt to clear the driveway, I went and checked on the person in the
stuck vehicle. He wasn't dressed for the weather conditions which
were high winds, blowing snow and white outs with a windchill of about
- 35 C. I did a little bit of digging since mostly snow was
jammed up under the front of the car. Got him unstuck and turned
around and he went back to visit his relatives. Unfortunately,
Glenn couldn't get out the side road either and the driveway was
blowing in just about as fast as he blew it out so the grandparents had
to get Ari from school. Once it got dark, things calmed down and
with me lighting the driveway and road with the van's headlights, Glenn
cleared a path all the way to the side road with the snow blower and
went into town and got Ari. He knew she would sleep better at
home and still had school in the morning. Rural living certainly
can have challenges.
I noticed that the snow buntings are now getting their summer plumage
and there are more birds around - some of them we don't see in the
winter so I'm sure they are back from the south. We haven't seen
a robin in our area yet, which is usually the harbinger of
spring. March break is now over and sadly school is on. I
know Ari would rather enjoy more of a break but summer will soon be
here.
I am happy that the catalog and website updates are complete and now
available to view on the website. I continue to work on new
designs and hope to add them later in the spring or sometime this
summer. As for what I'm working on personally, I continue to
paint, stitch, knit, weave and bead on various projects but nothing is
ready to photograph for the blog yet. I will be taking a short
vacation soon with a friend. That will be a fun new adventure
since I'm visiting an area in Michigan that I've never been to.
After all the work on the catalog and website updates, I'm ready for a
break. We will be doing some sight-seeing as well as lots of
walking. We also plan on playing with bead projects when we are
enjoying a rest. I still haven't decided what I'd like to take to
work on but have some time yet to figure that out.
I hope to have my car back on the road this summer but don't know if
that will happen. It has warmed up enough so Glenn can work on it
again without freezing. We'll see what happens. This
certainly has been a very cold and snowy winter compared to the past
few years.
Wishing all a wonderful spring and lots of sunshine.
Carry on stitching!
Brenda
Entry 13 - February 12, 2014
We've gotten through two birthdays this month and are headed for
Valentine's day. After Valentine's, there are two more birthday's
in my family to celebrate before the end of the month. Glenn
find's February the biggest month for gift buying. Fortunately we
didn't need to buy all of our gifts. I managed to finish the
sweater for my daughter's birthday on her birthday. We also had
storms almost every day through January which amounted to more and more
snow piled up in our yard. I've added more pictures and if you
compare them to the previous snowy shots, you can see that we've got
more snow than we know what to do with now. Glenn is working on
getting the tires back on the tractor because the little snow blower
can't get the snow over the top of the pile anymore. He needs the
large tractor driven snow blower to clear the snow mound. We have
also been getting a lot of hoar frost. The pictures I took of it
one morning was so feathery, it looks like the deck was wearing a
feather boa.
Work is progressing in many areas but especially in updating my catalog
and website. I will soon be putting the updates on my website
with new designs and new pricing but I also have a PDF version of the
catalog that will be available for those who would like one. I
will continue to work on commissions as well as new designs and maybe
eventually I will catch up on requests. I will also soon be
working on a series of bead point designs that I hope to release in the
spring.
In my spare time I have been enjoying some stitching. I had
forgotton how enjoyable it is to sit and stitch and expect to squeeze
in more stitching through this new year. No idea what else I will be
filling my time with but I do have lots of ideas to choose from.
My summers are usually dedicated to finishing up unfinished projects so
I have that to look forward to.
So now on to the pictures. The first on is the birthday sweater
which was actually a fun project to knit. The ruffles are some of
that funky yarn that is on the market lately. It makes easy showy
trim. The other three pictures show the snow in our yard.
The first on is our driveway and you can see a bit of one of the trucks
that is buried in the snow. All that is currently visible on the
other truck is the top 4 inches of the antenna. I know, hard to
spot on such a small photo. The drifts are massive, taller than
me and if they continue to build, I think we'll use them for a ski
hill. They look like petrified waves and are wind sculpted into
such dramatic shapes. The third snow picture shows the vehicles
parked by the barn. The previous blog entry had a similar picture
showing a small white van that is even more inundated with snow.
On the right center of that same picture is another van and the only
thing showing is a bit of the roof rack. Yes, we have piles of
snow and I wonder what will happen to it when it starts to melt in the
spring. That could be interesting.
We have been getting very cold weather and with the added windchill, it
is down right frosty. This gives us many mornings with hoar frost
on everything. Most often it is interesting shapes but on this
particular morning, it was shaped like feathers. I couldn't
resist grabbing the camera and getting some shots of the trees with the
sunrise through the clouds in the background. I can't help but
love the varied beauty of winter and I honestly don't mind being
snowbound and not able to keep the driveway clear of snow at
times. The driveway is 75 feet long and then we have a large
parking area near the house. I managed to shovel most of that
after a light and fluffy 6" snow fall in an hour and a half. I
also love to shovel snow. There is something very Zen about
digging and moving the white stuff that I find enjoyable. Most
often I let Glenn move it with his snow blower but every now and then
when he isn't here, I clear out what I can on the driveway so that he
can get in easier and doesn't have to clear the snow to park the
van. There have been times when he has had to clear out not only
the driveway but a path down the road so that we could get home.
This is a taste of what our winter has been like this
year. The previous two years were nothing at all like this.
We hardly had to move snow at all and I remember January feeling like
T-shirt weather. This year we have igloo snow, lots of it but it
is a bit frosty out there for building igloos. I haven't been
down the road since the storms built up such large snow drifts.
The snow on the road will likely be waist height to taller than me and
pretty hard going without snow shoes. I may venture out later
this week once it warms up a bit more. Right now we are enjoying
what I call 'freeze your nostrils shut' weather and the snow is
actually squeaky when you walk on it. Glenn mentioned that within
a week or so we may get more freezing rain so time to stock up on more
fuel for the generator and make sure the battery back up for the sump
is charged up.
Enjoy Valentine's day and another month of winter!
Brenda
Entry 12 - January 7, 2014
Christmas holidays started early for Arianna with the last day of
school off due to an ice storm. Now that the holidays are over, we are
ending them with not just one day off due to the school being closed
but now two. We are in the middle of crazy weather. It is
very cold outside, feels like -40° (same C and F), very windy and lots
of blowing snow so we experience white out conditions even if it isn't
snowing at the moment. We also have blizzard warnings out so when
a flurry hits, we don't see anything but white. Now just because
the school is closed doesn't mean that there isn't school work being
done. With internet access, students can get their homework
assignments. I admit, I don't think Arianna is impressed with
that little improvement to technology.
The storm that hit just before Christmas break was nasty. We had
freezing rain off and on for two days. We anticipated a major
power outage and stocked up with fuel for the generator so that we
could last at least 5 days without power. That is our emergency
plan. If we can generate our power, we can supply fresh water,
heat and food for as long as we have fuel. We don't run the
generator at night so we have to have battery back up for the sump
otherwise, there could be a flood in the basement. This storm
plastered us with more than an inch of ice on everything and in some
areas, up to two inches. We did lose power, same as last spring
but instead of being out for 4 days like last spring, we were only out
for 5 hours. We were amazed. We lost our phone about an
hour after the power went out but didn't get that back until a day and
a half later. Some friends were better off than us and some not
so much. We loaned the generator to one of those. Another
friend didn't get her phone back until almost two weeks after the
storm. Our yard, driveway and deck were totally covered with this
thick layer of ice. I used a hammer to break up the ice on the
back deck so the dog didn't go sliding off. That was a tough
job. Our driveway and everything else that didn't shed the ice is
still covered. These are the more dramatic pictures that were
taken before the ice was shed.
The current storm continues to blast away at us and so I guess all that
fuel that was stocked up for the generator will be put through the snow
blower once the wind slows down a bit. Right now, blowing out the
driveway is a waste of time because as fast as we clean it out, the
wind fills it back in. We don't mind the weather, we just don't
want to bother wasting time digging out until it will actually
accomplish something. This weather is hardest on the dog because
his feet get cold so quickly, they begin to hurt and he doesn't want to
stand on them. It is very hard to balance and pee when you only
have one leg on the ground. Our previous dog, a Basenji did
manage to do just that, much to our amazement but our current little
boy isn't finding that as easy to do. Time to introduce him to
doggy booties.
These pictures are views from my windows. The first one
is the back yard and somewhat protected so the snow collects on the
window. The second on is my side yard showing the end of the
driveway close to the barn. Fortunately that van doesn't need to
go anywhere, anytime soon. The snow for more than half of the
driveway is as deed as it looks around that van. The final shot
shows the driveway end, close to the road. The road has since
been plowed but the driveway still needs some cleaning. If you
look to the middle right side of the picture, you may be able to see
the icy tire tracks but the rest is drifted in with snow.
Not all of our weather is nasty. Some days we get very little
wind and sunshine. On those rare occasions, we enjoy walks and
other activities outside. This is when the dog can do what he
loves best, hunt. It is rare to see him without snow on his face
when he's out hunting. He will dive deep into the snow so only
his curly tail is hanging out. If he smells anything that could
be a critter, that tail is wagging. I love these calm days not
only for the beauty of snow laden trees but also to be able to be the
first one to track up the snow. I've included a shot of our back
field and our sideroad, the 'no winter maintenance' section.
So as much as weather can be nasty around here, there is so
much beauty and wonder. I feel blessed to be able to experience
all aspects of the world around me.
Hope all enjoy a productive and stress free New Year!
Brenda
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Franklin
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