Tag: Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt 2014 Grand Illusion

Turkey Tracks: Blizzard 2 of 2015

Turkey Tracks:  February 13, 2015

Blizzard 2 of 2015

The other night on the local news I heard that Portland, Maine, has had 6 feet and 1 inch of snow–that total has climbed as it snowed more on Wednesday and Thursday.

Here in Camden, which is just under two hours further north, we’ve sometimes had more snow (much more) and sometimes a bit less.  So, it’s pretty safe to say we’ve had at least 6 feet of snow this past winter–and most of it landed in the last three weeks.

We’re all braced for the blizzard that will start tomorrow afternoon late.  Predictions are for up to 24 or so inches of light, blowing snow.  None of us has a clue about where we’ll put another two feet of snow.

I’ve had a go-round with the electricity in the chicken coop, but that’s solved now.  I have TWO lines going out there from different outside outlets.  The water heater is working again.  Our temps tonight are dropping to -14 degrees.  That’s NOT wind chill.  Or, that’s the prediction anyway.  So getting electricity back to the chicken coop was really important.

I have two more longarm passes on the Bonnie Hunter 2014 Mystery Quilt, Grand Illusion.  So, I will be binding that quilt later today.  It’s always so much fun to unwind a finished quilt and to see the whole of the quilting in it.

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I finished two knitted wool hats last night–made to go with wool scarves I made last year.  I went a little crazy with buttons.

I put pics of this cowl (infinity scarf) up last year.

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And:

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There is a good match with the hat yarn in the lighter yarn in the scarf–it just isn’t showing in this picture.

Here’s the quilt-in-progress on the design wall–a streak of lightening pattern.  This fabric is the leftover from the other two scrappy quilts I recently made from my 2 1/2 strip bin.  I was left with some shorter pieces, so I cut 2 1/2by 4 1/2-inch rectangles.

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I’ll use an inner border that’s about an 1 1/2 inches and put on a wider border of some sort–yet to be determined.  This quilt will look very traditional when I’m finished.  Simple and useful.  This quilt will join its sisters in the downstairs tv/sitting room–replacing sturdy but ugly couch dog blankets.  So far, so good in terms of looks and wear.

I wondered why the suet feeders were disappearing so fast.  Then I saw this guy yesterday:

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It’s the best picture I could get in a series.  The Pileated Woodpeckers are HUGE and very jittery and scary.  He’s been around off and on all winter, but today he treated me to quite a show.  At one point he sat in the middle of the flat green feeder and just rocked himself back and forth.  As long as I didn’t move a muscle, he stayed around.

Stephen Pennoyer has been working on more pour over coffee stands.   Here’s the most recent picture he sent me:

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I see a two-hole in this picture…

OK, bring on the blizzard.  I’m ready.

Turkey Tracks: Blizzard of 2015

 

Turkey Tracks:  January 27, 2015

BLIZZARD of 2015

Yesterday I prepped for what was being projected as a blizzard.

Food for a few days INSIDE (not in the garage), chicken food bins filled, snow shoes and poles inside (in case I need to check the propane egress pipe outside or get to the chickens), snow shovel inside (the blizzard two years ago drifted up my back kitchen door), and so forth.

As always, my excitement rises at the prospect of a big snow storm–as long as I can count on being safe and warm–which the generator guarantees to a large degree.

I put the dogs out at 3 a.m.–not an unusual event.  No snow yet.

I woke again at dawn, and could see that the storm was just beginning here.

I got up at 7:45 or so, and we already had at least 18 inches on the ground.

Here’s the first pictures I took.  I use the top of the hot tub as a good gauge.

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The wind is gusting pretty high, and the snow, which is pouring out of the sky, is very light and dry and blowing in huge swirls everywhere, so there are drifts.

The back door is beneath a place on the roof where the wind creates a chute that pours drifting snow into huge piles.  That’s what happened during the last blizzard, which started in the night so I couldn’t see what had happened.

I donned outside gear, pushed the door open, and started clearing a path to the chicken coop.  The snow was almost to my knees in places.

The chickens were so happy to see me.  I was able to open their door to the cage, give them fresh water and food, and turn on their light.  (It was 9 degrees outside, and with the high winds, much lower wind-chill temps.)

At 10:30, I went back outside to shovel, as my paths were already filling and the back door was drifting up again.  This time I shoveled a path on the front of the house so the dogs have a place OFF THE PORCH to pee.

Predictions are that the snow and wind will continue through the day and into the night.

I’ll go back out to the chickens late afternoon and replenish food and water and take them some treats.  I got three eggs this morning, including a blue egg from Ginger, who has not laid one in some time.

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I am piecing the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt of 2014 (see separate post)–Grand Illusions and listening to an audio book–one of the James Lee Burke, David Robicheaux novels.

And later, with a meatloaf dinner (baked potato and sautéed Swiss Chard), I’ll work on the binding of my version of Bonnie Hunter’s “Scrappy Trip Around the World,” which I’m likely to call just “Scrappy Scraps.”

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