Things at the Country Farm!!!

Good day folks,
Today has the first sunshine in a few days!!! I am going to be out and about for the day... or most of it. Emma has a game and I will go to the shop today and do some on Simon's quilt. At some point I will do some cleaning in the house. I spent the day yesterday hand quilting on a Flying Geese quilt April and I worked together on when they were living here. And from then until now... it has been sandwiched and waiting for some sit down time!! I took it yesterday while the carpenters were here. I will have painting time at some point next week. This house is getting a face lift. We have decided that we are going to be here for at least 10 or so more years. So I want to give the decor an update. That involved some things that I did not expect. Dave thought we should replace the chimney and I agreed. So with that done we had and have 3 rooms affected directly. One is the living room which we changed into a bedroom for my Mom so she will have a larger space to be. And then there is Kathy's room and Monica's room in the finished attic space. Dave closed in the chimney space and we painted the walls and ceiling and woodwork in Mom's new room. We also had a carpet installed. That was the hired labor in that space. Then we have Kathy's room ... we have hired the plaster removal and sheet rock done in there. While The mess is created we are going have the remaining plaster in Mom's old room removed and put up sheet rock in there too. The carpenter.. Paul Harmon and his crew are making short work of the messy jobs. Paul St. Peter (my cousin in law) and another young man are working for Paul. We just have to wait for rainy days because it is an inside job and the outside jobs are for nice days. They have the sheet rock up in Kathy's room and I expect the painting to begin about late next week. I have asked to have it complete by the end of June. HE is doing very well. The weather seems to be cooperating.

I on the other hand have had to "wait" for stuff to get done to do. Sooo I have been working at making Simon a quilt for his big boy bed. I hope to have that done by the first of July or so. His Mom gave me some of his little boy clothes that are being cut into rectangles for this quilt. Also my "Baby Boy" is turning 40 this summer! I am quilting on a quilt for his big day as well. That too is for the first of July. And by the 26th of this month I will need to have most of both things done. I get to have a grand girl for 4 days! There will be limited time for quilts and quilting then. She is 2 and such a lovely little thing. Her brother and cousins Nora and Emma are going to go on a trip of a life time... they are going down the Allagash with their Papa as the guide. Moms and Dads and Papa.... they are going to have a blast. I am not a canoe person and so I get to have the youngest. I did do the canoe thing and I liked it when the water was calm. But we had to cross a lake in a wind storm and scared me enough to not get back in at all!!! So far. Maybe I will soon. I have to get my strength back up first. I am working on it. I did the climbing of ladder and made out okay ... my balance is not so good these days. I am working on that too!!!

Holidays 2008

Happy Holidays... now that they are over for last year.... the new year is here!! I had a wonderful season except I busted my knee right after Thanksgiving and did managed to sit long enough to have it be healed to get around after a couple of weeks. The next thing is to stregthen it enough for the summer walking when we get to go camping. And to also get ready for this years holidays!!! I am doing some sewing for next Christmas when I get to sew this year. I expect to sew at my shop sometime today actually. There is a stack of mending to do as well as a couple of sewing projects that I am working on. I will talk about them when I get the pictures to show.

Some of the grandchildren were here for the Christmas times... it was lovely to have them. We even had the opportunity to have them by ourselves for the week between Christmas and NEw Year. The times were fun. Ben had a Jammie Day for two days. He got to play Wii with his Uncle Chris and also played with cousin Emma for a day and was corralled by Cousin Mackenzie on another day. All the children were together to play out a couple of times over the week. Then there were the quiet moments when I got a hug and got to sit quietly and talk about things with Ben. And there were the Nerf gun fun times that got us all up off our chairs and running around. Olivia at 1 3/4 years old was a delight to see learning so much each day. She is starting to make sentances and has naps and bounces when she walks. She has a couple of new babies that are lovely to play with. ONe is a Bitty baby and the other a cute little dolly that has a magnetic passifier to either suck on or hold. Her Amy doll got a lovely new dress for Christmas as well. Emma took care of Olivia one night when I was down with a sinus infection. She woke up with her and then Pop came to the rescue. We all watched movies on New Years eve and "stayed up all night"... after 3 movies we finally went to bed. We still did not get to see the ball drop!

The snow is gone!

The family has gathered and dispersed over the days since I last posted. We are looking forward to the gatherings of family over this summer. It should be a fun one. Starting this weekend we are meeting family several times over the weeks of summer.

There are lovely new flowers blooming in the gardens around the house and the grass has been mowed once already. However, the soil is dry already. After all that snow ...yes it melted ... but it went right into the ground and. Yes, about 1 hour north of here there was flooding because the snowfall was over 200 inches and the ground up there did freeze. Consequently, there was flooding in their space. It did caused lots of damage to the town of Fort Kent and several smaller towns along the St. John and Fish Rivers.

Me, well I have had my hands busy. I have finished the tree quilt top and now I need to decide about the quilting... is it to be me or have someone else do it. And I am leaning toward sending it to a quilted. Also there are some classes decided for the fall ... and folks are waiting for the announcement. I will advertise in the fall for classes and do one semester and see what I can do and how much sewing I can do as well. I want to sew too!! I have all those kits I made that I want to sew up. It should be fun!! The shop will be the classroom AND my sewing room...that is the plan so far. I will move all the sewing equipment and paraphernalia to the shop and rename that to the Studio....and craft out there. Then in the current studio I will be doing hand work and visiting with family and sometimes eating there. Over the last two months I have finished a few things but not lots. I have one sock done for Dave and I am doing another Shawl from the green yarn that Vicki picked up for me. It is soft and is looking really nice... but is taking long time. On the lacy part I think I want to do some beading. I did not think of it soon enough to be knitting them in. Soooo.... I will see about actually getting some stitched in. I have not done this before.

One final Snowfall Pic!

This is taken straight out the window! Today March 25th! Spring came and the only thing that knows it is the SUN. It is shinning and warm feeling.

Snowfall Pics!!!!

Here is is again today! The car cannot park in that space because there is barely room. The snow bank is about 5 feet high on the right and about 10 on the left. As you look to the right or left the banks are higher.... to 15 feet.

Snowfall pics!!!

Here is the same Grainery this past weekend! The date is March 22, 2008. The camera is in the same place.... about 125 feet from the building. The parking area has a wall of snow about 5 to 10 feet high all around it and down the drive way.

Snowfall pictures!

This is another view looking out the door catching a January sunrise on a frosty, icy, sparkly morn. Not 'lots' of snow but a good amount. The snow is about a foot high at the edge of the parking area.

Snowfall pictures!

This is a view out my window looking south across to the Grainery in January of 2008. You are looking at a parking lot that is for the shop. The car on the left is about 100 feet away from the camera lens.

We broke the Snow fall record!!!!!

Yes it happened and we can say the record that has stood since the winter of 1954-55 of 181 plus inches of snowfall for one season since 1939 when the recording started fell this winter......... we now have a total of 185 plus inches after the storm this past Friday gave us 14 inches. That made our earliest Easter in decades a bit hard to believe. However the sun is shinning and it is warm feeling. It will heat up a space as well.