A Bit Warmer-Shoveling and Future Bags

  Good morning Sunday,

  No Sunshine today which I could use for working the ice up, but we will be mid 30's up to low 40's. Hoping I can get a path up the hill-we will see how this goes today. My legs are a little shaky this morning after working on those steps. Thinking I will skip the top three steps if they don't clear easily and get on with a path to the top and clear where my car parks.

 I am loving my finished bag-so I am excited to be going on to the next one. I started pinning it yesterday-this room has no heat ducts so it gets pretty cold. I bought the little heater for this room when we get really cold, but Larry needed it more when the heat was not working. No issues so far thinking it is fixed right now.

  Before Larry's accident (October 2023) I had dug out all of my hand dyed fabrics and the larger pieces I cut for the linings. I think I cut for 9 or 10 bags. I also had yardage of good quality heavier muslin cotton as the foundation for the hand dyed layout. My plan is to mail out to my slow mail friends but I will have extra bags-if you would like one please contact me through the contact form on my page here. This was a project to use my hand dyes in a project and then share with my online friends.  I will make a list in order as I receive them. 

  I am off to eat something, and then get to work outdoors

Happy Sunday

Pelicans & Geese

   Yesterday we were watching the pelicans and the Canada geese out our windows. This is the closest we have seen the pelicans. They swam up to visit the geese-that was interesting to watch.

  Still frigid cold here. Our temporary fix lasted til early this morning. The furnace has come back on once in awhile this morning-after I pray super diligently (smiles)  I called and they moved us up to this morning early to install the new unit instead of tomorrow. This has been such a good company to work with. She even said they could run out large heaters for us that would heat a room. I said we have a small heater that I have Larry using near his computer.  This company is about 45 minutes to an hour drive way from us.  I will be giving them a good review for sure.

  Our road here has still not been plowed, and we are still in the single digits so too cold for me to be shoveling a path still. hoping tomorrow I can do that.

Stay safe if you are effected by this winter blast.  Another one coming in a few days but I think that one will be south of us.

A Few Ice Photos

   The sun is out today so I took a few photos from indoors. We will not warm up til Thursday for me to even consider going outdoors-to clear the steps and hill to retrieve my mail.

 I am soooo thankful we never lost our electric-that would have been very bad for us, especially stuck indoors with all this arctic cold and ice everywhere, and no way to keep warm or cook. Well I do have lots of quilts to snuggle into.

  I retired in 2003 in the fall, a couple years later we went through a horrible ice storm at our woods house. At the time they said the worse in 30 years. Trees down, all the electric poles cracked in half in our county-that was brutal. The ice was very very thick on everything. We were last being rural, so had no electric for 19 days.  However, we were better prepared there-two woodstoves for heat which we were only using at the time, and I had my 10 burner wolf stove-oven.  We were totally ok, and I had filled up every large pot I had with water, and the bathtub I filled with water too-to flush toilets. So I am just so grateful this year was much easier.

Thankfully we did not get as much snow as predicted at the most maybe 4 inches. 

  I think this has headed to the east now-hoping all my readers are safe from this storm

We Do Have Ice

  Woke up early to ice falling, which it is still doing as I type this. It is suppose to "rain" ice all day and then turn to snow. So far we have a lot but not as bad as some areas in Missouri and other states. There is a dusting of snow on top of the thick ice.

  I wanted to feed the birds seed and their suet but the screen door is iced shut. 

I took a couple of the flag-frozen straight

At least the lake has not started freezing -that could be possible in a few days though with single digits coming in. That is always a concern for docks and boats praying that does not happen.

Early this morning I started filling up big pots with water-just in case. This is the first home in over 40 years that we don't have a back up. This is an all electric house-ugh. We always had woodstoves for heat and for cooking if needed. and my 10 burner wolf was an old one so did not need electric to turn the gas on.  So I am staying hopeful we do not lose our electric. I think we are in the middle path of this storm-much worse above and below us. The big cities in Missouri are getting hammered with more ice and lots of snow.

I got out all of my hand dyes and the gifted ones from my friend, and ironed them all-so will be ready to use on the next bags. This photo is a bit dark as it is a dark room.  And I have not taken the time to figure out settings for better photos. (These will enlarge for better viewing)

   I am finishing up my first bag, but was having trouble with it looking nice-I changed threads so hoping to get this one finished soon. I am not crazy about how much the pattern left open to sew after turning  (there is a lining inside)  On the next one will change that

Stay safe all of you in the path of this arctic storm