What a great day. The sun has been out for the entire day. What would make it better is if I had a place on the patio for my chair that is now three feet deep in drifted snow. It would be fun to watch the birds as they are pecking at the seeds within the Lilacs. I am not good at identifying birds but we have quite the mixture. The littlest of them are busy, busy and then off to the water that has made a pond where our sump pump bubbles to the surface. If in doubt about the day our Lord has given us, we only need to watch, look and listen to all around us. Today . . . my heart sings.
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Noreen
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Noreen
I looked out the bathroom window this morning and my sweet tooth began to ache. The snow that had been whipped around the last several days had the appearance on the patio porch of pure white Divinity Candy. It almost made me drool. I love Divinity. Unfortunately the bank of ice and snow at the end of our driveway was far from white and desirable. To get some fresh air I did walk down the driveway this forenoon, compliments of neighbor Randy and the great job he had done on the snow removal. Silly me . . . I had taken the scooper with me to the end of the driveway. I took one stab at it and it bounced off as if it were a Nerf scooper. It was nothing more than a mass of snow that was laced with ice. I nicely walked back and parked the scooper.
I did happen to think of my nephew who has contracts with some of the large parking lots in the metro for snow removal. I wonder how far back in his machine shed he had to dig out the snowblower. Last year he was doing some early field planting by April 11th.
I am content and have no feelings of cabin fever. This weather will get itself turned around. With the water dripping off of the west awning this afternoon, I am sure enough will melt that we will be able to take more on the Wednesday forecast of . . . snow.
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Noreen
When state highways are closed due to the snow and wind, you cannot believe how quiet our street is. Our street is the main thoroughfare from HWY 60 to the Swift plant north of our home just across the railroad tracks. Semi trucks are possible 24/7. It had been a long, long time that the morning hours were this quiet.
This morning I opened an eye, saw it was daylight . . . no snow coming down. It was seven and I was ready to get up and at it as Dennis’ great granddaughter Charlee Bea was going to be baptized today. About that time the phone was ringing . . . roads were closed and church was cancelled. Dennis had not heard the phone so the first cup of coffee for the day was all mine. I sat in Dennis’ computer chair in the west porch of the house and enjoyed all the white that surrounded us. We have a little USA flag on an electric fence post right outside of the porch windows. The flag hung limp. First a very fine snow, then a bit more. It didn’t take long and I could barely see the homes at the end of the block and the flag was standing straight out east as the north winds picked up.
Here we are at 5:45 p.m. and it is still snowing with winds that are bound to be causing problems out in the open and the roads. Earlier Dennis had shoveled a path to his garage door and that allowed for a surface that was a slippery melting mess. I didn’t fight the day. I went down into the sewing studio and didn’t have any problem whiling away the day. Randy came over before supper with his tractor and snow blower. The snow is wet and heavy and I could hear that as the blower honkered down. We have nothing that we need to leave the property for in the next days. I have no doubt that it is going to be a messy week as spring is here . . . somewhere and all this snow will try to disappear.
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Noreen
I have heard of “guilt by association.” After today, I believe attitude by association is also possible. Since the time my babies were crawling on the floor of our farm home, the Sears Roebuck sewing machine took whatever thread I fed it. I think since it has sat next to the Bernina it has gotten uppity. I had two perfectly good polyester spools of thread. One to use in the bobbin and one for the top thread. The sewing machine bucked from the first stitch. I made sure both top and bottom were threaded correctly. I turned off the light on the Sears and decided that maybe I would just see what the weather was doing.
I did shovel a path for Dennis to get from the back door to the garage so he could check on his livestock . . . a tank of Koi and his four cats. It was like shoveling wet cement. The scooper had to be knocked on a cleared area to get the snow to fall off of it. When Dennis went out he took the scooper with him to be able to get back into the house without getting his slippers and the bottoms of his PJs full of snow. Yes, I did say slippers and PJs. All the media have labeled our area as being in the bull’s eye of the most snowfall during today and over the evening. The wind is doing quite the number out there. We will see if the 16″ forecast is going to be correct.
I came in from getting some fresh air and decided again to crank up the Sears sewing machine. The Bernina was in the middle of an embroidery task and the Sears was to be my backup today. Thinking about it, I got out a new spool of polyester thread and filled the bobbin first with it and then threaded the top part from the same spool. The early 1960s machine sewed like a top. I had gotten out a spool of top notch quality thread as I couldn’t afford any mishaps once the stitching started. It was a spool of Guterman, a German brand. Fancy schmancy . . . I think my Sears Roebuck has coped an attitude while sharing space with the Bernina. No more feeding it the leftover thread from decades ago. It was worth it to have smooth sailing.
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Noreen
This is the type of spring that you would want to slap on the back so it could hack up and out what is bothering it. It has become secondary when I think of the weekend coming.
Speaking of hacking up and out what seems to be stuck, I need to put out an update on my ole cowboy. Dennis is a smoker and I was as sure as I can be, his smoking was causing all the phloem that he needed to get rid of. It has been about 10 days of having the “So Clean 2” unit hooked up to sanitize his CPAP gasket, mask, hose and the humidifier tank. Wouldn’t you know it . . . very little need for the hacking episodes. It is almost slim to none. Over the nine years, I have helped to do the cleaning of the components of the CPAP, complete with using bleach in the cleaning water and rinsing, rinsing, rinsing.
This process of oxidized oxygen and pressure that is then driven through from the face gasket right through into the humidifier water tank to date is getting a plus from me.
Of all the medical assists that we have and had invested in for Dennis, this seems to be well worth the money. Dang! I was sure it was the cigarettes and here all along it was just nasty old bacteria hiding in all the crevices.
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Noreen
We have all heard the commercial that insinuates that we all go, why not enjoy the go. We all have the calling of Mother Nature and isn’t that a great thing.
This spring Kevin came over and had to do a fix-it on our toilet. The tank is ceramic and will last forever. The lever that makes it all work harmoniously is attached to components that are not going to endure the test of time. Plastic and nylon should not be what the flush should rely on.
I grew up when we had a wonderful path to the outhouse. It was just a bit to the northwest of the house and with enough distance from the house that pressing your luck on urges was not taken for granted. I was in first grade before we had a toilet that flushed. It was a stool in the basement. Old houses did not have any area for sufficient closets let alone a room for a toilet. Why would anyone stand the cost of pluming in a toilet on the ground floor when all we had on the ground floor for water, running and otherwise was a hand pump that was hooked to a cistern.
Times did change. When some changes are made there may be a 14′ x 80′ mobile home on an acre of land, but that does not necessarily mean there is a well for water. One thing at a time. The first was a septic tank with hook ups for the mobile home. The mobile home had a beautiful bathroom combination laundry. At that time we brought water from my folks in cream cans. Water for cooking. Water for heating for quick sponge bathes and of course an ice cream pail . . . one pail needed per flush in the new bathroom.
Experiences have come and gone. All I am getting at is that stressing over having to hold that lever down to get the toilet to totally flush can be endured until such time when Kevin comes over and makes it all better. By the end of the day Kevin had nailed it and we have been flushing successfully ever since.
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Noreen
More of the same outside but not so much here in the sewing studio. I finished up a project by shopping off of the button tree to the tune of two dozen buttons. My hands are beyond sewing that many buttons on one by one. It was time for plan “B.”
I had found some great glue that I keep on hand . . . “9001.” It works on metal, fabric, glass and wood. It currently is holding our huge multi level birdhouse onto the plywood base for the third season coming up. Our octagon window in the bathroom has a huge amount of it in the guts of the exterior side of the window holding all those fabricated pieces of wood that is just beyond the exterior frame.
Today with tweezers in hand I popped a small pearl of the 9001 on the back of each button and carefully placed the button where it was needed. If perhaps I would be washing the fabric using the 9001, I wouldn’t trust it. For crafting . . . by the time the buttons fall off the project that it was on it will have lost its luster and it will be time to put something new up.
The entire time the button project was going on the embroidery machine ran like a top in the background, stopping just long enough to have a different color of thread as per the design I have loaded. Today was the 10th of the largest designs to stitch out within this packet. Here after will be smaller designs to add to and mix in and stitched together. The end result . . . a rectangle of multiple designs all using a mixture of different colors of plaid flannel . . . a true Christmas Mash up project.
Dennis and I had lunch together . . . afterward he took a nap and I retreated to the sewing studio. In time he came down and we shared a bottle of Sprite . . . and he playing some solitaire on my sewing computer and I worked with thread and fuzz. Just a hell of a good day.
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Noreen
Hmm. If the sun could and would come out in the early morning hours, we could have better success at getting rid of some of this snow. With having the concrete driveway, it doesn’t take the sun rays long to clean it up and dry it off. It sure beats the two strips of eroding concrete we suffered with in times past. I am sure that in its day having two strips was quite the home improvement.
Yesterday I happened to look in my “junk” emails. I was flying through them ready to take the whole shooting batch out with one flip of a finger when the name “Art Schafer” shot out at me as if it were in fluorescent letters. Art and I had lost contact.
Art Schafer is Orlin’s brother. I still consider him my brother-in-law. Art and I are close to the same age. The difference is I have a wonderful full balanced life and Art will live out his life in the Buffalo Lake Health Care Facility. I believe it has been all of 10 years that a car accident put him in a very fragile physical and mental condition. When Mom was in the same facility I would stop and see him. Sometimes he would be agitated and not comfortable having anyone visit. Sometimes he would enjoy reminiscing. In February of 1964 Art and Julie, Orlin and I stood up for each other in a double wedding.
The email in my junk was a simple “hi Noreen” and nothing more. I tried to reply to the email but it was labeled as undeliverable. I have no idea what Internet connections he has available in the facility. When I contacted Kevin with the news of the contact, Kevin reminded me of the time eight years ago when he and Uncle Arvel, Orlin and Art’s oldest brother, visited Art in the facility. Art was using a vice grip plier with an allen wrench. The narrow tip of the wrench allowed Art to punch keys on his computer as his way of using the computer. Art’s speech was compromised after the accident but he was an avid computer user.
Today I decided to contact Art’s daughter in Fargo via an email. I told her of the email I had received from her dad and asked if she had an email address she could share with me for her dad. Time will tell if I hear from her. It touched me that out of the blue I had heard from Art. I would so enjoy letting him know that. If I don’t hear from his daughter, I may well contact the facility and see if there would be another avenue available. I most likely will not give up very easily. Family is still family.
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Noreen
The End of a Day
I had a great day. It was a mix of laundry, dust bunnies, a lunch date with Dennis and the sewing studio. In the quiet of the sewing studio, I reflect on where Mom was at the age I am now. More than likely her and Dad would be sitting at their kitchen table having a lunch date all the while keeping an eye on what was going by on the township road. After lunch Dad would head to his workshop in the basement and work on his wood planer or his wood router. Mom would head to her sewing room in the north bedroom of their home.
For Dennis, he headed out to the patio porch after lunch to take in a western on the television out there. For
myself, I continued working in the sewing studio on several designs that are in a packet called Christmas Mash Up. Multiple depictions of Christmas ending up being 11″ by 8″ finished projects. It’s a very 
satisfying place for me. Do I have a timeline? No. Do I know where this project will find a home? No. Do I care? No. It’s my thing. It’s my deal. I am happy at the end of the day when I have something to show for the day that God has graciously given me. I am taking the days waiting for the sun and breeze to dry my yard. Then I will put away the stitching and I will have dirty finger nails and muddy shoes to show for what my day held. -
Noreen
The fallen snow is quite beautiful on the evergreen boughs . . . again. The concrete is staying clear as the snow falls. It may be cold, it may be snowing, but the sun is up there in the hiding in the clouds and it will not be shunned. These “indoor” days are being taken advantage of in the sewing studio.
Each spring I have second thoughts about how many of the flower gardens I will tend to. My gut tells me to put them into grass seed. The spirit that controls the gut usually has me out there with the Mantis tiller as soon as the ground is dry enough. There seems to be plenty of time for this debate to continue.
I am cranking out some awesome stitching that can be comparable to Kersten’s Pokémon quilt. I continue using up plaid flannel scraps and making great use of the quilt batting scraps that nephew Brett passed along as each block already has the batting in place. I will get some photos going for the near future. As each design is anywhere between 55,000 and 68,000 stitches, when the last stitch is done and I can retire the last spool of thread back in the cabinet, I am ready to climb those steps and take part in the ground level portion of our home.
