Quiet Again

Those of you who have followed me for any length of time know that I often go quiet...go missing.

I go without explaining myself and no one knows how long I will be gone...

...least of all me.

The quiet times are never planned or premeditated but sometimes there's an "aura" (in the sense of a warning/sensation preceding a medicinal episode such as a migraine or seizure) or a foreboding. 

Such was the case when I went to the lake two-ish weeks ago to meet with someone about the fireplace. What was to have been a short two-day (at the most) trip, turned into a week of horrors.

(For context, you should know that I had just (as within in the last 6-9 mos.) finished with the remodeling of the lower level of the house: new flooring (wood and carpet), completely new stairs and railing, new doors, new walls, new trim, new baseboards, new ceilings, new bath fixtures, new EVERYTHING.

I had not even yet gotten to post about it, but I was so happy with how it turned out:)

When I arrived, however, there was a small lake surrounding the house (not to be confused with the large lake surrounding the property). We had gotten a great deal of snow and then the temperatures warmed quickly (for a few days) resulting in a quick thaw and all that "melt" went straight down the sloped driveway to the house.

When I went inside, my worst fears were confirmed.

This was what I saw:

I immediately threw down the tarp and towels, but that was a waste of time. The water deepened and spread before I could even catch my breath.

I called my insurance agent who, in turn, called a cleanup/restoration company and the nightmare began in earnest.

The company came and took up residence.

They said they would bring pickaxes to chop some of the ice that was melting to remove it and bring sub pumps. They did bring pickaxes the following day but chipped at the ice for 10 minutes at the most and then gave up and dumped ice melt on the ice...which, wouldn't you know? melted the ice and made MORE water that ALSO seeped into the house. 

They also brought sub pumps each day; but, each day, they brought ones that were too large or didn't work.

 They ripped up, removed, (and broke) flooring, tore off baseboard, trim, removed doors, vanity, toilet, put up plastic sheeting and brought over a dozen industrial machines in (water extractors, dehumidifiers, air purifiers, etc.) that ran (and made a deafening noise) 24/7.

The cats freaked and yowled at high pitch adding to the cacophony.

On Day 6, I told them to leave and take their machines with them.

(Another point of context: On Day 2, my insurance agent informed me that absolutely none of this would be covered by insurance. It was “ground water incursion” and that is an excluded event.)

I will have to start all over: New flooring, new baseboard, new trim, new dry wall in areas, new paint, new plumbing work.

There's more to the story about the new wool area rugs, pads, etc. that were shoved - along with other dry, undamaged items - into the small shower and left to moulder with the door closed, but I don't want to relive things by repeating them in written words.

In any event, it was, thankfully, at least quiet again.

I am back in Nod and have spent the last week rescheduling appointments that were canceled as a result of the unexpected lengthy stay at the lake and attempting to line up contractors and such...again.

I had hoped not to have to worry about the "root cause" of the melting/flooding issue until the ground was thoroughly unthawed but...winter has returned with a vengeance.

Thursday night into yesterday, we were hit with a nasty storm. The prediction was for 3-5". 

 We received 13".

We had a brief reprieve today, but we are now under a blizzard warning. 

"Mega Snow." 

That's one way of describing it.

I think it will be "quiet again."

Pieces of January...

 

Yes, I know it's February...but I'm still picking up pieces of January (and, actually, several other months if truth be told.)

This winter - this year so far - has been bumpy. Extreme cold, frozen plans...and pieces that just fell apart. Most days, "Plan A" never stood a chance, so I moved on to Plan B, and, right about now, I think I'm pretty firmly entrenched in Plan D.

I'm far too far behind to make a pretense of catching up, so I'm just jumping in here and sharing some of my "puzzle pieces" from the past month and hoping things start to fit together at some point.

I am not entirely certain what happened the first few weeks of the month. I know what didn't happen (like getting Christmas put away...Lauren, I'm sure, is loath to have a twin like me) so we're going to skip that part, k?

But mid-month I remember both what I did and did not do, so we'll start with that.

The past several years I've spent mid-January at Cathy Stephan's (Red Barn Rugs') rug hooking workshop. For various reasons, this year's January workshop was cancelled. Instead, Cathy and a couple other hooky friends from the January group joined me at the lake for a few days of hooking.

Our friend, Marilyn Becker, who passed away the end of October, had been part of our January workshop group so we decided it would be a fitting opportunity to celebrate her, her friendship, and her amazing hooking artistry.

It was snowy and cold, but we enjoyed the few days we had together.

We took turns making meals, some hooked more than others (ahem!), we watched a few movies and, one day, we ventured out to do a bit of antiquing/junking.

A few of the things that caught my eye:

{Only one of the above items followed me home....}

And what about the hooking projects?

Well, yeah, I was a bit preoccupied with trying to remember how to be a hostess so failed quite miserably not only in that department but also in getting photos of the projects being worked on by the others. 

Here are the few I managed to get:

Marilyn ("Bad" Marilyn...not "Good" Marilyn who we were celebrating) was working

on a piece based on a photo she had taken of a Guatemalan woman and her child. She has already redone the woman's skirt at least twice and plans on redoing it again with totally different wool. She is also going to re-do her face. (Like Good Marilyn, Bad Marilyn is a fine-cut hooker, meaning she hooks with wool strips the width of dental floss.)

Below is the actual photo from which she is working:

Cathy, ever the over-achiever, was working on several things at once. This is the only one I got a photo of:

This rug is HUGE. It is shown below with my 20-lb cat for size reference.

(I believe she said the rug's name is "Hazel" and measures 48" x 60"??)

I tried to convince her to leave the rug for Rajah and me, but she declined.

Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of our friend, Kim's, rug. :-(

I'd like to leave the following part out, but I know there is at least one person out there who would be asking what I worked on.

It's little, it's pathetic...and I got pathetically little accomplished on it, but here ya go MD:

Each of us were also gifted a rug/mat that had been hooked by Good Marilyn.

This is the one I received:

I stayed on a day and a half after everyone left to clean things up, pack things up, etc. (i.e., to catch up on sleep??)

The end of the month? Well, I remember most of that as well - the good, the bad and the ugly.

First the good:  The night after I got home from the lake, I was drawn outside by a lightening of the sky.  Some of the strangest Northern Lights I've witnessed - not so much colorful as BRIGHT - especially against the white of the snow.

There are no streetlights (or any kind of lights) out where I am and I had no porch or yard lights on, yet it was so clear it seemed like early evening. The photo info is shown below. It was 9:59 p.m.

Then there was the bad:

I know many of you were inundated with snow and we, thankfully, escaped that...but we were plunged into bitter, bitter, cold. -30° actual temps with -50° windchills...and guess who came home to heating issues, AGAIN???!

Thankfully, it was in the shop, not the house but, in many ways, it was just as bad since the shop has an in-floor heating system and if it stops working, the entire system and floor can be ruined if it gets cold enough...and it certainly was cold "enough."

On top of that good news, I was unable to even get into the shop because the door had frozen shut.

I finally managed to break in after 2 days so I could get the heating company out in...only to be told that the company that manufactured the heating system had gone out of business, so replacement parts were no longer available.

Seriously??!! If you recall, I just replaced that entire system shortly after my husband passed away so, less than two years ago.

GAH!

They did manage to get it working again, but they had to bypass the auto-shut off function so should it stop working again and drop below freezing, it's done and gone.

Did I say "GAH!"?

And then the ugly:

I came down with a bad case of the flu.

Let's just leave it at that.

I'm on the mend but certainly haven't kicked it completely.

And there you have it...my January in bits and pieces. There's more, actually, but this is more than enough for now, I think.

*****

Oh...and one last thing for the person who asked....

{pssst....and soon there will be two....💗}

Marshmallows, Mermaids and Moonlight

 

{When your cappuccino matches your mug....}

 

I took a quick trip up to the lake over the holiday weekend to sort a few things and soak in a few last rays of the summer sun.

The weather was distractingly amazing.

{Heron on the sandbar} 

Unfortunately, I know I cannot store enough of that energy for the winter ahead.

We have already had frost and there are frost warnings in effect for tonight again.

Back home, I am trying to "sort a few things" as well, but with little-to-no success.  

Many of you, I know, are "sorting" in your own ways - downsizing, purging, minimalizing - as I well should be.

The "need" becomes more apparent with each day that passes, and, at times, the motivation increases as well, but I'm not quite there yet.

If you hadn't figured it out by now, things come slowly to me.

And, most often, I do what I should not do and put myself more than a few steps back.

I have too many collections and I have mostly done well at not adding to them. But every now and again I give in to a weakness.

I can't tell you when I last added to my marshmallow tin collection - other than last week when I added this one.

Nope...I don't like marshmallows particularly - but I do love these old funky tins.

This one will likely end up in the back row - once I wrangle the ladder inside.

(You're right - one probably won't see it back there - but I'm about the only "one" who even knows there's a collection of marshmallow tins up there.)

But back to sorting!

For me that involves tying up loose ends and taking care of things that have lingered about too long.

Like my mermaids. 

I stitched these many years ago - when we first purchased the lake house I believe. (There's not a reason I can conceive of why I would choose to stitch mermaids if I did not have a home near water. And, no - that was NOT the reason we purchased the lake house.)

Anyway - they are finally framed.

First up - The Mermaid of Salem Bay (pattern by The Primitive Hare).

This is stitched on 30 ct "Pirate Linen" also by The Primitive Hare (2 over 2 with a gazillion quarter/half/three-quarter stitches and backstitching and beading). 

I had a meltdown when I ran out of the overdyed floss called "Mountain Mist" and could find none remotely close to what I had started her with as the dye lots had changed dramatically.

Marly (Samplers and Santas) came through with many skeins of not only Mountain Mist, but other colors she thought would work.

She was right.

Marly is always right when it comes to color.

I'm not typically a bead person, but the beads made this design.

And what's better than 1 mermaid?

Two, of course.

This is, obviously, another Primitive Hare design.

This one is called Oceanarium and is stitched two over two on 30 ct. "Ancient Stones" linen, also by The Primitive Hare.

Again, lots of quirky stitches, backstitching and beading.

I should have done a video so you could see how the beads twinkle - but I didn't.

If these make it to being hung on a wall, it will be at the lake house.

They don't quite "fit" here in Nod.

And, lastly, moonlight.

Last night was a full "blood" moon - and a total lunar eclipse no less.

While the eclipse wasn't visible to us here in the states, the moon still put on a spectacular show.

 

...and now back to sorting.

😒

Rough Waters

It's been the better part of a year since I've been here to stay.

Much has changed, much never will.

I was apprehensive about what I would find as a tornado had touched down on the other side of the lake about a week and a half prior.

{Boat and lift flipped completely upside down.}

Thankfully, my little island was unscathed.

I have been here a week.

My days have been spent cleaning, making lists, searching for things that are no longer where they were...things that are, simply, no longer anywhere.

More pieces to pick up, more holes to fill.

Inevitably, and sadly, some pieces will never fit back together, some things will never be found, and some holes will never be filled.

The latest (3rd? 4th?) phase of remodeling is relatively complete.

{Yes, I know I promised someone before and after photos...I will do that at some point...}

The next phase(s) won't start until January or later.  I need to catch my breath and see if my heart is still here.

The first few days were difficult.  No television, no phone, no internet.  No overhead fans working, garbage disposal not working, leak in the laundry room, broken front porch light, broken back door, light switches not working, non-functioning clocks, no window screens... Too much activity on the lake, too many fireworks, too much filth, too much to do, too many memories, too many ghosts, too many haunts.

And something of which I cannot yet speak.

But the days were pleasantly warm, and the sun shone.

I caught the swans and their young swimming in the far bay.

That, too, changed, however.  The clouds moved in, the winds quickened and the lake darkened.

There's still rough waters ahead.