It was a cold, rainy, foggy weekend...

I had "plans" for the weekend - mostly revolving around household chores, baking and bazaar preparations. It turned out to be all about the fire department and Mr Serious...

--For just about any controlled burn we throw in some training exercises first. 
--The house was prepped by the farmer by removing anything that possibly had asbestos (flooring, siding, roofing) and anything else that could be dangerous for training purposes.
--We had about 100 fire wo/men and maybe 15 trucks from 7 departments
--Castile has yellow trucks - research shows they are more visible than the traditional red trucks.

About 20 minutes after we finally started the burn

Friday night, after getting the groceries, I got one last take out meal (salmon burger with dill sauce and fried green beans) from the Charcoal Corral before they closed for the season. Then I spent the evening working on Mr Serious. I was tired so I went to bed a little early which is good cuz the 0130 rescue call took longer than normal and it always takes me a while to get back to sleep. There was another call at 0700 but since we were going to do a controlled burn at 0730, the chief asked another department to cover the call. Sadly there is still paperwork to be done whether we go or not.

11:39

11:40

11:41

For the controlled burn, I was supposed to be doing "firefighter rehab" for any firefighter who wore an air tank inside the burning house or anyone not feeling well. Despite their instructions, not a single firefighter came over for rehab. Thankfully I brought hexies to work on or it would have been an excruciatingly long 5 hours. I worked on my kaleidoscope doll quilt that I am trying to finish for our Fall 2018 UFO challenge at hexie club. I made some good progress but neglected to take any photos.

I then went on a FART to a not-so-LQS that I just found out has a decent Grunge collection to look for the perfect yellow for Mr Serious. I found a better brown and more neutrals to add to the mix but still not the right yellow. Maybe even with their 119 colors they still won't have the right yellow?

Sunday came up rainy and cold yet again. Even Z has been upset with the weather. I went to my nephew's hockey game in the morning and then crashed on the couch making exceptional progress on Mr Serious. The row that I started today will end in the top left corner. Woohoo!! Just 16 tiny little hexies until I hit that corner!!

The evening was topped off with a vehicle fire in one of the local heifer barns. We had 3 men for rehab this time and I made some new (moo?!) calf friends.  Luckily no firemen or cows were harmed but the feed truck is toast. Had the fire been worse a very large barn full of a lot of heifers could have been lost.

We will be Falling Back soon - don't forget to change the batteries in your smoke and CO alarms!!

Wednesday Weather Report #66 - 8/22/18

We're going to start today with a short and simple but important PSA:

Don't change out of your sneakers when you get home late without first turning on an "appropriate" number of lights...

...or you might not notice a problem until you see a mismatched pair of flipflops on the floor some time later.

82 - 84 - 77- 71 - 73 - 74 - 69 F

Hmm...second yellow Tuesday in a row - Could Fall be knocking at our door?

And here is the month of August so far...on my new hexagon table!! Now I just need to find it a permanent spot instead of the middle of the dining room. Z doesn't mind it here but I'm tired of walking around it.

Every year our county fair includes a silent auction by one of the local auction houses. This table was sold as an octagon gateleg table. It it neither an octagon nor a gateleg table. Kinda makes me wonder if I would have have them sell my items...

An InLinkz Link-up


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PS -
Did you link up to the HeLP linky-versary giveaway last week? I extended the deadline until Sunday night and we'll draw a winner on Monday. No pictures of the prize yet but it involves choco and hexies. You knew that right?! I'll be picking up hexie fabric on my FART Friday, I'll make a zipper bag from the winners favorite candy and I already have another fun hexie item.

Feline Friday - 6/7/13

Squeaky here with a PSA for all you parents with kits young and old...

Furr-iends don't let furr-einds do 'Nip!

It does NOT do a body good!

Any other tips you Felines can offer this week?

PS - Don't forget Momma goes on another blogging break starting next Monday, 6/10 thru at least 6/19. The only exception is that HeLP For Hexie-aholics is a go on 6/17/13. I've seen what she is gonna post but I haven't figured out how to make it mine yet - give me time. Cya then!

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Feline Friday - 3/8/13

Momma is rearranging the quilt room. Wednesday she moved stuff off the table with the purr machine and put some old drawer up there with a fluffy towel in it. She said something about it coming from the safe at the old village hall.

You know I had to test it out the first night but I haven't been back since. It's a nice bed with plenty of room for my tuckus and all but there are lots of nice places to sleep here at CasaGrande and they all deserve a turn. Momma is trying to get me to come back by leaving my fav toys and some treats in the box. I've eaten the treats but not taken another nap there. How long do you think I can milk this treat thing?

PS - don't forget to change the batteries in your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors this weekend when you Spring Forward :)

Community

I live in the small town of Castile, a community, if you will, in the heart of rural Western New York.

I am a part of my community. I own a house and pay taxes. I am lieutenant and an EMT in the Castile Fire Department and Rescue Squad. I am in the CFD Ladies Auxiliary. I am trustee and secretary for the Cordelia A Green Library. I am Vice President for the Castile Historical Society. I am a member of the Wednesday Club. I have an account at the Bank of Castile. I have a PO box at the post office. I buy gas at Ackerman's, groceries at Carney's and pizza at Al's. I attend community events at the Castile United Church of Christ. I support the restoration of the Doughboy statue. I am a Castilian!

At 1:46am Tuesday morning, the fire siren sounded for smoke near Lorraine's restaurant. As I started to briskly walk the one block to the fire hall I could see smoke in the vicinity. As I got closer I could see the ominous orange glow in the smoke. Lorraine's was attached to the town hall; housing the town, village, assessor, zoning and court offices. There was also one apartment over the restaurant. Ultimately, the entire block was lost as was the restaurant owner who resided in the apartment. The building was brick over wood with gorgeous galvanized steel trim (we all thought the trim was wood) and had been built in 1882. It was one of our last historic business buildings. The story made the national NBC news ticker.

One of the many reporters on the scene liked my "I heart Castile" pin and wanted to interview me. She asked about community and I now have no idea what I babbled about but I have thought about it since.

Community is taking a half an hour to walk down the street because there are so many neighbors out to catch up with. Community is being able to walk to all the stores and businesses you really need. Community is having your friends and family live close by.

But community is a lot more than that.

Community is the 24 VOLUNTEER fire departments on scene - many for 17+ hours. I'm not talking a city department that has just 1 or 2 trucks. I'm talking departments with up to 5 trucks on scene and dozens of firemen and firewomen. Community is also the 17 other departments on stand by around our county. These volunteers came from 7 counties. Some of them came back on the second day for the continued investigation and demolition; some of them even had a barn fire in the middle of the night and still came back. Some of these men and women were paid by their employers for community service hours. Some had to take sick or vacation days to be there. Some may not have been paid at all.

Community is the bank offering office space and supplies until a new office can be built. Community is your fellow town and village clerks calling from near and far to assist with re-establishing offices with supplies, equipment and manhours.

Community is the anonymous donor who went to the grocery store and paid for any food and drinks we would need to feed so many firemen. Community is the church making more food and open for prayer. Community is the homeowners who brought hot food and homemade cookies to the firemen working on their streets. Community is the family of the victim bringing us even more food to thank us.

Community is even the people watching from across the street - yes, the gawkers - because it's their community too.

I learned a few things too but I'll save them for another time. Just promise me one thing - go replace your smoke alarm battery and then replace it again every time you change the clocks.

And don't forget to thank your local firemen! Please don't thank me. I want you to thank your local firemen, because they are a part of your community!

Feline Friday - 9/28/12

Greetings on this Fine Friday morning to my Fellow Feline Furrreinds!!!

If you care to join your humans in the loo, please make sure the seat is down. Don't ask me how I know this.

This PSA was brought to you by Squeaky, who adds that no felines were harmed in the making of this PSA!

Spring !!

I don't think the town where I work got over 65F yesterday altho Rochester was 68F and beat a 120+ year old record. So what's a girl to do when it's that warm?

Dust off the cobwebs and fire up the barby of course!!!
Looks like I'm going to need some new bricks along with a new grill cover...

I also walked around the yard looking for spring plants. There was lots of *little* bits of green popping up (day lillies, sedum, phlox, weeds, etc) but all were too small except these little snow drops. Haven't found the crocuses yet.

Today will "only" be 57 but I did see my first robin of the year so Spring is on it's way!

Speaking of spring - Don't forget to Spring Forward an hour this Sunday and change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. I'll finally be installing my new smoke detectors.

PSA

As is usual on a long weekend where you have lots to accomplish - it doesn't happen! Oh sure, I got some house cleaning done and went for groceries. A huge wind storm came thru Friday night/Saturday day and took my grill cover with it in exchange for someone's plastic plant pot. Dad and I cleared out the office/library so we could begin remodeling the room. Can't wait to lose the pink walls and grey-green trim. Yewchtcht.

I think I spent about 27 minutes in the quilt room, working on class samples. The rest of the weekend was spent cooking, vegging in front of Deadliest Catch or going on rescue calls. And, for lack of anything better to blog about, how about a PSA?

When was the last time you took a first aid class? A CPR class? Do you know how to use the AED in your office building? Do you know that CPR has changed, even since I was certified 2 years ago? It has. Do you know that starting CPR when the person first needs it can be the difference between life and death? It can.

I know you all have friends, family, neighbors, co-workers or even enemies and frienemies. Someday they may need your help. It could be for any problem, at any time but having the training means you don't have to stop and think about what to do. You just let your subconcious kick in and you do it. Someday, someone will thank you for taking a few hours out of your busy life to take a first aid or CPR class.

I shouldn't need to say this but I will - you should ALWAYS call 911 first. The ambulance or fire department will come at any hour in any kind of weather and we would rather go back home with everyone safe than be too late to make a difference.

I only know of one exception to calling 911 first. Do you know what it is?