Wednesday Weather Report #156 - 5/13/20

This looks like a lovely day for a silo fire last Thursday, no? The sun was warm on our shoulders until a cold, windy front brought in some rain.

Saturday morning, I had to fill up my gas tank. It was the first time in 5 weeks so I wasn't complaining but it was a bonus to find such a low price - this gas station is 5cents cheaper on Saturdays if you pay in cash. I can't remember the last time I saw prices so low. NY is notorious for it's gas taxes so yours is probably lower - what are you paying?

If you think those skies behind the gas station sign look ominous, you would be right - take a look at what followed in few short hours:

We've seen this kind of non-accumulating snow several times in the last week, but only last night did it finish with such a pretty show. Not the most amazing sunset but to go from something similar to the snow above to clearing, golden skies in just minutes was amazing to watch.

I'm hoping that Janet or Barbara can confirm that this next picture is hoarfrost. I've never seen it in person but I saw it in several places this morning when it was a brisk 26F for my walk. I'm hoping all y'all can zoom in on this cuz it is really cool looking. The little spikes were fragile to the touch.

I hope you enjoyed this little trip through the last dregs of winter. We are heading into the 60s and 70s in the next couple of weeks so I am thinking that the snow will now leave us until next fall.

May 6-12, 2020
46 - 57 - 36 - 34 - 53 - 38 - 44 F

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!!

Feline Friday - 10/11/17

My Momma is usually a pretty smart cookie but I think I won that award last night...

Before Momma fell asleep on the couch it was rainy and windy but it was ok cuz I was tucked into my chair all cozy in my quilt.

Eventually Momma woke up and went to bed. At last! I had downstairs all to myself.

Not 15 minutes after Momma crawled into her bed with those new red plaid flannel sheets that look so good with my furs did that siren go off. Normally I would run for the door and have a little middle of the night escapade until she came home. No way last night!! There was white stuff on the ground! Brrrrrrrr! I'll stay inside this time Momma!

Snow blowing off the roof at the ER

Before the plows sand the roads

When Momma came home she returned to those lovely plaid sheets but I was worried she was too cold cuz it was only 20F outside and she doesn't have a fur coat.  I thought I should do my part to get her warmed up so I planted my backside right up against her face. I took up half the pillow to accomplish this but I was persistent when she tried to move my furs out of her nose.

The pear tree is still GREEN!

In the morning we had a good view through the upstairs window/screen so I once again decided to stay inside while Momma ventured out to the ortho doctor for Mr Cranky Ankle and then to work. I think I scored again cuz I am home alone and warm and cozy! I'm sure I can get that food box open if I start to starve before she gets home...

PS - Thank you to all those veterans who gave of their time and lives in service for our country!

An InLinkz Link-up

A busy Summer Weekend...

It was another busy, busy summer weekend and while some of it was quilting related, most was not.

I started my long weekend with a FART (fabric acquisition road trip) to the city to get the black for my latest doll cat quilt. When I got to Ivy Thimble, with my samples in hand, I realized it was a dark blue. Silly me. I bought the fabrics I needed for the doll cat quilt and a few other FQs for my woodsmen quilt and a couple oranges for my temperature quilt. I found out today that the weather peeps are saying that August is going to be below normal temperatures. Maybe I should have found more oranges...

Next stop was Patricia's Fabric House for a couple more woodsman fabrics. This is only the 2nd or 3rd time I've been to this store but I finally figured out why they ask if I'm on the mailing list. I told her no but lifted the coupons I had printed from their website. 10% off. Woohoo!!!

Next was The Bobbin Case, a Bernina dealer. I picked up a few quilting rulers, as opposed to piecing rulers. The lady in the store didn't understand what I meant - what do you guys calling quilting rulers?

At Joanne's I bought a new Ott light - my old one was ~20 years old and recently kicked the bucket. I used it daily for hexies and I really needed one ASAP. This one is LED and almost too bright compared to the old one...shows you how technology changes.

I got home just in time to turn around and go to hexie club. We close the store so I check out the girls with their new purchases and then I needed to do hexie paper inventory to place an inventory this week.

Saturday was our annual Fire Department golf tournament. I am in charge of registration, raffles and all things money. When I have some down time it's all about the hexies!!

1 ticket / $2
3 ticket / $5

Sunday afternoon was spent at the 145th annual Pioneer Picnic, helping mom sell ice cream and quilt raffle tickets. The quilt proceeds go to the new roof/siding fund for the Castile Historical House. You know, where I am VP. Hmm...my hand in the money again. Did you sense a trend?

Anyway...the rest of the weekend was spent with me sitting and stitching. I could really use a nap...but I need to finish getting ready for the fair to start on Saturday and as soon as that is over the following weekend I can start working on school taxes. Hmm...more money!

Wednesday Weather Report, a squishy and flowers!

It's been a red hot week.

Yesterday there was a house fire a few streets from where I work. Those poor fire(wo)men with all their gear on in that bright afternoon sun were just sweating buckets. I'm sure they got tired of me pushing bottles of water and Gatorade at them but they needed it. They did jokingly ask for a portajohn but I couldn't help them with that. LOL. Now if only I had had some sunscreen with me...

Thankfully today is much, much cooler.
Today is an orange day, since you asked. Barely an orange day.

Earlier this week I received a squishy from Denise!!! Every other month we send each other a squishy based on a predetermined theme. This month was cats & birds. We were supposed to send one bird FQ, one cat FQ and either a cat or bird related gift. Neither of us follows the rules explicitly, as you already noticed.

I tried to get the approval of my new cat socks from the resident approver of all things here at Casa Grande but he was more interested in attacking my Sketchers.

And last but not least, I raided my garden this morning! Pink and white peonies, yellow iris and 2 kinds of hosta leaves. My office smells divine!

Linking to Midweek Makers #76.

Design Wall Monday - 1/23/17

Saturday morning -

Sunday Evening -

Oops - I neglected to take a good photo of the finished quilt front. Instead I was still gungho and kept right on going to make a back and size the batting.

Within minutes of finishing the back I was hoofing the block to the fire hall to take advantage of the tables and space to get this baby spray basted.

You can see the quilt is bigger than the tables but I like this as it lets me hang parts of it off the table so I can work on the "middle". It was less than an hour to get this 70x70 quilt spray basted.

I've already started thinking of quilting designs and just need to check my thread stash. I am just about out of my medium gray Masterpiece thread for basic stitching so it's time to stock up :)

I'm also still gungho to finish off some other projects. I have many tops that just need batting and backings. I might be going on a FART this weekend to a friend's sister's store that has 80+ wideback fabrics on sale this weekend. She doesn't carry my preferred batting but what she has is also on sale so I'll need to decide if I want to save money to get them done or stick with what I like...

Design Wall Monday - 4/25/16

2 pieced hexies and 2 chrysanthemum rosettes (hexie club birthday shape for 2015)
completed at my conferences last week. I've finished some other rosettes but they got
filed away before being photographed. Oopsie!

My work conference is held in Saratoga Springs every other year. On those years
I stop at a quilt store south of Syracuse on the way home. This year my goal was
blue/yellow/orange (across the top) for my pieced hexie project and hexie fabrics
along the bottom for my iSpy . This brings me up  to 96 different hexie fabrics!!
Thing is, I think I need 4 more to finish the design I am working on. Oh and the
green batik (top left) is sashing for the iSpy. Unless I change my mind, of course...

This weekend was a statewide volunteer fireman recruiting event.
The weather was gorgeous but the event wasn't very successful.
We did get 1 application which is better than none...

Yesterday was spent making the rest of the iSpy blocks and sewing them into twosies.
I'll have to finish pressing them tonight. Can we say boring??!!

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 1/17/16

Hello and welcome to a very special edition of Hexie Linky Party for Hexie-aholics!!
What's so special you ask?

Well...have you ever wondered why HeLP is held on the 17th of each month?
That's because it's my birth day.

BUT ... Today is not just my birth day but it's my BIRTHDAY!!!!!
It's even a birthday that ends in a 5!

I hope all y'all will be spending your Sunday working on an EPP project to help celebrate with me! Oh and don't forget to have cake - with those 5 minute mug cakes all over the internet that should be a breeze.

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I didn't get nearly as many hexies done this week as I had planned. I think a lot of our lives go that way but I think I have a pretty good excuse. 3 actually. Long Story Short - Saturday afternoon was taken with a nasty MVA. The kid made out pretty well given how bad the accident was. Sunday was taken with hockey games for both of my nephews.

Garage Fire

And last but not least was this fire at 1:15 am Monday morning.

And just so you know how close to home this was...
I looked out my upstairs bedroom window when the siren blew and saw no smoke or flames.
This photo was taken only 30 seconds later.
Yikes!

As an EMT I help distribute coffee and make sure the firemen have gloves on, etc, in the freezing temps,  Let's just say I went back to bed at 6:30 and still made it to work by 9. Barely. It took 2 days for my toes to warm up...

I spent a few nights trying to catch up on sleep but finally got my hex on again Thursday night! I had to move my project to the folding table though.

A. It's really too big to be in a lap anyway.
B. Squeaky wants to sit on half of my lap but not be under the quilt.
C. Zorro wants back in the house as soon as I have myself settled on the couch.

In case you can't tell by my horrible pictures, I am finally finishing the ends of my Value Proposition quilt - which means 4 corners and 6 half diamonds. I am half way across one end and hope to spend my birthday weekend getting as close to finished as possible.

You might be able to see that I was watching Blacklist Season 1 and I have several other TV shows on DVD to keep me going. I just realized I didn't stock up on snacks. Better do that on my way home. My ultimate goal is to have the borders on (and maybe have it spray basted??!!) by the end of the month. As long as there are no more excuses that should work out just fine...

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And here's the fun part --- What hexie project are you working on?? It can be a current project, a UFO or a dream project. Please join the linky party!

I'm in the process of putting a little prize together...you know, for my birthday! I know there will be chocolates and something hexie related but who knows what else I'll find. I'll update this post as soon as I finalize the goodies.

Leave me a comment for a chance at the prize.

Join the linky party and add another comment saying you did so for another chance.

I'll draw the winner at noon on Monday, January 25th. Good luck and Happy Hexing!

An InLinkz Link-up

Design Wall Monday - 4/8/13

It was a busy weekend which didn't afford me as much sewing time as I had wanted. As Erin said, such is the life of a volunteer (fireman). Oh well...

What I did manage to accomplish was making a few zippered bags.

The 4 on the top left are finished and the bottom two are still in the works. The bag on the top right will have a box bottom but I need to find some embellishments for it first.

I'm thinking a trip up to the city craft stores might be fun in the next couple weeks. That and I only have 1 sewing machine needle left and it's not even my "usual" brand. I think I only broke 3 over the weekend and it was mainly from not paying attention while changing feet and needle positions back and forth.

Several people have asked what patterns I use for my zippered bags:

I'm at the point now where I can really make the bags in my sleep but I still need the cutting dimensions from the patterns. I highly recommend these patterns if you don't own them already!

This is just a drill

Given what happened in town just a few weeks ago, you are probably going to question why we went ahead with this drill but this was an excellent opportunity we don't often have dropped in our laps and we decided to go forward with it for the benefit of all the local deparments.

At some point this summer one of the local farmers offered us a house that he would otherwise be tearing down and trucking away. With the stipulation that he remove the shingles and vinyl siding we agreed to burn the house for him. The location was perfect for us as it was in the middle of a corn field and would not adversly affect any neighbors.

We again had many fire departments on scene, including several members of the distant department one of our former members now belongs to. We (I use this term loosely as I don't do burning buildings but I was on scene as an EMT and watching my brother run the pumper) took the opportunity to learn Perry's aerial truck in case they cannot get a crew together. New members and any one else interested were taken into the house in groups where small fires were set and the men and women could practice putting out the fire.

After about 2.5 hours of drills we set the house on fire and just watched her burn. I am sure the people driving by wondered why 50 firemen were staring at a burning building with all their cameras out but again it was an interesting opportunity to watch how a fire burns and to see how the wind blew the fire right back into the house.

All told, the house was burned into the basement within an hour and as of yesterday, the trees have been removed and you would never know a house and yard were in that particular field.


Can you see how the wind is blowing the flames in thru the front windows and over the roof?

Thankfully no one was injured during the drill, they were all well fed again and newbies and oldies alike got to practice their skills.

I had some short videos but they don't seem to be uploading...sorry.

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!

You know you're from a small town when...

...the new fire truck is the biggest news around. LOL.

Castile Fire Department has historically (to the best of my knowledge anyway) purchased used fire trucks and some of them are now darn near as old as I am! But when you are only used a few times a year, it's ok.

This year, the department voted to get rid of 2 old trucks and purchase this one new pumper tanker. From this view it looks as long as the fire hall - it's not, quite. You can see all the guys drooling looking it over. We had guys from the county EMS and several local departments come to watch it be delivered and I hear it will be front page in the weekly paper this week.

As an EMT, I am technically an exterior firefighter but I know nothing about trucks or anything on them so I'll just show you the photos. My boss, a Perry Center fireman, asked to see a pic of the pumps and I hadn't even thought to get one. Check out how HUGE it is compared to my models. It feels bigger than the 2 trucks we got rid of.

And lucky me, I got the first truck related injury. I was trying to figure out how to open the roller door compartments (shown here to the left of Pete). Nick showed me the "latch" and as the door started to fly up, I tried to grab it. Instead, I got my fingers slammed between the door and the truck. Ouch didn't quite cover it. No swelling but my fingers/knuckles are pretty sore. See why I'm not an interior? I can't even operate the truck let alone run into burning buildings with all that gear on...

And the two bestest models? My nephews, Ryan and Tyler. Maybe you can tell from the angle of the photo how high they are. There are three steep steps and I had a bit of trouble getting up there in a jean skirt...can't wait to see the guys in their bunkers trying to climb up there.