Can you mourn trees?

We had a terrible storm Monday night.  It was so hot and humid all day long.  Our house does not have air conditioning so we were trying to get some breeze into the house. The kitchen window was open as was some of our upstairs windows.  I had been to Grand Forks to get my oil changed in the car.  I ran into some bad weather (heavy rain and lightening) just outside of Reynolds, ND.  That was short lived and I could see off to the north lots of black clouds and lightening.  I got home and started to make dinner since it was almost 7 pizza was on the plan.  David just got home as well and we were discussing our day as the power flickered on and off.  The scary part started when the all of sudden the wind that had been blowing just died and the birds were quiet.  We went and looked out at the clouds.  The clouds were all going the same direction.  That was the good news.  So we thought we just might make it through the storm without getting anything bad.   We were wrong. 

 

We were eating our pizza finally.  Then I heard David say "Here it comes!" and went running upstairs to close windows.  I got up to see what he meant and looked out to see branches flying from somewhere and a wall of rain and wind coming into the yard. I started to hear trees falling and wind roaring.  I yelled for the boys to head into the basement.  I ran down the stairs to the basement trying to decide where we would be safest.  Once the boys were in the basement with me, I decided we were fine anywhere in the basement.  I hear David upstairs trying to close the kitchen window with some trouble. Everything in the dish strainer and on the frig was all over the kitchen.  Finally David joined us in the basement for a bit and then we couldn't find Gizmo.  The back door had flown open too.  We feared he had headed outside into the storm.  Once things started to quiet down,  David checked for Gizmo and still couldn't find him.  We gradually started to venture upstairs as the storm seemed to abate.  I did find Gizmo between the recliner and the wall.  He likes to hide there sometimes.  He had his collar  looped over the recliner's footrest lever.  I had to take his collar off to let him move.  He didn't come out for about an hour after we assured him it was all right.  We could hardly see out for the moisture on the windows.  We could see the trees in the backyard that were down as well as all the branches that were strewn across the yard.   David checked up in the attic to see if we had a roof left and found our cover to the top of the roof gone.  He checked on the top to see what else was gone and noticed our chimney had fallen over.  We got some information on the weather and heard we might have some more rain to come.  We started looking for some materials to make a cover for the roof.  Luckily we had a piece of wood that would work and some other things that would work to secure it but no rope or cord to do that.  We knew things were in the Quonset but that was a walk and littered with branches and it was dark by now. David and I braved it; As we ventured out to the Quonset, we did notice that our power lines were down and dead so we knew it might be awhile before we had power back. We got a ratchet strap that would work to secure it. After we got the hatch cover in place and started to think about what else we might need.  David and Jacob went back out to the camper and got more flashlights.  They also went on a tour of the yard and discovered that our grain bin was gone.  At that point, we glad that the house was secure and we were all okay.
All in all it came it the best it could have and all our neighbors are safe just lots of trees down. 

Driveway before

Driveway after
 

I am just so sad at all the lost trees that were probably at least 60 to 70 years old if not older.  Someone planted those trees years and years ago as protection against the prairie winds. I am glad we have a lot of young trees to take their place and they will have the room now to do that but it won't be the same for a very long time.

Side yard with a big limb
 

You can just see what is left of the chimney and some bricks
 

This is the backyard.  My grill is wrapped up in a tree branch. It was located just a few feet from the back steps to the house. This at least 3 old growth trees.

This a little to the left of the previous picture. This is another at least 2 trees that fell.

 

 

This is all that is left of the grain bin. the concrete pad.

  Go HUG a tree!

This is the grain bin.

Winter doldrums....

This is what I woke up to this morning.  The Sundogs are back.  It was only -4*F but it was windy.  New drifts piling up....and others being sculpted by the wind.  It is like an ocean of white with waves of snow frozen in motion.  It is strange the shapes the snow can create.  It must be this way in the desert too.  Oh well, spring will be here soon. 

I

I ventured to Mayville on my lunch "hour" under the guise of taking the bank deposit to the ban in Mayville.  I really went to return something to the quilt store and get something new.   I needed some tropical colors and these batik fabrics fit the bill.
I hope to make a journal out of them.  I was poking around on pinterest a while ago and found a journal made out of paper but with dimensional houses on the front.  I thought at first it was fabric but I contacted the original pinner and asked her.  She it was all paper.  I mentioned that it would be cool in fabric as well and she encouraged me to make one in fabric.  I have given it a lot of thought so we will see what happens in reality. I have preliminary plans thought up.  I am not sure what binding  stitch I will use I have few from all the binding classes I have taken so we'll see what I can come up with to make the binding interesting.

A quilting I will go....A quilting I will go....

Life has been busy the past few months.  I have been traveling around the Dakotas a few times.  It is interesting that every where I go there are differences and similarities as well.   Corn piles in every town and ice fishing everywhere.  I also saw a lot of campers traveling about the highways.  Some were even headed north.  I don't know where they were going but I wish them luck if they were going camping in -20 degrees. 
I know winter has been around a long time when I go outside and think it isn't so cold....then look the thermometer and see that it is -10 degrees.  We are supposed to get above zero soon.  Looking forward to that. 
I have getting things ready to start some quilting.  I even found time this weekend to shopping for my crafts.  I stopped in Fargo on my way home on Saturday from my meeting in Wahpeton. There were a few stores that I try to stop at when I can.  I went to the Joann's in Fargo first.  They were having a sale on some fabrics that I wanted to get and I thought it would save a trip to Joann's when I was with the boys.  The Joann's in Fargo has so much more than Grand Forks.  I might have to make a point of going there more often.  It was quite busy but I gathered all the fabrics I needed cut and grabbed a number and waited.  I got everything cut and was out of there in about an hour.  The traffic in Fargo is something else these days.  It took me about 5 minutes of getting out onto the 13th before I took a side street to head downtown.  I am so not used to traffic.  Downtown is always a little interesting parking wise but I know where the stores I want to shop and where to park without too much of headache.  Art materials is the only art store in North Dakota.  It has just about everything art available.  I got my favorite paper there and it was on sale.  I was glad to see that as I usually find it only online.  They have started stocking acrylic paint markers by Liquitex.  I got a black and white one for doing eyes.  Got a few other things a colored pencil stick and some pan pastel tools.  I always enjoy browsing there seeing all the different things they carry.  Then I had heard about a new little fabric shop not too far away from Art Materials.  I got to park right at the front door.  It is a wonderful little shop.  I didn't buy much fabric there but I did get a great book.

This is a book about using scraps from regular quilting and maximizing your investment in fabric.  I love quite a few in there so I bought it.  The author is even coming in March for a workshop.  I might be taking that.

  On Sunday I did go to Joann's in Grand Forks because as I was getting my fabric together for my Playing the Scales quilt I noticed I needed another fat quarter of dark fabric.  I also wanted to get some invisi grip for my rulers.  I picked up a sewing box.  It is more like a tool box but it holds all my sewing supplies together.

As I was gathering all  my supplies I noticed that I didn't much thread left.  I used a lot in Allison's quilt last year.  I figured I better get some more as I intend on completing at least two quilt tops in the next few weeks. I went to my local quilt store Faye's Henhouse Quilts.  She always has lots of interesting kits and fabrics.  I could spend hours there but I did a quick wander thru and got my thread and a few fat quarters.  I also picked up a quilt kit on sale called Sunny Days.  It is a wonderful yellow color.  Looking forward to getting that one cut up and ready to go.

So I have a baby quilt that is all cut and ready to sew.  It is a kit I got from Quilter's Eden in East Grand Forks, MN back in November.  It is a lovely very classic quilt I am excited to see how it turns out.

Here is my fabric for the Playing the Scales quilt.  That will be the second quilt to be sewn. 

  Right now my sewing room is my dining room table.  I have to clean out my bedroom I think to put my sewing things there for a while.  It is always something going on around here.  I think I will be sewing for a while in the next few weeks or months.