Jude's Joy

Last year, at quilt camp, I sewed my first-ever tee-shirt quilt.

Kyle and Heather printed Jude's Joy tee-shirts for about 3 years 

to support Rare Disease Day February 28.

Many in the Luck community donated and then got a tee-shirt.  I gathered up some of the shirts and brought them to camp to make a quilt for Jude.

Each panel was a unique size so this was a big of a challenge to me to make it all look planned and balanced.  I found some fabric on-line that with the lyrics to 'Hey Jude' by the Beatles.  The white fabric has little hearts embossed on it.

IN PROCESS at quilt camp

Adding a border to make it a little bigger and add some interest.

I had it quilted by Tammy at Quilting Up North in Port Wing, WI.  She's my favorite long arm quilter and always does a great job.  We agreed to use orange thread to give the larger white areas a bit of interest.

Before I got around to adding the border, I had lunch with quilting pals, Sharon and Mary, and Sharon was talking about using a special fabric that you can print on using your computer printer.

I decided to add a collage of photos on the back of the quilt showing the Jude shirts the first year.  The entire basketball team wore them and many of the fans as well.

I decided on a fun border and matching binding. 

Sewing the binding on is always hard to get to.  But, when I finally sit down to do it, I don't mind at all.

The Photo Collage fit nicely in the back of the quilt.

I added my label on the other lower corner of the quilt.

The completed quilt.  I am pleased, I hope Jude loves it.

A little note that I will attach to the quilt when I present it.
Quilts should be used and loved and washed, ha!

Life is good.

Hot Water

Last Monday morning, March 20th, I woke up to a high pitched noise that I instantly knew was a water detector.  I picked up some inexpensive water detectors on Amazon some time ago.  I put one by the water heater and the other ones under the sinks.  Always good to know when water is where it should not be.

So, I was expecting bad news as I hopped out of bed and I was not disappointed.

Water was headed down the hallway towards the kitchen, has seeped into the guest bathroom and the laundry room was flooded.  I quickly turned off the well pump and started grabbing towels to sop up the mess.

Every towel in the house was used to soak up the water.  I'm lucky that the alarm woke me up, it could have been much worse.  But trust me, it was bad.

Right away I sent a text to my plumber and he said that someone would stop by today.

I continued to clean up and fret.

The water heater that was leaking had been installed just 6 years ago.  It was special order via Menards because Wick Manufactured Homes uses a mobile home style heater that vents out the bottom, into the crawl space.   I started wondering how long I could live without water if I had to special order another heater.  I was imagining hauling jugs of water to flush toilets & shower and using bottled water for cooking and drinking.  It was not a pretty picture in my imagination!

Plumber Griffin arrived after lunch and diagnosed the problem as a leaking water heater.  Ugh, but no surprise.

He called and discussed it with Ross (the business owner) and they offered me one solution, replace the water heater with a conventional heater with power vent.  Ross said he has no confidence in the floor vent models and finds them to have a very short lifespan.  So, I was eager to accept their one option.  This wil be the 3rd water heater that I have purchased for this house, I would like it to be my last.

Griffin capped off the leaking heater, drained it and prepared what he could for the replacement, which was planned for the next day.  In the meantime, I could have cold water in the whole house, yippee!  A person can make hot water, but you can't make water!  (Unless you want to melt snow that is.) Flushing toilets is a convenience that I very much appreciate. 

Mid day on Tuesday, Griffin & Ross showed up with the new heater.  They worked together to pull out the old, covered the hole in the floor and set the new heater in the closet.  Then Griffin set about to replumb the new equipment.

By about 6pm Tuesday night, I had hot water again and a very professional installation of the new heater.

I have a bunch of photos below, not in chronological order but I'll add a comment to each to give it some context.

A professional installation with new shutoff to the water heater in case of future issues.
(The way it should have been done when this place was first plumbed)

A 40 gallon water heater.  You can see the little black leak detector I replaced as insurance.

Leak checking.  Since I have to sense of smell, this gave me great peace of mind.

The new heater in place and installed.

A nice vent installation, such an improvement from what was there.

Getting there, just need to add the vent.

Starting to haul out his tools.

Old piping, it looks so gross now compared to the new.

All lines secured and organized. 
New pressure gauge for the pressure tank too.

I think the Culligan serviceman will be happy about this too.  The filter casing that he has to undo is properly secured now.

My first peek at the new heater in place.
Nice plywood covering that gross hole in the floor.

This was gross!!
The old heater vented to insulation below the utility closet.  
Very Gross.

The old.

New heater on the porch waiting to come in.

I haven't received the bill for services yet, I'm sure it will be a whopper, but I know that this had to be done.  

Now, on the lowest setting, the water is as hot as is needed.  My shower is now hot again.  I didn't realize how bad the old one was performing.  I'm looking forward to seeing my gas usage with the new one, I believe it will be much lower.

I have peace of mind now about the hot water.  The old heater was acting weird for a long time.  I had to re-light the pilot light often.  Good riddance!

Griffin is a nice young man.  I was very curious to see the work progressing and he was not bothered by my checking in to see what was what.  He was also very compassionate and continued to say how sorry he was that this had happened to me.  If only it had been  his fault, then I would have had someone to be mad at, ha!

So, for now, all the water is where it is supposed to be, fingers crossed!

Wind in her feathers

 Spring is creeping in, the snow is starting to melt and we have had a few windy days.

This female Northern Cardinal was having a bit of a bad hair day on Sunday.

🌬🌬🌬🌬🌬

This wind map is always interesting.  Click on the image below to see live data.

A solution or two and a Sharp Shinned Hawk visit to boot

✅I decided to go with the bridge for the dental repair.  Mostly because it can be done more expeditiously, waiting to place a final implant for 9-12 months just was not something I thought I could tolerate.  And the dentist offers a financing option of 24 months no interest if paid in full.  I like not having to cough up big sums of money all at once.

Sharp Shinned Hawk visiting the front yard.

I couldn't see what he saw, but seconds later he dove to the ground.

✅The water heater is being replaced with a brand, spanking new 40 gallon tank that will be properly vented and should last longer than I plan to live in this house.  The noises are loud and the cat is on edge, but the plumbers are so friendly and nice.  I feel like they are family.

I'll post a few photos tomorrow.

More ALWAYS something

Woke up to a high pitch noise. Water detector in water heater closet. Water all over the west end of house.   Every towel I own is soaking up water. 

Water heater failure, used every towel in the house to mop up water.  The plumber is here.  

No joy.

Happy equinox.

Update: temporary fix, water heater disconnected but cold water restored to the house.  This is a very good thing.

🚽🛁🚿

Permanent repairs in the troubleshooting & planning stage.🤞

I'm starting to feel like my plumber is family ♥️

Always something

 Sunday night I had some popcorn as a snack and then I was using a floss pick to clean out the hulls.  I felt something give,  thinking the floss pick broke,  I was surprised to find my front tooth in my hand.

This tooth has had a lot of work starting with an abcess when I was in college in Eau Claire. The dentist I used then damaged the tooth and left me with a less than lovely smile.  Eventually,  I think after I went to work at Coors, I had the tooth capped. I'm guessing that was in 1980.  The cap never matched my good front tooth.  After I moved to Rice Lake I had my other front tooth capped.  Finally, a matched set. 

Now, I am faced with a difficult decision as to whether to have an implant or a bridge to replace that tooth.  It's a hard choice. The price is not drastically different but the timing for completion of the repair is vastly different.   The other consideration is whether spending $6000 on a 70 year old mouth is wise, when $4000 would give a cosmetically nice result.  Front teeth are important to self-esteem & self-confidence. 

This is the first time I've really had to consider my potential life span as part of a medical choice.

It's unsettling to have a choice like this hanging, I'm hoping that by tomorrow I'll be comfortable with one of the options offered and so that I can commit & also ease my mind.

I guess this is my 'before' pic

❄❄❄❄❄

More snow yesterday, then some sunshine today. The back yard & Blue Spruce are so pretty.  Last year on this day it was 50⁰, so Spring is delayed, but hopefully we start the big melt soon.

And it is smart

 I have a new (to me) toy & I am having some fun!

⌨️ ->>no emoji for a typewriter, 🤔.

I always wanted one of these in the 1970s but they were too spendy. 

Not so spendy now, purchased from the Chequamegon Humane Association thrift shop in Ashland.

(I'm not as precise on the keyboard as I once was,  but I've ordered the correction tape to help me until I get more practice. )

I have not mastered all the functions yet, but it has more features than I could have imagined.  We would call it smart in today's lingo.

$35 donation to the Chequamegon Humane Society, some of the best money that I have spent in quite some time.  A smart choice.

Someone asked me if I ever used a typewriter at Coors....

Sure did, for about 10 years. I think our first computers were brought in around the mid 80s, and they were DOS based, it wasn't until Windows software was available to us in the later 80s that the computer started being the tool of choice.

One method of communication with our staff was to post memos on the bulletin board.  These were either hand written, not every one had typing skills, or they were typed by the admin assistant.  Only a few of us in the management team used the typewriter.

At some time, before Coors, I got a job as a production typist at the Federal Center in Denver. I was typing on forms documenting land data, they had to be exact. The forms were carbon layered, 3 or 4 thick. It was fast paced.  I improved my skills during that short term job. 

 

Even ordering flowers can be dangerous

 A cautionary tale.

I had lunch with a friend today. She was telling us that she's trying to get her money back from a florist in Madison.  She found the florist on the internet then called to order a bouquet for her niece who lives there. She was assured the flowers would be delivered the next day.  

But that did not happen.

To make a long story short, the phone number was to a scammer who has a beautiful website and an address in Madison. After several phone calls and emails later, she was unable to get a refund. 

As we were at lunch, she pulled up the website to show us.  Then she clicked on reviews and there were several reports of the same thing, no flowers, no refunds.  

I guess unless I've set foot in the florists shop, I will just go through my local florist for out of town flower needs.

My friend's mastercard will cover the loss, but there will be a waiting period before that happens.

The evil doers never f'ing rest.

✂️✂️✂️

Finished another medallion.  

This one is my favorite. 

More confetti

Sewing and snow

 Precuts, charm packs, jelly rolls or layer cakes, are probably the most expensive way to purcase fabric. But the convenience of the stack of coordinating colors and prints is appealing. And for the right projects,  precuts are perfect.  I had scooped up a few charm packs over the years and am trying to use them up. 

I decided to start making some lap quilts to give to the great nieces and nephews.  I used up 4 charm packs making center medallions for a couple of quilts. 

Charm pack #1

Trimming half square triangles is quiet work. I dont mind it.

The end result is very consistent squares & some scrap.

Fabric confetti

Charm pack #2

✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️

More snow this week. 

The backyard  was untouched so I took a snapshot.

Is a beautiful sight.