Snow in Millinocket Maine

Just a little bit of snow! Very windy conditions on Friday after the snow we got during the night. This is picture of the highway in front of the Deadriver gas station. The snow has melted quite a bit...you can see all of this sign now compared to last week when just about half of it was covered up by snow.


Just a bit further down the street you can see that we do recycle here in the boonies!! lol Snow just keeps piling up around here! No sign of spring yet!!!


Two teens walking on the sidewalk..even though they are snow covered. The one on the far left was just about to fall on the ice! Very cold and blustery day. Not too many people out..wind-chill is about 1 degree F and winds were gusting to 50 MPH most of the day.


Little bit of snow in the park on main street. The spruce tree is growing steadily and it getting quite big. They are still able to decorate it for Christmas.

Don't know where we will put any more snow. Our streets are so narrow now that two cars can't pass side by side...one has to move into a driveway for the other to pass it.

It has been a wild couple of days. Thursday we got snow and then the winds came in. The northern part of the state got over 20 inches of new snow and heavy winds for 2 days. We only got 4 or 5 inches of snow, but the winds made it difficult to drive because of the blowing snow. Our house was just a swaying most of the night..told my DC that we had a vibrating bed! The house just kept shaking all night and day long. DH had to work 11-7 shift on Thursday..so Friday morning he came home and plowed us out and then went to bed and slept for 5 hours. He said the bed felt like it was rocking all day long...lol I HATE the wind when it's like this. These old houses sure have withstood some pounding by the winds over the last 90 years. And they stand up better then the new houses being built. All wood and none of that "pretend" stuff they call wood today as my grandmother called it. Real 2 by 4s and all...they cut their wood the true size, not this 1 3/4 by 3 3/4 that they do today. haha

Well this picasa won't let me put up any more than 4 photos at a time so will do the others of the interstate at another time. One of the cats decided she wanted to go out at 1 a.m. so waiting for her to do her thing and then heading back to bed!

KNIT ON!!!

First Day of Spring

Well, here I sit watching the rain, ice, sleet, hail and snow falling. It seems that Spring is just a word that everyone is wishing would hurry up and come to Maine! We have so much snow on the ground that we will have to watch out for floods in the next month or so. DH is back to work and tonight he has to go back in at 11 and work until 7 on snow removal and plowing. He is sleeping now hoping to get enough of a nap to get him through the night! He just hates working this shift so much he won't get any sleep and will be miserable all night. I loved working this shift when I worked in the mill. I would trade my day shift for this one! DH and DS didn't like it, but I was home during the day with him and his father was home at night. So we didn't have to pay for a baby sitter only a few times.

I have one and one half alpaca sock done. These are taking a long time to knit up. The size of the yarn and the needles takes so much longer to get done. But I have finished the little precious sweater and have given it to Lily. Her mom doesn't want to put it on her cause she might get it dirty. LOL Told her that's what washing machines are for!! tee hee.

A friend of ours was killed on Monday. He was in the parking lot of the Olive Garden in Bangor. A very young woman was racing through the parking lot on her cell phone when she hit and ran over him....he died at the hospital a little bit later. Only 53 and such a quiet and gentle man. He will be missed.

We are going to our sons for Easter on Saturday. We won't be staying over, but will be leaving here early and coming home late. Supposed to be quite cold and windy but hopefully no snow! Can't wait to see Sarah. Got her a big soft purple bunny and some new clothes...summer ones and a pair of sneakers that light up. She will have to grow into them, but that is what I wanted when I got them a size bigger...feet grow so fast at the age anyway.

Well going to go read my book..can't stand to start a book and not read it all quickly..so will read it until it is done. Then going to start on some wool felted slippers for us and for Christmas gifts. Hope to have a few pictures up tomorrow of the snow and the socks. Take care all and....

KNIT ON!!!

More snow pictures

 

More Snow Pictures

Just a little bit of snow at camp!
Enjoy looking at it, but hate having to take care if it. These are from camp before we plowed the yard and the deck.


Look at how high the snow it!!! The snow is getting so high there won't be any place to move it to!


This picture if of the bankings on side of the road by our house.
It has been cut back a couple of times with a large machine the town has. They can blow it back over into peoples yards or they can blow it into dump trucks and take it to the snow dump. I just wish they would get up on our street and cut it back so it's wide enough for two vehicles again..not one like it is now. Oh well, spring is coming soon..I HOPE!!








KNIT ON!

Snow Dump in Millinocket

Here are pictures of the snow dump that the town has out on Medway Road. You can see Mount Katahdin in the background of one. There is a large dump truck coming out of the dump..hope this lets you see how high this thing has grown too.

Life in Maine sucks right now!

Well, is there any place out there that has some nice summer weather? I am so sick of this winter weather I could scream. We got snow,sleet, ice and rain today. The yard is full of frozen snow and ice covers the car and truck. It's is just so hard to understand why it's raining when it's 17 F and 9F with the windchill. We haven't lost our lights and hope we don't. Had a checkup with my back surgeon this morning and was supposed to go to work. Well I didn't get to either one of them. There was no school in just about every town from Bangor north. It was just too dangerous to chance a ride on the interstate in these conditions. I hope they don't fire me...lol. Thank goodness I have a lot of sick time to use up. If I get done working and the hours are still there, I don't get paid for them.

After trying to get Social Security Disability for the last 14 years, I finally won my appeal. I will be able to still work a little bit and not affect the SSD. I am still trying to get Workers Comp to pay my medical bills from my fall on the ice in 2005 at work and nothing yet! I got a bill from the hospital for $50,000 for my knee replacement. At the bottom of the statement it had "We take all major credit cards"! Like anyone has a limit of $50,000 on a credit card. If I had that kind of money I wouldn't need a credit card. DH and I have been having a good laugh over that since we got the bill. Unbelievable!!!!

Going to dig out the wool lace skirt I started for my DIL a couple of years ago and get that finished up. I promised that I would finish up a lot of the WIPs I have and get them out of the way. Or either that take them to the FROG POND and RIP IT, RIP IT, RIP IT!!! ha ha

Night all...off to the living room to knit and watch some TV before bed.

KNIT ON!!

More snow pictures on Route 11 by Twin Lakes

These are pictures I took from the truck on the way back to town. The wind was blowing so hard that at times we could barely see the road. The drifting on the highway makes for a dangerous ride...it gets very slick and slippery even in 4 wheel drive.

Snow and Camp

Here are 4 pictures of the snow that was at camp yesterday. We got about 18" at the lake compared to a foot in town. But the wind was horrible..poor DH was using a roof rake to get the snow off the roof. He went back up today to get the rest of it off. The snow blower died, so the deck will not be shoveled off. With the snow, ice and rain coming later tonight and tomorrow, it will be too heavy on the roof, but the deck was built to withstand way more weight then the roof. We have seen reports on TV where people are losing a lot of their out buildings because of the heavy snow pack on them. There was one man in the southern part of the state that made the news on TV because he was raking his metal roof off while standing on the ground and the snow let go. He was buried with his head in the deep snow and his feet upwards. No one could see him, so he was there trying to get out. He said he had his cell phone in his pocket and was able to get it out of his pocket. It fell into his hand and he dialed 911 and the fire department came and dug him out. He tried to holler for help, but no one could hear him. He is one lucky man! DH rakes our roofs after every storm to prevent any heavy build up of snow. We do not need to lose our house to neglect.



 
 
 
 

KNIT ON!!

Just l little bit of snow again!!

This is my little car after the snow yesterday. We don't have much more room to plow the snow in the yard. The banks are higher than the car already.


Look at how high the snow is!!


Took these pictures from the back door this morning. This is the neighbors house on the next street from me. He can't even see out his windows with all the snow in front of his yard. And we have more coming on Tuesday and Wednesday! Enough Mother Nature!


I finished the little precious sweater last night. Now to start Sarah's. And I have gone through one skein of yarn for my alpaca socks. Will take three skeins for a pair. Will use 1 1/2 skeins per sock for my pair. And I am worth it. I will have to get in touch with Kim at the little store in Kingfield and order 3 more skeins of her yarn. Want to make 4 pair and have enough for 3.

KNIT ON!

WIP'S

Here are the photos of the Precious sweater and the alpaca socks I am working on. I have the sweater all pinned together and should have it done later on today. Then I will start another one for Sarah. I used astra yarn that I had from my old yarn shop. I find that the quality if so much better then the new yarn that is produced today. Now that the company was bought out by a Canadian company, they just don't have the same texture of the old stuff. Sorry, I can't help it, but it is the way I feel about all these companies buying out others and then cutting back to make the yarn cheaper. Oh well, I have enough in my little shop to last me much longer then I will be on earth....lol


 
 
 

And we have SNOW! More snow then I care to look at. It has been snowing all day now and with no end in sight, we are in for a lot of it again! Our little street is so narrow now, where are we going to put it all???


Take care all,

KNIT ON!!

ANOTHER SNOW STORM FOR TOMORROW!!

Can Mother Nature get off the snow wagon and get some spring here in Maine! We are expecting another major snowstorm tomorrow...we just got 8" and they are talking well over a foot this time around. Hot Damn! Where will be put this snow? The streets are so narrow now it is getting impossible to go anywhere. The town crew is so small that no matter what they get done, mother nature comes along and drops another load of snow. We have a "Snow Dump"...lol Because of the environmental laws we have, we can not dump any snow into the river, so it is put into dump trucks and take to an area that is just for the snow. It will melt and run into the river in the late spring. Well, this snow dump right now if over 60 feet tall and growing. It is well over the height of a two story house and growing every day. If I get out tomorrow, I will try to get a picture to post.

I didn't go to work Wednesday because of the snow and today because I have a sore throat and stuffy nose. I am running out of sick days and I don't want to do that.


I have my alpaca sock almost done. I am knitting it for me and I am thinking I should have knit the sole with the purl stitch so it would be smooth on my feet. Oh well, next pair I will try that.

Well, I am going to go knit on my socks and also work on sewing the precious sweater together tonight too. That is almost done...it's tying in all those ends on the roses that are taking the most time.

KNIT ON!

IT's snowing again!!!!!

Here I sit watching the snow falling again! We are expecting some ice, sleet and rain with this storm..and about 16" of snow! I doubt I will be going to work tomorrow. This has been an unbelievable winter for everyone this year. So glad we are on the back side of winter and waiting for spring to get here. I told DH today that I bet we get a big storm in last of April this year. Been a while since we had one of those. They usually are heavy wet snow and only stay a few days, but cause big power outages. Oh well, I guess it could be worse. We don't get the kind of weather other parts of the US gets, so I guess I will just shut up about the snow and be thankful we don't get the tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes others get.

I have the "Precious" sweater all knitted....now to put it together and start the next one for Sarah. I hate having to tie all those ends in but it has to be done. So tonight I will tackle that and then get it to Lily's mom.

I have a scratchy throat and itchy ears today...I hope I don't get the CRUD that others have. One of the young men I work with has it and made a point of getting in my face yesterday at work just to let me and the others on our team...and I think he wanted to share it with us all too! Because of the storm, I went to the store and got Kleenex, cough drops and cold medicine...just in case. Better to be safe then sorry.

We will be plowing tomorrow for sure. The snow started early today but didn't start to stay on the roads until around 4. Now the roads are covered and the snow it getting steadier. Weatherman said we will be getting the biggest part of the storm tomorrow morning after it redevelops of the coast of Maine and then will be a good one. DH put the plow on the truck today so we won't have to do it tomorrow morning. Well, going to go knit and watch TV. Take care all and.........


KNIT ON!

Alcapa socks

Well, I have two of the hanks rolled into balls and have started the first of many socks to come. I am using a size 2 needles and 60 sts. I hope these are going to be right the first time. I haven't knit on alpaca before so this is really a treat! They feel so wonderful and I just wish they would go a little fast, but the size of the yarn isn't going to work up as quickly as the worsted weight ones go. And now that I am back to work, I have been knitting a lot less then I would normally do. Last night I went to bed around 8 to just lay in bed and knit until I got sleepy. Because I worked yesterday, my body was very tense from the drive to and from Orono. I had muscle spasms all night so I finally got up and took a flexaral to stop them. It started to work a little bit after taking and I was dead to the world until the cat decided he wanted to go out at 7 this morning. DH went to the mill doctor to see when he will be going back to work and he has two more weeks off due to a broke rib that he did at work in Jan. He left around 8 am and I fell back to sleep and didn't wake up until almost 11! Then it took a couple more hours for that little pill to finally get out of my body and I could actually function. But the sleep was a good one for me! I guess I really needed it!

Still working on the Precious sweater. The sleeves are to the point of adding the little ruffle and then the cuff. I think that will be my project to work on tonight. I want to get it finished so I can give it to Amanda at work for her little girl..who is a week older then my granddaughter. She is expecting another baby in 4 months but the baby has a very serious heart defect and will have surgery immediatly after birth in order for the baby to survive. She has a lot of hope that the baby will be healthy after the surgery...but she said it is a high risk for the baby. My prayers go out to her and her baby and her family...it will be a long haul for them after the birth.

The weather has been so cold that I hate to get dressed to go out in it. I did get my new alpaca scarf I ordered from the little store in Kingfield today. I was so happy to get it and get to use it right off the bat! It was very much needed today! The weatherman said this is the coldest day this month and I can verify that statement...had to go to the credit union and mail some clothes to Sarah that her grandfather bought her Tuesday. (He bought carhart- jacket, pants and cords for her). I keep telling him she's a girl...lol Oh well, I think that she will be better off in this world being a little tom boy then a little princess! The temp this morning was well below zero with the windchill...the house is very cool today. It was good for sleeping last night!

Well, baking chocolate chip cookies right now and need to make some scotch-a-roos for work tomorrow..it's a potluck lunch for our team. I only work 4 hours so I won't be there all day to munch on the goodies everyone is bringing in.

My little car is still in the repair shop. Tuesday I had the timing belt and all the other belts changed and an oil change. They found that I had a strut broken and it would be a longer job to fix it so they took it in again this morning to fix that problem. When they put it on the alignment machine, they found they couldn't get the back right wheel to align. So upon a closer inspection there was something bent. They tried to pound it straight, but it just wouldn't give. George thought it was happened when someone got stuck with it and they used a chain to pull the car out of the snow. Well, we are the third ones to own this little Forrester, so who knows. I know I haven't gotten stuck with it any time in the last 4 years, so I think it was like that when we bought it from the dealership in Lincoln. Oh well, George ordered the part from the Subaru dealer and it will be here tomorrow. So I have to take the big Dodge to work...and $40 I make working sure won't pay for the gas to drive that big gas pig to Orono and back home! I think I will go 20 minutes earlier and take the truck through the car wash in Bangor to get all the salt off it. And we sure have a lot of salt on the roads due to all the snow and rain we got the last couple of weeks. The roads are so bad here in town I hate to drive anywhere. The ice is at least 3-4 inches thick in places and the side roads, like our street, is nothing but ice. Too bad the town wouldn't put some salt down and not more dirt. Then it would melt. Oh well...live in Millinocket

Going to go put some more cookies in the oven...take care one and all and

KNIT ON !!!!!!!

Kingfield, Maine

These are pictures I took as we drove into Kingfield on Saturday. It is such a pretty little town! Enjoy

Knitting projects on the needles and new yarns I purchased!

I am knitting this little sweater for my granddaughter and a young woman that I am working with. This one will go to her daughter as soon as I get it finished. It is a Leisure Arts pattern that I had knit up many times 10 years ago. I am using Patons yarn that I have left over from my yarn shop days. I like to knit the acrylics for young children..they do clean up easier and those new stain sticks work wonders on stains too!









This is a picture of the sweater with the sleeves at the bottom. I have knit another 20+ rows tonight on it and only have a few more decreases to go and then a couple of row to the cuff. The pattern calls for picking up the sleeve stitches and working it down to the cuff. I find that I do not pick up stitches well enough to do this so I just cast on the amount called for and knit it down to the cuff and then sew it on. That way I can make sure its even!










Ordered this yarn off the internet through the sockyarn sales. I forgot that 2 oz of yarn is not a lot...so I ordered two skeins with the intention of knitting a high cuff on the socks. I hope there is enough there to make a pair of nice socks for me. This was a costly buy and I hope the yarn is worth it. Will start the socks when I get the two "Precious" sweaters done. Have a pair of worsted weight socks still on the needles..those I take to work with me so when I get my breaks I can work on them. Something I don't need to have a pattern to follow...know it by heart!

Yesterday we went to visit our son, daughter in law and our little granddaughter. We didn't stay but 4 hours after the 3 1/2 hour ride over..as I wanted to go to the Alpaca shop in Kingfield..and it closes at 5. We got there and I bought 8 skeins of alpaca from her and they are from her own llamas. They were $12.00 a skein..2 oz. I am going to make some socks for Christmas gifts, so I want them to be a nice long cuff on them so that is why I bought 8 skeins. I had bought a pair of socks for my DH before Christmas from this lady, but she didn't make them..they were from a company but were alpaca. DH loves them..says they really keep his feet warm in this cold weather when outside working. You can look at the shop and llamas on line at http//:www.sugarloafalpacasofmaine.com I am going to order a red alpaca scarf from her soon...to go with my new dark gray coat I bought last week.

We had a great time visiting...Sarah is getting so big and too smart for her britches. She tries everything we do now..haha. And she has us all wrapped around her finger too! Her hair if finally growing in..the back is getting long and she doesn't like it when it touches her neck...but the top is still slow growing. If she takes after me, she won't have a full head of hair until she is 4 or older. lol

Well, time for bed..work tomorrow at 9 am so will have to leave her by 7...and the weather is supposed to be crappy again! Snow, ice and then heavy rain all day. I think it is snowing out now, but haven't looked out the window lately. I will be so glad to see summer this year. Bugs and all!!! We haven't had snow like this in years even though it was the norm when we were children. My parents took a lot of movies back then and we have them on tape..the snow was to the roof on the porch many times..and dad would have to climb out the bedroom window to get to the road where the plow had gone by and start shoveling by hand to open a path to the front door. So Mother Nature is just giving us a dose of reality like we had 45 years ago!

Take care all and KNIT ON!

ENOUGH SNOW Mother Nature!!!

Snow and then heavy rains covered the state of Maine Wednesday. This is the deck at camp...look at all the ice on the rails and feeder! Plowed the camp road and our yard yesterday. The highway was horrible getting to the lake road. I was in 4 wheel drive all the way...the ice ruts and snow and slush made for a white knuckle ride to camp.




Snow and ice in the back of the truck...it was bone dry before the storm hit Wednesday. And you can see the ice and the high snow banks in the background. My poor little Forrester is covered in ice. Going to have to start it early to get the ice off before I leave for work this morning.



Can you see the ice on the trees? We are very lucky that it wasn't worse then this...the lower part of the state is still without power because of the ice. We lost power once for about 20 seconds.


This is a picture of a neighbors backyard. He had a tree down across his truck and into the house. This happened on Monday from the storm that hit on Sunday...had very extreme windy conditions Sunday and Monday. I haven't been to work at all this week due to the storms. No way am I going to travel to Orono for $40.00 and take a chance on getting hurt.

Here comes the snow again!!!!

Good morning from Maine! The weatherman tells me we will have another "significant" snowfall late tonight and all day tomorrow. It has snowed every day all week long. It hasn't added up to but a few inches, but the roads are horrible to go anywhere. The town crew hasn't been out to do much of anything but put a lot of sand down. I am so tired of winter and we only have another two or so months to go!

I am back to work after being out for over 2 years. I am traveling to Orono so that means about 150 miles round trip. And now you know why I am bitching about the snow and traveling. I have dealt with black ice, snow, rain and wind...so much wind that I couldn't see very well to drive to work because the wipers would lift off the windshield on the drivers side so they didn't keep the window clear enough to see, and all the crazy drivers who think they can still travel at 80 miles an hour and control their vehicles. Last Wednesday I made 2 calls to 911 with people off the road..one was with a completely missing left front tire from hitting the icy snow banks and the other was down in the ditch and two other people were trying to pull it back onto the Interstate..FACING ME!! What a scare that was to have a set of high beam headlights coming at you from the wrong direction! Then the traffic that had been passing me finally decided that 35 MPH was the best way to get to their destinations. Needless to say, it was over a 2 hour ride home that night! Then when I got to the Lincoln exit the state crew was salting the road..so by the time I got to the Medway exit, I was dealing with icy water all over the windshield and headlights. I was so tense from the ride home, my back was in spasms for 5 days!

I am only working 3 days a week for 4 hours right now. See my doctor on Wednesday to see how I'm doing with this. The ride is bad enough, but the sitting for 4 hours without being able to lay down to take the pressure off my low back/spine is the worst. Thank God for flexeril and my other meds! My sleeping routine is so screwed up that I am doing good to sleep 4/5 hours in all during the night and early morning. And of course it doesn't help with DH and his broken rib. He can't sleep on his right side and is so sore he wakes himself up and me when he moves. I have been reading a lot when I wake up. Last Friday I started the lasted book from JA Jance and finished it in 24 hours...about 400 pages. I couldn't sleep, so might as well do something with my time. LOL (I bought a little light that hooks onto the book instead of using my little mag flashlight.)

I started a sweater for my granddaughter this week too. And finished a pair of wool socks and started another pair to keep in my bag to take to work to work on when we have a break. I have a leisure arts pattern for a sweater that has Precious on the front with roses. Did the back in one evening and have the front done up to half of the precious. It is the cutest pattern. It only goes to a size 24" chest so Sarah won't wear it for long. I will take some pictures later today and post them. I also ordered two skeins of handspun and dyed wool last week and received them. I paid way too much for them and now wished I hadn't done it. It will only make a short pair of wool socks...at $54.00 thats a little too much if you ask me. I thought I would be getting two large skeins of yarn, but needless to say, they are very small..only 2oz each. Why do the pictures always look so LARGE and the product so SMALL when it arrives? Wishful thinking on my part? LOL

Well, going to head back to bed and see if I can get this back pain under control and pick up another couple hours of sleep before I begin my day. Oh well, I will adjust but the question is "WHEN?????" ha ha.

Take care all and KNIT ON!!

Wind skiing at Twin Lakes

Here is a picture of the mountain covered with clouds after the snow/ice/rain we got late Friday night into Saturday morning. The lodge is called "Five Lakes Lodge" and is a bed and breakfast for couples only. I have not been inside to see it, but I have heard it is drop dead georgous!



I haven't seen this before in our area. I was coming back from plowing the camp out when I stopped to take a few pictures of the mountain when I noticed the colorful sail in the sky. The person has skis on so I was thrilled to watch him try to get the wind to move him across the freshly fallen snow we got Friday into Saturday Morning. It was very brisk winds so he had a lot of trouble with the sail.