Quilt

 Just a quick post....been busy with Christmas activities.  I posted quite some time ago that I was working with my neighbor on a quilt...actually we are both doing this quilt in similar but different colors. (a race to the finish and I intend to win) an Two squares here, the one above is one of several and below is the border patchwork. It isn't really a fair race, but hey, take all the advantages you can!

I actually have the quilt top finished now, but haven't started the back in order to get it ready to quilt. So last evening, we decided what the next project will be. I had more pictures to post, but realized they were sideways and needed to right them.  When we went for the trees, we had a video to post to some friends and relatives...it came in to them upside down.  I am finding out that getting old is a great excuse for lots of mishaps!!!!  Stay warm.

Oh...Christmas tree

Yesterday, a 5 hour power failure seemed to be a perfect excuse to make our now annual trek for "the tree".  This is our 3rd Christmas here where we could actually cut our own tree and know how fresh it was.  The day was gorgeous, but the power company was testing the new power station near us which will hopefully allow us rural residents to have power without any outages.  Really, we have not had many of those anyway.  But 5 1/2-6 hrs without power in a totally electric home at 45 degrees is not something we were anticipating.  So as always, we packed our lunch, ropes, saws and thermos of hot stuff and headed to the hills.  This spot was not far from out home...about 15 miles or so, but as we approached the forest, the snow got really deep and we were not able to get very far into the woods.
Tree permits are $10.00 and the Mr. and I found our tree not far from where the truck was parked in no time at all.  The other tree, the top picture, was the neighbor's.  They actually were on the road that had not been plowed so the snow was not as deep as off the road.  We have fairly new homes here with large open living spaces, but as you can see, my buddy wants a really big tree and she had to walk quite a distance up hill to the top of the hill. The mister's new hip is still and always will be a little stiff and we are not spring chicks any more so our tree in the bottom picture is still a nice size. The first thing I did in my search was fall backwards into the snow and I couldn't get up.  The snow had a lot of moisture in it and was wet and heavy. I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants.  Eventually we got the "perfect tree" cut down and dragged to the truck.  However, the tree in the top picture,-- another story.  It was so heavy!!! The Mr. and I did not go for our search and instead, opted to sit in the truck, sip on hot coffee and eat trail mix...after all we had our tree.  Eventually, as the second tree came into view and we could see the struggle to pull it down the hill, I decided to go help.
Bonnie fell down at least once and again, we laughed 'til we cried. We may eventually buy trees at the local grocery store, but for now we look forward to these memory making jaunts for the annual tree and picnic in the warm truck.  And the fresh pine smell in the house----worth every adventure!!!