Wilderness Quilter

The winter 2008 edition of USAA magazine includes an article about a “turnover” document a gentleman named Leonard Ratzman put together for his daughter so she would have all the info needed when he passed away.  At 70, he realized that “… the worst thing I could do as a father is to pass away and leave my only heir, my daughter, without a list of things to do, people to contact and so forth.”  So, in a binder he included the usual – his will, living will, durable Power of Attorney and Health Care Power of Attorney.  But he also added:

• contact info for insurance companies and funeral arrangements;
• important passwords;
• list of friends and business contacts;
• scans of all active keys (home, car, safe deposit box, etc);
• list of credit card #s, all accounts (utility, bank, investment, etc); insurance policy #s, user IDs, retirement acct info, etc;
• value of collector’s items (or jewelry, art, etc); and,
• misc instructions (plant or pet care/disposition, etc).

Five years later, he’s keeping the binder up to date so that it’s current when needed.  Although I’m still a couple decades shy of 70, I intend to put together a similar collection of info for my kids.

Yes, that’s right – we have snow.  And we’ve had it for a while now.  And it keeps coming down.  And there’s no end in sight.  There’s about 2″ of new on top of the 4″-6″ already on the ground and we’re predicted to get another 2″-5″ by tomorrow.  Merry Christmas!  Not sure if we’re snowed in yet but Joel is finding out right now – off to mail some last minute Christmas orders that came in over the weekend.  Hopefully he’ll be able to get out with minimal trouble but not too confident on his getting back in - may be a lengthy walk, wading through deep snow.  But he packed me enough firewood to last until tomorrow so I’m all set.

I was honored this fall with making 3 identical memorial quilts for the adult children of a much loved, respected and admired mother who passed away in Sept.  Unfortunately I am unable to upload pictures to this blog right now.  I did manage to get the above photo in a round-about way but can’t make it any bigger!  So I’m starting a separate blog specific to memorial quilts at http://memorialquilts.wordpress.com/ and will post the pictures there.  Maybe when the techies come home, they will be able to figure out the glitch here.

Check it out!  http://www.oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/

Well, I’m finally back at it!  I boxed up 33 books today and they’re going to the local 2nd hand book store.  What a relief!  I’ve been gone so much the past 4 months that I hadn’t made any more progress toward getting rid of 100 things.  Of course, it would have been to my advantage to count the books as 33 items instead of 1 group but my goal is to eliminate as much stuff as possible so . . . 

I also found a cool book swap site - http://www.titletrader.com.  So I actually have several more books hopefully destined for other homes soon.  But if I then get a book in return, I guess it doesn’t really count, right?  So I won’t add those books to my 100 Things Challenge list.  Anyway, I’m feeling like a success as I already had my first request.  And I feel good about being able to send good condition books that I no longer need to folks who really want them – and it’s all free except for the cost of postage when you send a book out.

Just realized I have another 7 books set aside to give to various family members so I guess I’d better add those to the list.  Now I Just need to decide if I’m going to count it as 1 group or bump my numbers up by counting each book separately – hmm.

It’s so easy to miss the positive when being slapped in the face by the negative.  This year has been a real challenge so far.  First we had Mother Nature bless us with repeated snow which built up to over 5 feet which translated into being snowed in for about 11 weeks which is unusual even for us.  Then we had fires start all around in June and spent the (non) summer without sun due to the heavy smoke.  Top that with a serious family issue that has been raging for about 4 months now and some personal health stuff (and these are just the BIG things) - it’s no wonder I’m anxious to move on to 2009!  But will it be any better?  Yikes!  What a thought!

On the bright side – we had some new additions to the family through birth and marriage.  And nothing says “I believe in hope for the future” like a new baby!  Although we had weeks upon weeks of continuous smoke that was a significant health hazard and stunted our gardens, we didn’t actually get flame here this time around.  And quality time was spent with kids/grandkids despite the craziness of what all else was going on.  Everyone seems to have weathered their personal storms and things are looking up.

My desire for the 4th quarter of this year is resolution of family and health issues and to catch up on what has fallen by the wayside during the crisis control mode of the first 3 quarters.  Is this too much to ask?  I hope not!

Almost 7 weeks since my last post!  How did that happen?  It’s been a busy several months around here, that’s for sure.  Our fire is gone – finally – full containment earlier this week.  Quilting has been completely on hold (4 months now) while I deal with family issues but resolution is in sight.  The fruit is falling from the trees and the tomatoes are finally getting ripe now that the sun isn’t blocked by all the smoke.  So fall in the wilderness is nearly upon us once again.  And life is good.

The reading for July 29 in Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach is titled The Home as a Hobby in which she quotes Arnold Bennett as follows:

“Nobody has the right to be bored in a half-made home.  A home which is not a fair expression of us at our best, a home which lacks what it might have, a home which is in any part more ugly or in any part more uncomfortable than it absolutely need be . . . a home which cannot be run without waste, a home which by any detail gets on the nerves of its inhabitants and so impairs the harmony of their existence  – something ought to be done about such a home . . . Why not make the perfecting of the home a hobby?”

Due to a variety of circumstances, I’ve been away from home the better part of the past few months.  And when I am here, I’m distracted (is the fire headed this way again?  will the smoke ever clear?) and feel adrift, in a holding pattern awaiting the next block of time away.  I think what I need is a new attitude and I think viewing my home as a hobby will provide that.  No doubt I can better use the time I do have in getting the extra little things accomplished – so, toward that goal, I guess I’d better remove myself from the computer!

It’s temporary, I know – but the smoke is gone!  Woke up to clear skies and not a hint of smoke anywhere -so the house is open and airing.  The fires are still burning all around – as of last night, 13 of the 27 fires within a 15 mile radius of us are still active – so I don’t know where all that smoke is going but it’s lifted from this canyon for a short while.

The sky is visible but the smoke smell is stronger than ever.  How did that happen?  Looked out and saw the sky and clouds so opened the window to air and cool the house.  Big mistake!  Thankfully we have a few more days of temperatures only in the 90s.  Starting Mon, we’ll hit 100+.  Hopefully we’ll have clear enough air outside by then to run the swamp cooler and open the house at night.  I’m not counting on it, though.