April 25, 2021 Snow Pictures...

 First of all... Happy Birthday to my brother, Andy Lepp.  He was having a busy day working in the flower gardens in front of his house.  His birthday dinner will be coming from Texas Roadhouse.  Sounds yummy to me.  Hope it was a great day, Andy!

It has been several days of not taking my snow pictures.  It cooled down to where there was little noticeable melting happening.  Today it is back in the '50s so I have some new pictures.

So, the front steps to the front door.  The fence rails are getting cleared but there is still a small patch of hardpack in front of my garage door.

Looking up the driveway, almost all of the second rails on our fence are now visible from this view... from the house, not so much!

Looking along the other side of the driveway.  Notice the small dark area peeking out from the snow up at the curve. It is part of one of our raised flower beds.  In November, when the first big snow happened, my very kind neighbor had his plow driver clear the top part of the driveway.  The driver pushed a tad too far and clipped one of the raised beds that the previous owners had left behind.  We will not see which one and how badly it was damaged.  It will match the broken fence on the other side where a road grader backed into the fence during hardpack removal just a couple of weeks ago.

This is the area where the melting snow forms the pond.  The little Water Bug pump has been preventing the water from getting out of control.

A closeup of the pump setup.  The snow has melted enough that the PVC pipe is no longer pushed through the snowbank but now rests on the bottom rail of the fence.  It took Rob a good while last year to set up his monitoring system so he can view conditions from his home.  Over the past summer and winter, he refined his device and has been tweaking it every time he comes to visit.  I bring the pump in every night as it still gets below freezing and then in the morning, I put the pump back out in the middle of the pond.  Just keeping a known source of water from getting into the garage.

These pictures were taken at 1:45 PM.

Copy Me That....

 I am a foodie!  My mother was a spectacular cook and she taught me to always try fun and new foods.  For the most part, I have never dismissed a food without trying it first.  And there is not much that I have not found good enough to eat... except maybe liver and onions...

One of my favorite things to do online is to cruise recipe sites for new and interesting recipes to create dishes, sides, desserts, etc. to try in order to please my palette.  I found many interesting things on FaceBook and when I am faced with preparing a dish to take to a potluck, I will look through my old recipes or search for things on the Internet to try out or take with me.

Years ago I used to use a recipe program that I purchased.  It made it very easy to copy and paste recipes that I found on the Internet.  Living Cookbook allowed me to copy and paste into the different sections of the proram which saved me lots and lots of time from trying to type them into a form!  The last update was in 2013 and then it appeared as though the company went belly up.  No updates have been made and no customer service exists.  If any of the Windows updates makes the current version unuseable I would lose a lot of recipes.  I should start moving the more important ones to the new program.

So which program am I using now??  Glad that you asked.  It is more of an extension that is loaded on my browser than an actual program.  It is called "Copy Me That" and it makes adding a recipe into a cookbook file just for you and saving it out on the Cloud as easy as counting 1, 2, 3!!!

I have been copying recipes to Copy Me That for quite some time.  At this point, I have close to 1,800 recipes in My Recipes.  I can get to them from my computer, or on the app from my cell phone or IPad as long as I have an internet connection or my phone is on a network.  I can print them out from my computer to cook them and then if I make adjustments, I can add my different ingredients or procedures or times so I can recreate those same results.

Most online recipes are really easy to add to your cookbook.  When you find a recipe that you want to add, scroll down through the normal step-by-step instructions, and usually toward the bottom you should come across the actual, condensed version of the recipe like it has been in a cookbook.  If you find the recipe in that form, then all you need to do is click on the little icon that will appear in the area beyond the written address line and the program will take all of the information... and a picture if there is one... and create a beautiful recipe page.  The 1st draft will allow you to click on each line that is selected to add.  If the program has picked up a line that you do not want, then you can unclick it so it will not be copied. 

You save the parts that you have clicked and look at what you have.  If there are parts of the original recipe that you want to add, you can click the Edit (Pencil) icon and it will reopen the entire recipe for changes, either to what has been saved or adding things like a description or including notes that the original save did not catch.  You can also add your own information.

And as long as the recipe is in your file, you can keep adding and deleting.  You can even take pictures of the dish that you create and add them to the recipe.

If the recipe is included in a FaceBook post, it will still copy the recipe.  All you have to do is highlight one of the ingredients and then click the Copy Me That icon and it will still create a recipe.  If the system cannot make a recipe, it will give you instructions on how to make it work.

When you bring up your recipes you will see pictures of the dish and the title so you can decide what you want to make.

There is a free version that is fairly robust.  It gives you a chance to play with it and see if you like it.  There is a premium version that gives you full use of all of the many extras. And the cost of the Premium version is only $25 for a lifetime!!

So, now you know my secret for finding and keeping recipes.  I hope you will give it a try.  I think you will find it fun and easy to use.  Let me know when you get more than 1,800 recipes in yours.

BTW, you can delete the ones that do not work out or when you find you have seventeen recipes for macaroni and cheese!!

April 20, 2021 Snow Pictures...

 Today was a busy day for me.  I was out and went to the local Petco store to make an appointment for Miles to go get his nails clipped.  It has been quite a while and he is beginning to get his sharp, long nails caught in the carpet.  His appointment is tomorrow afternoon, so he should be doing so much better walking after that.

Then I headed to Alaska Industrial Hardware to find some rain/mud boots.  I have been using Rob's to walk into the puddles to set up and remove the water pump.  They had a nice selection and I was able to find some nice boots for my needs.  Rob's are much heavier, but out where he and Kate live, he needs boots to deal with more puddles and muck.  I also found a floor jack so that it will hopefully be easier to remove the tires on my car when we do the tire swap.  It was not what I had gone in to buy, but they were next to the boots, so as I waited for the salesman to find my size in the back room, I noted the jack and my salesman helped me to pick out the right one for the job.  Hopefully, it will be easier than the tiny bottle jack we used last fall.

The last stop was at Fred's for groceries.  I had made a list in the Fred's app and it made things so easier to find stuff.  I just had to put in the things on my shopping list and it ordered the list by the aisle where things could be found.

The weather today was a little cooler than the weekend weather had been so there was not nearly the melting happening.  The changes were less noticeable.

These pictures were taken around 3:00 PM after I finished my errands.  Some changes but nothing major.

Again, not much of a change.  Still have the snow hardpack in front of my side of the garage.  The car coming in and out all winter packs this stuff down more than the rest.  That plus it gets shady here first... it will take longer.

A tad more was melted.  I am just happy that it never got big enough to flood the garage.

The pump has really been doing a nice job of keeping up with the melting snow.  When I put the pump back out this morning, the bottom of the pump could not be seen.  At the time the picture was taken you can see the bottom and areas where the grass is above the water.  The snow melting slower might also help the water level staying lower.

See you tomorrow!!

April 19, 2021 Snow Pictures...

 This has been an odd day for me.  I had a fairly restless night, I slept initially and then I woke up around 4:30 AM and could not close my eyes.  I finally turned off the alarm system, got up... put Miles out, fed him, and crashed.

I felt like I was walking in a fog.  So as Miles was eating his breakfast, I laid down and woke up to find it was almost 11:30 AM.

To say my day was shot at that point was an understatement.  The bad thing is I am still feeling fatigued.  I know that COVID has a fog brain component, so I am suspecting this may be a side effect of the vaccine. But by the same token, the two previous nights were also tossing and turning nights, so this morning may just be my body catching up.

I did finally go outside and took my daily pictures of the"Breakup" that is going on here in my little part of Alaska.

In picture 1 of 6, you can almost see the entire fence that is next to the garage.  And the snow inside the area in front of my bedroom window (the big window on the right) has shrunk so you can now see the entire rail around the front of the little deck.  It was almost completely hidden in the first picture.

In picture 2 of 6, the big ice patch in front of the garage door is all that is left on the driveway that I can see.  The next time Rob comes to the house, we will do the tire swap from studded to all weather.

In picture 3 of 6, you can see the top rail of the fence all the way down the driveway.  This is exciting!

Picture 4 of 6... This is the snow that is still piled up on the left side of the driveway.  With temperatures in the '50s during the day, these piles should be gone in no time.

Picture 5 of 6 shows the trouble area as far as our breakup goes.  Since the temps get well below freezing at night, I have to go outside, shut off the pump, disconnect the hose on the top, and unplug the pump so I can bring it into the garage for the night to keep things inside the pump from freezing.  Then in the morning I go back out and reattach the hose and plug it back in, and turn it back on to keep the puddle from growing to flood into the garage.

Picture 6 of 6 shows the close-up of the little yellow pump (in the shade so hard to see). The snow along the fence line behind is melting quickly.  Another couple of days in the '50s and the PVC pipe may be laying on top of the snow pile instead of being pushed through the pile.

See you tomorrow!!

April 18, 2021 Snow Pictures

 So, I am catching up on my daily blog of snow melting.  Is it an interesting thing to do or do you feel like it is watching paint dry?  This is only the 6th daily blog since I started the process and I think it has really begun to melt away and allow for our spring to begin.  Today was in the '50s and tomorrow promises to reach the 60-degree level.  I may have to break out my shorts!

These pictures were taken twice today.  The first time I did not realize that the SD card was still plugged in my computer.  So these are the second set, taken around 2:45 PM ADT.

Today I took 5 pictures.  This one is toward my front door.  The step tunnel is shrinking.  The steps are no longer covered with snowpack, although down on the stone steps there are still some icy areas along the outside edges.

This is straight out the driveway.  The bare spots on the asphalt are becoming larger.  During the day, if a car comes in and out, it is helping to break up the hard-packed snow.  I only have about a tad less than 2 weeks before my studded tires are required to come off.  My subdivision has had the hard-pack removed, so those roads are back to asphalt and all of the main roads outside have gotten back down to the asphalt, so when my driveway is no longer ice, the tires can come off.

This is one of the extra shots  You can get a better view of the melting going on.

This looks past the second garage door.  The mounds of melting snow are melting nicely in the sunshine which is actually producing heat now.  It does not always do that when the angle is so close to our horizon.

This is a close-up of the pumping setup.  The little yellow thing is the "Water Bug" pump.  The intake is on the bottom.  You can add a hose either to the top (where our hose is connected) or the side near the bottom.  Rob tells me the entire pump can be submerged.  He has dug a small hole underneath the pump so the floating grass and debris do not clog the intake area.  It is really doing a nice job of keeping the melting water at bay, otherwise, the water would be all along the front of the garage pushing inside and the outside corner would have water all long the storage shelves and anything underneath the shelves on the garage floor would be wet.  No good for the long-term health of the garage.

See you again tomorrow!!!

Good News... the sun is now out longer!!

 We are now out of the darkness and into the light.  We have been seeing daylight pretty much as the rest of you enjoy in the lower 48 states.  It is wonderful.  I do not mind the darkness.  Some people cannot tolerate it, but I find it gives me a sense of peace and calm.  Plus, I can pretty much go to bed at any time and fall asleep because my brain knows that it is dark.  But at my age, it is not a guarantee of a good night's sleep, but that is for another blog.

Today, April 18, 2021, we will have Daylight, 6:03 am to 9:39 pm for a total of 15 hours, 36 minutes.  There is a website called timeanddate.com that allows you to map out all of the daily variables in your day for days and nights based on your location.  I was going to try to get you a picture to insert into my blog, but it is too interactive to allow that to happen.

But you can see your individual days and times for different solar events and you can also see the entire year at a glance.  By June 21st, our glimpse is nothing but daylight.  So in another 2 months, we will be at the other end of the total darkness to total daylight.

I will be taking a class next weekend on how to grow tomatoes in Fairbanks.  I am gathering it is not as simple as putting a plant into the ground and making sure it has water.  The long days are not kind to tomato growing.  I will let you know what I learn... once I learn it.  I will be getting a tomato plant on May 1st so I can try to grow tomatoes here in Fairbanks.  Wish me luck as I really missed not having a tomato plant to make bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches using really freshly picked tomatoes.

April 17, 2021 Snow Pictures...

 Here are the pictures for Saturday.  Rob and Kate had come into town to pick up the order from the Russian Bakery.  My freezer is now full of lovely delights from the Seattle-based bakery.  Rob and Kate will take home the items they want to try any time they come to town.  They remained in town as we were having our first in-person Dungeons and Dragons night since our first lockdown in March 2020.  It was amazing and yet scary to be in the same room as other people without masks.  We had all been fully vaccinated so we felt comfortable with the seven of us getting together again.

I took pictures of the driveway melting progress just before we prepared to go over for our D and D dinner and gaming night, so it is a few hours later than the normal mid-day pictures of the last several posts.

The tunnel continues to get smaller and smaller.  The bottom rail of the fence closest to the house is finally becoming visible and the top rail to the left is beginning to show.  Actually, all around the fenced part of the yard, little sections of the top rail are revealing themselves.

The left side of the driveway is becoming more uncovered.  There are pronounced puddles in the driveway area that freeze during the night when the temps get down into the '20s, but during the days it gets up into the '50s.  You can also see much more of the top rail on the right side.

This is the flood control area next to the garage.  The two sawhorses are keeping the hose up out of the water and giving a more level run into the tube and out beyond the fence.  Rob brought over a little electronic monitoring device that he created that will help the pump self-govern itself when the water gets too low for the pump to operate or to stop when the temps near freezing.  He spent most of the day working on tweaking the settings.  But this year we did not have any of the floodings into the garage we experienced last year as we knew what was going to be happening and got set up before it could happen.

I will update today's progress in a post later today.

April 16, 2021 Snow Pictures...

 I did not get this posted yesterday, but I did get the pictures.

Every day, more and more fence is showing and the step tunnel gets smaller and smaller.

Every day there is more and more driveway!!

And the pond is ever-growing!!

Rob came over today to set up the pump in the gathering water.  You can see the hose and some supplies.  He is already running the extension cord and preparing some PVC pipe to help run the hose through the snow that is still piled up along the fence.

A closeup of the pond.  Left un-pumped, the water would end up in the garage.

The gray pipe is the pipe that will go through the snow so the hose can go to the other side of the fence to dump the water into a ditch!!!

April 15, 2021 Snow Pictures...

Another sunny day in Fairbanks, AK.  It is 1:35 PM and the outside temperature is 49 degrees.

Yesterday there was a continual dripping from the snow melting on the roof.  Miles did not like going out because the drips would hit him going out and then coming back in.  But it was a nice sound to me... indicating that the spring breakup season was in full force.  The forecast has temps getting up towards 60 degrees on the weekend and staying in the mid-'40s and 50's the rest of the time for the next two-week period.

Today, you can clearly see a difference in the amount of rail fencing that is becoming visible.

The amount of driveway and grass (even though it is not green) is increasing as the smaller depth of snow melts.  The main driveway still has the hardpack on top.  This is a hard and very condensed amount of snow that has become like rock.  Now it is also slick across the top as the melting refreezes at night when the temp goes below freezing.  Thank goodness my car will have studded tires for the next week or so!

This area is showing signs of melting and the start of flooding.  The shiny section at the base of the snow just below the fencing is the ponding that has begun.  Soon I will have to have a pump sitting in the water and pumping the water over the fence that you see into the ditch in the natural foliage behind the fence.  Once it is dry, it will be where Miles will be spending his time, enjoying the outside in the summer.

Pop-ups in Alaska...

One of the things that I have found in Fairbanks is that while it is the 2nd largest city in the state, there are many, many things that it does not have that I was quite used to in the lower 48.

Shopping-wise, there is not nearly the abundance of nationwide stores that one would think would be everywhere.

There is 1 Walmart Supercenter.

There are 2 grocery stores.  Fred Meyer is from the Kroger chain.  And there is a Safeway which is from the Albertsons Company.

There is 1 Joanns.

There is 1 Michaels.  No A. C. Moore, no Hobby Lobby.

There is 1 Barnes and Noble.

There is 1 Ulta.

There is 1 Home Depot and 1 Lowes and they are in the same general area so getting something from one and then going to the other is quite easy.  There is a local Building Supply store, Spenard's, but their roof collapsed in the last dump of snow so they are out of commission for a bit.

There was 1 Pier 1 when I arrived, but it closed just after Christmas.

There is 1 Costco.  It opened just before I got here after Sam's Club closed.

You can get car parts at NAPA Auto Parts, O'Reilly Auto Parts, or an Auto Zone.  You can have your car serviced at a Midas shop, American Tire, or at any of the standard car sales sites like Ford, GM, Subaru, etc.

There is an Old Navy store.

We just had a Sonic open where a Carl's Drive-in had been and for the first few months, the wait in line to even get into the parking lot could be an hour-long!

We have McDonald's, Denny's, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Fast Burger, Great Harvest Bread Company, Firehouse Subs, Dominos, it appears there is a Wendy's but I have not noticed it as it is in the area I do travel a lot, Subway, a Little Ceasars... but again, I have not seen it, and Pizza Hut.  Locally there are an abundance of Asian restaurants, Thai and Indian establishments.  There are some really great Italian and Mexican as well.  Lots of pizza places.  I have not yet tried all of the ones close by.  You can also find Barbeque eateries, Pub style food, fine dining, and one place (Ivory Jack's) that has a killer, BIG Prime Rib on Friday.  You have to remember that this is a college town, so there are a plethora of small eateries to choose from.

There is no Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, or Red Lobster, no Fishbone Grill, Chillis, P.F. Chang's China Bistro, or Outback Steakhouse, not even one Buffalo Wild Wings, Red Robin, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Cheesecake Factory, Cracker Barrel, or Longhorn Steakhouse.  There is only one Burger King but it is in the middle of the local Army Base so unless you have a pass to get in, no Whopper for you!

No Kohl's, no Target, and no Sears... although there was one at one time it is long gone.  No J.C. Penny's, no K-Mart but there was a Ben Franklin in North Pole but COVID was the death knell for that store.  There is no Macy's, no Nordstrom's, no Bloomingdale's, no Belk's, or no Boscov's.

One thing that does happen in Fairbanks, from time to time, are Popup events where stores in the lower 48 or from other places in Alaska send out a notice in advance of their coming and offer the residents of Fairbanks the chance to order items, usually food, and have a set date to go and pick up their orders in a vacant parking lot.  Last fall Rob and Kate got an order of fresh, frozen fish for the freezer.

The newest popup is from a Russian bakery located in Seattle called Piroshky, Piroshky.  They have one of their shops located in Pike Place Market on the waterfront of Seattle.  In the article from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, it explained the basis of the bakery's fame:  "As its name suggests, the bakery specializes in piroshkis, a Russian pastry. Gallant explained that piroshkis are stuffed with both sweet and savory fillings. Flavors include everything from cherry white chocolate to meatball marinara."  Rob, Kate, and I placed a joint order for things that we wanted to try.  Rob will be picking up the order on Friday and we will be putting the items in the freezer to try out in future meals.

In case you are curious, here is the website for Piroshky, Piroshky.

Ham, Cheese, and Spinach Piroshky

It might be a one-time thing, but from time to time these Popups shops appear.  So this is something that I can look forward to here in Fairbanks.

April 14, 2021 Snow Pictures...

Today is April 14, 2021.  The temperature is 48 degrees.  And here are the changes in the snow in just 24 hours here in Fairbanks, AK.  Same time of day... 1:37 PM.

Not much of a change looking towards the front door.  You can see a tad more of the fence.

You can see a bit more of the driveway along the outside of the driveway.

This area shows the most change.  The puddle is beginning to set up in the side yard and the area closest to the garage is clearing up quickly.  Rob and Kate will be here on Friday, bringing food from a popup Russian bakery from Seattle that we have bought to try. We are going to get the pump set up so that we can move the water away from the garage as the breakup season continues.

See you same time tomorrow...

April 13, 2021 Snow pictures...

I am going to do something fun.  I am going to go outside each day at approximately the same time, stand in the same place, and take three pictures of my driveway.

Today, at 1:37 PM ADT the outside temperature according to my Google Assistant is 45 degrees.

I just thought it might be fun to see how fast the snow melts and ensuing flooding starts during breakup season here in Fairbanks.

Enjoy!

Standing in front of my garage, directly between the two doors.  This is looking to the right at the front yard and the step "tunnel" from a season of snowfall, snow blowing, and shoveling the steps and front deck for accessing to the front door.  (Thanks, Rob!)

Looking directly out the driveway.  On the left, you can begin to see the tiny bits of ground. Seeing this happen gave me the idea to take daily pictures.

Same position looking to the left side of the garage from my perspective you can see the area that I cleared all winter that was totally over grass.  It was for Miles to go over and wander around when he was left out to pee.  He, however, preferred to pee right in front of the garage, but he did wander over there when it was above 0 degrees.  This is the area that will have ponding as breakup season gets into high gear.  We actually have to put a water pump in the deep little puddle to dump water into a trench behind the fence that you can begin to see.  It prevents the melting snow water from flooding into the garage.

I will repeat these pictures every day when I can.  That way you can see the progress of an Alaskan winter melting away.

Computer Chips and Ketchup...

This pandemic has been a really crazy time.  Our nation went from being outgoing and friendly to couped up in our homes and afraid to do anything besides disinfect anything that we touched, wash our hands many times a day and use a hand sanitizer when we cannot wash.  

We began wearing masks.  In the beginning, only surgical masks were good enough but once hospitals could no longer get masks for their staff because normal folks were buying up boxes and boxes of the surgical masks, homemade masks suddenly were okay to wear and ladies who could sew were making many, many homemade masks for the hospitals, family, friends, and neighbors.

Then there was a shortage of toilet paper AND paper towels.  Folks were going to the grocery store and warehouse stores and buying up large amounts of both commodities being faced with weeks or perhaps months of being confined to the homes with family members who were usually gone during the day and there was a significant fear of running out of the ability to wipe our butts!  (one word... bidet!)

Throughout the last year, we have had shortages of hand sanitizer because they had run out of bottles to put the stuff in.  We ran out of alcohol for cleaning.  Bleach became something to keep our eye out for.  Disinfecting wipes for surfaces like kitchen counters and bathroom surfaces became very hard to come by.  Facebook groups popped up to put out notices when a member came across any of these things.

I had ordered a freezer right around my birthday in June.  None of the stores in Fairbanks had a single freezer on their floor or in the warehouses to sell, as the people had purchased every one that was available not only in Alaska but all around the country.  They would sometimes show up on Facebook Marketplace from people who were moving and not taking them when they moved.  These generally were gone within hours of the posting. The one I ordered arrived just before Thanksgiving and it was not the one I had wanted, as the one I had ordered was discontinued and I did not get any of the surpluses as they went to other folks.  It was crazy!!!!

Applesauce was another thing that I could not get.  I would order it from the grocery store for pickup and week after week after week... and week after week after week I was told that they did not have any in stock.  Then I finally placed an order with about 6 different brands and sizes in the hopes of getting one, only to find that I got every bottle that I had ordered.  My only comfort is that I did not have to worry about my applesauce needs for the next several months!

I never would have thought that over a year after the first wave of COVID-19 hit that we would still be encouraged to in our homes, wearing masks has become just a way of life.  But here we are, wearing masks when we are around people that we are not sure about, we are using the disinfecting wipes in our kitchens, bathrooms that are shared with other people.  Things are beginning to open up a little.  Some too fast with new surges of cases of COVID showing up.  Some more slowly so that we can at least get food and items that we need or want to make our couped-up lives more liveable.  Funerals can now happen with limited numbers in attendance.  Big weddings have been reduced to smaller affairs.  Church services are happening with restrictions on numbers in the sanctuary and whether they can sing hymns or not.

Today CNN reports that we are now having a ketchup shortage.  It is not so much a shortage of the ketchup itself, but rather the little packets that are used in the fast food and casual dining places that the ketchup comes to the table.   Perhaps you should plan on taking a bottle of ketchup from home when you plan to eat out so you can put the condiment on your fries or meatloaf.  And you might want to stock up on the ketchup itself because others will be buying bottles and bottles and bottles that may have that food group off of the shelves for weeks or months.

CNN also reported a shortage of computer chips that has General Motors going on a slowdown in the production of cars.  Of course, the many folks who have been unemployed or laid off are probably not looking to buy a new car, but should they want a GM car, they will have to wait for the chip to hit the factory.

All of these shortages can be blamed on factories being closed during the early part of the pandemic.  Could be some of the hurricanes and storms that hit areas across the south.  Could be the ship that blocked the Suez Canal for a time not allowing any ships to go from one place to another.  Could be the Texas winter storm that shut down their entire state because they were not connected to the National Electric grid.

It just serves to show us that no matter how big the world is and how much stuff is being made all around the world, we are all connected by even the smallest things.  Worldwide we are dependent on things that happen in countries that we have never heard of or been to.  

It is really important that we learn to deal with and appreciate all manner of people... within our country, in all of our states, and towns and cities... and our foreign neighbors and friends.  Our future health and well-being depend on this. The hate and contempt that exists in the hearts and souls of many will only serve to tear down and destroy the life and freedoms that we once enjoyed.

Diagonal Seam Tape

I wanted to share with my fellow sewists, quilters, etc. a really nice, really cheap, and easy-to-use sewing helper to make those pesky diagonal seams and quarter-inch seams a tad easier to make more consistently.  The magic item is from Cluck Cluck Sew and it is Diagonal Seam Tape.

It comes in a 10-yard roll so if you only have one sewing machine, it will last you as long as you plan to sew with that machine.  If you have more than one, you might eventually need to buy two rolls.

I would imagine that you might be able to find it at your LQS but you can certainly find it online.  Amazon has it listed, but I would advise you to NOT, for once, buy it from their sellers as it is way more expensive than from other online suppliers.  Missouri Star Quilt Company has it for $7.25 + shipping unless you are adding it to an order that will give you free shipping.  Bonnie Hunter has it in her Quitlville shop for $6.99 + shipping.  I would tell you to look at your LQS first to support your local shops.

This is Diagonal Seam Tape. You can see the little roll that you get, but it has 10 yards of tape which is plenty.  And you can see how it is used on your machine.  The middle red line starts by being directly in front of the needle (just do not put it on top of the feed dogs, just a little in front of them.) and then you carefully lay the tape so the red line runs straight from the needle out on your sewing bed or sewing bed and extension table.  The two dark lines are 1/4 inch from the middle/needle, so using those lines, you can make sure that you are feeding your fabric for a more consistent seam up to your needle.

A closer look along the tape to the needle.  This is my Singer Quantum machine with a top, drop-in bobbin.  As you can see, you can use a very sharp pointy item to cut through the tape once it is laid on the surface allowing you to open that area for bobbin replacement.

So as you can see, the bobbin cover opens easily.

This is how you use it for Diagonal Seams.  I am getting ready to do a Jelly Roll Race quilt using an entire Jelly Roll.  This is also the same way that you prepare a binding strip.  Take your strips, put your tips down with the bottom strip right side up and the top strip right side down at a 90-degree angle.  Then turn the strips so you can see where the strips cross.  The top "Y" is up against the needle.  The bottom "Y" has the red line on the tape in the middle of that "Y".

As you sew, all you really need to do is keep the bottom "Y" aligned with the red line and you should end up with beautiful, straight diagonal seams.

Just keep that red line in the "Y".

And there you are... a perfectly straight diagonal seam without even needing to pin and/or mark your fabric.  What a timesaver this has been for me.

Just an FYI, this is the quilt I am making.  It is a pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  During National Sewing month in March, this pattern was one of the three projects on the Triple Play YouTube video on March 18th. It was the pattern that Jenny made on their 'spool triple play' called "The World's Largest Spool of Thread".  They actually have the World's Largest Spool of Thread outside near their shops where you can actually add real thread should you be lucky enough to visit Hamilton, MO.  This pattern uses the Jelly Roll Race as the base of the quilt design.  I will be making this quilt to hang on another wall in my entry area at my front door.

True confession time... After taking the pictures for this blog, I realized that I had been doing my diagonal seams wrong.  I had been going so quickly that I was not putting right sides together.  I had all of my right sides up so I had to take about 1/3 of my total strips that were sewn wrong and cut off the ends... much quicker than using a seam ripper... and I will be starting from scratch once I get this posted.  I will probably have to do a minor adjustment to the top and bottom, but it should not affect the Jelly Roll Race part as far as looks.

Good thing I took a moment to take the pictures or I may not have realized that I was making a mistake until I finished all 40 strips.  So thank you for giving me a reason to stop and realize my error!!

Earthquake!!!

The night of April 7th, I went to sleep and slept quietly and solidly for a tad over 9 hours!!  It is a rare night when I do not wake up at sometime during the night.  Not the night of April 7th...

I woke up a tad before 9:00 AM on April 8th, got my feet moving, and took Miles into the garage so he could go out for his morning constitutional.  As I was moving around, doing my thing, I thought I felt/heard a sharp thump.  I thought some large snow over-hangs had come off a tree in the back yard or off my roof.  It stopped me in my tracks, but it did not continue, so I just figured it was a snow thump.

Later in the day, Rob texted and asked if I had felt the morning earthquake.  Here it was the result of a 5.5 earthquake from the Denali area and from 50 miles deep into the ground.

Here is an article with the details... in case you are interested.  No damage was found anywhere, just a few jolts and rolls closer to the center.

This article is from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Earthquake Center.  The author is Beth Grassi

"At 9:10am on April 8, Alaskans from the Kenai Peninsula to Fairbanks had a little shakeup to start their day when a magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit. (As of the time this article was posted, there were no damage reports.) Several Earthquake Center staff felt it in Fairbanks. Some people reported feeling a small first shake followed by a rolling wave. The earthquake originated 16 miles southeast of Cantwell, nearly 100 miles from Fairbanks, so why was it felt so far across the state?

Alaska lies on a subduction zone, where the Pacific Plate thrusts below the North American Plate. The Aleutian Megathrust, the zone where the two plates grind against each other as the Pacific Plate descends, starts offshore of Southcentral Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. This is where the M9.2 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake ruptured. But the sinking Pacific Plate extends far beneath Alaska (see figure 1). The 2018 M7.1 Anchorage Earthquake occurred in the subducting Pacific Plate at a depth of about 35 miles. The depth and fault mechanism of the April 8 M5.5 earthquake reveals it to be a smaller sibling of the Anchorage Earthquake—it also originated in the subducting Pacific Plate, although even deeper than the Anchorage Earthquake. “It’s such a huge feature, the subduction zone really drives everything. It’s all connected,” said Stephen Holtkamp, a seismologist at the center.

At 48 miles deep, the waves from this earthquake traveled through Earth’s mantle, the dense layer beneath the surface crust. “The mantle is more uniform and dense because of pressure, so seismic waves travel really efficiently through it,” said Holtkamp. “In contrast, seismic waves from shallower earthquakes spend more time in the crust where they bounce around as they travel through a greater variety of rocks, so you can feel them reverberate longer.” Seismic waves from the April 8 M5.5 earthquake traveled undisturbed through the mantle and reached the surface without much time for reflection or refraction in the crust (see figures 2 & 3). So although observers felt the earthquake a long distance from the source, the shaking didn’t last very long and lacked the more vigorous shaking of a shallower earthquake. This phenomenon is described in more detail here.

The ShakeMap from the April 8 earthquake also shows another characteristic of a deep earthquake (see figure 4). The colors representing the intensity of shaking are fairly uniform over a large distance. This is because even directly above the earthquake’s origin, you are still at least 48 miles from where it ruptured. A shallow earthquake would show much stronger shaking close to the source, rapidly decreasing as you get farther away.

This type of event is not surprising. While they are not frequent, it’s been a decade since a comparable M5.4 earthquake occurred in Sept. 2010, they have a straightforward source. This event was not an aftershock of any previous earthquake but a result of the Pacific Plate fracturing during the subduction process.

Superficially, the Denali Fault lies nearby, but the April 8 M5.5 earthquake is not linked to the fault. The Denali Fault is shallow, with earthquakes occurring about 15 miles deep. The Earth’s crust in this region is about 18-25 miles thick. Below that is the mantle, which has no faults. Then below that is the subducting Pacific Plate, where the M5.5 earthquake originated. The animation below developed for Denali National Park has an overview of the tectonics in the region.

And that’s the deeper story behind this morning’s earthquake."

I am fine...