Cat-Aclysmic

It's a nice day to head out to the farmer's market again. Erik and I vowed to head to the "oyster guy" first thing. We were shut-out of oysters on our last trip when they sold out before 10:00 a.m....precisely one hour after the market opened. That was fast! And it also means I'm typing fast because I'm going to need to be on my way. 

So let's see what's going on here since we chatted last time. Well, I finished off the final cat. He needed a flange before I could start adding the pieced red sashings:

I was interrupted here because a guy came to fill our calcite tank. We have what's known as "aggressive water" that would like to dissolve our copper pipes. We have to add calcite to prevent that. And I'm going to tell you a sad story before we're finished here. I'll just say up front that the "aggressive water" and the calcite has absolutely nothing to do with the sad story. Enticing, no? 

But let's just finish up with the cats first. When I was able to get back to my sewing, I added 54 red patches to finish out his red sashings.

Okay, and then I laid all the blocks out together. There are a couple of red patches missing near the middle. Also, this quilt will have two borders before it's finished.

So within the next month or two I'll be sewing the blocks together and finishing it off. For now, I'll be moving on to the cat panel I mentioned recently. Now that I've taken it out to start on it, I'm kind of excited to get going.

Now about that sad story: We’ve been baffled by a substantial amount of water collecting under the carpet in our daylight basement. After exploring and discarding some possible causes, we pulled up the carpet to check for any cracks in the concrete where we might be getting ground water seepage. (The wet concrete there looks like mold, but it's just darkened from the moisture.) There were no cracks, but when we rounded the corner into our guest bedroom, we found a seam in the concrete there.

It's still possible there's a plumbing leak, but as time passes with less rain and snow and drying concrete, we're feeling fairly certain ground water seepage is the cause of our problems. We’ve spoken with our homeowner’s insurance carrier. Plumbing leaks are covered (after deductible, of course). If it's ground water seeping up, the expense will be all ours. Yeesh. So we're still in the investigation-and-deciphering phase, and we're trying to figure out what kind of professional we should call to fix this problem. Mike is a handy guy, but we think this is probably outside his wheelhouse. More to come.

On the brighter side...literally...the weather is improving and warming. We're looking at a wet week ahead, but for now, the sun has been shining. With snow on the ground, it's been dazzling to look outside. The kitties were able to get out for the first time in days. Smitty is keeping an eye on the squirrels. 

Most of the snow has melted away at this point, but the areas under the eaves where the snow slid off the roof are still buried deep. In the image below, you can see I've indicated where the trellis for the bleeding heart is. The poor thing is probably flattened under all that snow. We're planning to dig it out and give it some breathing room today. I just hope it isn't dead after what it's been through. The clematis are looking good, and that's a relief. Also, the peonies seem to have weathered (🤣) the storm all right.

By yesterday evening, the clouds had cleared, and we were able to see Mt. St. Helens for the first time in a long time. Hello, old friend!

On the slow-stitching front, I stitched up all the leaves in my hoop.

When I moved my hoop, I guesstimated that I'm a tad less than halfway across.

And then this morning, I stitched up the latest section.

It's moving along. Probably I should start thinking about making up the next section for the Pieces of the Past quilt. It's going to be another large piece, and that seems to be my fate lately. All of the embroidery pieces I've been working on have been large ones.

Okay, so I have places to go...people to see...oysters to acquire. It's going to be a good day. Hopefully, we'll be able to make some decisions about this water issue in the basement before day's end. Either way, we have the weekend to think about it.