It's hard to brush Alli's teeth when the basin is full....of James....

She's in the way, no matter where she is....

 

The work on the garage is progressing quite nicely.  The focus has shifted to the shop area now, and will probably go a bit slower now.  We have a lot of the "things we know what they are" done, but now we are venturing into unknown territory.  The shop area holds tools and "stuff" that Ralph kept - do we still need it???  Do we know what it is?   How many do we have already?  (Don't laugh - I think the last time I counted, I had 8 hammers in one spot - no telling how many others are around....)

 

New quick gift idea...quilted potholders.  Margene gave me a set for my birthday - they have magnets inside them so they stick to the microwave/refrigerator and are the handiest ones I've seen, so....I must try to make them!!  This is my first try, and I need to make a couple of adjustments, but they work great!

 

Usually I take advantage of Indigenous Peoples Day by taking a walk on the River Trail or at Lema Ranch Trail and getting some fall foliage photos, but we had low clouds/light rain on Monday - not good photo weather.  AJ and I walked the dogs though, and I found some color in the back field....

 

I got the body of Margene's quilt quilted - now it's just the border left to quilt (and then the binding.....)  I have been trying different little tricks each time I quilted something, and this time I used them all and only had one problem - one broken needle.  Not too bad, since I have been breaking 3-4 each quilt.  (I was moving the fabric too fast when I first started.)  There is a Facebook page dedicated to Allegro users and one for Cutie Frame users, and between the two of them, I figured out (most of) the things I was doing wrong.  Whew!

 

I finished the quilt top for Kirby!  As usual, I had help.  It is very hard to press seams with James hanging out on the ironing board....

The final quilt is too large to put on my design board - I really like it!!!

 

Debbie brought me a box of apples when we met up to go hiking.  I sent a few home with Pat, but not before she played with Jessie with them....

 

And I'm left with a few random pictures from the weekend hikes.  All the snow has melted off of Mt. Lassen, so maybe we should try it again???

 

Parts of the hike to Kings Creek Falls:

 

When we got to Cold Boiling Lake, there was a sign that Crumbaugh Lake was another 0.5 miles away, so....why not?  Off we went!  By the time we got there though, the weather had shifted a bit - windy and heavier mist.  Since we were hiking through the fire zone full of dead trees, we didn't stay long to look around and headed back out.  The pace was a bit quicker than our usually walk - the result of hiking with CDF people that know the dangers of falling trees....and we were soaked through by the time we got back to the truck.

 

We also hiked to Cold Boiling Lake - less than a mile from Kings Creek Picnic Area.  It was pretty cool - CO2 bubbles up.  I took a quick video of it.

 

Kings Creek Falls was beautiful - lots of water in the creek.  The remnants of the Dixie Fire are heartbreaking, though.  Hiking with three retired CDF people was interesting too - I heard lots of fire stories and how badly the Dixie Fire was mishandled.  (The fire started near Cindy just outside of Reno and burned through Lassen Park.)

 

Cindy, Debbie, and Christy and I were supposed to hike Mt. Lassen on Saturday.  All week long, we had beautiful weather - with the slight chance of some rain on Saturday.  Come Saturday, it was more than a slight chance.  It was cloudy in Redding when I left, but I ran into rain the higher I got in elevation.  Not a lot of rain - just a misty rain....  I met up with everyone at the park entrance, and we went up in one car from there.  Here's what the parking lot for the Summit Trail looked like, and the peak is another 3,000 higher....needless to say, we did not hike Lassen.