A bunch of the women on the island are sewing a quilt for the island raffle to raise money for the fire hall. These woman are an eclectic group who squeeze in the quilting between their other preferred activities. I have a friend on the island who put off her quilting til she had cleaned out her outhouse. Another friend who would rather start up her chainsaw and buck wood than quilt. I suspect my friend who weeded her vegetable garden this week (in January!!) was avoiding quilting her squares. I never imagined I would enjoy quilting but I am liking it for the moment. Until at least, the weather is more garden friendly. Then, I will pack up the sewing machine and get back out in the dirt.

E is working on the new systems manual for our house. I have been asking for months to have a new manual written. It’s all well and good that he knows how things work but the kids and I need a reference in case things go awry and he can’t help.

Like today for example.. He can barely stand up. His back is out and there is a lot of moaning going on.. We are into our eight month with the same propane tanks on the house and I turn on the stove with great trepidation. It would be our luck that today is the day when the propane runs out and he can’t come down to show me what to do..

I suspect his back problems are partly because of firewood and partly due to an aversion to writing the manual. It isn’t easy for E, a systems guy, to write a systems manual which will make sense to me.

Case in point. We moved to the island and inherited a standard truck. I didn’t know how to drive standard. He said he would teach me how to drive standard. We get in the truck and he says “put in the clutch” I responded “whats a clutch?”

Took the dogs for a long run this morning before I started to quilt. They got soaked.

Sami doesn’t stray far from my side. His eyesight is getting worse. Last night he thought Piper was getting too close to me and lunged at him to scare him away from me… Only it wasn’t Piper beside me. He

attacked the cushion