I Need a Raincoat

I was able to mow the entire yard on Saturday morning. Thank goodness, because right after that, it started to rain. It has been raining steadily ever since. Snowmelt is still coming off the mountains and the rivers are rising. The husband and I went out to dinner Saturday night and the parking lots near the old bridge river access were already starting to flood.

[Everyone who remembers the event talks about the “Flood of ‘64,” when torrential rains came down on top of heavy snowpack in early June and devastated the area. The Daily InterLake has a story about it if you want to read about what happened.]

We went to our favorite restaurant, Mercantile Steak, where the husband had prime rib and I had sea scallops. Yes, it’s a steakhouse, but I will always choose seafood over anything else if I have the option. The food there is very, very good. Afterward, we went to Home Depot so the husband could get supplies to fix the washer hookup at the rental house. It’s been leaking and it needs to be fixed before guests arrive. He had to replace some drywall as part of the repair, so I’ll have a bit more painting to do.

And because it’s raining, I feel the urgent need to make a raincoat. 🙄 I’ve had Simplicity 9713 in the queue for a couple of years, but I want to make the long version of that one. What I need right now is a mid-length version. I have four yards of a beautiful raspberry-colored dry oilskin (Merchant & Mills) that I bought at The Confident Stitch in Missoula, but all I have is the four yards that were on the roll. (I would have bought more if it had been available.) Four yards is just enough for a mid-length raincoat. I have been looking for a raincoat pattern I like and I’ve narrowed it down to the Lou Hooded Rain Jacket from Seamwork:

Of course, by the time I make a basic muslin and start working on the actual jacket, the weather likely will be hot and dry. I’m going to sit with this idea for a bit, but it’s on the table. If I don’t make it now, it will be raining again in the fall and I’ll be wondering why I still don’t have a raincoat.

The rain is supposed to continue through at least noon tomorrow, but we don’t completely dry out until later in the week.

The broody hen in the chicken coop got off the eggs she’s been sitting on for the past couple of weeks and moved to a different nesting box. I checked the eggs with a flashlight—they were still warm, so she must have moved not long before I came in to check—and I think they are all fertile. I tucked them in with her in the new nesting box. I am hoping she just got confused or was routed out of the box by another hen. Chickens are not known for their intellectual prowess.

*****

Progress on the bathroom remodel at our church continues apace. All of the concrete has been broken up and removed, which was a thankless job handled by a couple of our church members:

Yesterday, after the service, a few of the men were discussing next steps and looking at the plans. The new plumbing has to go in next. This is an exciting project, but it’s a fair bit of work.