Massive Catch-Up

Gavin's finished putting in a floor over the library. When it gets cold this weekend, Lyle's going to remove all the wasp/hornet nest remains for outdoor disposal. Maybe we can take that bag of insulation we still have and insulate some of the roof. I ordered more than we needed for downstairs because it's better than not having enough and we really didn't know how much Gav was going to be able to do, given the uncertain condition of the wall boards on the barn and it being winter.

***

Some sewing is happening as well. Started work on a winter jacket, turning some lengths of knitting nancy stuff into fruit and veg for Tali's porcupine puppet, mending, etc.

Um, moved stuff between the trailer, barn, greenhouse, porch, and basement. Not even going to try to detail all that!


***

Moved some furniture yesterday.... been thinking about it and moving bits here and there for days, then with the warmer weather pushed harder to make it happen. Moved a small table to where the Yule tree had been (for now, anyway), moved the secretary holding most of the beading supplies into the vacated spot in the living room (thanks to Tali for helping get it from the kitchen on over the raised door sills!). There's a tad more light in the dining room now that the secretary isn't blocking part of one of the windows.

Moved an old cabinet that was on the porch into the greenhouse for now. We'll figure out where it goes eventually :D Moved the other old cabinet that's still there over, so there was space next to the nice, matching cabinets that are all on the porch. Lyle detached a low cabinet that was in the radiant floor room (weaving/sewing/office room), moved and reattached it on the porch.

I still have a ways to go to get the porch open enough for Gavin to work on finishing the framing on the windows, but seeing as he doesn't have a lot of free time any more (yay Berkshire Brewing Co.!), there isn't a super hurry there.

BUT! Once Lyle has a cabinet that's under construction in the barn in usable condition, I'll have a weaving station for my table loom again :) Meantime, I keep working on cleaning and bring some sense of order to the chaos, in time for Chinese New Year.

Family, Solstice, Gardening

Zach and Val have been here a few times <3 They're hoping to spend more time here, when possible. His job keeps him on the road, so mostly it's a weekend here and there at the moment. They're also trying to stay in touch with other family and friends too... taking advantage of the traveling nature of the job, at least for now.

Winter Solstice on the green was lovely. Managed to add in a new song, give another one a rest for the year, poetry from friends, new storyteller this year (Athena Grey, on FB, very old friend of ours from old SCA days). Considering it was on a Saturday and therefore opposite some big Solstice events this year, we held our own. Great community! Some folks we hadn't seen in a few years came, in fact.

Yes, thinking about gardening. I'm doing research on plants I might like to include this year so I can plan out planting and ordering times. Looking at adding some shrubbery along the road side of the property for a little more privacy - or at least interrupt the view of the field :D Also want to plant at least one more hazelnut, preferably more. I'm in competition with the squirrels, after all. They're not much to look at, I suppose, at least from a distance. But they have really funky-looking flowers and are a delight to stand between and just be and observe, and listen.

I missed my fall planting window for bunchberry so I'm going to read up on them and see if I can plant in the spring instead. Also, next warm spell we get, I need to see if I can do at least a tiny bit of pruning of the Apple trees. We never do a full job on all four trees, so maybe if I can start earlier... One of the challenges of growing things in the hills is that we have to wait so much longer to start seeds, since our traditional last frost date is Memorial Day. I'll just have to focus on cleaning up the greenhouse over the next couple of months (the nuts we gathered are currently taking up a lot of shelf space). Hm, and see if the Ginger I didn't get to in the fall is still alive! February can be worse than January these days, so...

Yeah, plenty to do until it's growing season.