It's late September and I'm wearing sandals today... Not to say that it's completely summery out there but the humidity's annoying.

Too wet out from the overnight rain to do much with gardening today, even if the sun's come out. I should harvest some peppers though, and maybe look at the Hazelnut trees again.

Too tired this morning to do much of anything useful, so nice that I have the energy for a few things this afternoon.

I did get further with that dress I cut out a week or so ago - lordy, I hate that I've become so slow at getting things done. Cooler weather helps some, at least. I did the machine sewing, and even put in pockets! Knit fabric that's a little weighty I guess, because it all looked fine when I cut the pieces out but was too long when I tried it on. So, I shortened it at the shoulders by about 1-1/2" and it fits better. Now I'm at the hand sewing all the edges part.

Going to work more on getting stuff out of the enclosed porch, which actually means not just finding different places for things but using and/or getting rid of stuff. It'll be worth it when it's done.

A variety of things happened, too many for me to remember them all, although I'm going to try. More Fitzw than me yesterday though, as 3 hours of sleep isn't enough for doing some sorts of things. *sigh* In general I'm getting more than that finally, but seems like several decent nights always gets followed up by a bad one.

Trying again to have Lavendar plants spend the winter outdoors. Previous attempt they all died and I _think_ it's because of the winds we sometimes get in the winter and spring, and the reduced snow cover. So I've built low brick walls around them and we'll see how that goes.

Fitzw put on the last course of shingle on the blue shed's side roof - just needs the flashing put on but it's raining today. He built a cover for the drain hole for the sump pump, too. We've had a plastic trash can lid over it so we don't fall into the hole but now we can actually walk through the space instead of around it - yay!

He also cut to length a piece of wood scrap I found and attached it to the inner side of the basement door. I found the coat hooks and he put some of those up, and now we have a better place for all the short dusting-related things.

We went to the local hardware store to see if they still had mailbox posts with postholder but they were out and suggested Cummington Supply. Unfortunately they were out as well, but Fitzw placed an order with them for other building supplies.

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Z and V had winterized their trailer by putting foam board around the base to keep winter winds from coming underneath it and ripping away part of the heat envelope when they're here, but some of the tape didn't work well enough. The corner we had them move the trailer to is more sheltered than the field but we can get some weird patterns when it's really gusting. We had to retrieve a couple of pieces last month that had gotten blown way down the road, and yesterday I finally put them back in place, plus re-did another piece that was thinking of leaving. Those are all now wedged into place with weighty objects on both sides of the boards.

Insulating the base of buildings isn't a bad idea, as long as you have decent drainage anyway - don't want to trap moisture after all. Fitz's dad had gotten hold of a lot of super dense wool material -- it was much thicker than coat wool so I'm thinking maybe it was some kind of underlayment? Anyway, before the foundation was improved, in the fall he would tack it onto the house and wrap the bottom few feet with it - made a big difference. Myself, when I was renting our old family home in Noho, bagged loads of leaves and put them against the foundation of the house in the midsection. It was a strange house that had been build piecemeal, and had two basements connected by a crawl space. That crawl space was nothing but trouble, with insufficient protection for the pipes...

Our Holyoke house wouldn't have tolerated those treatments, but I realized we had a draft issue between the foundation and the wall sills for the house walls. For that we came up with a fencing wire/wire coathanger system, where we took 2-foot lengths of batting insulation and put half over the meeting place and half against the underside of the floor and held them in place with the wires, between the joists. But I digress!

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Other Stuff

H:
- Finished crushing the eggshells and put them in a container
- Finished crushing the kale and put them in a container
- Broke up soil in low raised beds and leveled out ground for two longer rows for next year
- Progress on masks

- Finished repairing beaded purse #nonewsewmo
- Repaired broken strand of fringe on beaded barrette #nonewsewmo
- Sewed some more beads on Evil Queen capelet. Well, it started out being for an Evil Queen costume and it's too pretty to leave unfinished, whether it becomes a capelet for that or not. #nonewsewmo

- Dug in two pavers in the greenhouse. There will be more.
- Boxed up felt and other materials and put on porch
- Framed piece of old wallpaper from Fitzw's childhood bedroom
- Broke down one of the folding tables in the living room
- Worked on cleaning the upstairs bathroom (had a few spare minutes to throw that way)
- Swept the kitchen and laundry/pantry
- Washed some dishes and also some more Gatorade bottles, freed up a couple of cardboard trays for carrying the bottles
- Scanned some of T's art for her
- Played LotRo because why not?

F:
- Disassembled more old computers to go to the dump. Yes, the memory bits are still here, awaiting destruction
- Plastic-bagged the bags of cement to use next year
- Dug out a bunch of sunchokes
- Moved a desk to the trailer for winter storage
- Gathered and took recyclables to the transfer point
- Gathered and took trash to transfer point

Late Spring/Early Summer is such a busy time!

There's what you plan and what Mother plans :D

Did some trimming/thinning of some of the Apple trees. Lyle helped with some of it, and even so we won't get this year's marked work done. Still, some is better than none.

Greenhouse is now open at the west end so the greens won't roast. Doesn't stop them from trying to bolt, of course. Currently have enough greens that we're giving some to a young family that's helping out at our place from time to time, and I should get a bag of the Swiss Chard to another friend too. She loves the stuff, but also she makes up a bunch of soup for the folks fighting the pipeline.

Jennie and Gavin (parent of young family) helped with getting the rest of the tent poles out of the barn and into the trailer, as well as getting the Ginger plants from the living room - and the table they were on - onto the porch. I moved most the rest of the Ginger and other plants in the house onto the porch the next day or so. Only the black Petunias and the Lemongrass are left but I need to make a little space first... might be time for the Rosemaries to go outside :)

And of course dealing with what tent caterpillar nests we could was in there somewhere...Jennie spotted some in one of the branches we were trimming down for parts and then we were looking at the trees to find any nests that were still in the trees. I started up a fire in the fire pit and we put all the nests we could reach into it. Lyle helped with some of that, as neither J nor I are adept with the pole saw.

Super tired yesterday but figured I'd trim a couple of the cut branches, break some of what we have down into different sizes for trellis/fence-building materials. Ended up only doing one, because it had tiny tent caterpillars crawling around on it. *sigh* So instead of an easy clip-and-sort, I had to examine every piece I cut and kill any caterpillars I found (yay for wearing gloves).

And, I managed to get some fiddlehead (Ostrich) ferns, too. Should have been looking a few days ago, but at least I got some.

Ache all over, but doing better today despite that -- yay for more than 5-6 hours of sleep.

Long not as in having a three-day weekend, just a lot happening, starting Friday afternoon.

Got a massage - yay!

Went down into the valley and made a quick stop at CVS, then on to Applebee's for a quick supper...and ran into some of L's relatives who were in the area for the reunion on Saturday. So of course we had dinner with them...then a quick shop for ingredients for the fruit salad for Saturday -- got home late.

Saturday we went to the reunion and stayed for about 2-1/2 hours and then L was toasty so we went home. L mostly took it easy, I got a few things done, like picking a few blueberries and giving them a few gallons of water.

Sunday we went back to the family farm in the morning for pancake breakfast (and leftovers) - and yes, there were GF pancakes. No blueberry ones, but hey, can't have everything. Hung out long enough to be in a couple of family photos and then back home. L took a nap while I made a trash and recycling run and made another fruit salad for the Pennsic Pity Party. Not that we're feeling sorry to not be at Pennsic, but it was a chance to hang out with some people we haven't seen much in the past year. It was a cozy gathering -- and really, just about perfect for us. I got some really old artwork back from Fiona, from back when cut-and-paste was a real thing using actual scissors and glue :D

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Today we'll be pretty low key, but I at least have more energy today than I would normally have after that much activity and traveling. I picked a _lot_ of blueberries today, and gave them more water. Normally I wouldn't be watering established plants but it's dry enough here that the poor things are already dropping leaves...

I also worked on getting access to a small piece of furniture (moving stuff on and around a table) and finished getting it clear today. It's part of an effort to make the office less cluttered and more usable...we'll be getting a filing cabinet from L's mom soon too, so I have to keep working on opening up space. It'll be nice to get the table out of its current location in the dining room, which is still serving as a storage space for things from all over the place, but esp. the future greenhouse space.

Oh, and we finally got the tiger tapestry up on the wall in the weaving room. It's on the large side and in a frame, so it was a challenge; only took seven months...yes, another year of chaos, but we're making progress.

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Made appts. with an acupuncturist for Thursday. Let's see what she can do for L's continuing nerve pain and my various issues. Meanwhile, I've dug out the acupressure book and looking at and trying some possible points to use. I used to have a routine of points I did regularly but whenever something new is added to my or our lives I tend to lose other bits.

Saturday:

So I'd had a possibly good idea and shared it with L -- who then got a major part of it done before I got outside. *sigh* And the air conditioners are now in the house as well. Neither one is set up yet, but we're one step closer. L is now laying down for a rest.

Oh, and he also got a single seat and bench seat from our old minivan out of the trailer, which will eventually make it to the transfer point to be trash. Unfortunately mice found a way to get into the trailer and made their homes in these.

We had an 8' long table taking up space in the center aisle of the barn -- it is now set up along one wall of the trailer. Boxes that were in that space are now elsewhere or underneath. I moved some of the lumber for the trailer project into the trailer and put it on top of the table, along with a rolled up rug that was in the way in the trailer; ten trips with two 2"x4"x8' boards at a time. The 2"x6"x8' boards will have to wait a bit; weather is horrible. But we're making three areas more open for passage and construction purposes at the same time, so yay.


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The boards are part of a project to insulate the trailer so that it doesn't suffer as extreme temperature swings. We're also working out ventilation, etc. The end goal is to be able to safely store most of our books out there, as well as games -- sort of a library and entertainment area. We've been working toward this but with the mouse incursions plus being really tired of not being able to find books, etc., this year we're pushing it.

The far end of the trailer has some wood rot in the very end part of the floor and there are some smaller holes in the wall corners (where bolts or something used to be?), so first is cleaning, stabilizing and sealing, then construction. We'll do a section at a time, so as we complete a section we can move things over and do the next section. If we don't get it done by next fall, we can always hang a curtain between the done/undone sections to maximize stable storage.

I succeeded in moving the claws off the sewing machine and onto a tray table today. Of course I couldn't just move them :P So now they're a bit smoother, etc. Maybe tonight I'll poke holes into the tabs for holding them onto gloves...unlikely I'll get to actually baking them tonight, but soon.

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Unpacked some crystal water glasses I bought in my 20s and found a space for them in the cupboard. Some travel mugs I think L wants to hold onto for a little longer are now tucked in the back of the coffee machine cabinet.

Unpacked a bento box too, so I can see it and remember to use it at some point. If one isn't using something, even just for display, why keep it?

Put the boxes from those in the barn loft. Yay tidying!

Well, so much for posting more regularly - last time was February, sheesh.

Anyway.

I've managed to do costuming work twice in the past month or so -- once for Disney D*C group and once to make improvements on my black steampunk neck thingie -- Collar? Choker? Whatever. It's a couple inches wide, not including the netting I used to make the ruffly bits so as I don't have a nice long swan neck it was getting crunched in the front. So I cut the front part off, re-did the hemmed edges to form a slight curve, plus re-attached it slightly lower than it was before.

It also tended to turn a bit - the buttons are hefty so likely that contributes. I'd always intended to add more to it, so I took apart a necklace and used it to adorn the collar and weight the center front. The necklace was originally made by Kayleigh and I wore it for a while and then what I was wearing had changed so that it wasn't working as well with things, so it's nice that I'll be wearing it again, if in a different form than before. I'll try to take a picture of it soonish.

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Still spending most of my time and energy and moving stuff, organizing, etc. Quite tiresome, but there it is. On the plus side, have actually managed to get some stuff permanently out of the house and off the property in general -- someday we might even be considered to have space.... it's a gradual process not only because there's a lot of stuff, but sometimes I put something out and let it be for a while, to decide if it's going to stay or not. And then I made enough space to be able to open some more boxes...and then it all starts up again. I've decided I can't make all the decisions right now, so in some cases I'm just repacking things -- BUT! I was able to condense three boxes of stuff into one box, which still isn't full, so I guess that's proof that I'm still making progress...

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Dryer still isn't great, and the stove has always had a few issues. They're the only things that use liquid propane, so when the company decided to charge us for the right to have the tanks on our property (we only order once a year), the decision to switch to electric wasn't hard. Those are arriving this coming Tuesday.

We need one of the electrical outlets changed from 110 to 220 so we called a recommended electrician...who isn't good at returning calls or setting dates :P Finally got confirmation he can do the job before the install (Tuesday morning!!) -- L says we probably succeeded because I sacrificed a peep the day before...

I need to sacrifice a few more, I think...

I do believe we're moving forward with the solar panels, but it's been one thing after another. Yup, definitely more peeps...

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Good news - we're walking more. Bad news - still not losing weight. Probably not eating enough to compensate for increase activity levels...at least we're both building up endurance again, sigh. Being on a ton of allergy and asthma meds probably affecting results.

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And, of course, weird warm weather being interrupted by freezing weather in a few days...really hoping that we actually do get snow, as they're now forecasting even colder weather than before -- would like it if the fresh greens were protected.

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Some yard work was also done, and the stone altar is a little taller now. Work in progress.

There are plans and then there is what actually happens...

I'd failed to note that the cabinets were also attached to each other, not just to the wall, so I had to empty all four of them instead of two and then two.

We then ended up setting up the deeper ones first, because they're stable enough on their own to just set up in the new spot. I re-stocked them yesterday. But before that, we were assuming we'd need to fasten them to the wall, so we looked at the wall and L realized that it was just sheathing for the pocket door that lets into the laundry room -- no studs. Plus the door frame was funky anyway, so he took part of it apart and re-assembled it. It's a bit more permanent now, and no worries about pulling the frame off with your bare hands.

The shallower ones aren't stable at all, especially with the under-cut on the front of the bases, so the board that had been used for attaching them to the wall needed to be cut down to the correct size for just two cabinets. I removed it yesterday after I swept down the wall where the cabinets had been - yikes, just a little dust! There were five screws in that board, but only one had actually hit a stud. O_o

L removed the spacer bar at floor level last night -- don't need it anymore, and hey, it might come in handy somewhere else. We've uncovered an outlet, and the surge protector that was plugged into it. I'm thinking I might move that to the living room, so I don't have to keep crawling in under the sewing machine to plug in my laptop.

The now-exposed wall will need spackling, a little sanding, and paint touch-ups. Fortunately the previous owners left all the leftover paint from all the rooms, and I was able to find the one that was for this room. And yes, there will be spackling -- the holes are from a couple of different things having been attached to the wall, and some of them were even used. Then there's the gouges at either end of where the board for the cabinets was -- L figures they put the board on the wall and _then_ cut the ends off to the proper length. Oy. I'm not a professional, and I definitely make mistakes myself, but wow...

Anyway, today L worked on setting up the shallower cabinets. Apparently there's a difference in level of the floor from one side of the room to the other, or something -- whatever the case, they tilted away from each other in the new spot. L considered shims, then checked to see if the door hinges can be reversed (they can), and tried reversing their positions, left to right. It worked, so they're now attached to the wall and later on the doors will be switched.

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And yes, all the Ginger are now inside or on the enclosed porch, as well as some other potted plants.

Still playing catch-up, between being ill for weeks and then fall festival. Made it to one kung fu class this week though, which was nice. Currently working on a major move in the radiant/weaving room right now. There's a set of 4 tall cabinets on one of the inner walls -- this is modular stuff, so each one is like half a cabinet, as regards their width. The two outer ones are not as deep as the two middle ones. Anyway, they look nice where they are so we left them there when we first moved in -- then we hosted the Gray family Christmas, and while it worked, a little more walk-around space would be good. Plus now that we have the trailer, we have more options on where things can go.

So yesterday I finally had time and energy to empty all the wire wall shelves I put up on one wall, and the free-standing shelves next to them, and the costume clothing rack (so I could move it more easily), and another set of shelves that holds the weaving and other fiber arts books. Moved some things to the porch, made some space in the basement, etc. I've emptied the outer two cabinets completely -- I'll do the other two after I and/or we move the first two and re-fill them. The shallower ones are going against the long outer wall, near the barn loom, since they're about as deep as the shelves that were there. The deeper ones will go where the wire shelves/etc. were, which is part long outer wall and part laundry room wall (a corner). This will decompress that space a bit, plus put more insulation on the outside wall.

I'll be putting a couple of free-standing bookcases (short ones) where the four cabinets are currently, but they aren't as deep as the cabinets. The warping frame will hang over them. Might be able to put some of the wire racks there too, but not sure about that -- in total, I expect to lose some storage space in that room, but it's a little too jam-packed, and I need the mental as well as physical space to work in, so it's all good. Things have gotten really jumbled together over the years of moving and living in an apartment, so it's going to take a while to get it right.

Also have to get the ginger indoors today -- they've survived so far, but they can't over-winter outdoors and it's supposed to get down to 32F tonight.

And, finally got enough new soil into the raised bed to put plants in there yesterday. Two tiny red leaf lettuce, a couple curly kale, and a bunch of swiss chard. Should be able to put row cover over it for protection easily enough, for autumn...altho' depending on how things go with the greenhouse, maybe I could move a couple of the chard in there for the winter. Added to the raised bed's walls more, too.

Stuck poles in the ground the other day as well -- defining a practice space for martial arts. Still need to make simple flags to go on top of them as markers.

Most of the turmeric and all the lemongrass are on the (enclosed) front porch. A few are still outside, because I thought they'd died and stuck some lemon balm in the pots on top of them (really, the rhizomes were tiny!). Anyway, they weren't dead, so now I have some turmeric growing with lemon balm -- the nice thing is, the lemon balm provided enough shade that the turmeric could grow in a sunny place. Anyway, will probably bring those in soon too, so I don't have to cover them at night.