Got the last piece of plastic up in the greenhouse porch today, including putting up some lath and scrap wood in a few places to keep the plastic from billowing (which it isn't doing too much of, but...) fitzw did some insulating in the garage.

Then we went to Home Depot and bought:
- roll of pink insulation, can of Great Stuff
- window gasket for the one studio window that came without one (draft stopper)
- 3 4'x8' sheets of white panelling (lower half of print shop's inside wall)
- outdoor welcome mat (100% recycled rubber!)
- draft stopper for bottom of garage door
- boot trays (2 for under the greenhouse plants, one for the studio)
- heavy duty shelving (to hold the passive solar water containers, and general storage)
- Gorilla folding ladder, new staple gun, and sundry items

fitzw did more insulating when we got back, and installed first wall panel. Will definitely brighten the room up.

Plants are now in the greenhouse. Shelves are assembled. Too cold to paint today, so painting of containers (black) and of garage door (white) to happen tomorrow.

Also tomorrow, more insulation of garage and a piece for the ceiling in the greenhouse.

Tonight, more work on scroll.

Worked yesterday, no work today or tomorrow. A bit stiff and achey today, so I don't really mind having the days off. Besides, it gives me more time to work on the court doc for Concordia and other stuff.

Hoping to get the last piece of window plastic up today, but we'll see. Once the room is all set up, I'm looking forward to being able to leave open the door to the porch/greenhouse during the day -- the sun is quite strong in there, and can help to heat up the house. And of course we don't want the plants in there to roast :) Not remembering how hot it could get in there, I hadn't realized when I started my project that it might help to cut down on our heating oil usage. Happy thought!

One of my bleeding hearts up by the studio is blooming, along with the rose. The pinks are also in their second bloom. Markers of the unduly warm weather for this time of year. I know a number of people who don't care for snow and cold weather, but the plants need it. Many pests and blights that our weather kept reined in are no longer slowed enough by frost and ice, because it comes later in the year. Hemlocks are taking a lot of damage, many fatally so, from an asian bug, all across the country. There's a beetle that can help with fighting the invader, but Romney won't support the funds for it in Massachusetts. Ash and White Pine and other trees are suffering from other pests: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-23-trees_x.htm

Being a Gray, one of my concerns is the Sugar Maples, which don't seem to have quite as immediate a threat to them, but the warmer weather is hard on their general health and longevity (think about what happens to you when you don't get enough sleep on a regular basis), and for the farmers it means a shorter sugaring season. Once tapped, the trees provide sap for the same amount of time until the tap holes heal over, but because of the weather the quality of the sap can change more quickly. Once the trees start to bud the season's over, because the sugar is diverting to growing leaves. Our family has other means of income, but for some folks it can be a major source, and finding something to replace that income could be difficult.

And of course the beauty of the fall foliage would be missed by everyone in the valley -- over time, if our weather becomes too mild, the Maples will die out, along with other northern plants. Weather changes are happening faster than the environment can keep up with.

So, what can one or two people do, especially without a lot of money?" Well, we won't be going off-grid anytime soon, but we're doing our best to winterize and use fuel with even greater economy than before. The greenhouse will be providing more heat, as well as some fresh veggies and clean air. I'll be getting some English Ivy for the greenhouse, to replace the air filter in the bedroom (saving electricity and new filter materials). Fossil fuel is a precious and finite commodity -- using it more wisely means it will last a bit longer, and the environment will have more of a chance to deal with the pollutants from it.

NB: English Ivy isn't good for kitties (if you have the type that eat houseplants), so if you get this plant, hang it or put it on a shelf the cats can't reach. It's esp. helpful in an office, around electronics.

For people who want to lower their thermostats and save energy, two things. One: don't change the temp. range more than 5 degrees, as it wastes fuel. Two: keep your feet warm -- cold floors = cold feet = turning the thermostat up.

The new studio has a bamboo floor, and we used only a tiny bit of treated pressurized wood for the deck supports under the building. The roof edge is extended further than usual on the long side, to move rain/snow fall further from the building, but also to provide extra shade in the summer, and windows at either end are for pass-through ventilation. Windows are double-paned, argon-filled. Building will be fully insulated by snowfall. Some of the leaves in the backyard are getting bagged in plastic bags (yes, plastic - but reusable for next year) and put around the studio foundation to keep wind and cold out from under the floor. This last thing is a useful thing to do around house foundations, especially if we end up with an open winter.

NB: An open winter is when it gets cold but there's no snow on the ground. Snow insulates plants -- no snow means the wind blows over the ground, pulling moisture out of the soil and dehydrating plants. Larger plants like bushes and trees will have dead or brown patches the following spring/summer, and many plants overall will die. If you're concerned about saving particular plants in your garden, you may wish to mulch around them this year.

Windows: look for leaks, drafts, and caulk them. If your storm windows aren't great, plastic them. This helps to stop drafts/leaks you missed, and creates another barrier (air) between you and the cold outdoors. Don't forget to check the doors too - felt stripping can be used to overlap the door edge to stop/slow down drafts. Bottom of door drafts are trickier -- if you have this and aren't sure of the best way to deal with it, feel free to contact me about it.

Back to the environment -- we stopped using body care products that have parabens in them. You can find shampoos and such that don't have them that are affordable. Parabens mess with the endocrine system, affecting hormones, in people and I would expect in animals too (gets into the water). It's hard to get it out of the ecosystem, but we don't want to add more to it. And I'd rather not have anything that might be causing weight gain or might cause cancer in the house. We're using Jason Organic shampoo and conditioner - nice stuff! Some Dove products also seem to be acceptable. More research needed on this stuff...

Easy way to cut down on sunblock and save money -- wear a hat, wear longer sleeved clothing, wear gloves while driving (yes, the sun _can_ burn you through a car window, oy!). Hats can be fun and fashionable. More people should wear them!

We're trying to eat at home more, save money spent on service and gas. Better for us anyway.

Hmm, looks like a couple of people can do quite a lot! And if more people did this, and spread it to other people, then we can affect some change whether the government helps or not.

Well, there's a few thoughts for the morning...

Confirmed that if there isn't someone scheduled at near enough to start or finish time,of shift, that part of the shift will be nipped off to cut down on office overhead.
( more on working )

Upstairs Porch: Only two bags of winter clothing left to sort for keep/give away/throw away. Vacuumed up the dead bugs, etc. Removed old plastic sheeting, took down the insulation blind fabric (need to line it, put rings on it), stuffed plastic grocery bags into gaps in old window frames, plus a little duct tape. Started putting foil insulation on wall below windows. Put one stack of clothing storage bins in, to start building surface to put plants on. Although I'd prefer to build a surface over them -- depends on what materials I can find to use for that.

Today I have to finish putting the foil insulation up, hopefully the heavy plastic sheeting over the windows, and insulate the extended part of the porch roof. Then the rest of the storage bins can go back in and we can walk around the bedroom again.

To be done in near future: make the insulated shades, get/make black water containers to put along back wall of porch for passive solar heating for the plants. Possibly get a plant light bulb.

Studio: Only one window needs staining, and the threshold plate between the two halves of the garage to be installed and renoferret's done indoors. I have some trim to paint on the windows, but that can wait until next spring if need be. Meantime, we get to clean, move furniture, and move the rest of the weaving/spinning supplies in today.

After that, some more house cleaning, then off to work. prince_hring will be arriving sometime tonight from Canada. He's got a wedding to attend on Saturday, so this gives him some rest time and visiting time. Friday night a bunch of us are going out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday, a former Concentus post-practice hangout -- great food, and the accoustics in the hall outside it are great too.

Sunday was some work at home, a site walk-thru for Novice Schola, then Scribal Workshop, the home for Concentus practice. Went out to dinner with Concentus members, then home to call my mom.

( Sunday )

Monday I did a lot of work with changing from summer to winter clothing, and sorted out some things for giveaway/throwaway. fitzw put up the two shelves I painted last week, on the inside studio wall. Polyurethaning happened.
( Monday )

Tuesday, more cleaning, more correspondence. Took a nap mid-day, and fitzw kindly worked on my shoulders and back a bit. I owe him some work, and a haircut too. Tonight he calls Z, after dinner. I think I'll work on turning the blue and green Shetland batts into something resembling rovings so it's a bit more orderly in appearance.

Dinner time! Pasta and red sauce :)

Thursday evening, got a phone message that my friend Tracy B passed the first part of her EMT boards. She now has to study like the dickens for the second part, which is next month, I think.

Thursday night the wind blew with a fierce will and hammered the walls and windows of the house and its surrounds with maple seeds. Occasionally a blast would be so strong and direct that it would come in around the AC in one of the bedroom windows and gently move the tassle on the Chinese coin charm hanging there. In the morning, our tree still retained most of its leaves, but fitzw had to clear a pile of seeds off the top of the AC before removing it from the window, and I had to use the wipers on the car for the same.

Friday, work went well and after I came home we went for some more building supplies - baseboard materials, paint, stain, a couple of boards to begin putting up shelving. The doorframes are up and the window frames are mostly up (the remainder are cut, stained, and first coat of polyurethane applied). We had planned on going to bardic in the evening, but unfortunately fitzw had a headache that day, which got progressively worse as the day wore on. I did my best to help out with it, but decidedly a night of driving and storytelling was not going to improve it, so we stayed home. I got a bit more spinning done on the purple/blue Romney, and he did a bit of reading.

This morning he's doing better, so we're working on clearing things out of the dining/living room - partly because Concentus practices will be starting up again tomorrow evening, and partly because we want to move the dining room rug (very utilitarian) into the fiber studio, to go under the large floor loom. It should help some with sound absorption during weaving. Once the stage is set in the studio, we're off to the farm to deliver some box tops (school fundraiser), return a couple of trays, give an early birthday gift, and disassemble and bring back the loom. Once it's reassembled, we're off to lady_jade_01 and her family's housewarming to say hey. Sun is out, sky is blue, and I get to spend all day with my honey. Yay!

I got to paint in the garage today :) fitzw did the edge painting while I used the roller. Got first coat onto 3 of 4 walls, plus have of the 2nd coat on one of the long walls before lunch and going to work. fitzw finished up the second coat on those walls later in the day, plus most of the first coat on the fourth wall (former ext. garage wall). It's looking great so far, even though fitzw had some doubts about the darkness of the color. But with 5 windows (the regular ones, not the glass blocks), and the ceiling and floor will be light-colored, I think we're agreed it'll work out. The walls are a kind of toffee or caramel color. The shelving will be a slightly darker shade of the same family, ceiling w/b Swiss Coffee, with bamboo flooring and natural stained pine for the window frames, etc.

Scott wasn't here today, probably got called away by this other handyman who's been having some problems on his job... hopefully will be here tomorrow. After work tomorrow morning I have to clear the living/diningrooms so Z has somewhere to stay (the 3rd floor is currently not habitable), then hopefully I can do some more painting or something...

Current plan is to go up to the farm on the 14th and finally pick up the floor loom and bring it down. It's all looking great!

Helped do some mudding of the garage yesterday morning. Potted some chives, checked on the state of the Sage -- looks dry enough to bottle some, probably tommorrow, as it turns out I have the day off from work.

Finished up spinning for fitzw's shoeliner project, at least for now. If he runs out, I have some wool roving left and can make a bit more.

Cleaned/organized yesterday, and doing more today so I have space to lay out and inventory all the stuff for Fall Festival. Still haven't found one of the paintings I was working on a while back. I saw it sometime this summer, so I know it's here somewhere... another reason to clean.

Finally printed up pictures for my mom that I was supposed to do a couple of weeks ago. She has some pictures from Christmas, her study, and a family trip on her PC but doesn't have a good color printer, so she asked me to make prints for her. She probably mostly wants them for backup in case her hard drive crashes. Yes, I've explained about backing up files onto disks -- she even does it once a year I think, with help from one of my brothers. To her the only real backup is a hard copy, so I really had to work on the backup onto disk with her when her book got over 50 pages ("Mom, do you really want to have to re-type the entire book if your hard drive crashes?"). sigh

Hoping to have time in the next few weeks to make some shirts and at least one new pair of pants (all in linen!). Slowly phasing out clothing I don't really care for or are worn out, so figured I could replace some of it with clothing I like and is comfy and long-lasting. I have some cotton still, of course -- got some really wild (for me) turquoise corduroy with a black pattern on it last year, which I want to make a new jacket/windbreaker from.

Re-discovered some boxes on the back porch (enclosed) that need sorting. I should probably toss most of it away - after 10 years in the house, and I've looked in those boxes a number of times over the years, I obviously don't need at least 98% of what's out there. And if I can't let go of some of the really sentimental stuff, I have a space in the attic it can go into. We store most of the baronial gear on the back porch, and now that I have more gifty stuff to store, plus the new serving pitchers for high table, I need to free up the space. It's nice to have space... sometimes I like to just stop for a moment and look at the living room, which has a nice big open space right now... good for yoga, or lying around with the cats, or both (cats are very good at yoga).

Scott the Renoferret was off yesterday helping another handyman, so fitzw did more taping and mudding yesterday when I was at work. Today he's back again, finished the ceiling mudding and is putting in support joists on the shared wall (he prefers to over-engineer for roof support, and I don't disagree with that!), plus finishing cutting the holes for the glass cubes. I love my glass cubes! These are only 8"x8", but they're just right for the space. We're running a line of them along the top of the shared wall, to put a little more ambient light into the older side - plus, they look cool. My dad used to have a wall of them as a divider in his study, back when we all lived in California, and I always loved how they looked.

Oh, and apparently there's a good side to have Cheerios twice a day, as I lost another pound this week -- not to worry, we don't have cereal for dinner _every_ day -- probably 3 times this week though... I've also been doing hit and run snacking of small handfuls of almonds or tomatoes during the day. Keeps me from munching out on too much food at once, and no sugar drops either. I may not require "second breakfast", but "elevenses" is a _good thing_.

Had a head/jaw/neck-ache this morning, but the Aleve is finally starting to kick in. Did some work on my muscles too -- I have a massage this afternoon before my adjustments, but it's only for 1/2 an hour, so I'm trying to get some of the work out of the way so she can dig into the deeper stuff. Yay!

It isn't enough to maintain the status quo (which is an illusion anyway) -- sometimes you have to push yourself to go just a little further than you've gone before.

Went to the Equestrian event in Concordia. Got home sometime after 1:00 am -- had dinner with some Bergenthalers, Geoff, Nan, Mark, and Alberic's sister Marianne. 12 all told, but they managed to find a table and a booth near each other.

Saw much horsey activity, including some of what's involved in training and qualifying for the experimental jousting. Very cool stuff. Didn't see the fighting at the barriers, but I heard that went well. fitzw had fun helping out with stuff in the ring and is now warranted ground crew. I just did the chatty thing :) And got some more spinning done...

Anselim (Mark) received his AoA - yay! He'd gone up with Geoff to show TRM one of the chamfron he's working on for the equestrian champs, tried to make his escape -- and failed of course, but not before falling on his butt. Lovely court doc, and a well deserved recognition. Happy Day :)

Also 2 OSCs and a Manche. Regret I'm tired and don't remember the names of the OSCs - one is Concordia's Exchequer and the other does lots of stuff with kids, among many other things, of course. Manche was Alayne Nyvern Nightwatcher. Other AoAs were given out to various local folks. Top 8 pairs for the pairs equestrian competition were announced and called into court to receive tassels from HRM Anna. Some people had paired up with different people during the afternoon, so a few folks received more than one tassel (they were very good). HRM Brion received one :) A large contingent of riders came all the way from AEthelmearc, about a 4 hour drive, and definitely contributed greatly to the success of the day.

Some of us did a bit of singing with Rufinia [correction - Rufina], John Elys, and Deonna von Aachen, most esp. Emma and Lyle, but Pagan and I had fun giving a try at sight-reading stuff in German. Lots of pretty music!

Allergies were giving a few of us a bit of grief, but we all managed.

Lucia and Balthasar were there, both looking well, altho' of course she isn't 100%. It was marvelous to see them there and she definitely got lots of hugs all around :)

***
Tomorrow, or rather, later today, we'll be going to the farm. Taking some old roofing tiles, etc. up to put in the farm dumpster (city won't take it, and it's silly to pay for a dumpster when we only have a couple of barrels full of the stuff), so happily we have another choice. More than that, will have to wait until tomorrow...

Did some of the cleaning stuff, but no sewing. Moved some fiber stuff into the garage. And since it was such a nice day out, I finally had the courage to bring a fleece outside and see if any of it was worth saving. I bought the fleece several years ago in the first blush of my enthusiasm for learning about spinning, etc., then never had time to deal with it. It's been sitting in a bag under the basement steps all the while... So, book in hand to know what problems to look for, I dumped it out onto a tarp on the driveway. No bacterial stuff thank goodness. But there was black fungus (black tar-like stuff on the tips) on some of it, which I removed (the entire lock, not just the tip) -- lost about 1/3 of the fleece, unfortunately from the good parts. The center back of the fleece isn't as good as the shoulders or sides, and also it seems to have the most grass in it, but I'll still save it for later. Meantime, I hope to have time to wash some of the nicer stuff next week.

The electrical inspector came today... he came yesterday too, but we were out to lunch, so he let fitzw know he'd be here again this morning. Most of the rough work passed. Apparently the older side with the concrete pad is required to have GFCI outlets, so we'll have to replace those (fitzw can do this, yay!). We're also supposed to have a light that points at the new door, grr. The door's less than 10' away from the garage door, which has a light, but apparently you need to have a light for each door. So, we got a motion detector one that our electrician will have to put in.

Meantime, the renoferret's working on putting up siding, and now can work on finishing the wall insulation and putting up sheetrock inside. Yay!

Getting prize stuff ready for Crestfallen this weekend, picking things out and making sure I have all the receipts in order. Working on court documents the rest of the week as well, with help from ellid, fitzw and Phred (no journal). Have to go shopping for chicken for making Chicken Scarborough for the potluck feast, and maybe pick up a few other odds and ends.

Last Saturday we went to the farm, and picked up balls of rag strips for the rug loom, a clock winder, shuttles, spool rack, and sundry other weaving-related items, plus a butternut squash, and some yellow squash and cucumbers.

Went to the fleamarket on Sunday and managed to find a few interesting things, including a very nice cobalt blue glass, which I think will be a prize at Crestfallen. Also found a pair of candlesticks that think might make decent bases for a couple of saltcellars I'm going to assemble (one for personal use and one for someone else), and an open silver salt cellar, which will probably be another of the prizes for Crestfallen.

Monday we primed the scraped wall. Sometime during the week the renoferret started putting up the siding. Looks good - will post pics when the siding's done. Still waiting for the electrical inspector...

ellid asked why we didn't make it to Barleycorn yesterday:
We got stuck on the highway, with no useful (needed E-W, not N-S) exits anywhere nearby. Took 1-1/2 hours to go about 5 miles. Turns out there was a double accident, first a single vehicle, then a tractor trailer driver ran into the parked police vehicle of the officer who'd responded to the first accident and was directing traffic and stuff. Fortunately nobody died, and the officer wasn't injured, although that was it for his car -- the trucker's vehicle pushed the car off the road and landed on top of it.

Anyway, by the time we got past that, it was late enough in the day that we would have arrived too late for the baronial and royal courts, and since we weren't staying for dinner that meant we'd be there for 2-3 hours to visit with friends. I like my friends, but that's a very long day on the road for a short visit.

So we went home and did useful things around the house, finished watching the Farscape Peacekeeper Wars movie that we recorded sometime last spring, washed the cats, made A&S tokens, did some test spinning, etc.

Yes, we had to wash Roselynde this time as well. Fortunately she's a short-hair, so one time should do it for her -- third time for poor Peredur Mawr. Roz looked incredibly Siamese when she was wet...
It looked to be mostly flea dirt and dead fleas in the rinse off, and some of them were quite small/immature, so we're hopeful that we're near the end of this business. Still don't know how he got them in the first place, since neither of them go outdoors. Our theories are that since Peredur likes to lie on the inside doormat, that a flea could have jumped in from the porch, as the cat from next door was an outside cat with no collar, or that he might have picked one up at the vet's when he was there for overnight observation when he was sick. The vets try to keep a clean environment, but you never know when an animal might come in that has fleas...

Today we're off to a site walk-through for the Crossroads at Canterbury event site. Should be fun!