Fine Feathered Friends

Jul 102013
 

In between weeding, cleaning, lounging, vacuum breakdowns and marathon book sessions during my week off, I had a nice surprise:  Nichole ventured North to spend a little quality time with her Mom and Pops.

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Isn’t she just a cutie?

We always have fun when she comes up.  Lots of late night bull-sessions, talking about everything and anything.

We also tried out a couple of recipes that I wanted to make, but us womenfolk can only stay in the kitchen so long.

So I decided to take her to the college farm and show off all the good things that were going on around there.

The farm manager, Todd, was sweating his backside off when we arrived so he decided to take a break and give us a mini-tour.

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Which I just knew would start with his pride and joy.  He started raising chickens a couple years ago and has really increased the size and diversity (there are even 4 ducks, which I just love).

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It just so happened that we got to meet the new arrivals.

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These little turkeys love this guy!

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And Nichole even got to pet one!

We also got a tour of all the new hoop houses and blueberry plants that he put in this year.  The farm also received some ancient squash plants that are doing very well.

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As opposed to mine, which are growing very slowly.  (I’ve never seen a foot photobomb before, have you?)

But, there’s still a couple months of summer left, so I’m hoping for the best!

 

Where We’re At

Jul 082013
 

I took last week off for some well deserved R&R.  I was busy, lazy, busy, lazy…

Let’s just say it was a vicious cycle.

There were some very productive sessions that needed to be balanced with sloth-like intermissions, and I took full advantage of both.  My philosophy is “What I didn’t get done didn’t need to be done.”  But some things really did need to get done but I’m not going to worry about it because when the next great energy burst hits me I’ll tackle them.

Probably.

What did get done was some major work on the studio.

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We have floor!!!

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And more trim work!!!

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And we got the pellet stove out of the attic!!!

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Well, first it got stuck.

And Rick got mad at it and started taking it apart to fit through the *!@%# hole.

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Thank goodness Willard was there to help, because that thing was heavy!!

Now we’re just waiting on the electrician and HVAC dude to come and do their stuff.  So while we’re waiting, Rick gave me the green light to start moving stuff in.

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Which I promptly did.

I had to hold back a little since things will have to be moved for the electrician and some minor trim work, but once that’s done I’ll be a crazy woman!

OK, crazier.

Since the inside is 98 percent complete, Rick has moved to the exterior to get it ready for siding.

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As usual, lots of prep work needs to be done before the fun begins.

I’m not sure Rick would use the word “fun,” but I’m trying to keep a positive spin on things.

 

Wormwood

Jul 012013
 

I am happy to announce that we now have trim in the studio!

A couple years ago Rick & I procured some wood from an auction that was pretty unique, and try as we might to keep it from getting wet until we could find a use for it, we failed miserably.

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After 2 years of getting poured on with rain, dumped on with snow and sweltering in the heat of the amazonian summers of the Northwoods, it had started to grow moss and other… things on it’s surface.

But not wanting it to go to waist, we pulled a few pieces out and set them up on sawhorses to dry and then I sprayed the crap out of them with bleach.  Straight up, nothing added.  If that wasn’t going to kill whatever was growing on it, nothing would.

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Worked like a charm!  Unfortunately, it also “bleached” it a little, but I didn’t care.  It was perfect for what I wanted it to do, and that was trim the windows and door in the studio.

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Now here is why I love it so much.  See all those curves and gouges?  This is what Rick & I have dubbed “Wormwood.”  Little wormies and other creepy crawlies got under the bark of these trees and developed these little pathways to do… well, whatever it is that creepy crawlies do..

Here’s what we haven’t found out about it yet:  what kind of wood it is.  It has to be a type of hard wood because we went through 2 saw blades and countless times of blowing the fuse on the table saw cutting the stuff.

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Now tell me that isn’t just downright sexy around those windows!

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It adds a whole new layer of design to the building.  I like using lots of different types of wood… everyone gets to jump in the pool!

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It also played a roll as trim on the outer walls as well as the ceiling under the loft (pictures of that in a future post).

In addition to the windows we also got the door decked out in this marvelous stuff, put in baseboards, installed the ceiling under the loft and put in the flooring.

Phew!

Now we are going to wait for the electrician to show up and finish the writing and get the lights hooked up, get our HVAC guy over to hook up the stove, and start tackling the outside.

So in the meantime, I’ve begun moving items in so I can use the space for what it was built for:  making my jewelry.

And that will happen as soon as I quit doing my happy dance.

 

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