2014 Garden

Well, my father is at it again:   trying to feed half the county with his overachieving garden.  Here's some pix of the progression to veggie goodness:

The annual BEFORE shot, taken May 11, 2014:

 Then a couple of weeks later, Pop put the grandkids to work turning a raised bed.  

Okay, the truth?  They grabbed rakes and went to town on their own.  In the near-dark. 

Fast-forward (past many MANY hours of toil) to this week:

My mother says, "train up a pea plant in the way that it should go, 

and when it is old it will not depart from it."  I'm sure I've heard that somewhere before...

Pop and The Hubs discuss the leeks.  Clearly one of them has insulted The Hubs.   

"What?!  How DARE you?"

 And - nothing to do with the garden - just because I DO WHAT I WANT:

Bob tries to not look pained when his cheesy wife coerces him into a photo.

Prepare for an explosion of produce in the next month.  It's that time o' year!

Walls, vents and other stuff

It's hard to report on some of the house progress.  Like the aforementioned sealing of the basement floor, some of it is relayed in a few words -- and no pictures -- despite representing hours or days of work.  Some things are cool, but hard to take pictures of...  like duct work.

Bob works on ventilation duct from the master shower vent/fan

 But, here, devoted log-ees, are some pictures of a beautiful wall my FIL Jim is finishing.  The beautiful wide boards were milled by The Hubs from trees he felled on or near our property.  To me, that makes them all the more beautiful.

To give you some perspective on where the wall is...  

at the top of the stairs, to the right of the pocket doors that lead into the master bedroom.

Some walls aren't as pretty, but I'm still happy to see them going up!   This one is on the bedroom side of the master bath:

And this one is -- clearly -- behind the main floor toilet:  

Now there's just a bit of trim work left to do in that bathroom!  

*Sigh*  I love spending time in the new house.  

Bathroom walls, vents and all.

Happy

I'm a pretty cranky gal.  I have a glass-half-empty outlook and I'm frankly surprised there's a glass at all most of the time.  And furthermore, get off my lawn!  Which makes it all the more interesting to me that I am positively enamored of the popular Pharrell Williams song "Happy."  I dig it.  I dance around the house to it insisting that the rest of the family join in.  And it really does make me happy. 

Go figure. 

So, to accompany the endless loop in my head, I present:

 

The things that make Log Girl Anne happy

 

• Freshly laundered sheets on the bed
• Making my husband laugh
• Discovering The Girl asleep with her wee copy of  Thoreau's Walden on her chest.  (Which she can't read) 
• Being in my as-yet-unfinished log house and imagining our move in day
• Early morning at The Lake when it is still and quiet
• An American flag flapping on its pole on our front porch
• Delicious words
• A full gas tank

 

This last piece of delight leads me to confess that I have favorite gas stations.  I don't often get to fill up at these pumps, but it surely does make my day when I have that opportunity.  I wrote about the one in Gabriels, NY earlier in the winter.  I filled up yesterday at my other favorite, which I only discovered a month ago (despite driving past it for YEARS).

 

 

 



There's just something about pumping first, paying later, flipping the lever and watching the numbers click around instead of digitally change that makes me... well, happy. 

Look at that old-school beauty.

 

If you're ever driving through Brainardsville, NY, look for my friend.  And pick up some bait and beer while you're at it. 

'Tis the Season..

... of Easter eggs and maple sap!

Here's what we've been up to the past few weeks:

The Boy's good friend moved far far away last fall, but came to visit us for Spring Break!  

And we put the friend right to work collecting sap.

And then The Husband put me to work.  

The syrup season started out as a dud.  We thought we were never going to be able to get into the woods to tap, as the snow was ridiculously deep.  Then, the snow started to recede SLOWLY, but the temps didn't get high enough for the sap to run.  And when the temps did rise, they rocketed up.  Ugh.  But, we ended up with a respectable amount.  Good news, syrup-lovers.

We also had a wonderful Easter celebration.

We dyed eggs.  

We made birds' nest cookies.  Super-simple, btw and for once in my life, not a Pinterest fail.

We had a lovely Easter dinner with family and friends.

 And the children were spoiled with THREE Easter egg hunts!   One at church, one after Easter dinner at our house, and one at the grandparents'.

Friends, family and candy.  They are very happy bairns.

Some work actually did happen up at The Log House too.   Just not really photo-worthy.  Bob and his father cleared the basement of its assorted... um.. stored items ... and then sealed the concrete floor.  Totally important, just not very visually impressive.   But, stay tuned, intrepid log-gawkers --   big changes are in the works!

Fireplace photos

So...  Joe commented on yesterday's post that he hadn't seen a picture of the fireplace and the inside of the chimney.   And I don't know if I've ever posted one.   You should know by now that I'm waaaaay too lazy to go back and look, but I did notice that there are a couple in my Flikr stream.  The inside of the chimney is not yet faced (stay tuned, however, my intrepid log-lovers!), and is currently totally hidden by a mass of construction materials, including some gazillion-foot-long boards that The Husband milled himself.  So, taking a photo right now is not going to help the situation.  Instead, I send you over to espy the photos in Flikr.  Be gone with you!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/athomeinlogs/

In Which Anne is Useful

Hurrah!   I made myself useful up at The Log House yesterday!    Let's be frank:  there's not much I can do to be helpful, except sweep up sawdust and make proclamations.  So when The Hubs gives me a job I can actually accomplish, it's momentous.

Said Husband had to go un-stick the snowmobile from the sugarbush, where it had gotten mired in the deep and softening snow, and set me up with some polyurethane in the dining room.  Never having polyurethaned anything before, I am pretty pleased with the fact that I didn't even screw it up a little.  Because, to be honest, it was a distinct possibility.  

During:

After:

I think it warms up that wainscoting nicely, eh?

Let's just step around the corner and see what we can see...

Well, hellooooo  lovely lights!   Fancy meeting you here!   

You know -- even though I know that we have so much work left to do before we move into The Log House, it's finish details like these lights that just make my day.  It makes it feel that much closer to reality.  

Here's something else The Nonchalant Husband demonstrated -- as an afterthought -- yesterday: 

I am so inordinately happy about this, I feel a bit shy to admit the amount of squealing that took place.   This is the main floor bathroom, the one directly across from the guest bedroom. So it will be convenient for you when you visit.  You ARE coming to visit, aren't you?

So much progress!  And for once, I actually contributed more than squeals of delight.  Aw, yeah.