A Drawer Divided

We have been having a nightmare of a time with our food storage container drawer, it was nearly impossible to match a lid to a container or vice-versa. It got to the point where it was pretty ridiculous, so something had to be done. Feeling like a real-man in training, I cut some plywood up and made a drawer spacer so that R can divide the containers up in their respective locations. I even painted the thing blue to match the drawer liner, how professional-like is that?

Now the containers (I hesitate to say Tupperware) are all nice and tidy, and best of all, R is happy. She said that it was causing her great distress whenever she looked at that messy drawer, and believe me, she looked at it several times a day, so the situation was repaired not a moment too soon.

Best of all, I got to use my power tools to create it. I love when that happens.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

It’s That Time Again

Now that cooler weather is here, of course everyone is getting sick in some form or another. Fortunately this time around it’s just head colds and sniffles, but a few weeks back, we had stomach bugs, and believe me when I tell you it wasn’t pretty. Either way, we got past the stomach issues, and now they’ve migrated to our heads. Don’t you hate when that happens?

I guess it’s best to just get the colds and be done with it before it gets really cold and miserable, but unfortunately, it doesn’t guarantee that we won’t get sick when that time comes, as well, which is a total bummer, but such is life.

For now, we’ll just keep blowing our noses and live wth chafed nostrils. Thanks for reading, and thanks to Tina for the pic.

Still Searching

I have been struggling to get my glorious freelance writing career off the ground, but it has taken on new sense of profundity given the potentially precarious nature of our financial situation. While it seems very possible for me to go out and find a job given my most recent experiences, that would entail me being out of the house for 8-10 hours each day in the salt mines. I realize this is standard MO for most people, but if possible, would love to be able to still be at home while maintaining our fabulously opulent lifestyles

This leaves the same old pie-in-the-sky hopes of finding writing gigs. Truth be told, I haven’t been searching with the sense of urgency that I should have had, partly because I have so much work to do besides looking for a job. Nonetheless, the time has come, no more messing around.

It’s kind of a bummer feeling the pressure, but it’s also a strong motivator and perhaps one of the only ways I’m actually going to get something done.

This should be interesting, stay tuned for more. Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to dmangust for the pic.

Back on the Ice

The ice has returned over in Hanover and we managed to lace up our skates and get back on it. We enrolled N into a fall skills camp to warm up for hockey season. It was one of those situations where he wasn’t jumping for joy at the idea of it, but loved it once he did it. It’s a complicated situation because we don’t want to force him into doing something he doesn’t want to do, but on the other, there are times that it seems as if he would sit at home and watch TV and play video games all day if we didn’t give him a little nudge. It’s a good thing we don’t have TV or video games in this house, because it’s an irresistible vacuum for most people.

Either way, this time around he was more enthused, maybe because after a long summer, he was ready to hit the ice. I also reasoned with him that he’s going to miss some of the early part of the season due to assorted reasons, and this is also his year to be the big man on campus. All good things. Plus, once he got on the ice, he had a blast, especially during the games.

Now that it’s all finished, we have a few weeks before the actual season starts, at which point our lives will become pretty much about one thing - hockey... but don’t remind R, it won’t make her happy.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Paris Lenahan for the pic.

Goodbye... but not Farewell?

It is with mixed feelings that the market has come to an end, which it did yesterday. On the one hand, it’s great to have some time back to do other assorted forms of hard labor (like building a barn), but on the other, there were numerous rewards to doing the market. First off, the income. We are in an interesting financial situation these days, and even though falafels didn’t bring in loads of cash, it was something, and when you’re facing the pit of financial gloom, any form of income is good income.

Beyond the money, however, was the whole process of being a part of the market. We enjoyed getting to know our neighbors at the market, whom we now consider friends, and we appreciated developing a loyal clientele, some of whom came to the market just to get our falafels. The human ego is such a frail thing. It was also a great experience for us a family because we tackled a project and learned a great deal about confronting challenges and overcoming obstacles. These are great experiences when you do them together as a family, not unlike traveling. Even the kids appreciated the rewards that come from a honest day’s work, and for the record, they did a great job. It’s a pretty cool experience, and sort of unique.

The market manager is a well-connected person, and she even said if we were interested that we might be able to score some falafel gigs through Dartmouth, though we would have to go through official channels. This could be interesting, and at the very least, make for an interesting story.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Natalie Maynor for the pic.

Back in Black

We finally got the stove fixed, and now we’re ready for winter, sort of. Maybe give it a month or two. We originally planned on having Graham the Stove Man come on 9/13, but we lost power due to a storm, so had to reschedule two weeks later. Total bummer, and of course, the morning of the 13^th the power came on first thing in the morning. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

Graham showed up promptly at 9:00 this Monday, and he did a stand up job. I give him high marks on reliability and service, he did a great job. The process itself was interesting, he undid the pins and took it apart piece by piece until it was all gone, then brought each piece, starting with the base, back in. I figured it would take him all day, but it took him a few hours, and he was done by lunchtime.

 I was ready to feed the guy, but he was done and out of here, so I had to force him to take some chili. Now our stove is like new. He cleaned the metal and added a coat of paint, which I didn’t realize was how it was. It looks beautiful, and now it’s sealed properly and ready. He said it would take a couple of break-in burns and we would smell a little of the paint, but we’re fortunate in that the weather is still warm enough to open the windows.

We were also informed to keep an inch or two of ash on the bottom to prevent future cracking. Of course, I discarded all the ash over the summer, but I do have sand, which I was told would work just as well. I’m also hoping that the stove will burn more efficiently since it’s sealed up, but time will tell.

Until then, thanks for reading.

50% Done... and More

In a good example of what you can get done if you just set your mind to it (either that or you have the time), I’ve finished about 50% of the siding on the barn. Sure, if you factor in the dormers, I’m below 50%, but let me enjoy the illusion of progress.

I will say this, the structure does look a lot nicer with siding than simply house wrap. It makes it look like it’s protected from the elements and like progress is really being made. Best of all, I get to cement my real-man in training status as waves of friends and neighbors stop by and comment on how good the barn looks and how much more manly I look these days in a tank top. Go figure.

I originally ordered 1000 ft of siding thinking that would cover half, and I was close in the calculation. My original math came to about 2000 linear feet, and with 1000 feet, I’ve covered one face, on gable end, and about 1/5 of the other gable end. With that in mind, I need to order more shiplap.

Once both gable ends are done, which I’m hoping to complete in the next week, then it’s just one more face and we are good to go for the winter, I think. The dormers will be a bit more tricky because it involves working on the roof, but let’s worry about that when the time comes.

I definitely have a deadline to meet in that I would like to get this done before it gets really cold, or starts to snow, whichever comes first. In the meantime, I’ll relish the fact that something is actually getting done on this barn.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.