Wood-Pile Woes

Even though the price of oil is in free-fall these days, a cord of wood remains significantly more expensive than last year.  A temporary solution (while we work on weatherproofing our venerable house) is cutting our own wood from "out back."  With the limited size of our work force (Whidbey and I), this isn't the most time-effective solution possible, but it does help a little bit.

So at this point, most of our cord wood is bought and delivered.  Either way, harvested or delivered, a fair amount of stacking is involved in getting this wood out of the way and seasoned.  The new wood shed (this summer's project) is a wonderful addition, but apparently I'm still getting the hang of stacking.  Despite growing up with the annual wood-stacking chores and practicing the cross-hatching necessary to provide stability to the ends of the stack, my talents in this department seem to be still under development; my wood pile fell over.  Fortunately, it happened when no small people were around, but it's always a bit frustrating to be sent back to "Go" without collecting $200.  I guess more practice isn't such a bad thing.

Best Pals

Wearing Many Hats

Although I don't have time to write a proper entry, I just couldn't resist posting some recent pictures of Myrick. She has so much personality that I've been compelled to try to capture some of it in photos. Here are some taken on a day when we were at home sick (but enjoying our time together, nonetheless!). What can I say except that my girl loves hats?!

Shutting down the garden

Despite the balmy, non-autumnal weather of late (70 degrees?), the last of our tomato plants has thrown in the towel. It was a memorable gardening experience this year. Way too many tomato plants to keep up with, but not enough peas. It'll be nice to try it differently next year.

Since we're planning to create a new garden closer to the house, this is the end of the line for this plot. We're going to mow it, till all the weeds under, and re-seed it with grass. There are a few volunteer maple trees that have appeared and several balsam firs that I planted in the spring (in the middle of the garden, of course!) that are doing quite well. So before too long, it will hopefully lose all semblance of a garden.

As I was hacking back the waist-high weeds from the older part of the garden and planting stakes to mark the nascent balsam-fir christmas trees, I apparently disturbed a nest of rather grumpy yellow jackets. So the operation is on hold for the moment, but after 5 or 6 stings I was looking forward to the first hard frost that much more....

Dump Days

Saturdays are dump days here in town.  Some might count themselves lucky that their town trash collectors obviate the need to make regular excursions to the dump.  But here we all have a pretty swell time dropping off our refuse and recyclables.  The highlight might just be the pile of free compost soil (good for transplanting trees).  Or perhaps it's the swap shop (good for finding little wooden turtles and well-loved copies of Turgenev).  Either way, it's well worth the trip.

As I made the trip today I considered the conundrum facing us from behind our house.  Randomly distributed throughout the woods is a lovely assortment of odds and ends that someone obviously once considered valuable.  In our woods we have no less than two deer stands, a life-sized foam deer that's good for target practice, a trap-shooting trap, a rusty iron foothold trap and an enormous pile of tires (backstop for a shooting range)!  It seems a previous owner was into hunting.  Think the swap shop would take a big foam deer?

The Cold before the Cold

We had our first frost last night; it was a bit spotty, but there was enough to warrant pulling the rest of the peppers out of the garden today. I've had it with the tomatoes so I'm not even bothering to grab those. N.B.: Do not ever plant 10 cherry tomato plants in one season for a family of 3 tomato eaters, no matter how much you like them. Oh my, the lessons the land is teaching me! Despite the obscene number of tomatoes, we did well with our cukes, peppers, and basil, and even managed to pull in one good-sized watermelon. Lessons of the season: plant broccoli and peas early, stagger the lettuce planting, and again, it is worth repeating: never plant that many tomatoes. Next year's hopes: peas and broccoli that we can actually eat and maybe a pumpkin or two.

We've lived in our home just long enough to know that fall and spring are the two coldest seasons inside of our house. It feels colder inside than outside. Right now it is cool enough at night (~40 degrees) that it's time to put all of our storm windows down, pull the slippers out from the back of the closet, and throw an extra layer on at night and in the morning. I love this time of year - breaking out the flannel sheets and tossing another blanket on the bed are some of my favorite chores. For Myrick, it means pulling out the zip-up footie pajamas. I swear there is nothing cuter than my blond-haired toddler running around the house in polka-dot footie pjs. Tonight, though, before we've had our chimney swept or cord wood delivered, we put an extra layer on for bedtime. The house will be warmer as soon as we get the wood stove going - which probably won't be for awhile, really. It's just one of those things I am eagerly anticipating. The picture is of Myr and I snuggling in the rocking chair for story time right before bed tonight.

Pushing Buttons

This is the first night all week long that I have completed my school work before 11 pm, and what do I find myself doing? Not going to bed like I should be... but here, writing. Hhmm. After only 8 posts on this blog Nate referred to me tonight as an "addict." I'm not sure I agree with him, but it is kind of fun. This will be short, though, because I do have to make it through a Friday school day tomorrow. I think my longest night of sleep totalled 6.5 hours this week. Last night I only had time for 5 hours - ugh.

For those of you who don't know, I am not a proponent of toys for Myrick that require batteries or that have fancy flashing lights and sounds. I prefer the old-fashioned kinds of toys that require imagination and can be used in many, creative different ways - blocks, Legos, Lincoln Logs, balls, books, those sorts of things. However, Myrick seems to have her own ideas (and a strong will, too) about the kinds of things she is currently interested in playing with. Take buttons, for instance. Anything that has a button to push, like the stereo, the t.v. remote, the DVD player, her baby monitor, her humidifier, etc. (you get the picture?) absolutely enthrall her. And it's not a pretty scene when you take said item away from her. She recently discovered me using the blender up on the counter to puree some sweet potato, and now she stands below the counter, looking up at the blender pointing and plaintively saying "dis" over and over and over. So I pick her up, flip the blender switch so that it makes the fun, loud buzzing noise, and she looks at me wide-eyed, fascinated, and with a touch of fear behind her eyes. Mostly though, she is curious as to how all of these things work. She gets quite and very focused for a long time as she manipulates the buttons and makes things flash and beep (blender excluded, by the way). So much for boycotting battery-operated toys. Looks like she found them despite our best efforts!