I've been home a little over a week now, but it feels like a lifetime. My old projects are staring me in the face and begging for attention. One of those is to help Mt BOB with building the storage building. Apparently our life has come to a stand-still of sorts until this is finished. If I want anything, it's always, "first I need a workshop," or "if I had a workshop, I could do that." What happened to the good old days of doing projects at the kitchen table? I have the scarred and stained furniture to prove that projects were completed before there was a glint of a workshop in my husband's eye. Anyway, while I was in Alaska, he finished the foundation, which included building up the back side of the workshop with a rock wall since our property is on a slope. It took several weeks, but I have to say it looks pretty good. Mt. BOB also decided that the rock floor should be finished before he puts up the walls. I think this is a good idea. It's easier to bring in rock when there aren't walls in the way. He can fill up the tractor with large flat rocks and just dump them into the middle of the room. The trick is to get the rocks as large as possible, which will in turn, require less cement and less amount of rock. It's a good plan and we're sticking by it. All is going well with this project and the floor should be finished in about a week from now.
The hurricane that just hit the east coast brought in frigidly cold weather here. We've had the wood stoves cranked up for the last week. While I've had to readjust back to my homestead lifestyle and remember to use less energy, I decided to use the wood stove for cooking. After discovering a bucket of winter squash from the garden, I added a couple of them to my smallest dutch oven and set it inside the wood stove. I pushed some embers underneath it and added some embers to the top. In an hour, I had steaming, fully-cooked squash. Mmmmm. Sometimes I'm surprised when things work out.
It's nice to see my pets again. I don't think they remember me though. The dogs were happy to see me, but then again, I could've been the dog-catcher and they would've still been all over me. I think it took a few times of bringing out food that they finally remembered, "oh, yeah, it's the female one that brings us treats." My cats remain angry and aloof. My friend gave me a sack of wet canned food and they're starting to warm up over that. It doesn't pay to stay mad at someone who brings the goodies.
Take care, All.
