Tuesday, March 24, 2009

It May Be Cold but Spring is On The Way!

This photo was taken from the back pasture on March 15th, 
I'm always amazed at how much snow there is there this
time of the year.  The temperature was almost 60.


Bill decided to burn one of his brush piles but found it slow going
because everything was still frozen, even with the high temp.



I spent most of the week in Rowe - we had a new furnace installed.
Consequently I  had to stay in the house with no heat for two days.
Thank God for electric blankets and fireplaces!

We also helped Russell sugar.  That was the main reason
Bill took some time off from work.  

There was a new automatic draw on Russ's rig this year.  It's quite the
time saver but somehow it takes some of the charm off of the way I remember
sugaring.  The syrup tasted just as good though.

Bill did an excellent job as fireman.  Load it up every four minutes.  It's
a hot job but someone has to do it!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Mud, Sugaring, Projects around the house

Saturday Bill decided he didn't want to get dirty sanding the woodwork 
in the living room.  We went to the Falls to Plants for Pleasure and
when we returned found that Dad had done the project that Bill was itching to 
do (it involved using the Bobcat).  So he walked into the library and tried to open
the damper to the fireplace.  It was jammed shut with bricks and desbris from
the rebuilding of the chimney years ago.
Well, he got some bug in his brain and worked on this for over 3 hours making more 
of a mess than I've seen in quite a while but now we have another fireplace that's working.
The damper on this fireplace is interesting because it opens and shuts much like a 
damper on a wood stove so at night you don't have to leave your damper wide open, you can 
shut it with the slots open.

Sunday morning Bill left to help Russell tap his trees.  It was a beautiful
day for it - and you know it's time.
While he was gone I worked on scraping off the paint where I'd applied
the stripper the night before.

The only thing this stripper is doing is taking off the latex so far. The lead
paint underneath is far more stubborn.

Being the impatient sort that I am I donned the dreaded respirater 
and went at the other end with the orbital sander.  I figure I'll attack the 
flat surfaces with that and just do the detail with the stripper, otherwise I will be 
stripping this thing until July.

Ahhh, the place is soooo attractive this time of the year.  It's warm but 
you can't walk much of anywhere because the snow is too deep and soft.

Here are the current snow levels.  I got back to Enfield last night and 
there wasn't any snow at all (and my daffodils were poking through the 
ground).  Sometimes it amazes me that there is such a huge difference.