Since the Rain Never Stops

Thinking we were going to have a great boating weekend

we went to Rowe with the idea that Sunday would

be the perfect day.

The overcast skies lead us to thinking about an indoor project

so we finished cleaning out the library and began working on the

physical cleanup of the ceiling and floor.

Bill and I took turns using the shop vac to take

off the big chunks of paint.

I have to tell you this wasn't a lot of fun.

Cait goes up on Tuesday and Wednesday to spend her
time with a paint scraper on a ladder. She'll have even less
fun, but she's willing.

Next a little floor clean up to last us til next spring
when the entire floor will come out and the floor
joists (and maybe a sill) will be replaced. A wide pine floor
will go in the place of this one.

Another Fun Filled Weekend

Paul's back, broken leg and all. The guys were relaxing after

a day of mowing the lawn.

Then it was off to the Shelburne Falls Bowling Alley for

Semanie bowling.

Last time until September.

A lot was done around the property over the weekend but

Paul was not as able as willing.

Bill strapped Paul and his walker in the garden wagon

and gave him a tour.

He used a rachet strap to tie down both Paul and his chair -

for safety's sake.

He used two tie downs for the walker. Hmmmm.

View of the perennial garden.

I've found stacking rocks to be mildly addictive.

I spent Sunday digging out the wall around the patio

and the beds.

Saturday morning I cut all the brush overhanging the driveway,

then weed wacked it on Sunday. Looks good.

The lilac was hurt bad this past winter with the ice. We cut

most of it down this weekend. It'll be fine, I can remember

cutting it to the ground on 5 or 6 other occassions.

The jack-in-a-pulpits survived their upheaval last fall and

I was thrilled to find 2 volunteers on the north end of the shed.

Another shot of the driveway cleanup.

Another angle of the perennial garden.

Close-up of the iris. This iris is one of my favorites.

The Adirondacks overlooking the back forty. This is the afternoon

cocktail spot.

One of our favorite views right now. Last year it was nothing

but trees. Veggie garden in the foreground.

Sophie zooming through the yard. She loves it here.

Weekend of Work

We worked our butts off this past weekend.  Bill worked on splitting

some of the wood cut along the bank.  Much discussion went into

where exactly we would be storing this wood since every

available building is full.

This was taken from the patio looking towards the back forty.

My garden, as it stands now, is to the right.  The poles

are for the Scarlet Runner Beans and Kentucky Wonders.

I mulched in between the beds to keep the weeds down.

Bill's wood pile and my tomatoes up against the garage.  They

liked it there so much last year I made the bed larger by

moving two huge flag iris.  Bill actually moved them

with the Bobcat.  I never could have dug those up by hand.

Another view of both projects with the Adirondacks in the background.

We sit there and admire what we've accomplished at the end of 

the day.

Another view of the garden.  It looks smaller in the pic than it

really is.  I dug 6 beds about 3  1/2 x 12'.  Have a much better

idea of what women of 1830 were going through.  Can't say that I

would seriously consider a return to an earlier time.

Ahhh, the smell of burning brush

Cathy and Joe arrived Saturday at about 9:30 AM ready to work.  The beginning was slow

going - the brush pile wouldn't light, the stuff we were trying to clear out was

completely tangled with grapevines, chainsaws needing to be sharpened.

Once Mike arrived the big trees began coming down.  The plan is to completely

clear down to the back pature (it's been done twice before).

Bill used the bobcat to move the wood to split for next winter.

Leave it to Mike to find a little greenhouse buried in the leaves.

There are ferns growing up into this bottle.

Bill moving more wood.

The photographs don't do justice to how steep this bank is - the trek to the

fire got a little old after 50 trips or so.

You can see some of the broken trees that have to still come down - maybe today or

next weekend.

It'll be a great view to Adams Mtn. once done.  We won't have to go to the beach for fireworks,

just onto the patio.

All in all everyone was a great help!  We thank Cathy, Joe and Mike for helping

us to make some headway on a really big cleanup!

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!

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.

Another Setback

Last week I got an email from my dad that just said "call" in

the subject line.  Never a good thing.

He told me that the heating pipes in the library had frozen

and spit.  With the warmer weather last Monday and Tuesday

all hell broke loose in that room with water and steam and no

one was there to see it until Tuesday afternoon.

The doors were so swollen you had to use a hammer to 

pound them open (yes the doors were shut, probably the

reason the pipes froze - but sometimes arguing with your

father gets you nowhere).

Apparently there was over an inch of water on the floor

and the steam was extreme (not to mention that the furnace ran

non stop for 2 days).

This was the only shot I took of the ceiling.  The room will be cleaned

out this coming weekend - we're waiting for an insurance adjuster

to take a look at this.  This is really the last room that needed

to be cleaned out so it may be a blessing in disguise (but Bill and I

thought this was one room that we wouldn't have to do anything to).

The initial surprise for me was that the wallpaper stayed on the walls, 

then I remembered that my mother had papered over new drywall.

Sized or not that paper is NEVER coming off!