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!

Back in the Saddle

This trip actually happened on January 25th - I'm trying to be

 a little more timely with the posts again.

We are finally back on track with working on the room.  I had

a total knee replacement on December 4th and was unable to

stay in Rowe (mostly because I didn't want to freeze) and the 

stairs were too steep to go up.

The dogs are really looking to see if anyone is getting food

in the kitchen but it looks like they are admiring the room 

with its basecoat of paint.

It's beginning to look like something good is happening.  Or that we

might finish it someday.

The next job is sanding or stripping the woodwork.  The doors will be

sanded but I will be stripping the mantel.

Bill thought the fireplace screen made a good crate for Sophie - she looks

less than enthused but just patiently awaited her release.

Too Cold for Anything

I didn't take a single photograph this weekend.  I spent most of it tending a fire so the house was a little habitable.  The temp hovered around 25 but the windchill was about 5 degrees.  With the wind blowing like crazy you can't build a fire in the kitchen because a big gust of wind will blow the smoke and ash right into the room.  LOVELY.  So we dressed in long underwear and used the electric blankets on high.  Not sure I want to be here in the winter at all.  Ha!  But the spring, summer and fall make it all worthwhile.

Painting, Cleaning and Critters

It was pretty rainy last weekend so we decided to

put some paint on the walls to see if red was really 

the way we wanted to go.  (Paul's wanted to do this

for weeks).

Bill did the cutting and Paul the rolling.

We only did one wall and decided to get the paint for

the rest.  With all the woodwork in the room it should

look great.

Later Bill called me out to see the porcupine eating the apples from 

the tree by the mill.  I brought a long lense but you could walk

right up to him while he was eating.  Must have been just too

yummy to care.

Even though the weather was still wet on Sunday the boys

decided to begin a cleanup detail.  Bill's doing one of his favorite 

things here.

Bill hauled away all of the wood that was too rotten to use while Paul

cut and split a maple that was taken down a couple of years ago.

Needless to say - he worked way harder than I think he anticipated

earlier in the day and slept in the truck on the way home. (Again).

This Old House When It Was Newer

The woman whose family lived in this house from the time it was built

(about 1790) until 1942 passed away a couple of years ago in New Hampshire.

Two photo albums just made their way to the Historical Society by way

of someone who found them in the trash.

There was a small note in one of the albums to get them back to Rowe.

I'm glad someone took the time to actually look at the books and

helped them find their way home as opposed to some landfill.

These were taken in the late 1800's.  Apparently they played a 

lot of croquet because many of the photographs show the wickets

in the side yard.  Funny, we played croquet there when I was a kid.

These two photographs were taken a little earlier than the one above.

The windows are different on the house.  Would be nice to have those trees in

the front yard again.

This photograph came as more of a shock to us than the rest of them.

It is taken from the back field that Bill has been working so hard at restoring.

I tried to tell him that it was a lot different now than it was when 

I was growing up and had the little farm that we had.  It's amazing what animals

will keep clear - but it never looked like this.  We tried to locate the 

spot from which this may have been taken but it's soo grown up that

you can't even see the buildings.  Maybe someday.