Hello again, March

March is here! We took it easy during the second half of February, though it was hard to stop working entirely...we did manage to empty out the tool room, taking stock of surpluses, organizing and moving lumber scraps, and pitching whatever else couldn't be recycled or donated.

Saturday we spent most of the day in the woods with the chainsaw. We have almost run out of wood to heat with and we're trying to get by without purchasing another load. After all, the weather is becoming mild and spring comes early over here. It was tricky to find some trunks that were already down and not too rotten or wet, but we managed to find a few. I would cut and Erika would carry the logs over to the creek. The plan was that we'd ride the logs down the creek back to the homestead and use our steer to haul the timber up to the furnace.

The plan turned out to be a silly one, so we opted for the next silliest option: log toss the pile 15 feet across the creek, then toss them up the (very) steep embankment where Erika was maintaining mountain goat-esque footing, trapping the logs from rolling back down into the creek, then tossing them up onto the dirt drive where she had parked the truck. By quittin' time, we had loaded the truck one and a half times, split what needed to be split, and stacked it up. Definitely enough to last us through March, though some of the wood is of questionable quality.



After all this work we did what anyone in their right mind would have done: we gathered up some more wood for a bonfire, lit the pit, and cracked a beer. Roasted up some beets and turnips and tossed a steak on the wood fire. The eve was crisp and the stars were bright. And we were very sore.

Sunday

We're making progress with the garden! A couple weeks back, we started digging our first bed. This was slow going with the spade forks. There are tons of rocks. Really. We took a different approach Sunday, aided by the purchase of a cutting mattock - picture a sledgehammer of a hoe. I wielded this monster while Erika swung the hand tool version. We also laid down a rule about some of the underground boulders: let 'em stay.

We removed so many rocks that the bed actually looks sunken rather than raised. We'll mix in a good amount of manure and compost to make up for it. I think the bed is about 12'x5' now, a decent start...about a fifth or so of our goal for the season.

Our seeds should be here this week!




Then it was back to the tool room with us. It was just like old times, only more relaxed. We painted the ceiling, measured/cut/routed/primed some 1" pine stock for ceiling trim, and spackled some of the more severe cracks and gouges in the drywall.

We've got a few colors picked out for this room...we're off to get some samples!

- John