What A Week

Last week started horrible.  First the storm swept through our yard and took the greenhouse and all our summer veggie seedlings along with it.  If that wasn't bad enough, on Sunday the drive belt on the riding lawn mower busted. Here's a photo of the greenhouse from last summer and what was left of it after Saturday's storm. We were lucky though, a lot of people lost homes and lives.

Aaron was on Spring break last week so we decided to tackle the kitchen cabinets. His folks were out visiting and we had warned them we would need to be working on house projects over the break. So with their help we got started on what we thought would be a couple of days' work. First we sanded down to the wood, then painted and added new hardware . . . that was the easy part. We then spent two days rehanging and adjusting them to fit back where they came from. All told it took five full days to finish the job and by the end of it we were ready for it to be over! But we're really glad we got it done, it's like having a new kitchen.

Here are the before shots. The first one is from when we came to look at the house before we bought it.

Out in the garden all the spring stuff is growing great, but it's going to be so hot this week we're afraid all the greens will bolt. We've put lattice over the lettuce and spinach to try and keep them cool. On Saturday we headed over to J & B Plants and traded a couple of pieces of pottery for a bunch of plants, both summer veggies as well as lot of flowing herbs for the butterfly garden and a Japanese maple. I had met John, the owner, last fall at a show and he suggested bartering, so glad we took him up on it. Now we need to find the time to plant everything!

On Sunday Aaron fixed the lawn mower and got the grass cut.

The week ended well.

Huge Improvement and New Pots!

The floors upstairs are done... Yay! These floors were never finished at all and were covered with paint splotches and stains. I wasn't so sure they'd come out good but man, they look awesome, they glow. They should be much easier to keep clean too.  Here are before, during and after shots, ignore the duct tape covering on the fireplace!

So I just unloaded the kiln and the blister problem I've been battling and babbling on about to anyone who would listen is almost solved. On the advice of John Britt, I basically slowed down the firing and bisqued a little higher (I reattached the vent to my electric kiln, too). I also tried different clays and may just switch to a different clay altogether. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the last firing. I was starting to get really bummed about it, almost afraid to put a lot of energy into any one pot just to have it get ruined in the firing.

Here are a couple of shots we took since the last post.

Throw it...

Throw it, throw it.... c'mon throw it.

Bunnies!

We got these angora rabbits from our friend Eric... They're names are Sammy and Delilah, Sammy's the grey one. They're both really cute and docile and REALLY soft...

I've been letting them get exercise in the chicken run, there's an area that is completely caged even from above so they're safe from hawks. And it's a pretty decent size for them to stretch out and hop around.

The weather has been beautiful these last couple of days, we are finally finished planting the rest of the spring garden. We planted lettuce, spinach, chard, garlic, onions, potatoes, carrots, sugar snap peas, broccoli, bok choi and beets. I'm interested to see how the bok choi does, we've never grown that from seed before. Last fall I bought a couple of plants and they did really well, so I thought I've give it a try.

Springtime!

It seemed like this winter was going to go on forever but this week everything seems to be coming to life again. God, I love this time of year.

Well, we've been here a year today! And we're still together, ha! Our real estate agent kept warning us how difficult this would be and that marriages sometimes don't make it through renovations.

It hasn't been luxury living by any stretch but it also hasn't been terrible, frozen pipes and $500 heating bills and all.  So, there's still a lot to be done and there probably always will be, but I think we're on our way to having the cool old house we always wanted.

Here are some photos I took this morning.

The chickens love to perch on this barrel.

Sugar snap peas sprouting, planted 2/1

This spinach made it through the winter.

Buds on the tree in front of the house.

Angry Bird

We thought our Rhode Island Red was so nice, but after we added the new chickens last summer, she showed her true nature. She's reeeallllly mean! She jumps on the tops of the younger birds and pecks at the back of their heads. They all look like they've lost chunks of feathers here and there from her. I don't think she actually hurts them, but we did see blood in the coop once. We've pretty much just let it be and resolved ourselves to watching the pecking order in action. The other chickens have learned to live with it, too, and for the most part and get out of her way when they can.

We're adding more garden space! I can't wait for Spring, I know the northeast has been hit way worse than NC but man, this has been one rotten winter.

Here are some new pots I've been working on. I've been obsessed with patterns lately.

California, kittens and curtains.

This year we spent Christmas in California with Aaron's family then visited my sister in LA for a couple of days. It was really good to see everyone and get a little relief from the cold. I packed some ridiculously thick socks and sweaters that came back untouched, I don't know what I was thinking. While we were out in the dessert at Aaron's parents' house we went on a really nice hike with Aaron's mom to a real oasis. Right there in the middle of the dessert is this beautiful stand of palm trees and a lake, it was gorgeous.

When we got back I started on my kitten hunt, scouring Craigslist in the hope of finding 2 young female kittens. Since we've lived here we've lost 3 cats, so these two are going to be indoor kitties. I figured if we got two, they could keep each other company... and they do.  Play, play, play.... sleep, sleep, sleep. It's like living with a couple of cartoon characters, they're adorable. Hopefully they'll take care of our mouse situation, too. We named them Miney and Mo.

For Christmas we got a couple of gift cards from Aaron's aunts, Connie and Rainey (thanks!). So we headed over to JC Penney and got an awesome deal on new curtains. They ended up being around 75% off. Yay! So the living room's almost done, just need to put up crown molding and redo the floors. We bought the moldings and then realized that we need a better saw to do the job, so we haven't been able to get that done yet. And the floors will have to wait, they're good enough for now.

Next week we're gonna have a fireplace guy come and look at the chimney for the wood stove and see if it's safe to hook up. We're hoping to cut down on the heating costs a little.

Oh and we got a bird feeder off of Freecycle on the same day we got the kittens. If you haven't heard of freecycle, check it out. People post what they want or are giving away and other people respond, it's pretty cool. No birds yet though, anyone know how long it takes for them to find a new feeder?