Last week was MUCH slower than I anticipated. Jake got sick at rehearsal Monday, so I cut out several potential 'infect our friends' events. I say that, but what I was more worried about was that he would pick up something nastier while his system was running low.
Other than rehearsals during the week, we laid low. I got our W-2's in the mail and did our taxes. GAH. We used to get some nice refunds, but that was then and this is now. Then, we could pay for new carpeting through the whole house. Now, it will cover Chan's birthday trip next month.
This past weekend was a 3 day weekend for Matt. We spent Friday hanging out with friends at Gina's house and did our grocery shopping before heading home. Saturday we...cut wood. Nearly all day. Sunday we got up and cut wood until noon and then got cleaned up and headed to the lake for Sammy's birthday party.
Today I have been in 4th gear all day, despite my recent bout of not sleeping from 1-4 a.m. I tackled my to-do list and washed all the cabinets, cleaned out the fridge and washed it, organized the pantry, cleaned the living room, chopped some wood (okay, for like 20 minutes-that is HARD), cleaned Ben's room (he came home COVERED in leaves and promptly went straight to bed. His bed was FULL of leaf bits! and his floor and the hall and the bathroom floor...) and did 3 loads of laundry and made lunch, then scrubbed the hall bathroom and wiped the walls and ceiling in the area with the wood stove with lemon oil. They get really dried out from the heat. I am officially tired and done for the day, I think. So I am checking my e-mail and such and decided to update while I was on here.
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| Look! A Roamies lunch! Our group has fallen apart over the past year, but it was good to get to hang out a while with everyone. Suzette did not diss us, she woke up with a head cold that had been stalking her for days. And Cathy lives in California now. |
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| Of course the kids played Magic... |
I opted to take my camera to the woods with us. We have ranged out of the orchard and around to the edge of the pasture, taking down 5 trees that were either being crowded out by larger trees or that were crowding each other for space. We were able to cut up and haul out 3 of them over the weekend. The other 2 are still laying there waiting for next Saturday!
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| Matt wades through the brier patch...a common occurrence. |
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| I was standing on a tree to hold it off the ground for Matt to slice up, so Jake had to help me keep my balance. I 'fell' on him a few times, getting at least one smoochie in on my landing. He was ready to move out. |
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| The secret to Ben's 27 inch waistline. All you can eat black walnut tree. |
We have enough surplus now that we can let the wood dry a couple of weeks before we have to burn it. This is a double stack next to the front fence, it's mostly dried out already. It's a combo of privet, black walnut and beech.
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| If you stand the wood on it's end while you are waiting to get the time to split it, the sap will run right out the bottom. This helps the wood dry out MUCH faster! The top part is easier to start the split and you can stack it to dry and it's ready in about a week. |
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| Our mixed grab pile. This is not all dried yet, but it's enough of a mix that the fire stays going strong. We can keep the living room 70 with little trouble, with fans blowing into the doorways off the living room. The only place we have to run a heater is the hall bathroom-unless it's under 25 outside. A friend of ours in town usually has a power bill within $2-5 of ours every month. Last month theirs was just shy of $400 and ours was under $200. So I am telling myself it's saving money and it's good exercise, but MAN I am tired of cutting wood every week! |
While out Sunday, after we ate lunch, Matt and I walked down to see the lake. I don't think I have been on the lake in 2-3 years! Well, this part of it.
The water is LOW for it to be winter!
We had a good time just hanging out and visiting with everyone. We made plans to get together during the week this week and hang out again with a few of the folks. There's talk of a big bonfire in March! I love a good bonfire...
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| Sammy's Birthday Bonfire. I like that this is the popular thing with our group. :) |
On the way home, I played with the Punk Rock filter on my little point and shoot Olympus.
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| Our Exit |
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| The Van Ahead of Us |
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| The Route Home |
Week before last, we went to Deb's for a lunch and here are the handful of photos I took...
Not Deb's house.
They now want a game called Apples to Apples.
