No More Dread

Somewhere along the line, during this house-cleaning/rearranging project, I seem to have lost my dread of winter. This is the first time in several years that I haven’t had a feeling of near-despair as the days grew shorter and the nights colder. It may be due to the rather awful summer, or maybe it’s the differences we’re making in the house (it really does feel so much more spacious and pretty). Or maybe it’s the vitamin d3 supplementation! Whatever it is, I am so thankful not to feel that looming dark cloud of depression. I would still rather it was summer, though!

DH is going to build a riverstone hearth for the new Jotul woodstove—I’ll photo-document that project when it gets going. We’re going to have a family outing at the Laurel River to pick up stones sometime soon—today would be nice, as it’s supposed to be in the mid seventies, but DH is tied up all weekend on a work party at our neighbors’ house. Sometime soon, though.

I wasn’t able to do anything in the still-sodden garden yesterday—boy, does this clay soil take forever to dry out! I’ll try again today.

The house project is coming along. Having it all torn up is inspiring all sorts of deep cleaning projects: I’ve been scraping years-old paint off windows, the girls are going through lifetimes of artwork, and actually throwing some away, curtains are all down and in the washing machine, DH is (belatedly) cleaning out the wood cookstove and finally putting one of those fireproof pads under it. I wish we were actually building a hearth for it, but that may have to wait until the heatstove is installed, since we need some source of heat in the meantime!

Update

Today it may be dry enough in the garden to work the garlic beds; if not, tomorrow will be. Finally! So today I’m hauling manure from the barn to the garden and greenhouse. It’s so unbelievably nice to see the sun! And maybe I’ll actually get the garlic in the ground.

The greenhouse is ready to be planted, too—kale and collards. There’s already a beautiful crop of chard growing in there, and calendula from spring.

We finished shearing all but four sheep before vacation, so that’s on the agenda for today, too.

We’ve been rearranging the house for the last few days—what a nightmare! Our house is just under 1000 square feet—pretty small for the four of us and all our projects. We were given an antique rolltop desk this summer, and we’ve been trading milk all summer for a Jotul wood heat stove. So the question has been—where on earth to put them?! It looks like they’re going to fit—the desk is already in place, and a spot almost cleared for building a hearth—but meantime the house is a real mess, with crazily leaning stacks of books everywhere, and nobody’s seen the dining room table for days! Better now than in the middle of winter, I suppose. At least now I can run away to the garden and ignore the mess!