Wood. Work.

Of all the things that I have tried for the first time since last July, I have discovered a secret affection for--surprisingly--construction.  Specifically, turning the mound of free scrap wood we've amalgamated via Freecycle and Craigslist into structures that we would otherwise have to buy.

I'd prefer, honestly, not to have the rather ugly pile of variously-sized planks cluttering the backyard.  The pile is next to the pallet-enclosed compost heap and just around the corner from the camper-top that came with our good ol' pick-up truck and will probably never be used.  This trifecta does not a pretty corner of the yard make.  (Although it does add a certain farm-yard charm, I tell myself...certainly in no way reminiscent of washing machines on front porches or cars on blocks in driveways.)


And so, I have tried my hand at building stuff.  I can't deny the fun, for me, of thinking through a project, researching how others have done something similar, even sketching some ideas in my garden notebook prior to commencing.  There is a tangible geometry involved that stretches my brain in long-forgotten ways--how best to configure that or reinforce this.

Strangely, it is equally satisfying to go about the sweaty, dusty, heavy work of making my ideas turn into wooden realities.  By the end, I am dirty to a degree that I haven't been since childhood, and usually bleeding or scratched or pounded somewhere for good measure.  For some reason these projects never occur to me during cool weather, so I'm also dripping sweat even as I waste long minutes dragging the sawhorses around the yard in pursuit of shade.  It's very testosterone-y and alarmingly enjoyable...it makes me think about assigning value to my labor, about putting in the work and effort for us, rather than for a paycheck.  I tell you, it's anarchy with a circular saw.

[Honestly, can you tell I'm a pastor's kid with the sermons I get to preaching?] 


So far, these have been small projects, although visions of greenhouses dance in my head (a kitschy, ramshackle one, constructed from new wood but old, charming windows, perhaps with, as Jason says, a Partridge Family bus color-scheme.)  But I digress.  If someone with any slight iota of true carpentry skill and understanding were to look at my work, they would most likely grin and pat me on the head kindly.


Yet I don't care if my outcomes fall far short of true woodworking, if they are closer to bonfire offerings than works of art.  It is undeniably satisfying to create a piece of furniture for free.  I have all the time in the world to become a master woodworker, if I choose.  For now, this rather utilitarian ability is a pleasant surprise and learning process all in one. Not too long ago, I wasn't creating anything, in any aspect of my life--I had Jason, great friends, a fun pad, and a decent job that I tolerated to greater and lesser degrees, but I wasn't actually making anything.  Now I make stuff daily, all kinds of things.  Cool.

So.  (Ahem.)  Since last August, I've built the girls' run and their coop, the coldframe, a small table/stand, and a bench.  I've had much appreciated help along the way, too--Christiana & Jason.... And since so much of this wood is second-hand and warped a bit, I just blame the wood rather than my breezy measuring if there are any, um, quirks, in the final product.  :)

Blog, what blog? It's spring outside!

Bare feet and violets...ah, Spring!

Well, hello there, faithful readers.  I have not been giving you the attention you deserve lately, and I'm sorry.  One of the many things I forget from one year to the next is how quickly it changes from mind-numbingly s-l-o-w-paced winter to "I'm panicking over my to-do list" spring!  Here's a quick update on what's going on at the homestead:

1.  SCHOOL SQUARED!  I leave this Thursday (ack, tomorrow) for St. Mary-of-the-Woods to present my final project for my master's program.  The project, as mentioned before, is a school garden and accompanying curriculum on urban sustainability.  I've been remembering how to use Power Point (ha!  thank you, ProStaff circa 1999) and preparing my presentation, as well as working through the obligatory organizational start-up period with the other folks on the school garden committee--you know, figuring out what supplies are needed, what fundraising we need to do, grants we should apply for, and also planning a garden kick-off party for Earth Day (4/22).

I really enjoy the connections I've found between the homesteading concepts that I've personally explored this year (and continue to explore) and the garden ecology concepts I want to include in lessons with the kids.  Here is what we will study:  Sun, Water, Soil, Plants,  and Birds & Bugs.  For each of these garden entities, I've been developing lessons and activities for the little ones that help to inspire good questions and ideas about how we live our human lives in relation to Nature.  What better way to talk about solar energy than by making a jug of sun tea from the lemon balm we are growing?  Or, even more magical, using a solar oven to make a snack of chips (kale chips, that is, with kale leaves from the garden, olive oil, salt & pepper?)  And what about putting on a play depicting what happens to the Good Bugs and the Bad Bugs when you spray a pesticide?  (If you are curious, read this about the Volterra Principle, one of those mathematical and ecological truths that Monsanto would prefer you ignore).

2.  Garden!  Girls!  Keeping ye old homestead a'runnin!  We've had to make some changes in the backyard, now that the wheel has turned:  the girls are grown and the garden is back to babyhood.  The chickens no longer get free access to the garden--at least until summer, when the plants are well established.  So, we have a temporary fence around the garden, and the girls are a bit miffed, primarily when I am working in the beds and they can't come "help."  Ramona, in particular, being the shameless beggar of the flock, has been sidling along the fencing, murmuring little coo's and peeps and giving me, as Jason would say, the stink-eye.  If she had visible eyelashes, she would bat them.  Good grief.

Safe, for now, from the hungry girls

The garden is already a fun, green place to be, thanks to the coldframe that I made last fall.  This is my first real attempt at extending the season, and it is very gratifying to have produce already flourishing!  We can now be gleaning from four collard plants, several clumps of spinach, some scallions, cilantro, and our favorite heirloom lettuce from last season, called "Forellenschuss."  I moved the coldframe down the row, and have planted some cold-friendly varieties in it, so that the frame can act as a safe, warm nursery for the next month while the seeds sprout and get established--broccoli, alpine strawberries, parsley, brussel sprouts, and two types of kale.

Forellenschuss, cabbage, spinach and scallions

The asparagus is also up and thriving...one more year and we will get to start harvesting from the plants, but for now we let them all grow and allow the roots to get nicely established so that the bed will be productive for decades.  It is hard, though, to resist....




In other fowl news, the chickens are slacking off in their duties!  Ever since we have switched to letting them roam the yard for most of the day, I have been getting fewer eggs.  I think there are several factors at work in the ladies' lives that are contributing to our dwindling egg supply, the first and biggest being that I acquired these little lives in the Fall, rather than the Spring, which is just not quite fair or in-step with the natural order of things.  I am hoping that their little hormonal systems even out a bit as light and warmth return.

Of course, the other potential factors here are that the girls are

A) now confused about where the nest box is, even though it has remained in the same spot

and B) they are probably hiding their eggs somewhere in the yard.  The other possibility (and my favorite, although it is a bit more crude) is that 

 C) they are simply being lazy.  I call them, fondly, Lazy Sluts.

Lazy ladies lounging in a sunny dust bath

 {Ahem.  While I am a huge proponent of choosing your words carefully, using inclusive language and making a practice of being as PC as possible in the larger world, I reserve the right to abandon my PC ways when I am nick-naming backyard poultry.}

SO.   Lazy Sluts or Fat Biddies.  These are my terms of endearment for the chickie-gals lately.  As we were all getting accustomed to having free-range of the backyard, I had been leaving the (human) garage door open as another potential escape route for the girls, in case of a hawk fly-by.  However, the girls decided this was their new awesome clubhouse and started oh-so-casually hanging out over in one corner, behind some bikes and the lawn mower.  You would walk in, and everyone would shut up and freeze.  I was reminded, forcibly, of teenaged girls sneaking cigarettes in the alley and gossiping about boy--except that these girls leave behind feathers and poop (and who knows, maybe hidden eggs), rather than ashes and butts. 

Not happening.  No more garage access.  So now, they just tear across the yard every time I go to that door, hoping--apparently--that I will forget to close it.

And did I mention that Roxie is molting?  Twelve months earlier than expected?  No pretty blue eggs from her until her little body can turn its attention from feather-making back to egg-producing.  And in the meantime she looks like a balding middle aged person going through a midlife crisis.  Not pretty.

(Hmmm.  Balding Lazy Slut.)

****

Hooo-kay.  Hmm.  I think the stress of school has finally damaged my brain.  I was going to continue on and share our dreams and plans for constructing a greenhouse later this spring, but at this rate, I'll be swearing and raving by the time I'm done.   Perhaps it is best to wait until next time.  :)  So let me send you off with a pic of my latest yarn splurge:  cotton, cotton, cotton.  It is time for my green/red/brown kitchen to get accessorized.... 

A Roost of Their Own

Oh man.  The first day back-to-normal after a fun holiday is never easy.

Little Petey

I was best fitted for guzzling coffee and snuggling on the couch this morning, thinking over the coziness of hosting a bunch of loving people, eating good food together, and enjoying one another's company.  Jason & I were excited to have both sets of parents and our younger sisters come for Thanksgiving at our house, along with our friend Cathy and her mother--many of my favorite people in the world.  Everyone contributed to our non-traditional (but delicious) menu, and best of all, I didn't wash a single dish!!  As tends to happen when my sister comes to stay, we continued the celebrating after the actual holiday was done--getting in some quality time with good friends over the weekend.  (Again, over a shared meal in most cases--is there anything better than eating with those you love?)

So tired!

Velvety, irresistible puppy ears.

Also, thanks to my sister, we welcomed a new furry member to the extended family:  a little pup named Petey, who Christiana witnessed being dropped off at the pound (not a no-kill shelter) and couldn't forget.  A week later, he was still there, shaking in fear in the back of his cold wire cage, now plagued by fleas and kennel cough--and that was that!  Petey seems to understand his debt, and his wiggly, overjoyed little body never stops trying to pay Christiana back with love, snuggling, and the kind of enthusiastic tail-wagging that brings his whole back half right along with it!  Part dachshund, and seemingly part Italian greyhound, Petey seems more like a miniature deer with his slender legs and body--with the exception of those soft, floppy ears.  Being a bit of a baby still, he was most easily captured by a camera during his many naps on his mama's lap....

Completed cold frame

Today, however, was also a beautiful day with sunshine and a temperature in the high 50s, and so after dawdling through much of the morning, I had an early lunch and headed outside to finish a few odds and ends.  First, I finally added the hinges to the cold frame I built a few weeks ago, and fashioned a wedge to use for venting the box on warmer days like today.  This was one of those pesky five-minute jobs that has been hanging over my head--very satisfying to cross off the list at last! 

Lettuce, collards, cabbage, spinach and green onions

While in the garden, I also tore down the tomato plants and their climbing paraphernalia, depositing the dead plants in my brush pile and the metal tomato ladders in the garage, and I also drained the big plastic barrels I have set aside for rain barrels in the spring and made sure to turn them over so that no more water can collect in them and freeze.  I hauled the rest of the free wood that has been piled in the driveway around to the back of the garage, next to the compost bin, in an attempt to tidy up a bit, and I filled the bird feeders and straightened the garage.  Every time I think it is finally going to be too cold for any further outside chores, the weather warms enough for a productive day like this!

The new roost (and curious chickens)

Another lingering task was to build a roost for the chickens inside their coop.  They are showing more and more interest in roosting, and are of age to want to sleep that way.  Unfortunately, this means that they have been flying up to the top of the coop--which I hadn't yet put a ceiling on--and this means chicken poop on my garage floor.  Ew.  So, today I was determined to add both a roost for them, and a ceiling to the pen for better insulation during the cold months to come. 

Ramona (and one of her pin-up roosters)

The roost is simply a 2" x 2" piece of wood mounted around 18-24" off of the floor of the coop--a good circumference for the girls to grasp and the preferred height
off the ground.  Within minutes of getting it in place, the girls were checking it out.  Then I used a large piece of plywood to cover about two-thirds of the coop and placed a spare window screen over the remaining opening, to allow for ample ventilation and extra light inside the coop.  No one seemed concerned with the changes--just appreciative of the food and water being returned to their hangers.  The only remaining chicken-construction will be their nest boxes, and I don't plan on making those until the new year.

Coop, Sweet Coop

And now it is time to get some Christmas-centered knitting accomplished--as well as reassuring my darling felines that the dreaded puppy has, indeed, gone back to Ohio and the house is theirs once more.  Not to mention my lap.  :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!