Crib

Elliott has moved into his crib.

About a month ago Elliott decided not to follow the good behavior he had established and no longer wanted to sleep through the night in his bassinet. It took us a couple weeks to realize he was serious about his choice.

We thought that perhaps the bassinet was too small, and that was why he was so fussy. We moved the crib from Alden's room into ours to test the theory. It has had good results, but Elliott still gets up a couple times a night...

The original plan was that Elliott would gracefully transition from the bassinet in our room to the crib in Alden's room (because he was such a good night-sleeper). The way things are now, we cannot let Elliott disturb Alden, so it looks like he will stay in the master bedroom with expanded quarters for a little while longer.

New Furnace

 Old Furnace

 

New Furnace 

The chimney needs a new lining which will come soon. But this is how we decided to blow $10,000 this week.

New Bed!

It has been a long time coming, but Alden finally got his big-boy-bed. He loves it. Thanks grandpa Scott for the gift!

Here is a picture of Alden with a sledge hammer. We smashed up an old stone BBQ pit a few days ago.

Spring is on the way

The weather is getting warmer and it looks like spring may be on the way.
The bees came out the other week and we were very excited to see they survived the winter. I have been pruning trees and other warmer season stuff.
Here is Alden in the bath, just because.

Fix-y week

House projects seem to ebb near the end of winter. We are in full hunker-down mode and don't seem to have the energy to take on additional chores. Unfortunately our heat stopped working mid-week and the dryer-tumbler stopped as well.
The short version of the solution was that a regulator valve was stuck on our furnace. The valve regulated the hot/cold mix for our bath water. Since it was broken our hot water was irregular and would go from hot to tepid during showers. To 'fix' this I turned our furnace up a little and the problem was minimized... Unfortunately the extra-hot burner slowly boiled away the hot water in our baseboard heat so eventually it would not circulate. No major damage was done and a new valve fixed everything and the hot water in both the shower and baseboard is better than ever.At the same time as the furnace issue happened, the dryer stopped working. Some quick troubleshooting pointed to a broken belt. I took apart the dryer and confirmed it was the belt, I was able to track down a replacement (I think there are only two sizes for dryer belts anyway) and fixed it this weekend.

Thanksgiving Chores

Thanksgiving was small this year. Ilana was out of the country taking a class for work, so Alden and I had the run of the house. We were able to get quite a bit done over the holiday.

I was able to get chores done that Ilana may have frowned upon due to the mess factor. I finally plastered and painted the sheet rock I hung on the bedroom ceiling (maybe three years ago... yipe). I threw down many drop clothes, but cleaning the dust was still a challenge.
I completed the woodshed with help from Karen (who watched Alden), Darrell (who helped with the walls and roof), and Scott who helped with the roof and wood stacking. All the wood is now safe and dry in its new home.

At the end of the holiday weekend, Ilana came home in a new used car. Since the truck got totaled a few months back we have been keeping our eyes out for something new to drive. Our friend James was getting a new vehicle so we were able to adopt his old Camry. We are all very excited about it.

NEW BATHROOM

When we bought the house there was a room on the east side of the kitchen. It was heated by an electric monitor heater and primarily used for laundry, storage, and had a large chest-freezer. It had wood paneling and a hatch that went to the basement and another that went to the attic. There was a fiber tile ceiling and linoleum floor stapled down over a plank sub-floor.
When we moved in we got rid of the chest freezer and moved the laundry machines to the basement. We christened the area the 'Mudroom' and it was an off-and-on storage area for things as we did renovations on the house. About two years ago I started chipping away at making the space usable, which not only included the mudroom, but the area above and below as well. The first project to be done was the basement, because it was the easiest. Next was making a functional second bathroom (sink and toilet) which was completed about a year ago, but not finished... just functional.
About a month ago I got the bathroom finished enough. There are still a few bits and bobs I want to do, but for the most part it is complete. Toilet, shower, sink, tile, lights, shelves, cabinets, and the rest.

We also had the outer walls insulated, new electric and plumbing, and new windows along the way.
We did everything ourselves except run the plumbing.
Tah Dah!

More Turkeys!

I counted 17 this time. Our lifestyle is apparently turkey-rich.

They were looking for food this morning, it was about 9:30am when Alden and I saw them.

Turkeys!

Alden got us up at the regular time (6:30) making the regular request (read a story). After half of a Frog and Toad tale he wanted breakfast so we went downstairs and saw out this out the kitchen window: turkeys!I counted six of them, walking along the top of the snow towards the house. Alden thought they were pretty and wanted to pet them. I told him they would run away if he did that.
We saw a flock of turkeys in our backwoods about two years ago, but have not see them since. Not sure if they were just passing through again or if perhaps they winter in our woods... that would be really cool.
It made me wish I had put out corn or grain or something for them ... then I remembered all the mice in the house when we first moved in and figured the turkeys looked fat enough.

Snow play

The snow is piling high, as you can see it is halfway up the windows. The temperatures have been consistently low so it just keeps growing. Yesterday was the first day in a couple weeks where the weather got warm enough to go out and play


I scraped the ice layer off the driveway and Ilana and Alden built a snowman and went sledding in the backyard.

The snowman was a success, the sledding... not so much.

There were about three feet of snow to tromp through. Alden could not walk through it and did not like being carried because of the awkward falling sensation when walking through deep snow. The sled adventure was mostly Alden losing his cool waiting for us to break the snow for a sled-run or being impatient while we walked to the top of the hill for a ride.

More Holidays - Birthday and New Year

Joseph Sandy and Geoffrey came to town the day after Christmas to celebrate the holidays and my birthday. We did a second round of gift exchanging and hanging out.

I coordinated getting a garage door opener for Karen and the Gilg boys spent the next two days installing the thing. It took more time than I thought it would, but it was pretty straight forward and we did not make any big mistakes or come across any insurmountable obstacles in the process.

My birthday was quite nice. One very amazing present was a carpet that Karen and Larry got for me. I was excited to finally have a carpet in the dining room but Alden was over the moon about it. He jumped around and rolled and danced and told everybody else to jump around as well. He did a fantastic job making that carpet feel welcome in our house and showing Karen and Larry they had made a good choice.

Another fantastic gift was the promise of future support for my beekeeping endeavor. I plan to keep a hive of bees this spring, but right now I am fairly ignorant about what I am getting myself into. Geoffrey got me two swell books and once I know what's what I'll let folks know what I need. The birthday celebration was a small affair with immediate family and a few close friends. Of course, the food was amazing and there were two cakes. Folks also went a bit silly getting exotic beers, which were a very nice addition.
Alden was told about my birthday a few weeks too early and was more eager for it to come that I think I was. When it finally arrived he was crazy-excited. A very nice thing to see.
I did not get pictures of New Years, but it was one of the best ones I had in awhile. Geoffrey was still in town so he came over, we invited our friends Darrell and Kenny and played poker till 2010 was behind us. Most of us agreed 2010 was lousy for the most part and are looking forward to an awesome 2011.

Where is my winter insulation?

I got the east end of the house buttoned up and ready for blown in insulation. The contractor told me that he would try and get to me before the end of the year, but I have my doubts.

Besides running new electrical to outlets and putting fiberglass insulation in the ceiling and interior walls I covered the inside of the exterior walls with half inch polly-iso boards. The boards are usually used for exterior applications, but I think it will serve as a nice extra thermal barrier how I am using it.
The upstairs room got 2 inch polly-iso boards for extra insulation value. Between the polly-iso and the exterior wall is an air void that will be filled with blown in insulation... someday.

Thanksgiving

We had a quiet celebration at our house this year. My Dad and Kerstin's Mom joined us for some tuna steaks, stuffed artichokes, cranberry relish and a bunch of dishes featuring our garden vegetables (squash, potatoes and kale that was still growing up until Thanksgiving day).
We made a sweet meat squash polenta which came out really well.After the initial toast, Alden wanted nothing to do with the Thanksgiving meal. He refused to try any of the dishes and we had to heat up a precooked chicken sausage for him. He spent most of Thanksgiving tearing apart our couch cushions.My Dad spent the weekend up here and helped Kerstin insulate the unfinished part of the house, including the soon-to-be guest bedroom. We had our first snow the day after Thanksgiving and Alden and I made snow footprints in the backyard. I'll let Kerstin tell you all about the insulation in another post.

Third Place Tapas

Last weekend Ilana and I were invited to a tapas pot luck. Ilana spent most of the day making some kind of mushroom tarta, but it was a new recipe and the texture did not come out right... Oh, and did I mention that the tapas were to be judged with prizes awarded for the top entries? I was helping Karen winterize her house for most of the day, when I got home to get cleaned up and go to the party Ilana was a bit of a wreck. We had an hour before we had to leave and our tapa entry was sub par! Like a boss I got out my trusty crepe maker and we made mini-crepes filled with shrimp, roasted red pepper, onion, and pesto. We cranked out thirty of them within the hour and were off to the party (leaving Alden behind with Karen).

There were about 25 entries in the competition and we were were voted third place victors! Our prize was three wooden spoons which Alden now uses as trees for his stuffed beaver to gnaw on. Score!