TisaWee Farm

Thank goodness for techie grandkids!

Ok, I hate to admit it, but I bought an exercise gaming system.  I'm really serious about getting into better physical condition, and it was a really good incentive for me.  Besides really using it so that I can justify the cost, it makes it FUN to work out. Joe asked me why I needed a $300 game in order to jog around the living room or run or march in place.  But if anyone cares to notice, HIS scores are usually the higher ones on the score board.  

I bought a new controller and couldn't get it to work, so called my daughter, whose kids have the same gaming system.  I asked her how to initialize the controller.  She put my 11-year-old grandson, Doyle, on the phone.  He walked me through step-by-step.  It was really funny because he sounded just like those guys that try to walk you through computer advice or network problems from some other country.  Except I could understand Doyle. And it actually worked. 

At one point he said, "now remember, if you ever need to reconfigure it again, follow this exact same procedure".  It just seemed so funny to hear such grown-up words coming from him.

Why do I feel so old all of a sudden!?

 

 

Snow Plow Fairy can come back any time now!!

I spent two hours, TWO HOURS, shoveling my driveway and walks tonight after work.  A nice, light snow was falling.  Beautiful.   The entire time I shoveled and chipped away at ice blocks, I told myself, "This is GOOD exercise!"   And really, I DID feel good when it was all done and I could stand back and admire the concrete showing through the snow, albeit with three-foot walls of snow all around it. 

Fast forward five hours.  I can't even tell where I shoveled earlier.  Grrrrrrrr.

My neighbor came over about an hour-and-a-half into my shoveling spree and told me I could borrow her snow blower any time I wanted.  Ah...so tempting.  But no, I have to do this the old-fashioned way.  It wouldn't be as satisfying if I used a piece of equipment. 

Darn.  I'm gonna borrow that snowblower.  To heck with "good exercise".

My son came over and saw the "thank you" sign in the snow bank.  He said, "Mom, a phone call would have been enough".  What?!?!?!  It turns out that he and a friend had borrowed a real snow plow to plow out his boss' rental properties, and took a road-trip through my driveway and sidewalks.   How would I have known??   He's never shoveled my sidewalks before....why would I even think he would start now?    Ok, so I don't feel so special any more.  But I'm still blessed. <grin>

I forgot today was Fat Tuesday and missed out on the punchkies (ok...how do you spell it???).  I wonder if it's OK to cheat and have one on Thursday???    I looked up "punchkie" on the internet....ha! No one else can spell it either!  It's actually on the website in several places spelled that way.  It's really spelled Paczki, but it's a good thing I didn't place any bets on that!

 

 

 

Snow Plow Fairy

The snow plow fairy came to my house a couple days ago!!!   Tuesday evening was spent clearing out enough of my driveway that I could get my car past the sidewalk, and clearing the sidewalks so I wouldn't be fined by the city.   With a 110 foot sidewalk on one side and a driveway at least that long on the other side...it takes me awhile! 

When I came home Wednesday, my first thoughts were "whew...at least the snow plow didn't plow me in again!".  As I pulled into my drive, however, I saw that someone had plowed my entire driveway, cleared out in front of the garage and back doors, shoveled my porch and sidewalk off, and cleared the entire sidewalk from alley to road.  Talk about "happy dancin'"!!! 

My first thoughts were that my neighbor did it because I had joked with him the previous night that it must be nice to have a snowblower like he does, instead of a plastic shovel, like me.   As I started to walk over there to thank him, I noticed that he was out shoveling his porch off with a shovel...and he had just got home from work.  Couldn't be him. 

His wife confirmed that she had seen someone with a small tractor/plow in my driveway earlier in the day, but didn't know who it was.   I looked at all the properties around me, and no one else had a plowed drive.  So I was evidently singled out.   I feel like I must have had good karma that day.  What a treat!!!!!

Since I couldn't thank them in person, I made a big sign and put it atop a snow drift by my driveway.  Hopefully they will see it. 

In the meantime....I feel blessed.

 

 

18 more days...and miscellaneous ramblings

I know that Spring technically starts on March 21, but in my mind, March 1 is Spring.  That means only 18 more days.  I can make it...I know I can!

It's light out now when I leave for work, AND when I get home.  That's always a bonus.  Although shoveling snow in the dark is kinda fun, too.  (Where is the sarcastic smiley face when you need one?)

And.....ta-da.... I have plants starting to sprout in the little garden I planted indoors.  I have no clue what they are because I didn't mark them.  I figured that once they got big enough to eat, I'd know what they were.  Duh.  It would have been nice to know which seeds had a 3 day germination period!  All this snow has curbed my getting-my-hands-dirty appetite, though.  Right now, just staying inside where it is warm looks pretty appealing to me. 

I've been keeping busy trying to figure out the electrical circuits for TisaWee on paper.  I sent it to a friend to double-check my 'figgurin'" and he said it looks like when I flip the breakers on for the first time, Findlay's lights will dim.   Guess that means I need to do some more figgurin'.  Sigh.

Hope you are staying safe and warm!  18 more days........

Ok...enough already!

Ok, Buckeye Chuck....it's not funny any more!

I finally got my driveway cleared out, and the snowplow plowed me back in.  Thank you, thank you very much.

Some of the ladies in my office and I are having a bit of friendly competition and trying to lose weight.  This is week 3 of a 10 week competition.  This weather is becoming my biggest enemy.  Besides being too crappy outside to walk or get out, I'm in the mood for meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and creamy, chunky soups and homemade breads.   

I keep thinking this is perfect "cocooning" weather.  I thought the definition of that was sort of just curling up at home and not coming out until the weather was better.  Do caterpillars eat while they are in their cocoon?  Bet not!   I think my regimen is more like pre-hibernation.  Eat until I'm as fat as a contented bear, and then stay in the house.  The only berries and nuts I see, though, are in the Ben and Jerry's.

 

 

Grrrr.....er....Brrrrrrr

I'll bet good ol' Buckeye Chuck is getting a good laugh over this one!  That's what I get for telling my opinion that Spring is coming soon. 

TisaWee stood up better than the house in town.  I lost fascia and soffit in town...TisaWee had hardly any snow!  The wind whipped so hard that it blew it all off my property and against the neighbor's snow fence and piled it in THEIR yard.  Hehe.

Ok....so I broke down and started some seeds inside. I just couldn't wait another month.  I used jiffy 7's and planted lettuce, parsley, chives, coriander/cilantro, and basil.  I figure that I can let those grow and be harvested even in the house, if necessary. 

In another month (if I can wait that long!) I'll start some tomatoes and peppers.  I bought the nicest red, orange, yellow, and green peppers from the farmers' market in Findlay last summer, and saved some of the seeds.  Ditto some little "sweetie" cantaloupe.  Not sure if they will grow true, or if they had been hybrids, but I'm going to see what happens.  I dehydrated all of the peppers that I bought at the farmers' market and I'm using them SO sparingly. I'm about out and it will be MONTHS before I can have more.  They smell SO heavenly, though!  Smells just like summer in a jar. 

 

 

 

 

An electrical puzzle

In building TisaWee, I've had to learn a lot of things.  Thank goodness I didn't have to know all of it in advance, or it never would have happened.  Sometimes still I think "what in tarnation was I thinking when I thought I could do this?!?!?" (what IS tarnation, anyway??)

For instance, before I put in the well and septic, I researched different types of systems, different methods of drilling, etc.  Before the basement was built, I already knew the advantages and disadvantages of poured wall, mortared blocks, dry-stack parged blocks, and why a basement would better suit me than a slab or pier/post (which had been my initial plan).  

Similarly, by the time the rafters were going up, I could tell you acceptable spans for various sizes of wood (and whether it should be yellow pine, etc.) under varying conditions. 

Don't ask me ANY of that now, because I have "waitress" memory.  While it is happening, I can tell you what, who, where, when, and how much.  After the fact..... um..... something else has already crept into that little bit of space in my brain reserved for important details. 

So now the puzzle-du-jour is getting the electric run.  Now that it is making a bit more sense, it's kinda fun.  Like a puzzle.  Boiled down to basics, I have 30 slots in a box.  Each slot can have a breaker that is 15, 20, or 30 amps.  Each appliance in the house uses a certain amp.  Sometimes it is stated in watts, which makes it more interesting.  And being 120 volt or 240 volt throws another wrench into the soup. 

For instance, one 4000 watt wall heater, being run on 240 watts, will be 16.6 amps, which means I can use a 20 amp breaker.  But it has to have its own line, and it will take TWO spaces since it is 240 amp.  Each size breaker requires a certain size electric wire, too. 

Not too complicated.  But NOW...in the bathroom.  A 500 watt baseboard heater doesn't take much.  But turn on that 1500 watt hairdryer after your shower and you've just blown the fuse if you hadn't planned that in advance.  Hmmmm....

But it's fun to have to figure this all out.  Probably more fun to figure it out than to actually be trying to drill those holes and pulling wires.  And paying for the wire.  Ouch. 

So, that's the next goal at TisaWee....get power!  Woohoo!!!  

I tend to celebrate each victory as I go.  When I had the electric pole installed, I had a box put on it so I'd have temporary power.  I hooked up a boom box and cranked up the music to celebrate.  When the well was drilled, I hooked up a sprinkler and ran through it.  As soon as I had the walls framed, I hung up a grapevine wreath on the studs.  Once the septic line is finished, I intend to .... um.... I'll figure something out. Hehehe.  

Same with the interior electric...I'll have to think of a suitable celebration.  Any ideas?  

Woohoo! End of winter in sight??

Buckeye Chuck is predicting an early end to winter in Ohio.  I need to buy that guy an ear of corn. 

His eastern cousin, Punxsutawney Phil, however, predicts another 6 weeks.  Why in the world couldn't they have found a groundhog in Erie, or Meadsville, or anyplace but Puxat...Punxant... whatever.  I feel sorry for anyone that lives there and has to learn to spell the name of their town.   Maybe Pennsylvania (oh my....spell Punxsutawney Pennsylvania all in one breath!) will have 6 more weeks of winter, but Ohio will sail into spring sooner. <grin>

Anyway..... there IS an end in sight to winter.  The seed catalogs have been telling me that since early December.  I've been very good and have held off at starting seedlings in the house, but I DID catch myself poring over the 20 cent tomato and pepper seeds at the store the other day.   I was good, though, and didn't buy a thing. 

Later in the evening, I got on the soil and water conservation district website and looked at the tree order forms.  They didn't have the trees I wanted, so I ended up checking out the SWCD websites for every town that I thought I had relatives in that could pick up the trees for me.  Hehe.  I ended up not ordering any trees, either.   I had to remind myself that I planted a couple hundred four years ago, and finally dug up and gave away the remaining stragglers last year.  I don't want to do that again.   The SWCD sells windbreak trees (among others) for about $8-9 for 10 trees.  Really good deal if you have the time and patience.  I'm short on both, I think.  Sigh.  [edited to add that the trees from the SWCD were REALLY nice and healthy....I just didn't plant them in an appropriate place to take care of them well.  Totally MY fault]

I had ordered 20 heirloom scions (buds) several months ago from the USDA research facility in NY and they came in recently.  I was SOOOO excited...just like Christmas.   I ordered ones such as Cox's Orange Pippin, Gravenstein, Liberty, PaulaRed, etc.  All the old, old, apple varieties.   Now I need to find root stock for them.  If I can't find something soon, I'll probably graft them all to a couple apple trees I already have in the orchard and mark them so that I can later get buds from them to graft to their own tree.  That will make the tree in the orchard pretty interesting, though!  Each branch will be a different variety.  

If you know anyone around here with grafting experience, send me an email, OK?  

Still trying to right the chicken coop, too.  Debating on whether or not to get chickens this spring.....  just too many fun things to do, but I REALLY need to finish the house first!

So, what are YOU doing to get ready for the end of winter??

 

Moving along

Still working on TisaWee cabin.

After two years, I finally have the house hooked into the septic tank and field, and sump pump to the drain....woohoo!!!!!  Unfortunately, that's as far as the lines go....there's no plumbing in the house yet.  

200 years ago (heck...even 50 years ago!), that wouldn't have stopped the family from moving in.  I guess we are spoiled, huh?  Don't know about you...but I *LIKE* having running water and electricity.   

I guess that is my next goal at TisaWee...get the plumbing and electric in.  

If you would have told me two years ago when I started building that it would take so long, I would have laughed.  I'm much more cautious now with my estimates.  I am pretty sure that I'll get things done enough to move in this year -- but I wouldn't bet the chickens on it!

Actually, until I can get the chicken coop turned over ... AGAIN... there won't be any chickens there.  It's darned windy out there, you know?!?   It's currently upside down again....and I've no clue how to flip it this time.  The last time I needed help was when I was putting the basement in and the guy had a big bulldozer.   I don't think my tiny kubota is up to it.  Any ideas???

Of Mice and Mushrooms

When I'm not working at TisaWee (and man, it's been too cold and windy to do much there!), I like to create in the kitchen.

For Christmas dinner this year, I wanted a yule log dessert.  But mine couldn't be the holly-n-berry encrusted beauty that you see on all the magazine covers.  That just wouldn't be befittin' a down-to-earth person such as myself.   Mine would have to look like it came straight from the woods... fungi and mice and all.

 
It was fun trying to convince people that the mushrooms were actually confectionery.  The little mice were very obviously candy, so they went quickly, but the mushrooms were another story.   Email me if you'd like the recipe and directions! 

Now, back to work at TisaWee...