Raising the Roof

Just a couple of weeks ago, the new home being built behind us was not very weather-tight and now just see the changes. It was good entertainment (yes...we are hard up for entertainment) to watch them use a crane to lift the roof pieces and parts up to be fastened in place. Between rainstorms and a couple of copious snowstorms which immediately melted, it can't have been that much fun working out there. The builder says it is his 'cold weather' house, since he is building it in winter.



I felt sorry for them slipping and sliding around out there in the snow.



Today they put the windows in. It looks like roof materials up there ready to go on soon. Just a few hours after this picture was taken, the blizzard hit. So far it has not stopped. I bet the workers will be happy to have a relatively dry place to work inside there now.

Merry Christmas!

To all our friends and family, we wish a merry Christmas and best wishes for the coming year. We have had a good year I think. The family woodworker has kept busy with plans and remodeling of the 1880s woodwright shop, in order for it to be ready for visitors starting in early April. We have also been doing indexing of various vital records which have been digitized to put online to assist people who are researching their family history. Interspersed in that were a trip to Colorado to welcome grandchild number 12 and a couple of trips to Washington for family events. We also got a taste of what the 2002 Olympics must have been like by visiting in Park City in the middle of a blizzard.

If you want to know more about what we have been up to, you’ll just have to take the time to browse further in this blog!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tyson

This little fellow is one of the people who turned me into a great-aunt. There are a number of such people running around now. As it happens, I think this little guy reminds me a lot of his grandfather who I first met almost 48 years ago. Naturally, I didn't think to take his picture until AFTER he finished smiling.

Cache Valley Winter

It was perfect weather here yesterday...well...perfectly beautiful. The snow-covered Wellsville Mountains shined against the clear blue sky, with remnants of the earlier ice fog leaving mist at the base of the mountains and covering every wire, twig and leaf with a thick layer of hoar frost.





These are the same mountains from a greater distance...our back porch actually. I like the way the early morning light shows every gulley.

It was interesting to watch the thermometer in the car as I drove along. At our house, it was 1F. On the valley floor it was -1F. A mile or so up the canyon it was 7F. Mid-Canyon, at Dry Lake, it was -1 again and a few miles later it was 12F. At the other side of the canyon it was 18F.

Hands-on Living History Museum Woodwright Shop

After assuming some responsibility for the woodwright shop in the middle of the summer season, the new woodwright started thinking of ways to improve the shop. There was a barrier running down the middle of the room to separate the work area from the visitor's area. With the shop open nearly every day, it was impossible to implement some of the new ideas, but now the shop is closed for the winter. During that time, the entire barrier was removed.

Old timbers from the 1860s were salvaged from parts of an old flour mill and milled down to be reused. The goal for the new 'barrier" was to bring the shop to the visitors. The old timbers were made into a workbench top which replaced the old barrier. Now visitors and woodwrights can come face to face to discuss old hand tools while the visitors are given some hands-on experience with some of those tools. Excuse the out of period items in the background as this is still a work in progress. As you see, the new counter/work bench still displays the old original bolts that held it together. On the left side there are indentations in the counter which will be filled with period items under glass. On the right side, not visible in the picture, is a lower bench/counter which is meant for young children to learn about tools. The dark brown areas on the wall under the counter are signs remaining from the original flour mill.




Here you see the length of the main counter after it was polished up with tung oil. There are holes bored in the counter to accommodate bench dogs and hold fasts.



New shelves were built to display old molding planes and show the types of molding they made.



If you come to visit in the summer, you can learn to use an old hand plane and work on the new workbench!

A Plethora of Peahens

Without all the summer visitors to chase them, the peafowl have the run of the living history museum. Who can blame them for running to look at the great view of the Wellsville Mountains?



It's pretty cool to be the ruler of the roost!

No More Swimming Pool

The old swimming hole is not to be. Instead, we now have this framed in house...roofless still, but started at least. As you see, the snow on the ground is almost gone. After 15 or so inches of snow, and the warmer temperatures, I suspect the basement of that roofless house may have a secret swimming pool down there somewhere.

Sometimes I just feel old.

Back when we lived in Alaska, I went to the doctor one day. She asked if it would be okay for a medical student to observe our visit....and then mentioned his name. I was shocked! He was a kid!...a friend of Blaine's whom we had driven home several times. (It was NOT okay!)

Our neighbors in Wasilla used to complain loudly about any bonds to build new schools. They had no children and felt it was so unfair that they should have to pay to build new schools. I remember pointing out to them that someone had paid for THEIR education. What's more, I thought it prudent to be sure the children had a decent education, as when we are older, those same children will be our doctors, our lawyers, etc.

For years it has been a family joke that if you have a computer problem, just call the neighborhood junior high kid to fix it.

Today was a similar story. Our dryer hasn't been working well. We have to run it twice to get a load of clothes dry. We have just put up with it for quite a while, but finally decided to bite the bullet and have it looked at. This morning the doorbell rang. It was the repairman. I feel very certain that he couldn't be a day over 15. Okay, maybe 16 since he was driving a truck. I wanted to ask him if his daddy helped him learn how to fix dryers!

An idea, a job, a project

Have you ever noticed how quickly a simple idea can grow into a job, and then into a major project? When we moved into this house years ago, the storeroom was already there...including the shelves seen in the first picture. Across from those shelves was the bare concrete floor which soon turned into a repository for empty 5 gallon buckets, containers of water, canning equipment, empty jars and other items. After living here for a while, we went away for 18 months to West Virginia. While we were gone, we had house sitters living here, so we stored all the things from our kitchen pantry down here as well, so they would have room for their things. We had a PhD (Pile it Higher and Deeper) in home storage! Some things I never found again...until today. (NOTE: These are NOT before pictures. Those would be too scary.)



At the end of the room were these small shelves which were also crammed with a variety of canning equipment, empty jars, an unusable wheat grinder (due to its location) and sundry things which were mostly not accessible as folding chairs were stacked in front of them.



I looked at the table in my mother's storeroom and had an idea! If I could just get a small table at the local thrift store I could move the small shelves opposite the big shelves and put a table in that space. Then I could actually put my wheat grinder where I could use it! After thinking about it for a couple of weeks, I mentioned it to the woodworker. He got excited about it and I felt my simple idea slipping away and turning into a job, and maybe even into a project. As he talked I had visions of the contents of the storeroom strewn throughout the basement for weeks...which is NOT a happy thought when expecting company for New Years, although I'm sure the grandchildren would be happy to find new play things. I not am not complaining though, because what I got is in the picture below. Woodworker just extended the existing shelves, leaving one out where I could put the wheat grinder in a usable location! As an added bonus, there are now more shelves to store things on. Best of all, it was all done in one day so the basement is now back in order.



For now, I have to use an extension cord to get power to the grinder, but an electric outlet is forthcoming in the near future I am told. We also hope to get some hanger things so we can hang extra folding chairs up on the wall out of the way. For now, I am pleased to say that NOTHING is piled on the floor!

Poinsettia

Maybe it is the bright colors of the poinsettia that liven up a gloomy winter day. After snow and cold and spending the past week coping with the 'crud', I was feeling pretty low energy until the woodworker came home today with this! At first I thought there must be 2 different poinsettias in the pot, but the white and red 'flowers' are all on the same stem. The red leaves look like they have been spattered with cream colored paint. Why some leaves are red, some are white and some are spattered is a mystery to me, but I don't need to know that to enjoy the plant. Thanks, Woodworker!