Guilty But Busy

Hello hellebores!

OK, so I broke my resolution. It happens. I'm still a good person at heart.

My excuse? I'm back at work at the Barn Nursery, and despite our less-than-spring-like weather, I have been picking up side jobs that have been burning a lot of time and calories. Meanwhile, my yard awaits my attention. But at least my hellebores are smiling on me, especially the one that my co-worker extraordinaire Craig gave me last summer.

This 75-footer came down without a hitch.

Mason's been busy, too, with the endless tasks that come with our crazy mountain life. His highest priority has been restocking all the firewood we've been burning through this Evil Winter From Hell.  So far we've felled seven trees, totaling 600 feet. One more tree to go and we should be good for Winter 2014-15. Check that off the never-ending list.

While I was at work, Mason decided that our 35 broadcast TV channels (10 of which are religious, in multiple languages) weren't enough, so he's in the process of moving our antenna to the top of the roofline. For the record, he knows he's not allowed on the roof while I'm not here, but does he listen?? Not so much.

Other Flat Top news: The little cabin behind us is back up for sale. Any fellow adventurers out there?

And a final note: I'm typing this as I wait on hold on the 1-800 ObamaCare hotline.  The recording warned me that if I'm calling from a cell phone, I should make sure it's fully charged. Anyone want to wager how long I might be on hold?

Lovely, Because It'll Be 68 Next Week

The back yard.

We woke up this morning with close to 8 inches of snow blanketing our little homestead, and it couldn't have been more beautiful. Mostly because we knew it wouldn't be there in just a couple of days, when it hits 60 here, as opposed to Minnesota where it lasts for months. We took an hourlong hike through the white stuff to celebrate!

More snow.

Bring on the sun.

Our boy, who hates cameras.

Our only other news of note is that my winter vacation is finally over. I'm back working at the garden nursery three days a week and already scheming how many plants Mason will let me bring home.  I also already have had a couple of customers from last year contact me about doing more landscape designs for them, so that's kinda cool. The hourlong commute each way, though? Not so cool. And Mason will have to adjust to making his own breakfast now and then -- oh the horrors!

Minnesota vehicles have snow turds; in January, Flat Top has mud turds.

You wouldn't think this of Mason, but for the man who seems so "Whatever, world, bring it," he has a lot of rules.

One of the man's rules is: For every $100 he pays for a car/truck, he must make that car/truck last a month to get his money's worth out of it. So he bought his Dodge Dakota truck for $2,400, meaning he had to drive that truck for two years to get his money's worth. Once the two years were over, he couldn't feel bad if the truck died.

Well Mason bought that Dodge in October 2005, so the poor thing may just be on borrowed time, That's 100 months so far, so he could have spent $10,000 on it!

That said,  Flat Top Mountain has been hard on the old girl -- the TRUCK, not me. Well, OK, me, too. There have been several times in the past two years that we thought, "Well, that's it. The truck has gotta stay on the property; no more trips to town."

Then we'd want the truck for something. And after shakes and rattles coming back up the mountain, Mason would think,"Maybe this should be her last trip." He'd think it, but not say it, because if I knew he was thinking it, I'd never drive in her again ...

But last week, when we were hauling a heavy, secret payload up the mountain in the back of the pickup, Mason may have made a fatal error. He said it out load. "This may be her last trip to town."

Despite my usual pessimism, I don't believe it, which is saying a lot for me. I mean, I hate that truck; why does HIS window go down, but mine doesn't? Do you know how irritating it is not to be able to get fresh air?  OK, the A/C kinda works, which is more than I can say for our Jeep Cherokee (which has to last until April 2015 before we make good on Mason's rules), but the truck's heat doesn't work. No radio, a bunch of other electrical stuff, which all went out when Mason replaced the blower motor, which DOES still work, to his credit. Then there's the exhaust leak, and the new sound that grinds from somewhere in the drive train. ("Once something finally breaks, I'll know what to fix," he keeps saying.)

But I also love that truck, all 240,000 miles of her. Just today, we used her to help fell a 70-foot oak (WITHOUT crashing it down on the house), starting our Winter 2014/15 firewood stockpile.

Good on ya, Dodge Dakota.

No. 5: Paint Ceiling

The Chinese fan palm was a serious score from the Barn Nursery,
 where I expect to head back to work soon.

No. 5 on my "Month Off To-Do List" was "paint ceiling and beams." And while it's not done yet, we've made major progress in the loft. The ceiling in the cabin is/was unfinished particle board. Fancy pants, eh? And the beams were raw. Of course, if we had a decent income, we'd cover that particle board with slats of real wood. But for now, paint will do ...

After four long days of inhaling a large amount of paint fumes, we've got the entire loft ceiling finished.  There's still a bit more ceiling to do, but it's the part over the living room, which means we're going to need to build some scaffolding to delicately balance on atop of ladders in order to get that portion painted. And because I don't want to splatter paint on our wood stove, that portion of the project will wait until it's warm enough to not have a fire burning, so we can tarp the stove. And with another cold blast headed our way tomorrow, that may be awhile. Our lives are complicated, eh?

The ceiling looks pretty decent now, which means our attention is focused on that gawd-awful unfinished plywood you can see on the walls. Adding that project to the Spring To-Do List.

Love all that natural light! (And that lamp by the bed?
No bulb. The cord doesn't even reach to the one operating outlet upstairs.)

Three Years Later

The new shed. Handsome, isn't he? Oh, I mean it.

Today marks our third year living in the backwoods of Tennessee. Anyone got anything longer in the "I Bet They Regret This" betting pool?

We celebrated by puttering about in 57-degree sunshine. Not bad for January! We finished the day with an hourlong hike, and would have set ablaze a ceremonial bonfire, except that the wood in the fire pit was soaked from yesterday's rain.

Mason has made great progress on the second shed, which now only needs some soffit material and paint. Today he started moving in so much stuff from the first shed, that the new one started to look a bit crowded. Oyyy. But the first shed looks great!

I finally finished layering mulched leaves over all the dirt in the yard. It's a somewhat ridiculous process: Rake fall's leaves up off the yard, shred the leaves, redistribute the leaves all over the yard. All in a bid to improve our dirt. I also spent some time contemplating a fenced veggie garden area ... all in due time.

Mulched leaves now cover all of the backyard planting areas.
Now I just need plants. (Note the almost full moon rising.)

All this time off from working at the garden nursery has also meant a whole lot more cooking. In the past two days, it's been Martha Stewart's ribeye steak and smashed potatoes, Martha's delicious mini biscotti (With grapefruit zest! So yummy!) and America's Test Kitchen's chicken stew, which was outstanding.

So, who's visiting next?

Thawing Out and Gearing Up

Good thing the plants don't need watering anytime soon.

Take THAT, record cold! Thanks to Mason feeding the fire every few hours on Monday night, we survived a low of 1 degree, which seems kinda amazing considering how "shacky" our little shack in the woods feels sometimes. The cold water faucet in the kitchen froze, but only briefly. So did the rainwater collection "system." But tomorrow? High of 60, thank you very much (yeah, yeah, yeah, and rain).

We make a lot of lists on the mountain. I splurged and used some gorgeous paper from Michiela for this one,

I used my time holed up inside to come up with a wish list for my one-month sabbatical. Topping the list? Paint the new shed, which is coming along nicely. Except the doors. Doors are much harder to build than one would think. So far, the only thing I've scratched off the list is mulching around the new shed, and Mason did much of that.

That's the new shed on the right. The gray blob (front right) is a camellia covered by a sheet. 

I won't share everything on my to-do list, just so I have a few surprises for you this month. Let's just say the orbital sander is front and center. (The sound of the sander immediately brings me back to Ecuador, where Mason and I sanded and painted the bottom of Run Free, our trusty old sailboat.) And as always, impromptu projects pop up, like yesterday when I worked on making some homemade wooden yoga blocks. Pretty nifty, eh? And they weren't even on the list! (Photo to come -- still have to polyurethane them!)

One last bit of news today: Mason is a grandfather, again!! Grandchild No. 7 was born at an ungodly hour this morning. We don't have a name yet, but he's sure a cutie. Congrats Matt and Joanna!

Hunkered Down

Mason's book of choice? Steinbeck's "Tortilla Flat."

With temps topping out today at 17, and tonight down to 7 degrees so far, headed for zero or so, nothing much besides complaining happened today. Burning our little wood stove nonstop, we were able to keep the main floor of our cabin at about 58 degrees. The biggest concern was making sure the crawl space under the cabin stayed above 32 degrees, so that no water pipes burst. Tonight, we'll close off the other bedroom and turn on a propane heater in there so that our wood stove has to heat less area to make sure we stay warm enough. So far, so good ...

We did brave a walk with Nick around noon; he clearly remembers his Minnesota days, because he was all fired up, racing about the light layer of snow that fell last night. I covered a few plants with old sheets, and then we retreated inside for the rest of the day.

We all hunkered down in the loft, spending the afternoon reading and OK, maybe napping ever so slightly. Nick, who only recently was granted the right to get onto our bed (only with permission and never during the night), quickly realized how incredibly soft my new afghan is. My sister crocheted it for me for Christmas and I absolutely love it! (Thank you, Maggie!)

Nick, cuddled on my new, gorgeous blanket.

After an hour of yoga as the sun went down, it seemed the perfect time to bake some cookies and accidentally leave the oven on, 'til Mason caught on. Busted ...

Then I made some homemade chicken meatballs, served up in a homemade broth laced with lemon and rosemary. All in all,  not a bad day.

OK, I'm no food photographer. But it was delicious.