Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Wonderful Christmas

And no baby yet. :)

Though we had another very nice long hand-holding walk with the pooches, followed by romping around in the field next door, (literally hopping about) under the almost full moon changing "come on Petunia".

Merry Christmas everyone.

Monday, December 24, 2007

No Baby Yet

But any moment now.

The phone has been ringing off the hook. Kinda fun, but I imagine it will get less so when we are actually in labor, or over due.

Alexe's doing well, after a 24 hour stomach bug. Petunia's fully prepared to come out, firmly planted head down, and making Alexe ache in all sorts of new places.

We're officially due on Friday, but who knows if we'll make it that long, or if we'll still be waiting 2 weeks from now.

We're doing everything we can to help the process along. We went for a very pleasant walk in the wilderness preserve a few miles away, all the way down to the river, through the cypress groves and swamps. Wandering through the woods, holding hands and chattering, with the pooches racing through the woods, cutting in front of us periodically to make sure we're still moving; We saw our life this afternoon as just this, walking along holding hands, with the weather, the trees, the terrain, the seasons, and the things racing around us changing, and us just strolling along, enjoying it all. Heaven on Earth.


I have a question for anyone who can find an answer: How often are beavers crushed by falling trees?

We're sitting in the sun filled living room, Alexe snoozing on the couch wrapped in a duvee, hand on belly. Shadow's pooped, flopped half on my foot and gently snoring. Dido's chewing away on her chewy-chip, looking worriedly over at Shadow, who finished hers more than an hour ago.

Oh, that's something I wanted to mention here, to anyone who is interested. I have been conducting a study of tennis balls. We have the perfect stress tester, powerful jaws, slightly sharp teeth, and a love for tennis balls that keeps us up at night with the incessant slobbering/chewing sounds.

I've been looking for a tennis ball brand that does not come unglued with a couple strong chomps. The "made for pooches" brands, all of them, are good for maybe 10 minutes. They are made of thicker rubber, but less flexible, and as all tennis balls are made in 2 halves and then glued together, they need to be plyable to stay together. (John and Christy, Shadow loved her present-balls, but had them in little pieces all over the house in under a half hour.)

Penn, while expensive, last under 2 hours, 3 if Shadow's savoring them. Almost every other brand, whatever Walmart has on the shelf, will break down more quickly.

Far and away the best: Wilsons. These, for some reason, are guaranteed to last overnight, sometimes 2 nights, sticking together even after Shadow has gotten a tooth or 2 through them.

Hope that bit of info comes in handy at some point.

Much love to most everyone.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Merry Holidays

We just said goodbye to Caitlin, Jim, and Natalie this morning.
Alexe went into town to send off our last Christmas boxes and cards, and do some other errands, leaving me at home to catch up on rest, do laundry and clean up the house, and generally shake off my funk at having my family leave.

We had a very nice visit, a full house since last Sunday evening. They brought lots of presents, my hunting rifle that my father was storing and packed up for me, (now I can try for a boar, something I've wanted to do since I moved down South) my paintball equipment, (not sure what I'm going to do with it, but fun to have) and a ton of fun board games. I won at all of them.

We received a package from my parents and another from Nicholas and Emily, both loaded with goodies.

This post is a general wrap up of recent events, and a few pictures of my various interests / projects.

I've been cleaning bricks in the upstairs of my building. I had intended to bring the first floor almost to completion before working on the upstairs, but as I realized the mess that would trickle down on some projects, I've been fitting those in to my schedule. Cleaning bricks, with the final step being a good long hose down with a pressure washer, makes for a watery mess flooding the first floor, so I'm working through that as quickly as possible.
This is a portion of the structural repair I put in. With guidance from 2 different engineers, I've run three 24 ft 3/4 inch steel rods from the back wall running into the floor joists of the building. The floor joists have been tied to each other, so the pressure is spread evenly. A turn buckle in the middle, and I pulled the back wall in about an inch and a half. The south wall has 4 rods going through it, tied to the end of the floor joists that were cut off 60+ years ago to make a hole for the stairs. Now I'm going to put in a floor and ceiling, and forget about this corner.
This is our baby girl's room. When we first started thinking about having Petunia (nickname, not her actual name), we talked through how little a baby actually needs, and how crazy the people who redecorate and dedicate lots of energy to beautifying a room for a creature with vision that doesn't reach beyond their crib must be.
Then our wonderful landlord came by and painted the room a beautiful blue that Alexe picked out, I put in new carpet, replaced the window Alexe broke, and slowly Alexe has moved furniture in, made curtains, and generally made it into one of the nicer rooms in the house.


A picture from the local Railroad museum of my building before the top floor was removed. Awesome, isn't it? The owner of the building was an elderly woman whose father had built this in 1870. She was concerned over the cracks that had formed on the southern-rear corner of the building (the ones I just repaired) and was convinced by someone that these were caused by the weight of the building. So she had the extra story removed to make it lighter. Grrr.

Natalie opening her final Christmas present. Alexe made her place mats and napkins from the same fabric she used to make the curtains in Petunia's room. And I went on a long search through every antique store in Oxford in search of an elegant set of silver salt and pepper shakers. A nice first apartment gift we thought.


Natalie in front of our Christmas tree. (After a word of caution from my mama, I won't go over where this tree is from. :) )
My darling bride, even though she is full term and the bay dropped a few nights ago, was a champion hostess. She took a bit of ribbing from my sisters on the cleanliness of the house, and Alexe's compulsive measures to keep it that way, but I'm proud of her and love showing off the home she provides for us.
The dinner table.
Everyone except for Alexe, who needed some time to work, took a road trip out through the Delta to see the Mississippi river. This is Natalie jumping off an old bulk-head at Friar's Point.

This is my sisters and brother in law, where we stopped at Morgan Freeman's club, Ground Zero, for a photo opportunity. The club is one of the most popular destinations in Northern MS, and it's always an interesting contrast for Northerners to see what prosperity looks like in the South. Looking at the run down towns in the North-East, it is still obvious the immense wealth and industry that used to exist. In the South, the past is also easy to see, and the disparity between the North and South's heydays is shocking.


Caitlin silhouetted in front of the setting sun over the Mississippi river.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

More pictures,kind of

I'm really pleased with this ability to make a whole bunch of photos accessible to you all through a simple link to Alexe's web album.

So following on the update on the building from the other day, I thought I would post the full album of pictures of that same building before I purchased it. Gives a bit of perspective, and for those of you who haven't visited, it might give you a better sense of what it is we got ourselves into. (Also, it should increase your "impressed" ness with how far we've come.

http://picasaweb.google.com/alexe.pvb/WagnerBuildingBefore

Monday, October 29, 2007

Photo bonanza

Blogger isn't being cooperative to my big picture-upload.
I'm going to point you to a web album I just tried for the first time. It's part of Alexe's larger web album, so if you want to cruise through for a while, have a blast.
I just took a bunch of pictures of the building, unlabelled, but I want to catch the steps along the way. I have a plumber helping out this week, which will jump me forward quite a bit.

http://picasaweb.google.com/alexe.pvb/PictureBonanza

Alexe was away on a trip back to Virginia for the past 10 days. I've been going slightly bonkers, working every day since she left, either on the building, or at my day job, and regularly both.

I've had no reason to go home when I can bring the dogs down to the building with me. I'm feeling much more relaxed since she got back.

Perhaps some commentary later. I'm tired, and have to go back to work tomorrow.
Enjoy the pictures, I hope they're not too confusing.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Preparation

I just saw a headline, or "human interest" thingy on Reuters asking: If an asteroid was headed towards Earth and you had 60 minutes left in your life, what would you do?

So I started thinking about it, and was planning my 60 minutes. My first thought was hat I would hop in the car and start racing home, calling my parents, my sisters, Nicholas and John and Natasha and ... then I realised that there's big dead zone between here and home. And I would want to say more than a couple words to some of you. But as soon as I got home I would want to be with Alexe, to walk across the street and lie down in the field with her and Shadow and Dido and watch the sky and talk. And honestly, I would want to call her on my drive home. So the whole calling loved ones isn't going to work out for me.

My solution is this. If ever there is some horrendous catastrophe that is going to happen quickly, I am not going to call you. Know I love you, and you are more than welcome to visit me and alexe in our hut in heaven.

If there's more time, I may give you a call, but if I don't, the above holds.

mkay?

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Alexe's birthday today!

And she's blue.

The stupid spa called and ruined her surprise yesterday, and she's worrying about passing out of the Spring Chicken age range. (I have assured her that won't happen until she's 72, but she's still worrying.)

Since the spa is ruined I'm scrambling with fridge installation and apple cake for her tonight, but she would very much benefit from a flood of loving, supportive calls. This is the girl who has danced her cute patoot through every birthday she has ever had. She loves her birthday, more than anyone I have ever met.

So call please. Multiple times. If you don't have her cell number (she's in Oxford today) call me and I'll give it to you.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Alexe's last day as a 24 year old

And she's off having our baby girl checked on.

Can't say enough about what a good choice I made. She's almost 7 months preggers now, and is just beautiful. Last night we went to the town's athletic fields to play with the pooches, and she (Alexe) was racing around after Shadow, scrambling for the tennis ball, and even attempted a cart wheel! (A noble attempt.)

Good strong woman. And cute as a button.

On Saturday night we moseyed down to the town green for the weekly music event. Had a very pleasant, mellow time sitting on a bench eating spaghetti from the local girl's softball team fundraiser and hamburgers from the Lion's club, and listening to a band sing about cornbread. Lots of folks stopping by our bench to say hello, tell Alexe she looks great, and generally ask if I know what I'm going to do with the building. (It's positioned exactly across the street from the band stand, I think a very elegant back drop, but it's hard to avoid it coming up in conversations.)

There is a 3rd generation pharmacist in town, he's running the same drug store (with soda fountain) his grandfather started. Alexe has interviewed him for her Talk of the Valley weekly column, and I've listened to him guest preach at church, but I had not yet met him. (This is the case with most of the town; Alexe knows them intimately, I do not.)

This man, I believe in his 70s, glows a bit with God's constant presence. I'd seen this when he was at the pulpit, but after the first hour of his preaching, with no end in sight, it was a comical observation more than anything else.

On Saturday night I introduced myself, as he had just inquired after Alexe's health, and shook his hand. He was warm, affectionate, and soothing all at once. He said he had wanted to give me something for a while, took out his wallet, took a folded $100 bill out of a hidden pouch, and slipped it into my pocket. "A drop in the bucket to help with your renovation; we appreciate what you're doing so much" he said. I didn't even make a motion to refuse. There was no arguing.

He then reached into his breast pocket, pulled out a yellow card, handed it to me with a smile, and wished us a pleasant evening. The yellow card said, "Smile, God Loves you and I Love you." He had a pocket full of them.

I'm living in a story book.

Friday, October 5, 2007

My goodness it's been over a month

Hmm, and so much has happened in that month, as per usual. I have all sorts of photo-opportunities, which I take advantage of, thinking "this would be a great thing to share with my family and friends via the ole blog", and then I never get to it. Ditto with random thoughts, about life and love and babies and marriage. They just never seem to make it this far.

Which produces rambling entries, far longer and less concentrated than a worthwhile entry should be.

Quickly, then:
1) Building progresses well. Hiring a plumber and an electrician, purchased appliances for the appt and coin operated washer and dryer for the common area, walled off the back room on the first floor, have most of the tiles off the floor, have one teenager left working for me, had to fire the other.
2) As of Wed we are in the third trimester. Crazy. Alexe's belly is very definitely baby-filled now, and she is doing a remarkable job of a) mooning over baby b) hitting her daily novel writing quota c) continuing her proofing for the AJPH and her local newspaper work d) keeping out house cozy and clean e) nesting like crazy, ie making slipcovers, buying mirrors and more mirrors, and re-arranging the furniture f) radiating super-sexy preggers girl. I can still count on at least two prancing around the house belly first sessions per day.
3) Alexe's turning 25 next Tuesday, fun messing with her expectation levels.
4) Work progresses.
5) Northern Vermont troop is coming down in Dec, very much looking forward to that.
6) J&C may also come down in early Nov., also very cool.
7) We had a lovely 2 year anniversary.
8) Shadow is at the vet, again, with various troubles. More on that when I pick her up this afternoon.
9) Ummm, baby shower, long visit from the mother in-law, massive Costco run, etc. Just basic life stuff.

See, by the time I get here, the thoughts muddle and nothing really seems that news worthy.

Re-reading the Chtorr series, in between the birthing books as I'm on Dula (sp?) duties. Still one of my favorite science fiction series, the Chtorr, not the birthing books.

Brendan's birthday and the anniversary of his death passed by in late August. A generally sullen time for everyone in my family, and a difficult time for Alexe, who has no idea what to say, and zero experience with not saying. I have weeks worth of not so deep thoughts about Brendan, his passing, death, and the general impact and importance of these events on me and everyone else. They can be easily condensed to this: it sucks.

It has produced an interesting fatalism in me since he died. I am constantly braced for loss. Which is highly ironic, because I am steeped in blessings far beyond my deserving. So much to lose. I make a point of being constantly thankful, yet always prepared for some terrible news. It's not so much a perpetual state of fear as a state of quiet acceptance.

This is not the easiest concept to articulate, because I am a faith based person, certainly feel that the large things are out of my control, but in no way do I limit my own efforts to impact my circumstances. It's an odd harmony between two contradictory thoughts that I completely believe. 1) I have no ability to change what has and will happen. However 2) My abilities are God's most direct means of effecting my life.

I suppose the underlying axiom here is God is a loving god, which I believe.

Which leads me to work my tail off for the betterment and safety of me and mine, believing that nothing will happen for us unless I make it happen, and simultaneously, I have no way of preventing stuff from happening to us.

How's that strike you?

It leads me to renovate a building rightfully requiring a crew of 20 and take on a chunk of business responsibility probably the job of 3 (both for the financial security they should eventually provide), make an effort every day to appreciate and indulge in my partner, and get a whopping life insurance policy just in case.

And miss Brendan.
And be happy to be alive.

Enjoy your weekend.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

So much!

I wrote a wonderful long post the other day, and blogger conveniently let it slip through the tubes of the Internet.

But, inspired by Nicholas' gargantuan catch-up effort on his blog, and some wonderful happenings yesterday, and my flight to DC in an hour, here goes.

We're having a girl!! A little princess!

Not to compete with my chief princess, who has made it very clear she will share the spotlight, but never step out of the middle of it.

My darling bride is weepy-ecstatic. She was prancing around the house yesterday, flipping her dress up over her belly and saying "it's a girl!!!". This continued when we walked the dogs all through town.

Wasn't until we were folding laundry on the couch, watching Scrubs and packing, that I noticed she had written "kiss me" on her belly. I certainly complied.

So that's our news.
I'm swamped with the building, still trying to get the engineer to complete his work. Tried prying up the 5k square feet of three layered vinyl tile on the first floor, got less than 1/4 of the room done in 10 hours, so I'm looking for some day laborers.

In DC all week for a conference, back to MS for 2 days, then up to PA for a family event at Blooming Grove, then down the NC for John and Sara's wedding, then back to MS. Weee.

Love to all.
A girl!

Thursday, August 9, 2007

My wonderful big and little sisters (and brother in law)

Feeling all mushy towards my sisters right now.
Caitlin and Jim went to the Simpson's premiere in Springfield, VT. She sent me a wonderful note in the mail today, along with a cd of all the pictures she took there.
I went through every picture, scanning the crowd for people I might recognize. Not one. In a town of < 10,000 people, that I spent most of the first 18 years of my life in. Slightly upsetting.
But thank you so much Caitlin. And there was a really sweet picture of C&J, which I am going to post here, just because I think they're so cute.



And just to prove the Simpson's thing, here's Groening.
oh, and here're some Simpson suits.


And anything but a small note: Natalie, at 20, paid off the student loans she took out for her first year of college. The youngest of us, and the only one with no college debt. Very proud of her.

Friday, August 3, 2007

New post

The trouble with delaying these updates is that the news and random thoughts just pile up, and it gets more daunting the longer you wait. However, since there are several folks who have not updated their blogs yet, and I need a high-horse from which to scold, here we go. (I refer here to a certain big sister, and best friend, who have mastered their guilt and continue through life with stale blog postings for months at a time.)

So much. Alexe is now 19 weeks pregnant. The 20th of this month we are going to find out if we have a boy or girl. We have no idea, and our preference seems to shift from week to week. I'm looking forward to the transition from "my sweetie has a little pooch belly and is acting funny" to "oh my Lord, we're having a child". Should be a hoot.

I've been away from my building project for two weeks while making a trip to Vegas for work, and then a working vacation to the NC coast with Alexe's family.

Vegas is loud and bright, and working a conference is super-draining. The kind of days when you fall into bed with a sore face from on the talking and smiling, laughing, and generally using up vast reserves of "pleasant Kagan". Nicholas came out for a short visit (in a cute little rented Prius, we had fun watching the batteries charge as we drove along), and we had a wonderful time first catching up, a necessity for a best friend I see once or twice a year if I'm lucky, and then we went out to Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. We swam in the lake, beautiful fresh water, and then went and took a peak at the dam. Amazing. Can't say much more about it without pictures, which are trapped in my cell phone.
Oh, and it was 112 degrees in the desert.

A pleasant red eye flight back to Memphis, a 5 am arrival I will never repeat, had me back at work for two days before Alexe and I piled into the car with Dido and Shadow and headed East for 1010 miles to Join Alexe's extended maternal side of the family for a week at the beach. (I worked while there to preserve vacation for paternity leave, not the most moral building location for that sort of thing.) The rented house the 9 of us stayed in was 3.5 miles down a beach of very soft and shifting sand, a novelty that wears off surprisingly quickly and becomes stressful as all get out. Local tow trucks have a field day charging $250 to get folks going again. The mother in law and her sisters went three days before combusting, and then it was a waiting game until Sat morning when we started our 1010 mile trek home.

2 things:
1)Alexe is so much fun in a bikini at the beach. Strutting and dancing with her belly pushed out, and playing in the waves with me without moving her legs too much because she's convinced they will look like baby seals to the sharks.
2)We miss Trader Joe's. Stopped at the nearest one to our house on the way back home, in Atlanta, and packed the car so full that Shadow was surrounded in the back seat by cascading piles of Pirate's Booty, and Dido was "stuck" on my lap.

The new stairs in our building are almost done, which is very exciting. This week is the Watermelon Carnival in Water Valley, and we're looking forward to the street dance tonight.

I'm sure there's more, but I've officially posted so slackers beware.


Thursday, July 12, 2007

Week 16


I was just strongly corrected when I asked "Week 14?"

My darling bride is sitting across the room knitting a vest for the impending toddler. (She's been talking about toddlers recently.) I'm back from a night at the building, where I discovered I can't figure out the sine of an angle without a calculator, and square roots of numbers in the tens of thousands don't pop into my mind the way they used to. I spent the whole evening figuring out the proper cuts for the stringers of my new stair case, and only cut one. It fits though, I installed it to make sure, and pulled it back out to use as a guide.

The most recent picture of the growing belly, 16 weeks, baby the size of an avocado.


Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Kagan's Fishin' Trip


A pleasant interlude from the building project.

I was invited to be the 14th person on a fishing trip over the weekend. I am easily 30 years younger than the median age of the party, a group of good old Mississippi boys that have been taking this particular trip for 37 years, but needed a body to fill out this particular trip. The logistics of the trip: a large boat, with sleeping cabins for all, heads out into the Gulf of Mexico. On top of this boat are 7 small skiffs, which are lowered into the water by cranes after the big boat moors at the fishing destination, and pairs of guys, plus fishing gear and a cooler of beverages, leave the mother ship for fishing adventures, returning for meals, showers, more beverages, and to sleep.

On Thursday I left with the two local Water Valley guys I was invited by, and we were in GulfPort, MS, loading our gear on the boat by 7 that evening, along with the rest of the crowd who had come from as far as Colorado. (The group all went to high school together, or some such thing, and have spread out over the years, but still come together for this trip.) That's the premise. For the next 3 days I slept very little, caught some fish, watched amazing amounts of alcohol processed by suffering livers, toasted under a bright sun, and had a generally hot, odd, and fun time.

We were fishing for speckled trout and red fish. I caught far more "junk" fish than the keepers, but these turned out to be far more fun to fight on the line. Most of these fish were under 3 pounds to give you perspective; we did catch one 3 lb 14 oz trout. Most of the water, as we were fishing off the Chandeleur Island, was approx. waist deep.

On to the pictures.

I'm not going to order them, because as I uploaded these they got all mixed up.

My fishing partner Cliff.
A fun story. Standing waist deep in water with the boat clipped to my belt so it wouldn't drift away, Cliff and I were catching lady fish by the dozens and releasing them. He said, "there's probably a bit of blood in the water now, and there are sharks around here." I turned my head, saw a fin, said "fin", we hopped our butts back into the boat, and I started reeling in the fish I already had on the line. There was a massive boiling of water not too far from where we had been standing, and I reeled in this fish head.
A rookery for Frigat (sp?) birds. Very neat, and large, birds.
A cat fish. Both Cliff and I were surprised to find these live in salt water.
Fishing off a sand bar.
We got stuck in some shallows. I started paddling (see below) and ended up having to tow us out.
Sorry I didn't rotate these folks. This picture is proof working on the building is putting me back in shape.
The second morning. Yes, we started fishing before first light. I was tired, and not so sure this was where I wanted to be.
This was Mason Island, much smaller since Katrina hit it.
Fishing off the tip of Mason Island.
Dolphins in the water. Fun to watch, they scared off the fish. We saw lots of interesting wildlife, sharks and many kind of fish, tons of birds, crabs swimming by.
It rained for 5 minutes the first morning, then was blue skies and scorching hot for the next three days.
Cliff, with a big trout.
Me the first morning, headed out after breakfast. Being the first morning, we didn't have our routine down so the sun was above the horizon when we set out. Just barely though.
The mother boat. Notice what is lining the side of the boat: cases of beer. The hard stuff was inside. After my first two beers, I admitted to myself and the fellas that I really don't like beer, and enjoyed my ginger ale, water, and root beer. I got a little crap for bringing little bottles of Pellegrino, but when they said bringing coolers full of cold beverages to go fishing, I brought fun things I liked.
And that's that. Alexe is counting to 120 for me to be done with this super long post.

Alexe's sister was visiting while I was away, which was great for her. Thanks 'Liza.

And would you believe it, (those of you who know my darling wife won't have trouble) she finished counting to 120 (I told her to give me two minutes), pushed me out of my seat, sat down to read this entry, and said, "you really need to sum up; it's not very good without a summary." Aaargh !!

So I had a fascinating exposure to salt water fishing, 60-70 yr old conservative southern boy bonding, sleep deprivation, and the burning sun over the Gulf. Great lessons learned, stories added to the library, and crispy skin left int he shower.

Two interesting things:
1) Everyone has said it, but I'll add my experience. Katrina devastated that area. I was standing on a dock made of concrete. The end of that dock was a twisted mess of rebar and giant slabs of the same concrete. We drove by a lovely grove of live oaks, huge trees I couldn't fit my arms around if they were twice as long. The tops were still bare, the middle sections just struggling to get some green out. They were still beautiful, and I commented on what a lovely grove it was, so close to the beach. I was told that it used to be a neighborhood, complete with huge Victorian homes over 100 years old. There was not a trace of them left, just the trees and what turned out to be new scrub brush coming up between them.

2) One night the conversation turned to politics. This crowd ripped George a new hole, cursing his ineptitude, intelligence (lack of), war-hunger, and general effect on America. They were in agreement that we went into Iraq for oil and money, and it was a terrible move. These folks are as conservative as they get, and all voted for the president. I had no idea the country was coming together so much. (Also, these guys admitted they voted for W because they all felt guilty for letting his father down when clinton unseated him. Never thought about it from that angle.)

Sunday, June 17, 2007

The promised pictures

I've been a bit slow in posting pictures of my pet project. Largely because, though I'm making huge leaps and strides, it doesn't show up well on camera. And I'm tired of telling people how impressed they should be.

The short, after filling the first dumpster single handedly, I've decided to hire a teenager to do some of the heavy lifting. All the walls, rooms, and 1/2 floors have been removed on the first level. As soon as I build the replacement stairs to the second floor, the originals will be pulled, and the second set of rear doors will be opened up again.

Most of the wiring, which was a scary mess, has been ripped out. After finding a live, old wire under the carpet, I stripped everything out of the breaker box except the lights and work sockets I need for now.

But first, the most important progress:
Amazing, isn't it? 12 weeks.

mmkay, on to the building: View from the front right corner.
View from the front left hand corner.

And the pile of materials I'm left with after ripping out all the unwanted walls and platforms. I could build a house out of the surplus dimensioned lumber and plywood I've got, just from the first floor, but it's riddled with nails right now. Another wonderful task for the teenager. (I tried getting Alexe to help, it didn't work out.)

The back stairwell to the second floor, mentioned above. I plan to remove this, as soon as I build the replacements. Notice the double doors trapped behind the stairs. These were sealed on the outside by a cinder-block wall, and on the inside by these stairs. All soon to change.
These are all large pictures, click on them to zoom in.
Have a great week.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Lots to show and tell.

But right now, I have no pictures handy, so I'll simply tell.

#1. We're having a baby. Due Dec. 28th, or thereabouts.
#2. We had a wonderful time at our cabin in VT. Final floor installed, wood stove installed, porch roof complete. And Harry put in a pond for us.
#3. Lots of progress on the building.
#4. We have been eating tomatoes, beans, peas, lettuce, carrots, basil, and turnips from our garden for weeks now.

Pictures of all of these wonderful topics will follow soon.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

2 weeks later











Apologies for the delay.
I've been pre-occupied.
It took a while of aimless ripping and tearing, but I've realized I'm simply clearing my canvas before I can start to create. Lots of sweat and fun, and a young wife who is relieved to learn that I want to play, and don't demand anything from her but occasional company and chattering.

Lots of pictures follow, or lead, depending on how this uploading works out.

(The dumpster arrived on Thursday, which helped clear a lot of the piles out.)