I wasn't complaining.

So the past few weeks I mentioned how it's been calm... The universe seems to have taken affront to that.

In the past week, a few things happened one after the other. I'm just thankful it wasn't all at once. 

Our well pump flat out died in the middle of me doing dishes Wednesday night. I got in touch with our regular plumber and he promised to come out and fix it in the morning. 

The new pump was installed quickly and easily Thursday morning, but the priming water didn't stay in the pipe... so the plumber had to go down into the well to hail out the pipe and replace the one way valve at the end of it. He said the one way valve going out might have been the thing that broke the old pump because without it, the pump has to work a lot more often.

The new pump is a lot quieter and works well. I'm definitely happy that we got this sorted out and don't have to worry about it for years.

Friday Morning came with rain and snow, coating the world in slush. We were expecting rain, but it's gotta snow sometimes right? 

Saturday was cold enough for the view to remain snowy. The neighbours were mostly happy to see the snow since it's been pretty mild this winter so far.

Sunday was nice and warm(10C) with lots of rain. The snow melted as the rain fell, and the front yard became a puddle again. Definitely gonna need to address that with some more organic matter in the soil and some thirstier plants. The puddles do drain within a few hours of the rain stopping so it's not that it's trapped water, it just infiltrates the tiniest bit slower than the rain falls during heavy rains.

SO, Sunday night, I was feeling alright with the snow washed away and the grocery trip completed... 

and then, 

at 5pm, 

the power went out.

Seems a transformer had exploded taking out the power for 1/2 the island. The power company estimated repair by 9pm. I had been just about to start dinner so we decided to go out and hope the power was back on when we got home. I kept an eye on the power company's site and they actually had it back up and running by 6pm but we were already 30 min from home so no point turning around without food in our bellies.

Generally, we've been good. Hugslut's still having fun with the Advent of Code puzzles and I've started taking French through DuoLingo. We've both been enjoying a new computer game called Slay the Spire, and are looking forward to our living room furniture getting delivered soon. I took a nap in the afternoon today because I'm feeling a bit run down. Might take it easy tomorrow too.

Puttering around the house

Made up the new canning label design for this year.  I figure if they're noticeably different each year I wont become that lady who dies with a bunch of 20 year old jars in the pantry. 

I finally got around to patching up the gaping hole in the bathroom wall. Hopefully that will prevent a lot of the heat loss into the basement. There’s some sanding and priming to do before painting but at least it’s solid.

I even changed the wipers on the car. They’d only been waiting about a month. Lol. 

Made some bread today and also took some cookies to the neighbours that have made an effort to keep in touch. I always make too much for the two of us and it makes me happy to share a smile. 

New year starting slowly

As expected, January is not a busy time. A few video games, a few phone calls, but mostly just puttering around the house. Our tattoos are healing up fine and I've been listening to Diskworld audiobooks while keeping house. I've also taken advantage of a few sales at the grocery store to stock up the freezer and shelves with chicken and beef. Weather sometimes brings a bit of snow but it melts within the day.

After a bunch of looking around online to get an idea of what we really wanted, Hugslut found a shop nearby with a couple TV stands and couches we wanted to see in person. We got a couch and a wall unit for the living room so we can relax together at night. Currently our only place to sit together is the bed and it's not really built for sitting. The kitchen chairs, and our office chairs, and the camping/deck chairs, aren't really built for two. The furniture we wanted weren't in stock of course so they were ordered and should arrive in a couple weeks.

A quiet but lovely holiday week

Some nice views on a drive.

Our New Tattoo Wedding Rings

We found a lovely icecream/bubbletea/sushi shop and brought home some kimchi.

Did some baking too. More details HERE and HERE.

Holly Jolly Holidays

Dec 18th

Dec. 19 morning

Dec 19 evening

So.... that didn't last... Arg. We were pretty sure the problem was having it partially done all the time and IF we could get the whole thing up on a low wind day, the anchoring straps and solidity of the structure would make it stay put..... So we worked out ASSES OFF into the night on Dec 22 to get it DONE. 

By the end, Hugslut had to point headlights at it so we could see the nuts & bolts.

Getting there...

Almost...

Done!

One of the hunters who park on our property to go hunting stopped by around sunset that night with a thank you gift of a goose and 4 lobsters. We needed to stop for dinner and decided that surprise lobster was much better than the original plans for dinner. :-)

After dinner, and after going back out to finish, we went for a congratulatory drive around and saw some lovely lights on the houses. This was the best I saw. Very festive. :-)

Next morning Dec 23rd, even though the wind picked up over night, The greenhouse was still standing!

The keen-eye'd can probably tell it's not perfect. The fact it got so mangled means things did not line up properly and actually made it really hard to make the panels go where they needed to. The ceiling of the greenhouse is not sealed. Many of the panels were not lined up with the ribs so the straps can't actually overlap the gap. This means the greenhouse will be less good... but less good is still much better than bad.

The 23rd was kinda busy for me. The little fridge and freezer we ordered a while ago were delivered, so I set those up and I canned up some split pea soup. 

Not too surprising in this roller coaster life... The greenhouse didn't hold. The last two panels that were the most crooked and therefore under the most pressure, popped overnight so the morning of Dec. 24th Hugslut and I hurried out to take them off all the way so they didn't damage themselves or anything else anymore than they already had.

I am just done with this greenhouse. I'm gonna cry and idk what we're actually gonna do about it but this is not functional. I can't make do with something that can't keep it's walls on. This likely means no greenhouse this upcoming season. No tomatoes, no peppers. . .  Maybe next year we can get some pros in to do up a new one.  Makes me sad because I had PLANS. 

I know, I know, Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. Don't mentally can salsa you haven't even planted the ingredients for... but it still sucks.

After that disappointing morning I decided to cheer myself up by doing some kitchen work. Washed a lot of dishes, canned up some Mock Pineapple, cooked up scalloped potatoes to go with the ham for dinner, made some lobster shell broth, and baked some sausage rolls so they'd be ready and appropriately refrigerated by the morning.

Dec 25th - Our traditional xmas breakfast plus music this morning. That's about all we do about xmas. We also tend to watch a themed movie and/or have a dinner with family at some point in December, but it's not a guarantee.

Happy Holidays to You & Yours.

 

Goodness! It’s been two weeks already?

So what have we been up to?

I started a fermenting project with some beets to see how we like fermented pickled beets. 

I also started a crochet project. I haven't done crochet in a while so I'm getting used to tension and such again.

Hugslut and I fought tooth and nail with the green house to get the first panel on in the barely sub-zero temps Sunday. Turns out the biggest part of the problem was the fact the bolts are just BARELY long enough to go through, and flat out are not long enough to leave them loose enough to fit the side panels in like you're supposed to be able to. 

The other part was that I had accidentally stuck one of the metal pieces on the plastic panel upside down so the holes were not lining up with the holes on the support struts. All of that was of course even worse because the metal was burning cold.

The collapsible dog kennel I ordered has arrived. This is intended as a chicken hospital. 

I know we don't have chickens yet, let alone ill chickens, but I'm doing my best to learn from the mistakes of others and I promised myself I'd make sure I had all the necessary/recommended equipment for any animal before we bring the animal on the farm. This means I'm planning to have everything(coop, fencing, hospital cage, first aid kit, food, grit, etc) ready by March so I can order(and hopefully receive) chickens in April without worries. 

Hugslut went on a work trip to Toronto for a couple days so I was left rattling around this big ol' house by myself. For first time since she started that job three years ago, we were actually away from each other overnight and it sucked. I missed my wifey.

This weekend we stopped off at the hardware store and got two more panels on the greenhouse. It's amazing how much easier one extra cm on the bolts, plus 5 extra degrees warmer, makes things.

Hugslut putting on a show when I asked for a pic.