DEC. 22 UPDATE: Catching up on photos

Online shopping has kept me from blogging for a while. (I'm only half joking. I had a little too much fun shopping on Etsy this year. It was way too easy to personalize gifts that way.)

And it's way past my bedtime, but I thought I'd at least catch up on uploading photos for you all.

Erik is still as smiley as ever. He really wants to grab and chew things lately. No tooth coming in yet, that I can see, but I can't imagine it will be long.


We've had several good storms since I last wrote. This photo was taken inside the granary after the Dec. 14 blizzard. Snow was whipped around and driven into every possible crevice -- including, as pictured here, through the point where the siding meets the eaves. Not really a good thing. We'll ask the Prairie Builders construction company owner about that soon.


This window was not quite latched, and the snow found that crevice, too.


Snow was piled up pretty good in front of the door to the tractor shed.


Visibility wasn't very good for much of that Sunday blizzard. This is the view from the kitchen window.

SOFIA IS THREE! We had a nice little party on Dec. 13 before the storm hit, and everyone made it home safely. We had a Santa Lucia-themed cake -- this particular Santa Lucia doll just happens to have three candles. Who could have planned it better? (Actually, the theme was a last-minute diversion, just because I didn't want to have a Barbie-themed party.)


Since the blizzard day, the weather has been COLD. Wind chill warnings for many days. But on Saturday morning, even though another blizzard was forecast, it was pleasant enough to head outside for a bit of sledding ...


... as long as we stayed out of the wind. Doesn't that just look cold? We didn't venture past the trees on our little walk.


The wind is going to be a bit of a problem for us -- the north wind creates a nice drift right in front of the front door. And the wind just whips around that corner -- we'll have to consider planting trees.

Oh, and how's the house coming? Well, Dave hasn't been putting in the longest hours when the wind chill is 35 below. The slacker. (Note: There was sarcasm in the previous sentence.) And winter brings its own to-do list: Snow-blowing the road, plugging in the tractor, plugging in the car, etc. But he's still managed to get quite a bit of wiring done. If we had a stretch of decent weather, I'd say what he has left on the wiring is just a weekend's worth of work.

And we'll soon be off for a few days of Christmassing! As long as the weather holds, and it looks like it should be OK for our drive to St. Paul on Wednesday and our drive to Iowa on Friday.

Merry Christmas, everyone! May your holiday fill you with gratitude and peace.

DEC. 11 UPDATE: Still wiring

Does it look cold here? That's because it is! Sofia and I went out and investigated the frost on the porch windows Tuesday morning. It was pretty with the morning light shining through it; I had fun taking a few pictures.


The sparrows were huddled in the lilac bush outside the window.


Winter sunrises will be nice once we get into the new house -- look how much light we'll get in those south windows!


Sunrise through a lilac branch.


Just an artsy frost picture. The color was more impressive in person.

... Dave has been working steadily on wiring. The upstairs is nearly finished; Dave just needs to wire the smoke detectors up there. I think then we're down to wiring the kitchen and bathroom, and a few other details here and there that need finishing or changing.

It's good that the wiring is nearly finished. It's starting to get seriously cold here, and every time the temperature drops into the single digits, Dave gets nervous about the above-ground pipes freezing. They are inside the house, but it's still unheated when he's not out there working in it. And even then there's nothing to stop the heat from going out the vents in the roof in the addition. Once the wiring is done, Dave can get busy putting up insulation -- which will not only help the pipe-freezing worry, but will make it much more comfortable for Dave when he's working in there.

Dave and I plotted out where the appliances in the kitchen would go with chalk on the floor last night. Everything will fit where we'd planned it, but with not a whole lot of inches to spare, and we have to get the skinnier versions of the refrigerator and the dishwasher. Oh, well -- it's probably what I would have picked, anyway. We will have a large freezer in the addition to help with food storage as well, so hopefully the 30-inch fridge will be OK, and I think the 18-inch dishwasher will be adequate.

... It really is nice to be able to go into the house and really envision where everything is going to be! It's calming, really -- even if we're standing in the midst of construction mess, it's nice to think of actually living in that space. And it's so interesting to be creating something new on the old homeplace -- outside the door the farm is just as it's always been in my memory, while inside the door is something completely new, more like the design books that I've been reading than the granary it used to be.

... I've been working on planning Sofia's birthday party on Saturday, and now it looks like it might be done in by the weather! Hmph. Well, we'll see. Sometimes weathermen are wrong.

DEC. 2 UPDATE: Days are shorter

We went for a nice walk yesterday evening and enjoyed another lovely sunset ... though we didn't really enjoy the fact that it was setting at 4:30 in the afternoon! Hurrumph. Dave said that by the time he stops in to get some coffee and we go for a family walk, he doesn't have any natural light left to work by. Ah, well. Tis the season.


The renter's cows were grazing in the pasture across the road; one was out when we returned from our walk. It didn't look like it was in a big hurry, just grazing on the other side of the fence. Our renter's hired hand arrived shortly to shoo the cow back in. We weren't sure how it got out, as the fence didn't look to be down anywhere; maybe the cow was inspired and jumped!


Mari and her girls (Viena, Eliana and Amara) came over for a baking day on Saturday -- we made four different kinds of Christmas cookies. It was a little chaotic, but I think the girls had fun!

Eliana and Viena are posing here with some of the finished treats. (Sofia was too tired to smile by that point.)

Sofia's cookies had a signature look. She's apparently a frosting minimalist. Can you pick out her creations?

NOV. 26 UPDATE: Happy Thanksgiving!

I've really fallen off the wagon blog posting-wise -- I haven't been out to get many pictures lately, and the things Dave's been working on haven't been all that conducive to photos in any case.

But here's a quick update:

There are boxes in the walls all over the place! Not sure exactly what the grand total is, but I'm guessing that part of the wiring job will soon be finished. Then Dave still needs to figure out what goes on which circuit and thread wires to all the boxes.

The electrical inspector showed up unexpectedly the other day, and then called the next day. We were under the impression that we'd call him to come when we were ready, not have him poking about before that point. Dave left him a message that we weren't ready for him yet, so hopefully we're not on his bad list.


Dave finished framing in the east side of the upstairs -- someday, if I get my way, the little room on the north (left) side will be a second bathroom (cozy, I know, but the essentials would be there). Just south of that is a smallish closet, which opens into the bedroom on the south side.

All this framing had been in the plans as put off until later, but it made more sense for the wiring to have them in place now, so here they are!


Dave also finished the small section of the wall that covered the ends of the knee walls. Just another little detail that has to be in place before drywalling can begin.


I took this picture today -- just wanted to point out how well our passive design seems to be working! The sun is low enough in the southern sky that the eaves no longer cover any part of the window, meaning quite a bit of warmth and light is getting in.

I took the photo above at around 1 p.m.; compare that with the photo below, which was taken Aug. 9, about 9 a.m. (well before the sun was at its highest point):

Of course, the pictures seem persuasive, but does it feel warmer inside? I'd have to say yes, after stopping in this afternoon -- it was noticeably toastier indoors than out, and Dave had not built a fire in the house the day before.


... Since I know some of you are fans of pictures of the kids, I thought I'd add a few:

Snow doesn't stop a girl who wants to swing! (And Dave's taken to wearing orange most times he's outside, just as a precaution. Two people were shot in separate hunting accidents in the past two weeks, and one of them wasn't even hunting at the time. ... Or maybe it's just Dave's seasonal fashion statement.)


Sofia said she was going to do some weaving the other day. She hopped right on Mom's loom and grabbed a shuttle!

She knew what to do!

We recruited all available heads to model Mom's wares for her online store. The goal was to get as much as possible posted before "black Friday." And we did it! Nearly every hat Mom has in stock is now online. Erik complied with our requests quite admirably -- he smiled and cooed for the camera. But then, he smiles and coos most of the time.


Sofia did not hold quite as still for the camera, but she had a good time, too! This is one of the few shots I took that weren't blurry.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I am feeling tired but thankful for all my blessings this year. In a time when so many people are feeling economic hardship, Dave and I both have work that pays reasonably well and is in our fields. And we both have shorter commutes than we did a year ago (me, much shorter -- just down the stairs to the computer). Our future abode has gone from a dusty old granary and a design on paper to something that really resembles a home in less than a year. We have family nearby (OK, sometimes a little too nearby, but let's not nitpick here) to help and support us when we need it, and to celebrate holidays and every-days with. And we of course have a smart, beautiful near-3-year-old and a handsome, healthy, smiley baby.

Life is good, really!

Enjoy your turkey! (Or ham, as the case may be.)

You get that giraffe by the throat!

Just had to share this photo of Erik. He's really into grabbing things and chewing on them lately!

NOV. 17 UPDATE: Walls and wiring

First, for the house update -- then I'll get to the excuse for it being late!

Don and Dave got a lot of work done over the weekend -- Don and Mary came on Thursday night, instead of Friday night like they've done past weekends, so Don and Dave would have two full days to work on the house. And that time really showed by noon Sunday when they quit for the day.

We had been planning on leaving the west side of the upstairs just as a railing for the time being while we concentrated on making the downstairs livable, but as Dave considered the wiring plan for the house, it became clear that building the walls now would make wiring the upstairs a lot easier. Not to mention that the drywalling could be done all at once, instead of having to do some drywalling after we were already living in the house. So here you see the upstairs -- I'm standing in the northeast corner of the upstairs, looking west down the hallway, toward the west bedroom (to the south) and a large closet (at the end of the hall).


Don and Dave built the wall on the north side of this bedroom (this is the east bedroom upstairs) this weekend -- they'd already done the west wall of this room some time ago.

Dave spent more time "playing on the monkey bars" -- i.e., balancing on the scaffolding -- to install the box for the fan. That fan will really be necessary to make sure the heat from the stove doesn't just sit up in the second story. We're hoping this home heating plan works!


The woodstove was roaring pleasantly most of the weekend, and it really did make a noticable difference while they were working out there -- they didn't need to wear jackets while they were out working. They still wore hats most of the time, but that could be a fashion statement.


Don and Dave worked until midnight on Saturday night, but they didn't really realize what time it was -- they were in the wiring "zone," apparently. But when they came in, they had the two north bedrooms (downstairs) all wired! I think Don finished the east upstairs bedroom on Sunday morning, and Dave got that fan box installed then as well. They finished off wiring the addition also -- Dave had been working on that throughout the week. They've also got a plan for much of the rest of the wiring, so hopefully a lot of the "thought-work" of wiring is done now and just the "work-work" remains.

... So, on to the excuse: I didn't post this Sunday night because I wasn't on the computer, and I wasn't on the computer because the power kept flickering in a number of rooms in the house. It really spooked us, because the power would go out in outlets that were not only on separate circuits but in separate buildings -- the barn lights would go out then, too. We thought there might be some crazy short in the wall that was causing the problems, though the barn light problem threw us off. We called an electrician, who recommended that we call the power company first to make sure there wasn't a problem at the pole, before the electricity got to the house.

We did, and the power company found several loose connections on our lines, one of which was running to the barn. So maybe that was the problem.

But then a woman from the power company called later in the afternoon and said that we weren't the only ones having problems, and that they had found problems in the line going up to our area -- apparently all the farmers around are running their grain dryers and overloading the system.

In any case, we haven't had any more problems this afternoon, so hopefully we've put off rewiring this old house for a while. And hopefully everyone can sleep a little better this evening -- Dad said he didn't sleep well last night because he was worrying about the wiring, and Dave brought in the fire escape ladder he'd bought for the new house -- just in case!

NOV. 9 UPDATE: Home and hearth

Just a quick update -- it's past my bedtime -- but I had to share with you our progress today!

You can almost make out what I'm so excited about from this photo ...

There's smoke coming out of the chimney!

Yes, that's right, Dave got the wood stove working today. Here's a view of our cozy roaring hearth:

It was just so nice to come into the house and see that flame flickering there, and smell the faint odor of wood smoke in the air. (Dave said he'd had to open the door a few times to stir the fire -- hopefully that's the only reason we were smelling smoke!)

Sofia and I came out to check out the first fire. You'll notice our winter attire -- it's good and cold here already. Cold enough to really appreciate the wood stove! It was somewhat warmer in the house after the small fire that Dave built in the stove (you're not supposed to build a very big fire for the first one), which is pretty good, considering that the walls are only thinly insulated at the moment.
Getting the wood stove going involved "playing on the monkey bars," as Dave told Sofia -- climbing up the scaffolding to get the stove pipe in place. I was out helping him for a while last night -- I'm glad he was on there and not me. It's a long way down!

Dave, who is clearly not comfortable with heights, said he just had to keep telling himself that if that board were on the ground he'd have no trouble walking on it.

To get in the last few screws on the far side of the pipe, Dave balanced a board from the railing on one side to that platform on the other. Whew! I'm glad I wasn't watching for that part. I might have hyperventilated.

... We went to Harvest Festival at our church this evening. It's an annual event that's taken place for many, many decades at our small country church -- a worship service followed by a potluck to celebrate the harvest and give thanks for it. I was recruited onto church council this year, and we chose this date for the festival because we were pretty sure harvest would be done for the year, or at least winding up. Ha! Almost none of the active farming members of the church were there -- our renter, in fact, was out combining until just an hour or so ago. I could watch him from my spot here at the computer -- the combine and semi-truck lights shone long past sunset.

Apparently the snow we've received isn't enough to keep the farmers out of the fields. The problem for them is that the corn is nowhere near dry yet; they can harvest it and expect to pay massive drying fees when they deliver it, or they can wait until spring and lose yields to deer, raccoons, and falling stalks. No good options there.

NOV. 7 UPDATE: Photos of the last of fall

I went for a walk on Monday evening, enjoying one of the last days of nice fall weather, and got a number of nice photos.

I think I've mentioned how a person could take gorgeous sunset photos nearly every evening here:





I just love the colors this time of year -- the browns and golds of the fields and the purples and pinks of the sky.

You'll notice the soybeans have been harvested nearby, but the corn has not. And now, with the big blizzard that hit the state on Wednesday, who knows when it will be. Right around here we didn't get more than an inch of snow, but pretty much on all sides of us people were hit with more. And the weather is supposed to stay cold for at least a week, so no chance of it melting. It's not looking good for any crops that didn't get out of the fields before Wednesday.

(You'll notice I don't have any photos of the storm. For one thing, it wouldn't make that great a photo, since we didn't get all that much snow. But I've also been a winter wuss, so far. I haven't even peeked my nose out to get the mail. Maybe after the wind dies down -- and after I find my long underwear.)

Dave was working on preparing for winter on Monday night while I was out for my walk:

Sofia had fun dancing around outside while her daddy loaded some firewood to put in the shed, so we would have some that wasn't snow-covered.

Dave is working on getting the woodstove functional. All it really needs is to have the stovepipe connected, but we'll all feel better if the cement board is in place on the walls of the stairs surrounding the stove -- and to put that in, Dave needed to finish some detail work on the stairs. So over the past few days he's added the trim board that needed to be there, and he'll hopefully get all the cement board up tonight. (Out in the cold, with the wind howling outside. And he was out working until midnight last night, when the wind was howling even louder. Can't say the guy isn't dedicated!)

The eventual plan is to put tile on that cement board on the stair walls, but Dave figured out today that for now we can just paint the cement board and put off that tiling project until later.

... Dave's also been working on wiring. He's got the addition nearly done -- we've considered getting that room finished off first, including insulation and drywall. This would be good for several reasons: The pipes coming into the house would be well-insulated from the cold, and (here's the idea I like) it's possible that if we get that area nearly finished, we could start using it for storage and maybe get a little relief from the stuff crammed into every crevice of this old farmhouse. ... The more I think about it, that might not do all that much good on a practical level, since I'm not sure what cleared corner would actually help us feel less crowded, but maybe it would help me psychologically just to know we've cleared a little space.

... I took Sofia to her Me and My Shadow (boy, isn't that a true way to describe it!) toddler and mommy art class on Wednesday morning. I thought it was odd -- no one there mentioned the election! Perhaps some people were depressed, and perhaps some people were elated, but you'd think if either one of those was the case you'd bring it up in conversation. I guess it's the South Dakota niceness showing itself -- no one wants to offend anyone else by bringing up politics. I just thought this election might transcend those rules. Apparently not.

... My opinion of the election? Well, I'm not supposed to advertise my biases as a journalist, but let's just say Dave and I got out the champagne as we watched Barack Obama's acceptance speech. I think Maya Angelou said it best -- she was so happy to see that her country was "growing up."

NOV. 1 UPDATE: At last, a post

I've not been posting regularly lately, and I think I've finally figured out why: psychological nail-biting. This New York Times article explained my condition, which is apparently afflicting all sorts of people right now!

But I'll make an effort to focus my attention elsewhere. Like on our cute little trick-or-treaters:


That's our little pepper, and our little princess! We made it to six houses before Sofia was cold and tired, and Erik was asleep. Sofia has plenty of candy, though, as people tend to be generous with candy in Frederick -- no one-Tootsie-Roll stops here.

... And how's the house coming along? Well, not as fast as either Dave or I would like, but there's progress nearly every day. Last weekend Dave and his Dad got some wiring done. Two nights ago Dave got the screen door on the addition. (Did you know screen doors don't come with storm windows -- you have to buy those separately? That seemed a fairly integral part of the door, to my mind, but apparently the door makers have figured out how to work the system.)

And a week ago Friday Dave finished the railing on the stairs:


Today Dave worked on getting the ladder off the roof, which he accomplished with no broken bones or windows, something we can all be thankful for. (It had been up there since they installed the chimney, and he'd left it for a while in case adjustments had to be made.) He also gathered some firewood. Winter is coming ...

... Erik was baptized last Sunday, and we had a family picture taken, which hasn't happened since Amara and Erik have been around. Dave's dad, Don, gets the photo credit for this one. Dave's mom, Mary, gets credit for getting Erik (and the other girls) to smile for the photo.

OCT 20 UPDATE: A way to make an entrance

Dave got the stairs into the house painted over the weekend. They look pretty good, even if he did build them in the dark!

Up close you can see that he was painting quickly, as he dripped paint on the stringers (the wood under the stairs). I suggested just painting the stringers, too, but he said that pressure-treated wood isn't supposed to be painted for a year or so, as it is still a bit damp from whatever they treated it with and needs some time to cure.

At least we don't have to worry as much about the chemicals they use on that lumber anymore -- lumber treated after 2004 shouldn't have arsenic in it. But if you have wood structures made before that, they are likely to have arsenic on them -- my sister had some playground equipment in their backyard tested (the tests are done by sending a swipe to the Environmental Quality Institute, where Dave worked while we lived in Asheville, N.C.) and found that their swingset was in the highest category of arsenic levels.

... Dave and I did some plotting in the new house after the kids fell asleep last night. We sure found a lot to disagree about! I think the problem is I've been reading all sorts of design books and blogs, while he's been reading carpentry and electrical guides, and I think different people write them and they don't read each others' books.

I was going down the list of where I want all the lights in the kitchen, for example, and I could just see in Dave's eyes the computations of just how complicated I was making things. Why couldn't we just have a light in the middle of the ceiling in the kitchen and call it good? he asked. Well, because every time we wanted to work at the counters, we would cuss because our shadows blocked the light and we couldn't see what we were doing. (There are no lights under the cupboards in the old farmhouse now, and I always end up working at the kitchen table.)

We also disagree about whether a vent over the stove is necessary. It's probably not necessary, but it seems to me that having one is a good idea when our floor plan is so open. Anybody else have any thoughts on this? And anyone know if they always have to vent to the outside? It seems to me one apartment I lived in had a vent that just cycled air through some sort of charcoal filter.

... We've decided what kind of alternate heating we're going to have, at least in the short term. (This is in addition to the wood stove, which should be our main source of heat.) Baseboard heaters are the cheapest, easiest option, so we'll have them at least for a while. If we eventually decide to invest in a heat pump, we could take out the baseboard heaters and not be out too much money, or time and effort.

But we were standing in the bathroom debating how we were going to heat it -- even considering (again) moving the wall so we could put a heater against one of the walls -- when it occurred to me that the best option was the one that I wanted in the first place: heat under my feet! So we decided to at least do radiant floor heating in the bathroom. We are still discussing that for the dining room and kitchen.
... We decided to leave the walls as they've been framed up in the bathroom, and just put a little table in that window nook. It could have a tall, narrow column of drawers under the table on the west side, leaving enough room for a little stool on the right. Then we'd set a mirror on the table, and we ladies of the household would have a place to sit and make ourselves beautiful, in addition to the mirror space above the vanity. I also like the fact that the stool could be pulled out while the kids are in the bath, so whoever is giving the bath has a place to sit that's not the toilet.


... Speaking of bathtime, I told Dave we had to record this bath of Erik's, since it's one of the only ones he hasn't cried through. The secret? Giving him a bath in the living room, in front of the space heater. A warm baby is a happy baby! (I knew this before, but I seemed to always underestimate how cold they get, how quickly.)

... My dad has been suffering from another cold for a few days now, and Sofia, Erik and I are all coming down with it. Erik and I can tough it out -- it's just a cold for us -- but colds can send both Sofia and my dad to the hospital, so we're hoping we don't have that kind of news to report in the near future!