MARCH 21 UPDATE: Spring is here!

It's rare to go outside the last few days and not hear a gaggle of snow geese flying overhead. The yard is a muddy mess in places; I had a whole load of muddy children's laundry to do. We are eating supper when it's light again and our regular family walks have resumed.

Spring must be here!

And I do have quite a bit to blog about.



Check out all the drywall! Prairie Builders were here earlier this week and got all the high ceilings drywalled, as well as a good part of the upstairs.

They work so quickly! It is fun to watch professionals at work. They just carried that sheetrock up the ladders, lined it up, nailed it into place. Done. Then came cutting the place for the light. That took about 30 more seconds.

Mudding will take a good deal longer, though. But they'll help with that, too, at least for the high stuff that requires scaffolding.


... Dave had another project to work on today -- one that involved straddling the roof.

The cone that he's putting the black caulk under is not sitting exactly where it should be; because of the sharp angle of the roof, it is up a little in the back, meaning there's a quarter-inch gap in the front. For the most part this is no problem, but when the wind really starts to blow, it blows snow (or rain) up into that gap, and into the little attic area. Now that there's drywall up, that's a problem. Hopefully this caulking does the trick -- we're supposed to get rain this week.


... This is the project Dad's been working on for the last few months: A new sauna stove! It's made from an old baler. The guys at the junk yard just laughed at Dad when he asked them to get the baler box for him (which, frankly, I thought was a little rude of them). And I did wonder myself if this was more trouble than it was worth. Then I looked into the cost of new sauna stoves: About $700, at least, and then they wouldn't have the connection to the large water tank like this one has. (This is all engineered by my late uncle Arnold, and perhaps Leo and Dad, many years ago.) This all cost about $200.

At the moment, it stinks, though. I'm not sure what it is -- it's a hot metal, chemically smell. Dad's been trying to burn it off today. I don't know that I want to go in the sauna till it smells less.


There's a story behind this picture. Sofia is always eager to go on our walks, but then she tuckers out and just looks miserable walking home. The picture of misery!

... But Dave did cheer her up. She was smiling by the time we got home.