March Hare

I nearly stepped on Mr. Bunny as I went back and forth between the house and the workshop. He was crouched by the foundation. When he accepted a carrot, I realized that he must be tame (also, he was QUITE plump!). I fired up the pellet stove, put him in a box, and gave him the run of the workshop for the night. Meanwhile we made some inquiries. It seems a family decamped abruptly, and a neighbor found a hutch full of rabbits in an outbuilding and turned them loose. This one wound up here. There is a happy ending: Joanne put out a notice on Facebook, and a woman who has three daughters and a sort of home petting zoo swooped down and took him away.

Reno Redux

 The endless kitchen renovation continues. I made another shelf to match the one in the "dining area." Here it is in the workshop finishing room, ready for staining. One more shelf to go...I think.

Fingers Crossed

The pellet stove I installed in December stopped working in early January. Yesterday I reinstalled the chimney, quite carefully, after verifying that the stove worked. But when I was done...it didn't. Back to the instructions, and I also disabled the cutoff that prevented the upper auger from running while the fuel door was open. Success!

Pressure Rising

 

This is embarrassing: a speck of coffee grounds blocked the filter, and the pressure shot up and stayed high. I had to wait until it slowly fell so that I could ease off the "portafilter" (that, apparently, is the name of the alloy basket that hold the filter). Well, I didn't blow it up, but for a while it looked like the 10-ton press disaster all over again.

Vale Valla

 Today we lost the last of our dogs, Valla Valhalla. 

Farewell, old friend.

Skyface

 

The sky was restless today; faces kept forming and then melting in the clouds. The weather is unsettled...and quite chilly!

Short Days and Long Shadows

It is late in January, the hardest month. Christmas is long over and Spring is still far away. Also--it is very cold. Astonishingly, our oil consumption is minimal. The wood and pellet stoves do most of the heating between them, and we have finally reached a point at which the upgrades to windows and insulation are making a difference.