8/7
Howdy all!
It's been an exciting and busy past few weeks around the ‘ol homestead.
Unwilling to work outside in the recent heat, I concentrated my effort on projects inside the dome. While our dreams of hardwood floors, big skylights, claw-foot tubs, a spiral staircase and new kitchen await budget approval, a few cans of paint and an extension roller have been passed and opened to the lowest bidder. I began with 10 gallons of white, stain-killing primer and set off to paint the ceiling/walls of the dome. I'll let you imagine what painting the inside of our 28' loft style dome entailed. I'll just say that next time we'll be employing a "research assistant" to do it. Now moving on to addition of color… Although we both have extensive art backgrounds and years of color and design theory behind us, Scott relinquished the color picking privilege to me with a resounding, “whatever color you pick will be perfect, dear,” that I suspect he learned from his father. In reality, I think he just doesn’t want to be responsible for the reply, “why yes- I did choose that color to paint my walls, don’t you like it?” So after days of perusing color chips and holding little swatches up to the wall pondering, “how will this color make the room feel?” I finally decided on “Sprig of Ivy.” The flat-wall sections (non-triangular sections where the doors and windows are) are now a light shade of muted olive green that compliments the warmth of the wood panels, and brings out the reddish earth-tones in the stone fireplace. I like to think that the cool tone also lends for a calm, soothing atmosphere, but at the same time is fresh and inviting. Yes, I have been reading a lot of trashy DIY books lately, but never-the-less feeling very proud of my color success, I confidently moved on to the kitchen. Our kitchen is dark and mildly cave-like, so I first decided that the color needs to be bright. Since the existing tile floor is white with black grout, and the cabinets have all been painted white with black trim to match, I thought that a bright but deep cherry red would be perfect and Scott, of course, agreed. I went and purchased a quart of glossy, “Colonial Red” and spent an afternoon painting the kitchen. Well, due to what we will call a mixing error the kitchen was not exactly “Colonial Red,” but more along the lines of 2/3 “thin, fresh blood red,” and the last 1/3 - the point at which I got to the bottom of the can where all the pigment was - turned more of a “thick pool of old dried-blood red.” I must say that the glossy finish of the paint really enhanced the gore-factor. If you guessed that the kitchen is now a lovely middle gray primer, awaiting a less garish color, you were right! This weekend we’ll see how “Firemist,” a more terra-cotta red, with a satin finish of course, works out.
Aside from painting we’ve been trying to keep up with the garden, the small unwanted animals at bay, and stacking firewood.
Two weeks ago we arrived home late Friday night after having dinner with friends in Burlington, to see car tracks through the yard. After Gina denied having driven across the lawn, my mind raced through the permutations of possible causes; electric company came by, perhaps the fire department to extinguish a small blaze, at best, burglars just backed up the truck to the door and shoveled everything in! Nervously, I grabbed a flashlight and walked around the house to see our 7 face cords of firewood, delivered - 10 days early - piled in an enormous mountain behind the house! Greta went haywire and would not stop barking at the pile. It was fully 4 ft tall by 20 ft in circumference. Well, that took most of the weekend, stacking firewood along the kennel fence and removing the 2 cords leftover from last year from along the house so we can eventually paint the exterior this summer.
Last Saturday and Sunday, the weather was spectacular, so we built a bomb-proof compost pit out of 4x4’s and some old rough cut hemlock that was stripped out of the barn to keep the animals out of the kitchen scraps. Mainly it just keeps out Greta but it looks enormous, like a cage for Lions!
The Garden is going crazy!! We get about 8-10 Zucchini a day of 2 varieties and several tomatoes, acorn squash, and now heads of broccoli! Man, they are absolutely delicious! There are some pumpkins already in the 5-10lb ranges expanding rapidly. Speaking of garden vermin, we found the new nest of the chipmunks, under the zucchini next to the barn! It looked like an excavation team had been to work with backhoe, sand and dirt piled everywhere. So thinking I would squash this quickly I loaded up the Havaheart trap and set it out next to the den entrance. Well the next morning all hell had broken loose. The trap was closed and tossed about, holes were dug all around it and the Zucchini was demolished. Apparently a much larger creature had come along and tried to take the bait, didn’t fit into the trap! I think it was a skunk ground hog, or some other larger mammal. Ugh, more creatures…
The night before last Gina baked the Acorn Squash with a sausage stuffing, MMM MMM good! There are 2 batches thirst quenching beer and wine fermenting in the downstairs bathroom: 5 gallons of Valpolicella wine and 5 gallons of the Porter. This week we are going to work on some aged cheeses and dry out some herbs, as the herb spiral is going gangbusters. 2 weeks ago Gina planted a bunch of rucola, spinach and another kind of lettuce. They are coming along just grandly!
Howdy all!
It's been an exciting and busy past few weeks around the ‘ol homestead.
Unwilling to work outside in the recent heat, I concentrated my effort on projects inside the dome. While our dreams of hardwood floors, big skylights, claw-foot tubs, a spiral staircase and new kitchen await budget approval, a few cans of paint and an extension roller have been passed and opened to the lowest bidder. I began with 10 gallons of white, stain-killing primer and set off to paint the ceiling/walls of the dome. I'll let you imagine what painting the inside of our 28' loft style dome entailed. I'll just say that next time we'll be employing a "research assistant" to do it. Now moving on to addition of color… Although we both have extensive art backgrounds and years of color and design theory behind us, Scott relinquished the color picking privilege to me with a resounding, “whatever color you pick will be perfect, dear,” that I suspect he learned from his father. In reality, I think he just doesn’t want to be responsible for the reply, “why yes- I did choose that color to paint my walls, don’t you like it?” So after days of perusing color chips and holding little swatches up to the wall pondering, “how will this color make the room feel?” I finally decided on “Sprig of Ivy.” The flat-wall sections (non-triangular sections where the doors and windows are) are now a light shade of muted olive green that compliments the warmth of the wood panels, and brings out the reddish earth-tones in the stone fireplace. I like to think that the cool tone also lends for a calm, soothing atmosphere, but at the same time is fresh and inviting. Yes, I have been reading a lot of trashy DIY books lately, but never-the-less feeling very proud of my color success, I confidently moved on to the kitchen. Our kitchen is dark and mildly cave-like, so I first decided that the color needs to be bright. Since the existing tile floor is white with black grout, and the cabinets have all been painted white with black trim to match, I thought that a bright but deep cherry red would be perfect and Scott, of course, agreed. I went and purchased a quart of glossy, “Colonial Red” and spent an afternoon painting the kitchen. Well, due to what we will call a mixing error the kitchen was not exactly “Colonial Red,” but more along the lines of 2/3 “thin, fresh blood red,” and the last 1/3 - the point at which I got to the bottom of the can where all the pigment was - turned more of a “thick pool of old dried-blood red.” I must say that the glossy finish of the paint really enhanced the gore-factor. If you guessed that the kitchen is now a lovely middle gray primer, awaiting a less garish color, you were right! This weekend we’ll see how “Firemist,” a more terra-cotta red, with a satin finish of course, works out.
Aside from painting we’ve been trying to keep up with the garden, the small unwanted animals at bay, and stacking firewood.
Two weeks ago we arrived home late Friday night after having dinner with friends in Burlington, to see car tracks through the yard. After Gina denied having driven across the lawn, my mind raced through the permutations of possible causes; electric company came by, perhaps the fire department to extinguish a small blaze, at best, burglars just backed up the truck to the door and shoveled everything in! Nervously, I grabbed a flashlight and walked around the house to see our 7 face cords of firewood, delivered - 10 days early - piled in an enormous mountain behind the house! Greta went haywire and would not stop barking at the pile. It was fully 4 ft tall by 20 ft in circumference. Well, that took most of the weekend, stacking firewood along the kennel fence and removing the 2 cords leftover from last year from along the house so we can eventually paint the exterior this summer.
Last Saturday and Sunday, the weather was spectacular, so we built a bomb-proof compost pit out of 4x4’s and some old rough cut hemlock that was stripped out of the barn to keep the animals out of the kitchen scraps. Mainly it just keeps out Greta but it looks enormous, like a cage for Lions!
The Garden is going crazy!! We get about 8-10 Zucchini a day of 2 varieties and several tomatoes, acorn squash, and now heads of broccoli! Man, they are absolutely delicious! There are some pumpkins already in the 5-10lb ranges expanding rapidly. Speaking of garden vermin, we found the new nest of the chipmunks, under the zucchini next to the barn! It looked like an excavation team had been to work with backhoe, sand and dirt piled everywhere. So thinking I would squash this quickly I loaded up the Havaheart trap and set it out next to the den entrance. Well the next morning all hell had broken loose. The trap was closed and tossed about, holes were dug all around it and the Zucchini was demolished. Apparently a much larger creature had come along and tried to take the bait, didn’t fit into the trap! I think it was a skunk ground hog, or some other larger mammal. Ugh, more creatures…
The night before last Gina baked the Acorn Squash with a sausage stuffing, MMM MMM good! There are 2 batches thirst quenching beer and wine fermenting in the downstairs bathroom: 5 gallons of Valpolicella wine and 5 gallons of the Porter. This week we are going to work on some aged cheeses and dry out some herbs, as the herb spiral is going gangbusters. 2 weeks ago Gina planted a bunch of rucola, spinach and another kind of lettuce. They are coming along just grandly!
posted by Dome Dweller at 7:16 AM
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