Today's discoveries

Today we heard the baby's heart beating. It was hard to hear initially because I couldn't stop laughing when the midwife touched the instrument to my belly, which compounded the weird microphone sound and made me laugh even more. i think the baby might be ticklish.

Today in the garden we found the poppies are busting at the seams and the tulips have all emerged at a rapid rate. It has been way too warm around here, considering we still have a month and a half where we could easily have a hard freeze.

This warmth also means we have had to speed up our game. I'm not ready for this.....

Hard to love the shorties

Not sure what is going on with the tulips we're forcing. Two of three varieties we got in Dec. are blooming out at 6 inches or shorter.....a length that makes it impossible to sell and makes me feel like a bad flower grower. Not impressed. The third variety, the red one, is doing fantastic, with nice long stems and a knockout color. The mice are unable to resist the beauty and have worked their way through about 30-40 stems already, paying no attention to our many traps set about. Little buggers.

Gecko green it is

We needed a little kick for our big room, so we decided to paint the loft wall and wall under the stairway a nice vibrant green. i feel so much more comfortable now. It took me most of the day on Sunday, and some soreness on Monday, but it's done now and we can move on to other pressing things. Although we're both tempted to just keep picking out funky colors and lose all the cream in the house.

My brother says it looks like baby shit green. He's not a fan. Maybe we picked it out in anticipation of what's to come....

Countertops are done

They are in!!! And we like them even more than we thought we would. Stuart slurried them and let that dry, then sealed them thoroughly (thanks for the warning Vera) several times over, and then waxed them twice. We needed some strong guys to help us lift, so my brother and his friend came over (brother in green) and helped

Stuart lift and place the heavy tops. [As baby is now the size of a lime, I'm very much less inclined to lift anything heavy. It's strange as it feels like I lose a little power that way, having to ask for help. So it goes.] Now our kitchen is one step closer to being done. We have a sink and dishwasher (hoping to write some of this dishwasher off as it's main purpose is to save me hours a week washing vases) waiting to be installed, hopefully in the next couple days.

That just leaves trim, a backsplash, an island built, pantry door, shelves for the pantry......hmmmm. Let's just savor this one job being done. We should be able to get our official CO by the end of the week!

Time to Share the News

That is right everyone. You may have heard the news already, but if not, Stuart and I are expecting a new member to our family this year. We have a baby due the first week of Sept.!! We are both very excited, and yes, this was planned. We both wanted a virgo rabbit. Call me crazy, but I guess I like a good challenge, which i'm sure August will be this year. We're hoping to start our CSA a couple weeks early so that it'll be done by baby time. So, to honor our little growing one (now the size of a fig), here are some pictures from last year from the week the baby is due. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

The reveal: part 1

We are so pleased with the results so far. We managed to flip them over with just the two of us (i'm so proud of myself, I had my doubts). Next steps: wait a couple days for them to air cure, and then polish, slurry, polish, seal, wax. And presto, we'll be done before we know it.

I wish this for you

An early Valentine's Day gift from Stuart. A delicious box of lovingly handmade chocolates from Dolly Mama. I always find it hard to initially bite into the buddha. Iconography--a fascinating subject. So yes, if you like chocolates, Dolly will have these boxes at the Durham market next week! Come early. And we'll have flowers too....

But the gift I can't stop anticipating????? PANCIUTO next Monday. If you haven't been yet, you are at risk of living an unfulfilled life. I can't wait. They will be handing out local flowers that night as well. I have a feeling I might be handed one of our own anemones. Now if that doesn't make me feel special I don't know what will.

Countertops: The pour

Well, they are curing as we speak and we think they should turn out really well. We have to wait around five days before we remove the forms and flip them over so they can air dry some more. We only did one inlay, can't wait to show it off. I got a really nice tile as a present last year and we put that in one of the more visible corners. I had wanted to get some glass tiles but just ran out of time....and they are expensive new. There was definitely a learning curve to the process of pouring, so we just hope they come out resembling each other.

Concrete Countertop Forms

Today we pour! I say 'we', but really it has been Stuart and our friend Gerard who have put all this together so far. I have been hard at work in the greenhouse starting all our little seedlings. Having these countertops done is going to really change things around here. Our living room has had cardboard covering it up since the flooring went down, so it'll be a true reveal when we remove it. Countertops also means we can finally get our kitchen sink installed, another big milestone. And we get to reclaim our living room. We have an incredibly beautiful and special braided rug that Stuart's grandmother made out of old high school uniforms that I can't wait to see on our floor.
More pictures to come! Let's hope all goes well today.

Local Hare?

A couple of weeks ago a hunting troupe was on the property right next to us, dogs howling all day with intermittent shots firing off. Clover barking incessantly when any of the men came too close to our property line. Stuart disappeared at the end of the day for a while; I thought he was just going to get the mail, but when he returned he didn't just have the mail. He also had been gifted a freshly shot wild hare for us to have for dinner.
We quickly looked online for technique on butchering rabbit. Stuart was very brave and gutted the thing with his hand, lifting out this one line of intestine with a row of perfectly formed pellets, glistening like brown beads within the lining. It was all fairly gross. But we threw together a quick roast and it was pretty good, considering it was our first attempt at rabbit meat. Next time I'm thinking some kind of asian twist. It was very generous of our neighbor; we think he had shot three on the outing. Stuart and I like to think it was the rabbit eating our ranunculus in the hoophouse.