Holy Mer-Bears, Batman!
1.) It has become official. I am moving into a small cabin in the middle of the woods.
What it does not have:
-Running water
-Electricity
-A driveway that reaches within 50 yards of the house
What it does have:
-Two stories
-Wood heat
-A propane cookstove
-A propane fridge
-A greywater drain
-Many large windows
-A woodshed
-A piano
-Lots of built-in shelves
-Privacy
My move date is Sept. 1. Am I excited? Yes, yes I am. My favorite reaction so far? My boss, David: "A Spinnery employee living off the grid? Fabulous!"
2.) I desire to purchase a pickup truck. I suddenly realize that hauling things is about to become a vital part of my everyday life. For instance: wood, water, sawdust, hay, fencing gear, trash, furniture, and all my worldly belongings. Also I want four wheel drive and a stick shift. And something red might be nice, too. I'm tired of grey and white. Therefore: I am trading in my entirely unsentimental Corsica for a pickup. I want a compact (I do NOT need a truck from the Ford F-series to haul . . . anything, really. Honestly. Who, in their personal life, DOES need an F-350? Good god.), so I'm thinking the Chevy S-10 or the Ford Ranger or the Toyota Tacoma. Suggestions, anyone? Who here knows trucks?
Furthermore, after watching Tessa lovingly tend her charming Beetle, I found myself yearning for a vehicle that I'd actually care enough about to want to do maintenance on myself. My last two cars have been hand-me-downs that I've been more or less indifferent to. I bring my Corsica to the mechanic when I must, and otherwise waste no more energy on it. I would very much like a vehicle that I can love and labor over and learn the ins and outs of and take apart and put back together (like a Firefly-class vessel . . . ).
3.) I have discovered that . . . I like mechanical things. A lot. This is a shocking new interest.
Today on my lunch break (Patty says that this does not count as a 'break', but I had fun, so I disagree) I sat down with the schematics for my machine and pored over them until I figured out which gears did what (well, for some of the gears), then crawled around under it a bit to make sure I really knew which pieces went with which bit of the drawing. This was all made much more entertaining by the fact that there is no manual, the schematics are from the 1940's and actually for a different machine entirely (the spinning and plying frames, while related, are emphatically not the same), and no one in the mill really knows how the bloody thing works. We all just kind of pray. (Did you know that there's a patron saint of spinning? Today Patty and I, the two ex-Catholics, did a little research and found out all about St. Catherine of ALexandria, who was martyred by being broken on a wheel, and therefore is the patron saint of spinners. I didn't realize that the Catholic Church was a fan of awful puns . . .)
4.) Yesterday I received this in the mail:
Rather, I received one of those two objects in the mail, but the photograph of my two children together was more than I could resist.
That's all, folks.
What it does not have:
-Running water
-Electricity
-A driveway that reaches within 50 yards of the house
What it does have:
-Two stories
-Wood heat
-A propane cookstove
-A propane fridge
-A greywater drain
-Many large windows
-A woodshed
-A piano
-Lots of built-in shelves
-Privacy
My move date is Sept. 1. Am I excited? Yes, yes I am. My favorite reaction so far? My boss, David: "A Spinnery employee living off the grid? Fabulous!"
2.) I desire to purchase a pickup truck. I suddenly realize that hauling things is about to become a vital part of my everyday life. For instance: wood, water, sawdust, hay, fencing gear, trash, furniture, and all my worldly belongings. Also I want four wheel drive and a stick shift. And something red might be nice, too. I'm tired of grey and white. Therefore: I am trading in my entirely unsentimental Corsica for a pickup. I want a compact (I do NOT need a truck from the Ford F-series to haul . . . anything, really. Honestly. Who, in their personal life, DOES need an F-350? Good god.), so I'm thinking the Chevy S-10 or the Ford Ranger or the Toyota Tacoma. Suggestions, anyone? Who here knows trucks?
Furthermore, after watching Tessa lovingly tend her charming Beetle, I found myself yearning for a vehicle that I'd actually care enough about to want to do maintenance on myself. My last two cars have been hand-me-downs that I've been more or less indifferent to. I bring my Corsica to the mechanic when I must, and otherwise waste no more energy on it. I would very much like a vehicle that I can love and labor over and learn the ins and outs of and take apart and put back together (like a Firefly-class vessel . . . ).
3.) I have discovered that . . . I like mechanical things. A lot. This is a shocking new interest.
Today on my lunch break (Patty says that this does not count as a 'break', but I had fun, so I disagree) I sat down with the schematics for my machine and pored over them until I figured out which gears did what (well, for some of the gears), then crawled around under it a bit to make sure I really knew which pieces went with which bit of the drawing. This was all made much more entertaining by the fact that there is no manual, the schematics are from the 1940's and actually for a different machine entirely (the spinning and plying frames, while related, are emphatically not the same), and no one in the mill really knows how the bloody thing works. We all just kind of pray. (Did you know that there's a patron saint of spinning? Today Patty and I, the two ex-Catholics, did a little research and found out all about St. Catherine of ALexandria, who was martyred by being broken on a wheel, and therefore is the patron saint of spinners. I didn't realize that the Catholic Church was a fan of awful puns . . .)
4.) Yesterday I received this in the mail:
Rather, I received one of those two objects in the mail, but the photograph of my two children together was more than I could resist.
That's all, folks.