Sprucing Things Up
With the possibility of putting the cottage on the market, we’ve been doing a few projects around the house. I mentioned a few weeks ago that we’re going to be installing butcher block countertops. Those are waiting in the garage for an open day or two in our schedule. In the meantime other smaller projects that can be worked on in the evening are being checked off the list.
The closet in our bedroom in one such area. It’s been in need of some love for quite a while with it’s teetering shelf, hundreds of holes and lack of paint. I’m not quite sure what the previous owners did to this poor closet, but clearly they once had a ton of shelves in it which they must have taken when they left. I can’t believe I haven’t done anything to this space in 9 years.
Early this week, the shelf came down, the holes were filled in and a fresh coat of paint covered the walls. Luckily we still had leftover paint from the bedroom so we could match the walls. We considered building shelves ourselves, but decided we lacked the time at the moment to do that so we settled on this Wooden Closet Shelving System to install. We’re very pleased with the system, it looks great, is very sturdy and adds tons of space. More of these will be purchased when we need to finish the closets in the upstairs. I was hoping to have photos of the finished product, but we worked into the night and I was too tired to take photos. They’ll come later with photos of the other project I’m working on….
Painting the stairs to our basement is also in progress, it was another neglected area that was in need of a spruce up. I’m planning something fun for these since they lead to the basement, no need for formality here. Can’t wait to see how they turn out.
Any small spruce up projects going on in your home?
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The Cycle Begins Again
The weather seemed perfect on Sunday afternoon, so we decided it was time to tap our maple trees. Out came all the supplies, the spiles and jars were scrubbed, the extension cords were brought out and the first tree was tapped.
As soon as the hole was drilled sap was running down the side of the tree before we could even get the spile in. Thirty taps later and we were done. That evening we collected five and a half gallons of sap and so the cycle of collecting and boiling has begun again.
Last year was a long sugaring season and we got 5 gallons of finished syrup. This year we tapped more trees because we think the season will be short, which is the usual here in our area of Ohio. In total we have 30 taps going and are hoping to get a few gallons of syrup once again.
The little black garage cat (aka “The Sweets”) loves it when sugaring season rolls around. Just like her mama used to do, she followed us around the woods as we tapped trees and she runs ahead of Mr Chiots on the paths when he collects the sap. No doubt she’s enjoying some human companionship after a long lonely winter in the garage.
Our maple syrup is precious and since we use it as almost our only form of sweetener, we use it sparingly throughout the year. We’re always happy to reach the next cycle with a few jars of syrup left in the pantry. When I checked last week we still had almost 2 gallons left.
What’s your favorite way to use maple syrup?
If you want to read up on maple sugaring I’d highly recommend these books:
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The First Reward
Remember all those bulbs I planted this past fall? While we were out tapping all the maple trees on Sunday afternoon and I spotted the first reward from all my hard work. One tiny snowdrop was blooming on the back hillside.
I’ve been meaning to plant snowdrop in the garden for years and always forgot to purchase the bulbs in the fall. I’d always think about them when they were blooming the spring and then completely forget about purchasing bulbs when I needed to. Late last winter, when the snowdrops were blooming, I flipped forward in my calendar and wrote “ORDER SNOWDROPS” in September.
Lucky for me, I did buy bulbs for ‘GALANTHUS ELWESII’ last fall and now I’ll be able to enjoy snowdrop blooms in my own garden this spring. This isn’t the earliest flowering plant I have in the garden, there’s a Mediterranean Pink Heather on the front hillside that starts blooming in early January.
What’s your earliest flower that appears in your garden each year?
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Making Good Use of Time
Mr Chiots and I love listening to audiobooks while we’re on long car trips. We usually try to pick a few that are relevant to the trip itself, the areas we’ll be driving through, the places we’re visiting, important people from the are, and books about history from the area. In the fall of 2010 when we traveled through New England we listened to Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck. It’s the perfect traveling audio book since it’s all about his travels around the United States. We also listened to Walden by Henry David Thoreau since we were planning on visiting his little cabin.
On our way out west this past summer, we listened to Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Steven Ambrose which explains in great detail the Lewis & Clark expedition. This was the perfect book for this journey because we traveled much the same route that they took and saw the names of rivers and mountains along our route. We also listened to O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand was started, but we didn’t get through it all by the time we got home. We have yet to finish it.
Since we enjoy post-apocalyptic books and movies, One Second After by William R. Forstchen kept us riveted during one of our LONG days of driving through Wisconsin and North Dakota. During out 26 hours of driving to Maine and back this past week we listened to The Hunger Games and caught up on a podcast we enjoy listening to.
We still have a few audio books on deck, mainly for our trip to Florida later this spring. They certainly are a great way to pass the time and, when you choose the right book, to learn something about the area while you’re driving. It’s a great way to make use of that time when you can’t do much else. I don’t like audio books any time but when I’m in the car. Mr Chiots loves them and listens to them all day long when he’s coding websites.
Have you ever listened to an audio book? Any great historical books or books related to geographic regions to recommend?
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Seeds are Thrilling
The idea of any seed is thrilling, a potent, compact repository of dormant life waiting for the gardener’s whim and the forces of nature to spring into existence, wax large, and reproduce.
Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd in Living Seasonally: The Kitchen Garden and the Table at North Hill
Sometimes when I look at a tiny seed I’m amazed by what it will turn into. When you open up that seed packet and take out the tomato seed in February you can see your harvest basket brimming with ripe tomatoes in August. This tiny seed will grow up and produce food for your table and nourishment for your soul.
Those onions seeds I planted earlier this week started popping up on Friday, not bad since they were seeded on Tuesday. I’ll give all the credit to my seedling heating mat, worth it’s weight in gold in my cold house!
Which vegetable are you most surprised by it’s bounty from seed?
