Batchelor pad roof - day 2

2:30 pm. Not much visible change - but the side walls are down in the green house

 

6:30 pm.  The greenhouse has been cut away from the house - a must in order to put the roof on properly.

The covers over the doors are done.  The greenhouse - although not completely removed - has been cut back from the house.  We are ready for felt and shingles.  I precut the shingles today while Peter was at the office.  The rain is supposed to start tomorrow afternoon - I think we can do it.  But certainly - this two day project is stretching to three.

Bachelor pad upgrades continue

The goal:  replace the roof, add two roof covers, tear down the green house.
The time frame:  2 days.

This is the progress of day 1.

8:30 a.m.  Peter removing the roof  (I was down below picking up the mess)

11:00 a.m.  Old roof gone and mess is mostly cleaned up



7:00 (ish) pm.  The first of two entry covers is getting finished.  Part of the green house walls have come down.

Just can't wait for tomorrow!

I need more fiber!

But before I go into that..  I FINALLY finished the socks I was working on.  Aren't they cute?  It helped that today was a very rainy and blustery day and I was cooped up inside.

Now, about that fiber.  Saturday Jill and I went to the Canby Flock and Fiber Festival.  I was on tactile overload.  I had to touch and feel and caress all the lovely merchandise.  Unlike so many places there were actual signs that said "please touch."  So I did.  I couldn't have helped myself anyway.  I wanted to dive into it head first. I wanted to roll around in some of the fiber. I purchased a big bag of natural cream colored alpaca roving.  In the animal barns there were alpacas, llamas, angora rabbits, romney sheep, black faced sheep, angora goats and my favorite, pygora goats.  I learned a lot from the goat breeders.  I still have a lot more to learn.

I have great plans for my alpaca fiber.  I'm going to spin some of it and ply it with some red alpaca I purchased several weeks ago and then make some really neat felted things.  The rest of it is going to be sacrificed as a dying experiment. 

Despite hours of fiber immersion on Saturday, I needed MORE.  I had not yet gotten my fiber fix.  Sunday morning I went back to Canby for the parking lot fiber sale.  I wanted to get my hands on some freshly sheared pygora fiber.  I wanted it all dirty and unwashed.  I wanted to experience the process from start (minus the shearing) to finish.  Unfortunately I was unable to find pygora.  In fact, I was almost unable to find the sale because, despite it's name it was not in the parking lot at all.  It was in the fair grounds arena.  I haven't quite figured that out.  Although I couldn't find pygora I was able to bring home some lovely brown and gray romney fiber.  I'll learn washing and carding with that. 

Fiber is good.

Things I've learned...

Yesterday I learned about potato blight.  It seems that the part of the potato plant that lives above ground - the very part of the potato that feeds the actual potato - will get a disease called blight and turn on the potato and ruin it.  Big potato growers (big growers - not growers of big potatoes) spray the potato tops and kill them off.  The potatoes stay safe underground while the plant and it's horrible disease dies.  We are not a big potato grower.  We are a small operation that only harvests a couple thousand pounds a year.  We do not use chemicals.  Thus - the tops to all the potatoes must be cut off and removed far far away from the bottoms.  Thatsalotta bending and stooping.  After about 8 hours frolicking among the potatoes I crawled back to the house on my hands and knees.

 potatoes before beheading 

  potatoes after beheading  

Other things I learned was that the definition of grass and weeds is different.  Peter said - toss the tops into the grass.  I learned he did NOT mean toss the tops into the weeds.  Of course.. I didn't learn that until I'd completed 4 rows.  I thought I had cleverly clarified his intent by asking.. "do you mean the near grass or the far grass?"  I actually meant the weeds vs. the grass (because I KNEW what I meant).  His reply "the near grass" meant the grass near the weeds, not the grass near the trees.  So of course.. I put the potato tops in the weeds, which was my "near grass" and not in the "near grass" which was the grass not by the trees. 

I learned proper communication can be a time saver. 

I've also learned that frogs and toads like to live among the potatoes.  My husband - being a 12 year old at heart - collected all the frogs and toads we found.  I even found a big fat toad today to add to the collection (as a belated birthday gift). I kept it in the kitchen sink until Peter came home from work  (Happy Birthday!  Here's a toad!).  As I type this, there happens to be a bucket-o-amphibians sitting next to me.   They will be photographed, admired, talked to and held and then put in the toad and frog relocation program.