WEEK 25
Cold weather means slow moving when it comes to tasks here on the farm. First off this week was fire wood. Jeff worked hard all week pulling and cutting trees into the sizes required for the splitter. 8 truckloads of wood later and we were all stocked up for the winter. It wasn’t fun work and it certainly wasn’t easy work. It just felt good to have one more thing checked off our long list of things to do.
More parts had to be purchased for the eventual install of the wood stove. So much is involved with this part of our remodel it too has been slow going. The hearth pad was installed this week so that puts us one step closer to wine in front of a roaring fire. Next week we hope to get the stone applied to the wall along with a couple shelves made from some wood found here on the farm.
In the previous week you might recall that I made a nice coat rack from some old electric pole wood and insulators we found on the property. Well, there was still quite a pile of parts tucked away in the woods. My husband and I hauled them out in order to store them for future Wood, Wine & Redesign projects. Perhaps more of my coat racks will come up for local sale!
At this point, I figured why not use what we had for built-in shelving behind the wood stove. We took a couple of the more damaged timbers and trimmed them down, taking off the majority of the rotted exterior. A steel wool vinegar stain was used to darken the wood so all pieces look like they belong together. In combination with the Quartz, the results should still look rustic yet clean.
Beyond collecting our growing numbers of eggs; this week I also harvested a little bit of horseradish root from some plantings we placed in the spring. It wasn’t much but it was potent. My husband made the mistake of taking a nip off one of the roots and realized he should have thought a little better of it.
With a handful of cleaned root, enough white vinegar to blend down the fiber with my immersion blender and a dash or two of salt we had a nice jar of horseradish for the fridge. From this point, we could easily add the mixture to mayonnaise for sandwiches or to ketchup for quick cocktail sauce.
Overall, the week was productive and the big projects outside are down to a trickle. It does look like I’ll have to have one last mow of the lawn as the snow has held off from blanketing all that’s left of the green. Inside, the projects continue and will do so throughout the winter. Home renovations have a way of stretching on and some days it feels like it will never end.
Dirt On My Plate 