Wow. While it would be nice to say that everything is picture perfect at the Raymond Homestead – which would be the ultimate excuse for not posting in forever – things are….well, they’re not falling apart, but they’re far from perfect.
Saturday was a bit hectic. With everything going on lately, we just haven’t been able to get to splitting up the wood until now. While last year we did about 80% of it by hand, we came to the decision that this year we might not be able to. Hubster really wore himself out last year of on the massive rounds that called for the “sledge and wedge” treatment. So we made a decision: We rented a log splitter from the local TrueValue and hammered out about a cord or so of split wood. Hubster’s mom – GiGi – was able to come over and watch Little Mister once he woke up so that Hubster and I could go out and work as a couple on the wood. This is something that we’ve rarely had the chance to do since someone’s been up and running on his two legs. It was <i>wonderful</i> being able to work together.
Sunday saw the death of our 9 year old washer, which at the time contained a full load of water and laundry. Thankfully Hubster was able to come in from doing something – I can’t remember what – and fought with the thing to get it to drain. We’ve been debating for the past year or so about getting a new control knob as it had been flaky for a while now. Now we’re glad we held off since the motor died on it. That would have been a bit of a waste of money, for sure. Needless to say, we lucked out. The in-laws still had the washer that came with the house that they bought from us and weren’t using it. Now we have a working washer. It doesn’t have a “quick wash” setting, and it’s not energy efficiency rated, but it’s better than nothing.
Tuesday the car had to go in for rear shocks and a sticker. It passed, which I wasn’t to surprised about, and we were able to figure out how to get it back despite the sweltering heat that is just too much for the pup and the boy. Unfortunately the car still needs tires. But, that will come later. They’re still legal right now and holding air.
On top of this all, we’ve now been working on staking the split wood as it dries. The past two mornings what little exercise I’ve been getting this week has been half hour spurts of stacking wood out in 90F heat. Now, I’m not complaining, mind you. I’m just pointing out that sometimes the reason why those of us with a homestead don’t get time to do certain things that we want to – or need to – is because of recuperating time that we need to take for ourselves. Too many people forget this and over do it. I guess the only point of this last paragraph of this random post is more of a PSA: PLEASE take it easy in the heat. Yes, do work. But do it slow. Take your time. Reset.
They’ve come back a couple differnent times. Unfortunately, since Maine has a turkey hunting season, we might not see them for a while. As long as they stay safe, I’ll be happy.