fruts & nettles

we decided with our surplus of free materials that extending the frut by a few feet would give us a little bit more room to move

which actually was perfect. last night we had giant bonfire in a complete downpour with 10 friends over. needless to say we enjoyed the bonfire from inside the hut, cozy as can be.

swimming in a sea of nettles

me using the new "toy"

Fortune, Empress of the World

"Primo Vere"

The cheerful face of spring is restored to the world,

winter's sharp cold conquered, now is put to flight.

In varied colours Flora rules,

in the sweet-sounding song of the groves is she praised.

Ah!

In the abundance of Spring is growth, personal, spiritual and well, geographical.

Upon waking eyes we found our property to be overgrown with 6 foot nettles, brambles and grass tall enough to hide even the most active of pups...Nub.

Above are some before shots of our stifling greens and of our "god-dog" Nub and Daphne foolin' around.

We don't own Nub....but at times i wish we did. Nub is an all switches on, full throttle pup with more energy that possibly explainable. He and Daphne are in love, and this shot sums up both their neurotic sides....BARK.BARK.BARK.BARK.

There is a real reason why this post is landing under PT HOMESTEADING...Bob and I set aside 4 days to plug away at projects including property, Spartan and Cannondale. One thing we knew we couldn't live without was a good old brush cutter/ weed wacker / limb cutter. We did our research and while the cost seemed daunting, we took the plunge and invested in a Professional STIHL Kombi Motor with multiple attachments and blades. Below is the amazing progress in 45 minutes. p.s. BOB LOVES ORANGE.

buh bye grass

oh, buy bye tough weeds

let's start burning

you may eat nettles, i burn them

sweet little friend still living under the carport

proper nutrition and fortifying yourself is essential with such laborious work out of doors. Bob works hard as i prepare a tasty meal from one of my favorite seasonal cookbooks, The Flexitarian Table by Peter Berley.

Here i make Creamy Risotto-Style Brown Rice with Spring Greens, Asiago and Cape Cleare Salmon.

you might be wondering about all the LATIN. you may not be wondering. or you may think, what thoughtful prose. When i took Latin back in the early 90's i had one of my favorite teachers to date, Mrs. Jennsen. She inspired us to love the language and love all that spawned from it. For a short period of time, around our Iliad and Odyssey studies, we listened to the CARMINA BURANA. And i was amazed. I have always talked about it, remembered it and this year for my birthday Bob bought me one of the 100 renditions of this incredibly dark and driving cantana from the early 1900's. be STIHL my beating heart....

O Foruna

velut luna

statu variabilis,

semper crescis

aut decrescis;

vita detestabilis

nunc obdurat

et unc curat

ludo mentis aciem,

egestatem,

potestatem

dissolvit ut glaciem.

skin on skin off

the Spartan has and will contain many levels of restoration. the stage we are at right now is this...or should i say was, labeling all the "skin" (the main layer of birch that wrapped around the skeleton of insulation and aluminum). Bob numbered every panel in her and took photos and drew a map. All because we will be using these as templates to rebuild the skin with new materials. Before this act of labeling happened, Bob removed all of the interior built in structures ie: cabinets, closets, sink, seats, tables, headboard....all sent to the dump and burn pile. Although beautiful in 1948 = over built in 2010.

Skin off and next step is removing all the dank, mildewed and feces infested insulation and also removing all the electrical work.

Oh Bob...i'm so sorry i had to be at "work" during this part :) Bob hauls ass and gets the work done. the dirty work.

Funny to think of this giant vessel being depleted to a small pile of birch plywood. here lies the essential templates we will need to rebuild the skin for our Babe.

and this was Happy Hour. a perfect job for me who loves the making of clean and shiny. I spent the better half of today with an impact drill removing all the fir trim that overlaid each crossbar of aluminum. screws from the 40's don't come out easily and most heads were busted right off due to rust. after that, i yanked out more insulation and then Bob and I went to work with heavy duty wire brushes, scrapping off all remaining insulation from aluminum. then shop vac, trash bags and a serious sponge bath later....NAKED!

the best part was hanging back in her belly and measuring out everything. Visualizing what will be where and how cozy she will be when done. Next step....check back.

words to live by - margaret frese

a few weeks ago i wrote my grandmother a letter. in this letter i explained the manner in which Bob and I were living. yesterday i received a letter back and was amazed at what i read....below is an snippet:

" You are living exactly like I did as I was growing up - Except we did have a house - It probably wasn't any warmer than your van - since there was no insulation in those old houses. No bathroom. We had to go to the "outhouse" which was away from the house. And in bad weather & winter snow + cold, it seemed like 2 miles and you almost forgot what you went there for. ha ha ha - And we carried a lantern along too. Then after you were finished - the Montgomery - Ward Catalog pages finished the "job". Oh yeah - twasn't great. No heat in our upstairs bedroom. The windows were completely covered with frost, and the top of the wool comforter was frozen from"your" breath. Those beds were so cold when you first crawled in - awful. We took irons off the heating stove to help warm up.

When we took a bath, 2 times a week, it was the wash basin behind the heating stove, with everyone else around the kitchen table, the door shut and Dad sitting on the edge of the table nearest to the door - Oh yes - I know how you are living, only it's the two of you. Multiply that by 6 children + mom/dad - we never thought there was any other way.

My job every night after school was to clean the lamp(s) chimney. Sometimes it was the only one on kitchen table - other times maybe 3. We were never permitted to touch a burning lamp until we were adults. I remember exactly the first time I carried a burning lamp. I was almost 18. It was April 1939, I would turn 18 in June that year. I got to take the lamp up to our room to change clothes for a "date" that night, with Grandpa's cousin - Paul Frese. Nothing easy back then...and we were never permitted to wear shoes/slippers when going up or down steps. to dangerous.

I never ever thought one of my grandchildren would be living like i did as a child. Grandpa also had it rough, tho, his folks had electricity by the time he was 3 years old. So that makes everything easier.

Now if you two had 4 or 5 children, you could know how hard my folks had to work. My mom baked 8 loaves of bread every 3rd day, using corn cobs heating the oven. She knew how many cobs to keep oven at 350* (no thermometer either)

p.s. If you want to remember how i grew up, keep these pages as i won't rewrite it all again. "

God Bless

a perfect morning

okay, so it doesn't have lots to do with homesteading but more with ritual. one of our favorite things to do over coffee is to walk and visit our favorite trees on the property. below is one of mine, who i recently freed up from an immense amount of over growth and stifling brambles. then there is Bob's. then heck, there is a damn fine morning with Saveur's top 100 & coffee with heavy cream...GOOD MORNING INDEED!

spartan gets sliced

it's on. and what you see is what is no longer ON the Spartan. Bob has taken the last two days to gut out the vintage babe. ripping out all cabinets, sinks, walls, toilet, flooring, plumbing, electricity, hoses...etc. what he found, ant colonies, mice feces and shotty work.

all must go. all must go. with an almost empty vessel it's intriguing to think of all the possibilities.

Black Bear Begininings

our first tree purchase for the property also doubled as our Christmas tree...Monkey Puzzle.

one of my favorite things about our land is the amount of old growth cedar groves. this is one of the larger dudes growing out of an old nurse stump.

in memory of a wonderful man with a REAL green thumb...my Grandpa Frese.