Busy Hands Homestead

There is dirt under my finger nails is the same color as the weeks old bruise under the nail of my thumb.   I took last week off of work. Adam took off the week before Christmas, and the upstairs flooring is 99% done: the bedrooms have wide maple planks, the great room upstairs is oak parquet, and a friend laid most of the tiles in the upstairs bathroom. The stair landings are done.    Risers placed. Treads still need to be cut and installed. It was my goal to tackle a giant pile of reclaimed flooring and get it ready to install. To install our heat system, our floors need to be sanded and finished.   I wanted to install heat the first week of January.   Those days have come and gone, and while the pile of flooring is now half the size that it was when I started, it still stands between heat and appliances. I sort boards by tongue and groove size. I scrape layers of dirt that peel away like thick apple skins from tongues and grooves.  ...

Ivory opened the door and beamed at me: "It is a beautiful day!" And it was.  After a wonderful Father's Day breakfast at the Riverside Cafe the remainder of our day was filled with: Random little chores around the yard.  Commencing the construction of a custom coffee table.  A few random chores around the clay studio.   A beautiful day indeed!

F is for Fennel D is for Dill  E is for Endive (unfinished) N is for Nectarine W is for Watermelon (Oklahoma's state Vegetable - no joke) S is for Strawberries

L is for Leek S is for Strawberries  I spent the early morning hours painting.  I started the project when Ivory was about 6 months old. By started I mean that I purchased a set of wooden letters and a box to store them in.  I had enough foresight to include enough letters to spell Mama, Papa and Sylvan.  I knew then that if our future included a little boy, he would be named Sylvan.  Since then I have managed to sand all the letters and paint a few. Each letter features a fruit, vegetable or herb that starts with that sound.   I hope to finish painting all the letters before Ivory learns to read... and that is a skill she could master at any moment. C is for Carrot E is for Eggplant D is for Dandelion