After taking a lot of time off from intense house building, I sure had a hard time getting back in the swing. I was getting house-related things done--like making decisions about and purchasing various hardware pieces, and designing storage cabinets for the kitchen and bathroom--but I call those things "dubbing around" or "dancing around the edges." When I would go out to the JayBee to work, I just could not get on a roll. I did spend more hours than I would ever care to admit endlessly bending staples over...
...but, other than that, I kept finding myself staring at and pondering various conundrums, and never actually getting down to making decisions and acting on them. Then, I would give up and leave things for another day. No flow, no momentum.
While I was bending over the staples on this wall of the closet at the head of the bed the other day...
...it occurred to me that I could insulate this wall. On the other (west) end of the house, I keep getting derailed from making progress because I think I need to install more framing supports for hanging cabinets and such. At this (east) end, however, I don't have any of these questions. Nothing to keep me from charging ahead.
When I went into the portable garage to grab insulation I had stored there, this is what I saw. Hmpf! Maybe this photo doesn't quite capture it, but what I saw was a cat bed! Clearly someone found sleeping curled up on top of this insulation to be a warm bed during the winter. Wouldn't be my choice--to have my cats get bits of insulation embedded in their fur...
Finally! I found my flow. Here is the closet wall all insulated.
Then I moved on to the wall at the foot of the bed.
It feels good to be on a roll. Momentum is everything.
Winter continues here. Yes, we had another blizzard last week. I was so discouraged by it, so done with shoveling snow, I didn't even take any pictures.
The river has been confused. Due to this winter's roller-coaster temperatures, the river thawed, then re-froze, then opened up, then froze over again--back and forth for weeks.
Recent animal encounters:
1. Just as I was crawling into bed two nights ago, the house filled with a strong skunk smell. Yuck. Even though it made me slightly nauseous, I managed to fall asleep--while wondering if either cat may have just been sprayed (since both of them chose to spend that night outside). When I got up yesterday, I no longer smelled any skunk smell in the house and, thankfully, when the cats came inside, neither had been sprayed. When I went out to work on the JayBee, though, the tiny house was filled with skunk smell! I'm guessing the skunk sprayed underneath the JayBee, and the smell moved into the house through all the vents. Disgusting. I could still smell it out there today, but it is slowly dissipating.
2. This morning, Bear was curled up asleep next to my head in bed. A bald eagle started screeching overhead just outside the bedroom window. Bear startled awake and became really uneasy as the eagle kept circling and screeching. Not sure what it was all about, but it went on for quite awhile... and, then, was sporadically repeated throughout the day.
3. While installing insulation in the JayBee today, I was surprised to look up and see that the JayBee was surrounded by turkeys. They must have caught sight of me scurrying around inside to find my phone. They're so skittish! By the time I took a photo, they had run all the way down the driveway.
I took this picture of George drinking snow-melt water in the driveway. Disgusting! With all the salt-briny stuff they coat on the roads and that runs off my car... This cannot be good for him.
One morning as I was ready to head to work, I was outside calling George. It was bitter cold and I didn't want to leave him outside all day. Then I spotted him huddled down in one of his favorite spots on the hillside behind the JayBee.
Oops--nope! It wasn't George. I have no idea who this cat is. Never saw him before.
