first full farm week …

So I’m sitting here in the small office cabin/cottage on the farm, having an after dinner chai, catching up on email and web stuff and about to do a little web work. I can barely keep my eyes open.

It’s been a full week. Lots of cabin building, a little bit of gardening/farming and there’s still tomorrow! Last night and again today it SNOWED – this just a few days into the official beginning of spring. Things have changed! I love being here so far.

Most of the work has been towards the cabin. I really want to get moved in there. I’ve spent this week on the island so far and it’s nice not going back and forth. But I really want to be on the farm full time! Sleeping at the neighbors vacant and creaky house is not ideal. Especially after a long, cold and wet day having to slog up the significant hill between here and there only to arrive to a chilly house (with no means of getting rid of the chill – no heater!). Today we wrapped the cabin with Tyvek and got all but one window in and also got the door hung! Such a milestone … yesterday I finished hanging the plywood on the interior walls and tomorrow we borrow a compressor and nail-gun to finish things off. Now we can paint and start trip work. As soon as the last window is in, the surrounding insulation is done and things are painted (and I guess the roofing is on), I’m moving in! I can’t wait!!! I look at how far it’s come and think about how great it will be and I wish I had been building the cabin for myself on my own property. Now that I have, the thought of it being real for myself one day is evident.

Today we also planted out three different kinds of cutting lettuce, Merlot, Royal Oak and Lollo di Vino. Also sowed a bunch of leek seeds, three different varieties, into flats for pricking out. Let’s see … I want to get better at keeping logs of farm happenings … Periodically I get to check the greenhouse, make sure it’s not too hot and water seedlings.

Back in Seattle, the remodel at Kevin’s house is going well. The plumbing is in, the drywall is up and we’ve even put the tile in the shower floor. Not sure if Kevin got to anything while I’ve been gone this week. This weekend I imagine we’re gonna be tiling, tiling, tiling … cabinets will be ready next week and we’re gonna try to be ready for them. That means tiling the kitchen floor and bathroom floor. Right as the cabinets are being installed they will do measurements for the counters as well. Things will come together really quick!

And, I’ve even done a little freelance work in between. We have DSL now on the farm, and it coincided with me needing to finish a project. So now I can just about fully be on the farm and not go back to Seattle. If only the cabin were done … I think it will work out quite well to have some freelance stuff going in the background. Rob, Joanne and the kids go to bed pretty early – 8pm early. Even after a full day on the farm, I’m tired, but going to bed that early does weird things to my sleep. As in, I’ll sleep soundly for three hours, wake up and realize it’s only 11:30 pm and have a hard time falling back asleep. Some of that had and has to do with the neighbors cold house, but I think some of it had to do with going to bed so so much earlier than my body is used to. The last two nights I’ve been up until 11 pm and I’ve slept much better.

One of the main things I do need to get onto the farm is my coffee grinder. That, and my pillow is about the only things I really miss at this point. (Well, honestly, I do miss some form of motorized transportation too …) There is a great coffee shop just at the corner, but I’d rather do my own coffee in the morning … although it has been nice to sit and read the paper with a cup of coffee and the excellent muffins they have there.

I also missed my camera today because the cold, wet and even snow turned into a glorious sunny afternoon. Just stunning! Taking some pictures of the progress on the cabin would have been great, but just having the camera around when I feel like taking photos (which isn’t very often these days) is nice. I’ll just have to pack it along in my panniers next time!

That’s all for now. I need to get some work done and then ride over to the other house for the night …