Project dominos

We are in the final stages of planning to have the house resided, meaning we are getting bids from contractors. We would like to get it done this fall. 

One thing that I will have to do in preparation for the siding is to remove the small deck at our back door. The back door is the entry that is used 99.9% of the time. Consequently, the front entryway is used primarily as a storage closet. It can be used as an entry/exit, but not conveniently. 

So, before I can remove the back deck the front entry has to be cleaned out. Most of the stuff there is boxed up, but there is one of those cheap door mirrors leaning up against the wall. For some reason Jo decided that the first thing to do to make the front entry usable is for me to make a nice frame for that mirror with coat hooks on it so it could be hung up on the wall sideways (as opposed to the vertical orientation it would normally have). 

So that is what I've been working on mostly. I found some maple left over from a previous project. I don't have enough to make the frame and add nice molding on the top and bottom edges as I would prefer, but it will work anyway. 

I have the basic pieces cut and mortises cut in the stiles. I have started to cut the tenons on the rails. I don't do mortise and tenon joints very often, so I wanted to use them on this project to keep a basic level of that skill. One thing I know I'm going to have to deal with is that the mortises are not precisely centered on the thickness of the stiles. So I will get to practice adjusting the tenons to not only fit, but be offset a hair so the faces of the mating pieces are as close to flush as possible. That way I will avoid a lot of sanding just to make things come out flush and smooth. 

Homemade jelly from our own grapes

Otis Spunkmeyer cookies

Last year Ben bought two tubs of Otis Spunkmeyer cookies from the school's fundraiser. They are frozen pre made "Butter Sugar" cookies that you just put on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Very convenient. 

However, we've made two batches, most recent last Wednesday for a church choir meeting. Both times our reaction has been "these are not very good". 

We just threw out the rest. 

This year we will just make a donation. 

Drywall repair

So, our dog, Cocoa, was being kept in the laundry room all day last winter while everyone else was away at work or school. She was bored and unhappy. Consequently, she scratched at the door between the laundry room and the kitchen eventually tearing off the trim on one side and ripping the paper covering the drywall in several places. 

Over the past week or so I've repaired the drywall and today I primed the patches and nailed the trim back on. In the process I fixed a problem with the way the trim was fitting and attached it much more securely than it was before. 

One more task checked off of my project list!

Van washed

I finally got the van washed. This is the first day in a while that it hasn't been so hot and sunny that washing a car would be difficult. In fact, just as I finished up washing it started drizzling rain. Perfect!

Apple tree

The orchard

I just finished, after several hours, and lots of sweat, cleaning up all of the drops from the 8 apple trees we have. I lost count after 10 of the number of 5-gallon buckets of apples that I dumped into the compost pile. I suspect it was over 20.

When I went out to the orchard this morning to try to finish up I noticed that one of the larger branches on one of the trees was snapped in two (not completely, but enough) from the weight of the apples on it. What a heartbreak.

I have to say that this is not a big surprise.  I have not been able to properly prune the trees for several years. In fact the orchard has been neglected for most of the 20 years it has been there. In addition it has been at least 2 years since there has been much in the way of fruit production due to late frosts. This year the trees are making up for 2 years of not being able to produce seed and they are being prodigious.  The poor trees are weighed down with way too many apples and the branches are too spindly to hold them. I can't prune them now (although if more branches break I might as well) because it is too early in the year. Plus there's all that fruit.

The heartbreak is that I'm just starting to work on the orchard again like I wanted to for the last 20 years but never seemed to have the time, and I had to saw off a major limb because of my neglect.

There is a lesson here. Don't neglect your orchard or you will regret it. Whether your orchard is one with apple trees or one with children, friends, parishioners, or whatever, things can happen within your orchard that will be heartbreaking, disappointing, and will take a lot of time and sweat, and maybe tears, to remedy or recover. With care you can enjoy the fruit of your orchard without the trauma.

Steve

Introduction

I once had a blog hosted at my place of work. That was Purdue University. It was a Wordpress blog. In it my wife and I wrote mostly about our travel experiences.

Now that I'm retired I no longer have access to that blog. I did back it up and transfer the data to my home system, but I have not yet worked on putting it up in any form that could be useful. Therefore, I have just recently decided to create this blog which will, hopefully, chronicle my activities (at least) here on the HoLmestead and other activities as I learn to make the most of my new role as a retiree.

So far I have been pretty busy, but I'm not going to try to put everything I've done since the first of June here. Let's just start with today. If I have an occasion to reminisce about things that have happened before now rest assured that I will avail myself of that opportunity.

Welcome aboard.
Steve