Poor Little Crocus

With my apologies

I am still celebrating spring. However, considering we are now under a winter storm watch and tomorrow I may be blogging pictures of snow, I feel entitled.

So, without further adieu, I give you...


budding tulips,

and the Red River at almost-rowable levels!

It's raining!

Yay!!This will help get rid of some of the dust that has been choking things up.

And it isn't snowing like it is in Alberta and Saskatchewan!

Tool Therapy

Dale finds that I am happier when I have "tool therapy" regularly. If she's right, I will be one happy person this week. The weather was great here this weekend, and I spent most of my time making a mess in the garage.

Some old shelves got taken out of the basement when the pantry was fixed up, so I put those up in the garage. Before putting them up I covered the insulation the previous owners never finished with some of the left-over OSB.

Then I built some nesting boxes from further old wood. It seemed necessary to recycle the wood, since it had already been recycled - much of the old shelves in that basement were made from older wooden crates. On some of them you could still see the markings that they were used to ship chains.

To keep on the theme of recycling I used up some more old plywood and left-over OSB and an old storm window to make a cold frame for Dale's - ahem - business. ;-)

Finally, I made some stilts from a 2x4. The neighbour's kids had some when I was growing up and I always wanted some. These ended up with the step a bit higher than what is manageable, largely because the tops are underneath your armpits when you stand on them, which gives you not enough support. But, a good first prototype for under 5$, never mind I actually had all the parts here as leftovers.




When I was done I was so happily dusty that Dale urged me strongly to put my clothes straight into the washer and to get into the shower without bouncing around upstairs too much :-).

My Little Grow-Op

The pantry servers two purposes; to store extra food and related supplies,and as a place for me to start my plants. The Geek hooked up correct spectrum florescent lights and even painted the ceiling blue so the plants would feel at home when they went outside.
For those of you who are already planning how to spend the $2000 from Crime Stoppers, I hate to tell you that the only things growing here are tomatoes and peppers! ;P

The Basement Pantry

The Geek tackled the basement pantry this spring.
However, before she could do anything, she had to deal with 'the tank'. The tank took up at least a third of the room in the pantry and she had no intention of insulating around it. After having an environmental company drain about 180 litres of fuel oil, a couple of friends popped by to help us push it out of the basement as it was too heavy for The Geek and I alone.

The Geek then put up the studs,

insulation and vapour barrier

OSB

and shelves which were primed (with left-over orange primer)

and then painted.

More....

Don't worry, spring fever will end soon...

First Flower

The first crocus has emerged,

and the tulips are trying desperately to keep up!

More signs of spring

Puddles, holes, and ruts in the back lane...

And crocuses sprouting in the back yard!

New shoes!

In the spirit of the upcoming barefoot season, we have each purchased (whether mine are kept remains to be seen) a pair of Vibram Fivefingers. It is a little weird having my toes separated and I thought I would have issues, considering my toe anxiety, but it isn't too bad.Vibram (http://vibramfivefingers.com/ ) has a rather cool site.
The Geek can't wait to wear hers to work!

Spring is springing!

As seen behind the house today, April 1 2008 - and that's not a joke!

OK, not a very good image, but these are the tulips that are going to be blooming soon in the microclimate on the south side of the house.