Again, lets see if the site lets me post or not. It's still being wonky about what it will let me read and not read, and when I can post.

I was sitting around the other night doing one of my 'winter chores', which involves digging out all my leather tack and giving it a good cleaning and oiling. Sometimes it gets short shrift in the summer while the weather is fine and I'd rather be in the barn or gardening than getting covered in oil.

Cruising the computer, while sometimes fun, also is non-productive a good amount of the time....so anyone have any advice on what YOU do during the winter that there isn't usually time for in the summer?

Due to very little snow this winter, I was out pruning down shrubs that should have been done in the fall (but at least I got to it) and for a while there we had temps in the mid to upper 40's and no snow and I thought I could rake up the pine needles I'd missed out on this fall while I was sick.

The cold is back and at least a teensy covering of the White Mulch (which I have shovelled up and onto my perennial gardens), so my thoughts were turned to other projects, 'cause Spring is still a long ways off.

Someone posted this over on The Garden Web and I thought I'd share it. I've been wanting more bird houses and thinking about building some kind of toad and/or fairy cottages for the garden and this was quite inspiring. My great aunt used to have a small stone cottage in her garden, less than two feet square as I recall it (maybe even smaller) that someone had made for her with a tiny door only about 7" high, little windows with real glass in them, and the whole thing built out of small stones (what we'd call road gravel) that used to really take my imagination as a child.

http://www.elucinda.com/index.html

Now this is working on my imagination.

Anyone else have any ideas for lightening winter's tedium?

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2003

Answers

Wow! How did YOU get to post such a long thread? I keep getting the "ouch" thing. Maybe they've fixed it now (we can hope!).

The houses are adorable! Did your life expectancy go up? Hmmmm, winter projects . . . clean up the house? Clicker train the dog? Clean out the van? Start a guinea pig tumbling act for the circus? Plan next year's Halloween scheme and make the props? Train the frogs to sing? Go visit your sister? Start an exercise program?

I think I'll just scamper away now, making nasty squeaking noises . . . . ~C8:>

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2003

This winter I'm re-plumbing the water lines in the house. Its currently plumbed in re-called polybutylene pipe and I'm redoing it in copper. It would be easier to do it in PVC but I prefer copper. Its a big project so I'm doing it a little at a time and won't actually make the hook-up till its complete.

Besides that I'm reading a couple of different translations of the upanishads. Thats shaping up to be a loooong project. If anyone is interested, the translations by Rhadakrishnan are good because they're heavily footnoted with lotsa good info. I have a Gita translated by him too which I really like.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2003

Well the walls are up on my rock cottage so I'm just doing all the things that don't cost money to save for a roof. I tore down a shed, moved a shed and built a toolshed and woodshed out of used lumber. Now I'm stocking my wood for next year and building some stick lawn furniture.... Kirk

http://www.geocities.com/kirkay/1035.jpg

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2003

Getting rid of clutter! (Still, and ongoing). On the to-do list: shore up sagging fences, dormant spray the fruit trees and prune; clean up all the stuff I've shoved into the bunkhouse, plus get a fire going in the cookstove out there to un-dampen the place; complete seed inventory and buy seed; figure out a better way to store Christmas tree ornaments (in cloth bags?...I have so many, and some are pretty fragile). Figure out a duck management scheme!

Get more sleep, too.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2003

Building a replacement swing for my front porch from collected scraps and making a braided hammock for the side yard. Also refinishing a coffee table and hutch I picked up from the side of the road on our last clean up day.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2003

I wasn't able to get an excavator in to move my goat shed out from the main barn to make more room so I'm thinking of just cutting into the wall and doing it since I didn't get my usual 150 bales of hay this year (didn't get a second cutting here) My husband thinks it was make the barn weaker but I keep trying to tell him that both sections are free standing and it shouldn't make it weaker. I was planning on removing that wall anyway when the goat part was moved back. They are actually two freestanding sheds pushed together so it looks like a leanto was made onto the main barn. One is 10x30 the other is 12x20. I wanted to move the 12x20 out about 6 feet so I could have the gate feeder there, closing the roof in. (He can't see it but then again, he's not Polish and building is in my blood)

Just took down the Christmas tree and got the mean Mom song. My boys love the tree and would probably like it up year round.

I also want to finish the basement this winter so it will be cool for the summer. All we really need is for the carpet to be put down and my husband just hasn't called the guy he knows that said he would do it. Hey, is there any cauking that would last for corner cracks without having to spackle tape it over again?

And I still am working on that puppy.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2003

A fellow scrounge Jay! Don't ya just love that great free stuff on the sides of the road?

-- Anonymous, January 15, 2003

Dee, my son Ben was absolutely indignant that I would toss out "HIS" tree. LOL So I guess I get Mean Mom awards too. My latest make work project is to face lift the kitchen. A section of cabinet and doors is painted and I have stacks of ceramic tile for the floor and border for along the backsplash (roosters and sunflowers). It will look incredibly different when I'm done...if ever. The cabinets are going from pine to a dark red...sort of that Indian Red color Crayola had. And I have been toying with the idea of growing cutting flowers and selling them at the store. The visual of a bucket of flowers outside the shop door appeals to me. Any suggestions? Email them incase I don't get back anytime soon.

-- Anonymous, January 21, 2003

Hey Julie...thanks for the idea! I love the idea of little tiny stone cottages...with windows and such. This is really giving me some inspiration! I am going to check out that web site too. As for winter projects.....let me tell you, when I first moved up here to the north country I had these warm fuzzy plans of getting snowed in and "having" to stay home and do all the things you never can find time to do all year....like bead work, sewing, baking, or finally getting the windows trimmed out etc etc. BUT 'twern't long before I realized that winter had slipped by just like every other season, with too many chores to get around to doing all the "fun" stuff. Like today, I had an unexpected day off.....and what did I do? Spent half of it running the snowblower and the plowtruck. Then still had to get the wood in etc etc. So another day goes by....one day closer to spring...and not a bead did I sew, nor a pie did I bake. Guess its a blessing that I don't discourage easily, cuz I always figure "well, maybe next week...." :) I am grateful that I have a truck and plow; I am thankful that I have a snowblower. Wasn't that long ago that all I had was me and my shovel! I have been playing my guitar a bit lately though...thats my reward when the day is done. I learned to play chords back in the 60's...you know, all the folk songs....Peter Paul & Mary, Bob Dylan etc. Well, I never got past that stage then. So recently got a new guitar and am trying to learn more this time. I decided that even if I am not good, I am just enjoying it tremendously. I got a really really good book of Beatles songs made easy for the guitar, and am having a ball with it. My dogs are a great aduience. They love to be sung to.....they even think I am good! Seems I may have strayed a bit here....sorry:) Idaho Gal

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2003

Idaho Gal,

Boy does that bring back memories! Playing guitar (chords, mostly...a little pickin')...Bob Dylan's 115th Dream; Don't Think Twice, It's Alright; and a few others (poorly). Yikes. Mr. S. has an old guitar with nylon strings under our bed. For a good laugh, maybe I'll drag it out and dust it off. He thinks my singing sounds like Alfalfa in the old Our Gang shows so maybe I'll howl like the dogs when he's out of the house. I doubt I'd remember any chords without a chord chart or something, though.

I still want to get a piano again. I was forced to take lessons for a thousand years as a kid and was always told that I'd thank my parents for their insistance. Well, I guess now that I'm ancient, I can say thanks...if I only had a pianah!

It's been warm here: 50s during the day and almost as warm at night. Sounds like the rest of the country (except for Kirk-world!) is in the grips of chilling storms. I can't find time to do anything like spin or knit, either. I guess I'm just glad I have a job (so MANY of my friends are really having a difficult time find jobs. The Boeing/High Tech layoffs here have just really hit hard. I'd rather be home tending the home fires, but I'm grateful to have $$ coming in while we pay off this place, and grateful for health insurance, too. Something's wrong about having to work for health insurance!

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2003