devil's food cake with cream cheese frosting---my momma loves me!

Birthdays are a great time to reflect and reassess, make new goals and remember old ones. Today I start my 33rd year and I solemnly vow to try to be a better person. Again. Still.

One of my main goals for this next year (artificial a starting point as it may be) is to make more art. Someone swiped my website address, so I am working on transferring it over to a new name. I found out it was swiped when I had a featured photo on NewWest and the link to my site was broken. Sucks to have a photo linked to your NOTHING.

I am entering a few in a local art show next week. Copying Nici Holt Cline's (digthischick) idea of mounting photos on wood. Luckily, I have myself a woodsman! Or at least someone who can reliably operate a band saw (not in my skill set).

I also have a problem. With the library.

I have book ADD; some books I check out and start to read but I may not finish. Destiny and Desire I'm about halfway through but it's really not doing anything for me (might came back to it in a year or so), so it's a placeholder book. Something to try while I had some others on request. It might take a week for one to come in on the system we have. Or it could be two days. I have a book traffic jam.

Surprisingly I got a copy of The Pale King within a week of requesting it which is awesome for central Idaho! Your taxpayer dollars at work!

Keith and I have made a new routine that involves daily (or twice-daily) walks to the river and back. Roundtrip is almost one mile exactly and we're not breaking any records, but it's activity together and that's what counts. Watching one or two movies a night doesn't count for calories burned.

A couple of evenings ago we decided to try Church Canyon (opposite direction of the river walk) for a change of scenery and that's where we saw Pancho Villa and Theresa, the highland cattle.

This first shot is a little bit of an optical illusion because although the cows are large, they're not mammoth-sized. They're quite shy and easily spooked. They definitely did not approve of our dogs, even though the dogs were on leash.

We're still amending our tiny house plans and recent discussions have indicated we might turn the space formerly reserved for a shower into an extended part of the kitchen.

We've already decided to build a tiny "out house" for the toilet off the porch (instead of indoors, plumbing etc.) to the left of what you see above and so it only makes sense to keep the toilet/shower together like we had initially planned.

Our travels to Mexico introduced us to the idea of one small room with both a shower and a toilet and since we're trying to live small it's reasonable for us to combine the spaces.

Since the weather hasn't exactly been balmy, we moved the drop leaf table and chairs inside and had a realization. We could use more kitchen space! We'll see how it all comes together, but I am excited about so many things we have planned for our space this summer.

outside our bedroom window this morning

There is hope, after all, for spring. The cherry tree tells me so.                                      (aprilblankenship.com)

Porch blogging

We're clearing our throats, unplugging the turn table, stacking dishes and bagging empties, turning on lights, and hoping winter gets the hint and clears the hell out.

dark clouds got you on your knees,

no use letting all this winter bring you down,

ain't no time to fret and cry

when you got a whole great big world to see,

and when the heavy sky breaks

and beams of sunlight fall down all around your face

you will remember that it's good to be alive, 

and I will meet you in the sunshine in the morning

Carrie, Part II by Run On Sentence

The long incarceration is how I heard it described on the radio this weekend, winter. This past (feels like passed) winter was especially difficult, challenging, mind- and heart-stretching. And as much as part of me welcomes that opportunity to grow as a person, the other, the less gracious and accepting part of me is really happy for a break from that. I can't keep that kind of intense concentration for that long and I am happy to see it simmer on the back burner while we enjoy the sun.

This weekend I got our peppers and tomatoes started, the seeds in cells in the greenhouse. Everything else can wait.

Keith cleared out some of the juniper around the house. We're making way for a toilet (this can't happen soon enough). Also thinking raised (garden) beds next year. Lazlo was intent on babysitting the burn pile. For a short second the wind picked up and I saw the heat waves pretty close to his back and he just hunkered down a little more. Weirdo!

I pulled a double drop-leaf table we've had since Missoula... or Portland... out of storage and I found these solid chairs second hand this weekend so we have a dining room now. Al fresco! I have plans to paint and recover the chairs (and table) sometime this summer...scouring Design*Sponge's before/after posts for inspiration.

lilacs are on their way

I'm very disappointed and saddened by my failure to fully experience the love I see so many people showing for The Impossible Project. But I'm committed to giving it one more heartfelt try. After my 2 Polaroid scores a few weekends ago, I went online and ordered a pack of film from this place (and it's pretty hard for me to justify spending $25 on EIGHT photos) that is trying to produce film for people who are still in love with the concept and immediate emotional satisfaction of the Polaroid. Which I admit I am, because I am all about instant gratification.

This is what I think was the best one out of the pack of eight, I think the second one. And it's a complete mistake abstract happy accident. The others that kind of turned out, even after I tried following the explicit super involved instructions, way pink and dark and weird. Meh. Well, one pack of silver shade to take on the trip and then I'll probably put the cameras away for a while.

We're starting to be able to use our outside living space more as the weather warms. Expands our usable square footage by about 1,000 times!

We got all the fruit trees pruned this year, even the cherry tree outside our bedroom window. We cut the pear trees back too much last time we did it, so we had a lot of water spouts to deal with, but we're learning and trying to go for a more consistent maintenance schedule.

The next outdoor project is tearing out all the juniper that's just to the west of the cherry tree. Keith's slashing and burning right now.

And sometimes getting a ride in on his Rez Harley.

First Saturday

Since I generally only work 3 days a week, I consider everyone else's Friday to be my first Saturday. And this is where I plan to spend at least part of today, book in hand. And I think it's almost time to break out the hammock.

This is the Polaroid SX-70 I picked up for $10 last weekend. It looks like it's in mint condition and I have some PX 70 Color Shade Push on order from The Impossible Project. Since Polaroid ceased production on their film, this company has tried to keep it going.

Including S&H and breaking it down to per-picture price, it's about $3/ea. Needless to say, this is not going to be something I can do often. So I decided to take the camera with us on our 10-day camping trip to celebrate our 10-year anniversary in June. Definitely to get a picture of the church (Church of the Wildwoods) and whatever else I think is worth preserving at $3/click.

I found a Colorpack II (1971 Polaroid) at the same place with a case and manual for $5. The cameras are cheap because the film is expensive! But like I explained to Keith, "It's ART!!!"

Yesterday it rained all day (or drizzled at least) and today the sun is trying to stay ahead of the clouds. I think the dew has evaporated off the grass enough I can't make any more excuses about why I'm not pruning the fruit trees. Off I go!

Saturday

  

  

ulcers for nothing

Something weird happened this weekend. We were contacted by a TV show in NYC about possibly being on their Earth Day show that would feature tiny house living (or at least, living in small spaces).

I heard free trip to NYC and thought how could you not?? I quickly coerced Keith into it and also a friend in town (they wanted a family to stay in our house to see what it's like) and we talked on the phone with production agents. It was kind of exciting.

But it made my stomach hurt. I'll be the first to say our house is not exactly TV-ready. We have some Ongoing Projects. We're Waiting for the Right Materials to be found. Also, Money. Anyway, I did mention this to the lady in NY: We don't have a shower. We have a composting toilet. (Small white lie, but we could have built one in a couple hours.)

They said they'd call Saturday a.m. and we didn't hear back so we took the hint. (Kinda of rude, though, not to even say "Hey we decided to go another direction.") It was a little disappointing. But---mostly: a relief.

When I told my friend I didn't think it was going to happen and that I was kind of relieved not to have to do everything necessary to pull it off, she said she was too. That her husband was freaking out a little. (Mine, too!)

So while I obviously would have loved a free trip to NYC (amirite?!), I can't say it would have been worth all the stress. I found this blog post by a pretty famous blogging couple that does DIY home renovations and makes a living bloggging!, Young House Love, about how they were on this show that contacted us. And they were to NYC and back in 22 hours. That doesn't sound very fun.

And to be on TV and worry about being able to string together coherent sentences and trying not to think about the 10 pounds the camera adds. I mean, reading their blog post, I pretty much found out exactly what the experience would have entailed without all the stress.

When I hopped online Sunday morning I saw that a guy named Ryo who has a DIY house blog (Laptop and a Rifle) had finished  up his Project 31, which meant "[S]pending an entire month (31 days) on my property this winter without leaving for any reason. During that time, I will subsist solely off of what I have at hand or can gather from my land."

And I realized: we're more Laptop and a Rifle than Young House Love. It's true. We're more about use than aesthetics, though we always take aesthetics into account. And so if they didn't want us because we're not polished enough, okay. We've declared our okayness with a) the salvage look and b) this whole thing being a work in progress. This is our house. AND: We don't need your stupid TV show.

Now that the weather is warmer (though still rainy), we're really motivated to make progress on projects that will make us more self-reliant out there: toilet, shower, working kitchen. I'd like to think is that this experience has been a boost to our motivation about checking off all of the many projects we have mentally lined up for our house. Just what we needed. Yeah.

So expect more posts that end in projects getting done? Or at least we'll start some. And eventually some will get finished. And eventually it will all be finished.

weekending

(These are all from Saturday, so don't be fooled by the mid-week post.)

time to give our fender planters a hair cut

Keith's oars need a good shellacking

Saturday reading spot (was very nice)

love love loving my 50mm lens (still) - after raking branches in the yard

cherry-blossoms-to-be outside our bedroom window

dig, Larzaus, dig!

Signs of life

springing up around the apple tree.