Well, well, well... finally, a blog update! A friend recently wrote, "
I notice that the blog needs some updates. I take that to mean you're busy." I have been busy, but no busier than last year when I was blogging more frequently. For all those who have waited patiently, and not so patiently (/steve e/), let's begin.
It's snowing today. Seems as if we've been getting snow once every week or two. Apparently the New Hampshire winters have followed me to Virginia. Thankfully, they don't last as long, nor are the summers as hot.
Today I'm resting in bed after having severely strained my right hamstring. As I described to a friend today, "
I was walking down some outdoor steps and on the last step, as my right
foot hit the ice covered ground, I did an impromptu full split with my rear
leg anchored between two steps. They always tell you to stretch before
attempting such a feat. But did I listen? Nooooo... The ensuing pain
was excruciating, and enough to remind me to get back on my stretching
regimen." Being somewhat incapacitated, although I did cut firewood today, is giving me a "no-excuses" reason to update the blog.
The day after tomorrow, Christy and I drive to New Hampshire to visit my daughters and newly discovered nephew, Grigory. More on that later. We'll be traveling with our neighbor, Liz and her daughter, Maya. Liz's mom also lives in NH. Liz had planned on taking a train to visit during the same time as us, and so it made sense to carpool. Our sleeping accommodations will be provided by our good friends, Roy and Laurie, who, coincidentally, live less than 5 minutes from my daughter, Lauren. Thanks, you two!
So, where to actually begin on what's been happening over the past 5 months? Do I list a brief description of
all the highlights? Pick a few of the highlights and go into detail? How
about a little of both?
Verbosity Level: Mixed Mode
On a Personal Level
- Christy left her job at Wall Residences as their office manager in October. The job helped us fund our cabin projects for a year, but now she's able to work fewer hours off the homestead and more on the homestead.
- Christy's now doing accounting work three days per week for a farmer-owned local foods distributor. She's also been doing accounting work at a local alternative school.
- I've become an employee of Direct Connect Solar & Electric, owned by my friend and neighbor David. My tentative title is Service Manager (tentative, because I'm not partial to the title), heading up the repair and maintenance department. I've also worked on a number of installations in the area including one up in Lynchburg, VA (think Jerry Falwell, yawn) as part of a training installation for some of the employees of the customer. That was fun. I also got to represent DCS&E at a recent Green Expo in Roanoke.
Green Expo in Roanoke, VA
A recent repair job of an off-grid system.
Installation in Lynchburg, VA
- What about SolShine Energy Alternatives? After being offered to do similar work by David, I felt it made more sense to accept and work with someone established rather than surf the murky waters as a novice. Besides, I still need to get my NABCEP certification in order to become a certified PV installer. Working for DCS&E will help me to accomplish that.
- My daughter Lauren had her baby, Gabriela Janelle (Gaby), in October. I now have 3 granddaughters! Woohoo.!
- I'm on the Community Board of Advisers and Energy Inventory Committee of SustainFloyd, a local 501c3 organization whose mission is , "To preserve, enhance and support a resilient local community".
- Christy has begun making these cool little cloth bags (see pic below) by hand. She's given them out as gifts and has been asked to make some to sell here.
- As readers may recall (listen to me, I sound like some writer), I discovered my biological father, who lives in Brazil, in the summer of 2009 (the year we moved here). Well, I've since made contact with my two brothers, Marco Aurelio and Anselmo. I've had more contact with Marco, the HR director for Volkswagen in Sao Paulo, in part because his English is very good. So this is where my nephew Grigory comes in. He's 19 years old and attending university, majoring in engineering physics. During his summer break (remember, southern hemisphere) he's participating in a cultural program where he's working, are you ready? In New Hampshire! Yup, that's right. He's working at Loon Mountain as a lift operator. So, we'll be getting together with him and my daughters.
- While we're on the subject of Brazil, we're actually going there next month. Yes, indeed! We'll there for 18 days to meet my father and extended family. It's all too exciting for words, so I'll just leave it at that.
- Have to give a quick plug to my brother, Adrian's, and partner, Keith's blog. It chronicles the renovation of their new home in Durham, NC. What a house! It's beautiful as is the interior design. Adrian can actually walk to work. They've also done a much better job on their blog layout than I did.
- We've added a new member to the family - felis catis. He/she (haven't determined the sex) has been living at the office where Christy works for the past two years, and was looking for a new home. We'd welcome suggestions for a new name.
- Earlier this fall we purchased a used bread maker off of Craigslist, and let me tell you that it's been getting a workout. Since we're such bread snobs, (sorry Wonder) we found it too wasteful to continually purchase $5 and $6 loaves of bread (easily twice a week). So it just made sense to start making them ourselves. What a difference! I've refined my whole grain seed bread recipe to be quite tasty. We haven't purchased a loaf of bread in over 3 months.
The Cabin
- Not a whole lot to report on regarding the cabin.
- Put in the porch railing. I haven't done much regarding the stainless steel cabling that we'll be putting on beneath the railing. I have the cable but I'm not happy with the options available to secure it to the posts. I should qualify that statement, there are some that I like but they're cost prohibitive. See below for what it'll look like.
- Framed the laundry room, including two windows. Still waiting to find the right sized door
- Began sand plastering the interior walls. Sand plaster is a combination of sand, drywall compound, and water. This provides a stucco-like, southwestern appearance. We'll paint over this surface with terracotta red.
- Still waiting to get the remainder of our logs cut in order to finally side the cabin. I'm really disappointed that here we are a year later and the cabin is still shrouded in tar paper.
- More to be added when I think of them.
That's all kids!
