Winter Update

      Where has the time gone? There is so much to report so let's start with the garden, which thanks to all Jim and my hard work was a stellar success. The chicken wire, the fencing, and the marigold border all helped to keep the rabbits and squirrels out and most everything flourished. Tomatoes were the superstars along with ample greens to get us through the whole season. Matter of fact just this weekend I harvested some beautiful Tatsoi and some winter Kale which as my pal Val told me, is even more delicious then summer kale, who knew? As usual I learned so much this year...I learned to plant less carrot seeds as the greens were so abundant but the carrots had no room to form. I learned some herbs are happier in pots (like tarragon and Dill), and I learned that next year I need to add phosphorus if I want the broccoli to flower. I did put in garlic at the end of the season so I am looking forward to a July harvest and I think I am going to try to grow strawberries and plant a few heirloom fruit trees in the spring.

     Jim put up the dining room shelves so I can display my Nambe collection and beautiful platters.We re purposed the steel uprights we brought from New Mexico and built thick white shelves which show off the silver of the Nambe beautifully.

    In the fall we had more plumbing issues with the upstairs bathroom and had to rip out the soggy ceiling for the second time. We were not happy to say the least! Jim made the call to get the insurance company involved because it seemed to be pretty major, and it was an excellent call. First they sent out a mitigation team to dry out the walls and floor.They set up 3 huge loud dehumidifiers with deafening fans on them which ran for 5 days.Then the insurance adjuster came out. This is an amazing story. This older gentleman arrived and slowly walked up our stairs and into our house. He apologized for moving so slowly and said he had some health issues from an incident. Turns out he was one of 14 survivors of the World Trade Center collapse. He was on the 24th floor doing business when he got a call to evacuate the building so he took the elevator down into the lobby. Things started falling around him so he put his coat over his head and headed towards the door when he was buried alive, yes buried alive for 4 days standing up. All the debris compressed him and stopped him from bleeding out. He was in a coma when they rescued him, and took him to the hospital where he remained for 3 months. He had to learn to walk again, had a number of corrective surgeries, and is now 2 inches shorter.What an amazing man! Unfortunately he said he relieves the experience every single night. All this being said , he was so happy to be alive he was very generous with his estimate of what it would cost to fix our bathroom. So we are now doing a gut rehab and getting a brand new fancy schmancy bathroom , and we don't even have to do the work ourselves! I promise to document the process in it's entirety! We are going from retro mint green and black (which we love) to classic black and white. Should be cool.

    Next project we are going to tackle is our bedroom which I always say to Jim feels like we live in a sleezy hotel. Closet needs to be ripped out and reconstructed in a much more efficient way, we need to make a headboard for our bed, we need to paint, and maybe we will sand the floors. Will keep you posted.After that all thats left is the kitchen which we will hopefully attack in the spring. Okay now you know everything!