Darkest Depths 2017

A nest in our meadow

It's been a cold month of Darkest Depths here in the Finger Lakes. We haven't had a lot of snow at our place, but we have had end to end clippers and our temperatures are about 30 degrees below normal.







Our holiday celebrations were very nice. Due to the cold, we were unable to get out for walks, but we stayed cozy and warm playing games, taking turns reading aloud and watching old movies. We had high winds on Christmas day which took out our power for about four hours. Because we live low tech and simply, it didn't affect us too much. I bet it put a crimp in the day of many other people!

Aside from our celebrations, we've been busy about the house. We got the garden "put to bed" on the ninth of  December. That also happens to be the day that I finished threshing out our dry beans.

2017 Bean harvest

I ended up with eleven gallons. That's enough to meet our protein requirements for eleven months. I'll fill out our needs with purchased lentils, garbanzos and limas.










Bob's been working on the bathroom. He has taken down the closet wall and removed the fixtures. Currently he's patching in drywall where the wall was connected and replacing some old cloth covered wires with romex cable.

Tearing down the interior wall

Wall removed

Having the wall down really opens up the space, even though it was only two feet away from the exterior wall.

Two of the four layers

I've gotten all of the layers of old wallpaper scraped off. It was a job. I don't think any of the previous paper hangers had ever heard of sizing!









One almost always finds surprises when remodeling. When the paneling in the toilet area was removed, we found holes in the exterior wall. On the floor beneath the holes was a pile of cellulose insulation 2'x3'x3' which had fallen right out of the holes when it was blown into the walls. Bob scooped it up and spread it on the layer already in our attic. Waste not, want not.

Hole in the wall 

Pile of cellulose

I guess that's everything for now. We'll keep working on the bathroom and update you on our progress next time.
Stay warm and enjoy some rest this winter. We'll check in at the end of Cold Time.
Kathleen, Bob and Lunette