I didn’t write last week because I was out of town. Here is a recap of the last two weeks.
As I wrote about in the last post, my Mom was here to visit and watch Charlie since he had the week off (daycare closed for spring break) and we still had to work. It was a rainy week, but Charlie and Grandma made the most of it.
That Saturday we drove to Ohio to take Grandma home and to witness the eclipse in the totality path. Charlie had a blast playing at my parents’ house. The eclipse was incredible, well worth the trip. It didn’t get as dark as I expected, it was more like twilight. Something I’m probably (hopefully!) going to remember for the rest of my life. It was nice to get some family time, too.
The day after the eclipse we took a drive down to Holmes County (Amish country) to visit Colonial Homestead, a hand tool store owned and operated by Dan Raber. They have probably the best collection of traditional hand tools in the midwest, if not all of the United States. Dan is knowledgable, helpful, and friendly. I bought some holdfasts made by a local blacksmith, a Millers Falls low angle block plane, a large gouge, and The Guide to Woodworking with Kids by Doug Stowe.
Dan said he works with local schools to assemble sets of hand tools and kid-sized benches for their sloyd classes. They start in 2nd grade! Inspiring.
Dan had copies of Emmet van Driesche‘s Greenwood Spoon Carving and had read Emmet’s other book, Carving out a Living on the Land. Emmet is a friend of mine, so it was cool to see his book there.
I’m intrigued by these axes and this is a reminder to myself that I need to look them up in Eric Sloane’s A Museum of Early American Tools. I also liked these smaller benches with removable legs and plan to build one with a 3″ thick oak board. Perhaps with two sets of legs, one longer and one shorter.
We also went to the Guggisberg cheese factory and Lehman’s Hardware, where I got a 9×13 cast iron pan. I think it will make great pizza and focaccia.
It was plowing time in Amish country. So many teams of horses out plowing the fields. Cool to see. It was also a beautiful warm day, and every Amish schoolhouse we drove by (we took the back roads) had the yards filled with children enjoying the sun. Lots of baseball games happening, too.
I took the opportunity while we were at my parents’ house to back up my pre-2008 digital photo library. Everything post-2008 was already backed up on a drive I have in NY, but I was missing pre-2008. Glad I got it before that computer crashed (one of the original Intel-based iMacs). I also found my old OPML of circa-2007 blog feed subscriptions.
We drove back home on Wednesday. I’m thankful that Charlie is a pretty good traveler. Most of the credit for that goes to Amanda, who sits with him in the back set on longer trips to keep him company.
Hectic catch up days at work on Thursday and Friday, then a birthday party for one of Charlie’s friends on Friday evening. Afterward we got dinner with some friends and kept the kids out later than we should have, but they had a good time.
Signs of spring in the yard:
Not pictured: The peonies, rhubarb, and lilac producing buds!
This week a friend sent me a photo of a swing set he just built for his kids from my plans. There are now 5 of these in existence in 4 US states. It makes me so happy to know there are lots of kids enjoying them.
Saturday morning was gymnastics, then I felt motivated to do some cooking. I made two kinds of tomatillo salsa (avocado salsa verde and tomatillo arbol chile salsa), refried beans from scratch, and chicken fajitas.
Later I put a new gauge and washers on a CO2 regulator and tried my hand at carbonating various liquids: Water, grapefruit juice, and margaritas. While we were in Ohio I mentioned off-hand to my Dad that I was thinking about getting a CO2 tank to force carbonate things (you can only do water in a SodaStream… anything else ends up in a huge mess, which I know from firsthand experience), and it turns out he had a 5lb tank in the garage that someone he knew was getting rid of, and it just needed a new gauge for the regulator. Thanks, Dad!
I’m still getting the hang of how to carbonate different liquids and what PSI works best for water vs juice vs cocktails, but I’m excited to sip fizzy cocktails on the porch this summer, and maybe even fizzy cold brew coffee.
It took me two tries to get the water carbonated how we like it (halfway between regular seltzer and Hal’s). The grapefruit juice was fun because it had a softer, almost velvety mouthfeel. Smaller carbonation bubbles compared to water. The test margarita was tasty, though I prefer it without ice, as pouring it over ice immediately released the carbonation. Perhaps I need to slowly add the ice after pouring? We’ll see.
Sunday Charlie slept in much later than usual, then woke up sick. He had a fever most of the day and just wanted to snuggle with one of us on the couch for most of the day. I took the morning shift while Amanda went horseback riding, then after lunch I worked outside for a while. I repurposed (planed and cut) old lumber to make a mud kitchen for Charlie, which we’ll assemble next weekend. Then I made three new french cleat holders: First aid kit + paper towel holder, squares holder, and jig saw holder.
By the time I was wrapping up, I was more tired than usual and started to get a headache. Amanda felt the same way, so we are probably getting whatever Charlie has. Yikes. I decided to muster the rest of my energy and go to the grocery store to stock up in case we all wake up with fevers tomorrow. Let’s hope we don’t.