What's been going on (or miscellaneous stuff)

We've been working on a variety of projects that needed finishing up or that will continue for a long time and just needed a bit of progress.

Firewood is always a biggie and we've actually been working on it since March. We now have 680 (136 feet long times 5 feet high) square feet of wood versus the 648 (162 x 4) we put up last year. I realize that this isn't how anyone else in the entire world calculates wood volume but it seems to fit with our stacking methods. This way we don't have to worry about carefully keeping dimensions consistent we just measure when we're done. Close enough is good enough.

The garden and CSA have been keeping me busy with preserving and cooking. My cucumber patch produced prodigiously this year and I've been putting up sweet pickles and even succumbed to the lure of a new dill pickle recipe (I stink at making dills). I also cooked down and froze pizza sauce pucks (an idea I got here), made peach jam, picked and froze blueberries, and struggled to keep up with all the fresh veggies from the CSA. Let's hear it for lo mein and quiche for using up lots of produce.

Canning sweet pickles

Everything in the fridge lo mein

We continue to work on laying the stone patio. This is a project that will take a very long time to complete so we just keep chipping away at it. It helps to be using huge stones. Unfortunately they are also usually thick - we managed to partially split this one and it's still massive.

At least it covers a lot of area

While all the furniture was out of the house for the great floor re-seal I took advantage of the space to do some planning on the mudroom. We intend to do built in cupboards and boot benches and all that nifty stuff. Pinterest has been a huge help here and has given us lots of ideas.

Storage behind, boot bench in front

Varying depths for cupboards

Cooper has been her usual helpful self. She keeps occupied while we're doing boring stuff like floors and trim...

One focused dog

What she's focused on

So very close...

...but she's always willing to lend a paw to help out. I laid out a down comforter to look for spots that needed repair and she got involved immediately.

Am I helping?

I've also been working through my project stash in an attempt to actually get a few things done before starting new projects. Each Sunday I pull out three things that need finishing touches or small amounts of time (mending in particular) and try to get them done before the next Sunday. I've managed to get quite a few nagging projects out of the pile and put away. Doesn't always work (I knit very, very slowly), but it does focus my attention.