Fire Pit

The girls had a half day of school on Wednesday, so I improved the fire pit and we worked on the brush pile. By the time the coals were good and hot and I had split some wood for the winter, (Amélie likes to stack it for me) our friends had arrived for dinner. The girls weren't too excited about spending time with someone new - they have a girl who is a year older - but they all ended up having a blast. 

That cookout was one of the few times the sun came out this week. It has been cold. Even froze a couple times. Bees weren't happy and all the flowery green stuff paused to hold its breath. Now it is warming up again and yesterday I prepped the garden for the additional beehives. I think three is the magic number. Hopefully we can get two up and running properly, and if we happen to catch a swarm, then that's the third. 

The girls had two music concerts and school and an art show at NMU. We went out for dinner to celebrate. They had their first week without Miss CJ, who had her baby yesterday. They also had to say goodbye to their other favorite teacher, Mr. Cam, who, with sadness, took a job at the Subaru dealer as he just couldn't pay the bills with his tiny school salary. Amélie especially is upset about the changes, but at least she got to take home the snails to care for this summer. 

Working on the guest room.

Building a fire.

After the art show.

Amélie played recorder and a piano solo.

Abigail did the mandolin, recorder, and trumpet.

Morris Chairs

Finally finished up the chairs this week! Definitely not perfect, but I think they turned out well. Got a start on the couch but that will be another big project. Hopefully it will go a bit more quickly as I worked out some of the kinks on the chairs. 

Got a lot done outside this week. Moved a garden in the back to the front to make way for the greenhouse. Also got the fireplace up off the ground, stacked up the mushroom logs to make cabins, and started chopping some firewood. The new chainsaw is incredible. Cuts so much faster than my smaller one!

Naomi was able to start painting the guest room, so I will need to work on the lighting and reattach the baseboards in there so she can finish her part of the project. We had quite the temperature swings this week too. Felt like summer. Up to 90! Almost turned on the A/C. Now its back around freezing and we have a fire going. 

From summer to freezing in a week.

Harvested the first shiitakes of the season!

Found a morrel growing in the window well?!

Lifted the fireplace and stacked the mushroom logs.

Bees & Bricks

This was an exciting week for the bees. It didn't start out well, though! I ordered hybrid bees that are supposedly better with the cold and mites, but the company that received and reshipped them did not feed them, so they came mostly dead. Very sad. They blamed the Postal Service, but I heard of someone else who had the same experience with this particular company and lots of bees get shipped without any trouble just so long as they have enough food. 

I managed to rescue the queen and a couple dozen survivors, but they didn't have a hope of making it, so I expanded the rescue mission. Called up to a guy in Baraga who, luckily, happened to be on his way to pick up the last round of the season from Wisconsin. He was able to get an extra colony for me, so I ended up making the 90 minute drive the next day that I was hoping to avoid. It was good to talk to the expert though. He came up with an idea that might salvage two colonies out of this mess, because just adding some of the new bees to the old queen probably wouldn't work so well for either colony. His idea was to stack two boxes with a queen separator in between so that the workers can go back and forth, getting used to both queens, and then after they lay enough eggs we can split the boxes and hopefully both colonies will be up and running. 

Made a bit of progress on the chairs this week. Should be able to wrap them up next week and get started on the couch. Had some fun building a couple molds for woodcrete bricks and making a few with a friend. It will take a while for them to cure, but they are looking good so far! We also went on a little adventure up to Big Bay yesterday. A sawmill had a big sale event where they had a bunch of artists and vendors with booths, food, and games. It was fun. Beautiful spot. Hopefully someday I can get a sawmill going too. 

Starved bees.

The girls had a class writing trip to NMU.

Happy bees!

Setup for drilling perpendicular holes in the chair backs.

Making the spacers.

Woodcrete mix.

Two molds.

It works!

Time to dry. 

Birthday Week

After two months of waiting, I was finally able to reveal Naomi's big 40th birthday surprise! It was tricky to hide a massage chair, but a bit of plywood made it happen. She was completely surprised, and so were the girls! I didn't let them in on the secret, and Amélie said that was a good thing as she never could have kept it. Naomi loves it. Got our fruit trees and Naomi's Mother's Day present - hazelnut bushes - mostly planted. Just a few more to go. 

We also got her a bee trap. The idea is that we will put it up in a tree and then when bees swarm they should be attracted to it, and we could possibly start a new colony. It was a bit of a diversion, but fun too. Hopefully it will work!

The new teacher isn't working out the best, so I will need to see if I can find another one. That's the hardest part of a business I think, is finding good people to work with. Making progress on the chairs. Got the backs put together. This week the seats and drilling holes for the pegs. Then I'll have to figure out the couch! 

Also got the roof cleaned off. The insurance company doesn't like the age but decided not to downgrade our insurance as the condition is still okay. The did request the moss be removed. Good idea. Found what may have been a mouse hole too. Patched that up. Next summer we will need to put a new one on. Glad it doesn't need to happen this summer. Gives more time to figure out what metal options might be best.

My mom made an amazing cherry pie to kick off Naomi's birthday week!

Got nine holes put it.

Naomi must be getting old. She couldn't quite make it over the boulders and out to the lighthouse in time!

The swarm trap.

I'm afraid we lost her.

Still some ice left.

Not spilling over yet!

Cleaner roof.

Glad we did this ourselves! What a price.

Assembly

Finally, the chairs are no longer piles of parts cluttering up the workshop. I was able to dry fit them and then sand everything down, and yesterday I started gluing up the sides. Kind of stressful getting the right amount of glue in quickly enough. Got them pinned too. Fun to cut out the dowels with the new dowel cutter, although it's already getting dull. The posts seem to have shifted a bit as I am seeing gaps where I don't think there were gaps before even after all that drying time, but oh well. Not going for perfection here. 

Naomi had a busy week with a graduation dinner and a French party. She also spent some time exploring other options at NMU as she doesn't want to deal with her Trumpey boss more than necessary. It seems that the college of business has interest in her teaching skills, and although the topics are not her first choice, it could be a really good option for her. The colleagues would be much more professional, she could have more of a potential impact than teaching in other fields, and less time behind a desk would be a huge plus for her, not to mention a big raise. 

Looking forward to the birthday week! Naomi's first celebration is tomorrow, with my parents. Then the big day itself on Wednesday, followed by another party next weekend. All very exciting. Finally getting into the beginning of spring and the end of mud season. Still a snowbank in front though. No crocus yet at our house, but some at the girl's school and at my parents. Found a couple doors on clearance, so I picked them up and strapped them to the top of the car. Luckily I bumped into a friend at the checkout who was able to help me lift them up. All that glass is heavy!

Dad's birthday dinner, Easter dinner, and a great Easter fire!

Puddles are so fun.

Greenhouse door.

Garage door.

It fits!

New dowel making bits.

Both bases together.

The Lathe

Abigail and I had a lot of fun with the lathe this week! I still don't have one, so we went over to Neighbor Rick's shop. Abigail and I made a mallet for hitting chisels with out of a chunk of firewood. The next day I made some pins for the chairs I am working on. It will be good to get a lathe someday.

The girls had a half day on Wednesday and Friday was free, so on Friday my mom came up to get them. Naomi and I will head down to celebrate my dad's birthday and Easter. Hopefully we can have a big Easter fire! My dad has a big enough brush pile. 

Got the mortise and tenon joints all sized for the body of the chair. Time to start sanding. I want to finish these up as quickly as possible because the weather will transition out of mud season soon, and then I want to start working outside. It's a really time intensive build. Fun to work on and practice some new skills, though! 

Breakfast in bed!

Couldn't find a better dust mask.

Lots of sanding.

She even got a coat of oil on afterwards.

Window frame scraps from the NL.

Ready to be removed.

Wet Feet

Our snow is just about gone, so we figured it would be a good time to check out the melt on our land with our friends. Didn't seem like there was much more snow out there this year. But somehow there was! The road still had a foot or two. It was crusty on top, so we could walk okay, until we broke through. This happened regularly and lots of hikers lost boots, had to dig them out, and got wet feet. It was an adventure. Mostly fun. 

The girls had an art show at school on Friday. It was great to see what they made. Also impressive to see the artwork that the teachers put together! What a cool school. 

Made some progress on the chairs this week. Really slow going. The mortising setup is not working the best. Constant readjustments. Trying to get as far as I can before the weather warms up enough to get started on outside projects. What's left of the tomatoes made it out for the first time. Not sure why I can't get them to start here. It was so easy in the NL!

Great artwork!

Lots of fine tuning.

Bad news.

Beeswax.

Finished filtering and jarring.

Amélie's pattern.

Lots to explore.