Root Cellar Creation: Part 2

Jeremy said, “Let us frame in this space.” And Aimee said, “If you say so.” And so Jeremy and Aimee went to Scherer Lumber to purchase 24 Forestry Council Certified 2x4s and two un-certified treated 2x4's for the nailers.
Aimee said, “How will you cut these down to size?” And Jeremy said, “I will borrow a saw.” And so he did borrow a massive 24" compound mitre saw from a neighbor.



Jeremy put nailers in the floor and studs were attached to this. In this way, two walls were built.



And then Jeremy said, “Let us run over to The ReUse Center and find a door for the cellar.” And Aimee said, “Sounds good to me.” The perfect door was purchased and installed, just so.



Many evenings and mornings passed, and it was the second step done. Aimee and Jeremy looked at their work and saw that the door was really cute.

The Root Cellar Creation Story: Part 1

In the beginning, the basement was humid and full of boxes and junk. Darkness and mouse scat were in every corner. Aimee and Jeremy looked upon the far south-east corner and said, “Let there be a root cellar here.” And the family upstairs said, “Okay.”

The family helped clear away unwanted things and Aimee swept down cobwebs, dust, and crumbling bits of mortar from the walls. Copious quantities of Quickrete were applied to holes in the walls and floor. Then Aimee mixed up a large amount of whitewash (water, hydrated lime, salt, and a little elmer’s glue) in a galvanized steel bucket and proceeded to paint the whole space.







Many evenings and mornings passed, and it was the first step done.

Oh Happy Day

I spent all day yesterday as an election judge. What a job! I was at our voting place at 6am to help set everything up: hang signs, organize information for new registrations, and do whatever needed to be done.

There were people waiting in line when I got there and there was an enormous line by 7 am when the polls opened. It was out the door, around the parking lot, up to the street! We had a solid, unending line for 2 1/2 hours straight before it calmed down. It was a good thing.

Minnesota is one of just a few states that allows same day registration on voting day. We also allow vouching - so if you don't have the proper ID, someone who knows you and where you live can vouch for you. We had people registering to vote all day long! Over 200 just for our precinct. Some had to re-register because they had moved, but there were also many newly-turned 18 year olds and some older folks who had never voted before.

It was an incredible thing to see the neighborhood and community turn out like that, all so eager to vote. Of course, I have heard that our neighborhood is quite active and politically involved, within a state that has one of the highest voter turnouts. So that's a good feeling.

The polls closed at 8:00 with just a few voters left filling in the bubbles. We started the clean-up process, reconciling everything, counting absentee ballots, and running the final tally for our precinct. At 9:30 I was finally released from my long day and I wearily trudged home.

We had heard a rumor or two about what states Obama might have won (after 8:00 of course) but I didn't know anything. I suppose in a way I didn't want to know, fearful of bad news. So I went straight to bed when I got home. Sometime after 10:00 we started hearing cheering, hollering, whistling, cars honking, some firecrackers, and a general sense of celebration! Jeremy and I jumped out of bed to check the internet. And there it was: Obama wins!!

We were so excited. It was hard to go back to bed.

Yay!!

Hot time in the old town...

Well it was unseasonably warm yesterday. I'm not talking about "it was 30 degrees when it's usually 10 or 10 below." It was 74!! It was a lovely, sultry summery day - in November!

We have the heat off in the house, but still, it got so hot and uncomfortable last night that we had to open the windows in the middle of the night. I sat by the window in my stupor of sleepiness desperately trying to lift the outside window. Jeremy finally got up and opened it. I leaned toward the window, excited for that first gust of chill night air. And it wasn't chilly at all! It was downright warm! When is it going to get cold and miserable around here!?

I know, I know. In six months I'll be crying, "when is it going to get hot around here!?"

Happy Hallloween!

Our pumpkin this year isn't anywhere as good as our award-winning creation from last year. So here is last year's pumpkin.





Happy Trick-or-Treating!!

Sewing, and other ways to keep one busy

My little sister (who is practically a quarter-century old, but will always be my little sister) came to visit two weeks ago. She's the first family member to visit us and I think we had a fun time. I think one of the coolest things she saw was the Mississippi. Most of us from the west don't think of the Mississippi being so far up north - though of course it has to come from somewhere.

There are lots of things to see and do here, but we mostly sat around chatting and hanging out. We did get over to the Teasource a couple times and we went to Minnehaha Falls.

The week before my sister came I was busy making her a quilt which I had almost finished by the day she arrived. Here she is holding it up, and then there is a crazy shot showing the pumpkin-orange backing.





That week, while busy sewing, I also wrote an article for the local paper! I'd been chatting with them for about a week and the editor finally got back to me saying, "If you can get us an article today, we'll get it in the paper." It's not bad considering I had about 12 hours to do it in. Sounds like a lot when I say it like that, but I did get two interviews for the article. Anyway, here it is online. In the print edition it's on the front page!

End of an era

Some time last week was the first widespread frost in Minnesota, though I'm not sure if it actually reached the metro area. It was enough to cause friends and neighbors to harvest their last tomatoes and bring plants indoors.

We brought our herbs in and our two nasturtiums. The nasturtiums have been loving the warmth, giving us probably a dozen blooms in the last week!




After all the pots were inside, I put the bird feeder out. I'm so excited to see the birds flocking to our porch once more. It only took them about an hour to discover the feeder - and not much longer to eat every last bit!



Jeremy also pulled our four tomato plants out of the ground and hung them up in the basement to keep ripening.




He also harvested a bunch of kale and most of the chives and parsley. He pulled down all our netting and caging and set up a cold frame to help keep our second batch of kale and lettuce snug (if not much warmer). Our garden looks so bare and sad after the abundance of summer!



Our beans are, somehow, still producing. At least, they were. I think we've had some hard frosts so they may be done. I don't think we gave the scarlet runner beans long enough to grow. They are quite big, but the beans inside are quite small. We'll probably pull the beans down by the end of the week - and plant them much earlier next year!



But we can now say that our freezer is packed and our root cellar is filling up - we should be set for winter.

(Nope, we don't have a new camera yet - the family is letting us borrow one of theirs from time to time. It takes such clear pictures!)