April Fools!

April 2, 2021 Yesterday, April 1st, it snowed! Just a little, but…. really???

I was here alone again, to work on the house of course, but more importantly to meet with John Tuttle, our architect. We were reviewing each floor and making changes as needed. It is a big project and there are a LOT of details…. Meanwhile, my first day back I caught Mouse # 100! Woohoo! I am sure most people would not be especially proud of this statistic… after all, the implication of THAT MANY mice is that your home is infested with vermin! Ok. But on the flip side, it takes some amount of persistence and trap-craft to tally up a Benjamin of mice!! And, we are definitely finding their tricky entry points and putting a stop to them, slowly but surely. 🙂 After our Shamrock Success in the tower, Bob wanted a lighted Easter theme…. he picked this pink rabbit, which didn’t turn out to be a winner. (Once you hear that it looks a bit like a Playboy Bunny, you can’t un-hear it, sad to say!)

I managed to spend a little time in the house on my cleaning project. My goal was to clean the floor by the south wall, and move the humongous aluminum channel thing to the side so we would stop tripping on it. I measured and it is 25 feet long. And although aluminum is supposed to be a lightweight metal, it was damn heavy! Luckily one end was up on a piece of strapping, so I had a start in getting my fingers under it and was able to get it moved and off the floor onto wood strapping along the whole length. Whew, success!

Here are two random photos for you… these mahogany doors are in the apartment, and there is another set stored in the basement that we are hoping to use in the main house (and we have an idea!). They are 8 feet tall, and we have been told they came from a bank renovation or demolition in Boston. The previous owner’s family bought several sets of doors, a fireplace mantle and other pieces that were used in the family home, with these left over. They are very impressive! For something completely different, I was driving a back road in Brentwood and came upon a young man with 2 yoked oxen, walking them across and down the road. I obviously slowed, and stopped to watch him use voice commands and a goad-stick to guide them. It was definitely a unique sight, but I have since learned that oxen compete in pulling contests (which I knew) as well as obstacle courses at county fairs in NH. (Back in the day, I spent a few weeks one winter logging with draft horses on a working farm in Otis, MA and it was fascinating… and hard work too! )

In case you were wondering, “gee” means turn right, and “haw” means turn left. 🙂