In Like a Lion, and Lots of Boring Stuff

Wow, when did March get here?  Here in the Midwest it has arrived lion-style.  I can do without the sustained 30 to 40 mph winds.  I've discovered that I don't sleep well on windy nights. Until 3 years ago, we had 100 foot tall pines plumb against the house.  They were top heavy, having been plantation planted many, many years ago, meaning they only had needles near the tops where they could get sun.  The lower branches die off.  When we cleared the lot to build the house, these top heavy trees really, really swayed  in the wind.  When they have forest friend trees, they sway less, supporting one another.

So to make a short story long, for 10 years I wondered which tree was going to come crashing down into the house.  Given how our house is constructed (with structural insulated panels~~SIPs), if they were to hit the roof, there are no rafters to stop them.  I feared that one of the kids would be killed in his bed.  We finally took down the trees that were tall enough to hit the bedrooms of the house.  I still don't sleep well on windy nights.  Sigh.  The good news is that we didn't have any tornadic activity here, but I'm waiting to see if a call comes out from the Red Cross for shelter volunteers.  Sadly, I can't go this week, since we're getting ready for All Things DD Day next Sunday.

So here's the catching up news.  I begin work at YNP on May 13.  Yea!  I called two of the parks that are closer to me (so to speak), but one didn't hire anyone new this year, and the other had two new positions and 5 military vets on the list who qualified.  Oh well.  Too bad for me, Yellowstone is my fall-back position.  ::grinning grinning grinning::  Since I've made this trip 4 other times, I'm not going to sweat the details this time.  A week or so before I leave I'll check the weather maps and pick a route.  I prefer the North Dakota route, which is actually shorter, but if they or eastern Montana are having blizzards, we'll go the Iowa way.  But if Iowa is having tornadoes, we'll go north.  Sheesh. We still haven't found a room mate for Tommy but I'm plugging away at it. 

Other news on the nature front, our buzzards are back and they are waaaaaay early!  The woodcocks are back in NW Ohio, but I haven't heard any right here yet.  Now that bluebirds and robins are year-round residents it's a little harder to get excited about them.  But they are so much brighter now.  The goldfinches started showing more gold two weeks ago.  And since the raccoonnss totally trashed the feeders a couple of weeks ago, we haven't fixed them, so no feeding at the moment.  Drat.  That's on this week's To-Do list.

In housekeeping news, we have 5 or 6 projects running all at the same time.  Now I confess that when I'm sewing, I often have multiple projects in the works.  But they pack up nice and neatly in to smallish bags are are put on the shelf.  When DH has a project in the work, it involves getting out every tool he owns, which he never,  I repeat nEveR puts away.  It's always my fault that he can't find stuff.  I use my best passive-aggressive approach to get him to do it, but alas, he's totally immune to that.  (Probably the reason he looks to be only pushing early 60s instead of the actual 71 that he is, he can easily let things roll off his back.)  Then I finally get pissed off and put it away.  "Away" now means a small, rolling scaffold that is now his tool pile. You should see the size of his workshop.  Truly, it's huge.  And truly he can't find a damn thing.  I've labelled, corralled, marshaled stuff, worked with him, worked without him, all to no avail.

So to make another short story long, we have several projects all strewn all over.  We've finally picked a design for the quilt display rack in the dining room which is now painted a fantastic yellow.  I'd show you the pics, but now the partially completed rack is on the table, the small table had to be moved to the center of the room, etc, etc..  Crap.  He's waiting to finish that until he speaks with his bro, the real woodworker who would kill someone if they don't put the tools back properly, but bro is getting a title to a new car and has his phone turned off.  Crap again.  (Okay, a few pics below.)

So the other huge project is in the basement.  Because of the design and construction of the house, we have two locations for utility systems.  We're now trying to hide the pump, conditioner, and basement floor heater, since they are next to the crafty corner and train stuff.  We've had lots and lots of ideas, all of which ended up with rolling doors.  He found some super cheap ones that will work perfectly. And omg, he got the end boxed in! We'll try to get it "paneled" tomorrow.  Tonight he's off to a Northwestern Ohio Rails to Trails annual planning retreat.

Foyer, before.

Dining room, before.

Dining room, during.

Foyer, after.

Other side of foyer, after.

The new beast..... yep, right in front of the boob tube in the family room.

Basement trains and a new moving wall on the far side.

New moving wall by the Crafty Corner.

What's behind door #8?  Yep, there's 8 individual sliding door panels.  Three of them will be joined together, so I can put my design wall on it.  At the moment, DH wants the other doors to remain singularly.  We'll see.

One of the doors moved, to access the freezer.  Pretty nifty.  The wall helps to cut down some of the pump noise.  And boy is it noisy.

So here are the things I didn't get to write about this week:
Quilt for swap is done.
Ranger Anderson quilts have been mailed (short version, we raised over $500 on the two quilts and stuff.)
All Things DD Day (Sun. March 11)
Whack-a-doodles Purple Toilet Quilt. (For auction May 11)
FTD and diabetes.
IEPs for both kids. ( One down, one to go, then meet with next school for DD)
Waiver option provider search continues.
First wedding ceremony scheduled. Friday, March 9)
Relaxing afternoon with my Sis at the Toledo Museum of Art. (Last Wednesday)
Little Turtle Service Unit Girl Scout Sing-along. (Saturday, March 10)
DH leaving for golf trip (hallelujah!) (Monday, March 12)

Girls' Night Out Cocktail Party--here on Friday the 16th~~ BE HERE!!

EDIT:  I forgot... PT for my screwed up Achilles tendon (the PTs said, "Hmmmm, we've never seen anything like that before.  Stay off your feet, and don't wear shoes that rub the back of your heel."  Yeah.  Right.)
PT for FTD's back--the slouchmiester.
Paint last two basement steps (tonight?  Get off the dang couch and step away from the computer!)
Paint basement stairs landing. (Ditto)


Other than that, not much happen' here......