Yep, when it’s -25 degrees F, you don’t want to spend a lot of time outside. There are plenty of other small work you can do inside! Thank God, both Will and I are over that nasty cold. After not being sick since 2018, we were miserable. Likewise, our friends, Mike and Dara, had suffered the same thing (like nearly everyone we knew). For the first time in quite a while they and grandson, Drew, gathered at the table and we all packed seeds all day Saturday! Of course, we also had a gab fest while working too. You know, planning what we’ll be planting, talking about new varieties we’ve discovered, Drew’s plans for the house. We got a lot done!
Will and Drew have been working on getting the double wall stovepipe put together on David’s old house. It’s been slow because of having to assemble and weld the support brackets needed to hold the heavy, long length of pipe up and away from the houses outside wall. As we don’t have a heated shop, they’ve been doing all but welding in the living room. It’s a little “cozy” in there, as I have also been shelling lots of corn in there and kernels of corn tend to fly everywhere when I’m shelling with our little hand-held corn sheller. Makes quite a mess, for sure! Oh well, things are getting accomplished, so all is good.
I forgot to tell you, we saw a wolf again, out on our beaver pond. My camera wasn’t handy, so I grabbed my phone and snapped a couple of photos. It’s so cool to watch them, right out our window. He didn’t stick around long though, as he was heading for the woods across the pond at a steady trot.
I want to take this moment to tell everyone that I’m not retiring from my writing, both for Backwoods Home and Self-Reliance magazines or my western novel series. We are just transferring the seed business to our friends, Lynn and Jesse, in Wisconsin, as the physical work of tending five acres of gardens, haying all summer, and other homestead tasks, was getting to be more than we could handle. Yep, I’ll still be around for a long time, God willing. — Jackie
