December, 2011

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Glass block

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

This week, it’s finally warmed up a bit so it’s back to work. We’ve begun wrapping and putting lath on the walls in anticipation of doing stucco. It’s good to see the house becoming more waterproof.

We also put the glass block in the exterior wall for the bathroom. When Brad did the glass block in the guest house, I was traveling so this was a new experience for me.

It starts out very messy…lots of gloppy mud.

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Gradually starting to look like something from the outside.

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These pretty light patterns are just what I was hoping for.

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And here’s the finished product, from the outside…

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and the inside.

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First snow

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

snow

We got our first snow here this week. Not a big deal for those of you in the rest of the country, I know, but we don’t get much snow here. It flurried most of the day yesterday, but didn’t amount to much where we are. In the mountains, they got quite a bit though. Brad was in Portal yesterday and said they had several inches.

The weather has been cold and gray for several days. This morning was the first sun we’ve had in a couple days, and the temperature has been in the 20s at night and in the 40s during the day.

It’s good baking weather.

Happy holidays, everyone!

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UPDATE:

We took a quick drive into Cave Creek this morning to see the snow. Hard to believe this is just 20 minutes from us.

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What’s that smell?

Friday, December 9th, 2011

At about 3:30 this morning, I awoke groggily to a faintly nutty smell. I jumped out of bed shrieking, remembering that I’d left a pan of beans on the stove all night. Oops. Poor Brad must have thought it was something much worse. At any rate, it didn’t turn out too bad. There was no water left in the pan, but only the bottom layer of beans were a bit brown. They hadn’t burned, nor was the pan ruined. Apparently, I woke up just in time.

It’s been very cold here this week. In the 20s or lower at night and cool during the days as well. For visitors coming in December or January, bring something warm!

This week I finally harvested the last of the tomatoes and pulled out the old plants. Even in the greenhouse, this cold was just too much for them. We still have greens (lettuce, tatsoi, spinach) growing though.

The seed catalog for spring just arrived, so it must be time to start planning next spring’s crops. Hmmm….