Crafting fun

Nope, not the kids this time ... I've been having fun crafting for some swaps I signed up for:

A little needlefelted wallhanging set, for a woman who wanted something to remind her to relax in her sewing room:

a jewelery set for another woman, for a valentines day swap:

wool roving I dyed, for a roving-spinning swap - I send roving (some for her, some for me) and she spins mine. (o:
Lotsa fun. All my stuff is mailed out - now to sit back & wait for my goodies in the mail!

G'bye, 11th Street

Here I am, in my last half-hour of owning the 11th Street house. Ahhhh.

School Board meeting

Well. If you ever want to die of boredom, sit in on a School Board meeting.

No, really though. Parts of it, I admit, were less than enrapturing. But there was plenty that was interesting. The biggest plus to having attended this meeting, though, is that now I will be an informed voter. I saw the trustees in action, and now know which ones I tend to agree with, and which I - um - do not.

So despite the boredom factor, I would actually recommend anyone who has a vote, just mosey on down there some night, sometime before the next election. As a spectator, you can leave when you've had your fill - but I think it's good to know how the trustees think.

On the down side - man, that was my Monday night, night off! Sheesh. So instead of lively conversation over a cup of coffee, I had quiet attendance at a meeting. Will I go again? Not unless something very important brings me there.

Pink Skies, Smiling on Me...

Nothing but pink skies do I see.






Isn't that beautiful? For the last couple of weeks, we've experienced these amazing sunrises on the way to school. Instead of the easterly sky being pretty, the skies are gorgeous pink all the way around the horizon! Must be a time-of-year thing, I'm thinking ... but whatever it is, I count myself lucky to be able to see it every day.

Oh - and that first shot - you can see the skating rink someone's made on a pond ... isn't that cool? Country livin'.

Life's Little Challenges...

Things are looking up. It's all good, because:


...the house is SOLD! Furthermore, possession date is sneaking right up ... the 20th. Now it's just a matter of removing our last belongings, selling some stuff ... pretty simple.

Only on the 15th:



...a pipe froze and burst. That caused hot water to shoot all over the place, taking down the kitchen ceiling. And draining down into the basement.


Some aspects of this are amusing ... like kitchen drawers that can apparently hold a full load of water (all 3 did this).


...or like the light fixture that is dripping water. Well okay, that's not so funny.



And some things are actually quite beautiful. This sculpted lady, who can no longer see out of her window because of all the frost (the house was incredibly humid, all the windows from basement to third floor were frosted over) ... seems to be looking down at the chaos from her safe little perch. Of course, she always sits in the same spot, looking at the same thing ... it just kinda looked meaningful the other day.

Finding the Bright Side

The bright side? Sure, there is always a bright side.

About the original disaster:
-bright side - we seem to have caught the problem quickly - it could have caused much, much more damage
-down side - uh-oh, we should have read our insurance policy closer - it's not covered.

About finding tradespeople to fix this mess up:
-bright side - we were really lucky & found an electrician who could come promptly, a drywaller who was willing to cancel his weekend plans to help us, and the plumbers, who came on the afternoon of the 16th.
-down side - the plumber found 3 breaks in the pipe, fixed them, and knowing there were at least 2 more, was called out on another emergency. Thus, we had to resume our plumbing thing (which had to come before the drywalling of course) on the weekend, at over time rates. $102/hour ... ouch. Three hours & three more pipe bursts later, however, no more drips. (Well, there never were drips - just sprays). Other down side - the box that houses the bathroom pipes in some aesthetic fashion had to be ripped up to fix the plumbing, thus we need to re-build one.

About our progress:
-bright side - our very kind drywaller was so accommodating, and he worked around everything else ... everything was going just dandy
-down side - ...until the furnace stopped working. The furnace motor seized up, probably the crap (dust etc) in the air from the incident was the final nail in its coffin. This, of course, occurred on Sunday. What's that you say? More plumber overtime? Why yes!

-bright side - it can be fixed with a new motor
-down side - a new motor & labour to install it will be around $500 ... a nice gift to the new owner

Today:
-bright side - the night went by uneventfully. There are many space heaters in there. No more frozen pipes, please!
-down side - the motor is proving harder to find than originally thought, and we will not have a working furnace until tomorrow.

About the house sale:
-bright side - it seems to still be on.
-down side - the possession date is extended several days, while we fix up the mess - hopefully we're done by the new date.

We're tired. And more than that, we're weary. Hopefully things will take an upturn, and no more little surprises will await us.

What kind of thermometer is this?!?

It only goes to -40? That is just silly.

Brandon had the dubious distinction of being the coldest place on earth, this morning. Yes, you heard me right. Colder than Siberia. Than Mongolia. Than the North and South poles. The coldest place on earth.

With windchill, we came in at -50C. Now we're basking in the -35 (-44 with windchill), at 11:30 in the morning.