we found our person!

i'm so relieved that we finally have found someone to fix the roof!!

and he can do everything else too, apparently!

thank the Goddess for the recommendations of friends.

there's this strange ceramic part of the chimney
i wonder what went missing?!

i guess in the short term i'll cover it with a plant...

but it seems like it needs a coat of arms, or something architectural and grand..

there are two beautiful big black walnut trees

one in front and one in back

and this little workshop, with electricity

where Rocky will put his woodshop

and in the lean-to area, i think that'll be where we keep the feed.

here's the back of the girl.  a funny face :)

i love that stump right in the middle.

work on the roof starts thursday!

and then we'll work our way down.

Craftsy Sale!

murmurations

i feel like the Starlings are following me.  even though

they are probably just going about their business.

so i had to make a bird.

not fancy iridescent fabric for my first bird though.

just a little bird, looking at me.  

we're still trying to find some help on the house.

we're starting with the roof, and 

the first couple of people don't seem like the right fit.  

but i have another lead i'm working on...

we've had a couple of mishaps.  when i had the water turned on,

it sprayed everywhere in the mudroom from the washer hookup!

everywhere, out into the room, onto the windows, down the side of the house

it was cray-cray.

but some pliers and a few turns later, it was off.  

and it turns out the copper gas pipes were stripped!

by some needy soul.  

so they have to be re-installed.  

so still, no hot water because it's gas.

and for some reason, no water to the upstairs.

that has us scratching our (collective) heads.

more mysteries to be revealed.

13 acres

this is what the land looks like..

 this is that tree in the middle of the old well-house

it's an evergreen (obvs) and full of berries!

anyone know what kind it is?

and this is one of three sisters out in the pasture

Sarah thought it looked like an apple tree

anyone else? 

and this is the old barn.  i think it'll do just fine for the bunnies

and the lean-to will be good shelter for the donks and sheepies.

hub thought it might fall over, but i figure it's been here a while.

and we found this old trunk in the barn, how exciting!

this isn't who we bought from.  i love picking in general, but from our own land is the best.

i think we'll use it as a coffee table. 

and the sand!!  the sand is so weird!!  

this area of NC is called the Sandhills, but i'm so shocked to see it everywhere

at least we won't have so much mud and muck like here

i do love drainage.

She's Ours

So, we did it!

I had cold feet on the way to the bank, I'm not sure why!

Since the sellers did their thing on Friday,

our part of the closing took all of 15 minutes, or maybe 10.

We got lots of new keys.

We went to the house and the Buick was gone!

Which is a Good Thing, since we had no title or clue.

And then we opened door after door and looked

and looked ...

and looked around.

We were so awed that I couldn't bring myself to snap pics, you know?

but gawsh She needs a lot of work!

I put my special violet vase in the window.

Lit sage.

And then started ripping up lineoleum to see what they were hiding!

Yeah, some damage to the wood floors, but nothing so terrible.

And old, dark, kinda interesting tile in the kitchen.

I had planned on marmoleum, 

(look at all those awesome colours!) but then

I might just keep what's there.

I tend to do that.

(Pic from a previous, preliminary inspection!)

Back tomorrow to meet a heating & air dude,

and go to the waterworks and get that turned on.

And then Friday meeting a roofer!

And not-so-suddenly, I want to stitch again.

almost closed

Well the Closing started to happen on Friday, 

but they didn't tell me until that morning!  Apparently something about

coordinating all the sellers and their spouses (since title is in an estate).

So we didn't make it down there because it started sleeting.   

You know what wimps we Southerners are about snow! 

So we go in tomorrow, pay and get the keys!   

I was excited to find out that this gorgeous lady is a fir. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about firs.  

And there is more than one of Her!

oh the all-important hearth, what to do with you

The closing was supposed to be today but is apparently delayed. 

The title is coming out of an estate so they say that might be the reason.

But I think somebody just forgot to put it on the lawyer's calendar. 

Dern lawyers.

It really doesn't matter, except I can't do it tomorrow (doc appt.) and 

I'm anxious to get to work!

So here is the current state of the hearth at Violetcroft.

Poor neglected hearth.  

Although they did leave her complete with a Holy Bible, a gourd Santa, several books,

family photos, crocheted potholders, and a stapler.

The options seem to be:

a.  Unbrick her and try to work with her as an open fireplace.

Pros:  ambience, purity to period

Cons:  lack of heat

b.  Unbrick her and add a fireplace insert with a blower

Pros:  good heat by most accounts,

although one friend has one and says hers sucks on heat.

Cons:  serious uglification unless major bucks are spent, 

visible power cord from blower (even more ugly)

  quite expensive regardless

c.1  Unbrick her and add free-standing woodstove

Pros:  much more attractive, could get the soapstone I'm loving

Cons:  we lose space, need a hearth pad

c.2  Leave her bricked and add free-standing woodstove

Pros:  possibly simplest, could install ourselves?

Cons:  I think we would lose the most living room space 

I would totally welcome hearing other thoughts and experiences.

But.  I just saw the most amazing blackbird activity I've ever seen.

A mighty horde, swooping from the ground to the trees and back again

encircling this place.  I think it was a Starling dance

right here in our very own woods.  

A copse

This is looking out onto our new pasture.  

I was wondering what was in there, 

and hoping it wasn't a bunch of old junky appliance parts.

I love how land and houses always come with some mysteries.  

Is it an old well-house?  

It has some faucets and a cistern-looking thingymabob.

It's supposed to be on public water now.

It's an odd sort of structure with a triangle of limbs built up and suspended with pulleys..

All built around this tree, which is loaded with little purple berries.

You can probably tell that we visited the house yesterday.

I took lots of pics (more to come)..

and we close on Thursday!  

We're on again

Ok so strangely we are back on, I mean off, to the cottage!  So that means cottage bloggin!  I had fallen in love with another house in the meantime, it was quite lovely, but really, it was too far.  I know some friends will wonder how it could be too far and this one not, because they really are both far.  But this one is about 1/4 the price, so it seems not as far!  And only about half the distance from where we are now, so renovating and moving don't seem like as much of a thing.   It will be far for some friends, but when you live in the country, you get used to driving, if you want to go anywhere, that is.  And the friends I've made so far in NC are PRECIOUS.

I'm sure you remember the to-do list.  Maybe I should put it on the sidebar to keep it handy.  I think I'll edit that one rather than re-doing periodically.  I did get the stove too!!  And there's a car that comes with the house, weird.  I'll have to tell you about the neighbors one of these days...

The closing isn't until the 24th
so we won't get started in earnest until then.  

Plenty of time to dream and pin.

A facebook friend had thought these tea leaves suggested I'd be moving to (or near) Virginia, but now I see that it meant moving to the Violet Loop!

Oh and come visit my new Tarot Tumblr!

Seems like everyone is sick around here..

The Mazarin Stone episode features a most extraordinary room:

Holmes's Third Eye:

Such a poignant moment.

I'd like to do a 2012 year-in-review, but this pretty much does it.  

Burn the Log, O Fire!

Hope everyone had a Merry Yule and Happy Christmas!!

My short-term plan is to be getting back to fiber soon.
As soon as I get back home, around the 8th.
I want to focus on natural dyes and battsss.
I have some theories as to why I had to stop stitching, for a time anyway,
and one is summed up in these lyrics to a Papa Roach song:

I tear my heart open
I sew myself shut
My weakness is
That I care too much

and the Scars remind us
that the past is Real
I tear my heart open
just to feel.

And btw, check out this interview with me on Spin Artiste!

Spoke too soon...

well, carp. the house thing isn't going to work out.  so we're back to where we were, which is staying put here in our farmhouse. this is a pic i took a couple of yules ago. the ladder's been moved, i'm pretty sure, but it looks much the same and i've always liked this pic.

yesterday i was completely heartbroken, but i talked myself into loving our old house again.  poor ole farmhouse has been good to us and just needs some tlc.  and in many ways, it's better because it's ours, we know it, and we've put so much into it already.  

maybe pinteresting farmhouses instead of cottages would help.  

maybe it just needs a name. 

and then there's the woods.  i would so miss the woods.

and over the last four years, the sheep and donkeys have pretty much made themselves a pasture.  not 13 acres of pasture, but enough.  and we could always fence more woods.  still less expensive than putting in new fencing at the other place.  

i'm thinking of passing on the stove too, even though i wanted it almost as much as that other house!  but one thing i forgot is that they need to be set on stone.  and i'm not sure i'm up for re-doing the kitchen floor here right now, even though it needs to be done eventually.  laika (the wolf-dog) has torn up the linoleum.  she is such a destroyer.  but she's finally a year old, so we are hoping that she learns some manners soon.  

so we could tile the floor, which would be nicer anyway, and then get the stove.  there's already a hole in the wall for it and everything (and this one isn't from laika!)

hmm, thinking..

thanks everyone for the lovely congrats on the move.  i'm just going to backdate them about four years and pretend we are re-moving in here.

Violetcroft

So no pics today, but an update!  

The house has a termite bond on it, so the little buggers have already been zapped.  And tomorrow we're meeting to find the corner stakes to try to make sure where the property lines are. A survey you say?  No way, that would be too easy (and expensive).  

But one little problem is that at the back of the Violet Loop 

(a dirt road that encircles this lovely little 13 acres!)

there are some... trailers that look like they have been burnt.

As well as some pickup trucks.  Sofas and stuff.
And a house of sorts, a real charmer, it even has window panes out. 

I peeked a little in a window and do see some evidence of life 

if you count whiskey bottles (which I do).

And, there are four little dogs rush out whenever we've gone back there!
But never any lights or people...

And some of it looks to be encroaching from what we can see of the property lines on the plat.  

So I'm really looking forward to having this conversation with our new neighbor! :/  

And in the midst of all this, my facebook friends like Dani and Kristine have helped me come up with the current name of choice for this place:  Violetcroft.  

It might sound a little hoity-toity amidst the trailers, but a croft was meant to be humble.  

That's the current fave anyway, there are many others!

And tonight, we are going to look at a wood cookstove that I found on Craigslist!

Did I mention that there were no appliances in this house?

Yes, everyone thinks I am insane.

But it looks just like this one.

It's also the one that was in the movie Babe in farmer Hoggett's kitchen, or so the seller says.

I should probably pass, but I just know that then all I will see are more expensive ones in worse condition.  That's what always happens.  This is my dream stove.

And this is *so* much less than the modern equivalent of my dream stove, the Aga.   

My only hesitation is what to do with this kind of stove in the summer.  

I guess then homesteaders have an outdoor kitchen.  

But I think that except for those few brutal summer months, 

the slowness of the wood would really help me find my cooking groove.

And it looks like we will close on the 21st!!  How totally fitting.

Just in time for the rebirth of the Sun!

we're off!

so it looks like we're moving!

and that has given me reason to blog again.

we're getting a real fixer.  

this'll be my third grownup house and my third fixer, maybe the worst yet!

which makes it the best to my mind.  

i am so excited about making it amazing!

i have always wanted a Tudor cottage

when I was little we would drive around and I would say

"Oh mum, I want *that* one!  someday"  

and this has all the hallmarks:  

she's asymmetrical, cross-gabled, with prominent chimney and rounded door.

and even has a window with diamond-shaped panes!

of course need must get rid of those awful awnings and cutify

with paint and lots of flowers.

the outside doesn't look so bad, but the inside is *rough*

oh, i can't wait.

there are so many pretty trees 

like this luscious sycamore in the front yard.

i'm a little stressed that i haven't found an oak tree there yet.

"dru" means "oak" in old gaelic.

and i've always had them around, they are my protectors.

but there are 13 acres.  

most of them are pasture, which will make our critters very happy.

and rocky loves it, which makes it so special!

we've never chosen a house together.  

and there are lots of woods around.

another signal that this was right:  this is in the hoos.  

which is a variation on another one i have!  

there are so many projects that need to be done.

outside:

roof repair (& remove ancient antenna)

pressure-wash

scrape and paint windows

replace missing masonry tiles

termite inspection/repair

take down hideous awnings and fix any damage

take off the metal panels blocking the basement windows

(bad for moisture, i'm told)

chimney sweep

unbrick fireplace and get it working

reinforce barn so it doesn't fall down

clean out and haul away junk in barn and workshop (oh my)

(but there looks to be some good stuff in there too)

fencing, fencing, fencing

inside:  

pull up awful old linoleum (hardwoods underneath!)

figure out what hardwoods need:  sanding, patching etc.

demolish ceiling in one room and replace (water damage)
scrape off popcorn on other ceilings

take down and replace tile in bathrooms (see about rot or water damage)

new shower heads and faucets

paint

scrounge craigslist etc for appliances 

(mum is furiously trying to talk me out of a wood-burning cookstove)

cover up insulation on patio

install radio fence for doglets

i'm sure there's more but that's my running list!  

i'm leaving off the decorative stuff for now, although that will be the most fun.

so i'm thinking i'll document this massive labor of love here,

along with my journey toward homesteading.

hope you'll visit!

Just out Borrowing for awhile...

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, for one thing!

Isn't it wonderful when you have a whole long lovely series to gobble up?!

I may also be back to fiber work soon,

I have kind of a plan.

Toodles!

Honey Locust tree id. no 3

i've been wanting to look at the pods on this tree up-close

but s/he is thick in the woods

today the high winds brought me plenty

nothing similar in the book, of course

but i do see mistletoe attached.

we are having high winds and branches playing music on our tin roof

under tonight's blood moon

be safe out there friends.

male persimmon or female persimmon with no male in the area to cross with tree id no. 2

this one has me stumped, between two maples.

there aren't that many in my tree book with leaves of this shape

that are so rounded and without teeth.

some possibilities were sourgum or persimmon

but it doesn't really have the chequered bark.  or does it?

and i don't remember any persimmons.

plus that just seems kind of random.

the last one was figured out within minutes!!

Sweet Pignut Hickory tree id no. 1

trying to start identifying my local flora, or at least what is in my yard...can anyone help? from the tree book i thought maybe a hickory, but then the nuts don't seem to have four-part husks, more like two-part. it's always so hard for me to identify plants and trees with those books. the leaves are only a couple of inches long and their edges do have little tiny teeth. remember we are in central nc.

i remember this day

i was five.  i remember going out to the truck that morning thinking,
i'm five.

that would have been 1973.

this was in luce park in kansas city, where we're from.

i always loved going to luce park because i could feed the ducks and swans.

they are still there, too.  but where am i?  who is this child?

that's mum and papa in the foreground, in their matching white shoes.  

so strange looking at mum's face at that age because
it's my face, looking out at me.

and next to her is mrs. watson, the mother of my little friends

michael and miriam watson, who are sitting on the other side of me.

funny we are eating KFC.
that was a birthday food of choice again not so long ago.

my disgruntled older siblings are at the other end of the table.

seems like some weird energy down there, or maybe that's how i remember it.

although my sweet brother nick, on the end, always the photographer.

he took that pic of me, and he recently sent me these.

this wasn't too long before we moved to florida, i think.

papa is being released from the hospital today, after two weeks.

a change of season..

does anyone know what sort of pod this is?  i found it in the yard, but it was under a tree that was clearly not dropping these.  someone on instagram said maybe magnolia?  so i will run out and look at the magnolias, which are back in the woods.  actually i'll do that now!  yes, it is a magnolia!  one of the dogs must have moved it to a different part of the yard.  how beautiful these are, and i never noticed them before.

anyone who visits here has probably noticed my absence...  i'm not sure what has happened,  except possibly for burnout.  i'm still in love with fiber and sheep, but i'm very, very tired of spinning for production and sale.  i need to shift things.  this happened to me some years ago, when my new husband's dog ate my first wheel, an ashford joy, and i took it as a sign that i should follow my muse and shifting interests, and i did - even started grad school during that time - and then came back to spinning about three years ago..

i also have realized since then that i'm what author Barbara Sher calls a scanner.  someone who has lots of different interests rather than one main calling.  i tend to have the same basic set of interests, mostly related to old country skills, but i tend to cycle through them over and over.  right now i am feeling called to study herbs and have signed up for two classes which will stretch out over the next year.  this is something i've wanted to learn about for years, but never took the time.  i don't really have the time now either... because..

this scanning thing has also made it really difficult to finish my dissertation, because i got really messed up in my head by the topic, and so then totally lost interest in it for the last few years.  i actually think i needed some distance to process and heal from that research, but now i'm facing a new set of circumstances.  the most important being that i have an amazing new adviser.  a dream adviser, my academic idol.  this is a huge deal for me, one of the best things that has ever happened to me.  i've had such a lack of support at my grad program, which has also made it difficult to finish up.  the other thing is that now, my graduate program has been cut!  suspended, no more grad students, and tenured faculty reassigned to other departments.  everybody else is out.  so i can finish, but it has to be by this spring!  so i must, must, must and will get busy.

and then there's my sweet Papa, who has been in the hospital with a pneumonia, then a scary vascular surgery, then more heart problems from his existing heart disease.  he's been so sick, and my family is so worn out.  my usual depression and IBS are acting out in full force with the stress of this, but i'm hanging in.  just so, so worried about him.

so i've wondered about maintaining this blog when for a long time it has been fiber-focused.  whether i should start a new blog that's more about writing my dissertation, or about my progress with herbs, or whatever else i'm on about.  do my friends here want to read about any of that?  and then i also have some self-consciousness about it... am i "keeping going" in the sense that Jude talks about, or am i somehow unable, always trying to escape myself?  i've blogged and loved it for a very long time, but i also worry about not being able to be a great blog friend and reader right now...  time is just so tight.  it's much easier to keep up with folks via facebook, but i know a lot of you aren't there (if you are, and we're not friends yet, please let me know how to find you there!)  so i'm trying to figure out what sort of blog this could be and whether i'll keep with it ... i guess time will tell.