Being home in Illinois again is always a return to the hectic running around part of my life. Even though I accomplish a lot at the farm, it never feels stressful to me. Maybe the world rotates a little slower at the farm. Whatever it is, I am more at peace up there than anywhere else.
So this morning I was up early making pizza sauce & caramelizing onions before work. Shane is coming for dinner tonight.
I have a bag of apples to cook for sauce in the fridge, potatoes I accidentally speared while digging to cook, more onions that need to be either frozen, dried or caramelized & frozen, zucchini to shred & freeze...it just goes on & on. With the weekends spend at the farm, everything must be done during the week around work. Don't get me wrong...I love doing all of the gardening chores & what comes of a good harvest. I just need more time. I seem to be getting a little better at multi-tasking since therapy but am not up to my old self in that department yet. And then there is following instructions. If it is more than 2 sentences, forget it. It's been a year and 3 months since the accident. I think I'm going to have to learn to live with the way I am now.
So here is a list of what was accomplished during my week & Steve & my weekend at the farm...
Below: this took two days to clean up. It is the workshop area in between the old & new living quarters. There were stacks of wood all over in the middle of the floor & many boxes of misc. stuff. We need to get some outlets put in the ceiling for shop lights soon, so I rearranged the lumber & hauled the boxes & stuff to the third floor. Now the middle of the floor is clear & the lumber is in some kind of order.
On the weekend, Steve installed the last 2 front windows. We weren't even counting on that being done this year. So happy. All the windows match now in front. (old window on left).
It will be so much warmer in there now.
Here is a picture of the completed windows.
Sunday morning we decided to paint in the basement. We started it last year but ran out of time due to cold weather. This is a waterproofing paint. The whole "soon to be" laundry room area is almost done now (one more coat needed) which is the west wall & part of the north wall. We still have the garage area to do, too.
Other things done...
Electrician did some wiring in the new living area
Plumber ran gas line to cook top, roughed in the kitchen sink & put in an outside faucet.
Propane tank was delivered & filled.
Met with Johnny from GreenHome Solar & gave him deposit to start working on boiler for the radiant floor heat.
Chopped up a lot of garlic & froze it.
Made six jars of 5 Cheese Garlic Spread. Yum!
Saw a couple beautiful sunsets.
Got to hang out with my cat.
Read a book by Terry Tempest Williams.
Watched a couple movies on Hulu.
Best of all...realized once again, after not seeing each other for a whole week, just how much we love each other & miss being together.
As we went outside in the afternoon to start packing up the car,
this rainbow came out over the garden.
We have a whole list of things to do (as always) before it gets too cold out. One being preparing the garden to plant the garlic. There is a frost advisory out for tonight up there. Thirty-one for the low. Another is installing the pex tubing for the radiant floor heat. We will both feel better when those 2 things are done. We would also like to start replacing old windows and an old door on the north side of the barn before snow flys. Then there is the basement door in the front of the building. It is the only eyesore right now :-) (in the front anyway).
There are more pictures on his website of his home & the other structures he has designed & built. In the above pic of the greenhouse, the hanging planters are sections of gutters. The greens you see growing on the left are growing on pieces of steel siding (like we have on our barn). They also offer workshops at the farm. 
Door to the greenhouse at Gunderson's
