Five. For those of you wondering, raccoon is five weight watchers points, when cooked…

E has been busy. Not only are all the windows sills and casings done, but all of the blinds are hung and a lot of the door trim is finished. This project uses a lot of wood. He has to plane it, then sand it and stain it and then cut the boards to fit. Not a simple task for a guy who has never done it before. But thanks to his infinite willingness to give new things a try and the wood from our BIL, it’s looking great. Almost like he knows what he is doing.

I realized I was never going to finish my queen size quilt before gardening season and one of the secrets of dieting is keeping your hands busy. Reading doesn’t help. So I put the queen quilt materials away and made another quilt, just a little one. It was kind of an experiment so there are tons of mistakes. Hopefully the recipient won’t look too closely. Theoretically, I am getting better with each quilt. Some day, I’m hoping it might look like I know what I am doing.

We have also been bucking wood from fallen trees offered from friends as we try to restock our firewood supply. Right now our wood sheds are close to empty and there are tarps everywhere protecting the new stash from the rains. I imagine wood splitting will be at the top of the to do list for May. We have a log splitter which we share with three other friends. It is worth its weight in gold but really shouldn’t be operated during the fire bans of the summer months.

The sewing machine is packed away until next winter. I am eager to spend my days up in the garden for the next few months. Nothing better than minutes spent digging in the dirt between hours spent watching the fish in the pond. I will have lots of seed for the bird feeders, water for the plants and a big thermos of coffee for us. It’s going to be

a great summer.