Spring Cleaning
I think that the best word to describe how I’ve been working lately is “indulgently.” Well, indulgently for ME anyways.
Don’t want to continue on the project I’ve been working on? Put it aside. Don’t feel like setting stones? Just keep on rollin’ with fabrication. Add a detail, drop a detail, change the whole design? Sure - go for it.
Honestly, it’s a much more fluid and intuitive way to work. Less straight line, more curvy and creative and circuitous. The result has been things like this - a necklace where the settings are the clasp and, in lieu of chain, a delightfully wide velvet ribbon keeps it hung round your neck. It never would have come out like this if I hadn’t dropped any and all agenda.
The flip side, of course, is that until Friday I hadn’t finished a single thing. Oh well - I’m on a roll now and here’s a little preview of what’s to come :
Around the house, things are finally starting to HAPPEN. The past couple months have been spent in my head, planning and dreaming, but now that the ground is thawing and the daylight hours are lengthening, it’s go-time. We’ve scheduled some guys to come set our fence posts. Horse shelters are on order. I’ve been out walking perimeters and pounding in stakes and trying to put all of my thoughts out there into the real world at long last.
It’s so scary/exciting and I feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants. I won’t know for SURE for sure if I’ve gotten it to all fit and feel right until real infrastructure starts to go up, but I’m feeling rather good about it all for now.
We’ve also been spring cleaning. Mostly, this property is just native grassland - but there are places that were just left as dumping grounds. I say this with no judgement (no, really!!), but every time I’ve moved, I’ve done everything in my power to leave my spaces better than I found them. All this to say, I find myself continually surprised to find that that was not necessarily the case here.
Out back, there were a couple of chain link runs - one for dogs the other for poultry of some sort. The dog run wasn’t too bad - an old doghouse filled with moldy blankets, toys scattered here and there. But the area for the birds…holy yuck.
It was filled with all manner of household waste. Orange peels and rotted vegetables. Tea bags (with strings that had tangled in the grasses and compressed into the earth). Oh yeah - can’t forget the piles and piles of BONES. Maybe they were supposed to act as a calcium supplement for egg laying? I don’t know for sure, but the dogs sure love to make a beeline out there and root around every time I turn my back.
Luckily for you, I do not have a picture to share of this. I would very much like to never see or think of it again if I’m being honest!
It’s looking better by the day, as we dismantle the fences and rake all the refuse away. Not a fun or glamorous job, but the sooner that miserable reminder of what was is gone, the happier I’ll be.
Beyond the chain link are piles and piles of brush - twice my height and long enough for me to know for sure that there’s no way we’ll be getting rid of them any time soon. Even with heavy equipment, it would take an age - so that’s going to be another slow and steady project with little instant gratification.
Yesterday, though, Eric’s parents came by and we made HUGE progress on cleaning out the storage shed that has been doubling as our garage. It was packed full of odds and ends, from floor to ceiling, and we’d just pushed everything to the edges in order to get vehicles in and out.
Old scraps of lumber were removed. Jugs of old chemicals sorted, a big old “Detour” sign uncovered. Eric’s mom squished a couple of black widow spiders while he and his dad pulled bags and bags and bags of empty soda cans from the loft.
We all got covered in dust and a lot of - well, I honestly don’t want to think of what else - and then we all retreated to the house for a homemade tamale lunch. We’ve all signed up for round two next weekend (that loft is still one heck of a junk show) but holy smokes…the progress is kind of awesome. After a couple trips to recycling and hazardous waste disposal it’s going to feel downright empty in there, which was always the goal! Just because we have the space doesn’t mean we need to fill it. Also, as a side note - in ten years, when I’ve refilled this same shed with my own crap, please remind me that I said this!
If all goes to plan (and I’m sure hoping that it will), our old house will officially be sold by the end of the week. We’ll be 100% here and putting all of our energy into living in this weird and magical space. Crossing my fingers (and toes and arms and legs and eyes) - we’re almost at the end. And the real beginning, too.