Winter Projects

People ask us if we are less busy in the winter than in the summer.  When I am in the middle of winter I think not.  When spring, summer and fall come I think maybe.

Typically in winter we try to catch up on indoor projects that wait for us not to be working outside.  Right now we are watching the thermometer for signs of spring and time for sap to run, and seeing near zero temperatures, it is not time yet.

So, we are finishing up the wood work in the office, which this past year was the focus of restoration and renovation.  Last summer we ripped out the ceiling and walls to install insulation.  We also refinished the floor and enclosed the existing fireplace, not willing to eliminate it entirely. Mary Ann carefully removed the woodwork around windows and doors, stripped off the orange paint, and added natural stain. Next up will be shelves and cupboards on one wall.  A place for everything and everything in its place….

Mary Ann also painted the woodwork at the bottom of the stairs and put a strip of carpeting on the steep stairs to upstairs bedrooms. The laundry room will eventually have shelves added for storage of towels and sheets.

In the Dye Kitchen in the Tesseract we moved a cupboard closer to the stove to hold dye pots, cleared out the stuff that accumulated under the counter and Mary Ann built shelves to accommodate the items we now know are frequently needed for dyeing wool…There is a place for natural dyes, madder root, onion skins, lichen, and dried marigolds, which are beginning to comprise a larger portion of dyed wool.

And, this weekend is building a cupboard to replace the desk behind the door that we now know Marty does not use, and which has a tendency to accumulate stuff .  This will be a place for food related items, tea, cups, bowls, plates etc., keeping it away from the dye stuff.

Our WWOOFers have done a grand job of washing, dyeing and carding bags and bags of wool to be used for wet felting projects and cupboards in the kneewall upstairs are sorted and labeled.  Washed fleeces have been organized and inventoried, samples are posted, and computer records updated.  And new signs made for farmers market ant the store and tons of Thyme Tile  needle felting kits are ready to go.

This week Marty sorted the yarn stash and is finishing a vest and a sweater that have been in process for way too long.  We now have bins of partial balls of yarn sorted by color, and a bin on hand spun waiting to be plyed into yarn.

And Marty is working on needle felted designs for display….

When the weather gets a bit warmer we will move back outside….getting ready for lambing in the barn.