Feb28th,2008

Wow, it has been a long, cold, snowy winter. I am tired of paying the oil man, and the guy that plows the driveway.
Heating a house built 200+ years ago is a contstant challenge, one I am afraid I have not completely figured out yet. The furnace sounds like a Volkswagen taking off every time it runs, which is often. Someone is always suggesting that I put insulation in the walls, and they look at me strangely when I tell them that there is NO space in the walls to put insulation. The walls are board on board, with lathe and plaster on top of that, so all in all the walls are very thick, but solid. It is not a typical studded construction, but rather a true post and beam. Most of the windows are original, and even though there are storms on them, they are drafty.
I dress differently at the studio than I do at home. If you keep moving, it is fine, but if you stop, you need a sweater, or a fleece.
I have been weaving things I want to weave, blue jean rugs, placemats, hit and miss rugs, selvedge rugs...........my biggest problem some days is which loom to weave on.....life is tough.
I have been battling with low back pain, and I have been taking note of how my back feels after weaving on each loom. I have come to realize that the relationship of the height of the bench to the height of the loom is crucial to whether or not I feel like I have been beaten up after a day of weaving. And you can be sure I am going to address the results.
Kismet and Miss Puss are tired of winter, they don't have the run of the house when it is so cold......the upstairs is mostly kept shut off, and they don't like it. Today I went upstairs just to check everything, and they followed me up there. ........since they aren't allowed outdoors, the whole house is their world. Now they spend alot of time sitting on the Toika bench, watching the bird feeder .......which I call Kitty HBO.
Kismet is sweet and lovable, despite being wild for the first 4 months of his life, but when he hears someone drive in, he runs and hides inside an old desk that I use, climbing up into the drawer from the back. Then he comes out if it's someone he knows, and if not, he waits til whoever it is leaves. Miss Puss on the other hand, prefers to follow people around if they come in, but doesn't like to be picked up, and will only tolerate head scratching.........she is NOT sweet and lovable by a long stretch, although she does keep close tabs on me.
I decided to do my baking at the studio.....since I am there more than I am home......and besides chocolate chip cookies smell so good!
I was going to make sourdough bread, until I realized that my sourdough starter was 23 years old.....but that's another story.