City:
R: great news about the grandson!

An eventful weekend at our wee house! Now that most of the snow and ice are gone...
R was rather taken aback at first sight and I was stunned, "I told you it was a tatty little house!" He recovered and is embarking on making a silk purse out of the sow's ear. All I want is a roof over my head!

He worked on the water and made some progress - with many trips to dollar stores and the wonderful hardware store with helpful, knowledgeable staff. He also stopped at the wood stove store and embarked on getting the very good stove into good shape. De-cluttering the wallet... We are ripping out the closets to make the LR larger and taking out a wall to make two BRs into one. There IS a sleeping loft!!! but the hole in the ceiling is where K cupboards need to be and will be moved to the LR with an attractive ladder rather than the one he, actually, found in the woods!

Best of all, the brooklet about 30 feet north is rushing along from a large swamp/pond to the west. As R was looking at it - exploring - he heard ice cracking and a beaver popped its head out of the ice and gave him a good look from about 20 feet!! Then went off a bit and looked some more.

On a beautiful warm Sunday, I de-cluttered my car!!!!! What a great feeling! Then started taking the ugly paneling off the LR. Unloaded pottery into the "back room" - which was another good discovery; R had to cut off the padlock and it is better than we expected. About 8x8, it was a laundry room/store room. As a store room, it will serve us well. The two ramshackle sheds may be salvageable and useful. There is also a ramshackle outhouse - nice to have so one does not need to take muddy feet into house. May need some serious attention; Still out in the snow area, we did not take a hard look.

I am trying to plan a K with counters and cabinets we already have in storage. I just drew a plan for the K counters. Now to find cabinets amongst the amazing number we bought for $400 last year that will fit the available space. The high quality counters seem to be a perfect fit. Fridge available in one of R's buildings and the electric stove we are using at the mill, that came with a "free" K - it took 2 people most of a day to remove it! There is a potential conflict between me wanting it DONE and R wanting it done his way. But he is SO happy, excited, and having so much fun!

De-cluttering starts with prevention in the first place so I am trying to be VERY careful about what is going into this tiny house.

At the mill, dishes were washed this morning after R brought me buckets of water, geranium starts were potted, the tender hibiscus was cleaned of bugs by a gentle R with toothbrush; it is covered with buds! R carried it outside last night to enjoy a warm spring rain which cleaned the leaves nicely; we put it back in this am in case of cold; we could yet have freezing temps but for now we are enjoying spring. In the city, dishes are washed, laundry tomorrow, now time to make soup.

My weight continues to be stuck at 160 - and I really thought I was doing better! My aches come and go and I have to keep on top of the supplement intake. I can be totally trouble free and ten minutes later - literally - be 110 years old. Like playing Russian roulette. I get cocky and forget to keep the intake of minerals up.

Most exciting are the flowers coming back up in the flower bed at the mill!