Unfortunately my absence this last week is not because I have taken a few leisurely days off from writing. It\u2019s because I chose a long time ago to live in the country as opposed to a turn-key place in town. The joys of being here sometimes exact a price which involves hard work.<\/p>\n
The first part of this week I have been out visiting nurseries, buying plants and hauling fertilizer. Today I hope to begin preparing the soil and screen last year\u2019s compost of sticks and stones. I usually get several big wheelbarrel loads of finely composted soil for the gardens.<\/p>\n
Yesterday my friend K.C. and I had to tear out part of the art studio ceiling and some of the barn to fix a broken electrical wire. Mice, rats or flying squirrels had made nests and chewed up the wires, one completely in half. As a result there were no lights in the \u201cTin Squaw Studio\u201d or one side of the barn. Especially cold winters here bring all sorts of critters scrambling inside buildings and under the hoods of the machinery despite our best preventative efforts. In the past I\u2019ve had problems with chewed wires on the truck, mowers and mule.<\/p>\n
To make matters worse this year, we found that there is a slow leak in the main frost-free faucet leading to the big cabin. This needs replacing which means that we will have to dig it out to repair the underground pipe and install a new faucet. This needs to be done in one day or there will be no water in for the White Pine Saloon as well as the main cabin. The good news is that in this climate the pipes are only about a foot down as opposed to the 5 foot depth I remember back in Iowa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unfortunately my absence this last week is not because I have taken a few leisurely days off from writing. It\u2019s because I chose a long time ago to live in the country as opposed to a turn-key place in town. The joys of being here sometimes exact a price which involves hard work. The first…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n