Happy Solstice!!!

[HiDelight]

Rosalind any "structural repair work done" is worth the celebration!!!! ...we have been remodeling and rebuilding our home ..ourselves for almost 5 years now ..and so even a window going in is a huge joy!!! each thing done is done and a new begining on the next thing to do

I think home work while tedious and sometimes really sucky ..is always so much better than other work and worth a moment of celebration that is for sure!

what did you do if you do mind my asking?

we are on our "last room" to finish ..but then we need to go back and replace a few more windows, paint ..and get a new roof (not doing that ourselves!!!)

anyway

today is the day you guys

I wish I could make cute graphics and say with big letters

]WELCOME TO SUMMER
AND
HAPPY SOLSTICE FELLOW LOVERS OF THE
EARTH DIRT AND COMPOST!

 

[Sylvie]

I observe the more natural rhythm holidays like the solstices.
I have watched the sun rise in years past, but this morning's was very overcast.
I like to meditate about what it is supposed to be about, why the ancients made such an effort to note it. Trying to go beyond archaeo-astronomical explanations in the history books which never satisfy me.

To celebrate the Solstice Eve, I went to a tearoom, ordered a pot of the Midsummer Night's Dream green tea and sipped. I think it's funny that the shortest night of the year had such a long night written about it.
Later Dh and I sat outside and watched the fireflies in the trees.

Today I am heading out to walk in the woods, one of those meandering walks to look at whatever I see, an untimed with no goals stroll.

Because the sun seems to stand still for 3 days, I think it only right that the observance should last that long, lol!

 

[Rosalind]

what did you do if you do mind my asking?

As near as we can tell, about 50 years ago, here is what happened:

The previous owners had a termite/powderpost beetle problem. They dutifully hired an exterminator who did a good job. Well, the exterminator probably soaked the house in arsenic for all I know, but for sure there isn't a single bug left in the walls anymore. The owners then hired the cheapest fly-by-night operation you can imagine to do the actual repairs. My house is very old and made of post-and-beam timber frame construction. FlyByNight Construction, Inc. did not do timber framing, and it seems like the previous owners either couldn't afford to fix everything or possibly they just didn't supervise FlyByNight employees diligently enough. At any rate, a few large beams and timbers, including the front sill, were not replaced although they should have been.

Moreover, FlyByNight simply cut the tenons of the joinery off when they decided to rip out old beams (a decision made apparently by throwing a dart at the house while blindfolded), and removed the dry-laid granite pad the beams had previously been sitting on. They used these rocks, I am not kidding, as landscaping rock and back-filled the ex-foundation with soil. Thank goodness, it was really clayey local soil, but still. The timbers, now disconnected, started to shift around due to the usual humidity changes and frost in this area. They couldn't shift around that much, though, because they were kinda rotting on the bottom, so, well...

In order to correct this state of affairs, we had to rip down the wall with the rotten sill, jack the second floor, dig out a bunch of dirt and put down rocks and gravel, install a new oak sill, tie the new sill to the large beams with steel brackets on account of the tenons being gone, replace a few beams, install five new posts, install a second sill (with mortises, this time) kind of inside the first one to help hold the floor up (FlyByNight Construction did not own a tape measure, apparently), jack beams individually to make them slightly more level, re-level the floor joists, and install a steel column in the basement where FBN had removed a structural timber to install, I am not kidding, heating ducts. They could have run the heating ducts around the structural beam, but that would have been too easy. Also, we insulated the heating ducts and replaced one that had rusted through, plus ran new wiring to the outlets--modern wiring with an actual ground wire, that is.

Still on the to-do list over the next few weeks: Remove the aged clapboards and replace with new cedar clapboards custom-milled to the same dimensions, replace one timber from the outside, plane all 264 square feet of oak floorboards and install, insulate with serious New England green building insulation, paint everything back to the original color.

The moral of the story is: Don't cheap out on repairs. Fixing someone else's screw-up is way more difficult than just building from scratch or fixing an actual breakage. I had many contractors turn around and walk out when they realized how hard this was going to be.

 

[HiDelight]

Sylvia ..now that is what I am talking about sounds wonderful ...

we had such a great time at the Solstice parade and took about 500 pictures so I think I will make a flicker site or something so I can share the beautiful things the parade had ..it is a completely motor and engine free parade ...most fo the constumes and floats were made from recycled materials ..it was just a beautiful one of a kind thing that if you ever get to Seattle for the Summer Solstice please check it out!

Rosalind ..all I can say is wow and send hugs because really truly I do understand and your last statement says it all ..we ALWAYS inch our way through projects ..use the best materials ..do most of the work ourselves and make sure it is done so it will last (hopefully) forever

I was in the bathroom when we first moved here and out of curiosity I took one loose tile off the shower..the next thing I knew we had gutted it to the subfloor had to put a new subfloor in ...built a new walk in shower and completely new bathroom!

we ended up putting in three new bathrooms because each one was so bad structurally that we kept going until everything was new ..we will be long gone and still these bathrooms should survive ..we are on our last one now ..(I can not imagine four bathrooms in a house we have never had so many but the plumbing and possiblities were there so we went with it)

I have to admit however I am getting tired! glad there is wonderul young man helping us now!

I feel the season ..I am freezing cold in this house but the sun is breaking through and everything is growing nicely ...my heart goes to folks having a rough time this year with the gardens ...

we usually sleep out side the first day of summer but it was just too darn cold and I just got back from a long camping trip a few weeks ago so I am thinking that counted for our beginning of summer sleeping under the stars!

I promised my husband we would sleep out on Thursday since I am off work ..to make up for it ...

we just spread our bedding out on a tarp (to stay dry) on the grass under the stars (when you can see the stars in Western Wa ) and breath it all in ...I love to do this a few times in the summer ..besides camping elsewhere it is fun to sleep surrounded by the garden and all the smells, sights and noises of the night are so romantic I think

so will us good weather for Thursday

you dont have to celebrate just one day I think you can celebrate a season for the entire season!

gratitude to the earth and sky for what it gives us is always a good thing

 

[gone 2 seed]

Maybe I'll feel better on Monday (my 30th birthday ) and be able to BBQ and collect some more fresh produce to enjoy it!

Happy Birthday. My husband has a new great niece today.
friday we had a new granddaugther. summer solstice and birthdays nothing better.