November Hill farm journal, 13

It's been a crazy week with lots going on here. We have been quite hot and dry for the past couple of weeks and yesterday we finally had a huge thunderstorm and got a couple of inches of rain. We had another one today and got another inch. I can feel the earth sighing with relief as the water seeps in.

We've also had more logging on the hundred acres behind our house. This prompted a flurry of communication and suddenly, after years of wanting to add land to November Hill, we're negotiating for 5.5 acres that will give us a very nice buffer behind, some land that might be usable as additional pasture, and a beautiful strip of woodland to add to our back wooded path. 

I tried for more but right now they want to keep the larger parcel intact. 

It's not finalized yet so I appreciate good thoughts for this working out for all concerned. As you can imagine, the possibility has me buzzing with ideas and new projects:

A perimeter trail.

November Hill Honey.

A tiny guesthouse in addition to the writing studio.

A refocusing on the original woodland path with an extension to make a longer walk.

I am never happier than when plotting new projects and I am so hoping we can add this piece of property to our little farm. 

It's been sad to see and hear the trees coming down back there. It would be nice if the larger parcel continues to sit on the market long enough that our ability to add more comes to pass. 

UC-Santa Cruz - my visit to the biology department

A few steps away from physics I wandered into the biology building and happened upon this:

It looked like something my daughter my enjoy so I kept going.

Then it looked like something we both would enjoy so I decided to take a few photos for her.

The room was crammed with interesting displays.

Birds were a major feature of this wonderful room.

I wandered around looking and clicking.

She was hidden by the table of birds but there was actually a young woman sitting at that iMac in the background. She graduated in June but was staying on to work in the collection through the summer. She was so welcoming and encouraged me to look and visit as long as I liked.

Of course I started talking to her and asking questions and telling stories and she ended up taking me into the private collection room where there were huge cabinets with hundreds of drawers with preserved birds of every kind imaginable. She pulled them out one by one, let me hold them, told me wonderful facts about them, and spent about 2 hours with me. It was absolutely mesmerizing and so very kind of her. She shared her experience as a woman undergrad on campus and we talked about field trips and research, animal encounters on campus, and the multidisciplinary approach UCSC takes. 

She was a wonderful tribute to her school. I was very impressed.

I finally thanked her for her very generous time and went outside where I immediately encountered this:

Finally, the milk paint adventure begins

This weekend we had two hot dry days back to back and I decided this was the right time to power wash the front porch and get all the debris off the screens in preparation for painting. The power washing set up revealed that we need a new water faucet on the grass paddock side of the house, and since it was so hot and I wanted to Get This Done dear husband took two hoses and wound them around the other side of the house and through the front porch rail so I could proceed.

It is crazy how you think you can check something off your to do list but in doing so you have to add new things to do! 

It was satisfying to see the dusty brown water sliding off the walls. It was a bit disappointing to see one layer of porch floor paint lift up and spray all over everything. I decided I could not deal with that mess so I backed way off with the power washer and just rinsed the porch floor. I'll have to use a stripper to get all of what is there off if I want to use milk paint and tung oil on the floor. That's a project I'm relegating to a way back burner for now.

Within 24 hours everything was bone dry due to the heat. I proceeded with soft white milk paint mixed with outdoor additive powder and got one upper porch screen completely done plus the inside of the main support beam on that same end of the porch. Two coats was perfect. It looks fantastic!

Now I only have the lower (larger) screen, the porch rail and posts, 5 more large screens, another top screen, the remainder of the support beam and the entire other one, and the porch doors to go. And the rest of the porch rail and posts. And the steps. And of course the cat tunnel and ramp. (sigh)

I was dripping sweat the entire time but had my iPad out there playing music and it was a pretty nice way to spend part of a Sunday. 

It's a big project but I love being able to do it section by section as weather permits. And my reward for getting this part (the front porch) done will be to go pick out 4 beautiful door pulls to install and I am thinking a new porch light fixture and (possibly) a ceiling fan! 

how to spend the hovering-near-100-degree weekend

UC-Santa Cruz physics, day 2

I got more photos the second day. I love the front of the physics building but I love even more how UC-Santa Cruz groups their science buildings under the umbrella of interdisciplinary studies. The sciences form a semi-circle and you can go from one building to the next with only a few steps.

Inside, a Nobel Prize winner:

And a very very cool double pendulum:

This thing was capable of taking your hand off so I was gentle with it!

I took a walk to another science building but will share that wonderment next!