Smugglers Cove Whidbey Island

Back to work.  Wait a minute…I’ve been working all summer, but it has been really good.  I got a lot done.  There is still a massive amount to do, but each step towards the next step is progress.

We are looking at house plans.  Mark is reading building books.  We want small and simple and cheap would also be good.  Reality hits.

The PCAD test was phenomenal.  No stream.  Wetlands in one corner, but no stream.  I welcome all frogs, salamanders, wetland grasses and reeds.  I’ll do what I can to not rock your world.

Signed my last contract today.

Today, we bought tickets to the Parade of Homes.  First time.  We thought we could get some ideas.  The first house was in Black Forest – 4000+ sq feet and 725k.  It was huge and so not my style.  Who the heck cleans it?  Not me!

Then we went to some 1/2 million dollar homes in Cordera (Briargate east).  Teensy lots and too much house.  I have not spent the summer throwing stuff away, just to get a huge home in which to stash a bunch of crap.  And 2 or 3 levels…uh, no.

Then we went to the Habitat for Humanity home off of Vollmer Road.  900 sq feet.  There were several homes being constructed by Habitat crews.  Just the best!  Well, I could have moved into that home in a flat second.  Cozy, warm, and small.  It gives me hope that we can build a small home and be absolutely comfortable.  Now…to review the Timberland Homes website.

I feel like I have been knocking around the house doing nothing.  This has been such a push and the past few days have just been wasted.  I look around and there is only so much I can do at this point.  I have a couple of bags for the thrift store, lots of toiletries thrown away, another box of books to go, but I am spinning uselessly; or so it seems.

So, I will put together a jigsaw puzzle.  Love them!  The photo is taken at the Whidbey Island B&B.  I bought a puzzle at the thrift store and when we would come in for the evening, after a long day, I would work on the puzzle.  I finished it right before we left!  I bequeathed the puzzle to the B&B for future guests.

School begins next week and I am antsy.

It’s empty; the second one.  And, it’s out the door.  I also sent books hither and yon and I have many more to take to thrift stores.  I am firm in my resolve to buy no books in the next year; however, I did pull a few out of the boxes and I have them to read.  The choices are interesting.  What do I choose out of 500+ books?  If you had to list 25 favorite books; or books you want to read; or books you want to buy…what would they be?

I kept several books by Orhan Pamuk and as assortment of Turkish authors.  I kept a few “trashy” reads.  I kept three by Steinbeck.  I kept a couple of Pulitzer Prize winners.

And, I sent some absolute favorites on.  Richard Brautigan books.  I have had them since I was 19 or 20.  I decided to put them up on Bookmooch, so that people who wanted them would get them.  They were gone in minutes.  Poetry.  Simple.  Sensual.  Visual.

Bits of wood.

These bits of wood held the holiday village and the tree.

Magazines and papers and books and yarn and tools and flotsam and jetsam.

These are the things we weave around us.  Intricate spools of color and texture.  Long ribbons of patterns and folds.  I drop this here and look for it there.  I can’t remember where I put the ??? and then it appears under conundrums of stuff.

It has been a wonderful weekend.  Stressful and eventful and satisfying.

Yesterday, a young lady came over and took all of the bags of weaving materials.  She really had no idea of the treasure she had before her, but she was thrilled.  I, too, was thrilled, because I really did not want to take these materials to the thrift store.  Most people would look at the round reed, flat reed, handles, bamboo, sea grass and more and be confused.  What to do with this variety of fibres and colors?  Who would want this?

Well, if you are a fibre artist, you just feel and look and begin to put things together.  Tactile.  Natural.  Plant dyes.  Textures.  Patterns.  Roots.  Reeds. Grasses.  Yesterday’s burgeoning artist showed me her very first basket, completed the day before.  It was made from morning glory vines and it held the promise of beautiful things to come.

I wish her well.  I look forward to gathering materials in the northwest.

Load 16…gone.  Load 17…loaded and ready to go.

The books.  What a conundrum.  I need to rethink my plan and adjust as necessary.

How many books do you have on the shelf?  Shelves?  Rooms?  Today, Mark found a note from Camille where she stated we had 3,000 books in the house.  Interesting.

The item below is from June 1989.

This morning I counted the books on three of my shelves…average 35 books per shelf.  Then I counted the number of shelves.  Then I walked around and counted the odd stacks of books on the headboard, dresser, et al.  Then I counted books on Mark’s shelves and the number of shelves.

Roughly speaking, and I do mean roughly, there are around 700 books in the basement.

Shut up…and I didn’t count the ones for sale or the ones on Bookmooch.  They, and my fiber art books, are upstairs…oh, and the cookbooks.

I started digging around in the barn a teensy bit.  I need to be on the lookout for spiders, mice, bats and bugs.  I didn’t see any, but I did see a lot of CRAP!  I was trying to forge my way back to the two iron beds; they are so outta here.  Have not yet been successful, but give me some time.

Today, load # 15 went to the thrift store.  It’s getting a bit more difficult to select items to toss; and yet, I need to have most of it gone.

We are rethinking the size of the new house.  We really don’t need a lot of space, IF we downsize.  I look at the numerous bookshelves and then I think about the NOOK.  I love the feel of a solid book, but they take up so much space.  My new mantra to not buy a book for a year is being sorely tested.  T.C. Boyle has a new book and there are so many others.  I think the library is the way to go.  Borrow, read and give back.