It Started with Storage

Paul figures we spent 5% of our income this past year on paying rent for our storage unit, and he rightly observed that it's like buying all those things we're storing all over again.  Arg.

So until we can purge our unit of stuff we don't need, and until we can build a storage shed on the property, we're exploring how we might use what we already have at our disposal.

I've long had my eye on the space under the stage: it seems like a perfect place to store camera tripods, light stands, and other such equipment.  But we wouldn't know for sure until Paul could open it up and look at it himself.

The cats enjoyed their look under the stage, too.  Elliot dubbed this chubby guy "Dust Bunny Dilly."  The top of his feet are dirty?  Hmm...

The portion of the stage that Paul tore up was an addition to the original stage and was built on top of the original flooring, so he took advantage of the exposed floorboards to replace a plywood patch in the floor.

The crisp boundary and color difference between the old and the replacement don't really hide the fact that it's a patch, but we figure that it will look better once it's refinished.  Besides, it's part of the building's history, and it's a lot nicer than it used to be:

(Naughty kitties.)

Leaf Mold: A Real Windfall

"Mom, please don't take a picture of me.  I haven't had my shower yet."

And since it was her birthday, I said, "I'll just take a picture of what you're doing."

So here she is, helping us create gardening gold with a resource so cheap that it falls when the wind blows.  It's a real windfall!

Mowing the leaf pile chops the leaves into small pieces for a quicker decomposition.

She collects them onto the tarp and carries them... to the compost?  No, we don't want them to compost with our other plant material.  Since leaves break down through fungal action instead of the bacterial action like the compost pile does, we put them into a pile of their own, where they break down into a beautiful soil amendment that can improve the moisture-retentive quality of soil by as much as 50%. 

We had exactly enough fencing leftover from our compost bins this spring to make this cage for the leaf mold.  Perfect!

Aelsa dampened the leaves to get the process started, and now all we have to do is wait for more of this windfall to come our way.  I have a feeling that it will:

From the maple tree in the front corner,

from the fruit trees in the back,

and from the burr oak tree in the back corner.

Join us for raking, anyone?

The...Nest

Even the kitten has found a home, and the mama cat a nest where she may bring her young--even the old pump organ, O Lord of hosts.

--a contextualization of Psalm 84:3

Last year a foreclosure forced a family out of the house across the street, and last year a darling tortoise shell cat was abandoned. This sweet cat befriended us early this summer as we tended the yard and garden, and one evening after she'd been visiting and feasting with us for over two hours, she led us to her litter of kitties which she kept safely in the hobby barn on the foreclosed property.

Eager and mewing for the long-awaited nourishment from their mama, five adorable kittens perhaps five or six weeks old tumbled out of the barn. A gray tabby, an orange tabby, an orange tabby with white spots, a black kitty, and a calico. We immediately fell in love with them and earnestly hoped we could rescue them from street living.

We fell into the habit of crossing the street for a visit with the mama cat and the boldest of her kittens. At the end of one of my solo visits, she astonished and delighted me by calling for her kitties to follow me home. Only three of the five followed, however, and they took a really long time summoning up the daring to cross our threshold. And then there were still two remaining to collect, but Mama Catt showed no interest in retreiving them.

We've never encountered mama cat behavior before, and we feared for the other kitties' safety, so we would brought them food, trying to entice them out. They wouldn't take our food, so the kids would pick up Mama Catt and bring her to them.  By doing this, Aelsa and Paul were able to nab the other kittens, hissing and growling, clawing and trembling, so they could be reunited with their litter mates.

Mama Catt has transitioned quite nicely to being an indoor cat again.  Her offspring, however, aren't quite as trusting of their human companions, especially when they need a dusting of diatomaceous earth to kill the pests living in their fur.  But they do like to play with us, and the kids get to experience what it's like to have kittens in the house.  We figure it's just a matter of time before we have their trust and affection.

And it looks like we'll have these kittens longer than we'd naively expected.  We hoped we would be able to rescue the kittens and find good homes for them before too much time slipped away from us, but few people are interested.  We can't imagine dropping any of them off at a shelter to join twenty or so other cats in confined quarters, so we'll keep caring for them, all the while praying that we can find a home for three of them.

Wouldn't you like to share your home and affections with a sweet little kitten?

Moving In

I should probably clarify that we don't actually live here yet. For just one more month we'll continue living in the inner city of Chicago, driving out to The Nest for a few productive days at a time as we can. But only for one more month! It's time to start setting up a home with the things we already have as we wait and work to accomplish our dreams and goals.

The bookcases came out of storage, and with it, some of our books. After a year and a half, it was like a reunion with old friends.

Southeast Windows

These are the stained glass windows on the southeast side. Clicking on a picture will enlarge it for looking at the detail.

The window on the left, closest to the front of the nave, features a bunch of grapes to communicate the wine of the New Covenant. The central window portrays a crown and a cross to remind us of Christ our King. The window on the right features an anchor, an ancient symbol of hope.

The windows were installed in 1910, and the glass itself is Tiffany-style glass, composed of many layers of color within each piece. Elliot commented that the glass in the main part of the outer windows looks like mother-of-pearl, and indeed, it does.

I'm sure there's quite a bit more to say about the glass and the style and period of the design, but I'd need to do more research first. When we are able to turn our attention to restoring them, we'll write more about what we learn.

Next: the windows on the northwest side.

Where There's Smoke...

The wind calm, Robin and I took charge of the burn pile. Mounds of leaves and bits of other burnable junk all waited their turn, and to make a fire strong enough to withstand their frosty moisture, I dragged over a couple of the leave-behind beams, once salvaged from a collapsing homestead somewhere, now rotting in rows in the side yard, and added them to the pyre.

We knocked a pretty big chunk out of the collection of yard junk and even used some of the outdoor time to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate together. We would have done more, perhaps, but we've been sternly cautioned about the noxious nature of sumac, so we left it alone. For now.

Along the Sides

More (fuzzy) pictures of the nave. Elliot stayed in the shot to give an idea of the scale, but Aelsa joked that with how quickly he's been growing lately, perhaps there were better people for the job. She wasn't volunteering, however.

Regarding the scale of the windows and the space they fill, it's worth mentioning that the window trim is 10" wide. From the floor to the top of the window trim is 12.5'.

Stained glass window detail coming later.

Setting the Stage for a Repeat Performance

We may sleep here now, but later our musical instruments will fill this space.

Decorating for Christmas?

Even these leave-behinds have been useful, but not because we love post-Thanksgiving light-up reindeer in the yard. No, you see, it gets very dark in the country when the lights are turned off, so these little guys have been casting a warm glow of security into our grand sleeping quarters, faithfully pointing the way to the bathroom if needed.

Today, however, the kids stripped the reindeer of their lights in the hope of using the strings of lights in an effort to decorate for Christmas, and indeed, the way to the bathroom is now lined festively with little white lights. Overall, however, I think the results disappointed them somewhat: they couldn't help but notice that I'd tossed the wire carcasses of the gentle reindeer into the dumpster.

Kitchen Drawers

In this glimpse of the kitchen, you can see a set of drawers that Paul cobbled together from a broken leave-behind desk and one of our laminate bookcase's doors. Even though there are base cabinets on the opposite side of the room, these are the only drawers we have.

Good thinking, Aelsa! Nice work, Paul!

Using What God Gave Us

This morning Paul and the boys worked on measuring and moving these planks while Aelsa made a record of their lengths. We'll be using these leave-behinds for the counters on our office workspaces.

Kids at Work

I like to tell my boys that it does a mama's heart good to see her guys at work. And since we've started cleaning this place up, these guys are doing my heart plenty of good.

Elliot loves the space. Designed for worship, it captures his affection, and he eagerly desires to work on it and live in it. It is a joy to see this eagerness translate into physical work.

Robin more naturally takes to physical labor, so its no suprise to see him dig in and get dirty. Yesterday he managed to master the art of pulling nails out of the floor after the linoleum was pulled up. He told me it was one of his favorite things to do.

I look forward to seeing what other tasks these guys tackle before the project is done.