Whodunit - mysterious force creates multiple deliveries

First it was the octomom now it's the delivery service for the blog. I have has it set up with an RSS broadcast with a company that is either in Arkansas or India (it's hard to tell theses days)
The last blog notice was delivered about three dozen times over the course of three days until I disabled the URL. Not being totally savvy about how all this works I didn't do it sooner. It turns out that the script was sending out a notice whenever there was ANY change, including sytstem generated changes (like elapsed time, maybe). Anyway, I felt like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer's Apprentice - I couldn't shut it down.

So, no more automatic notices for awhile. I may dust off the old email list and try that.

House Report

The outside is done and work has started on the inside. Here are half of the stairs installed. We also have the electricity activated on the north wall, which is helpful. Running extension cords across the lawn can be hazardous in lawn-mowing season!





Harps R Us
The traditionally-inspired harp I built for Julia was not staying in tune so I swapped out the taper pins for piano pins. It not traditional, I know, but I already built the harp as a mirror image of the original so she can play it right-handed, so it's not like I am ruining the authenticity of the beast.

I have wood picked out for a new harp but haven't found time or space to start. Maybe in the autumn, when the building project (hopefully) winds down. I also have been studyin' on a design for a travel harp. It would be more two dimensional than usual.

Flowers of the Week
There is a field of extraordinary lupines near where we live. Now there are blue ones and white ones and even pink and yellow ones but this field has variations like we've seen nowhere else - blue with yellow spots, white with pink spots, I even saw one that was mauve*.








Julia found fresh moose tracks coming out of the little pond that is in the meadow. When we were there the frogs were tuning up for the nightly concert. They were pretty loud in the late afternoon, they must have been deafening when the sun went down.





*mauve (not a "guy word") = kind of a light yellowish/purple

Post & Beam Country

The east wall as it was May 30. Those pump jack posts are 24' tall. Those high jobs get to be less fun every year! I have about two square feet on the north wall to shingle. The game was called a couple of days ago for interference (hornets) and is now in a rain delay. If I can get a 30 minute break in the weather I'll have the outside complete.




In the meantime at the other end of the Upper Round Pond Road our friend Russ is putting up a frame. I'm in there somewhere, giving a hand.
The downstairs is for his canoe restoration business. Upstairs is for flyrods, chair caning, and hop drying. I'm not sure where the brewery will go, but he makes a nice IPA and a really good brown ale. Unfortunately I had to leave before he tapped the keg.

Flower Report


Inside the house the world's ugliest cactus bloomed the same time as the while amaryllis.


Here's another look at the cactus blossom.







Outside we have a few pink lady's slippers around the yard. Nothing like it was a couple of years ago when we had almost fifty! I think they go in cycles. There are still plenty of plants so maybe we'll get more blooms another year.



Back to the 18th Century

We played a reception on Saturday at a circa 1835 brick farmhouse. It was to celebrate the excavation of a 1735 tavern, so here we are in our 18th century duds.






Just for fun we did a video on our camera (the same one we use for photos) The tune is circa 1607.



Do you remember those tests we had in school before we could read? The ones where there we pictures of four objects - say a hammer, a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, and a nail - and you had to circle the one that doesn't belong? How do kids fare in these days when you can use a phone to take a picture, send a message or chart a course? We saw somebody using their cellphone as a flashlight last winter!

By the way it's official. Cell Phone Elbow has been recognized as a common malady.