I actually got back to work.

it's been a week of a lot of road miles.

Monday, Was it monday? Yes. I realized that the roads were actually dry, and would likely be so all day long, so I hitched up the trailer and headed off to Northern Va to pick up the range that I bought way back when I still had a job and bring it home to Cold Comfort, many months later. Now that I have the shed to store it.

So I did.



It's an induction cooktop, with a nice convection oven. it's a compact range. According to the reviews, folks either love it or hate it. Apparently there are
some QC issues with it, I'm hoping this one is recent enough to not suffer some
of the problems I've read about, but a lot of the 'hate it' chatter is the usual stuff. Folks who don't understand compact ranges whining about the fact that it's compact. >shrug<

Sharp eye'd folks will notice the dented drawer, that's my fault I think. And I think I can fix it.

So, that was monday.

Tuesday, I hitched up the trailer again, and headed off the Adams County, Pa to the Klinger Family Sawmill. Tracey found these folks a few years ago, and we are very fond of them.



Proper circular saw sawmill. You can buy proper rough cut/barn dried lumber here and the prices are very reasonable. Yes, they have a kiln for those folks who think (wrongly, in my opinion) that shed or barn dried isn't good enough. I know, I know, codes require kiln dried for framing and forming. But if you want real lumber, this is a place to get it.



This is a lot better than BigBox HomeStore browsing, I promise. The dogs are more fun too.



Anyway, I went down to pick up a couple hundred board feet of barn dried, rough cut hemlock. it was a trailer load for the little ole prius. We took our time coming home.



Some of this will be doors, some will be cabinets, some will be raised beds.



So, I have to plane a lot of it. This is the planer rig, Like my dust evacuator? Well, it works. I dump the shavings in garbage bags, and we'll use them for chicken bedding.



I think planed hemlock is an attractive wood. This is the before/after.

So, then yesterday, with all the fun I was having bringing stuff in, I didn't hitch the trailer, but I did clear the car out, and headed off for the old home place in Davis, WV. Took apart some of my shelves from my apt, and loaded them into the car. Grabbed my much missed laptop that I had forgotten and left behind last time I was there, and headed back. I also dropped off a couple of bags of foam board insulation scraps at Jimi's place, and picked up some nice sassafras from him.

11 hours in the car, , ugg.

So, Today at Cold Comfort, I planed some more wood.




started building the shelves in the shed,
and then I noticed that the UPS man had dropped off a small box. Oh Boy! My birthday presents! Some spiles!

So, I went out and tapped a tree:



The sap is running at Cold Comfort!
In fact, I was running around, trying to figure out what to do;



So it begins.



The Cold Comfort sugarbush. Or some of it anyway. Could be tapping a lot more trees, but I have to get a handle on how to deal with just a few first.



The first gallon of maple sap. it's sweet and it tastes like maple. I think this filtered and boiled once would make a fine beverage. But syrup is where we are heading, and I need a lot more jugs for the sap. So, I'm off in search of gallon jugs.