Our basement windows sills are severely rotted.  Luckily they are on cinder blocks so they aren’t damaging wood underneath but before replacing the sills we had to fix the problem.  So Adam spent a good part of our weekend installing window wells for both basement windows near the ground.

We are also going to have to repaint the deck (all 750+ square feet of it!) so we have to strip the old paint before we can put on the new. Adam decided that pressure washing the deck would be a good start. And it did help a fair bit.

It’s Spring! But we had some snow flurries in New Hampshire today. Nothing that stuck but it was cold and gray for a while.

Audrey, originally uploaded by mbarsalou.

Sometimes she’s just so pretty when she’s being good.

I uploaded a bunch of pictures from the Laconia Sled Dog Championships on February 15th to my Flickr tonight. I still havn’t played with them in Photoshop but it let me explore Picnik a little more. I like a couple of the results.

I’ve been playing with Flickr’s Picnik Feature.  It’s kind of fun. I like editing in Photoshop, but when I don’t have time to Picnik seems to be a viable option.  Here’s a recent try out.  The first is the Original, a trail sign I took in 2005 in Acadia National Park.  The second is a quick edit I did in Picnik.

What do you think?

Maine Coast, originally uploaded by mbarsalou.

I took this picture over a year ago on the Maine Coast. I just had the film developed. I’m a little disappointed because I think the 30+ year old Pentax K1000 I used needs cleaning. Now this camera is a family heirloom of sorts. It’s the camera my dad used to take all my childhood pictures, and he bought it when he was in college (and broke). The most recent roll of film has shown that I definitely need to bring it for cleaning in because the shutter isn’t closing properly.

Anyone know of a good camera cleaning shop in New England?

Here’s a couple other other shots from the same roll of film.

So I’m big into supporting local farmers that practice sustainable agriculture and who treat their meat animals with respect before they become steak, so I try to buy some of my food from local farmer’s markets. My favorite is the Deerfield Farmer’s Market. Last year we got AMAZING strawberries there from a tiny little vendor and I was very impressed with the heirloom turkey I got for thanksgiving from Beausoleil Farm in Deerfield, NH.

Cultivate has a Farmer’s market finder for all over the country. It’s currently missing the Deerfield Market and I’m not sure why that is but it is a great resource for a start to a local food search.

Allow me to go on a brief tangent on Heritage Turkeys now. Over 95% of turkeys are of the same breed, bred for their huge turkey breasts. They are so unhealthy that they cannot even reproduce naturally. I find their flavor uninteresting as well, at least now that I’ve had a delicious full breasted tender heritage breed.

“Simply by virtue of having a flavor, this represented a completely different order of turkey. Now I understood what turkey was like before the triumph of the Broad Breasted White, and why eating turkey had once been considered a great treat”

-Michael Pollan

IMGP8342, originally uploaded by mbarsalou.

I’m so excited about this octopus necklace that I bought from the Etsy Seller Debb’s Designs. I got earrings to match the gem the octopus is holding at Originals by Lynnette.

When we got Audrey I wanted her to be an indoor cat. So I trained her to go outside on a harness. Since a couple adventures outside in the middle of winter Audrey has shown no interest in going outside. So we didn’t even think twice of letting her onto the deck on a beautiful late winter day. Well it turns out she loved it. By the end of the time out she was sprinting her way around the building, taking care to never leave the building by a few feet. But we think she enjoyed herself.

It will definately only be a treat for when we are around and outside with her but we might let her out again at some point. Although the snow is a nice kitty fence because she did not want to touch it.

This is my first venture in any real garden so I’m trying to learn as many plants as possible. Luckily I have a lot of room in my yard and I’m willing to learn. I’m pretty excited about all the fresh vegetables.

Royal Burgundy Bush Bean
Dragon Langerie Bush Wax Bean
Multicolored Pole Bean Mix
Black Kabouli Garbanzo Bean
Jackson Wonder Bush Lima Bean
Calypso Bean
Midnight Black Turtle Bean
Sugar Ann Snap Pea

Moon and Stars Watermelon
Sweet Favorite Watermelon
Black Zucchini
Early Summer Yellow Crookneck Summer Squash
Burgess Buttercup Winter Squash
Waltham Butternut Winter Squash
Lumina Pumpkin
Howden Pumpkin

Over the Rainbow Carrot Mix
Chioggia Beet
Cranberry Red Potato
Onaway White Potato
All-Blue Potato

Salad Bowl Lettuce
Cracoviensis Lettuce
Wild Garden Spring Mix Lettuce
Wild Garden Summer Mix Lettuce
Wild Garden Fall & Winter Mix Lettuce
Broccoli Blend
Roodnerf Brussels Sprouts

Diamond Eggplant
Rosa Bianca Eggplant
Principe Borghese Cherry Tomato
Heirloom Tomato Mix
California Wonder Pepper

Catnip
Autumn Beauty Mix Sunflower

Started working on the garden by planting starters of tomatoes and peppers indoors. Audrey was excited about being outside and liked checking out the supplies.  We are trying to have an organic garden too.