Well, hello there!

We’ve traveled to the coast but not as often as we’d like. Nathan romps with Grizz while I seek the best photo opps. King tides are coming, so we’ll head back over soon.

The great thing about not having blogged in months is that you have so much to write about. The lousy thing about not having blogged in months is that you have SO MUCH to write about. It’s hard to know where to begin, but I need to start exercising my writing muscles before they go completely stale. Let’s start with the stuff I ought to be writing about, in no particular order:

The impracticalities of a Porsche convertible finally got to me, and I traded poor Chiquitita for a more sensible, brand new SUV. And $63. Sigh. Catty is great, but she ain’t no Porsche.

Chiquitita, my beautiful yellow roadster, was exchanged for $63 and Catherine, a brand new khaki-colored SUV (Mazda CX-50). I love Catty’s comfort, her newfangled tech and her roominess (not to mention she is a LOT more reliable and cheaper to maintain than a 10-year old Porsche)…but I really miss cruising the curves to the coast with the top down.

Nathan’s rehabbing another baby squirrel, Charlie. He’s about as cute as he can be.

We have acquired a new squirrel for rehab, a little boy named Charlie, and he’s adorable. My fingers are already bleeding. Nathan is madly in love, Grizz is jealous, and the cats (so far) are unaware.

I’m loving my new taxonomy job just as much as I thought I would two years ago, my boss is great, and the project’s finally getting corporate traction. I should probably think about retiring to focus on my ever-growing list of hobbies, but all the exciting stuff at work makes that day seem far, far off.

The Resident Carpenter-Blacksmith is still resident, closely attended by an adoring Grizz…even when dressed as a chicken

The Resident Carpenter-Blacksmith is still resident, which probably surprises him as much as me. We may be the oddest Odd Couple on the planet, but his zaniness has pulled us through some, er, challenging times.

One great benefit of COVID: My company decided pandemics were now the norm, and gave me the option of working entirely from home. It’s great, although I now regard a trip to the grocery store as a major expedition.

I became an Amazon Vine reviewer in my spare time, which means Amazon sends me bunches of stuff to test and then pay income tax on. It’s a fun gig that has delivered coolth I would never actually pay money for (espresso machine, sewing machine, violin, icemaker, plasma cutter). It also produces enough cardboard to pave a small city.

The Leg is still attached and propelling me through life, albeit a touch crankily.

Went camping. Twice. ‘Nuff said.

I’ve gone camping twice, and it was everything I thought it would be. I’m learning to appreciate Wilderness. Wilderness is not really learning to appreciate me. Still, we are mushroom-foraging, hiking, and trolling for salmon in our little zodiac, so maybe someday Wilderness and I will achieve a reasonable rapport.

Mushrooms have so far been a bit scarce this season, but that hasn’t stopped us from trying

I’ve acquired a grain mill with real millstones, which is producing food for my sourdough starter. Starters, it turns out, are just as much living, breathing, care-requiring critters as cats, dogs, squirrels, and Resident Carpenters. They do, however, produce very tasty bread, which makes them unique. Total output so far: Two very tasty loaves.

Doing the pioneer thing, I guess–grinding my own grain, building a sourdough starter, and making bread.

Grizz has grown into a giant, loving, and totally crazy German Shepherd whose goals in life appear to be Nathan, eating everything the humans eat, Nathan, barking at any disturbance in the space-time continuum (there are many), and Nathan.

Lola and Nikki are still the feline queens of all they survey. They (and the new squirrel) hate Grizz with an undying passion but otherwise snooze on, looking neither to the left or the right.

Grizz is a huge part of the family, especially when he tries to stop me from typing

I took a really great Zoom class in plique a jour from Amy Roper Lyons this summer. Plique a jour is a very difficult enameling technique where you literally suspend the enamel in mid-air, between metal cells. It helped me perfect (well, more like not screw up so badly) my soldering techniques, and renewed my confidence in actually turning out something resembling enameled art. It inspired me to resume enameling on that silver vessel series I’d started…which I immediately screwed up. Sigh. I think I know what went wrong, so hopefully there will be Christmas presents emerging from all this.

I finally finally FINALLY learned what I was doing wrong with plique a jour. YAY!

I’m increasingly drawn to resuming my glass practice. All I need now is to find the kiln under all the piles of stuff in the garage.

Humans (or at least Nathan) come with a LOT of baggage, considerably expanded by all our hobbies (blacksmithing, silversmithing, enameling, resin work, knifemaking, woodworking, jewelry-making, glassmaking, breadmaking, mushrooming, fishing, etc.). It’s becoming clear that House is bursting at the seams. We either need to build a second shed in the back while shedding at least some avocations…or move.

Moving is definitely an option, thanks to my work-from-home status. What I’d love to find is enough land up in the mountains to build a dream compound, one with individual cottages for family/friends, a giant workshop, and a central community hub with a great kitchen.

Must admit, though, that the thought of packing up this entire house, prepping it for sale, and moving is…exhausting. So far, any land (or home) that ticks all our boxes AND is close enough to civilization to provide high-speed Internet (mandatory), shopping, and health care (we’re not getting any younger) is way, way, WAY out of our price range. We’ll keep on looking, but I’m beginning to think we should build that second shed. If we do, THIS time that shed is for MY hobbies.

And so we resume…