A bohemian waxwing is perched atop a clump of mountain ash berries. It looks off into the distance to its left

2024 Year End Wrap up plus a month

Happy New Year!

What a year.  If you’d told me at the beginning of the year what it would look like at the end, I’d have had a good laugh about it.  Us?  Moving? And to the country no less,  No way.  2024 was supposed to be the year I relaxed and healed up from the renos in 2023.

We had some excitement along the way too (and how!).

In January, we had the furnace board go out.  That’s the second one for that furnace. When the HVAC guy arrived, I asked if we should be replacing the furnace since we’d replaced two boards.  The advice was to keep it because it was a good unit and parts were available for it.  A newer one would likely not last as long. After the Summer and early Fall we had at the old place, I suspect this was one too many in the house saga.  It likely was the beginning of the end.

Beginning of February saw a rebuild of a more than decade old server and resurrection of some of my coding skills.  I’ve talked about the Fibre Stash management I’m doing previously and the possible resurrection of the fabric and sewing machine management databases.  These are in a free open source program called Grist which is currently installed on my server and it works a lot like Airtable but I have complete control of my data and no mandatory monthly fee.  There’s also a hosted option for those who don’t want to (or can’t) host on their own.  The one thing currently missing for this to be a full replacement for Airtable for me is a gallery view.  NocoDB is a similar project and it does offer this feature and can import directly from Airtable for anyone wanting to switch.

Mid February, the dealership sent my car home with almost no brakes after a premature change of the lines.  They had to bleed them 3 times to get pressure back into the system so they’d feel like proper brakes again.

Then on February 23, Ryan came home with pain and swelling in his face one afternoon and we were off to emerg.  Six hours in emerg got him a diagnosis of shingles.  That was just the beginning of the hospital and emerg visits too. Folks, please consider getting your shingles shots.  I’ve also heard of someone this year getting it on their internal organs. This is not a fun thing to deal with!  He’ll be eligible for the vaccine in about a month and after seeing what he went through and how lasting the pain was/is, I think we’ll both be getting it.

March brought the beginning of camera season – with the first ever bald eagle I’ve seen here in my entire life.

A bald eagle in a dead tree with its wings spread getting ready to take off
A bald eagle in a dead tree with its wings spread getting ready to take off

April brought us Bohemian waxwings and merlins. We made a point all Spring and Summer to go to the local lake in hopes of catching the hatching of some of the local bird babies.

The Spring also brought health problems that came with medically slowing my thyroid down. I chose to see that as a reason to try to put my health first for a bit and it worked for a couple of months. Both my GP and internist wanted me to slow down and prioritize getting healthy again.

In May, I decided to print the Sunfire2 cone winder.  It was a break from my usual preference of only printing things I designed.  So often, it can save me wasted plastic from a failed print.  The Sunfire2 though printed very well and most failures were my own mistakes. I’m so glad I did this though.  I learned a lot about design and my slicer (the program that prepared CAD files to be printable) and I keep finding new uses for the cone winder.

In June, that’s when we did a complete shift of our goals for the rest of the year – I would say in complete contravention of doctor’s orders. June was the house hunt, the house going on the market, unsupervised children in our house during showings, 2 inspections – one of which involved pulling the trailer to the local lake with the cats and letting them have a visit at the lake (well, Bandit had a bit of a walk around in Ryan’s arms.  Grey’s still an agoraphobe.) – and lots of other house moving stress.  I also returned to servicing machines around then – and learned it was too soon.

Also in June, we found our first owl.  A lovely little saw whet who gave us the answer to a question we’d been discussing under its house.  We had been wondering why some of the houses on the trail we were walking were higher up and had larger holes, didn’t that just invite house sparrows, etc.?  Then this beautiful little face popped out of the hole.  Oh.  That’s why.

Northern Saw Whet Owl in a nest box
Northern Saw Whet Owl in a nest box

I took a few photos and we left it in peace. Later in the month, grebettes and baby coots and mallard ducklings were all over the lake. What a privilege to see them learning to swim and watch their parents feed them.

A male red necked grebe feeds one of his offspring some sort of small fish or tadpole?
A male red necked grebe feeds one of his offspring some sort of small fish or tadpole?

July, August and September were pretty much nothing but moving and cleaning.  I did make a point of getting out and snapping some photos at every opportunity though.  By September, I was set up enough to start servicing sewing machines again and… it was too soon with all of the elbow tendon damage I’d re-done during the move.

What did happen in September as well is followups with both my GP and internist where I had to admit that I hadn’t quite followed doctor’s orders but I think they both let it slide because my labs were better though I did get looks from both that told me they questioned my sanity and intelligence.  It’s OK, so did I.   The general consensus is that out here, I should just get healthier away from the stressors back at our old house.

October brought us the most amazing Aurora Borealis we’ve ever seen thanks to solar maximum and lovely dark skies.

Aurora Borealis above a treeline on October 10, 2024. Greens, reds, purples and blues dance in the sky
Aurora Borealis above a treeline on October 10, 2024

We also reached the point in our move in where I brought the network back up in full, including temporary run network cabling and backups resumed.  That made this geek feel a lot more comfortable and less “living on the edge”.

During the same month, Ryan brought home a parts Canadian Production Wheel (CPW) that I’d thrown my hand up for when someone was giving it away.  The goal was to Frankenstein it with the one I picked up a few years back and try to make one good wheel.  In a quick test the next day, it looked like it was going to work.

2 CPW spinning wheels combined into one mostly intact one and the rest of the many broken pieces on the floor.
2 CPW spinning wheels combined into one mostly intact one and the rest of the many broken pieces on the floor.

This photo is after taking the best parts from both wheels.  After the test, it sat in the garage taking up space and getting tripped over until I could address it properly. And I did – once most of the renos were done.

Around now is where, I started noticing that the gluten free bread mix I use was giving us weird results too.  Always so predictable at the old house, I figured in all the stress of moving, etc. that I must have been messing up the recipe…  so I slowed right down and followed it to the letter.  Nope.  It wasn’t me.  It would rise a ton then spill over the side of the pan and then fall. Every loaf I’d made since we moved in did that up until around late December.  It didn’t matter a lot but it did prompt me to prioritize the well water test that we had on the to do list a little higher.

Bread in a red silicone bread pan that has over-risen and fallen, spilling all over the gas stove and through the cooking grates
Well, that didn’t go to plan!  This was not a fun clean up.

At the end of October, we were introduced to some of the neighbours.  No, not the human ones – we were starting to see the wildlife out here.  The first to make its presence known was a ruffed grouse.

I walked past our front door without my glasses on and glanced at the cherry tree and then I backed up to look again. I went to the table and got my glasses. Er, there’s a thunder chicken in my cherry tree… She was sitting in the tree throwing cherries on the ground. When I opened the door to get some photos, I got the “what? what’s your problem?!?!” look.

We’ve since seen her and at least one more – but I think 2 more of them – frequenting the feeders.

Ruffed Grouse (aka Thunder chicken) standing in the snow facing the camera looking like she's about to ask to speak to a manager.
Ruffed Grouse (aka Thunder chicken) standing in the snow facing the camera looking like she’s about to ask to speak to a manager.

November brought more repairs and upgrades in the house.  The ensuite bathroom got new towel and TP holders, I installed one of the light fixtures I’d had in the studio in the old house and did all the drywall repairs that come with that.  The main bathroom got the same treatment minus the light fixture.  While I was mudding and painting, we figured it was a good time to change the thermostat to a programmable one. Next came redoing most of the caulking in bathrooms and kitchen.  Then it was time to address the bathroom sink taps.  That was … horrifying. I have no idea what the black and brown jello-like goo was but I’ve changed sink taps and drains before and this was a first.

We initially did it because each had some problem that was causing leaks.  The inspector had called the basement bathroom tap (drain problems and an “improper fix” that included hot glue) and the ensuite supply lines were leaking, I later found an issue with the main bathroom tap.  Additionally, the drain cap in the ensuite was cracked.  They all needed to be done and Ryan found a tap we liked and so we installed them in all 3 bathrooms.

Just prior to the onset of Winter and our first snowfall, I installed the Feather Friendly stickers I didn’t think I’d get to during an unexpected warm spell but ran out because I changed the plan in the middle.  With a few inches that weren’t going to be covered, I picked up a paint pen (because now it really would be too cold) and doodled on the windows in the main bedroom.  I forgot how to make a leaf more times than I care to admit and clearly, I need to spend some time with my long arm but it seems to do the job.

Feather Friendly bird strike deterrent stickers and some paint pen doodling on the bedroom window
Feather Friendly bird strike deterrent stickers and some paint pen doodling on the bedroom window

While at the hardware store, we also found a range hood fan would be much quieter than the one that was installed when the house was built.  This meant we’d stop shouting at each other while it was on and with a gas stove, it needed to be on to prevent suffocation.  After this and unpacking the last major box, I called us officially moved in. This is the month we got our water test results back too.  This provided a possible reason for the weird bread rise but it took me until the next month to put it together.

That’s not to say I haven’t taken any time to relax.  I started spinning again in December after mostly taking a break for the move other than during car washes and grocery shopping.

The year’s final tally was pretty impressive all things considered. 4058ish yards of yarn spun, so about 12,700yds worth of spinning and plying in 622gr (1.37lbs) of fibre. That means the bulk of what I spun was lace weight yarn too.  This year, I’m going to need to try to use some of my hand spun up.

10 or so skeins of yarn spread out on a faux wood background. There are a couple of blue-ish skeins, a purple one and the rest are natural colours. Most are in the fingering to lace weight ranges. Some are spindle spun, most are plied on a wheel.
10 or so skeins of yarn spread out on a faux wood background. There are a couple of blue-ish skeins, a purple one and the rest are natural colours. Most are in the fingering to lace weight ranges. Some are spindle spun, most are plied on a wheel.

In fact, after 3 and a half months of disruption, cleaning, unpacking and repairs, I decided we’d take December off and get to know our new home and area.  (And the actual bills without reno costs!)  This would also give both elbows some rest because I’d irritated both pretty badly with the adventures of the past six months.  The pain was now chronic.

We got some bird feeders to attract the local birds and developed a suet recipe that they love. The recipe was based on several that I found online and in the Alberta Birds FB group and tailored for our particular needs (for instance minimal grains to avoid attracting house sparrows).  Maybe I’ll post that in a future post if there’s interest.

I started swatching for a cabled cardigan and began to settle into our new life.

A blue knit cabled project with several stitch markers on a background of the pattern
A blue knit cabled project with several stitch markers on a background of the pattern

The onset of cold, means a lot more woolens being worn and that means more woolens being washed.  Here’s where the bread problem finally clicked.  The water chemistry test showed that our well water is high in sodium and bicarbonate.  So basically the ingredients of baking soda.  The water is very safe to drink but we don’t love the taste.  Ryan refers to it as “flat soda water” which does weird things to coffee or tea! Every time I handwashed wool clothes, I noticed they bled a lot.  These were things I’d dyed or things I’d bought already dyed and had never bled at the old house.

A pair of blue socks in a bathroom sink full of soapy blue water showing that they've bled colour.
A pair of blue socks in a bathroom sink full of soapy blue water showing that they’ve bled colour.

Wool and protein fibres in general need to be washed in water with a low (or acidic) ph (below 7) to prevent damage.  This also preserves the bond with the acid dyes that give them colour. This is incidentally also why Woolite isn’t really for wool anymore – its PH is too high. Sodium bicarbonate is something we usually add to water to raise the ph.  And in fact, looking back at the water tests, the ph of our water is 8.8 – higher than neutral otherwise known as base (or alkaline).  The water was breaking the bonds between the wool and the acid dyes. Baking soda is also used as a rising agent in some breads – like soda bread: something that we’d noticed the bread tasted and looked more like than usual. So going forward, the plan changed to using bottled (reverse osmosis) water for the baking and adding vinegar or citric acid to the water when washing woolens.

Yeah, sometimes I’m that slow on the uptake but hey! I got there eventually.

That sorted out, I got back to working on the FrankenWheel project. Once I had a functioning wheel, it was time to clean it and and tune it and … well I don’t really have space for it and I have more than enough wheels so it became a mantle piece.  Literally.  It’s currently living above the fireplace until I find it a home.  Before I can do that though, I need to decide what to do about a flyer – leave the 3D printed one I designed for it or have a wood one made?

A rather large spinning wheel sits on atop a corner fireplace
A rather large spinning wheel sits on atop a corner fireplace
A 3D printed flyer on an antique spinning wheel with a partially full bobbin of natural white fibre.
A 3D printed flyer on an antique spinning wheel with a partially full bobbin of natural white fibre.

Now that I’d chosen the best parts for the wheel, it was time to decide what to do with the rest.  I have a vague idea in my head and I’m slowly sneaking up on that.  In the meantime, here’s how it looks.

Reassembling an exploded spinning wheel drivewheel with glue and clamps. It's never going to be functional again but it will be approximately round.
Reassembling an exploded spinning wheel drivewheel with glue and clamps. It’s never going to be functional again but it will be approximately round.
A spinning wheel drive wheel hangs in a window adorned with several different styles of spindle
A spinning wheel drive wheel hangs in a window adorned with several different styles of spindle

My birthday (which occurs very close to Christmas) was spent partially in physiotherapy for my elbow tendons and driving in very bad weather.  Christmas was quiet and we hibernated until the new year while eating more than the legal limit of turkey for a week.

January, we started back on the repairs and I’m confident that after this round, we can let everything else wait until Spring.  Ryan installed a reverse osmosis system and a UV treatment system.  The first was to fix the taste of the water, a little bit of the ph, and reduce some of the total dissolved solids – and eliminate hauling 4 liter bottles of water – as a bonus, it fixed my bread issue as well.  For the first time in my entire adult life, I drink water from the tap and don’t hate the taste of it.  The second was a peace of mind thing.  At the same time, since he was cutting holes in the sink for the water tap, he cut one for the soap dispenser.

A country kitchen with the door under the sink open to show an RO system. Shiny new handles on the cupboard doors and a blind on the window.
A country kitchen with the door under the sink open to show an RO system. Shiny new handles on the cupboard doors and a blind on the window.

We ran the network cable that had been temporary into its permanent spots.  That was as much a mental thing as physical.  I think neither of us wanted to disturb the finished ceiling in the basement but at the end of the day, we plan to be here many years, we might as well make it what we need as long as we do it without making a huge mess and we didn’t.

One of the really big outstanding items since we did the inspection was some grout that needed to be repaired and I did that in mid-January and we sealed all of the tile (about 500sqft) this past weekend.  We put up blinds throughout, changed out the worn and failing interior door handles and hinges.  As amusing as it was to be able to lock Ryan in the bathroom by dropping a towel on the handle, it seemed it might be time. I managed to find cupboard door handles we liked for under $2ea after one of the originals broke off in Ryan’s hand.  Matching a 25 year old hinge would have been tough so this just made sense.   The basement bathroom got the other light fixture we brought from the old studio, the old blinds from the bedrooms went into the garage so we wouldn’t have to frost them the way we’d planned. The last of the shelves in the loom room went up a couple of weeks ago.

Does it seems a little like we’re putting a lot of time, effort, and money into the house?  We sort of are but we did reserve some of the proceeds of the old house for this and we thought we should do the work now rather than live in it for years and only do the work we wanted to do when it comes time to sell, like last time and the time before that.

I’ve continued physio but of course by not slowing down, I’ve not been making as much progress as hoped so the goal is to finish everything that needs to be finished for now by the end of January and heal up in February.  As I write this, so far so good.  Just some pictures left to put up.

My cardigan got put on hold while I repair the damage in my elbows as it was likely directly affecting them. I have done some knitting adjacent things though.  Learning some visible mending – and there’s a free workshop at the National Gallery of Canada (via zoom) that I plan to attend on February 12th – and I’ve used the Sunfire2 for winding “off cone” yarn onto new cones. I’m also wheel spinning a maximum of 30 minutes a day.

So, goals for the year?

  • Take photos every day.  So far, I’ve missed only two days this month unless we count cell phone pictures.  If we do, I’ve shot a photo every day.  This has never happened before.  Normally my cameras hibernate from about late October to March for lack of light.  Doing this has made me more aware of my surroundings and I’ve spotted Bohemian Waxwings (as in the cover photo for this post), Redpolls, Pine Siskins, Northern Flickers and Pileated Woodpeckers in the yard when often I’d miss all of that doing other things.
  • One spinning UFO – line flax.  It’s truly an excuse when I say it’s outdoor weather spinning because I’m not nearly as messy as I was when I first spun flax wet and I do have a tile floor I can spin above.
  • Spin one fleece – that’s already started.  It’s romney/merino and it’s one of about 2.35ish fleeces I have remaining.  We’ll see how the rest looks later in the year when this one is finished.  Usually after a fleece, I need some colour and this is the biggest fleece I have.  At least it’s already prepped and ready for spinning.
  • Another try at purposeful singles yarn
  • There are a number of my own sewing machines that need some servicing and then after that, I have a pile of sewing and quilting projects I’d like to take on.
  • Some more work on the photo and fibre databases I’ve been working on.
  • Adapting the eSpinner to take an Ashford Traditional style Mother Of All.
  • Heal.

Uh… that looks like a lot.  How about if I commit to some of that and some time getting to know our new place?

 

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