Tag Archives: ericiv

day 3052: preparing seed garlic for a slightly smaller, small mountain of garlic.

day 3052: preparing seed garlic for a slightly smaller, small mountain of garlic. I.

regular readers might recall we’ve been planting and harvesting a small mountain of garlic for several years now. we usually plant around 200 cloves around this time of year in our lovely cropp crop.

it turns out that 200 head of garlic is, well, way too much for a family of three even after you factor in giving away loads of it to friends and family and what we need for seed every year. so this year, we’re scaling back and “only” planting 80 cloves in our home garden.

as always, odin is a super helper and thoroughly getting his hands dirty preparing the garlic and planting the seed.

day 3052: preparing seed garlic for a slightly smaller, small mountain of garlic. II.

experts will tell you the middle of november is way too late to plant garlic, but we’ve never had any problems because we always seem to get lucky with an unseasonably warm streak of weather. this year was no exception, right when we thought we might be too late, we got a nice warm streak of weather with predictions of gentle rain.

perfect ( excepting for what the trend might portend in terms of global warming )!

day 3050: a hockey test.

day 3050: a hockey test. I.

we weren’t the only ones to notice odin’s improved skating skills. his hockey coach called and asked him to try out to move up to next level.

he’s in the mites which is the level for 7-8 year olds but i guess they’re short a few players on the squirts team which is for 9-10 year olds. or, apparently, ace 8 year olds when they need a few players 🙂

day 3050: a hockey test. II.

he says he wants to go for it. of course, no pressure from us, but we were sort-of nervous for him in during the try-outs competing against the 7 other skaters hand-picked by the coaches. ( the red on his glove is from the dye on the fresh tape we put on the handle of his hockey stick. )

day 3050: a hockey test. III.

odin did a great job, especially in the drills. he held back a little in the scrimmage but still had some good defense plays. he says he “has a good feeling…” about making the cut. we’ll find out on monday! ( he’s in the yellow jersey with the number 8 )

day 3048: first snowfall of the season!

day 3048: first snowfall of the season!

oh, to be eight again and thoroughly and entirely excited about the first snowfall of the season and all the possibilities it heralds for cross country skiing, building igloos, sledding and, of course, making perfect snowballs.

although it was a light snow with little accumulation that didn’t stay long, odin determined that it was awesome snowball snow.

fun fact, four years ago on election day it was 75°F and we were taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather by pouring cement for our sauna. later that same day odin was pressing his four year old hands in the cement!

day 3046: odin inspects progress on The World’s Most Awesome Treehouse(s).

day 3046: odin inspects progress on The World’s Most Awesome Treehouse(s).

slowly but ever so surely i’m making progress on The World’s Most Awesome Treehouse(s). i got a few of the 16′ joists up on the supports while almost nominating myself for a darwin award. today odin helped me attach more joist hangers to the 14′ 2x10s so we can quickly drop in the rest of the joists.

lots of folks are asking me about the how secure the platform will be. you can probably see the top of the four supports are bolted on to the 3/4″ threaded rod that runs through the trees. the bottom of the supports are attached to the trees with 3/4″x8″ lag bolts. the top of the supports which i think are called knee braces are made from 2×8″ treated lumber and angled boards are notched into the top and attached with 1/2″x6″ lag bolts. the joists in 16″ on center. somewhat surprisingly, everything is level and mostly square!

the supports are about 11′ off the ground and the joists add another foot, so the treehouse will be about 12′ off the ground when i built it on top of the platform.

i’m pretty impressed with the stability of the structure. hopefully, i’m just as impressed after all the joists are attached and the flooring is put up 🙂

( side note: the blue rope is part of the the most super awesomest tree swing. EVAR! )

day 3045: the start of Yet Another Hockey Season!

day 3045: the start of Yet Another Hockey Season!

after taking a year off, odin had such a fun time playing hockey last year that there was no way he was not going to sign up again this year.

he’s back on the ice and enjoying every minute of practice!

he finished last season with great skating skills and it’s amazing to see how much he’s improved over the past 6 months, even though he didn’t have any practice time on “summer ice”.

day 3045: the start of Yet Another Hockey Season! II.

he’s now such a solid skater, some parents assumed he’s been skating all summer. it’ll be interesting to see where his skills are at by the end of this season ( totally no pressure :-).

day 3042: the 2012 halloween crew!

day 3042: the 2012 halloween crew! I.

the 2012 halloween crew getting ready for some tricking or treating!

can you spot odin?

day 3042: the 2012 halloween crew! II.

oh, o.k. i’ll make it a little easier for you. odin and i were dressed-up as matching, well, i’m not quite sure what we dressed-up as. maybe ringwraiths?

i cobbled the costume together a few years ago from this and that and have discovered it’s very disconcerting to young and old alike, possibly because i’m taller than your average joe and people can’t see my face. it’s big fun to sneak up next to unsuspecting trick-or-treaters and just loom over them without saying a word.

odin so enjoyed the effect that he decided he wanted to dress up like his poppi this year 🙂