Weekend Activities

My, weren't we productive this past weekend! The weather was gorgeous - a definite encouragement to be out and about. Considering that the temperature is on its way down below 30 and the winds have been gusting up to 30 knots today, the weekend's nice weather, though chilly, may be the last for a bit.

We started off with the Farmer's Market. This was the first weekend of the Winter Market, which means that it was in a building at the fairgrounds. In contrast to last year's Winter Market (the first time it'd been held) this week was a wildly good time. There were folks at the door giving out coffee and pastries. A few vendors still had fresh produce (perhaps the last for a while, given that frosts are coming in more frequently now). We picked up a store of goods to lay in for the winter: broccoli (for the freezer), shallots and garlic (to hang in the cellar), leeks for some hearty soup. The market was bustling with activity. I hope that it remains popular - although it is difficult to think there'll be the same level of activity in February, when it's -15 and blowing.

One of my activities this weekend was putting together another set of bookshelves, as Hilary has been requesting for months now. They're not terribly exciting from the picture, I know, but still darn useful. It is a little tricky doing this kind of work with the tools I currently have, which are a far cry from the facilities that I got started with at Dartmouth. It helped a lot that I finally put together a cross-cutting jig for my tablesaw. The design is a replica of a set of shelves Hilary has had for years now - very quirky, too. The space for the bottom shelf is 10-1/4", for the middle it's 10-1/2", and the upper is 10-3/4". I like to think I could have done better, but opted for matching selves instead of better shelves.



I also raked the leaves. Ah the joys of home ownership. I truly love the large maple we have in the back yard. But, honestly, it drops so many leaves. How many? Examine the pictures below. The pile of bags is from two rakings we did in the last two weeks. Hopefully these'll be the last - the tree hasn't got anything left to throw at us. While outside raking, we like to let jasper out, and open the gate between our yard and the back-neighbors, so that he and the border collies can run around like crazy. A border collie is a marvel of nature - a perpetual energy source that seems to have no endurance limit. These two really don't get enough exercise, so they are naturally very rambunctious. While Jasper doesn't like to play fetch (he runs away from anything you throw at him) he does love to chase after the collies.




We also had one of Hilary's classmates over for dinner on Sunday. She cooked us some wonderful indian food, and we provided a chocolate-peanut-butter pie for dessert. In preparation for company, we did a blitz cleaning, including vacuuming the rug. Jasper, as you can well imagine, doesn't like the Roomba at all. He does like his waffles, though.