Colonial Slate Grey

That's the color we picked for the enormous roof job on the Church. (It's on the bottom left.) Scaffolding is up, weather is reasonable, and things are progressing.

As you can see, the roof is rather steep, and the bell room especially so. I don't envy anyone this job, but we have contracted the best around, Ron Picard. 

Stay tuned for updates!

Here's the latest "investment" in grass care technology. 

Say "pretty please" and I'll let you ride it! 

PRETTY PLEASE???

WEE HOO!

How much fun I had mowing the lawn, only me and the dandelions will ever know! 

We and our neighbors across the street split the cost and "elected" me chief lawn mower (because of me stuffing the ballot box!) 

Over yonder, across Grindstone corners...

In Memorial, Grindstone City Pioneers, 1835-1938

...activity revolves around wood! 

OSB was laid in the top story of the barn, and wood will be dried there. 

Pat and Duane's new puppy Millie helped!

Sniff sniff.. needs two years of drying, at least..ruff ruff...

Ok, let's let the wood dry in peace!

Nothing left to do but try out my new device! My incurably generous and thoughtful father sent me this in the mail! I think he found it on Ebay.

A Wool Cutter! With a foot pedal!

What is a wool cutter? In the world of rug-making, it is a device that cuts wool strips so you can hook them into the rug backing. I've been doing it by hand, which is  relaxing and fun to me, but this device is just too cute not to use, plus it cuts twice as fast! Some genius engineering husband of a crafty woman probably cobbled this together and used a motor with a worm gear to move the cutting heads.

Old method using fabric cutter and rusty square.

It cuts two strips at a time, and straight!

Unfortunately, the (maybe not genius) husband of the woman for whom this device was made used a  metal worm gear with a vinyl plastic gear, and it wasn't long before my fun turned to dismay as the metal ate into the plastic and it started to slip. I had stripped it a little. I had been warned not to use it until strong man hands tightened it up, but I couldn't resist, and now I've gone and stripped the gear. 

So back to the pizza-cutter method for now. 

Strips of wood and wool, all to be made into useful helpful household objects. 

I hope the Pioneers of Grindstone City are looking down on us and smiling!

The Cross

The Old Rugged Cross

Not much big lifting went on in the Church this weekend. But we did some fine inspection of various beloved features, including what lies behind the cross.

And I don't mean the incredible and humbling story of Jesus being crucified for our sins. I mean the quatrefoil with intact glass, for the most part. Not quite as awesome, but still of great interest to us.

One little crack in the glass!

Unfortunately, the structure of wood holding the glass is less than intact.

Bottom of the framing

So up on the ladder he did climb.

We both really wanted to let the light through-  even for a moment, but the structure was too fragile and we didn't want to take the chance of glass breaking. For now, it's still covered. But it's quite a nice view from up there! We could almost see the sunlight streaming in through the window.

"Photons of Sunlight" view

There was some drywalling going on. The plaster had cracked and fallen off in spots, so that had to be cut out and patched.

It will be plastered and painted.

Further scrutiny revealed other places that need tender love and care, A.K.A. crafty carpentry.

But the fine wood work will have to wait. The big ticket item this coming week will be the roof. We all agree that the roof needs instant attention.

I can't wait for the "after" pictures. That little chimney will be gone, as well, but the new wood stove pipe will appear.

I did have a chance for some quiet time. In fact, most of Sunny Saturday was spent working on Pysanki eggs for easter. I had some great ideas this year.

looks good on paper...

not bad for drawing on an egg...

OK, this should work...

Hmm... how to I make the waves blue?

ACK! This is NOT what I had intended! What caused all those leaky black marks? Is it the wax or the dye? Also, blue + red does NOT equal dark blue. It equals CRAP!

Oh well, better luck next year, I guess. I don't really want to wait a year though, I want to try again NOW! But easter and spring break are over, and there's nearly two more months of school left, so I will have to ponder my mistakes and try again when I can.

I did finish the egg for the Royal Oak First United Methodist Church, (ROFUM) where I became a member this past Sunday. Again, the egg didn't turn out like I planned, but it marked the occasion.

This was supposed to be the logo, but I couldn't figure out the acorn brown and oak leaf green. 

I'm a ROFUM now!

I wore Methodist red, and Mike came to cheer me on! We broke our ascetic Lenten fast with some Polish sausage, banana bread, Stella  Artois and a butter lamb. It was a lovely Easter!

Happy Easter!!