Winterizing

October was a magical month, all but the week I spent either being sick or feebly trying to get strong again. That week did bear some fruit in the list I compiled of Things To Do Before Winter. It was long, detailed, and discouraging, according to my offspring. It also included something really fun that I have been hankering to do ever since we moved.

My view from the chair in the living room included this wall, with outlet covers, of course. I decided the time had come, and my eyes hurt too much to read or watch something, but they were fine for scrolling on Etsy. Gabriel was working, so I sent him screenshots of various wallpapers and we agreed on a whimsical one that was on sale. (Clinched the deal, that did. Have you looked at wallpaper prices since it has come trending back onto the scene? :O)

I admit, my choice was influenced by the colors and patterns that will spark joy in the dark of winter. However, it is just as I envisioned it with the antique sideboard I bought at Salvation Army and cleaned up with much sanding and washing. Comments have been varied and polite: One son walked right past after work and didn’t notice the wallpaper. The other son said it was nice, but might look dated in a few years. My husband and the girls are solid fans, so that’s a win.

I have a few observations about peel and stick wallpaper. I’ve hung murals before, and it wasn’t that bad, but this was a lot trickier. For starters, it was Very Sticky. Removeable, yes, but the first strip had to be pulled off and repositioned a few times to get the edges perfectly straight. It pulled a bit of paint off in the process, therefore we also had a few spots that were no longer sticky. Once that was up, it was easier, but the wall has a slight bulge in the middle, due to a cast iron plumbing pipe that the dry-waller had to bend his work around. The fourth strip was impossible. It matched on the top and on the bottom, but not in the middle where the bulge was, and there is no stretching or repositioning peel and stick. Olivia and I sweated it until we both were hot and bothered and needing chocolate to soothe our feelings of outrage. Unfortunately, the only chocolate in the house was a bent-and-dent store gamble, and it was white and crumbly. We had to soldier on without reinforcement, but we got it done. There were a few small bubbles that we just pricked with a pin and smoothed out. My conclusion: peel and stick is best saved for small spaces. I much prefer working with pasted wallpaper sheets that can be pushed and moved a bit on the wall as I apply it.

Was it worth it? Yes, it was.

The winterizing list included things like “dig the last potatoes”. Check. I had a row that I hilled in the traditional manner of gardeners, and the rest were Ruth Stout’s (tiny little lie alert) “no work” method of mulching. The idea was to see which method produced better/more potatoes. The mulched ones should have gotten more mulch, for sure, which may have produced better results, but the hilled ones were bigger and more plentiful, no question about it. So maybe next year I will try hilling first, then mulch so that we can avoid the weeds that were a problem this year. At any rate, this is the first time I have gotten bushels of potatoes for my efforts and I like the feeling. Do your worst, winter. We are set for carbs to stave off starvation.

Another project was cleaning up the leaves that didn’t fall for a long time due to a late frost. I lived in a shagbark hickory grove as a child, and I Know What I Know about raking leaves. Hickories are not heavy until they get wet. My children did not understand my urgency, but we did shifts with the leaf blower for hours. For days. Our trees are impressive and tall. Some of the leaves were chopped with the lawnmower and went on the garden. Some were blown into the edge of the woods where the multifloras hold them like a rounded caterpillar. Finally we just burned some. We also burned our hickory leaves when I was a child, and it brought back memories of pyrotechnics created with a metal rake dug into the burning pile, the last little smoldering nuts at the end. We finished up the bulk of the leaf cleanup on October 31, and the next day it snowed. Sometimes it feels so good to be right.

The biggest item on the winterizing list is ongoing. I took down the moveable electric chicken fence and scooped up the rich compost with the tractor bucket, spreading it on the garden. Then Gabriel began his work of cutting down the rotting cherry trees that leaned over the chicken yard and the privacy fence. Last year a huge tree fell onto the shop, bashing in the roof where Gregory’s forge is. It split off of a clump of trees and revealed that the entire interior was decayed and full of bugs. There are about five of these trees behind the shop, and they bother us with their air of disaster waiting to happen. One of them leans over the neighbor’s trailer, and we will need professional help with that one. The rest require skill and ingenuity to take down ourselves. Gabe is very good at felling trees, but I get nervous when I am the one asked to position the tractor bucket or tow a rope attached to the tree on one end and the Suburban with the other. It’s simple. No pressure, or anything. Just watch the branches and ease it forward when it starts to fall.

We have a humongous pile of firewood to burn in the fireplace, and a lot still to clean up. This spring we got a small DeWalt chainsaw that runs on a battery, and it is my pet. It cuts small limbs like a breeze and has made it so much easier for me to help with outdoor messes without yanking my shoulder out of the socket to start a saw. I helped cut up the trees, not paying attention to the vines that twined all the way to the top. The trees were covered in grape vines, but with the leaves off, I didn’t notice that some of the vines were hairy and lethal. It has been years since I had such a miserable case of poison ivy. Last night during cell group I had to keep excusing myself to go apply cortisone lotion. The alternative was to sit there and scratch shamelessly, which I couldn’t do.

We did fun things in October, too. We celebrated our twenty-second anniversary with a few days in a sweet cabin in a small town nearby. We have fought for our marriage in many ways over the years, not just fought against the marriage destroyers, but also for the marriage builders. It is possible to be twenty-two years in and enjoy each other more than ever. There have been times when anniversaries were a taking stock and feeling like we’re not getting the mileage out of our relationship that we want to, and the catching up is as painful as it is necessary. If we have learned anything, it is to keep short accounts. Life is just better when you have fun together, that’s what I say.

We celebrated Gregory’s nineteenth birthday and got the glad results of zero seizure activity on his most recent EEG. We surprised Gabriel’s dad for his sixty-fifth birthday and had a short time with loved ones. Alex was here twice on his way to and fro a harvest job in Wisconsin. Like my friend Tina says, “You just need to lay eyes on your adult children every once in a while.” The girls did first quarter exams and finished up their volleyball season. Olivia decided that she wants to learn about sourdough and produced a first loaf that was swoon-worthy. Occasionally we even took off and just soaked in the clear blue air, shuffling the leaves on the trail with our feet.

I did not get the whole house cleaned thoroughly, but that part of the list was a little far-fetched anyway. So, do you get winterizing urges? Or do you get to live somewhere without cold and dark?