The Outdoor Oven Gets A Cover (Partially) and Garlic Bed Prep!
Months ago we completed, save a bit of cosmetic artistry, the outdoor oven. We got to use it exactly one time for a Fourth of July Pizza party, then we were struck with the driest summer in recorded history. My dreams of sourdough, endless pizza, and corn roasts were foiled by Madre Nature. Never has being grounded from measurable precipitation felt like such a torture!!
Well, since we had the wettest spring and driest summer on record, I am anticipating the snowiest winter in recorded history too. My amazing husband wanted to make sure that our oven was protected from the elements by not only a sound structure but a cosmetically appealing one too. That said, he has been laboring in his wood shop off and on over the last few weeks building jigs and hand chiseling fir beams that we salvaged from a house that the snow annihilated one year on the front of our property. When he started talking about mortise and tenon I thought he was referencing some new wine cooler or something, but apparently the man wanted to put together the oven cover using only old school architectural methodology. He's a peach!
With today being relatively warm out, we all marched out after finishing our homeschool regimen for the day and proceeded to be useful. This included the children gathering salvaged 1X4's from the demolished building and removing any nails from the future roof purlins. I helped my husband pack the meticulously labeled beams to the building site, and helped place said beams on their concrete piers.
Interestingly enough, there was a thing that didn't go as planned. Even though my husband had crafted a jig as a template for his tenons, and fitted the entire structure together on the ground, some of his wood cuts did not want to "mate" correctly. I always appreciate the use of a good expletive, and the profane utterances did flow. However, after a bit of chiseling, cussing, and refitting the pieces did indeed go into their homes! I also got to hold a four foot beam in a matter that made me resemble, "Rocket off of Guardians of the Galaxy" according to my son. Isn't he just a saucy little confection!
In between refitting chiseling, I ordered some seed garlic from Filaree Farms, something that I had neglected to do. When I bought my homestead the original trail blazer had encouraged me to grow garlic as it "did well here" and he was right! Garlic flourishes here, but I haven't grown any in about a decade as it needs to be planted in October here in North Idaho, and gee golly if I don't get overwhelmed with to dos this time of year and forget to put the garlic in. Not this year! NAY! There shall not be a deficit of pungent goodness in my larder, and starting about next July there shall be a wide swath both in front of me and in my wake as I cast my garlic breath upon the masses! YAY!
I have some unused raised beds by my greenhouse and 1%er travel trailer, so while the Tempestuous Polynesian ironed out his quality control issues I dug out the weeds, took the tractor to the compost pile and selected some lovely compost, brought it back and dumped on the bed, and raked. Weather-wise, it looks like I will place my little future garlic cloves into the ground this next Sunday, and future post alert: I will probably blog about it!
My day is far from over, for in a bit I have to wander into the library to attend a How to Make Your Own Beer class that I was instrumental in bringing to our town's repository of knowledge. I absolutely adore learning how to make my own anything, so it should be interesting to see how that class turns out!
So how about ya'll? Are there any fall chores that are keeping you hopping like a procrastinating southbound goose? October is one of those mad dash months leading up to the inevitable snowpacolypse in these parts, but the feeling when all your winter prep is done is priceless. I so wish I could bottle the "satisfaction as the winter's firewood is once again done for the season" feeling, for that would be a more notable accomplishment indeed!
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