Moving Day

The Living/Dining Room at Winter Solstice, Walls and Floors Done!

View of Kitchen From Living Room

At last, the day has come. A few more details, a few more items to assemble, and we move our life over to the new house. I realize it will still be a process, as the final configuration of things will slowly unfold, but a basic, functioning kitchen will be in place by tomorrow, and the furniture and trappings of a life will all vacate the yurt. What an amazing Birthday-Solstice-Christmas gift to arrive at this moment.

We've been sleeping in our amazing bedroom since a week before Thanksgiving, and this has been a huge blessing. We have had an extremely wet December, with lots of rainy, stormy nights. I would have enjoyed significantly less sleep during that time had we not been over there at night. But the back and forth each day, just before bedtime and first thing in the morning, has been a challenge for me in particular, as we are now expecting our second child (!), and I am needing to eat at odd hours of the night, as well as first thing in the morning. So this move is a very welcome and relieving prospect for me!

I'll take some more photos once we move everything in, and set up our Christmas tree. Game on!

Cozy Sleeping

At long last, we moved our bed into our lovely, finished bedroom, and have been sleeping in it, in the room, since Sunday night. It's a simultaneously WOW feeling, and also just a quiet, smooth transition into something we've been waiting for, literally for years.

How ironic that even sleeping in a much anticipated space, it's difficult to sleep in a new space! There are new sounds, new routines around going to bed, getting up in the night to pee, and all that. But there is a deeper quiet.

It's been my feeling for a while now that Drew and I suffer from a long term lack of deep sleep, created by a constant awareness of ordinary sounds heard through yurt walls: calm sounds like owls hooting, birdsong, and coyotes howling, as well as deeply and instinctually stressful sounds like 50 mph winds, pounding, needling rain, and cars, generators, and the like. I'm finding that I can hear a lot of the sounds in the house, but they are markedly quieter, and the inner stress level is so much less, because the house feels so solid and secure. I'm looking forward to catching up on deep-level relaxation in sleep.

Once this rain stops, we are ready to move all of our clothes over to the closet, and we are also soon to get Ella her own big-girl bed, so we can have our bed back to ourselves, after 4 and 1/2 years. I salute that!

Butternut Squash Soup

Round about now, the winter squash starts singing to me at 5:00 PM when I begin to contemplate what to make for dinner. This year, I had a bumper crop of butternuts, along with other squash, so I think I'll be making lots of butternut soup. Here's one of my first and favorite butternut soups...

From The Silver Palette Cookbook

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp butter

2 large onions, sliced

3-4 Tbsp curry powder

2 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into cubes

4 medium apples, cored and cubed

1 quart chicken stock

1 cup fresh apple juice

salt to taste

1 package of your favorite sausage (optional)

yogurt and/or herbs for garnish

Saute the onions in the butter for about 15 minutes over medium heat, until well softened. Add the curry powder and cook for a few more minutes. Add the stock, squash, and apples, cover and turn up the heat until boiling. Then reduce heat to simmer until everything is very well cooked and soft. Meanwhile, slice the sausage into rounds and brown in an oiled pan, and set aside. Use an immersion blender or food processor to puree soup until smooth. Return to low heat, and add apple juice. Add the pre-browned and cooked sausage. Heat through and serve with plain yogurt, cilantro or basil, and fresh buttermilk biscuits with butter. Sometimes I also serve it with leftover rice or other grains.

Bon appetit!

It's Full Steam Ahead

Though I have had several days of low motivation, our crew is still moving all kinds of things forward with the house. Last week, Jemma and I plastered the big wall in the living room a lovely yellow color. This afternoon, in the sunset light, it was a magnificent, glowing gold, so I couldn't resist photographing it.

Living Room Wall Plaster in Golden Sunset Light

Also, our bedroom trim is done, and we're working on the doors so we can install the last of it in the entry and in the bathroom/closet. Today, Drew and I plastered the laundry closet with Structolite, so that when we move over to the house, we can move our washing machine, too.

Here's the Bedroom with Trim, All Done

A Bathroom Door

Stair Trim, Just Like Tetris

Last week, Karl and Drew had Cedar here with his trenching machine, and we ran phone cable to the house, propane line from the pad to the house, water lines and power lines. Karl is working hard to get all those utilities set up before he leaves in a few weeks. We've ordered new batteries for our off-the-grid power system, and we're looking forward to that purchase arriving. Our current batteries were used and cheap, and they have certainly done their duty. But they are no longer working very well, so we're excited for batteries that perform properly. Karl is building a little house outside the house for them, as well as the inverter and other electronics that operate our power system.

Hmmm, what else. Aaron is mudding and taping on the north slope ceiling, getting it ready for texture. I moved some window bucks along towards readiness for plaster. Jemma has been cleaning and oiling all of our window frames, including the clerestory windows. And the list goes on. There are a lot of steps!

Our bathroom sink arrived, as did our vent hood for the kitchen stove. We're lining ourselves up to do plaster and floors in the kitchen/living/dining, so that we can create a temporary kitchen.

Maybe we'll actually move into our room THIS weekend, we'll see!

Our Beautiful Concrete Floor

Bedroom Floor with Leather Brown SoyCrete Stain

Floor Closeup

A Preview of the Trimmed-Out Look (the trim won't go in till later today)

Bathroom Floor with Espresso Concrete Stain

I spent all last week laboring over my bedroom suite floor, and at the end of it, I gave birth to a richly varied, stained concrete that warms the feeling of the entire space. As with using any new product in a new context, I worried and fretted over whether I was doing it right. I experimented in the closet first, and it's a good thing, because I don't like the results in there. The second space I completed was the bathroom, which turned out much better, and finally, the big main bedroom, a spacious pallet of color.

The process is multi-step: meticulously scrape all visible remnants of joint compound splats, plaster residue, and structolite off the floor. Sweep and vacuum, leaving as clean a surface as possible. Apply a concrete etcher, to clean and open the pores of the concrete (Ecoprocote EcoEtch), allow to dwell for about 10 minutes, then buff with a floor buffer. This process impressively cleans the floor, which by this point in the house project contains nearly two years worth of construction dirt and activity.

After buffing, vacuum up the wet stuff and rinse, rinse, rinse. Allow to dry. THEN, the fun part. Apply the stain (EcoProcote SoyCrete) with a foam mop, and work into the surface of the concrete. Once dry to the touch, buff with the floor buffer (a rather squirrely machine!) to smooth out the application marks.

A day later, apply the penetrating sealer coat, Acri-Soy. Finally, enjoy the fruits of your labor, and experience the drastic transformation of a blue-gray concrete slab into a lovely, mottled, warm-looking, homey floor.

The Ecoprocote products are a pleasure to work with. Ultra-low VOC, they don't stink, are safe to work around without safety equipment, and clean up with soap and water.

Finish trim details, and MOVE IN. Coming soon, this week.

Comfort Food Recipes

As the season is winding down towards the winter solstice, and the garden is wrapping up its delights, and putting them away until next season, I am craving comfort foods: casseroles, warm soups, easy-to-chew things that are sweet and nourishing.

Last night's meal was a pesto-eggplant lasagne. Oh, it was good, so I thought I should post the recipe so others can enjoy it.

Pesto-Eggplant Lasagne

Ingredients:

1 package lasagne noodles

2 roasted eggplants (see instructions below)

1 recipe basil pesto (see instructions below)

1 recipe red sauce (or a jar of prepared tomato sauce)

2 large balls fresh mozarella

3 large slicing tomatoes for topping

Begin by roasting your eggplant.

2 medium globe eggplant

olive oil

salt

pepper

Preheat your oven to 400F or so. Oil a baking sheet. Slice your globe eggplants into rounds about 1/4 inch thick. Brush them all heartily with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Bake about 15-20 minutes one side, then flip over and keep baking until they are very soft and lightly brown.

While that is roasting, make your pesto. You will need:

4 cups packed basil leaves

1-2 cloves garlic, pressed

1-2 Tbsp pine nuts or sunflower seeds

3/4 cups extra virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmaggiano Reggiano

Place all but the cheese in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until smooth. Add in the cheese and set aside.

Next, make your Ricotta Custard:

1 15-oz. container of ricotta cheese

2 eggs

salt and pepper to taste

Beat the cheese and eggs together, and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

NOW, if you are a superstar, you could make your own tomato sauce: Here's my favorite way:

Tomato Sauce

1.5 lbs sauce tomatoes, pureed in a food processor, or finely chopped

1 onion, finely diced

ground beef (optional)

3 cloves garlic

2 bell peppers

1 med. zucchini

herbs of your choice (basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, whatever you like)

1 cup of dry red wine (merlot or cabernet, for example)

bay leaf

olive oil

salt and pepper

Saute onions well in olive oil (10-12 minutes) over medium heat till very soft. If using meat, add now and stir until cooked. Add herbs, peppers, and zucchini, and saute until beginning to soften. Turn up the heat to high, and pitch the wine. Simmer until reduced by half, and then turn down the heat and add the pureed tomatoes and bay leaf. Cover and simmer as long as you like over low heat, to combine the flavors.

Assembling the Lasagne

Now that you've got all your components, begin your assembly. Scoop some sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Smear ricotta custard onto DRY (uncooked) lasagne noodles and lay into the pan in a layer. Cover with the roasted eggplant rounds. Cover with a layer of pesto. Lay another layer of noodles smeared with ricotta over top. Add more red sauce. Add another layer of noodles. Top with fresh mozarella, sliced, and fresh tomato rounds, if you've got them. COVER, and bake in a 375 F oven for about an hour. Serve with a green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and listen to the comforting ooo's and ahhhh's around your table.

Lots of Projects

We are on a mad mission. Karl is only here a few more weeks, and we are pushing to get as much done as possible. And we are really doing it. Making lots of progress. Every day. It's really thanks to all the great people we have working for us. Yay team!

To start, we are VERY close to being done with our bedroom! We slept out there for the first time last weekend, and today, I am about to stain the main floor. Karl did the ceiling trim and it's gorgeous. Also, a sill for our little recessed lighting cove with this amazing curly redwood. I think he did an awesome job here.

Ceiling Trim and Curly Redwood Sill, look how beautiful!

Meanwhile, I was designing our cabinets for our bathroom and kitchen. We mocked up the kitchen to approximate the locations of the cabinets/counters and the island. I spent a few days on the computer, which was hard on my back, but yielded a solid overall design.

Kitchen Mockup

Then this week, I began base plastering the remainder of the main room walls, and started on concrete staining the bathroom and closet floor, while Karl and Aaron were installing the wood ceiling in our guest/massage room and the entry way. Done, done, and done.

Living Room Base Coat Plaster

Guest Room Ceiling Done

Bathroom Floor with Concrete Stain

It's fully into the rainy time now, so there's nothing to do BUT work on the house. Indoors is the place to be.

Main Ceiling Finished!

After four solid days of work with the dream team, consisting of Karl and Aaron slinging nail guns, and yours truly running the chopsaw, we completed the entire big room ceiling today. It feels so satisfying. Partly because a project finished is a project finished, but also because it is SO damn beautiful. This wood sings. It is reflective, and warm, and looks phenomenal in that space. Now for plaster in that room, I think the wood will look even better with the plaster right up next to it.

We also had team girl today, Jemma and Hope staining additional boards for our next ceiling project. We had Kai on the roof, slow and steady, too. Jemma also finished the last of the compression in our bedroom, meaning we're now ready to tackle the floor project.

Ahhh. Progress. I'm ready for bed!

Fall Garden

The fall garden in the Mattole is really where it's at. All you Central Valley peeps have your tomatoes in June, and all you Calistoga folks have your corn seven feet tall by 4th of July, but on the coast, here in the Mattole hole, we have the September/October garden peak. I tend to forget this, when nothing is ready by our Leo Party in August, when my aunt asks me what is ready. Usually only cucumbers. And she doesn't like them.

But once things fully dry out in the indian summer, and the sun is low and hot, we start our tomato pump, and the zucchini ride, and the corn is happening too fast to eat it all, and we STILL have cucumbers. And the winter squash is almost done, and the raspberries and strawberries are still happening, the green beans are still giving 4-5 pounds every three days, and the eggplant has at last begun to make fruit, and the peppers are even turning red, THEN I remember why I labor over those little seeds in flat, struggling to keep them warm in March, when they really should be snug in their seed packets in the shed.

All that, and we already have some of our winter crops, like carrots and beets. It's really a tremendous feeling of abundance to have all this food coming steady out of the garden. We've got extra people here, and we are not short on veggies. I don't really need to buy anything at the store but avocados, lettuce, and cabbage. And we'll have some of our own here soon.

And did I mention the egg machine? If you want eggs all winter, it's imperative to have April chicks, because they will lay eggs through their first winter. At the last minute this year, I bought 12 more laying hen chicks one April day when I was in town. Barred Rock beauties. We've been seeing a few pullet eggs here and there for a few weeks, but two days ago, we suddenly came in with 16 eggs in one day. Usually, we get 7-9. But now we have overlap, the new girls are all beginning to lay, and the old gals haven't quit for the winter yet. Hello, souffle!

I haven't posted a recipe in ages, but here's a summer favorite, to use up some of these veggies:

Cucumber-Cherry Tomato Salad

4-5 sweet garden-fresh cucumbers, cut in half, and sliced

2 handfuls Sungold cherry tomatoes, cut in half

2 sprigs fresh basil, chopped

~ 1/8 cup fine olive oil, or to taste

~ 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, or to taste

~ 1/4 tsp. salt

a few dashes of toasted sesame oil

Mix together in a bowl, and enjoy heartily, around a table filled with family and friends. There really is a lot of latitude with this recipe, I make it a little differently every time, and the quantities of dressing are VERY inexact. Do what tastes right to you, the basic flavors carry through. Bon appetit!

Hanging the Main Room Ceiling

Last week, Karl and Aaron and I got to hanging ceiling wood over the kitchen/living/dining rooms. After an entire day just hanging the first course, getting it just right so that we didn't need any trim up against our showpiece redwood beam, we jammed on everything else you see here in one day.

This wood is really a treat. It is recycled straight-grain douglas fir. Which doesn't really capture the natural variation of color, grain, and patterning. It looks as though it could be a floor, but it's on the ceiling! Even better is that most of it was already coated with clear sealer, meaning for most of it, we won't have to do this. I'm looking forward to getting more of this done this week.