The Wild Kingdom

The Gods of Completed Electrical Circuits and Bringing the Equine Home must be sour on Bob n' Rita as we have had nothing but really egregiously hard times since we embarked on this last major project of 2011. We spent several days stringing electric line (wires and tape) (and humming Glen Campbell's iconic rhapsody "I am a Line Man for the County...) and have yet to determine why we can't get a shock out of the system. The box clicks and the red light pulses. Bob got shocked (accidentally) when one of his smaller sculptures touched the postive and ground terminals so the box must be okay. I called Tractor Supply and received what seemed like good intelligence; we had neglected to complete a part of the system and still no go. Then I discovered a wire touching a post and we worked that out and it STILL didn't work. Baffled and defeated, we turned to ripping the floor boards out and finishing the stall. I'm outside and Bob is ripping the boards when he erupts from the building... turns out there's a skunk under the floor he just removed. I mean, we have been noisy as all get out. Skill saw running, we're moving wood and stomping around; you'd have to be deaf not to be disturbed and this partcular skunk is asleep? Just our luck.
We went next door and borrowed a HavaHeart trap and procured cat food to bait it and our older trap with. But we can't really complete our floor removal until skunk removal is done. This project is progressing too slowly! Bob actually turned to me and exploded wtih "Maybe we SHOULD eat the horse!!"
I know how he feels.

Unique Continuity of Jules in Space

Jules, who was asleep at the top of the stairs, didn't know I took his picture and fooled around with it on the computer. He was laying on our nasty stained carpet at the top of the stairs, so I gave him a more fanciful crash site. He's tired as he ran around all afternoon, chasing balls and barreling at full tilt into the carefully raked piles of leaves that I'd assembled, ready to cart off to mulch the blueberry plants.
Bob and I are really tired, too, as we spent all (of a rather lovely day for the third of December!) day outside, finishing the horse fence and erecting several serious metal gates that Bob constructed. Tomorrow we have to pull up the floor in half the small barn and make a suitable stall for Crispin. There are so many details and odd its of things to prepare for The Big Day, when Crispin is actually delivered and can begin a new chapter in his life. Crispin doesn't know that he is to be re-incarnated as an art project. Yes!! First the dog and now the horse! Is there no rest for the animals of the BobnRita ranch?? Pressed without consent into becoming fodder for oddball practises and projects! Secretly, I think animals enjoy this sort of thing. It takes them out of the humdrum existence that is the fate of most critters. Crispin will have his own chandelier in the barn... how's that for falling into the lap of luxury?
Life here is never dull. But we could use a million days off (with pay, thank you). I'm so tired I can't even blog. But stay tuned as The Big Day approaches and we (no doubt) encounter all sorts of interesting mishaps and adventures once the horse arrives.

Beige Bloggery

I never use these colors!! Or lack of color... sort of subdued beige and browns. But I liked the look of this chair (on the way to the dump) when it was seated on the fallen leaves. It gained a composure and dignity that it sure never had at our house.
Odds and bloggish ends: my eye was newly messed up by several doctors (no doubt well-intentioned!) attempts to fit me with a corrective contact lens. A mere three hours of wearing the lens one day and I swore I saw worse than I had previously. The next morning I called the office to complain of this and they had me re-insert the lens to see if the fogginess cleared. Well, it didn't so I had to high tail it back to Yale and have the lens evicted from my eye and life. I think we're supposed to try again with a different lens, but I'm sort of gun shy as my vision is worse (without the lens) than it was before. To be honest, I've been sort of excited that I could see the random thing with my left eye; very erratic but I'd be able to read the digital clock in the car, or see some lettering very clearly. I was starting to pick out individual leaves on the ground on my walks. And now? It's all sort of hazier than it was; almost like it was sanded with very fine sand paper so that it's blurry on a micro-level. I suppose that makes no sense to anyone. But it sucks!! I have two more eye appointments early this week; wish me luck.

More of What Artists Do in Their "Free" Time

(And exactly what is "free time", anyway? Bob and I seem to specialize in lurching from one major project to the next. I admit to lying about all that free time we'd have after the chimney.) Here it is the end of November and we're still finishing up the horse fence. Which involved plenty of digging and driving in of all kind of fence posts. Remember us digging holes, several months back? Lots of holes as previously announced in another blog posting, in almost another life time...
So far, it resembles a mini Christo (and Jean Claude) project. We have hundreds of feet of electric poly-tape horse fence festooning the "back forty" awaiting final connection to the posts. As we are using several varieties of posts- mixed metal and wood- we need different insulators. Those are the plastic devices that afix the tape and wire conductor materials to the posts. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the company that sells you poly fencing doesn't sell all the various shape of connectors needed... thank goodness yet again that Bob and I are clever and capable and will create our own insulators and adapt those that are available. Bob thought to use those little plastic electrical tapes that are used to bundle wires. We found them at Home Depot in exciting neon colors (they were out of black)and it made the job that much more festive and entertaining. I think The Horse will likewise be amused at our sense of playfulness:

I am being ironic here, as it was a pretty miserable day to be doing this relatively lightweight job. It was drizzling and chilly and we were chilled to the bone.
Oh and an aside to all of our tasteful friends who no doubt will shudder when they see the screaming white plastic fence bisecting our property: we will replace the white tape with nearly invisible wire in the future. We are also sensitive to the graphicness of this tape fence, BUT as it offers superior visiblity, The Horse will see it and not try and run through it. It's a temporary fix to get Crispin home and carefully contained.

Catching Up and Thanksgiving Fragments

This delightful chunk of carpentry derring-do is direct from the roofline of our BauHaus Chicken Coop. Bob removed this and a few other similar artifacts while tying the chimney into the roofline. Pretty punky wood and a surfeit of nails made for an interesting photo, but let's just say that I am glad to have this particular section replaced by sounder ingredients!
Anyway, I feel like I've been a tad remiss in the entry department of late and that is partially due to a last spasm of household projects inspired by the waning days of fall and the advent of true winter. We, as mentioned previously finshed the chimney and woodstove installation in the house- and haven't turned on the blasted blast furnace since! Also, Bob is enjoying the warmth of his own studio woodstove, again installed with the help of our good friend Joe.
Today we made impressive progress on the erecting of electric horse fencing. Some elements were already in place, including the electric box in the "equine facility". We fortunately inherited a good quantity of metal fence posts which we will install tommorrow. Today we dug holes and put in the heavier-duty cedar posts that will anchor the pasture. The Horse, aka "Crispin", had better respect the fence and appreciate what we have done for him. He will dwell in a superior (albeit small) barn which he will be able to access and exit 24/7 whenever he pleases. He has a nice view and expansive and commodious grazing areas... no complaints please.
Best of all is that Bob and Rita are free once that fence is complete!!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

October Nor'Easter and Plenty of It

Here we are in October, all ready for that first now of the season... Not! I'm certain I'm not alone in lamenting the apparent passing of this year's Halloween. So much for tricks vs. treats!

I know, I know; it LOOOKS beautiful but you can have it! Thnak goodness the snow saw fit to go and melt away. The last few days have been almost balmy: in the seventies and nice.

The newly finished chimney is emitting a fine dribble of smoke. We cooked and heated water for washing dishes and stayed warm. Bob just finished installing the woodstove in his studio so we feel somewhat prepared (hahahahahahaha) for winter.

What Day Is It Anyway?

Hey! I know what day it is! It's 11-11-11 and this is the very first posting I've been able to do since thw famous Power Outtage of 2011. It's like "How many days were you out for?" We all get badges of Courage and Honor and Triumph in the Face of Adversity. We had no juice for eight days and struggled with schlepping buckets of stream water to flush and tossing out endless refrigerator re-stockings (after the losses due to Irene waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in September...) and figuring out how and what to eat for the next meal and wear to shower...
But it had it's lovely momnets such as the interior of my windshield. I sat in the car and collected swell images painted by Master Illuminator Jack Frost himself.
Here'sa few more:

I guess I should rejoice that I can still discover beauty in cold and ice as it seems last winter never left...

Thank goodness that the wood stove was finished only five days before we lost power! At least we were nice and warm. Don't get me started on the perfidy and lies of Connecticut Light and Power caused by their greed and deregulation! To hear them yatter on about how they could never have predicted a freak storm or the severity of snow on leaf-laden trees made me crazy. Never heard of underground line? I heard today that they will try and pass on the cost of restoring energy to we, the consumers. We already pay the highest cost for enegy in the country... Revolution, anyone???