A Little of This, and That

More snow fell two nights ago, adding three more inches to what was left from Saturday's storm.  Temperatures are warmer, though, so the driveway and sidewalk melted and dried nicely after Steve cleared the snow early yesterday.  The weather-guys are talking about some sort of major snow event for tomorrow and Saturday ... I don't even want to think about it.

In case you aren't tired of snow photos yet, here's one I took through the dining room window early yesterday morning.  I really liked the contrast between the black branches of the pecan tree, the white snow, and the foggy sky.  (You'd think that I used some sort of fancy PhotoShop technique ... nope.  The camera's autofocus accidently focused on the window screen instead of the tree.)

Try as I may, I haven't been able to adequately capture the unbelievable size of this tree with a camera.  The trunk is 10 feet around!  You have to stand beneath it to fully understand how huge it is. 

As much as you'll hear me whine about winter, I'm not sure that I'm really ready for spring to arrive.  (I received an email from a fellow blogger the other day, and she said this same thing.  Hi, Jayme.)  There are days when I feel almost paralyzed by cabin fever, but I am mostly enjoying the down time from the garden ... and concentrating on the long-neglected renovation of our house.


I have so many projects that I'm working on right now.  You've already seen what's going on in the basement bathroom ... if you missed it, click here.  Steve is downstairs right now, removing the damaged portion of the galvanized drain pipe.  He already cut the drain for the clawfoot tub, so we can remove it and demo the remainder of the walls.  My part of the project for now is to continue to hunt for a cool sink and design the cabinetry.


Here's today's progress:

The old wall framing is gone.

and Steve cut off the deteriorated part of the old drain pipe. 

One project I haven't shown you yet is what we're doing in the basement workshop.  Soon, I'll do a detailed post on the work island I'm building ... until then, here's a sneak peek to make you curious.  (I swear, sometimes my workshop looks like those photos of King Tut's tomb with all that stuff packed to the ceiling.)

There's plenty of nursery-related stuff that I have to get finished before spring.  The greenhouse is inventoried, so I know which varieties are going to be offered this coming season ... now I have to gather photos of them and write descriptions for the online store.  This year, I'm toying with the idea of designing a downloadable color catalog.  (If I spend the time to do this, is it something that you think would be helpful?)


I already some speaking engagements scheduled.  For one of them, I will probably debut a new presentation, so I have to work on that, too.


Finally, I have the not-so-fun part of the business to attend to.  I'm finishing up my year-end accounting, so we can file our taxes early for once.  Then I can get my supply list in order, and I will start to shop for the best prices for the bulk items I use ... like potting soil, perlite, pots, shipping boxes, etc.


Overall, I am very excited to see what spring brings when it comes.  For now, I hope to see how productive I can be with other things. 

I'm going down to the basement to work now.

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog)