Installing our wood stove (because winter is coming)
Our process for installing a wood stove and connecting to an old chimney.
How my throwaway year between undergrad and graduate school became one of my best years through AmeriCorps
Instead of spending a year in a temporary position while waiting to reapply to graduate school, I decided to spend a year in service with AmeriCorps – and I’m so glad I did!
Is your house ready for winter?
Your firewood is chopped and stacked and you just bought a great new woodstove. You’re ready for winter, right? Not so fast. Check out these 6 suggestions to make sure your house is prepped for winter!
Mindful gardening is better than sex
According to a study in Scientific American, orgasm and meditation elicit similar results in the brain by reducing thoughts surrounding our sense of self (i.e., the thoughts that flit around our brains nonstop like, Am I thin enough? Am I getting enough sleep? Was I social enough at that last party? Did I look okay?) […]
What Constitutes Sustainability And A Simpler Life?
While reading, The Unsettlers, I mostly wore a look of skepticism on my face. It’s a nonfiction book about 3 couples who live outside of American consumerism society. They grow their own food, live way below the poverty line, and basically live a simpler life. While it was really interesting to read about couples (with […]
So. Many. Blueberries!
We were delighted to discover that our backyard has two long swaths of blueberries! Initially, I thought that the plants there were just scrub. The stiff, dry low bushes reminded me of plants on the sand dunes of North and South Carolina beaches. I didn’t expect them to amount to much. And then we noticed […]
5 Things To Expect When You Are Renovating An Old Farmhouse
Renovating an old house seems to be the new hot thing to do these days if HGTV is to be believed. While we know we can expect to find some surprises along the way when renovating a relatively modern house, things can get downright creepy-crawly when renovating an old home or farmhouse. Expect to […]
Our Roof is Finished!
It’s been a long two weeks of having the roof on both the house and barn reshingled, but it’s finally done! What started out as a four day gig turned into a much longer ordeal with all the rainstorms that decided to come through the area. (Of course, I can’t complain too much about the […]
Roofing Time!
After getting used to an elaborate bucket system, roofing day is finally here! Well, okay, maybe not roofing “day,” since it’s going to take 4-5 days to do the whole roof, barn and all, but it’s still roofing time! Though we’d originally had our hearts set on a standing seam metal roof, with such a […]
A New Sense of Community
When we bought our house in a little town way out in what we thought was the middle of the nowhere Maine, I would never have guessed that there would be such a thriving community. Heck, if you google the name of our town, our house pops up as the center of “town.” It seemed […]
