16 March 2010

Trains & Boats & Planes


I lied, just boats. This is our hot new canoe! It's a Mad River Canoe from...uhm...the 90's, we think . One of Geo's clients used to be a canoe rep and apparently still has a fairly large stock pile of canoes. Among them George sniffed out this sweet gem which his client kindly traded him some work for. George spent the weekend sanding and oiling all the cross bars and acquiring a new set of seats. He even braved a tanning salon to get his hands on some UV protectant for the hull. We'll have to wait until next weekend to take it out for a spin though, the skies are threatening rain and it's getting a little chilly. I see this canoe being one lean, mean, adventuring and picnicking machine.


This is especially exciting since we'll be returning to the North East in the near future for ... good? the long haul? a while? serious? For serious. We're returning to the North East for serious and the North East happens to be chock full of bodies of water - ponds, lakes, rivers and we'll be navigating them all in our canoe.






19 October 2009

It's cold now. That's right, it's even cold here in the South. We turned the heat on in the house, we found most of our hats, mittens and scarves. I put the down comforter on the bed yesterday and it's awesome. Our bedroom used to be a porch and it's the only part of the house with the original, single-paned, wicked drafty, with slightly-cracked-glass-in-them windows. It's difficult enough to get out of bed when the floor's cold in the first place, but trying to get up when the floor's cold, the air's freezing and it's still dark out is not how I want to get up.


We've got a new trick in our home-winterizing bag this year: bubble wrap. Our friend, Taft, originally turned us on to the idea when it was still hot here and I've been biding my time to try it out. It's just as simple as it sounds: put bubble wrap on your windows. It takes a little time to cut the pieces to size, but that's the most time consuming part. To adhere it to the glass you simple spray a mist of water on then press the bubble wrap on. Magic! For more info and step-by-step photos check out Build It Solar's write up.


The wrap we used we bought at Staples, I've read suggestions of trying to get some for free from furniture stores, and there's also a type of bubble wrap made for greenhouses that's a little thicker and sturdier. We opted for the larger bubble style wrap which is supposed to work a little better than the little stuff, and every little bit helps. In addition to bubbling the windows I'm also going to put the plastic shrink stuff over them to help combat the extreme draftiness.


Other than winterizing things have been quiet, we're both gearing up for the winter Big Crafty and are looking forward to spending Christmas in Vermont for the first time since we moved away 3 years ago. I know we've been neglecting this little blog, but I've been a little better about keeping up with Petit Dejournal which is the other project I've been working on.

18 August 2009

garden redux


late summer garden
Originally uploaded by sawyer.george
Apparently you're allowed to have two gardens per year in the South... crazy. So, we tore up most of the summer garden this morning: the failed corn, one of the cukes, dying green beans, beheaded sunflowers, the empty pea fence.

We turned over and raked out all of the empty soil for a fresh start. Jenne managed to fit in about half of our thirty-odd basil starts, and I planted new rows of beets, peas, carrots, soy beans, and lettuce. I even spread out some mulch on the path (mostly applewood shavings from turning my first goblets! check 'em out on flickr).

28 July 2009

Psychics, burritos.

If you missed it last time: I started a second blog, it's about food, and it's freshly updated! Check it out! This week it's about burritos and coffee.


When we decided to move across town one of my main concerns (obviously) was for the cats and their outdoor habits. In California Boy was notorious for getting himself stuck up trees and even M.I.A for an entire week. When we first got to North Carolina he behaved himself fairly well, only getting stuck up a couple trees and easily located. Our new neighborhood is packed in with houses, trees, dogs and fences. I had visions of Boy following squirrels up the ancient oak trees across the street, jumping head-first into a yard full of loud, viscious, tiny dogs, weaseling his way into everybody's garages. To my surprise, none of these things have happened. He prefers to climb one particular tree, conveniently located just outside the front door from which he can jump to the roof of the house. He's never even been in a fight!

Sunday while we were burrito-ing up a storm Boy came in, snacked a little, and headed back out. Then he didn't come back. We did a lot of walking, a lot of whistling, a lot of calling and came up empty every time. The weird part about this little disappearing act is that we couldn't hear him. Usually he gets himself up a tree, thinks it's cool for a while, then freaks out when he can't immediately figure out how to get down and starts bellowing. By Monday morning he still wasn't home and we still had no clue where he was. We pawed through some neighbor-yards and scouted things out from the roof. Finally we did what any pet owner would do: we called a pet psychic. AKA: an animal communicator.

She asked me his name, what type of cat he was. She asked if we lived in a place with lots of houses but also lots of trees, maybe some woods. She said he was about three years old. She told me he could see a deck post, and some tall grass - a field? unmowed lawn? It looked like there was a basement entrance to something, under the deck. He went there often, it's where he likes to hunt. She didn't see any impact, any dogs, any harm. There might be a sliding glass door.

This description was perfect for a house two doors over from us. George and I walked over, knocked, waited. The fellow took a while answering the door, we thought maybe no one was home, we were going to snoop in the backyard. When he did answer I said, "Uhm...we're missing a cat..." and he interrupted me - "Oh, yeah, he's right here."

Apparently Boy had jumped through an open windown, hung out, and curled up on the bed while he was asleep.

CRAZY!

I called the lady back, I told her she was dead-on, that it was amazing, that I was so grateful, what did I owe her? I'd make her cookies - anything. She said people don't usually call her back and never asked for any money.

21 July 2009

News


News
Originally uploaded by lady grey cupcake

...and a blurry picture! (All the pictures we take seem to be coming out a little blurry lately.) Featured here are my new book, The Bread Builders, my new mug and some new bread! The book is really fascinating, it talks not only about masonry ovens and how they're built but also about how bread is made - not recipes so much as the mystery of baker's percentages. Between the chapters are little profiles of bakeries, like American Flatbread or the Cheeseboard and it's exciting to know what and where they're talking about. I'm just about to start the section on baker's percentages. Eee!

We picked six ears of corn from the garden last night and eagerly set some water boiling. George shucked them and we were pleasantly surprised to find they hadn't been ravaged by various bugs. We were not pleasantly surprised when we finally got to sink our teeth into it and it was ... kind of mushy, sticking to our teeth, and a little flavorless. Did we pick it too soon? Too late? What happened, corn?

Luckily we had some other dinner to fall back on. This leads me to my actual news which is that I've started up a second blog! It's really going to be all about food! I invite you all to head on over to Pétit Déjournal and read about my new project: Food Day. (At least that's what I'm calling it until something more elegant comes along.) Bicycats will continue and will still just be about what's happening with our riveting lives and how cute our cats are.

06 July 2009

Catsup

Here's a little recap of what's happened since we last spoke:

George & I both turned 27.
We sold our respective crafts at the Big Crafty.
Our garden is crazy!
George took a trip to Vermont.
I went to NYC.
George started learning how to brew beer.
I started learning how to use Microsoft Excel.
George's computer has taken a trip to the repair shop twice.
I finally started going to a chiropractor.




08 June 2009

eye eye capt'n


eye right
Originally uploaded by sawyer.george
I went rafting on saturday with the BRB crew, and our guide thought it'd be fun to dump me into the rapids 4 times in a row. Consequently my glasses now rest with the fishes. The optometrist took this photo to make sure the back of my eyeball is healthy. That green light at the center connects directly to my brain!

I'm leaving for VT on wednesday! Forrest, the banjo playing lab guy from work, thought it sounded like fun, so he'll be coming too. It'll be good to have a co-pilot. 17hrs of driving is a long time.