Catching Up Entry

I am absolutely delighted to have my diary back!!!!!!! I recorded so much of my life for 9 years in it and I will really enjoy reading through it.

My last entry prior to the site shutdown was in 2014 when the plant was closing. They wanted me to stay on and keep the building maintained. I decided not to bother. A friend of mine whose wife still works said he would be willing to do it and I gladly let him!

Diane has been on a roller coaster. After another suicide attempt last March she is now doing better than ever. She is happy for the first time in over a decade. I hope that it is due to her medicine being dialed in. I believe that is most of it. I have some lingering doubts that this illness is cyclical and that we may see more bad times. But – we’re making hay while the sun shines.

We’re heading to Florida on Feb 14 for two weeks. We’ll visit friends in central and along the east coast. We’re also making plans to go to Europe this year. This will be Diane’s first trip overseas. I spent over 10 years doing international travel and she was never well enough to join me. We’re looking at Vienna as our primary destination and then branch out a bit from there.

Since leaving Energizer in 2014 I have been focused on building a barn for maple syrup making. I will post a picture if I can figure out how with the new format. My older brother left his job the same year and we went in together working on the family land. We bought an excavator and a saw mill. First we cut a few trees and sawed them into lumber to build several bridges. This gave us access to previously hard-to-reach areas of the property. Then we felled enough hemlock and pine to saw up and build the barn. We dug the foundation ourselves but had the concrete poured. Then I purchased plans from Barn Geek for $49. I altered the plans and we went at it. We finished it in time for the sugaring season (March) of 2015.  It came out beautiful.

We purchased equipment and have been making syrup every spring since then.  We’ve made a few improvements like adding a heated kitchen, decorative light inside and out and staining the building light with dark trim.

Now we are looking at building a camp in the woods. I been researching the art of timber framing and attended a class last winter. I have plans finalized and we have poured nine support posts (dug down 4 feet to get below the frost line).  I started carving some beams this winter but only completed three of them because I need help felling more trees to saw timbers.  The goal is to complete it this year but that is in jeopardy. We’ll see.

Got to go. I’ll catch up more another time.

Namaste