Going on a Treasure Hunt

When I was about nine or ten years old, my dad and I built a box. You know the kind of box, the one you put special coins and tiny souvenirs in, old keys and dog licenses, stuff like that. When Bert got his first special coin from my grandparents for Christmas, I knew he would need a place to put it. Besides in his mouth, because that was what he wanted to do.

Shortly after Christmas, I was cleaning out a closet and came across a box from a project I had done in college. It came from a craft store, and would probably be labeled as a cigar box. It's a little better than eight inches square, and not quite two inches deep. I thought it would be just right for Bert's box. My box has my initials carved in the top, and I thought Bert's should too. But I wasn't sure if the wood would hold up to carving, so I had to come up with another plan. Keith was the one who solved the problem when he suggested wood burning. He was a little hesitant to tackle the project freehand, and left it up to me to sketch what I wanted burned into the wood. Well, I didn't want to go in freehand either, so I channelled that $40k graphic design degree to make up a design.

In Illustrator, I made up a sort of "crest," if you will. (And if you didn't already know, Bert is just a nickname. We aren't that mean. That's why his initials aren't BRE.)

Then I flipped it to be a mirror image, and printed it out.

Here's the part where I start winging it. I thought I could just center it up on the box and rub the ink off, giving Keith an outline of where to burn. Using a tool called a bone folder (but anything with a hard, smooth edge should work), I transferred the printed image to the box.

And wouldn't you know, it actually worked. It was a little faint, but enough for Keith to do his part.

In hindsight, I wouldn't have made the design quite as intricate. Or maybe we could have found something with a finer tip for burning into the wood. But it worked out alright.

After the design was burnt in, I put a couple coats of finish on, and it was done.

It's not perfect, it's not huge, but sometimes when you're a kid, you can fit your whole world in a special box.

Flea Market Finds

Keith and I wait all winter long for flea market and yard sale season to start. Keith is usually looking for tools, while I'm usually just looking. With Bert on the scene, a whole new world of purchasing opportunities has opened up: toys! As Keith pointed out this morning while we debated over buying something, our house is only 1200 square feet, so we don't want it to get overrun by toys. So when we buy something, it has to be in good shape, preferably not battery operated, and have some old-school charm if possible. And, of course, it has to be a good deal. Here's the highlights of this morning's outing.

First up, a huge bag of Lincoln logs. The sticker says $6, but Keith talked them down to $5. Well, it didn't take a lot of talking but it just goes to show it's always worth asking, "Can you do any better on this?" These are already stashed away in the basement for when Bert is big enough for building.

My personal favorite of the day: a mailbox shape sorter. How cool is that? And all the shapes were there so for $5, I was happy. I had a little tin mailbox as a kid. I don't know, I've got a thing for mailboxes.

A walker that plays music, makes lots of noise, and has no old-school charm. What were we thinking?

Fifty cents, that's what we were thinking. And the batteries work so we might have actually made money on this one.

Two bucks for a Fisher Price xylophone, made of metal and wood? We'll take it.

This was actually the first find of the day. It's a minnow bucket and what little boy doesn't need a minnow bucket? I checked it out online when we got home and found that it is supposed to have a second piece inside that appears to be a minnow strainer. Oh well. Three dollars and it would look good on the patio too.

Then we were headed home, quite content with our finds and getting hungry for lunch, and passed by another flea market (which is usually pretty junky) when I spotted the holy grail of backyard toys: the turtle sandbox. (Ok, maybe that's exaggerating but I've always been enamored by the turtle sandboxes. Strange, considering I want to get rid of our real turtle.) Keith pulled over, turned around and we headed back. With $10 left in cash between the two of us, we were hoping it would be cheap. The man who was selling it said, "I don't want to haul it back home. Give me $5." Yes, sir.

Keith had been planning on making a sandbox out of an old tractor tire, but this was in such good shape and for only $5, it hardly seems worth the effort to make one. Plus, he wasn't sure how he would cover the tire sandbox and the turtle comes complete with his shell.

Before you think that Bert is going to be completely spoiled, our plan is to only pull out a new toy every couple weeks. He gets so excited about something new so we'll stretch that out as long as possible. He would just be overwhelmed if we put it all in front of him at once anyway. We may not even need to head out to yard sales this spring after today's haul.

How much fun can you have for $20 (and fifty cents)? A lot, if you're Bert.

Home and History

Red House

Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-In House

By Sarah Messer

Shortly before Sarah Messer was born, her parents purchased "Red House," a home that had been owned by nine generations of the Hatch family near Marshfield, Massachusetts. For over three hundred years, the house had been passed down through the family, as stipulated in the will of Walter Hatch, who built the house. Messer and her siblings grow up among the relics of a family they aren't descended from, with old photos of the Hatch family hanging on the walls and letters and linens passed between the Hatches crowding the closets. The house is often somewhere between a state of disrepair and renovation, as layers and years are peeled back, revealing the evolution of the home with each new owner and era.

The book explores the history of the house and of the Hatches, while weaving in the story of the Messer family. As a child, Messer didn't realize it was strange to live in a drafty house with few modern amenities and no wall-to-wall carpeting until she started to going play at friends' houses. As an adult, she questions what right her family has to Red House, when there are still Hatch descendants interested in the property. She helps to restore the house, and becomes interested in documenting its story and establishing a timeline of its life. As she says in the epilogue, the house has no baby book and cannot speak for itself, so this book is her attempt at giving it a voice.

I picked this book up at a thrift store for a quarter and I'd say it was worth it. It's interesting for me to think about how when family and place get so tied to each other, what happens to the family when the place is gone? At some point, it seems that the place becomes another member of the family, and in the case of the remaining Hatches, when Red House was sold, it was almost as if they had lost a close relative. Messer's memoir goes beyond the history of a home to explore the meaning of place and how we draw on history, both of family and culture, and place to create our own identities.

Better Late Than Never

Moooooom! I can't believe you didn't get my weekly picture up yet! What about my fan club?

Chill out Bert, the photo is up now.

Singing the Blues

Last week, two things happened that couldn't have been better timed. First, I discovered we had not one, but two cups of last years blueberries hiding in the freezer. Second, I was cleaning out my email inbox and came across a recipe from my aunt that I thought I had misplaced. I thought I printed it out and lost it, but there it was, still in my email. And guess what it called for? Not one, but two cups of blueberries. Now that's what I call a happy accident.

Turn these... 

to this...      

Blueberry Pudding Cake

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp lemon juice

1 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar (can be cut down to 1/2cup)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk

3 tblsp butter or margarine melted

Topping:

3/4 cup sugar (can be cut down to 1/2 cup)

1 tblsp cornstarch

1 cup boiling water

Toss blueberries with cinnamon and lemon juice; place in a greased 8 inch square baking dish.

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar and baking powder; stir in milk and butter (you can just use a spatula; no need to get the mixer out). Spoon over berries. Combine sugar and cornstarch; sprinkle over batter.  Slowly pour boiling water over all. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until the cake tests done.

I was a little worried when I saw how watery it was after pouring the boiling water on top, so here's a picture so you know you are doing it right.

My aunt recommends serving it warm over vanilla ice cream. I didn't have any ice cream around but I did have some whipping cream in the fridge so I whipped that up and put it on top. Keith says, "Don't even bother with a blueberry pie. Just make this from now on." Now we are really itching for those blueberries to come on this spring, because the only sad thing about making this pudding cake is we don't have any more blueberries to make another one.

Beep, Beep!

When I told you yesterday that I didn't have a picture of Bert playing outside, I wasn't thinking about this one. We were out for a walk on Monday and stopped by a friend's house and she took a picture of Bert and sent it to me (thanks, Kathleen!). So here it is!

Hey baby, wanna take a ride in my car?

We are now officially on the yard sale look-out for a cozy coupe because Bert was really digging this one.

Putting It to Bed

We have been experiencing really mild weather, especially considering that today marks the first day of spring. So of course we've been thinking about our garden. Actually, we started talking about expanding our garden a couple months ago and finally put our plans into action over the last two weekends.

The first year of our garden, we had two 8' x 12' beds that looked like this:

Last year, we combined them and the area between them to make one large 12' x 24' garden.

Our garden space in that area is pretty much used up, so we decided the next place to expand was along the side of the house. We had a little planning session and came up with doing five raised beds. One would be 6' x 6' with a 4' x 4' double-height bed inside it, then two 4' x 4' beds on each side. The gaps between the beds would be 2', enough room to get the lawn mower through.

Keith headed out to Lowe's to pick up the 2" x 6" boards and screws we would need. Once he was home and Bert was down for his nap, we got to work in the garage. I was the official measurer and board-holder, Keith was in charge of sawing.

It didn't take long to get all the boards cut, maybe 45 minutes or so, and then we were ready to assemble. Keith had been scoping out a scrap wood pile at the welding shop around the corner and brought home a bunch of 2" x 2" wood that we used to create the corners. We left the corner pieces 18" long so that we can staple our wire fence to it to keep the rabbits out.

So in the space of an afternoon, we were able to get these beds put together and in place along the side of the house.

Next up was laying down some paper to keep the grass from growing up in the beds. We had a roll of landscape paper leftover from another project, so we used that up and then just used newspapers to cover the rest.

When all the paper was down and the beds were lined up straight, Keith went to a local garden center for some mushroom soil to fill them. He mixed it with some peat moss before shoveling it into the beds. I did important work too, like getting the bottle tree my brother made for me out of the basement and digging around for some bottles to put on it. Sadly, we only have brown and green bottles so far, so it isn't the prettiest bottle tree. Not yet anyway.

It may only be March, but Keith got a little sunburn on the back of his neck from being outside all day. Poor fair-skinned guy. Which reminds me I need to pick up some sunscreen for Bert if we are going to start spending a lot more time outside. I'll have a little lobster on my hands if I don't. I thought I had a picture of Bert playing outside to post, but I guess I don't. I'll have to get on that.

The big decision now is what is going in the beds. We still need to sit down and figure out exactly what will go where, but we know we want to plant more cabbage, peas, beans and carrots than last year and we would like to give butternut squash, brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes a try. Plus all the other stuff like spinach and lettuce, corn, peppers, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, and undoubtedly, more of Keith's gourds.

So that's how we've been filling our past couple weekends, building more garden beds and some spring clean-up around the yard. I am itching to start planting things but I think that might be jumping the gun a bit.