2022's spring flurry...

It is about time I get a new blog post...Much has happened since the last one, which covered the 2021-22 holiday season!

Here in Arkansas, we've spent much of this past winter into the spring working on a kitchen remodel which is primarily about replacing the cabinets that were in our house when we moved in about 18 years ago...As you could imagine, they've had quite a bit of wear-and-tear, and we finally decided to go with an upgrade.  The picture above shows a fairly early stage in this process--we bought these cabinets a few at a time from a home supply chain up by Little Rock.  They came as unfinished oak, so I had to spend many hours putting a clearcoat finish on them, sanding them, etc.  So far, we have been very pleased with the outcome!

The process is going rather slow because I have only limited space where I can work on these cabinets, and hence I can only finish a few at a time.  We are also slowed because we are still using our kitchen during this effort.  And as always, I am fixing other problems with the house as I encounter them...so far, nothing major on this effort (knock on wood!).

We have also been upgrading the lighting in the kitchen and improving our pantry; those will be more obvious once all is done...

We will also be getting a new countertop, once the cabinets have all been installed and set in place.  Exactly how that looks will be determined at a later date...

Although we don't get anywhere near as cold as many places, our winter has been challenging for getting this kitchen project done...the shed that I have been finishing these cabinets in is unheated, and I've had to use a kerosene-fueled space heater to keep it warm enough to work in over this winter.  We have gotten several freezing rain and light snow events, plus wind and storms at other times.

But not enough wintery weather to keep us from doing some archeology!  Pictured above, Stephen helps me re-box artifacts collected at sites in southeastern Arkansas decades ago (Hope and Beth are in the picture in the background).  I've also visited a few field sites to start some prep work on other archeological survey efforts, including some in eastern Drew County (where we live) near these neat cypress swamps:

The bottom of these pictures is the water-eroded face of a cypress log that probably was cut at some point in the 1800s.  Old-growth baldcypress is very rot-resistant wood, so it takes a long time to decompose.  You can see from the annual growth rings of this log that the tree had been very old and slow growing before it was cut down.

I also spent another 10 days or so with my parents in northern Wisconsin during this winter helping them get their house in better accessible condition.  You may recall my mother broke her leg right after Christmas 2021; she has been home from her residential rehab facility, but still has a foot in a walking boot and uses a walker to get around.  To make rolling around the house easier, they had all the carpet removed from their house over the past couple of months.  The picture above is from just before this area had the carpet pulled out...The picture below shows the same room minus all the furniture and other parts of life:

Much of the materials from these rooms was moved downstairs or in their kitchen, resulting in a few very crowded days:

(note that this effort seemed to barely annoy their cat, Shy Ann!).  

An extra bonus--this first carpet work was in early March, which was when Kenny was off for his spring break at Michigan Tech...So he got recruited into helping Grandpa and Grandma get through the process!  Above, Kenny is helping dad put up a dust barrier to the part of the house getting the carpet removed.  Below, the carpets came out very quickly, leaving a strange feel to the even emptier house:

The crew laid down an underlayment, then used a product to help seal the joints and even out the floor for the vinyl to come:

By the next day, the new vinyl (in a wood floor pattern) was laid down:

Both mom and dad can now get around easier than when it was carpet, and it should also be easier for them to clean.  That task was made easier by a robot vacuum that we got them...something else for the cat to check out:

We got to visit with some other family during this trip--my sister Lisa and her son Michael joined us briefly:

And Kenny and I braved the thick, icy snow for a walk or two:

By the time we left, we had helped mom and dad move back into their living room, and worked to get their bedrooms ready for new flooring (which was installed last week):

Time to relax!

The other big event this spring was the passing of one of our cats, Draco.  Below, Stephen and Beth (plus the outside cat Pusseiden) visit the back corner of the yard where we buried him:

The picture below is of Draco as an older kitten, taken in September 2009:

We had gotten him and our calico cat, Bella, from a local vet; they had been strays on the university campus until someone brought them in...We were looking for a replacement for our previous cat, who had passed away some time before.  These two kittens, while they couldn't take each others' presence at the time, soon learned to get along, and were classic house pets for the next 13 years or so.  Bella is still around and is even more annoying than ever (as I listen to her now).  Beth was pretty hard-hit by his passing; they had been very close over the years.