So, we are about dead center in the summer and in addition to learning how to use new tools, I am learning to balance my work days. While I want to spend every last second, from sun up to sun down, in the Butter Firkin, to expedite our move in date, sometimes it is just not possible to do all the things I want to do.

For instance, working with Kilz. It is the most noxious substance I have encountered (since THAT FRIDGE). After about an hour a headache settles in and by the end of the second hour I am bordering on a migrane - and that is with proper ventilation. BUT, the rooms need to get painted. Today, Liam tried his hand at painting for the first time. Take a gander: (26 seconds w/ music - OH! I also learned how to use a drill attached paint mixer - FUN!)

Lastly, it is such a wonder to me how so many people are overjoyed when they hear we have purchased this house - this, in turn, fills me with joy. I don't know what it is about the house...what memories other people associate with it, but it just seems to make people happy to know a family has bought it and is (attempting to) restore it. I feel a connection to the community, to the land, to a town that is old. I don't know why that makes my heart happy, but it does. I love when people stop by and tell me stories (not the rattlesnake one particularly, but all the others). And, look, people die. The house is almost 200 years old, of course there will have been deaths, I wish some under different circumstances, but death is a part of life. More importantly, though, I love that people stop and share their stories. I want to hear all the stories.

Today I found out that a woman who works in Chatham is the great, great granddaughter of the man who built the house! Guess who is going to find her and ask a million questions? Yep...you know...when I am balancing my painting and swimming with the kids time....