Lunch on the deck

Yesterday was the perfect day to have guests for lunch on the deck: Jim and Pat Haine. It was delightfully sunny and cool, and Ellen prepared a lovely lunch, both delicious and beautifully presented! Jim and Pat had never been at our house before, and they were delighted by our location. They have a lovely place in Guilford too, but it is more enclosed. They have a gazebo, which we often wish we had when the bugs are bad, but yesterday, there were no bugs. So we had a nice time on the deck. It turns out that Jim and I are both "P.K.'s" - Preacher's Kids. His dad was a Methodist minister in Pennsylvania, and like me, Jim moved a lot as he was growing up - his dad changed churches every three years or so. You have to learn how to adapt to new situations, and you don't really get to have long friendships.

The table prepared

Jim and Pat Haine

Ellen's garden

Ellen's garden up close************************************************ After lunch, when the Haines had left for home, Ellen realized she could fit in a Schumann rehearsal at Marlboro, so she scooted off. I stayed home because someone was coming from Friends of the Sun to look over the possibility of installing a propane stove downstairs. And indeed, I just had time to do the lunch dishes before Mike showed up. He looked things over pretty carefully, and I learned some things. There are basically two possible spots where we could locate a stove. We cannot tie into the existing flue from the upstairs propane insert, so the exhaust pipe would have to go directly outside through the wall or the foundation. The spot next to the wood stove where our drying rack now sits would work, but the pipe cannot be right up next to the ceiling, it would be down a bit, and I would worry about a tall person hitting their head on it - it would have to go right across the hallway leading to the stairs. Lots of traffic there. Plus, the outside pipe would come out right where you go up the outside stairs to the deck. The other location would be on the front wall where our wood rack is now. We would have to move the rack, but it could go behind the wood stove and that would work well. The propane stove would fit into that alcove nicely, but it would exhaust near the front door. Mike said he didn't think that would be a problem. It worries me a bit thoough, but as I think about it, I don't think the stove would be running much when either the the front door or the deck would be used. Mostly in cold weather and mostly at night. The cost of stove and installation would probably be less than half the cost of a mini split. We'll get an estimate in a week or two. So, we'll see. Meanwhile, we got a new "have-a-heart" mouse trap, and we put it to use. Voila! This morning, there was a mousie in the trap. I drove it down to West Dummerston and released it near the Baptist Church. Hope it finds a home there somewhere.

Mousie in the trap***************************************************** Later this morning, we got a call from Katie saying that Savanna was doing well, and that she and Brendon would in fact be going to OxBow Lake. So we quickly got our act together - I had done quite a bit of packing last evening, fortunately. So we got off by a bit after noon. And right now I am sitting on the porch while Savanna lies on a couch and is reading a New Yorker. Ellen is stacking wood. It is about 78 degrees - quite comfortable, actually. But it is going to get hot! In the 90's, I'm afraid.