Four: Away in a Manger

For a month or so, we house sat at a place on Appletree Point in Burlington. More days than not, Rick reverse-commuted to deal with the construction scene. One hot September afternoon he single-handedly loaded all the construction debris into a 30 yard dumpster. On another day he found himself making a run to the dump with a big-mouthed but uncommunicative copilot.

But for about a month and a half, as autumn hardened into winter, we were back to one-room living in the half-finished upstairs of our barn. We cooked over a beat-up Ashley Automatic wood stove with enough leaks in the sheet metal exterior that it actually cast a warm reddish glow into the room -- with the door closed.

The stove heat the room up just fine down to about knee level, but below that it was overpowered by drafts coming in through the leaky walls. Molly was on the verge of walking, and spent a lot of time cruising around the mess from one leaning post to another. We had to chase her around to keep her away from the woodstove and keep her bundled up to make sure she stayed warm.

Sometime In early December we moved back in. The three of us shared a common living room/bedroom downstairs while work proceeded slowly upstairs. The exposed plastic sheeting, pink insulation on the walls and foil-faced foam insulation on the ceiling lent a festive atmosphere.

The wooden post is a peeled yellow birch that came off the property, a detail we worked out with George.

Finances were tight enough that we could only afford a half birthday cake for Molly, but she found much to enjoy in her new surroundings.

This photo brings us to the subject of...

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