Nice stove

Cold and wet outside but my living room is warm.  Boy I do like my new stove, but it smokes right now.  I'm having stovepipe cleaned next week and sure hope that will take care of it.  Once I get the fire going it's great but it's hard to get it going and it smokes like a chimney in the house.  It's ticking away merrily now and that's what counts.

Went to the dump today, then took a nice long drive with the dogs.  This seems to be my big entertainment.  I had to buy more apples because the dogs ate the ones I got last week while I was at P&J's last night.  Rat pigs.

I pulled up the kitchen rug today which was on my list of MUST DO'S.  It stinks because Tess peed on it a bunch of times and it can't be cleaned so out it goes.  The kitchen floor is red oak on the diagonal but the wood is in terrible shape and needs to be sanded and treated, plus there are huge gaps between boards.  Almost all of the wood in this house (and there's a lot of it) came from our sawmill so was air-dried not kiln dried.  This means the boards expand and contract all the time and there are big gaps in nearly every room.  The maple in the bedroom is a mess and I'd like too paint the floor but can't figure out what to do with the bed.  Well that's a big project.  I painted the living room floor many years ago with Lin's help.  It should be painted again but boy that was something, to move all the living room furniture onto the deck and hope it didn't rain.

I'm excited about having time to do work on the house in January.  I have to be back here around the 6th so will start my retired life then.  I'm going to RI for Thanksgiving, leaving Tuesday and returning Sunday/  I retire on Dec. 19 and will go to RI after that for Christmas.  Christmas will be here before I know it so I should be making baskets instead of writing this.

We have book group Thanksgiving this month but I don't know when that is so I need to call M'lou to get details.  We have grand Thanksgivings together.  We've been a group for more than 10 years.

It's pretty dark now, at 6:00, which will be 5:00 tomorrow.  It was pitch black at 6 this morning and I'm looking forward to having more light in the morning.  Doesn't bother me to have it be dark earlier at night, I prefer good morning light.