2010-2011 Dissertation Distractions: The Great North Woods

Humboldt County Huckleberries!

First, a dish chock full of huckleberries! A delightful distraction of late. Not sure what I enjoy the most....the act of picking berries, enveloped in dappled sunlight or soft fog...or the time spent sorting and cleaning the picked berries back home...or the enjoyment of sweet-tart huckles in baked goods. I am making a huckleberry pie tonight, so it can bake while I work on transcripts!!!

Second, pretty plant distractions. I have a sweet patio garden full of potted plants. Tending this small garden every day helps me get my garden fix without getting lost out in the back yard, like I would at Whitmire. The people I rent from have a tremendous garden, and every now and then they leave a pretty bouquet on my doorstep. This week I found a gorgeous arrangement of reds and yellows.

My patio Garden.

Flowers from the family I rent from.

Third, the rather significant distraction of this month: finishing the painting I began last summer, on my childhood home. When my brother and I were growing up, our mom moved us to this small house nestled in the redwoods. On the front door, she painted a white square and wrote the words "Great North Woods." My brother has requested I put that back on the door after all the work is done. I am waiting until his next visit to do the square.

Trinidad House, May 1969.

The sides of the house are old-growth redwood tongue and groove siding. In many places, the original paint (from perhaps 1968?) was completely gone, with solid, shiny redwood gleaming through. A testament to the quality of true old-growth redwood, eh? As I worked on the house, I learned that the house was once white with red trim, and yellow with green trim before being painted a brown, with white trim, before we moved in, in 1969 or 1970. I repainted the home with the same color paint (a "redwood" paint!) and a antique-white type trim. However, first I coated the whole thing with a solid layer of oil-based primer. The paint guy at my local Ace tipped me on to tinting the primer so it was easier to cover with the true paint. Primer can't be tinted very dark, so you get something that is in the same color family as the main paint, but quite light. For this house, the primer was tinted a salmon pink!

Anyway, here are some pictures of the house, before and after the painting. If you look close, you can see Arcy and Georgia in some of the photos. Those are the ones from last summer. Oh, and I have Nine transcripts left to do! I'm chugging along at a good pace now. :)