A Visit and Wind Chime Repair - January 31, 2026 @goldenoakfarm

On Saturday I got up at 5AM, and had to get the stoves going as the house was cold. It took me a couple hours to get it warm. I spent a huge amount of time researching and searching for what I needed to write the #hivegardenqotw. Then I got my regular post up and it was 10:30AM.

I had pulled the shades up when the sun got over the trees at 8AM and you can see the masonry heater was really going. It didn’t get as cold as predicted, only -5F, not -13F. The sun soon got the house back up to temperature.

I sat down for a while and I got a call that both #1 and #2 intern were going to arrive half an hour early. So I got up and got a shower. The girls arrived before I was done and it occurred to me that #2 intern had cut my hair for me 2½ years ago. And it needed it again.

So we got set up and she took off about 8” of scraggly ends. It’s a much shorter braid now.

#1 intern lay on the couch while her sister worked on my hair and we visited.

#2 intern had actually come over to wash plant trays in preparation for seed starting in a month. She got 10 done, just 33 more to go…

I went to work on the wind chimes and got 4 or 5 more repaired. I had a pottery one and one of them had flat pottery pieces that chimed. But wind storms had shattered 2 of those. I had found the pieces for one so I superglued them back together. I had the sense to put on gloves, and I didn’t glue my fingers together this time….

They left about 1:30PM and I spent the afternoon finishing up the wind chimes and keeping stoves going. I finished the last of 800 Words and when I went to eject the disc, the tray would not come out. So I had to take the cover off the machine and get the tray to release. I think it’s okay, for now.

I started Doc Martin at the beginning, so that will keep me going well into February.

It doesn’t look like there will be any relief from the bitter cold night temps for another 11 days. Monday the days warm up and there’s sun, so that will help the wood situation as I won’t have to burn so much in the daytime.

On Sunday I need to clean up the kitchen and REALLY get started on the bills/budget. Sigh… It’s to be cloudy and cold so I’ll be feeding stoves all day.