With Virginia in Virginia

=k (yes that's intentional. it's my signature, duh.)




Day 62 (Monday, October 31^st)



So you saw the picture of the hikers Virginia randomly hosted, now I've gathered what we're fairly sure their Appalachian Trail names are. The girl all the way on the left is the daughter of a woman who Virginia has known for years. Crunchy (from some hiker on the trail who was always hungry randomly asking her if her name was Crunchy Taco) just graduated from high school before deciding a several-month-long hike was really what she needed before college. She'll be WWOOFing across the country after Christmas-ish.

Crunchy, Toothless, Zappy Tendrils, Virginia (our host), Breeze, and then we don't know his name.

We dropped them off near the AT and then Virginia took us on a scenic drive where we got to see the valley where we're staying. We also got to talking a little bit about the end of our stay there, somewhat ironically (since we had yet to start working even), and decided somewhat definitively that we'll be camping along the way to Georgia. Before we left West Virginia, Charlotte and I talked a little bit about how unfortunate it was that we didn't really plan for any time in between to go wherever and do something like camp and hike, but luckily we didn't actually plan specific dates so that is easily rectifiable. In fact, like I said, we'll be camping for a few days before actually getting to Georgia.

We're somewhere maybe in the middle or whatever. Idk, I'm no cartographer.

When we got back from the little tour, we walked around her property a little bit before driving down to the fields to start working. We took down the fencing on opposite ends of this little farm plot so Virginia could drive the tractor down it to till the soil. That involved pulling up some of the weeds that were all up on the chicken wire and shit.

Weird view, but that fence to the right of the post is what we left, it separates the tilling area from the greenhouse place

Charlotte watered the plants while I started the fencepulling.

Before lunch, Virginia showed us her (currently empty) bee hives!

After lunch Charlotte helped me finish pulling away and rolling up the fencing. This is the opposite end of the field.

Wallicus Butticus (Wally) and Mollicus Butticus (Molly), Latin names given by Mike (Virginia's husband who is away on business).

Did some more work on this fork and spoon, really need to put that hook knife into a handle to finish the spoon.

.63 (Tuesday, November 1^st)



After breakfast of whatever, maybe cereal or yogurt, Virginia took out this one board that they never nailed down on the deck because it was too long, cut it to size, and then Charlotte screwed it in.

Didn't think to take a picture until it was too late.

We went to get the tractor so Virginia could till that soil while we worked on the small hoop houses near the greenhouse. We helped her put on the tilling attachment and got to learn a little bit about how tractors and farm implements work.

Charlotte probably wishing she could drive that around town.

Charlotte thinking hard about purple primer for the PVC pipes.

We primed the ends of the pipes before gluing the shit out of them. But we forgot about removing the fence posts, so we did that first with a... post puller? Whatever it was called, it made getting the fence posts out of the ground pretty trivial and fun.

Here's Charlotte manhandling a pole.

We needed another PVC pipe bent so before Virginia finished we tried figuring out how to bend it ourselves. I just grabbed on and tried to bend it but ended up kinda folding it in the middle. Luckily Virginia thinks that might have just been a bad one to begin with (I feel like I just fucked it up) so Charlotte grabbed another and tried to have her way with it:

We put together this row of hoop house(s?) entirely by ourselves while Virginia tilled.

Virginia found fingerlings still in the ground! We added those to the pot roast we had going in the slow cooker.

These are "volunteer" cherry tomatoes, they just grew and so we picked a jar full.

Lunchtime on the counter in the kitchen that doubles as a cutting board because it's made from butcher block!

After lunch we finished up whatever we were doing and started working a little on the greenhouse. We attached the rest of the clamps to the top crosspole or whatever you wanna call it of the green house. We worked a bunch in the morning so we only did about an hour or so in the afternoon before heading back. The pot roast for dinner was, for me, a little flavorless... It was also tomato based, though, which might have been why I didn't really like it. Cooked tomatoes are meh for me, but I will eat raw tomatoes on like toast or whatever. I finally think it's maybe because tomatoes feel overpowering and maybe also because I think it makes the whole dish kind of flavorless. Or that pot roast recipe just didn't make it flavorful enough. Or just fuckin tomatoes, ya know?

I worked on this fork shit after dinner.

We got tickets for one of the short film blocks at the Virginia Film Festival on Sunday. We originally wanted to (well at least I did) go to Werner Herzog's talk, but that was sold out. Obviously. Shoulda thought of that but meh, after we found out it was sold out I realized that it was probably no big loss anyway, I wasn't quite sure what I would have wanted to get out of it. My only thinking was "hey I know that guy! He seems really cool! I've seen a couple of his movies! He even did a voice on Rick and Morty!" but I don't necessarily care that much about film. Although I did also see that he did an AMA on reddit a few months ago, that was pretty cool. Yeah, it probably would have been cool to go to a talk he did, especially one titled "Conversation with Werner Herzog" cause there was a chance it would have actually been a nice back and forth thing with the audience. But anyway, that was the closest I'll probably ever get to Herzog.




.64 (Wednesday, November 2^nd)

Virginia had a couple of little things to take care of, like calling some tax fucks about stupid tax law shits which she never actually got a good/complete answer about anyway, so she gave us a couple of things to do. We took the compost outside and something else and then stacked firewood for her neighbors who live in the same building (The house, named Haiku, was built as a group home. Now, the second half is inhabited by her daughter, her daughter's boyfriend, and her granddaughter. They have two dogs, Demon and Max). That was kind fun because OCD or whatever.

This is only like not even half of the logs, they just wouldn't fit on the porch.

We visited another part of the farm (which reminds me we stopped by the lake on Monday I think. Maybe the community center on Tuesday, or maybe that was Wednesday... I don't know and I don't really feel like looking back through the pictures to check because I'm already running late typing this post (it's Monday the 7th and I want to have a new post up every Tuesday so...) but yeah anyway whatever) after Virginia was done talking to banksies and taxers. It was another group home, one that they have rooms open for people to rent out. They're like $70 plus utilities or something like that, and it's for visitors and especially people who might want to join the community. Pretty sweet deal. It was built by hippies long ago, who called it Monacan and wasted a lot of space in their construction - there isn't much of a second floor nor a third, the living room area just kind of extends all the way up to the very angular roof. 

I mean it looks pretty cool.

That window is so high up that you really need like a 500 ft ladder to reach it (from the inside or outside). It's cold on the bottom floor in the winter, hot on the top floor in the summer... So the one guy staying there just stays on the second floor, hedging his bets or whatever.

Finally found some snake! Except it's only skin and no fries...

This is the backyard at Monacan. It's really nice, kids would often play here while there were meetings.

After the tour was over (we also went to Monacan because that's where the mail boxes are) we went over to the gardens to start working. This time, planting rye for the winter that Virginia will cut down in the spring to use for mulch later. We got a seed spreader and Charlotte started spreading her seed all over the place while I pulled up the especially tall weeds near the fence separating that area from the greenhouse place:

That wagon got loaded up quickly; I brought them past the greenhouse for eventual decomposition under hay.

After we were done (Charlotte helped pull weeds cause seed spreading goes mega fast) it looked pretty nice.

Over where the black plastic is on the left side is where there are sweet potatoes! Yay.

Leftover pot roast for lunch for me and Charlotte made an apple and cheese and... peppers? grilled.. cheese.. sandwich!

Then back to work. We actually had to take the top pole off because (according to pictures of model greenhouses Virginia had) it was on the wrong way. She had it on top, but it was meant to be underneath... so Charlotte and I took that shit off (losing a bolt in the process, oh well) and then tried to straighten the pipes a little. Well, we took big axes and banged on the poles to try to bend them one way or another, to kind of even them out because they sure weren't uniform. The community members at Shannon got a bunch of straight poles and bent them themselves because that was way cheaper. Unfortunately, without thinking about it, Virginia got some of the first poles - before they got good at it - and this is when we find out that they do kind of need to be at least uniform. 

We were going to put 2x1s or 2x2s or whatever pieces of wood along the outer edge of the greenhouse, about three feet up, to eventually have plastic that would roll up for ventilation in the spring/summer. It's hard to screw wood onto pipes that don't line up at all. Eventually, Charlotte and I just turned the first two poles around, matching the way each side was bent to the way most of the pipes were bent. It was way better this way, but they still didn't totally line up - that fifth one is a doozy.

Straightish so whatever. We were pretty tired and I might have actually been getting like heat exhaustion or whatever from the sun beating down on us. It was like 84 degrees that day.

After we got back, we sat around for a little before heading outside to sit in the hammock on the tree platform. Virginia's daughter Naomi's dogs, Demon and Max, were outside while we were heading over. Now, Max is just a yapper. He's a small dog and he thinks everything is his business. He and Molly are undecided about who is the top dog. It's pretty silly, really, but that little backyard area is a confusing place when it comes to territory, because both pairs of dogs have entrances to it and they're often out there and it's just a yelling match half the time. We stopped on our way to the hammock to just hang out with the dogs for a little. Demon has a funny way of playing, he literally prances around the other dogs. In the video, Max is just kind of lying there while Demon hops around him.

Virginia warned us not to try to go near Demon the first day we got there. She said not to make any sudden movements and to just let him come to you if he ends up so inclined. He had apparently been abused when he was younger, but he's been getting more and more used to people and other dogs lately. Ironically, she told us that right after Demon came up to me and put his head under my hand for me to pet him. On the first day. I AM KAROL, ANIMAL FRIEND.

Anyway, I had also figured out that if you crouch down he is way more likely to approach you, maybe because you're much less threatening that way. So we crouched and he came to us as he had just about each day, tail wagging excitedly. He has the most beautiful fur of any of the dogs here - it looks like fucking silk. It's a ridiculous shame that he was abused once, but he definitely has a good home now.

Charlotte petting Demon, Max looking up and trying to get in on the action as usual.

We talked to Valerie for a little while before dinner (Virginia prepared some ravioli which was delicious despite being storebought). The cat Virginia has, Elise, doesn't give a shit about anything. She apparently really enjoys sleeping in the bathroom (she often meows when you come in, unless she's asleep, probably to let you know she's there and to please not step on her) and was around when the puppies were still young (Molly and Wally are each around a year old now, I think). She would apparently just smack them on the nose annoying or whatever and didn't care about their barking and shenanigans. She don't take no shit.

Zero fucks given.

Before (and maybe some after) dinner, I did a little bit of carving, working on yet another one of the five pieces of hickory I axed up before we left West Virginia. I also was very disappointed to find that some of the potential handles I had split horrifically. I didn't really know anything about drying wood - I wanted to leave the bark on some of the elderberry because the bark is so fucking cool looking, but I didn't know how it would dry, so for some of the logs I just took some of the bark off. That sure didn't work. One of the best pieces I had ended up splitting down the middle. I found that out while we were outside - I brought a bunch of pieces of wood out so I could pick which I wanted to work on. I ended up sawing off the ends that were clearly cracked and when I took the bark off other places I found the crack. 

So now it's just a stumpy piece of wood that is splitting more and more. I don't know what I'll end up using it for. One of the pieces I ended up throwing into the wood stove on Sunday or whatever day because it was pretty useless with all its cracks. I got another piece of elderberry that I liked that hadn't started cracking at all yet (miraculously) and took off most of the bark, leaving just a spot that I'd still be able to see. I decided to use elderberry instead of hickory (despite Nathan's strong suggestion) because I don't actually know why I wouldn't want to use a softer wood, I don't know what happens when a handle eventually fails, and I feel like I would regret not trying out the elderberry. Plus, it's a really cool name and it has great looking bark. I intended to test elderberry with the knowledge that it might not be the best choice, that it might eventually split or splinter or fucking explode for all I know. I'm on this whole journey because experience and experiments, I can't just spend all my time doing things that are safe and comfortable, I need to try things out for myself because, apparently, you learn by failing. That's a lesson I still need to fully learn - I never really let myself fail, always trying to plan everything out and anticipate all of the problems and just make sure I did it perfectly right away. It's probably about time I start failing so I can get comfortable with it. I still feel guilty and disappointed in myself secretly (I finally noticed that a few weeks ago in West Virginia) and it seems clear that letting myself experiment is the road to letting myself fail which is the road to letting myself learn from failure which is the road to learning which is probably the road to everything else I want to do, especially work with Elon Musk and eventually go to Mars.

Butter knife!

That butter knife might be my favorite thing I've carved so far and it came from a piece that I fucked up while trying to axe the hickory. I missed and a piece basically splintered off so I decided I'd try to keep the bark on and make it into a knife. I made a big groove where most of my fingers would go and a little one past that (by my thumb) for either my pinky or ring finger, whichever ended up resting there at the time. There's also a little groove I made on top, by my index finger, where my thumb sometimes ended up resting. I don't actually think that top one would be used for thumb placement often, if ever, but it shows that kind of thing I think about now while carving so that's cool.

That bottom piece is that one that is splitting more every day. The middle one, with the little soul patch, is what I'll probably end up using for my handle.

I picked this next picture because Charlotte hadn't ever really seen a dog lie down all spread out like that. I'm pretty sure it was because he was hot and the stone floor feels nice and cool, but yeah it's a funny pose.

Wally and Charlotte's limbs.

It's nice, being around all these dogs lately has made Charlotte very excited to eventually have dogs. She never lived with them and these two in particular have made her realize how much she will enjoy having dogs when we eventually have a place and the means to support animals. Very excite.



.65 (Thursday, November 3^rd)



This was the day Scotty, a guy that lives in nearby Crozet (like some weird French pastry or ball game), who wants to be a farmer eventually, came to visit. He's thinking about either starting a community (which I'm realizing more and more is going to be extremely difficult, but I still hold out hope cause Mars) or finding one to join because land is expensive. He came out to the greenhouse with us, helping to put up the wood that will eventually have roll-up plastic on it. We cut pieces of metal.. frame? conduit? ...channel for "wiggle wire" to go in. That wiggle wire will hold the plastic that will cover the poles, it'll be what insulates the plants yo. Anyway, cutting metal uses the shit out of batt'ries we found out. Also that was cool cause I had never cut metal like that. Out in the field. Never at all, really. I should have taken a picture of the tool. Maybe I will eventually.

Nailed it.

We had a big salad (Scotty went crazy with the vegetables) and some other stuff for lunch. We sat and talked a little before heading down to the garden. Virginia and Charlotte ended up heading back to use the chop saw to cut angles into stakes that would go into the ground near the hoop houses we glued together. We will eventually tie the stakes to the PVC pipe with rope to hold them fast to the ground. Wouldn't want a strong wind to blow them away once they have fabric covering them! So Scotty and I continued where we left off - we had the right side to finish and then the left side's horrendously bendy wood to affix metal channel to.

Charlotte is the premier role model for eye protection.

spoiler alert: we will have to take those channels he's screwing in down cause they're only supposed to go on the first and last poles. Wooooo.

Right before Virginia and Charlotte got back, Scotty and I finished screwing the channels into place. Virginia gave us some instructions and we all went back to work. Scotty and I continued working on the channels, measuring and cutting just way too many of them, using lots of screws and electricity and time. It's funny thinking about it now, we spent hours on that stuff unnecessarily. Well, that's miscommunications for you. Charlotte and Virginia were pounding in stakes near the hoop houses until they ran out of stakes. Virginia might have continued working near the hoop houses while Charlotte went to dig some sweet potatoes, but I feel like she eventually drove back to the house or somewhere for something. We just about ran out of whatever necessary thing (I think we ran out of batteries maybe) so I walked over to Charlotte digging the sweet potatoes. Just as I was going to take a turn trying to find some buried treasure, Virginia comes back or finishes whatever she was doing. 

That was it for that workday, except I probably messed up the order of events. Oh well!

One of Elise's many poses in the bathroom.

It was our turn to cook dinner again (we do it twice a week - once a week each and we (as I realized) are so used to cooking together that it's just two meals a week. Next week (actually I mean tomorrow cause it's Monday as I type this), I think I'll try to cook a meal myself; hopefully I won't freak out about food again since now there's another person to cook for (and we're back with the piles of parentheses)) and we decided to make lo mein!

Those are pot stickers in the cast iron pan, Virginia suggested that as an addition.

It looked like there were way more veggies before we added the spaghetti...

Another one of Elise's bathroom poses. I could make a whole calendar of these.

Another butter knife!

I carved again after dinner. This design is one I took from Nathan - I saw some of these little butter knives he's done in West Virginia. They're nice because you often get little pieces of wood like this while you're chopping whatever log you're working on, and rather than throw them away you can make a nice little butter knife that'll sell for a couple bucks. It's a little bit of work if it happens to be in roughly the right shape. I finished this one, besides the final sanding and coconut oil coating I have yet to do. Those lines are the first decorative thing I've done carving utensils. While I worked on that, Charlotte made some earrings following instructions in this book Virginia has on jewelry making.

I finally took a stupid bathroom mirror picture!

.66 Friday funCHAINSAWday!, November 4^th)



Not that chainsaws aren't fun, I mean that's kind of the point, but I'm just saying instead of "Friday Funday", it's "Friday Chainsaw.... ok I guess you probably get it. Shut up. Here's a gif of Charlotte being a badass.

Just a little baby tree but it was the only time I thought to take pictures for an animation.

This is how big one of the trees we were actually sawing was.

That's David Gorman. After our weekly cleaning of the house (every Friday, just a whirlwind tour), and after we saw the start of the cream cheese making process, Dave arrived. He basically gave us a private chainsaw lesson at Lorette's (wow I meant Virginia's. Where did Lorette's name come from? Hi Lorette!) neighbors' house since they had these huge downed trees they wanted out of the way. We chainsawed all morning, trying out two different Stihl saws - one generation one and the other was generation two. The starting mechanisms were different - the second has a spring that snaps back once you pull the string back far enough and starts pretty much immediately, the first is kind of like a shitty lawnmower that you often can't start on the first try. Although, I only know that from TV and movies, we never had a lawnmower.

Dave's dome.

That's the Superman dock.

View off his porch, opposite the Shenandoah Valley view the other side of the farm has.

The dome is made up entirely of those beams and brackets. It came as a kit, costing around $40k to build in the 80s. 

After a delicious BLT in his bathroom :]

Dave made this, it is fully adjustable and we want it.

After lunch, we brought the logs over to the people who need the firewood. Dump truck makes life easy.

Dave drove us around the land, taking us up into the backwoods because his truck has 4 wheel drive. He gave us a tour and another piece of the Shannon Farm history. A central theme of the day spent working with him was basically just to use common sense - don't do extra work if you don't have to (he had long 2x8s that served as ramps for us to roll the huge logs up to the bed of the truck), let gravity help you (his wood splitting area is uphill from the split log storage), and build with the land you have (his deck begins directly on dirt - why wouldn't you use dirt to fill some of the space underneath your porch/driveway if you could?). It was really nice to meet someone putting those philosophies into practice in his daily life. So often people just kinda do things whatever way someone taught them (he and I included) because it is presented as the way to do things. Eventually, you just kind of realize that there are better ways to do some (or most) things and you have to trust yourself enough to at least try something different. Sometimes it doesn't work out, sometimes it's great, but you'll always learn something.

I continued carving after we had dessert for dinner (apple cheese blintzes (also there were garlic brussel sprouts)).

...this makes it look like either a weird broom or a weird guitar.

We watched Zombieland up in the ballroom (it used to be where people came over for parties but the ball is no longer) and I got to eat a whole bag of Trader's Joe popcorn :]


.67 (Saturday, November 5^th)


Remember, remember... oh who gives a shit about England.

Virginia took us to a farmer's market (indoor only, the outdoor one ended with October or something) where we also got an all-you-can-eat breakfast (for like $7 or something, at the county(I think) community center). For me that meant like 10 pieces of bacon. It was delicious. We walked around the farmer's market, seeing some of the other shops in there (with the indoor one especially there are many craftspeople who sell things).

They have a fucking skate park there!

After that, we changed and went to Humpback Rocks. There were too many people:

This isn't even the parking lot yet. We managed to find a spot pretty close to the trailhead.

The hike was steep and there were rocks. Pictured here: rocks.

How about that view, though.

This was to the left of the summit.

I took this picture on the way out because I forgot to when we got there. So yeah.

We drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway which is a fucking gorgeous drive. We drove north and saw tons (maybe like 10) of overlooks, so we stopped at some of them on the way back because the views were just as gorgeous as on top of the Humpback Gap.

Hey look this overlook has a name! Probably named for that rock behind it.

This is opposite the Shenandoah valley (maybe. I don't actually know. I'm not a fucking cartographer.)

Staunton was next. That's where the second tattoo shop I found was. I called them the day before to make sure they did freehand and asked whether they charged by the hour or something. No, usually by the piece, the woman said. When we arrived, we walked along the main street (it was pretty short) of this relatively small city (compared to Charlottesville and especially compared to NYC) looking at the various eateries. Some were closed, some were boring, and we eventually settled on one named Clocktower something. Charlotte immediately thought our waitress was strung out or something. I thought she might be sick or whatever. We ended up waiting over half an hour for our food and then mine was wrong (I wanted a burger with cheese, bacon, mushrooms, and no onions but instead I got raw onions, cooked onions, and mushrooms on the burger. At least it was a burger!) and also she brought the wrong beer out. So like 15 minutes later, when she finally shows up again, I tell her it was wrong and she takes it back for them to fix it or whatever. This was the first time I ever did that, I often just shut the fuck up and eat like a good little money sack but I really wanted cheese and bacon... I ended up waiting a total of another half hour to start eating. All in all we were there for about two and a half hours. So I was definitely not getting a tattoo then, but at least it was only like 7 or something (the tattoo shop closes at 8). The manager had been walking around to the tables and the table next to us also waited forever for their food and also told the manager that. We all agreed that the food was good but took way too long. I ended up not paying for my burger which was nice but I would have liked to have like another hour of my life back. I guess my life is worth about $13 an hour.

Anyway, Acme Tattoo is the name of the place I'm gonna get my tattoo. I wanted the wandering jew added on to this time and they actually have a wandering jew growing in the window! Every place I go to get this travel tattoo added on to has some cool thing or another that happens. The woman who greeted us when we came in half recognized the plant when I showed her and pointed out the one by the window. She confirms that it grows like mad and she has even had to cut a bunch of it up and burned it. "So I end up burning a bunch of jews" she said, hilariously. I'm glad that's where I'm getting my tattoo continued. The guy who's doing it had no problem fitting into my proposed budget of $150, holding up his hands to show an area of about 10 inches of tattoo that I could get for that. I already have one idea I mentioned for him to incorporate; I feel like this is gonna go well aside from the pain (this is gonna go up my side, partially on my stomach, starting near my hip).

This is their "business card" - she wrote the time and date on the back of that for me.

At least Acme was a good experience. We drove home after some victory ice cream (actually it was gelato) at this place down the street. It was very good and satisfied Charlotte's ice cream craving. After we got back, I carved a little bit, just kinda smoothing out this one horrendous pre-fork. Horrendous partially because there's a knot right where my fingers are in the picture. It's gonna be quite disfigured but you know what? I don't give a fuck. That's my new catchphrase.

Up next: the tines.

.68 (Sunday, November 6^th)



Sunday was finally the day of the film festival! We went and saw a block of short films in one of the theaters, named Violet Crown. Before we sat down, I bought a large bag of popcorn because the sign said there were free refills if you bought large. We sat down in the theater with about 20 minutes before the screenings began and I was thinking about trying to eat all the popcorn before the movies started so I could go get a refill to have a full bag for the movies. Charlotte apparently was thinking the same thing because she suggested we try to eat the popcorn so I could get a refill and so that's kinda what happened. I didn't manage to finish it all in time (believe me, I was trying) but right at 11:30 I went out and sure enough they refilled it for me, put some butter on for me, and I briskly walked back into the theater. About a minute later they began.

We saw a bunch and got little score cards or whatever, to rate the movies on a scale of 1-5. I only gave one of the movies a 1 (I really had no clue what the fuck was happening, I didn't know what the fuck way it was created, and I didn't know what the message was) and none of them got a 5, though there were two that came close. Both of those had endings that kind of fell short or just like didn't go well logically. Anyway. Then we walked around a little thinking about food, not really wanting food (especially me, I just ate like a bag and a half of popcorn). We saw a place called Miso Sweet that serves ramen and donuts, but we wanted to be raring to go if we're going to spend money on food, especially since Saturday night didn't go so well.

I don't know what the fuck. Some guy devouring a woman's head and torso? Trying to play her head like a trumpet? Did he just make his first clay bust that resembles a human?

We went to Lowe's after walking around a little. I got me a propane torch in preparation for having a forge, and some perlite for said forge's refractory lining. I have yet to make the forge, but I've got the can and bolts from Virginia! I'll get to it when I'm good and ready - I've been a little anxious about it, worried I think mostly about the refractory lining. But anyway, yeah I'll keep updating as I work on that shit. We went to antique stores looking for a hammer for smithing and axe for (pre)carving and I guess other wood working. I found a hammer that looked great, but it was a little too heavy and expensive. The axe was extremely dull and I guess it wasn't perfect. I also hope that I can just acquire tools along the way, whenever I need them. So far, every place we've stayed has luckily had tools I've needed to work with.

Sunday was the first time we started a fire in the wood stove - it's getting colder and colder at night.

It's a pretty cool stove.

We hung out a little after having leftovers for dinner. Molly came and sat with us. She is a fucking love machine, it's wonderful. As Virginia has said, she's an old soul dog. She's really great and apparently being between two people is heaven for her.

Cuddlebug.

Charlotte and Molly enjoying each other's company. Also there's my arm.

So far we've learned a bunch and are quite enjoying our time here in Virginia. Virginia knows so much; she's taught herself how to do just about everything she knows. Whenever the need or desire arises, she reads books or looks online for how to do things. Working on the greenhouse has been really cool, we are finally getting to build something! And there's still so much more to do and learn.