New door, short chill

Almost two years ago Mama and I bought some interior doors to upgrade the doors in the house. The interior doors, mounted on frames have sat in the well house since we purchased them. We also bought the front door with the four that have been stored, but I installed it the weekend after we brought them home. I am not sure why I have held off getting the doors hung, but I could not work outside this weekend because of the cold, so I installed one of those doors. I chose the closet at the end of the hall leading to the bedrooms. I am not sure why the original doors were installed the way they were, but they were hung without any nails through the door jamb into the wall. The frames were fastened to the trim by a plethora of nails and staples and the trim was nailed to the wall to mount the doors.

That made it a bit tricky to unmount the doors because I normally take the trim off both sides of the door jam and then cut the door loose from the wall. That way of mounting a door allows the trim to be replaced or upgraded as desired. This time I had to pull the door jamb loose from the trim on one side after I had removed the trim from the other side – leaving one side of the trim attached to the wall. I have never run across doors mounted that way. I am not sure if it was easier or harder, but it was definitely different. I only got the closet door done. My back was hurting too badly to do more. I wish I had new trim to put on the new doors but that is not the case. As I replace the doors, I will mount them correctly so that in the future, we can replace the trim when we get the time and money to do so. Mama who had been at a Pampered Chef Party, was pleased with the new door. Victoria got home late Saturday and asked Mama, “Has that door always been there?”  I’m glad she noticed. Her bedroom door will be next.

I worked long enough in the shop to mount one sheet of plywood on the wall adjacent to the workbench I have set up. I have two more to mount to complete the interior of that east wall. I am still considering different arrangements of tools but as I complete the interior walls, I can at least begin to arrange everything in a semi-permanent fashion. I was hurting too badly, and it was too cold to work too long in the shop – which is not heated. As it was, I got enough exposure to affect my voice to the point that I could not lead the singing Sunday night. I barely made it through leading the singing in the morning service. Mama is convinced that we are suffering from what the Thomason boys had for the past week or so, but no one can ever be sure where a common illness came from.

The boys are better now. We got them Saturday evening so they could come to church with us Sunday. Krystal is not feeling well, and the cold presents a unique challenge for baby Savannah. The nights with the boys are not typically a problem, but there was no way I was going to get a nap Sunday afternoon. After trying to keep the three of them still enough to rest I finally gave up and went outside to feed and cover a couple trees. I am not sure covering the trees will help, but Mama insisted we try – so we did. The winds last night, through today and all day tomorrow, may prove too much for the blossoms under the sheets that will thrash the tree during that time. There is no additional heat supplied to the tree so everything will still freeze hard. We will see if we provided any benefit, but I am very doubtful.

The enclosure in the goat barn has been working. The tiny lambs resort to the enclosure every time their mommy leads them into the protection of the barn. It was worth the effort. It was built with today in mind particularly. The ambient temperature is not forecast to get much above freezing. The frigid air is being stirred by moderate winds, but any movement of air when it is this cold makes the chill that much worse. I hope the sheep spend the day I the barn, even though they make a mess of the barn with their manure. I can clean that up later. We just hope to keep these five lambs alive and healthy through this chill. Mama has already found a farm we can but a ram from to breed our ewes late in May. That will give us a second crop of lambs this year. Since we have all males from this year’s crop it would be nice to try a second time pretty quickly.

By Wednesday the chill will be passed and we can uncover the wrapped trees to see if we provided a benefit or caused further harm.