Not Sure How Much Time...

So we've taken a wee little break since 'completing' the roof and getting the stove up and running. Today we are going to build the door and window frame. Yesterday I did some trimming and landscaping type things and bought my Scythe! It's great. I have blisters all over my hands. The handle is well, Brian described it as Caramel Apple Pop green. Like it's the sugariest friendliest little kid section of the store colored green. Not at all the color a Scythe should be. Brian bought a large Blue Axe and it looks much more menacing. Anyway, our new toys led to a much greater efficiency in getting wood for the stove and clearing away the swamp we live in. I think things look SO much better. We obviously have named our new appliances. The verdict is still out on the stove tentatively named Black Betty. And the Axe I think is named Blue Steel. And my Scythe we thought, since it did have a large curved black blade on the end of it, calling it Caramel Apple Pop was only accenting the friendly side and not the deadly side. So Brian's genius came up with Poison Apple. It's great. It so very much is exactly Poison Apple. I'll post pictures like always, some other time.

Not much has happened lately I suppose, or I'm just completely blanking. I put on warm undies for the first time today which was, let me tell you, one of the most amazing things. Taking a freezing cold shower from a hose in the front yard is pretty bad, but coming into a nice warm stove with your clean clothes laying atop it getting all toasty is next to heavenly. I felt great.

We also were aroused early this morning by some neighbors (I think I've failed to clarify the 'neighborhood' we're on a small lane by ourselves situated between two houses, the men being brothers) So by neighbors I mean down the road a bit. It turns out my grandfather's cousin lives just down the road and they drove up to meet us and take a look at the house. The guy is rad. He fought in Germany for the British army, is taken with 'the drink', and pretty much seems baller. Really, it's just nice to have a relation. Fun and exciting. His people knew my people mainly because we're the same people. Awesome. Anyway, they offered their homes anytime to just come chill. Which I think Brian and I will definitely take them up on. A short jaunt down the road to hang out with these guys seems exactly what we need. That was exciting.

I've been filled lately with all these romantic notions when looking at this house. Clearing away a lot of the brush and bramble yesterday only heightened those thoughts. I have great plans for an orchard back in the area I was clearing yesterday and the neighbors have young children. So naturally, like you do, I got all excited about the prospect of having these trees in the yard and letting the neighbor kids come pick fruit from them when they're ripe. I also want to turn a patch of land along the lane in front of all three of our houses into a wildflower field. It will take a lot of work to turn over all the soil by hand and somehow clear all the seeds (Brian suggested burning but I don't know if I want to do that) but having a great big field of different flowers along the lane I think would be absolutely fantastic. This is all in addition to the quaint mental image I have of this cottage.

Brian and I also stumbled into a second-hand furniture shop yesterday and I really can't wait to have house we can start furnishing. We found this set of brown chairs and a sofa that are perfect, they really are perfect. But we passed. It's a little far off to be buying furniture. But regardless. This place is going to be amazing. With an ease in the finances it seems anything is possible because our labor seems infinite. No matter how tired we get and sore and how much work we do we just go to bed, sleep a little late and start again the next day. We had a great hearty meal for really cheap last night that we cooked on the stove...besides that, we don't need anything more. Benefits of youth I guess. But I'm taking full advantage.

I cut my hand again. My hands now sport multiple tiny cuts all over them 5-8 blisters and they are still permanently cramped from trying to screw so many things manually. But its all paying off. I'm looking forward to the weekend. Using the scythe is keeping my abs in shape since I have no real comfortable place to do my normal workout. It hasn't rained in a while and has actually been warm, even hot when you are doing lots of work.

I brought my book in with me today but I dont' think I've read enough of it to give an adequate critique yet, so I'll let you all go for a while. But otherwise, not much to report.

We found out about a grant program in Ireland that supports the sustainable energy movement and we are looking into applying. That not only would help out a ton but probably open up more doors to resources for the rest of this project. Plus it would be a nice upgrade in amenity than our original plans. We've had to make some sacrifices to the whole environmental lifestyle though that always makes me a bit torn. Like our hearty meal last night was all canned food. Which isn't necessarily bad but most canned food is full of preservative, comes from far away and pretty much just has a lot of embodied energy in manufacturing. Let's just say I can't wait to get the garden going and be able to grow more of my own food.

Anyway, I'm just sort of rambling now. We haven't seen crazy dog in a while which is too bad. Oh and the Euro Stretch (dollar store) in town went out of business or left or something. That was a hard hit...we dont' know where we'll buy ping pong balls....hahah.

That is the next project on the immediate horizon. The yard, the deck, the mailbox and the beruit table are all side projects that we have been working on as breaks or in between larger projects as a sort of destresser. They are all fun smaller projects that we really want to do. The mailbox is being crafted out of Castlemaine cans, the deck is scrap wood, the yard just needs to be taken care of and the beruit table we haven't seriously considered until we got the stove and closed in room with a dry roof. We've decided we need a wind turbine with a high enough output to run Hui's B3 stereo system...our little radio just isn't good for really rocking out.

As most of you can tell, I'm in a much better mood and I can almost directly relate that to the lack of rain. But also the stove. So I guess the blog becomes more boring the nicer and more positive I get. That is to be expected I suppose. Perhaps one query I would be interested in people's thought was raised while reading my current book... I'll close with it.

This quote comes in the middle of an example using the metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR.

"The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another."

The authors italicize this sentence to point out specifically that "argument is not a subspecies of war but that ARGUMENT is partially structured, understood, performed, and talked about in terms of WAR."

The question I had concerning this idea (which is not a new one considering the Methods class taught by Zayn) is one of primacy. I'm curious as to both the opinions of those who are and are not familiar with Zayn's "structured and structuring" bit.

Does primacy matter? Or is it even applicable? Is there a difference between structuring and understanding WAR in terms of ARGUMENT and structuring and understanding ARGUMENT in terms of WAR?

I'd like to know because if one were attempting to sever the link between the two in order perhaps to structure argument differently etc...Does it make sense to understand which one is being drawn from the other? Is it merely circumstantial? Or can it fall under the "systematic way" in which metaphorical expressions are linked to metaphorical concepts that the authors claim exists?

Let's hear your thoughts.