Spring in the Mill Town

Spring is here in the Mill Town.  Evidence of the early arrival is everywhere:  great stands of pink trees in bloom line the streets, the sulfur dust of pollen covers the parked cars.  Daffodils are opened to the sunshine, a small fist of them begins to do just that on our tiny porch.

We are living here and the evidence of it is here in this snap of our wheelie home porch, a bit changed since we last posted with a picture.  There is an additional side wall, milk painted a soft and muted tone of green.  The same green that is the color of our ceiling inside.  A lamp lights the partnership corner, a small tea pot from Shirley, a dish of good luck oranges for the new year of The Tiger along with the beautiful red rose petals I saved when my Valentine rose was done with her weeks of brilliance.  A pottery vase filled with a dozen ti leaves from Manoa fan waxy beauty. The small square tiled mirror was a give-away gift made by one of our MCS friends ... part of our annual holiday festivities.  A mirrored view of our abundance is a nice greeting at the door, we think.

Behind the scenes Pete and I have been as busy as beavers let loose in a river with dams to build and water to dam.  Busy, busy, busy.  We have commmitted to creating a new business that will be Pete primarily beavering at an MCS-safe (spring and other seasons) cleaning service.  Many, many things to do to get this right and it is exciting to draw-in all the comments and suggestions from our Canary community who had ideas and experiences with hiring help who really 'get' how to do cleaning that leaves nothing but fresh air behind.  Thank you so very much, Canary Report Canaries for all your wonderful ideas and good wishes!

From the Mill Town we send wishes for a bit of sunshine in your day.

BUILDING THE VARDO: Laua'e for the door

It has been a beautiful sunny Sunday. Pete's out at the Green Festival at Seattle Center, I've been to the West Seattle Farmer's Market to get my last (at least for now) slabs of frozen salmon from our favorite fishermen, chatted with some of the wonderful farmers and vendors who have made living in the city such fun, and then had time to get in a few hours of stenciling before the sunny front yard turned shady and cool.

Here's the result so far...three small ferns and a momma...it was fun to be milk painting in the sunshine! The days are getting much longer, the birds are so happy to find a new scatter of millet on the sidewalk and I'm glad Jots is asleep and not rousting them from their feast.

One week till hitch-up ...

BUILDING THE VARDO: Wheel Well Redux

Give Pete a bit of rain-free hours and there is progress on the projects. Western Washington was deluged with rain over the past couple of days. Last night the rain soaked lawn under VARDOFORTWO was covered with two inches of water. Parts of the state south and north of us have been hit with heavy rains and the melt-down of snow that was still thick upon the ground. Floods. So we are thankful for the mild manifestations of winter. And Pete is happy he can show some evidence of a 'BEFORE AND AFTER' mug shot of the vardo's wheel wells.

Milk paint over painted metal doesn't hold up in rain. See the picture to prove it. The AFTER shot (THE PICTURE ON TOP), of the same wheel well is Pete's solution. He used fine grit sand paper to polish down the milk paint and the residual metal paint. He's going to wax the shiny finish ... it just might work!

BUILDING THE VARDO: Mini steps and Maintenance

The snow comes and goes, and this morning it is purely rain. The ground is soggy for the moisture, the mold spores multiplying in glee. Winter conditions are teaching us to continue taking action in mini steps, and to watch what happens to the work we've already done. As VARDOFORTWO rests under a tarp roof, we take these mini steps, take a step back before moving forward, and maintain what we're already done:

1. All the steel brackets in the ceiling have been covered with oak corner pieces. These are small and delicate cuts that need to be fit just right. With his characteristic work ethic, Pete has found small patches of time when the break in weather allowed him to set up the saw to cut and fit the pieces.

2. The 4 inside window frames are finally completely painted and waxed. Working with dry milk paint is very different than opening a can of pre-mixed paint of the shelves. We chose milk paint in this form because we could mix it as we need it. But we're finding you need to write down the proportion of dry mix to water once you find the color you like ... otherwise, it's a different tone of color everytime you paint.

3. Waxed Milk Paint on the exterior means you wax your house often. "Often" will vary I guess, dependent on the weather. After the month of snow, the outside needed another coat of wax. It takes about 2 hours of elbow grease to get another coat on.

4. Milk Paint over metal paint isn't a good idea (see the picture). The milk paint is good at taking up the metal paint on the wheel wells. We've gotta come up with some other idea here.

5. Insulation. Samples of wool insulation from New Zealand, a product called LATTITUDE is sitting in jars getting ready for me to do a sniff test for reactions. The insulation came from Bend, Oregon where our MCS friend Leslie Lawrence is also building her tiny home. I'm testing the stuff today.

6. More milk paint has been ordered to work on painting the door, and mixing colors to decide on the shade(s) we like on the ceiling and walls.

7. Still waiting on the roof.

8. Floor. We're pretty sure we're laying tile instead of a wood floor. Many choices in safe materials involved with this ... more on that as we take this project on.

Learn by doing

Pete is still working on the vardo. We have the back wall completely sided with tongue-and-groove white oak. Many people with MCS don't tolerate wood very well. Poplar and hard woods like maple are often sited as good options for those who do want to build with wood. We went with white oak after muscle testing many wood samples. White oak was the strongest positive choice. It does have a smell (like a fine wine basking in an oak barrel), but I went to an intuitive conjuring that went something like this: "hmm...strong black tea is rich in tannins (as is the oak), to neutralize the black tea, the Brits always added milk. okay, let's try neutralizing the oak tannins with milk paint. The siding is painted with milk paint from Homestead House in Ontario, Canada and we're using a beeswax finish they sell to seal the walls from the elements. I worked with and emailed many very gracious milk paint retailers and found most of them very understanding of my dilemna. We ordered samples and tested several paints. The one we finally choice comes from Homestead House in Ontario for two reasons: Jenny ... she was and still is a genuinely kind and knowledgable retailer. She has shipped me colors that I could only see via pages on the internet, and talked me through the possibilities I envisioned. The second reason is that at the time we bought our paint they were the ONLY company who had a history of experience using beeswax finish to coat the interior and exterior walls. I learned of a down-side to the beeswax by talking with the supplier of that beeswax finish... depending upon the level of acid in the rain where you live, the beeswax may not hold-up without frequent re-application. Inspite of that precaution we are going with the beeswax rather than using any clear chemically based coating over the milk paint. The picture of the finished back wall shows off the beautiful forrest of beeswaxed lau`ae ferns I stencilled to keep my dear Hawai`i close. The smell of those fern and the inimitable look of lau`ae are part of many island yards. I wanted to have them with us wherever we wander. Using milk paint and beeswax is a choice to be gentle and lean on any use of chemicals. Only time and experience will tell how successful our decision to use milk and beeswax is. The long search for a finish that would not knock us out while we paint, and/or continue to off-gas led us to this solution. The challenge of choosing materials and then testing these materials for safety/minimal ill-effects is HUGE for all who live with MCS. We researched and double/triple researched, prayed, muscled tested and put materials into bottles to give it the sniff test. It takes time, patience and willingess to find that you really don't have all the answers. And then, I have turned to Ke Akua and my guardians and asked them to do for me what I can not do for myself ... I try to remember every day to turn my fears over to Hina (the moon) and tell myself "Enough. You have done enough."

I'm still working on learning how to get the Comments link to show up on my posts so you can tell me what's on your mind after reading this. Like life, we're learning by doing. Thanks for your patience, keep coming back. Comments will show up sooner or later.

Are you an innovator? Where in your life do you make up the rules as you go?

Aloha, Mokihana