Today was a neat day … we did nothing of the things we planned to do (me: woodworking – for which it was an excellent day of sun and little wind, her: taking another turn at plastering our rocket stove … hopefully with something that will stick this time).

In the morning we went to the market and had a terrific visit – though we didn’t get much food! We found a nice guy who sells corn and oats … we purchased a few sacks  (sack = more or less 50kg!) and he will deliver to us a few more. We also purchased a locally made (neighboring village) sheep-wool vest (sheep skin on the outside, wool on the outside) for Andreea and ordered one for me (tailored to my size – will be ready in 2 weeks – winter is coming and the guy was taking orders faster then he could write!). On the way out Andreea spotted in one of the horse-carriages parked near the market  a steel barrel … my jaw dropped (we’ve been looking for one for many weeks … and it WAS for sale … a really nice, new, shiny orange barrel … and we purchased it (for half the asking price in the city for a used barrel) and spoke to the guy about purchasing another two barrels … which we’ll pick up from his place (same neighboring village where the vests are made) in one of the coming evenings. Very cool market visit!

We then stopped by the village hardware store and purchased a few small things we needed (PVC pipe to distance gray water from the house foundations – until we can do something better with it; a few more plumbing pieces to setup a winter-ready outside faucet). We got home and thats when the plans took off and life took over 🙂

We started by dividing the huge and heavy sacks into smaller more manageable sacks. Then we went to finding them safe (=not accessible to mice) and comfortable storage (= animal feed easy to get to and close to where we need it). We stored some of the sacks in some barrels in the barn (where the chickens and ducks currently live) and other sacks we hung, using thick wire, from ceiling joists in the garage and summer kitchen. We will be checking about another storage option for wheat-flower and corn-flour (mamaliga) – maybe large glass jars – though we need to ask if flour will keep well in sealed jars. Mice are an issue that needs to be dealt with … we set a lot of traps and catch a lot of mice … but they keep coming! We wouldn’t mind sharing with them … but they leave their deposits in return and that can lead to worm problems … so … no sharing with the mice!

Then, as we were hanging a sack in the kitchen I saw that the pears were beginning to spoil … so we decided to get to work on making pear compote and jam. The compote jars are now in the last phase – jars cooking in water to pressurize and seal them. The pears for the jam are cut and covered in sugar. Tomorrow we will cook them and preserve them in jars.

In the midst of it all Andreea gets a phone call from a woman who is the second woman to sign up to the second Doula course Andreea will be teaching. This second course was born when an interested woman contacted Andreea and asked her is she would travel to Brasov to teach – Andreea agreed (given a minimum number of participants). A date was set, information was published … that was the day before yesterday … and today a second woman signed up! Boy does it feel good to be in tune with life’s vibe 🙂

Oh … and Andreea just ordered for us 18kg of organic honey from a farm in Sibiu … that should get us through the winter and then some 🙂 Abundance 🙂

I hope tomorrow will be another sunny day … I really want to make progress with the bedroom cabinets and shower stall. Those two projects will have a great and welcome impact on our lives – as will the vests, barrel and compote 🙂