from the basement up

a harbour view of brown and ice and cold

Although ... today is lovely and mild. The ice in the harbour has retreated and melted.

Oh and those sparks ! they sure did fly. Yesterday was day 2 of les large basement clean out. I'm in love with a crazy man. A crazed man with a tool for every thing and every potential project and gumption like all get out. Sigh, swoon and sigh again. My basement over the years has been a repository for every failed piece of equipment large or small. Seems every handy man (?), contractor type or service person has left behind all of their debris, packaging, nuts and bolts, and too many pressure release valves for us to count. Not to mention the cast iron - 2 ton previous hot water boiler, 2 hot water heating tanks, 3 water pumps and an old steel fire place insert. A simple shrug of the shoulders, that casual pppffffft sound (the no big deal sound) and a handsome man with a tall moustache weilding a steel cutting hand held saw. Holy shit Batman !!

I held giant sections of old two ton cast iron water boiler with leather work gloves as the cowboy cut each big piece into smaller pieces so that he and I could remove (lift) these pieces from the basement. We're removing the giant old 2 ton boiler first. Sparks !! (you betcha) It's craziness !! Such good, wonderful, perfect craziness !! Yikes !! When he says we're cleaning out the basement and fixing things up - he means business. He's already figured out the boiler issues. Expansion tanks and resetting of the water temperature and suddenly there's an explanation for the too-numerous-to-count failed pressure release valves strewn all over the constantly wet concrete basement floor. More swooning. He's so freakin' smart he blows my mind.

Later in the day we enjoyed a long walk in the frozen hayfield with the zooming sisters followed by tea and a beer by the fire at his old farm house then back to Black Street for dinner of rice vermicelli and spring rolls (a fast favourite of ours) and our evening movie avec surround sound.

We're building our life together ... from the basement up.