AC At The Farm

Having AC in this old farmhouse was easy with all new forced air duct work, and the compressor took only a day to install. Christian did the electrical hook up required beforehand and Stellitano Heating and Plumbing did the rest in a day of thunderstorms. Bless those boys who are the best in the business! The crawl space here was hand dug out with concrete walls poured by my boys.

Welcome To The Family

Soon we will proudly welcome Nina Heindel into our family as Alex's wife. Nina comes from Belo Horizonte, Brazil and is a Manager International Tax & Transfer Pricing for RSM in Charlestown, MA. Her Master's degree is from Boston University School of Law and she has maintained American citizenship with her grandfather attending Harvard Law School and grandmother Cornell University. Alex is Vice President USA for Euretos; an  artificial intelligence platform enabling world leading pharma, biotech and academic industries to accelerate life science research. The company is based in Utrecht Netherlands, and his office is in the Back Bay of Boston. They reside in the heart of Charlestown, MA. Welcome to the family Nina!

A Farm Dog

Having a dog on a farm is a good thing. Our Anders is a rescue puppy from GA who came with a docked tail and willingness to protect our properties from other stray animals. It is lovely to watch him sit so steadfast for hours in a central location to us, just watching. It is a beautiful landscape though and even better
with him on board.

Inside...or out, he has our backs.

Taking Down Trees

Having two enormous compromised Siberian Elm trees looming over this farmhouse and barn, has been a constant threat to all we have tried to save which is both historic and precious. After losing a corner of the uninsured greenhouse glass, it quickly became a priority and we were lucky to have the most capable company honor a 2 1/2 yr. old estimate and come quickly despite the ground being a bit too soft for an eight ton crane. What a great job T & T Tree Service has done, finishing the day before a hurricane/tornado storm here with 95 mph winds and rain!

It took two days, an enormous crane, and six professionals to do this wondrous work for us.

Large branches were lowered to the driveway side of the barn to have smaller parts put into a chipper; then bundled and hauled back over the barn roof by crane to pile for cutting and splitting we'll do. All trucks were expertly maneuvered past a lovely old Sycamore branch in the drive.

 The day before work began, we built plywood and 2" X 4" covers for eight barn skylights. All looming (some dead) branches above them are now gone. Whew.

White Allium Giganteum

This Spring it is wonderful to watch many White Allium Giganteum bulbs bloom; planted last Fall in a bed of late summer blooming; smaller white allium. Both are planted in front of ornamental grasses and large white balled Annabelle Hydrangeas which bloom/grow mid-Summer.

Princeton Virtual Reunions

The Class of 1975 will celebrate it's 45th Reunion May 29th - 31st, On-Line as a part of Princeton University's first Virtual Reunions and our class picture was taken via "Zoom" in regalia with 144 participants. Blazers will also be worn on-line for the Virtual P-Rade (and tent parties with student DJ's). I'm sure the Princeton University Band will be a big part of the background music. Go Tigers!

Facemasks: a gift from Janet Clark '75 and made by Debbie Whyte of Whytehouse Designs, in Chevy Chase. Locomotive: "Rah, rah, rah, tiger, tiger, tiger, sis, sis, sis. boom, boom, boom, bah, '75, '75, '75!"

A Second Subfloor

This kitchen needed a second subfloor of 3/8" plywood; leveling it with the adjoining dining room and solarium which will have all new wide oak flooring. The original old dining room floor was laid over 240 yr. old tree trunks that were joists for this room structure. I found sheets of true 1" plywood made in Oregon to create a new stable; subfloor which was bolstered and leveled underneath by a central solid 8" beam from PA. The kitchen addition had a crawlspace under it accessed only by a trap door in the middle of it which we removed when digging a new crawl space open to the new dining room one.

The plywood joints were staggered for both subfloors and chalk lines used to screw the boards to joists.