Many years ago, someone took out a supporting wall in our house. Bad plan. (I know, I can hear you saying, “Whyyyy?” and I don’t know why they did it). The person before us got a massive barn beam and put it in to try to hold up the house. Unfortunately, despite being a massive beam, it’s a 15 foot span and the beam was not large enough. Over the years, it sagged significantly.

So, the first step was to prop it up so we could work.

That was the easy part. Next we had to get the old beam down. 15 feet, about a 10×10 inch beam. Yipe. That’s a lot of weight. So, we decided to take it down in sections.

Which meant cutting a 10×10 beam…

Until the first piece came down (dramatically).

We figure each piece weighed somewhere around 80+ lbs. Which isn’t THAT much except when it’s falling on your head! Second piece (which tried really hard to crush us) followed by the end post.

Next up the third piece, leaving the middle and the right end.

And then the last pieces came down. Yay for a big hole in the ceiling!

So now to put up the new beam. This was fun to plan and perform. Remember, it’s a 15 foot span. And the 10×10 beam didn’t hold it. So we had to put in a bigger beam. In order to do that we made a multipiece beam. 15 foot long 2×12’s, made of a reconstituted wood pressed wood of some sort (similar to plywod, but even stronger and heavier), seven of them next to eachother. They were then bolted together to form one MASSIVE beam. Each one weighed… somewhere around 125 lbs, and had to be eked and edged into position then lifted up and onto the end posts.

Oh! I forgot, before we could get the new beam in, we had to jack up the ceiling some more to get it up high enough to put the new beam in. And flatter (not perfectly flat, it’s still a hundred plus year old house).

But we finally did it.

Next, the scary part… take out the supporting braces. And hope the house (and plaster ceiling) doesn’t fall on our heads…

HURRAY!

Unfortunately, it still wasn’t quite done. We had to make it look pretty, or at least almost pretty.

Drywall and then joint compound. We finished the joint compound around 2 in the morning the night before Mom came home.

We still need to drywall the ceiling, sand down the bumps and put on a bit more compound, then eventually we’ll paint it and redo the walls of the livingroom etc.

Big project. Rewarding though. It’s needed doing since before I was born, but the actual doing is hard to figure out and coordinate.

Back to the dye pots. Polwarth, a bit of Finn, and then… dunno maybe more BFL/Sillk, maybe some merino/angora…

That’s all for now!

~The Gnome

Anyway, people who read the ah… human interest part of this blog (i.e. my life) will remember that I graduated from my Ph.D. program on the last day of December 2009 with my Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences with a focus in Biochemistry.

As I did not immediately have a job, I moved in with my parents, temporarily, while job hunting. Romantic, I know. “Look ma, I’m a grownup! I got me a Ph.D.! I’m movin’ in!” ::laughs:: But there were limited options, and luckily my parents’ house has decent extra storage space and we all get along very well.

Anyway, fast forward 5 months of searching, with a LOT of wonderful wonderful people in a lot of fields (including the ever amazing Ravelry) helping me rewrite my resume in seven formats… ok, three, but each one was rewritten at least twice, and the final “Federal” form probably more than that. After this five months, I finally get a nibble. An invite to a hiring event, for a job that actually has to do with my field. I panicked, contacted a ton of friends about interviewing and clothes and generally freaking out. Luckily, as always, I have some great friends who helped a lot with advice. Again, the Ravelers helped me a lot with things like tie choices, also my good friend Art who I’ve sadly since lost touch with.

So, I took the train down to DC, stayed with my awesome friend, Liz. I went out for the interview, which involved much personal drama. I managed to leave my belt in MA when I repacked, so I had to buy an emergency belt (holy CRAP they’re expensive when not on sale) and found out within the first block my shoes didn’t actually fit anymore. Much fun. But, long story short, they loved me and offered me a position.

The one caveat being that, like many jobs these days, it requires things like background checks and such. Did you know FedEx line workers (the guys who pull packages off the conveyors) need a drug test? That’s not my new job, but I didn’t even know they required one. Everyone has to pee in a cup these days.

So, while all that’s going on, I’ll continue to be here doing what I’m doing. Time for that process is indeterminate, but could be six months. But eventually, assuming everything goes well I’ll be moving and starting a new job! I’m very very excited about it. I’ll be down in VA, a few hours outside of DC, thinking about science, processing science, analyzing science, but not fighting with the lab work like I’ve done for 12 years. Pretty much exactly what I was hoping for. And if I like the work and the location… there’s actually semi-affordable farmland around the area. Maybe I could have a dog… or… ::gasp:: a sheep or two.

We’ll see, that’s all far out. Right now I’m in a holding pattern, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve found a job in a market not suited to job finding, even with my specialized degree. So I’m very very happy, even if getting from here to there won’t be quite as fast or easy as one could wish… but then, really, when is it?

So, that’s the story of the job hunt. I have one, at some point.

That’s all for now, back to the dye pots! Polwarth, BFL/Silk, and… something else!

~The Gnome

But here’s what I did manage…

NH Sheep and Wool! First fest of the year for me. I joined the fabulous Holiday Yarns booth again! It was POURING rain and freezing the first day. And even colder, but not pouring the second day.

My main corner (had some stuff in another corner too)

The other corner (back mostly out of sight from this angle) and the incomparable Georg

I utterly failed to get one of me, Jennifer, and Tsocks. Argh. Fail.

I did get a photo of these guys…

And I saw and hugged a LOT of people. It was awesome. Also this was the first public introduction of the new yarns of Gnomespun.

I only fell down once. I was very good. I bought this one fleece. It is gorgeous and springy and soft. I think I’m going to prep it entirely myself with teh goal of eventually making a sweater, quite possibly the Brigade pattern.

Montadale/Corriedale cross

After that weekend, I took a train down to DC on Monday for an interview. There was a week of goodness. And a job. I’ll make a post on that later. For now, festivals.

The weekend after I got back, was Cummington, which is one of my favorite festivals, and also the anniversary of both Strider and my original enablement into Gnomespun.

I totally failed to take photos there. I have no photos of the booth. No photos of most of the people. No photos (yet) of my one purchase. Oy. Fail.

Luckily, Lynn did take some photos.

And I *did* finally get to see my very first finished object in Gnomespun in person!

This is me, the lovely Gala, and her awesome hand spun, hand knit shawl in the Amethyst and Gold colorway in Ramboulliet fiber.

Finally, last weekend I had spinning guild, with the Nutmeg Spinners down in CT. Lovely group of people, always fun. I actually vended there for the first time this meeting (and quite possibly the last since I’ll be moving).

This was my first time vending alone. I forgot half of what little I had for setting up a table, but it was ok. After a bit, and with the help of Marcy, I figured out a few ways to make it a little less… flat, but I didn’t take more photos.

So there’s a whirlwind tour of the spring festival and vending season. More photos of things, more details on the DC trip, and all that as things continue. Now back to the dye pot.

~The Gnome