Tile is going in!

I'm so excited! The tile floor is finally being installed in our patio room. The installer is cutting the edge pieces today. He should be ready to grout the tile tomorrow. I'm hoping we're able to start moving furniture in by the weekend! Woo-hoo!

I really love the tile I picked out. It's Mohawk Mandelane in the Red Rock colorway. It's gorgeous! The tiles are not all the same color though they have the same colors. I love the warm tones it has in it. BTW, the splotches on the tile are only water drops. I'll have to mop the floor once everything is finished.

The only downside to having work done at your house is you are stuck at home. Our weather is supposed to turn much colder with snow in the next 24 to 48 hours. I do need to run to grocery store for some supplies before that happens.

In moving all the heavy cartons of tile, hubby managed to give himself a hernia. :( I wasn't much help since the boxes weighed about 60-70 pounds each. Our GP has referred him to a specialist for evaluation. He may be having surgery to repair it later this month. Hubby can't help move furniture when we're ready. I'll be recruiting some help for that project. Otherwise, it will probably be sometime in January before he'll be able to lift much of anything. I don't want to wait that long to be able to use our new room.

In the meantime, I'm spinning up this gorgeous merino I bought at Midwest Folk & Fiber in 2008. I love the color of this! This is the first merino I've spun for awhile. I've forgotten how much I like to spin merino. Lately I've spun Falkland, Corriedale, Shetland, Rambouillet...

I can't believe it's already December. November seems to have flown by. Our weather was warmer and nicer in November than October. More sun for sure! My fingers are crossed that this winter will not be as nasty as last year. By this date last year, we had already had 24 inches of snow! I did see it spit a few flakes yesterday but there has been no measurable amounts yet. I'm in no hurry to see it!

Over the weekend we pulled the brussels sprouts up by the roots. They are now hanging upside down in our garage. We can harvest them from the stalks as we need them. I read about storing this way in Mother Earth News. I cut some broccoli side shoots. If you keep them cut off and don't let them flower, they will produce side shoots until a good freeze kills the plants. I also harvested a bunch of tiny cabbages. When we cut the heads, we leave the root and a few of the larger leaves. Tiny cabbages will grow at each leaf node. Since all of these all cool weather crops, they have no trouble lasting well into fall and colder weather. A plus is the cooler temps make them taste even sweeter! The only things left in the garden are some green onions and carrots. Hubby is talking about heavily mulching the carrots with leaves to protect them from freezing. Then when you want carrots, you uncover the carrots, pull what you want and cover them up again.

Anyone who has never eaten fresh picked produce from a garden doesn't know what they are missing. The varieties that most supermarkets sell are only pale shadows in flavor of their homegrown counterparts. Supermarket varieties are selected for their ability to survive transport and not for flavor. Growing your own has a number of pluses: 1) you can select the varieties you want to grow, 2) lots of tasty produce to eat now, 3) some to preserve or store for later use, 4) you can control what goes into your food (no chemicals or toxins), and 4) it gives you some exercise and fresh air.

The seed catalogs for next season are already beginning to arrive. I'm looking forward to sitting out in our patio room watching it snow and browsing the colorful pages of seed catalogs and dreaming about next year's garden. :)