Today is warm. Like 7 degrees above freezing warm. Which is lovely, but it means a vast amount of thick sticky mud. Never my favourite, but a reality out here in the swamps. We’re stranded here until it freezes again early Saturday morning.

Barn chores this morning. Not just feeding and watering, but a good mucking out, too. Since we have to live in the building (soon, anyway, I hope), it needs to be as non-manure-scented as possible. Frequent mucking and fresh layers of chips should help a lot. We also set up Ms. Maggie’s stall, and then took Lucy out for a fresh-forage walk. It’s been so cold lately she hasnt gotten out in days. She enjoyed that

Just as we were finishing up the meander-and-munch, Mom arrived with Maggie. Given the state of the driveway, this meant parking on the side of the road and walking up in state. Maggie does enjoy a grand entrance. She wasn’t however, terribly happy about moving into a new stall. Prey animals in general aren’t super keen on big changes, and this was everything in her life changing at once. We are virtually strangers to her now, since mom has had the care of her since late September.

She was pretty upset for a while –trying to jump the fences, headbutt people, break down the gate. But with time and patience and gentle voices and lots of little treats, she did settle down. Eventually she even laid down to ruminate. Good progress!

Mom and the kiddos spent the afternoon enjoying time together, and husband and I got to work on the sink project. Back in the spring, I put a great deal of thought into what I want my eventual kitchen to look like. I am a very practical person, but the way something looks and feels matters, too. So, since we’re building as close to our dreamhouse as is possible, what exactly did I want?

Well, mostly I knew what I DON’T want. I don’t like the quartz aggregate sinks that are so popular right now. Part of it is a sound/texture thing, but also, they always seem dingy/dirty. I am not terribly fond of the white porcelain sinks because they stain and then never come up clean again. The basic stainless steel sinks are merely soullessly dull. How about copper? Hammered copper in particular. With apron front, because that showcases the beautiful metal. Copper is expensive, but since we are buying so few fixtures for the house (don’t need lighting fixtures, faucets, bathtub, shower fixtures), the few we will be buying, we can afford to go high-end and get exactly what we want.

I bought a gorgeous hammered copper double sink with apron front. I love the sink. Adulting means we get excited about weird things. My beautiful sink has been sitting in its box in the truck for almost a year now. It is time for it to see the light of day. But, a sink alone is not useful. It needs a solid frame upon which to rest. This was today’s project.

While we are in the barn, drainage will be by buckets. Eventually, we will have a dedicated grey water system, but this will serve for now.

The height of the sink is considerably below what would be ‘standard’ because it’s my kitchen and I’m short. So we can use it as a standalone for the time being, and then when the house is built, it can simply be put in place and the countertop built around it. Whatever time it took us here and now is time saved later.

Also, because adulting involves being excited by strange things; I LOVE these drains! Not only are they dead easy to install (it took me about 5 minutes to do both, no putty, no tools), but also esthetically pleasing and very functional

The drain assembly is deeper than the standard – about 4 or 5 inches – and the extra-deep strainer basket fits down into the assembly. The plug fits overtop, nearly flush. With the strainer basket plugs you usually see, since you have to lift the whole thing to run the water out, some debris inevitably ends up in the actual drain underneath the basket. This one should prevent that.