Month End

January. Was. Exhausting.

But the party's not over yet.

• Finish making more raised beds.  I've got three built, now it's time to place them, fill them and plant them.  They all cost a pittance, too, because we got the lumber from the nearly dead cart.
• Make a bunch of tshirts. Hum.  I started.  They didn't go so well.  I'll do more.
• Drop the engine in the bus.  Check out the photos below.  It's still in pieces, but we're in the "putting it back together" stage so that's progress.
• Roll my old 401k over into an IRA.  Wow, this has been a giant pain in the butt.  I tried to open an account...and I'm still waiting on that to be approved.  Apparently it's a really busy time of year.
• Begin two more Coursera classes.  Done and done.
• Find some new workout to kick my butt.  Uh, yeah.  It's this great new workout where I squat for half an hour while scraping forty year old dirt off a transmission, then twist my body sideways to paint the inside of a shelf, then cry for days because my back hurts.

February goals are pretty easy to name...not so easy to do.  If I can survive the first two weeks, I'm probably going to spend the next two lounging on a bed of pillows while someone feeds me grapes (or...fermented grapes).

• We have visitors coming.  On February 1.
• Two batches of wine need to be bottled.  On February 3.
• Put the bus back together.  Get it running.  Like, yesterday.
• Go camping in the bus.  On February 6. 
• Dirt needs to be acquired and plants need to be planted.  ASAP.
• Start picking up more of the housework, as Kyle is taking a large classload this spring and has already been working sun-up to sun-down between his full time job and advanced engineering courses.
• Just to add something fun - camping is fun, but it feels stressful right now because our camper is immobile - Charleston Food Truck Festival!  There's a food truck I keep meaning to try out and I can never seem to coincide with its location.  Time to do the thing.

If you can't tell, I might be feeling a little bit overwhelmed.  Does anyone want to come cook for me for a few weeks?  Okay, let's whip through my month in photos.  This month began with an awesome visit from friends.  First we hiked the Ravenel Bridge (better known as the Cooper River bridge).

We saw dolphins from the top of the bridge - that was neato because even when they were underwater we could still see them, as long as they stayed close to the surface.

Pineapple fountain: classic.

We even took a boat out to Fort Sumter, where the opening shots of the American Civil War were fired.

And when I got bored with the historical stuff, at least I had my camera to play with.

When our visitors left, it was all business.  First up, raised beds.  I built two of those!  I know they're super simple, but I built them and you can't take that away from me.

Second, a new shelf for the kitchen.  Kyle built, I painted.  And sanded.  And painted.  And sanded.  And painted.  If you're wondering what that cord in the kitchen is, it's an extension cord powering our fridge, because we killed the kitchen electrical circuit.  I tripped over the cord at least eight times (and the electrician did twice) but things got sorted out and I no longer have to unplug the fridge so I can use the microwave.  Score one for being renters, this fix was as easy as a phone call.

While waiting for paint to dry, we had plenty of engine work to do.  Here's freshly removed...

...and here's how much we disassembled.  Everything was extremely dirty and mostly we've just been cleaning and cleaning and cleaning.

A brief reprieve from bus stuff to celebrate my birthday,

but then we continued cleaning up 10+ years of oil leak and dirt build-up.

Finally (I know - it was a big month) we celebrated Kyle's birthday with...burgers!  It's funny because we don't really make burgers at home so he (okay, both of us) gets really excited about going out for burgers.