It’s been a month since we retired and moved, and I can’t say we have found ourselves sitting around saying we’re bored.  Tired yes, but bored no.

Last week, I started painting the interior of the house.  Fresh paint makes me feel like everything is clean and relatively new.  We wanted to use a similar color scheme from our previous house.  Gray walls with white trim, but we were concerned the gray might be too dark.  I got paint samples in 6 shades of gray and we ended up selecting the lightest shade.  All our doors and windows are trimmed in stained wood, and I plan to paint that all white.  I counted and we have 27 doors and 21 windows.  If each door takes one coat of primer and two coats of paint, that is a lot of painting.  Time to research paint sprayers…

6 shades of gray

Starting on Shawn’s office in the basement

Shawn was busy finishing up the Chickshaw.  It now has wheels so it can be mobile as soon as the temperature outside is warm enough for the chicks.  As you can see, the Frankenchicks are still growing at an alarming rate and still ugly.

When we bought the house, the previous owners threw in their tractor in lieu of making some minor repairs.  There were some cryptic instructions on how to start the tractor involving a jury-rigged wire and button.  Shawn got the tractor to start once, then it began smoking and would not start again.  So how do you get your tractor that won’t start to the tractor mechanic?  Rent a trailer, winch the dead tractor onto the trailer (preferably when it is snowing), and then haul it into town.  Hopefully, the tractor will be back in a few days and ready to push, pull, lift, dig, gather, move and whatever else tractors are supposed to do.

We’ve had a few days of sunny weather, so we’ve spent some time outdoors clearing dead and unwanted trees and shrubbery.  While this is satisfying work, it makes more work because then we have to get rid of the debris.  Shawn has been working on the garden area the last couple days, and he’s using the chipped wood to make walkways between the beds.

It’s beginning to look like a garden

Trying to burn some of the greener debris

This rose bush had to go

One fun thing about moving into a new house in the winter is discovering what is growing in your yard.  As the days get warmer, new plants are popping up and beginning to flower while the trees are waking up.

I think these might be tulips

Corkscrew Willow

Black walnut

The cats have settled into life in Idaho.  There are lots of windows to look out of and plenty of sunny spots for sleeping.  So far they don’t seem to mind that they aren’t going outside.  Maybe they can smell the larger predators when the windows are open.

Shawn and I are both enjoying the time we now have to cook.  Shawn made a sourdough starter, and I have been on the receiving end of some wonderful sourdough pancakes and bread.  I’m still trying to perfect the whole chicken in the Instant Pot.  I also bought a $1.99 Kindle cast iron skillet cookbook and have tried a few recipes from it.

The Idaho sourdough starter

Sourdough pancakes

Sourdough wheat bread

Tamale Pie in the cast iron skillet

We have even taken a little time to explore Coeur d’Alene.  We went into town for dinner at the infamous Hudson’s Hamburgers, est. 1907.  They only serve hamburgers, ham sandwichs, egg sandwiches, and pie.  The hamburgers have the options of single, double, cheese, onions and pickles.  No lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, fries, etc.  A patron sitting at the counter asked if he could get another burger with extra cheese and the owner/fry cook said no.  The burgers and pie were tasty and cheap.

The sun had come out that day, so everyone flocked to the park in shorts and the restaurants had outdoor seating set up, but by 6 PM the clouds had rolled back in and it was getting cold.

A little art in public places

In an attempt to stay in touch with our technology roots, we attended a Fireside Chat put on by the local technology incubator Innovation Collective.  They interviewed a local restaurant owner on his career journey through dairy farmer, hospitality, health technology, and food service.  We met a nice couple from CDA that have some farm property in Washington.  They are avid growers of garlic, and Shawn looks forward to planting some cloves.

So as you can see, not a lot of time to sit around and get bored.