Ed Watkins (on the ladder) began painting the farmhouse today, it is urgently in need of some tender loving care. There is peeling paint, some rotting boards, some damaged slate, but more than anything, some damage from last year’s brutal winter. It’s just time, Ed came by and walked us through what needs to be done.

He quoted a very good price and it will take two weeks. The difference on the back side of the woodshed is already quite striking, we need to show the house some care. Our plan was to do this in a year or so, but nobody really cares what our plan was. I’m excited to see the house painted before the June Open House.

Ed is quite a find, a genuinely nice man, an honest man, a hard-working man. He calls me “Johnny,” which nobody has ever called me except my grandmother. She called me Johnny all the time. Ed is going to replace he rotting boards, put some flashing in, repair a hole in an eave that the birds have been using to next in the attack. Old farmhouses are the houses we most love, but they need some loving too.