Hunkering Down

By this time last year, we already had enough snow to cancel school a few times. We awoke to a dusting this morning, but it won't be long before our first big snow, and Gavin, Pa, and I took the morning to batten down the hatches by taking care of a few outside chores while Mama and Ivy put on a MAJOR cleaning session inside.

I won't bore you or I by listing all the chores we did, but in completing these tasks, I remembered one thing that I had thought of late last winter that I wanted to build this year....a glove and hat drying rack near the wood stove.

We are outside ALOT throughout the Winter, and normally when we get back inside we just drape our wet stuff on the gate surrounding the stove...but there's always a glove or a hat that gets buried under some jacket and doesn't dry. Today Gavin and I took to the workshop again and whipped up this bad boy:



First, we selected a 1/2 round piece of split log off of the wood pile. Then we headed to the back yard and lopped off a few branches from one of the trees back there and cut them to size. We figured on making a 12-point rack...enough for 4 pairs of mittens and 4 hats.
Next we rounded the tips of the points using a grinding/sanding wheel and tapped them into the log using appropriate sized spade bits.
We secured them using wood glue and drywall screws screwed in from the under side.

At first, after we installed it on the windowsill, I thought it looked a little cracky and ominous. But the more I look at it, the more I like it....and, from a functionality standpoint...it's going to be super convenient. Here's how it looks with the rest of the stove area:




I can't wait for that thing to be filled with hats and mittens all soaked through from a session of sledding/quadding/snow forts/snow angels/snowmen....gear drying....fire roaring....family warming....cocoa flowing....bring it on, Winter.

We're ready :^)