Would anyone care for a portable construction site?

Well, if any of you do one has moved into our hall. Over the last 2 years the men have been working on our steps. But it has never really looked like a construction site. It had jack holding the stairs up, and even the occasional piece of draped canvas, and a wrenched up floorboard or two.
But our state of peaceful construction IS NO MORE!!!!!!!! No, the plasters have moved in for the week, bringing with them everything from scaffolding to (and this WAS a surprise) plaster. Now there is scaffolding rigged up on the steppes and plastic hanging everywhere, protecting the wood.
There is a powdery smell that lingers in the air.
There is metal(sp?) poles and wooden platforms nearly blocking our way to the upper stories.
There is progress! Which is cool!
There are six men scrambling around with large amounts of wet plaster and long sheets of dense chicken wire! (which they nail to the underside of the stairs and slather the plaster on)

Pork at Passover...

We had a hectic week, but right in the middle we had pork for passover. I trust that you all know that pork is like the unclean of the unclean as far as Jews are concerned. However, given that we are not Jews and that God said that nothing was unclean unless he made it so, we had pork for passover.
And it was very good pork.

Things...

Well, miracle of miracles, the day has come at last! Ray and Tom are taking down the jacks as I type. Mom and I were watching them for a bit and there is now no longer a large metal poll in the middle of our hall. It's amazing! I am trying to figure out how I am going to get up the stairs, because I am so used to using the jacks at every turning to turn the corners. How odd not to have them...
Ray says that the plasterer will be coming tomorrow so it should be interesting to watch him (or they) work between bouts of Science, Lit, Writing, Math, and of course arguing (sp?) with Sarah M about WOM...

SNOW!

Well, it has happened. It has snowed, or really, it has sleeted. As today is Saturday i managed to crowbar Hannah outside to "see the snow." with the promise that it would "do you good". We walked and ran and of course fell down on the miscellaneous patches of ice from the falling water off the roof.

A Castle!

We ended up making this (and no, you shouldn't ask what it is.) It started out as my trying to make a place where the cat wouldn't be able to get out of but it sort of morphed and soon there was the crenellation and in the picture I am working on the gangway and the outpost.

Mercy!

She had no mercy.

Neither did I.

But it looks like I won.

And the best thing was that I got to laugh maniacally(sp?) for a long time as mom tried to get the camera to work.
And don't forget to look at Hannah's account of the day: http://idratherbepracticing.blogspot.com/

Emma

Ahoy! I'm back. I have a frantic week of school and got hardly anything done. Oh, well. In my class with Miss Fletcher this morning we had the BEST idea for a writing assignment. What happens if you were to change something in Emma. Like an event. This is what we came up with.
Emma accepts Mr. Elton when he proposes. That would allow Mr. Knightly to marry Jane Fairfax, and Harriet Smith to run off with Frank Churchill!
I thought it was funny.

I am going to post my work on Wuthering Heights on my other blog. You can access it by clicking the "My other Blog" link on the left.