unicornduke | so much socializing

it's good and fun but holy shit so much.

This weekend, F's sister and family from out of town came in to clean the barn at F's mom's place out. Or at least out of things that people want in case the barn comes down now that it isn't being maintained. I had been invited to Friday night dinner but declined, I figured I'd needed some quiet time and I was very right.

Saturday, I stopped by the grocery store and farmers market and brought a cooler/ice packs with me so I could continue north to F's Mom's place for the day. By the time I arrived, they had basically already filled the one small dumpster with stuff so there was a decent amount of standing around staring at things, finding junk metal to put in the scrap pile, children (ages 14, 12 and 10) who loved to yell and be small hooligans, two extremely energetic dogs. I hadn't actually met F's sister up to this point for various reasons so I got to meet a new person.

It was a lot.

We ate lunch and then after that, some shenanigans involving a couch coming down from the upstairs of the garage. F's sister and family went to visit some friends and it was blessedly quiet for a bit. I dug through the garage while

dragonlady7 hung out and we chit chatted, so now I have more tools, some of which I didn't really need but they need to go somewhere and maybe someday I'll use them. Then I asked if her dad had any books on woodworking so we perused the shelves in the house for a while, flipping through books and things. I now have a lovely stack of books on woodworking, plumbing and masonry as well as a few recipe books.

Then the five of us still at the house sat around in the living room then on the patio and either knitted, read books, looked at our phones and quietly chatted.

I left before F's sister and co came back because Mara needed food and walkies and I was tired and didn't want to stay for dinner.

Sunday I did a bunch of cleaning and we unloaded my truck and other various house things. Mid afternoon, I went over to dragonlady7's cabin to poke at the loom she had rescued from her mom's garage (same garage as couch/tool shenanigans in case you hadn't made the connection that F and dragonlady7 are related) that her mom had bought in the 70s and never used. We set it up on it's legs, attached all the parts and put some holder screws in that didn't quite fit but worked good enough and voila, a working 4 shaft loom! I did a little bit of twill weaving just to prove it worked if wonky. The children were out and about and following us around which was quite amusing to me.

Then we had dinner with the whole family which was loud and lively. Not quite to my family's levels of loud and lively but I think it's because the house is smaller, the noise seems louder. Of course, I haven't seen my mom's side of the family in a while which is bigger, and my dad's side of the family doesn't really have children in the loud stages anymore.

Monday, yesterday. I had work and zipped out to C's place to harvest beets and onions for seed. The beets were planned, the onions were a surprise and I finished that up solo today. I got home and dragonlady7 came over with her dude to see the place since he hadn't seen it yet. She made us dinner and then we had crafting hangout. I missed F's sister coming by around lunch time to see the house since I was out for lunch.

Tonight I have video games with the family and this weekend my mom and dad are finally coming to visit.

so much socializing. like I said, good but also tiring.