Big Things = Busy, Busy!

Well! I'm sorry. We've been SO busy lately! As my pregnant girlfriend recently wailed, "I haven't even had time to cut my toenails!" (And, while my toenails aren't growing like hers are with the extra large dose of naturally-occurring hormones, you get the idea!)

Despite only having three posts so far, I'm loving Mama Pea's 'A Home Grown Journal' blog. Her most recent post - which, for her, may have been just a chit-chatty blurb about her strawberry patch - was a gardening lesson for me as I was reminded about pinching off the runners and blossoms the first year and mulching with this or that.

So, in order to update you, I need to go back in time to one cold morning in April when I went out to do chores. With the mash barrel nearly empty, the resident (chicken house) mouse had not been able to get out once he'd gotten in! While he'd had plenty to eat during the night, I think he was also plenty happy to see me come to rescue him! What a cute little guy! (Hmm, I wonder if he's the one Miss Kitty killed and ate last night?)

This next picture is from the beginning of April, too. Tom installed the only "real" interior door we have in the house: on "his" closet - the one in the utility room. And, even though I love Tom's handmade doors that hang throughout the rest of the house, I have to admit to a new favorite "sound": that of this closet door as the latch snaps into the jamb . . . a feature which none of the other doors have. Unfortunately, the dumb dogs still aren't used to the sound of a door closing IN the house and so tend to bark madly at the "intruder" every time Tom or I close it. (Sigh.)

A little (very little) more house progress took place mid-April when I began painting the sunroom. The first picture here is of the primer (the blue-grey color), and the next picture is of the "real" color - the green. The primer went on SO well, and I got really excited about the whole process.

But then, the green went on fairly poorly. It was gloppy and will DEFINITELY require a second coat. Such a disappointment after the ease with which the primer had been applied. The primer is a different brand than the green paint, and so I don't know if that's causing the difference or, maybe, the age of the paint. We bought the green paint almost two years ago and the primer just last year. But, never having been opened, paint doesn't go "bad" that quickly, does it?

The Weekend "Off"

Wednesday morning already - how the heck did THAT happen?!

Northeastern Minnesota has been lying under a h-e-a-v-y blanket of grey, grey, grey weather for days now. The 2-3" of snow we got over the weekend and the following sleet that coated everything with a hard shell of ice has yet to melt since the temperature hasn't topped 32 degrees since. So, while I'm sure it will be much different in just a week or so, for now, it feels like spring will never come!

Tom and I both took the weekend "off" . . . meaning we only did what we WANTED instead of what we felt like we SHOULD be doing.

For Tom, that meant building a fire in his trapper cabin Saturday morning, brewing up a cup (or two or three) of tea, and enjoying the warm sunshine out on that deck. Then, after a couple of odd jobs that it felt good to get done, he installed the closet door and knob assembly that we'd bought last week. Unfortunately (and not thinking - that was my fault), we'd gotten a standard-size door . . . and I had all the downstairs doors framed for 80" doors (to better highlight the 9' high ceiling). So, Tom had to do a little jury-rigging and quickly re-frame the top of the door, but that was the only real problem. And, since the closet is in the utility room, we'll "make do" with a smaller-than-planned door there. (Thank goodness we didn't buy any more doors . . . like we were considering!)

I, meanwhile, got some deskwork done that had been mentally hounding me . . . including the spring poultry order completed! We'll be expecting 26 chicks, 2 goslings, 7 turkeys (what are baby turkeys called?!), and 7 ducklings on June 9th. And, speaking of poultry . . . .

On Monday, I had my camera with me when I went out to do chores, and I thought I'd try to get some good pictures of the chickens. But, just as I thought that, something made me turn around, and this is what I saw (not a happy sight for any chicken farmer). One of the hens had been attacked - her crop ripped open and head . . . well, gone. The "scene of the attack" seemed to suggest a winged predator. When I told Tom about it that night, he said that he HAD seen a huge hawk swoop through the valley on Sunday. Yep, that was probably it. But, that's all part and parcel to having livestock. As the saying goes, "if you have livestock, you also have dead stock".

But, what's worse than finding an animal killed by a predator is having to put one out of its misery, like we did last night. (Bad week for chickens.) When I went out to do chores last night I found a hen standing on one leg, all fluffed up: a bad sign. Her back end looked messy, and so I grabbed her and enlisted Tom's help for a full inspection. She'd prolapsed, and it was beyond the stage of intervention. So, rather than having her suffer any longer, it was "off with her head". Quite literally. But, not a fun thing to have to do.

Anyway, that's the news for this morning. I wish this grey weather would break! Ugh!

A Sink In The Utility Room!

Every house needs a utility room, and every utility room needs a sink.

A utility room is a place to catch the dirt. A room into which you enter through the back door or side door - the "every day door" (company uses the front door).

It's where stuff gets dumped as you come in with your arms full. Stuff that you're not sure where it goes, but it needs to come in.

The utility room is where "stuff to go out to the garage" gets stacked . . . on top of the dryer. The carpenter pencils found in Tom's work clothes, the box of screws that was brought in during a project but never taken back out.

And, the utility room is where you clean eggs or scrub up with Lava soap after a particularly dirty job. The only problem is . . . we didn't have a sink in the utility room in which to do those things.

So, in the continued effort to grant the wishes of those who want more "inside" pics, here is the new sink in the utility room! I know it may seem like an insignificant thing to many of you, but, trust me, it's not. When the only other sink in the house was the kitchen sink (which you don't want to clean eggs in nor scrub up after a filthy job in) or the sink in the master bathroom upstairs (ditto for the eggs and filthy hands) . . . well, you get the idea.

And, thanks to dear friends who completely gutted and remodeled their house, this pre-mounted stainless steel number was all ours!

These pictures were taken back in August, but nothing much has changed. I'll let you know when we actually panel the walls (and SOMEHOW disguise that hideously brilliant-blue pressure tank)! ;)

16 June 2007

I know this picture doesn't "look like much", but it is a shot of two of the fabulous Arts and Crafts-style interior doors Tom has been building! The shot is taken in the entrance foyer . . . I'm standing in my office door looking across the hall. The door on the left leads to the utility room, and the door on the right enters into the downstairs bathroom. If you made a 90 degree turn to the left, you'd be standing in front of the front door.

23 March 2007

Here is another view of the river - with the dogs in the distance. This is "our" end of the river.

No segue here, but . . . .

I'd been in some quandary over what color to paint the utility room. Then, I saw the color some friends painted their house trim last fall, and I fell in love with it: Copper Sky. I just recently borrowed one of the remaining cans of paint and just now test-painted an area, and it will be PERFECT! It matches - nearly exactly - my washer and dryer. Now, if only we could do something about that electric blue pressure tank!

4 February 2007

This past Sunday, Tom began working on staining the new window trim. And, we're thrilled to be able to say that the stain for the trim matches the pre-treated windows perfectly! Here he is, working in the utility room.