Kitchen Floor make over.

In August of 2012 I started removing the first of several layers of vinyl in my kitchen. It was nailed and stapled to a thin sheet of plywood.  The plywood was nailed down to older vinyl flooring that was less ugly than the top layer.

In February of 2013 I started picking at the next layer.  This layer was glued and nailed and stapled down.  It did not disappear willingly.

It was a very long tedious process and about a year ago I got the floor to a point where I could live with it.  Most of the glue was scraped off.  Most of the nails were pulled or tapped in - at least the ones we might step on and the overall look was somewhat charming.  Yeah - that's the word.  Charming.

I have been aching to get back to that project for awhile now but with work it has been impossible.  I finally bit the bullet and filled out appropriate paperwork to ensure I could get 3 days off in a row and Monday I started the final push to finish the kitchen floor.

The first step was to clear out the room and take a picture.  Not SO ugly, huh?

The next step was to crawl around on the floor for the next 12 hours sanding, scraping glue, pulling nails and questioning the sanity of my choices.

As you can see, not much progress was made in that 12 hours.  By 10:00 pm Wednesday I had the floor as ready as it was going to get.  Fir is a soft wood and there was just no possibility of getting up all the black and imperfections.

Peter and I realistically adopted the "we aren't going to make a silk purse out of a sows ear" attitude.  Our floor is 80 years old.  It has been abused with glue, nails and staples.  It has been horribly mistreated and our options were limited.  There were a few places worse than others.  There were some very odd repairs and patches.  There were holes and there was a very odd spot that was stained and finished.  To minimize (aka hide) the flaws in our sows ear we decided to stain the floor dark.  Very dark.  So we started staining:

This morning I added the first of 3 (or more) coats of polyurethane.  

With the exception of a few very odd places that you might have to get on your hands and knees to see, I would say we DID make a silk purse out of a sows ear.  I really like it.   It sure feels great to have this project nearly off my to-do list.

I'm already planning my next project, which will either be painting the cabinets white or removing the popcorn ceiling from the bedroom.  Because heaven forbid, I should sit idle!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have had, or are having a fabulous day.

We are spending the day leisurely hanging out at home, trying to figure out how to get the Seattle Seahawks game on the computer - since we don't have cable TV.  I have been working an insane number of hours - Christmas season is upon us and things are crazy at the USPS.  No time off for little old me so no time to run to Oregon to see my kids.  We are having salad and whatever we can scrape together for dinner.

We had a much different day planned than this though.  Several months ago we traded a rooster and hen to a fellow (Mark) for the promise of a Thanksgiving turkey.  The intention was that he would raise it, and then "dispatch" it, and have for us a very not-like-a-REAL-turkey bird.  On a whim I named this faceless creature Rosie (short for roasted).

A week ago I contacted him to make arrangements to pick up our processed bird.  Mark had completely forgotten the agreement.  I reminded him and he cheerfully agreed to bring a bird over to us.  Alive.  "Eeek!"  I shrieked.  No.  NO.  Absolutely NO!  He agreed to dispatch her for us and bring us a dead bird.  Still very much a real turkey.  Only dead.

My stomach began to feel queazy.  I didn't sleep well.  Peter agreed to do the cleaning and we discussed methods of removing the bird's feathers.

This did not make me feel better.  And then it turns out, to ensure freshness Mark would bring us a live bird, and kill her here.   This also caused me great stress.

Mark and Rosie were supposed to come over Tuesday night, but got lost on the way here.  He took her back home and released her to the rest of the flock.  He told me a story how easy she is to catch because she really likes grain and comes eagerly to him when he offers it to her.  Awwwww....  I love animals that love food!  He promised to bring her by this morning after enticing her with promised yummy grain.  :(

I have not slept well.  Peter had dreams about turkeys.  I worried and stewed.  Peter confessed he wasn't eager to do this either.  Early this morning I contacted Mark and issued Rosie a pardon.

Maybe someday I can do this.  Maybe.  But probably not likely.

Rosie.  Long live Rosie!!

EGGceptional..

Have I mentioned I love chickens?  It seems we have finally eradicated our ugly chicken virus and my chickens are healthy, happy and approaching their first birthday.

I had purchased 6 little chicks - all sold to me as hens.  As they grew, one didn't match the others.  It turns out I ended up with a fine and handsome rooster who takes his job very seriously.  He struts and crows and protects his harem from pesky interlopers.  He is truly magnificent.

But then I'm a little partial.

Since we seem to have beaten the virus, the worst of the winter weather is behind us and I conveniently have a rooster to do a rooster's job I have decided to allow my chickens to make more chickens.  Cuz, again... I love chickens and 5 chickens is not enough.

Since I'm trying to encourage my chickens to make more chickens I am not gathering their eggs on a daily basis.  I want one of them to get broody and start sitting.  They need a batch of eggs to do that.

I am still unsuccessful at convincing my hens to sit on eggs.  Today I gathered up the existing clutch preparing to try again in a week.  I immediately became concerned.  I was thinking that one of my poor hens must have gotten VERY hurt in this process. It had to hurt.  How could it not hurt??  Yikes!

I took this 'ostrich egg' to Peter to seek his input.  He has experience at these things.  He's a doctor even.  He could assure me that this was normal, or at least that I did not have a hen with problems.

His first comment was "that seems a strange color..."
Then I looked at his eyes.  They were twinkling and he had a repressed grin on his face.

Yep.  I was on the getting end of a practical joke.  Seems THIS egg was layed by one of our geese late last week.  Peter had put in the chicken coop three days ago and was just waiting, waiting waiting for me to make this discovery.  I did not disappoint.  Someday I hope to be less gullible.

Back to nature

There are a few inventions in the last couple centuries that I can live without.  We don't have a microwave.  That's fine. No dishwasher.  No problem.  No Cable TV.. that's fine too.

But there are a few things that make this world a better place and a few of them I find imperative to daily life.  Hot running water is one thing I'm terribly grateful for.  Forced air heat is another thing I'm very happy to have.  But these things I could manage without for a short time.  Maybe not happily but I COULD manage.

As of last night our little house on the ditch has had a "technical" problem that requires a professional to repair.  The impossible inconvenience of this problem has made certain aspects of my daily life challenging - to say the least.  I am disgruntled.  

The temperature is hovering around freezing.  My options are limited.  This is not working for me.  Peter thinks it's funny.  But then the inconvenience to him is not as great.

Hopefully the repairman will be able to make an appearance this morning - even though it's Sunday.  Otherwise I might have to move into a motel or go stay with the freighbor...

The little house on the ditch.

It's been awhile.  We have a gazillion PHD's  (projects half done) and more that haven't even been started yet.  The kitchen floor is still just partially stripped.  The driveway is still just partially dug up.  The fiber studio is still just studs.  The vegetable garden is half planted.  The potato field is prepped but there are no potatoes planted yet.  The fence line for the new alpaca pasture is cleared and prepped, but the rolls of fencing remain rolled up and waiting.  The grapes still need trellising.  My shrugigan is still in progress.  We have so much to do it has become overwhelming.  Even thinking about blogging was more than I could handle.

We began the driveway project with the full intent of staying on task until it was done - but the rain hit.  When there was finally a break in the weather it was spring and spring things needed to get done.  Now it's important to do things that can only be done in the spring.  The driveway and thus, the garage conversion, landscaping, etc now has to be back-burnered while we tackle vegetables and grapes and hops and more.

Chicklets are a spring thing and mine are thriving.  Of the six chicks I got a few months ago 5 are growing into fine beautiful hens that will be soon laying gorgeous eggs.  One, however is not.  That one is growing into a fine rooster to give the chicken coop that manly touch.  He's still working on getting the crow thing down.  Right now he sounds like a child screaming because they aren't getting candy for breakfast.   I really wanted a rooster - I love the crowing, when it's done right.

Several weeks ago Peter called on his way home from work to ask if we needed anything.  Honestly, I couldn't think of a thing!  But somehow he knew my unspoken thoughts.  An hour later he walked in the door carrying three Toulouse Goslings.  Toulouse geese are the geese that look like "mother goose" from the children's books.  The little things are so cute!





I love learning new things.  And hey, I learned something new!  Not too long ago I learned a very important lesson - One should not tuck rain pants into barn boots during a hurricane  (they just act like downspouts into your boots).

The newest lesson in my book is this:  Disciplining a cat when half naked is a bad idea!  We have two indoor cats and 3 outdoor cats.  One of our cats, K@t, is trying very hard to become an outdoor cat by doing all the things she knows will get her thrown off the island.  Yesterday I came home from work with the lofty goal of doing some gardening.  I changed my shirt, took my pants off and grabbed my overalls, only to find them soaked with urine.  Eww!!  K@t seemed to be hanging around in evil anticipation waiting to see the outcome of her dirty deed.   I swiftly scooped her up and  began rubbing her face with the pee-soaked pants.  She didn't like it at all (go figure!)  claws came out, teeth were barred and and she twisted frantically to be released from her punishment.  Needless to say, I instantly regretted my bare legs and questioned my own choices.  My thighs were a huge (well, maybe not HUGE)  pasty white target for 6" talons looking to exact revenge.  Trying to minimize any damages I might receive I spun her around and pinned her back to my legs, while her claws clawed the air.  I felt like I was in a Hollywood slasher movie!  During our struggle her claws found the palm of my hand.  I am fortunate she didn't connect with any other exposed flesh.  Her time in the house is limited - I really like this cat so she has at least one more chance, if not two or three or ten.  But there will be a limit.  I'm sure!

Construction. Day 8?

Yeah - let's call it day 8.  It's really hard to tell because we've done a little bit here and a little bit there.

We've had a few problems.  The rain has been persistent and ugly.  I've had to work two days, Thursday Peter took an alpaca head to the face, resulting in a broken nose and I woke with a migraine this morning.  Needless to say, construction progress has slowed wwwwaaaayyyy down.

I have a photo though:

As you can see, the sun finally came out today and Peter was able to resume digging.  "We" want to dig all the top soil out and save it for raising the the future lawn.  We'll put junky old fill under the future parking pad.

Yesterday the weather was so crazy we had sun breaks, rain, hail storms and snow flurries.  Great fun for delivering mail.  It was a "take my rain coat and jacket off, put the jacket on, take the jacket off, put on the rain coat, put them both back on, take them off" kind of day.  The temperature was very fickle.

Today the weather was much better.  Sunny and warm - as long as you weren't hanging out in the shade.  I wish I had felt better and was able to help Peter more.  Instead I made muffins, cleaned the kitchen, napped,  sat staring into space, and I did manage to take the chicklets that have been living in our kitchen on their first outing into the big, wide world.  Sparky had to help me supervise.

The weather should be good like this for nearly a week.  Unfortunately I have to work 4 days out of five.  I'd rather be here than delivering mail but we have to do what we have to do.  I'm not really so much help with just digging anyway.  I'm sure he'll be fine without me.

Construction Days 5, 6 & 7

Day 5 found Peter needing to rest and recuperate.  His hands were damaged and needed time to heal.  So Thursday Peter mended and I went to work at the Post Office.  I keep hoping I will wake up one day and not hate my job.  It didn't happen on Thursday, in fact I was having fantasies of quitting before 10:00 a.m.  Then to add insult to injury - I found out I will be covering for vacation again next week.  That doesn't fit in construction plans at all. 

But I digress and I whine.  I was talking construction.  Not much progress has been made in the last three days because of the rain.  It has been coming down in deluges.  It's been miserable and makes me very cranky.  Today was really the first day we had reasonable weather in ages.  We ran out with enthusiasm to greet the pretty day.  Surprise!  It was really cold!  But at least it wasn't raining so we bundled up and got to work.  We made progress before I bailed out to go get alpaca food.  Shortly after I got back Peter bailed out to go to the office.  Together, but separately, we got the concrete up from the west side of the parking slab.  Now we need to dig up the gravel, then dig out the top soil.  The new parking slab is going to be much higher, slightly smaller and off-set from the old one.  Our front lawn will be bigger (and actually a lawn!).  

It's nice to be making visible progress.

In case you're wondering, the stripping of our kitchen floor has been stopped in the middle and my studio has doors, but all construction has been halted in favor of THIS construction.  That's okay. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

(De)Construction. Days 3 & 4.

Day 3 of construction brought rain.  Torrential, oppressive, disgusting rain.  It felt as if we should be building an ark instead of an addition.  Instead of doing much actual construction, Peter made arrangements for a jack hammer rental as well as spent time at the office.  We also took our 4 goose eggs off to a friends house to be incubated.  If all goes well we'll have more baby goosies in about 30 days.  Because we need more critters in our growing menagerie!

About 6:00 we finally made it out to the garage to continue clearing out the stuff that went back in after it went out.  The rain was so bad though that even making a few dashes from garage to barn or shed had you soaked clear through.  Man I hate rain like that!

Day 4 proved much more productive, aided by the fact that the rain held off for most of the day.  We were up before daylight and Peter had the jack hammer with it's very own compressor/trailer home and nearly ready to go by 8:00.   Because we had to resort to a jack hammer and jack hammer rentals are expensive we had to temporarily skip to phase 2 of our construction plan.  Phase 1 was to just break away the concrete on the parking pad and in front of the garage and replace the other concrete when it made more sense. Because we had to rent the jack hammer and we wanted to get our moneys worth our mission for the day was to break up ALL the concrete that needs to go.  Ever.  That's a lot of jack hammering!

Peter said the jack hammer officially weighed 90 pounds.  I tried to use it, I think it weighed more. I managed to "drill" 5 holes, total.  I was no help at all.  In my defense, Peter said that by the end of the day the thing weighed closer to 300 pounds.  It was probably an accumulation of the concrete dust and crumbs that made it so heavy.

While Peter cracked concrete I pried it loose and piled it up.  It was a long hard day for both of us - more so for Peter.  He logged just over 6 hours on the jack hammer.  No one can say my husband had girly hands.  They are totally torn up with more blisters and tears than you an imagine:

The rain hit about 3:00 and we yet continued for another hour or two.  The sidewalks and slab are all cracked, there is a growing pile of rubble with so much more growing to do.  

I think I'm glad I'm working at the Post Office tomorrow.  Otherwise I'd be picking up concrete in the rain.

Construction. Day 2.

The end of day 2 finds me not quite as exhausted as I was Saturday.  Today we headed off to the toxic waste disposal place.  It turns out not all our toxic waste was toxic at all.  Latex paint is non-toxic and can be disposed of with regular trash, as long as you make it solid.  Fortunately the place did take all the nasty stuff so we don't have to worry about THAT anymore.

On our way home we stopped and rented a concrete saw.  Peter applied himself to the task:

I applied myself to the task of turning latex paint into a solid.  I do distract easily though and before I knew what came over me I was swirling the pretty colors together and entertaining myself quite nicely.  I know.. I'm a slacker and I did eventually get all the liquid out of the cans and spread out in boxes so it can dry.

 While I was playing with paint, Peter continued working on concrete removal.  He hammered on it with a sledge hammer, while I burned paper in my chimenia.  He pried on it with a pry bar, while I played with kitties.  He got the farmer next door with the really big tractor over to help lift sections while I wandered around the field with the alpacas.  The result of his efforts are below.  That's Oliver, Intrepid and Minuit, our outdoor cats, hamming it up in the photo.

The concrete was much thicker than expected and was not going to be removed as we had planned.  Our next step is a jack hammer.  I wonder what I can find to keep myself busy while Peter uses that?

Construction. Day One

Day one of construction is done.  Gone.  Thank goodness.  I'm pooped.  The day started off somewhat leisurely with attention to the chicklets and alpacas.  Everyone needed food and preparation for the day, including Peter and I.  Cleverly I threw food in the crock pot so we'd have dinner ready when we wanted it.  We began our endeavors by 10:00.

Our construction plan involves a complex chain of events.  Here is a before photo of stage one.

Our plan involves turning the garage into additional living space for the MIL suite. Our plan is to remove the garage door, frame in a wall, add a window, remove the brown door on the end, add a window, re-side the building and build a pergola/patio where those plants are on the end.  On the inside we are going to vault the ceiling, insulate and sheet rock the walls, break out the old concrete and re-pour the floor, topping it with matching hardwood that we put in the rest of the suite last year.  Before we can do any of that we need to remove the parking pad and tree stumps, raise the level of the ground, re-pour cement to include the foundation of the garage and future pergola.  But before we can do that we need to make space for the pile of broken concrete and foundation that we need to break out, as well as the soil we're going to try to sift and salvage.

And that's just stage 1.  

My beloved husband (aka the great time under-estimator) says we can have it done in a couple of weeks.  Bwaa haaa haaa!

Now that you know the plan, here is how day one went.  Peter started clearing a space for the concrete and soil while I started emptying the garage.  Most of the stuff in the garage was not mine so I could not make the judgement call on what to do with it.  I just hauled it out to the parking slab and sorted into piles:  Tools/hardware, garden, wine-making, organic material (like potato starts, cuttings, etc), everything else, hazardous waste (there were cans and cans of unlabeled paints and chemicals) and then a pile for the stuff that probably needs to go to the dump.

By 3:00 the garage was mostly empty, Peter was done with his task and began tackling the chore of sorting through the piles.  He added new piles to my sorting schema and made serious progress.  I turned into his assistant as the decisions being made could not be made by me. The problem was that by the time we finished sorting, nothing was actually put away and it was nearing 9 pm.  We had promised his mother that we would not leave anything on the slab overnight.  She worries about how things look.

Peter stashed the potatoes in the barn, as well as the tools and hardware, while I burned our burn pile.  A few things were put in Peter's mom's van for charity and a few things were put in the SUV for recycling.

Everything else went back into the garage.

EVERYTHING.

(can you hear the crickets chirping?)

At least it's sorted for easy dispersal once the dump, recycling & hazardous waste places open on Monday.  Peter still needs to make some decisions on where to put the things we aren't getting rid of but the hardest part of this section of the plan is over with.  yay.

Spring Fever

The dreary days are upon us.  Day after day of rain and mud and muck and gunk.  Not that I have SAD or anything - or maybe I do but this weather makes me ache for long summer days, grass, flowers and sunshine.

The little house on the ditch is desperately in need of some TLC and we have summer plans for just that.  But summer seems a long way off and I've got the ache now.  I'm restless and I'm ready for something to brighten my day.

Being a child of the virtual age I decided to do home improvements THAT way.  For now anyway.

This is the before picture of our little house on the ditch.

The first thing to do was some basic clean up.  Sorry, Peter, but work clothes do NOT belong in my virtual fantasy:

Paint!  The house desperately needs painting.  I wanted a bright cheery color and I'm not satisfied with this one.  I might go a bit more yellow for the real world - but for now this works.

I think the house looks like a face without eyebrows.  It needs more trim.  I was thinking shutters but Peter thinks trim will be sufficient.  For now we'll stick with just trim.  

Actually I hate to admit it, but he may be right.  Trim seems sufficient and it's definitely getting better.  Still needs more though.  Uhmm... oh - how about nice green grass??

I hear a colorful front door is a feng shui sort of thing.  I chose purple.

More color is needed.  I think flowers are in order.

and then the last, most important thing..  chickens and a chicken coop. 

 You know, I didn't touch the gray sky but it actually looks brighter.  Maybe that's just wishful thinking...

I'm done (for) now.

Racing toward the finish line...

Christmas is just 7 days away.  Kyle and Mary will be here in just 14 days.  I'm so glad we are making progress!

Yesterday I moved the bed into the living room.  It's quite cozy in here and I can drink my coffee while still in bed.  Gosh.. It's so cozy I can almost MAKE my coffee while still in bed.

The bedroom had 5 different kinds of carpeting in it.  There was an orange shag, a brown swirly patterned atrocity, and orange swirly patterned piece, another incredibly ugly and gross piece and then a salvagable beige berber over the top of that.  You can see three here:

By two o'clock the ceiling was coming down and the carpeting was coming up.

Sparky supervised.. and because there was a risk of asbestos in the popcorn ceiling, she wore protective gear:

By 10:00 pm the ceiling was all down and the carpeting was all out.  Tomorrow I attack the walls with bleach  (there seems to be a bit of a mold issue) and start filling holes and prepping the ceiling for the new finish.

360 degrees

It has dawned on me that where I live is a mystery to some of my favorite people:   My brother and his wife who will be out to visit next spring, my friend Sherry who I keep inviting up to visit, my daughter-in-law and other dear people I know.  I talk of ditches and bachelor pads and border crossings.  So here is a quick tour of my new home:

I took these photos standing on the foot bridge that crosses the ditch.  The ditch is fed from a lake in Canada and was originally a creek.  For some reason, when they put in the road, they decided to split the creek in two and run it on each side of the road and re-name it a ditch.  Salmon spawn in our ditch.  I don't think it's actually a ditch at all.

The ditch occasionally floods.  That's a bad thing.  The bachelor pad is built on a cement slab at ground level.  That's not such a good thing either.   We're trying to create landscaping and such that will direct the water away from the house.

Looking North:

Looking West:

Looking South:

Looking East:

Now you know where I live.  Stop by anytime.

Little House on the Ditch

Sometimes it feels like I live in the Little House on the Prairie.  I no longer go to an office.  I'm one of those "stay-at-home" people.  I've stepped back in time. 

• I wash laundry and hang it on the line to dry.
• I feed the chickens, ducks and guineas.  Soon I'll be feeding and milking goats as well.
• I make dinner and I wear an apron!  The other day I roasted a chicken.  Today I turned the leftovers into chicken pot pie.  In the process I made chicken broth and will turn that into chicken noodle soup for tomorrow - and I'll make the noodles from scratch.
• I go out to the garden and dig potatoes and vegetables to make that dinner.
• Tomorrow I plan to do some canning.  I'm going to make sweet pickles and pickled beets.  Gotta get prepared  for the long hard winter.  I wish I had a root cellar.
• I fetch water from the well  (okay.. not really - but I don't get water from the tap. I get it from the bottled water we keep that we get from an artesian well.)
• I knit and spin and card wool.
• There are salmon spawning in the ditch under our driveway bridge.
• We do not have a microwave oven or a dishwasher.

I made pie crust for my chicken pot pie today.  No rolling pin to be found  (mine is still boxed up). I ended up using a wine bottle as a rolling pin.  It worked quite well. Yet another valuable use for a fine fruit by-product!

I'm not complaining.. not really.  It's just so completely different than my previous life or any life I could have imagined.

The other day I put on high heels to go to Thanksgiving dinner and I could barely walk in them.  It was very sad.

I'm hoping we're out of the batchelor pad by early November.  I'm sure it will all be better then.. Of course I'll still be knitting and carding and spinning and cooking and washing and feeding the chickens and..

I guess nothing is going to change.

That's good because actually, I like this new life.  I just wish I could still walk in heels!