In Like a Lion, and Lots of Boring Stuff

Wow, when did March get here?  Here in the Midwest it has arrived lion-style.  I can do without the sustained 30 to 40 mph winds.  I've discovered that I don't sleep well on windy nights. Until 3 years ago, we had 100 foot tall pines plumb against the house.  They were top heavy, having been plantation planted many, many years ago, meaning they only had needles near the tops where they could get sun.  The lower branches die off.  When we cleared the lot to build the house, these top heavy trees really, really swayed  in the wind.  When they have forest friend trees, they sway less, supporting one another.

So to make a short story long, for 10 years I wondered which tree was going to come crashing down into the house.  Given how our house is constructed (with structural insulated panels~~SIPs), if they were to hit the roof, there are no rafters to stop them.  I feared that one of the kids would be killed in his bed.  We finally took down the trees that were tall enough to hit the bedrooms of the house.  I still don't sleep well on windy nights.  Sigh.  The good news is that we didn't have any tornadic activity here, but I'm waiting to see if a call comes out from the Red Cross for shelter volunteers.  Sadly, I can't go this week, since we're getting ready for All Things DD Day next Sunday.

So here's the catching up news.  I begin work at YNP on May 13.  Yea!  I called two of the parks that are closer to me (so to speak), but one didn't hire anyone new this year, and the other had two new positions and 5 military vets on the list who qualified.  Oh well.  Too bad for me, Yellowstone is my fall-back position.  ::grinning grinning grinning::  Since I've made this trip 4 other times, I'm not going to sweat the details this time.  A week or so before I leave I'll check the weather maps and pick a route.  I prefer the North Dakota route, which is actually shorter, but if they or eastern Montana are having blizzards, we'll go the Iowa way.  But if Iowa is having tornadoes, we'll go north.  Sheesh. We still haven't found a room mate for Tommy but I'm plugging away at it. 

Other news on the nature front, our buzzards are back and they are waaaaaay early!  The woodcocks are back in NW Ohio, but I haven't heard any right here yet.  Now that bluebirds and robins are year-round residents it's a little harder to get excited about them.  But they are so much brighter now.  The goldfinches started showing more gold two weeks ago.  And since the raccoonnss totally trashed the feeders a couple of weeks ago, we haven't fixed them, so no feeding at the moment.  Drat.  That's on this week's To-Do list.

In housekeeping news, we have 5 or 6 projects running all at the same time.  Now I confess that when I'm sewing, I often have multiple projects in the works.  But they pack up nice and neatly in to smallish bags are are put on the shelf.  When DH has a project in the work, it involves getting out every tool he owns, which he never,  I repeat nEveR puts away.  It's always my fault that he can't find stuff.  I use my best passive-aggressive approach to get him to do it, but alas, he's totally immune to that.  (Probably the reason he looks to be only pushing early 60s instead of the actual 71 that he is, he can easily let things roll off his back.)  Then I finally get pissed off and put it away.  "Away" now means a small, rolling scaffold that is now his tool pile. You should see the size of his workshop.  Truly, it's huge.  And truly he can't find a damn thing.  I've labelled, corralled, marshaled stuff, worked with him, worked without him, all to no avail.

So to make another short story long, we have several projects all strewn all over.  We've finally picked a design for the quilt display rack in the dining room which is now painted a fantastic yellow.  I'd show you the pics, but now the partially completed rack is on the table, the small table had to be moved to the center of the room, etc, etc..  Crap.  He's waiting to finish that until he speaks with his bro, the real woodworker who would kill someone if they don't put the tools back properly, but bro is getting a title to a new car and has his phone turned off.  Crap again.  (Okay, a few pics below.)

So the other huge project is in the basement.  Because of the design and construction of the house, we have two locations for utility systems.  We're now trying to hide the pump, conditioner, and basement floor heater, since they are next to the crafty corner and train stuff.  We've had lots and lots of ideas, all of which ended up with rolling doors.  He found some super cheap ones that will work perfectly. And omg, he got the end boxed in! We'll try to get it "paneled" tomorrow.  Tonight he's off to a Northwestern Ohio Rails to Trails annual planning retreat.

Foyer, before.

Dining room, before.

Dining room, during.

Foyer, after.

Other side of foyer, after.

The new beast..... yep, right in front of the boob tube in the family room.

Basement trains and a new moving wall on the far side.

New moving wall by the Crafty Corner.

What's behind door #8?  Yep, there's 8 individual sliding door panels.  Three of them will be joined together, so I can put my design wall on it.  At the moment, DH wants the other doors to remain singularly.  We'll see.

One of the doors moved, to access the freezer.  Pretty nifty.  The wall helps to cut down some of the pump noise.  And boy is it noisy.

So here are the things I didn't get to write about this week:
Quilt for swap is done.
Ranger Anderson quilts have been mailed (short version, we raised over $500 on the two quilts and stuff.)
All Things DD Day (Sun. March 11)
Whack-a-doodles Purple Toilet Quilt. (For auction May 11)
FTD and diabetes.
IEPs for both kids. ( One down, one to go, then meet with next school for DD)
Waiver option provider search continues.
First wedding ceremony scheduled. Friday, March 9)
Relaxing afternoon with my Sis at the Toledo Museum of Art. (Last Wednesday)
Little Turtle Service Unit Girl Scout Sing-along. (Saturday, March 10)
DH leaving for golf trip (hallelujah!) (Monday, March 12)

Girls' Night Out Cocktail Party--here on Friday the 16th~~ BE HERE!!

EDIT:  I forgot... PT for my screwed up Achilles tendon (the PTs said, "Hmmmm, we've never seen anything like that before.  Stay off your feet, and don't wear shoes that rub the back of your heel."  Yeah.  Right.)
PT for FTD's back--the slouchmiester.
Paint last two basement steps (tonight?  Get off the dang couch and step away from the computer!)
Paint basement stairs landing. (Ditto)


Other than that, not much happen' here......

Project Yard Work

It's amazing, but the major portion of my yard plan is finished. The rocks in the front yard are just the way I want them. This includes a huge rock I actually purchased. It called to me as soon as I drove into the rock shop, and I tried to ignore it. But it came home to our house. I think DH even likes it. Pics soon.

And today I put the last, I hope, of the rocks/border around the back basement window. With those 2 projects, it just a matter of keeping things under control for now. I've pretty much given up thinking that the area under our deck will ever look nice or be "landscaped" so I'm content now.


Whew. Content and tired!

Glowing October Days

The colors of the trees this year has been simply indescribable. The closest thing I can say is they glow this year. You just need to be here to believe it. I've taken several pictures, but they don't capture the feeling that comes over me when I'm out walking the woods. And since we've had very little sun, I haven't yet figured out why the trees are glowing! Very, very cool fall show.

Along those lines, there are very few pine cones and acorns on the ground. Last year when we walked the path in the back woods, it was like walking on ball bearings. And every morning when we came out, the yard was covered with cones from our white pines, no matter how many we picked up the night before. DH figures that the year before last the trees must have been stressed. The good news from that was the finches were here in record numbers. I suspect we won't see many crossbills and such this year.

I went berserk and bought some more rocks. This morning I loaded up 500 lbs of field stone into my car, then drove home and unloaded the things. I also shoveled the last of the river rock into the cart on the mower, so I can get those placed around the window well in the back. I spent several hours a couple of days ago beating back the weeds in my "back yard." This is barely more than a ribbon of grass around the back deck, but dang it! I want it to be a ribbon of domesticated, well behaved grass. The environmentalist in me is rather disgusted with the home owner in me that wants said ribbon of grass. We've got 3+ acres here, and most of it remains in it's natural state and I love that. But we have to grow domesticated, well behaved grass over the leach field, which takes up our whole front yard. And when one has grass growing, it needs to be cleared of the leaves in the fall, or it will cease to be well behaved grass. I bought a leaf sweeper that goes on the back of the mower, so DD can cruise around and sweep leaves to his little heart's content. And again the "green me" is yelling at the homeowner me about using so much gasoline to get rid of leaves. I guess October is just going to remain a month of my internal selves yelling at each other.

And homeowner me would dearly love for the spiders to either move back to the trees or at least stop pooping all over my porch. Can't a girl have a little space to herself that doesn't need to be cleaned all the time!!!!!! Is that asking too much?

Housing Projects

When I'm out west, I miss that there are no house projects which need our attention--sort of. . . The apartment is small, which means no intense cleaning needed, but it's also pretty sterile. When I get home, I'm overwhelmed that there are so many projects that need my attention--sort of. . . I'm hoping that when the basement is finished (the end is almost in sight), that I can start indulging in more fun stuff--like taking a hike without being overcome with that old Protestant Work Ethic thing. All summer long, I tell folks that they should go sit on a rock and do nothing, but I fail to follow my own advice. I'm thinking of making myself take a walk in the woods every Wednesday. Check in with me to see if I do it. Maybe I just need peer pressure to do it!

I'd also like to get back to my sewing projects. It's good therapy for me. I used to say it was cheaper than therapy, but if I actually get my crafty corner fixed up in the basement, it could get costly again. I'll have room for my material stash, and all of you crafters know how dangerous that can be.

So today's project is to stain the front deck. DH did one section last May before he came out west, so it looks, once again, like poor white trash abide here. The new roof looks great, and the downspouts work, except that there are "splash guards" at the corners. They've turned into leaf catchers, so I called the company yesterday and asked them to come out and remove them. We did get the new door put in, complete with the electronic lock. Email me for your own private code number!

And I got one of the 1 1/2 tons of river rock moved. I have a plan for the rest of it, but I've got to get that stain on before the rains come again. Bring your paintbrush and come on over!

Life on the Big Sandy

One of the downsides of living on a huge sand dune is well. . . . I miss rocks. Really. I have a thing for rocks--river rocks, granite, scoria, rhyolitic, knife river flint, petrified rock, you name it, I miss rocks. So yesterday, I bought another couple of tons of rock. 1.5 tons of it is river rock, the rest is field stone. And when one buys rock around here, one will be shoveling rock for week. Dang. At least I've finally got a plan for how I want the "foundation" plantings around the house to look. The bad news is that there's a lot more (expensive) rock in my future. And surprise surprise, no one wants to come over and help me shovel it. Humph.

Upcoming events include Shay's arrival from Texas and her wedding shower Sunday afternoon. Wedding is in 2 weeks. It'll be a nice family affair at the Lodge. DH and I had our reception there (along with several other fun parties) and K8 got married there also. It'll be loverly! Another fun thing to add to our list of fun November things.

Cleaning Time Again

For a house that hasn't been fully lived in for nearly 3 months the place is a mess. Yep, there were dirty clothes and linens to be washed (even tho DH said he did them all), and little annoying stuff had to be done--like put the dish ware back where it belongs, ditch the 4 month old food in the 'fridge and so on. But alas, I repeat myself.

So yesterday and today was work on basement and outside day. I could barely move when I went to bed last night. But my alleged flower beds are weeded, some of the pine needles are raked up, and most of the camp boxes are back where they spend the winter. Well, all but DH and FTD's boxes--they are definitely cut from the same cloth--both oblivious slobs. Ah, well. . . .

And I know why 'taupe' is such a popular color for houses--it's the same color as fly and spider poop. Dang for such little critters they sure can pile it up!! And why oh why do they have to use my front porch when there's 4000 acres of real honest to goodness woods out there!?!?!?

I'm also trying to get caught up on upcoming projects--basement of course, and the Whitehouse Holiday Home Tour scheduled for Dec. 13 this year. If my next door neighbor opens her home for the tour, I'll do ours also. That means I have to get rid of my entire family for a week, so that could be tricky. We'll see. Last year's event was terrific. Good fundraiser for the local library.

So back to the yard--I sure know why condos are sooooo appealing! The downside would be having to share the view from my front porch. . . hm m m m .....

Home Again, Home Again. . . and exhausted

We've arrived "safe-home" once again. And as usual, I'm whipped. DH said last June before he left for Wyoming that the laundry was all done, etc.. When I got home yesterday, I realized that his idea of "laundry all done" and mine don't match. So not only did I have 5 days worth of traveling clothes to wash, there were several baskets of last spring's laundry also. Yuck.

Each summer someone different has lived in our Ohio house. And each year I come home and can't find stuff. The most annoying part is that the kitchen stuff always gets moved around. This summer wasn't the worst, but it's still a pain.

The good news is that the basement floor is done--including being stained. It's just the way I wanted it, which was tricky since I ordered it via email and phone conversations from 1700 miles away! The down side is that the basement didn't get aired out, so last night we had to turn off the heat and open the windows. Even though it's in the upper 50s, it feels much much colder than the 50s we're used to out west. It rained a long time yesterday, and then the wind blew and blew all night. There's several sassafras branches rubbing the roof, so all night I was either awake and cold or awake and wondering what was making all that racket. DH got several of the branches cut off this afternoon, but there's still one that he can't reach. I'm hoping for a good night's sleep tonight.

Other news is that the TVs are on the fritz, so no boob tube again tonight. I'm so tired that I just want to completely veg out in front of completely useless, inane tv shows for the evening. Dang.

Later on, I'll write about our trip home--very different from our unusual trips. And speaking of which: DO NOT drive Rt. 287 south of the park this winter!!!!!!! We were in 4-5 inches of mud for miles and miles!!! What a mess! I'm thinking it was beautiful scenery, but since I couldn't take my eyes off the road, er ditch we were in, I'm not sure. Pictures to follow.

But for now, the pumpkin pie is done, and the big, fat roasting chicken is in the oven, so all is calm. Ah, dinner at home, with room for all 4 of us to sit down and eat together at one table. Sweet.