Night Visitor

The kids were both off at overnights in Seattle. When I drove up to the house on my return from the city, there were two yellow glowing eyes waaaay bigger than my cats... illuminated in the headlights.

It was so big I was thinking it was a mighty small bear, but when I saw the ungainly lumpy walk and its relative fearlessness knew it was a raccoon. It was not terribly scared of me, and halfheartedly tried to move it's big hiney up the holly tree. It seemed like a very difficult task and Amanda wanted to go play with the slow creature. I grabbed the dog and cat and threw them in the house. I grabbed the flashlight to go count chickens. They were all in and accounted for. The dog and cat pestered me to go outside for an hour. When I finally let them out to go pee I told them to leave the raccoon alone. They came back in the house intact, so all is well. Now I get to figure out how to get rid of the raccoon before it figures out how to get into my unlocked and unsecured coop. Dangitall.

Public Domain Image Courtesy : morguefile.com

End of the Year

It has been a long dry spell for me for posting, or for that matter, email.
Our "new" laptop had a file sitting on it that went viral. It then went to the trusty trusted computer doctor to get cleaned up. He played a bit of bejeweled, watched a game, and fixed our computer. Yay computer doctor! Yay friend who married such a talented man! Yay me for knowing this couple!
Otherwise, I would not be online right now.
Xmas was fine. We are supposed to be having snow again tonight. The horses are in their blankets. Their fields and stalls are mud. My dog was groomed for Christmas, and then ungroomed herself outside. The kids, as usual, were spoiled by Santa and family.
MY Bathroom is Almost Done! But that will be another post.

Private schools

When our daughter was in elementary school she lost her voice. Not literally, but the power that she had all along up to that point disappeared. I first noticed it when she freaked out about giving a speech in 5th grade. This girl had not had a problem before, all of a sudden the pressure of being in front of boys, of public speaking, of being the focus made her hate school.
I had read about this stuff where girls become invisible, but did not think my spirited daughter would succumb.
She did.
Fortuitously, family helped us send her to a girls middle school focused on science and math. The school was amazing -- repeatedly told her (and all the gals) that they could lead the world, whatever that meant to them. There was never a question about if the girls could do it, the educators were dedicated and positive. Within a year she was presenting projects in front of doctors, surgeons and business leaders. She went back to public high school with alot of self-esteem regarding her ability to learn.
Our son is in his first year of middle school. His school is big, the teachers mostly don't even know who he is, I feel like he is a cog in a big wheel, and is being pushed through whether he learns or not. He always loved math, but hates it now due to how it is taught. Our finances are quite different, but I took Wilder to look at a local private school (I should be accurate, they call themselves Independent schools) to see if he could have the same benefit Ruby had access to.
When we were walking away his comment was " How come all the adults and teachers talked to me?" He said that was so unusual.
It made me sad to tell him that was what educators do-- they are interested in their students (or prospective students) and their learning.

Snow Pics - to remind us of crazy driving

Top to bottom: This is the type of snow that cripples our area. In our defense, there is a bit-o-ice under there....
Okay here is the story.
1. We are all driving along a whopping 3-11 miles an hour, if that fast. More like a fast walking pace. The car in front of me, in the middle pic is a rear wheel drive lexus(?) acura(?) type thing. The rear wheel drive was killing this car, it went up this little hill somewhat sideways, with very little traction. Had it had to stop, it would have been stuck. And me and the 30 cars behind me would have been stuck, too.
Note in middle picture the truck that is in the same lane as us. You know what that dweebie toyota truck was doing? Passing. Passing to nowhere. It is not like there was one slow car holding everyone up. There was hundreds of cars, all being slow. So this guy pulled into the downhill lane that the poor acura was barely making it up... to pass the car in front. He did not have enough room, so when he gunned it and turned his steering wheel to go back into his own lane, his car continued on it's slow and straight motion trajectory of impact with the acura. Since we were all on ice.... his 4WD vehicle cannot drive on ice any better than the rest of us. It was all so slow, that I could just sit and take pics, almost comedic driving. At the last minute, his tires must have gripped the center line where the snow was not smooshed into ice, and his truck swerved back into his own lane. the bottom pic is the acura putting on her/his brakes and cursing him out. The funny thing was, that the toyota driver was going to get all up in the acura's face... but he couldn't stop.

Dingbat.

Snow "storm" pictures

Pics courtesy Blue Shoe Farm: ~ Miss Amanda blending in with the white stuff. Good thing she has a brown nose and eyes.
~The chickens were unfazed by the snow.
~The horses looking around and asking me: Hey lady, where are our blankets??

If you don't know this already, us folks up here in the northwest are considered snow wimps. Can't drive in it -- all of western WA slips to a standstill, buses are sideways, people abandoning their cars on the side or IN the middle of the freeways when they get stuck, countless fender benders. When we get 2" of snow.

To our defense... we do have hills, and don't use salt due to our salmon habitat and whatever other reason. Oh yeah, it only snows 2" every third or fourth year here. This was the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Ready for a new week of dust

I have been strangely silent on my house stuff going on.
That is because I was eternally pissed of the sideways progress made, then it snowed, the power went out for three days, then we had thanksgiving, then other stuff happened, and here I am, a much wiser calmer homeowner.
Tomorrow I have the plumber coming to finish up his work.
Please pray for me to be gracious, kind, and not tower over him with my cranky but sweet NW passive aggresiveness. Actually, it may be better to pray for him.
I will be shoveling horse manure tomorrow from stall to compost pile. It should do me a world of good.

This is how I know I am getting old....

This is how I know I am getting old. To me, this is wrong, on so many levels. From when our kidlets were this age... when the babes have that alert tenseness about their body, it means they are very stimulated... and mine only got that way with people, or their dog. Why am I old? I don't think a kid needs to be in front of a 2d screen that flashes images every one to three seconds. And I know we are becoming more and more digitally oriented.
(The following is exerpted from kidshealth.org)
"The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming.
The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development. TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, which encourages learning and healthy physical and social development."
I will bet you cold hard cash this wee baby will have a learning disorder or ADD/ADHD when older. If indeed they pop in a video every time the kid is in the car and this is just not a pic for advertising purposes.

When we carpooled with a group of kids, when we visit relatives, when we drive to somewhere, yeah, I get to hear bickering... but I also get to hear all sorts of other stuff. When they were this age in the car? They would fall asleep, or look at their favorite board book, or chew on something and drool.
Easy is not always better. This would be one of my cranky and feisty posts.

Thanksgivin' and readin'

Totally unrelated topic titles:
Thanksgiving was great. We were glad to have power back in the house in time to cook the bird. We have been without for three days. It is one of the hazards of living in an evergreen tree'ed community. When the wind whips it up a bit, they fall on the power lines. And houses, across roads, basically where they want to. Note to newbies who move to the NW. This is not open license to chop them all down. Go live in the desert if you feel that need for open spaces and not having things taller than you. It does not mean you cannot chop trees down, but don't be rash. I digress.
It was a great opportunity to find out that our monster generator does run well, does power the house, does keep our furnace running.
Gave me time to read a book I picked up at the library. "Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer" written by Novella Carpenter. I pick up books nowadays on fixing houses, farming, raising kids, house framing, roofing, rural politics... I am a reader. If I don't know something, I get a book.
Loved her name. The book was interesting. She is a bit 'hard-core' to me, but those are always the people that get things done, that start things going in new directions. She gardened on a vacant lot. Raised rabbits, chickens, ducks. She raised pigs in the city. Big, sloppy, aromatic pigs. That is quite a story. And how to slaughter. Which is still daunting to me. I remember that so much as a child... seeing the skinning rabbits, killing pigs, chopping off chicken heads. Someday, maybe I will feel the need to control another creatures life and death within our food chain. But not now. I don't need to do it to feed the family, and I don't honestly have the time. Have you ever seen how long it takes to prep a turkey? Even a chicken?

Bathroom Page 2

I am waiting on the plumber. They said they would be here at 8am, it is 9:21. The contractor came as promised at 8 on the dot. To meet the plumber. Who is not here.
I am paying him an hourly wage, but he is doing work, I hear hammering.
He has raised my bathroom floor 1" so far, to even it out. That worries me a bit, but not so much that I am biting my nails. I am not a nail biter. This process of hiring and bringing in a series of worker type dudes through the house is strenuous. It has taught me I am a worrier.
Javier who came last week and accomplished my big list in a previous post, was a dream. I did not worry about him.
OKAY maybe a little, because I am a detail oriented type of person, and since I don't know how to do this stuff, rely on books to show me. And baby, much of my house stuff is not in any book I have ever seen. So when people do repairs that are not in any book I get worried. NOT wanting to add to this house any of the half-assed work that we are seeing.
BTW, I am ever thankful for the bloggers and website folk who give detailed accounts of how to do something. That will never happen here, I just don't seem to have my thinking cap on at the same time I have my camera with me. And need other people around me to do the linear thinking. I am a bit global sometimes.
Curt the contractor said it best when I was going global about we needed to do this and this and this and this and this....
and he said "let's start with this one project bathroom, here."
I actually called the kids dad and told him I needed some linear thinking done, could he help.
I blame this on my aging. I used to be a very settled straight thinker.

Thanksgiving from Don

I have a friend who is a big sender of forwarded emails. He did not have a link to where this came from... but I got a kick out of it.

Greetings All,
>
> For those of you who are coming to my place for Thanksgiving dinner,
> Martha Stewart ain't gonna be here! I'm telling you in advance, so don't
> act surprised. Since Ms. Stewart won't be coming, I've made a few small
> changes:
>
> Our sidewalk will NOT be lined with homemade, paper bag luminaries. After
> a trial run, it was decided that no matter how cleverly done, rows of
> flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect.
>
> Once inside, our guests will note that the entry hall is not decorated
> with the swags of Indian corn and fall foliage I had planned to make.
> Instead, I've gotten the kids involved in decorating by having them track
> in colorful autumn leaves from the front yard. The mud was their idea.
>
> The dining table will NOT be covered with expensive linens, fancy
> china,or crystal goblets. If possible, we will use dishes that match and
> everyone will get a fork. Since this IS Thanksgiving, we will refrain
> from using the plastic Peter Rabbit plate and the Santa napkins from last
> Christmas.
>
> Our centerpiece will not be the tower of fresh fruit and flowers that I
> promised. Instead we will be displaying a hedgehog-like decoration
> hand-crafted from the finest construction paper. The children assure me
> it is a turkey.
>
> We will be dining fashionably late. The children will entertain you while
> you wait. I'm sure they will be happy to share every choice comment I
> have made regarding Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and the turkey hot line.
> Please remember that most of these comments were made at 5:00 a.m. upon
> discovering that the turkey was still hard enough to cut diamonds.
>
> As accompaniment to the children's recital, I will play a recording of
> tribal drumming. If the children should mention that I don't own a
> recording of tribal drumming, or that tribal drumming sounds suspiciously
> like a frozen turkey in a clothes dryer, ignore them. They are lying.
>
> We toyed with the idea of ringing a dainty silver bell to announce the
> start of our feast. In the end, we chose to keep our traditional method.
> We'll just holler, "come and eat."
>
> We've also decided against a formal seating arrangement. When the smoke
> alarm sounds (remember - Robin is doing most of the cooking), please gather around the table and sit where you like. In
> the spirit of harmony, we will ask the children to sit at a separate
> table. .....in a separate room......next door.
>
> Now, I know you have all seen pictures of one person carving a turkey in
> front of a crowd of appreciative onlookers. This will not be happening at
> our dinner.
>
> For safety reasons, the turkey will be carved in a private ceremony. I
> stress "private" meaning: Do not, under any circumstances, enter the
> kitchen to laugh at me. Do not send small, unsuspecting children to check
> on my progress. I have an electric knife.
>
> The turkey is unarmed. It stands to reason that I will eventually win.
> When I do, we will eat. I would like to take this opportunity to remind
> my young diners that "passing the rolls" is not a football play. Nor is
> it a request to bean your sister in the head with warm tasty bread.
>
>
> Before I forget, there is one last change. Instead of offering a choice
> between 12 different scrumptious desserts, we will be serving the
> traditional pumpkin pie, garnished with whipped cream and small
> fingerprints. You will still have a choice; take it or leave it.
>
> Martha Stewart will NOT be dining with us this year. Next year is not
> looking good either.
HAPPY [EARLY] THANKSGIVING

Quick done list

I have been busy. Or, I have been keeping other people busy. I lost my linkup for my cam, so pics will be later.
1. Put a new screen door on. I did it! With Dennis helping lift it up while I screwed it in.
Two minor details. a) I was soooo careful putting the z-bar on. But moved the door at the last minute, so mounted the z-bar on the other side of the door. So my door opens on the other side from what I wanted. I am embracing it. b) I found a lottery ticket shoved in the old broken screen door we took down used as a shim. If anyone needs lucky numbers from 1994, give me a holler.

2. Put the marble backsplash behind my kitchen sink. The marble came !free! from Craigslist. Thank you Capitol Hill person who was giving it away. This is the backsplash that was wood. Ah yes. Wood. One inch behind the sink, where water sits. It was the second thing I pulled out of this house. It was rotting.

3. Fixed the barn. Again. Dang horses that try to shove their large bodies in one stall together. And then try to get out the door at the same time.

4. Replaced the living room window. Added new window molding, interior and out. While doing this, found an newspaper clipping from 1964 when the Queen of Norway visited Poulsbo. It is from the Kitsap Sun.

5. Had the roof cleaned off and treated. There was a whole lotta moss on this thing in one year. That is why northwesterners are sometimes called "mossbacks", we inhabit a wet clime. The two young men who scraped and brushed the roof... rappelled on our steep roof. It was rainy and windy. I felt so bad they were doing it in this weather so we made them cookies and hot chocolate.

6. Laid new carpet in the living room. Note: Sawzalls cut carpet REALLY quickly, but it will disturb your dog. If you have one.

7. Painted the living room trim.

8. Hired the plumber.

9. Picked out the marmoleum for the bathroom floor. I am getting screwed on the cost -- $560 for a (7 'x 8') floor. But there are not many people over here in Kitsap that know how to install (or want to install) marmoleum. It is pretty grueling.

10. Covered the bay window "bottom." I have no idea why it was uncovered, exposed, open to the elements, but it was. And now it is not.

11. Replaced the rotten garage door. Person size, not car size.

12. Replaced half the chicken coop roof. Am slowly doing the rest.

Still gotta do:
--Move dirt out of the basement (there is a pile of dirt in our basement, no clue why) It is where the plumber will be working.
--Replace crappy horse fence.
--Replace upstairs bathtub. Have the tub, need to move it in and build a frame for it.
--Move and replace house interior lighting. Not all, just a few.....

Interior door - concussion weapon

A bit more than a week ago my bathroom door that was removed from the hinges fell over and tried to knock me out. Luckily, I have a hard head, but did not feel too well for a couple days. First injury of the remodel has happened. I also got a completely lame blister raking leaves.
That door was going to cost me $150 to dip strip it in a methylene chloride based bath. My professional woodworking neighbor said my antique door could fall apart if I dunked it in a wet bath... the dunk can make the joints all fall apart. I heeded his advice and went to the paint store and for a can of paint remover instead. Took off the black glass door knobs and plates. Hauled it outside to the garage.
Already I see the door has been through several color changes. It is damaged, dented and needs some lovin'. That's what I am here for. I shall take care of you sad little door.
Pics to follow.

Bathroom - Downstairs Part 1 1//2

Curt sat me down. (Curt is my contractor) Sometimes he gets rather quiet when we are discussing, which can be disconcerting. I am sure it is because I am confidentally waffling on something, and he seems a rather straight-forward person.
He told me what we do first, and I dutifully wrote down the checklist of how we are doing the bathroom. Then called plumbers for quotes. The range for the work was $1300 - 2800. That is craziness in numbers. The problem is I liked the most expensive guy, and Curt told me to hire the least expensive because he knows the company.
Tomorrow is my day to quiz the plumbers. I will ask the most expensive : What the heck am I paying for and why are you charging more? And the least expensive: What aren't you doing? But in my usual friendly sort of way.
All the quotes seemed pricey for what I am doing. It seems like about a two hour job. (But then, really, am I a plumber? Nope.)
As an example of my negotiating skills (not really negotiating, just friendifying) I called the oil company to get a delivery for our furnace.
I asked Paul of my company what the rate was per gallon. He told me $3.24. I was quiet a while, and said wow it has gone up... he then said, let me get my price sheet and see if I can do any better. After a couple seconds he said how about $3.14. I said okay, but that would save me a whoppin' $8.00. He laughed, and kinda clomped around on his calculator and said, yeah, I guess that's not much. How about $3.10? I started laughing and told him I was a baker. How negotiable was this oil?
Too bad we can't do this at the gas pump.

My new job -

I haven't actually applied for any jobs. That may be a hindrance and even an obstacle to being hired for one. But what I am going to do for the next month is be the project manager for my house. That way, I can get (the big) cursed projects finished around here. And be a focused mom for a month. Get that lad of ours settled in his educational prospects, keep the teenage gal on her toes. And keep my house clean. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

John Deere lawn tractor - death and rebirth

This is the story of our cute little lawn tractor. I bought it from the previous owner with the house.
It takes over an hour to mow our yard. Back and forth, up and down, left and right, in circles, around things, through mush, over hillocks, next to fences. Rose has taken over this job, although with a more casual attitude around the edges. She is rather a speed demon over the property and finishes about 30 minutes sooner than anyone else.
I have hired a lawn maintenance fellow to do the yard since our mower quit. The little green machine started and then just stopped. It started again, stopped, and then would not even try to start. I rolled it under the big holly tree for protection and covered it with a tarp. That was about 3 weeks ago. Maybe 5. Since then I have taken the battery to be charged. It was fine. I have filled it with fresh gas. That was somewhat of a pipe dream because it had nothing to do with gas. But made me feel better. Put in a new air filter. Again, more to make me feel better since that would not stop it dead. Bought it a new starter solenoid after googling possible answers.
Today was strange weather, really really windy, rainy looking, then sun would appear. The mowers tarp cover was blown across the yard reminding me that the mower was still not starting and now exposed to the elements.
I had a cup of coffee and thought I would try to start it. Turned the key, no luck. Googled possibilities as to why it was not starting again.
The obvious answer I had been avoiding was to clean the battery terminals. I was actually ignoring that answer since it was so... 'duh.' Those terminals didn't look bad to me, they looked great!
The sun was shining down at that angle we get in October, I was outside enjoying the weather, and I thought what the hell. Got out my new box of baking soda, and my new brass brush I bought with the solenoid I didn't need. Scrubbed away, tightened the bolt back up, sat in the seat, turned the key and the engine started with a WHOOOSH.
Five weeks. Five weeks, 65 bucks for lawn service, and it sat next to my front door because I would not do the simple thing first. My life -- in a mini-mower size nutshell -- I seem to have difficulty with K.I.S.S. I will work on that.

Bathroom Update - Step 1 contractor talk

Today Curt came by to discuss this whole process with me. I believe I will be the project manager on this, and hire all the individuals as we go along.
He drew out the action plan for me:
1. Contractor Curt : will replace the floor and open any walls for the plumber.
2. Me: hire a plumber to replumb and move fixtures. (+ change out both water heaters, put in house water filtration system)
3. Contractor Curt: will come back and patch the walls, mud and smooth.
4. Me : will paint everything.
5. Contractor Curt: will put everything in - shower, vanity whatever.

Painting sheet overlayment on floor

When we moved in, we stripped all the carpeting out of the house. Under the carpet, pad etc in the living room was solid sheet wood. Not composite plywood or pressboard, but a smooth surfaced wood. Having my budget sucking dry by getting rid of asbestos tile, buying new (used)furnace, kitchen sink, stove, fridge, and new electrical on two floors of the house I could not strip that and refinish what is under there or foot the bill for new wood floors.
So I painted it.
I painted it a serious blue with a serious floor paint that stunk to high heaven but for two years has not scuffed or gotten ugly. Pretty good paint. One cheesey thing I did was I only painted the edges that would show outside the oriental wool carpet we had down. (There is a reason for this, mainly the hundreds HUNDREDS of carpet staples that were scattered pell mell and everyflippin' where on that floor.) Some of those staples were not totally pulled out. After tearing my fingernails ragged, cutting my fingers, going through two staple pullers, I was done.
We put down a new carpet yesterday, and it covers a smaller area than the old rug. SO I needed to add some more paint to the floor. That magnificent floor paint had not been sealed tight when closed two years ago.
There was a 1/4 inch solid surface that I peeled off. I stirred the paint underneath for ten minutes and then painted.
30 hours later it is still not dry. I think I figured out what that layer was on the paint. The dryer dried out of the paint and made that solid top. I have been painting the floor with the gooey tint base that is not drying. Hopefully not attracting dog dust bunnies to it, but I am fairly sure it is.
Note: Four days later, and with a little unintentional dog hair added, it is dry enough for the carpet. yay.

Laborers

The two fellows that actually got my bathtub out were genius. I found Mr. Stean on Craigslist, and he has previously over the last year hauled away the piles of garbage found/left on the property when I bought it. The tub took them a good hour to wrassle free, and then muscled it out the door and onto my truck.
Then they pulled all the layers of linoleum and wood off the floor.
Then they leveled our piano by lifting it. Literally. The piano that is so heavy I watched my living room floor bend as we rolled it in a year ago. (Just writing that gives me the heeby jeebies. Not sure I should be comfortable with that, I keep looking at my tree trunks in the basement to make sure they are doing their job of holding up the house.)
Note about Craigslist, if you hire off of there, be cautious. I have not had any issues, but have had a couple of hard drinkers show up for jobs (not drinking while working, just had very heavy very sour alcohol fumes wafting off of them.) I also let a neighbor know and a friend in Seattle who calls after a set amount of time to check in. There is also a risk of big danger if they are not licensed or insured and something happens to them doing a job on your property. So hire wisely.

1904 tub removal

This only took about a year. I began to strip the bathroom to prepare it for renovation but could not budge the tub. Tried this, tried that, nope... not me! So the bathroom was unfinished. (We do have another upstairs.)

This is the standard cast iron, claw foot, although sans feet and resting on wood. When we moved in the tub had an unfortunate surround of plaster to hide the claw foot sides. The plaster was then covered by a layer of stick-on wallpaper style TILE that was then painted.

For the 70 years that type of tub was not in fashion the sides were hid behind this strange addition. We now need a shower. And this tub cannot go upstairs... the weight alone with water and a person would drop us one story down into our dining room.

Anyone need a lovely, old tub?

Fencing - Horse

The big somewhat intellectually challenged horse Strider took out the old fence. Leaned over... and snap. Snapped wire fencing. It was crap and needed to be replaced... I guess he just put it somewhat on the top of my to-do list.

The pics attached are of what we are aiming for. We shall see what the $ comes to. That may change the resulting fence! http://lucky-days.blogspot.com/2011/04/fence.htmlTo see what I picked click on the above link! (Image : black round post with field fence courtesy Susan R. Stoltz, Top image left: www.declanlandy.com)