I think we should buy stock in tylenol...or ibuprofen...
I started this morning making my list of what to do today...Laundry, cat boxes, vacuum, cut-back outdoor plants, clean and fill bird feeders, and last but definitely not least..."barn". I try to stick to the value that work comes before play, and since the barn is a new hobby, it would have to wait till the chores were done.
We couldn't do anything yesterday because we were working overtime...oh glorious overtime...great for the pocketbook, establishes character, but robs you of a day of your precious weekend. Overtime and I definitely have a love/hate relationship. But anyway, that's why we were down to just today for working on home projects.
I started my chores, and P headed down to the field on a mission of her own. She loves to burn in our ten foot fire pit. It's a primitive urge inside of her...like what drove the cavemen to first make fire... and because of the rain, she hasn't been able to since last Fall. So since the cardboard around to house was starting to pile up she packed it all up and headed down to the pit while I scrambled around...crossing things off my list one by one so I could join her.
After an hour or so, Patty called me on the walkie talkie to let me know she would be shooting her gun into the hillside. Like I mentioned before, shooting stuff is the cure for anything that ails ya...and her favorite thing to do...second only to burning in the pit.
So I continued working, hearing the pow pow pow coming from the field... I asked her how she did over the walkie talkie, and she told me she did alright...that it tends to pull to the right...or that she's a bad shot... I highly doubt it. All it means to me is that if she is aiming at your shoulder, she'll hit you in the head. :)
About 15 minutes later, I threw on my steel-toed boots and trusty carhart jacket. I grabbed some soup for P, grabbed the dogs and headed down to the field.
Now I knew if I dilly dallied I wouldn't make it to the barn. I had a mission today, and I didn't want to come up until it was done. There was a huge pile of rocks of various sizes in the section of the barn we haven't "mucked" yet. The rocks had to be moved before the mucking could commence. I tried my chances starting the John Deere again. It wasn't raining, so if it died outside again, it wouldn't be shitty to have to push it in again. She started right up. I guess last weekend's bad gas had passed. :) I backed her out and attached her "Heavy duty hauler" to the back. I looked at the pile of rocks. Some of them were big and probably about 30-40 pounds...ugh. So I started filling the little trailer...After I put about 30 rocks in, I noticed the tires were a little flat. So much for heavy duty. So I made about 10 to 15 baby trips with the rocks. I had the perfect spot for them. Last year we had our seasonal creek trenched out. It was 6 feet wide, and ran the whole width of the property. So I started throwing rocks into the creek and felt my back complain immediately....which drove me to work faster. I noticed when I picked up the rocks, I was wiping the spider egg sacks off of them and throwing them into the trailer without thinking...I was a machine...Now that I think about it, it gives me the heeby jeebys...gross.
P headed back up to the house and I worked faster. I wanted to head back up to the house too, but I had to finish the stupid rocks. By the time I finished I had only been at it about an hour and a half. My body told me it had been longer. I had filled an area of the creek about 6 feet by 7 feet. I try not to think about how many rocks it will take to fill the whole creek bed... Fortunately "rocks" happens to be what my land grows the best...everytime I turn around there is another coming up through the soil...so I'm sure there will be plenty.
I noticed before I left that the barn wasn't as creepy as it used to be...the sun was filtering through the old siding, and I knew I couldn't wait to get back maybe next weekend to do more.
I grabbed the dogs and walked the orchard before heading to the house. I noticed all of the trees had little buds on them! Spring is coming!
I climbed the hill to the house, changed into comfy clothes and collapsed on the couch. I could hear the unscraped portion of popcorn ceiling taunting me from the hallway...
Ugh...another day. I need tylenol.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Today started like most fabulous Sundays in the history of "us". We got up around 7:30, got dressed, took the dogs out to their kennel and headed to town. After a brief run through Starbucks, (for crying out loud we aren't that sheltered), we drove to one of our favorite places ever. Ace Hardware. Now I don't know how many 30 something year old women love to go to a po-dunk hardware store on their Sunday mornings, but it's definitely one of our top 5....right up there with going to the county dump...but you'll hear about that later...
So we were strolling through Ace with our cart, (we always get a cart in Ace, even if we don't need anything because OF COURSE there is something there we need...we just don't know it yet.) We cruised through the lumber, admired the new vanities which were the first they had gotten in since the 1980 Special they carry...(we have one in our bathroom), picked up some birdseed for our wildlife friends and headed to the garden tools. Now we already have most garden and construction tools....we love to buy tools, you can never be too prepared... But we didn't have any for the barn, which is quite a hike from the house. So duh...the barn needs it's own tools. So for starters, I picked out a nice Ace rake, pushbroom and regular broom for the barn. Patty went to eye the circular saws while I looked at the galvanized buckets. I have this great idea I saw in Napa style catalog to make hanging lights out of galvanized buckets...I think it will look great in the barn...just not for $100 something each. So after a little more of oohing and aahing over future must haves, we headed home.
Now of course it was pouring...but I was pumped. Patty donned her rain slicker and headed to clean out the dog kennel, (glad she didn't want to rock, paper, scissors for it), and I threw on my steel-toed boots and carhart and headed down to the barn with our new treasures.
Now we both agreed the best plan of attack would be to clean the barn out completely, pressure wash the concrete slab, and start from there. The current state was far from it. There was about 4 to 6" of antique horse crap covering the concrete slab (which my mother later informed me would be wonderful compost for the garden I don't have yet,) and we had moved bags of concrete, cottage stones left over from the fire pit, and 4x4 treated posts into the barn, over the crap to keep it out of the rain and dry. The barn only has 3 sides, and I had the 2 other doors open, but it was still pretty dark down there (no power yet)...especially being overcast and rainy outside. I had thought about wearing my ipod while I worked because Monster Ballads and 80's hits make the day go by faster, but I wanted to hear any tarantula or anything else that could possibly sneak up on me...so I went without. I spent a good hour raking, sweeping, restacking posts etc for about an hour. When I got to the bottom of the pile of posts I saw a bunch of spiders scattering in all directions, and some egg sacks attached to the posts I wanted to move. I hate spiders...and I almost walked out. But I told myself to be a big girl. So I used my broom, (which would have given me about a 6 feet headstart if they started coming after me,) and smashed the eggsacks, and swept them all away... I moved the rest of the posts and tried not to think about the ones that got away, and where they were headed. P came down with Bubba and Belle to help shortly after and had the great idea to move the cottage stones with the trailer attached to our John Deere riding lawn mower. Great idea in theory...it even started...but considering it hadn't been run in about 6 months...well I'm guessing it had bad gas in it and it ran long enough to get out in the rain...and die. So we pushed it back in the barn, (sounds easier than it was), and gave in to carrying the cottage stones (60 pounds each) one by one to the outside of the barn. Now there were about 20 to do, and Patty was carrying them while I continued to break apart and sweep petrified horse crap,(good for my garden I know..) and after a few she screamed...did the eeby jeeby dance and flew to the other end of the barn....She pointed at the cinder block and kept saying "a nest! A nest!" So I peered under the corner of the block, and sure enough it was a mass of insulation and shredded paper towels, all cozy in the hollow of the block. I giggled thinking of the Secret of Nimh, and the little mice in their block in the field....oh well...these mice would have to find a new home...Plow day was a comin'...So I picked up the block, convincing myself the mice wouldn't chew threw my gloves...and headed outside with the block. About 3 seconds later P was shreaking again so I ran into the barn. It was great...she was halfway up the ladder to the loft pointing at the little mouse highrise and said that a mouse came out of the nest, looked at her, and took off out the door and into the field. I casually looked around me, (terrified that little jackass would run up my pant leg) and asked her how big it was. She held her hands about 2 feet apart, arm wrapped around the rung of the ladder to keep from falling. Now let me tell you a little something about my P. She is rarely scared. She will blow your head off, and ask questions later....(because shooting at stuff is the solution to everything...besides burying it behind the barn....but we are putting our chicken run there, so that's now a negative ghost rider.) I am normally the chicken shit...but we tend to make eachother brave...and if we are both scared, then we will wait till the sun is shining....or go get a bottle of windex. Although not "green" windex will kill most creepy crawlys if you spray long enough, and I'm sure it would daze a mouse if necessary...) Several little (empty) nests later we finished about 2/3 of the barn and called it a day. (It was only 2 o'clock!) The dogs were drenched, so we brought them up, gave them a bath and relaxed the rest of the day.
So we were strolling through Ace with our cart, (we always get a cart in Ace, even if we don't need anything because OF COURSE there is something there we need...we just don't know it yet.) We cruised through the lumber, admired the new vanities which were the first they had gotten in since the 1980 Special they carry...(we have one in our bathroom), picked up some birdseed for our wildlife friends and headed to the garden tools. Now we already have most garden and construction tools....we love to buy tools, you can never be too prepared... But we didn't have any for the barn, which is quite a hike from the house. So duh...the barn needs it's own tools. So for starters, I picked out a nice Ace rake, pushbroom and regular broom for the barn. Patty went to eye the circular saws while I looked at the galvanized buckets. I have this great idea I saw in Napa style catalog to make hanging lights out of galvanized buckets...I think it will look great in the barn...just not for $100 something each. So after a little more of oohing and aahing over future must haves, we headed home.
Now of course it was pouring...but I was pumped. Patty donned her rain slicker and headed to clean out the dog kennel, (glad she didn't want to rock, paper, scissors for it), and I threw on my steel-toed boots and carhart and headed down to the barn with our new treasures.
Now we both agreed the best plan of attack would be to clean the barn out completely, pressure wash the concrete slab, and start from there. The current state was far from it. There was about 4 to 6" of antique horse crap covering the concrete slab (which my mother later informed me would be wonderful compost for the garden I don't have yet,) and we had moved bags of concrete, cottage stones left over from the fire pit, and 4x4 treated posts into the barn, over the crap to keep it out of the rain and dry. The barn only has 3 sides, and I had the 2 other doors open, but it was still pretty dark down there (no power yet)...especially being overcast and rainy outside. I had thought about wearing my ipod while I worked because Monster Ballads and 80's hits make the day go by faster, but I wanted to hear any tarantula or anything else that could possibly sneak up on me...so I went without. I spent a good hour raking, sweeping, restacking posts etc for about an hour. When I got to the bottom of the pile of posts I saw a bunch of spiders scattering in all directions, and some egg sacks attached to the posts I wanted to move. I hate spiders...and I almost walked out. But I told myself to be a big girl. So I used my broom, (which would have given me about a 6 feet headstart if they started coming after me,) and smashed the eggsacks, and swept them all away... I moved the rest of the posts and tried not to think about the ones that got away, and where they were headed. P came down with Bubba and Belle to help shortly after and had the great idea to move the cottage stones with the trailer attached to our John Deere riding lawn mower. Great idea in theory...it even started...but considering it hadn't been run in about 6 months...well I'm guessing it had bad gas in it and it ran long enough to get out in the rain...and die. So we pushed it back in the barn, (sounds easier than it was), and gave in to carrying the cottage stones (60 pounds each) one by one to the outside of the barn. Now there were about 20 to do, and Patty was carrying them while I continued to break apart and sweep petrified horse crap,(good for my garden I know..) and after a few she screamed...did the eeby jeeby dance and flew to the other end of the barn....She pointed at the cinder block and kept saying "a nest! A nest!" So I peered under the corner of the block, and sure enough it was a mass of insulation and shredded paper towels, all cozy in the hollow of the block. I giggled thinking of the Secret of Nimh, and the little mice in their block in the field....oh well...these mice would have to find a new home...Plow day was a comin'...So I picked up the block, convincing myself the mice wouldn't chew threw my gloves...and headed outside with the block. About 3 seconds later P was shreaking again so I ran into the barn. It was great...she was halfway up the ladder to the loft pointing at the little mouse highrise and said that a mouse came out of the nest, looked at her, and took off out the door and into the field. I casually looked around me, (terrified that little jackass would run up my pant leg) and asked her how big it was. She held her hands about 2 feet apart, arm wrapped around the rung of the ladder to keep from falling. Now let me tell you a little something about my P. She is rarely scared. She will blow your head off, and ask questions later....(because shooting at stuff is the solution to everything...besides burying it behind the barn....but we are putting our chicken run there, so that's now a negative ghost rider.) I am normally the chicken shit...but we tend to make eachother brave...and if we are both scared, then we will wait till the sun is shining....or go get a bottle of windex. Although not "green" windex will kill most creepy crawlys if you spray long enough, and I'm sure it would daze a mouse if necessary...) Several little (empty) nests later we finished about 2/3 of the barn and called it a day. (It was only 2 o'clock!) The dogs were drenched, so we brought them up, gave them a bath and relaxed the rest of the day.
2010...so far
P and I have decided to take on farming this year...on top of our 40 hour + a week jobs....which aren't dainty either...We both work at the local shipyard. I am an electrician and she is a shipwright...(She builds staging and other stuff I wouldn't want to do...) So we are by no means babies....accept after long days when we curse ourselves for not keeping that hottub and rolling it back up the hill...JUST KIDDING...a hottub is in our future though....for the sake of our aches and pains people shouldn't have until they are in their 60's.
BACK TO FARMING!!! So we have the fruit and nut trees in the ground, and have decided to save that poor pathetic little barn and get chickens and possibly goats this year. Maybe even alpacas...those suckers are so cute. Now we aren't going into this blind. My mom raised me around baby chicks, goats, ducks, and rabbits....(which I found out I was allergic to as a kid in 4-H. I nuzzled one and ended up looking like Hitch.) I also had a cat give birth under my covers on the top bunk when I was about 10....there's a memory. So I kind of know what's coming...but we've never had to do the housing prep...and housing comes BEFORE the animals...which I keep having to remind Patty of. So there are grand plans for taking the old tack room, and turning it into a chicken coop with a run out side. We are going to re-side the old pole barn, and replace a post or two. I am going to run all new electrical in the barn and Patty is going to add an extra room for food storage, record keeping, tools, medications etc. That is our grand plan....for starters....and we hope you will join us on this journey...wherever it may lead. :)
BACK TO FARMING!!! So we have the fruit and nut trees in the ground, and have decided to save that poor pathetic little barn and get chickens and possibly goats this year. Maybe even alpacas...those suckers are so cute. Now we aren't going into this blind. My mom raised me around baby chicks, goats, ducks, and rabbits....(which I found out I was allergic to as a kid in 4-H. I nuzzled one and ended up looking like Hitch.) I also had a cat give birth under my covers on the top bunk when I was about 10....there's a memory. So I kind of know what's coming...but we've never had to do the housing prep...and housing comes BEFORE the animals...which I keep having to remind Patty of. So there are grand plans for taking the old tack room, and turning it into a chicken coop with a run out side. We are going to re-side the old pole barn, and replace a post or two. I am going to run all new electrical in the barn and Patty is going to add an extra room for food storage, record keeping, tools, medications etc. That is our grand plan....for starters....and we hope you will join us on this journey...wherever it may lead. :)
Why "I ride my own white horse..."
A couple weeks ago, I was dinking around online, (which I tend to do when it is too dark to work outside, raining, or if the couch just seems to be more comfy than steel-toed boots,) and I found an adorable website. www.cowgirl.net I was looking for some cowgirl memorabilia and came across this awesome shirt. It simply said "I ride my own white horse" In translation I took it as I don't need some self appointed prince charming to sweep me off my feet...I can pump my own gas, change out my own light bulbs, my own car oil, my own tires...I can follow simple directions and program my own vcr/dvd player, put anything together, crawl in my own attic (shiver), and chop my own wood...actually Patty chops the wood...but she is sooo good at it I don't want to take that from her... :)
Anyway "I ride my own white horse" is an attitude we have decided to live by...a mantra if you will...Don't get me wrong....we have several wonderful fellas who help us out....and I am sure they will all be mentioned later on...But we make a practice of pullin up our boots, and giving it our best shots first....No damsels in distress in this here castle....and for crying out loud no freakin man caves....
Anyway "I ride my own white horse" is an attitude we have decided to live by...a mantra if you will...Don't get me wrong....we have several wonderful fellas who help us out....and I am sure they will all be mentioned later on...But we make a practice of pullin up our boots, and giving it our best shots first....No damsels in distress in this here castle....and for crying out loud no freakin man caves....
The last year or so...
Patty and I have been working on the house slowly but surely, and decided to tackle the pasture last year. Bubba has a habit of running, (I don't get why the hell he can't run on his own 5 acres,) so we are taking steps to fence in the lower 3 acres. Until then he has to be on a 150 ft lead....It may sound cruel, but he runs faster than I do, and I don't want him getting hit by a car or shot for being in someone elses yard.
So last year I put about 200 feet of fence up and lost momentum and good weather. As of now there is about 2500 more feet of fence to go....babysteps...
Last year P (what I call Patty sometimes) and I planted several fruit trees. We planted them down the bank of our creek, (so far unnamed) in alphabetical order. This was my idea, and I still feel it was quite ingenious on my part. :) They are baby trees right now, but when they are big, and don't have tags anymore I will still no which is which. They are an Enterprise apple, a Jonagold apple, a monmorency cherry, a rainier cherry (yum), a brown turkey fig, a frost peach, a pear (don't remember the name of it,) and two plums....or was it two pears and one plum? Hmm..I think it's two pears and one plum....We also planted two Carpathian walnut trees...They are babies, but hell...I'm young...it's a great lesson in patience...
We even got our first fruit from our tree last year. Our little 3 foot fig tree gave us a few little figs. The tree had only been in the ground for about 6 weeks, but I took it as a sign that we were possibly potential master gardeners and that it was definitely because of something we had done....
So last year I put about 200 feet of fence up and lost momentum and good weather. As of now there is about 2500 more feet of fence to go....babysteps...
Last year P (what I call Patty sometimes) and I planted several fruit trees. We planted them down the bank of our creek, (so far unnamed) in alphabetical order. This was my idea, and I still feel it was quite ingenious on my part. :) They are baby trees right now, but when they are big, and don't have tags anymore I will still no which is which. They are an Enterprise apple, a Jonagold apple, a monmorency cherry, a rainier cherry (yum), a brown turkey fig, a frost peach, a pear (don't remember the name of it,) and two plums....or was it two pears and one plum? Hmm..I think it's two pears and one plum....We also planted two Carpathian walnut trees...They are babies, but hell...I'm young...it's a great lesson in patience...
We even got our first fruit from our tree last year. Our little 3 foot fig tree gave us a few little figs. The tree had only been in the ground for about 6 weeks, but I took it as a sign that we were possibly potential master gardeners and that it was definitely because of something we had done....
A little history...
I purchased this home in the middle of nowhere about 6 or 7 years ago with my ex-husband. It was in awful shape. It was a repo with plenty of potential....but it was nasty. It smelled like pee, puke and pot, and hadn't been lived in for about 7 months. There was furniture and vehicles scattered all over the 5 acres, and they even rolled their hottub down the hill. I kindly declined the extra furniture and the hottub when the realtor offered it. The house was also all pink...pink roses, pink siding, pink toilets...you get the picture. It also had a nasty thick blue shag carpet, holes punched in the walls and a fireplace insert that had been ripped out of the wall of volcanic rock....N-A-S-T-Y.
The property also had a 25x25 foot abandoned barn in back that had been built in 1984. I was only 7 at the time. The loft was wallpapered with little calendar pages from sports illustrated swimming suit issues of years past....and old horse manure and diapers....classy...
It didn't take me long to replace the carpet, the windows, the siding and the husband!!! :) I realized quickly they weren't my style and had to go.
I met Patty and we began this adventure....
The property also had a 25x25 foot abandoned barn in back that had been built in 1984. I was only 7 at the time. The loft was wallpapered with little calendar pages from sports illustrated swimming suit issues of years past....and old horse manure and diapers....classy...
It didn't take me long to replace the carpet, the windows, the siding and the husband!!! :) I realized quickly they weren't my style and had to go.
I met Patty and we began this adventure....
Introductions
Hmmm...where to start? I guess introductions would be appropriate...
My name is Becky. I am 32 and crave a simple life...no drama. I work full time, but every day crave being at home. I love to read and write, and swear that one day I will have a published book...If Stephenie Meyer can do it than so can I.
My partner is Patty. She is 34 and used to be a city girl. I think I have converted her. There is something about a simple and drama free life that soothes and calms the soul. Patty loves to read and photograph landscapes. She is quite good and sells them in black and whites. I will post her website when it is complete!
We live on 5 acres in the middle of nowhere...and we like it that way.
We have 4 cats, Oreo, Delilah, Capone and DaVinci. Capone and DaVinci are part bobcat, and are half brothers. Besides occasional National Geographic displays, they are big lovers. Delilah is a siamese manx, and loves to stare at people until they feel uneasy...she is slightly cross-eyed so that could be it....Oreo is very debonair. We think if he could speak he would have a french accent...We also have 2 dogs. Bubba and Belle. Bubba is the epitomy of a redneck dog. We aren't sure what he is, and he may be a little slow at times, but we love him all the same. Belle is our Rottweiler dud. We paid a fortune for her, and she is no killer...more like a bratty little sister...but we love her too.
My name is Becky. I am 32 and crave a simple life...no drama. I work full time, but every day crave being at home. I love to read and write, and swear that one day I will have a published book...If Stephenie Meyer can do it than so can I.
My partner is Patty. She is 34 and used to be a city girl. I think I have converted her. There is something about a simple and drama free life that soothes and calms the soul. Patty loves to read and photograph landscapes. She is quite good and sells them in black and whites. I will post her website when it is complete!
We live on 5 acres in the middle of nowhere...and we like it that way.
We have 4 cats, Oreo, Delilah, Capone and DaVinci. Capone and DaVinci are part bobcat, and are half brothers. Besides occasional National Geographic displays, they are big lovers. Delilah is a siamese manx, and loves to stare at people until they feel uneasy...she is slightly cross-eyed so that could be it....Oreo is very debonair. We think if he could speak he would have a french accent...We also have 2 dogs. Bubba and Belle. Bubba is the epitomy of a redneck dog. We aren't sure what he is, and he may be a little slow at times, but we love him all the same. Belle is our Rottweiler dud. We paid a fortune for her, and she is no killer...more like a bratty little sister...but we love her too.
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