House lizard

Caught him looking out the window.

Then he caught me looking at him.

So glad I don't have to go into town today.

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone. Full moon tomorrow night!
God bless. ♥

Almost the first weekend of the New Year

Remember these last pictures of our kitchen?

Well, we are making a little progress. Here is what part of it looks like now.

We got the first couple wall cabinets in, and that's the hood we were putting in when I kept the two pieces of wall. :-)

Yes, I know, the bulbs don't fit. In all the months between when we bought the hood, and put it in, we don't know what happened to the bulbs we bought to go with it, haha! So we are making do with regular light bulbs.

It is almost the first weekend of the New Year. The weather is cold for this part of the country.

I hope all my readers have a wonderful weekend! ♥

So we put in a new vent

for our stove.

We looked long and hard for a vent like the old one when hubby grew up in this house, but they are just not made any more.
So we bought a new vent to go with the new hood we're going to be putting in.

Hubby had to cut through the wall of the farmhouse, of course. I managed to save two pieces. The third fell between the walls.

The reason so many old houses survive so long? They are made with double walls. Double wood walls. Walls on the inside, and walls on the outside. When my brother came out to help us last time, he said he couldn't build a house like ours. The cost would be prohibitive.

I should have taken more pictures, but I was busy helping hubby. I did take a few though.

This is what 100+ year old cypress wood looks like. :-) The wider piece is from the outside. The narrow piece is from the inside.

They used tongue and groove back then. Stupidly, I forgot to take a picture of the 'tongued' wood;

But I do have a couple of pictures of the grooved inside wood.

Doesn't it look amazing? Very well cut, I'd say.

The outside is... lap board, I think it was called? The boards were placed bottom to top, each board overlapping the previous one.
They were ... sorry. Words don't come as easily as they used to. But here's how the outside boards were formed.

That looks pretty well done to me, even without modern routers.

Hope you all have a safe New Year's Eve, and a wonderful New Year. ♥

I missed St. Patrick's Day

We've been really busy. I've had little time on the internet. I've fallen behind on so many blogs, sorry. I only just realized that yesterday was St. Patrick's Day.
Hubby did not have his surgery today. He had to get approval from his heart doctor and today was the earliest they could get him in.
Now we wait and see if the doctors do their parts. He is not going to contact anyone. He would like to put it off until July.
We've been trying to get things done that he wants done before his surgery.
He made his first screen door this week. It's a learning process, but it should fit the kitchen door that others replaced.
We've been living in the house.
He wants to use old air conditioners that will be energy hogs. I want fans in all the rooms, but we need dozens of window screens.
So we'll see how it goes tonight with just fans. We may sleep in the trailer on hot nights. It's a smaller area to cool.

Here are some pictures of my messy kitchen...

That big pan between the sink and the stove is my rinsing pan, since I only have one sink.
Then there's the pantry. The shelf on the left was beaten into submission by the hubby. ;-)

Hubby says these little red flowers are red clover.

And these pretty little yellow flowers are blooming all over, too.

Hope you are all doing well! I hope to have more time sometime! God bless and have a wonderful week! ♥

Let's see if blogger will be nice

And I'll try for my first post of the new year.

I am one of those people trying to grow celery from the heel. In my red neck planter, as you may remember.
Here are some updated photos of the celery.

It hasn't grown much more than others I've seen. After I rooted it in water, I transplanted it to the 'planter'.
Since it's an experiment, I'm not too worried if it doesn't grow - but I know it needs a long growing season.

And a shot of some of the 'store' garlic bulbs.

We have been getting a lot of rain. It just starts drying, and then we get more. It's mostly rained since Christmas, if I remember right. We've had a few nice days, but the ground hasn't really dried out, so I haven't been able to get many more pecans.

We do have... daffodils? Narcissus? Paper whites? Blooming. Growing wild, like the spider lilies.

And these little purple trumpet-shaped flowers.
Oops, sorry. Let me get this finished.
The purple flowers.

And these little yellow flowers haven't been bothered by the rain and cold either.

Hubby is feeling a little better, so hopefully some things in the house will go quicker. The kitchen is a mess, so you only get a couple of pictures...

My sink.

We decided on a single bowl so we could get the deepest possible sink - and I'll probably still end up using the utility sink we're going to put in the laundry room, for the big gumbo pots and fryers.

And a close-up of the patter on our counter top. That was a disaster for another post, if I didn't tell you already.

Anyway, I think that really is it for this post. Not thinking too clearly tonight, I guess, or I wouldn't have published this prematurely.
Those of you down South here, stay dry! Those of you needing rain in some form, hope you get it!
And those of you who have seen too much rain, I hope you dry out soon!
Have a wonderful Wednesday! ♥

A mid August post?

Hi All. I do have you in mind every day. I visit when I can. I hope you are all well. :o)

Just wanted to catch you up. We have gotten the flooring in the kitchen. (Sorry if I've said all this before. I am quite forgetful and don't want to read back over my posts...)

We've gotten appliances, but only the refrigerator actually works right now. No ice because the water is not hooked up to the house yet. I could use an ice tray, but I haven't bought any other than the one in our trailer freezer. ;o)

And we have a few cabinets sort of in. We're going to try doing some of the 'fastening in' tomorrow. We have a sink and faucet, but we need counter tops first. We called someone who was highly recommended, but he is on vacation until next week sometime. (This is the month a lot of places close for vacation.)

But that's okay because it's not like we don't have other things we can do, like run new electrical wires for outlets, put the water line in, get the septic tank cleaned, work on the hubby's work room and start working on a bathroom or the bedroom.

Here are a few pictures.

I am also working on a hobby room where I will be able to work puzzles, or start seeds, or learn how to sew.
I got a new sewing machine. It's a beginners machine, but knows more than I do about sewing.

The mail person drove in this morning and brought me my first house warming gift!
I want to say "THANK YOU, GAIL!" It's a wonderful painting and I have placed it where I can see it while I'm sewing, or doing puzzles, or whatever else I decide to do in my room. :o)

Hope everyone gets rain who needs it, and I hope you all have a wonderful week!

EWWW!!!

WARNING - GROSS ALERT! - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!



















There was a measly 20% chance of rain yesterday and we had one heck of a thunderstorm start up about 7 PM.

I had the door open to one of the rooms in the house - they all have doors to the porch - and saw hubby quickly taking the tractor to the garage.
We have a raccoon that has taken up residence in the pasture and hubby says it is not afraid of people...

Anyway, I was sweeping out who knows how many years of trash and mouse poo. *wrinkles nose*
I had called hubby in to help with his three piece tool box. We were watching the storm while I swept. We are going to make that room a work room for now.

I have bifocals, but I still don't see well. Go figure.
As I was sweeping stuff out, I thought there was a piece of insulation on the fireplace hearth. I did think it was strange, as that 120 year old house does not have any.

But, I tried to get it with the vacuum anyway.
And then I realized.
It was not insulation.

It was a big dead rat on a sticky trap! EWWW!!!! Is what I said.
"What?" is what hubby said, as he came in from the porch.
"A dead rat on a sticky trap!" was my reply.

Fortunately hubby disposed of it for me.

I don't like pest control services that do only half the job you pay them for. :o/

In better news, we have ONE CABINET in the kitchen!
I will be staining more today. We bought 'unfinished' cabinets because they are cheaper and neither of us is good at building such things.
And I'd like to start learning how to make home made bread this year, haha.

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday! ♥

Falling behind but still here!

We really are.
Like many of you in the triple digit heat or heat index areas, we get started outdoors early. Then in the afternoon, we go looking for sinks or disc plows or whatever we need to get the morning stuff done.

Got the floor tiles laid in the kitchen. I like them.

I considered for just a moment, doing the whole house in some sort of self-stick tile, but then got my common sense back. I do like the wood floors.

Anyway, by the time we stop for the day, it's usually somewhere between 7 and 8 PM and we still need a little dinner of some sort before bed.
Not a lot of internet time.

Got up early today (5!), yes I know it's not really early; but we're still adjusting to all of these changes; to try and catch up, and it's almost 6:30 already and all I've done is the online financial stuff and some email.

Oh well. I will get there sooner or later, it will just probably be later.

On a brighter note, hubby has been able to cut back on one of his diabetes medications. :o)
He was taking 2 Janumet a day. One in the morning and one in the evening.
In the short time we've been here, he now takes half of one pill in the morning, and the other half at night.
So there is definitely reason to be glad for the change.

Hope you all have a wonderful day. God bless. ♥

Don't you think these make good curtains?

I don't like pink, but when I hung these in the kitchen our last trip, I thought wow, I like these. So the first time I get to think of having time for homemaker type stuff. I am going to try my hand at making them into curtains. :o)

I got them at Wal Mart. They're twin bed sheets. They were $4 a package.
Haven't been saying a lot about our last trip.
We also found out they took a small battery charger.

We always weave some of these (I call them snake locks because of the 'head')

And pair them with some of these:

through our equipment. The tractor, attachments, and such that we store in the garage.
We run a chain, roughly half inch links, through the spare propane tanks for the trailer, and padlock that. We're glad we do, now.
We did call the sheriff and report the thefts. And between Wally World and Lowes, hubby was able to make a new power cord for the trailer.

And I realize I'm rambling so I think I'm going to get dressed and plant some seeds.
These.

Hope you are all having a wonderful day. ♥

Kitchen

Yup. Thought I should talk about the kitchen just a little. We didn't get the flooring put down - I'm having a LOT of trouble deciding on what to use. I don't want a white and blue diamond pattern. UGH.
But my sister-in-law was a big help in getting it painted. I thought a  bit more about just painting the windows, too, since I am terrible painting around glass. Besides, it would have given me this nice yellow light in the kitchen and then I wouldn't need curtains, either. ;-)

But, in the end, I didn't paint the glass - well, not all of it, anyway. Besides, the windows all need fixing or replacing and I can worry about the glass then.
So, here is how the kitchen looks now - besides empty, I mean.

It is 15 feet 8 inches by 15 feet 8 inches. The pantry is there on the left of the bottom picture. It is part of the measurement. The ceiling is 11 feet 9 and 3/4 inches, which is apparently a French measurement. All the ceilings are that high. The windows - which I still need to write down so I remember - are approximately 75 inches by 43 inches. They let in a LOT of light. :-)

It has OSB on the floor. Sort of like plywood. But for some reason they put some of it down upside down, completely ignoring where it said 'This side down'. My brother thinks if we sand it, it will probably be fine. Otherwise we'll have to put some thin luan down over it, for attaching the linoleum or tiles with. I am thinking linoleum, but what hubby and I like best is apparently special order - which makes it hard to get when we're going to be there.
Oh well. We'll think of something.

We're also having trouble trying to decide on cabinets. At first we were thinking custom, but we haven't won the lottery yet. ;-)
We've found some we like, but it's bits and pieces at several different places so I'm not sure how they would fit together.

My  brother also said he was pretty sure the older tiles, like in the pantry and hallway, were asbestos. So the crappy hallway job will need to be finished. Since the tile in the pantry is almost complete - only a small chip or two - I think we'll just cover over that. I'd like it to look similar to the kitchen.

And that's about all I can think of for now. lol. Got antibiotics from the doctor Monday. She thinks I may have a sinus infection. Feeling a little better, and I hope I KEEP feeling better.
Hubby wants to go back to the farm. Over Christmas. I'm not keen on that - expense and all, and finances are tight now. But I guess that is where we will be on Christmas day...

Enjoy your week, all - and stay warm!