Sloughing off

I should be posting more. I have been knitting, more off than on. Once the summer heat struck, the knitting bag got hung on a door knob in my bedroom. I doubt I'll pull it off that knob till the weather cools down.

I have made a few Granny's Dishcloths and given them away. There are socks in that lonely knitting bag, and a sweater in another one. I am so slow to work on the sweater that I have to frog it back to the beginning each time I come back to it. I don't know where I left off. Perhaps I should pin a post-it note to it next time. "I am at xxx spot on the pattern."

And what HAVE I been doing? Reading my new colorNook. It is so much fun to have an entire library at my fingertips. Some days I finish one book and move right into the sequel. (I love series books.) After finishing all the Elemental Masters Series by Mercedes Lackey (for the second time), I discovered Juliet Blackwell's Witchcraft Mystery Series. That lead me to her Haunted Home Renovation Mystery Series. Waaaw. She's just starting those series. Three books in one, only one book in the other.

My daughter and I loaded up at the library book sale a few weeks ago. I grabbed all the Dorothy Gilman books I could find. I have always loved her Mrs. Polifax series. (Heavens! I'm old enough to be Mrs. Polifax now. She knits. She gardens. She does a little spying for the CIA... just your average little granny...)

One of Gilman's stand-along books isn't a mystery. It's more a romantic comedy (think Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan). Title Thale's Folly, it is a nice little summer read. Each chapter is started with a quote from a old herbal. I found that delightful because Jen and I and our friend Rosanne have been going to herb classes all summer.

The herb classes are taught by Joanne Bauman of Prairie Magic Herbals. http://prairiemagicherbals.com/ Joanne has taught us how to use wild plants for healing, as well as how to use the things I grow in my garden. I am developing a lot of interest in herbs thanks to her. The last two classes were particularly interesting. They were on Plant Spirit Language. She draws heavily on Cherokee traditions when she teaches us about communing with out plants and learning to listen to what the plants have to offer us. It is fascinating and opens an entirely new way of seeing plants and my garden.

I commune with my garden when I'm watering it. The chives enjoy my company. Some day I will sketch them. So far the only plant that I have sketched is the watermelon that is growing inside the toe of an old nylon. My watermelon plants are trellised to grow upward instead of sprawling all over the yard. Yes, I'm still square-foot gardening.

And yes, again, I did post this word for word from the Iris Knits blog. True confessions of being lazy and doing nothing but reading and watering the garden during one of the hottest summers on record in Kansas. Mea Culpa!

Productive Saturday

I had hopes of finishing the front porch today, but our step ladder doesn't reach the cross beam. Rats!

Instead, I put Lala and the neighbor, Carl, to gathering the walnuts that have been falling from the black walnut tree. They filled two plastic trash cans, but there are still more walnuts.

They were still eager to help, so they painted the trellis for me. It will be cut to fill the space under the porch next time Joe or Skip comes by.

While they were painting, Jen scraped part of the deck and painted it white. She decided to remove one of the support boards that had held the railing in place. Those nails were tighter than she expected. Carl put some muscle into it and got the board off. I couldn't help thinking that last year, Reyes would have been helping do these jobs.

In the mean time, I painted the inside of the cross beams white and added the accent colors to the columns.

The molding around the bottom of the column has become a challenge for me. It's been 40 years since I last cut angles with a miter box. I used most of my stick of trim learning how to get the cuts. I'll have to get more to finish the rest of the project. The first column is looking good, though. It will really stand out when the crossbeam is the same tan as the front door.

There is something about paint that attracts kids. Lala and Carl have two more friends helping them paint now. Jen had to find a job for one of them. The condition for painting is "go home and put on clothes Mom doesn't mind getting painted."

Flagstone Walk - FINISHED

The flagstone walk is done! I rearranged the rocks I had. After my brother, Skip, installed the new screen door Monday, he and I took two loads of brush to the burn pile outside of town. Guess what I found all over the place? Rocks! Lovely rocks! We brought home enough to finish my project.

Putting the existing rocks together with the ones Skip and I retrieved let me make a path from the sidewalk to the back porch. There were even a few extra to make a side path to the front of the garage.

I know the proper way to lay a flagstone path is to dig the path completely, then fill it with sand and seat the rocks in sand. Since my path grew over time, I didn't have the luxury of using that method. I laid the rocks I had when I found them. I knew I would end up rearranging everything at the end to make it all come out the way I wanted. It would have been a waste of time and energy (MINE!) digging the original 4 ft. wide path when I ended up with one two feet wide.

My compromise was to walk the path once it was complete, identify the wobbly rocks, then dig out under them and seat them individually. I promise you, that was all the digging this granny wanted to do today. :) Okay, I know next year I'll pick up all of these rocks and seat them properly, but I'm enjoying what I have so far...

Front porch makeover

You see here the before and after of my front porch. I removed the half-walls earlier this week. They were flimsy and many of the boards were worse for wear, showing all of their 107 years. Taking the walls down was fun. I just leaned on them a bit and wiggled them and they came loose -- pretty much intact. I only had to take a sledge hammer to one section to break it loose. Hee hee. How's that for one mean Granny? Slinging a sledge hammer. (Okay, I was no John Henry rearing back and hammering it down. I used my best croquet techniques, but it worked!)

The new front door went up last year. This spring I was visiting a friend in Topeka who took me across the street to meet his neighbor. I love her house! It is a Victorian house with an oak screen door. That door fit the flavor of the house so much better than any modern storm door could do. Hm... it worked for her. Why not me?

I measured and ordered my door. Unfortunately, I measured the existing door, not the opening. The screen was an inch too wide. My brother to the rescue! He took the screen home and reworked it in his spare time this summer. He brought it back and mounted it this Monday.

The dogs aren't sure they like this idea. Charming, the brown dog, can't pop out the door and run off anymore. Mouse and his brother, Won Ton, were always game to chase after Charming. The screen door is spoiling all their fun.

Next I will finish painting the porch. I want to liven the place up with more color than it has had in the past. A white house with green trim is rather blah. Instead, I'm taking a page from the Victorian Painted Ladies' book and using three colors to accent the house.

Ah! But which three colors? If you look closely at the Before picture, you will see a colored glass accent window over the big picture window. I kept that window when the new picture window was installed. It has a new coat of paint and will be going back in place later this week. It has green, yellow and blue glass in it. Inspiration! There are my colors!

The elephant leg columns will be white. The pedestal at the top will be the same forest green that is around the windows. The house numbers and the crown molding at the base of the columns will be the deep blue-green of the front door, and the support beam under the roof will be the tan of the screen door. I will finish with new forest green lattice work around the foundation of the porch.

The front door will bring all my colors together. The door is blue-green with green, yellow and blue in the stained glass of the window. The decorative bar, called a dental molding, and the screen door have been painted tan. The porch deck will be forest green.

I have painted the back door to match the front door. Now I have to study that porch to see where I can incorporate my three color scheme. It is amazing how a little paint can freshen a place. When both porches have more color on them, this place should take on a whole new character.

Speaking of characters, these paint freckles are giving me a whole new look.

New Flower Bed

Mom made a perennial bed around the front of the house. In the ten years since she passed, the bed had been neglected and gotten root bound. I decided it would be easier to move the entire bed than to try to thin out the existing one.

The old vegetable garden is a rectangle 30'x90'. I put it back to grass this year, but it is a real pain to mow. It is the biggest unbroken section of grass in the entire 1/2 acre yard. Hm... Why not? I could put the perennials there. They would have lots of room to expand, and they would fill a goodly part of that disgustingly large mowing area. So... how should I do this?

I have always loved fish ponds. Perhaps I could make the flowerbed large enough to contain a koi pond. I also love weeping willows. I know their roots seek water, so maybe I could put a willow in the low spot, near the ditch that always floods. Unfortunately, that's awfully near the water main, so I'll need to check with someone before I buy the tree. I don't need willow roots breaking through the PVC pipe.

Oh, I could put lilac and mock orange bushes out there! In the spring, when the bedroom windows are open, we would be greeted in the morning with the fragrance of lilacs and oranges. There would be room for some tall Pampas grass, too. I'm really starting to like this plan! I can see myself pouring over the Gurney Seed Catalog all winter dreaming about things to put in this flower bed. The "legs" of the keyhole can be used for herbs and annuals. Now which herbs?...

A friend told me that you can mark the layout for a fishpond by sprinkling flour on the ground. It works as your "chalk." Okay. I took a five pound bag of flour and roughed in the shape of my keyhole flower bed. To fine tune the layout, I pulled the garden hose to my flour lines and smoothed out the circle. Once the shape pleased me, I started digging the first arc of the circle. This would be the peony bed. About three feet in from the first circle, I dug a second arc for the irises. For an automatic watering system, I pulled the drain hose from the basement sump pump to the top of the circle.

The first arc is roughly 25' in diameter. It is about 30' from Fisher Street. Whether I plant a willow tree or something else, there will be room for a tree to spread and not shade the flowers. There are other trees in the property line on the north. The black walnut will shade my flowers during some of the afternoon, but I don't think it will be a problem.

Next spring I will see about putting the koi pond inside the circle of irises. It will be a little off center so there will be room for a bench beside it. I can see it now, sitting on the bench, a big glass of iced tea nearby and a book in my lap, listening to the breeze in the trees and watching the fish in the pond. Doesn't that sound like a great way to spend a morning?

But I still have to get there. I dug up all but one row of peonies from the front of the house. (I do want some peonies blooming next spring!) After planting 2 dozen bushes in the new spot, I still gave a wheelbarrow load of peonies to the neighbors. Next came the irises, and it was a similar story.

The day lilies that are left will be moved to line the new flagstone walk. Next spring, I will put in some yew or other foundation plantings. I wonder if holly grows in Kansas?

Flagstone Walk

You can tell we are in the country because people come to the back door here more than they do the front. (In fact, I get after my granddaughter for using the front door. :) ) I have wanted a sidewalk across the yard so we don't have to wade through wet grass, snow or whatever to get there.

I don't have a clue about working concrete, so that wasn't an option. However, I've laid a lot of flagstone over the years. I pried up all the walks my folks had put down that I wasn't using and started my new walk. It has been stopped at 1/3 of the way across the yard most of this summer because I haven't had a way to get more rock.

My daughter, Jen, and her boyfriend, Steve to the rescue! They go to a friend's farm and gather rock for me. Isn't it looking good?

Kitchen work

I am tired but happy. The tile has been laid in both the living room and the kitchen. It looks so good! I have the same floor running the entire length of the house. I don't even mind putting back all the things that have been dragged into the living room while this and the south room are in process.

Jen and her boyfriend came over last night and moved the fridge for me. Jen cleaned up the old yukky vinyl behind the fridge, then I laid a cheaper tile to fill the holes that had been torn in the old vinyl. Since Dad glued the original vinyl down some ten or fifteen years ago, there is NO WAY I am going to pull it up. The second picture shows the "before".

I started laying tile about 9:00 Friday night and stopped when the second box of new tile was empty. By that time it was 4:30 AM. I decided to lay the last box of tile on Saturday. (I get involved in projects and lose track of time. What can I say?)

Saturday afternoon when I got back to the project I realized that I should make a commitment about the cupboards. For four years I have waffled between painting them or refinishing them. Paint won. I grabbed the can of paint left from doing the trim in the bathroom and started on the base cabinets. Tomorrow I'll go outside and paint doors and drawers.

I am not a dripless painter. I live my work. That's why I keep one old shirt just for painting. I have lost too much weight to wear the old painting pants, so I grabbed a pair of shorts that are getting too big and enjoyed slinging chocolate brown paint.

By the time I was done, the old floor looked like a Jackson Pollock painting; my hot pink tie-dyed shirt had a chocolate brown accent color; and my legs were wearing a polka dot look for the season. If you look closely at the picture of the painted cabinets, you can see my artistic additions to the old floor. I think the chocolate brown cabinets and white appliances will give the kitchen a classic look... especially with my new tile floor.

Sheet Rock!

My son is a treasure. He is putting up sheet rock in the south bedroom as my birthday present. He knows the way to Mom's heart! We covered the north wall on Labor Day. He will be back in a couple of days to finish the east wall and the unfinished parts of the south wall.

My daughter Jen says she knows about taping and bedding. I remember when Mom, Skip and I textured the living room back in 1961. Together we might get this room put back together.

It's nice to have family.

Should I mention which birthday? Hee hee. I'm 62. Not officially old, yet. That happens when you turn 65, right?

Living Room is Tiled!

It's done! And it looks so good. Good things are worth waiting for. :)

And what do I plan to do for an encore? The kitchen floor, of course. I am going to continue the tile into the kitchen, through the utility room to match the floor already in the bathroom.

I'm looking forward to this winter when I will sit in my favorite chair, watch a little TV and knit -- and admire my new floor. :)

(No knitting right now. I'm too busy doing other things.)

New Identities

This is a three bedroom house, but I can only sleep in room one at a time. The upshot is the two extra bedrooms take on new roles.

Now that Reyes is in Texas, the west bedroom has become the Library. I gave the bed he used to his sister and moved most of the bookcases into the room. I would like to add a comfortable chair that converts to a twin bed. That would allow the room to still be the spare bedroom. I am still looking for the chair I want.

My original idea was to move the roll-top desk into the Library as well. Unfortunately, the desk is too wide for the door. The desk now resides in the living room. I'm starting to like it there.

The south bedroom was going to be part of the kitchen expansion. That won't be happening now. Ah! But that means I can have a sewing room! I am using the Honduran mahogany table set that came from Mama Gladys. She and Papa Blanton had the set custom made from lumber he salvaged when he worked for Chiquita Bananas in Honduras in the 1940s. (That story is a full blog in itself!)

The large section that seats four will be the cutting table. The two expansion tables that butt against the bigger table will be used to hold the sewing machine and serger. I love the versatility of this table set. We have managed to get 12-16 people around it for big family dinners. Now it has an everyday use as well.

And yes, finishing the sheet rock in this room is on the agenda. One of the last things I'll do for the house is rent a sander and refinish floors in all three bedrooms.

I see more furniture refinishing in the future as well. I refinished this set when we inherited it after Mama G. died, but that was nearly 20 years ago. It's about time to do it again.

No Lion, Witch or Wardrobe

My grandson Reyes was my foster son for most of 2009. (He now lives with his father.) Reyes used the west bedroom, which was my bedroom when I was a kid.

That bedroom has never had a closet. When this house was built in 1903, people used pieces of furniture called "wardrobes" for closets. The wardrobe that was in my room in the 1960s was a cardboard invention from World War II. It wasn't too sturdy and didn't hold much. I could get everything I owned in it. That sure wouldn't happen today!

When Reyes took the room, I asked my son, Joe, to build Reyes something to hold his clothes. Joe says he cobbled this together out of 2x4s. It's just temporary. Typical of Joe, this "temporary" solution will last for years.

I plan to stain and varnish it to match the new woodwork (when I get woodwork.)

BACK AT IT!

The divorce is final; the dust has settled and I've gotten on with my life. This summer I've continued the never ending saga of weeding three houses worth of stuff to fit one small bungalow. No matter how much I throw away, there is still TOO MUCH STUFF! (Hm.. I got rid of one husband. Does that count for housecleaning??)

The good news is I have emptied the garage enough that both cars can now be parked inside at the same time! (what a concept.) :)

I had wanted to wait until it was time to install the hardwood floors before I put flooring in the living room. Since I can't predict when that will be, I've opted for Plan B. As you can tell from the first photo, our painted floor held up pretty well for three years, but the paint is wearing off. I could repaint it, but I want a more long-term solution. I chose self-stick tile.

I started putting down self-stick tile at the beginning of August. It is half finished now and looking really good. I need to make another trip to Home Depot for more tile, then the entire living room will be done! Done! Wow!!! I will be able to mop and not leave shreds of mop fibers caught to the particle board.

It's the little things that make me happy.

Sad News

Pat and I started remodeling the house, but I'll be continuing it alone. Pat and I are getting a divorce.

I will continue posting as changes are made to the house. It will be a slower process, but it will still get done.

Grandkids are a Great Help

Kayleigh, Emily and Lala have been visiting this week. Lala went home on Friday; Emily and Kayleigh go home tonight. They have been a big help to me. They picked and snapped beans, helped pick tomatoes, and took care of all the dogs we've had around here. (Our two, Emmie and Kayleigh's Bella, and Lala's Tinker Bell.)

Today Emmie, Kayleigh and Reyes pureed a ton of tomatoes so I can make ketchup (my first attempt. Wish me luck.) Each one had a job -- Reyes turned the crank on the juicer, Kayleigh pushed the tomatoes down into the hopper and Emily kept them supplied with sliced tomatoes. I was at the sink, slicing. I could hardly keep up with them.

They were gracious enough to do this before they headed for the city swimming pool for their last swim before the girls went home. They didn't seem to mind. Emmie piped up, "I like this. This is even funner than swimming!" The other two immediately growled, "Bite your tongue, Emmie!"

The kids are off to the pool now and I have the largest amount of puree ever to turn into ketchup and tomato sauce. I do believe I planted way too many Roma tomatoes. The Big Boy tomatoes are finally starting to produce. I have put up six pints of diced tomatoes and have enough ripe to do it again. I'm also getting to enjoy fresh sliced tomatoes at every meal. YUM.

The kids have been very patient with road trips. Thursday we had lots of places to go -- including two meetings in Garnett. They entertained themselves quietly, even when it had to be totally boring. Tinker Bell was content as long as she was on Lala's lap. (Click on the picture for a close up so you can find the dog on Lala's lap.)

On Friday we took Jen to downtown Kansas City for a job interview because she had car trouble. While she was in the interview, the kids, Tinker Bell and I explored the park in downtown KC. We met a lady from Madrid, Spain , her 3-yr. old son and their Schnauzer puppy at the park. She and her family had flown to New York, rented a car and are driving to California as their summer vacation. She said she hadn't realized how much energy a three year old could have until this one had to be cooped up in a car all day. Her little boy ran away from her two or three times and my four enjoyed corraling him. The girls had to ooh and ahh over her puppy, too.

When I told her Reyes was Mexican, she spoke to him in Spanish. He was able to understand a little of what she said, but didn't have the vocabulary to say much. Reyes enjoyed the fountain more. He spotted a Coke can floating in the water and dubbed it the SS Coke. He was sad when the SS Coke sank, never to be seen again.

They had a great time at the park. Tink was as easy going as the day before -- as long as Lala was within hearing or smelling distance. It is hard to be a blind daschund. Jen, by the way, had a good interview. We have our finger's crossed that she gets the job.

That Horse Shit Was Worth It!

Remember me posting about Reyes and Pat putting horse manure on the garden last spring? This was Pat's third try to get a good crop of corn. In the first two efforts he may have harvested six ears from the entire planting. Now he's a believer in horse manure (also extra nitrogen and side dressing with blood meal when the tassles form). We put up 19 pints of whole kernel corn and 24 ears of corn on the cob. If the entire crop had been planted in Bodacious corn, we would probably have had twice that much corn.

We planted two types of corn. Many years ago my Mom was enchanted by Iowa Chief corn. It was one of the first extra sweet corns she found. Not knowing which kind of corn to grow, I found that and planted it the first two years. Later Pat picked Bodacious from the Gurney's Seed catalog. We put in two rows of Iochief and 2 rows of Bodacious. Hands down, Bodacious is the one to grow! Not only was it sweeter, it outproduced the Iochief all over the place.

Besides corn, we have been busy with peas, onions, green beans and now tomatoes. I'm busy nearly every day canning or freezing what ripened the day before. I have never grown Roma tomatoes before, so it's an adventure figuring out how to process tomato sauces. I have put up two batches so far. One of classic tomato sauce (it came out pretty thick) and one of Italian Tomato Sauce. (runny, but full of carrots, onions , celery and other chunks. ) I have about 1/2 a basket of tomatoes to process today, so I'll have to see what recipe I want to try this time. The Big Boy tomatoes will be ripening soon. That's when I will put up diced tomatoes and tomato juice.

The green beans are going crazy! I have over 30 pints of beans put up and the beans are still producing. I thought they were "spring crops" that died off in early June, but the beans didn't, only the peas did. We will have beans until frost at this rate. I'm not complaining. Pat and I love green beans. Reyes doesn't get a vote -- they are on the table, so he gets to eat them. :) I don't think that's a problem.

The cucumbers went wild and I have put up all sorts of pickles -- Kosher dill pickles, dill pickle chips, sweet gherkins, sweet gherkin chips, as well as bread and butter pickles. I don't eat pickles, so I have to take the kids' word for it that they are good. Reyes and Lala smack their lips over the dill pickles. I do believe they could eat the entire quart in one sitting if they were allowed to do so.

I'm proud of the onion harvest, but frustrated, too. I can't grow large onions. I want them the size they come in the grocery store! Guess that will be one of my winter assignments: read up on growing large onions. Maybe they need something besides horse manure... I wonder if I can plant onions in a fall garden? As much as I'm using them for sauces and cooking, this won't be nearly enough to go through the winter.

The spaghetti squash is our mystery plant this year. My folks always planted one vegetable they hadn't grown before and didn't eat (yet.) One year it was globe artichokes. Another year it was peanuts. Okra became one of their staples after they tried it one year. [Dad had to harvest it because Mom was extremely sensitive to it's thistle-like nature.] So, for us, this year was spaghetti squash. It's doing great! But when do we harvest it? I've read that it is a winter squash, so I'm figuring it will harvest when the pumpkins do. I did pick one this week and cut it open. It was still green around the edges and the seeds weren't properly formed yet. I did cook it and the pulp did it's string thing, but we didn't eat it. I have time to perfect a good spaghetti sauce to eat with the squash.

We also have cantaloupe, two kinds of pumpkins and sunflowers planted. Reyes loves sunflower seeds, so he's been keeping a close eye on them. Next year I'm going to plant them against a building because every time we get a big rain, we loose another plant. We will be lucky to have 4 plants make it to maturity.

The pumpkins are Jack-o-Lantern pumpkins and one vine of Giant Pumpkins. The package said to pick off the buds and let the vine concentrate on producing one pumpkin to get the largest size. I let two pumpkins stay on the vine. I guess that means we will get two 150 lb. pumpkins instead of one 300 lb. pumpkin! It's going to have to hurry. Right now they look like light bulbs, not pumpkins. (That's it on the left.) The Jack-o-Lanterns have grown to be decent sized and LOOK like pumpkins, but those others, well... time will tell.

All in all we have a good garden and are enjoying it. This has been a good year for us.

Look at it now!

The bathroom is 90% complete. The only things left are to build the storage shelves that will go behind the door and to finish the trim work above the window and door. Oddly enough, Pat has a mental block about that trim. He keeps forgetting it. (But I don't!)

I wonder if it is a guy-thing? Dad didn't mind building things, but he wanted Mom and I to paint them. Pat enjoys getting the big jobs done, such as the living room walks and windows, but three years later, the woodwork has still not been replaced. He hasn't added the metal trim to the outside of the windows either. The roll of coil and the break are waiting in the lean-to of the garage. About half of the oak lumber we need for the woodwork has been sitting in the garage for nearly two years, too.

I really think it's a guy-thing. I try not to push too hard (guys get stubborn when you push), but I'll get him back to it in the fullness of time. Right now I want the bathroom finished.