Category: Life on the Farmlet

Ta-Daaa…! (things that make me happy)

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It took me a long time and not a little frustration to finally get this job done!  I have been working on the guest bathroom for months, in between other projects that is.

You will have to imagine the before picture because I can’t seem to find it.  So, imagine if you will… powder blue walls, hospital white cabinets and bead board, and all of it chipped.  The ceiling had been taped when the fan was installed, but the tape was lifting too.

But the most frustrating part, yet satisfying when it was finally done this morning was this!

(“Pay no attention to the [wo]man behind the curtain!”  The Great Oz, in The Wizard of Oz.)

I finally got the mirror installed, more or less, correctly!

Old Mr. Gains, the man who built this house in the early 1950s, was a cabinet-maker.  He built this Olympic-sized medicine cabinet into the wall and it is 42″ wide, by 37″ high, and 9 inches deep.  It’s huge and there was no way we were going to be able to replace it with anything new.  That said, I really kinda liked it and saw that it had possibilities.  So I made the one side into a shadow box!  I have far to many trinkets and this gives me a dust-free place to display some of the more interesting ones.

Steps taken to get here:

  1. Fill, sand, and paint every surface (porcelain objects excepted) Bob helped me with the ceiling by painting in the Kilz and then cutting in the two coats of ceiling paint.  (He also gave me lots of ‘atta-girl,” and a few pep talks when the going got tough.  I love him for his support when I can’t do it myself.)  🙂
  2. Have three different plumbers out to fix leaking toilet base five times, yes FiVe!   Seems the flange was broken and someone had screwed it down to the floor.  Oh, and while the last one was here, he removed the Yeti sized hair ball that was clogging the sink drain (it was hiding way down deep in the line).
  3. Clean out four layers of old contact paper from the over-sized medicine cabinet.  Two of which were painted, and one of which someone had spilled Tigress perfume!  Trust me, it does not get any better with age…
  4. Send out doors of over-sized medicine cabinet for professional stripping, and prepping for painting.
  5. Paint said doors and install glass into one side.  Install mirror on the other side, now REPEAT.  (I broke the mirror, trying to install it, the day before my friends came to visit from California.)  😐
  6. Get frustrated and bent all out of shape securing said second mirror into frame, finally give up, and use contact cement to just glue the lath onto the back for fear of having to repeat the frustration AGAIN.  (thankyouverymuch)

So now that it is all done we need to replace all of the porcelain, but do not have a budget for that.  So, maybe by the time we can finally afford it, we can pay someone else to do it?

A job well done, makes me smile even on a gloomy day.  I will smile all winter I think.

~*~

Once Upon a Time in the West: an encounter with tribulous terrestris

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Today when browsing my email I read a post from a friend at bdale56, which led me to follow a link to littlesundog  .   I was curious about the blog’s name, as Little Sun Dog is what we sometimes call Tucker.   Therein, she had posted about ‘Damnable Weeds,’ and discussed the Goatshead bur.   That caused me to recall a time from my early childhood…

English: Tribulus terrestris (flower). Locatio...

Image via Wikipedia

The Goat’s Head Bur ~  looks tame, flower is cute, BUT… Read on friends.

Oh, how I remember those goat’s head burs!  My first, and worst, memory was from when I was a child of four.  I ran out into the field near our new house to catch a kitten and got stuck in the biggest sticker patch ever.  It had to be ten feet in any direction and I was right smack in the middle of it before I even registered the pain of my predicament.   With each step the bottoms of my little feet would become  covered in those evil stickers.  It was, as you might imagine, like walking on thumbtacks.  I lifted a foot, pulled them out, took a step and picked up more of the evil seed heads.

Tribulus terrestris L. - puncturevine thorns

Image via Wikipedia

Evil seed heads

Screaming and wailing piteously had  alerted a young teen passing by the field.  He yelled over to me and asked, “Do you need some help?”

To which I yelled back, “Nooooo!” 

Seriously.  My parents had raised me to never-ever talk to strangers, and he was a stranger.

Ignoring my protest, he crossed the field and came to my rescue.   Scooping  me up in his arms, he carried me out of the field, then sitting down, he carefully pulled each and every sticker out of my little feet.  My little face was hot, red, and covered in tears by the time he had finished.  I remember thanking him as he got up to continue his walk on down the road.  You know, I never saw him again, but he was at the top of my Hero list for a very long time!

~*~

Now you and I know that pulling weeds is not a chore that is enjoyed by anyone, especially a child,   and as I learned young to hate the weed, well eradication was never a chore!   In fact, I rather took joy in seeking them out and pulling them up as soon as I spotted them, anywhere, any time.

~*~

I am so glad that the evil Goat’s Head weed does not grow here.

Uh-oh.

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Needing a haircut the Lady of the Farmlet thought,

“I cut Bob’s hair for him with the clippers… I’ll just put the biggest comb on and do it myself!”  It only took one swipe of the clippers to realize my mistake, but it was already too late.

I look in the mirror and try to imagine myself as one of those artsy looking old fems in dangly earrings and folksy clothing.  Nope, the vision bubble pops and it is still me with awful hair staring back.  Is it possible to be too frugal?  Yes.  It truly is.

I told Bob I won’t be going out in public.  His response?

“You can wear a hat.”

Note to self: 

NEXT TIME GO TO THE NEAREST CLIP JOINT AND PAY $10.00.  IT COULDN’T POSSIBLY LOOK ANY WORSE.

!!!  😐  !!!

UPDATE

So many of you wanted pictures… My sister called almost as soon as I hit the publish button!!!  So I went out looking for a picture of an artsy looking ‘old lady’ with dangly earrings, whose hair looked roughly like mine, and I found her!

So, wadda’ya think?  Should I dye my hair orange and get a tattoo?

The very talented Fiber Artist ~ Rice (rhymes with Lisa) Freeman-Zachary

Click on the photo to see all her fabulous books on Amazon, or go here to her website:  http://voodoonotes.blogspot.com/

It never rains but what it…

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… POURS!  As in water gushing from the water main, and the geese are screaming  like they are under attack, so you rush out the door to find them flapping their wings and paddling in the puddle it had made!

Glad they are enjoying it!  We just spent over $1,000 to replace the electric water heater last month!  Since this is the third break in the line it seems prudent to replace it…

I asked the plumber if his company offered stock options.  It took him a minute, then he chuckled and said,

“No.”

!!!    😐    !!!