I think she "gets" me

My friend Judy sends me the funniest forward e-mails of anybody I know.
This week I have a huuuuge...and I mean HUUUUGE list of stuff I would like to get done before a party we're hosting in the barn on Saturday night. Most of it is stuff that has been on "the list" for-freaky-ever but none the less...it's on the list. Two days ago The Husand informed me that I won't see him much this week, farming plans have changed and they're "choppin" grass and corn - that means the days start around 6 here and there's a pretty good chance I won't see the whites of his eyes until around ten in the evening, there's a chance he may not be at the party Saturday evening (sad blogger girl). That means I don't have help, nobody to hold the other end of the board, nobody to help me shove stuff around...that means I'm on my own with "the list". Ohhh well...I'm sure the party will be big fun even if I don't make it halfway down the list, it's all about good friends and good times....who cares if the setting isn't quite what I had hoped for. I really hope The Husband can make it to the party...hope hope hope.

This morning I got this in an e-mail from Judy...the girl has perfect timing.
Oh...and on a very sad note. My camera and my computer are refusing to communicate!
NOooooooo.......! This week is so full of photo ops...fooey!
When I try to upload photos from the camera to the computer the little window on the camera says (NO COMMUNICATION)....anybody got any ideas on how I can make them kiss and make up?

The Diva of Destruction

The Tally:

My purse - she ate the handles off.

My other purse - she ate the handles off...I see a pattern.

Truck seat belts - she chewed the clickers to bits...we can't "buckle up for safety".

Truck seat belts - assault # 2, ate the straps....guess they kinda look like purse handles.

The seat of the truck - she ate a big hole in the upholstery and

foam where the seat belt comes out...looking for a purse I guess.

Three frisbees - chewed to bits, this I can handle...they were free.

Every tennis ball we've ever owned since the 70's - lost, chewed or eaten...

don't think we've played tennis since the 70's...not a big deal.

Two computer cords - whewww....I thought my computer was broken, it's just a cord, they

know me now down at Radio Shack and laugh when I walk in the door.

Electric adaptor - good thing it wasn't plugged in.

Eight stuffed animals - shredded to bits...she's so dang cute with stuffing hanging from her lip.

Three blankets - she just eats off the corners...she prefers it if the corners on blankies

are rounded off I guess.

Wood scraps - every block of wood she can find laying around has the corners rounded off,

I call her the "canine router"...rounding off the sharp edges of my life is her job.

Yesterday I walked into the back yard to see gray foam bits scattered all over the grass - it "was" the cushion for the couch in the party barn....we're having a party there next Saturday night....a cushion-less couch really isn't going to work so good.

The list goes on...we still like her, and laugh at her - laughing is good for the soul - laughing at your dog who eats all your stuff is good for your soul but kinda hard on the wallet.

Folks tell me she's going to be a really nice dog in a few years when she grows up...hope she doesn't eat the house before she settles down.

How Was Your Day?

Conversation at This Old Farm this week:

S - me

H - my hubby

The Husband came home from work a couple of days ago, this was our conversation.

S- Hi Honey...how was your day?
H - Terrible. My head hurts, I'm filthy and my jeans are ripped.
S - Terrible? What happened.
H - A Bard owl attacked me, smacked me in the back of the head and knocked me down.
S - No way!
H - Then a mean heifer went crazy, tried to run over me and while she was at it she knocked me to the ground and I got cow crap all over me.
S - Ohhh, noooo!
H - Then I was vaccinating a calf and it freaked out, tried to kick the crap out of me and while she was at it she ripped my jeans all the way down the side.
S - Aw honey...you poor thing, go in the house, get something to eat, and then come back out here and help me okay?


Poor guy...he barely got away from a crazy bird and mean heifer, only to come home to a crazy bird who was a mean old heifer who made him work with her after he got home from work.
Oh yeah...and while we were working out in the yard I picked up a rock to get it out of the way, I tossed it aside...ooopppsss, he zigged when he should have zagged and the rock hit him in the face.
I felt really really bad.

John Denver was so very wrong. Life on the farm IS NOT LAID BACK!

My Deer Librarian

When I'm at the cabin I don't have running water, or power, a landline phone...orrrr internet! If I want to check e-mails or blogs I go to the library, the teensy library in town has very limited hours, it's never open in the evenings or on Sundays...Friday and Saturday it's only open for three hours.
Wednesday evening I finished my chores and decided I would reward myself with a little laptop surfing in the library parking lot..I know...livin' on the edge I tell ya. The internet service in the library parking lot of this teensy town is about three times faster than I get at the farm...makes me cranky but I'm trying not to post cranky stuff...holdin' back as best I can.

So there I was, totally engrossed in reading my e-mails, puppy was sitting in the front seat with me and she started to whimper....look who was right in front of my car!
Faster internet service annnddd...wildlife right in front of your window - it just
doesn't get much better.

Got "the wants"

Okay, the picture is bad. I took it on the second day I had my camera...can't remember but I think I may have taken it by accident. I was at a birthday party and it was fun!
Here's the deal. We're having a party next weekend in the party barn for my friend...she's gonna be FIFTY! She's way older than me, like..umm...ten months!
Here's the deal.
I want the lights that are hanging from the ceiling in this picture, I neeeeed them for the party barn! I don't have a lot of wants, I like my life pretty much just the way it is...well...except for my addiction to dishes, but that's another post.
I'm not really ready to talk about my dish-addiction quite yet ;)

The Inspector

I'm speckled, streaked and smeared. It's a mad dash around the farm and at the cabin. Trying to get things sanded and painted before the weather changes and the paint brushes get put away ... who am I kidding - I never put my paint brushes away. I just move inside and paint inside the house, inside the barn, inside the cabin. The weather at the cabin hasn't been cooperating, I've loved the warm weather but it's not the best idea to paint when it's hot outside. Saturday I was prepping and painting the eaves at the cabin, the temp was almost perfect, the sun wasn't beating down on the area I was painting...when the wind kicked up - it was blowing the paint right off my brush! Ohh welll...there's always next week.Solid stain on the eaves, I'm a little sad to see the weathered eaves go by the wayside, we pulled off the old warped fascia board and decided not to replace them. The details of the open rafters gives just a little bit of pop to the exterior.

I had a visitor! It made my day to see this praying mantis. I never see them at the farm but this is the second one I've seen at the cabin...it even stayed put so I could get a photo. I guess it was inspecting my paint job, making sure I was doing things according to code.

This week? Moooorre painting. ;)

No more ugly

Okay....too many days of yucky photos and big messes. I'm at the cabin - no internet...so I drove to town and - wahooooooo...I can blog from the library parking lot!

I love these little orange lanterns in my garden...okay...I used to not like them at all. I tried to get rid of them, pulling, chopping, spraying...nothin' worked.

So I'm embracing them.

Want some for your garden?

Blogger is doing the evil laugh. Mwahahahaha.

A teensy rant

Day after day,

Alone on a hill,

The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still,

But nobody wants to know him,

They can see that he's just a fool,

And he never gives an answer,

But the fool on the hill,

Sees the sun going down,

And the eyes in his head,

Sees the world spinning round.................

Okay, so I've never met them. These people up on the hill...I've been told they're very nice, lovely folks in fact. But it just bugs the heck out of me that they destroyed the ridge line like that. I'm quite positive that they have an absolutely stunning view, but I'm guessing the view would have been pretty dang good if they had tucked the building into the hillside and not destroyed the ridge line, they have to own at least 20 acres...probably more like 80. The Good Neighbor Handbook for the Methow Valley even has a little article about how choosing this kind of site for ones home is frowned upon, I guess not everybody cares about being a good neighbor.

Bummer.

I don't really do much ranting here...but I just had to get it out of my system.

More Ugly Photos

Miss Wisty the wisteria has been very happy the last five years because we've let her have her way...and she has run amok. The party is over...with a cap O. Since The Husband isn't working as many hours as he has been all summer long we're tackling some of the more daunting tasks around the farm. Oh my...we made one heck of a mess. He's worried that we may have hurt Wisty...ya, like that's gonna happen. After hours of pruning, snipping, sawing, and pulling vines...I don't really care if she croaks. I have bleeding scratches, sore shoulders and a cranky back.
I told him I was pretty sure she would bloom next spring...if she croaks...
I'm not planting another one.

Evil Ivy.... Over!

Last week The Husband took a week of vacation. We worked on stuff at the farm, went to the cabin for a couple of days and put the exterior trim on the windows and doors..yeee hawww! I love it, I love progress...particularly when it's something that we've done together.
This past Saturday I was working on a little project in the party barn, he was doing a bit of this and that. He came out to the barn and said "Anything you want me to do?"...I said "that ivy over by the milking parlor is getting out of control, it would be great if you could trim in back a bit...in fact, I think that eventually we should just get rid of it, it's climbing the wall and it's going to ruin that nice paint job I did on the barn a couple of years ago". Off he went, I thought he would trim it back a bit, get distracted by cows or the dog..maybe the phone. I heard the tractor right after he went over to trim the ivy, I thought to myself....'hmmm...he didn't trim for very long at all...the rascal'. A little while later I walked to the house, lo and behold...the ivy was gone - yanked out with the bucket of the tractor.

Note: when one asks a farmer to do a bit of gardening don't expect them to use a hedge trimmer, a pruner or a lopper...expect them to use a tractor.

Dirty rotten ivy damage to my purty paint job. Guess what I did today...yup...sanded and primed, hopefully tomorrow I can slap on the top coat and call it good, then it's off to the garden center for some plants....and I won't be coming home with any stinking ivy!

* I was the dummy that planted it in the first place, hey...I was young and didn't know any better.

Playing Catch-Up

I've fallen behind on Roberts photo challenge. The Husband and I went to the cabin for a few days to work on construction projects, he's been on vacation from work this week and I've had so much fun working on stuff with him...it's great having him around. The photo request for Friday was to show what I find relaxing. The shot above is out of the kitchen window at the cabin..it's not really a kitchen yet but we have a propane stove there and it's where we keep the ice chest. I love standing here in the morning to make my coffee, almost every morning somewhere between seven and eight the hot air balloon pops into view, then it coasts by the cabin and floats down the valley, I get to watch it as I sit on the couch, drinking my coffee and reading my book. If the balloon isn't too high I can see it as it goes by, once it is out of sight my coffee cup is usually empty and it's time for me to get started on a project.

The request on Thursday was for my favorite view in my home. The photo above was taken out the window of the guest room here at the farm. I love seeing the stripes in the lawn from the mower, the willow trees shielding the road from view. In the winter when the trees have lost their leaves I can see the mountains in the distance.

My other favorite sight is the view toward that guest room from the end of the hall, the sun shines in the window and down the hallway first thing in the morning. When I moved here these floors were covered with old carpet. A few years ago I ripped up the carpet and refinished the old fir floors. The wood was really beat up and stained but I was determined to bring them back to life. After a lot of hard work stripping and sanding I just put a clear coat of varathane on them - they're far from perfect but I like them that way.

The photo request for today is me...yeah...I'm supposed to show a photo of yours truly. I'll have to think on that for a bit, hopefully I can come up with something creative to post later on in the day.

Sentimental Treasure

Robert asked us to show something of sentimental value today as part of his photo challenge. This little pill box belonged to my paternal grandmother. She made the best butter cookies in the whole world, she grew beautiful roses...she was a hard worker who occasionally would get completely frustrated - I know who I get that personality trait from!
I think the happiest I ever saw my grandma was the day 29 years ago when The Husband and
I (then my fiancee) went over to see her and grandpa to show them my engagement ring - she
was beyond excited. The saddest thing for all of us was that from the time of our engagement to the time of the wedding grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and she was unable to come to the wedding. For eight long years grandma was in a care center, when I would go to see her she didn't know me or any of my cousins. The memories of my grandma that I hold on to aren't about her time in the care center but of the years before her memory was taken from her, of cookies, funny stories, playing pool in her basement, spending the night upstairs in her pristine spare bedrooms.
When I go for lunch with my cousins we can spend hours playing "remember when"....
laughing until we cry....

Come On In!

The subject of the day for Roberts "Show Me" photo challenge is the front door.

When I moved to the farm this was an old aluminum framed sliding glass door, it let in lots of light but it was uh....not so pretty. Several years later our friend Fred put in this new door for us, he had great ideas for making the trim fit right in with the old fashioned style of the house. The planter boxes that Fred built blend in perfectly with the style of the trim on the front of the house, the really great thing is that I can see the planter boxes from inside...well...it's great when they're planted up all pretty, not so great when I forget to water and everything in those boxes is dried up and creepy/crunchy...hey man, stuff happens - I'm only one woman.

My poor old kitchen

Roberts photo challenge this week is called "show me"...and today it's the kitchen. I've walked into the kitchen for two days and tried to think of cool, funky ways to take a photo of it. I came up with nothin'....not one stinkin' creative thought. I've been working in the party barn this morning - I must have used up all of my creative juice out there. Oh yeah...and I decided to "keep it real" for the photo, dishes in the sink, on the counter, in the dish rack....and a few paint brushes there to the left of the sink that need to be cleaned - hey man...we're workin' around here!
This poor old kitchen needs a lot of TLC. The dishwasher hasn't worked in years, the fridge leaks, the cabinets are circa 1967, the linoleum is from the early 70's...oh yeah - and the washer and dryer are directly behind me where I stood to take this shot! Yup, no laundry room at this old farm..when I grow up I would love to have a laundry room. We talk about adding on space, adding a second bathroom. I've drawn multiple plans, shopped for cabinets, talked to an architect and contractors....but I just can't take the plunge, we even arranged for financing!

The Husband and I ran a few errands this weekend and while we were at Costco we saw some old friends...they were buying flooring for their kitchen, living and dining room - their entire kitchen is gutted right now. She invited me to come over and see it when it's all finished, maybe I'll just live vicariously through her...or maybe...we'll just move in with them.
Hey now, there's a thought!

How to beat the Mailbox Mashers

Rural life comes with certain hazards. When I first moved to the farm I had a fondness for cutsie mailboxes. I hand painted the letters, I had one with cows painted on it. These snazzy mailboxes are like a magnet to those delinquent road-trippin' juveniles with a whole lotta pent up anger and frustration....or maybeeee...they're just bored. They will spend an evening cruising back roads, one guy drives...the other guy holds a baseball bat and takes a swing at mail boxes - I think they get points or something...maybe the dude that picks off the most mailboxes gets a case of beer, who knows.
My days of cool mailboxes are definitely over. I get the cheapies and wait 'til they are completely demolished before I put up the new one.

The Husband came up with this groovy idea. The mailbox sits on a post, he added this second post the the side of that one...making sure that it supports the side of the mailbox as well. Any bat-bearing juvenile delinquent that wants to take a swing at the mailbox is going to have one heck of a sore arm if he makes contact with the post, there is just no way the mailbox is going to go flying off the post if it gets smacked.

It's been a few years since I've had to buy a new mailbox...this one looks pretty tired but it sure beats having to fish the mailbox out of the ditch!

Wasn't that a great idea?

This post was inspired by Robert who is hosting a photo challenge this week...yup, another photo challenge. Hey man, I like 'em. The name of the challenge is "Show Me"...today is the mailbox, I think tomorrow is the kitchen.

Uh oh, does that mean I have to clean it?

Things That Make Me Happy

It's been a busy week, I was at the cabin working on projects for three days. Got home really late Thursday night. Friday morning I went to work on projects here at the farm...there is always something, especially at this time of the year. When the sun shines I need to shift into high gear and get as much done as I can before the weather turns rainy and chilly and all outside projects come to a screeching halt.
I like all of it, the painting, the fix-it stuff, the projects... it's fun for me to hatch a plan, get the supplies and wade knee deep into whatever it is that needs doing.

I spent this morning out in the party barn moving stuff around, making lists for an upcoming party, figuring out the seating and where the food table should go. While I was in the house for lunch the phone rang, it was my friend Karen..she wanted to know if we had plans for this evening...uhhh...no - unless you count weeding and maybe a little bit of "honey can you help me move this stuff?". She invited us over for appies and wine...yayyy! Here's the best part, she told me if I want to bring a snack to share I'm not allowed to go to the grocery store...it can only be whatever I have in the house.
Doncha just love friends like that?
I found a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer, they're already defrosted and steamed...I just need to add the marinade once they're chilled and I'll be ready to party!

Drive by Door Hunting

I was at the cabin this week working on construction and painting projects. I thought for sure I would be able to find cool doors for Jientje's Opening Doors photo challenge. It's an area with a lot of creative people, funky artists...I really thought I would come back home with a plethora of photos to post. Tuesday evening I jumped in the new rig and went for a drive, I found a stunning sunset.

A fixer-upper, I think this one would be too much work...even for me. No doors on this one.

And only one interesting door photo. This is at the pub where we like to go if we're in the moood for some great food in a casual setting.

The carving over the door was done by a local artist.

I was pretty disappointed, I drove for miles and this was the only cool door I could find. I guess I live in the land of boring doors.

Check out my link to Jiente's blog, now that blog has some cool doors!

Wahooo...Two!

I really want to play along in Jientje's photo challenge, it's called Opening Doors. I'm kinda breaking my own rules and posting this photo that I've used before, sometimes ya just gotta break the rules. This photo was taken this spring out in the party barn in our back yard. The cool thing is that this photo also works for Ruby Tuesday , I've never joined in on the Ruby Tuesday challenge but when I remembered this photo I figured it was just meant to be. I'll be on the lookout this week for some cool doors, hopefully I'll find a few so I can join in on the Opening Doors photo challenge that runs all week.

I'm not ready

I'm not ready for summer to be over. There is a little bit of pouting going on over here at this old farm.

This is our puppy, she doesn't do a whole lot of pouting...rain, sleet, snow, hail...she could care less. Life is one big party as far as she is concerned, as long as there is someone to throw a ball or take her for a walk out in the field.

Speaking of parties, Jientje is hosting a photo challenge over at her blog this week, it's called Opening Doors. This photo doesn't really qualify because it's technically a gate, but I'm hoping to get out and about this week and I'll be on the lookout for groovy doors. If you're interested why not play along, got any cool doors in your neck of the woods?