Farm: April 2007 Archives
Have you ever had a vegetable garden?
One with rows?
And weeds?
Do you hate the hours upon hours of having to do the back breaking chore of hoeing weeds?
I do!
Eventually at some point I have even let weeds just have it and walked away from a garden.
I know.
Shameful it is.
This year I have big plans for my garden. Same as every year only this year I have Steve who also has big plans for a garden.
Yayyyy! Help with fighting the weeds.
Only this year we have a secret weapon.
Steve bought this.
I did!
What I had planned to do before my mother came at Christmas has been done in this past month. I painted the baseboards and the window frames in my kitchen. Finally!
Sometimes I cook on the woodstove. Why waste electricity?
Look at those pretty white baseboards!
Not only did I do the painting but I have managed to also complete one set of curtains for my windows.
See the unpainted things that never got painted at Christmas?
Looky there! Curtains!
These curtains are a project I have worried over for almost two years. Yes, two entire years. I flipped flopped on the curtain/no curtain issue many times not wanting to put up a curtain that would close in the room and block out the wonderful sunlight this room gets all day long.
I purchased this fabric online a month or two after we moved into this house. It was always earmarked for curtains. Either in my kitchen or my bedroom. The kitchen won.
It is a great toile print of a barnyard scene with an old red bard and rooster. Although I had ordered 10 yards of the fabric there was not enough for two windows of this size and the smaller window at the end of the kitchen. Nice. Because this print is out of stock. It is a two year old print that has long been gone.
I have wanted in some way to have gingham in the kitchen but I didn't want to go overboard and look like a barn dance in here. So I thought about it alot. I looked through thousands of patterns for curtains and draperies. It wasn't until recently that I was inspired by a designer kitchen advertisement to make the curtains you now see.
Not too much gingham. The perfect matching crimson. Nice fabric for draperies. The first set I made I lined them. The lining blocked out too much of the sunlight. I do not want this kitchen to be dim. I like it flooded in natural sunlight. So I ripped out the lining and remade the curtains without it.
I like the look of the yellow walls, red accents and white trim in this room. The appliances are stainless steel with black trim. I have begun to add black and cast iron things to the room to flesh it out. The heavy black cast iron is a great contrast to the more feminine white ceramic pieces and china in the room.
I never planned to paint those cabinets white. It was sort of a last chance to have a nice looking kitchen without the expense of new cabinets. These are just too good of shape to toss for the sake of cosmetic wants.
I never planned to paint the walls yellow. I never had a color in mind but yellow just wasn't one of my choices. One day I saw a yellow cloth given as a gift in something when Steven was born. My brain said paint the kitchen that color. And so we did. Last July.
The black granite of the countertops was simply what was available without a special order. The price was right.
The white cabinets and black countertops deemed the black hardware the wiser choice. I chose them online based solely on price. I think they work.
With the brick red floors I already had a lot of red accents. The rugs and towels, the wall plates, the roosters and painted sign. As things began to come together I realized the little sofa was red with yellow(ish) and black plaid stripes. It just works without any conscious effort on my part.
Eveything is really beginning to come together after alot of hard work. I am really beginning to see and feel the room as a part of the house and not as an addition without much thought to the rest of the house.
This has been a long time in coming. I started painting the cabinets (3 coats of primer 2 coats of paint) and continued on when Steven was just a newborn. I have progressed over the past year slowly. Very slow. My infant grew into a giggly baby and then into a busy toddler and now a non-stop very active little boy.
Meaning it took me this long because instead of painting from the bottom up I painted from the top down. Little people under three feet tall do not listen to you when you tell them not to touch the wet paint on the baseboards.
I suppose you already knew that. I should have.
Speaking of which ...
Steven, 14 months old
His smile pretty much says it all.
You know how nice it is to walk to the sink and turn the knob and the water comes out? Or how great it is to use the bathroom and push the handle down and the toilet flushes?
Yeah, me too.
For all of my frugal, do-it-yourself ways I just am at a loss when the water stops flowing up from the well and through the pipes into my kitchen and bathrooms.
For the past couple weeks I have notice a change in our water. The pressure would come and go. Then everything would be fine. Sort of like when the lights flicker and you know it is probably a squirrel walking near a transformer somewhere in our grid.
Last evening just as we headed out for church I was the last to flush, brush my teeth and wash my hands. As I finished washing my hands the water stopped.
I came into the kitchen where Steve was waiting. Turned the knob and no water came out into the sink.
It was 6:15 so I went to church and left Steve to see if he could fix the problem or identify exactly what the problem was. Was it the pressure tank in the cellar? Was it the pump itself? For heaven's sake was the well going dry?
The preacher gave me a local name to call and see if he would come check it out. I stood in a sunday school room and dialed Steve on my cell and passed the information to him. Then I went into the sanctuary.
My thoughts where not were they needed to be. I followed the sermon but kept looking at my watching silently urging him to be finished.
Gracie has guitar lessons after church so I left her andbrought Steven home to find out if Steve had managed to solve our lack of water problem. He could do nothing. Surmised it was the pump. And had called a plumber to come out.
The pump that had been pumping for 19 years.
At 7pm on a Sunday night. I closed my eyes thinking about the weekend rates those people charge.
The plumber came. Checked the power and pressure tank in the cellar. Killed the electricity and pulled the cap off my well.
The brand new pump that I hope will pump for 19 years or longer as well.
My well is not like everyone's well. It is not a pipe running out of the ground sitting in a little house.
My well was hand dug in 1909. It is about 3 feet by 3 feet. It is stone lined. I could drop a bucket in and hoist up a bucket full of water. My well pump is a submersible pump. It is simply a piece of modern machinary suspended in the center of the well reaching from the top about 90 feet down into the pool of water.
Lifting the well cap.
For the first time we looked down into the well last night.
In about two hours start to finish we had beautiful flowing water again.
98 years ago a man took a shovel and began to dig. He did not stop until he hit water nearly 100 foot below.
I knew the bill would hurt. It wasn't as bad as it could have been.
In the end it was worth it and then some to be able to turn the knob and water flow from the faucet.
And the toilets will flush.
What I planned to do: Prime and paint large window frame in kitchen. Prime and paint small window frame in kitchen. Prime and paint corner of baseboards behind woodstove. Scrub kitchen floor with ammonia then wax to a gleaming shine. Begin painting the dining room to coordinate with the lovely finished kitchen. Make curtains for kitchen from fabric purchased nearly two years ago that is now discontinued and can't be found anywhere at allwhatsoever. Work in backyard, spray clover and weeds, trim up and clean up noticable public areas that are showing signs of neglect from the last snow storm. Pot up plants for hanging baskets for front porch. Scrub planters for front porch and place lovely ferns on either side of the front door. Fill planters with lovely flowers for the front porch steps. Work on blog template requests. Finish quilt. What I accomplished in 1 week: Prime and paint large window frame in kitchen. Prime and paint small window frame in kitchen. Prime and paint corner of baseboards behind woodstove. Make two of eight curtain panels. For three days get Colby to work. Pick Colby up from work. Try to find rims for her Explorer that do not cost $400+ each. Cook three meals a day, every day for children home on Spring Break. Bring in firewood and keep fire going in woodstove due to temperatures barely cliimbing into the 50's all week. Wash dishes. Wash clothes. Wash dishes. Wash clothes. Wash dishes. Wash clothes. Rinse and Repeat. Wash dishes. Wash clothes. I am really struggling to get things done today. Colby doesn't have to go to work so she is going to help me with Steven today. Maybe I'll get to the point I can show you a few photos tomorrow. Then I dropped a piece of firewood. It nearly broke two of my toes. One toe is cut and bruised. There is no way I can wear a closed toe shoe but the foot is so ugly in its current state that my cute sandles and slides don't look so cute with black and blue and bloody toes poking out the tip.
I don't have any silverbelles, cockle shells or pretty maids all in a row.
I do have all these seeds started* and/or we have ready to go into the ground-
Lettuce*
