The flames meet...

Jeff came out to the stables on Monday to meet the horse I've been riding for the past year. In almost a decade of marriage and various equine mounts at several facilities, I don't think he'd ever seen me ride before! It was fun having my steady flame (Jeff) meet my new flame (Flame)!

I rarely have the opportunity to study pictures or video of my posture and riding technique, so Jeff recording some clips and still shots to help me out. Flame was not in his best form and it was already hot and sticky by 7 am, but we managed all the gaits and a few decent jumps toward the end for good measure.

P.S. Just keepin' it real, I didn't edit the moment of Flame's little temper tantrum. Like any young thing being educated, there are episodes of rebellion!

Cake Catastrophe

Well, the worst-case scenario of my baking world finally happened. After preparing a multi-layered stacked graduation cake with various types of filling, frosting, and edible decorations and topper, we had to transport the delicacy almost two hours over rough Southern roads, hills, and four (count them, four) train tracks! Jeff is a careful and conscientious driver, and never more so with fragile cargo. But the last set the tracks, just three minutes from our destination, did the cake in. Even after braking gently down to almost a crawl, the diagonal rails where just too much waggle and sway, with a bounce to boot. We heard a thud from the back and immediately knew our fears were realized; cake down, cake down!

I couldn't look when we arrived, but Jeff surveyed the damage. All things considered, it wasn't actually that bad. I had doweled each layer for support and used a central skewer to stabilize the whole structure, so the cake looked more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa than a pile of smooshed confectionery crumbs. The biggest problem was the pedestal on which the cake platter rested; two of the four short columns had popped off and refused to snap back on. So I carried the cake into the hall as it was and Jeff helped me prop the poor thing up. Once the cake table was arranged, we situated the cake with the flat side to the back and the sad, wonky pillars out of view.

On the whole, I'm quite relieved. The whole occasion went fine, my homemade ginger ale in the fruit punch was a hit, the table vignette was very pretty, and everyone seemed happy. I lived through my worst fear and came out the other side without too much cake on my face ;-)

Fruit Flies >:(

I was saving several bananas to let them get really ripe and sweet for my tropical fruit punch recipe, and now I've bred fruit flies! I almost think Louis Pasteur was wrong when he disproved spontaneous generation. How else could my bananas suddenly spawn a whole host of tiny winged insects within a matter of hours? His biogenesis experiment obviously wasn't conducted in my kitchen fruit basket! So now we are trying to trap the tiny nuisances, or at least lure them away from my cake project with a sacrificial treat. The funny thing is, I'm making the punch for the same special occasion as the cake; it's quite the Catch-22!

Classic Cars

I found just the thing to sit in front of the vintage farmhouse; an antique vehicle!

Jeff and I stopped at the Cruise-In being held in the shared parking lot of the local Arbys and Steak 'n Shake. There are a lot of car shows in this area, but they always tend to be on days we are unavailable. We were driving by Saturday evening and there was just a bit of light left at dusk when we spotted the show. I love anything old, so Jeff heeded my pleas and did a quick U-turn so we could wander the show for a few minutes.

The cute pick-up above would be just perfect at the farmhouse. The subtle buttercream paint job even matches the color I want for the kitchen cabinets! I could carry home all my home improvement needs and curbside finds in its lovely bed.

This beauty would be just right as Jeff's commuter vehicle. The seats looked quite comfortable for those long moments stuck in traffic! And fellow engineers would love to peak under the hood at all the shiny contraptions contained within.

I think I really should have been born a few generations ago. Then old houses and vintage cars would have been new and everyone would have had one!

We're Floored!

The dining room floor is revealed! After filling two mugs to the brim with nails and producing a large scrap pile of vinyl, linoleum, and paneling on the porch, we are down to beautiful bare wood. The coloring is very uneven due to wear, sun, and finish differences, but other than the mysterious dark spot, the floor is in very fine shape. A light sanding and new protective coat should be all that is needed. Thanks to my darling husband ("the nail whisperer"), we knocked this project out in just a few sessions. Now it's on to the kitchen, which appears to have all the same layers plus an additional sheet of linoleum or two directly on the wood!

(You can scroll down to last Monday's post and see the same photo angle as above showing the "before" floor)

Partial Answer...

Several readers and I were all wondering why someone would cover beautiful hardwoods with any other type of flooring. Well, we may have an answer (at least in this particular case)!

Jeff and I worked several more hours at the farmhouse and got a good rhythm going on the underlayment removal. Jeff is quite swift at enticing those little rusty nails out of the floor around the perimeter, and then I can wedge a flooring scraper underneath and pry up, popping nailheads free as I go. With this method, we got a much larger area of the floors revealed.

Our first surprise was that the floors had been stripped, almost as if in the processes of being refinished. But there was no stain or protective coat. Then, we discovered a patch of aluminum foil taped to the heart pine floor. What could that possibly be doing there? As we removed more underlayment and more foil, we found this...

We have the following theory: something badly stained the original floor; the owners decided to refinish the floors in the dining room in hopes of removing the damage. When it became evident that it was still quite visible, they felt the need for new flooring. To keep the stain from penetrating or wicking up through the new floor, they sealed it with aluminum foil (of all things)! If we can determine the staining culprit, it is possible we can neutralize and bleach the wood back to its original color, or at least disguise it.

There is one living elderly member of the family who grew up in the house. I'm hoping to find out from him what this dark menace could be and take steps to tame it!

A Lovely Past-Thyme

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend an all-day workshop on herbs. It was held at Burritt on the Mountain, a "living" museum on the 167 acre estate housing a 1930's eclectic mansion. The grounds also feature many reconstructed historic structures depicting life in the 1800's.

We covered herb uses (both historical and modern day) in culinary, medicinal, and landscaping applications; propagation by cuttings, layering, and seed; and preservation methods such as drying, freezing, cooking, etc. After the lectures, we had a fun time making scented sachets and Victorian tussie mussies with many of the herbs we had discussed.

As a bonus, we also got to enjoy the view over Huntsville from Round Top Mountain on a pleasant walk after lunch.

Hard as Nails!

We spent several productive hours at the farmhouse yesterday. Through applied archeology (i.e., searching for clues, doing a little digging and detective work, etc.), I had determined that there had to be heart pine wood floors in the dining room.

The question was, in what condition and under how many layers of "modern" materials?

The answer to the latter, just a measly four layers!

One of the ancestors of the home was bound and determined to preserve that beautiful hardwood for us, and in doing so we now are faced with over 400 sq ft of small, old, rusty nails every 4 inches in 4x8 panels of underlayment! Mind you, this is under two layers of stick-down vinyl tile and old linoleum and over a still fourth layer of some sort of tarpaper-like substance printed to look like shag carpet!

After about half an hour prying up nails with a hammer and cat's paw, we revealed a small 2 foot square section of finished #1 premium grade quartersawn antique heart pine! This very inspiring "after" view of the hidden treasure will serve to spur us on whenever we tire or lose patience. But if anyone knows of a miracle tool for digging up embedded nails, please let me know!

Busy, busy week

We were out of town for Mother's Day until Monday night and hit the ground running on return. This is after having to take lengthy detours to reach and return from our destination, given that a major stretch of I-40 was closed due to flooding. Our new upstairs heat pump was installed while we were gone, but we arrived home to find it not working. A service call Tuesday had it running fine, until we heard a very worrisome, noisy "drip drip" in the walls that began at about 9:30 at night. Jeff ventured into the attic to check the air handler and found a few problems that required another service call the next morning!

I had a two hour riding lesson in the blistering, humid weather (already 91 degrees F!) Wednesday. It's the first ride this year where I've had to fully wash down Flame after, and I certainly didn't mind the cooling overspray. Then Thursday was my last Master Gardening class (held at the regional botanical gardens), followed by our final exam. Today Jeff and I worked at the farmhouse all morning tearing up linoleum. I have an appointment late this afternoon and still have to prepare a snack for church tomorrow. Jeff is not feeling well and the dog appears to have an upset stomach and possible fleas from the boarding kennel. All in all, it's been a full week of productive pursuits, so I can hardly complain. I look forward to a rest from our daily cares!

His proposal had a nice ring to it.

Ten years ago today Jeff proposed! He created a series of poems, each leading to another event or destination. It all started the evening before on a Saturday night with the first poem and concluded on a Sunday morning in a peaceful park in Longmeadow, Massachusetts with Jeff on one knee and a ring box in hand. I still have all the poems and photos of the location (which is unusual for me since I'm not a "keeper" of things or sentimental items).

Record breaking!

Well, it's confirmed. The tornado in our area was the longest major one in history. It was EF 5 strength for over 130 miles non-stop. The winds were around 200 miles per hour and the path was about a mile wide most of the time.

You can see the computer generated marks showing the Alabama tornadoes and their paths below.

And here is the untouched satellite image showing the scarring left behind from The Big One.

We survived...

This was the worst tornado event in Alabama history, so storm forensic experts are saying. Maybe the worst in US history. I don't think I've ever heard the sirens sound so many times in one day. We woke up to and just about went to bed to it last Wednesday. Thankfully, our city was not damaged directly, but just north, south, and west of us had destruction. The storms affected the regional nuclear power plant, so we were without power for five days. That means no lights, no appliances, no chargers, no hot water, nothing! We also didn't have cell service for a few days, and our landline was out for six days. Our perishables all perished (fridge, freezer, deep freeze goods, etc.), but other than that we were unscathed.

It was a surprisingly relaxing time in the neighborhood. We had beautiful weather on Thursday and Friday after the storms, so everyone was out in their yards sunbathing, reading, playing, grilling, etc. We walked the dog twice a day, got some outdoor chores done, washed my hair in a big storage tub in the backyard (I say "we" because Jeff was definitely instrumental in helping me accomplish that), enjoyed candlelit dinners every night, and generally unwound. Life is back to normal now (with a much cleaner fridge and freezer than usual ;-), but we will have fond memories of the "unplugged" lifestyle.