Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with family in Arkansas. It's always nice to have a few days to gather back in Jeff's hometown and see friends and relations.

Priceless Pecans

I will never complain about the price of shelled nuts again! I spent about three hours today shelling pecans and only netted just over a pound (and that was on top of the time spent collecting and drying them)! I'm amazed that the grower can maintain acres of trees, wait ten years for them to start producing, gather the nuts, shell and package them, ship them across the country, and stock them on the local grocery shelf, all for about $7 a pound. My fingers are raw and brown, and I have several more baskets to go!

On the plus side, I found a great sugared pecan recipe that I prepared over Thanksgiving. It made a tasty treat that was consumed in just a few days. I'm making more for a dinner party, so I'll try to get a photo and post the recipe.

Breakfast Buds

Look who popped by this morning! Our back kitchen window still has an air conditioner unit installed because the window sash was custom built for it and won't close if we take the unit out. We'll have to have a new lower sash built, but in the meantime, it makes a great perch for the girls.

Attila, the bold and noisy one, has at times hopped up there to crow about something or other. But I guess Atomic decided to play follow-the-leader today. Maybe they just wanted to ensure that we weren't devouring chicken biscuits for breakfast!

Pretty Painting

Our painters are finally done! They were a very detailed, conscious crew, if a little slow at times. You know what they say in the construction world: fast, good, cheap; pick two. Well, we went with the good and (moderately) cheap, so fast was out the window. But the windows (and the fascia, soffits, trim boards, siding, etc.) all look great!

Before

After

After

After (in the late afternoon sun)

After all the fussing with paint color samples, the siding still isn't exactly what I pictured 100% of the time. In cloudy or indirect light, it's just right. But it gets a bit washed out and blueish in direct sun, which is to be expected. It's unlikely I would have found a color that was perfect in all light because it would always shift. But the funny thing is, I love the trim color, and it was the shade to which I gave the least thought! The siding is Sherwin Williams Link Gray, and the trim is Sherwin Williams Rice Grain.

I still want to tie the siding color to the brick with some accents of each interposed on the other. I'm going to build some window boxes with brackets for the upper triple windows on the dormer and gable ends, and I'm thinking those will be painted brick red. Then, I'm hoping to find (or paint, if need be) some large planters the same blue-gray-green of the siding for the front porch steps. I think this will provide the visual connection between the colors that is missing right now.

Window box idea

Glazed blue-green planter examples

Leaning Lights

We have not had any exterior lights in the backyard since we moved in. There is a pole with a yard light mounted on it, but it has never worked. The same skinny pole also carried the heavy electrical wire from the (too low) weatherhead on the house roof over to the shop across the backyard. Carried it, but not very well. The line was sagging down quite low over the drive. In addition to this heavy cable and the non-working light and affiliated electrical cord, the pole also sported two random phone lines from different corners of the house. All this sat smack in the middle of the backyard on a wonky pole around which DaVinci frequently entangled himself.

Yes, the camera is straight. No, the pole is not!

Not anymore! We now have a sturdy, round pole with a working dawn-to-dusk light (on a breaker in the shop, no less, so we can turn it off when we wish to star-gaze). Said pole is closer to the driveway to shed light where needed and not cause an unsightly obstacle in the yard. It's also taller and straighter, which is an added bonus.

A very friendly father and son electrician pair made this happen in just a few hours. We've now eliminated three rather awkward lines, complied with code regarding the weatherhead, and illuminated our parking and walking paths. I love when making life better goes so smoothly! I can't wait to come home after dark and not need Jeff to fumble out his iPhone to serve as a de facto flashlight in order to see the right key for the back door!

Picking Pecans

Whether you say "\Pee-kans" or "Puh-\cahns", Jeff says delicious! He really enjoys pecans, so it's nice that we have two nut trees of our very own. I'm actually not a huge fan of them, but with a free harvest, I'm not inclined to let them go to waste. I'm hoping to find a good recipe for sugaring or glazing them, as I do love a fall mesclun salad with pears, gorgonzola, and glazed pecans, all topped with a raspberry vinaigrette. Yum!

Bottoms Up

Normally, you would work from the top down. But in our case, the floor is the starting point for the kitchen renovation. Jeff only has another week or two of classes before he is out for winter break, so it's time to ease into the next big project.

I began by easing up the last layer of linoleum on our wood floors. We'd already removed two layers of vinyl and an underlayment of plywood this summer. We left the last layer of glue-down tiles so we would have something fairly tidy and neat for flooring in the meantime. But now it's time to get messy and dirty, so while Jeff was out of town, I began demolition. There is still much scraping to be done before we can sand, but I see peeks of pretty wood underneath!

Picture Perfect

I'm so excited! We finally had professional portraits done after all these years. It's been over a decade (the last time was at our wedding)! We decided it was about time, and no use waiting for children. Adults don't change as much, but that's no reason not to capture the moment.

We did an outdoor shoot at a small farm in a historic town just up the road. Our first appointment several days previous was canceled 15 minutes before the meeting time because of rain. But our second try was pleasant and dry.

It was a lot of fun. Our photographer was very efficient and knew just what she wanted. I hope another ten years don't have to pass before we do this again!

Bedding Down

After a hectic and mentally stressful Friday dealing with the water issue, it was nice to have a good, old-fashioned day of hard manual labor on Sunday.

We have been needing to get the foundation planting beds tilled for a few weeks, but our elderly tiller has been rather uncooperative. Jeff has started the work on several different occasions and had to stop because of mechanical problems. Today was no different, but he persevered and made it happen!

I first copied the landscape plan onto the lawn with an inverted spray paint can.

Marking the beds.

After working on the tiller for a while to get the pull cord repaired and installed, and then working more to get the tiller to start, Jeff's progress was interrupted when the cable to the blades broke. So I ran and got him a pair of vice grips with which to hold the tiny cable end and he kept going! When the tiller died again and wouldn't start, he figured out that removing the air filter just until it started did the trick. Then we had to quickly reattach the oily filter contraption to the top and tighten down the screw while the tiller bucked and jerked and Jeff kept an eye on the choke. We're starting to get the feeling it's time to search for a new tiller!

Jeff's version of Alabama agricultural ingenuity.

While Jeff was tilling, I was hoeing the edges and pushing back the encroaching Bermuda grass from the walkway and driveway. Jeff pronounced it my Dutch project, because of all the reclaimed territory. We have at least another foot of asphalt on each paved area that we didn't know existed under there!

Then it was on to building up the beds. Wheelbarrow, shovel, scoop, and rake were our companions as we amended our soil and raised the beds for better drainage. I'm looking forward to tucking the shrubs into their new, comfy homes soon.

Yes, short sleeves in November! It was warm and we were working hard ;-)

Breaking News

fWell, we had a leak in the water main, alright. In fact, it was a major break. The previous occupant had used a backhoe to dig down to the line, install a T connection, and run a water line into the middle of the field (presumably for his pumpkin patch business that never came to fruition). So we had a compromised soft spot in the ground with a sloppy plumbing job centered in a pasture that gets mowed with a heavy tractor. All the makings of a major blowout!

You'd think 46,000 gallons would look
like more than just a puddle in the pasture!

And blowout it did, with about three breaks and one disconnect in an 18" span. I'm absolutely amazed that we had any water pressure in the house (though we had noticed a small decreased in flow and chalked it up to old galvanized lines, which get easily occluded). I guess that's a credit to our very clay-based soils here that so much water made it past the break and continued on to the house. But I really wish it had disrupted water flow to our taps; then we would have realized there was a problem before 46,000 gallons of water disappeared into the dirt!

The T connection between the three legs came apart at all three places

All in all, it could have been far worse. Jeff dug up the line with the help of a handyman on our painter's crew and repaired the break with new pipe and couplings. Our friend and neighbor, who owns the pasture through which our water main runs, wanted the spigot out anyway, so now the T connection is gone and we have a simple straight shot to the house. Maybe Jeff should bill him at $125 for the plumbing work so we can pay our water bill!

Main Problem

How does one use 26,000 gallons of water in eight days? By having a major leak in one's water main to the house!

I'm very thankful I checked our water bill before filing it. We have it paid by direct deduct, so the paperwork is just a formality, really. But I try to stay on top of our utility usage. So when I saw the big bill and the 20,000 gallons more than usual on the bill, I thought perhaps it was from the pressure washer the painters used in prep work. But that still seemed like a tremendous amount of water. So I called the painters; no, they had never seen that kind of water bill from a customer before.

Then I called the water company. Yes, the reading was correct. So I took the dog for a walk and went by the meter (which is located all the way across the pasture at the crossroad). As I looked at the gauge, I could see the dial going around. Not the little jiggly one that tells you there is a drip somewhere; the main dial that turns with every 10 gallons of water dispensed! I took a reading, compared it with the previous (very high) bill and realized we had used another 26,000 gallons in just over a week since the last reading. Big problem!

On the way back to the meter and shut-off valve with a pipe wrench, we discovered the large, wet sink hole in the pasture. Tire tracks lead to and away from it, so we have our culprit. With the water off, the standing water has already receded a bit in about an hour, so I'm almost positive we have the right spot. Now I'm waiting on the workmen to come hand dig the line and find the problem. Did you know most plumbers charge $95-$125 an hour?! Anyone want to come help me dig???

{drip...drip...drip}

Ever had a leaky faucet? We did. Notice the past tense conjugation of "do". As in, used to. Not anymore! I didn't think I would ever be so excited just to have a faucet that shuts off. But when you've spent months holding your mouth just right and wriggling the faucet handle slightly up and to the right just to make it shut off, and then enduring weeks when even that trick only reduced the stream to a slight trickle, you'd be excited, too!

It was a simple $3 fix. We will be getting a new faucet soon during the kitchen remodel, but it will be accompanied by the new sink and countertops. So I didn't want to order my new faucet, install it, remove it, and then install it again in about a month. So I was going to live with a drip. Until I couldn't live with a drip any longer. A trip to Lowes with a knowledgeable plumbing department staffer resulted in new seats and springs and a quick how-to lesson.

Jeff had the spigot off in a jiffy and allowed me the photo opp of placing the new parts. A few tries at getting the faucet reassembled and voila! No more drip.



I'm here to tell you, friends don't let friends live with drips. If your tap is leaking, run to the nearest big box store and get yourself some seats and springs. You'll be so happy you did!

Fall is for Planting!

Our autumn weather has been quite beautiful lately. We've had several chilly nights that leave me longing for central heat, but I just remind myself that it could be worse (i.e., regional church winter campouts at Bakers Acres, for those of you fellow adventurous ones)! We'll get the HVAC guys out eventually, but we still have some plumbing and electrical changes to make first.

In the meantime, I've turned my attention to landscaping, as fall is the perfect time to establish new plants. At our last bungalow, we applied the first time and money expenditures on the interior. Mainly because the exterior stuff is so expensive! But at the farmhouse we are taking a different approach. It's been neglected for so long in so prominent a location in this small town that we wanted to give back to the community, in a sense. The interior things are mainly selfish, because they make our life better and easier. But the outside is for the neighbors and passers-by, primarily. It's an opportunity to really let our light shine and truly "love thy neighbor".

All of this love has to be done on a budget, however! The exterior painting and trim repair are being completed by professionals. It's expensive but worth it for the time savings (not to mention the safety aspect with all those ladders). So I've been stocking up on clearance plants at Lowes, driving around town to pick up free horse manure to amend the soil, and will be making a trip to our local landfill for gratis mulch sometime next week.

Keeping the plants watered and warm while I wait for the painters to stop trampling around the house is quite a job. An ever-expanding job, since I continue to find great deals on more plants!

I have Weeping Holly, Abelia, Indian Hawthorne, Butterfly Bushes, Knockout Roses, shrub roses, Loropetalum, Rudbeckia, Coreopsis, Pink Jasmine, Yellow Trumpet Vine, three types of ground cover, and a handful of other perennials. Oh, and that doesn't include the large Canna bulbs and many clumps of day lilies that friends have given me!

I visited a local nursery and worked with one of their staffers there to draw up this plan for the front foundation beds.

I'm also drawing on a lot of the things I learned in the Master Gardener class about soils, planting techniques, shrubs, lawns, etc. I am learning to be patient because I want my little two and three gallon plants to be full size already (which will take at least five years)! It's so hard to remember not to crowd them in there to give a full look now, only to have trouble and unhealthy conditions down the road. Oh the lessons to be learned from agriculture!

A queen for my king

We have been sleeping in a full size bed for the past six years (at least). When we bought our first old bungalow, the bedrooms were small and I found a great antique iron bed (which were all full size back then) that we loved. Not only is the mattress only the length of a twin, it was rather old and squeaky to boot. It was plenty of width for the two of us cuddly sleepers, but at six feet tall, Jeff was frequently hitting the footboard if he stretched out.

We've been thinking about getting a new mattress set for a while. But mattress shopping is a bit overwhelming! We'd gone a time or two, but with just a few minutes to sit on, bounce on, and lie on a mattress in a showroom, how do you decide! What size, what plushness, what material, what price point?

But after we enjoyed the very nice bed at the hotel in Tucson for almost two weeks, we realized how bad our old mattress really was. So it became a priority as soon as we returned home. And I'm happy to say we found a great deal on a Eurotop memory and latex foam queen set with organic cotton. So now we have comfort and support from our heads to our toes with no creaks or jostling in the night! There is even a bit more room for DaVinci to join us on the bed in the evenings for a short cuddle. Here's to a good night's sleep, my King!

Birds of a Feather

Speaking more of birds, I enjoyed a view of the huge flock that landed in the west meadow earlier today. I was reading in the bedroom, enjoying the late afternoon warm sunshine pooling near the window, when I became aware of the rising and falling chatter of birds. I glanced out to see an enormous flock feeding in the grass. I snapped a few photos through the blinds before they took flight. It was quite entertaining!

You'll have to squint through the streaky windows; the painters are powerwashing and it makes the panes a bit of a mess