Potty Talk

We have an outdoor bathroom. I don't mean an outhouse; I mean a real bathroom accessible from the outside (it's attached to the house, just featuring its own entrance). This feature could actually be very practical from a farmer's perspective, or if we had a passel of kids that could enjoy the convenience, but we never used it at first.

It's a complete three-quarter bath with shower and all, but it had been out of commission due to some plumbing issues and a whole lotta "ick". A few months back, Jeff rectified the leaks and we took turns scrubbing and sanitizing, and we're now proud of our handy-dandy fully functional "outbath", as we call it. I'm thinking of stenciling the classic half moon on the door so backyard guests will know what it is. We've really found it comes in handy for grilling out or patio get-togethers, and it makes an interesting conversation piece on home tours! It's still not pretty, but at least it's clean and functional.

Before:

The overview

It would be impossible to get clean in a shower like this!

I won't even show you the toilet bowl. I have never, ever see anything that revolting. We seriously considered replacing the toilet (to the tune of at least $150 plus the time and effort involved) simply because it was so disgusting. But a few rounds of scrubbing over the course of a couple days worked wonders!

Put it in Brackets

The kitchen improvements are slowly carrying on. The latest small victory is the open shelving and new 36" base cabinet to the left of the fridge. It's at the end of the run and not in a terribly useful spot, but it's visible from the dining and living rooms, so I think I can utilize it to form a nice vignette.

It's my $50 fix for a three foot stretch. I found the base cabinet at a salvage place; it was damaged on the sides and stained a dark reddish color, but I was pretty sure I could work with it for the price. The brackets were purchased off Craigslist for a few dollars apiece because they were mispainted by a local cabinetry shop. A pine board and a length of trim capped off the project. I'll be using a temporary piece of countertop until I get ready for the laundry room counter and can order them both together.

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So, to recap:
Before

After

Chicken Pox

No, we don't have chicken pox, but our chicken may have the pox.



Something isn't right with Atomic. She hasn't laid an egg in almost a week (and she's our one-a-day girl without fail; rain or shine or snow or sleet). She's been a bit more lethargic lately, and Thursday she didn't come out of her coop or eat. I finally got her out and fixed a little "nest" for her in a partial bag of pine shavings. We kept her on the shady back porch and ladled water into her every half hour. She looked really bad for a few hours mid-morning, but she's slowly started eating a few hand-fed berries. We kept her cool and hydrated, and by Friday she had perked up a bit.

 She had a messy vent from sitting in one spot for almost 24 hours without moving, so it was our first experience with a chicken bath (and it gave me opportunity to see if she was egg-bound). She took it quite well, whether it was because she wasn't up to fighting or because it felt good, I'll never know!

We hope she's on the mend now, but we're still keeping a close eye on her.

Eat your heart out

We had company over for dinner tonight, so I tried a new bread recipe to accompany the spinach stuffed chicken and crepe manicotti I served. It is a fairly standard loaf, but features the inclusion of pine nuts, asiago cheese, and fresh basil from the garden.

Come to think of it, those ingredients sound like the makings of pesto. Which begs the question, why didn't I just put in a few dollops of store-bought pesto to my basic dough and be done with it? Now that I've tasted it, it was good bread, but I'm not sure it lived up to the effort of toasting, grating, and chopping! I'll have to try the leftovers as toast in the morning and see if my opinion has improved.

The chicken was a big hit, however. It looked quite attractive and the servings went a long way. I pounded out the marinated breasts into thin paillards, rolled it around my spinach and mushroom stuffing with various cheeses and seasoning, seared the outside for a nice crust and color, and finished it off in the oven while the bread and manicotti rested. I sliced the meat into spirals (a messy process, but pretty in the end), deglazed the pan, and poured a thin trickle over the plated meat.

I was too busy to get a photo of the finished product, but Jeff snapped this picture just before the chicken went in the oven. It's a very filling course, so each breast serves about two.

Darling Display

I haven't debuted the kitchen renovation yet, as there are still some large, unfinished items (namely, cabinet doors and backsplash). It's too hot in the shop to work on the doors, and the paint wouldn't have a chance to level properly anyhow. And we have to make some decisions about undercabinet lighting (and wiring) before I can finish the backsplash. So those hold-ups are delaying the big kitchen reveal.

In the meantime, I'm having fun trimming it out with details. The windowseat is painted and in place, I found the perfect fabric for the box cushion to top it, and the cafe curtain and hanging planter are in. It still looks a bit messy and rather visually cluttered, due to the cabinet doors being off. But the open display shelves on the endcaps have never looked better!

Paneled fridge on the left, windowseat under the cafe curtain,
and a glimpse of the (unfinished) beadboard backsplash

This kitchen display is brought to you in part by my marvelous Maryland-based friend. I had made an impulse purchase at Ikea on our long distance shopping trip several months ago. It turned out to be the perfect item, but I only bought one. It was a very pretty, off white pedestal bowl that they were discontinuing. So when I realized it was the perfect shape, size, and color for my display shelves, I searched the country for more! A friend and fellow Ikea lover came to mind and I contacted her. Her store still had them! So she kindly purchased and shipped me several more to round out my collection.

Left of the sink

Right of the sink

End run by the range

I still need two more white "somethings" to fill the shelves completely. I'm not big on tchotchkes, knickknacks, or other purely decorative items, so I'm waiting until I find just the right functional and attractive (and budget-friendly) pieces.

First blackberry cobbler of the summer!



Our berries seem to be a bit late this year, but they are all the more delicious for the wait!

Baby Bunting

In honor of Flag Day, I thought I would post a few pictures of our small patriotic bunting. We are still trying to decide where to hang the actual flag. I think mounting it (or them, if we decide on multiple) at an angle on the brick pillars would look nice.

Climbing out on the roof to mount the cup hooks for the bunting grommets reminded me of all my paint sampling days. I hope I'm always nimble enough to squeeze through those little 23" windows on the dormer, or my only access to the roof may be cut off!

Kicking Against the Bricks

I've been working on the edging for the narrow bed between the house and the driveway. The elderly asphalt had eroded along the sides, leaving a random and variable width. Because of the intermittent hardtop, we couldn't trench it or do any edging that required burial. But we did have a rather large pile of discarded bricks picked up from random places around the house. We killed two birds with one stone by using the unwanted bricks to form a tidy dry-laid edging. I did have a find a source for a few more matching bricks when I ran out partway through the project, which was no easy matter. Who knew there were so many sizes and colors of "antique brick"? But I finally purchased enough and our little band of bricks is holding up well to chicken abuse.

Here are a few before shots. We had to wipe the slate clean of weeds, scraggly thorned plants, two giant yucca with even giant-er tuberous roots, and a small tree planted much to close to the foundation. Then we raised the landscape bed with compost and mulch, before adding plants or edging.

Clean slate, after clearing weeds this winter

Working the soil in the spring

And now, with the matching brick and plantings! For the most part, the edging is containing the raised bed and keeping the chicken destruction to a minimum. I still have to occasionally scoop up some mulch from the drive and replace it in the herb bed, as that is Atomic's favorite worm-hunting ground. But for a $30 investment in bricks, it has been a very satisfactory improvement.

A nice view of the climbing vine shielding the porch

My kitchen herb garden, right outside the mudroom door

Big Girl Coop

The baby chicks are ready for the great outdoors! They have been living in the "transition" coop the past few weeks, which is a rather small (but quite cute) little hen house with a tiny attached run. It is Atomic's house, and she has been none to pleased to share her home with six youngsters. And they are terrified of this big chicken who paces back and forth when penned in, so they frantically dart up and down when they see her coming.

The chicks aren't big enough to free-range safely yet, so every morning I let Atomic out and try to contain the babies. Atomic has usually eaten their food and knocked over their water by then, so I have to smooth some ruffled feathers and get everyone fed and hydrated. Then, in the evening, we have to wait until dusk when all the birds have settled in to locate Atomic and put her back in her coop so she'll be safe through the night and lay her egg in the nest box the next morning.

It's been a rather trying few weeks, so I'm happy to announce we have the big girl coop repaired. It still needs a rain cover of some sort, and I'd like to provide a bit of shade from the western sun, but it's large and secure, just in time for our trip out of town so the pet sitter doesn't have to deal with the craziness of too many girls under one roof.

Making repairs

The igloo doghouse is a temporary donation to give the chicks some shelter from the elements until we can get a proper roof on.

Jeff calls it the Taj Macoop. Not that it is particularly fancy, but because it appears to have its own satellite TV system! Not really, of course. That is a remnant of the previous resident who was a big fan of television, video games, and all kinds of electronics, judging by the items he left behind.

Digging Deeper

I hope if any of you have success stories with in-ground pet fences and your dogs, you will share them. Because we just spent an entire day yesterday in the hot sun digging the trench for DaVinci's new electronic barrier and I'm really hoping it works!

We can't install a physical fence for a number of reasons (blocking the drive, the neighbors still need onto our property to get to their barn, too expensive to attractively fence an entire acre, etc.). So we've been planning on this method for a while now. I bought an great system on Craiglist quite a while ago, but we've been too busy to get it in the ground.

The situation was also complicated by the fact that the people who board their horses behind us pulled up the survey stakes and we can't tell where the property lines are anymore. But with the help of a measuring wheel, Jeff's iPhone compass, and our deed description, we marked the corners and plotted a path. Then Jeff spent about five or six hours with an inadequate gas-powered edger trudging through our hardpacked clay soil, blackberry brambles, poison ivy, and overgrown grass. He had to navigate fences, posts, gates, horses, donkey, chickens, cars, and more to accomplish the task. But he set one foot in front of the other and made it happen (in spite of the fact that the rented edger broke down and we had to take it in for servicing).

The next step is crawling around on hands and knees installing 1000 feet of wire. Then planting flags. Then hooking it all up. Then training the dog. Then hoping he doesn't run away in spite of it all.

We'll leave a light on for you...

The garden tour inspired me to finally install our low voltage landscape lights. After discovering how incredibly easy it is, I am rather embarrassed to admit that I bought the lights on clearance three years ago for the last house! And yet somehow never got around to putting them in. Oh well, that just means they were practically free now (in my very warped accounting sense ;-).

They must have been discontinuing them because LED lights now are brighter and warmer in their color temperature. But light is light, and I'm not going to be picky about brightening up the dark. I still need to splice the cord to lengthen and adjust the spotlights washing the porch railing, and I'm thinking about adding some solar lights up on the gable dormer. But it gives a nice welcome at twilight. And the appearance of a runway, since our sidewalk still goes to nowhere! Here's to hoping you achieve lift-off before you reach the end.

Hidden Gardens

On Sunday, Jeff and I enjoyed an afternoon in Old Town historic district viewing the hidden gardens tour. It is put on by the residents of the district to showcase their private yards and gardens as a fundraising benefit, and the event draws quite a crowd each year. We got some great ideas, talked to some friendly homeowners, bumped into a couple of friends, tasted the array of homemade refreshments, and generally spent a leisurely few hours relaxing.

Best Buds

After working on the landscaping, orchestrating potluck food and supplies, vacuuming and dusting the house, preparing lunch and planning dinner, Jeff suddenly asked me, "Aren't you on for church flowers again?". I am! I am very thankful he reminded me of this detail. But I hate to go to town or run errands on a Friday, especially a Friday afternoon, so here is the emergency arrangement we concocted out of last week's fresh filler, some houseplant cuttings, and a few silk stems I had on hand.

I say "we", as Jeff was instrumental in this quickie version. It was he with the bolt cutters that came to the rescue when I couldn't cut through the very thick faux flower stems. And it was he again who came up with a file box filled with heavy paint cans to wedge the top-heavy arrangement in for transportation across the many bumpy miles and rough railroad track crossings! (If you think I'm exaggerating about our rough roads and my previous bad experiences, read this post!)

On a related floral note, I hate to throw away flowers, even fading ones. So I floated the leftover roses from the old arrangement in a bowl with a few gardenia from the (still blooming!) bush for our Friday night table. I'm so glad a friend told me about the floating flower idea; I didn't know this, but apparently it's quite the Southern tradition with gardenias, since they don't make good cut flowers.

Passing Gas

We have a new natural gas line! Sorry, I couldn't resist the "potty humor" for the title. It was a very interesting experience to see the big equipment and techniques they used to pass the long, flexible line several feet underground from the east edge of the house (where the new meter will be), out through the big front yard, and under the street to connect to the main line. I can see why little boys are fascinated by construction equipment!

The few existing utilities were carefully marked, but that didn't prevent the trencher from running into an old, buried galvanized pipe from the (now defunct) well.

All in all, it didn't do much damage to the yard, and the places that were most disturbed need new lawn or landscaping anyway. We're still using up the last of our propane tank, but then we will be able to get rid of that eyesore and have access to clean, cheap energy for our furnace, water heater, and gas range.