We aren't wandering anywhere this week in the motorhome. Instead, we decided to stay home because the weather looks really lousy all week long. We each have haircuts scheduled for today and a dentist appointment for me scheduled for tomorrow.
The venetian blind that we ordered for the smaller window on the side of the bedroom finally came in. So we were able to put that into place and install the brackets. Then I hung up one of my sets of Heritage Lace curtain swags. Not sure if I'm going to do a lower panel on a cafe rod or not.
We will see what it looks like once I get the other curtains up around the big window. Steve has started cutting up the trim wood and shellacking the knots. Then I will get all of the trim wood painted. We are adding the top crown molding and the egg and dart trim to the big window to make it match the same as the original window and doors.
Steve also reattached the rows of coat hooks that we keep behind the door. It's a handy place for bathrobes, jammies or things that we are going to wear again. Out of sight, out of mind.
It stopped drizzling for a while this morning, so we went outside and decided to tear down all of the tomato vines and remove all of the cages. I invested in heavier stronger cages for next year. So these I think we'll get put on Marketplace for someone else to buy in the spring. It was time to empty the rain barrel and put that away for the season. We will remove the rain chain and pick up some new downspout piping and route the water away from the house for the winter.
These are the last of the tomatoes picked off the vines. We will let them ripen and I will process the last of these up into a jar or two of salsa. I dread having to buy store bought tomatoes again for salads, but at least I have lots of jars of processed ones for making into chili, casserole, or sauce.
Steve decided that it was time to do a little rearranging in our yard. Two years ago we put in these two boxwood bushes on each side of the Korean lilac. The Korean lilac is doing well and getting larger each year. This is right in front of the 3 western windows of the She Shed. So he decided it was time to move the two boxwoods up to the front of the house. He got the one out on the right. Boy oh boy did that thing have a lot of roots!
We stuck it up in the front flower bed, to the right of the bird bath. We will do the second bush to the left of the birdbath, but we ran out of time. Steve had to leave and get his haircut.
We still have to clean out the rest of the flower beds of all the dead stalks and blossoms before the winter snows come. The window boxes are still full of geranium blooms, so we will leave those for a bit. Geesh, I feel like winter is coming up fast, so it will be good to get these things done.
We dug up a bunch of the evening primrose plants to get that bush into place. That stuff grows like crazy and makes kind of a nice ground cover. It blooms almost all summer long, and the leaves turns a nice red in the fall. So we took clumps of it from the front and brought it out to the backyard for around the flagpole in that flower bed.
In the springtime, this bed is full of irises which are beautiful. But the rest of the summer is kind of blah. The rhizomes of the iris have woven into such a heavy mesh underground that it's hard to dig into. Steve was able to get a bunch of the evening primrose clumps dug down just enough. Hopefully they will take root and take over. They can stay contained in this circle, and the weed eater will keep them at bay from spreading into the lawn.
He took a load of all the dead stuff off into the woods and dumped it. We've had a few things we brought back in the woods sprout up and grow there too. That's okay. I snapped this picture of him coming back with his wheelbarrow. I told him that I just love looking at a man who is working! LOL
Now it was my turn to get ready to leave to go for my haircut. I decided that I've had this long straight hair all throughout the whole covid pandemic. I did chop away at some of it myself one time last year. Also granddaughter Chelsea trimmed the ends for me last summer. But I decided I would go in and get it cut. I have been wearing it up in a bun almost all summer.
Here is my "before" photo:
And here is my "after":
I asked for about 6 inches taken off the bottom, and some nice layers that let my curls bounce back up again, especially on the top. It's easy to just tousel it up with a little bit of styling product and a few curls on top with the curling iron. I was pleased with the result and Steve said VaVaVaVooom!!
Now you know what I look like!
It's been drizzling all evening so we didn't get the other boxwood bush moved. Maybe tomorrow. Before or after my dentist appointment. It's just a cleaning, so won't take long. I think we are done with outdoor chores for the day.
I tossed some frozen pasties from The Pasty Oven
into the microwave to thaw.
Next, they go into the oven on 400 to bake them
with a flakey crust and steaming filling.
I think tonight is going to be a lazy evening, with maybe watching some HGTV shows, maybe doing a little sewing or weaving. I think we are winding down from a couple whirlwind weeks of camping.
The Packer game last night sure was good. We watched until half time while we were still in the house. We could see the rain start pouring down at Lambeau Field in Green Bay on the screen. It's only about 30 miles south of us. We figured this would be a good time to gather up our sleeping gear and head on out to the motorhome in the driveway.
Because of our bedroom being dismantled, we slept in the motorhome. I preferred getting out there in our jammies while things were still dry and not with the impending storms that were forecast. So we packed up the dog, some morning coffee makings and a couple donuts, and headed on out to the motorhome. We finished watching the game out there, in comfort, while the rain beat down on the motorhome roof. Packers won 35 - 17 over the Detroit Lions.
We woke up in the motorhome to sunshine, but chilly temperatures. Much better than the muggy humid stuff we had yesterday. We snuggled in with our coffee in the morning and watched a little TV before it was time to get up and start the day.
We wanted to get in the house and unroll some more of the rosin paper to make a protective walkway back and forth to the front door. That way when Paul, the plaster guy, came he could carry his buckets in and out and not worry about the hardwood floors. He has the outside water faucets, both hot and cold, to stand outside and mix up the buckets of plaster with his power mixing drill.
The original hardwood floors are so nice, we don't ever wear shoes in the house. But we sure don't expect a hired contractor to take off his shoes each time! Lol
Paul started on his project this morning and got the seams all taped up and first coat on every seam. It's important to get the first coat on and let it dry because the compound shrinks a little bit. Then before you put on the second coat, you are sure the first coat has done all of its shrinking. Otherwise you'll get cracks! Then he started filling in the rough textured walls with the new plaster. It's going to look amazing!
This is one of those wide angle shots that distorts the room, but you get the general idea. We are quite pleased that everything is filling in and it's going to be a nice ceiling surface as well as new walls ... without the splattered blown on textured surface that they were before. Look at all of that beautilful sunshine streaming in. Ahhhhhhhh
He said he should be completed sometime tomorrow.
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Silly me, remember when I was so excited my very first grape tomatoes this year? It was such a delight to go out and pick one at a time as soon as it turned red and pop it into my mouth. They started out slowly, one by one. The grandkids would go out and look all around for even ONE little tomato, to nab it from the vine and bring it in like a treasure.
Soon we were getting a handful at a time--- enough to cut up and put into a salad or even chop up and put into tacos.
Now I get tons and tons of them and they're driving me nuts LOL. Soon the season will be over. So it's time to can them up. I chopped them up into little pieces and mix them in with the large tomatoes to process in my canning jars.
Yesterday I picked a whole bunch of ripe larger tomatoes. These are Better Boys and Early Girls. My tomato patch of 8 plants is getting almost to the end of growing season. This batch is about 6 quart jars worth. I was going to can them up last night during the Packer game. But the game was so darned interesting, that I ignored the tomatoes. So this morning I washed them up and got them ready to process.
I chopped all of the little ones in my food chopper with the skins on. Then with the large tomatoes I cut out the stems and I slice an X into the bottom of each tomato. Roger, if you are reading this blog, that is your beautiful tray right there... I used it to carry the tomatoes over from the island to the counter. I love that tray!
Then I simmer the large tomatoes in a pot of water, just enough to loosen up their skins. By having the X sliced on the bottom it makes it much easier to peel the loose skin off the tomato.
I plunged the simmered tomatoes into a big tub of ice water. That helps loosen the skins up even more. I ladle them out with a large slotted spoon & peel the skins away to discard. In the bottom of the jars I have a tablespoon of lemon juice, a tablespoon of pickling salt, and a couple scoops of the chopped up little grape tomatoes.
As I peel the skin off each tomato I grab my little knife and cut it right on the large slotted spoon into sections or chunks. This is much easier than trying to hold it in your hand because the tomato is still very hot.
Instead of using my big canning kettle that holds nine jars and heating it on the outside propane burner, I am just doing six quarts in the house. I do not like putting the big canning kettle on my glass top stove, I have heard it may crack it. Instead I use my tall blue enamel soup pot, and I put in three jars at a time. Because there isn't a rack for the jars, I wrap each one in a burgundy cloth dinner napkin and I put one on the bottom of the kettle as well. That way the jars are not sitting on the hot metal. That can crack a jar. In the smaller red kettle on the right I keep the next three jars warm on a low setting just so they don't cool off too much after filling them. Once the first three jars have been in the hot water bath for 45 minutes, slowly simmering, then the next three jars will take their place.
As I type this, I have three jars finished and sitting out on the towel, and the last three jars are in the hot water bath right now. Soon I will hear the PING PING PING of their lids as they seal up tight.
I line them up on my little pantry shelves. Row by row, jar by jar, my shelves are filling up for the long winter. Nothing can be better than popping open a jar in the middle of winter to make a pot of chili or a casserole. The smell of summer comes wafting up. I reach in with a fork and take out the first chunk of tomato and eat it straight from the jar. That is my reward for these hot days of summer, processing these tomatoes.
I wistfully recall my childhood years, of canning vegetables with my mother. Year after year. I would stand by her side in that hot steamy kitchen and we would process up all of our garden produce. We did hundreds of jars of everything. Not just tomatoes! We did all kinds of canned vegetables and sauerkraut and jams and jellies. One of my fondest memories is after putting the last few jars on the shelf of what Mom called her "Veg-All Mix" which was a mix of all different leftover vegetables at the end of the season. As we placed the last few jars on the big wide deep basement shelves, she stood back with such a look of satisfaction on her face. She put her hands on her hips and smiled after wipinig her brow. She said "My oh my, are we ever rich!"
That made such an impression on me, because we weren't rich at all financially. Life was not easy with a large family and a big garden and not a lot of money. But knowing she had hundreds and hundreds of jars stashed away for the upcoming winter, it gave her the sense of being rich.
(ahhhhh--- fond memories of Mr. Wilson teaching us that song back in fourth grade music class at Stambaugh Elementary School in West Iron County in the U.P. of Michigan.)
Well---- one wall DID come tumbling down. The rest needed a little "help".
Let me begin at the beginning. The best place to start. The exterior entrance to our basement has this kind of cheesy slapped together enclosure over the recessed cement stairs. The wood siding doesn't match, and it is kinda ugly sticking out from where it is located. The door itself and the cement stairs underneath are just fine.
Not only does it look tacky, but the bottom edges are kind of rotting away and it should be taken down. We are planning on replacing all of the siding on the back side of the house this summer, so this is a good time to get it removed.
The other problem with that enclosure is that it was shading the area that I wanted for planting my tomatoes!!!!
Steve decided that if we tear it down, he will build a bulkhead door system. You know, those old-fashioned slanted door parts to enter into a basement or a storm cellar?
We looked at new steel bulkheads, and they were $700 on up!
Next, he put together a little diagram and cut list figuring if he would build one out of treated wood. Sounds good. But that was going to run us about 200 plus dollars. Ouch!
Then, Mister Magical Marketplace Mogul found a set of heavy steel bulkhead doors that someone was selling, after they tore down a house. $150 later and they were loaded onto our trailer and headed back to our house. They were already red. I will give them a fresh coat of matching Rust-Oleum paint and they will be good to go.
Yesterday afternoon, I was going to get ready to plant. I asked Steve how long do you think it would take for us, working together, to pull down that enclosure?
Well, he grabbed the tools and I put on my gloves and we set ourselves to work.
The nice steel exterior entryway door was still good, so Steve took care of removing that. We will later install that down below at the actual basement entrance. In the meantime, I started peeling off all of the smaller boards with a crowbar, and making sure no nails went down into the lawn.
The bottom edge on the right side was so rotted it was coming loose as we were pounding loose the boards.
We decided to wrap a heavy tow strap around it, and Steve and I together on the other end at a safe distance, we did a firm tug tug tug...
Yes! That wall came right off in one whole piece and ripped away from the house and the roofline, and plopped onto the ground!
Rut Roh, that left a problem. The rest of the structure, (roof and other wall) was extremely unsafe. It would not come down when we pulled with the tow strap with our hands.
Time to enable the use of our little Tracker. With all of the recent rain, we didn't want to rut up the lawn at all. This little Tracker is so lightweight it really didn't pose a problem. It's like a nimble little billy goat and doesn't weigh much more than a side by side ATV.
We carefully hooked up the strap again to the remaining structure and put the other end over to the Tracker's hitch.
I got out the video camera
while Steve got behind the wheel:
First it pulled off the other wall. The roof structure was still hanging there, so Steve again carefully attached the strap, ready to jump out of the way if it fell on it's own. Naw... too many nails holding it up. YANK YANK again and the roof was soon biting the dust----- errrr mud.
Yayyyyyy it's down!
That was kind of fun.
Underneath, we can see the original wooden siding, as well as the marks of a better overhang with a peak from long ago. This part of the house had been originally built in another part of town, and moved here and added to the rest in the early 1950's or 60's by the Heise family.
The siding on the back portion and around the little kitchen nook windows will all be replaced soon with new fibered LP Smart Siding. Another project for another day.
We started cleaning up the mess. Our neighbor to the south of us came over and asked us what were we going to do with that tongue and groove white wood on the wall sections just laying on the ground?
Well, we were just going to chop it all up with the sawzall or chainsaw and burn it up a few pieces at a time.
He asked if he could have it all! It was kind of like shiplap and he wanted it for two different projects. Steve said have at it!
He and his daughter came over and started knocking it all apart, board by board, stacking it up, then carting it off to their workshop. What a nice way to get rid of our excess waste. It was great to know it would be repurposed and recycled into something creative.
We finished hauling away the little scraps and Steve pulled all of the shingles off the roof section. The 2x4's from in the roof section rafters are in really good shape. Steve is going to reuse them to build the angle support for the bulkhead doors that will go over the basement entrance stairs.
Once that was all done, I got out my garden rake and finished raking out the rectangular bed where my tomato plants were going to go.
I brought out my tomato cages, and I had to borrow two more from our daughter's house. I regularly plant 18 tomato plants a year. This year I happened to buy 20 plants when we were social distancing at the greenhouse. I didn't have time to pick one or two or three little plants at a time. I just grabbed the four pack vegetables so I ended up with five packs of four plants each. 20 tomatoes.
8 Early Girls,
8 Better Boys and
4 Juliet grape tomatoes.
I spent the evening putting in all of my tomato cages. I zip tie or wire tie thin boards along the top edges of the cages to add stability. Sometimes one plant will get very heavily laden with tomatoes and it will pull one cage over out of line. But connecting them all together it gives it better support and allows each cage to support the ones next to it.
I made little walkway areas of mulch chips to reach the back rows of plants. I need to get two more bags to go around the outer edges. Then once we get dried grass lawn clippings, I gently place those around the plants to prevent weed growth, and add nitrogen to the soil.
By evening, all of my plants were in place. I gave them a gentle watering with water from the rain barrel which happens to be located right next to the tomatoes. It will be really easy to water them this summer.
I have cute little white picket garden fences to put along the edge of the tomato bed to finish it off and look adorable. I can almost taste them 'maters already!!!
We are due for about 3 summer-like days of temperatures in the 70s. We are looking forward to it. This morning I am sipping coffee, looking out over the beautiful backyard, while writing up this blog.
Steve is out there zoom zoom zooming around the yard. He is pumping the water out of the big puddles. Then he is getting ready to build the frameworks for the bulkhead. I guess that means I better go and help him.
It's hard to believe that it's been ten years already since our son Mike has passed away. Sometimes it seems like yesterday, or last week, or last month. There will always be a gaping hole where there should be one more family, one more pile of grandkids, one more person to keep track of. We have to hang onto the good memories and smile at the stuff we recall. His humor, his willingness to work, his love of sports, and most of all his wonderful unique character. We miss you Mike.
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My oh my, after having the house closed up for these last two weeks... with horrible heat and humidity.... it was SO nice to open all the windows and let in the fresh air today!
Imagine our surprise when we looked out in the front yard... our neighbor's house had been FLOCKED!!! Pink Flamingos everywhere!
It's a cute fundraiser for the
church youth group.
I also harvested the first ripe tomatoes from my row of 'mater plants. I put in 6 different varieties this year. Some are early some are late. I ate two of these just as a snack! Yummmmmmm
Today I was energized to get things done, with the fresh air coming in. We were supposed to get some rain storms, but they passed over and out to Lake Winnebago. I happily sat up in my sewing room for a while this afternoon, working on a quilt. Fresh air breezing in the open windows, and listening to birds and the wind chimes. It was such a pleasant day. I sewed and ironed and cut and pieced. I have 30 of these star blocks done now in blues and yellows.
I have all the blocks now bordered with "sashing" and "cornerstones" and making them soon into a full quilt. So far they are all sewn into strips. Maybe tomorrow I can get them into one solid piece. (called a quilt top) Here the strips are just draped over a rod in order of how they will get sewn together.
With my new Handi Quilter frame, I can make the entire quilt process myself with the batting and backing and swirly quilting stitches. That is the fun creative part! The sewing machine gets pushed around the frame where the quilt is held taunt. As I move it around, it makes stitches wherever I go! LOL (I wish it were that easy....)
Later in the day, BOTH of those danged doggers decided it was time for a NAP! It's funny how they can beg and whine to be pulled by us up onto the bed in the morning for a little cuddle time. But when it's the middle of the day, they can both easily JUMP up on the bed themselves and wait for me to come and take a nap!
It's a pretty high bed!
If they insist that it's naptime
I must comply, right?
It was so pleasant this evening after Steve got home. He took care of a few things in the garage and then I cooked a nice hot meal for a change. We actually had spaghetti, garlic bread and salads for dinner. The temps dipped down in the 60's and we even put on sweatshirts to take a walk! What a change from high 80's and humidity in the 70% range for the last two weeks.
Yup, those dog gone good doggers wanted to take a W-A-L-K.... off we went for the evening with two swishy butts leading the way. All in all, it was a dog gone good day.
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