Projects, Additions & Jobs

I have been wanting to write a blog post for over a week now but this time of year has us working, some days, from sunup to sometimes after sundown.  There’s just always something that needs to be done and lemme tell ya… I sleep good at night after such long days of work and with either Stress Away and Lavender or Peace & Calming & Tangerine in our bedroom diffuser.  Aaahhh!

Here’s a few of the things we’ve worked on the past few weeks…  cleaning up a fan we took down when we moved in and had stored in the tack room in the barn

It’s amazing how dirty stuff gets!

It’s that time of year when the ‘ol farmhouse can get quite hot some days especially when it’s in the nineties outside.  (No central heat or air for those of you just tuning in!)  We thought we moved away from that kind of hot weather when we moved out of Florida!  Thankfully the ninety degree days are few rather than A-L-L summer long.  We have learned to open the windows at night and let the coolness of the night come in and then close them when the sun comes up.  Thankfully, the house stays fairly cool with that method and having ceiling fans helps to circulate the cool air keeping the house comfortable.  Since we already had this fan just sitting around getting filthy we decided to put it in the living room since it was bigger than the one we had in there.

I spent some time with a bucket of water, a capful of Thieves Household Cleaner (it’s an all-purpose plant-based cleaner from Young Living.  And, it smells awesome!) and a rag and got to work on cleaning three years worth of dirt and cobwebs off the fan and blades.

I took it all apart, cleaned it inside and out, peeled the apple stickers off the blade tips and did a light sanding on them.  I was going to freshen the blades up with a coat of white paint but as I sanded I decided that I like the  distressed look so I decided against painting them which meant that my part of this project was done.  Now it was CountryBoy’s turn…

He spent a morning while I was at work doing some fan-swapping.

He took the existing, smaller ceiling fan down and installed the newly-cleaned larger fan.  Then he took the ceiling fan in the second guest room down and put the former living room fan in there because it was larger than the existing fan in the guest room.  THEN, he took that very small fan and put it in the bathroom where there was only a light.  Are you keeping up with the fan swap?  Ha, ha!  It will be nice to have the fan in there on hot days.  Nothing like a hot bathroom on a hot day and you start sweating as you towel off from a cold shower!

Another project CountryBoy got done was hooking up my rain barrels…

We brought these rain barrels from Florida when we moved here.  We have used them in different setups to collect rain water to water our plants.  When we decided to enclose the side porch to use as a greenhouse I wanted to have one of the barrels inside the greenhouse and hooked up to the other one outside the greenhouse where it would collect rain water off the roof, fill up then overflow into the one in the greenhouse.  If that one fills up there is an overflow hose that leads back outside.

The hand pump was purchased in Florida with the intent to hook it up to our well.  That didn’t happen so we brought it to Kentucky in the hopes that one day we could put it use.

We got a good rain last night that filled the outside barrel and about half of the greenhouse barrel.  I am tickled pink to have this project done and functional and I’m even MORE tickled that we are making use of stuff we already have!

Here’s a view of the enclosed side porch that is now our greenhouse…

Bit by bit we are finishing it and getting it functional.

Another project we started is enclosing what we refer to as the cistern-room…

This is what we found when we tore the siding off.  oi.

It looks a lot different now but this project will take a while as we figure out the best solutions for this space and as the funds allow.  Our goal is to have it enclosed before the harshest part of winter.  I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

Speaking of funds, I have taken on another part time job to help with some of the unexpected house-damage projects.  Tomorrow morning I start work at our local newspaper.  I saw a Facebook post about the position and knew it was right up my alley… graphic design, typing, writing, photography, computer skills.  I am looking forward to using these skills again and am fortunate to have found another job working with more great people!

My last bit of news is introducing the newest members to the farm, Amos & Andy…

At last Friday’s Farmer’s Market some teenage girls came wandering up holding some kittens.  They were trying to find homes for a litter of kittens that were in their barn.

At first CountryBoy shook his head but lemme tell ya… he has a thing for black kitties.  He didn’t care for cats until, one day, a long time ago, a black kitten clung to his screen door meowing profusely.  He peeled it off and told him to be on its way.  The kitty came back, climbed the screen and meowed profusely.  This happened three or four times until CountryBoy decided to take him in.  He named him Chuck.  Ever since then he has been a sucker for black kitties.

We lost our two black cats last year so here we are sitting at the market and the teenagers are showing everyone the kitties.  Finally, CountryBoy asked to hold the black one.  He held him for a bit then handed him back.  As the teenagers walked by one more time they asked him again if he wanted the black kitty.  We asked about any males and they said they had two black males.

Meanwhile, I’m watching all this wondering how it was going to turn out.

He held one of them one more time and then said yes, we’ll take it.  I said nothing but grinned.  Meanwhile, the kitty was restless and seemed anxious.  I was trying to hold it and calm it down and I said it’s missing its siblings and should probably have a playmate.  So now we have two black, six week old kitties!

They certainly keep each other occupied.

LizzieBelle was so excited and tried to play with them…

They don’t quite understand how she plays so now she thinks they’re more of a nuisance, ha!

They are super cuddly, love to wrestle and love attention.

Now you’re somewhat caught up with the happenings ’round here.

Till next time friends!