Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

I finally did it. I managed to get all the gifts but one bought and wrapped before Christmas eve. The last gift will arrive today as it was a very last minute decision. For years I've vowed to do the shopping in early December then have all the gifts wrapped and under the tree at least three or four days before Christmas. I've never followed through. I end up dragging my feet shopping for gifts, and when it comes to wrapping I am the last person anyone should ask to do this. I'm just horrible at it, mostly because I think the whole idea of buying wrapping paper, ribbon, bows, and little To: From: cards is absolutely ridiculous. Seriously, does anyone really cares about the presentation of the gift?  Brown paper bag wrapping.  Easy peazy. This year, I decided to not buy all the gift wrapping trappings. Instead, I saved all the brown paper bags I brought groceries home in and used them to as wrapping paper. I did buy a dollar bag of bows and a dollar package of To: From: st...

Well, the good news is the new furnace is much more efficient than the old. After a full month of having it run, a comparison of this November over last November shows less natural gas usage, like 18% less usage. And this is with running the fireplace, too. Last November I didn't have the fireplace installed, so it was just the furnace heating the house. Through this November, I used the fireplace quite a bit, so both it and the furnace were consuming natural gas. The fact the two still used less natural gas over the old furnace makes me incredibly happy. I feel like my quest to leave a smaller footprint is happening. The bad news is the price of natural gas this November is double the price of natural gas last November. When I saw the change, I was speechless. Twice as much. Seriously. This country is going absolutely insane. After lamenting all of this to a close friend yesterday, she said, "Well, I know you don't eat bacon, but it's now $13 a package, and that's...

I arrived home from work yesterday and after getting the boys leashed up, decided to go out the front door rather than the back. When I opened the screen door to go down the steps, I noticed a very large box sitting off to the side. Ado immediately went after it. He has this thing about boxes left on the steps. With his teeth sunk into a corner at the bottom, I read the side of the box. It was a Secret Lab gaming chair. I just figured Angel Baby had ordered one for himself and didn't think anything more about it. After returning from our walk, I jumped online and found a DM from Funny Delightful Son, asking if a large package had arrived. I replied yes and that was the end of the conversation. Again, I just figured Angel Baby had talked to his brother about getting the chair since FDS has one himself.  When Angel Baby arrived home from work, I told him his chair had arrived and was on the front porch. I commented about how heavy the box was and how tough it was to get from the step...

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been able to make lots of progress on the stairwell to the basement. It was just a shell, basically nothing more than the frame and outside walls and roof. My vision was to put in insulation then cover that with plywood, which would give me a much more functional space. Sometimes when I see a space that's not being used for anything I get a little verklempt. Unused space is a waste.  So I went to work and this is what I now have (yes, I totally neglected to do before pictures). I'm able to hang a lot of my garden tools in this space, freeing up area in the garage. I'm thinking I might also hang my bike here, moving it out of the guest bedroom. I'm so loving having this space be functional. And the doors. Painting them then hanging them to replace the awful doors is like the icing on the cake. A few weeks ago, I guess more like a month ago now, my brother and sister-in-law stopped by on their way home from visiting their daughter i...

is refurbishing the door I found at the architectural salvage warehouse. It will replace the current ugly orange steel door leading into the kitchen. It will be a labor of love for sure. One that will most likely take the rest of fall and all of winter. There are at least two thick coats of paint on one side and maybe three on the other side. But . . . I think the door is solid oak. At least that's what the warehouse helper thought, and I'm going to go with what he said since he deals with this kind of thing all the time. It is incredibly heavy and took all I had to get it out of the truck and onto the saw horses. I guess I'll find out once I get past the layers of paint. Even if it's not solid oak, it's going to be beautiful and look much better than what is currently in place. This morning, after doing work work and making sure everything was in place for the week, I went down memory lane for a bit. I think it was because of the essay assignment I gave my Children...

Long shadow, soy beans ready for harvest, and a clear blue sky. A lovely late-September evening ride.

Last week, my frugal ways caught up with me. The weather has been cooler in the mornings, which is fabulous. I love getting up to 50 degrees. I love transitioning from shorts and t's to jeans and long-sleeves. And from sandals to close-toed shoes. Especially shoes I just bought for a whole $5 at a yard sale. A pair of pristine Born casual leather (yes, even though I'm vegan, I do have some clothing pieces that are made of leather) shoes perfect with jeans.  As I set off for work, I had a spring in my step because of those shoes. But then, walking across the parking lot at work, something felt off with the left shoe. My initial thought was this must be why they were set out at a yard sale for $5 . When I reached the doors, I stopped and picked up my left foot to peer at the bottom of the shoe. All I could do was laugh. So much for what I remember referring to as "the best buy of the year" when I handed over the $5. I continued to my office, thinking I could make it thr...

Last weekend Angel Baby and I went to visit Funny Delightful Son in his new home a state away. We first swung over to his former home and picked up his lovely lady friend so she could ride along with us. Four hours later, we arrived to find Funny Delightful Son standing on the sidewalk outside his apartment, waiting for us, a big grin on his face. Long story short, we had a fabulous couple of days. Saturday we took a tour of his work campus, which is absolutely incredible. Seriously. If I had a campus like that to go to everyday I would go every single day with a huge smile on my face. The artwork alone throughout the buildings and around the buildings begs for attention. I was constantly walking off to inspect a sculpture or a painting or a mural. There are water features, a variety of landscapes, and seating spaces whispering come over, stay awhile . My favorite spots were the waterfall outside a cafeteria, and the swings on a balcony where one could spend hours enjoying the view ove...

 

Tuesday the temps reached 90. Around 5 pm, I realized I am so over the heat of summer. I'm ready for cooler temps and then the cold that will follow. For one reason. Mosquitoes. They've been just awful all summer long. The boys and I can't step outside the back door without an immediate frontal, side, and rear attack. I'm not exaggerating. It doesn't matter what time of day we try to get out. The mosquitoes are waiting and ready to assault us. I've doused myself in more bug spray the last three months than I have my entire life. The poor doggoes end up with mosquitoes on top of mosquitoes vying for space on their snouts. Taking a walk is miserable for them and me. For whatever reason, the mosquito problem seems to be relegated to my side of the village. As soon as we get three blocks away, to the east side of the village, the mosquitoes lessen. And two blocks further they all but disappear. There is a creek about a hundred and fifty yards behind the house, which...

Next to the peony, the zinnia is my favorite flower. There's just something about zinnias. Perhaps it is their vibrant colors. Or maybe it's the subtle nature of their existence. Whatever it is, they've captured my heart and make me smile every single time I seem them when I pull into the driveway, return from a walk with the boys, or am outside working around the house. My vision for next summer is to have several zinnia gardens around the house. Just thinking about it gets me so excited for what's possible next summer. It does seem fall is just around the corner. While the temps last week were nearly unbearable, 92 with a real feel of 110 several days in a row, this week has been on the cooler side with the evenings and overnight temps dipping into the 60s and even the 50s. Our morning walks have me in jeans and a new favorite flannel shirt I found at the thrift store. Switching over from shorts and sleeveless shirts to jeans and long-sleeved shirts is always one of m...

The new furnace is in and so far so good. The only hiccup in the process was buying the wrong size plenum and having to buy the right size, which meant a delay of three days' work while waiting for the correct plenum to arrive.    This is the old furnace. I tried finding out what year this is from, but so far no luck. The closest I came was one that looked similar, and it was from the 1960s. When we took this apart, this was the inside:   This thing was so interesting. It was basically a drum where the air heated up then was sent through the ducts. At least that's how I understood it. The flame to heat this was huge, as was just the pilot.  Now I have this: Quite the difference in size, and no more power box with an old-school fuse running the fan. The electrical is up-to-date, and the old gas line is out, replaced by new gas-flex tubing. It is so quiet when the air conditioner comes on that I have to actually go to the vents to see if it's really on.  I didn't ...

At least for now. Who knows what will happen a month down the road given the increase of variant cases. I'm hoping for the best but am prepared to end up completely online again. As of now, I'll return to campus on Monday. And my big summer project is 99.99% done. All that's left is touching up spots here and there. I finished up the basement windows and downspouts today, along with doing what I could with the doors to the basement stairs. They're not exterior doors, and they're warping because they take a lot of the weather since they're west-facing, but I'm going to leave them until next summer. Then I'll replace them with proper exterior doors. The house last fall. The house newly painted this summer. While I'm excited to have finished painting the house, I now have another issue to address: the septic. I was touching up the attic window and heard a motor shut off. I thought it was my neighbor's air conditioner and didn't think too much ab...

It's official: I'm over the gray, cool, rainy weather we've been having for the past three weeks. I don't live in the Pacific Northwest because I just don't like and/or enjoy day after day of gray, gloomy weather. Every now and then is fine, but for Pete's sake, enough already. Mother Nature, please be kind and give us some heat and sunshine!  Okay, weather rant over. Thankfully I was able to get most of the house painting finished before being sidelined by the weather. All that's left are the corbels, some of the front porch, and the basement windows. Not a lot at all, but it's quite frustrating to not be able to work and complete the job. What is finished is absolutely beautiful! Seriously beautiful. I had this vision in my mind about how the green, brown, and pale yellow would work together, and the reality is even better than what I imagined. Every time I walk the dogs and approach the house as we return, I'm struck by how the house seems so much...

My summer is well underway, and so far I'm enjoying each and every minute. I really am very fortunate. Not many can say they get their summers off to pursue all kinds of fun things, so I am very thankful I am one of the lucky few who can.  Speaking of being thankful . . . I've fallen into the habit of saying thank you nearly every day to whatever it is that's out there watching over all of us. And I've noticed when I utter the words Thank you, a warm sense of wellbeing just washes through me. I was told recently that my living out here in this house has brought out the happy in me, that the happy is quite evident in the way I look, the way I talk, the way I am.  Yes, I am very happy. Along with the happy is being content. I'm incredibly content. I don't think I've ever really known what this feels like, what this means, until being out here in this wonderful little house. Speaking of wonderful little house . . . the painting is moving along. The base color ...

Another lesson I learned Friday, in addition to make-up nearly going dry after a year of not being used and the piercings in my ears being almost non-existent, is that my digestive system can no longer tolerate cheese.  Yeah, I ate cheese. Along with turkey pepperoni. And at 2 am I awoke to discomfort. I thought I might be able to go back to sleep, but that didn't happen. Instead, I had to make a visit to the bathroom. I NEVER have to get up during the night. I was able to get back to sleep, but at 4 am, I awoke to more discomfort. Twice in one night I had to visit the bathroom. So the cheese and pepperoni . . . two things I've not eaten in the past nine months, ever since going whole foods plant based. Funny Delightful son made us his wonderful homemade pizza, and I was not going to say nope, can't eat that. It was the first time we'd been together since Christmas, and he had taken the time to make the dough and as well as prep the other ingredients. The least I could ...

Friday I learned two things: 1. After not wearing make-up for over a year, the make-up I had was dried up and mostly unusable. 2. After not wearing earrings for over a year, the piercings in my earlobes were very reluctant in allowing anything to pass through them.  I'm inclined to continue not wearing make-up and earrings. I went for over a year just fine with neither, and really, at this point I simply can't be bothered.  But for Friday, I eked out as much mascara as I could and I wore a pair of very light, silver earrings for Funny Delightful Son's graduation. It was kind of nice, too, to dress up a little after wearing jeans, flannel shirts, and sweats for the last eight months. Even through the last month it's been quite chilly, so I've not packed away the flannel just yet. Friday, though, with the chill somewhat offset by the sun when it peeked out from behind the clouds, I wore a sleeveless, polka dot dress I found at Goodwill. It has buttons up the left side...

Funny story . . .  A couple of weeks ago I was fixing myself breakfast. I had some lovely potatoes I'd cooked in the Instant Pot, so I was all set to cut them up and air fry them to have along with some steamed veggies. While the air fryer heated. I sectioned the potatoes. Then, when the air fryer was to temperature, I pulled the drawer out and dumped the taters in. I pushed the drawer back in and . . . nothing. The timer kept working, but the fryer itself seemed to have blown up. I checked the power cord. Plugged in. I unplugged it, plugged it back in. Nothing. I pulled the drawer out and slid it back in. Nothing. Lovely Beautiful Daughter was staying with me and had just fixed her coffee. It appeared the outlets were working. I was stumped. And disappointed. I bought the air fryer maybe six months ago and I used it nearly every single day. I loved my air fryer. So I went online and looked at air fryers. I already knew which one I wanted after having read about them months ago. I ...

With just a couple of days remaining in the semester and the bulk of the grading completed, I've turned my attention to starting the big summer project: painting the house.  I am so excited. And I'm in no hurry. I have all summer ahead of me. So I've started the scraping work, just taking my time. I decided to begin the process on the back side of the house since it's in the worst shape. That's the west-facing side, so it gets a lot of wind and rain pelting it. I've made some good progress over the last week. Last evening when I stepped off the ladder after scraping the fascia board, I felt such satisfaction with the amount of progress I've made so far.  Before I can continue on to paint this side of the house, though, one section of cedar shingles needed to be completely replaced. The old shingles are so rotted that a layer of wood came off with the paint. I figure this isn't a good thing, so new shingles it is. A quick run (as quick as can be living 30...

I've started a new endeavor. Not sure anything will come of it, but as my mom always said, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." So, I'm venturing. We'll see if there's anything gained. I have tons of photos on my computer. Just tucked away in folders. Every now and then I'll open the folders and go through them. I thought about printing them and making albums, but I'm really the only one who would enjoy flipping through the pages. I thought about having a couple put on canvas to hang on my walls, and I still might do this. Then I thought: Why not put them on a photo platform and see if I can make some money from them? For the last six or seven months, I've been thinking through if I should try this or just let it go (yeah, I tend to take a long time to come to some decisions). I talked about this with the kids, and they shrugged, giving me the standard young person response, "You do you." So I'm doing me. A couple of days ago I finally...

The really, really old furnace I ran an experiment through the month of March. I turned my furnace off on March 1st and kept it off (except for a couple of days when Lovely Beautiful Daughter was staying with me), just using the fireplace to warm the house. I wanted to see if 1) the fireplace would actually heat the house and not just the living room; and 2) what this would do for the gas bill. While my February gas bill wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, it was still on the high side. The furnace is old and inefficient. It's definitely time for it to retire. What I found was the fireplace will warm the entire house. I got into the routine of turning it on around 6:30 am and letting it run for a couple of hours. The blower chased the chill out of the air quickly, and I found I was very comfortable for several hours after turning the fireplace off. Then I'd turn it back on in early afternoon, letting it run again for a couple of hours. Then around 7 pm I'd tu...