Moving Heaven & Earth

Weather was yucky for most of March, so we focused on things indoors. My big job was cleaning an original oil painting that I’ve been lugging around for decades. Cleaning an oil painting means working with a Q-tip and swabbing/cleaning one spot at a time. Since the painting is 5’x3-1/2′, it took most of the month. The first picture below somewhat shows midway the difference in the colors. The second is the final result.

Midway you can see the line between clean & unclean

The painting looks drab in the photos, but the colors are actually subtly vibrant.

Now that it’s finally warmer and non-wet, we figured out where our garden is going to be this year. It will be a 40′ x 20′ area for our first year.

I’m working the soil in the way my grandfather taught me — and the way his grandfather taught him, even though its a lot of work. Instead of attacking the area with a rototiller, this old method means digging in with a shovel and manually pulling out the weeds and sifting through the dirt, breaking up the clumps, and eliminating all roots from the soil.

Leaving the roots (whole or broken up), invites weed production later.

After the entire area is cleared of the weeds and their roots, then I will throw on top all the compost I’ve been making all winter and rototill everything together. Then let it rest for at least four days or until the next waxing moon (whichever is last) to begin planting. Here’s the before and after of one tiny corner.

This corner didn’t look too bad, so I started here

I will be planting the Three Sisters together in the traditional manner, but all the rest of the veggies (onions, tomatoes, etc) will be more-or-less in the modern rows. I’m debating whether to plant perenials like garlic in the garden area or in the herb bed or in a separate area near our planned barbeque area. What do you think?

Hate to admit this, but after cleaning that one little patch (shown above), I felt like I had been run over by a steam roller. Gads, I am soooo out of shape! Of course, my aches have nothing to do with the fact that I’m almost 70 years old — it’s just that I’m out of shape!

Domestic Triumphs

Its still a bit too cold to do much outside, so we’ve been focusing on acquiring items to prepare for the thaw as well as items for inside. Our favorite “shopping mall” are local thrift stores, and the treasures we find sometimes amaze us.

Here’s one of our found treasures — an oil painting that is perfect for our dining room. I was absolutely thrilled.

One of my kitchen challenges has always been my dish rack. I felt like I started playing Tetris, then evolved into a leaning tower of disaster. With breakable dishes and cups, the tower of freshly washed dishes really became interesting. Jim surprised me with a double-decker dishrack, which I now love, love, love.

Maybe if I bought instant everything instead of making food from scratch I wouldn’t be so overjoyed to have a double-decker dishrack. Makes washing and stacking my dishes so much easier!

My pantry was starting to get nightmarish, so I decided to get some of those racks for canned food. We live so far from town that we shop once each month, which means we buy in bulk. Sounds easy enough until we get home and try to organize it all in the pantry. I opted to get commercial-quality racks that had to be ordered from a restaurant supply. They arrived and had to be assembled.

This is what they looked like when I finally figured out how to translate Chinese-English instructions.

Stacks of boxes piled on each other that took a lot of room were converted into an organized dream that is space efficient and makes getting ingredients really easy to access.

We hope as the cold is starting to ease that we can do some real work soon. Meanwhile, I’m enjoying finding ways of maximizing every inch of our future home.

End of Insanity

Its amazing how relieved I am that this year is almost over. In fact, I think this picture best sums up how I feel about 2021.

Finally got to see the opthomologist and learned my problem started as a normal side affect of cataract surgery, but since the pandemic meant all eye clinics were closed for 14 months, something that would normally be easily addressed became a nightmare. Long/short: Minor laser surgery was done to correct the problem, am now off of the horrific mass of meds with all the debilitating side affects, and am now able to function “normally.” I will need eye drops every day from now on, but that is no big deal.

The huge cysts in my elbow have also been surgically removed, the cast is off, and am now able to use my arm again. Am still doing the final healing from the surgery, but I have full use of my arm, so I am thrilled.

As a result of being functional again, we have started working on the house again. Before getting to the home project, we spent a few days cruising thrift shops. The treasures we found are so thrilling! We found a wonderful electric washing machine that is also able to do dry cleaning. At a different thrift store we found the perfect sink and cabinet to replace the set in the bathroom. Lastly, we found a few things I thought I had lost forever.

Several years ago (when I still lived in Albuquerque), my apartment had been broken into. Jewelry was stolen, some of my suits, and my hand-crochet pillows (set of 4). I actually was able to find two of the four pillows! They said they don’t know who donated them, but I was more than happy to give them $5 to get these two back!

When we went and reviewed the property, we decided to focus on the bathroom. Again, what we thought would be a one day project to replace the tiny sink and collapsing cabinet became a week long mess. We discovered the plumbing was done wrong, so the piping had to be redone before we could install the new cabinet and faucet. The picture below shows a corner of the tiny bowl-sized sink and collapsing cabinet. Here’s the result of replumbing and installing new.

We decided to keep the old clawfoot tub, but we could see we would be having some issues there. Little did we know!

Not only does the wall require massive rework and repair, but the plumbing was the biggest surprise. The fixtures are going to be replaced with fixtures made for a clawfoot tub, but we found out the plumbing from the floor and up was done with swamp cooler hoses, not pipes! This means poor Jim is going to have to tear out the wall in order to redo the shower as well as redoing all the other plumbing. We now know why the water never had any significant water pressure.

The beautiful old tub also needs TLC. After we moved it out of the corner we discovered that the legs, the underside and the side against the wall are rusted. We’ll patch the wall first as a joint effort. Thereafter, while Jim works on the plumbing, I’ll be sanding and cleaning the tub, coating it with Rustoleum and then spraying it with paint. All I have to do is remember to buy a wire brush the next time we’re in town….

Detour & Disaster

In June we were finally able to take a trip to Michigan to help my Mom clean out her basement and garage. We had planned to do this last year, but COVID happened. So this year, we hit the road and brought our little trailer along. What a mess!

It took three over-flowing trailer loads to the dump yard to empty enough to make it possible to say we made a difference! The moldy, rotted garbage and useless stuff was amazing! Mom’s basement had flooded and all the stuff down there had obviously not survived very well. The roof on Mom’s garage had leaked, so stuff in there had not faired well either. All I can say is, there was no way for Mom to have been able to do this by herself!

Then the fun of packaging everything else for the Salvation Army to pick up, at least what she didn’t want or need. If Jim and I were to load up the trailer and transport it, there was enough to make at least four trips with everything left! Amazing how much more there was. In total, it took 10 days of concentrated work.

On the last Sunday (Father’s Day), Mom, my brother (Mike) and I took a trip to the cemetery to visit my Dad’s grave. It’s hard to believe it’s been more than 30 years since he left us. We teased Mom that its time she start dating, but she said if we could find someone at least one year older that could “get it up,” she would — Mom is 94!!!

Our trip home was relatively uneventful unless you consider that the main highways were closed due to high winds in excess of 70 mph so we had to take side roads. Our little trailer was loaded up with items that Mom had been saving for me, like my old drafting/art table and peddle sewing machine, canning jars, and some of Dad’s tools that Mom gave Jim.

Now to explain the disaster. Some time ago I had cataract surgery. Everything went fine for the right eye. The left eye had “minor” complications, but the MD said everything turned out fine.

Shortly thereafter I started developing headaches and severe earaches. Allergist said I was allergic to dogs and cats and prescribed mild antihistamines to take daily. Headaches and earaches not only continued, but started to accelerate to at least a couple times each week.

By the time of the trip, the pain would last for a few hours each day and caused the loss of sight in my left eye and loss of hearing in my left ear. By the time I got home, the pain was unrelenting and I ended up in an Emergency Room.

They ran all kinds of tests. Thankfully, no tumors, brain bleeds or anurythm. A neuro-opthomologist was called. After a quick examination he said that a quick cursory exam looks like the surgery was okay but it was obvious something went wrong and that a thorough examination would need to be made in order for repairs to be made. The pain was caused by the fact that my eye ball was completely drying out which caused nerve damage, which affects the nasal passages, which also affected the ear drums and jaws — hence, the debilitating migraines.

Well, due to COVID, I had not been able to see my opthomologist after the cataract surgery, but a follow-up appointment had been made in November 2020 for August 2021, so next month I’ll hopefully be able to begin to see the end of this tunnel. Meanwhile, I’m on tons of meds to try to control the migraines, I sleep about 18 hours each day, am unable to do much more than sit, go potty, and drink coffee, and poor Jim is stuck taking care of everything. I want to nominate him for sainthood.

This, of course, means that absolutely nothing is getting done on the house. My poor critters are getting fed, but barely tended to otherwise. My patience with myself is running thin, and I am praying that my doctor has a solution to all this that will not take too long. The only other option that I can think of to enable us to be able to move into our home this fall is to win the lottery so we can pay someone to do the work for us or if the Walmart family thinks we are a worthy investment and finances our endeavor……

Yeah, yeah, maybe my meds are making me delusional..…

Warm Weather Begins

It’s no longer a mild Arctic region — temps in the 70s & 80s most days. I’m loving it! On one of the warmer days we were using the hoses to start softening the soil in preparation of gardening efforts. Well, one of our porkers (Wilbur), who is solid white with a few black spots, pulled a Houdini and got out of the chicken/pig run. Not a problem, except he wanted to cuddle after finding those great wet spots …..

We finished sealing the dining room ceiling and have painted it white (versus dark colors). The room looks so much bigger, the drafty feeling is gone and it now echoes in there!

The debate has begun as to what color to paint the dining room walls. Really kind of funny. I jokingly suggested lime green with flourescent orange trim. My poor hubby. Thought his eyes were gonna leave the sockets. I’ll take pictures to show the end result later!

Our other big challenge has been installing a door on the bedroom. To my delight, Jim put in a French door — am so excited about it. I’m almost done crocheting a curtain for it, which I’ll proudly show off when done!

Next on the agenda is finishing up the kitchen, then the living room. By then it should be warm enough to do the roof. In between all that, prep and plant the garden.

I keep telling myself to not worry about the shopping list of to-do’s but focus on one thing at a time. Anyone have hints on how to productively exercise patience?

The Work Goes On

With things being as they are (virus protocols), we will not be having family coming out to visit this year, nor are we planning on anything extra for the holidays. Instead, we continue to work at getting the house livable and we intend to make next year’s holidays super duper!

So what are we doing now? Focusing on the ceilings. The crawl space under the roof has little to no insulation and the ceilings are lined-up planks with space between them. Guess where the heat goes! So we are giving the ceilings one quick base coat of paint, sealing the cracks, then finishing up with a second coat of paint. We have almost finished the dining room and have already noticed a BIG difference!

We plan on replacing the entire roof in the Spring/Summer, so we’ll be putting in plenty of insulation then. Meanwhile, sealing the numerous cracks should help (we hope).

We also are having a large propane tank installed to fuel the dryer and stove. Before the tank could be delivered, we had to provide a flattened area for the tank to sit. Jim did a great job leveling a spot in the location the propane company specified. While the roof is removed, we hope to install piping for a couple of propane heaters in a few rooms as well. We are determined to be prepared for living in our home next winter!!

Last big development — we have a new family member! Meet Lady Bird (she tries to talk and it sounds like bird chirping). She’s a lab mix and about 4 months old. She will be our “outside” dog one day to guard our property. I know, I know, labs are not vicious. But, we don’t want vicious — we want protective and noisy.

She is surrounded by Chihuahuas, and at this time, our smallest Chi (named Princess Peaches & Cream — Peach, for short) is her bestest friend. Cracks me up how they play together.

One thing I’ve seen however, Lady is almost as bad as my pigs. She’s always on the prowl for something edible. Anything laying around is going to get chewed on (including cords, shoes, pens, etc.). And, she loves to run. Even when she trips over her own feet, she covers the entire acre in seconds flat! Lady is so lovable and cuddly.

That’s it for December. Here’s hoping and praying everyone stays safe for the holidays, and please, please — wear your mask until the dangers of dying of this awful disease has ended! Hugs to all.

The World Got Crazy

So much has happened in the last few weeks, I don’t even know where to begin. I guess I will backtrack with events, then I’ll go over some of the progress we’ve made.

First off — Chicken Disaster

I had about 9 roosters and 85 hens. They were all so loving and tame, and so many different breeds since I have almost had a chicken rescue. I now have about 14 hens and 4 roosters. We were invaded by rogue dogs, coyotes and a few grey fox.

We, at first, couldn’t figure out what was going wrong. Sometimes I would just find a pile of feathers. I was frantic. My two pot-belly pigs had scratches and bite marks, and they were skittish and never left each other’s side, always ready to declare war on anything but me. Jim decided to stand stood watch one evening with his rifle and discovered what was causing the havoc.

These predators had found a hole in our fencing that is now fixed, but in early evening they were having themselves a feast. No more! After a week of peace the chickens and pigs have settled down and are mellow again, but it was crazy for a few nights.

Second Disaster — Theft at our House

We don’t maintain a schedule of when we went to our house to work — sometimes it was every day, sometimes we stayed overnight, sometimes we would not go for a week. Every time we go we load up either vehicles Jim is working on (his hobby is repairing/restoring vehicles), towing our other vehicles down, or loading up materials, tools and packed boxes.

About a month ago we drove down in two vehicles — our pick-up truck loaded with stuff and Jim’s white Jeep Wrangler with black soft top. He had just finished fixing it up with new tires, stereo system, rebuilt motor, etc. We had plans to use it in the near future to take a fishing/camping trip and were excited that it was finally ready to roll. This picture was taken just before the new tires and hubs were put on – Jim put on some heavy-duty black hubs when replacing the tires.

Well, one night when we were not there, someone cut the fence, drove over the fence posts (pretty much destroying them), and towed the Jeep away! They had to have destroyed the steering column in order to allow the wheels to turn because the wheels froze when not started, and the thief certainly did not have the key. We are crushed! After years of working on it and slowly saving up money for parts, etc., we were actually going to be able to use it.

So, obviously, if anyone sees it, I ask that the Socorro Sheriff’s office be called immediately (575-835-0941).

Household Progress

I’ve been painting, Jim’s been working on improving the lighting in the house.

This is the new fixture in the bedroom! The ceiling is a pastel mint green, the trim is mint green and the walls are white. It has turned into my favorite room at this point!

In the kitchen, there was one very dark corner — not any more! This hanging light is now going to grace what will one day be my “Coffee Corner.”

Then outside, we decided something had to be done before winter hits to try to save as much of the wood as possible. So, I tested the blue we acquired for the trim. What do you think?

Then with a simple white base coat I started to paint the wooden ristras (see the dark brown, weatherworn wood above the window?). The blue trim paint will be done later.

Last bit of progress — the alternate section of the kitchen was equally dark, so I painted the door of the pantry. Its amazing how a little bit of paint brightened everything up! Here’s the before and after:

Temporary Hiatus

With the weather having been so cold, then wet, then cold, then super windy, then rain… we took a break from working on the house. Doesn’t mean we quit working altogether though.

We’ve been planning how to do things, what things to focus on, what materials are going to be needed and in some cases, pre-buying the materials as we have the money. It can be overwhelming sometimes when we consider our To-Do list.

One day when we were in town we stopped by a thrift store to take a break from appointments. Thrift stores are wonderful — its amazing some of the things we have been able to find. There have been new appliances, electrical fixtures, kitchen utensils, and, of course, the occasional “I can’t believe this!” type of find in the clothing section. On this particular day I found something that made my jaw drop.

For those who don’t know me — I collect frogs. Have been doing so since my teens, but I look for the rare and unusual. The mass-produced clay frogs found at every department store will not please me, but the weird always will

On this particular day I found the ugliest frog item that I’ve seen in a long time. I loved it! Had to have it!! And I even justified the purchase by having the perfect use for it. What do you think?

So what am I gonna use it for? This rare, exotic vase is going to hold my wooden spoons in the kitchen

With the weather warming up next week, we plan on starting on the garden so while Jim is doing the heavy construction stuff in the house, I can putter in the dirt. Am digging through seed catalogs now, so I’ll report back on what I hope to plant in my next update.

Encouraging Touches

Despite the cold weather (to us in New Mexico, anything lower than 50 degrees is cold), we have tried to continue our work at wall repair. Unfortunately, the cold means the fresh adobe we’re using to repair the walls does not dry very quickly, not to mention the fact that mixing up the raw adobe outside in the wind and rain is challenging. Firing up the woodburning stoves help, but we needed something that is a little more consistent and less labor intensive. So, Jim went on-line to hunt for a propane heater that we could use.

We found one, but its going to require some work. Needless to say, Jim has a new project that he’s working on and it is taking priority over all else. He’s ordered some parts for it, and now we wait.

We’ve been firing up the wood-burning stoves as usual, continue to work on patching and repairing walls, and decided we needed a moral boost. So we started painting.

After several coats of white primer, we painted one wall in the kitchen. Mom had visited last month and this is the color she suggested for the kitchen. We taped paper on everything that was not to be painted and got to work. What do you think?

This is the window above the sink area — first taped up, then painted.

This is the area around the door. Again, first taped up, then painted.

What do you think?

We were “on a roll,” so we attacked the dungeon room (to one day be the dining room). The walls need repair and had been painted with a dark brown brick color and dark brown trim. The room has a tiny window that is obstructed by a swamp cooler making it oppressive.

This was the room we had most of the tools in with a work table. As you can see from the pictures, the walls will need a lot of work, but with the white primer, the room looks so different!

Yes, some of the original color is still bleeding through. Yes, the dull white is boring. However, now we can even see what we’re doing in there now!

This has us really fired up. Instead of just making adobe, dragging the buckets in, then patching and patching and patching, then waiting for the patches to dry (which takes forever in the cold). Now we are starting to really see some progress. Yes, there’s still a lot of work to do. But there’s hope!!

Holiday Hiatus

We had thought to finish most of the kitchen before the holidays. Included in the plans was moving the propane stove out of the dark corner. After disconnecting the propane lines and moving the stove away from the wall, we found that wall and flooring was also in awful condition. So, Jim patched and filled in the holes in the wall and put in cement on the floor. Now we wait for everything to dry.

My Mom also came out to visit for Christmas, so we enlisted her help in priming a few walls in the bedroom. The walls were a dark brick red with black ceiling and black floor — depressing! So, focusing on two walls that don’t require much attention other than painting, Mom and I accomplished great feats! Jim fired up the spray painter and we’ve discovered Mom loved that gizmo!

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After these accomplishments, we decided to let the house rest so we could enjoy Mom’s company to go shopping, watching movies, story telling, cooking and laughing. Mom made some of her infamous Apple Bread and Death by Chocolate Cake. Jim ate so much cake he made himself sick, but that hasn’t stopped any of us from appreciating Mom’s culinary delights!