Halloween...Again

Second Halloween Party.  We went with our good friends, Nelda and Ty...

didn't even recognize them when we arrived.  What great costumes they had!

Seems it is not possible to look anything other than demented with these kind of eyelashes.  No wonder God only gave them to camels, otherwise we'd all be arrested or sent to the loony bin.

Halloween Party

Tom and I went to a costume party tonight.  I had a friend take a picture of us, but he only got our heads, so you really can't see what we wore.  Next time, I'll wait until he gets his glasses on before handing him the camera.

Uh, I really wasn't going for "crazy devil woman". 

We have another party to go to on Saturday night.  Maybe I can get some better pictures and look less demon posssessed and more like a fairy.

See, this is why I hate having my picture taken.

OK, you can stop laughing now....April!

Barn Apartment Pics

Most of the framing is done.  There are a few small walls to do, then the ceiling rafters will go up.

There will be a sliding glass door here that will be used to enter the apartment from inside the barn.  This view is looking in through that door and what will be the bathroom.  The horizontal slats that you see are the framing for the bathroom pocket door.

If you step through the doorway and look to the left, you see the kitchen/living area.  Warning:  Space appears larger than it actually is.  Then beyond that is the smaller of the two bedrooms.

This is the view from that bedroom door.  Down that small hall just beyond the bathroom, is the larger of the two bedrooms thanks to Tom's very good idea of putting the closet under the stairwell (stairs will lead up to the ceiling which will be for storage).  Then beyond that bedroom is Tom's office, which has a separate entrance.

The End

...or not.

I finished the little seating area, but have a long way to go on the rest of the landscaping.  Also, have no furniture to sit upon.  That seems to be my biggest problem - finding outdoor furniture that I like.  I know I said I bought that pew to set out there and I still would like to, but I'm afraid the weather will destroy it completely, so I'm thinking it needs to stay under the protected patio.

Awww!

I went to the dentist today.  I used to go every six months back in the day, but I haven't been since some time before we bought the farm.  I'm surprised my teeth haven't rotted out of my head.  That's one of my worst fears.  I have big time teeth/dentist issues.  I think it's because when my brothers and I were kids, the only way my parents could afford dental care was to go to the dental college, where dental students tortured us for hours.  Then the professors would come around and give their stamp of approval or order more hours of torture.

I think that every time I went, I had a cavity.  Now that I think about it, it could be that they just said I had a cavity so they could get some pratice on drillin' and fillin'.  I mean, we took care of our teeth.  We brushed and weren't allowed to eat a lot of sweets and there was flouride in the water.  What more could a tooth ask for?  That was in the days before flossing, but hey, people have lived for centuries without flossing their teeth.

Anyway, I went to see Dr. Hoot.  Isn't that name a hoot?  And his office partner, who is a denture maker, is named Dr. Bone.  Hoot and Bone.  Hilarious.

But, they were all very nice and nobody hurt me and they do free teeth whitening for any patient that wants it.  So, I think I've found my country dentist.

So, the "awww" part.  As I was getting ready to leave, there was an older man with an older woman that I assume was his wife.  She seemed to be taking care of him because he was a little "off", maybe with a touch of alzheimers or senility, I don't know.  But he stood up as I was leaving, looked me in the face and said, "Do you go to church often?"  I thought maybe he was going to invite me to go with them or to have a Bible study or something.  I told him, "Yes, I do."  He said, while making a halo around his face with his hands, "I thought so.  I can see it in your face.  Every Sunday?" "Sunday and Wednesday, yes," I said.  Gesturing again with his hands indicating a glow around his face, "Your face, your face, I can see it in your face."

Awww, what a sweet thing to say.  Apparently, I didn't have my usual somber expression on this morning.  Perhaps it was because I went to the dentist and wasn't left with the urge to take that sharp metal pick thing and jab someone in the eye.

YeeHaw!

Tom and Charles made great progress on the apartment today...this first day back to building after a two week break.  If they keep up this pace, they might even finish the framing by Wednesday. 

This is Tom's office framed in.  They also built a wall down at the other end of the barn.  Those are the doors that I'm going to use for the bedrooms, closets, and bathroom.  Can't remember if I've mentioned this, but the apartment is going to be farm cottage style.  I need to decide if the doors and trim will be painted white or stained.  Anyone have any ideas on which would go best with the cottage style?  The doors are pine with lots of knots.  I have in my mind's eye that all trim is painted white, but the doors would look nice just stained and finished, so I can't decide.

And here's what I've been doing (aside from buying doors) while Tom is building.

I hired a big strapping teenager to dig up this spot for me so I could put this little patio out by the fence.  It's part of my landscaping plan.  He'll be coming back in the next several days, or weeks, depending on how long it takes, to dig up all along the fence line for my flower beds.  I'm filling the circle with decomposed granite, but ran out of landscaping cloth before I could finish it.

Hangdog

I had Pearlie spayed this week.  She is very sad.  She also thinks she can't jump up and down off the sofa or the bed and waits for me to lift her, unless she forgets that she's supposed to be convalescing and milking it for all it's worth, then she can jump just fine.

I had wanted her to have puppies (sooo politically incorrect, I know), but I never could find a suitable mate.  Pearlie hates all other dogs anyway, so she might not have let even a very handsome guy anywhere near her.  So, she's six and half years old now and I'm tired of dealing with her moody and messy seasons.  She didn't know what was coming, but I was dreading it for her.  I was going to tell the vet as he was carrying her away, "Please take care of her because she's my baby." but I was already tearing up and I knew that if I tried to speak, I'd start crying instead. 

Ridiculous, I know.

But, she came through it OK and it's done and she's fine and I'm fine.  Too sad that there won't be any sweet, fuzzy little white balls of fluff to love, though.

Floor All Finished

Here are some pics of the finished floor.  Some of the streaks are still visible, but they are so faint, I don't think they will be noticeable at all, plus there will be rugs and furniture covering up so much of the floor.  Overall, I think it is excellent!

I love how the concrete just naturally makes all kinds of varying patterns.

Floor Half Finished

So, I stained the floor on Sunday evening and let it dry overnight.  The instructions say that the acid must be neutralized with a baking soda and water solution and the acid's powdery residue must be completely cleaned off before the glossy epoxy sealer is put on.  So, yesterday I scrubbed the floor with the baking soda solution, then I scrubbed it twice more with just water trying to get the residue off.

Here's a spot where the stain didn't take.  There might have been something on the concrete that made it non-porous.  Now that I see it in the picture, it looks sort of like an animal laid down, died, and decomposed right there.  But, of course, that didn't happen.

The instructions say that after the floors are stained and cleaned, they will look dull, but don't worry, when the sealer is applied, it will bring out all the rich color, etc.  What the instructions don't tell you is that the scrub brush and wet/dry vac that they instruct you to use to clean the floor will leave streaks.  These streaks will not go away no matter how much rubbing and vacuuming you do.

More streaks over an otherwise nice marble looking pattern.  There are a lot of cracks in the concrete that I didn't realize were there until now.  I can only hope that the streaks will go away when the glossy sealer dries.

When I checked the floor this morning, it still had a residue, so I scrub-swept it with the push broom and vacuumed it with the wet/dry vac.  Then I appled the sealer with a roller on a long handle.

I am completely exhausted and sore all over, but...I'm done.  And I saved a couple of thousand dollars.  Oh, there is no possibility of putting a checkerboard pattern on it unless I paint it, which I don't want to do.  I found out the concrete won't take another stain. 

Saving the Big Bucks

For the barn apartment, I've decided on a floor of acid stained concrete.  I called a professional to get an estimate.  He said it's generally about 2.50 per square foot.  With 900 square feet to cover, that would be about 2,250 bucks.  Yikes.  I can't justify spending that on an apartment in the barn.  And, I really want a checkerboard pattern on it, which would just about double the price.  No.  I don't think so.

So, I decided...how hard could it be?  I'll do it myself!

And, this is me...doing it myself.

Not my finest fashionista hour, I must say.  But, this is farm reality.  You wear what you don't care about ruining.  This is acid, my friend, and it calls for rubber boots, rubber gloves, and those horrible protective eye goggles that nobody can see through.  If the floor turns out terrible, I'm blaming it on those goggles.

I won't know how it looks until the morning when it's dry.  I was hoping for a lighter brown color all over, and then to go back and tape off the squares, staining them again to a darker brown, but I'm thinking that this first coat will be too dark to put the checkerboard pattern on.

You can see the wall behind me that Tom has built.  He had to build a seven foot wall to fit under that steel beam, and then to get a regular eight foot high ceiling, he had to build that little pony wall on top of the steel beam.  It took a couple of weeks for he and Charles to build that.  Things should go much quicker for the rest of the interior walls because they won't have the beam to build around.

Those outer walls had to be built about ten inches thick and I hated to waste all that space, so I had them build in recesses or niches in one wall of each room, one of which can be seen directly behind me (the solid plywood area).  I'll probably have bookshelves built into them, or tuck a chest of drawers into them to save a few inches of floor space.

Drying Sunflower Seeds

Thanks to a great tip from a follower (yay for followers!), my sunflower seeds are outside drying in the sun.  She suggested laying them out and covering them with a window screen to keep the birds out of them.  We just happen to have replaced some windows yesterday and had the old screens out in the yard, so I spread the seeds on one screen, put the other screen on top, laid them out on a table and held them down with bricks.

Birds were the least of my worries, however, and I was more concerned about what Harry dog would do.  He didn't seem to find them interesting and they are still out there, undisturbed.  It's just about sundown, though, so it's time to bring them in.

Sunflower Seed Preparation

I found a recipe on food.com on how to prepare sunflower seeds.  Their recipe was for one cup of seeds, so I just loosely followed the instructions.

Their instructions said to rinse the seeds and remove any plant or flower head matter.  Yeah, for one cup of seeds that might not be an impossible task.  For about ten cups, it was an impossible task.  I rinsed and swished and picked through the seeds for some time before giving up and deciding to cook all the "plant matter" together with the seeds.

So put all of the seeds in my 8.5 quart stockpot, filled it with water and tried to push the floating mass of seeds and plant matter down into the water.  That didn't work.  I put a cup of kosher salt into the mess and stirred it all around.  Then I allowed the water to come to a boil and turned it down to simmer for about an hour.

Then I drained the seeds and laid them out on this towel to dry.  The recipe said to use paper towel, but I'd have had to use a whole roll, so I opted for a towel.  I picked out as much leaves and plant matter as I could and a lot of the tiny pieces stuck to the towel when I took the seeds off.  It was taking way too long for them to dry, so I figured I'd go ahead and put them in the oven, which was the next step anyway, and I figured the oven would dry them out just fine.

So, I put them in this roasting pan and into the oven preheated to 325 degrees to cook for what I thought was going to be about an hour, stirring frequently.  Two hours later, the seeds were still steaming.  I was afraid they were going to overcook, so I turned them down to 135 in hopes that the warm oven would dry them out without cooking them.  Several hours later, it was time to go to bed and the seeds were still damp.  I turned them off for the night.

They're back in the oven now on low.  They have a very good smoky/salty flavor, but I don't know if I'll ever get them dried out.

I Love These Country Folks!

I bought this from an old junk shop that isn't open.  I happened to meet the old fella that owns it while shopping in an antique shop.  He looks like an old Charlton Heston and his name is Will.  I don't know how to post pictures off the net, but if you click on the link below, there's a picture of old Charlton.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii-FS5dxCx1cPNmilLcESmXeB-pE_wYCSZI5QnwwgRApfOVFYX1skT4nTNSKe3fCw5_zFWutZFA1XEm2Nx8yRl-MDtpTxpSTpnVw2yPQC9dc-33zCznyeo8RpzfxRfChU-JG4_QQ/s400/CharltonHeston.jpg

Anyway, I bought an old minnow bucket and a water dispensing can (similar to the one in the above picture) to use as garden decor from Will.  He just left them out on the old junk shop porch and told me to go by and get them if I like them and I could pay him later.  When I was at the junk shop, I saw this old church pew and thought it might look good as garden decor, too, so when I went to pay him for the buckets a few days later, I asked him about it.  "Sure,", he said, "just go by and pick it up."

One side is kind of falling apart, but Tom put a bunch of screws in it and it should be good for a few more years.  He pulled this square nail out of a previously repaired section to replace it with a screw.  If it was repaired at some point with a square nail, no tellin' how old the pew is.

Harvesting Sunflower Seeds

A couple of months ago, I cut off the sunflower heads, wrapped them in cheesecloth and hung them up in the garage to dry.

Today I unwrapped them and picked the seeds out.  It makes for very sore fingertips.  I used a glove, for part of the time, but it's hard to do stuff with gloves on.

Got 2.2 pounds of seeds.  I'm not sure what to do with them now.  I'll have to google it.  I ate a few and they were quite good.

Getting Political

My husband and I are very politically active, but I don't write much about it on my blog because I like to keep the blog pretty much about homesteading and our experiences as new farmers.

I want to deviate from that just for just a moment to ask a political question of my followers or anyone else that happens to read this post and feels inclined to comment.  I've noticed that several followers are from different countries.  I must admit that I am puzzled that anyone from another country would want to read about homesteading in America, in particular my homesteading in America.  I'm happy that y'all do, but puzzled, nonetheless.

Anyway, to my question, which is this:

When thinking of the United States of America, do you perceive us as a "Christian nation" or do you perceive us as a "secular nation"?

I'd love answers from anyone, Americans included, but if you answer, please let me know what country you are from.

Thanks.

Ouch! Ow, Ow, Ow!

Got stung by an asp caterpillar!  I didn't know there was such a thing.

I went out to move my sprinkler beside the driveway this morning and while holding it, I noticed a weird fuzzy looking thing stuck on it.  After looking at it a few seconds, I thought it might be a caterpillar.  I left it there and stuck the sprinkler spikes in the ground, taking care not to touch the caterpillar or smash it.  Well, evidently, my hand must have brushed up against the critter before I saw it because soon after I set the sprinkler, my thumb, right at the joint, started stinging. 

I couldn't figure out what the problem was, but it was getting worse.  I thought something might have bitten me, but I didn't see any creature other than the caterpillar.  After making my rounds checking on the livestock, then going out to pick a fruit off of a tree that I thought might be a persimmon (and, yes, it is - had no idea we had a persimmon tree on the property!), and my hand now throbbing, I came in to look up poisonous caterpillars on the net.  Sure enough, there is was, the asp or puss moth caterpillar. 

It's hurting all the way up my arm now.  I guess I should go tell Tom that if I keel over, he should tell the ER that I got stung by an asp caterpillar so they'll know what to do.  S

So that everyone else can avoid these creatures, have a look at this link to see what they look like.  And don't touch them!

http://neuro.bcm.edu/eagleman/asp/

Dallas, Oh, Dallas, Where Hast Thou Westerness Gone?

It's a sad, sad day in Texas when there are only two choices of stores to buy cowboy boots at.

The day has come when my 30 year old cowboy boots, which I love, in all their lizardy glory, must be retired.  They have gone the way of all lizard skin boots and split at the lizard seam.

These Lucchese boots have the perfect toe.

and the perfect heel.  And the perfect color and the perfect fit.  But, unless I want to wear them until they become sandals, it's time to replace them.  So, I went to Dallas to search for the new perfect boot.  I went to Cavenders.  Cavenders did not have the perfect boot.  I went to Sheplers.  Sheplers did not have the perfect boot.  I went to Boot Town.  Boot Town has gone bankrupt and their doors were closed.  I went to Western Wearhouse, but they are no longer in business.  I ran out of places to go.

So, I went back to Cavenders and bought a boot that I do not love.  Those boots are my plan B boots.  Because Dallas has betrayed me, I'm going to have to resort to on-line shopping.  And if I find the perfect boot on-line, my plan B boots will be going back to Cavenders.

Meh. I'm such a GIRL

No fair!  I wish I was stronger.  I have a landscaping project that I want to do.  Well, actually I have a whole lot of landscaping that I want to do, but this is just a little segment all it's own.  It's all planned out in my head and it's great.  I just don't have the strength in my body to do the necessary prep work.  I have to dig out some grass in a big circle.  I got out there and jabbed the shovel in the ground a few times, but couldn't move much.  So, I tried to get Tom to dig it out for me with the tractor.  Really, all I want done is a thin top layer scraped off, then I can do the rest.  Now that he's ADD hyperfocused on the barn apartment, I may not be able to get him to do it.

Hmm, I need a tiny tractor just for me.

It's gonna be a small sitting area right across from the patio doors that lead off my bedroom.

You can kind of see the miserable little circle I dug.  It's about a ten foot circle, but now that I've thought about it, it probably needs to be a bit bigger.  I can't get used to the amount of space I have to work with.  Because of living in the city with a small suburban lot, I'm used to doing things on a smaller scale.  I need to think BIG...Texas big.  By the way, I did not dig that bare spot.  There used to be a tree there and the ground is bare because the grass hasn't recovered from the stump grinding.  I'm trying to make use of the bare spots before the grass grows back.

New BIG Project

Tom has cleaned up and organized the barn (sort of) in preparation for the **drum roll** building of the apartment.  He's gone now to buy the wood for the framework.

Grouchy Chicken

Poor Hen is still sitting on her two remaining eggs.  I believe she is about on day 24 and they should have hatched by now.  I hate to get rid of them in case there is any chance that I've miscalculated and there are live chicks in there.  But I can't just let her go on forever sitting on the eggs.

Every time I peek in at her, she puffs up like this and says, "Get outta here!  Can't a girl have any privacy?"