After Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  We had a great time with friends and family, but it's time to get back to work now.

Rather than pictures of bloated bodies tripped out on turkey tryptophan, how about some pictures of the progress made on the apartment?

Tom and Charles have gotten most of the tin ceiling up.

And they've sheetrocked one side of each wall.

We're going to have a cellulose insulation blown into the walls between the studs, hence only one side of the walls.  After the insulation is blown in, they'll put of the rest of the sheetrock.

While waiting on the ordered tin to arrive, Tom spent some time making these steps for Meagan's trailer so we don't risk life and limb going in and out on those tiny steps that came with the trailer.

Harry Potter Week

Harry Potter rolled into town along with the Death Eaters.

Ooops

Tom is away for the evening.  It's cold in the house.  Why don't I start a fire?  I can do that.  This time I'll remember to open the flue (flew? floo? flu?) unlike last year when I started a fire not remembering to open it, then not having anything to open it with, but finally getting it open with the little ash shovel after the house was full of smoke.

OK, move firescreen, wad up newspaper, put little twigs on, then small branches; light the paper.  Fire is starting to blaze; put bigger logs on.  Aaaah!  Cozy fire, blessed heat.

Wait...weird smell.  Hmmm.  Oh well, I'll get ready for bed while the fire heats up the living room, then I can watch my shows and eat popcorn.  Funny hiss...run back in the living room to see if embers have popped out onto the floor; inspect fire.  All is well.  Now go get ready for bed.

Come back to enjoy fire. Stand in front of the fire.  Soak up the heat.  Gaze into the flames.  **gasp**  There is a fire extinguisher IN the fireplace.  Right there at the front corner where I stowed it after cleaning up the hearth, after the last fire last spring.  Grab fire extinguisher.  Ouch, too hot!  Get Tom's heavy glove, thankfully right next to the fireplace, grab extinguisher, rush it outside before it explodes.

The label reads, "Do not incinerate.  Contents under pressure."

Really, Tom should not trust me with the fireplace.  I'm a danger to myself and others.

Bring It On

Winter, that is.  It's almost time for hot cups of cocoa by the cozy fire.

I spent the morning hauling firewood up to the house and filling this new wood rack up.  Last winter we constantly had a mess all over the back porch because of the firewood stacked on the floor between two stands.  I thought this might keep it neater and I should be able to use the blower to just blow out dirt and debris from underneath it. 

Nice, huh?

I bought it on-line at Plow and Hearth http://www.plowhearth.com/Curved-Firewood-Rack_p2239_S2002_D3050_C1035.html

It was just 99 bucks and they had a coupon code on the main page that I used for free shipping.  It took less than a week to arrive.  I put it together this morning and it seems sturdy enough.  We'll see how it holds up through the winter.  That little space underneath for kindling is a good idea in theory, but in reality it is rather hard to get the kindling in there and it will probably all pull out in a wad.  I think we'll use a bucket like we did last year for kindling and use that space for smaller logs/sticks.

Thunderstorms a' Comin'

Cooking Punkin'

Probably everybody already knows how to cook pumpkin in preparation for pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread, but it's new to me, so I'll blog it.  I saw these pumpkins at Brookshires, had a moment of feeling all domestic and thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be great to make pumpkin pies from real pumpkins instead of from a can?"  So, I bought them and let them sit in the breezeway for weeks while they accused me of being a fraud every time I walked by them...which was several times a day.

Pffft.  Who wants to go to all the trouble of cooking a pumpkin when you can buy perfectly good pumpkin in a can?  What was I thinking?  But, I bought them, so I must use them and today was the day.

I sat down and googled "cooking pumpkin".  Amazingly, or not, many sites already tell us how to cook pumpkins, so nobody really needs me to tell them how.  I do, however, have a couple of recommendations at the end.  These sites also tell us that, "Once you go fresh, you'll never go back to canned". 

So, here we go...goin' fresh.

I cut the pumpkins in half and scooped out the seeds and stringy stuff.

Reserved the seeds for roasting later.  Yum.

I found instructions for boiling, steaming, or roasting.  I didn't know which was better, but I thought that if I boiled them, the pumpkins would soak up water resulting in runny pumpkin mash.  So I decided on steaming one and roasting the other.

To roast, just cover with foil and pop into a 375 degree oven for about an hour and half or until soft.  I didn't put mine on a pan, but would recommend it because it did drip some juice onto the oven floor.

I left the pumpkin in the oven until it cooled off, then took it out and scooped the pulp out of the skin.  I mashed the pulp with a potato masher.

To steam the other pumpkin, I cut it into slices, then peeled it.  I used my steamer basket in my large stock pot, tossed all the pieces in there and let it steam for about an hour.  When it cooled, I mashed it with a potato masher.

NOTE:  When peeling the pumpkin, I thought the skin was very thick, so I peeled away quite a bit, maybe an eighth of an inch or so.  But after scooping the pulp out of the roasted pumpkin, I discovered that the skin is not nearly as thick as I thought.  So, when peeling the pumpkin, peeling it as if peeling a potato should be sufficient.

I put all the pumpkin into containers, labeled them and put them in the freezer.

What I learned:  Roasting is way easier.  It was a pain in the neck and took a long time to slice and peel the pumpkin as compared to simply popping it into the oven and the result was the same.

Next up...canning jalapenos.

Apartment Pics

While I was gone to my sister's house, Tom and Charles were very busy.

They put up some of the rough cedar siding and built the stairs to the storage/hay loft.

Please excuse the junk.

Electric wires have been run.

And plumbing has been installed.

The large closet under the stais has been enclosed.

The double sink vanity has been bought.  I'm keeping it in the box to keep it from damage and dirt, but there's a little picture of it there on the box.

The decision on the ceiling has been made - tin.

Garden Woes

I thought the garden was done for the season, but when I happened out there yesterday morning, I found that the bell peppers and jalapeno plants were so laden with peppers that the branches were breaking.  So I picked the biggest ones and have a dehydrator full of bell peppers now.  I dried jalapenos earlier this season, but I think I'm going to try to can this latest batch.  I could use a good recipe that doesn't include pressure cooking with the scary canner. 

And the tomatoes...

now they start producing.  These are the cherry tomatoes, growing like clusters of grapes, tons of them.  And the other tomatoes are producing, too.  Of course, none of them will ripen on the vine.  I've picked a bunch and have them ripening under newspaper. 

All summer...nothing, maybe three tomatoes that were edible.  I thought maybe my soil was lacking, but that can't be it if they'll produce now.  I need some help.  What am I doing wrong?  There were tons of blooms, but they hardly made any tomatoes.  The ones that did grow either had rotten spots (not blossom end rot), gouges, or splits in them.

And the green beans that actually did put on a bunch of little green beans that didn't grow for months, have now lost all their leaves, but have actual mature beans on them.  They're probably tough now.

Blah.

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.