September

A lot is happening in a short span of time....or in other words it seems like the months are flying by. I think since finding time to blog is challenging I will just focus on writing one a month and sum up the highlights, using pictures when I can :)

So we had a wonderful time at our eldest daughters wedding......we were gone from the farm for 12 days and fit in a lot of miles (we drove) and many (but not enough) visits. It was good to see friends and family again. The wedding was lovely. The weather behaved perfectly and all the details that were planned out in advance came together smoothly. I told the Newly-Weds "They threw a great party!"

Mom and Maid-Of-Honor! 

Isn't the bride B-E-A-U-T-iful!!! 

Couple of good-lookin' young men right there!!

The handsome groom.

Groom's father did a wonderful job officiating. 

Lakeside. Beautiful! 

All seven of us! 

Also joining the farm in September was Wesley. Our first rabbit. Wesley will be the buck that hopefully helps produce lots and lots of  "wittle wabbits" so that we can begin to process some of our own meat from the property. This is a plan that sounds good in theory but has to play out to a successful result. We still need a couple does. Also Wesley is only 13 weeks old and must grow up first. To work around the fact that we will one day be eating cute, little bunnies....The Youngest consoles herself with the thought that the parent rabbits will be her pets (that will never ever land on a plate) and that when "market day" rolls around she will not be available to help.  Come to think of it, I think I am busy that day as well!!  Then we shall see if this cook can make something edible with rabbit meat that will actually get eaten.....stay tuned, or not tuned depending on your tolerance of how cute food should be prior to putting it in the pot. :P  The hope is to be as self-sufficient as possible using our 48 acres. Rabbits will turn grass and veggies into meat. We will use them for a protein source for ourselves and other "meat-eaters" on the property....cat, dog, chickens etc. How primal of us eh?!

He is such a cutie! 

A bit ago I shared that I attempted to get off sugar. I'm sure it adds to health issues I have. (minor ones, but still annoying). I tried unsuccessfully to do so in January. Cutting out sugar cold turkey is TOUGH!  Well, I've tried again and this time it worked, without much agony!  A friend shared with me that she had found The Whole30 plan/diet/lifestyle and it had helped her considerably.  I ordered the books and got set to try.  I'm on Day 21 but the first few days were without the horrible withdrawal symptoms like one would usually expect when cutting out sugar, dairy and grains all at once. I can't say that I have felt huge improvements in the list of aliments I am hoping this will help, but again I am only on day 21. My clothes are fitting better, my energy levels remain more consistent and I am not having to snack all day to keep fueled-up like was my habit for years. I am thinking that once the 30 days are over (and I slowly re-introduce the missing food "groups" back to see if any disagree with me) I will find I feel better without some and will continue to eat Whole30 for much longer. Or like maybe for the rest of my life?
I think it's true that most of us know that the Western diet is the cause of all the illness that is so prevalent in our society but it takes a lot of work and determination to eat differently. I attended two pot-lucks in the last two weeks, while on these restrictions, and I will tell you there wasn't anything there that I could eat! I had brought my own food since I knew that would be the case. But to be "different" in the "food department" means you have to "go against the flooding current" and that it is a very, very difficult undertaking. So between that, the PILES of dishes (cause it's all from scratch) and the time commitment it takes to cook all of your own food (and sauces/dressings) is the reason why more people don't do it.
It's work (and weirdness) to eat healthy.

Those of you on Facebook already know this....but The Teal Kangaroo Day-Care has closed it's doors. There wasn't enough kids to keep it going. I needed four full-time kids to make it worth while and in the three months that we blasted ads, had friends sharing and recommending I only ended up with three VERY part-time children.  Oh well, I gave it a go. Next I turned my energies into selling  the stuff I had gathered and had a toy sale at the Grain Elevator during it's last two Saturdays of the season.  That was fun and I recouped some of my costs.  Turns out I probably would have made more money if I had opened a toy store instead of a day care! There isn't one in the village and all I needed to do was make trips to the towns and cities with thrift stores and mark up the prices.

Well, now that a third of October is well under way.......I hope you all are having a great beginning of Autumn and had a lovely Thanksgiving as well.

We are enjoying the colours that are creeping (or more like BURSTING) over our woods and the view looking across the pastures is really something. When I walk I feel almost like there is a poet inside me just begging to be released.....but when I get back to the house it is usually a dishcloth and not a pen that fills my hand :)
So for now...I will not be publishing any "Poems and Deep Thoughts" by Christine Harris.

See you later, in October. Or if I follow this route you'll hear about our October in November! :)

Blessings and love to you all!

One Year Later

And we are outta here!

It's back to Ontario we go.

Not to worry, it's just for our daughter's wedding.

Kinda funny how that worked out though. We are leaving one year to the day that we arrived in NS. We sure got a lot done in that year! A house that had been sorely neglected and abused is now a lovely family home and even safe enough and pleasant too for a day care. There was more crossed off our list then remains. At least for the first year of our five year plan. But the remaining list is still none too little.

Still to do.....
- remove old brick chimney
- patch roof where chimney was
- dry-wall, mud, sand, paint guest room
- finishing touches to where new chimney was installed
- build new or make existing master bedroom closet, practical
- replace two windows upstairs
- remove water damaged plaster in upstairs hall-way and check for leak (it only became wet once in the whole year, but guess it needs looking at)
- replace six windows on main level
- find/replace screen door on sliding door
- build a deck or stairs (or screened in sun-room?!) off living room/sliding door exit
- finish giving all the lower kitchen cupboards doors.
- build a pantry
- build another set of shelves for permanently placing some electrical kitchen gadgets
- replace mud room and add laundry sink and washing machine
- remove defunct furnace and oil tank from basement
- install sump pump in basement
- work out some kind of air exchange system to prevent mold etc.
- scrape and paint wooden siding and window trim
- replace antique front door

That's all that's left on the "first year" list hahahahaha.....we have nine days to get 'er done Boys!! (as of me writing this on Aug 23) And that list hasn't one build-us-a-farm item on it.

But like I said, it's still a shorter list compared to what we accomplished in the last twelve months.

But I have this feeling I just became the "plumber's wife" you know that poor soul whose husband works so hard on everyone else's plumbing he doesn't have time to fix his own leaky tap? Geoff just started a handy-man business. It was at the neighbours suggestion actually. They kept mentioning that there is little to no reliable men in the area that you can count on to do a decent or even complete job, and as they watched this house transform they knew Geoff had the skills to handle most anything house related.

So I put an ad up on the village Facebook page and in the first two days he had three calls! Two of the jobs are for a fair bit of work! So guess who packs up his lunch box and water cooler every day now?
Let's hope that with more ads, posters in town and word of mouth he'll be kept just busy enough to bring home some dough but still have time and energy to keep getting stuff done around here!

My daycare is slowly growing.  Three families bring their little people one, two, or three days a week. It will have to pick up or it's not really worth doing. On the days I only have one child, (which is more often than not) it's a long 8-9 hour day keeping a little person entertained and only for $25-30. I would make more money in a shorter time at Foodland. :/  I've had a couple more interviews in the last while so we shall see, but I am seeing a pattern emerge and that is not many parents here would need me Monday-Friday full time.

I have also been working at the Grain Elevator. And what a lovely experience that has been!! I started out serving at the Sleepless Goat Cafe (read here to understand the quirky name) where the menu is crepes, assorted baking and specialty coffees (Surprisingly I got the job even though I don't like coffee!!) But as I grew to love the place and since I have the ability to be everywhere at once, people got to know me and other vendors have been hiring me to watch their booths too. It means we are there almost every weekend. It is open Friday - Sunday for the months of May - October.

This is a historic picture of the G.E. popular in the prairie provinces but the only one in the East. It's celebrating it's 60th birthday in October thanks to it's owner who bought it a few years back to prevent it from being torn down. And we are so glad he did!! The inside has been converted to a bunch of shops and it is the loveliest place to work and visit!! 

Today's view :) 

We found out about this place because The Man-Son's Ski Hill Boss, is Manger of the G.E. (she is in a picture, with The Youngest, further down) and she hired him to do some painting to prepare for Spring opening. When he came home from this job he said "Mom, you gotta come check this place out, it's NICE!" When a young man says something is nice you go to check it out!!!  I had to agree.  

Here is a glimpse inside. 

The cafe is behind the black window frame (middle right). Some Saturdays it's been estimated that over 2000 people come though the doors!!

 

The Cafe Sign above and booth below.

It's one of my favorite places! 

If I had of known my picture was being taken I would have showed it by a big smile!! :)

The Youngest has wanted to learn to spin ever since we moved here. Well, she got a job spinning........just not sheep's wool....Cotton Candy! And she spins like a boss too! 

Just give her $3 and she'll make you a pink or blue cloud of sugar on a stick!!

Once she moved out of the "training" corner and was set up by the big entrance doors, crowds will gather and watch mesmerized as she spins magical fluff! As her mom I think the magic is in the little girl who grew up wanting to farm but can still handle crowds watching her work with grace and nerves-of-steel. She also makes crepes for the Cafe and having people watch you "flip their crepe" is another test of your endurance. ;) 

And here is a prayer request.....

See this cute little spot?

This wee store front, located in the G.E. could be my space come May!!! 

 I'm thinking of running a little spa type place where I will offer Aromatouch Technique, hand and foot wax treatments and natural products for home and body and much more!! Please pray for God's leading and blessing. The plans are well under way, wax has already arrived, business cards are ordered and an artistic friend is working on my sign. We just don't know if this will be my spot or if another corner of the building will get set aside for it. We haven't had a chance to see if my massage table will fit yet. After several days of mulling over names, I finally settled on something simple.....

The Little Spa Shop

Short and practical enough but still reveals what I offer. Spa services. Plus I think it's cute too. It'll match the little spot I'll be set up in! 

Well, this is done up a few days before posting. The last week and a half were filled with day care, work, visitors and packing for our trip. But I couldn't let our first year anniversary go by without a blog to commemorate.

Thanks for your interest, following the blog, encouraging comments, love and prayers. We may be far from most who read these words-of-mine, but we feel all the good wishes and it keeps us going!!

Here's to our second year ahead! May as many, or more, tasks get crossed off the to-do list during the next 12 months than the last!!

Someone please second that toast!! :)

Since You Were Too Polite to Ask.

The time has come to reveal the dirty truth.

The truth behind our potty that is.

I've hinted at it in other blogs, but now I am going to come right out and tell you about it.

We have a saw-dust compost toilet.

You may have heard about composting toilets before. They are often large units that require two stories to set up properly. It turns and dries the contents without much assistance from you until months later at which time you empty it and the "stuff" has only a pleasant earthy smell. Of course such a device comes with a pretty price tag.

This is not the kind of composting toilet we have.

We have a five gallon pail. Eight pails actually, since there are four of us using it daily.

The Youngest has observed people as I've explained our "toilet situation". And she figured from some flickers of concern and possibly from some uncomfortable moves in their body language that I was leaving important information out when I stopped at "five gallon pail".  Don't worry, we do not have to perch precariously on the painful edge of a pail to do our business. No, the handy-man that is my husband built a lovely wooden box and we even splurged and bought a bamboo toilet seat for it.

I read about this system while living in Ontario.  If done properly it is the most environmentally friendly way of dealing with human waste.  The word "waste" should be reserved for things that are beyond use, that have little to no value left for anything. Poop is not waste.  It may gross many of you out to hear this, but for all it's stinky properties, there is still much good left in our poop. If handled with care and wisdom it can be recycled back into service to help things grow and thrive.

Ok, Have I lost some of you? (laughter)

I don't think I blogged about "the reason" why we up and left a good job and friends and family to come out here to try this crazy thing. It's too long to add here, but in a nut shell we want to become stewards of land, doing the best that we can at not taking more then we need and giving thought and care to growing our own food...and one of the things we felt would help us in this vision was to use a compost toilet.  When we looked at this house and the bathroom was a complete wreck, we added that to the list of reasons why this was a good house for us.  Had we bought something nicer, we would have been hesitant to remove a functioning flush toilet to replace with a pail. When the bathroom here was a "gutter" we were like "Bonus!"

When we arrived one of the first things Geoff built, was the box, fitted to the pickle pails we brought from The Man-Son's Penetang job at the "World Famous Dock Lunch".

We were all set. Almost.

We only needed saw-dust. That shouldn't be a problem, we live in a land of logging and saw-mills! But it seemed all the folks we talked too would shake their head and tell us that the mills they knew of where shut down. To be honest I began to panic a little. Here I thought this would be a good idea, all my research PROMISED that covering your "deposits" would leave virtually no smell and having a pail like such in the house was possible. I really wanted to give it a try! But if we couldn't find saw-dust we would have to invest thousands of dollars into getting a new septic tank (we are pretty sure the one that was here no longer exists and we aren't really sure where our shower water goes?) and besides we had our hearts set on being the "weirdest people" we knew.

Then we spoke to the right person. The East neighbour.

"Sawdust?! You want sawdust!!? My brother (West Neighbour) has a mill and the sawdust is getting out of hand over there, we were just trying to figure out what to do with it all!!"

And right there in the middle of all the weirdness that is me, and this crazy need I have to be WAY different then my culture, God assured my heart we were in the right place.

A mountain of sawdust is less then a two minute drive from the pail that needs it! Praise God!

And so 11.5 months later and we aren't sorry that we use 8 pails to deal with our "waste". It truly doesn't stink, most of the time. And the times it does, are no different than at your house when you chide a family member for the fumes coming out of the bathroom and start attacking the air with air freshener!  :)

So, this is how it goes.
A clean and empty pail goes in the box and a few scoops of sawdust are thrown over the bottom.
You make your "deposits" and cover them with sawdust from the old-feed bag that is standing near-by.  Now feed-bags aren't known for being beautiful, but I turn the writing toward the wall and it's not so bad. Once the pail gets full and sawdust is dangerously close to your behind (I refuse to blog about the time I decided that the pail could be used "just one more time" hahaha) you lift it out, carefully, snap the lid on and put a fresh pail in. Ta-da. Just like that!
It takes 1.5 days for four people to fill a five gallon bucket. But what goes in....must come out.....once a week Geoff and I empty them. He has built a large compost box just for our potty contents. He dumps (the pile is getting high and those pails are heavy), I hose out the pails (Summer is a bit easier, all winter I had to fill four milk jugs with water) we cover the new stuff with hay (that's why we were happy about the old bale left across the road), allow the clean pails to air-dry and Bob's your Uncle (he really is in my case!) you are ready for another week of "Number 1 and 2"!

"Does is smell bad when you are emptying them?"
Yeah, it's kinda gross. But not gag me gross and it only takes 20 minutes to do. Not the end of the world. It mostly just smells like there are animals in the barn. It is a farm after all.

To help with the composting process the pile should be hosed down occasionally. The goal is to get the temperatures up to or over 120 degrees.  If you can get it that hot, all the pathogens that are concerning in human (meat-eaters) poop are destroyed and it is safe to use in gardens. If you don't get it that hot, you need to either let it sit for a couple years, or only use it for fertilizing fruit trees or flower beds.  We didn't get it the right temperature , I'm thinking we didn't wet it enough this winter. We will either let it sit awhile longer or re-do it with more layers of hay and lots of water. The decaying process is what causes the temperatures to rise.

So far our guests have been quite gracious about using it. One of my day-care kids thinks it's really something, but when I watched her once at her home, she took special care to make sure I saw what a flush toilet was. Haha!!

I've mentioned a couple times when explaining how to use our unusual toilet to someone new.......

"Just be thankful that we are only asking you to use it and not empty it."

Which quickly helps them realize that things could be much, much worse.  :)

Well, I hadn't blogged in a long while so I thought I would give you a book today.
It has been a very busy summer with a lot of visitors and work. Not just work on the property or house, but actual paying work, for which we are thankful.  Maybe I'll share those details another day.

At least you know what to expect when you come to our house. We do realize it's not something that most people can do. But since we can we see it as our little part towards being kind to this earth God gave us for a home. I'm betting that you might think of us occasionally when you push down on your toilet's flush lever .....months later I still sometimes look for the phantom lever that isn't here.

Old habits are hard to break I guess!

When it graced our "guest room" while waiting for the bathroom to be finished.

Stage of the Game.

Being I haven't posted in awhile you may be wondering...........

"What stage of the game are they at now?"

We aren't sure ourselves.

Geoff borrowed a tall ladder from the West Neighbour a bit ago to use when taking the chimney down. Before he got around to it, the neighbour, unbeknownst to us, borrowed it back, then returned it while I was out working on the gazebo.

"Do you still need it?" he called out from his truck.

"We haven't used it yet and I am not sure when we will" was my reply. "When you have three thousand, four hundred, twenty nine things on your to-do list you are never sure what is next on the agenda!"

But seriously we are getting stuff crossed off the list everyday.

Some things were so small they weren't actually written down and yet it's great when they get done. Like the antique door knob that was missing from one side of the living room door. How do you find a replacement without spending hours in thrift stores?  But turns out when the locked tight, key-less and also very old front door was forced open it had a matching knob on the outside. Being it is an outside door we were replacing the existing knobs to have a lockable version. And TA-DA, the living room door has two knobs once more!

The bathroom was up and running a bit ago. Well, half of it was. Tub and vanity graced two walls and we could shower on site and stopped brushing our teeth in the kitchen. Yay! But the wall with the window was waiting, stripped down to the lathe, for decent weather so that the window might be removed and replaced. That day arrived yesterday. Window is out! Tarp is up. New window going in either today or Friday. (we may need wood picked up on Thursday's trip to town)

The dining room is looking like a dining room at last. Wedges had to be put under the furniture to make it all level, but unless you are looking for them you wouldn't notice. :)  That means our living room is just that. A living room and not a multi-purpose room like it was for months. That's kinda nice and easier to clean too!

The hallway will be finished today. Working on the hall has been kinda tedious. There was so much to do for such a non-room!  A wooden-hide-away-box that hid the plumbing for the up-stairs Jacuzzi tub had to get torn out and re-dry-walled. That was done thanks to the Man-Son and his friend visiting from Penentang. (they also removed the massive tub itself, making the room twice the size it was) Oh, and I can't forget they tore out duct-work that took up a corner outside the bathroom. I wanted that space used for a closet, since the duct-work was useless with no working furnace. Will we regret that one day? Maybe. But for now the closet is wonderful. We managed to find a small, under-sized door for it. It was on a top shelf at Kent and had been there so long it was grey with dust. When the employee tried scanning the bar code he discovered that it had been removed from the system, guess they thought it was never going to be sold. Then we came along.......

Also in the hallway was a large, LARGE hole in the drywall (don't know the story behind that one) that needed patching plus the door that needed convincing that it must open despite it's age and key-less-ness.  Then after all the mudding and sanding and mudding and sanding and mudding and sanding, like for real......then came the priming, painting and then trim painting. Besides the typical seven inch wide baseboards found in old homes, there are SIX door-frames and five doors that need painting in this said hallway. Count 'em! One, two, three, four, five, SIX!  AGH!! I am so glad that today will mark the end of the endless trim and white paint.

Well, my time is up. I gotta get back to work! We have set a date for when the day-care will begin and we have flyers going out inviting prospective parents to an Open-House June 30th. Meaning we have sixteen days to get this place ship-shape.

In those sixteen days we only have the kitchen floor to put down, the bathroom window to install, bathroom to mud, sand and paint, the stairs and up-stairs hallway to paint (need a nice few days for that, it's oil based paint and we'll need all the doors and windows open). The gazebo to repair, paint, screen and door. (that one doesn't sound like an emergency, but we already started and now it looks like a mess) Some cupboard doors on the lower kitchen cupboards would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. Some footings poured to hold up the front "bay" window, but mostly so the holes the boys dug for them can be filled in again, the tractor tire half buried for a play item in the yard, finish painting my sign for the road and I'm probably missing something but I think that's about it!

And three of those sixteen days I'll be working at my new, very part-time summer job. I'll be serving coffee and crepes at the Sleepless Goat Cafe in the village. Should be fun and also a way to get my "name out" since I can advertise my day-care while there.

So there you have it Ladies and Gentlemen, you now know as much as we do about what stage we're at in this game we're playing.

Not always an enjoyable game, but it's an interesting one at least!! :)

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring has officially arrived on the wings of red-breasted robins.
Dozens of them are all over the fields. In Ontario I was thrilled when I spotted the first, SINGLE robin of the season. Here, I almost drove off the road when my side-kick pointed out the speckled hay field!!  I guess the country has some extra space. The more the merrier! Hearing their cheery songs as I hung up the laundry this week made it seem more like play than work.

It always feels like we are headed in the right direction when the robins arrive don't you agree?

Spring means warmer temperatures.
My summer stove is settling into our kitchen! Kijiji is the best !

We still put a fire in the wood stove every morning, evening and on cloudy, damp days....but once the outside temps began to creep over zero it was getting powerful warm trying to cook meals. There are plans to make, in some distance future, a summer kitchen with a rocket stove and a clay, earthen oven. But let's not kid ourselves, it ain't happening any time soon. So Plan B it is! An electric cooker. 

They say that twenty-one days is all it takes to make or break a habit.  Guess who is leaving the stove on?  Yep! Spent most of November and December looking for knobs on the wood-stove to turn it off whenever I removed a pot or took something out of the oven. Now I just walk away with the food and don't look back! haha. Here's hoping I develop the habit of turning this one off before the electricity bill goes through the roof! Also, guess who puts the kettle on a burner and then wonders why it won't boil? Haha. Gotta get used to the "on and off" thing again!

May I introduce Bagheera. (pronounced - Bag-ear-ah)

Our first animal on the Farm. A barn-cat.

We named him after the black panther in "The Jungle Book". Hopefully he is a mighty hunter and will keep the mice and vole population down. In the mean time, he's imprisoned in "The Goat Shed" for up to 21 days (14 minimum) until he gets used to us and his new home. He is settling in just fine. We were able to "trick" him out of hiding less then 24 hrs after he arrived and he hasn't "looked back". Two of us went in to see if we could find him....a black cat in a dark shed, well there were times we wondered if he had escaped! Finally, The Youngest  (who is enjoying this thoroughly) spotted his glowing eyes behind the left-behind tractor tire. She started tossing in kitty-treats, but it didn't convince him to exit the safety of his hidey-hole. I suggested she leave while I stayed put on the stool. Out she went (which is a noisy endeavor when sliding barn doors are involved) and once he thought he was again the sole occupant.....he popped right up. Haha. You should of seen the surprise etched over his feline features!! I almost laughed aloud. What could he do? The "jig was up" his cover was blown. He decided to sit beside the tire. Then slowly, slowly he made it over to me and before you knew it he was pressing in for rubs and scratches.

Now he is taking all the loving and petting (and of course treats) that we can give him. He didn't start up the purr-machine until the second day. What a comforting sound that was! When you get a FREE cat from the SPCA because they didn't think he would ever make a house cat and they tell you it's wild and scared of humans; well, a cat that comes for loving and purrs while receiving it melts the heart of even a non-cat person like myself. We think he won't need a full twenty-one days to adjust. Most likely we'll crack open the shed door much sooner then that!

Geoff has been making headway on the bathroom!! There have been times during the last six months where the "vision" grew a little dim. For six long months the washroom was the grossest room in this building. Possibly the grossest room I had ever seen and I was living in the same house with it!! It was hard to believe when looking at the disgusting state of the shower, toilet and vanity that it could look any worse, but it did. With the walls stripped down to ancient studs and dirty insulation and a massive hole in the floor because of rotten wood, it was like we took a huge step back. But I've said before and it still rings true.... "Sometimes one must go backwards in order to move forward".  Well, I'm glad we took before pictures, cause the transformation is stunning! It doesn't even seem like the same space!

The tile floor before the vanity is installed.

Vanity - All hand-made by the one-and-only, very talented Geoffrey Harris!! 

Next thing is to replace the bathroom window, which arrived by courier yesterday. We have quite a few things on order right now, chicken starter stuff, fencing items, vitamins, birthday gifts, so it wasn't a surprise when a delivery truck pulled up our muddy driveway. But when he mentioned it was in a wooden crate? We were like.... Brooding lamp? Fence charger? Chick feeder and watering container?  Like, I know we are new at this but CRATE?  Turns out it was wooden alright, but a somewhat thin crate. 

It was the window for the bathroom. 

Time to take out the old and install the new.

Now if only this Spring weather will behave long enough......

Bagheera

Tomorrow we start our farm for real.
Our first animal is getting picked up at the local SPCA.

Yep, we are getting a barn cat.
A black, male we are going to name Bagheera.
After the black panther in Disney's movie "The Jungle Book"

The Youngest and I made the decision yesterday that we were going to use only Disney character names when naming animals on "Between Here and There Farms". 

I think the Day-Care kids will like it and find it easier to remember who's who when they are named after characters that kids already know. :)

Just thinking about having a black cat named Bagheera made me look up the SPCA's web-site and just like I had heard, they do have a Barn Cat Program. Feral cats or partly wild ones that wouldn't make a good house cat are given to those who promise to provide food, water and shelter from the elements. 

Well, we have three great out-buildings and lots and lots of mice!! So he will hopefully find this to be a place he is happy to call home.

He comes neutered and "fully loaded" with all his up-dated shots etc. for the low, low price of free!! That's something we can afford!! :)

We have already gotten the "Goat Shed" ready. (No, there are no goats in it yet, but we have to label the out-buildings with something. The Barn, The Wood Shed, and the Goat Shed (which will hopefully have goats one day) 

Although Bagheera won't know or probably appreciate what we did to prepare for his arrival we got out there and removed any garbage left by John Smith, made a cozy "nest" for him out of a box, towel and snuggled it into the fluffy pile of hay. Bared up any holes or gaps that looked like a cat might try to squeeze through and now we wait until tomorrow. The plan is to keep him barred in the shed for a few days until he realizes that these new humans equal "food" and hopefully he'll acclimatize enough to stay with us.

I have never thought of myself as a cat person, and although I know that this half-wild fellow most likely won't be the type to curl around our legs purring I am so excited about getting our first ANIMAL I can hardly stand it!! haha :)  I have complete trust in our Resident Animal Whisperer. If The Youngest can't make him tame enough for a pat now and then or a scratch under the chin, than there ain't no one who can. 

And he'll have something to hunt on his first day, The Youngest scared up a real, living mouse while cleaning out The Goat Shed. What a surprise! 

You Go Get 'Em, Bagheera!!! 

And in case you were wondering what we would have named an orange cat? 

Why, Thomas O'Malley of course!! O'Malley the alley cat. :) 

A Day in the Life of....

..... a complete home renovation.

The thing is it's not like we even gutted the place!  I guess if we weren't living in it things might go a little faster?

Somehow I don't think so.

Basically for the last six months my main thought is "There is so much to do, I don't know what to do first."  Oh well, most days we push through and accomplish something, and there have been a couple days where we ate meals, did dishes and played games.  I just dubbed them "mini-vacations". (It's been awhile since we had one of those and I don't see one on the horizon either)

Since I blog so infrequently now....I thought today would be an up-date with pictures of as-we-are-in-this-moment.  I cringe just thinking of making these public. haha. For a person who lives to find a place for everything and make sure everything gets put back in it's place, I'd say I'm doing good at hanging onto any measure of sanity!!

Here goes.....see if you can spot any differences or improvements!!

It was decided to not install the laminate kitchen floor until the new mudroom is added with a place for the washing machine. Rolling the wringer-washer back and forth to the sink would be too hard on it. I have to admit I am going to miss using it as a shelf though!!  :) 

It's wash-day as you can tell. I am also taking advantage of a "kitchen day" (that is what I call days that are too cold to be in the rest of the house) and have started to paint the signs for my day-care business.  It's going to be called "The Teal Kangaroo".

So, many of you admitted to tinges of envy because of my pretty stove. Well, she ain't pretty all the time!! The door is left open unless I am baking to allow more heat to escape. At the moment, two bags of sawdust are thawing near it. The saw-dust is used for our compost toilet. (that will be an up-and-coming-blog......holding off on that one for some reason....don't want you to know the "depths of our craziness" I guess). haha.

The seedling shelf is in from the barn. Got a little excited a little too early.  So I started some house plants instead..... until it's time to get flats of seeds going. The pails are the compost toilets waiting to "be processed" Today isn't only laundry day.....it's also "empty the potties" day. Fun! :P 

Little bits of decor in with "all the rest of the stuff" and dust. Plenty of dust!! 

See the six white and red boxes. Ceramic tiles for the bathroom. 50% off!!

Plastic up between the living and dining room while the ceiling is dry-walled. It's an attempt to contain the dust. But one is never sure it actually makes a difference. :)

This is a thing of beauty. An almost complete ceiling in the dining room. My man's the GUY!! 

The tool table gets tidied once in awhile. But it's not usually evident to the "naked eye".

The living room felt like home....for a bit. Now with all the dining room furniture crammed in and my growing collection of day-care toys.....it's feeling a tad crowded in there at the moment.

Oh, well, it's too cold to be comfortable in there most days, so no worries if it's crowded. It will be all straightened up by the time the weather warms and we can enjoy this lovely room to it's fullest then. I am suggesting a small wood stove go in the corner where the T.V. is. When it's not in use it can double as a T.V. stand and when winter arrives with it's unbearable temperatures the T.V. can move! 

The tub. No shower yet. That's a long and painful story that involved broken plastic pieces, non-returnable item and emailing complaints to the manufacturer.  It has a partial happy ending with the new (and METAL) piece arriving quickly and will be even happier when I buy a shower curtain on our next trip to town! Gone are the days of forgetting to take the deodorant to the off-site shower! 

The other side of the bathroom. Waiting for nicer weather to remove the ancient window, then the wall can be finished too. 

Instead of putting another railing back up. (Have you priced spindles and banister!?!)  I asked for a book shelf instead. :)  I would have it filled with books already, but we need to get a massive Jacuzzi tub down the stairs first, plus it needs a coat of stain and I want to wait until a warm spring day when all the windows can be opened before doing that.

This was a pretty looking reading nook. That's the thing. I have NEVER moved so many items and boxes so many times in my life!!! You pile stuff over here, until that area is "fixed or finished" then you LUG the stuff into the completed area to get it out of the way so you can keep on keeping on to the next thing! 

The upper-hallway floor which is really the size of a small room, had been painted several times and I think they had ended with a latex layer on an oil one. It was chipping and peeling everywhere. What you see here is hours of work scrapping the beige paint off with razor blades. It was the most environmentally friendly way we could do it. Now we are sanding it and then on goes the paint. I am getting tired of painting. But I have a long way ahead that includes many an hour of it just the same!

Here is the guest room! Can you tell? We had joked in a previous blog that we are booking into 2017. Due to unforeseen....hahaha who are we kidding. But yeah, we'll take reservation for 2018 or maybe 2019?....instead.  

This monster has had it's pictures taken for it's debut on Kijiji. Just need to get them up there so people can actually know we have it for sale!! Then down the stairs and outta here it goes!! 

And this here is a blog waiting to happen. 

It's our facilitates.

 Primate yet effective.

 Make your "deposit" and cover it with sawdust. We've asked our guests (in case we had just become accustomed to the smell) and no one (if they are being honest) says they can smell the fact that we have a pail-of-crap in the house. Phew! You had better be telling the truth, guys!! 

So there you have it Ladies and Jellybeans......if you had of arrived here today, unannounced, this is what you would have experienced. We do tidy up a bit when we are expecting company, but don't we all?

Please note - No pictures were edited. I did not use photo-shop. ;) (bet I had ya fooled eh?! wink, wink) 

Raw, living life, photos. 

Just keeping it real, folks!!

Oh, and being that you can't see it in the pictures, you should know, there is dirt on the floors too.

Even though I sweep. 

Every. 

Single. 

Day........and then some. haha.  

Cheers from our messed-up-house to yours!   

Hey, it may not be as bad, but you got a mess somewhere too, admit it. 

And I wouldn't eat off YOUR floors either....even if you paid me. ;)  haha :)