Windows and roof

I promised you some pictures of the the windows and roof. I will take some more pictures from the inside once everything is back in place - - there are still a few things out of place.

All the windows are vinyl clad, dual pane with argon gas. There is also a bit of a tint - I like that a whole lot!


This is from the inside just so you can tell the mess I've been dealing with. The window on the right is the one shown from the outside above. Yes, I do need to finish painting the living room. and the dining room, and the hallway, and ... and ...


This is the dining/computer area. In the picture above you can see the carport - the window on the far right here also goes out to the carport. I do need curtains since I can't mount mini blinds or roller shades. These windows take up the whole opening from outside to inside! What a concept... WOW this area looks a lot messier in the photo than it does is person ... maybe because I can't see all of it when I'm in there ... maybe I just need to clean it up A LOT!


This last picture is of the roof, as best I can ... short of climbing up there. The old roof was a rusty and patched metal roof. The old roof was covered with 2" of hard insulation and covered with a rubber membrane. The roof on the porch was not redone because it isn't a living area. If I had known that, I would have put a table and some chairs with a lamp out there. Oh well, I'm super happy with the upgrades that I received.


I still count my blessings over this "gift", and will for a long, long time.

Hugs to every one!

It's a nut house here

I hardly know what day it is ... or date ... or time of day!

I don't know if you've figured out that I'm a senior on a limited income (under $1000), but, yes I am. With all the years I have worked and paid taxes I figured there must be a bit of help out there for me to get my house a little easier to live in. I applied for the SNAP program (food stamps) and was approved. I applied to the PUC for help with base phone charges and was approved. I applied for winter heating help and was approved. I applied for weatherization and was put on a waiting list.

The waiting list ended for me at the end of April. Due to my income and age, I was approved for help. I was now on a waiting list to have an inspector come out to see what help my house needed to make it comfortable in the winter without costing me an arm and leg. To make it short; an inspection took place in the middle of May and then the pace sped up. Fast!

My friends and I had plans to go camping over Memorial Day weekend, but first - - Tuesday before our trip, the contractor and crew came out and laid a vapor barrier under the house and hung insulation under there too! Wednesday they came back and overlaid my roof. In the mean time, I'm getting the camper ready for the trip. We left Thursday morning, had a wonderful time. Relaxed for four days. On our return (I had to have help) we moved all the furniture away from the walls so another crew could - - - - install WINDOWS!!!! Woo Hoo!!! I had old single pane aluminum windows that were bent and skewed. My new windows are Vinyl clad, dual pane with Argon gas between them!!! They are also tinted. It has really made a difference in the noise level too.

I am so grateful for these programs that have helped me be more comfortable in my home. If you or someone you know need help, please contact me and I will give the names of the agencies that helped me.

It has been a week now since the windows were installed and my house still looks like someone picked up my house and shook it. I had a few cat stains (UGH!) that I wanted to clean before moving the furniture back into place. I used the vinegar & water and baking soda, hydrogen peroxide & Dawn dish soap to clean it up. It has worked, but the carpet is still wet and I don't want to put furniture back on a damp carpet. I sort of feel like I'm moving - stuff all over the place....

I will take pictures after I finish putting things back. You will love it.
Good things do happen to people!

Hugs to all

a Hail and Snow Day (wtf?) ...

Sitting quietly working on the checkbook, all of a sudden there is a racket beyond compare from outside! This is an old trailer house with tiny roof vents and a metal roof, can you imagine? The dog just wasn't happy about this at all ...


I glance out a window and I do a double take, yup, um ... hail ? ?




Not very big hail, but a LOT of hail, coming down in bucketfulls. I grab my camera, take a few pictures, go in to download them ... I was watching the chickens run, hiking their bloomers up and hauling butt for the coop ... I only saw 3 of them, but it was funny!!! I didn't realize they could get a super long stride ...


Here is a shot of the Chicken House - all that white is HAIL!!!


It got real quiet - Lo and behold - SNOW! Am I right, this is May 10, 2010, isn't it ? ? ?
The snow is falling pretty fast, meaning it is a wet snow ... heavy. I still can't believe it is snowing ... This has been the craziest winter and spring I have seen since moving here in 2001.

Hugs to you all and stay warm!

I'm Late, I'm Late, I'm Late ! ! !

On March 17, I received the Kreativ Blogger Award from Caroline over at If I Can Do it Myself. I wrote to Caroline asking how to post this award on my blog. Almost immediately she sent me the directions, thank you Caroline, and I promptly spaced the whole thing ... Talk about Kreative ... my bad, my sooo bad!! I hope Caroline will accept late but not forgotten ... will you Caroline??? Please???

The rules for accepting this award are:

1. Post the award.
2. Thank and mention the person who gave you the award.
3. Pass the award on to seven bloggers who you think embody the spirit of the Kreativ Blogger Award.
4. Name seven things about yourself that others don’t know.
5. Don’t forget to notify the seven Kreativ Bloggers about their award and post a link to their blog.

Oh boy! Now to choose 7 award winning blogs. All the blogs I read are award winning, but ... let's try these.

1. Natalie at ChickenBlog. Always a surprise topic, she makes me laugh!

2. Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods, Britt-Arnhild lives in Trondheim Norway, is a Deacon in her church, and writes the most beautiful travel posts with lots of pictures.

3. Rhonda over at down--to--earth lives simply with her husband. They are in Queensland Australia and both retired. Rhonda is the best in describing their lifestyle, their back to basics lifestyle. She teaches the rest of us how to do the same.

4. Jodie at Ric raC makes the most delightful crafts. She tells stories with a lot of her crafts - about the life the craft critters have going on. You must check her out!

5. Now I come to Quilt Dad. John quilts. Beautifully. He and his wife took quilting lessons together, and now her sewing machine has been commandeered by John. You need to see his quilts. There is nothing else to say, except you have to see them.

6. tiny happy. Melissa does the most fabulous embroidery from found things, pictures and imagination. Her embroidery with vintage fabrics, lace, etc. are made into wonderful bags, pouches, clothing - oh, you've got to see her things.

7. Emily also lives in Norway, and her blog is Ravenhill. Wonderful family with two really, really cute kids. Emily makes Matroyska Dolls and combines colors like there is no tomorrow. Each season is totally celebrated by color - you must visit her!

Now on to 7 things about myself ... umm, ah, well ... ok, here goes:

1. Rarely do I follow a recipe or a pattern exactly - I improvise.
2. I am a very back to basics type of gal.
3. Love fabric, yarn, beads, paper, painting and most things crafty!
4. I enjoy being by myself.
5. I talk to myself and my animals all the time - real conversations.
6. Won't settle for second best even though I'm extremely frugal.
7. The last movie I saw at a theater is "Jaws".

Wow! These award are harder than they look, but sooo much fun ...

Springtime ? ? ?

I don't know how long Mother Nature is going to drive us crazy! It is snowing - again.


It is coming down hard and fast. The weather channel said we could expect 2-4". This looks like it is well on its way.


This picture is taken about 15 minutes after the ones above ... snow anyone??


I took this one looking up into the sky - you can see the size of the flakes ...


I had an energy audit done on the house yesterday. It was a bit cold and very windy, but at least the guy didn't have to go on the roof or under the house in these conditions. I will tell you a bit more about an energy audit within the next week.

Hugs to everyone, and stay warm and dry.

I love Springtime ...

I love Spring when everything is starting to sprout and start a new cycle of life. My niece and I planted the Daffodils, oh, 4 or 5 years ago and they faithfully come up and have spread a bit even! They are my sign of Spring. I love these two-toned flowers.


These are all yellow and very bright. Sunshine captured in a flower! I took these two pictures two days ago ...


This Friday we are predicted 67 degree weather - - - really ? ? ? I woke to this today ... and it is still snowing. I figure we had a lousy winter with not much snow, so now winter is making up for it. I have 2-3 inches of snow on the porch and railings.


I wonder how my Daffodils are doing. I could only see two little heads when I looked. I hope they will bounce back, but I'm not sure ... maybe the snow insulated them and they will stand up again ... I'm hoping really, really hard that they will survive!!


I have friends who are going camping for the Black Powder Shoot up the road about 10 miles. It is at a higher elevation ... hmmm. They were to leave tonight, but may just wait until tomorrow... I was suppose to go too, but for my neurotic dog.

Hope the rest of you are having a wonderful sunny and warming Spring!
Hugs

M.I.A. ??? ... no ... just crafting

I didn't realize that I've been gone for a whole month!! I've made hatband patterns, beaded the hatbands, beaded earrings, sewing Prairie Bonnets and Caps. Thinking of more items, running out of time too!! In between all that, I've been baking bread (with a machine) and cutting up my own coleslaw. These two items are a staple here at my house.

Designing the hatbands from scratch almost takes longer than the actual beading. I don't have bead designing software, so I use Excel spreadsheets! I make the cells really, really small and then use the fill color button to design spaces. Sounds simple, but the time to get it right, and the limited amount of colors can make it hard sometimes to get the design right. This one has been put together from 3-4 different (free) patterns.


I made this one first, but I wanted the black, gray, rust and white color combination, but I didn't have those colors. I dug through my beads and found the purple, blue, gray and white that I used. I wasn't sure about the combination while making it, but I really love it now. A geometric woman's hatband.


I still need to add the leather end tabs and ties. I found a skirt at Goodwill that will work just fine ... recycling at its finest!

I also puttered around the kitchen making yummy stuff (for me at least!). I absolutely love my bread machine.


I have made several different flavored loaves aside from the regular white and wheat bread. My favorite, so far, is Onion-Herb bread.


I was enjoying a warm slice of bread and butter when I thought that earrings would be easy and fast. I have at least a dozen that I've made, but they don't really say Mountain Man, so I came up with some new ones.
Blue with bone feathers.


Turquoise with bone feathers.


Purple with silver feathers.


These pictures are a little dark/fuzzy/small because I don't have a good place to take pictures, but I hope you can see them well enough. They were all made one after the other as the designs just flew around the gray matter ... LOL

I also dusted off my sewing machine, dug out some fabrics that fit the Mountain Man era (I hope) and started sewing. The Bonnet was made from a homemade pattern following instructions on how to measure and what areas to measure. I used MY measurements and I can't believe that this bonnet will only fit a toddler!!! ... and NO, I don't have a small head!! LOL


Please excuse my patched ironing board cover - it is hard to find a Teflon cover at a reasonable price, and that is what I want - it irons better (and doesn't burn).



The little ruffled cap was made using a 16" pizza pan with a guess of 2 1/2" for the brim area. It is double fabric, with some handmade bias tape for the casing. I used a ribbon instead of elastic so you can wash and iron very easily.


Wow, I'm getting tired just reading about what I've done ... and I have until next Thursday to get everything done.

I probably should have broken this post into two, but I'm sure that there will be more pictures of crafty items coming soon. I have a Saturday Market to gear up for too, but it runs every Saturday until September, so I can choose the Saturday I want. Then there is another Black Powder Shoot coming up in the middle of June. That one will be bigger, so I need to make lots more stuff! Yeah!!

My girlfriend in Boston also sells at a craft fair in October that she wants me to make stuff for. She says that she has never seen anything like my crafts back there, and that it should sell like hotcakes. Sounds like fun! She stains trays in wonderful patters, crochets afghans and makes large stained glass to hang in windows and the smaller sun catchers. I'd love to be there with her, but not possible for a while.

I'm now going to go sit in the couch and knits some dishcloths or crochet pot scrubbers.
Have a great evening and a wonderful weekend.

Hugs

Where did the time go?

The weather has been very nice lately and I've been outside - starved for some sunshine and warmth! It is only a bit warm directly in the sun or if you are really working out there, but I don't turn into a popsicle in just 5 minutes, so outside a bit everyday to absorb some vitamin D...

Dale and his daughter came down and stacked ALL the wood. He want to get another trailer load for me and then he'll be happy! Yeah, me too...

I will be beading hat bands for the next Black Powder Shoot on April 23, 24 and 25. I have been perusing the internet for patterns, whole or in pieces parts that I can put together to make my own, or just ideas to make my own. I have two patterns, one head band and working on my second.



The beading is finished on the one above, but I need the leather ends and ties. This will be good for young girl or teenager with the purple-ish beads. The pattern will be made again in rust, charcoal, gray and white - I think that would appeal to a rough mountain man a lot better!

The next pattern is put together from pieces-parts of many patterns. The background color on the pattern is blue and the beads used are a turquoise.



I am much further along than what the picture shows. I'd like to get it done in the next 2 days, but we'll see how my back handles sitting hunched over for long periods of time. The beading process is meditative as long as I don't have to let a cat in or let a cat out or the dog, or a cat/cat fight or a dog/cat chase ... it does give my back a break when I have to get up, but I don't want to get up every five minutes - 1/2 to 1 hour is good!!



You can see the beginning of the pattern above and compare it to the pic of the beaded work. I make my patterns using an excel spreadsheet with the color fill function! I make the cells 1 pixel wide by 10 pixels high - makes a near perfect square. I then use the fill function to get the colors in place - much easier than graph paper and colored pencils!!!

There are 15 beads (length) to the inch, so that tells you how many beads I'm using to get 18-10 inches of hat band!

The pattern making / "putting pattern together" takes quite a bit of time. I'm never sure I have things just where I want them, or should this go there, or maybe change colors there ... I can drive myself nuts with this "maybe" and "what-if" thing. I need to just do what comes up first. I want my work to be very nice and professional, but do I really need to agonize over the placement of every bead when I'm dealing with 3,300 beads!!!!

Back to beading, I need inventory ... and I need it now!!! I will keep you posted as I progress with more hat bands or whatever else I do.

Hugs

Let's try 'er agin ... Early wood cutting

I think it's working, I think it will be a go. Woo Hoo!!

I have no pictures of the actual bucking and splitting, buy you all know it for what it is - WORK! A friend of Dale's brother is letting us onto his property to scavenge the piles of downed Juniper for usable firewood. It is a private ranch not more than 5-6 miles from our house. The gentleman is having a lot of trees removed to make room for future pasture for his cows. There is every size of wood you could want and a lot of brushy stuff too. Dale brought the splitter along, so all the mess was left there!

My poor little (Ha!) Jeep has lost her home for a few days. There has to be someplace to keep the wood dry in case of a rain storm.


Doesn't really look like a lot, but that starter stack just to the left of the blue tarp, was from this load too. There are 2 pick up loads laying there. Might not look like a big deal - until you start stacking it ... Don't forget that the small stuff that doesn't have to be split was just laying where they cut it, so we had to walk around cow sh*t and over lots of branches to get to it... slipping in the mud.


All those stacked rounds come to about 2' tall.


Oh goody! Two more really full pick up loads later. I have to stack it ... in the wood shed as this stuff is ready to burn. Wonderful, wonderful Juniper - burns long and hot!! Last year we did not get our first cutting until August! This year we are way, way ahead of the game as this is for 2010-11 winter. There will be two more trailer loads coming within the month. This trailer is 8x10 feet with sides 2 feet high. Two of those, and I will have some wood left over for 2011-12!!!


There is a bit of punky wood under the blue tarp and some horribly distorted pieces under the green tarp (4'x6'x2 ricks). We will now also have enough to grab some to take camping. Can't camp without a fire now can we?? Summer evenings can be cool by the lake ...

Ok, I need to go to the PO, store, and then come home and start stacking for today. Don't know how much will get done, but some will.

I'm sure you've had enough of my ramblings about firewood, but it is just so exciting to know you won't freeze your butt off next winter!!!

Hugs to you all

Hmmm ...

I had a post all ready, but blogger is having fits. I will get it posted as soon as I can.