Wednesday, May 20, 2105
Today I sold the bunk beds in the second bedroom, to the neighbour, for their two small sons. I sold it to her for 1/3 of what I paid for them, and they were used only twice. She dismantled it and carried it home, with a small bit of assistance from me.
That cleared up a lot of space in the second bedroom.
The other project that was tackled today was organizing the canning equipment. The empty jars were to be stored down in the basement, so there was a lot of “up and down the stairs” in my day. My knees were very sore at the end of the day.
The rhubarb in our garden is doing well, so I picked some of the larger stalks to stew. There is nothing like fresh produce from your own garden.
A realtor came through the country house this evening, with prospective buyers.
Thursday, May 21, 2015
We have been renovating at the little house in the city for five years now. During that time we have “put up” with a lot of chaos, and temporary solutions to domestic comfort. On this stay at the little house in the city, I have begun the task of taking the chaos in hand.
On Thursday I spent over eight hours emptying the hall closet. It is the only closet in the house. It has been the central storage place for tools and materials for the last five years. Attila could find things in there, most of the time, but it was getting to the point where it was time consuming to find the tools we needed.
Part of emptying the closet was dealing with the hundreds of plugs, screws, washers, nails, and little bits of useful metal, that were spilled all over the shelves. The job of picking up all of these items was made extra miserable because they were mixed with copious amounts of sawdust, and, well, mouse poop. Lots and lots of mouse poop. We have evicted the mice, but they left their calling cards.
I began the clean up with a pump spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide. I sprayed every layer of tools that I removed from the cupboard. And when I got to the almost bare shelves, covered with a thin layer of sawdust, mouse poop, and little metal and plastic bits, I gave it an extra good spraying.
Once I had removed all of the items from the cupboard, including the objectionable elements, I washed it from top to bottom with hot water and soap and bleach.
After letting everything dry, I organized all of the items and returned them to the cupboard. Now I can find anything I need in there!
I pushed myself, finishing the job after 10 p.m., after which I collapsed into bed.
Friday, May 22, 2015
Today Terra texted me and asked if I could “babysit” her, while Lares went out and attended to necessary things away from home. Of course I said yes. We had a lovely visit, she is still on heavy pain medication and can become quite dizzy while standing. So we lay in her bed and chatted, watched a movie, and chatted some more. I had a lovely time, and when Lares came home he BBQ’d some hamburgers, while Terra ventured downstairs to warm up some tomato soup. Then Lares got busy with burlap to cover up their extensive gardens, because there was a frost warning.
I headed home before dark, to cover my newly planted tomatoes, lavender, and portulaca. The sheet of plastic I had wasn’t quite long enough to go over all the tomato plants, so I grabbed a plastic tablecloth and used that as well. I used clothes pins to attache the plastic and the tablecloth to the wire tomato baskets, and secured the ends by laying heavy pieces of lumber on the edges of the plastic, on the ground. The portulaca is in a little raised bed at the front of the house. I used a plastic wash basin and a vegetable drawer saved from an old refrigerator, to cover it. It looked terrible, but it did the job.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
We got our frost last night! It looks like there was no damage.
Our dining area in the kitchen overlooks the bedroom window of the house next door. This means that when I am gazing out the window at the trees, I am also aware of the visual opening into the house next door. And I am aware that I can be observed from that window, which I don’t care for much.
I had purchased some inexpensive plastic film, designed to be applied to windows for privacy. I measured and cut, and then applied the film to the windows. I now have the privacy I crave, and the light can still shine into the room. It does seem a little bit “institutional” to me, I will have to wait and see if I get used to it.
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Attila and I have a lot of linens. There are towels that Attila’s Mom gave him when he left home to go to university; they may be antiques. There are towels that the cat has clawed and pulled, less than pretty, but still functional. There are sets of towels that I don’t even remember where they came from. We also have quite an assortment of old sheets, and pillow cases, and tea towels, and odd sized bits and pieces that I can’t bear to throw out yet, although I have no earthly use for them. The older towels, and odd sized linens, filled to bursting a 63 litre tote. A second tote was filled with new unused sets of towels, facecloths, and dishcloths. What amazes me is that we also have a linen closet at the country house, that is full to bursting. If we manage to move to the little house, I will wait until the dust has settled and sort through all of these linens, and purge, purge, purge.
Attila worked today. We spoke late in the afternoon, over FaceTime. He is working on the gardens at the country house, which do need attention. One of the projects he started years ago is a granite pathway into the forest. It is almost complete now, I think he will finish it tomorrow.
Tomorrow I am thinking of attempting to cut the grass in the front yard, here a the little house in the city. My knee is still bothering me a bit, but I am hoping that if I take painkillers, and wear my knee brace, and take things very slowly, I might just manage to get the job done. We shall see!
Attila tells me we have another realtor coming this week to show the country house.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Today I mowed the lawn! All of it! It took all morning, which is about three hours of hard work. I took two breaks, long enough to cool down, and feel relaxed, before starting again.
Then I watered the plants. That is when I discovered that four of the tomato plants were killed by the frost we had on Friday night. They were near the edge of the plastic covering. I will need to go out and buy another four plants.
I was very hot when I finished all my yard chores, so i came inside and hopped in the shower. That felt so good!
I am not sure what I will do with the rest of my day, but I plan on taking it relatively easy, so as not to strain my arthritic knee, or my back, or… well, there is a lot that can hurt on this old body, so I’ll just take it easy!
Worldly Distractions
Weather
Little House in the City
9°C
Date:
8:00 PM EDT Saturday 23 May 2015
Condition: Mainly Sunny
Pressure: 102.5 kPa
Tendency: falling
Visibility: 24 km
Temperature: 8.5°C
Dewpoint: 3.6°C
Humidity: 71%
Wind: S 17 km/h
Country House
18°C
Date: 8:00 PM EDT Saturday 23 May 2015
Condition: Sunny
Pressure: 102.2 kPa
Visibility: 16 km
Temperature: 18.0°C
Dewpoint: 0.8°C
Humidity: 31%
Wind: SW 17 km/h
Quote
“Better by far you should forget and smile than you should remember and be sad.”
Christina Rossetti
1830 – 1894
Glad you had a nice visit with Terra, hope your knees feel better. Enjoy taking it easy.
I am afraid to plant my flowers out because of wind and fear of frost. But so anxious to do it! I love the feeling when they’re all in the ground or in pots. Last night I turned the hardpacked soil in 11 pots while Scott worked on the cupboards. Tonight when it cools off I’ll tackle the pots under the oak trees. Little by little, we will get there, eh Maggie?
Thanks Joan! Terra and I had a really lovely time together. The movie we watched was “Hector and The Search for Happiness”, which we both enjoyed very much. At one point in the movie a speaker referred to a time in childhood when “everything was alright in the world”. I have a few of those moments from childhood, one being getting to sleep between my Grandparents, in their bed, and falling asleep to the sound of their voices as they chatted about their day; I think that was the happiest I have ever been in my life. Terra remembered that a moment when she felt that everything was OK in the world, was sitting on my knee in the rocking chair, looking at my hands. That touched my heart.
Little by little, Kate, I think we will get there, 🙂
I am not quite the gardener that you are Kate, I have seen your photos of your flower garden, and it is wonderful! You are surrounded by beauty, your garden, and the prairie landscape!
Glad you could spend some time with Terra, though the circumstances weren’t the best. It’s good to hear she was able to venture downstairs for a bit. *sending Terra gentle, heeling hugs*
What a job, cleaning out that closet! And what a champ you are to plunge into that grime!
Sorry to hear you lost some of your tomatoes. I’ve wanted to get some tomato plants but have been holding off due to the rapid swings we’ve had in temps, just like last year. We’ll have to get some soon though, or the nursery will run out of them.
Terra is reading along with us here, so I am sure she has received your good wishes Teri!
That closet was a black hole, things disappeared in there! When the move finally takes place, the tools will go downstairs into a workshop area, now it will be easy to move them!
The year before last I waited and had to visit three stores before I found tomato plants. This year we planted them too soon, but since Attila was doing it, and he was only here last weekend, that is when it got done. I will have to learn how to protect them more effectively!
I wish I could ship our weather up to you there… it’s hot hot hot here and I’ve had the house open all day praying it didn’t get too bad, but it did get too hot and I’ve closed all windows now and put on two AC units… and all the fans, as well! Trying to cool it down for when Paul gets home as he’s been out in the hot sun all day long!
Oh dear Bex, I don’t want to be that warm! I imagine that you have humidity as well, being on the coast. I hope you succeed in the getting the house cooled down, that your evening is pleasant, and that you might even enjoy sitting out on your deck when the evening cools a bit.
LOL! Terra, I’m actually sending you healing hugs, not heeling. Honest! 😀
Bex, can you open the top part of your upstairs windows so the heat will flow up and out? Hot air rises, cool air sinks.
Great idea Teri. Another thing I did in our house in the big city, many years ago, was to construct a framed screen to replace the attic hatch. This allowed the hot air in the house to escape into the attic, it made the world of difference.
Hi Maggie,
You are moving right along. Nice you were able to sell the bunk beds but to bad about the cut in price. I found that when we sold off our furniture before our last move we really got very little for it. Bunk beds are always something I wanted as a kid….to have them both though. Reading in the lower one and sleeping in the higher.
Have you heard back from the realtor?
You spent over 8 hours cleaning the hall closet! That is a work day. Holy smokes. Only one closet in the house. Will you be adding some?
Nice that Terra and you spent time together.
Frost warning and actual frost. Yikes.
I want to recommend something for your knee…arnica salve. It does wonders. I would never be without it. It has helped an soreness I have ever had and is great for bruising too if you apply it immediately.
Nora, funny that you mention the bunk beds. The neighbour took them, and said she would pay me when her husband got home, as she didn’t have any cash. She still hasn’t paid for the bunk bed. Fortunately I don’t really care about the money, it wasn’t that much to begin with. The real issue for me is that she did not do what she said she would do. I am still thinking the money might appear at some future date, with an apology. If it doesn’t, it will say a lot about the kind of neighbours we have, and that would be very good to know!
I think it is Thursday that the country house will be shown again, which will be the fourth showing. We have received no feedback about the second or third showing, but no offers have come in, so I assume people decided against buying it.
I hope we can add closets, but that will have to wait until we gut the bedrooms, re-insulate, put up vapour barrier, and new drywall. We are thinking of buying wardrobes for the bedrooms, but that is yet to be decided.
I am going to look for the arnica salve. is there a particular brand you find reliable?
🙁 Sorry to hear about what’s happened so far with the bunk beds, Maggie. I hope the neighbor will make good on her promise. If she doesn’t, well, at least it’s not too much money so hopefully won’t be missed.
When we were looking at houses 5 years ago we had definite no’s but also a short list of potentials that we weren’t ready to commit to at the time. Hopefully, the country house is on a few folks’ short list.
Hi Maggie,
I’ve been using Arniflora for years now. It’s made by Boericke & Tafel.
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Nora
Teri, the money will not be missed, or I would have insisted on payment before she took the bed home. It is just disappointing that we live next door to someone who would take advantage of a neighbour. She might have her reasons, they are not affluent people, but nevertheless, she gave her word and it must mean something, if I am to respect her. She has introduced an element of mistrust, something we can easily deal with, but don’t like to deal with.
I do hope we are on a short list Teri 🙂
Actually, my fantasy is that the real estate market picks up, two buyers fall in love with it, and get into a bidding war. Attila laughs out loud at this fantasy, and given the current state of the world, and our past experiences trying to sell the house, I see why. It doesn’t stop me from fantasizing though. I grew up thinking anything can happen, good and bad, but now I usually only think about the good!
Thanks Nora! I’ll have a look on the Internet for it!
Found it! On amazon.ca, so it will be easy to get.
Dang! I’m behind. I read this post earlier and then everything got busy busy… but not nearly as busy as your life! Good heavens, girl! I so admire you gumption – the manner in which you tackle projects from stem to stern to completion with a nonpareil thoroughness of the likes I’ve never seen before. Bravo!
I had to take a nap after reading your post.
Reenie, a nap, lol!
As always, your words are kind. You brighten the places you spend time in Reenie.
I am definitely a task oriented individual, one of my strengths… well, most of the time it is a strength, not all of the time. 🙂