Monday Morning Doings

I told Adam a minute ago that we accomplished a lot for a Monday morning! It helps that the new puppy, Trixie, gets up at a bodaciously early hour. Today that was 4:30 a.m.
Adam started by putting a trellis on the front of the house porch.

 I know, I know -- it's not very "fancy." But we're not fancy folk! It's a trellis for a particular plant to grow on, so I'm hoping it will eventually be covered in lovely green foliage. This will give privacy, and I can remove the shower curtain that's presently hanging there. See? That trellis is an improvement over a shower curtain! :)  
You see, I've had this silly plant for ages - I posted about it before -- a creeping fig. I planted half of the plant I divided at the base of the trellis:

 Creeping Fig is hearty in zones 8 and warmer. We are zone 7B. But I did see it growing in a warm, protected spot at the doctor's office, remember? The trellis is on the south side of the house, facing into sun, protected from north winds. We will hope. If it dies, I still have the other half of the plant.

Two purple coneflower plants will keep it company.
Well, half-way through the trellis project, the puppy woke up again (It's like having a baby, I kid you not.), so Adam switched to a project where he can tie up Trixie nearby. He made more cement leaves. This batch, he's using concrete (instead of masonry mix) with fiberglass in it. Plus he's putting a sealant on the leaves. And he's also etching the leaves, and we love the softened look it's giving them. Here's one he etched and painted:

Here are some with the sealant. These he will be able to sell before Christmas.

While he was doing that, I started processing our sweet potatoes. They've been curing on the front porch for about 2 weeks. So here are some photos that show the shocking transformation from ugly tubers to luscious, creamy mashed sweet potatoes.

 The outside is scary ... until you peel them.

 

Who would think that, under that ugly exterior, is this perfect, peach-colored potato?

 

I cubed them roughly and steamed them on the stove top. Then I mashed them in the mixer and put them into quart ziploc bags, and then into the deep freezer.

Adam also dug the last white potatoes in the garden. They were planted from old potato ends. Not a very big harvest. Here are about half of them:

Oh - I forgot to add that on Saturday he caulked the eaves on the side of the house where we've been having a leak.

Now we're off to do "church work" for the afternoon. Rain is coming tonight (at last). We will hope the repair job is what was needed. One never knows with mysterious leaks - stay dry and warm wherever you are!

A Three-Kleenex Kind of Day

Poor Bo-Beau. He's had a rough couple of days. His routine has been disrupted and his couch-sleeping has been robbed from him.
Since sometime before Christmas, we've had some black mold growing in our living along the line of the wall and ceiling.

The mold. Adam popped a hole in the wall to find out what size thickness of drywall he needed.

We hemmed and hawed about what to do. We'd had so much work done and redone on the ceiling and roof already. We certainly did NOT want our old contractor to return. But how to find somebody else we could trust? And would someone come to do such a small job? Finally, Adam said he could probably do the work himself as long as I wasn't too picky about the end result.

Picky? Me ... picky? I'm not that kind of picky. I live with three dogs in a house with paint-splattered, scarred floors and walls with wallpaper half-ripped off of them. I'd be happy to have the black mold cut out. Anything after that is just gravy.
So we draped up the living room:

And removed the curtains. He cut out the moldy drywall and fitted in a new piece.

He gave it a first taping and mudding.

At this point, not wanting to be a pesky wife, I quietly went to the back room to weave. After a while, I hear a strange sound. Drip. Drip. Drip. Apparently, there's a leak.

And this is how life generally goes for us:  a bit of good accompanied with a bit of bad. A freak hole appeared in the ceiling (new ceiling, no less!) and began to drip. This after a day of gully-washing rains and 40 mph winds from the south. I do believe this area of living room ceiling will be a bane to our existence as long as we're in this house.

Anna was not dissuaded by the sheets on the furniture. But as I said, Beau was quite disturbed. He came and hid in the back room when I was weaving.
When stressed, Beau tends to daintily remove dirty kleenex from my bedroom waste paper basket, chew them gently, and leave them on the floor. He was very stressed. It was a three-kleenex kind of day.

Adam is now finished with the taping and mudding, and tomorrow he'll sand and paint the spot. The leaky hole in the ceiling remains for the time being. It probably won't leak again until another 40 mph south wind comes along. Meanwhile, you know you live in a construction zone when your kitchen dish-drying rack looks like this:

Beau is hoping life returns to normal tomorrow.

What's Happening Up on the Roof ~

Today all this heavy stuff arrived on our porch thanks to FedEx:

Waterproofing -- it's for the leaking roof. This is a roof paint.

And tape to seal it all up again.

It's so heavy that Adam brought the truck around to move the boxes elsewhere

To remind you: our contractor was supposed to have repaired our roof, but the heavy rains a few weeks ago proved that the roof was not repaired. Newly-painted walls were ruined, and newly-sheetrocked ceilings were as well.

As you see, we have staining and mold in living room, dining room, and Julia's room. Our contractor will be fixing this soon. We are providing the materials (as you see above), and he is providing the labor to repair the roof. We have opted to do a good repair, not a new roof, but a great sealant job. And before now, our home owner's insurance would not have covered a new roof in case of a storm or some natural disaster -- the age of the house and roof didn't allow for it. But after this repair, our roof will be covered. When you live in an area like this, with hurricanes and heavy rains and wind, you need roof coverage.

So, how 'bout some photos of Maggie? She's coming out of her shell!

enjoying her supper

enjoying my thumb

We're enjoying her a lot, and other two four-legged family members are warming up to her a bit. She and Beau even play and wrestle. She's fitting in quite well.

A Banner Day at the Farm

(This was written last week, and when we moved and lost our internet, I failed to post it. Completely out of order, here it is -- )
Friday: Many improvements, large and small, occurred at the farm today.
Our new front storm door waits to be hung. A screen in the front door will make a huge difference in the comfort of this house. It was built to catch excellent breezes from front to back. It's been very comfortable even in August heat without air conditioning (but we do need a screen).

The broken, leaky dishwasher went away.

In its place will go a nice new cabinet.

The front screen door is ivory-colored. It was returned to Lowe's because the purchaser didn't like the color, so it was $50 off. The new kitchen cabinet doesn't match the other cabinets exactly. But as I have often said in recent weeks to both Adam and our contractor: "I'm just not that kind of picky." And I'm not. Some women are, and that's absolutely fine. But it doesn't matter to me if everything is perfect or matchy or rises to my expectations. My only goal is a functional farmhouse. "Pretty" is kind of extra. This is our fourth home purchase, and I've learned to live with a lot of "adequate" in my time.
The dining and living room ceilings are finished and painted, and they look quite nice!

dining room before

dining room after

living room before

living room after

A good friend came today and brush-hogged our field/pasture. How exciting!! It looks great.
And lookie what came to the farm today!! It's the Jaguar! He drove it half-way. But because the electrical systems in the car are only partly functional, the windows couldn't go down. So the car became quite hot, and Adam pulled over to stand outside and cool off. Then he couldn't get the car to start again. From that point he had to get the car towed :(   But ... it's here!

Adam wasn't able to close up the bees last night; they were too upset and aggressive. So this morning he covered them with mesh. He successfully moved three of the hives.

I took these photos through the window, since I'm so highly allergic to bee stings.

They did get a few bee stings this morning, and by the time they moved the first three hives the sun was warm and the other hives were way too "active" to move today. He'll do them in the morning.

There's a plastic curtain in front of our bedroom door to prevent drywall dust from getting in there.

We experienced futon dysfunction today. We planned to move the futon into the office. We really did think it would clear the door, but it didn't.

It really didn't.

Adam and I manhandled that monster through the house to this position, only to find it impossible. So we left it there, standing in the bathroom, and went to eat dinner. We returned later and put it back into the front bedroom. We'll manage that conundrum later.
Tomorrow: 1) move remaining three bee hives, 2) move piano, 3) empty the Oriental house of all but our mattresses, 4) eat our last meal there, 5) get the girls' sleeping situations finished at the farm. We won't really have any time to work there on Sunday, and on Monday I'll be busy doing other things. And on Tuesday ... we must be living there. It's gonna happen!