Friday, June 3, 2011

Spring Cleaning

What a beautiful morning!
I went on a walk around the pond with the dogs, the cats and a few sheep this morning and it was so pretty down there with the water rushing from the creek into pond and everything is SO green.
Maybe spring is finally here.

The new farrier came yesterday and he did a GREAT job.
I guess everything happens for a reason and losing our flakey farrier may not have been the worst thing that ever happened to us.
The new kid definitely knows what he's doing.
His brother owns the horseshoer school in this part of Oregon so his techniques are the newest and the best and he is VERY patient and steady AND he has a black and white dog AND he resembles my nephew who I believe is one of the greatest men alive under the age of thirty so as far as I'm concerned the kid has a lot going for him.
So that's why when he told us he was going back to college in the fall and looking for a place to rent we didn't hesitate in offering him the little house.
It's ten minutes from the college for him and twelve hoofs for us.
Plus, the rent money will come in handy towards farm maintenance and if we don't do something with that little house it's going to fall apart.
I believe if a house isn't someones home it won't last so I'm excited to have someone over there again.
And...
If someone who knows something about animals lives there we can leave town for a few days.
The down side of all this is that now we have to do a major cleanup over there.
That little house has turned into a general storage area for the last year or so and will require a little elbow grease (Angie Hillier) to get it back in shape.

Speaking of elbow grease...
I spent the entire day yesterday working on our white stone wall.
You can't even tell I touched it today.
WTH.
Someone HAS to have a stone cleaning secret other than muriatic acid.
Brenda said to try scrubbing bubbles, so that's on today's list.
I've tried, steam, bleach, vinegar, lemon and TSP.
Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
I think after the fire in the early eighties they must have either sand blasted or pressure washed the stone and then neglected to seal it because it is SO porous and completely unfinished.
I would hate to paint the stone (although I have seen stone like this painted white) but it's not only dirty, it creates so much dust.
Maybe I'll just take the lightbulbs out of that part of the house and call it good.

I took this a few nights ago after our crazy storm moved through.


Have a great weekend.

Peas.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Craigslist Constitution

We got Wyatt a "new" bed yesterday.
We were going to move him back into the big room upstairs but after assessing all the work it entailed we decided against it and decided to just give his regular room a little freshening up.
Six years ago he went from bunk beds to a waterbed that we bought on Craigslist for 75.00 but now because of his hipandkneeandlegandfoot pain it's hard for him to get in and out of, so we're putting it back on Craigslist for the next kid who needs a super single carolina oak waterbed with a lighted headboard and handy shelves.
After going back and forth on how to redo his room we decided on a loft bed and thought it would be cool for 6 to build it.
We found free plans on the internet for the exact bed we wanted, but after doing the math realized that even a DIY bed was going to cost some cabbage, so once again, I'm happy to report, Craigslist pulled through.
Last night 6 went on an interstate bed run (across the bridge) and returned with a sparkly new full size Ikea tromso loft bed for less than the the cost of lumber!

(Not our room or bed)
Cool huh!

Two weeks ago our dishwasher finally bit the big one and we found a brand new fourteen year old dishwasher for 40.00 on Craigslist.


The lady that had it didn't like dishwashers so it was only used on holidays when her kids came to visit and then she died and the kids are upgrading the kitchen before they sell her house and we got the deal of the (last) century.
As a matter of fact when we did our kitchen facelift three years ago we did it all from Craigslist for under 250.00 and that included a stove, dishwasher, cast iron sink, pull out faucet and lights and the lights were free from one of the oldest churches in Portland!
We got our new mission style flowered furniture on Craigslist, two cats, a dog and a desk on Craigslist, two donkeys, a mule and rubberneck chickens on Craigslist, a 1996 Taurus wagon on Craigslist and a blackberry on Craigslist.
I wonder if there's a twelve step on Craigslist.
I may need it.
Peas.