Garden and Bees

Garden 2013.  Probably out last good garden year up until this point. Life got crazy for the few years following this.  

The New Babysitter

That is, the trampoline, not Spencer.
It's been about 6 months since I've last blogged and now I'm writing about a trampoline? Well, if anyone out there is actually still checking my blog, it's too overwhelming to think about catching up on the last 6 months and I seriously doubt that anyone wants to read SIX MONTHS of catch-up, so I'm starting with the latest and easiest. If I get real motivated maybe I'll go back and catch up bit by bit.

It's been a great babysitter so far. Day and night. It takes up the whole back lawn, but who really needs a lawn anyway?



Ben has some stylin moves. Especially when Kacy is taking pictures.


Jason and Joe practicing back flips. It even entertains the adults.
Is there a picture of me doing a back flip? No. Why? Because there's a warning on the trampoline that serious injury or death can occur by attempting such stunts . It's because of people like me that said warnings must be posted in the first place. I would most likely paralyze myself long before I would come close to landing a back flip. Jumping up and down is exciting enough for me, thank you.



It's supposedly the safest trampoline on the market. I guess time will tell. The only thing broken so far?


Jason's glasses.

The Champion 4 Is Still the Champion

I knew the day would come when our toilet's greatness would be put to the test (check out THIS post if you don't know what I'm talking about). This week Ben has learned to flush. He's known for some time now how to hide things in the toilet, but flushing adds a whole new dimension to the problem. We've lost a variety of things down the toilet this week...the most expensive, my cell phone... the largest, a ball. Our toilet has swallowed them all without so much as a hiccup. Lesser toilets would given out long ago. Of course, once it leaves the toilet, I suppose it could back up somewhere else along the way. I'm still hoping, or praying mightily, really, for that not to happen. Several of our neighbors have recently had to spend thousands repairing their plumbing.

I blame my brother Tom for Ben's toilet fascination. His son, Ty, taught Ben all about stuffing things into the toilet while we were at my Mom's over Thanksgiving (pictured below). Luckily they were caught before Ty could teach Ben about the flushing part.

So, if you're in the market, I still stand by the Champion 4. It's by far the best toilet I've ever known. And I'm desperately hoping to give it a good rest in the near future.

My Mantle!

This is my Christmas present from Jason. I had my doubts that it would be done in time for Christmas, but here it is, three days early, and I love it. He used the wood from our friends' tree that he cut down earlier this year. The wood is beautiful. The design was a little tricky because we have vents around the fireplace. The bottom ones draw in the cold air and the top ones blow out the hot air. He couldn't cover them, so he built around them. Anyway, I think it's great.
The first picture below is the before shot.

Our home, before & after

I've had several requests (okay maybe two) for me to post some pictures of our house.
There are certain members of my family who have never been to visit in the 2 years we've lived here. I won't mention any names.
Anyway, I've been wanting to do a before and after page. Many of the "before" pictures aren't very good, and a lot them were only taken after we started to work, so they're not the best examples.

This is the kitchen. Everything in this home was original 50's.

Check out that dishwasher!

This is construction phase.

Jason and his Dad poured the concrete counter top, complete with a drain board and 2 maple leaf impressions.

Notice the horrible windows. I was so glad to get rid of those.

Our kitchen today. We put in new windows, a new sink and dishwasher. For the back splash, we used the same slate from our entry way, but cut it into fourths. We also added trim around the window (not totally finished).

When I say "we" what I really mean is that Jason did all the work while I stood back and commented once in a while.

This is the original 1950's oven made by General Motors.

These are also the original metal cupboards. I covered them with a stainless steel adhesive. The wood floor had linoleum on top of it. It took Jason and his brother, Freddy, a good 8 hours to sand off all the glue.

This is the bathroom in the construction phase. We had already ripped down all the turquoise plastic tiles off the walls. We had put the floor in and started on the rock wall.

There was no shower before, only a tub, so we tiled it and turned it into a shower.

These aren't very good examples. We had already ripped up the 50 year old carpet and started painting the walls. There was some kind of plastic sheeting and old thick drapes over the windows. I don't think they had been opened for at least twenty years.

The floors were in pretty good shape underneath the carpet. The hardest part was pulling our all the staples from the floors and filling the little holes. After that, we put a few coats of polyurethane down and they were good to go.

We also replaced all the windows and painted all the walls.

Looking down the hall.

Here, you can get a look at the slate that we laid in the entryway, hallway and bathroom.
I couldn't find any good before pictures of our bedrooms, so below I'll post a few pictures of our room the way it looks now. I'll have to post the basement (after we actually make some changes to it) and the yard pictures later.

Introducing....The Champion 4

A toilet is just a toilet...or is it? Not according to the American Standard company. This toilet boasts of being "virtually clog free" and able to handle "150 feet of toilet paper". The writing on the box says "throw away your plunger" and "never have to wiggle the handle again".
Why do I care? Well, you'd have to know a bit about my toilet history to better understand.
It all started when we bought our house. The toilet was near the top of my list of things to be replaced. I just couldn't stand the thought of that old dirty 1950's toilet being in my home. No telling when in had last been cleaned, and I sure didn't want the job. It was much more appealing to me to just throw it out and get a new one.
Jason, knowing my wishes about the toilet, came home one day and announced that he'd found a toilet for us. "What do you mean found?" I already didn't like the sound of this.
"Someone was getting rid of it! And it works perfectly, there's nothing wrong with it. It was made in 1937 and the handle is AWESOME!" Only Jason could get so excited about an old toilet. He was certain it would become a great conversation piece in our home.
Hmmm....1937. I'm thinking there was a bit of miscommunication somewhere.
In the end, we compromised. He could bring the toilet home if it passed my cleaning inspection. He spent a good while with it in the driveway, cleaning it inside and out with some sort of acid that would remove any questionable spots. Finally, it was allowed inside the house.
I'll admit that it worked quite well for at least a year, maybe longer, but, despite being snaked and several new flappers, it was still failing to do the job. So, that brings us to the Champion 4, my toilet of choice. It works beautifully. Jason was somewhat sad about removing his 1937 American Standard Cadet, but he'll be glad that he no longer has to get out of bed to wiggle the toilet handle because we just realized it's still running.
I'm looking forward to seeing if it lives up to the claim of 150 feet of toilet paper. With my boys, it can't be long before it's put to the test!