Grand Crew

 Grandkids Savannah, Paige and Cole came over yesterday to get us all caught up with scrubbing and vacuuming and some dusting.  Cole washed the house on the outside and did a whole bunch of outside projects.   We are mostly ready for Winter now!  It feels real good to have things caught up with!  

Cole, Paige, Far Guy and Savannah

What a good bunch of kids/helpers.  We are blessed to have them in our lives.  

In order for our warranty on the finish of our home to be valid you have to wash the house once a year.  

Proof that the house was washed on October 12, 2025. 

It was a busy day.  The Grands make us smile:)

Far Side

Record of house washing

 Far Guy washed the house on August 14th.  The warranty that came with the company that refinished our home stated that the house should be washed every year in July or August for the warranty to be in effect for ten years. It should be washed with a normal garden hose to remove all the pollen and dirt.

Far Guy took a photo with his phone. 

House washing August 14 2023. 

Yesterday was a very warm day 85 F or 29 C eh!  Unseasonably warm for October.

Far Side

The House

 The reurbishing guys finished up on Monday.  Far Guy was away from home for 7 days and I was away for for 4 days.  Originally he said it would take three days and he would have the house completely done.  The house has half log siding.

They covered all the windows and doors...when I was here by myself I missed looking outside! 

Here is the house after the sandblasting...he used some special kind of glass to sand blast with...the workers wore respirators almost all the time. 

Then they applied a couple of coats of stain and then some sealer. 

Finally last Monday they removed the coverings from the windows.  We have one security camera outside and one inside...so  we could tell what was going on.  

Here it is completed.  Are we happy...not so much.  I have several messes to clean up...and the little roof that extends over the air conditioner was left unfinished and was not replaced back properly.  They removed that structure to work on the house.

You can see the posts are wonky.   For some reason they painted the furnace vent green...who knows why?   They removed the Ferris Wheel seat out front and dug up the dirt...not sure why they did that either...they also have stain splatter on my natural color Cedar deck out back. 

So I have to sand and stain the posts...bums anyway...and pick up the garbage they left laying around...mostly cigarette butts. 

The kicker was the second day they were here I did not lock the door and they came inside to use the bathroom...how do I know this?  There was wood dust on the floor...the door stop to the bathroom was moved and the security system motion detector showed me exactly when they were inside the house for four minutes...you can bet I locked the door and set the alarm after that.  Yes it was my fault...but bears shit in the woods and so could they. 

Would I recommend this company to anyone?  Nope. 

On the bright side if there is one, he guarantees his work for ten years...I hope it lasts that long as I would just as soon never see that little prick again. 

Far Side

Out to lunch

 We went out to lunch for Noah's birthday.  He filled us in on the happenings in his life...mainly his job and his dog Aurora. 

He hopes to buy a home next summer....he is saving up! 

Three generations at lunch.

After lunch we headed back to our home in the woods.  The house is refinished....more on that soon. 

We are thankful for Jen and Andy and their willingness to let us invade their home while our house was being worked on. 

Far Side

Busy

 Hurry up and wait for workmen.   The new hot water heater and the two bathroom toilets were replaced.  

I was the doorman for awhile...a young high school kid was bounding up and down the stairs!  Then he had to take off and go back to school.  Very nice and efficient people we hired for that project.

The house refinishing guy did not show up yesterday.   

I have been working on my Winter Wonderland in the evenings. 

Never mind the ends they will be encased in a border:) 

See the snowmen?

They need some little scarves I think...maybe some day.

Busy days:)

Far Side

Refinishing

 The log siding on our home needed to be totally refinished.  It is a messy job.  We hired someone to do it that guarantees his work for ten years....we will see. 

Before

During

In Progress

It is a bit darker that I would have liked, but it isn't as dark as Far Guy thought it would be so it is okay. 

It is messy here.   I have plumbers coming  today to install two high rise toilets and a new hot water heater.  

I believe that the house will get a coat of sealer next...and that stuff is pretty smelly.  

Given our air quality and all the dust/fumes here at the house Far Guy and I will be staying elsewhere for a couple of days. 

Yesterday I baby sat Baxter,  he was in a funk all day missing his people.  He was so happy to see them when they returned!   He likes me just fine but I am not a replacement....he didn't eat his morning meal until late in the afternoon...what a turd!

Far Side

 

Nest

 We are having the log siding refinished on our home.  It will take a few days.

Eagle in a nest

We got everything moved away from the patio.  I sure hope it looks good after all this fuss and mess.   They covered all the soffits yesterday with protective paper. 

Far Side

August

 I changed out the wreath on the door as August  took over for July. 

Quiet day on Saturday...we made a trip to recycle and I napped all afternoon.   I did some laundry and started a new crochet project. 

We got 3/8's of an inch of rain late on Friday night...so that helped out the grass. 

Far Side

Small purses

I am having some fun making some small zip up purses. 

You start with stitches around a zipper and crochet around and around ...the zipper I used was 7 inches long...I am using cotton yarn.  The pattern is Apache Tears.

It has been my "in the car project."  The one with orange and purple on the right has already found a home.

Couldn't believe the electric bill...had to check it twice.  The new Central Air saved us $66 versus last July with the 22 year old wall unit AC....and the Central Air has been on almost everyday.  We thought it might be more energy efficient but did not realize what an energy user the old AC was.

This is the last day in July...the smoke from the Wildfires is miserable.  Far Guy has been inside since noon on Thursday.   He is getting a bit of Cabin Fever. 

Far Side

Improvements

 

Last Thursday the heating people were here.  Last winter when we had the new furnace installed we asked for a furnace that would also do Central Air Conditioning.  It was installed except for the electrical work. 

Yesterday the Electricians were here...three of them...six hours later the AC is now ready to go...it is way cool in here!   We have a fancy thermostat that we will be able to adjust from our phones once the Security System that we ordered is in place.

We had a wall unit Air Conditioner that cooled the whole house...we purchased that about 21 years ago...we don't use it often but it sure was nice on hot days.  I have been worrying about it conking out on a day when it is 100 degrees.

Improvements all around.  ESPECIALLY the Electrician...one wire in our breaker box was arcing and could have caused a fire...now  all the breakers have been checked and wires tightened. 

Our microwave decided to bite the dust...it would not shut off.  So we ordered one at the local Wally world went to town and picked it up. 

It was a busy day.  Oh yes Far Guy had a video appointment in the morning too. 

Anyways we can cross one "summer project" off of our list.

Far Side 

Fun stuff

Friday night I asked my husband " What kind of fun stuff are we going to do tomorrow?"  I was getting ready to shave his head...the sink acted funny and gurgled...and then an alarm started going off. 

Earlier in the evening we had heavy rain and a power interruption....thinking nothing of it we continued on.

The lift pump failed...and the water alarms worked...Far Guy stopped draining the bathtub...I grabbed some towels and a bucket and sponge.  Far Guy tried to bypass the float and get the pump to work...no dice.

I emptied the bathtub bucket by bucket because sometimes the stopper leaks and I really didn't want to sop up a whole bathtub of water off the furnace room floor. If it hadn't been raining cats and dogs outside I would have gotten a five gallon pail from the garage...plus it was dark and there might have been a bear out there. Mission accomplished by 1 AM and I sure slept good after that!

Luckily we have another bathroom upstairs that drains directly out without using the lift pump. 
 Far Guy did breakfast dishes upstairs in the bathroom sink on Saturday morning...a Plumber was called.  Risk vs Reward...we like using our kitchen sink and the bathroom downstairs!

Late Saturday afternoon we were back in business...with a new lift pump installed and working.  Thank goodness for a nice young local plumber who works on Saturday afternoons...who was quick and efficient.  He said "If you have any problems with this new pump call right away!" 

Far Guy says "Don't ask me again what kind of fun exciting things are we going to do tomorrow."

We didn't cook...we went to town and got a burger from a drive through burger place.

We got 2 and 6/10 inches of rain from the overnight storms.

 The road to town

While waiting on the plumber we managed to get a few more Christmas ornaments completed...45 are done now!

In the evening my brothers and their brides visited and nephew Logan is here from Seattle with his new puppy Zelda...we had a nice visit out on the patio!  (Logan was about 20 feet away from us and we did not pet his puppy but admired her from afar)

Far Guy heard from his sister, her surgery went well and she was feeling pretty good after having such a big surgery.

 Far Side

A little sunshine

The sun came out, it warmed up and got humid.  Freezing our butts off or sweating them off.  How about something in between.

My other baby brother did part of the mowing on Sunday.  I finished up everything yesterday.  When I was on the back road mowing I noticed one of the Ash trees is showings it stuff.

It was prettier with a bright blue sky in the afternoon when I did not have my camera...I wandered that way last evening.

Far Guy had to go to Pulmonary Rehab by himself.  The house painters were working on the house and the furnace man was here... he cleaned and checked out our furnace...it is in fine shape and not nearly as dirty as he thought it would be...maybe because we are always cleaning something around here.  He checked it for leaks etc..and we are all good.

The house painters will be back today to finish up.   The house is getting two coats of stain.

It is looking pretty good.  We have been working on the pavers, Wet and Forget does a great job killing moss!   The pavers are still not perfect but everything takes time.

Far Side

Log Repair Project

Many years ago...like about 20 years when we built this house we used Jack Pine logs to make a covered entry.  We did it up real good.  We sunk rebar into a bucket of cement and buried them for footings...the rebar stuck up about 6 inches and the logs were set on top of the rebar...it was quite a project.  We were younger then.

The logs aged...and this spring we noticed the bottom part of the logs were starting to  become rotten. Some bird most likely a woodpecker had quite a time with one of the logs.

We were not quite sure how we were going to fix it.  Between Andy, Jen and Far Guy they came up with a solution.

Before:

Chance and Odda in 2015 

After:

New brick platforms for the logs to set on.  The logs were cut off and the rebar cut off and ground off to make a level surface.  This fix should last another 20 years!  It was sprinkling when I took the photos.

Miss Miney and Little Elvis July 5 2019

Many Thanks to Andy and Jen for taking time out of their vacation week to help us with this project!  We could not have done it without them.  Thanks also to my other baby brother who had a whole pile of bricks from a construction demo in his equipment yard...I had my choice of colors of bricks...I chose the grey. 

Miss Miney and Little Elvis have returned to their own home...we will miss them.  The house seems quiet without them. 

Odda still comes to visit...she was visiting yesterday...we are her safe place.

Far Side

Rainy Day Project

Seems like everyplace we look lately there is a project to be done.

Last winter we talked about a different place for our carvings…they were here and there and everywhere.  Our good friend from Oklahoma City had a design in mind for some shelves next to the fireplace. He made them and brought them by a few weeks ago!  He is a sweetheart!!  I sealed them and then they became a rainy day project.  Our fireplace has two heavy duty timbers on both sides of the fireplace.

Before

After

All the carvings were cleaned…I use a small dry paintbrush on most of them. 

There was one carving that just wouldn’t fit…and I have two other carvings a Trillium and a Loon that are elsewhere in the house.

Yes that fireplace surround is a one of a kind.  We went to Menards and picked out three different colors of tile and smashed them with a hammer and it took me three weeks to put the pieces in place. Then the whole thing was grouted and sealed. The gas fireplace is our backup heat source if the electricity goes out.

One more wall in the house was spring housecleaned!

Cleaning Ovens

This could be a new sport.  Yes I know my oven is self cleaning BUT the last time I cleaned it the darn thing locked and Mr Fixit had to come and unlock it for me and I think he charged well over 100 dollars to do so.  SO I clean it myself…and save 100 dollars.

I don’t use smelly caustic oven cleaners either…I use baking soda and a green 3 M scratch pad thingy and lots of elbow grease…and some super duper athletic moves.

I practically have to do an arabesque to get close enough to clean the sides of the oven.  I was wishing that my kitchen was a true galley kitchen that way I could have put one leg up on a cupboard for support! A modified yoga move called a Downward – facing dog will get me to the back wall of the oven.  At one point I got dizzy…too much blood up there in my head.  When I broke into a sweat Far Guy took over for a bit…it was nice to have a break.  Too bad they don’t design an oven with a removable door so you could get closer to scour…you have to be careful too…one false arabesque or doggie move will take out that oven door that you have been cussing. Luckily that did not happen.  The oven racks were scrubbed and scrubbed until they looked like new and I will be protective of them for a few weeks anyway.  I laid on the floor to clean under the stove…I was almost long armed enough to reach all the way to the wall…I had to use Far Guy’s Mom’s old picker upper with a rag on the end of it to reach the far wall. Everything that could be taken apart was taken apart.  I cleaned as far down in the downdraft vent as my hand would let me without getting stuck.

The first part of the day was spent moving the fridge out of it’s spot.  I had cleaned it inside a few weeks ago…yeah me!

Yes I know none of the appliances match…who wants to be all matchy matchy anyways.  Some day this 20 year old Amana refrigerator will bite the dust and I can get a black one…or one of those fancy smancy silver ones.  I hope my Jenn-Air never bites the dust as they are pretty expensive now …it was one thing that I splurged on when we built the house.

The kitchen has been holding me hostage this week.  I am happy to be almost done…so happy I am taking today off…the open cupboards above the sink is all that is left and I hear there is a snowstorm coming so I will clean all those dishes and shelves during the snowstorm.

It feels really good to be almost done with this spring cleaning project.  In case you were wondering, all the cabinets by the fridge were custom built by a local craftsman….when I needed the rest of the cabinets for the kitchen he was too busy to do them so he gave Far Guy lessons and Far Guy and I built them piece by piece.  We designed them and built them.  The drawers were the pits to make…but I love them.

Finally

The lower level window across from my desk was a challenge.  I said we should clean it in place…Far Guy said “oh no we can open it.”  Huh?  It is a bugger to lock once opened it has to go back together perfectly…the stars must align and the moon has to be just so and if you do it on the second Sunday in a week you might get it to latch.  In the summer I don’t worry about it…but it is winter.

Yes that white stuff is snow.

Usually I sit outside cross legged in those rocks to wash the outside of this window…I always wonder how fast will I be able to move if a snake comes along…well I didn’t need to worry about that yesterday but I also didn’t want to sit down in that snow.

We finally accomplished the washing and waxing of the window…Far Guy helped and then I sent him inside to be the pointer…what you don’t need someone to point where the window is smeared?  I do.  ( Yes I wax our windows…I used to use a product in a pink can called glass wax…now I use something called Glass and Silver Polish….it helps the rain/snow slide right off a window without leaving water spots.  I waxed windows all the time at the resort…many many windows.)

Now we have to get the window to latch…let the adventure begin.

Well he struggled, I struggled…at one point he was outside pushing on the edge of the window freezing his butt off, while I was trying to latch it from inside.  He came in to warm up. Then I did it…I opened it once again…someone said “You didn’t open that window again did you?” accompanied by a sigh that could have been heard in the next county…. ummmm yes… then I closed it firmly and low and behold it latched. I DID IT!!   Far Guy was amazed…howdidyadothat?  Just lucky I guess.

That window has pretty stuff on the ledge too…it is all waiting in the kitchen…after the big struggle I was too tired to put everything back…of course everything had to be moved under this window …and what better time to scrub the floor and give the grout a really good clean.

I finally had a chance to put up my Thanksgiving flag.

Grands Photo Project

We have a wall here in the house that holds photos and “Stuff” which stir up good memories.  As we unpacked we just hung up “stuff” willy nilly and kept adding to it.

I knew I would eventually want Graduation photos of all the Grands on that wall.  Savannah was already there.  I knew I would want them all in matching frames.  So I purchased five new frames.

After I brought them home I took pieces of paper and thumb tacked them to the wall approximately where they would go.

Far Guy got out his tape measure, he measured everything…the walls…the frames…how far it was from the floor…he wrote everything down and did a bunch of figuring…and made a map.  Highly technical for me who just would have “eyeballed it and stuck a nail in the wall.” 

He very patiently measured and measured again, I held the pencil and made marks for the nails.

Those five frames are the only thing on that wall that match.  Lets just call it an eclectic collection.

In the next few weeks I will have 8 x 10’s of all the grands and when it is time for them to graduate their photo will become permanent.  While I was at it everything got cleaned in that corner of the house!

Say is isn’t snow

It was snow, it was way past dark when Chance came in covered in snow.  The next morning told the tale of a April’s Fool joke Mother Nature style.

One day late but the point was made…Winter is not over yet.

This colder snow took all day to kinda melt…at nightfall the northern parts of the yard still have snow.

What to do on a cold day…laundry and make a trip to the “dump” we make a trip there about every three weeks with one bag of garbage.  Since we recycle…we pay $3.00 a bag for garbage…that figures out to $4.00 a month.  Not bad.

See we have a bit of green coming in the grass!

Spring is trying to get here!

We walked over to see Mason for his birthday, he is eleven now!  Chance went along and visited Bailey.  We were invited to the evening birthday party but…too many germs for Far Guy when there is a large group of little kids.

Then we came home and I watched a movie on Netflix called Little Boy, well worth watching, I give is a 5 +++ out of 5 stars.

 

Unplanned Spring Cleaning

Late Sunday afternoon I was awakened by a commotion in the bathroom.  Far Guy was cussing the old plunger that we got back in the 1980’s.  I know it is not from the 1970’s as that one had a burned handle from the time it was used to roll a log in the wood furnace.  He went to the garage for bigger more impressive clog removing tools, snakes and a power driven whatchamacallit.

I had been very sound asleep…so I had a bit of a brain fog…but assisted him anyway…even calling for a new plunger which was swiftly delivered by my great niece and nephew, Anna and Mason next door. 

That plunger had no results either…something was really amuck.  Finally the water alarm went off in the furnace/laundry room as water came backwards through the floor drain.  The kids left with their plunger and reported back to their Dad ( My Nephew) that we had real problems.  I called my other baby brother and as I was telling Far Guy how to by pass the float…Far Guy was recalling it himself…the lift station lifted…and the water receded down the floor drain.   The float was bad…I disinfected the floor once before supper and once after supper.

Monday morning my nephew Josh came over, then my other baby brother came over…they developed a plan and at the end of the day we had a working lift station again…complete with a new float. 

In order to have an area to work in the washer/dryer had to be moved, and in order to move it we removed the wire shelving unit from the wall…the kitchen was full of stuff.  Piece by piece I washed all the shelving whilst the guys were “fixing.” When they were done, I scrubbed the floor again…and we put the shelves together and all “the stuff” was put back in place.

On the positive side: 

Part of that room has been spring cleaned!

The lift station is only for the lower level of our home.  The upstairs bathroom has it’s own separate sewage line…so we were never without a bathroom or a shower.

After a full day I had a four hour nap, I am a good napper… stress makes me really sleepy.

Changes

Changes can be stressful.  Especially when changes are happening inside the house.  No not a renovation or anything fancy.  Just a new furnace, high efficiency LP that is supposed to be 14 X 29 inches.  I don’t know how tall it is..it is only the footprint that concerns me.

The utility room in this house was a huge mistake to begin with.  Not enough space was allotted in the original plan.  I thought I would have room for a regular washer and dryer..think again they ended up in the kitchen. It didn’t make much difference it was a few years until we finished the kitchen anyway.  Later we bought a Maytag Stacker and it does fit in the utility room but space is limited, what with a water heater, a pressure tank for the well, a sewage lift pump all necessities of course and they all take up space and are mostly immovable.

I hope that the “fixes” we have planned gain some space.  Time will tell.  We are both cranky when it comes to discussing this renovation, which involves some re-plumbing etc.  The 14 year old pressure tank that rarely lasts 10 years will be replaced with a smaller sleeker one.

I made a footprint of this new furnace out of paper and shoved it all over the wall where it should go. I wonder what it will look like in each space I pick, will it work?   It is smaller than the air exchanger that it replaces. 

The old outside wood stove was sold and hauled away yesterday.  One less thing for the kids to worry about.

It was a good outdoor furnace..it kept us and our water warm for 14 years.

It is the end of an era for us, no more wood hauling, cutting, stacking or splitting:)