cottage — Page 4

Saturday

March 23, 2019 at 10:49 am by Claudia

Coldish and windy – it was windy all night long. I can hear the wind chimes and the sound of the flapping tarps covering various items on the porch. I, of course, want to get going out in the yard, but as is the case every year, it isn’t time yet. Just raking all the Item 4 (gravel) that is now on the grass instead of the driveway will take days.

By the way, the Boston Fern that I overwintered has done extremely well inside! No one is more surprised than me. In fact, it does a little better inside than out. Aren’t they supposed to prefer shade and lots of humidity? Well, we have a lot of light and very little humidity. The house is winter-heat-dry. Every time I look at it, I shake my head with wonder. I’m glad I decided to bring it inside for the winter. All I’ve been doing, by the way, is keeping the soil moist, and once a week or so, misting it. That’s it. I’ll be happy to transfer it outside, though, as it’s taking up all of the available space on the kitchen table.

I love many things about this pew, but this carved leaf is perhaps my favorite. It’s so lovely and unexpected. I don’t think a day goes by where I don’t hear Don say, “I love this pew!” He thinks it finishes off the living room and I think he’s right. It will be truly finished off when we get the new sofa and find a rug that we like. But that’s weeks away.

Today, work around the house, maybe some work on the dollhouse, and starting a book that I have to review next month.

That’s all for now. Sorry I have nothing momentous to report!

Happy Saturday.

Gravel and Slow Cookers

December 4, 2018 at 9:34 am by Claudia

Our work with Item 4 yesterday took longer than we thought it would, but isn’t that always the way? Don rented a pickup truck, drove to the place that carries the gravel, had it dumped in the truck, drove home and then proceeded to shovel it out into a small wheelbarrow that we have (which is now ruined for garden work, of course). Then I dumped the gravel, while Don shoveled some more. My job was to spread it and carve out some sort of path from the driveway to the kitchen. We have some left over, which is being stored in said wheelbarrow under a tarp. If we need more to fill in here and there, we know we have some on hand.

Anyway. It took a long time. I was tuckered out. Don, who had to take the truck to a car wash and power wash it before he returned it, was even more tired. I’m glad we did it, though.

So no updates on the green mini tree.

This morning we spent an hour researching slow cookers – Don has been wanting to get one. Now, this is the thing about our kitchen: it may look spacious, but we have very little cupboard space. Hardly any. So, while Don was gung ho on a larger cooker, I, being the practical one (and often the downer because of that) kept insisting that we had to make sure we had a place to store it. And that meant we had to have the dimensions of the cooker. I balked at storing it on top of the refrigerator. I don’t like seeing too many small appliances out on the counters. In our case, we have to have the microwave and the stand mixer on the counter. But more? Nope. I drew a line in the sand. Since our kitchen and living room are essentially one big room, I’m very careful about it not looking too kitchen-y, something we could get away with if it was a separate room.

Would it fit in our dishwasher that we use for storage? No. And all the other cupboards were at capacity.

Finally, I thought of the china cabinet that we have in the kitchen. It will take some rearranging but we can do it – ONLY if we buy the 4 quart version and not the 6 quart. Besides, we don’t have kids, it’s just the two of us, so we don’t really need a big old 6 quart slow cooker.

Cleaning out the cabinet will involve getting rid of the juicer, another one of Don’s big passions that hasn’t been used for years. In fact, he forgot we still had it. I hope we’re more successful with the slow cooker. Don does most of the cooking and he wants to vary our menus a bit more and I’m all for that.

Riveting, right?

Maybe, maybe, after I’m done rearranging that cabinet, I’ll get to work on my mini Christmas tree.

Wish me luck!

Happy Tuesday.

Have We Got Gravel!

October 2, 2018 at 9:49 am by Claudia

What a day yesterday!

Once the gravel was delivered and there were four huge piles of it on the driveway, we looked at each other and gulped. We started in with our shovels and outlined the parking area and we worked hard, but it soon became evident that, though we still think we’re about thirty, we’re not. So Don called a guy who had been recommended to us and he said he’d come by between 2 and 3.

We came in the house and took a break for a couple of hours but, as it was a day where we were stuck at the cottage (our cars were parked across the street at our neighbors and we had to wait for Emilio) we went back out and did some more shoveling. Finally, Emilio arrived and he and Don worked for about 3 hours. By that time, my back was complaining, as was my right hand, so I came inside. Emilio was great and we tipped him generously. He saved our butts.

Because of the uphill nature of our driveway, along with the catalpa tree right next to it, it is impossible for large trucks to get in there and slowly release the gravel as they would on a standard flat driveway. The truck driver could only back up to the top of the driveway and release a big pile of gravel and then slowly drive down, releasing a few more piles. He mentioned something about the downward slope and the danger of the truck tipping over. Yikes!

That means we have to do the work. The last time we did this was about 12 or 13 years ago, not long after we moved in. We were younger then! Hopefully, we won’t have to do it again for a long time.

We also couldn’t afford to have someone roll it down, so we have to tamp it down ourselves, partly by driving up and down repeatedly and also by good, old-fashioned stomping (courtesy of me.) It’s never simple around here.

As you can see, we’ve redefined the parking area. It’s much more like it was when we first moved in, maybe even a bit bigger, but time and erosion wore away the gravel and grass grew and it became much less defined. We also covered the area near to the corral where there were ruts and built up the side nearest the big garden bed so that we have better water drainage in the winter. Fingers crossed.

Don was very achy at the end of the day (he did way too much, but he said he couldn’t let Emilio do everything by himself.) I was actually a bit worried about him. But he’s much better this morning and aside from cleaning out the gutters one more time before we leave, that’s the last of the physical labor. Oh, and I have to mow the front lawn towards the end of the week. I mowed the back forty and the corral over the weekend.

All day long we kept saying, “A week from today we’ll be in Paris!”

The rose as it looked yesterday. So beautiful!

Our big maple and its yellow leaves. It is full-on Autumn here and leaves are everywhere. I wanted to get the gravel done now before a freeze hit, causing the catalpa to dump all of its giant leaves on the driveway, which would have been a major hassle.

I was on a roll yesterday. Even with all the work on the driveway, I cleaned both bathrooms and did two loads of laundry!

Today: things around the house that need to be attended to, lists, and rest.

Happy Tuesday.

Saturday

Gravel and Slow Cookers

Have We Got Gravel!

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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