257 - Spoiled Dawg.

The basement is kind of chilly, so Spoiled Dawg gets an ottoman on which to perch his bum because it keeps his paws warm. But Spoiled Dawg still gets cold because he doesn't have much fur or fat with which to warm him. So Spoiled Dawg got daddy's t-shirt...

...and mom started humming the theme to Flashdance.

What a feelin'... I can have it all...

We've tidied the place up quite a bit. It's still cluttered as all hell but now it's neatly stacked clutter and the dirt and dust have been wrangled into piles. The dust wrangler at work.

Note the dichotomy of a hooded sweatshirt and... shorts. And flip flops that you can't see.

This afternoon, some dog - who we won't name - went out into the rain to pee, but instead of returning to said basement, he decided to go on an adventure. First he went to the field to tussle with a deer hide someone discarded on our road. Then he ran down to the creek and (I'm just piecing this together based on evidence) had himself a good 'ol splashing session. So when this dog - who shall remain nameless - returned home - wherever that may have been - he got a bath. He didn't particularly enjoy it, which is ironic given that he appeared to have had quite the time in the dirty creek water... but I enjoyed his discomfort immensely.

Here he is post-bath, telling us these are not the droids we are looking for.

And here he channels Harry Potter, attempting to convert this simple blanket into a cloak of invisibility.

So close...

Finally he decides to own the look. This is Blue Steele.

My eyes are closed. You can't see me.

Avert your eyes. Naked puppy. Completely worn out from his 'ordeal'.

I don't know why, but it seems strange to see him without his collar...

It's a lazy, cold, rainy day, they say we might even get a light dusting of snow but I'm nor sure it's that cold, at least not yet. Mike is downstairs organizing his toolbench, and staining something if the smell is any indication. I'm not doing much of anything at the moment. I made eggs benedict for lunch and in the process seemed to dirty damn near every pot and pan in the cupboard. Seriously, if you ever want an excuse to clean the kitchen, make eggs benedict and you'll have to clean it all. Still mulling over what to make for dinner. We have plenty of leftovers, so if I don't come up with an answer... well, that becomes the solution. Honestly I'm craving fries...

256 - Flippin the Bird

Ha! No bird pictures in this post! Consider it a moment of silence for the bird that Walter killed yesterday. It's a tossup... feel bad for the bird, or proud of our little hunter... maybe both.

Today we worked in the basement.

Mike hung his cabinets, built the base for a second work area with pallet wood (the stringers), and a rolling cart for his tool chest, also from reclaimed materials. Pretty cool I think.

Just needs a top and and it's done.

He also finished the shelves for the bathroom, so I was able to get more stuff put away.

And I continued to sand and stain the wood for the back of the pantry (the wall that faces the dining area). I find that if I just stain it one color it's either too jarring or too flat and lifeless. So I either layer the colors or dry brush one atop the other; it's working out nicely.

This is my favorite board. Naked, it didn't look like much but I could see the potential in it. I did a dry brush of Jacobean, a dark brown stain, and then I put a stain called Driftwood over the top and it's GORGEOUS. I wanted the cracks and knots to be dark like that, almost charred.

This is how the wood looks right after Mike takes it off the pallet. Some of it looks unsavable, sometimes that's the best wood. Then we sand it - not completely smooth because we want to leave some of the character, but just enough to get rid of the oxidized layer so it's "clean" and the stain can absorb into the wood.

This is kind of a mockup of how the wall might look, just a combo of different colors, sizes and textures. Even with the same stain, each piece starts out with a different tone that makes it look different from any other. I love that. It's a challenge to pick the right color for each slat. That said, I may tone the mahogany down a bit because it doesn't blend as well as the others. We'll see.

This is how it might look on the wall, but the seams would be staggered.

 

And this is a random picture. :)

Time for FaceOff. Love to see their creative process and hear the back story to the character.

255 - Forward

The last couple of days we have attacked the pallet part of the renovation project. Tom did stop by, just ahead of the scary, massive storm to help Mike get the header inside. It's been acclimating for a couple of days now, so hopefully soon we can get it into place and really start getting things built. For now Mike is disassembling the pallets, we're sanding the boards and I'm staining them. They look pretty good. I may need a light oak stain to add to the combo, not to stand alone, but to put over the reddish stain to bring out some golden highlights, and I'm using tung oil with a dry brushing of another color because the tung oil alone is sometimes too stark a contrast to the dark tones of the other stains.

Been meaning to post this so that you can see the vast difference between Bo when we first got him, and Bo now. We're pretty damned proud of his progress. He's still probably always going to be smaller than the average bird dog, but that's just Bo, and as long he's healthy it's alright.

So other than renovation stuff and job hunting, not much is going on. Tonight we're having carnitas with black beans and Mexican rice, and salsa, and margaritas. And The Walking Dead is on, which is always a big deal around here.

The ladybugs are pretty active lately, so I assume they will soon be flying the coop as it were. Gonna miss the little ladies.

My husband is boiling bunnies. Should I worry?

He wants to keep the skull so we picked a pot that we will dedicate to that sort of thing and went for it.

Birds... always birds...

Cool reflection of the sunset in the truck window. Always looks Dali-esque to me.

Even after having the leak fixed, it still leaks a little, so during the torrent Mike went up into the attic and gerryrigged this contraption. I helped a *little*, he told me what he needed and I suggested the downspot and aluminum pan. Teamwork!

Bo chews on his paws sometimes. It's funny to watch.

Cardinal to the right of the barn (helps if you enlarge the picture).

I made gumbo. It was pronounced a success.

Another picture of a blue bird.

254 - By the fingernails

Today was just one of those days...

Mike worked on the truck and Bo was inside with me... 98% of the time he is adorable and well behaved. Today was the other 2%. It was a gorgeous day so he wanted to be outside running around, but we still don't have a fence so I can't just let him run as he pleases, every time we try to let him have some leeway, he runs up the road and doesn't come back until he's good and ready. It's too dangerous for him to be on the road because people don't slow down, and there are other dogs out sometimes... never know how that will go. He was pacing and whining at the window... pacing and whining. I'd take him outside, he wouldn't do anything. And then, I found puddles. After seemingly finding our groove, the last couple of days we've had issues again and I JUST mopped yesterday. So I took him outside and put him on the leash out there with Mike and got dressed to go out.

Long story short, I had something of a Ya-Ya moment and needed to get out of the house, so I went for a drive. I don't really get much opportunity to just leave without being on the clock as it were. When Mike and I leave together, Bo goes in the basement and it's either been cold and I worry about him being warm, or we're gone for a while and I worry he might run out of water... it's just always kind of hanging over me that we need to pay attention to the time. Not to mention that he hates the basement and I don't blame him. In general I'm a homebody so it doesn't bother me, but every once in a while I just want to escape. Mike has search and rescue to get him out of the house... he goes hunting... I don't have anything. No respite, no friends to call, as much as I love it here, sometimes I feel trapped. And as much as I love spending time with Mike, I occasionally want to run around on my own and be selfish, to shirk responsibility and just go and have me-time outside of the house. So I did. I drove around the area and explored. I considered a trip to Murfreesboro or Lebanon but decided to just see what's around here... honestly I haven't really explored near the house. I have about 20 minutes of time that I can leave Bo in the house without coming home to a mess, so I usually only have time to run to the bank or the local grocery store.

It's interesting that I didn't use my GPS to guide me but ultimately ended up making a large circle. Well, circles within a circle. There's some really nice stuff and some really crappy stuff out there. Ultimately the ride did what I needed it to do, it relaxed me and gave me a break and I came home in a better mood.

I've been stressed lately. Part of it is life in general, part of it is the clutter as we remodel. I am not good with clutter. I can stand it for a day or two, but after that it wears on me, and the longer it's there, the worse my mood gets. I'm ready to get stuff where it needs to be and frustrated that I can't make it go faster.

Last night's moon. Harvest moon? Was huge, but even with my new lens I couldn't get close enough.

Messy bird knocking all the seed out of the bird feeder.

Camo barn.

Sunset

Sunset mode on the camera. Makes it more vivid. It was pretty vivid on its own but not quite so electric.

I have bad days like today but most days I can find something to be excited about. Yesterday I got my seeds planted and into the greenhouse, I dusted our room, I mopped most of the house, I finished the laundry I'd bagged up... yesterday was alright as far as days go. Maybe tomorrow will be alright, too.

253 - Officially Redneck

Last night we thought we were going to a party, but found out we had our weekends mixed up. Mike thought he had a plan B, so I finally went to the local video store, and grabbed movies for a girl's night in. Well... me and Bo, who is pretty metrosexual and doesn't mind girly movies. Guess Mike's plan fell through, so we watched Haunter, the least girly of the movies and ended up going to bed early because we were worn out.

This morning Mike went on a rabbit hunt. If we weren't currently out of propane I'd fry it up on the stove, as it is, somehow our propane is gone so we're contemplating frying it in the turkey fryer instead. Ultimately we decided to hold off on the rabbit and we're grilling potatoes; I pulled some of our yummy smoked brisket out of the freezer yesterday... we're having bbq-baked taters. Lemonade from lemons.

Yeah, so Dec 27, I was chatting with Mike and mentioned that I checked the levels while we were walking... we had 50% of the tank left. Today Mike happened to check and it's at 0. Either the tank itself is leaking or the heater installation caused an issue. Or perhaps the gauge is busted, but I tapped on the side of the tank and it sounds pretty empty. In any case, it's no good... It's a lot of money that we don't need to spend. As usual. I'm so tired of bullshit.

I decided to try a homemade dusting recipe this afternoon. It's a mix of olive oil, lemon juice and lemon essential oil. It worked GREAT. The wood looks beautiful, it smells like Pledge, it's cheap, non-toxic and it was handy... I already had the supplies.

And my big accomplishment for the day... I looked up planting dates, put everything into a spreadsheet and organized my seeds. We bought a $25 greenhouse at Tractor Supply the other day and I have seed starter trays that I got from TS and Dollar General. I am ready to garden. Tomorrow I'll start filling up some trays and by April/May the seedlings should be ready to go into the ground. Maybe by then I will have caught up on my gardening lessons. I got off track with the cold weather, but the gardening bug is back.

And I got my camera lens. It makes a huge difference - I love it. So all in all I am happy with the outcome. My camera is awesome. The flip screen would have been cool, but I can live without it. Now I'm browsing Overstock to see what to spend my credit on.