How’s your summer going?

 We’ve had, like many of you, a series of storms pass through this week, which doesn’t bode well for me getting sleep. This isn’t a pity post, it’s just a “oh, that’s why she is making less sense than usual,” notification. 

I happen to love storms and especially love listening to them. They remind me of camp, both as a camper on Lake Erie and as a counselor in the hills and forests surrounding the Allegheny River. Something so comforting about hearing the storms roll down the river, thunder kabooming over your adirondack, branches blowing in the wind, rain dripping off the leaves. I love it all.

However, our Great Pyrenees does not. Not even one little bit. She starts panting and drooling all over the floor as she paces, so it’s slippery inside and nobody wants to be barefoot to then step in a puddle of drool. She also won’t eat, which then calls for vigilance on our part to make sure that Bosley, who will eat anything, doesn’t mosey over to eat her food. That tends to not go over well. Think siblings with only one last candy bar. 

“That’s mine and you know it! Give it back!”

“Then you should have eaten it, shouldn’t you?!”

“I said ‘give it back!’”

“Finders keepers, losers weepers!”

*fisticuffs ensues*

“Mooooommm!”

“I’m going to clobber you both!”

Anyway. 

The rescue from which we got her claimed she was crate trained. She was for the first two weeks, before she started dismantling and sneaking out of it, sometimes becoming stuck to the point I thought she was going to cause internal damage to herself. Therefore, we gave up on the crate, call her Honey Houdini, and just try to barricade her out of the kitchen as best we can during storms. We’re getting good with arranging baby gates, chairs, and random pieces of furniture, which she is becoming adept at removing from her desired location through sheer brute force, dedication, and persistence. I also try to remember to close all the curtains before bed and leave a few lights on to minimize the scariness of the lightning, and leave Pandora on to help cover the thunder. Maybe it all helps a little, but I can hear her butting into the baby gate from upstairs along with other, sneakier sounds, so I usually end up downstairs on the couch to keep a closer ear on her. She's been known to get into drawers, boxes, bags, (haha, "packages, boxes and bags") and I'd rather head it all off at the pass than have to clean up after the fact.

This morning she got herself into Bosley’s crate.. he weighs around 45 pounds and she’s around 100. He was not pleased. Dada said to just shut the door, to which I reminded him that, while I was tempted, she would just destroy his kennel and then we’d be left with none and they’d both be loose. Neither of them can be trusted farther than you could throw them, so thanks but no thanks. Somehow she managed to turn herself around and got back out, but it was photo worthy anyway for your entertainment:

We've not had an opportunity to see the Perseid meteor shower yet because of the rain, but we've had some breaks in the weather with beautiful skies. 

I had just told Dada yesterday that I'd planted some additional, different morning glory seeds this year because we have bajillions of purple ones annually and I wanted some new friends to smile at, and I was lamenting that none of them had come up. I have an almost solid wall of them in the garden behind the garage and they are lovely. 

Then first thing this morning, I spotted this guy! YAY!!

I didn't get a good shot of it, but the clouds and rain were so cool the other day in different sections of the sky.

As most of you know, Dada and I have this ongoing argument over what is a flower versus what is a weed. To my consternation, these cheerful blue roadside flowers are called "Blue Weed." Figures. I love how they contrast with whatever the vibrant yellow flowers are and against the deep soybean green, which is one of my very favorite greens. This picture doesn't do the Blue Weed justice.

Fireplace 101

There's a meme circling around Facebook about "30 days has September, April, June, and November", yadda yadda yadda, "except January which has 937." Naturally January in Ohio is freezing at best. So, whaddaya do when one finds a two inch crack in the back wall of your fireplace? You call the fireplace experts and cross your fingers that it can be welded.

Then they politely snigger at you and inform you that no fireplace company worth their salt would weld that as it would be unsafe and that you need to replace the entire thing. 

Hello, 2019, here is our checkbook...

This is the official Before photo. Stone hearth, brick fireplace, framed photograph Dada took of me while on our honeymoon in Jamaica. Seafoam green walls. Striped curtains and curtain rods already removed because... you guessed it. #FarmhouseProject.

Yeah, all that needed to come down. 

For those of you wondering what #FarmhouseProject means, let me give you a for instance. Once Upon A Time, not quite two decades ago, a certain family had members moving back east from out west. Said movers would be living in the family farmhouse on the old homestead, essentially, and the family up the hill thought the farmhouse could use a screen door. What should have been a straightforward project turned into a humungous mess and way more work than originally thought as it was discovered that the threshold wasn't in the best of shape and, oh dear, the wood under that isn't either, and oh my, neither are the railroad ties under that, and...

"Um, what's with the six foot deep hole outside the back door?"

"We tried to put on a screen door..."

(We did eventually get the darn screen door affixed. And the hole filled. After the last of the coal from the old coal furnace was tossed out of the basement. And after discovering that not all cement blocks are the same size. True story. And a new furnace later. But anyway, back to the fireplace story.)

So the guys set up their tarp to minimize the dust flying everywhere from the fireplace demo. All the brick needed to be removed and the firebox itself had to come out. 

It works! The stone we selected to replace the brick isn't in yet, but the fireplace is functional and we're allowed to use it. Good thing too, as the Deep Freeze set in and the kids had no school for three days. Grandmama noted that the lowest temp we had with windchill was -37F. So glad we had the fireplace fixed and that it could help out the poor furnace! 

Dada saw a slab of stone he felt would be perfect as a mantel. The stone supplier initially balked as the slab was too thick to cut safely, but upon reconsidering and refiguring they managed to slice it just right. It is every bit as heavy as it looks, but unbelievably it cooperated and was placed completely level on the first try. Even the guys doing it couldn't believe it. After examining it from every angle and distance, they proclaimed their amazement and informed me, "if there's ever a tornado, just hold on to the mantel cuz it ain't going anywhere!"

 I'd decided to paint the room while it was torn apart and almost everything was out of it. Of COURSE there would be no school! Good thing Grandmama was here to keep the kids in line while I was on the stepladder...

The stone should be in sometime in the next few weeks. Then a mason and the other guys will come back and install it all. Choosing it was a harder decision than I thought it would be. The floor in the "library" is walnut, taken from the first few trees to be felled on the property originally. It's absolutely gorgeous and I didn't want anything to overshadow it. I felt a lighter stone would be more complimentary while Dada fell in love with dark stones with veins running through them. We settled on an 85/15 compromise and once that all starts up I'll be sure to document that process. I can't wait to see the whole room when it's all finished! Stay tuned.

Spring cleaning...?!

Haha, not to worry, I realize it is only January. I haven't turned over that particular leaf as a New Year's resolution. However, when you have a room mostly torn up it makes sense to give it a good scrub while the furniture is moved/covered. There will be a detailed fireplace-turned-farmhouse-project post coming, but for the nonce let's just say that along with the scrubbing, we have decided to go ahead and paint the darn "library" while we're at it. 

I asked around and got advice for both sides of painting before the fireplace project is finished and after, so we're going to go ahead and do it midway. Since Ohio has decided to become part of the Arctic Circle and it's too miserable to be outside without blubber, might as well tackle inside projects of which there is never a shortage. 

Back to my hot bucket of Mr. Clean bubbles. Spiders, you better run for cover cuz I'm on a mission!