Monday, April 23, 2012
U 2 Beautiful Day
When visiting with my family this spring , after an awesome hike with my brother we were driving home and digging U 2 . . We thought it would be fun to make a few music videos to a couple of or U2 favorites.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
"out with the old and in with the new" AKA Bathroom Remodel !
I am lagging a little in some of the goings on here at our farm. Just been busy and have not been keeping the blog updated.
So our little ranch house is a modest home. Not why we fell in love with this farm by any stretch. I always dreamed of a grand two story farm home built in the early 1900's but seemed when I found a house I was charmed by, the land was wrong. When I visited this farm when listed for sale the land blew me away. The house, not so much. But it was well built back in the late 60's and had a good floor plan (plain but practical) for it's size. Nothing had been updated since the time it was built. It's kitchen and bathroom cabinets and counters were sagging, doors partially open because they no longer were able to close due to the shifting counter tops. In the kitchen there was a ugly dropped ceiling with glaring office type florescent lighting. A few years ago we ripped that out and sheet rocked the ceiling and up dated the lighting. Did not want to do too much because some day we hope to expand out the back of the house.
Anyway back to the bathroom. All I can say is UGLY. Outdated . Disgusting.
It had blue and silver paisley type foil wallpaper on the upper part of the walls. I stripped that off right after I moved in. Primer white was way better and was what the walls were for the past going on four years. Ugly stained and yellowing blue speckled linoleum floor. The lower half of the walls and counter were white with dark speckled Formica. Again, florescent lighting ( that stopped working and was substituted with a lamp on the counter top) , no outlets but for one little one coming off the ancient chrome medicine cabinet. , cabinets sagging, doors unable to close. The only saving grace was the beautiful view out the window while one was , er well you get the picture.
So without further ado I'll share the before and after of our new bathroom.
So our little ranch house is a modest home. Not why we fell in love with this farm by any stretch. I always dreamed of a grand two story farm home built in the early 1900's but seemed when I found a house I was charmed by, the land was wrong. When I visited this farm when listed for sale the land blew me away. The house, not so much. But it was well built back in the late 60's and had a good floor plan (plain but practical) for it's size. Nothing had been updated since the time it was built. It's kitchen and bathroom cabinets and counters were sagging, doors partially open because they no longer were able to close due to the shifting counter tops. In the kitchen there was a ugly dropped ceiling with glaring office type florescent lighting. A few years ago we ripped that out and sheet rocked the ceiling and up dated the lighting. Did not want to do too much because some day we hope to expand out the back of the house.
Anyway back to the bathroom. All I can say is UGLY. Outdated . Disgusting.
It had blue and silver paisley type foil wallpaper on the upper part of the walls. I stripped that off right after I moved in. Primer white was way better and was what the walls were for the past going on four years. Ugly stained and yellowing blue speckled linoleum floor. The lower half of the walls and counter were white with dark speckled Formica. Again, florescent lighting ( that stopped working and was substituted with a lamp on the counter top) , no outlets but for one little one coming off the ancient chrome medicine cabinet. , cabinets sagging, doors unable to close. The only saving grace was the beautiful view out the window while one was , er well you get the picture.
So without further ado I'll share the before and after of our new bathroom.
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| The old |
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| I know, GROSS! |
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| The New |
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| Much better! |
And now to finish with some personal touches.
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| Close up of the wallpaper border I used. It has little outhouses! |
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
turn me loose!
At almost seven months to the day the youngest member of our sheepdog pack has told me she's ready to go!.
I've been doing walk abouts amongst the sheep with Opal since she was just a wee pup. She has always showed interest in them, but never really "turned on" in the classic way. Oh she would eye them up and follow in sneaky fashion at a safe distance to study the flock.
Her brother Mose got keen to them maybe two months ago. As puppies Mose was always the bolder of the two. Fearless and unflappable. Opal was always one to assess a situation, study things a bit before going blindly forward. I always was impressed with Mose' forward nature. I like this in a dog. Though I also appreciate Opal's intelligence and reasoning power (and I am in no way saying Mose is not smart!)
So over the weekend she invited herself under the gate while I was filling the water tub and cast out and around the flock. Off the flock ran and I am sure they were saying "oh S***, here we go again!" She managed to head them and turn them back but at this point it was just a light bulb turning on and so around she went a few times before I could manage to get in the "picture". After a few missed attempts to stop her , she did finally call off on her own.I was pleased about that. So I took her out again today , with my camera. I managed a few photographs of her second go on the flock. I managed to get her to balance in both directions and after just about as much time as I would want to spend at this with her got her to call off again after a few requests. I honestly did not want to spend too much time out there with 80 something sheep and a fresh pup. I have had one broken leg already , thank you and would rather not "go there" again!
She was just a pleased with herself this time and I am excited to start slowly molding her to become a good working partner.
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I've been doing walk abouts amongst the sheep with Opal since she was just a wee pup. She has always showed interest in them, but never really "turned on" in the classic way. Oh she would eye them up and follow in sneaky fashion at a safe distance to study the flock.
Her brother Mose got keen to them maybe two months ago. As puppies Mose was always the bolder of the two. Fearless and unflappable. Opal was always one to assess a situation, study things a bit before going blindly forward. I always was impressed with Mose' forward nature. I like this in a dog. Though I also appreciate Opal's intelligence and reasoning power (and I am in no way saying Mose is not smart!)
So over the weekend she invited herself under the gate while I was filling the water tub and cast out and around the flock. Off the flock ran and I am sure they were saying "oh S***, here we go again!" She managed to head them and turn them back but at this point it was just a light bulb turning on and so around she went a few times before I could manage to get in the "picture". After a few missed attempts to stop her , she did finally call off on her own.I was pleased about that. So I took her out again today , with my camera. I managed a few photographs of her second go on the flock. I managed to get her to balance in both directions and after just about as much time as I would want to spend at this with her got her to call off again after a few requests. I honestly did not want to spend too much time out there with 80 something sheep and a fresh pup. I have had one broken leg already , thank you and would rather not "go there" again!
She was just a pleased with herself this time and I am excited to start slowly molding her to become a good working partner.
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| Opal "oh , I get it!" Sheep "here we go again!" |
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| She's back there just to the right of that Tunis on the left |
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| Opal "I like it...I like it a LOT!" |
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Huachuca Mountains
I visited my parents who were "snow birding" for a few months in southern Arizona. My brother and his wife live there and it was great fun to get away for a few days. I went out to celebrate my Mom's 89 Birthday. These few video's are of a hike my brother and I took one of the days.
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