Tempting Spring

The last couple days have been tempting spring.  It was in the mid 70's and no real wind.  BEAUTIFUL!! I love it.  I opened the windows and my house warmed up.  Yesterday I worked some in the garage and went through a trash can that has been full of things from my garage at the house in Colby.  8 years and it has been sitting outside under the eves of the garage.  It contained some paint and stain as well as my camping lantern and several propane bottles.  I threw the paint away since it was dried up, laid the stain on the work bench and put the bottles in a bucket to have Dad look at them to see if they are ruined or not.

This afternoon I decided to try the recipicating saw I got at Harbor Freight last summer.  I needed to cut a landscape timber to finish out the border around the flower garden around the house. I did it-all-by-myself.  The saw worked really good and I had no trouble with it.  I think I can do more projects that I have in mind by using this saw.  I'm getting excited to do some fun projects.   I may need to trim the one board depending on what I end up doing with the downspout drain.  The rabbits have been eating the plastic on the drain so I may need to do something different there.


Now that the border is finished, I need to put mulch around the bush on the corner of the house.  My 4-wheeler is out of gas and the gas hose on the tank is broken.  The little trailer that I can pull with the 4-wheeler is in the barn full of wood Dad has cut to use for shelves.  The mulch has been dumped in the big garden area across the drive.  I decided to put together my dumping garden wagon I got at Christmas in Wichita at Northern Tool.  I decided I'd try to put the wagon together myself instead if waiting for Dad to help me.  I need to learn to do more projects myself. 

I did it, twice.  I read the instructions and looked at the pictures for more detail.  I'd put something together then when I was ready for the next step, I'd have turn something around or upside down or backwards.  I started out sitting on the porch step to work on this.  The first thing that happened was I dropped a screw and washer and it was lost in the dead grass that is covering the sidewalk.  I was lucky that I did find it.  This happened several times.  The unit was pulled one way, slid another way, turned on end, turned over, fall on me.  Before I was done I was kneeling on the sidewalk, sitting on the grass in the yard, laying over the porch.  I was covered with dead grass and dirt and my hands looked like I had worked in the shop.  I need to work harder to not swear when something happens.  I need more patience and less frustration.  It is like working with my father but I do not swear as much or as bad as he does.  I will have to repent tonight in my prayers.  I had Dad look it over to make sure I had it done right before tightening the lock nuts.  I did it right.   This builds my confidence in my handyman abilities.  Overall, the project went together well.  Now I do not know where to store it since my garage is full.  I really do not want to leave it outside in the sun, wind, rain, snow and ice. 

Now that the wagon is put together, I am too tired to pick up mulch and put it in the flower bed.  It is a good thing that the next few days are also supposed to be nice. 

Are we having an early spring or are we being teased before another big blast of winter?

Rose 

Kitchen is clean

I know this is not a big deal to most of you but it is a really BIG deal to me.  I have had so much trouble with mice and my cabinets were a mess.  I took everything out of all the cabinets, scrubbed them, washed everything that was inside and put it all back in organized.  All my cabinets are clean and organized.  All my counter tops are clear and the kitchen table is clean.  I pulled out the stove and cleaned behind it and plugged all holes in the kitchen that I could find.  I swept and scrubbed the floor also.  It looks so nice.  I have not had any mice for 3 weeks and the kitchen is still clean.  I am actually proud of myself. 

Today I began organizing recipes.  I put each of my favorite recipes that I actually cook with on my Evernote app.  I can access it through the desktop, laptop, and the cell phone.  I will have them with me all the time.  I have cleaned out a lot of the paper recipes that have been torn out of magazines that I have never made and doubt I will ever make.  I still have a lot of papers but most of them are organized into file folders by category.  I have all those along with the cookbooks in the side cupboard that Allen built in the kitchen.  It is all contained in one area and can not be seen normally. 

Over the weekend, my brother, Kevin, helped Dad to put a heat/ac register in my kitchen.  I have not had a vent in the kitchen since we put in the new furnace and central air conditioner 5 years ago.  They put it in front of the dishwasher and it looks good.  I am excited to have the air (especially a/c in the summer) in the kitchen. The wood stove has always kept the kitchen plenty warm but it is still hot in there in the summer.  Not any more.  Kevin told me he swept the kitchen floor for me to clean up the mess they made during the project.  Thank you.  Then he tells me there is a lot of mouse poop under the dishwasher but he could not find a shop vac to clean it up.  I do not have a shop vac so one of these days I will need to get the one out of the shop and do some more cleaning. 

Here are some pics of the before and after in my "new" kitchen.  I just could not show you the very gross inside the lower cabinets.  The mouse tracks and holes were just too disgusting and embarrassing to share.

                                              Before                                                         After

            

     

     

 Three-four weeks after getting the kitchen from this before to this after, I am pleased to announce that it still looks this good!!

Rose