The Shower Project, Day One

This is my big project for the semester break. A long time in the making

Over ten years ago (I am thinking more like twelve...), we renovated our bedroom and bathroom. We hired a handyman to come out, put up drywall and completely redo the bathroom. Among several little mishaps, the shower never was quite right.  We had to take it out immediately and fix plumbing. We tried to maintain as much of what had been done as possible. It turns out that was a mistake.

All of this time later, I had been fighting with caulking that would not stay adhered for more than a few months along the base. The walls weren't holding up to my constant interventions, so last year I purchased an entirely new shower to put in. I was going to do it while Charlie was away for hunting season, but he never managed to stay gone for very long at any of the times, so it went on the list for my break between semesters! Therefore, yesterday I got busy tearing the old one out!

As of last night, the walls from the shower came out, the handles are off,  The handles are a bit of a funny story, somehow the decorative housing was filled with caulking when we re-put it up all those years ago. I won't say how that happened, but it was the most difficult part of the tear down to this point! I also discovered that only about one inch at the bottom of the wall board was concrete backer board, the rest was green board. The concrete board had apparently gotten wet early on, and had just been degrading all of this time, hence the caulk wasn't staying adhered due to moisture behind the shower wall.

I pulled that stuff out and threw it away, then cleaned up after myself for the night. Wednesday, around my to do list for the day, I will be pulling out that green board tot he ceiling, then removing the pan. Charlie will pick up the backer board on his way home from work, since it will not fit in my little car! The scariest part for me will be removing the pan, as I want to preserve all of the tile if I can and only redo the grout at the edge of the shower pan (keep your fingers crossed for me on that one, please, will you? That part is the scariest for me!)

At the end of the night, I tidied up as best I could and put a tarp over the walls. Hopefully, the next update will look far different and have good news! Have you ever done one like this? Any input for me on the project?

My New Purse

I have been needing a new purse.  But being who I am,  I carry a good bit of stuff with me most days.  Things like batteries for the aerobics microphone and a water bottle and lots of little things like that, to help me attempt to keep up with this crazy life. 

A couple of years ago,  Charlie's unit switched to the new style of BDUs.  When he could no longer wear the style he had worn when I first met him,  I asked Charlie to pack the old uniforms away for future projects, and just in case the kids wanted them.  And I rather thought this project would come along. 

I made a similar purse for my niece last year, and about a month ago, I asked Charlie to sit out a few sets for me to work on some projects with.  As I began to cut this out, We made a few camouflage stockings, and Wyatt even learned to use the sewing machine while making one. 

As luck would have it, the uniform which would become my new purse was one of his favorites, sporting some random paint for character. The outside reveals four pockets,  including two with unit insignia. The inside has six, formed from material from the jacket back and arm, just for fun. 

So here is the finished product, complete with handles found on after Christmas sale at the fabric store!

Here it is,  almost completely loaded,  and with room to spare! Next up? Making one specifically designed for and by Bailey.  AND this next one will have goat patches,  too!  Stay tuned for that design,  coming soon!  Though for now, this edition got Charlie's seal of approval,  telling me that it looked good enough to make for sale. 

It is pretty exciting when he likes my work! But for now, I will be doing most of my work on a by request basis, so that my time is focused on what matters. So I have to ask, if you could design your own purse, what fabric would you choose, and what features would you want?

A Little Teamwork and Homegrown Redneck Engineering...

One of the many fun things I never expected about adulthood is that there is always a project awaiting my attention. I wish that was an exaggeration, but it isn't. Back in the spring, we got a crack in the wall of the shower in the master bath. I consulted friends, and came up with a plan to help it wait until hunting season. Why, you might ask? First off, in the last year, there have been several family crises in our extended family, and family is more important to us than tearing out an entire shower when we can avoid it.

Why hunting season? Really, out of practicality. Four of us live in this house, and when one or two are off hunting, fewer people are trying to share a shower and bathroom! So when Charlie was away on his archery elk hunt, I needed to make use of my time. 

First, Wyatt had been finishing repairing a hole in his bathroom from where the towel bar, not having lined up on the studs, had left a hole in the wall. It wasn't the first time, but the new repair was actually much better than the first, and he had done all of the work. We agreed that repainting the bathroom was a good idea, since the walls and ceiling are scrubbed regularly, and having to paint the repair meant a good time to do it all. Then we decided to go a shade darker.

The original color was an icy blue on one main wall, with the other walls white. We went just a smidgen more vibrant with a still icy blue, and took the blue back over the shower as well.

I think the color is a little more accurate in the top photo. Now we need to decide on new rug and curtain for the shower. Any thoughts for us?

I wanted to think that after that, and two coats of paint of course, that I was ready to get going on the master shower. But then I realized that something really did look funny. The vanity, to be specific. The drawers had kept rolling out and hitting me in the knee while I had been painting, but it didn't dawn on me right away (I do projects like this late at night, so I am even slower than usual during these times.)

Anyway, something look a little off to you? The front of the vanity had separated from the frame along this side. Ugh. I had no desire to replace it, but needed to get things on track so I could move on to the next project!

Wyatt helped me bring in a floor jack, and I was hoping to use some liquid nails to put it back together. After dragging it all the way up to the porch, and us using a dog towel to preserve the wood floor while lining it up in the bathroom, it didn't fit under the kick plate, so it had to go back out. My friend, Janna, gave us the idea of a soup can and board. Wyatt didn't want any proof of being involved in this redneck engineering...

He was able to help me with a piece of wood flooring and a can of canned pumpkin, but then the board broke- darn...

So then we were back at it with wood and a glass jar we usually use for tea.

The jar was too big, but we went back to the can of pumpkin. Less scary in terms of possible broken glass anyway, right? I thought I had everything on track at about this time, and used lots of glue to secure it in place. Wyatt continued to hold it down until I brought in some little weight plates. I thought for sure we were on track then, but it was not to be.

In the morning, after waking the kids the first time, I released the board, and found that the glue did not hold at all. BIG UGH! But I put the weight plates back in place, and having realized that there was some space between the drawer tracks and the original frame board that I could not screw to because of all the trim on the front, I brought in an extra piece of wood to fit there, and ran screws. It wouldn't be pretty, but when the drawers were closed, the screws would at least be hidden behind the drawer faces,

I went with long screws, since the board would have to support the weight of the drawers as well, and sone of them didn't go in all the way, so I will cut those off. But in the end, it is functional now, and will hold for quite a while so that I can get on to the  next project.  

perfect? No. But functional? Yes.

 

Anyhow, outside of the issue there, the vanity is perfectly functional, and I have really become frustrated with the "throwaway" nature of society these days, so I am going to repair and reuse wherever I can! We might not be fancy, but we are working to practice and live what we preach- organically, environmentally, and in an many aspects of our life as possible.

Well, lots more projects going on to share with you in the coming weeks. We hope you will also share your projects with us to continue to inspire and help others use a little redneck engineering in their homesteading and home projects!  And if you have a better solution tot he projects we have done, please share that, too! 

Have a truly blessed and thankful day!

Anybody for Hoecakes for Breakfast?

Many of you know that teaching rather runs in the family around here.  Between my mother, Charlie's Grandma, and my home schooling the kids, our children stand no chance of missing possible lessons! After Charlie's grandma passed away this year, we all inherited her books and curriculum left over from her teaching days. 

Many of the books were from younger ages, though there were some really fun ones, as well as some great reference and culture books. Some, we will use for the fun of a springboard into a lesson. Wyatt and I ended up storing three large boxes worth in plastic totes in the shed. For some reason, this one ended up on the dining table.

Amidst some random conversations last week, I picked it up and began reading. The kids wee sitting there at the table, with Bailey not knowing what I expected and Wyatt looking at me strangely. So then, I couldn't help myself...

I read it, showing pictures to the kids, and going all out with the voices... hey maybe I should be one of those librarians...

We learned about a fictional boy whose first and middle names were George Washington, after our first president, and about how this boy wanted to know everything about our six-foot-two inch first President who showed us what it meant to be a leader, a Commander in Chief, and to peacefully do what was right for a nation.

And we learned that almost none of the books about him talk about what he ate for breakfast.

Apparently, President Washington was rumored to have hands so big and strong that he could bend horseshoes with them. Hmmm...

And apparently he ate hoecakes for breakfast. Three of them.  With the same number of cups of tea.

Hoe cakes apparently have many different recipes and are named for the shovel they would be cooked on in the fire.  That was the first bone of contention. Apparently in the story, there were no hoes inside George Washington's house when the boy went to visit, so they used a griddle because the grandma in the story refused to cook with a hoe. Seeing as how it is monsoon season here, and lots of stuff ends up mucking things out with the flooding, thee was no way I was trying to make a hoe clean enough to cook breakfast on!

So over the weekend, I pulled up a couple of recipes, and learned that originally hoe cakes were simply cornmeal with water, later using things like milk, eggs and sugar as well. So the first round was as simple as they could be...

They didn't hold together very well!

They looked a little like mangled hush puppies, rather than breakfast when I served them. 

Wyatt decided that real maple syrup would have been around there, so he had some hoe cakes with his maple syrup... see how these History lessons can go south?  But he did prove timelines. That child should be a lawyer...

They were really crumbly, but not bad. So then I added some milk, thinking we could enjoy a discussion about tracing the lineage of recipes in history, something we have discussed when talking about processed foods and organics.

These seemed a little better formed to me, more like a pancake.

They also seemed to hold together a bit better.

The kids liked the original version better. They thought it just had more flavor and texture in the first one. Funny how that happens with the original getting watered down sometimes, isn't it?

I had originally promised to let them break into some Boston trading company tea, but then we forgot. Oops.

But I have a feeling that Wyatt will really want it when we make another revolutionary war themed meal he has been looking forward to- fire cakes. Maybe this next weekend we can delve into that one!

Last Tuesday's Big Storm

These are pictures and videos captured after the monsoon storm on 12 August 2014.

This is the driveway to go around back to the livestock. Yes, Running water higher than my ankles.

The chicken barn flooded as well.

My truck with ramps in front of it, it is just in our front yard.

Our neighbors across the street got some rain, the horses sure didn't seem to thrilled.

The main road running next to the house, flooded.

The farm truck was parked., right outside the gate.

Shine, the pygmy goat, in a flooded shelter. First time he'd ever seen a flood.

Again the driveway back to the livestock.

This was taken standing near the entrance to our little neighborhood. Yes, the whole thing is flooded.

And, last, but certainly important, the main road flooded and people drive anyway.

Adventures in Home Repair- the Ceiling Fan Edition, part one...

Part of the fun of being a military wife is all of the fun things you learn to do on your own. And with your kids. All military wives know the same fun of any wife whose husband travels for work. You know, the cars where the alternator dies and all of the electrical goes out in the fast lane at the top of a hill at rush hour and you pray as you muscle it down the hill with a foot on the brake, hoping the other cars let you over so you can coast into the church parking lot at the bottom of the hill in the scary part of town? (Cue kind father in law to bail you out and bring a mechanic to the rescue... husband had barely crossed the state line when that happened!)

Yeah, that kind of fun. And I must note, my husband's deployments and TDYs, incessant as they were, never took him overseas. He almost did, but then they changed his orders. I know how lucky I am, but I still spend a good bit of time on my own, troubleshooting issues, hiring contractors when needed, and learning LOTS of new skills!

I have long been terrified by electrical work. It is on my list of classes to take, when the time arises (haha), but until then, I will learn a little at a time. Recently, a ceiling fan with a light, originally installed by a contractor (long story) literally fell out of the ceiling. Thankfully, no one was right under it, but it did sustain a couple broken light globes and a bent fan blade arm. 

I did what any goofy girl who no longer trusts contractors but wants it fixed would do...

I took pictures of the parts left behind, and stopped at the local Ace Hardware on the way home. While I really like Lowes for a number of things, when it comes to quirky how tos and random things you only run into in your part of town, the local small hardware store is a good first stop.

So I pulled out my not-so-smart phone and showed him what was left and where I thought it had failed,

which was this bracket you see below.

The man agreed with me that washes might be just the trick to getting the tiny screws to hold in the bracket. Then he explained how to hook up the wiring- white to white, black to black, and add the blue to the black bundle since it had a light on the fan, and leave the green as it was for the ground. That sounded easy enough, so I purchased washers and headed for home. Note to all of you for future reference- the washers actually needed to fit in the bracket- oops- so luckily we have a big stash of washers in the tool shed!

That afternoon, Bailey tried to hold the fan up for me to wire back together. We realized quickly that was just too awkward. So we took a bar stool, and stood it on the counter. We propped the fan on the stool, and the kids tried to help me by passing tools up when needed and making sure I didn't knock the fan down. 

That way, the wiring went pretty easily.

See? All hooked up, with the little things screwed on to hold the wires together properly.

The kids ended up having to help me shove the wired in while positioning the fan rod arm in the bracket. But then the housing went on fairly simply. And the big exciting part- it turned on! 

I decided to wait on getting new globes (and of course trying out the fan) until I figured out how to bend the arm back into place. I am still having trouble with that part. In fact, I stopped and looked at parts while getting paint at the big hardware store over the weekend. Turns out, the guy there thought I should give up and buy a new fan.

I am not ready to give up on it yet, gonna stop at ACE this week and ask about that part, and see if Wyatt can help me try again tonight, too.It is never as simple as it should be, but if we can figure this out, then Wyatt and I are going to put in a new fan switch in his. A little more intense on the electrical, but I found an online how-to, so you never know...

Sprouts and Seedlings and Reaching for Spring

Some of you have been following or helping me with the sprouting project. The goal here is that because feeding our chickens all organic, soy-free, corn-free, non-GMO feed is so expensive, we are looking for healthy ways to give the chickens high quality feed without losing money on each dozen of eggs and while maintaining the standard of living we want for the flock, with natural poultry behaviors encouraged and lots of space. That is, of course, easier said than done.

We recently switched to a new sprouting tray type. This is the first new tray we have had grow and be ready to feed. The chickens really enjoyed it yesterday!

Some of the others really are taking their time to sprout. I am trying to get it all down to a system, and I will post a chart if I can get a definite one going.

this was right before I took the tray out yesterday, with the sprouted grass growing right through the top!

I don't think I have the stuff right yet, though, because I had quite a time getting the sprouts and the roots off the mesh I put in the bottom of hte tray. Going to have to check back with my mentors on that.

Have a BIG problem with a couple of sneaky chickens eating my seedlings! Managed to cover one of the planters, though it may be too late. I don't have any way to cover the greens where they plowed through much of the spinach and some of the kale yesterday. Any ideas for me? That is on the list this afternoon. Step one will be finding how they are sneaking out, though I think they have help from other flock members!

Well, I have lots more fun stuff to share, but will be glad to learn and share along with you all so we can all do better for our flocks!

Lov eto all.

Fun, Work, and a Little More Progress...

I have to admit, I am stressing over the doe barn, but I am still working on the plans for the new one, and the does here are staying away with the things Bailey put out to rope them off from the fallen barn.With so many projects going on, we are trying to work on getting the partially complete projects off hte list to make room for the materials and work space for the doe barn while we work on drawing it out and wait for a few calls back. 

That said, we have six two month old chicks on the back porch, and six more in the brooder inside.  It is really rather perfect, the way the spacing is working out, because I definitely prefer the smaller number of chicks in the brooder for the ability to give the little ones space!

I really love the photo of the two above. Yet, I also love seeing them all run around, too!

We began putting the roof on the special project pen. The pens put together will be breeding and grow out space for the chickens the kids are working with.

We got about half of the roof on, and will get more done tomorrow morning.  Anyone want to guess what that tangled mass of metal was which is behind the grow out pen on the other side of the roof we were working on?

Lots more to do, but sure made a dent today, and we got to debate a few options for the new doe barn while we were working.

I didn't realize how blurry this was! The kids were laughing through the work as the sun was giving up on us. Bailey was helping me with the roof, Wyatt was measuring and designing the back door, since this is being designed to be able to be a ten foot pen and a five foot pen or a single fifteen foot pen, depending upon the need. It is about time we planned these to work with us from the outset!

We also got the front door completely on, so we can hopefully work on the priming this weekend, and painting early next week.  This is a big part of the special project design, they cannot wait to see it finished!

This is the total of the roof we got done, about half way.

Part of doing these projects is that Wednesday is our applied math day, where they apply what they are learning to projects. Wyatt got to practice measuring, allowing for hinges, squaring the corners for the door, and the number of screws for each corner to keep it that way. Hopefully tomorrow he will get it all finished and hung in the doorway!

If you recognize the ponytail as not being his, that is because I got holding the wood duty. Just like he won't ride in the car during her driving lessons, she doesn't want her hands holding for Wyatt's power tool learning!

Looks pretty straight so far!

Putting everything away for the night!

Well, I will share more tomorrow! Have a great night, and enjoy your family time.!