Productive Day

I hadn't done much since I painted three coats of primer in the hall. At that time I didn't think I'd do the ceiling and I wasn't sure when I would get to painting the real color on the walls. Well, I decided to do the ceiling after all, but fortunately it wasn't in need of any primer.

I had decided I wasn't going to tape everything off because I seem to have bad luck with the tape. I've tried taking it off as soon as I was done painting and I've waited, and both methods leave me dissatisfied. The tape never comes off in one piece and sometimes I've had to get a razor blade to help it come up. And then there's always the spot(s) of paint that get under the tape.

I started with the colored paint yesterday. I did all the trim and corners and just took my time with a new one inch brush I bought when I bought the color. It went very well.

Today I trimmed around the ceiling fixtures, which didn't take long. Again, I took my time and I didn't get so stressed out about it. Then I started with the paint roller. I remembered I had a pole somewhere to screw into the end of the roller so I wouldn't have to keep climbing up and down the ladder. I found it and got down to business.

In no time at all I was done. I really like it now. It seems so much bigger and brighter and it doesn't feel like I'm walking into a cave when I go into the hall.

The next item of business for today was to replace the doorbell cover. I forgot to take a picture while the old one was still attached so here I am holding it up. The doorbell still worked but the cover was broken and the light didn't work.

Here are the wires to the doorbell. I had to enlarge the hole where the wires come out so the new cover would fit.

At first I was going to use the hole saw but then realized the wires wouldn't fit into the saw part and they would end up getting cut. Not good. Then I remembered my Rotozip and put a round cutting blade on it. I had to be careful with the wire but it worked great.

Ta da! The bell works, the light works, and the new cover looks better than the broken one!

I'm done painting for the time being so I can concentrate on other things. We're expecting our friends from Roseburg to come visit next week so I've got a bit of cleaning ahead. I hope the weather is decent when they come over!

Getting The Red Out

Today we separated and did our own chores. Hubby went out and limbed up a few of the trees near the driveway.

He's been after me to paint the red walls so I decided I'd start with the hall way. As with any painting job preparation is important.

Edges are done and the first coat of primer is 1/2 way done.

I did three coats of primer on the edges and around the switches and outlets. By the time I finished the second coat of rolled primer I was done in! I figured although it could have used third coat, two coats of primer would have to do.

I'm not sure how long it's going to stay like this now. I decided once I figure out what color I want to paint this hall I will just tape everything off and paint the walls and ceiling the same light color, whether it's a light yellow, palest of green, or some sort of off-white. Actually I meant I will dig out the paint sprayer and spray the walls and ceiling.

I used to enjoy painting. Today as I was painting I was thinking about what happened. I was not really enjoying myself. I think what has happened is I have gotten older, and as I have gotten older I am more out of shape. My knees hurt from kneeling to paint the bottom section. My shoulders are sore from reaching up.

And now, a bizarre confession. I was irritated because when I was half way finished Hubby came in and started watching tv. He was finished with his chores. I felt like his work was easier than mine and he should have started helping me.

On the other hand, now I can say I did it myself. Crazy, huh!

In any case, I've taken my long soak in my giant tub and I'm half way through a bottle of wine. This is the kind of ache I like. I told you I was crazy.

Saddle Racksss

I was happy enough with the results of my first saddle rack so Friday evening I started cutting out all the pieces to the next two racks. I even went so far as to pre-drill the screw holes so on Sunday all I would have to do would be the assembly. I only broke one drill bit. Oh, and my husband went to the hardware store and got me a longer jigsaw bit so I could cut the curves better (worked way better than the circular saw and heavy duty sanding).

Sunday I was able to put everything together. The only cutting I did on Sunday was the very bottom (the storage area). Here you can see the saddle rack I had from many years ago. It's taller and definitely not as fancy.

So later I can do some light sanding and either paint, poly, or stain.

As it turns out I did not use the entire 12' X 12" board for each stand. I ended up using the leftover pieces of plywood from Dakota's shed for the sides and bottoms of the stands. This left me with a whole twelve foot board and a half of one 12' X 12" board.

So if each board cost $12.24, I used screws I already had, and the plywood scraps I already had, I got three half way decent saddle racks for a grand total of $18.36. (I don't count the new bits.) Not too shabby!

Now to think up some sort of jump using three 6' X 12" boards...

Saddle Rack

Building the bluebird house yesterday gave me the building bug.

Right now I've got one saddle rack and four saddles. A saddle rack is my next project!

Here's my work in progress.

The two ends. Looks like tombstone markers. I don't have a band saw or a stand sander. I do have a belt sander so maybe I'll be able to get the tops fairly even and smooth.

These are the pieces I cut to go over the rounded part.
You can sort of see what the end result is supposed to look like.

There are a couple of different plans available for free on-line and I just liked the look of this model. This wasn't the easiest plan, especially without some of the recommended tools. I just like to challenge myself!

I took a chance and bought enough wood to make three racks. Hopefully this first one will turn out, otherwise I'll just have to make some sort of jump out of the other wood. ;-)

Bluebird House

I had a few options of things to do today.

#1: Start putting primer on the hideous magenta walls.

#2: Work on the office.

#3: Build a bluebird house.

Guess which one I chose to do.

I looked on-line and there are a myriad sites on "how to build a bluebird house". I'm glad I looked at more than one of those sites because although the houses are basically the same, some of the sites had a little more info. For example: I learned that you should not use smooth wood because the birds climb up the walls of the house. If the walls are smooth they can't get a grip!

There should only by one house every 100 yards because bluebirds are very territorial. I should be able to make a few then, just making sure to place them carefully far enough apart from each other.

There were different views on where to place the house but they all agreed that the house should be placed on a 4 - 6 foot pole. I gathered that the bluebirds like to be near but not in the trees, they like to be in or at the edge of a clearing, and the house should not be placed too close to a pond (so the fledglings don't accidentally fly in and not out!).

I didn't have the recommended cedar board but I did have left-over plywood. To solve the smoothness problem I glued juniper bark on the outside and insides of the house.

I found an old 2 X 4 and put it where I hope is a good spot. It's far enough away from our house so the birds shouldn't get too bothered by us (after all they were on the deck yesterday).

The web sites say not to worry about the house being perfect. The birds need the gaps in the walls and floor for drainage and ventilation. In that case my house is perfect!

The next thing I'm going to make is a small hypertufa drinking station. That should satisfy the need for water for drinking and bathing, yet will be too shallow to dive into (and drown). Other birds can use it also.

Then since it was so beautiful today I took Star out for a long ride on the ridge and when we came back we galloped my loop a few times in both directions.

It was a glorious day!

Relocation

Oh, what a day we had today. Notice anything different about this picture? The title of this post is the hint!

Today we decided to relocate Dakota's shed. This is where it used to stand.

We moved it up and back a bit more into the trees. Maybe this will shelter it a little better from the harsh winds we got the other day.

Tomorrow I get to attempt to square it up so we can put a new roof on it. The metal sheets that were on there are too wrecked to reuse for this shed. I think I may be able to cut the torn ends off and repurpose the rest for something else though, like maybe for a future chicken coop?

And in case you were wondering, this particular project wasn't much fun. My husband has little to no patience. I think I may have mentioned before how he does not have an engineering mind and he is easily frustrated if he can't see the big picture.

He is scheduled for an appointment with his cancer doctor on Monday. I think that might be a good time for me to start on my chicken coop project!

NOTE TO COUNTY ASSESSOR: I told you that shed was not a permanent structure.

Bad Wind Day

Today was a really bad wind day. And I'm not talking about my husband's flatulence which as a side effect of his internal surgery has been known to literally run me from the room. Today we had high winds outside.

We were having coffee and watching tv this morning when we heard a bad sound outside. It wasn't good. We looked out and saw the roof of Dakota's shed was gone. It had just got peeled off the top and was on the ground behind the shed.

You can see here where the metal roof just ripped straight away from the bolts. So much for all the squaring up to get the roof on right. Needless to say, Hubby was way less than pleased. It was an unpleasant morning. We'll just leave it at that.

Monday I spent a little time on the tractor. I moved some rocks over to the railroad tie jump and rebuilt it. It did not get damaged by today's winds. (The left upright fell over, but that was it.)

I also took advantage of my time on the tractor by widening some of the areas next to the jumps. I always intended on having a space next to the jumps so I could just use the path as a track instead of "having" to jump.

This was the little log jump at the top of the track. It didn't survive the wind, but I had intended on making it more secure later anyway. You can see how I cleared the area next to it to widen the trail here.

I don't mind a little wind every now and then but this was not a little wind. I just saw that there is a wind advisory for Crook County until 10 pm tonight. I can't help thinking if my husband had a little more faith in my building abilities the shed I would have built would have still been there without any damage. After all, the tower I built withstood many serious windstorms. (Remember he wanted something manufactured looking. He was afraid whatever I built would have looked shabby. Hmmph!)

Fence Frustration Finally Finished

How's that for alliteration!!

As you know, we've had quite a bit of irritation regarding our solar electric fence. It worked but not like we thought it should. If you can grab a hold of the line and barely feel a slight shock, then something isn't right.

We tried everything we could think of, like letting it charge in the sun for several days, adding grounding rods, and constantly checking the entire line to make sure no branches were touching it or it was sagging, or whatever!

This was at the early part of our fence fixing fiasco. Dakota is wondering what and why Hubby is there.

More fixing.
Saggy lines.
Tightened up lines. This is the corner at the top of the horse/bull pens.
Looking down the line towards the house from the above corner.

We finally went back to the Big R store in Redmond to look for an electric fence checker. We ended up talking to the guy that sold us the unit. He introduced himself as Skip and was in fact wearing a work shirt with a "Skip" name tag. Skip let us borrow his checker. Turns out the unit we had was not operating at full capacity. In other words NO WONDER IT WASN'T WORKING RIGHT!!

So back we went to Redmond with the defective fence charger. Inside the store we asked for Skip. They paged Joe to respond, and Skip showed up. ??? Anyway, we swapped out the charger, went back home and hooked it up. It seemed to be working. The only way we had to check it was to either grab a hold of the line (no one wanted to do that) or put a screwdriver from the fence T-post to the wire and look for a spark.

It did make a spark, much bigger than with the other charger. Now how to make sure it would hold the bull. I was really hesitant to let him out of the little pen because I didn't want him to just charge underneath the line again like it was nothing.

The brochure the charger came with suggested that the animals needed to be "trained" to respect the fence. It recommended offering food on the opposite side and when the animal tried to reach through the fence to get the food it would get zapped and thereby learn.

I wasn't sure that was going to work so I did it a little differently. Don't hate me. Don't call PETA on me. I took a handful of hay and held it on the opposite side from the bull just inches away from the hot wire. If you've ever fed a cow you know they will reach out with their tongue. So, yes, Dakota reached out with his tongue, basically wrapping it around the hot wire. And yes, he did get a zap!

Then after a few minutes I went to the other fence and did the same thing. He ended up doing the same thing and got zapped again. I'm sorry to say, but it made me happy. Dakota went and sulked in his shed. I waited a few minutes and then put a small pile of hay on the ground.

I went outside the fence and puttered around so I could keep an eye on him and see what happened next. After several minutes Dakota came back and slowly wandered towards the hay pile. Eventually he started pushing under the wire to reach the hay. Now I was disheartened again because I could clearly see his forehead was touching the hot wire but he was still reaching for the hay.

Just about the same time his tongue reached the hay pile the hot wire must have pushed through his forehead hair and touched his skin because he suddenly jumped back. I took that as a good sign.

I knew I was going to have to do this sooner or later so I went ahead and opened one side of his little pen, giving him access to the entire pen, which is more or less 1/2 acre.

That was two days ago. I am so happy to report he apparently has not tried to crawl under the fence again. He is still in his own pen, on his own side.

I do believe he's finally learned to respect the fence.

Rock On

Today we redid the rock border along the house part of the driveway.

This is the area where my car got stuck on the rocks. We took out the big rocks, filled the edge with smaller rocks, then outlined the driveway area to the big gate in the fence.

My idea for this area will be to fill it along the fence line with lavenders and cold-hardy roses. I'll have to wait until spring, whenever that is. But I think it will look nice. I'm looking forward to being able to plant.

I've been thinking maybe I need to change the name of our farm to "Little by Little". Or not.

Wallpaper Done!

I got the rest of the wallpaper up today!

It looks pretty good in these pictures. Better than real life. ;-)

I actually had plenty of wallpaper. I didn't have to use any leftover half rolls so each strip on the wall is a complete strip. That was something I was a little worried about. And I also had just enough wallpaper paste, another thing I was concerned about. In fact, I was so sure I would need more paste when my husband went to the local hardware store today for something else I asked him to pick up another container of paste. Looks like I may be doing some paper mache now! (Just kidding.)

So all I have to do now is touch up and clean up and this room will be ready to use.

Freezing Fog

I learned the name of the phenomenon I mentioned on Saturday's blog. Not so oddly, it is called a "freezing fog". We had a good one today. We took a little walk around the property after getting the mail and I brought my camera.

This is a single twig. Look how the fog has "grown".

This is the same twig. I knocked the frost off. You'll notice the background is the same.

I had the dogs pose for a portrait amongst the frosted weeds.
We saw this tree. Something wasn't quite right so we took a closer look.

Maybe a pack rat nest? They do live in this area. Fortunately it was vacant at the time I took the picture.

And finally on this chilly day I decided to get started with the wallpapering. I got two strips up and it looks ok. I'll have to do a little paint touch up at the top because I was having trouble cutting it even. So it's not a totally professional job, but it'll do.

I just hope I don't walk into the room tomorrow and find the strips curled up at the bottom of the wall!

Speaking Of Fences...

Quite some time ago we finally got a hold of the fence guy who actually came out and gave us an estimate for our dog fence. Even though it was not inexpensive we went ahead and agreed to have it built. We dropped off the deposit (which was half the cost) and waited for him to call us to set a time to get the fence built.

And we waited.

And we waited.

Finally hubby called him and guess what? He was just about to call us!!

Yesterday they got started. Here are the two worker guys measuring and marking.

Digging the post holes. This is the only way to dig a post hole!

Oops. Hit an unmarked sewage pipe. No biggie, though. This was from the mobile home pad which hasn't been used in many years so it was totally dry. It did have to be repaired so dirt wouldn't get into the connecting house line. It was quickly repaired without any other problems.

The posts go in...
...and are cemented.

The next day (today) the guys returned. Here they are putting the top rails in.

The cyclone fencing and gates are attached.
The fence is done.
Looks good!
Finally, something went right!

The horse fence was repaired but the electric charger is still not right. I think we'll be bringing it back to the store tomorrow to see what they have to say about it.

Fingers are crossed...