Back and Forth

Jumping Beans might also be a good title. 

We do a lot of jumping back and forth. 

Back and forth between the upstairs and down stairs at House #1. 
Back and forth between the living room and dining room at House #1. 
Back and forth between House #1 and House #2. 
Back and forth between House #1 and the Cat Ranch.

The weather was beautiful this weekend.  The yard of the Cat Ranch has been neglected.  The firewood pile is empty.  There are leaves and sticks around the yard and in the garden. The grass is getting high.  The bonfire pile of old boards and branches was overflowing. 

I know it drives Walt Kowalski crazy to keep jumping back and forth.  Sometimes it's unavoidable. 

Walt Kowalski got out all of the solar lights and charged them. 6 of them didn't charge and glow after it got dark Saturday night.  I need to buy a few new batteries. 

 
While Walt Kowalski cleaned up the bonfire pile, chopped some branches, and stacked more firewood, I raked.  And raked. And raked.  And raked.  I'm only about 1/3 complete, but it's already looking so much better. 

 
The next campfire. 

Wildlife updates

Some days around the cat ranch, life is quiet. 

Other days it's Animal Farm. 

Here's just an update of the local wildlife. 

Here's a photo of a jake (a juvenile male turkey) in the neighbor's yard. Walt Kowalski saw him through the trees and across the driveway.

Here is the Fluffy Cocoa in the wild.  Or as wild as you can get when you have a belly full of sunbeams.

 
Yoo Hoo, our local friendly raccoon, still stops by every evening for a snack.  The last few mornings we found our back patio recycling bin tipped over and the cans and bottles scattered around the patio. 

We blamed Yoo Hoo until a few  nights ago.

 
It wasn't Yoo Hoo, it was an opossum.  She's (or he) is very good at walking the rim of the recycling bin.

 
Finally, the true owner of Adventures at the Cat Ranch...

What a wall of a weekend

We got so much done on Friday evening and Saturday. Skipping the gym isn't good for our waistlines but it is good for remodeling.

Friday evening we insulated and hung drywall on the long wall in the living room.

We struggled with this wall for a bit.  The house is not square. 
 

Saturday we were going to work on windows because it was a beautiful day, but instead did more drywall. 

This is the wall between the laundry room and ding room.

 

 

This wall was easy.  It was straight, square, and the 2x4s were in the proper locations.  That's because we built this wall. 

Power Tower, the electrician was over on Saturday and he's moving right along, too.

 

Power Tower is finishing the cabling in the dining room, so Walt Kowalski and I insulated and then started hanging boards.

 

 
4x10 sheets are awkward at times, but really complete a wall fast.   

 
There are lots of screws and seams for me to work on this week.  :)

Keep plugging

The other evening was a hockey night which means...nachos.  Add a side of lettuce and some grilled chicken and, except for the sodium, it's not a totally un-nutritious meal.  Mighty tasty, too. 

 
Walt Kowalski made me a platform so I could plaster the seams and screws on the steps.  It was very secure and worked perfect.

 
In the mean time...he was downstairs insulating the living room. 

Downstairs!!

Power Tower, the electrician, is wiring his way around.  Walt Kowalski has the plan to drywall and tonight we'll check this wall off the list. 

Step, step, steppity, step

Walking, there are 2,000 steps in a mile. 

 

There are 12 stairs from the first floor to the second floor at House #1. 

 

A flight of stairs does not equal a certain number of steps.  A flight is one floor of stairs, and does not exceed twelve steps. Flights are usually composed of ten to twelve steps. 

 

There are 86 flights of stairs in the Empire State Building. Some days I do that many between the upstairs and basement. 

 

From where is this term 'flight of stairs' derived?  The interwebs couldn't give me a definitive answer.  The best I found was that in English ‘a flight’ also came to mean a collection, set, or grouping of things such as a ‘flight of birds.’ Stairs are a collection. 

 

Ok, I can see that. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We insulated underneath the stairs so the cold air couldn't migrate down from the attic.  

 

 
Do you like the scaffolding? Walt Kowalski is planning to put in additional boards when I'm ready to plaster. 

 

 
Bit by bit we are closing in the old with new. 

The permit for the windows was easy today.  Window installation this weekend.  :)  I am jealous already. 

Laughs in Storage

It's been rough couple of days. 

Rain, sleet, snow, and this happening yesterday didn't help.

Walt Kowalski *just* made it to work.  He said Big Red stalled twice and then all types of error messages and lights appeared on the dash.  It looks so sad, but it will be ok.  The tow man was very nice. 

I had about an hour and half between when I called for a tow and when he arrived, so I worked on cleaning out some boxes in storage.  Things were put in storage several years ago when we remodeled the game room and I have neglected getting back to clean out. (Really, what else have I have been doing?) In just a little time, I got two full boxes ready for donation, combined several other boxes of cooking items, and found some items I was missing.

Specifically, I found the journal I kept when Miss Wendy, BA, and I went on holiday.  I kept notes of what we did during the day, where and who we visited, what we ate and where we ate, and funny stories.

Here is one of those stories that made me laugh and helped raise my spirits.

After dinner, we went home to Ian's and Miss Wendy wanted a slice of pie.  She microwaved her slice on a plastic dish for a few moments.  At the beep, the pie wasn't hot, just the dish was hot. 

Ian said 'Oh you can't do that. It says no microwave on the bottom of the dish.'
Miss Wendy said 'No, it doesn't.  It says Made in Taiwan.'
BA said, 'Yeah, that's Taiwanese for Do not microwave.'

Another funny moment was while we were browsing through a small shop.  Purse and handbag thieves are very common, so keeping your bag close is a must. During browsing, Miss Wendy's bag got snagged on the handle of a grandmother's Zimmer Frame (what we call a walker.)

Miss Wendy proclaimed 'Well, now we know who the hand bag thieves are!'  Miss Wendy and the grandmother laughed and laughed.


One last story for the day.


After a long day Ian was exhausted and BA offered to make him a cup of tea.  He liked the idea and liked the tea.  BA said 'See, even an American can make a good cup of tea.'  Ian said 'Well, of course you can. The water was British, the tea was British, and the cream was British. Of course you can make a proper cup of English tea.'

Windows

Windows are next.  Walt Kowalski drew up the plans.  I need to print them and then head to the zoning office for a permit. 

You can replace windows with no permit, but we want to make the windows a little smaller. That requires a permit. 

 Here is the window that is currently the hall but will eventually become a closet.

 

Drywall for the stairs tonight.