Good Day Sunshine! (So far anyway.)

We have been truly lucky of late...   usually living on the coast you get used to misty, chilly, foggy winters. And summers.  However, we moved in a very unusual weather year. Since we have been here I think it has rained lightly once, and has been foggy maybe two afternoons... other than that the winter sun has been brightly shining, and we have loved it.  But now the weather lady tells us we will finally be getting some rain.  Thanks Roberta!

It is about 5 am and the wind is starting to blow hard enough to get my well traveled chimes on the front porch singing.  They are larger chimes so they have a beautiful baritone sound that I have always found relaxing.  There is just something about sitting in your quiet home hearing the chimes slowly ringing.  Love it.  I have been dragging those chimes around for years, they have been ringing through 100 degree weather, -20 degree icy days, and have watched over golfers slogging through the rainy, rainy, rainy days in Oregon.

(Good grief that is awful)

Well, we have been very busy working on the house.  There has been a lot more sheetrock, paint, trim, paint again and things are finally starting to take shape.

We could always see what direction we were going in but I know that has not been the case for all our visitors.

Here is David after, during, before replumbing, rewiring, repainting, and tiling the laundry room: 

A lot of people walk in and are just overwhelmed with no walls... or many different types of walls, wires being reworked, and a migrating 3 foot tall refrigerator which gets plugged in to wherever there is an open spot.  Ya just have to be patient and keep your eyes on the prize.  (The prize being a finished home.)

Speaking of the refrigerator... it has been an interesting job trying to 'keep house' during the remodel.  Fortunately, it was not completely out of my realm of experience but let me give you an idea of the joy of cooking in a house being remodeled.  I have a 3 foot tall refrigerator, that has a "freezer section" about as big as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  This refrigerator always seems to be in the way, so it frequently moves around the house.  I cook in a combination of an electric skillet and a single extra burner...

That is it.

Once in awhile I use the crockpot but for anyone who has used a crockpot you know that the meals prepped usually leave plenty of leftovers... I mean that is the point. You make stuff and save part of it.   Well, with a mini-fridge and no freezer there is no where to put leftovers so I don't use the crockpot as often as one would think.  That leaves the single burner and the electric skillet.

I have to say... the electric skillet is a useless piece of equipment and I plan to get rid of that S.O.B. as soon as I have a range... and I think just to keep it company that single burner will be joining it.   Because of this, lately we eat a lot of very similar meals... very similar.  David is a good sport but I suppose when one has worked all day and is hungry just about anything will do.

Something did happen the other day at Sears though that gives me hope and will call for a celebration!  There was a big ole MLK Jr. day sale at Sears and we ordered this lovely thing (queue Gregorian chant:)

Great sale, great stove, and I will be more than happy to cook on it... someday.  We have to get our cabinets going first but when they are done this puppy will be all ready to hook up and I will be digging my cast iron pans out of.. well.. wherever they are right now! 

Also... I did not want you to think we skipped Christmas.

It literally blew by!  

That is a picture of my Grandson Donovan.  That is what most of his pictures look like...  I even had my camera switched to sports mode. He is just ALWAYS on the run.  Anyway, he rolled in wearing his red footy pajamas and bright yellow Sponge Bob boots on Christmas eve and as usual he hit the ground running. 

Remind you of someone?

 Here he is below with his first view of Great Granny and Great Papa's tree sharing his excitement with David.   

 

After this picture I think he jumped up and down twice and then ran off again.

Then of course after his batteries finally wore out and we were all exhausted ourselves, 

he went down for the night...  

but when he awoke Santa had visited and brought him exactly what he wanted.  

Woody and Buzz

and he has played with little else since then. 

Wild Kingdom

It all started out innocently enough.

But then... doesn't it always?

There was a bit of a break in the cold today and we had been painting so I thought I would take the dogs out, and take some pictures. David had noticed froggy from the window and how even though he was sitting on a big boulder he has been slowly disappearing. Now all that can be seen is his eye which is peaking out towards the lake.

It was a nice enough afternoon outside that Cosmo the Magnificent came out without his coat so that he could make pee-sicles, and of course Delta had to watch over him since we had left the indoor land of Cosmo the Tyrant and he was now in her outdoor kingdom... she is the boss here.

If you look way down there almost to the woodpile there is Cosmo up to his own business and then he trudged back up to the house in the snow that is deeper than he is tall.

Then, all of a sudden...

I could hear Marlin Perkin's voice because Delta decided to get all Wild Kingdom right before my eyes... and camera. Marlin was talking about how in even the stark areas of the earth wildlife can flourish because they adapt, improvise, and overcome. You know... like the Marines.

Do you remember that show? We used to watch it every week. It came on either right before or after a Disney short on t.v. and I could remember sitting with my family watching it. It was quite awhile ago and I am pretty foggy on some of the shows so I dunno how much my sisters remember but I used to love it.

As you will see, Delta suddenly lost interest in guarding Cosmo when she heard some voles... (small mice like creatures... really they are just little mice with long noses) Yes, I said heard them under I dunno how much snow... check this out and as Marlin says, "hold on to your lunch if you don't like to watch nature in action." Well, he never actually said that but you get my drift. Here are a couple short clips of the action. There are three clips... after each one is over just hit the back button to return here and then scroll on down to the next. They are very short.

From Movies

From Movies

This next one is my favorite. David and I were just watching a show the other night about polar bears and the way they hunt. Those creatures (that can get over 1500 lbs) can smell seals nearly 1 mile away and buried 3 feet under the snow. These huge creatures sniff out a seal, listen for movement while standing soooooo still and then in an instant raise themselves up on their back legs and smash through the ice to yank out the seals.

Now... look at Delta:

From Movies

Oh my. She is licking her chops!
Yikes look at the teeny pink feet all splayed out by the teeny tail there.
I bet that was a rude surprise poor little thing!

Now for some indoor sports.

No not that kind.

If it was that kind this would be the point where you would enter your credit card information.

We started painting in the living room. Sheesh.
Here is a shot standing near the south window wall back towards kitchen.
The paint is literally still wet here:



Below is another from the same direction but towards the mudroom and front door.
You can kinda see the flow of color here... olive to yellow to terra cotta:



From the kitchen back into the living room:



Down the stairs...
Hmmm. I hope she does not think I look like a vole:



And here is a couple shots of kitchen:

and then from the kitchen into the russet colored bathroom.
Just ignore the morning prep stuff in there I had not put it away yet.
Just wanted to show you that yellowy-creamy color and the russet.
Just ignore the spackle and plaster tape. Heh.

Anyway... we are keeping busy and it was nice to get out for a bit and not have to go right back in. There is a cold snap coming.. now with our luck THAT forecast will come true! -20 with a windchill of -40! Great.