I know, I've been a flake!

But with good reason!

We did it! We moved! We are now enjoying the country life at our Never Rush Ranch. Have a few more things to get organized and then I'll be posting again.

Hope you all had a wonderful mothers day!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Revisited - Fridge Door Handle Covers

I mailed the covers I made to the house and they were so kind to put them on the fridge.

I think they look great!

Sorry for the low res, but you get the idea. She also said that the cover fits perfectly on the freezer drawer. So I can just go ahead and use the same measurements for the freezer handle cover. Cool Beans!

So, have you made your cover yet?

Aloha A Hui Hou!

The Cactus Man

I noticed, one of the things Roger talked a lot about was getting on our tractor and mowing EVERYTHING when we get to the ranch.

That's pretty much what he did. The tractor started up without a hitch, just by turning the key. The fuel stabilizer worked like a charm. He was buzzing around the yard like a bee.

What you see behind him is an optical illusion - it is much further away.

Although our neighbor mowed last year, I think his tractor was so big that it wasn't effected by all the junk that was hiding in the grass.

This time around Roger found wire (that wrapped itself around the blade), pieces of metal, a weather vane (that our neighbor is now the happy owner of), nails, screws and barbed wire....all hidden in the grass. I'm still hoping to find a treasure chest!

One of the things he also notice was that its awful dusty and for some parts he wore a dust mask and that he is very allergic to cotton wood. Poor thing was sneezing up a storm. I think I see desensitizing therapy in his future.

Finally he discovered that some of the weeds are Ninja fighters in disguise

I now call him Cactus Man!

Can't wait for the day to come where we can get down and dirty and work on the outside of the house.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

My Library - Books I have and those I plan on buying

Although I love a good book, I find that when we do go to a book store I am more likely to go to the How To section of the store.


Sometimes, like today, that store was Amazon.


Since we are preparing for our life as country folk, I am looking at books that will help us establish our ranch.


Growing up I helped my parents in the garden a bit and had a garden or two of my own over the years. My dad raised chickens and ducks, but that was long after I was out of the house.


Hubby has a bit more experience in that area. They had chickens and horses and a garden. His knowledge base is a bit bigger than mine.


But for both of us our knowledge is a bit dated and some new thoughts have made farm life a bit, and I say this tongue in cheek, easier.


I already talked the about our plans to try out an Aquaponics system and shared that book with you.


Today I discovered a couple of books that have made it to my wish list. 


The first one is called:

Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard

"Many gardeners fear chickens will peck away at their landscape, and chicken lovers often shy away from gardening for the same reason. But you can keep chickens and have a beautiful garden, too! Fresh eggs aren't the only benefit — chickens can actually help your garden grow and thrive, even as your garden does the same for your chickens."

Now here in Hawaii we have a lot of wild chickens running around and I see them scratching all over the place. I could see, if you had a nice yard that that might cause a bit of conflict. But I do believe that a good gardener could use the chickens natural instinct to scratch to their advantage and it is all described in this book.

The 2nd one is called:

Beautiful No-Mow Yards: 50 Amazing Lawn Alternatives

"What has your perfect green lawn done for you lately? Is it really worth the time, effort, and resources you lavish on it? Armed with encouragement, inspiration, and cutting-edge advice from award-winning author Evelyn Hadden, you can liberate yourself at last!

In this ultimate guide to rethinking your yard, Hadden showcases dozens of inspiring, eco-friendly alternatives to that demanding (and dare we say boring?) green turf. Trade your lawn for a lively prairie or replace it with a runoff-reducing rain garden. Swap it for an interactive adventure garden or convert it to a low-maintenance living carpet.

With Beautiful No-Mow Yards, you can transform your lawn into a livable garden and bring nature's beauty into your life!"

Hey! You had me at no mow! Seriously now, we're not getting any younger. My kids don't live anywhere near the ranch so we can't hope that they will come to help us tend the property - We'll take any help we can get.

The area that is designated as yard is pretty big and although we have the tractor I would love for it to be more interesting than just a green grassy nothing. Not to mention with this variety it might be the perfect buffet for the honey bees we would someday like to have.

I know, hold yer horses there young lady...all in due time, all in due time...

Aloha a Hui Hou!

PS: if you have either of these books or plan on getting them - please tell me what you think!

One Step at a time

The stairs to the basement, putting it mildly, are scary.

The lighting is poor, the risers and side pieces are all scuffed up, the paint on the treads is chipped (some kind of texture paint), the hand rails are mismatched - chances are the previous owner made the one on the right.

On this trip we had the electrician put in a track light with 5 LED lights that we can point any which way. It makes a big difference.

The light only highlighted how bad it really was.

I don't think I will be able to paint the high walls and ceiling. Hubby thinks he can, but I still am going to get a bid for what it would cost for a professional to paint the walls and ceiling.

Still, thoughts of bead board on the lower half of the wall are going thru my mind, new railing and I also thought of tiling the stairs with the same tile as the upper steps.

Then the commercial from Lowes came to mind. Don't know if you've seen it, but they have the risers painted in different colors.

Photo Credit

Something like this. I really like it and I have four different colors of paint in the basement. Sound like a possibility to me!

Naturally this hit to me on my last painting day....as I was cleaning the brush I was using in the light room....which was the last room I painted.

I hurried down and counted out the risers and painted two. Of course it's gray and you can't really see the color, but those two risers looked good. Can't wait to finish it up next time!


Aloha a Hui Hou!

Pyrex

On pinterest I've noticed that a lot of people collect pyrex. Seeing a cupboard filled with a rainbow of bowls...well, you just have to see it.

Photo Credit

Tone in tone looks great too

I remember my mother had a set of Pyrex bowls - yellow, green, blue and red. I loved those bowls.

You can never have enough bowls, so I though I might look around thrift stores, antique shops etc, if I might find a set.

 At the first vintage shop they had several sets, but they were priced pretty steep. Then I found this 3 piece set for $10 - that is more to my wallets liking.

Later at the thrift shop I found 4 matching coffee mugs for a steal.

Pyrex

Get ready for a surprise.

Last year my mother in law gave us several boxes of household items that a neighbor had given them. Now that the kitchen is done, it was time to go thru the boxes and see what we could use.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered a Pyrex bowl and a casserole dish with the matching pattern! What do you say to that???

At any rate I have officially been bitten by the pyrex bug and am looking around, to see if there is any more in our pattern to be had here.

I went to the Salvation Army, here in town, and didn't find anything.

I wound up at a little antique store and they had A LOT of Pyrex and the prices were astronomical! They had a cup, just like my cups and wanted $19.00! I don't know if that was a starting price for negotiations or if it is what they actually wanted...but I was in shock.

Maybe I should think a bit bigger?

Maybe this is something I could offer in my Etsy shop? 

I decided to looking.

A few days later we headed over to a Goodwill store in Pearl City. Hidden in a corner I've found a bowl with a teal amish design. 

The bowl was a bit dirty, but nothing that a little bit a elbow grease couldn't take care of.

I also found a set of 7 coffee mugs. Here and there the design is a bit smudged, but I'm not sure if that is a sign of age or a misprint. 

It's like a TREASURE HUNT! So much fun...and the thrill when you find something...soo cool! lol

To date my treasure contains 10 bowls and several pieces that match the cups.

For starters I think I'll post on craigslist, so I don't have to worry about shipping. Wish me luck!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Loves me, loves me not

My fingers are itching to work in the garden, but for now we must be happy with what we have.

The rose bushes that I worked so hard on last year were looking good and had lots of buds. Our trip this year was just too early to enjoy most of them.

When we arrived, the huge lilac bush near the pump house was already turning brown, but they smelled FANTASTIC.

When we turned around we discovered a tree, among the black walnut trees behind the house, in full bloom.

Our neighbor told us that it is a flowering Hawthorn. The tree was in bloom the entire time we were there.

Near the pump house there were a few candy cane tulips, but they were at the end of their bloom too.

They kinda looked like this

Photo is from this site

At the South West corner of the house there was a big patch of purple and skin colored Iris

 They started blooming when we arrived, and were still in bloom when we left.

Although the roses along the driveway were not ready to bloom, the ones along the fence were. They were more bush like and had smaller flowers that grew in clusters and had less petals than the other roses we have.

They aren't that fragrant, but were all oh so beautiful. On a side note, I'm so please how these photos turned out. I always have a hard time photographing red flowers.

Naturally we had A LOT of these

In all different stages of bloom.....I don't think that I've ever seen as many different kinds of weeds, as we have in our yard. We'll have to take care of that when we get there...


Aloha a Hui Hou!

North, South, East and West

Just to show you how remote we live I thought I'd post a few pics from our surroundings.

If you go to the front of the property and look North, you'll see this

Looking towards the South, this is what you'll see

Looking to the East you get a nice view of the mountains and the sun rise

and finally looking to the West we see our neighbors fields.

Would you believe that the speed limit in front of our house is 50 MPH (80SKM)!! The cars just zoom by....that is if and when any cars go by. It is so quiet out there. Don't remember if I said it before, if so, I'll say it again. Roger says you could sit in the middle of the road for hours and not get hit...That's how little traffic goes by and now that we have the new windows, even if one does go by, you can hardly hear it.

So, that's the round about view...hope you liked it!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Forth of July

Happy 4th of July everyone and Happy Birthday America! Thank you to all, past and present, that have given so much for our country.

Aloha a Hui Hou

Wingback Chairs Part III

And here we are,  back to the chairs. I knew this would be one thing that I would like to get while we were at the house because it's not fun to have no other place to sit than on the bed.
Before we left I was hunting Craigslist and I did write to two folks on that were each offering a pair of wingback chairs that also reclined. One set was tan color (which would have been my first choice), the others were blue with brown slipcovers.

Neither responded.

I wrote them off.

To my surprise, just as we got there the one selling the blue chairs wrote that they had been out of town and had put the chairs up for sale at a consignment store in Eagle.

We decided to go take a look

With the help of the Garmin lady we found our way to the store and the chairs looked pretty good and were reasonably comfortable - so we bought them.

Yay! More seating options!

Yay! More seating options! (Sorry, I didn't take a picture of them - but you can see a bit in this clip)

ANYway, while I was unpacking boxes I came across some fabric I purchased some time ago that I thought I might want to use as curtains - it just might work great as fabric for the chairs. I just would need to go back and see if they still have some because I don't think I have enough for 2.

In review, although the fabric is pretty cool, it just might be toooooo busy. I'll have to think a bit more.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

The Artist

On our trip we found a little more out about the lady that used to own our house. As I posted before, she was a metal artist and made beautiful things. She even made something for the town of Caldwell:

It is a pedestrian bridge in the heart of Caldwell. If you look, just beyond the bridge you'll see a pavilion. Is is in this area they hold the weekly farmers market.

Couldn't resist putting a bit of blue sky in there. It was actually a pretty rainy day.

Looks like water scene with ducks, swans and herons

She achieved contrast by polishing some surfaces and flaming others.

Relt right at home when I saw the gecko.

This part depicts the salmon run. I was amazed to learn that the salmon actually swim all the way upstream into Idaho to spawn.

We were told the eagles, that I posted here, were ordered by Canada for the Olympics. They ordered 3 and then only took 2. Which was a great financial loss for her. She also made a mountain lion for some nearby town. Next time we will have to take a tour, looking for her other art pieces.

So sad to think that she has carpel tunnel so bad that she can no longer create such beautiful things.  Lastly we heard that she no longer lives in Idaho.

Aloha a Hui Hou.

Back Door, Check

Finally, finally the back door arrived. We had ordered it at the same time that we ordered the front door, knowing it would take a bit longer because the chinchilla glass was not something they had in stock.

The designer that took the order never bothered to keep us posted on the status of the door or the delivery date. So while we were there Lisa gave her a call and found out the delivery date would be some time around the 5th of June.

The 5th past, the 6th, the 7th....no news. Lisa called again and found out that they "lost" the door. Couldn't find it, what ever. It wasn't there. They will have to make a new one and it would be done in a week.

Say what?
First of all - how do you loose a door?
Second, if it took them 6 weeks to make the first one, why does it only take one week to make a new one?

I'm sure these are questions that will never be answered ...

ANYway, the contractor picked it up, making sure there wasn't a mistake like last time - where they made the wrong jam.

So, without further ado, here is a before pic

This seems to be the only pic I have of the back door

It was a dark wood door

With no windows.

The stairwell was a dark place.

Spiders live there.

Now here it is, the new back door.

As you notice, the door is a bit different than the front door. The style of the front door was not available in the much narrower size that we needed for the back so we opted for a paint grade door that looked at least a bit similar. Wrote all about it here.

I'm not sure what color we will paint it yet, but for now it's primed and has a coat of white paint to protect it from the elements.

We do want to have the screen door put back on.

It's not framed out yet, the new frame will look like the rest of the window frames in the house and will go all the way to the corner (hate painting in those tight corners!). I think we'll leave the inside white. Makes it more friendly and  bright.

We cam't ignore all the natural light that's coming in. Just look at it!

Can't wait To see it in person.

Now we just have to figure out what we will do with the stairwell walls.

One thing does lead to another...

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Welcome!

A while back I wrote about getting new doors. So here is the front door and we love it!

Come on in!

Cute story about the door knob. Last year hubby and I went to Home Depot here in Hawaii and picked out this door knob.  Thinking if we pick it out in advance, when we have the time it would make things go faster when we're there.

We thought wrong. We went to every Home Depot and Hardware store between the house and Boise and couldn't find it, until the very last one. All others said they didn't carry the brand, It was being phased out. At the last one we were able to get the style, but not the color. We bought it, just so we could have a new lock on the door, since the house had been up for sale for so long.

When we got home and wanted to install the lock - the holes that were in the existing door were the wrong size and in the wrong place. We wound up put in a cheap-ie for the time being.

So as the delivery of the door was getting closer and I asked Lisa to order the door knob in the right color. Bad news was that she couldn't find it. Not the style, not the brand, nothing. 

I thought I'd  go to the place we originally found the door knob, maybe we'd get lucky, find out where we could get a replacement. 

Looking thru the shelves, they didn't have the brand anymore either. We looked and looked, nothing. A sales person asked if he could help us and I told him what we were looking for. He informed us that they no longer carried the brand and they only had a couple left in stock, up on the upper shelf (shorty me couldn't see it).

And there it was - exactly the one we were looking for. Exactly. So what did we do? We bought it, packed it and brought it "home". 

It was it was waiting for us

Aloha a Hui Hou!