Planetary Verbosity

Keep in mind, this is still just trash left behind by the previous owners. We haven’t even started any demolition work yet!

That title should bring up some interesting results in the search stats.

As promised, here’s more info about the clean-up. Earlier this year, we’d found a company who would bring a Dumpster up to the homestead for a considerable amount less than other companies were quoting us. We finally got the first one (probably many more to follow) on Friday and were able to start filling it up over the weekend.

Here it is, bright red and waiting for us to fill it…

We cleaned the trash bags out of the summer kitchen outside and added the roll of rotting linoleum we’d found in the attic, and we were starting to think that there would be plenty of room in the thing.

By the end of the next day, though, it was clear that either this humongous trash bin was either smaller than we thought, or the previous owners had left us a lot more crap than we realized. (I’m sure it’s the latter.) Here’s what it looked like then…

Yikes! I forgot to take a picture of it yesterday after we cleaned out most of the basement, but it’s even more full now. (Btw, all of that wood is rotten, some of it has been marinating in rat crap for who knows how long, and none of it is worth saving and/or salvaging for future projects.)

Now that I’ve posted a few “trashy” pictures, here’s a decidedly different one. We seem to have Deptford pink scattered all over the homestead, giving us little bits of bright color here, there, and everywhere!

After blogging for 6 years, I’ve finally won an award! Major thanks to City Mouse for presenting me with the Arte Y Pico award! City Mouse is currently on the same journey as we are - commuting to a fixer-upper homestead. I love reading his blog, following his adventures, and sharing ours with him!

Here are the rules for the award:

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribution to the blogging community.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.

4) The award winner and one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog so everyone will know the origin to this award.

5) To show these rules.

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Ok, here are my five. I wish I could give one back to City Mouse, as his is my favorite blog!

1. In My Head - Jamie’s blog remains at the top of my list because she’s been one of my closest friends since 7th grade…and because she rocks! I wish she’d blog more often (hint, hint) because she’s an amazing writer, and I love that she stops here and leaves comments! Love ya, J! *hugs*

2. Country Life with Country Wife - When I first stumbled upon Country Wife’s blog, one of the things I noticed was that I could’ve easily written some of her entries, as they mirrored my thoughts on certain subjects.

3. Thumper Thinks Out Loud - I first “met” Thumper when we were both members of Wil Wheaton’s Soapbox, many moons ago. Thumper is also the reason I officially became a published writer…not once, but twice!

4. Doc’s Sunrise Rants - I’ve known Doc since our days of being two of the very few non-Christians on an otherwise decidedly Christian homeschooling message board. Considering that I stopped homeschooling sometime in 2004, I can safely say we’ve been acquainted for awhile. I only wish that I’d had all of her current secular homeschooling resources back then, as it would’ve been a lot easier than trying to sift through the fundamentalist homeschooling crap on my own.

5. Halushki - like many of the others, I met Jozet on a message board years ago. She’s one very talented writer and is a fellow resident of this fascinating part of the universe known as southcentral Pennsyltucky. On that board long ago, when lots of lies were told about me by some “powerful bullies” (read: powertripping asshats) and I was made out to be some world-class monster, Jozet was apparently able to see beyond their immaturity…or else she just decided to make up her own mind about the whole thing. In any case, she still talks to me. Thanks, J.

Ok, I’ve chosen my five. Stay tuned for an entry about the homestead happenings, including our already half-full Dumpster. Hrm…I guess that’s actually more exciting for us than it is for any of you. In a nutshell, with pics to follow in the upcoming entries:

We actually found someone who would bring a Dumpster over the mountain without majorly overcharging us for it. We’re getting rid of as much trash as we can fit into the thing. We have Deptford pink, mud dauber wasps, dust, spiders, and box elder bug nymphs everywhere. We bought real Amish baked goods from a home near our homestead, and this stuff is great!

Anyway, I’ll have pictures (and eventually videos) and more entries soon. Thanks again to City Mouse for my first award!

My wonderful husband and partner in the homesteading journey is starting another year in his life today.

Happy birthday, Dave…I love you!

Well, it seems like we’ve completely skipped spring in this part of the country. Just a few weeks ago, we were still running the heat and wearing jackets to work. Over the past week, the top news story was a record-setting heat wave. We didn’t even think twice about turning on the air conditioning, while in past years, we’ve tried to hold off as long as we could by opening the windows and using fans. Not this year…bring on the A.C.

On the homestead, the “wildlife season” is now in full swing. Many insects seem to love our new shed and are trying to make a home out of it. Though the wood is treated on the outside, the carpenter bees have been trying to get at the inside - thankfully with little success. We did find one this afternoon, digging in from the outside…so much for that “carpenter bees don’t like treated wood” myth. We’ve also discovered that if you want to seriously piss off a carpenter bee, spray up inside the hole (while the bee’s digging in there) with Simple Green. I’ve never heard a bee more angry than that one!

Then there were the ants. I guess they liked the sap in the wood; for whatever reason, they came in droves. Thankfully, a nice dose of “ant kill” worked really well. You just mix equal parts of borax (20 Mule Team works fine) and sugar, then slowly add water and stir until it becomes a paste. Coat some cotton balls in the paste and place them where the ants will be sure to find them. Fair warning - if you don’t want the cotton balls to stick to the surface where you’re placing them, put something under them…a lid from a plastic butter tub works great.

We have seen some interesting creatures around the rest of our homestead lately. Here are a few of them:

Cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) - these guys, who were perched in the forsythia, practically screamed at me when I walked through the backyard. There were three altogether, but only two are in this crop.

Blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata) - I got several photos of this one in the upper yard, both on the ground and in trees. Love the coloring!

Yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) - I’ve never seen a bird like this, but its unique knocking chirp brought me to one of the trees right behind the house, where it sat and observed me for quite awhile as I took pictures.

Snowberry clearwing (Hemaris diffinis) - It may look a little like a bumblebee, but it’s actually a moth. I don’t think I’ve seen one of these before, but this one stayed still long enough for me to get a couple of pics.

European hornet (Vespa crabro) queen - a.k.a. ‘biggest bee I’ve ever seen’! This thing was huge and was just starting a nest in the enclosed porch at the side of the house. Yeah, I ended up having to kill her. We’ve been trying to let many of the beneficial insects live around the homestead, but let’s face it - no one wants a hornet’s nest inside their house. She had to go.

Minnows! We now have plenty of life in the creek, including these minnows, plus darters, crayfish, and more.

In addition to the life in the creek, there’s life around it as well. The island is currently inhabited by quite a few ebony jewelwings (Calopteryx maculata). I only saw one last weekend - a male - but this weekend, there were at least 10-15 of them, both males and females. (The females are easily identified by the white dot at the top of each wing.) Once they got used to me taking pictures, they stayed and let me shoot away. The females seemed especially fearless. Here are pics of each…

Black rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta) - this guy appeared one day from beneath the forsythia bushes near the shed. I almost didn’t notice him as I was walking by, but I thought it odd that I noticed a “small branch” out of the corner of my eye where before, there hadn’t been a branch. Turns out the branch was a black rat snake which looked like it had recently dined on a small rodent, judging by the bulging midsection. After checking us out for awhile, he retreated back into the forsythia. Later, we saw him come back out and followed him as he crossed the yard and disappeared into the woods!

For those who don’t particularly care for snakes, I thought I’d end the entry with some cuteness! This tiny Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus) has taken up residence under some rocks in the backyard. I saw him peeking out yesterday and managed to get a pic with some grass in the way. After I went inside, he came back out and sat on the rocks, and I was able to take some pics through the window.

Awwwww!

Since I posted my previous entry, I went to Gander Mountain and tried on the two (only two?!) styles of low-top hiking shoes for women. Oddly enough, I found that I had to go a full size larger for Merrell and Keen. (The clearance Hi-Tecs I bought at Super Shoes last week were a half-size smaller than my usual.) Unfortunately, going up a full size also meant that the arches were way out of alignment with my own, so I didn’t get them. It sucked, too, because they were pretty comfortable otherwise.

I ended up going back to Super Shoes and getting a pair of Skechers. They’re 1718s in black nubuck (figure I’ll get them dirty at work, so I went with that color). I don’t particularly care for the nubuck finish, but at the time, I was mainly going for something dark-colored that fit well enough. After wearing them all day today at work, my feet are still really sore, but not as sore as they were after wearing the newest pair of Easy Spirits.

I’m really considering getting some good inserts, as Adk mentioned in the comments. Though the Skechers fit really well, they have absolutely no arch support. Zero. I didn’t notice this when I tried them on, but I guess that’s why they fit better than any of the others I tried; my main problem with fit is usually that the arch on the left shoe doesn’t line up.

I’m also a little worried about how these will feel in the hot weather. Will they have enough ventilation? I’ve never heard anything about whether or not nubuck is breathable. I was really hoping to be able to find something with mesh, like a running shoe, but it’s really hard to find wide width running shoes in general.

I guess I’ll keep these, but I’m still not sure. Even now, almost 7 hours after I took off the new shoes (after wearing them for about 9.5 hours), my feet still really hurt. Feh. I’m just tired of having to “settle” for shoes that don’t fit well enough.

Owwww…my aching feet! I figured I’d post a non-homestead entry for once, even though I’m looking forward to sharing all of this weekend’s discoveries from the ’stead - including a snowberry clearwing moth, cedar waxwings, and even a yellow-billed cuckoo.

One of the biggest issues in my life right now is shoes. I can’t seem to find a pair that fits! I don’t understand why, as I don’t remember ever having this much trouble finding shoes that fit until a few years ago. Back then, after having a lot of trouble finding something that fit in our usual discount store fare, we decided to try some more expensive shoes, hoping to find a better fit and especially a longer-lasting shoe.

Dave didn’t seem to have much trouble finding something, but I still couldn’t seem to get a very good fit. It took awhile, but I eventually found something really close - Easy Spirit Romy. I’ve gone through a few pairs of these since then, and while they were great at first, even those are no longer working for me.

I tried my newest pair at work today and my feet were screaming bloody murder when I got home and took off the shoes. Even now, my feet and lower legs are still aching quite a bit. Looks like I’m searching for a new shoe again.

My biggest problems are that I wear a wide width, and that my left foot (oddly enough since it’s the non-dominant side) is slightly larger. If I fit for my right foot, the left shoe is a little too small. If I fit for the left, the right one gives me problems. Anyone know of a place that sells mismatched shoes? Heh.

I’m still going to keep looking. My biggest issue right now is that I spend 8 hours a day walking on concrete floors at work. I really need something that is going to be comfortable, but I’d also like it to be affordable, as I’ll be putting a lot of miles on them on that concrete…ugh.

Anyone have any suggestions? I’ve thought about going somewhere to be professionally-fitted, but then they’ll want me to buy their shoes at inflated prices. I’ve done various searches for info and most of the brands mentioned are way too expensive. Generally, most people seem to recommend running shoes for working on concrete because of the cushioning and support; several also mentioned low-top hiking shoes.

I’m still not sure what I’m going to do, but this is really frustrating! I already hate trying on shoes; having a hard time finding something that fits makes it even worse. Anyway, I just had to vent. I’ll post the nature pics soon.

This is the other entry I’d mentioned on May 11…now you can see why I split it off into a separate post!

First off, the geese are no longer on the island. A week or so after I wrote the April 20 entry, we had some really heavy rains, and the island was completely submerged. I sort of had a feeling that might happen. We have no idea what happened to the nest or eggs after being washed away; they probably either broke or were scavenged by a raccoon.

Many of the flowers I posted in that entry are gone for the year as well, giving way to May’s flowers. We found out that we have three very large and out-of-control sections of lilac bushes (all purple) in various areas. They smelled amazing while they lasted, but they’re now done blooming for the year. There are also irises blooming in random spots. There is a dark purple/bluish one near the silver maple tree behind the house, white ones behind the barn, and lighter purple ones beside the house.

Lilacs:

Huge lilac bush by the road:

The various colors of irises:

True to their name, there are creeping buttercups nearly everywhere in the upper yard, peppering the yard with yellow. (Hey, it beats getting nearly the same effect from dandelions.) The same is happening in the woods with sweet rocket…purple everywhere! We can now also positively identify the bushes that bore red berries last fall - honeysuckle bushes, which unfortunately don’t smell good like regular honeysuckle. The flowers on the bushes really don’t have much of a smell at all, but they’re still nice to look at and they’re all over the place as well. There are also several night-flowering catchfly plants in the upper yard, not necessarily living up to their name as they stay open throughout the day, too. The tiny Persian speedwell has proven to be hardy enough to survive both mowing and crazy weather changes.

Creeping buttercup:

Sweet rocket:

Close-up of some flowers on a honeysuckle bush:

Night-flowering catchfly:

Persian speedwell:

While looking for flowers that had bloomed since our last visit, I noticed yellow wood sorrel scattered on the trail up near the upper yard, and down near the creek, there are several patches of Star of Bethlehem.

Yellow wood sorrel:

Star of Bethlehem:

The flowers aren’t the only things living on the homestead. Though we no longer have geese, we now have a garter snake. It’s living around the pile of tin up by the barn and often comes out to sun itself. I actually took a video of it making its way out on to the biggest piece of tin - may post that on YouTube sometime. In the meantime, here’s a photo:

There are also lots of these spiders in the woods, especially down by the creek. With almost every step, I see them scattering. I’m not sure what they are yet…possibly young wolf spiders. (I’m an arachnophobe, but I’m also fascinated by the various creatures living on the ’stead.)

Creepy-crawlies:

I’ve seen lots of deer and raccoon tracks by the creek, but I haven’t yet seen the animals themselves.

Raccoon track:

There are also lots of birds on the homestead, including a few northern mockingbirds like this one:

Phew…had enough photos for the month?

It’s here! Our new shed arrived Saturday as promised. We had stopped out to the farm on Thursday to check on progress, and the shed was almost completed…and was looking great! He said it would be delivered on Saturday morning, and in spite of the really crappy weather on Friday, everything was finished on time.

They delivered it on an old hydraulic trailer pulled behind a tow truck. I had my doubts about the thing actually making it into the yard without tipping onto its side (not because of reckless driving or anything, but because of the angle at which they had to enter the yard), but the driver seemed to know what he was doing and had no problem getting the shed onto the site and situated. After a few tweaks here and there, our brand new shed was finally in place.

We’re really pleased with the work he did and with the craftsmanship. It looks amazing, and we’ll be recommending him to others for sure, as well as hiring him for other jobs around the homestead.

Here are a few pics:

From the front, showing the double doors and the ramp…

From the side, showing the side door and window, and the back…

The inside, showing about half of the shed…

It’s hard to believe it’s finally ours, but there it is! Now we’ll have a place to store things, and we may even use it to camp out on weekends over the summer.

Ok, I think I’m finally back. I’d actually started an entry about the new happenings on the homestead as far as flowers, animals, etc. I decided to save that one to my drafts for now, and I’ll publish it within the next few days. I was going to put the info about the shed in that same post, but it really deserves a post or two of its own.

Since we first became interested in the house that became our homestead, we’d noticed a barn-style shed for sale at a fuel oil company along the main highway that runs through the valley. When Dave asked about it, he found out that the shed was crafted by a local builder whose sign we’d seen several times on our way into and out of town. It turns out that the builder is actually a young Amish man who does his own site work, then fashions the sheds on a concrete slab behind the family’s farmhouse. (For privacy reasons, I’m not going to elaborate on the name of the man or the business; if you live in the Valley and want more info, contact me via email.)

Once we realized that our dream for a shed was going to become reality, Dave did a bit of comparison shopping and found that this local builder was our best bet. We arranged to have a 12×24′ barn style shed built to house our mowers and the miscellaneous other “stuff” that comes with owning a fixer-upper homestead. We really need it, too; the dining room in our current in-town home is starting to look like a shed!

Anyway, a load of stone was delivered midweek, and our new Amish acquaintance was coming to do the site work on Saturday (yesterday). The day started out very rainy, but it was supposed to clear up in the afternoon. That prediction ended up being right on the money…the weather was very dreary in the morning, but it turned out to be a beautiful, warm, and sunny day!

We were at the house a few hours before he got there, but the weather cleared enough that Dave got to test our new string trimmer, a Husqvarna 223L. We’d originally purchased a Troy-Bilt with a couple of attachments, but the stupid thing didn’t work, and we found similar stories online. (This was one of the few big purchases that we hadn’t researched online beforehand…we’ve learned our lesson.) We took it back and exchanged it for the Husky. Even though it was more expensive, the Husky trimmer works like a charm! It made quick work of the areas that were in dire need of a trimming.

As I was commenting to Dave about how the trimmer was worth the extra money, our builder seemed to show up out of the blue. I almost had to laugh…it’s startling to be in the middle of a conversation, then look up and see that another person has suddenly appeared in front of you. It’s admittedly a bit more startling when it’s a young Amish man with a big grin on his face.

We made small talk for a couple of minutes, and then he and his younger brother started on the site preparation. Within two hours, the two of them - armed with only shovels, a rake, a level, and a few other assorted tools - had turned this…

…into this…

Nice!

We should have a shed on that site by the weekend. We’re just hoping that all of the rain in the forecast for this week won’t affect the site too much.

Oh, and even though I’m a photo nut, I didn’t take any photos of the builders out of great respect for their beliefs. I did get a couple of shots of their “transportation,” though. The horse was having a great time scratching his head and neck on that tree!

If you’re a young Amish man in the Valley, this is how you roll…

Since Dave has mentioned possibly having the same person come back to the homestead later for other repairs to the house, we’re now considering putting a hitching rail up in this area.

If all goes well, I should have photos of the new shed by this time next week!