Happy Fourth!

I've been itching to create something... anything.  It's been a while and I fear the old creative juices are gonna dry up and blow away if I don't do something!

In the spirit of the holiday, I put together a little something that was inspired by Gail at My Repurposed Life.

One day I hope to be able to create a beautiful and unique piece of functional furniture like Gail, but for now I'll settle for just a little holiday touch to brighten the kitchen.

Have a Safe and Happy Holiday!

Lions & Tigers & Bears - Oh My!

Good grief.  I guess I better stop complaining about the weather because it seems the upper atmosphere has ears and doesn't like me grumping about all the rain.  I think there are very few places in the United States that have actually had a nice Spring.  Fires, floods, tornadoes - you name it, it's been awful everywhere.  Guess I really didn't have much to complain about compared to what others are facing and losing.  I was complaining about cold, cloudy and wet.  Nothing, I tell you, nothing compared to the devastation elsewhere.

So, I guess it's my own darn fault that I lost one of my good (tree) friends in the storm last night.

He was a goofy looking thing, for sure, but he was like the Sentry at the end of our driveway.  Our personal Wal-mart wanna be greeter. Our unique, not-another-one-like-it-in-the-world tree.

Snap.  Gone.

By far, the worst damage we've had out here from storms since moving out here in 2003.   We've had wind storms that picked up pieces of outdoor furniture and blew them across the yard and downed huge limbs, but never have we had whole, giant trees destroyed.  

Okay, so we didn't have lions and tigers and bears, but there were plenty of "Oh My's!" as we walked around the property surveying the damage.

Inside the spare garage... at least the new garage door opener wasn't destroyed.

Poor little spare garage.

Grain bins don't belong in corn fields.

(If you click to enlarge the picture, you will see Dolly Llama is a little confused about the large object in the corn field too)

The charming old machine shed took a beating too.  The same tree that embedded itself in the garage roof, banged into the machine shed...

... and actually moved the building.

Mind you, the building wasn't in the best shape to begin with, but at least it was straight.  The boards were not leaning to the east before the storm.

This was another giant beauty that was hard to see fall.  It held remnants of a tree house built years and years ago and was a wonderful source of shade for the little grain building and the llamas.

It fell into the fence and took out a couple sections.  The llamas, like the goats in one of the other pens on the north side of the property took advantage of the breaks and were roaming freely around the yard this morning!

Considerable damage, for sure.  BUT, there are more things that weren't damaged... our vehicles, our house, our little pond, our family.  It could have been much, much worse.  

The big machine shed will have to come down now before it falls down with the next big wind.  (but won't those 100 year old boards make some awesome, rustic items?)  The spare garage may disappear too.  Its cement floor may become a basketball court.  The trees, as they were, cannot be replaced, that is the saddest part of all.  The appearance of things out here will change - slowly, dramatically, but isn't that the way it is in life?  Change, always change.

Iowa Life

I have very little to show in the way of project progress for the weeks I've been away from the blog, so I won't even bother.  Instead, I've been spending time outdoors, enjoying as much of it as possible.  The weather has been wickedly cruel this spring - cold and wet with intermittent days of blazing heat.  Temperatures in the 60's one day followed by 90's the next.  It is almost as though Mother Nature is demanding our attention... or punishing us for ignorance of her great powers.

 

Three of the four exit roads from our place are posted with caution signs.  These "Level B" roads are blocked all winter long and practically impassable right after rain the rest of the year until the county grader scrapes away the ruts and gullies.   They remain open solely for farmers who have no other access to their fields.  They are slowly disappearing from the Iowa landscape as new accesses are created on higher maintenance roads and they become crop ground... a win-win situation for farmers and the county.

 

One hot evening, after an afternoon of water wars and running around in their skivvies, the boys and I hopped in the pickup after supper and traveled down the disappearing roads.

To the naked eye, these roads have little to offer... unless, of course, you're a kid with a dirt bike.  But I find they lend a glimpse back in time when there was nothing unusual about them at all.

I hate to even guess how old this fence post might be.  It's definitely before the invention of the perfectly milled, weather treated posts used today.  It looks pretty proud standing there next to the steel post and electric fence, don't you think?

The windmill - once the life blood of the family farm - pumped water from the well to the farm, providing water for the family and livestock.  These are disappearing as well.  It is fairly rare to spot a windmill that is still standing intact. 

Perhaps that explains why so many people, like me, use replicas to adorn their lawns and gardens.

Wildflowers add a delicate touch to the rugged landscape on the seldom traveled dirt roads.

 

Patches of Iowa's state flower, the Wild Rose can be found out in the middle of nowhere too.

How beautiful the Wild Rose and other wildflowers must have been back before the days of modern farming, chemical weed sprays and high maintenance of roads.

The boy's favorite flower, of course, was the spent Dandelion.  This one was as big as Ethan's fist.  There was no leaving the area until they were allowed to blow all the seeds off the stem and into the wind.

I ended our adventure as the sun was setting.  The boys tried desperately to make me draw it out a little bit longer, but this mean old grandma took them home and put them in the bathtub despite their pleas. 

 It was one of those perfect days when everyone was happy - albeit for different reasons.  For Grandma, it was a nostalgic event.  For the boys, an excuse for getting dirty without getting in trouble. 

I did remember to thank Mother Nature for the nice break in her cycle of wicked weather.  It has warmed up to reasonable again, but we received 3" of rain yesterday morning and they are predicting rain and thunderstorms each day for the rest of the week.  We will be fine atop our hill, but western Iowa/eastern Nebraska does not need any more water. 

Kitchen enCounters

Oh the joy of feeling like we are finally seeing something like progress in the kitchen makeover!  It seems like forever ago that we decided to take the plunge to make some drastic changes.  In memory of the way things were, here's a shot of what the kitchen used to look like on a daily basis:

I've always loved the layout of the kitchen and the view from the window is to die for.  I liked the red countertops, but they were in need of replacement or repair.  We went with repairing and painting them because there just wasn't any way we could afford to replace.

The countertop in the sink area is where we found our biggest challenges:

Chips:

Burns:

and Oooops!

When we pulled the sink out, the Formica broke on the back side.  I think a disaster like this would be most disheartening for the light hearted, but I really wasn't concerned because I knew how to fix it!

First of all - don't throw away the pieces.

Just get out the Gorilla Glue, piece it back together, clamp it and put some weight on it until it's dry.

 Then you get out the trusty wood putty and fill in all the cracks and dents and burns.

It still doesn't look very lovely, but it's going to be just fine once it is sanded down and primed.

The chip and burned spots shown above are gone!  So is the busted up piece of Formica behind the sink:

Granted, this project - just the sink area - took about two weeks to accomplish because we both work full time, and the steps are time consuming as well:  

1)      Fill burns, chips and ooopses with wood filler, sand the countertops (to remove the shine and smooth out the puttied areas)

2)     Apply the primer - here I would highly suggest and most definitely recommend the Giani products because they are made specifically for these projects and they come with complete, easy to follow instructions.

3)  Dab your color(s) onto the countertops with a sea sponge (comes with the Giani kit)

In the laundry room I used all of the colors that came with the kit... plus I added the turquoise to coordinate with the color of the walls.

 

(That is my kitchen sink, pro tem while we worked.  It was 23 paces from the stove to the sink!)

For the kitchen, I went with just the red acrylic on top of the primer.  The result, if I do say so myself, is stunning...

...especially when you take into consideration the disaster we started with.

4)  The fourth, and final step is applying the top coats.  We went with three coats... allowing each to dry overnight before applying the next.

What we ended up with made us smile : )  we find ourselves just standing there admiring the difference!  Of course, adding the beadboard backsplash made a huge difference in the appearance too.

Of course the crowing glory was installing the sink.  I really wanted to get an apron sink to give my country kitchen the Crow's Toes look with a farm sink - but they start at around $700 and have to be special ordered when you live in the middle of nowhere.  So we went crazy and decided to go with a black sink and Tuscan Bronze faucet.  

Because we opted to repair and paint the countertops, it cost us approximately $100 and a lot of patience, but it also saved us enough money to have new custom beadboard cupboard doors made for us, so all we have to do is paint and install.

The most difficult part of our project is complete and we are happy and pleased with our efforts : )  Last night we purchased a new range hood and because the weather is not conducive to outdoor work, it just might get installed today!

I hope I have done a satisfactory job of showing how easy and inexpensive it is to fix countertop problems you may enCounter and maybe even inspire you to take the plunge if your kitchen could use a facelift too.

Family Follies

Easter Eve we had some entertaining overnight guests...

Miss Marlee and her brother, Nolan, stayed with us while their Mommy and Daddy attended a wedding reception. 

Don't tell Sarah's Dad, but Marlee actually sat on Grandpa Glen's lap!  She generally snubs all men, especially Grandpas.

Easter morning, the Easter Bunny stopped by... fortunately while everyone was still fast asleep!

Nolan was most pleased with the tennis racket and balls, but he couldn't find anyone to play tennis with him so early in the morning!   He amused himself with another goofy ball he thought was cool.

 

Marlee was not overly impressed with anything, until Grandpa found some m&m's hiding inside an Easter egg.

The weather was very nice (finally!) and Marlee enjoyed her first Easter egg hunt.

Ethan was a great help to the little ones.

And, of course, Chandler had to strike a pose, just 'cause he knew all the cameras were clicking like crazy.

After the big hunt, everybody had to check out the funny animals on our farm (or is that check out the animals at our Funny Farm??)

This is what you look like after a baby bull licks your hand:

"Ewwwwwwwwww!"

T-Bone quickly moved away, hoping Marlee would like his tongue better than Kristen did!

Morgan wasn't in the least intimidated by T-Bone

And T-Bone was just loving all the attention!

I sure would like to know what brother-in-law, Larry, was telling the Llamas because he sure had their full attention!

Before we knew it, it was time for everyone to say goodbye.

Here's hoping you all had as wonderful an Easter as we did!