TIDBITS

 

The change of season happened so suddenly.  It seemed that  we were all  so hot & bothered just the other day, weren't we?     The leaves all turned from green to beautiful  and then that W.I.N.D. came barrelling through the valley for a about 10 minutes one afternoon and voila...leaves gone, bunch of trees down, temp suddenly quite chilly and now its very hard to get the dog off the bed.   I feel bad but I have to resort to the old "come on, let's go for a ride" ploy.  Anyway, she falls for it every time and seems to forgive & forget after running around the property like the banshee that she is. 

Our neighbour's chickens are now laying eggs and we are the recipients of these beauties -- once a week!

The last of the fruit stand's bounty.

My sage before drying it--so lovely. 

SHEET METAL SHOWER SURPRISE

Here is the project we have had under wraps for the last couple of months.

I had this idea brewing in my head for a while now and just had to find a talented 'guy' to help make it a reality.

I finally did.

Let's just call him 'Donny' and let's just call him a really

 fine 

& 

creative

&

open-minded

&

willing-to-try-something-different

'guy'.

He did a superb job making this into a reality.

I won't elaborate much now because there is a lot of finish work to do -- silicone caulking, painting, more sealing, increasing the water pressure -- the behind the scenes, essential but boring stuff. 

 Then the re-vamping the rest of the bathroom (lighting, new sink/fixtures, some kind of counter top etc.,etc.).  Oh, yeah, some ideas are incubating in my wee head.

I must also thank K-grrl for delivering the most beautiful coloured glass blocks from California to BC.

They light that comes through those two blocks is

sublime.

They are perfect.

I am having so much fun with this MO-bile!

 

 

 

 

Thank You Very Much

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

All one-in-a-million girly-girlfriends....me loves big.

Flat, Flatter & Flattest

Greetings from the USofA  heartland... a place of vast environmental degradation, cattle feedlots  and  sweet puppy mills.  A land of 'GMO' corn, soybeans & cotton.     A land where  pesticides and chemical farm aids cloud up the air and the  creeks and rivers,  if not completely dried up,  are  polluted.  It's a place where people seem to be very thirsty and only a  67oz sugar drink can quench that thirst.  And let us not forget the flies...yes, the flies,  which provide countless hours of outdoor entertainment for the whole family.  Are you getting the picture?  I have been. I have seen. I became a bit depressed.

Yes, I did get to ride a South Dakota pony and spend time with my little 'sister'  but it was not under the best of circumstances.  Life has thrown her, and her guy, a real, big sucker punch and she was still reeling from that reality of life,  and almost death.  So you see my point?  Things were a bit skewed all the way around and I wanted to go home.  I wanted to be home.  I was happy to go home.


But, hey, what can you do?  I did get back home and pulled on the trusty rubber wellies and started mucking around again. Oh, yes it felt so good.   Sometimes you just have to put on your blinders and forge straight ahead,  get dirty and do  your part to save your own little world.   Maybe  try to make a teeny tiny difference in someone's life besides your own.  I hope I do some of that, some time, for someone, somewhere.  Not fishing for compliments here, just wondering and reflecting on a road trip that still has me puzzled.

B*L*I*N*G*

During a brief  'reno-interruptus' I acquired this little deco inspired table top.   A complete and utter surprise gift from a friend who is so observant and basically just so right on,  as well as generous and thoughtful and very,  very handy...did I forget to mention handsome?  Anyway,  the pedestal/urn had been topped with a silly little round  strawplacematthing,   that was functional but certainly not fashionable like my new bling thing.  Me adores it, my friend and you  K'now who you are.

homesteading

We may as well be living here.

I just want a simple shower built with corrugated sheet metal walls.

So we tore out the atrocious bathtub that came with the joint.

(please keep your comments polite)

Took it for a 'ride' to the dump and when it wasn't looking we

abandoned it in a dumpster.

We did glance back just in time to see the bulldozer smashing it...Yah! 

Yuk...the tub....eeek!

Bad attitudes are surfacing on a daily basis around here.

Maybe its the heat but 'cranky' seems to be the prevailing mood.

So, there the mess sits greeting us every morning, noon and night with nary a carpenter or plumber in sight.

Woe is word of choice.

But there is some progress:
new front door, more stone steps and gravel almost all the way around courtesy of my helper, MarkyMark, the best all-around worker anyone could hope for.   

 

MarkyMark aka 'the Rock'

Oooh, I am feeling better already.

pretty sweet...finally!

I am so not complaining when I say it has been deliciously HOT here of late and the constant rains have finally stopped.  We are now getting those wonderful rolling summer thunderstorms that blow in seemingly suddenly and just pound us.   Brief and to the point and then we are left with a holy coolness.     Been making hibiscus sun tea everyday ( the summer drink of choice )while moving gravel and rocks.   Oh, my beautiful glass blocks are destined for  MO-bile greatness one day in the very distant future.  

'GAVINANGELO'

In the beginning, there was the 'slope'...

...a few hours later....

...more work...

...another day....

...MORE work...

...almost done!

....bellissimo!

What is going on here you may wonder.    

Well, after the excavator left the job site, we were left with this slope of a runway from the parking area to the front walkway.   We happen to have a friend who is a master stone mason/artist  (I do not say this lightly) and he graciously offered to build some stone steps for us.  The day finally arrived and the transformation began.  As you can see the end result is a massive, monumental set of steps that lead down to the humble MO-bile...oh my...does this now mean we have to build a castle?  

Thank you Gavin for all your hard work and the lovely result which will outlive all of us.

Dogs Can be Dogs

It's time to write about PonyG and her amazing transformation.   Since moving to the country and becoming a 'country dog',  PonyG is a new girl.   Let me explain.

   She now lives her life  off-leash,  all the time.   She roams around her UN-FENCED property and does not wander.   She has figured out her terrritory and she patrols it carefully ( how did she do that ?).     She greets people who visit with a wagging tail and an over-enthusiastic jump up (can't stop it...I've tried).   She has a couple of vantage points that she favors where she can see all comings and goings.  She gets lots of other dogs coming to visit and play and as far as I can tell, she does not go to their places to visit,  unless I do.   She also does something that I absolutely love...she follows me everywhere I go when I am working outside...it is wonderful.   AND get this....she comes when called....Yup....comes when called!

She was a terrible  'city' dog.   She was skittish and wild.  She was a challenge all the time.  She was not my fantasy.   I admit,  I got close to giving up on her many times.  I was at my wit's end and I guess she was too.

Little did I know that within PonyG. there did indeed lurk

 my fantasy dog.   All she needed was an open door and some open space.  She has become a pretty darn good dog

living a real dog's life.

PonyG hunting for something hiding in the woodpile....a mouse?  a snake? a bug?

What's the Point?

It's been a fun-filled few weeks here in the valley of the Crescent as it always is when a favorite 'relation' comes to visit and....STAYS to play.   Why the 'quotes' you may ask?     It is a long, long story with many liberties taken but here it goes.... A 'cousin' of sorts is here and staying in the MotorHovel campsite.  We (this 'cousin' of sorts and I) had  known of each other for a few years (an entire lifetime really)  when one day we realized that we really like eachother.   This being  due to sharing  a similar sense of the absurd and a genuine love of mescal.  Thus, we decided (sub-consciously, of course) to become good friends.   You know how those things go....you know someone casually for years and then something clicks and voila you ask yourself "where have you been all my life?"     
Well,   one day  we come to find out that we are actually somewhat related via a convoluted web,  of marriages  (and divorces).  This amazing information is gleaned from the wide world web.   This was not your usual ancestry.com  kind of discovery as the lines are much more blurred and need a bit of 'faith' to actually connect the dots.  It is a stretch,   but,  this 'eureka' moment was one we both chose to embrace wholeheartedly and have since declared ourselves 'cousins' from that day forward.    Now all the pressure is off and we are no longer required to be on best behaviour all the time.   Like all good relatives we now allow the occasional lapse into naughtiness without the fear of  a rift or a misunderstanding  turning into a 'disowning'  or  a 'growing apart' sort of situation.    We can humiliate and taunt without recrimination.  We can annoy and then re-group.  We can gossip about others and we can agree on what everyone else should be doing.    We are after all, 'related',  not by blood,  but by the internet,  which trumps scissors any way you play it.

Life is good.