The End of October

giant post oak in the backyard

redbud

forsythia at the back door stoop

plumbago at the sidewalk steps

spruce in the front yard loaded with cones

Plan B

When last we visited with the contractor, his estimate was $50,000 over our budget. Ouch!  Something had to go, so back to the drawing board (actually the computer and TurboCad). 

I ended up reducing the size of the house by 20%.   The Springfield house is 2,400 square feet plus attic and cellar.  The first plan for the house above Heck Creek was 1,680 square feet plus basement.   The new plan is 1,344 square feet.  We had wanted to downsize, but that’s a lot of downsizing!

I took two feet off the east end of the house, making the bedroom and office each two feet shorter.  The rest of the reduction came off the west end.  Goodbye sun room and most of the living room.  That left a great room about the same size as the Springfield living room.   The great room will include the kitchen, dining table and a small sitting area around the wood stove.  We’ll finish part of the basement, making a den for the tv and the big couch, and the fiction collection.  We’ll also have bunk beds downstairs for extra sleeping.

I’ll most miss the sun room.  With all its windows and tile floor, it would have done triple duty as a greenhouse and worry-free Happa territory, along with providing some solar heat gain in the winter.  We can add a small lean-to greenhouse in the future for around $3,500 for a kit.  Happa will live downstairs --that means all electrical cords will need to be wrapped and the bookcases will need doors. (Happa says, “Books, yum, yum.”)

My Poor Little Blog

It's off to such a slow start.

I didn't post about the owl on Heck Creek...

Barred owl, first spotted by Robyn, photo by Ralph.

I didn't post about the early summer flowers in MO...

 Oenotheras and daisies take over the bank.

I didn't post about our June trip to NC...

Ralph at Craggy Gardens

I mostly started this blog to keep family and friends updated.  My new goal will be to post at least once a week.  Surely I can do that and then maybe I’ll work up to twice a week.

WIP Wednesday

House Plans

Spring

Happy vernal equinox to everyone.

MO house

Forsythia

yellow daffodils

white daffodils

more daffodils

and another daffodil

pussy willow glowing in the afternoon sun

pussy willow stamens

ribbon snake sunning in the quince

A Cyclist Sets Out to Renew His Driver's License

Ralph was rather peeved that he had to renew his MO driver's license this year.  We hope to need NC driver's licenses by the end of the year.

Ralph and his commuter bike

In the Front Yard

A Sink and a Rat

The House Above Heck Creek is going to be rather simple by most standards and we’re not planning on installing a dishwasher.  With just Ralph and me, most of the time there aren’t too many dishes to wash.   Ralph usually does the cooking and I wash up.  I envision one of those old fashioned, white enameled, cast iron farm sinks with a single bowl in the middle and drainboards on each side in the kitchen of the House above Heck Creek.  It just seems so practical.  You could put dishes waiting to be washed on one side and a dish drainer on the other.  Those plastic mats that go under the dish drainer are always grungy looking and never seem to deliver all the water to the sink. 

the sink I'd like to have

We just haven’t been able to find a sink in good condition at a reasonable price.  So, Ralph posted a want ad on Craig’s List.  Soon we hear from Bill who says he has a sink.  That weekend Ralph and I headed out in the pickup for the little town of Wasola, MO.  Bill had told Ralph to be prepared to get dirty and to bring a flashlight.  I’ve always heard tell of people finding forgotten furniture and other treasures in old barns and attics--maybe a nice table or dresser would be lurking under the dust in Bill’s storage building?  (Or maybe not.)

About an hour later we met up with Bill and his sixteen-year-old son Eli in Wasola and followed them to Bill’s storage building.  Bill told us he had been a truck driver until his back began to bother him.  He looked like the “good ol’ boy” type with a beer gut hanging over his belt.  Eli looked like he was going to grow up to be just like his dad. 
 
My first thought when I stepped into Bill’s storage building was that I was glad my tetanus shot was up to date.  In a former life, the building had been Bill’s father’s auto repair shop.  The floor was littered with oily car parts, broken headlights, bits of hoses and belts, pipes, sheet metal, rusty metal pieces, soft drink bottles and cans, nuts, bolts, screws, nails and other debris, all topped with about a dozen  rolls of yellow fiber glass insulation--no bare floor in sight.  It reminded me of some of the photos of Joplin after the tornado hit last May.   

Bill's storage building with Eli

We clambered over and through all the junk to the back corner where the sink sat.  Yes, it was a white enameled, cast iron sink with a single bowl and two drainboards, and (as far as I could tell under all the grime) it was in good shape.   Then Bill opened the cabinet under the sink and there was a huge rat’s nest with a huge rat in it.
 

rat

“I hate rats!” shouted Bill.  “The only thing I hate worse is ‘possums.  Eli, find me a stick!” 

Eli rummaged around for a minute and produced an aluminum carpenter’s level about four feet long with a broken bubble tube . 

“That’ll do!” shouted Bill, taking the level from Eli and commencing to poke and prod in the rubble around the sink cabinet.

“I see it!”   Whack, whack, whack. “I hate rats!”  Bill triumphantly held aloft a rather large rat by the tail, slinging rat’s blood everywhere including all over the sink.

Now, I’m not especially squeamish and I’m not fond of rats, but I do find the killing of anything with such fervor and glee unsettling.
 
Maybe I’ll make do with this sink from Ikea. 

Spring Already?

First Daffodil, January 29, 2012

The House above Heck Creek

The House above Heck Creek hasn’t been built yet.  We’re working on it. 

Years ago we had planned on moving out west--the Black Hills of South Dakota or maybe somewhere in Montana.  We made it as far west as Missouri.  Life happens and along the way the goal changed to simply moving back home to western North Carolina.  In October of 2010 we bought 40 acres or so of mostly wooded, steep to very steep land above Heck Creek in Madison County, NC.

Last summer we graded a driveway up to the house site and installed a septic system.  Maybe this year we can work on the house.

Meanwhile, Happy New Year from the Missouri Ozarks.

Heck Creek in July