Winter Wonders in our Woodland Home - Winter Storm Stuff

It seems that there are degrees to the old "if a tree falls in the woods and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound" thought experiment. We had quite a snow-followed-by-wind storm from Sunday night all through Monday afternoon. There were times when I looked out the window to see nothing by white, almost like the windows were frosted, because the wind was blowing the snow off all the trees and roofs. Interestingly, not so much off/around the ground and hardly any off the truck. But what I didn't notice was any out-of place noises, so you can imagine my surprise when I went out the back door to start plowing our driveway around 2:00 p.m. to this sight.

I believe the exact words I said out loud to the forest were, "Oh, shit." Because, as I mentioned, I didn't hear anything particularly loud or unusual from inside the house, which is probably about twelve yards from the fence (to the left).

Speaking of the fence, it got in the way of this dead Ponderosa Pine tree from the National Forest falling over! Luckily, the tree was not that large and it was apparently plenty-dead, so it doesn't seemed to have hurt the fence at all.

You'll notice in this last photo, that the branches are going the opposite direction of the branches on the trunk on the forest side of the fence. That has got to mean that when the trunk broke on our fence rail, that the broken-off top must have flipped over in the air before landing, right? SO now the top of the tree is pointed at the center of the case of the tree! WHOA.

And look just how close this is to the only power pole on our property! And the wires are not that high, by the way. There is not a mark on the power pole and we had no interruption of power to the house, nary a flicker.

All in all, we got pretty lucky. As did anyone whose power is tied to those lines on that pole, of course. Delia is feeling pretty lucky, too! It's a Stick Bonanza!

Trees, especially the dead ones, are made entirely of sticks, ya' know!

One Step at a Time: Kitchen Edition, The Tedium Continues

The continuing storrrrrrry of a quack who's gone to the dogs. 

I mean, the continuing storrrrrrry of a DIY kitchen remodeling project.

[skipping the triple panorama action on this one and putting in a National Forest panorama instead]

I wish I knew how to capture how the yellow blossoms of the balsams go on and on as far as you can see into the forest. The second most prominent wildflower right now are the lupines.
Note: the fence is actually straight, it's that neato panorama feature!

1. Refinishing the cabinets.

YAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The last of the cabinet refinishing is complete (#6 on the original list)! All I had left was the interior of the corner pantry and despite the dread of dealing with unloading and reloading the contents, I did it.

I'm working on a plan to adjust with how the microwave shelf works. Regardless of how that goes, that unpainted spot won't show. It's my inclination to paint it anyway, BUT I am OUT of the primer and alllllmost out of the paint. Probably going to pick up another quart of each, but I wanted to be sure to have enough paint to cover the new shelf.

Now if only the doors were reinstalled because the special order hinge screws had arrived. A girl can dream.

2. Dealing with that weird (dumb) drywall/exposed beam/pantry door frame mess.

This isn't on the list, because I thought after I re-textured and painted that last wall in the hallway I would continue to ignore it. But it turns out that I can't ignore it.

EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES

It also turns out that I didn't find any kind of adequate solution in the building hardware section at the home center. Or any of the other sections I tried. This is going to take some thinking.

~~ Instead of a photo of the fix, I will insert an exasperated sigh here. ~~

3. Replace switches an outlets by wood stove (plus the hallway).

Yet again, highlighting the as yet refinished and awful brick veneer.

The terrible brick veneer is on tap to be painted and glazed in mostly greys, so I went with grey switches. I know there are folks who want all the switches/outlets/plates in the house to match each other, but I like them to blend with the surface they're on if I can with the occasional exception for a novelty or decorative plate. The downstairs is nearly complete!

To my eyes, it already looks better to have these updated switches that are all clean and in the new grey color. Eric doesn't see it yet. Maybe my brain just convinces me that I see a difference to justify the frustration and torn up hands of actually doing the project. Maybe Eric just doesn't have my vision. 

Another not-fun, seemingly small project. But well worth it for the result in my opinion.

EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES

I have probably ranted about this before, but DAMN IT! Whoever wired this house when it was being built saved something like $5 over the whole project by leaving the least amount of wire possible in the boxes for outlets and switches. Even one more inch/box would make all the difference for replacing these outlets and switches. As if that weren't frustrating enough (and truly it is WAY more frustrating than "enough"), whoever wired this house when it was being built also cut the ground wires extra short. In the case of the light switches they apparently weren't required to be grounded in 1976. Ok. Whatever. BUT they also cut them extra short for the outlets, that indeed were grounded. BUT this means that in some cases there is not enough wire to turn the outlets right side up! Or what we consider right side up. [insert cuss-laden name-calling here]

Of course, they didn't have the grey screw-less plates in stock at the store, so I had to order them online. And of course, I'm too cheap to pay for shipping for this kind of thing and had them shipped to the store. And of course, that means it took about two weeks to get them. The truth is that it doesn't matter that much, because I am not installing them until all the other stuff to do with the wood stove area is done. I just feel better when things are more certain; it's nice to know that as soon as I am ready the materials are here and ready for me.

4. Paint wood stove and stovepipe.

I finally called stovepaint.com to ask my questions and having received satisfactory answers I ordered a quart of the stuff in metallic charcoal. It's due Friday this week at Eric's office where it cost 1/3 less to ship.

L. Unrelated to the kitchen project.

The lilacs are early this year, along with everything else.

Like the balsam (and at least a dozen other types of wildflowers) which have been up for a couple weeks.

And the pine pollen. Crap.



The original list of the order I thought the projects will happen. Line through for complete items, italics for additions. I'll let myself do partial line throughs for partial completion, because it's good for my morale.

1. Light fixtures
2. Remove corner shelf in order to...
3. Remove wallpaper and repair walls (& ceiling) as necessary, get temp solution for backsplash
4. Paint walls above cabinets, around wood stove, paint laundry/bath hallway.
5. Cabinet repair, move, modify
6. Refinish cabinets
8. Level, repair, and refinish counter tops
11. New sink and faucet and the counter modifications that go with it.
10. Replace outlets, switches, plates in backsplash.
9. Install backsplash, probably tile
12. New refrigerator surface to replace old new refrigerator surface.
16. Replace light switch and plate in hallway.
14. Replace outlets, switches, plates by wood stove.
15. Paint wood stove and stovepipe. 
7. Maybe try to do something with that terrible brick veneer wood stove surround?
13. Build a door of some sort for that too-big hole for the microwave & deal with the inside.

Fog Monster: The Allergen

The other night we had a windy, rainy, stormy late afternoon. Eric saw a fog rolling in and fast.

That's right, those are dandelion puffs about as tall as the snow was deep in winter 2014. We didn't move to the forest to have a manicured landscaped, but hopefully we'll figure something out that's xeriscapic and deer resistant, i.e. native.

Turns out that the fog was actually pine pollen. Whoa. We don't remember it being quite this copious in the past, so perhaps it's an especially big year for pine pollen.  Woo.

Then a few days later: pine pollen on the hot tub cover, pine pollen on the patio furniture, pine pollen on the deck and on the cars, and pine pollen on the back door knob. I wish I knew how to capture the yellow or alter the photo to show how yellow it really is. Just know that it's sulfer-y in color and all over the place!

Springtime in The Mountains

We have what amounts to a lilac hedge on the north-ish side of the property, behind the house. It doesn't even come close to covering that whole property line, but it's quite a few lilacs nonetheless.

The lilacs are blooming up our way!  And I felt confident enough in the temperature to put a vase of them on the wood stove.

So quaint n' stuff.

Then this happened. I wasn't able to capture all the lightning, thunder, and just how dark it was, but you get the idea of how fast and hard it was raining and hailing for these parts:

The sun has been hiding since, so I ended up moving the vase to build a fire a few days later.  That's just how it goes.

Odds & Ends: June 2014 Edition

Delia has several "bush forts" around the property where she hangs out chewing sticks, getting shade, and doing dog stuff like taking a break during games of fetch.  If she's taking too long during fetch, I'll usually walk over and reach the Chuck-it launcher in there and fetch her ball myself.  One time I spotted this!

This is about 3' off the ground in one of Delia's lairs so I kind of hope that the parents realized this was probably not the best spot for wee babies and abandoned the nest for a new location.  

I've been working for a neighbor who has a big-boy version of a slot car track that he's building for a big international* race in November.  Starting in April, I've been painting lines, curbs, bit lanes and such on about 100' of track on a 10' x 20' table.  This is a craft project that staggers even me just a little bit.

Based on 4 or 5 tracks in Europe and the US, this track is supposed to otherwise be consistent with the 1960s for all the decorative details and the cars that will race on it.

This gig has a great commute!  Since they showed me the shortcut, I can walk there in about 5 minutes.  I usually do this in the mornings and noticed the sun hitting this old property border fence with it's lush moss coat.  Our forest doesn't have moss like the forest I grew up with so it was a nice little moment to start my day with a moss siting.

The orange tape is an indicator to passersby that the property is private and no hunting is allowed.  There are other methods, but this one is common and all of them are blaze orange at least until the sun fades them.

Speaking of cheery, unexpected plant life, I spotted these pansies sneaking throw an hole in the side of the silly truck bed flower bed that came with the house.

We're not entirely immune to the "rustic charm" of a pick up bed for a flower bed, but someday this one will find a new home on the property.  It seems just sort of plunked down and isn't really a color that suits our tastes.  Or my tastes anyway.

It's not just the plants getting all reproductive, either.

This little eggshell was laying on the edge of the driveway the last week of the month. What might be the other half of it was on the balcony underneath one of the birdhouses.

As June ends we're definitely going from our green season into our browning season.  There are still lots of wildflowers, but they're not carpeting the yard and forest like the Balsams did. 

 I don't know if this is native or not, but it's certainly an impressive size.

* Yup.  Racers mail their custom, hand-built slot cars from all over the world to race.

The Never-ending Chore Begins: Yard Work

Our project list for spring and summer is mostly yard work.  And not fun, creative, bang-for-your-buck projects, either.  The goal is to get it to a good starting point for the future, in which we'll mostly just let the forest be the forest, but where we have existing planting beds we want to keep we'll work on adding native, xeroscapic, deer-resistant plants.

It has started with about eight Tara-hours of raking pine needles off the driveway and out some of the planting beds and a tiny bit of the rest of the yard; I guess that's what you get when you skip a year.  I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Plus one of the wild strawberries that grow in the yard.

Piles and piles of pine needles.

Next, trying to reclaim the vegetable garden after one-and-a-half years of neglect.  Eric is in charge of that project and he has mowed and tilled the space and started picking up starts from one of the local farmers markets.

Yup. A couple of little mountain fruit trees.

Tomatoes, peppers, other stuffs.

I took charge of removing the last owners' lath "trellis" on the south-west side of the house and replaced it with my own trellis-in-quotes: "re-mesh" wire grids.  They should continue rusting and be hardly noticeable.

BEFORE: Of course, once I decided to put down the rake and go at the lath "trellis" I didn't think to stop and get a photo. AND of course, I assumed that there would be one in all the photos of the snow or dogs or what have you.  This is the only one I found; it's from our first few weeks here. You can see them in the back ground, but you can't quite see how slipshod they looked.

Small, subtle, and sturdy-enough.  Also attached with cup hooks, so easy to remove when it comes time to re-stain the house - something they didn't do with all of the lath.  Sigh.  

Next up:
1. More raking
2. Tree guy taking down a couple of dead trees
3. Giant drop box delivered to get rid of trash left by last owners (pft!)
4. More vegetable starts
5. Taking metal and cardboard for recycling in Missoula or Hamilton

Odds & Ends: May 2014 Edition

We've been busy.  Now that we have our beloved and cherished fence, we're trying to get the yard and property up to a nice starting point.  So far I have 7 hours of racking pine needles under my belt and I bet I have about that many more to go, but that's a story for a different post.  We also had the 1-year anniversary of Eric's 40th birthday, some other friend and family birthdays, Mothers Day, and me traveling to Bend, Oregon to do some decorative painting.  When I returned home early last week, I found that the forest had really "greened up" and the Arrowleaf Balsamroot had started its big spring show!

I wish I had the skills to make any of my cameras do justice to how pretty the forest floor looks covered in wildflowers.  Not just the yellow Balsamroots, but probably about a dozen other kinds, too.  I was, however, able to get a pretty flattering shot of our fence bordering, and gate leading to, the forest.

What a treat to share with longtime friends from Portland, Jeff & Becky and their girls, Megan and Sydney who made a quick visit on their vacation road trip between Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks!

While I do wish I'd gotten more photos of the visit, I'm really just so happy that it was such fun that we didn't really didn't think to take them.  Also, Betty is not the first of my pets to fall hard for Jeff.  I should also note that Betty spent just as much time trying to make Becky and the girls feel welcome; she's just that good at her job.

And we finally got a chance to take a little local road trip ourselves... to Georgetown Lake with new friends to celebrate a 40th birthday!

If you squint and use the power of your imagination you can see the lake (still frozen over) in the bottom of that space between the trees.  Mostly use the power of your imagination for this.

Can you believe that the photo "of" Georgetown Lake was taken just a few hours before the photo of the Balsamroots?  Springtime in the Rockies!

So Comes The Melt

And for the last week or so all that snow has been slowly melting. Not so slowly that there haven't been 2-day flood warnings issued every two days, but not so quickly that the snow is gone.  I missed my chance to get a photo of the deep and wide gullies washed out of the road, because a couple neighbor johnnies-on-the-spot filled them before I made my return trip.  But I did get this one. Not only does the photo not do it justice, but it's not half the size of the big 'un by any measure. And the big was one ran along the center of the road for quite a piece.

There's not much beauty left in the snow at this point, either.

For Monday the forecast was for 100% chance of rain and snow during the day and 100% of snow at night with an accumulation of 2-6 inches total.  Of course, the rest of the week is supposed to be above freezing and not snowing, so I hope the road and driveway don't revert to their slippery ways.  Here's a macro view of the driveway melt-off, note how you can see bare ground now!

As you can imagine, there's not a lot of spring blossom action going on around here, but I did notice pussy willows in the lower pasture!  So I cut a few to put in a vase in the house.  For some reason the main floor bathroom seemed the right place.

You can see where I've pulled some of the paper down already; I don't know that it actually looks any worse that way.

This is the next redecorating project, so get as  much of that wallpaper as you can stand now, because I hope it will be gone by the end of summer!

Forest Floor Findings

Look what we saw while walking the BGs through the forest Thursday afternoon!  Little tiny strawberries.  I don't know the story of whether they belong here or how they got here, but there they are anyway.

The berries are about 3/8" - 1/2" at the biggest measurement.  Not quite ripe or we would have sampled.

Later on in the walk Delia took time out from sniffing to dig all around this rotting stump.  There must've been a small critter under there.

"What digging?  Why would you think I've been digging?" Delia Fields Fischl, 1.75 years.

Wee Flowers

I finally remembered to take a camera (well, a phone) on our near-nightly walk around the loop with the Beastie Grrrlz, so now I can share some of the little wild flowers we see along the road and in the forest.  Some are familiar, some are not and I don't know if any are native or invasive, either.  I apologize for the photo quality, but all is in shadow at that time of evening and there is a surprising amount of wind in the 1-6" off the ground layer.

I saw these for the first time just before we got back to our part of the road this evening, but then saw two more right by the driveway.

And this little yellow number I didn't notice until I went back outside to find the ones in the next shot again.

The blooms on these are just a couple millimeters long.

I'm pretty sure I've seen these all over suburban Washington County, Oregon.

These little lavender lovelies look familiar, too.

When Eric was reading up on the buttercups, he thinks he saw that these are related.

Spring in The Bitterroot

On Friday afternoon I was playing a game of Pine Cone* with Betty and Delia when I noticed some of the mystery bulbs were blooming!  Of course, I had to get my camera to catch some macro floral action.  Then on Saturday morning, it snowed and I got my camera again.  Things can change fast here on the side of this mountain.

These crocus flowers seem about the same size as those I was used to in Oregon.

The tallest of these tulips are about seven inches!  I don't know if they're a special variety or are small because of the climate and other conditions.

Who can tell me what these are?  They are also super small: about 3-4 inches high, the blooms less than an inch across.

And these?  Anyone know?  They're about as tall as those in the last photo, but the blooms are probably an inch or so across.

*Pine Cone is a game played most enthusiastically by Betty, but sometimes Delia joins in an axillary role.  All Pine Cone requires is a whole lot of pine cones spread out along a walking route and a person to kick them.  The person kicks pine cone after pine cone while Betty chases and snatches them up in her mouth.  Sometimes if her mouth is full with a particularly good pine cone**, she'll stop the next one with her front feet.  If Delia joins, she does so in a herding-style capacity or will sometimes play Tug-a-Stick with the person while Betty is off fetching.

**What exactly is a "good" pine cone?  Ya' got me.

Betty has always appreciated a good pine cone, now she has all she could ever want.