Happy Mother's Day!

Guest Blogger Alert: Heather here. Stopped up to the farm last week for a quick Tuesday through Friday visit.
A lot has happened since the last time I'd been there at Christmas. There are curtains in the living room (sorry no picture of that) and there has been some painting done as well. The foyer and the bedroom hallway have gotten some pale blue/green.

The chickens are still there. Still pooping everywhere. But now as a Mother's Day present the kids all chipped in on some fencing. Rob and I happened to be home at the same time, and with a some help from Mom and Dad, managed to get the chickens fenced in.

There is a tractor gate and a man gate and so far the chickens seem happy. They do love the shade though.

Happy New Year!

Guest blogger alert: Karen here. We had a great New Year's Day at the Farm with everyone except Heather and John. Even the chickens had a record day! Enjoy the pictures responsibly :)

Pictures from 9/13

Herbs

I was the lucky recent recipient of some "hot from the garden" produce from Fieldstone Farms. Dill and 3 varieties of basil, green and wax beans, zucchini, summer squash, snap peas and the most snackable big cherry tomatoes I've ever eaten. Mmmmm.


The green basil here tasted like anise, though I can't remember the name. The dark blob in the background is Black Opal basil... very mild flavored. I want more.


This is the standard basil. We made some fabulous bruschetta with this.



And the dill! Pretty and practical.

Fairly Recent Pictures

Guest blogger alert: Karen here... lots going on, no time to blog about it. Here are pictures from earlier in the month.

There are still weeds.

The farmer with her garden.

Swatting yellow jackets.

"Consider the flowers of the field..."

Sweet pea tendril.

Overheard at Fieldstone Farm

"That is a shapely radish!"
Which just goes to prove that radishes, and lots of other plants are growing.

Mar, Mar, Quite Contrar... How Does Your Garden Grow?

*Guest blogger alert: Karen temproarily revives the blog*

We were lucky enough make it out to the new house for dinner one night last week (I cannot remember what day!), and got to see the garden in all it's glory. It looks rather like a new cemetary but I assure you it is very much alive, with new sprouts popping up all the time. The fence was being put it at this time, and Mom was literally working her tail off out there daily. It's very exciting. The kids enjoyed chasing Tim throught the paths, and the mosquitos enjoyed chasing the kids.


Even the weeds were pretty...

March Madness

Guest blogger alert: Karen fills in some details!

Yesterday we had a wonderful brunch at the new house. It was a large party including Becca and Alex and a good helping of the Dennis Mitzels. Food was eaten, walks were had, salamanders spotted and diapers changed. Here are some pictures from the day.

March Haiku

Warning: Guest Blogger Alert. Heather here, reporting on the dogged progress of the elusive LenMar House.

Renters! Holy Crap!

One night to empty left o-

vers from the old house.

February Haiku

Warning: Guest Blogger Alert. Heather here, reporting on the dogged progress of the elusive LenMar House.

Can't stop on the drive

way. Might get stuck forever

with mailbox in sight.

January Haiku

Warning: Guest Blogger Alert. Heather here, reporting on the dogged progress of the elusive LenMar House.

The snow, not yet to

the rafters, thank god. Would take

days to dig us out...

December Haiku

Warning: Guest Blogger Alert. Heather here, reporting on the dogged progress of the elusive LenMar House.

The Tree. So big it
nears the ceiling. Decorate
in January.

Oh yeah, here's the Thanksgiving part...

Warning: Guest Blogger Alert. Heather here, reporting on the dogged progress of the elusive LenMar House.We were all very thankful to have the basement usable for the Thanksgiving feast with all of Mom's side of the family over. We did manage to get 27 people happily fed. The turkey wasn't the only thing that was stuffed that day. Everybody rolled around for most of the afternoon and few had room for the desserts, though everybody had some anyway.

Mom made the turkey, ham and stuffing. Alex (and Becca) made a lot of the snacking food. Hooray for a chef in the family, I say. Alex made 2 humongous and delicious cheese balls and some of the cookie assortment and an unusual, but delicious, apple pie pumpkin. Karen and Tim brought the mashed potatoes and the entertainment, because really that's what 3 kids under 4 years old are. They were surprisingly well behaved for the extended hours and sheer number of people vying for their attention. John and I brought an assortment of cookies and some holly decor. Various extended family brought cheesy potatoes, pies, sweet potato casserole, handmade chocolate dipped deliciousness and the famous rolls.

The White Elephant gift exchange was a hit as usual. The "best" items this year were a horrific scented candle, a "Mother's Day 2008" plate that was too ugly for words, and 2 books of Knock Knock Jokes. The most traded items were a Michiganopoly game and a big bag of M&M's.

We were all thankful for family and togetherness and a surplus of food and fun.

Pilgrims and Progress

Warning: Guest Blogger Alert. Heather here, reporting on the dogged progress of the elusive LenMar House.

John and I had the good fortune of being between contracts during the holiday season and were able to visit the folks for Thanksgiving/Christmas in November.

During the 14 hour travel we learned that the basement had been drywalled, a fact omitted from earlier conversations during the day with the denizens of the house, no doubt in order to surprise us. In order to drywall all the "schtuff" had to be removed from behind the hiding place of choice, the ginormous green tarp that divided the back half of the basement from the front.

Upon arrival we noted the strong presence of construction adhesive fumes and, after achieving a headache and then not being able to smell it anymore, deduced that it was rather bad for us. After a late dinner of spaghetti and a later game of Scrabble, in which we all played poorly, we decided that the smell was killing brain cells and went to bed.

The next day was a whirlwind of cleaning in the basement. The huge pile that was blockaded in the middle of the floor, held up at different points by a pool table, halves of a ping pong table, and various lengths of plastic race car track, put up a good fight but John and I, not to mention Becca and Alex and Dad with occasional supervision from Mom (though she had to do some serious grocery shopping), were able to triumph over the pile.

Becca and Alex put up shelves in the "utility room". (Note to Dad: ironic quotation marks can only be removed when all the internal walls are up.) The new shelves were soon stocked with boxes that were at the least labeled and we attempted to put them in some semblance of order. Also sorted were the massive amounts of "camping supplies" and "sewing stuff".

Camping supplies ended up in the traditional "somewhere near the furnace" area. The Christmas boxes were stuck in the back of the room.Mom's sewing supplies were put in the closet of the "back bedroom". When we ran out of room in the utility room and the closet, we began adding to the pile that was already in the "back bedroom". When the pile had been decimated the pool table was moved and the ping pong table was assembled. Additionally, Karen and Tim loaned 2 couches for the TV area and we went to pick those up. (Rumor has it that the pool and ping pong tables came from their basement as well.

When we were ALL DONE, the basement with the loaner items (including a huge projection screen and projector from Uncle Larry) the basement looked like this......drum roll please.........

This shot is from the bottom of the stairs looking toward dad's office. Ignore the semi-resident mechanic in the corner.

From the office hallway looking toward the stairs. The mechanic is now rocking Guitar Hero (on loan from Becca and Alex).

The screening room. Thanks to an antenna in the attic, the Thanksgiving football games were available. This quickly became the largest Guitar Hero screen known to Michigan.

Last, but not least, the under-the-stairs closet was stuffed with sporting equipment, extra cold weather gear, and folding chairs and tables.

A very satisfying, if long and arduous, day of organization in the basement came to an end.

November Haiku

Warning: Guest Blogger Alert. Heather here, reporting on the dogged progress of the elusive LenMar House.

Shivering hands wear

gloves, making it hard to type.

Too cheap for heat. Brrr.

October Haiku

Warning: Guest Blogger Alert. Heather here, reporting on the dogged progress of the elusive LenMar House.

Leaves are falling out-
side the plywood we call "door"
Stain, why won't you dry?

An Early Fall Visit

WARNING: Guest blogger alert! Heather here. Reporting on the dogged progress of the elusive LenMar House!

At the end of September I got to visit the folks in the new house! And, yes, I visited the old house too. The big projects while I was there were a garage sale at the old house and some basement organization in the new house.
As for the garage sale, Karen and I managed to get rid of loads of stuff. $300 and much emptier 2 of 6 bedrooms (the other 4 were already pretty darn empty), upstairs linen closet, downstairs hall closet, laundry room, and shop rafters! Excellent work if I do say so myself.
As for the new basement the folks and I spent most of a Saturday down there. Mom got started on the front doors. (For those of you following along at home, the original front doors for the house had been stained and installed by the builders people. Unfortunately, the stain job was done very poorly. Probably because there was NO prep done.) So Mom did all the prep for staining the new doors. There was alot to do. She had to clean them, and mineral spirit them and fill a small gouge. Please note that the entire project was supervised by the Unabomber. (Ask Mom about her security measures.)
Meanwhile Dad and I took the ground plan and chalked out the walls of the as yet unbuilt other rooms. It is hard to see the lines in the picture below, but look for the blue. This is the future basement bathroom. We discovered that the sink and tub water pipes were not in the right places. Half in and out of walls or a foot off of where it should be. Boo.

The main goal of all the chalking was to find out where the utility room walls would be so that we could assemble some shelves. The utility room will have a door on the main hallway and will enclose the furnace, the water heater, the water softener and some other utility schmatta. It is an unusual L shape that will not ever have finished walls, so it was the perfect candidate for those massive shelving units that we could fill up and wouldn't necessarily ever have to move again. Dad and I assembled two 6 foot stacks and had room for at least one more 6 foot stack, but we opted not to put it up so as not to compete for space that would be useful before the internal walls are built.

We did get some stuff off the floor and so we were down to just 2 piles. The electronics and office pile is still over by Dad's office.

The pile from the old house that still has to be gone through is by the double doors.

The pile that supposedly has been sorted is behind the green tarp that divides the basement into the sort of usable carpeted TV area and the future TV area that currently holds the known quantity from the old house.

You can see the furnace etc in the background. There will eventually be a wall there. Likely all the sporting and camping equipment will migrate into the utility room and garage.

Lots to imagine and lots to do!

Late August Update

Guest blogger Karen here. I talked to Mom on the phone today during her lunch hour, and I got an update about what's been up with them lately.

Yesterday was a comparatively relaxing day for them. Dad had mowed the path around the property so they took a long walk and enjoyed the scenery. Mom said that there was poison ivy everywhere, but since it has been so dry lately that the mosquitos were hardly noticeable. After that they watched a movie and went to bed at a "reasonable hour", a rarity in their lives right now.

This past weekend Mom painted Dad's former office at the old house, and plans to do more painting this week when she's not slaving away at work work. Last weekend they also hosted a Marriage Encounter meeting at their new house, and the kids that had to tag along were treated to a screening of Shrek 2 on the trombwall via projector.

Apparently Pete is moving out of the old house tomorrow and into his school-year accomodations. I'm not sure if that means dorm or apartment, but it does mean less stuff to be removed from the old house, and that is good. Not that having Pete around was in any way bad for the folks since he was the resident fixer of vehicles and random task helper.

Mom is also pondering starting a shop on Etsy when things calm down with the new house and the old house is on the market. Any suggestions for what she should sell? Could be something involving materials found on the property (fieldstones, for example), or just something she would enjoy making that would actually generate $$. Please, comment with your ideas, no matter how far-fetched. Thanks!

When It Rains, It Pours

*Karen here... a relatively uninformed outsider willing to offer you potentially outdated misinformation about a house that isn't mine and folks I don't see often enough*

So, after a brief conversation with Mom while she was stuck in a traffic jam on her way to the Verizon store, I got the impression that things are getting a little hairy over at the new house these days.

Here are a few problems on their current "trying to solve" list (it's not exhaustive, unfortunately):

1. The lawn tractor died. We're all baffled about what went wrong there. I mean, the thing was only about 50 years old and living in a scavenged pop-up. I'm sure there's a warranty. However, if anyone reading this meets a working one looking for a new home, they might just have a vacant pop-up to let out for cheap.
2. Business-complicating computer problems. Well, this one is unfortunately a little more serious of a matter since it is sucking up Dad's time and his paid work is getting slowed down because of it. Apparently there was a new computer with Vista required and still Dad is having trouble getting emails to download. In his defense, apparently there are about 3 accounts that have to be simultaneously logged in, and Windows XP has to be running inside Vista and the stars have to align just so. Darn whoever set up that network...
3. Poor cell phone reception at the house. Hence Mom's trip to Verizon. They have no land line, as you know, and reception with AT&T was crappy at best. Time for a change.
4. House eave still falling off. Well, this is not exactly their problem, but it's still getting worked on. In case you didn't know, the eave that blocks much of the sun into the basement in the summer was installed with nails and never reinforced with screws... so after months of workmen walking on it, it is actually separating from the house.
5. Front door out of commission following discovery of manufacturing flaw. It is currently boarded up so you have to go in through the garage. This is one of those mixed blessings since the "craftsmen" hired by the contractor to stain the front door worked a little too much like Jackson Pollock and much work would be necessary to get it to Chockley standards. So a new door is likely the lesser of two evils, but there remain the two side portions of the door to be reckoned with at some point.
6. Car trouble. Apparently one of the Tauruses (or Tauri, if you prefer) suffers some ailment or other, rendering it driveway-bound. Peter was on his way over to the new house yesterday during my conversation with Mom, and he can usually work his grease monkey magic to get the cars going again in times like this. What a good boy.
7. Old house not sold. Not surprising since it's not on the market yet, but it is a vacuum for mental energy. Progress is in the near future plans, but the carrying out of it all will be a bear. A big, hungry bear with sharp claws and moldy bathroom wallpaper.

Now, after writing all that, I just got this email from my mom:

"I just wanted you to know that Dad’s day improved. Pete (God bless him) came over and fixed the Taurus and gave both cars an oil change and helped with the tractor (although that doesn’t work better). Dad also got his email working."

A light in the darkness :) But still, a few prayers here and there could still help, you know?