The Christmas Tree ... starts....

Sometimes you need a supervisor. In my case, the supervisor holds court from the middle of his couch with a chew bone.

I often ask his opinion on things and he just gives me a look and a slight wag of the tale. I take it to mean that he approves of the new 'Christmas Chair' that I purchased this past spring.

It always starts with a deep cleaning. The space I have to work with isn't large at all. I am not one to do things exactly the same way as I've done before so each year, I try a new approach.

This is living room to the south in the photo above....☝👆

and

...the living room to the north...in the photo below....👇

this is it...

now you see almost all of our house. 

The Hutch houses things like camera lenses and Lego builds along with minifigures. The old table is where I do much of my indoor photography.

The room in behind is our tiny bedroom. 

Of course this is what things look like when I have scattered stuff willy nilly...

and then I make a huge mess...

It is no secret that I like boxes. I have old shipping boxes, dynamite boxes and fruit crate boxes as my movable units for books and things I want to display. They all get emptied and rearranged for the month of December. [I actually constantly move them around and restack them the rest of the year.]

In the winter months sunlight comes in directly through the south facing windows so I use a printed shower curtain to diffuse the light. Odd, but it really works and when the curtains are drawn, there is a nice lit up scene to view.

This chair is ugly but it exactly why I love it. The challenge is to make it beautiful. I started this year with a pine cone garland that is bendy-twisty. I'll adorn the chair with it.

In years past, I've always used an old white lacey table cloth as a 'tree skirt'. This year I won't. I want to keep the warm feeling of the wood floor. The lights reflect a nice warm light when bounced off the floor.

I moved my little birch tree into the dining area of the kitchen and added some red battery operated lights. In the dark mornings, it creates a nice glow of color in our eating area.

As soon as deer hunting ends, I'll be out looking for golden rod stalks that have bumps in them along with milkweed pods and grasses to fill my vases with dried floral arrangements. This is something my Grandmother Pearl did in her tiny cottage so many years ago. I always loved her little arrangements.

In the summer I bring in flowers from the garden, in the winter I bring in sticks, grasses, and elements from the outdoors for bouquets. It works for me and gives me pleasure.

Hubby is used to this now after all of our years together. He refers to my bouquets as 'weeds'. 

I won't bore you with any more of my ramblings.

How do you decorate? Do things you use have fond memories? Do you have heirlooms? Real trees? Fake trees? No trees? 
Do you like white lights? Or are you multi colored?
Traditional? Not Traditional?

I decorate with a goal of visual creation in mind. It is more for myself than anyone else as we rarely have visitors here.

My supervisor is the one who takes more interest in what I do....

well....

Gardens, weeds, trees, and stuff

The shade garden got more sunlight Sunday even if it was cloudy and cool.

We had a late and very wet snowfall this spring which took the top of a tree and bent it right over the shade garden.

Since I am not one that could operate a chainsaw to take down the tree and clean up the mess, I put some feelers out and finally Olive volunteered her husband. 

It was a harder job than any of us expected. Getting a tree down that kept hanging up was a bit dicey, but her hubby calmly took it down bit by bit. When he started sawing it up into pieces, I told him to let me know what he would like stacked for them to use in their wood stove. 

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

We made swift work of dragging the limbs and unwanted parts into the wood pasture [I took the hot wires down]. The big chunks that were cut were stacked next to the hosta garden to await another time for transport. 

Rich said he'd be happy to transport it with the skid steer when the time came. This is how we do it on in our 'neighborhood'.

Now I am eyeing that section of the yard for another Wildflower Garden mixed with more split up hostas and ferns. I don't get into strict planning, it just happens.

I thought I'd try out the little trimmer against the huge pile of invasive thistles. Last year I gave up cutting them down in this area and that was a huge mistake.

Sundance decided to supervise. At one time my neighbor had cattle on the other side of the fence. We used it as a large pasture after he died and his brothers took over the land and Rich kept it mowed twice a year. The 'deal' was simply that we mowed it in the late summer so the deer hunting party could walk through it.

The absentee owners then decided that we should pay rent and we took our hotwire down and stopped mowing. Of course all their weeds became our weeds.

So I realized a few things. This is a really big job. Bedstraw and other grasses are growing thick in between the thistles.

I chop with a machete and use the blade a bit at a time. I have to pick up as much of the thistles as I can and pile them. If they are left in place, it would be too prickly for the mules to eat the underlying grasses.

I made some headway. Tomorrow I'll take out the scythe and a rake along with the trimmer and the machete. I'm pretty determined not to let it seed out this year.

The yellow line is my progress against the thistles.

The inspectors came out to nose around and eat some of the previously hidden grasses. There are my piles of thistles! Yikes!

Of course I had a support team and we agreed to head back to the house when we felt some rain drops and the wind changed.

Sadly it was just a few droplets. Perhaps we'll get some tonight. Rain will soften the thistle stems and make them easier to hack, chop, and pick up.

I know this sort of thing works as I worked on another patch of the same kind of thistles and now, three years later, the thistles are easy to manage. So I have some hope!

Not the day I imagined

Sure I had planned an afternoon of bicycling along the Kickapoo River and doing some exploring.

However.

Things sometimes do not go according to plan.

The day looked cloudy and rainy, so I delayed my bike trip up the Kickapoo Valley and decided to work on other projects.

Here is Sven doing some of his work. I stake him out in areas that need a bit of cleaning up. He does his job well and tramples the other weeds he doesn't eat.
Right now nettles are his favorite along with tall grasses.
The only issue is that once he cleans this area up, you can see all the 'junk' and chunks of metal that Rich has tossed over the years.
This is on my list of things to clean up this fall. One small area at a time.

Projects....

This is a rocker I picked up at a rummage sale. It needs a new 'stay', but since they only come in pairs, I guess I'll replace both of them. I'm going to sand the chair down a bit and let some of the natural wood come through...or I will paint it. I'm not sure quite yet. It is a tiny rocker and suited for very small people. Charlie and I sit on the porch and rock a lot together in the evenings.

This old chair needs a face lift and...well, one leg is slightly shorter than the others. The paint is chipping off badly. So I got after it with some sandpaper and then ...

I thinned some white paint that is mildew and water resistant and 'whitewashed' it. I sandpapered sections again to smooth it out and decided to brighten up the areas I'd had painted red at one time.
When I am done, I'll coat it with a polycrylic paint and it should weather the porch better. Once the cane is worn out, I'll use it as a planter. This chair has really survived the ages! I've had it for about 27 years.

Just after I started with repainting the little spools, my neighbor showed up and it was time to get to work.

Justin began to saw and I began to stack. He was grateful for the firewood and I was grateful that he could cut up the downed tree.
The Honey Locust is very dense and hard wood so he dulled up one chain just cutting!
He showed me how to gas his saw up, how to change the blade, how it started...he even showed me his chaps that he wears. Apparently they are safety chaps that will stop the saw blade. He said they are warm, but a good safety precaution.
He said I could operate a small chain saw, like an electric one. I was skeptical. He is trying to convince me that I could even get an electric powered one with a battery. Lighter and able to do a lot of the work I needed done.
Hmmm.

Anyway, I started to stack and carry. The little stuff from the tree top went here.

And the BIG stuff.

I had to bring up from the bottom of the yard and toss over the little sand hill [left over pile of sand and rock from when the basement was dug for remodeling]. I'm hoping to hire someone to come in and smooth out that section of the yard for me in the next year, along with the other trees that are just west of the house getting cut down.

I told Justin I'd carry the chunks of wood and toss them where we could easily get at them to stack them in his trailer.
He kept saying, "That is heavy."

I replied that my Deadlift PR weight was 105, and if I used the Sumo Deadlift stance and a jerk to the waist ... I was able to pick up the small logs and carry them fairly easily. I had to think about how I'd been taught to lift and think it through more than once.
When we got close to the stump, I chose to roll those pieces up the hill and into the big pile.

We were pretty surprised that the tree was solid throughout. It was not rotten.
However the root system was so shallow it was a wonder that it hadn't blown down years ago.

Our conclusion was that perhaps further below the dirt, it could be rock and perhaps that is why it was so shallow? I guess, we will never know.

What about Sven? I moved him a few more times and he did a fine job of uncovering an old Snapper mower that was buried in nettles. He then stood on the seat of the mower and reached higher.

Oh and the last note for this morning.

After lifting and carrying all of that wood, I am not stiff or sore.
Amazing.

Sticks and some stones

It looked warm and toasty the other day, but looks can be deceiving. I went for a walk into the valley because it was so windy 'on top' of the ridge.
I was browsing for some interesting 'sticks' for my winter collection of 'stuff'.

I sat by the creek and listened to the wind above. By sitting very still I was able to glimpse trout again. I wonder where they go when it gets really cold?
I thought about how my Grandmother Pearl used to take us for walks and we'd collect milkweed pods and nobbin' knockers.

I gathered a bunch of small stones from the creek bottom to take home. I wasn't exactly sure what I'd do with them, but I took them anyway.

Yes, a self shot. Camera on a tripod with a timer.
I was filling my pockets with small stones.

I did figure out what I would do with them later. I painted a plastic flower pot gold and put the rocks in it. They will help stabilize the small branches I put in them.

These are some of the branches I've already done. I'm stacking them in a corner right now until I figure out how to work them in with the Christmas Chair and old crates I have.

I found one bunch of Milkweed pods and need to find another. I'd like to give some to one of my friends so she can have a 'winter bouquet' too.

I discovered that spray paint holds dried Yarrow together and keeps the Self Heal plant together also.

I have a couple of more ideas for some leftover boards. "Ho Ho Ho!", "Snow", and "Thanks".
I think I rearrange my little bundled sticks every day. I haven't settled on how or where I'm going to use them. However they look pretty neat inside an old wooden sewing machine drawer.

I will have to get a photo of that soon.

Sticks, boxes, paints

What should you do when the weather is wet and cold outside? Well, I suppose some folks would just sit in front of the TV aka the Boob Tube [as my dad called it], I call it the brain drain...
Or sit in front of a play station and stare at a game that unfolds in front of you. [Sorry if I offend anyone who is a gamer. I consider playing video games equivalent to staring mindlessly at a TV. But that is how I was brought up.]

Between writing Morris's last big adventure [He has had a few good days and a few bad days] and chores, cooking..etc..., I've decided to try out some things I've always wanted to do.

Last year while looking for some winter decorations, I ended up at the local floral shop. There was a beautiful display of Stick Decoration. I stood there admiring the sticks in a vase that were colored. There were vases with sticks that had glitter on them and lit up. A little old lady walked up next to me and we both stared at the display.
I said, "It is pretty isn't it?"
She ruminated on that and replied, "If you want to pay that much for sticks I suppose!" She smiled at me and shook her head, "Only a city person would pay that much for sticks."

So last year I gathered some sticks. I put some in vases and used glitter glue as 'fake ice and snow'.  I looked around at images that I searched for under "winter decoration sticks". I found painted branches and sculptures of branches for quite a bit of money.

I have searched our old shed for other odd things and found old boxes. Most are in poor shape, but I've used some as end tables for the couch and the work quite nicely. 

This weekend was wet and cold. Rainy and cold...cold... icky damp cold.
So I decided to entertain myself with a challenge. 
What could I do with sticks? Left over chunks of wood?

I gathered materials and had no idea of what I may do. But things started to come together. I dried a bouquet of Milkweed Pods. During a break in the rain I used some spray paint to coat them. I used silver metallic paint to color a small and interesting branch I found on the side of the road while walking with Morris Friday. I think it was Bittersweet. 

*Note regarding the Milkweed Pods. My grandmother Pearl always decorated her house in the winter with painted Milkweed Pods and 'nobbin knockers', among other dried weeds. 

I've always admired those cute little signs that had "Noel" or some of those neat antiqued looking signs that people put up in their homes. But I never wanted to pay the price for them. 
Bingo! Since I stink at lettering, I'd use the sticks!

And what about those sticks?
Well, I'll get a photo of how that turned out after I put it together.

And that box?

It was a mess when I started, but it will be very useful in my Winter Theme. Let's call it a work in progress.

Here is my Fall/Thanksgiving table.
There is the old kitchen drawer on the bottom. That was the only drawer we had in the kitchen before the remodel. The other little box with three sections? I have no idea what it used to be. I found it in the garage filled with old nails.
The branch with the leaves is unpainted. I stuck it in a small crock filled with marbles and rocks.

Today looks like a fine day to be outside. No rain! The temps aren't supposed to get out of the 30's so it looks like the cold is settling in. 
After two days of being cooped up inside, I feel a hike coming on.

Of course there are chores to do, meals to make, a house to clean... and all of those dull and dreary things.

I need to get Morris out for a few more shots and then I can start his book.
I'm afraid though if I go on a hike I'll be searching for sticks...OH MY!

Take it away

I haven't had a cold in ... well I don't recall how long.  It has been ages. However I felt one creeping up on me Tuesday and this morning it has blown in like a sweeping monstrous storm.

Normally my immune system is pretty darned tough and doesn't even acknowledge a cold.  But apparently not this time.

Of course I also have another part of me that has an infection going on so I imagine my system has had a 'failure'.  

I started drinking some tea to and taking vitamins two days ago to stave off this cold.

Alas.  I think I need a re-boot of my entire system.

The Tea.  It is called Throat Coat and is supposed to help with sore throats. I took a sip and decided if I could put up with the awful taste of licorice, I could survive the cold and sore throat.

Vitamin C.  I don't have problems with that at all.   Chewable and yummy.

However my hubby is getting it too.  I know he doesn't feel well when he announced this morning that he wasn't going to an auction that he was looking forward to. 

He is coughing and blowing his nose.

Yesterday, I cleaned the old wooden soda box I'd found in the garage.  I used Murphy's Oil soap first and scrubbed it, then used some Oxi-Clean to further remove dirt.

It went from this:

To this:

I love the color that came through!

I intend on making it into a spice rack for the new kitchen after the remodel.

This used to be a crate for Hill Billy Soda that was made in Richland Center.

I can't wait to see what my dynamite box will look like when it is cleaned up.

I know there is a big fun move to decorate your house with 'repurposed' items.  I don't find it that strange, as I've always loved using old crates for odd things.

After all, do you remember my Christmas Chair?

Well I'm drinking my Slippery Elm Tea and getting ready to go outside and do chores.

We had a frost this morning and some beautiful low fog.

However, I didn't feel well enough to go out and take photos.