Leather (suitcase) Love.

Yesterday, I mentioned I am into preparations for a "light remodel" of Salem House, the little home we are buying near campus for Eldest and some housemates (still to be found) !
Today, I had the final walk-through. It is going to be really a sweet little home. Now, those who have known me for a LONG time, might be dubious about my optimism, as my love of houses has been known to encompass TOTC (turn of the century- not this century), snake- infested, dirt-floored, partially walled homes. But man, did they have great front porches back then!
I have become more practical. Salem House has contiguous walls, lovely wood floors (well, they will be) and nary a snake have I seen.
Over Thanksgiving Break from Uni, Eldest was home and we did some hunting in local antiques stores and junk shops for finds. Middlest was in on this as well, as she has a great eye- albeit afflicted by a hard time with a decision. Eldest picked up a few things, mostly furniture that can double as storage. This penchant for looking for dual purpose items probably has it's roots in growing up with me as a parent. I did mention in yesterday's blog, 200 year old houses= no closets. So, amongst her purchases that day were three suitcases, all in slightly different shades of leather. Easy to move, easy to stack, or place atop an armoire, they can store stuff and look handsome all at once.
 I'm attracted to many things in decorating, I like touches of black in a room, I like something that shines,sparkles,gleams. But mostly I gravitate to things with natural textures and history. These cases fit both bills, with rich brown patina, Bakelite handles and delightful little compartments and dividers inside. They have been up in the girls' room since the break, but this weekend, Middlest started pushing furniture around again (she is my daughter!) and the suitcases were not fitting into her plan. So, they came downstairs and await transport to their new home.

Here they are in my sunny, warm sunroom. Again, to those that know me well- it is warm! The sun has gotten us up to 65 degrees in here!  The cases are serving as a side table, with a trio of ceramic pears on top, and a lamp from someone's basement ( my Mimi's?) Speaking of natural textures and history, I have two slightly chipped enamel bowls that I use in the garden in the summer, but for this winter they are filled with pine cones and goose eggs. ( I know my Huz and Youngest love me, because they are willing to laboriously blow out goose eggs for my happiness!)  Note the small shades on the window sill behind, next to Irving Gland ( Irving is the name of the philodendron I've had since 1987). Those shades belong on the lamp that is currently having lamp surgery at Slater's. (See blog entry yesterday "Every town needs a Slater's).

Every town needs a Slater's.

 Well, after a few long weeks of not being able to blog with pictures, my Middlest figured out a way for me to do so, and I can get back to sharing!
We are less than a week away from closing on Salem House, and I'm ready to play!
In anticipation of the peaceful takeover, I have been amassing items for the new house, admittedly, not much, as I think I could easily furnish another house from what I have stuffed into Cowfeathers, complemented by the garage/basement findings at Wing and Wing (my parents home).
But last week, I made a trip to Slater's, in Lancaster,OH. Mostly to get a lamp rewired after a dog sampled the cord- hopefully learning a lesson, and evidently not getting fried in the process. Slater's takes care of most of my lamps, and they've rewired  a number of ancient lamps and old chandeliers for me....why buy new? They do it for a reasonable fee, and this means I don't have to rely on my electrical skills- one of the things I enjoy "doing" least. Plus, I get to rummage around Slater's.
Nominally, Slater's is a "hardware store".  And, they do certainly have hardware- plus plenty of stuff ya can't find at Lowe's!  
First, there is a few pit bulls that come with their owners to work. They are pretty good, but one had a problem with my lamp- it has crystals on it and made a noise. I find this unusual business practice. A cat wandering about? The elderly black lab thumping it's tail as you enter the store? Sure. Variably friendly pit bulls? Not too common in legal trade.Still, adds to the adventure.




This is a photo of your typical gathering of Slater's goods. Obviously, there are Gun Holsters for $12.00. Is that a good deal? I would guess. Right hand corner is a basket of garden seeds. The plastic table cloths and black nylon bag are ? and I think that is an oyster shell sitting on the black bag. There is some Scott's garden products behind the seeds and then in the row in the background? Cookie cutters.
Much of the store is thus. It encourages a good wander. I thought about bringing home an antique rocking chair, did buy two Pyrex baking dishes for Salem House, and got mucho filthy pawing through stacks of random "art" type things, finally settling on a small rectangular painting in a gold frame.

 I propped the painting up on my dining room mantle, behind my collection of nests picked up around the farm. Some of my favorite nests are made out of my horses' tail hair. I can identify Sammie's nest, and Oslo's nest, Peaches nest and the one in the center is crafted from horse tail and sheep wool. When I find eggs on the ground, usually cracked open and discarded by momma bird, I place them in a nest. The antler is a farm find as well. If you have keen eyes, you can see in the mirror, a shutter in the back of the room. This is my "closet". There are no closets in a 200 year old house, so I make do where I can. This "closet" holds all the 4-H stuff. PILES of it.



 Also at Slater's are these things:

 I thought they were very beautiful in an organic/shipyard kind of way. But had no clue what they were. So I poked around a bit and finally saw some pictures that explained it a bit more. They are weight lifting logs. Of course.

 I don't think the boys in my area are doing so with a kilt on, but it's the idea.

 After you get past the section with the excellent logs, and chains with links as big as my fist, you enter the land of airplanes. This is one corner, maybe, 1/2 of the airplanes dive-bombing the store.

If you need a cover for a Victorian light fixture, or a part for a door knob, a wing for a plane or a fixit for a widget- chances are you can find it at Slater's. If you're willing to hunt a while.
I think having a "Slater's" in town improves quality of life.
Do you have a "Slater's" in your town?

Testing...photo testing....

Lookit, how pretty they are. This was my attempt to figure out why my blog won't post pictures. My Middlest talked me through the steps and I was able to upload this!

Now, to try posting......

CSI: Cowfeathers

Well, Blogger is still declining to upload any photos into the blog. Thanks to my friend, Trish, who sent me a link to the complaints from other bloggers,  it seems this is a widespread issue that is as yet, unresolved. So, instead of photos I will tell you a story.


Farm Story.
CSI:Cowfeathers.


So, if you have seen any of the crime scene shows- the only one I watch anymore is Castle, the others stress me out- the scene begins with a middle aged woman in her primitive farm kitchen, early morning grey, winter light illuminating the scene. She is checking on drying herbs spread out in the oven. She stands, sips some tea (large, large mug) and looks out the window at the bleak scene; dry, yellow grass and the fallow kitchen garden, one sad, shriveled eggplant limply hanging on a dead stalk. Snow begins to lightly fall.
She gathers her dogs and puts on hat, boots, coat that obviously belongs to a man as it sits well off her shoulders and covers her fingers. She starts up a brown hill towards an old red barn. It is windy and stark, and you can hear sheep lowing.
As she nears the barn, beyond an enormous, ancient water trough,  something shiny catches her eye in the paddock to her right. She pauses and sees it is a dish detergent bottle. Then, to it's left, a black lump is identified. It blends into the dark mud, but as she looks, she can see it is a body.


She climbs into the large trough instead of going through the frozen gate of the paddock, and as she goes to step out the other side, there, is another body! This one is frozen into the mud, and its  stretched neck is a red line through the ice surrounding it. It is hopeless, and obviously not movable, but she pushes gently with her boot, just to be sure.
She then crosses to the other body, it is on it's back, feet in the air, soft down of the belly feathers blowing gently in the wind. This beautiful bird was one of the big healthy Australorp hens. She gently picks its stiff body up in her arms. It is not Ebony, the eldest of the hens. It is one of the younger girls. Investigating the body, it has no visible marks or molestation. Palpation of the body does not reveal a bound egg or an impacted crop. In the meanwhile, she has called to the hens, and they have come pouring out of the house to see her, in hope of food, into their outdoor pen. The rest of the hens look fine, active, curious, hopeful.
So, how did the two birds die? Henicide? Natural causes?
After a fond farewell to the bird, and a thanks for all the eggs she had produced for the nourishment of our bodies, she was placed in a body bag and set aside while the living were cared for. Set free, and given a few thrown handfuls of scratch, corn and a few bowls of layer ration, they all "set too". The geese added LOUD vocals to the proceedings, and the ducks put their two cents in as well. The sheep were let to pasture and the horses had their lighter blankets switched out for the heaviest of their coverings. The cats pleaded for a second breakfast and then it was time to deal with the investigation.
Walking around the chicken pen and the barn, there is no evidence of predator intrusion, no gaps in fencing, no feathers stuck to barn boards- evidence that a bird was pulled through a gap in the wall. This was investigated because of the detergent bottle. It is from the inside of the barn, and conceivably could have fallen off its shelf to the ground, but how did it get outside?
And why was the Australorp out? It looks like the Partridge Cochin had been dead at least overnight, but the Australorp looks like she just died. Body temperature puts the death after 11pm. (just adding this for authenticity- I made it up, but I still think it was very recent...)
A long handled digging tool helped chip away  the mud/ice to free the other dead hen. This is the Partridge Cochin- big, feathery, gorgeous bird with feathered feet and a reddish brown color. Her neck feathers had been removed, but the neck itself seemed intact. The body also was intact, and showed no sign of being torn asunder (hawk, 'coon) and the head was there ( so not likely a skunk). Fox would've taken her home. So, did she lose her feathers after death? Did the dogs lick them off postmortem? ( Note to self: think about this when dogs try to lick you...) There is a spot on the frozen mud that may be blood.? CSI:Cowfeathers has no diagnostic equipment on hand to prove or disprove that notion.
So, the hen gets a body bag as well, and the bodies are sent to the Cowfeathers Morgue.


Without the advent of any more evidence this will remain a cold case on a very cold day.


The woman walks back home in the snow, wondering what happened. Hoping no more evidence will present in the way of bodies. Could there be a serial chicken killer lurking around the farm?


To be continued........
(If anything else happens, which, it probably won't. Just life on the farm. I really don't like serial killers, chicken or otherwise,  despite their popularity in the television genre!)

Passing time in a polar vortex.

As you probably know, this area (the USA) has been hit with something they are calling a "polar vortex" (which seems to mean "totally freakin' freezing") in the past week. I am currently waiting the arrival of a "plumbing outreach program" to determine what threat the dripping pipes in the basement pose, and to "implement a dishwasher recovery" on our brand new (month old?) dishwasher which has been charged with "attempted flooding" for an incident yesterday at 5 a.m. Whatever happens I am going to urge the plumber to be "conservative with our available resources".
As you might surmise I am listening to a LOT of NPR.
But my sunroom is sunny, raising the temperature in this room to soaring temps that have me kicking back in a short sleeve tee and light sweater (it's 68!). Which makes me dream of being outside, riding, gardening, building something.  And, although it is not quite warm weather, it's still less than 20 degrees, it is sunny, so I may have to get on the horses today!
















That blank was where I have tried to insert a pic of my inspiringly sunny sunroom. The machine here has different ideas and refuses to do so. Oh well.


For several hours of this deep freeze, I have been lost in a blog my dear friend Trish found and shared with me. Her blog is one my regulars too- the entire family is a joy. (twebsterarmstrong@BlogSpot for those interested). Anyhoo (said in my best Trish voice), the blog she told me about is called "hookedonhouses.net". And, I am. I always have been. Well, you could also say I have long been hooked on barns too. In any case, this blog is a great resource for one of my passions. I have been losing myself in "before and afters" and houses for sale- incredible houses, highlights of complete renos, etc.
We will soon close on the little house we are buying near campus for the college kid to live in (she needs housemates, so if you have an OSU'er that likes to study and wants a cute place to call home away from home...). This means my presleep time is spent renovating Salem House in my mind. I have "done" the kitchen and main floor bath, most of the living room, and have been "working" on the second story, and the staircases. For those of you who don't recall, I usually need to mentally build something in order to get to sleep. It shuts off all the other noise, and I concentrate on one thing. One I get something worked out, I can drift off. This takes variable amounts of time, depending on what I'm trying to work out.
In any case, I will share the progress on Salem house here, unless the computer continues to refuse to publish any photos, in which case the actual progress will, for you all, resemble the progress in my mind.


....invisible.....

Cowfeathers Holiday

'Twas a beautiful season here at Cowfeathers.
The holidays really kicked off at the "Cowfeathers Christmas Musicale", instruments, Christmas music, food.

 There was some singing, some piano, saxophone, flute, bells, drums and....

 sharin' the love under the mistletoe!

 

 

My favorite moment, perhaps, was the trio of Eldest on flute, Middlest on piano and Youngest on Drums playing "The Little Drummer Boy". Happy!

 This time of year, the dining room table gets a workout! The kids baked up a storm, (with a little help here and there) cookies (9 kinds?) candied popcorn, savories, mulled cider, a chocolate cake with buttercream and crème de menthe filling, and the traditional Christmas Cheez-it?

 The fam got gussied up for church.

 

 

 

And, after a Christmas Eve spent with friends, the kids settled on Dad's lap (kind of...)  for the traditional reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" poem.

Christmas morning got off to a roaring start...

 As the sun rose, we could see that Santa had come!

 So, we called the little angels downstairs and enjoyed a wonderful family Christmas Day.

 In preparation for 2014, the annual cleaning of Youngest's room commenced. A Christmas present from his sister, Middlest, the cleaning took only 4 1/2 hours of a day to get things sussed out. Either he's getting more organized, or we're getting more efficient!

New Years Day brought an assortment of friends and neighbors to Cowfeathers for our annual New Years Day Open House. This sweet little bit arrived and asked immediately "Can I play your Piano?" Of course, darling!!

 

 

 

 Youngest made sure the crackers all were pulled, with their mysteries and gifts inside. Julia helped inspect the detritus for possible edibles.

More food, more cookies- all in black and white this time...including black and whites! Youngest created a snowman cheese ball wearing a red pepper jacket and hat, all three kids chipped in on the cookie effort and the cake this go round was chocolate caramel cake covered in Milk Duds. Ah, YUM.

 Huz cleaned. I shouldn't share that. As if he wasn't amazing enough, now y'all know he cleans too.

 

Now, as snow falls, here comes 2014.

WHOOP WHOOP!

Blessings to you all, from Cowfeathers.