Crazy Cow Country Farm

Jen had told me she loved to paint and that she would paint a barn for my new dining room, but I had no idea, none at all, just what to expect.  Was I ever amazed when I saw my early Christmas gift!! 

All the horses are there, can you name them?

I have more to post but heaven help me, the grandkids just showed up so I’m off!

I could bore you, and by bore I mean totally literally bore you to tears where you’d just BEG me to shut up, with all the details of life around here the past week.  Crazy man, like totally.  But the important thing is that we got the house decorated with a little help from mom and Jen and we’re loving every minute of it.  I swear it feels like we’re in a whole new house. 

This afternoon while I worked at the table on paperwork Ed decided to get the stock tank heaters out for the animals because he doesn’t like listening to me whine about breaking ice every morning.  First he cleaned the tank with bleach which left a faint smell which didn’t bother any of the horses except Buck.  He stood there for about five full minutes smelling and snorting at the tank to make sure that it wasn’t a horse-killing-smell, you never know.

The horses always come up to the barn to check out what Ed’s doing and see if they can beg some treats from him.

I told him to wave so he did but then I said, “that’s boring and I can barely see you” so he did this……..

He has no idea I actually took the picture or that I’m posting it for the entire world to see.  And when he finds out he’s going to just kill me.  Seriously.  I may need a place to stay. 

Enough jabbering, on to Christmas decorations!

Our first fire of the season.  I created it because Ed said he’d be happy to start one for me and would be right back with the ingredients then he went outside and three hours later I saw him on a ladder talking to the horses.  Or to himself.  Or maybe he was singing.  I’m not sure but I gave up and took matters in my own hands.

The radio cabinet belonged to my brother and Ed turned it into a humidor, complete with cedar lining.  My Damn Brother-In-Law Nathan refinished it for us so I have to be nice to him for another couple of months.  I’ll sure be glad when it runs out and I can go back to normal.  The wall hanging was done by my dear Grammy when I bought my first house back in….. oh dear, 1988 - can you believe it was that long ago? 

There’s Vincent playing his DS game.  Can I just say how much I hate this furniture and have always hated it?  I absolutely cannot wait until next spring when we can get something else.

Can  you see the pillar through this window?  That’s the original back door with a small porch for the house.  The door to the porch is just through that doorway on the right.  That’s the doorway that the older couple who owned the house just hung a door and left everything beyond stuck in time once their kids moved out.  All the original woodwork and hardware for this house is just beyond that doorway.  We’re going to begin working on the rooms beyond that point sometime next year.

I have no idea why those blankets are all messed up nor do I have any idea who’s been messing around with my Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus.  I would venture a guess but with my three, you just never know.  I have even less of an idea why on earth I’m sharing this messy picture with you, but then again, why do I do anything?

This is our sixth Christmas here on the farm and the first that we’ve ever decorated like this - normally it just the tree and maybe some things in the entertainment center.  I love the kitchen now, just love it.

And now we’ll begin the baking and wrapping!

I don’t like to brag, honestly, I don’t.  I don’t like to say “that was just the best …. ever” because then you raise that bar so high you’ll never cross it again ya know.  But I cannot tell a lie.  Yesterday was perfect.  Positively perfect.  And today was even perfecter.

I don’t think that’s a word.

My folks stayed with us for a few days prior to Thanksgiving and Ed surprised me with a day of vacation on Wednesday so the house was pleasantly plump with people.  I had a full day of baking Wednesday and, thanks to the spreadsheet I created and checked every few minutes, I stayed right on schedule.  The food was awesome, all three of Ed’s kids came up and brought their families as well.  All the grandkids and our boys played well together and they even got to give treats to the horses.  The house was warm and loud and full of laughter and I don’t think I could have enjoyed it more.

And then they were gone.

In the span of about 10 minutes my folks loaded up their car with our boys’ suitcases, I filled a bag with containers of leftovers to save her cooking at least one meal over the weekend, the babies were put into carseats, the kids were hugged, in-laws were thanked for coming, cars were started, and we waived as they drove out.  We went from 16 people to just Ed and I like *that*. 

We turned up the Christmas music and put the house back in order then just looked at each other and laughed. 

Today we hit a couple of stores on the way in to Wichita for wood.  Ed has a customer that brings by his unwanted tree cuttings and there was enough of a pile that we took the horse trailer and filled it up.  Then we came home and heated up lunch.  And at the moment I’m typing this with the biggest smile on my face.

You see here in a few minutes I’m going to wake Ed up and we’ll begin the Christmas decorating.  But for the past little while I’ve been sitting here in my gorgeous new dining room listening to Christmas songs and looking out my window.  From our window I can see the cars coming and going on the road to our neighbor’s, the ones at Pine Creek Christmas Farm.  So I’m sitting here sipping spiced tea and watching cars drive by with their trees knowing soon I’ll have ours ready as well.

Perfect.  Seriously perfect.

I searched through Flickr and found some old pics of the dining room - intentionally not of much of it.

The carpet may not look that bad but trust me, it was SO bad.  That’s SIL Teressa and her daughter Kristine.

That’s not your eyes, that’s the color of those walls.  Three happy faces on the first day of school, I think last year, not sure.

And from the Gravy Tutorial (Cousin Jeri, did you EVER make that?) you get a feel for the lovely goldness of the backsplash.  Honestly, who thought of this?  The backsplash I mean, trust me, the gravy was freaking TO DIE!

But WAIT, there’s more!!

Another lovely visual of purple-ness for you with the added bonus of the black fire-proof panels we had to have around and underneath the stove.  Yes, they served their purpose and we’re thankful we had them, but really, they dwarfed the stove with the gigantic blackness and I think the tile is much improved.  I believe the point of this picture was to show you my survival skills during the ice storm and power outage - bricks heating up to snuggle with, soup cooking on the woodstove, and water steaming for heat/humidity.

Just a little trip down memory lane.  I’m off to dance a jig……… no more purple!

First, a quick refresher since I intentionally never took pics of the dining room.  Two, yes two, shades of purple paint on the walls - a lavender and a K-State purple.  Lovely cream colored berber carpet (on a farm!) that I shampooed a thousand times and still looked like crap.  Burnt holes in said carpet due to burning hedge in our woodstove.  A front door held up with four small screws (and NONE at the top or bottom) as well as one inch gaps all around it. 

I was planning to wait for pics until Ed had every last detail completed but I just can’t contain my excitement, he’ll have these finishing touches ready by the weekend so I’ll sneak you a peak now. 

I wish we didn’t have to have any blinds on that window but it faces west and during the summer we really need it.  This is looking into the dining room from our living room.  That’s the front door on the right which we have used a handful of times during the past five years because the entire house would shake when it opened/closed and during the winter we duct taped it off trying to keep out the north wind.  That sucker’s sealed now!  That’s Ed’s grandmother’s shelf over there on the left - so glad I found the perfect place for it.

And yes, we know that we need a chimney. :P  Please ignore the plumb bob line - we’ll have a chimney this weekend and I’ll oil the stove down to get rid of the rust it grew while sitting outside during the remodel.

Just look at the shine on that floor!  I love the way the sun’s reflected in there now and the entire room brightens up. 

The metal washtub will hold our indoor wood, I’ve got a large crock out in the barn to bring in that will hold kindling.  Above the fireplace is the beginning of our “metals” collection. LOL  Since we can’t have wood or anything burnable over there, we decided to go with metals and eventually those walls will be entirely just covered in those.

See that tile?  I helped grout it!  Still some finishing to be done in this corner so let’s move along….

I love my little crooked-legged table for the Kitchen-Aid!  The darn thing is too tall to go under my cabinets and so it always just sat there on that L counter looking out of place.  Jen and I found that little table for next to nothing in Salina.  Ed and I liked the idea of old mismatched chairs.  We did have six at the table, but one looked so good where I was storing it in the kitchen that it found a new home, so we’re short one and I’ll pick another up here before long.

Looking south towards the kitchen sink.  The backsplash was some thousand year old white with gold speckles linoleum - so not good.  Without funds for a redo on it, Jen and I just hung vinyl wallpaper and then polyurethaned it.  It looks awesome!

Another view into the kitchen.  Oh look, there’s the new laptop conveniently located at the table.  What an attention hog.

The east wall.  You can’t really tell but the top color is more of a khaki - sand is it’s name - but in the morning sunlight, it looks more cream.  And if you look closely in the border you’ll see our tractor, well pretty close - it’s an H and we have an M.  That’s my Aunt Tilly’s buffet table which I really had convinced myself to paint but now that it’s against these vibrant colors and light floor, I’m thrilled with it.

A straight-on view.  The black chair kept getting stuck there and by then end of the day I really like it so it will probably stay there.  I had planned to hang a couple plates on either side of the coke case but got the wrong size hangers. 

A really wobbly ceiling fan used to hang here but we replaced with the only original light fixture we had for the house.  This used to hang in the spare room and Ed put it here.  It’s adorable and goes really well.

Looking back to the living room.  I love the milk bottles and got them for a steal!

West wall of the kitchen.  We have an old-fashioned scale that will hang from the ceiling over this L counter but Ed needs to climb in the attic and anchor it. 

Do you see what I see?

I think everyone should have a cow in their kitchen.  Not quite the same look as our dear Moo, but close enough.  Although I think a framed picture of the farm’s namesake may appear in here somewhere sometime.

The obligatory chicken bowl for scraps got an upgrade and now appears as part of the decoration.

Oh good gravy, you’d think I would have remembered to shut the door to our only bathroom before taking this shot, but I didn’t.  And please ignore the ginormous 3 gallon jug of spackle on the floor too!

So there you have it, what a change!  There are still lots of holes but this is a great start on the overall look that we’re going for. And besides, I’ll be pulling out the Christmas decorations in two weeks anyway!

Recently my mother came into a windfall and generously agreed to share some of it with her family.  And friends.  And every retailer within a 300 mile radius as well as a few on the web.  But I digress.  When she told me the amount and anxiously asked what I would spend it on, I thought long and hard.  After talking it over with Ed we came to a decision.  The next time I talked with mom she asked about our decision and it went something like this….

So did you talk with Ed?  What are you going to get?  We could go shopping at some antique stores!  You could get this or this or this or this or this (blah, blah, blah).

Yes, I talked it over with Ed and we decided we’re goin to……

Oh great!  What’d you decide?  Antiques?  Decorations?  A new table?

No, not really.  We’re getting a door.

Excuse me?

A door.

You mean, like a door?

Yeah.  A door.  The tall thing you use to walk in or out of a room.  You know.  A door.

You’re getting a door?

Yes mom.  A door.

I don’t understand.

Well mom, part of our mission is life is to stop the gaping holes in this house from letting our primo propane-heated-air out or stop 40 mph north winds from entering and our back door, the one we use nearly exclusively, is really an inside door that doesn’t fit and you would feel less of a breeze standing behind a jet engine.

So you’re getting a door. 

Yup.  A door.  Brand new with a magnetic seal. 

No antiques?  No day of shopping?  No splurging?

Nope.  By the time we get the door we’ll put the remaining into savings and it will be there when we need it.

Well them I’m going to give you more.  I’m going to give you at least enough more so you can get a laptop.  And then I’m going to take you antique shopping and buy you some stuff for your dining room remodel.

I decided at this point to put her out of her misery and go with it.  Truthfully, my boss advised me nearly three years ago that I needed to have a backup system in place, preferably a laptop, in case my desktop crashed.  I remembered her words of wisdom last year when two hours before my critical deadline my hard drive crashed and I spent a frantic hour calling around for the best price on my specifications and ordering Ed to drive across town and bring home a new tower, STAT!  Then there was the wonderful ice storm which found me sitting up in the office surrounded by woodstove-heated bricks and cords ran up the stairs so I could meet another deadline.  And the hauling of computer equipment downstairs after my surgery last year.  Not to mention packing up the entire family to intrude on my Damn Brother In Law, Nathan so I could commandeer Trina’s computer for work. 

So, yes, a laptop is much needed around here and when one’s income for three different jobs depends on reliable computers…. well there you go.  It was actually difficult for me because I admit that 90% of the desire is pure unadulterated excitement but, as Ed says, it’s like the generator we may use every couple of years - when you need it you’re damn glad you got it.

So I went shopping with mom yesterday and came home with a fantastic laptop.  Oh.  My.  God.  How on earth did I funtion without this thing?  Seriously, I ask you!  Holy crap, it’s definitely my new BFF!

And, you know, great for work too.

The dining room is so close, I’m mean *this* close, to being finished.  Once it’s ready and a little bit decorated, I promise to post pictures because you will not believe the transformation!  But that’s not what this post is about.  This post is about me.  Me and my skills, or lack there of.

Throughout our marriage Ed and I followed a simple formula for completing major household projects - I watched the kids or left for the day with the kids and he worked.  Seriously.  He did everything, all of it - and if you’d ever seen anything I had painted, you would have understood why he banned me forever from painting.

But I’ve mellowed in my old age.  Or Ed’s eyes have gotten worse.

When we recently re-did the kids’ toy room and turned it into our bedroom Ed decided to give me a second chance.  Granted, it was a second chance with him supervising me every step of the way and me asking “Why?” more often that three little toddlers all put together.  But we made it through and I turned into a fairly decent painter.  When it was time to re-do the living room, the entire painting process fell on my shoulders, with some help from Jen.  We did it all - ceiling, trim, walls, second coats, moving furniture, clean-up, everything.  And we were proud.

And then there’s the dining room.  Oh my.  This wasn’t a simple paint-the-walls-spruce-it-up, oh hell no.  People, this was major.  There was carpeting to be removed (I did it all by myself!), primer for the walls, removing molding and baseboards, hanging wallpaper, polyurethaning wallpaper, laying underlayment (yup, Jen and I!) which involved power tools, I mean there was a LOT going on here.  I watched.  I asked questions.  And then I made my move.  That’s right, I made a move into the danger zone.  Thanks to Ed’s patience and teaching ability I can now lay tiles, grout, lay wood flooring, and even trowel.  There’s something to be said about the ownership one feels when you’ve actually been on your hands and knees doing the hard work.  I like it.  Really, really like it.

But it hasn’t been easy, no way.  You know how when you’re making the cuts for the flooring and half-way through the toilet overflows even after you’ve snaked it twice and so you have to stop laying floor to crawl under the house and realize not only has the toilet seal blown out so water’s flowing under the house but there’s a huge tree root stuck in the main so you have to hand dig a hole for main access and then hand cut out the tree root in the dark with kids who need to use the toilet?  You know all about that right?  I mean, that’s just the way laying floor goes right?  Happens to everyone?

Ahem.  Cough. Yeah, well that didn’t happen to us either, I was just checking.

I remember when the doctors explained to me that Darren had suffered greatly during my illness while I was pregnant with him.  I remember the look on the doctor’s face as he broke the news that there would most likely be brain damage - how severe was undetermined.  My heart broke.  I wailed that Ed should have chosen to save Darren and let me go during that surgery and I lived with hundreds of pounds of guilt over how my child would suffer as a result of my illness.  I remember the doctors telling me that “he’ll probably catch up” and the hope that gave me.  But I knew I couldn’t hold on to the false hope that one day he’d wake up and be *cured* but rather I accepted the reality and was grateful he was alive at all.

In first grade Darren underwent a battery of tests where it was determined that while his overall intelligence was just about normal, he suffered greatly with short-term memory.  Simply put, he nearly didn’t have any.  What would take a normal child three repetitions to grasp would take Darren nearly 100.  Now once he remember something then he proceeded fine, but getting him to remember anything was a mighty struggle.  As he entered second grade in the Newton school I realized within a few weeks that his teachers were unable to help him.  Despite an extremely specific IEP they were deviating from it drastically and refusing to meet with me.  But during this time we moved to the farm near Goessel and even though I’d planned to drive the kids into Newton for school, I talked with Ed about moving them to Goessel.  I believe that was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.  Goessel is ranked in the top 5% of school districts in Kansas and the teachers are fantastic.  Actually all the staff is awesome, from the cooks to the bus drivers - they know and enjoy children, you can just see it on their faces.

As Darren went through elementary school he blossomed.  His comfort level increased each year and he needed pulled out for extra help less and less.  Finally in fourth grade he reached grade-level in a few areas, which caused me to crumble into a sobbing mess during PT conferences.  Fifth grade seemed difficult as they prepared him for Junior High and then my fears were squashed last year as he sailed through sixth grade in a wing of the High School.  Last year we were able to stop all but the most minute of extra help.  This year something happened.  I’m not sure how to explain it and can’t even begin to imagine what caused it, but he’s different.  His attitude has changed drastically (for the better!) and his confidence has soared.  Maybe it’s playing football and being part of a team or just a little maturity, I don’t know.  He just seems to seek out and enjoy challenges now, he offers to help Ed with the hardest of farm chores, and he’s really gotten some strength as well.  But nothing could have prepared me for what happened this morning.

I received and signed the papers agreeing for the mandatory testing required for IEP students a few weeks ago and didn’t really think much about it.  So I arrived at the meeting this morning expecting to hear that we may need to modify his levels of assistance for the year, learn about his grades and behaviors, and agree to meet again in the spring.  But my heart stopped and my eyes welled up as I watched Darren’s face when the school psychologist read the results - within or above normal range in every area.  I was so stunned that I couldn’t speak.  The look of pride on my son’s face as she went through the results nearly brought me to my knees.  Normal.  He caught up.  I never really truly believed it would happen.

And just like during last week’s football game when he tackled the running back about 3 yards from the end zone, stopping a touchdown, I fought the urge to kiss him, hug him, and thoroughly embarrass him.  I took the news and told myself not to break down until I was alone in the car on the phone with Ed.  I’m just so proud of him.  I’m so in awe that this child is a part of our lives, so in awe that he fought so hard to live and even be born.

When we moved into our farmhouse five years ago we were mortified by the dining room.  Here, in a 100 year old home containing three boys and a mother who works with horse manure, there was carpet in the dining room.  Because carpet inside is a great idea for a 20 acre plot of mud.  Now the rest of the house had wood floors (which I hate) but there, in the first room you enter and where three children drink glasses of red kool-aid, was carpet.  And not even a dull neutral color that might high stains, nope, it was a tan color.  To go with this monstrosity of a floor, there were purple walls.  Not a pretty shade mind you and no even just one amazing shade, there were two.  The bottom of the walls were a K-State bright purple and the top were a lighter version.   Two, two shades of purple on these walls.  It was enough to make anyone who entered the room kind of tilt their head in a “huh” sort of way.  Followed by, “Wow.  You’ve got purple walls.”  I hated it when they’d do that.

But no more.  Oh hell no.

We’ve spent the last two weeks pulling up carpet (complete with an outdoor bonfire with loud cheering), laying underlayment for our new parquet flooring, filling cracks, sanding, priming, painting, painting, painting, and painting another coat.  I bribed Jen with food and she’s faithfully work her fingers to the bone helping and we’re nearly finished.  Well, finished with our part.  We’ve done just about all that two ladies with little power tool experience can do and now Ed will have to take over.  We’re replacing the fireproof wall plates around the woodstove with concrete sheetrock.  This involves heavy things and lots of power tools so Ed will handle it.  And then there’s the delicate matter of fixing the crooked door that has a half inch gap on the top and doesn’t seal.  This is naturally on the north wall where winter winds just come right in and make themselves at home.  Last but not least is the flooring which can go crooked in the blink of an eye.

Nope, we’ll just sit back and do the final decorating and let Ed handle it from here.  Hopefully soon I’ll have some pictures for you.

As normally it happens, Jen believed she was coming to the farm one recent day for some much-needed horse riding time.  Jen was wrong.  She’s blond so that happens quite often (no offense to blonds, Jen would probably be wrong often even if she was brunette) (no offense to Jen, you know I  love ya) because I had sometimes entirely different planned – a trip to Lawrence.  Lawrence is in the northeast area of Kansas and is inhabited by crazy KU fans.  For those of us who went to K-State entering Lawrence is a scary thing.  Very scary.  Indeed.

We left Goessel in the wee early morning hours and I snapped a picture of Jen just to prove to you that I really did kidnap her against her will and force her to participate in this little road-trip of mine to the evil KU fan stomping ground.

After driving about an hour I decided to just will-nilly pull over to the side of the road, which scared Jen even worse than the KU-crazed fans she was about to face.  But there’s a really neato ranch, The Clover Cliff Ranch, which has acres and acres of beautiful land in the Flint Hills.  Yes, you read that right, Flint Hills, hill being the operative word here.  Kansas does have a few hills – other than the man-made ones that I speak of often.  This area is rocky and hilly and desolate and you can’t really do much else except use it for cattle pastures.  So that’s what we do.  We fence it off and put cows on it all summer long. 

So as we’re driving about 65 mph down the road you can imagine Jen’s surprise when I deftly whipped the car around and proceeded up a little incline.  An incline at a 45 degree angle, to the top of a hill, which lead to a cell phone tower (hey, we may still have roaming cowboys and indians ‘round these parts, but we still need our high-tech gadgets!).

You can’t tell from this picture but this little road was going straight down, I mean at a real sharp angle.  It was enough that this gal from the flatlands was mighty queazy let me tell you.  We’re talking steep.

See those black spots over there.  Those are cows.

And see the vast, wide open space?  That’s pretty much all you see for the entire 5 hr round trip.  It’s a groovy little drive and I think Jen enjoyed herself.