Road Kill

My grandson and I were out bike riding one day, he on the scooter, I on my bicycle when we noticed something laying in the road. We thought of all sorts of possiblities before getting up close enough to actually see what it was. This was taken on my phone, so the video quality is quite poor.

Airshow

Do you see the birds in the top left hand corner of my title banner of my blog? These are six barn swallows that hatched out last summer. A couple of years ago a pair of barn swallows built a nest up under the roof of my front porch over the top of a round thermometer. The nest doesn't obstruct much of the thermometer and barn swallows eat a lot of bugs, so I thought it was really neat to have them build there. Plus, I love to watch them fly. Well, the pair didn't come back this year. I don't know how long they live, if something happened to them, but I think we are visited by their offspring. I'm not sure where they're nesting, barn swallows usually live in communities,which made it unusual that we just had the pair by themselves on the porch. I was out cleaning the pool the other day and a whole group of swallows start flying around my yard and swooped down through the porch and around. They then landed on the cable to my phone antenna on the side or the house. The first photo below shows 7 swallows, but when they all finally perched and were still for a while it was only six of them. I wonder if it is the same six that hatched out last year. I'd like to think so.

Metal Menagerie

This is my metal menagerie. I haven't made any of these in quite a few years, but thought I would post them and encourage others to try this meduim of art sculpting. The material is readily available, tin cans, and with a set of tin snips you're all set to start. I have patterns for these somewhere, but I haven't a clue where that might be at present. I would suggest to make a paper model and then use that as your pattern.

The lion is in two pieces, the mane is put on before sculpting the head.

The little car and motorcycle is made from lighter parts. The "Bic"mobile is missing a piece. There was a "breather" on the front. The vehicles are put together with hot glue.

Just a couple more pictures of the the dragon and the Schnauzer.

Patchouli

OK kshippychic, if you're really a hippy you know what patchouli is. I have a big, beautiful, bushy patchouli plant and need some help from you or some of your hippy friends (please direct anyone you think might know my way, if you would).



I would like to make my own patchouli oil from my patchouli plant. Everything I've read indicates that the oil has to be distilled from the plant. Can anyone out there tell me how to do this with things that I have here at home. I'm afraid I don't have a still out back with all my other creative ventures.

Oh, and kshippychic, if you're ever in my neck of the woods (or rather wide open wheat fields) drop by and I'll give you a cutting to start your own patchouli plant.

The Playhouse

This is the Playhouse. It is made primarily from old doors. The triangular area at the end is a window that lifts open on hinges, but the plastic that we had in it didn't last long and we haven't had time to get plexiglas put in it. The other end has a window also. The two pieces sticking up on the far end are solar panels for the one light in the playhouse and 5 lights on the stage (I'll post a picture with the stage at the end of this blog). My son and daughter built this playhouse for me one summer day a couple years ago. We didn't have a written plan, only an idea.

This is looking in the door. Step right in, please! You'll have to duck.

Inside to the right is the ladder to the loft and under it and across the end is the kitchen.

The kitchen has a cooler for a refrigerator and a real sink, but we haven't gotten water or drain hooked up yet. There is a door for the "oven" in the cabinet next to the sink and at present a toy range with microwave sits on top of the counter.

Another angle on the kitchen.

Here you can see the oven door.

This is looking up at the loft. From the loft you can see out the windows of the large door on the front of the playhouse.

Here's a closeup of the counter under the loft.

The cabinet in the front is what the dishes are kept in.

This is looking in the door and to the back left corner.

This is to the far left looking from in the kitchen. There's a table in the corner but the chairs were outside. The hose hanging in the corner is the "phone" whose other end is outside in the back.

This is looking back towards the door.

Looking out the door from by the ladder.

Here you see the playhouse with the stage to the left. The windows on the yellow door look in to the loft.

These pictures were taken a couple of years ago and now the stage is in need of repair and the playhouse needs painted and the windows fixed.

The Showerhouse

This is The Showerhouse. The building was purchased from ALL SIZE SHED CO. (http://www.allsizeshed.com/) in Wichita KS. I'm not getting anything to promote them, I just like their product. They brought out the shed fully built and dropped it in my yard. My son did the rest. Looking directly in the open doors are the blue and pink toilet doors. I had thought about getting cute "his" and "hers" signs, but I think the pink and blue doors are far more effective.

A closer shot...

To the left of the toilet doors are shelves that start about halfway up the wall and go all the way to the where the roof starts. I have baskets with the grandkids names on them that hold their swimsuits, towels and goggles. I also have extra towels plus flip-flops, sunscreen and other supplies. Under the shelves is storage room for the tables and chairs for my dining area (tablecloths and candles are also on the shelves). The green basket on the floor is for wet items which I launder every night and return to their baskets and shelf the next day.

To the right of the toilet doors is the showerroom door and the sink. The sink is a free standing laundry room sink which was quite affordable and I love the large size. I used shoe bags on the front and back of the shower room door to store things like brushes, combs, hair clips, etc. On the showerroom side I stored washclothes, first aide items, and misc. Above the showerroom you can see storage area that covers a little over half of the showerroom. Over the shower stall it's open to the ceiling where we installed a solar exhaust fan in the sky light (partially seen in the photo below).

Next is looking into the girls toilet room. The boys is a mirror image of the girls. These are sawdust toilets. I read about sawdust toilets online, http://www.weblife.org/humanure/. More information about "humanure" can be found at, http://humanurehandbook.com/. When these toilets are properly maintained they do not smell and I have never had any problems with flies. With the toilets handy I have no problem with children running in and out of the house in wet suits and I believe it helps to discourage peeing in the pool. This year I've added a wicker shelf in the girls room that I keep first aide supplies in, plus my swim basket along with my daughter and daughter-in-law's on an upper shelf. Note the vent on the floor, there's one just like it in the boys room and one in front of the shower in the shower room. These allow cool air from under the shed to rise up and the exhaust above the shower assists the circulation by drawing the hot air out.

This is with the showerroom door open, shoe bags hanging on either side. The sink is to the right and the showerroom is to the left.

This is just inside the showerroom door, the shower is on the left.

This is the shower. Originally we attempted to build a water tower to heat and hold water, but had no luck with water pressure (the tower was later used to build the deck on the pool). We could not find a container that we could pressurize adequately. We ended up just laying out black hose on the the roof of the shed which gets the water really hot, but only when the sun is shining and only for the length of the hose. The internal plumbing is all PVC which is externally connected via garden hose. The drain for the sink and shower extends out back where we dug down about 3ft deep, 4ft wide and 2ft long. The opening of the drain pipe extends in the the bottom of this hole which is then layered with about a foot of sand on the bottom then about a foot of rock and then covered with dirt. This type of drainage will be sufficient since we will only be running water and soap through it (and sometimes bleach water when I clean). Things that will not hurt the environment. In the shower stall I keep a couple kinds of shampoo and conditioner and bath soap. I also have disposable razors.

The pictures below are to the right of the showerroom door. The drawers hold swimsuits of all sizes and shapes. Not having a swimsuit is no excuse for not swimming in my pool. The neighbor boys come over and swim with my grandson all the time, because I supply swimsuits. On the shelf I have cocoa butter, aloe jell for sunburns, deodorant, cotton swabs and kleenex.


I try to keep my showerhouse pretty well supplied with whatever might be needed and it is well used, especially by the grandkids.

Some things I want to share

Every 4th of July my family has a reunion of sorts at my house. It's all about family, having fun and kids. My son and I have been working on making my yard a place to have fun for the last 3 or 4 years. Here is some of what we have accomplished...

These are from July 2007:
The pool with deck built next to it...


We seperated the ladder that came with the pool placing the half with the platform extending into the pool. The platform is screwed to the top of the deck and we replaced the tall handles with smaller ones that are easier to get around. The ladder on the outside of the deck raises up when the pool is not in use, keeping the little ones from climbing in when they are not supervised.







Below you can see the deck behind my granddaughters blowing bubbles. When not in use the ladder is simply raised, it's hinged at the top of the ladder, and I use a bungee cord to secure it as high as I can reach. The building to the left is the showerhouse/outhouse (more about that later).

Here the kids are playing in the sandbox. This isn't the best picture, but the only good one I have from this year. This is the second sandbox we've had, the other was half the size and as much as the kids enjoyed it, we HAD to make this bigger one.

On the right hand side of this picture you can see my lawn mower with the wagon hitched up. All the children come running when I fire it up to take a ride in the wagon. Being in a small town we travel everywhere with it.

Here's a picture of our dining area in the front yard. The chandelier I had gotten for free off of "Freecycle". It was originally electric, but I gutted it and use votive candles in it. The reason it was given away is that one of the globes was missing and I had a difficult time replacing it. The globes on the table are two that were purchased thinking I was buying replacements only to realize they were too big. But a nice big candle and a couple of pie plates make for excellent table candles that match.

In this next picture you see the swimming pool to the left, the fire pit center front and the projection booth with the screen on the side of the house to the right. Beyond the projection booth is the children's playhouse and stage which I will show in a later post.

Here's a pic of my granddaughter and her friends around the fire pit for her 9th birthday sleepover that she had last Friday night. It started with a pool party and BBQ then they gathered round the fire and watched a movie and roasted marshmellows and made s'mores. After they'd had enough sugar they moved closer to the screen and played a Shrek xbox game till mama decided it was time to roll into the sleeping bags in the tent.

Here's a picture of the back side of the tents that we pitched for 4th of July. It gets really cramped in my house if we have to put everyone inside, which the storms have forced us to do on the 4th of July.

That's all for now.

First Blog

First post. It's late, so I'm not going to post much, plus I have a long day tomorrow. I'll write more about it after the 4th of July holiday is over and everyone goes back home.