Sonia - this one is for you!!!

Today, after I watered my plants and found that the sunflowers were blooming, I went across the street and took a few pictures of the "historic" Globe Hotel. This place is HUGE. For anyone interested in staying there, I included a picture of the sign with the contact phone number. The Hotel has a common living room area, dining area and HUGE kitchen.... Oh man I would love to have their kitchen. It's two stories, and the bedrooms, from what I can tell, are all upstairs. It has a nice staircase with some cool artwork in the stairwell. The bathrooms are all "common" and two of the upstairs ones have two waterclosets each. I think there are three upstairs and 1 downstairs bathrooms. I didn't count the bedrooms but there are, well, a lot!

Here's the photo tour of the common areas and some of the bathrooms - as much as I could get. Sonia - just for you, cause I know how much you just LOVE velvet couches.... LOL!!!

Sweeping Reform

Nope, not what you think. I try to stay away from politics. But, as with much of our language, I like phrases that could have a double meaning! Just like my discussion of immigration here.

What I'm talking about here is how often the floors are swept in our home. Mundane at best, I know... But, I gave the floors a very thorough cleaning last weekend. The amount of DOG HAIR alone was enough to stuff a pillow and that was only after going a week in between sweeping. I'm not talking about the stuff that you see and pick up regularly, I'm talking about the dust bunnies that hide under furniture etc.

I decided I'd try an experiment this week - I would sweep every other day.... The first round through got me this nice pile, from just ONE room.

A nice 6" wide pile of dog (and cat) fur, sand, small rocks, a few pieces of dog kibble, a fox tail and lots of, I'll say it again, our sandy soil. And, it was the same in the other two rooms as well. That settled it... sweeping timeframes had to be reformed to every other day!

Storage of all sizes

Oh how I've slacked off about posting these two stories... but today I decided I MUST get these done or I'd never do it....

First - the infamous shed project. 

We have 5 storage sheds on the property - all are 10x12. They've got siding and metal roofs and match the house.. and they're FULL of stuff - amazing huh? Well, one of them was starting to slide toward the neighbor's yard. It was already ON the property line and if we didn't move it, well a couple more years and it'd likely be IN their yard. Plus, one corner was resting on our septic tank - which is an "above ground" model....different huh? In fact, the only things keeping the shed from having already ended up in the neighbor's yard was the septic tank and the fact that the roof of it overlaps the roof of the one next to it - it was resting on the septic tank and the roof of the next shed in the row. If we didn't do something soon, it'd be a bad chain reaction....

We had to dig out the ground, brace it, jack it up, then slide it back into our yard and then give it better supports. We opted to support it with RR ties. It's now nice & solid, and level again!!! The best part about this project was that Dad could actually get involved and do some of the work and not hurt himself! Here is that job, in all it's glory.

Second - Semi Trailers.

Five 10x12 storage sheds FULL of stuff means one thing - too much stuff to know what you have or where to find what you need. Our solution was to bring in two 40' long semi trailers. There are lots of places out there that sell used semi trailers.  And, there are a LOT of advantages to using a semi trailer over a traditional shed:

1) it's mobile - if you ever want to move it, you can (assuming you have the room).
2) it doesn't require a permit!! Please check with your local county to be sure, but I was told that it required NO permit - where any shed over 10x12 (measuring from the roof lines) requires a permit
3) they make excellent privacy screens - at about 13 feet tall, they block the view better than anything else I can think of.
4) if you buy a used one, and it's NOT registered, there are no ongoing fees every year!
5) no building skills or contractor needed - they're ready to go - literally you can have storage in less than 30 minutes!
6) Sturdy!! Aside from the rubber tires, most semi's are made with metal or fiberglass siding over a metal frame - no wood to rot etc.
7) BIG doorway - At about 8 feet wide, that's a heck of a lot more door than you get on a shed - even one with a sliding door.
And finally,

8) off the ground - only the most determined mouse will make it's way into your storage when it's about 4 feet off the ground!! - Plus, if you live in an area prone to flooding, this solves your problem.... in most cases. If you get more than 3 feet of flood water on a regular basis, well you should probably consider living in an ark rather than a house!

Here are the two trailers we bought for storage - now we can organize, sort and make sure that all of our stuff is EASILY accessible!! We went through Quick Space in Reno - they had our two trailers delivered within 2 days of us deciding which ones we wanted, and they were both delivered the same day. Given how far from everything we live, this was, and IS truly impressive!!! Quick Space was awesome, the guys (Gene, Jeff and Mark) were wonderful to work with, all had a great sense of humor and made this process totally painless!

Blocks for big kids.

See that wall of blocks that's not there anymore?

Dad had them piled up this high - on the right of the door you can see the blocks 7 tall.

But, since we'll be fencing the whole property... eventually.....we're going to reduce the height of the patio wall to only 3 blocks.... but first they all have to be moved so the concrete can be cleaned off, the edges found etc... So, yesterday I moved all the blocks that WERE here into one big stack - I did a rough count after I stacked and figured there were about 150 of them.

Next though, is the delivery of a semi trailer - which will serve dual purpose. It'll be a cost-effective storage building and a privacy shield of sorts. Since we live right on highway 49, there's traffic always going by and large vehicles constantly park out front. Everything from HUGE motorhomes to semis to cattle trucks.... and believe me, a semi trailer is a WAY better view than a cattle truck, particularly a FULL cattle truck. Once the trailer is in, the fence will go between it and the road and then I'm hoping to plant lilacs between the trailer and the fence. Or at least that's my plan for now.

But, life is what happens when you make plans, so we'll see what REALLY happens.

The evil crackers

Ok, so this should probably be over on the food page, but what the heck, I already did a food blog today, and I'm already started here so that's that. I also did a garden blog today - here it is.

Yesterday, I wanted something yummy to snack on. Now, it wasn't HOT hot like down in the valley, but it was still a nice warm summer day. So, LD and I grazed on a bowl of red & green grapes

Some slices of cheddar cheese

and these EVIL multi-grain crackers.

Don't let the box fool you:

These are NOT good for you... they just can't be... they taste WAY too good. I think it's the sesame seeds... Yum..... Now, excuse me while I go finish off the tray I opened yesterday!

Cute Apron!

One of the last times I was in Chico I commented to my mommy that I loved, LOVED, her apron. So, off to Cathy's Sew & Vac we went to pick out fabric. We got enough to make two different aprons, and since they're reversible, that actually means I'll get FOUR really cool aprons out of the deal!

This is the first one that she finished. They have two modest sized pockets, a velcro fastner at the neck and they tie in the back. And by the way, I cannot wait till I actually have a place where I can sew again!