Trash

This is what I came home to find after work today.  I was pretty cranky. As I type and catch up on my blog the same dog is totally passed out on the couch next to me fast asleep, you wouldn’t even know it was the same creature!  Luckily Joe came home and he cleaned it up for me, along with the bag of trash she ripped open on the porch too, and I eventually forgave her.  At least the trash on the porch was pretty small, she only took a bit out of the bag.  She mostly wanted the wrappers and packaging left from hamburger and chicken that I had purchased.

Pole Barn and Bathroom Cleaning

Today I worked mostly on deep cleaning the bathroom… I washed all the walls and took everything out and scrubbed the shelves and floor and baseboards.  I  cleaned out the cupboard and drawers and got rid of expired medicines and things we will never use.  I climbed up on a chair and cleaned out the fan which I had never done and I also replaced or soap/shampoo holder thing in the tub.   I even cleaned the blinds, which might be one of the worst jobs ever.  I like blinds, but I hate cleaning them and now even the ones in the bathroom are nice and clean. All that’s left is to scrub the bathtub which I did not do although I did do a little bit of bathtub scrubbing a few days ago after I washed the dogs.

Nothing is different bu everything is sparkling clean and like new so I am happy.  Someday I would like to paint because there are a couple small holes in the walls from screws that I didn’t put in correctly and a couple of scratches from before we bought the house I guess but painting involves moving the toilet so that might be awhile!

While I was inside scrubbing the bathroom Joe was outside cleaning out the back half of the pole barn.  Our shop used to be there and then we moved it to a different building and now it is moving back again! Joe cleaned out all of his old things and got rid of random trash and organized everything so that now we can move the tables back and set up a work space for his cars.  He wants to get the older Jaguar working this summer and now he will have a space to do it.

Joe”s 1985 Jaguar is in this picture, this one is his favourite

The front half of the pole barn is totally dirt floors.  The back half here is half dirt and half concrete.  Joe has plans to frame off the concrete section so that he can heat this area easier in the winter and have an actual shop.  There will be a hole for a door to get into the dirt section but we’ll probably just cover it temporarily instead of buying a garage door right away  so that section can be used for storage… things like the snow blower during the summer and other miscellaneous items.

Happy Birthday House (a bit late)

I totally forgot this year to post my happy birthday house post on April 9 like I have for the past couple of years! We’ve owned and lived in our own home for 3 years now…Only 25 years left to pay for it!

Here are some of my older house posts:

The day after we closed – Actually written on April 17, 2009

Year One – April 9, 2010

Year Two – April 9, 2011

This past year…

April looked like this At least for some of the month and muddy for the rest!

May brought work outside (with Buddy and Cora to supervise) and Cora’s first birthday where she ate her hat.

In June we installed a new screen door and started painting the trim on the house blue.  Joe also ran his first short triathlon, and we celebrated our yearly Bridge Fest.  My family also came up to visit to see us and have a nice vacation.

In July our newest batch of chickens arrived and they took over our sunroom making a huge mess that took me ages to scrub off and clean up once they moved outside!  They are very cute though and I do miss the sweet little baby chick stage afterwards!  In July we also started getting raw milk every week, our first season of our CSA share began, I painted our bedroom green when Joe was out of town one weekend (with his permission though!), we helped save our first set of rabbits, Joe bought me a rifle and we got finches.  July was busy!

In August Joe and I celebrated our first year wedding anniversary and the completion of his first half-IronMan triathlon… both on the same day! Joe’s family came up to visit and watch the race as well. Joe and I before the race… a rare picture of us to be together on the blog! Joe’s mom took the photo for us!

In September Joe spent a lot of time working on the horse fence and he also celebrated a birthday!

Leaves changed colours in October and the weather began to cool off.  Our CSA season ended and we started getting ready for the winter.

November brought our first snowfall and a Thanksgiving visit from Joe’s family!

December brought a lot of Christmas crafts and planning, plus more snow and at the end of the month two road trips in under a week to visit both of our families! Buddy also celebrated his 12 birthday…6 of them having been with us!

January brought us an abundance of eggs, homemade ice cream and homemade yogurt.  It was cold of course and I celebrated my own birthday.

In February Buddy was diagnoses with kidney failure and put on special food and subcutaneous fluids to help him feel better. We also got and set up our brand new king size, memory foam bed… a Valentine’s Day gift to me/us from Joe!

And finally, bringing us back to almost a year… March brought us the first signs of spring.  It also unfortunately brought us a sick rabbit who didn’t end up making it.  He had a good life here though with us and we gave him a nice funeral.  Besides the poor rabbit and a couple of health issues for Buddy, our third year here was pretty good, were lucky and our time was full of many good things! We’re hoping our fourth year will be just as nice!