Burrow House

species confusion

Every morning they excitedly greet me.  

More like dogs than fish.

way too much chaos and not enough beauty

Since we had my cat put to sleep around Christmas, I've had an on again off again issue with mice thinking my house would be a swell place to set up shop.  I, however, am not too keen on the idea.

I saw it run across my floor this morning, and that was the proverbial straw.

I decided to make it very clear that these are invitation only digs.

So I rallied all my troops to send the message.

The welcome mat is gone.

Replaced with Peppermint oil and steel wool in every possible crevasse. 

But part of me wonders just how much it will hurt if, in the end, I'm outsmarted by a vermin.

safe and warm

It's a disaster zone around here. Again. There are 173,000 houses without power in our city alone. We are so fortunate to have a certain little luxury called a "furnace."

But we're quite cozy.

Lots of visitors round here.

Lots of bread baking.

And lots and lots of projects.

Quote of the day:

"I have spent my entire life in the avoidance of 'roughing it,' and 'roughing it' has come to me."

-my sister-in-law on receiving her first shower in 3 days

ghost? give-away!

A funny thing happened at my house today.  And by funny I mean creepy, bizarre, and weird.

So, I'm sitting in our family room on the 2nd floor.  Alone.  Actually working on a project.  Blissfully.  And I hear a series of crashes.  Each sounds like it's coming from a different place in the house.  Now, the dog is outside.  No sign of the cat.  So I jump up to investigate.  As I run past my daughter's room, the door slams.  I stop.  I stand there.  And then in my brilliance, I kick the door open.  Hard.  It flies open, but instead of smashing into the table that rests behind the door, it kind of hits something much softer.  Crap.  NOT how I want to spend my alone time.

At this point, I run to let my ferocious (yeah right) hound in the house, dialing the police as I sprint into the kitchen. Do you know what they told me?  GET THE HELL OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!  So after I let the dog in, I double locked the back door, walked past the stairs that any self respecting robber would have to use to come get the silver, and I headed out the front door.

About 3 minutes later, 5 police cars swarm my house.  Eight officers scour every inch of every room. (damn, why do these things always happen when my house is in shambles!?!)

Know what they found?  Nothing.  Nada. Zip.  Every window locked and sealed with storm windows.  Every door locked.  No possible way someone could have gotten out of the house without leaving a clue.  No sign of anything that would explain the smashing I heard.  And get this. The only thing that seems to be missing is a tiny picture of my son as a baby that was in a little frame on the refridgerator.

Now I feel like the loony lady in the neighborhood.  You know, the one with the unkempt house and a wild imagination.  What do I say to the force of police standing in my front hall, wondering why they jumped up and left their lunches?  "Uuuuhhhh...Sorry guys."

But the thing is, I know what I heard.  And I know a door just slammed in my face.  WTF!!!

As the officers are leaving, one of them says to me, "Do you believe in paranormal activity?"

Holy crap!  The police just told me I have a ghost.  Do you think that's code for "Coo-coo lady, keep your hand on your gun." ?  A ghost?  That's just nuts people.  Really?

Coincidentally, I had planned to do a Halloween give-away.  But now, I need a little mental support, so I'm going to start it early. 

Here's the deal.  To get in on the give-away, you have to leave me a comment with YOUR ghost story.  On Halloween, I'll pick one.

The prize?  A set of 10 notecards with YOUR house on them.  Haunted or otherwise.  Here are a few I've done in the past, just so you can get an idea. 

This is my haunted house. It was built in 1893. (Not that I BELIEVE that it's haunted...yet)

Can't wait to hear your stories.  And p.s. DON'T TELL MY KIDS!!!

when life hands you a hurricane...

...gather hedge apples.

Usually, the ones that make it to the ground have exploded because they are too ripe, or are half eaten by the squirrels.  But now, no spiders for us this winter!

The ground is completely strewn with assorted nuts.  Hopefully the various critters will hurry and store them away before the park is re-cleaned in preparation for the St. James Art Show.

And another update, WE HAVE POWER!!!  Our lights came on at 3:09 a.m. yesterday morning.  The ceiling fan broke the beautiful silence and woke us up with it's vaguely familiar drone.

Strange as it may seem, I got quite used to no power.  No tv. No computer. No extraneous noise.  And beautiful, perfect weather.  Those thousands of people still without may see it differently, however!

But the best part of being stranded in the neighborhood?  Neighbors, and friends.  We've all gotten together every night to pool our resources together for fabulous meals.  We've helped each other drink beer that otherwise would go funky.  We've made pies from all the gorgeous peaches and berries that were lovingly picked and frozen.  And let me tell you how yummy s'mores are when they are cooked over the firepit in the backyard.  But best of all, we've laughed.  It just goes to show, you get out what you put in.

And the kids?  Packs of 'em.  Having a blast.  With no video games.  Hmmm.  I think our wiring may go be on the fritz.

I'm glad to be back.  I've got some serious blog catch-up to do!

reflecting

(guess I should have cleaned my mirror for you!  nah, we're friends, right?)

I've been doing a lot of reflecting.  About being home from vacation.  How to jump into the disorganization that is my house.  Getting the kids ready to start back to school in 3 weeks.  All the little projects I want to do.  But mostly, I've been doing a lot of reflecting on food.

See, I think my family does pretty well in the food department.  Sortof.  We eat MOSTLY organic.  I've turned into a fairly avid label reader.  And I haven't bought produce at the grocery since that long ago post when I declared I was going to try to make it the whole summer using only local and homegrown goods. (Well, there was that one time on vacation that I bought lettuce and some peaches from Trader Joe's.  Can't vouch as to where they came from)

But now, in addition to the whole "high fructose corn syrup" thing, I've been stewing on the whole "genetically modified" thing.  Creeps. me. out.  And sure enough, I pulled my trusty Canola out of the cabinet last night, and ConAgra is right there on the label.  I just didn't know.  The fact that GM foods do not have to be labeled is an abomination.

So now, I'm off to ponder...

(You totally got that this was the last installment of Tracy's color week, right?)

quilt revival

Now, this is a quilt I had never seen before this weekend.  It was made by my great-grandmother.  Well, just the top.  My grandmother had given it half rotten to my aunt years ago.  And so it sat in a box.  For years. 

Until the darling wife of my cousin discovered it.  And repaired it.  And began HAND QUILTING it.  And it's beautiful.  And I really can't express how much I adore her for saving it.  And for making my grandma really, really proud.

Thanks Danielle.

a photo story

So, looking back to my post "loose ends," I had five unfinished projects in my life. I finished my craft swap, my mud garden, my community garden.  And now, here's the play by play of my beautiful bookshelves.

This was the before.

Our amazing trim carpenter Jack.

I can't wait to finish filling them!  

So, that leaves one.  One project left on my list. It is haunting me.  My mural.  "And the walls became the world all around." 

Well, actually now the list is already back up to two.  The next craft swap project goes on the list!  More to follow!

saturday!

I had a funny anecdote about our last couple of days, but now I'm not in the mood. HA! But here are the highlights... 

1. The kids are all out of school for the summer. 

2. The pool opened yesterday. The 65 degree pool. The ginormous "lake" was all but empty except for the few blue children. Fantastically beautiful day, none the less. 

3. Swapped kids. Seems I never come home from the pool with the same kids I left with. 

4. Came home to find that the the dog discovered how to tip over the (lidded) rubbish bin. Of COURSE that morning I had thrown out some raw chicken that had expired (besides everything else I cleaned out of the fridge). It was all over my kitchen floor. Uneaten. Just chewed on and spread around the whole kitchen. Lovely. I thought of you Zanne, and the f-er dog story. 

5. After I cleaned and mopped the disaster and made a quick dinner, I ran away to the garden. SO glad the little girl who spent the night is super low maintenance. 

6. The aftermath of a tummy full of garbage has hit. So what better place to shake off after he's finished? The kitchen. Mopping. F-er dog. 

Some of the highlights of my day...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

loose ends

There are five major unfinished projects in my life right now. Five. Six if you count the 6 cubic yards of mulch slated for delivery on Saturday. I'm not really counting that one, because I haven't actually started it yet. Monday, I'll count it. Now, this does not include the plethora of smaller things I WANT to do.

Project 1

"and the walls became the world all around."

"Where the Wild Things Are" has always been one of my favorites. For YEARS I have planned to do a Sendak-ish mural with the quote in frieze at the top, "and the walls became the world all around." Finally got it started. It's about 3/4 of the way sketched, and there it sits, waiting patiently for me. Rainy day, right? I started it about a month ago.

Project 2

the mud pit

Last fall, our amazing friend Nelson (who owns Nature's Beautiful Magic in Louisville..plug, plug) showed up with his unbelievably hard working crew and laid this blue flagstone. He had saved the concave slab for the fountain for about three years for us! He ordered the Squaw Valley Flats (huge pebbles in amazing colors) for me especially. I think he thought I was somewhat mad by wanting to put pockets of flats to offset the squareness of the stone. Or maybe he thinks I'm just somewhat mad! HA! I love the look of how it turned out!

This spring, I have tackled the design and planting of the border. This (obviously) is the before picture. It is ALMOST done and I am THRILLED. I hope to have the reveal ready on Monday!!!

Project 3

blank canvas

This is the community garden plot that I have taken on this year. I had an earlier post detailing my plans for it. I've stayed almost right on the mark, but have made minor adjustments. After all, adaptability is the key to evolution!

The three beds are all built and installed, and two of them are completely planted. One left to de-Johnson grass and plant. Hopefully by Wednesday that project will move into "maintain" mode. YAHOO!!!

Project 4

floor to ceiling, wall to wall...

...junk. But not anymore! Now it's floor to ceiling, wall to wall amazingly beautiful built-in cabinetry. Just waiting for the painters! No, I did NOT have anything to do with this project (other than writing the check), but it has been a huge presence in my house...and it's almost finished! I HOPE within the month painting will be complete and new carpet will be installed.

Project 5

Craft Swap

I'm really fortunate to be part of a local craft swap that includes some amazingly talented women. Remarkably talented. As much as I love it, there is always that little tinge of "Oh crap, what if my craft for this installment sucks."

Our next meeting is in about 2 weeks, and I'm already about half way finished. In craft swap terms, that means I'm WAY ahead! I'm particularly excited about what I'm making this time. Photos to follow after the goods have been delivered.

Ahhh. Where would we be without chaos!?!