December 25, 2012 by goatsandhounds

Merry Christmas!

Lots of snow and cold! Even the llama is hanging out in the shelter, she NEVER does that! But , at least all the critters have someplace warm and dry with lots of comfy straw to lay on – whether or not they use them.

We have had a nice, quiet Christmas. My father is out of town, so we won’t be doing the big, family get-together until after they get back.

I got my present a little early. I was at my local charity shop and I found an Incredible Sweater Machine for super-cheap!!! I got it all set up last night and have been having a good time learning the ropes. I’m so excited!

Sweetie got his gift a few weeks ago – an AR-15 rifle. He’s been wanting one for a long time and is just sooooo happy with it! I haven’t shot it yet, but man, that thing is LOUD!

I hope everyone’s holidays have been merry and bright (whatever you celebrate)!

December 16, 2012 by goatsandhounds

Hello!

I realized that it has been quite some time since I posted anything, and I thought I’d better write something…

Not a whole lot of new stuff happening around here…

My father came and repaired our bathroom floor. I should be getting the new vinyl tile soon.

I should also be getting the paint for the kitchen very soon, but it’s been snowing, so I’m not sure when exactly we’ll be able to get started on that project.

We are still unpacking boxes and don’t seem to have enough room for everything. But, it will all work itself out, I’m sure.

The animals are good. The humans are good – though the flu made its rounds through the household a couple of weeks ago. Things are going well!

November 10, 2012 by goatsandhounds

Snow!

We have received about a foot of snow, over the last two days… This makes it difficult to do much of anything that requires going in and out of the house.

One set of steps is non-existent and the other is covered with a ramp at the moment. So, on one side of the house we are going up and down a step stool and on the other is an ice slick. Ugh.

My niece’s boyfriend has been quite a trooper, running back and forth between the house and the barn to get more boxes for us to unpack. There were a few instances where we were pretty concerned that he would fall and hurt himself.

My sweetie managed to step into the space between the ramp and the porch (did I mention that neither segues are quite connected to the house?). Thankfully, his foot hit a brick that supports the steps beneath the ramp and didn’t go all the way down.

I really didn’t do much about the house today. I spent a few hours shoveling a couple of paths to the goat pens. I don’t like getting snow into my boots and I reckon no one else does either. So, I like to make sure that our paths are clear.

In addition to trailblazing, I was on a frantic hunt for one of our bucket heaters. Of course, we never think of putting these things where we can find them when the weather is nice… No, we wait until it snows 10 inches and then try to remember where they were when they got buried. Never did find it, but my niece found one of our heated buckets, thankfully!

We really need to get the boys moved over to the pen with the girls. It’s closer to the house and gate – better proximity for feeding, visiting, etc.

I’m concerned about Frank. When Ray got pneumonia, Frank started becoming very aggressive and downright mean. Not to people, but to his brother. He just beats the heck out of Ray.

We might go ahead and put Frank in with the girls, all by himself for a day or few. We did that with Ray and Thelma put him in his place, right quick! But then again, Ray isn’t the aggressive goat, Frank is. I don’t know…

But, we definitely need to get the boys down on this end of the yard, now that foul weather is upon us. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep an aggressive goat to stop being so mean???

Ugh.

November 7, 2012 by goatsandhounds

Kitchen Before and After!

Hi All!

Well, we started working on the kitchen and I finally got my pictures uploaded from my camera!

Sweetie is planning to spray orange peel texture on the walls, so my little “love note” will be covered. But, we will always know that it’s there.

I apologize in advance for the funky angles of these pictures… It’s a small kitchen and in order to photograph large areas, I often have to stand off to the side.

Ugly brick before:

Not terrible brick after two coats of masonry sealant:

Note the pink edges on the white brick in the top photo… That is some of the brick color bleeding through. Bleeding through TWO coats of masonry sealer! Well, we touched those areas up with TWO coats of primer and it finally stopped coming through.

Ugly cabinetry before (The person working above the window is my niece. She has been a huge help with this project):

Decent cabinetry after two coats of primer:

First layer of ugly wallpaper:

Bottom layer of ugly wallpaper (Not as bad as the paper we removed, especially with the white cabinets):

Now, as I’ve said before… Sweetie is going to spray orange peel texture on all of the walls (except the brick). The walls and brick are going to be painted yellow and the cabinets are going to be painted white.

Unfortunately, we ran out of money, so paint is not in the budget right now. Thankfully, the bottom layer of wallpaper (which will not be removed) doesn’t seem quite as hideous as it did with the brown wood cabinets.

The cats and dog LOVE having a much bigger (more than twice the size of our former abode) place to run and play!

The big furniture pieces have been placed, so we are able to live in the new house. It has been such a huge improvement over being in the motorhome!

I haven’t been doing any crafty stuff, as the house has been taking all my time and energy. But, I have some projects in mind that will include some things crocheted.

October 27, 2012 by goatsandhounds

Kitchen Update

Photos to come in my next post!

My niece and I have been working on the kitchen of our new home, for the last few days…

We were starting from a terribly dated 70’s style kitchen. This includes several dark wood cabinets, faux brick (complete with black grout!) on two walls, and unattractive wallpaper on top of more unattractive wallpaper.

We have covered the brickwork with two coats of masonry sealer and wouldn’t you know… There were still some areas where the red brick color was bleeding through. Ugh! I’m going to try hitting it with primer (Kilz brand).

We removed the top layer of wallpaper and decided not to remove the final layer. It is intact and has become one with the paneling-type wood underneath. So, we will just cover the ugliness.

I went through and caulked all the weird spaces and gaps that developed where the walls meet; and I spackled all of the little nail holes that I could find. I also caulked all the way around the kitchen window. Hopefully, this will help keep out some drafts.

All of the cabinets have been sanded and are ready for primer.

Tomorrow, sweetie will spray an orange peel texture on the walls (except the brick) and then we will be ready for paint!

I’ve chosen two lovely colors for the kitchen… A nice, crisp yellow for the walls and brick; and a nice white for the cabinets and ceiling. I don’t have the paint chips, here in the camper, so I can’t give you their names. I’ll try to remember to do that when I post the “tah-dah” photos. I’ve been trying real hard to remember to take pictures as we go!

Once the paint is done, I get to (try!) to make cute country curtains for the window. I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do, but it will most certainly involve navy blue gingham.

Sweetie got most of the electricity hooked up; but he missed something, as some of our outlets aren’t working. But, we have lights and a furnace that work! We also have the woodstove, which we’ve been using the last few days while we work on the kitchen. The plan is to have the septic hooked up tomorrow. I can’t tell you how excited we all are to be able to go to the bathroom on normal toilets! There’s still no water, but that’s next on his list after septic.

To be continued…

October 23, 2012 by goatsandhounds

Update!

Whew! I know it’s been a REALLY long time since I last posted… So much is going on around here – all house-related.

The dog, five cats, sweetie and myself have been staying in our small (27-foot) motorhome, since they pulled our old house out of here. I’d say we’ve been camping in our own yard for a week and a half, now…

My niece and her boyfriend are camping in luxury, in our Airstream. Since they’ve been staying in that trailer since they moved in, we decided not to kick them to the smaller quarters of the motorhome.

But, there’s light at the end of the tunnel! They delivered our new home today!!! It’s currently sitting on our pad in two sections. Tomorrow, the crew will be here to put the pieces back together!

The next step in the process will be getting all of the utilities hooked back up. This is going to take some working out on my hunny’s part… Nothing on the new double-wide matches up with where things were on the old single-wide. So, he will have to run some pipe, wire and cable to get us livable. He thinks it will take him a week to complete. After that, we get to bring in our stuff!

The timing on this delivery couldn’t be better… We’ve had snow for two days and expect more tomorrow. Now that cold, wet weather is here, we really need to be out of these RVs!

Please pray for sunshine and warm temps to hit Central Oregon!

October 1, 2012 by goatsandhounds

Moving! Sort of…

Well, it has been a whirlwind of excitement, here on the ranch!

We are in the process of trading out our old single-wide mobile home for a much nicer – and much bigger – double-wide.

We await the initial septic inspection. If the inspector gives us the thumbs up (which we think he will) we will be off and running!

I’ve started packing and getting all of the non-essential items out of this house. My niece has been a big help, in that regard.

We will probably have to move into the motorhome, while the new place is being set up… I have no idea what I’m going to do with our cats, fish and plants. I figure I’ll jump off that bridge when I get to it.

I haven’t been doing any crafty stuff, since all of my energy has been poured into this place. But, I do have some future projects that I intend to start, once the dust settles. On top of yarny things, I have several home improvement/furniture projects I want to tackle. It’s all very exciting!

September 21, 2012 by goatsandhounds

Quick Update

I know that it has been a really long time since I posted, but I haven’t been online a whole heck of a lot…

We got three kittens (not sure if I told you about them). We got two more goats: Thelma and Louise. They are Pygoras. Sweetie had carpal tunnel surgery the day before yesterday – no fun. My eldest niece (she’s 27) has moved in with us, to try and get her life together. And, as of yesterday, I am officially unemployed.

That’s my recent life, in a nutshell… Now that I’m not working, I’m hoping I’ll have more time to shoot photos, crochet, and keep in touch with you folks!

August 13, 2012 by goatsandhounds

It’s Curtains for You!

Well… Me, actually…

So, I have several (five) windows that are either naked or ugly and need to be covered. I decided that I would make curtains. Crocheted lace curtains, to be more specific.

I set out on the arduous journey of finding patterns. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a lot out there for curtains, so I also looked at shawls, scarves and blanket patterns (knowing that I could alter the pattern).

Let me tell you… There are HUNDREDS of gorgeous lace patterns out there! I spent DAYS looking at patterns. Finally, I narrowed down my choices to about 20. Once I did that I was able to decide which pattern I wanted to do on the first window. I have priorities, the naked windows first, then the ugly ones.

The pattern that I chose for the first window was the Elegant Simplicity Shawl. I had some white, worsted-weight yarn on hand, so I commenced to hooking. I spent a few days working on the first panel (I wanted two) and realized that I was going to run out of yarn. Well, no worries, right? White, worsted-weight yarn is pretty darn popular and I should have no problem matching it… WRONG! As a matter of fact, this particular yarn that I had used is no longer in existence (’twas given to me)… And, it is a little bit creamier than the white, worsted-weight yarn that I bought to complete the panel. UGH.

I had a choice to make… Go ahead and complete the project using the “off” yarn, or start over… I must say, it looks lovely on my end table.

Since I was starting over, I decided to go with a different pattern. So, back to the decision-making process. Thankfully, I had already narrowed the list and only had 19 to choose from. As an aside, each window is going to have a different pattern – yes, yes, I know I only have five windows… I decided which pattern would be perfect for my kitchen window, but that didn’t help, because the kitchen isn’t the first. List narrowed to 18.

FINALLY, I decided on a terrific lace pattern! It’s pretty, easy, and lacy enough to be feminine but with small enough holes to provide privacy: it is the Mist Stole pattern.

I love how the chain sections look like little Gothic windows!

I used Red Heart Soft Baby Steps yarn, in White and a size I (5.50mm) hook.

Because this was a stole pattern, I had to come up with some sort of way to attach the panels to the curtain rod. I decided to use the same stitch pattern that is in the panel (between the Gothic windows). I think the tabs turned out nicely!

I had to make three panels, because despite measuring, one panel (post-blocking) was too narrow to fit one half of the window.

The panels, while they are technically the same size, blocked kind of funny. One panel is longer and narrower than the other two. Ah well. Maybe next time they get washed, they’ll even out.

It took me about eight hours per panel. Of course, I only worked on them for a couple-few hours per night, so it took me a few weeks.

Now, I’m going to buy the store out of that yarn (a few times, probably) and move on to the kitchen!

July 20, 2012 by goatsandhounds

Happy Anniversary!!!

It’s hard to believe that this blog has been in existence for a year! I started it so that I wouldn’t have so many problems leaving comments on other people’s blogs and I guess it stuck!