Home improvements, Summertime 2008

Many years ago, in an earlier, poorer, lifetime, I used to plan my day around drying the laundry. It had to be a good drying day to do laundry --- over freezing, and breezy to boot. I would wash the longest drying stuff first so I could hang it out on my pulley system clothesline first, early in the day. I had two pulley lines that extended from my deck to the neighbor's garage. The stuff that dried quickly could go on last and come down first. Laundry was a very strategic operation.

Then we moved to an area with cheap electric rates and I no longer bothered with a clothesline. Few people seemed to use them. I didn't miss the extra work and strategyzing, but I did miss the scent of sheets dried on the line. This year, we got a clothesline!

It is one of those square ones on a center aluminum pole. To install it, you dig a hole in the ground and fill it with sackrete. You set a plastic sleeve in the sackrete to support the pole. The tube has a cap on it so that when you don't have the clothes dryer set up you can cap the hole.

This is the sunniest spot in our backyard.

I am using it mostly for bed linens and curtains.

Here you see another "home improvement" which is freshly laundered curtains, a symptom of "spring cleaning" taking place. This is nine lace panels and two valances. It is amazing how dusty, stiff and gray these get. Now they are sparkling white again.

Definitely, a home improvement.

The Ancestral Home welcomes more descendants

Many babies came to visit, some to stay a while.




Someday, this four month old will get back at his two year old sister for putting the fuzzy crown on his head, but today he was okay with it.

Hats were the order of the day, for kids from Atlanta who came to their Ancestral Home.

They were a charming bunch!

Though dressed as a swimming wizard, he cast no spells. Their cousins, Jack and Mary (a.k.a "Mac and Jerry") from D.C. made their premiere visit to the Ancestral Home, too. Jack looks kind of familiar, but Mary's is an entirely new face. We look forward to getting to know them better in the years to come.

Though a mere six weeks, they were not the youngest babies on the old homestead. Local bunnies gave birth the day before the family reunion.

Oddly enough, we found them in the grass between our home and the next, near rose bushes looking more like the leavings of a big, loose dog than a nest of newborns. They were the size of small mice! There was no mother in sight, and we checked the bushes for a dead mother. No bunnies were found. We also lay a rhododendron branch over them for sun protection, and contacted an authority on the natural world for guidance.

She reassured us that mother bunnies do leave their young during the day and also that baby bunnies are born unscented to protect them from predators.

Mother Bunny's choice of locations was rather out in the open, but just a few days ago we had noted two bunnies working on a nest beneath one of the trees in our front yard. It was a shaded, protected hole lined with rabbit fur. Doesn't that sound divine? We waited a night to see if Mother would move them there. She didn't.

Mother Bunny had clearly been to the hole overnight, though, as evidenced by the grass clippings being pressed down, rabbit shaped. She also had tended and fed her babies who still were in the open. Jennifer also told us that it would be perfectly ok for all concerned if we moved the babies to the hole since it was close by. Mother would find them, eventually. If she didn't see them, she would hear their hungry cries.

Here is one of five baby bunnies. Four of them seemed hale and hearty, (hardy?) but one was not thriving. If you look closely at the picture of many bunnies, you will see one on its side. His skin hung loosely compared to the others, and he seemed unable to move very well. Son2 put them gently in the rabbit hole where they eagerly nestled into the fur, expectantly. We're guessing that it smelled like Mom.

After about 9:30 at night, when it was dark, we saw Mother Bunny cautiously approaching the original spot. She seemed easily spooked, so we left her alone.

The next morning, four bunnies seemed well fed and cared for, and one dead baby bunny was outside the hole. Now they are four days old and mother comes by nightly.

The six human offspring have since left. Their mothers were intrigued by the parenting methods of Mrs. Bunny and all continue to take an interest in the welfare of the four baby rabbits.

A few of my favorite Jamestown Lounge things

...for all you Jamestown Lounge fans out there.

It's all in the details. This carved arm was the first element of Jamestown Lounge Feudal Oak that caught my eye when I was looking for furnishings for this circa 1961 shoebox ranch. Our last house had such character in the woodwork! This carving, I was certain, would make up for that loss.

The seductive arm turned out to be part of a couch and there were pieces to match. These arms are also on a massive arm chair with a big ottoman. End tables, intricately carved and identical on both ends!

This chair came along later, and is Jamestown Lounge British Oak.
I adore the notched arms and the carving on the back.

Check out the carving on the side of this Jamestown Lounge Feudal Oak chair.
It's a great one for sitting and knitting by the window.

I love the effect the carvings have on this Feudal Oak drum table.

This coffee table has the massive carvings, too.

The tabriz looks a bit more rose colored than it really is, but I love the details.
Oh, did I mention that?

Here is the poster that scandalized the Pan Am Exposition in Buffalo, NY in 1901.


Well, okay, a copy of it.

Need a place to sit while removing your boots?

Next time? Maybe the rest of the British Oak collection, then on to Colonnade and then American Modern.

Old friend, new friend

My old friend, the Canon Power Shot A20 which I have used for years, meet my new friend...
The Kodak EasyShare Z612, which a brown truck delivered to my house, just today. I wasn't even expecting to meet a new friend. WH just told me that something was coming that brown would deliver and it was for both of us. I'm sure that once I get to know her better my new friend will bring endless joy and help preserve many happy memories.

The Great Outdoors

Yesterday was the last day of school. Loads of stuff that I brought home is freshly dumped in the living and dining rooms. It looks like a "before" picture for one of those home organization shows. So, here are some lovely views of the outdoors which WH has made look pretty great.

Part of the berm. You can see other neighborhood houses.

The patio is our summer livingroom.

The sundial spends part of its day in the shade. Who really cares what time it is in the summer?

A couple more things

These pictures looked quite appropriate together. The one on the right was probably taken in 1982 or so. The other was just last summer.
Chautauqua Institution -- All County Music Festival. Son2 is in the first chair euphonium seat. Not bad for a sophomore.

Spring Break! or Rippin' into the old house again

I love our livingroom. When I see this picture I want to go sit there. It is cozy and comfortable. This week we tore it all apart. Look closely at the second picture. It shows four little screws protruding down through the ceiling from the crawlspace. These were placed there by our roofer FIVE YEARS AGO when he installed a new roof and skylight for the living room. All we needed to do was cut and finish access to it. Simple enough, right?












Here is a shot of the hole cut and insulation added. See the blinds? Those are new, too, and work on a switch. They can open, close or completely retract.










This is the work in progress. No pain, no gain. Now there is sheetrock covering the insulation. Air circulation is not the greatest in these access chutes, so we rigged a box fan set across chairs blowing UP. Sorry, no picture, but I'm sure you can see it in your mind's eye.

Since all of the furniture was either moved out or covered in plastic I hauled this favorite chair off to the upholstery shop. Okay, this chair is nice, but you'd really be raving about it had you seen what it looked like BEFORE I took it there. However, since I am the Worst Blogger Ever I neglected to take a picture of it in its gold wide wale corduroy glory with the sunken seat. The best thing about that fabric was that it matched the cat who thinks it is Her Chair. Anyway, the red Jamestown Lounge Feudal Oak chair is great in the room.

The finished room! This picture may not show the beauty of the natural light that fills the room, even on a gloomy day (common around here) in the late afternoon it was lovely. It was four days of disruption and mess but our question was, "Why didn't we do this sooner?" Our next planned project is to refinish the livingroom floor. That will wait until summer. Our heavy Jamestown Lounge Feudal Oak livingroom furniture has taken a toll on the floor. It has rubbed off the finish and started marring the wood beneath. There was also an incident with a leaky Christmas tree that happened a couple of years ago that discolored a part of the wood. Meanwhile, we shall enjoy the latest improvement.