Hello winter.
We got snow and freezing temperatures last week. I haven't gotten all the carrots dug out if the garden. Since we have had week straight of rain before that everyone is having harvest troubles. This week is supposed to be cold but dry. I am looking forward to that and hopefully some sunshine. Sunshine makes the cold easier to deal with.

I've dug some of the carrots. This year I planted the seed heavy, managed to keep the weeds at Bay and thinned the seedlings once or twice. Lesson learned must be ruthless on the thinning. We got lots if little carrots, non bigger than three inches and the smaller. Oh well live and learn. Still better than last year.

Kids love the wet snow.

Thanks Random Motivation

Sometimes you spontaneously decide in the middle of doing some other thing that the wall MUST be painted as soon as possible. While decluttering a shelf unit in my dinning room, I realised the wall mist be painted first. So in the middle of the decluttering, I stopped and have been painting the dark panneled wall. First primer then the grey color.

Before. Ignore mess

I'm so happy. I did a little section near the front door. But never finished. I didn't even move the twinkle lights. Today I did it the right way.
My dinning room is currently unusable, table is in the middle of the room, full of stuff.
But I can see the future. I'm happy to finally cross ''prime & paint dinning room" off my list!

Window by bathroom, just primer in this picture

Long overdue life update

Our summer started off with a bang. We remodeled the kitchen, replaced the front and back exterior doors. We planted a garden, went way over budget, canceled plans, started painting. And just generally been busy. Oh and because I thought why not we are home most of the summer, let's be cat foster parents.

messy before pictures 

During and after our whirlwind four day remodeling. I was drained and overwhelmed. I couldn't find it to write here about the experience.
The kitchen we replaced the base cupboards with new shaker style white, and got a fantastic deal on display pieces of laminate counter tops. We installed new vinyl flooring and rearrange the stove and fridge. Opening up the space. I painted the walls a light grey like the laundry room. I primed the upper cabinets and celling. I have yet to finish painting.

The original exterior doors were super narrow. 25 and 28 inches. A standard door is minimal 32 inches. This door situation was the cause of most of the stress and extra money. The back door in the kitchen went fairly smoothly. Just had to remove the outdoor light. Which we handliy converted to a outdoor outlet for lighting and a pond pump.

The front door was a whole lot of whole crap. After removing the existings door we found the sill threshol wasn't supported by anything. Part of the floor in front of the door was rotten. It was my nightmare. I have little to no remodeling experience. Thankfully my father in law figured out how to extend the joist to incled the door frame. I can to Menards three or four times that day. It's a 20 minute drive each direction. I had lots of time to panic.

Hmm what else? Oh we converted the plumbing for the washing machine that had been in the kitchen for a dishwasher. Yet because of cash we don't actually have a dishwasher. And while we tried to keep the dishwasher space standard it is slightly smaller then standard 24 inches, like 23 3/4 or something technical like that. So it isn't something I am in a hurry to get.

Just recently we built a platform for the plastic garden shed. Unfortunately it sat on the uneven group d long enough to get warpwd. And we may have to completely disassemble to get everything to line up and the doors to close proper.
I've wanted a fire pit since we moved in. It took a while to decide. Then I decided we didn't have the money. This spring I decided I was tired of waiting. Dreaming I wanted a brick patio style fire ring with bricks and eventually enough bricks to set chairs around. This spring I couldnt afford any bricks, I scavenged 4 from around the yard and bought the cheapest fire pit Menards sold. A few weeks ago I was able to buy 12 more bricks to increase my patio. You might recall the wood patio next to the house, it is rapidly deteriorating. And I find myself sitting near the fire rather than risk stepping through the plywood. 12 square patio bricks coats approximately $30. I should be able to get another set soon.

The garden is a wild jungle. We don't care for the woody green bean variety I planted. And I planted a lot like 1/4 of a pound of seed. Glad the seed is gone, we can get aomesomet new next year. I should dig the potatoes. The tomatoes are doing okay, I haven't supported them enough. But the few that have ripe are delicious. It's the carrots I'm waiting for. I've been careful to keep the weeds down.

Finally cats. Our cat passed away shortly before we moved into the house. I was sad but busy. We decided quickly that it would be best not to get another animal. I've been content with my aquariums. After our kitchen remodel going over budget, we cancelled all our plans. Mostly two reenactment camping trips and any extra trips involving car travel. One of the local cat rescue put out a plea for foster homes, they had an excessively large bunch of kittens. I said yes! They supply everything, I jutj peovpro space, shelter and love. Then the cat goes on it's way to it's forever home. Richard and I shook hands agreiagr NOT to keep a cat. We like to travel spontaneous.
Little did I know 6 weeks later(now) we would still have the three cats in our care. The shelter is full and doesn't have space to even care for these cats while we go on vacation. Needless to say I am a bit frustrationed. I guess I just didn't look long term enough. Anyway they will getting out of my house while we go on our Northern Minnesota, northshore, family camping trip.

There. Thank you for reading this far. I suspect I don't have many readers. But it feels good to write.
Leave a comment about your summer? Please and thanks ❤️

Phone blogging

Without a internet connection and a desktop computer blogging has been uninspiring. That being said I have a bunch of things to share with everyone.
First we turned the house upside down to carve out bedroom space for the children. The house hasn't really recovered. Now they have a bedroom with separate beds. Our bedroom is half storage room. Both rooms function and that's the important part.

Other exciting remodeling news to come soon!!
Goal is to finish blogging these exciting updates this weekend. ❤️

Garden picture from early May. Planted tomatoes, broccoli and yellow califower.

Tiny hint of spring.

Winter is still here in Minnesota. But I have a tiny but of Spring in my kitchen window.

Loom for sale, pictures.

I need a place to place a bunch of pictures of a table loom I'm selling. Craigslist is horrible. I unsuccessfully try to sell my fish tank. The only interested parties were scammers. Seriously I'm not sending you my bank information for a $200 item.

Anyway. This is a table look that I used briefly. I don't have time or space for a big project like this. It can make narrow cloth, such as dish cloths or reenactment clothes.

Pictures tell all.

Folded for storage

Bye bye big aquarium

In the tiny house sacrifices have to be made. I love my Aquarium garden the big tank is just in the way. The fishes are just doing okay. I really wanted the gold and black ones to breed. But they just seem to eat. I lost a bunch last month. And the fish just haven't seemed to recover.

Without the tank and stand it would really open up the dinning room. Kids love to play and run. Winter here is long. We got 6+ inches of fluffy snow on Tuesday and now again on Friday.  So the little bit of extra room would be nice.

I've made the decision to sell the tank. I'm not in a super hurry. It's kinda sad. But I know I can always get another tank used when we have more space.
Also I still have the two little tanks. I won't be with out fishes.

New doors

WOW Its been too long since posting. Sorry everyone.

We did a thing! The laundry room has a door! We found a great sale on these door hardware. We just reused the old doors. Eventually, probably before we move new door slabs will be used. I intend to paint the whole room and doors. Trim around the door ways needs attention and we need to figure out door latch hardware for the bathroom. Unfortunately now I need to figure out a new place to hang our coats, since we can't hang them on the doors and still open hem all the way. That or I need to move my large Aquarium. Good thing I don't have to figure it out instantly.

Workin progress

Little helpers

Finally hung and furnished for the time being

I'm very excited to be able to walk into the bathroom without going around the door. The whole room feels so much bigger. Hopefully soon we will get the new laminate flooring and some paint.