What I've Been Up To In October

October always seems to be an extra busy month.

Perhaps because there are 3 birthdays this month,

mine included.

Maybe it's because the season is changing to Autumn.

I don't really know for sure,

but it's always busy.

We're still working on replacing the windows in the house.

Or, rather, the window fairy 

my dad is still working on replacing the windows.

On the fun side of things, 

we attended a family friend's annual hayride.

It's always a good time, 

and this year was no different.

The food is always phenomenal, 

as is the hot cider.

Plus we had a visit from the grandson,

who always wants to visit the horses and chickens.

He said, "I wuv her!"

He's also quite angry that the raccoon ate all of the chickens 

(except 2).

He plans to have his Poppy get him a real gun so he can shoot the raccoon.

In other news, 

I've been busy working on a book of ghost stories.

Seems a bit odd perhaps, 

but I love the paranormal

and I love hiking

so that's how the idea of a book of paranormal stories

 from along the Appalachian Trail came to be.

And to tie all this in a little,

the very same family friend who plans the hayrides, 

is the same that helped nudge me towards wanting to write again,

though she doesn't really know it.

She said to me once, "Do what makes your heart sing."

It's something I try to tell myself on a fairly regular basis, 

especially those times when I get discouraged 

and think I have no business doing what I'm doing.

Because sometimes, you have to rediscover who you are and who you're meant to be.

Maybe that seems strange to some, 

but I know to others it makes perfect sense.

Life changes you.

So who you were at 18 and who you thought you were going to end up being  

aren't necessarily the same or even close.

Sometimes, you need to take a second to reorient yourself 

and figure things out.

Me- I need to write.

So if you want to read about hiking check out my other blog

Hiking 40 For My 40th

and if you want to know what's going on and where I am in the whole book thing

like the Facebook Page

The Haunted Trail: Ghosts, Monsters and Aliens on the Appalachian Trail

 

I Can See Clearly Now

One day, I came home from work and found this.

We had been visited by the window fairy.

A new window might seem like no big deal,

but I stood there opening and closing the window-

with one hand-

for 5 minutes.

I didn't have to bang on it, fight to open it

or prop it up with a stick.

Each day, I had another window from the window fairy.

Then Saturday, I came home to find 

the window fairy and his helper inaction.

I'm not sure my dad likes that I refer to him as

the window fairy.

I finally got some photos of one of the windows going in.

It's kind of a pain in the neck, 

especially when no two windows are the same.

No, really, none of the windows are the same measurement.

It's truly tedious when you need to put the window in, take it out, 

scrape something, put the window in, go outside and check stuff, go take the window out, 

bang around, but the window in....

you get the idea.

I'm lucky I have my dad to work on the windows.

Big E was able to help with this one.

He's never put windows in before, so he's learning something new.

He has about 14 more he can practice on.

Last night, I spent a considerable amount of time staring at the new windows.

When the original windows are 100 years old

and impossible to clean,

you really appreciate windows you can see through.

New Floor

 These are photos of the kitchen from last year

before we started doing anything.

 You can see the duct tape patch on the floor

where Miss Bertha sat in her kitchen chair.

 The kitchen "table" at the time

was actually a cabinet and countertop

that we removed.

 We painted the walls and removed the linoleum

to find mostly hardwood floors.

But in the back portion of the kitchen, there was plywood subflooring.

This is the area that was added onto the house after it was built.

The line where the hardwood meets plywood is the original

footprint of the house.

I spent a lot of time worrying over that hardwood.

I went through a ton of possibilities of what I could do to save it.

But in the end, 

the reality that there was concrete under the plywood

and the very worn condition of the hardwood

plus the amount of water the dogs slop everywhere,

I decided to go with my original plan of putting down vinyl tiles.

Big E laid the first one in place.

And here we have a teaching moment.

While talking about the best way to attack the floor, 

I mentioned the instructions on the back of the box.

Big E mentioned he had done this before and wanted to start in a corner along the wall.

I agreed to go with his thoughts as I had never done any of this before.

So we started along the wall.

 It goes pretty easily once you get your first tile in place.

 But you really need to follow instructions on the box.  

Especially when your house doesn't have a straight line in it

to save its life

and you're laying tiles with a checkerboard pattern.

You can see the tiles by the doorway are crooked

compared to the tiles Big E is working on in the photo below.

We ended up needing to order 2 more boxes of tile

to replace what we started using.

Once we got things lined up and on the right track, 

it was simple to gets things put down.

And now we have a shiny new kitchen floor.

I miss the hardwood, 

but I surely don't miss the plywood!

Big E also removed the light fixture above the table.

So all that's left in the kitchen for now

is to get the cabinet painted white.