Saturday, June 30, 2018

Miller Homestead


Matt and wife Julia came by this morning to pick up my credit card, remeasure and go to Lowe’s to buy the PVC plumbing.  Once again the water is off so I thought I’d take a moment on this last day of the month to blog about my volunteer opportunity at the High Desert Museum.  The name of the homestead living history area is the Miller Ranch and Sawmill and the time setting is 1904. This is an “upscale” homestead at 12 x 20’ with a porch instead of the traditional 12 x 16’ homes.  And these are homes.  This is a replica of a homestead that was home to a family of seven.

The porch area and the wood floor are atypical but possible because of the sawmill, though we always point out that the point of the sawmill, which is owned by four homesteading families, was to build the barns and sheds to protect their livestock.  Without their well-being there would be no homestead.  That’s the backbone of our story and we embellish on that.
The Homestead Act of 1862 permitted citizens (including freed Blacks) to pay the $10 filing fee and apply for the 160 acres.  The catch was that they had to live on it continually for five years and prove up at the end of that time.  If they were successful, the land was theirs, free and clear.  You would think that digging a well and establishing water would come first but this was the era that believed in dry land farming.  The ill-fated homesteading community of Fort Rock (southeast of here) optimistically build their homes because they had two years of good rain.  The wells never emerged and it never rained again.

Each of us living history interpreters has a story that we make up individually.  Candace is a retired nurse so plays the role of an apothecary and midwife.  She greets people with “and how are you “feeling” today?”  The porch is also a stage of sorts.  In the back right you can see a collection of small brooms.  Children love the sweep the porch.

I’m Mrs Wilson, a neighboring homesteader, and bring my spinning and knitting when I pay a social visit to Mrs Miller.

There’s a complete wood shop and a couple of volunteers spend their shifts here.  Yesterday we were joined by Robert, his first day as a living history interpreter.  He has worked Mondays as a greeter and wants to try his hand out with us.  He is just beginning to work out his story to find his role and I could tell he was nervous.  Ethan got him going with the cross-cut saw, and by the end of the day he had helped visitors make little slices from logs.  The kids were thrilled to have something to take home.

A new and larger wood shop is under construction and when it’s completed, the old one will become a blacksmith shop.  There are already volunteers in the wings to take that on.

The outhouse is always popular with the kids, so when I’m doing a tour inside the house and the kids learn that they would have climbed a ladder to sleep in the loft if they lived then, I show them the chamberpot.  They are floored and grossed out.  I remind them that the alternative is to hike down the ladder and walk to the outhouse, not inviting in the dark or snow.

Yesterday was Ethan’s birthday and Emily, a paid summer intern, wanted to bake him an apple pie.  She had made a rhubarb pie on Tuesday with one of the volunteers who is a wood-stove and castiron cook.  This is only the third pie she has made in her life.

She got the crust a little thick but otherwise she did a great job.  She is also a wilderness guide so easily managed the wood stove and kept the temperature even for the 90 minutes it took to bake.

Yes, the crust was too thick and the recipe she was given had too much butter.  That recipe called for 3 cups flour and three sticks of butter.  I sent her my standby Better Homes and Gardens recipe with two cups of flour and 2/3 cups of butter.  She’s pretty proud as she should be, and she wants to do it again.  She cut the first slice for Robert and butter literally drained from it as she plated it.  We laughed but it was delicious.

Sophia our littlest volunteer could hardly wait.  She excels at helping the children play the traditional games of that period.

I really don’t enjoy carding wool so have readjusted my basket with prepaired roving, at least I’ll see how it goes next visit.  When we were in Red Rock recently I asked our old neighbor Tom to make me a couple of dowsing rods.  He taught me how to dowse but I left my rods behind in the move.  Linda, our director, is interested to see if this works out.  I’m a little worried about the sharp rods and children, but I do want to try it out.

Oh, and here’s the pie crust recipe I sent to Emily.  It hasn’t failed me yet, and in fact, Matt and Julia just brought us raspberries and rhubarb from their yard.  Ian wants a pie.

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Transitions again

My son Matt is redoing our master bath and installing a walk-in shower.  He came to the house, picked me up and we went shopping at Home Depot for fixtures and plumbing.


The bathroom is completely gutted and one of the changes is to elevate the bathroom counter from 30”, which means you’re bowing to the faucet, to 36”, the normal height.  The unfortunate part is that while he’s done some plumbing, he’s a tile setter by trade, and bit off more than he could chew.  We were without water in the house for most of last weekend which was in convenient but also sobering when you stop to think how much of the world lives without running water or even fresh water.  


We were watching our grand dog so on top of needing to bring in bottled water to flush the toilets and to drink, we had two dogs to provide fresh water for.  Rusty is quite content to stay with us so at least that wasn’t a problem.  Our neighbor Lee came over Sunday afternoon to give Matt a hand, and also son Josh had returned by then and was also helping out.  The short of it is that even though Matt throught he could tie into our old copper plumbing, it just didn’t work.  Matt is a project supervisor for a local home construction company and so talked to one of their plumbers who told him he needs to start over with PVC, which was also Lee’s advice.  Matt wants to do it so we’ll start over  this weekend and continue using the guest bathroom in the meantime.


We were very happy to have water again because we had an appointment on Tuesday to have our carpets cleaned.  Furniture was piled everywhere, inside and out, which was unsettling since we had to leave it like this overnight, then vacuum the carpet before moving things back.  I learned from Sean the carpet guy that our carpets are Orlon and that’s why they’re not wearing well.  The stairs carpet is cut nylon and looks great.  His advice was to be sure we get cut nylon if we ever decide to replace these.  But first comes the bathroom!


I’ve been commissioned to make a red hat for one of Josh’s FedEx truck drivers.  I want to use handspun yarn so picked out the colors i want to blend, cleared out the area around the drum carder and reached into the accessories basket to find my drive band looking like this. I’m not surprised since it’s 20 years old but it’s another inconvenience.  I asked for help on a Facebook spinning group and after several unsatisfactory phone calls explaining how to measure so that a custom band could be made, I ended up talking to Susan’s Fibers whom several people had recommended.  She has already shipped it!

So I bought two more Blogger apps just now.  The first one was bogus, came up with a Google warning stating as much.  The second one appears to be working so I’m going to go with it for now, crossing my fingers.  It takes about an hour for a single post using my laptop!  I take my photos on my iPhone and have to jump through hoops to use them in a Microsoft application, i.e., Blogger.  For now I’m back in business.  


Test


A doe taking a siesta beneath the guest room window.


I just bought another new app.  I hope this one publishes the entire photo!


Transitions


My son Matt is redoing our master bath and installing a walk-in shower.  He came to the house, picked me up and we went shopping at Home Depot for fixtures and plumbing.


The bathroom is completely gutted and one of the changes to is elevate the bathroom counter from 30”,which means you’re bowing to the faucet, to 36”, the normal height.  The unfortunate part is that while he’s done some plumbing, he’s a tile setter by trade, and bit off more than he could chew.  We were without water in the house for most last weekend which was inconvenient but also sobering when you stop to think how much of the world lives without running water or even fresh water.

We were watching our granddog so on top of needing to bring in bottled water to flush the toilets and to drink, we had two dogs to provide fresh water for.  Rusty is quite content to stay with us so at least that wasn’t a problem.  Our neighbor Lee came over Sunday afternoon to give Matt a hand, and also son Josh had returned by then and was also helping out.  The short of it that even though Matt thought he could tie into our old copper plumbing, it just didn’t work.  Matt is a project supervisor for a home construction company here and so talked to one of the plumbers who told him he needs to start over with PVC which was also Lee’s advice.  Matt wants to do it so we’ll start over this weekend and continue using the guest bathroom.


We were very happy to have water again because we had an appointment Tuesday to have our carpets cleaned.  Furniture was piled everywhere, inside and out, which was unsettling since we had to leave it like this overnight, then vacuum the carpet before moving things back.  I learned from Sean the carpet guy that our carpets are Orlon and that’s why they’re not wearing well.  The stairs are cut Nylon and look great.  His advice was to be sure we get cut Nylon if we decide to replace these.  But first comes the bathroom!

I’ve been commissioned to make a red hat for one of son Josh’s truck drivers.  I want to use handspun yarn so picked out the colors I want to blend, cleared out the area around the drum carder and reached into the accessories basket to find my drive band looking like this.  I’m not surprised since it’s 20 years old but it’s another inconvenience.  I asked for help on a Facebook spinning group and after several unsatisfactory phone calls explaining how to measure so a custom band could be made,  I ended up talking to Susan’s Fibers whom several people had recommended.  She has already shipped it!


Saturday, June 23, 2018

Quick Trip

We hit the road last week for a trip to Reno and Kiernan's high school graduation.  We made really good time so decided to stop in for a visit with our old neighbors, Tom and Carole.  This is the house we had built and lived in for 13 years.  Other than the barn there are few changes.  They fenced the entire 11 acres, the trees are bigger and the two horseshoe pits have been turned into an exercise ring for their horses.
It was great to see them.  Tom has recovered with his bout of lung cancer and is there is no sign of the tumor, though he does have to use oxygen after a heart attack.  I think he looks great.  Their house in on the market as they're moving to Winnemucca.
We had no plans when we went down so everything just evolved, like lunch at our favorite place, Golden Flower.  Best pho ever!  I miss my daughter terribly so loved every minute together.  We'll see them in two weeks when we'll meet them in Klamath Falls to pick Alexia up for the month of July.
Kiernan is outrageously funny.  I told him I didn't think he had his gown on right.  He's a very lucky boy in that he's lived in the same house since he started to school.
And he's had the same two friends since first grade.  This is Matthew.
And here he is with his proud parents and Dakota, his other BFF.
We left Reno and Kiernan's graduation party Sunday afternoon for Red Rock Valley.  Our friends Carol and Harry invited us for dinner and to spend the night.  It's big sky country for sure, so different from where we live now with about 80 less sunny days per year.
They invited Tom and Carole for dinner too and we laughed until we were exhausted.  It's the first time in my life where neighbors have become life-long friends.  
We left home Thursday and returned on Monday, an event filled four days!  Kiernan gave up his bed so we could stay with them as there are no hotels anywhere near them on the Nevada/California border.  It was a great visit - great to spend time with my daughter and grandkids and great to spent time with old friends.
The drive was seven uneventful hours and just like that we were home again where deer saunder up the driveway and sleep in the front yard.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Cha Cha Cha Changes

Guess what happened last weekend!  This is Logan, my second grandchild and oldest grandson here in Bend.  He has done very well in high school and has a lot to be proud of.  Congratulations Logan, I've told you before and I'll say it again - I am *so* proud of you!
His parents are certainly proud of him.  My son is about to burst his buttons!  Logan's graduating class was huge, almost 400 seniors!
Commencement was held at the fair grounds event center and the newspaper estimated that there were about 3,000 in attendance.  We celebrated that afternoon with a party at their house and the opening of Logan's kindergarten time capsule.  It was adorable and also emotional.
Tomorrow morning we leave for Reno and another commencement.  This time it's for Kiernan, my oldest grandson.  This is my trip knitting and I'm hoping to finish it on this trip so I can start the other July birthday gift scarf.  Kiernan will be 19 on July 2nd which doesn't seem possible.  I was one of his delivery coaches when he was born and it just doesn't seem like it could have been that long ago.
The master bath in our house leaves a lot of be desired.  While we're gone son Matt is going to demo this retrofitted shower.  Ian calls it the time machine.
And this strange short spa tub has to go too.  We've never used it, don't even know if it works and we don't care.  Matt is going to build a walk-in shower in this space.
This is the tile that he'll use for the updating.  I was really surprised at how expensive tile is.  This small pile is about $1,000 and we still have to pay Matt for the tile he's going to use which will save us a chunk.  When we built our house in Red Rock I told Steve our contractor that I wanted tile throughout the first floor and he knew our budget and said that we couldn't afford it.  Now I get it.  It's going to a long summer camping out in the guest bathroom.  I need to keep my eye on what's coming instead of what's happening.

Tuesday, June 05, 2018

Progress!

The lupine that grew from a seed in a wildflower mix that I sowed last year came back again this year and is massive.  I've tried and tried unsuccessfully to pull out that large clump of half dead grass so asked Ian if he'd give it a go.
The native bunch grasses that grow here have roots a foot deep.  He finally got it all out but it left a huge hole where the roots had been.
This is that ugly mess ready for the dump and it weighs a ton.
I went to the nursery to buy a bag of compost and also a bag of mulch.  Once I had the compost in the ground and a ready flower bed I went back to the nursery for three lavender plants.  The spot is irrigated and in full sun.  I figured this was my chance to finally grow lavender.  I hadn't checked the zone requirement when I was there earlier and was disappointed to discover that the lavender is a zone 5 and we are an unforgiving zone 3.  I learned the hard way that even zone 4 plants can't survive the winter here.  I spent a long time looking at plants, checking for zone, size and color.  These are the 13 that came home with me.
I planted them all, and because I have to space the plants according to their mature growth it doesn't look like much right now.
I put redwood bark down on the path and the shade garden in its second year is rewarding all my hard work last year.
I have five of these Pink Petticoat Columbines and they've been blooming for a couple of weeks.  That's it for yard work for a while.  Now I just have to be patient and let things mature and grow together.  At least that's what I hope they'll do.
I just started this lace scarf from mohair.  It's to be a gift if I can finish it in time.  I've never knit with mohair before and am in love with this airy light fabric.  It was very hard for me in the beginning and I had to start over a couple of times.  It's going well now but I have to concentrate completely on the pattern rows.  It's very easy to add stitches, at least it has been for me.