I watch people work, and I realize how differently we all approach tasks. Most of the time, we all have the same outcome — task completed! However, we each do things differently. I do better when I’m doing multiple things.
For instance, I came home from church on Sunday and milk was spilled in the refrigerator. At first I was slightly annoyed, and then I realized I needed to clean the fridge anyway, so why be hateful about it?
The cleaning began. First I took everything out. I was also unloading a few groceries.
There were “science projects” inside the fridge — moldy food. Yuck.
As I pulled out the potatoes, I thought “why not make some potato salad?”
Which required some chopping..
So while I had the celery out…I thought I’d rinse it in vinegar and seal it so that it’ll keep longer. (If you have not got a Mason jar sealer yet, you need one. Trust me.)
Do you see a pattern here? I’m not even thinking about wiping down the refrigerator at this point. Also, notice the groceries never got put away.
And then…the potato salad. I made it.
It was yummy! So…I sat down and ate some. Still no movement on actually cleaning the refrigerator.
But….then…I got moving.
Cold cut drawer. Check.
Removed shelves, wiped, disposed, cleaned and then put things back in. Check.
All clean. Everything put away nicely. I see two prepared dinners in there. There is a frozen casserole on the right with the red lid that is thawing for tonight, and beef kabobs on the left for dinner on Monday. (We have frozen casseroles on Sunday night because I hate cooking on Sunday. I actually hate cooking every day, but on Sunday, it’s particularly offensive. )
And…tidied the kitchen. Everything came together at the end.
For the past two weeks, I’ve had a mother bird with babies on the back porch. This is the third year a bird has built a nest in this spot. Is it the same bird? Maybe, I don’t know.
I didn’t know they were barn swallows until I posted this picture last week. Someone who knows more than me told me what they were.
In that picture in that tiny nest, there are four baby birds that are absolutely huge. They are almost as large as their mother who loyally comes to feed them. I keep judging her….”your children will never fledge and be productive if you keep doing all the work for them!” She doesn’t listen.
Then…on Thursday, I went out and watered my hanging plants on the porch. While the birds were used to my doing so daily, apparently I startled one enough to shift a tiny bit and it tumbled out of the nest, caught itself by fluttering its wings, and it flew. It flew away. In the next 60 seconds, the other three did the same. They finally fledged.
I didn’t want to destroy the nest until I was sure they were through using it. So, I left it up until the following morning. Then, bright and early at 7:30 am, I cleaned the porch. The birds had made a very nasty mess. You can imagine.
It was so nice to have it clean. I went in the house and sat down for breakfast, and thought about my former houseguests, the barn swallows. I learned that they are very beneficial. They eat insects. I started feeling very bad for all the things I’d been thinking about them. Like…why didn’t I left the snake that almost got them…just get them? I had that thought many times.
Even though I was disliking the baby birds when I saw the snake getting ready to climb the post, I just could not watch this happen. This snake was getting very comfortable with us. When we were out in the garden, we’d watch it climb the fence looking for birds in bushes. But..on the back porch…this was too close to home! So, on that day when the snake lurked around the baby birds, I went in and read what would be a deterrent for a snake, and I came out and threw vinegar on the snake. I have not seen it since. I hate this as this is a beneficial snake.
But the porch is now clean. I want to show you something I’m very proud of. See this little table below? My grandfather that I never met made this table. Peter Livingston Barker.
It has the outline of a biscuit cutter so it was made for someone’s kitchen. Probably my grandmother’s kitchen. Martha Kaylor Barker. I never met him, nor did I meet her. You can read a little about him here.
So…the table is probably about 100 years old.
My sister had this table, and she gave it to me. I am so grateful. I am going to move it in the house, but for at least a few weeks, I’m going to enjoy it out here. I put a burlap sack on it for protection. When it moves inside, I’ll work on it a little bit, but I like the character that time and circumstances have given this table.
We had guests this weekend…family. I was happy the little table was at the door to greet them.
While admittedly, I did clean the house…at one time I would have worried myself sick on what to cook, etc. I am not a great cook. It’s so nice to be a little older and not fret over useless stuff. No one cares! I sat the table with what I had. We ate what we would have eaten that night anyway…just added a little more to it. And the time we spent was precious.
Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage. It’s my blog about my life in Mendota, Virginia and nothing. Mostly nothing!
I am recovering the dining room chairs. I had planned to paint the dining room. It’s currently terra cotta and I was thinking vanilla cream. Then…that seemed like too much work. I’ve also read that terra cotta is coming back!! However, it still needs some attention. Mike and had recovered the chairs with whatever we had on hand last year. It was yucky. I wasn’t blogging then so I don’t have any pictures. Basically it was a crawly yellow fabric that kept stretching after we put it on the chairs.
When Joanne’s Fabric opened in Kingsport I saw this fabric and really liked it.
I like all those colors! Cheerful! I covered four of the chairs. I started to paint the chairs as well, but again, I am too lazy.
It brought some life back into that old chair, didn’t it?
Here’s the thing…to keep from being all matchy matchy, I decided to cover two of the chairs in a complementary fabric. I only needed one yard, and I ordered it online as it is not in the store. Just one yard, mind you, and it came in a box this size. Sorry for the blurry picture.
Why did it take a box that big to send one small yard of fabric, that folded up, looks like this? It’s irksome because when I am redoing things in my house vs. buying new, I feel as if I’m doing the right thing — I’m not being such a consumer; I’m being thoughtful about how I can reuse things; and I’m not sending things that are perfectly useful to a landfill.
It is no stinking wonder we have so much garbage! That would have fit into an envelope and it could have been left in my mailbox instead of out in the rain.
Hi…I took a vacation day today. I haven’t been on the job 90 days, but I woke up and **knew** it was going to snow and a few additional inches would be added to the 8 inches piled up and not melting. It was not a day I wanted to be out. I’m on a cleaning spree…before I go to bed tonight, this house will be spotless. I’ve felt bad for almost three weeks and things are behind around here!
But first, I must walk around and take some pictures. I’ve been on Pinterest pinning all of these wonderful kitchens I’d like to have and I’m not going to get any time soon. I decided to embrace my kitchen with a vintage theme…after all it’s 15 years old. I’ve always loved the Victory Garden posters from World War II. Here’s one that was popular in the United Kingdom.
I’d thought about trying to find some vintage reprints of these posters, but I stumbled on something I like better at a site called The Victory Garden of Tomorrow. I’ve ordered two and I’m putting them in my kitchen.
Here are two of my favorites that I ordered. I believe one was $15 and one was $18. They speak to me.
See that jar with beans in it? Onions? Doesn’t that just scream Mendota? I loved this one, too, because it reminded me of my sister, Pat Gardner. Pat taught me to love gardening, and Sue Cressel taught me to love home canning. I love them both for giving me these gifts.
I bought the frames at Michael’s. These will look great in my kitchen and will brighten it up which is one of my goals.
It has been such a busy time. Who knew that starting a river outfitter…a tiny river outfitter at that…would take so much time? The brochure was an exercise in patience but it is at the printers. I cannot thank Eddie and the staff at World Printing in Bristol for their patience and help. I’ll show you the finished product next week when it’s back home.
Also, we are still grieving for Luckie. I’ll never stop missing her, but another little one who is in grave need of help showed up on our back porch. She’s wild. I haven’t been able to touch her.
For those of you who have known me a long time, you see that she looks like Molly–a cat I got at Saturn Corporation that lived 21 years. This little one is named Muffin. You might also note she is the third gray cat that I’ve ended up with. She will never be an indoor kitty. I can’t get her into the garage. I’m not sure I can ever tame her; however, we’ve made her a warm place to stay with a pet’s heating pad to ensure she stays warm during the -3 temps we will be experiencing in the next 48 hours. She has almost let me touch her on her nose, but she changes her mind at the last minute. What she does relate to me is food. She runs over when she sees me. She also innately understands I want to help her. I’ve got to catch her and get her “fixed” in the coming six weeks, but for now, I’m just glad she has a warm, dry place to weather out this extreme cold weather. She’s also been very hungry, and she’s at that stage were she cannot get enough to eat. She currently eats two cans of Fancy Feast each day and two small bowls of Ims.
Mike and I made a quick trip to Petersburg, West Virginia today. We make this trip every year to get a part or two for the woodboiler. We have a heat pump, but as the deeper cold of winter approaches, we transition to the woodboiler. We bought one a few years ago that was supposed to be very energy efficient and exceed EPA standards. What the reality has been is this thing is a pain in the butt to get ready to go. Each year there is an upgrade or something that needs to be replaced…sometimes under warranty…sometimes not. Because of this, and all of the wood that we buy to keep it going, I doubt that it saves us a penny. Change that to “I know it doesn’t save us a penny.”
However, we are very nice and toasty in the winter. We keep the house on about 72 or 73, and the heat is a much warmer heat than that of the heat pump. I have no idea why. So even though it’s a lot of trouble and uses a lot of wood (we call it The Pig), all is forgiven when it’s 10 degrees…or – 7 degrees as it was last winter, and we know that our electric bill is not even phased by the cold. This year’s upgrade says that it will burn twice as efficiently — using 1/2 the wood. Right. It will probably breeze right through this barn full of wood.
And there’s wood behind the barn that we don’t have room for. We’ll move that and stack it for next year. For the past few years, our wood needs have kept EJ and Neth, our sweet nephews of a sort, in spending money.
When people find that we have a woodboiler, they’ll say “that’s good when the power goes out.” Actually, no, it’s not. It’s one reason we have a generator. (Her name is Ginny and she is my best buddy. Here’s an old post.) The way the woodboiler works is actually like this. It has a pump that circulates water through or near the firebox. The water becomes really hot in the pipes which then enter our crawl space and somewhere along this journey, there is a fan in our ventilation system and the warm air comes through the same vents that the heat pump uses. It has to have electricity to move the air around. At any rate, that is how I understand it. That’s why it’s so important that we have a generator.
We get our power from AEP, and there have been some years that we’ve had many outages due to all of the trees the power lines run through. They’ve done a better job in recent years in tree trimming, and we’ve kept power when others have lost it during snow and wind. The worst outage we have experienced in 15 years was during the first year our house was under construction. The power was off for 11 days. We usually have at least one outage per month but if the outage is just four or five hours, we don’t even blink. I know AEP’s number by memory.
The power was off at an acquaintance’s house living in a more urban area. In just a few hours as the house got colder and colder, they went and sat in the car with the engine running. I cannot imagine. I’d just keep driving and never return.
I took a picture of this AEP plant this morning as we crossed the New River going into Peterstown to get the parts for the woodboiler. I like old industrial buildings. (Don’t you love looking at images of abandoned buildings and amusement parks in Google?) I always wonder who works in these buildings, what stories the walls hold, etc. I learned that this is the “Glen Lyn” plant, and it was scheduled for closure in 2014. It looks empty so the closure may have already taken place. I read that 44 jobs were lost in this closure, and I’m betting they were good-paying jobs. This was an old coal-fired plant…about 90 years old… located on the New River, and there were environmental concerns. Still, I feel such sadness.
It was an ugly, winter’s day on this trip so I did not take a lot of pictures but this is really a pretty area. Peterstown has a quaint mountain town charm. When we visited last fall…a little earlier in the year…I loved it. I’m sure we’ll be making a return trip back. Maybe it’ll be a prettier day.
Isn’t this a lovely picture? Our neighbor, Dr. D’Amato gave us these apples which I’m certain are heirloom because they taste so good.
Those apples reminded me of my den which is also a red color, and as I was sitting eating one of the apples this afternoon in the den, I decided to take some pictures of our wormy chestnut coffee table. I did so because when I review what Google searches land a reader at RiverCliff Cottage, I see the words “wormy chestnut” frequently.
Here’s the coffee table Mike made a few years back. While our house is not rustic, our den is, and this table is perfect. We can put our feet on it, knock it around or leave soft drink cans on it. Nothing phases it. This is furniture made to work.
It’s not all wormy chestnut. The legs are made from reclaimed walnut.
Unfinished barn siding makes up the table’s apron — I am a tobacco farmer’s daughter. I’m sure this barn siding housed tobacco at one time since it came from Southwest Virginia. I like furniture that tells a story and this table tells part of my story.
Here’s another picture…
It sits right in front of the fireplace, and Gerald (my brother in law) and Mike made the mantle above the fireplace. It’s very simple, but again, it’s wormy chestnut.
Happy Independence Day! I’m so glad I live in a country that doesn’t require I keep a clean house!
That empty spot in my living room is where I’m having something slip covered. Danette took the chair but left the ottoman. She custom measured the ottoman while she was here, so there was no need to take it.
Remember Dottie’s basket…a post from last week? I did manage to clean enough of the bathroom so that I could take a picture and not hang my head in shame.
That wasn’t a really good picture, but hopefully, you can see that I”m tying the bathroom to the wonderful Aqua Sphere bedroom I’m still enjoying ever so much…
I’m also really into these grapevine wreaths that are a combination of burlap, bandanas and pieces of material I just happened to have. Here’s the one I made yesterday morning. I made a second one since we have company coming and staying in the guesthouse tomorrow. I put the smaller one in the guest house and the larger one, pictured below, on our front door.
It’s a beautiful day in Mendota, Virginia this 4th of July. It’s sunny (a great day for killing Japanese beetles)..about 80 degrees with low humidity. Everyone and his brother is floating on the North Fork today. I should set up a grill and sell hamburgers from the river bank. Hmmm….
Have a wonderful, safe 4th. Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage.
As I’ve been refreshing the Master Bedroom, I’ve been showing off this side…that side…of my redo. I kept one side back because I imagined a white slipcovered chair and ottoman with this pretty throw casually thrown across the chair. I realized today that Luckie has some say so on this.
Luckie: “Mama..that’s not going to happen.” She likes her denim bed…she adores the box fan blowing on her (even though there is both a ceiling fan and air conditioning running most of the time). The chair would get in her pathway. She only tolerates the ottoman which I guess I’ll drag back upstairs.
That’s okay…the room is not perfect but I like it. It’s so much better than it was.
Here’s what it looks like coming into the bedroom, and I promise there are never clothes on the floor. The bed is always made up. The room is always clean. Seriously. I can’t believe how clean it looks.
Here’s another…
I redid the end table…
I had paint left over and Mike fixed me a little thing to hang necklaces off of in the bathroom…this is just an old picture frame.
Up close…
The bedroom will change when Luckie is no longer with us and that won’t be that far off, but for now, it is done. She’s just too precious to upset.
Last year I painted a small end table Duck Egg Blue with Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint. Here’s the post. I liked the way it turned out, but I’m now painting my bedroom a new color. Since the bedroom is now Sherwin Williams Aqua Sphere Blue, it clashes with the Duck Egg Blue table. My aqua and my duck are not getting along! Here’s the table…
Annie Sloan’s chalkpaint product is wonderful, but I didn’t want to drive a long distance to get it or pay the $30-$40, so I started looking for recipes to make a chalk-style paint. There are several…some use Plaster of Paris, some baking soda, some grout, and some a powdered form of what makes up Tums! I went the Tums route which means that I used powdered Calcium Carbonate. It was $4. I also needed a white latex paint, and since I didn’t have any at the house, I bought one of the Valspar paint pots for about $3. Perfect for a small job such as mine.
The recipe is simple. Two parts paint to one part Calcium Carbonate, and since the paint pot is 8 oz., I just added 4 oz of Calcium Carbonate. Here’s my paint brew. Unlike some of the other recipes, I learned that this mix stores well. One most important tip…please make sure you have something to stir the mix with. I could not find anything and had to go out and cut a tree limb. I was channeling Paul Bunyon. The consistency of the mix is not as smooth as normal paint.
I brushed the mixture on the table and drawer and let them dry overnight.
When I first asked Mike to “distress” a piece of furniture he almost fainted. He could not imagine. In his eyes, you must “refinish” instead of distress. He’s come along.
He used sandpaper to rub the white off and allow the blue to show through. After that he rubbed a clear paste wax on the table. However, you can use any wax including car wax. Whatever floats your boat. The wax gives the dull chalk finish a nice sheen and smoothness to the touch. In the picture below, the table is almost through.
A few years ago, I stopped working and “took my house back.” The problem is that once I took it back, it ran away! I’m chasing it down AGAIN!
We’re working on the master bedroom. “We” so far is me, but Mike will step in and help soon. I’m trimming it out for Mike to roll on the paint. The room is also a complete mess, because why clean it up at this point?
More trimming…I cannot tell you how dirty this room is. I’m ashamed. Even though it’s cleaned often, when I pull out and move things around, there is dust and dirt showing up everywhere. I have pet spiders! Blinds are dusty and windows will have to be cleaned. I’m hanging my head in shame!
I still like this Thomasville highboy pictured below. I copied my very talented friend, Danea Walters, when I purchased this piece of furniture. That was 20 years ago!! Can you believe it?
You can imagine how shocked — and interested — I was when I saw a similar one painted yellow. I’m not this brave, but it is fun to imagine. I saw this on a blog called “Hi Sugarplum”
For now, however, let’s just focus on getting this room painted a better color. It’s Sherwin Williams Aqua Sphere.
I am not a good painter, but I don’t want to just hate this time spent working in here. I’m finding it a lot easier with Fannie Flagg’s new book which is on CD called “The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion. It’s good!
I’ll keep you updated on our progress. Meanwhile, I’m going to go watch the paint dry!
