Saturday Meanderings

After being out of town for 12 days, I’m feeling a bit lost here at home. The stacks of mail, bills need to be paid and I just don’t feel like doing much of anything in 111 degree heat. Seems like all the good relaxing vibes fly right out the window and are replaced with the foreboding sense of responsibility and chores. So today’s post is about catching up with you!

My time at the Cabin

The good news is that we finally got rain in the mountains and lots of it. When we have such a dry summer, it doesn’t take much for a massive forest fire to start. The one and only day I decided to go do run errands (Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s) is when I got caught in a torrential downpour. Given the ground is so dry, the volume of rain couldn’t absorb fast enough.

Here is what I posted on Instagram. The roads were badly flooded within minutes after the first clap of thunder. This felt like my first flash flood and when I was driving through this, escape options raced through my mind.

Perhaps the storm disrupted nature, as it was shortly thereafter that I had a bat(s), mouse and woodpecker experience. A bat, possibly two, flying around inside the bedroom, a mouse in the house and then several woodpeckers.

The next day I searched everywhere and never found the bat(s). Later that evening, Mr. Mouse visited me again. I set a trap, put really good Brie cheese on it and then hoped I didn’t hear it snap shut in the middle of the night. When I woke up the next morning, the trap was still engaged but the cheese was missing. Very smart mouse.

Did you know that a group of woodpeckers is called a descent? Well, that what it felt like. The woodpeckers are relentless in pecking at our cedar siding. All day long….tap..tap..tap. I must have looked like a mad woman running outside scaring them away. Look at the damage they’ve done. The challenge is that they are a protected species and insurance doesn’t cover the repair.

In search of the bats/mouse

The unintended consequence of not finding the bat(s) or mouse resulted in me deep cleaning. Envisioning a dead bat or mouse behind a sofa was impetus enough to get me scrubbing.

So how often do you deep clean? You know, really clean, where you move furniture, roll up the rugs, and wipe down every single surface? Me? Not so much. Maybe once a year?

Sprucing up the furniture

Since we are at 7500 feet in altitude, unless it is raining it is quite dry. And the furniture suffers.

This Howard’s Feed-N-Wax wood polish and conditioner is a good one. See the side that wood that is conditioned and the one that is not? The results are impressive and it smells nice. Click here for the link.

Cleaning all the Vents

If I could re-design something, HVAC vents would be it. These are the most unattractive and dust collecting devices ever created.

Hours were spent moving all the rugs, vacuuming underneath and then cleaning the floors with Bona Floor Cleaner. I use this same cleaner on our 110 year old hardwood floors in Phoenix and prefer it to other wood floor cleaners.

What is out of sight is out of mind, so I climbed on a ladder and looked on top of the curtain rods. Eeek! Lots of cobwebs.

How often do you clean your lampshades? Finally, I did this to all of mine.

This cluttered cord look is disturbing and I really need a system to label each and every cord. But in the meantime, I just vacuumed behind all the various cabinets.

The great room has 3 large sliding doors. The grooves where the doors slide get so dusty and dirty.

After all of this, which literally took me hours, I didn’t find any mice or bats, dead or alive. Which makes me wonder where they went….

The good news now is the cabin is the cleanest it has ever been and then, of course, I had to leave to head home to Phoenix!

Project Update

Now that I’m back home, yesterday I started the actual stenciling of the pool house bathroom floor. To date, the floor has been cleaned, primed and painted with 2 coats of white paint.

This will be a time consuming one. Here’s my progress so far. I do feel like I’ve bitten off a bit much but I can’t stop now.

This room doesn’t get a lot of natural direct light so the photos are a bit dingy with the overhead lights on. A bigger project than anticipated, it will definitely take some time to complete. To see another floor stenciling project I did, click here.

Summer Canning

My friend, Rick asked me if I wanted 50 pounds of tomatoes as he has a farmer resource. Naturally I said yes and now wondering when I’m going to have time to can them. But homemade tomato sauce is so good and worth the effort!

So between stenciling, canning and paying bills, that’s my exciting weekend! Please tell me you are doing something fun and exciting so I can live vicariously through you!!!

Happy Saturday, my friends.

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