Paintin' Place

   Wow, where did I go? Well, I've been working on paperwork...a lot. That is another farm story though for another day. Besides paperwork, we've been sprucing up the house a bit. Every year I work on "re-doing" one room in the house. So, far I've repapered, painted, or worked on minor woodwork in every room. It's great exercise. And, since we work sun-up to sun-down during the planting season (Feb. to Nov.), winter is for in house repairs. Unfortunately, in some ways, our winter season gets smaller and smaller every year as planning crops, planting seedlings in the basement, and boiling maple syrup gets bigger and bigger.

   This year we decided to work on our small bathroom. Over the years it has had a board in the floor slowly rotting away so we lifted the linoleum, dug out the rotting board and nails, replaced with a new board, and glued the linoleum back down. Then we took a look at the walls and realized they needed a paint job. We chose a nice tan color and I set about taping, rollering paint, and doing the brush touch up. Now the room looks pretty good. Unfortunately the beautifully painted walls make the cabinets look old and ratty. Ah, well now the cabinets need painted...

   Isn't that usually the way of repairs? You get one thing started and it leads to another to another and to another. I really enjoy working on buildings, painting, drywalling, and just fix it stuff. I'm pretty okay with plumbing also. Finding the time to enjoy this hobby is the hard part for me.

   Our farm has 19 buildings plus the big farm house. We had someone ask one time what we do with all of the buildings...another farm story I suppose. But, all of them are in use in some way or another. Instead of paying Grandma rent, we trade the work on the upkeep of the farm. Every year a building, or two or three or more, are needing some work. Sometimes we hire this out, but a lot of the time we do it ourselves. We have jacked up buildings to replace the sills, straightened buildings that were falling over by pulling them back into shape, and rebuilt failing walls. We've also built a couple of buildings (including the chicken house). Then there is the ever present need of paint.

   My most recent work of restoring a building is my little "Honey House". Someday I plan this to be a small workshop for me and a small area for our garden items. We moved the building to the farm a few years ago by jacking it up and placing it on a trailer, driving it about 20 miles to the farm, and setting it on new sills. Last year I was able to get it mostly straightened (it was crooked due to a bad wind storm the first year here), put in a new ash floor, and start work on cutting window spaces in the back wall. It is definitely a work in progress. Why is it called "Honey House"? Originally we were going to use it to process our honey. But, then I realized that my "honey" (Marty) paid to move it for me. Great guy, so I named it for him!