I Love Laundry Day

Well, I do. Well, NOW I do.

I used to do laundry in a 5X8 foot cubicle. Just enough room for the washer, dryer, freezer, and a rolling clothes rack. Now I do laundry in a room in the basement - a room that expands over 1/3 of the bottom of the house! I have a washer, dryer, a big ol' laundry tub, a corner laundry table with cabinets and drawers, and a clothes pole that hangs from the ceiling. If I have to iron, the ironing board is hanging under the basement stairs - and even folded out, there is still room to walk around it and everything else. Over under the head of the basement stairs is a laundry chute, where dirty discarded clothes slide down into a nice tall box. The big kiln - the one I could bake a body in, the one that according to a coroner gets hotter than a crematorium - has to sit in there next to the dryer, since both are 220. It is between the dryer and the laundry table, with plenty of room on all sides to walk around.

When you come down the basement stairs, if you turn right, you go into the laundry room. Beyond that is a doorway that leads into what used to be a bedroom, nicely carpeted - but which is now an excercise room where the Bowflex lives, with a cabinet that holds my extra storage of can lids, BIG empty glass pickle jars, large empty plastic sealed containers, and boxes and boxes of bar soap, that we got when we installed our water softener in the old house and never used.

If you turn left, you go into the small room. It used to be the "cooling room" for the dairy. I'm using its shelves to store my seasonal stuff - vases, fall decorations, Christmas decorations; everything boxed and neatly labeled. There is an old refrigerator down there that still works. The door to the backyard is off that room too - nice to have it open to let the breezes in. The steps are a little steep and uneven, but it is a convenient egress if I want to hang clothes on the line or check out the weather while I'm down there.

And I'm down there a LOT during Laundry Day. Because the room behind the cooling room is my ceramics shop. One whole wall of shelves has my molds, the other wall of shelves has my finished ( and not-quite-finished) works. There are three tables set up in the middle. Down there, I'm pouring, painting, carving, sanding, attaching, patching, and getting ready to fire or refire ceramics. Why go up and down stairs to check on the laundry, when I can sit right there and hear the dryer shut off while I'm creating?

In between the ceramics room and the exercise room is a connecting walkway with shelves on one whole wall, and two clothes poles on the other wall. The plastic trash cans with my 50 lb bags of sugar and flour fit nicely on the clothes-pole side, while the "extra" food items like spices, mustard, mayo, lemon juice, and canned dehydrated foods line the shelves. Buying a little extra each week is filling those shelves rather nicely, too.

I know that people wonder why I bought a BIGGER house instead of a smaller one, since Mike and I are on our own. Easy. One, we can afford a bigger house with the children gone - and two, we were horribly cramped in that smaller house, between his shop and mine, our own hobbies and interests, our storage of things that we needed often, occasionally, or "might need". Now I have walking room - and going up and down stairs is good for me. It's good for Mike, too, even though it is a lot harder for him than it is for me.

Looking around the basement bedroom, nee exercise room, we have discussed the possibility of either a two-man hot tub ($899 delivered) or a small self enclosed sauna ($2500 delivered). There would be enough room for either, and either one would be good for us in our physical conditions. And -it would make the winters rather cozy and private, too. Maybe later. We are still working on things around the house. But having this much room is simply wonderful - and comforting. Yes, these days, I do love Laundry Day!

High Humidity??

Well, it was 91 with 51% humidity today. Perfect day for sealing the cement pond out front with Kool Seal. We will let it cure overnight and tomorrow - hopefully - seal it further with waterproofing cement. It looks pretty bad right now - you can see where the pond cracked in several places - but honestly, the KoolSeal was to seal it after we wirebrushed all those cracks down, got the dirt and plants and small crumbling rocks out - the cement should be the smoothing, finishing, filling touch. It looks like it was done backwards the last time - first the cement was spread thickly everywhere, then the KoolSeal used to try to fill in the still-leaking cracks. We had to buff down a lot of that cement; it was crmbling away from the cement like cornstarch.

I say "hopefully" because today and tomorrow were supposed to be rain-free; hot and dry. The first clue was the high humidity, the second was when the wind kicked up from the east. Point blank, low pressures suck - they draw wind. Our vicious storms have come from the West and North so far, so when the sky is clear and the humidity starts building, then the east wind kicks in - POW. We'll probably get rain. Dammit. that means I'll have to wetvac tomorrow AM and wait for the sun to dry the KoolSeal so we can put down the cement. Oh, well, at least we'll see how the KoolSeal holds... it is supposed to cure for at least six hours, we were done by 3 PM, so it may - or may not - have completely cured by the time the rain hits - if the storm doesn't go around us completely and kick Valentine's bootie.

I imagine that there are some pretty pissed-off ants right now; they have been happily building homes underneath that pond, putting their little mounds in the cracks, feeling all safe and sheltered. Now with the KoolSeal, they have - hopefully - no access to that nice smooth cement protection, and the diggable dirt underneath.

Got to get this done; need to get in my daffs and narcissus bulbs for next spring, and finish planting the daylilies around the pond.

Hoping to see if I can lay my handpainted tiles that I made several years ago into the cement. I was making backsplashes for the sink and stove at the old house and just never got around to setting them in. They are, when laid out, a painting of a basket of roses and other flowers. If it works, there will be pretty flowers in the bottom of the pond all year round, no matter what else grows (or doesn't) around it. We'll see.

If the rain doesn't ruin the curing, and if tomorrow morning we have water standing, at least we'll see if the KoolSeal worked... sigh. Just wish I could leap in and do things without so much preparation! But life doesn't work that way... we even missed the Sunday Chicken buffet at the Hub today, we were so intent on our work. Sigh. Oh well - blueberry pancakes, ground sausage, and eggs for breakfast made a good meal for us to survive off of. Think I'll go take a shower and get this sweat and grit off!!!

Minnechaduza Daze

Yup, today is Minnechaduza Day. I bought five turtles for the turtle races over the spillway, and there's supposed to be a canoe jousting tournament- one highly touted grudge match between the Valentime Police and Fire Departments. All put on by the Valentine Chamber members, in the City Park - a huge piece of property on the east side of town that has the Minechaduza River running thru it. Tonight there will be a barbecue supper and a Beer Garden. An all day affair of fun and pure insanity - so like the people I've met here.

Mike joined the Cody Fire Department this past Thursday. Well, he can't be a firefighter, but his knowledge of fire trucks and operations and repairs will help the community and the volunteers. His experience in small motor repairs is already being used - and they are glad to have someone with Paramedic training in the Department as well. He can't practice of course but he can advise on medical matters and operations, which he is good at. And the guys here - instead of discounting him as 'old school' 'crippled' and 'no longer useful' - are enthusiastic about his help and participation. He's not being sloughed off like old and useless skin here. No, these folk are intelligent and mature enough to understand that experience and knowledge are valuable commodities.

So it is chilly - 60 deg - this morning, and rain clouds hover. We are going to the Park to have some fun and to share some laughs and food, to participate and to share. Never seen a canoe jousting before; this should be fun - that water is COLD and clear and the plastic turtles should swim well too. I don't really care if mine win a prize - it is just fun to play with people on the same level.

UPdate! : Well, we arrived, and the first heat of turtles had already been run, and I won a $10 gift certificate for coming in second! LOL I owe it all to my turtle... LOL

Here's the turtles racing around the final bend in the river:

And here's the jousting at the Old Mill Pond...

These guys were serious! LOL It was a lot of good fun and actually got hot out there toward 1 PM. We got hot and tired and came home. What a wonderful park right on the edge of town! Lots to do, lots of water running thru it, hilly and cool under the trees. And again - no graffiti anywhere, everything clean and well kept, no one tearing anything up or bothering other folk. Sigh. What a lovely day!

Oh HAIL!!!

Well, it had to happen. It was so hot and dry the past few days, but I had to take Mike to the doctor today, and that took several hours while they did some tests, and I got home and finally started watering. Within an hour, the sky grew dark and thunder rumbled and BAM! a hailstorm hit. Marble sized hailstones bouncing scross the yard, a cold wind blowing them and the rain onto the porch.



Today they are predicting highs of 99 with afternoon ripping thunderstorms again. I have to say that I was laughing at the cold air, the pounding hailstones - because it was so amazing, so swift, so intense - and then an hour later it was all gone again. Lightning striking repeatedly far south, lighting up the sky, while the sun weakly poured out its orange setting glow onto the soaked and battered landscape.

I went to the town meeting last night too. Nice folks there. I wanted to make sure that Mike and I were within codes for construction of the greenhouse, chicken coop, etc. Guess what? No codes. They had some once but no one knows where they are or what they were. Not that we are going to build anything outrageous - but I wanted to make sure we didn't get halfway done and then run into a permitting problem. No problem - no permits. Kewl. Someone seemed to remember that there are to be no livestock - but someone else said that was in reference to feedlots.

Mike Burge from the Community Development County org was there to talk about enhancing growth, wind turbines, and ecotourism. He encouraged the board to do a webpage for Cody. They talked about the businesses for sale in town and what the town could do about keeping them and enhancing them. All very fascinating. I did not tell them all of the things I know and have experienced - that would have taken too long and been rude - about development. I just sat and listened. All bright and enthusiastic thinking people there. What a change.

The day before yesterday I poured a lot of molds in the basement, and yesterday I started cleaning them. Can't wait to paint and fire this stuff and get it going too.

Well the wind is blowing and it's time to get to work before the storms come again!!!

It's Cold This Morning!

Well, cold for July - 55 degrees and windy. Winds that blew out of the north all day yesterday took the temps 'way down last night. The dry air here does not permit the heat to stay trapped and stifling.

There is a wonderful little hexagonal pond out in front of the house; a shallow thing that begs for koi and flowers around it. However, it is cracked in several places and will hold water like a sieve. So yesterday, there I was, with a hammer breaking up all the loose stuff, then the wire-wheel grinder to smooth and get rid of the loose stuff. Today I'll finish grinding it down, then scrub it and wet-vac it, prepping it to be sealed.

Sunday (tomorrow) the temps will be back up in the 90's, and it will be warm enough again to set the repairs. First the KoolSeal in the cracks as filler, then the webbing cement over the whole thing to coat and seal it.

The bread I made last week is already gone; it went in two days. Something about homemade bread just cheers you up and makes you feel self-satisfied. I need to make more but I don't need to knead in cement dust, so I'll have to put it off til Monday. I also need to start the laundry and get into my ceramics shop downstairs as well. I got a gallon of glaze from the ceramics shop in Valentine yesterday; I have an idea of some things I want to get started on. Today, though, I'll just put water in the bucket of rock hard dried clay to make it into workable slip again, mushy and soft. Thursday the stove dials came in at last, and we took the stove completely apart to clean it and sand it. I had to use a putty knife to scrape the grease out from around the Jenn-Aire fan underneath; it had been let go for a long time. It worked; the burners heat up so much more quickly and the dials work so now I have four real burners instead of two. That took all day. Jobs always take twice as long as you expect, especially when you are obsessive/compulsive about perfection! LOL

Sometime this week I will get up the courage to get on the extension ladder and finish the red paint for the trim. This past week I sanded and painted the board fence out front; bright white again, the flowers will look good against it as they bloom. The tops of the posts are cut at a sharp diagonal. I had a choice - cut the tops flat and order finials to finish them off, or - take the red paint and a rose stencil I already had, and paint a stylized rose on the top of each post. I decided on the roses. Right afterwards, Pat's hubby stopped by to tell me how nice it made the whole yard look. Neighbors were stopping their cars to look that evening, and yesterday the girls at the post office complimented me on the house and the work we've done. It is so nice to actually feel like I am accomplishing something, especially when I wake up itchy from fly bites around my ankles and creaking and groaning in my joints! LOL

Oh, well - no flies yesterday or today, too windy and chilly, so time to get to work! LOL Although according to the paper the largemouth bass and the walleyes are biting everything being thrown into the water - I'd really rather be down at the reservoir fishing today... Sigh. Maybe we can go tomorrow, after we finish the pond and it is drying. Sunday is always a good day - tourists leave on Sunday.

A Back Porch Present and a Bun in the Oven

There it was, dead as dirt. A large mouse (not a rat - I know my rats) lying down on the walk from the back porch. Obviously had been bitten a lot and toyed with, which means "cat". Good cat. Left me a present. Wild cat. Not a resident. Maybe hoping? Hence the present? Or just force of habit?

I had suspected we had a cat when I found the grackles in the barn. Hate grackles - the poor white trash of birds. Loud and rude and always attacking the smaller species. Good cat. Then I found a bluebird. Bad cat; but how do you tell them to tell the difference? They can't and they won't and that's that. Take the good with the bad.

Saw a calico come darting out of the open basement door a couple of weeks ago, and Mike has seen a black cat wandering about. Whichever, whomever. Glad I have one that isn't demanding food, but doing his job.

Decided to bake some bread today. Unbeknownst to Mike, I ground up some oats to put in the 'white' bread. We need grain, after all. Also used honey and eggs; honey because the yeast reacts so much better with it than with white sugar - and I like the flavor; and eggs because it adds body and a better texture to the bread. Only problem is that I can't remember the last time I actually baked bread, and so had to follow a real recipe. Sort of. I always add stuff or take stuff away or change stuff out... Well, it said it made one loaf or two small ones - by the time I was ready to shape them, I had to divide it into thirds. So - two loaves of bread, and one pan of cinnamon rolls! I had the streusel left over from the blueberry muffins, so I spread most of it on the dough and rolled it in, then put the rest on the bottom of the pan in a honey-butter mix.

So now we'll see if I'm as good as I thought I used to be. Everything's in the oven right now, and the smell of warming yeast fills the air. Hopefully that'll change to cinnamon, soon, but I really like that yeasty smell. Wish I hadn't waited so long to bake my bread. I really like doing it, even though it takes time and forethought and yes, effort, too. Ummm... smells lovely.

$10,000 away from greed

Pssst... wanna see something beautiful?

Yup, Mr Schneider and his family and friends put on a fireworks display tonight. It lasted an hour and a half, with three creshendoes and a grand finale.

The whole town - 125 people - parked their cars at the ball field, and took blankets and went into the ball field to lay on their backs and watch. Ooohs and ahhhs and cheers - and some folks who stayed in their cars honked their horns and yelled at every big display. Cannon shells, Shower shells, mortars, all of every firework you can see every and anywhere else, and lots of them.

And the town paid... nothing. No taxes in this town, just in the county and state. The folks get together and donate money, have raffles (pooh on you, SC - NE has a lottery but allows casinos and private and public raffles too) and everyone pitches in to make things work. Everyone brought something to the town picnic first, then everyone piled into their trucks and went to the ball fields.

It cost us from $5000 to $10,000 every time we used to put on a fireworks display. Of course that didn't include the pay for the fre trucks and police officers standing by, etc; that was just for the pyrotechnicians and the fireworks themselves. Here, Mr Schneider and his group got together and put on the show for their own town. No outsiders had to come in and light them off. No cops were any where around - they simply weren't necessary. The volunteer fire department stood by, of course - a grass fire here means hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Since the volunteers are ranch hands, they know what they are doing...

Know what else there wasn't?

No graffiti spraypainted on the public toilets. No damaged volleyball nets, basketball nets or backboards. No boomboxes blaring music louder than anyone could talk. No rude spoiled brats screaming, cursing, running past or into, or bothering others. Just a lot of laughter, a lot of talk, and several pickup games of volleyball.

When the fireworks were over, everyone walked back to their cars, laughing and talking. No one pulled in front of anyone. Everyone waved politely for others to walk by. No one revved engines or squealed tires on the way out of the fields.

1600 miles and $10,000 away from selfishness, greed, wanton destructiveness, and casual cruelty; where people expect their gubbermint to pay for their own constant entertainment, police and fire protection, children, and lives. I am a stranger in a strange land...

Empowerment!

OK, I have to admit it, I was pretty scared.

We moved from a barely-1,000 sq foot home to a 1750 sq foot home. We used to pay $250-$350 a month in electricity. We got the electricity changed over to our names the first of June, by talking to the meter reader (things are really that casual here - they called Nancy and she gave them our names and mailing address). For the past month, we have been using a LOT of electricty - the sump pump worked for a week straight, we had to keep testing appliances as we worked on them, then had to use them to do tasks. We have been using sanders and grinders and saws and drills, inside and out, getting the house in order. Five box fans run pretty much full time, as do the ceiling fans in every room - and since we are both in the house all day, and we have eschewed the whole 'going out to eat' thing except for an occasional pop-in at the Hub down the street for burgers and conversation, the stove and oven have been working at least twice a day, and sometimes all afternoon.

I was anticipating the first electric bill with dread. The meter reader had told us they would just tack the deposit onto the first bill, too. In SC that was $300.

We got the first bill yesterday. We opened it like we expected a snake inside.

And...
$156. That included the $50 deposit.

POW. What a shock! What a relief!
OK we don't have AC, most people here don't. It isn't necessary between the dry air that takes the temps to the 50's at night, and the constant winds. The heat is a propane tank that we haven't touched yet, of course, and the wood stove that we DID use one night the first week because it rained for three days and then got windy and icy cold. So that eliminates a lot of power drain. I realize that. But, still... holy crap. I can't remember the last time I had a power bill that low. Wait, yes I can... when I lived in the desert in NM and didn't have electricity at all!!

I talked to Mr Lancaster Wednesday. He runs the local feed store and fire department, and is on the City Board of Commissioners. I asked him if the town was still looking for property to put up wind turbines, and he said yes. I told him I would lease the back hill to the town for $1 a year and free electricity. He asked if I knew that they intended to sell the electricity as well - I told him no, but I expected that they would. I told him that I knew that wind rights alone on property were going for $60,000 an acre, but that I thought that was stupid... so if they wanted the property then we could make arrangements. As long as my cows and horses could graze around the turbines unmolested and unpoisoned by any hydrolic fluid or oil spillage, I would be content. He was... surprised. He did say that of course the town and the electric co-op would rather own the land, but...

Look, I could make money off of the deal if I pushed it but what would be the point? That would just raise the costs and make it harder for everyone, especially my neighbors. Why should they pay my bills... actually, they will be paying my electric bill. And with "free" electricity, I wouldn't worry about price escalations, and would be able to light and heat barns and coops and even the greenhouses, and do the things I want to do with the farm area... But at least it would be a fair trade; the town would get what it needed, and I would get what I needed. Why rip people off when they need help the most? This could be the impetus they need to get the town going again, to make money instead of just providing services. And I have always been a huge proponent of alternate energy. Mike and I have talked about putting up solar collectors and wind turbines anyway; why not let someone else do it for us, and we could 'go green' in our own way, and share that with others as well.

That was one of the things that Rodney and I were working on "back home"- the Electric City concept - that they will now never see because of their own short-sightedness and cutthroat, me-first politics. Their loss - and I am in a world now where people understand and appreciate the value of working together and getting things done that benefit all. Now THIS is home... and a damned sight nicer one. Smarter group, too, that know the value of a dollar because they actually work for it.

So the second Tuesday this month I'll show up to the Board meeting and see... by that time he should have talked to enough folks to get an idea of what their thoughts might be.

Road Trip!

Well, we DID go to Rapid Tuesday. We cut up thru Merriman to Martin, SD, and went to I 90 on the back roads... it was fun driving those swooping hills. We came up over a rise - and there spread below us was the southeastern tip of the Badlands. Once we got into the Interstate, we took the Highway 240 loop thru the Badlands. It was a little more crowded than the last time - but there were a lot of people our age and older in RVs, and some Japanese and Spanish tourists with children.

What got to us was all of the cars with out of state tags that insisted on flying past us. The speed limit there varies from 45 to 35, depending where you are; some areas are not very scenic and don't have "viewpoints" while other areas have pullovers every half mile or so. So many folks seemed to just want to rush from one spot to the next, or to get thru as quickly as possible. You can't really DO that when you are looking at the intricacies of the geologic wonders these layered rocks and ash and old lava represent, though. Why would you drive from Illinois or Minnesota just to blow thru something you paid money to see and experience?

Well, after we left there, we went to Sam's in Rapid. Spent 3 hours there; it was exhausting. But we filled 2 carts; so many good deals in bulk buy items. I have always been a hoarder, especially of food, and since we moved I have felt distinctly uncomfortable about not having my food and dry goods storage readily available. Now the larder is full and we are back up to the norms I am comfortable with. Whew.

It was 4:00 by the time we got out of Rapid; not enough time to take the hour long trip into the Black Hills and to Rushmore like I wanted. That will have to wait til another time. We did, however, go another back route home - thru Pine Ridge and over to Wounded Knee. We stopped and Mike got out to read the commemorative sign at the spot of the Massacre. While the kiosks were unoccupied and the tourist info center was closed, we did have some Lakotas come up and ask us if we wanted to buy their jewelry (same as last time but not the same people). I bought Mike an arrowhead necklace while he read.

We chased a single huge thunderhead all the way from Rapid to home; occasionally we would hit spots where it had dumped some rain. But it never rained on us. We got home at 8:30; tired and dusty and gritty but satisfied at the day's productivity and fun. Next road trip - the Dexter cattle show next weekend in Hastings!