I must forego specifics, but SRSLY…I sometimes DESPAIR of the human condition…SRSLY!!
Why can we not be kind and thoughtful and ethical in our dealings with each other???
I am brought back to earth and sanity by my dear boys…
Peace and Truth and Kindness.
Go There.
Sometime in the timeframe of March 2011, I listed this house for sale. It was when things were going seriously sideways in the U.S. economy/banking, etc. No takers and only 1 showing in the year it was listed.
My realtor and an assistant did a wonderful “house tour” with photos and even some music. I was outside with Karl and Bob and didn’t see what was going on until I saw the “tour”. And I was impressed. I studied the photos for some time. It is not so much the quality of the photos as it was how things were presented…or staged. And although part of me rankled a teeny-tiny bit, I did get how the presentation looked clean, warm and attractive. I learned a lot!
So, this June 1 when I decided to try again. I told my realtor that the only change was the addition of the kitchen island and I sent some photos to see what she thought about adding photos, removing the island or ???
What she thought was that my photos were good and she asked if I’d take a few more inside and out.
I did.
And that is the House Photos Post of June 3.
Although I am a fairly clutter-free person, I de-cluttered a bit more and thought back to the photos from 2011. The largest de-cluttering happened in the kitchen where I removed the food processor, the coffee grinder, the VitaMix and the toaster. And shuffled the canisters and cleared the area with the fruit basket:
You can’t see it all from this photo…BUT, I REALLY liked how it looked.
Clean.
Uncluttered.
Clear decks.
Wow.
Enlightening to me.
But.
I use the VitaMix 1-4 times a day. And I use the toaster daily. And the coffee grinder.
I thought.
The VitaMix and toaster needed to be “out”.
The coffee grinder – that is a once in the morning thing for me and I decided I could live with it in a cupboard and the in and out as part of my morning routine.
I really liked the flour canisters in their new location and the clear space on the opposite counter:
This, so works for me!
I love, love, love having this spot clear for working on dough kind of things.
I used it before, but it entailed shuffling stuff – now, just do it!
And then…
AND THEN…
My eight year old, el-cheapo microwave that I originally intended to be just a short time thing… it died.
Since it was a low power, low featured thing, I had only been using it to re-heat things…like my coffee.
When it died, I got to thinking.
I buy premium whole bean coffee. I grind the beans. I make a pour-over in my Chemex pot and put the resulting wonderful brew in a thermos.
I pour a cup.
And then I proceed to drink a few sips and THEN, I blitz in the microwave…etc. because I am distracted and doing multiple things and how silly is that???
I thought some more.
What if I didn’t have a microwave?
What if I poured a cup of coffee and sat and enjoyed it – fresh grind, fresh pour over and HOT?
It was another enlightening moment.
Instead of a new microwave, I ordered a toaster oven.
It toasts (wonderfully!).
It broils and bakes.
Toaster gone.
The “enjoy a cup of very good coffee” extended to my afternoon cup of tea and my evening glass of wine.
So often I grabbed one or the other and kept working or did other tasks – not really enjoying.
That old Zen thing “when you chop wood, chop wood”, came to mind.
For me, when I keep my mind on whatever task or drink or meal or whatever…and really have my “head in the game” – that is so good and so fulfilling and makes me so happy-content.
It works for work tasks, for house chores and for absolutely everything.
The de-cluttering for the house photos…it de-cluttered some thinking also.
And a final and funny piece…my electric coffee grinder died also!! I had actually ordered a little manual grinder for the motorhome. I usually use ground coffee when travelling, but I saw this little grinder and thought I’d give it a try.
Turns out, it is great.
No electricity needed.
A few minutes of arm power.
I LOVE it.
One thing leads to another.
Bob sums up what our household thinks about fireworks.
***originally published 7/4/2010
Bob: always and forever in my heart.
The first winter I was in this house, I had a chimney fire. It was not much fun, but the good news is that Doug Heil, of Heil Brothers was the person I called. He was at my home the next day and replaced my damaged chimney, inspected everything including my wood supply and that was the start of a most excellent business-friendship.
We speak once a year when he comes to clean and inspect all.
Since that first visit, it has been a quick clean, “all is well” and then I hear about his family and I share my stuff and it is what life in a smallish town is made of!
We missed last year as I did not use the woodstove the winter that Bear had his surgeries. I had phoned the office last July to say why I didn’t need a clean, but instead of Doug’s wife Sandy, I spoke to an employee so did not get a chance to catch up with either of them.
It had been in the back of my mind to call earlier this year. I closed the damper and doors on the woodstove…early May…thinking not only the bats of past years, but the yellow jackets of the recent year.
Then, last week, on the way to the dump…there is the Heil Bros truck parked by the side of the road. I pulled over. It was Doug. We chatted, etc. and the upshot is that he was here on Friday to clean the Chimney.
The cleaning was fairly non-eventful.
Doug did note that there were a number of Yellow Jackets (DEAD!) in my stove.
We discussed the bane of the yellow jacket thing and I told him about my traps this year. I also told him there was a nest on the house and that I’d had a ladder set for the last week, but kept putting off dispatching the nest.
He said: “Oh, I’ll spray it, I do it all the time”. He sprayed it and did not get stung and the nest fell to the ground.
I was SO relieved! I absolutely HATE dealing with the nests. I told him about my nest spraying “outfit”.
I just wanted to hug the man.
He said that my spray was the best he’d used. It is a foam spray from the local hardware and my personal favorite as it goes a good 20 feet with a significant amount of foam which seems to render anything in its path…DEAD!
I told him where I got it and then gave him one of the 3 cans I had in my arsenal as a THANK YOU!
As we were “settling-up”, Doug said that I should start a fire in the stove. The recent driving rains had soaked the chimney, the stovepipe and the stove. He said a fire would dry things out vs some rust happening.
So…a fire…in late June…with the windows open and me in shorts.
Bear stayed away from the heat.
Tales of the Chimney: Summer 2014.
