Queen's for a Day!

Every once in a while, when the money's right, the weather's workin in our favor and we have several good excuses not to do it, we hire a crew of 3 guys to come and do the lawn. What a luxury, plus they always do a much better and more thorough job than we do. It takes us over 4 hours to do what they do in about 1.5.

This allowed me the time to do some grocery shopping today so I won't find myself in the middle of it on Saturday or Sunday when the traffic is thick and the lines are long. I purchased all the necessary ingredient to make a fabulous new sandwich for Sandwich 365. If you haven't been there, the address is:

www.sandwich365.blogspot.com

If you do go there, show your support, become a "follower" and look for my sandwich!

Roman

As far as I can tell, Roman is a mixed breed of Pharaoh Hound http://www.ph-club.org and....I don't know what else. She has a 'rose' ear, very much like a Greyhound, but she's not near the size. She's full grown and only about 47 pounds. Smaller than she looks in photos, but not as small as a Whippet.

Anyway, I found her in the parking lot at work the day before Christmas 2006 and took her home. Super smart, but very sensitive and a little posessive of her space, food, toys, and me.

She and Dusty tolerate each other. But they both LOVE living here. From a dogs perspective, what's not to love? It's like living at the park!

Perspective!

If you've never visited the property, it may be hard to visualize our set-up. Here are photos for a better perspective.

Top photo shows the distance between main house and Mom's cottage (approx. 60 yards). See the set of stairs off in the distance to the right?

Second photo taken from the driveway, last photo's the main house.

Two Steps Forward.........

At the risk of being exploitative, I'm posting this anyway. This happened to Sis last Monday on her way to work. She's pretty banged-up and uncomfortable, but not critically injured. Barely making it to work and back each day, she's in no shape to be swabbing decks and mowing lawns around here, so once again we're behind it all. I noticed yesterday that the lawn tractor has a flat!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr !!

Majors and Minors

I know my focus has been on the rough exterior, problem areas, and things that need fixing.

At some point very soon you'll check in and find posts that describe the nicer side of life here. But for now, I'm compelled to keep with the major and minor challenges we face every day.

Like the driveway/garage area. Big beautiful 3 car garage, complete with 2 windows and a doorway leading into the gigantic shop that would be a dream for any guy who likes to putter, fix, build stuff, etc. (I'll tell you about the shop in a future post).

Only problem with the driveway/garage is that when it rains, it floods a little. A simple matter that (we think) could be fixed with a proper drain. However, we don't know how to do that, so for now, we shovel the mud that collects where it should drain, and sweep out the water when it gets too deep and messy! As the photos show, it's not as pitiful as it sounds. We consider it a simi-major challenge and only have to deal with it when it rains, so for now, it's on the long to-do-list.

Here's One For the Books!

These photos are of the original front door to the main house. At least this was the front door back in the 1800's when the house was built. Back then, you walked in that front door, into a small entryway. To your right you'd find the living room and kitchen, to your left the bedroom. You would find no bathroom at all. Today when you walk in that door, you're standing in the second bedroom/office.

Closets, a bathroom, laundry room, and screened porch have been added since the 1800s, but as you can see, the layout is a little quirky at best. Over a glass of wine we've tossed around ideas to remedy this feature. To date, we have more wine than good ideas!

Take note the mighty oak that sits directly in front of the old front door. We guess it's as old or older than the structure, and beautiful.

The Pipes, The Pipes are Callin!

LOL.... Can't help humming to myself ... 'oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are callin, from glen to glen'......... etc...

Take a look at these babies. These are two different gas pipes that come up from the floor on the fireplaces in the main house. You're not likely to see them if you come in for coffee, we keep them well camouflaged, but they are there, and we scratch our heads in wonderment as to whose logic was used when they stuck-um there years ago.

No offense gentleman readers, but we're pretty sure it was a man who thunk this one up!

P.S. We don't use them, and wish we knew a way to remove them without ripping out the floor! Ohhh the floor! I'll talk about the floor in an upcoming post. Let's just say Spit and Glue ain't gonna fix this one!

OMG! What the...........................?

This one has me a little creeped out, but curious. You can't tell from the photo, but this guy is the color of copper. And it shines like copper too. Okay, it's kind of pretty, but I wish it weren't crawling all over the picnic table on my deck. Does ANYONE know what the heck this is, what it does, or why it's creeping into my world? YIKES !!

Creatures are Stirring!

While at the computer last week a 4 foot tall wild turkey showed up in my peripheral vision. I thought; am I finally losing it? I turned to look out the window and there he was, standing on the front lawn, on his way across the property and into the woods. What a rush! I couldn't get my camera to take a photo fast enough and missed the shot.

A couple of days later, I found a baby kitten curled up on the front porch! Not more than a couple of weeks old, she scurried off under the back porch. She showed up again the next evening and was like putty in our hands. She must have been a straggler whose Mom (thankfully) came and got her in the night.

This is typical, and over the last 5 months I've encountered a family of deer running across the front yard in the pouring rain. Armadillo that stopped traffic while they crossed the road. Chipmunk, squirrel, bat, hawk, geese, woodpecker, humming birds, fleas, ticks, mice, wasps, bees, and a host of other creatures that go bump day and night.

This is why Dusty has made her station under a 75 year old chesnut tree that sits smack in mid-property. She's gonna catch a critter, even if it kills her. Terrier-ist!

I learned last week that we've now officially entered BEAR season! This should be interesting. Or terrifying. I'll keep you posted.

Two Decks Down, Four to Go!

Georgia people love their decks/porches. Almost every home has one, and almost without exception you'll see a couple of rocking chairs or a porch swing drifting in the wind when you drive by. You know the scene, Ms. Scarlett O'hara sittin on one of um, swattin flys and drinkin mint julips...... Spit and Glue is no exception. Matter of fact, we have SIX decks.

The down side? Someone (us) has to keep them clean. Most of the time it's a matter of a broom and a hose. But a couple of times a year, they have to be power washed. This is a huge job, so we take them on one deck per weekend for 6 weeks straight!

To date, we're 2 decks down, with 4 to go.

Unfinished Business!

Don't get the wrong impression. We're living in a clean, dry and comfortable environment at Spit & Glue. The roof isn't falling in on us, we're not living with dry-rot or mildew or termite damage. On the contrary, the structure is sound. After all, it's been standing for 125 years, so we figure we're out of the woods when it comes to the overall integrity of the buildings.

Our issues have to do with keeping up with the basics while bringing the place up to par with the rest of the homes on the market in rural Georgia.

Aside from every day maintenance, we have a boat-load of little things that never got finished, such as unpainted door frames and baseboards and............... ohhhh don't make me spell them all out. Just look at a few of the photos to get an idea.

And So We Mow!

Mowing the lawn is traditionally "A Mans Job" right? however, I know many women who don't think twice about dragging out the mower and edger to do the job themselves. But on this property, they'd be thinking more than twice about "taking on the lawn".

The difference here is that we're talking about 2 hairy acres that need mowing at least twice a month in spring & summer. We don't put on a cute gardening hat with matching gardening gloves and clogs to push a shiney-red mower up and down the yard until it's perfect.

No, we pretty much gear up with machine washable head covering, goggles, long sleeved shirt/pants, and nasty canvus shoes so as not to lose a toe or an eye to flying debris. It's all about getting the job done without the company of fleas, ticks, and mosquitos.

We ride an old, noisey rickety lawn tractor, nursing it along as it spits, groans, hickups, and sometimes stops all together, leaving us in the learch, and at the mercy of a handiman who knows a little about mechanics. We then convince him to fix it, but at the least possible expense. If he can do it with Spit & Glue, even better!