The Pressure is On

We have just found out that in the Aug 14,15,16 2009 our community is hosting a community reunion called "Come Home to the River" That means that many people are coming from all over the country to come back to their roots to see family & friends. The organizing committee is busily preparing different events for people to do while they are back home and have asked us if we would host some events. Just about everyone in the community at one time or another had worked at the homestead. It at one time had played a very important part in the community and so it was only fitting that it be available during the Home Coming. We had decided to host two events, a coffee and dessert social on the first day (this was organized by Clarke's mother and two sisters) and a story telling session on Saturday evening. We also said we would have the house open for all 3 days so anyone who wanted to come back to reminisce could do so. Family that would be coming from a far will need a place to stay.

We came home from the meeting to take stock of what we needed to get done before August. Are we going to be able to do it?

The bedrooms above the kitchen looks like this

The kitchen looks like this

Never mind the dust that is everywhere through out the house........no time for doubts.......there is no turning back now.

Nancy

Resurrection

Do you remember or post about the sentimental attactment to the "old red shack" http://wilsonfamilyhomestead.blogspot.com/2007/05/old-red-shack.html. I really didn't think that old building could be saved but again Clarke suprised me with his ability to bring, what most people think can't be saved, back to life. It went from this




to this

The front needed to be replaced but the back was brought back into position and the blocking replaced. It is now a perfectly good shed. We could have never replaced that building for time and money it took fix it. Now it needs to be painted red and it will last another 100 years.

Nancy

Recycle & Reuse

Clarke noticed that a neighbor had a pile of cedar shingles that the neighbor had recently removed from his roof. The cedar shingles had been under the asphalt shingles on his roof and they were in remarkably good shape. So we swapped some firewood for the shingles and brought them home to put on the outside of the barn.




We just flipped them over and they looked like they were always on the barn. They have another 100 years in them. We got enough shingles to finish two half walls and we still lots of shingles left.

There is so much joy in bringing back something that someone previously thought of as being worthless.

Nancy

Chicken Little Was Right.....

The ceiling is falling. I have already talked about redoing of the china cabinet. http://wilsonfamilyhomestead.blogspot.com/2008/04/china-cabinet.html. The upper part of China cabinet was purchased and placed on a bottom cupboard. A tin sheet was tacked to the bottom cupboard before the top was placed on.

It was painted and not in good enough shape to save so we decided to remove it. But in order to remove it we had to take the top part off. Which wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, however once we did that the ceiling began to fall down. So we had to tear that out as well.

Crumbling plaster is really dirty business. At some point I would like to put back together instead of take apart. I guess that is for another year.

Nancy

It Drew Me In.........

One evening I was sitting on the veranda and looking around. In several places the paint is cracking. So I absently started picking......first I started with my fingers....then I got a scraper....then I got the heat gun.....then I pulled out the silent paint remover. Oh dear look what I started..........

If you notice that there are hinges under the paint. This part of the veranda has door that once was part of the "fridge" when there was a store here. Once when to door was operational, meat , milk & butter where keep cold with a spring flowing into a puncheon that was behind the door. . The meat hooks are still there.

Clarke was able to take the hinges off and we moved the door for the first time, in I don't know how long. Clarke said he couldn't remember the door ever being open in his life time.

We would like to be able to recreate the "fridge". It could never be exactly like it was because the spring has been diverted years ago. That will be one of our many projects.

Boy I opened a can of worms just by picking a little bit paint. Now I have another unfinished stripping project.

Nancy

How Many Tools Do You Have in Your Toolbox?

With this project we seem to always need one tool or another. One tool that came to mind was one to help us with the amount of lumber we would need. What was the tool of choice...a WoodMizer Sawmill. Living in a wooded area it just seemed the most logcial step was to purchase a portable sawmill to help with all the lumber we would need.

The first year we had it we keep it outside but that made it unuseable in the winter months. So Clarke set to work a build a building to house the sawmill so we could keep sawing the lumber we needed for the projects we were doing.

It is a large building but most of the lumber has been sawed on the mill. The wood was cut off our own land so it has saved us quite a bit of money on the construction of this building. It takes a little longerto build when you have to stop and saw out the boards to board it in.

It is not quite complete yet but should be boarded in by the time the snow flies. Now that is quite the toolbox!

Nancy

We have been busy else where

Since my last post we have had to refocus our attentions in another area. We don't live in the old farmhouse so that means that we have another house to up keep. Most of the time I love the fact that I don't have to live around the mess I am creating, where I can just close the door for another day. But there are times when trying to work and maintain 2 places is difficult. I think the house we are living in must have felt like it was being neglected, after all I never talk about it here. So it decided to draw attention to itself and spring a leak......behind the wall.....behind the shower that is glued to the wall.....under the flooring....and ruin the drywall......in the bathroom. So we had to gut the bathroom to ....fix the leak......install new drywall......new flooring.......new shower. So since this is a blog about (whisper) the other house that is why there hasn't been any updates. (I can't type too loud because I am sitting very close to the bathroom). I hope the bedroom doesn't have similar insecurities.

Well with that explanation out of the way and can say we are back at "The Big House". I think things got worse while I was away. I truly believe that the paint alligatored worse than it was before with big pieces of paint just falling away.

It has rained here for over a month so maybe that is what is making it worse. Since there is a moment of summer, I figure I have to strip paint while the sun shines, so I picked 2 windows that looked really bad.

I have come to the conclusion that stripping a 100 coats of paint is the easiest and cleanest stuff to strip. Varnish is hell, one coat of paint a pain but alligatored paint another whole story. Some of it just pops right off and other parts are stuck like glue. So you end up with whole sections clean with islands of paint speckled through out. This poses a problem, can't use the Silent Paint Remover because it covers too big of an area and the clean wood turns brown very quickly, a heat gun has a similar problem. Although with a heat gun, it is easier to do a heat sweep. You know, not letting the heat stay in one place too long, just sweeping it over the area. That sometimes releases the paint enough to scrap it off. The rest needed to be done with brute force. Since I don't have much brute force capabilities I call in........Clarke. He has the strength to just scrap, the unable to budge, no matter what I do, stuff.

They don't look too bad with a new coat of paint.

Oh no is that rain clouds I see..............

Nancy