Never thought retirement would be like this

Meanderer, to me, that would be a perfect lot size. Enough property to have some space of your own, and do some special things with it and not annoy the neighbors, but not so much land that it is a chore to keep up with. Sounds perfect, in the country but close to town. I bet you keep your place looking neat.

Those are very nice looking windows/blocks. Years ago I was seriously thinking about replacing the basement windows with glass blocks. Even went to buy some until I saw the price.:rolleyes: It would have taken LOTS of them in my case. I looked at ready-made window inserts just like yours, with a vent, on the Lowes website yesterday. Yours look like laid glass blocks with an insert. I was thinking about putting one in like that under the steps and frame in below.

Speaking of frogs, here is one that must be 30+ years old that my parents brought with them from Florida. He is showing his age. I should get out there with some green paint and touch him up. He is sitting on top of the well cover---pretty big, and heavy. :cool:

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Thanks for the picture.
 

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They were the same size, and were assembled off site and inserted in one piece. That makes for a stronger window. The foundation is terracotta block.
 
We replaced some old wooden shelves with resin units. They came in black or white, and we bought three of each and mixed them up. I have since painted the wall.
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Nice shelves, Meanderer. Clever way to make them look like a set.:thumbsup:

I definitely need shelves in the basement, but want *shallow* shelves, like these, so you can see everything in them at a glance. The kitchen pantry. First project after retiring.

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Problem is the basement walls are granite stones with uneven thicknesses. You can't even drill into them without a special drill, so I'd have to put supports from the ceiling to the floor. Big job.:(


This is the glass block window at the Lowes website, special order, that even has a dryer vent insert. I'm sure I couldn't lift one big enough to fill even half the window opening, and SO expensive.:confused: Will keep thinking...
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Thanks for the ideas.
 
Put down lots of straw for the goats yesterday. First hard freeze predicted this weekend with 20 mph winds.
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The new neighbors have hired a crew to put up a wooden post fence around their entire place. Along the road they are making it pretty with wood rails They have cleaned up all the junky brushy areas around the perimeter, and were careful not to mess up my fence. They are probably not big hunters, otherwise they wouldn't put up a fence. I bet they are going to have horses. I think they are going to be normal polite people who just do their own thing.:)

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The lake is down another foot. I need to get out there and cut the brush out of that area that was too swampy this spring. Lake was loaded with geese. There were three groups of them. I'd estimate at least 30. Accidently took a video of one group with my camera. If I'd known, I'd have held the camera still. Too far away. They honked for me just sitting in the water.

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I've got to get busy. Need to haul some stuff to the landfill. Don't have a full load.:( It's Friday before a football game. Heavy traffic. Quit making excuses!!!!
 
NancyNGA said:
Meanderer, I like those ideas. This one I could make out of an old pallet or the old window.:) But my basement is not nearly as nice as those pictured. I would have to dust cobwebs off. I can't even keep up with dusting off dust, upstairs.:(

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There is a downside to lots of basement windows, at night. Why I have mini-blinds on all of them. (Not sure I understand the last part.)

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Do you have a basement? (Of course you can ignore this question if you like. :playful: )
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This thing about the faux windows is timely and interesting, just last week I had been looking into the subject because of having and odd place window in my bedroom and I wanted to give the a more balanced look by adding drapes to the opposite side of the wall to make it appear there was another window on that side. Lots of videos of lighted windows and frames came up on youtube. I may give the lighted window a try, but for sure I will be added drapes to the other side at some point.
 
My wall is much wider than this and this one is kind of elaborate build, but gives an idea of my window situation.



Very bright lighted faux window, cool, but, way too much work.

Here's a quick one a lady showing her lighter window
 
April, this looks really nice. One real window, one fake.

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Maybe you could just plug in a string of white Christmas lights fastened behind a frosted panel & frame. Or just put them behind a mini blind.. Then curtains, ... and then, .... and then, ....:)
 
NancyNGA said:
April, this looks really nice. One real window, one fake.



Maybe you could just plug in a string of white Christmas lights fastened behind a frosted panel & frame. Or just put them behind a mini blind.. Then curtains, ... and then, .... and then, ....:)
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That looks nice and yes, I'm not going to build a whole window, likely I'll just throw up some curtains/drapes. I already put up a wall divider in one part of my bedroom, I've never lived in a place where people had to come through the bedroom to get to the bathroom, so, I put up a divider blocking off my bedroom, I'll take a picture when I get a chance, I just received the 10ft+ tension pole I put up earlier today. :D It's a one bedroom apt. Why they designed it this way is beyond me.

PS. Have any designs for with just a recliner instead of a bed, I no longer sleep in a bed due to pain issues, though I may give it another try. I had sort of dressed up a twin bed to look like a daybed with my recliner in the room last place I resided after I started sleeping in just the recliner instead of a king.
 
NancyNGA said:
...I've got to get busy. Need to haul some stuff to the landfill. Don't have a full load.:( It's Friday before a football game. Heavy traffic. Quit making excuses!!!!
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Trip to the dump went smoothly. Only one guy ahead of me. Some fellow even came out to help unload. :playful:
 
What a difference the storm windows make! It was windy today. There was zero draft coming in near those 4 windows. Compare it with the one under the stairs.:eek:nthego: Of course none of this matters with the doors as leaky as they are. But now it makes me think about replacing those doors. (See..., it never ends.:()

Can't do that. Doors are too heavy to deal with. Forget it.

Today I didn't have a plan. It's fine to have a plan and not follow through on it. That's just being lazy. But having no plan makes me feel lost. Might even bring on the mean reds. :playful:

:joke: (sort of)
 
Nancy, DIY home improvements act like a drug. We get a high,when we see pleasing results, and want more! The side effects are all good!:D
 
I never thought of it like that. Yes there is a kind of high, especially when a project turns out really well.

As I've said before, I've got time on my side. Professionals are on the clock. So it's possible to have one turn out better than you could hire it done, even though you don't have the experience. The storm windows started out as just a patch up job, but turned out better than expected. Just need to get that last window done. :rolleyes:

Speaking of projects, I need a big indoor project for this winter. Those are nice because they don't depend on the weather. I'm thinking.
 
Since it's Thanksgiving holiday, and everyone is busy, I'm going to slip in some pictures from today at the lake.

Wanted to go on Thanksgiving day, but the forecast was for a slight chance of rain. Stopped by Tractor Supply, picked up the 24 bags of alfalfa pellets, bundled on a very nice brand new pallet,:) and unloaded them in the garage.

The purpose of this trip was to cut down those last remaining alder bushes at the head of the lake where it has been too swampy to walk. We are in the highest degree of drought right now. I'm showing the latest MAP, because it only got this bad one other time since I've lived in Georgia. I live in the dark red area.

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Took the goats because they always *think* they want to go. Trying to drive slow enough for them, there was nothing to do but take pictures. :rolleyes:

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This is the main chunk of bushes, with a few more on the sides. It doesn't show here, but these are around 10 feet tall, so it was a big job. There were still wet areas but you could step over them.

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This is the mess. Got more than half of them drug off and piled up, but not all. Hope to finish next time. I'm including this because it shows the water coming from a spring that starts back up near an old house site. I'm really tickled with how it's still running strong in this drought. There must be other springs in between. According to legend, "Old Man Ezra," who farmed the property for years, rigged up a model-T engine to haul buckets of water from that spring up to the porch of his house. ;)

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An after picture.

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The goats decided early on, that they had had enough, and I could barely catch up with them going home. Ha!

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But we all got some good exercise. :)
 
Meanderer said:
Paint Your Joy!: Goats Gruff:)
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Thanks for the painting. Beautiful. It surely captures the light well.

The article reminds me of a puzzle over the word Gruff. It is used all the time relating to goats, even handling equipment, but I've never been able to pin it down as a noun.

Billy Goat Gruff Working Chute

It originates from a Fairy Tale, but even then it doesn't make sense. I guess it is a family name, like Smith or Jones? :confused:

Btw, spoke too soon. Someone has now put a half dozen goats on the lot catty-corner to my house in town. I should walk down there and get a picture.:rolleyes: I make fun of taking pictures, but imagine trying to describe some of the things you get in a picture in words. Few would have the patience to read that much.
 
When I was a little boy, I had a secret diamond mine…….

When I was a little kid, I found diamonds. Sometimes I found oval, opaque rocks and discovered that when I broke them open, they were hollow inside and crystallized so that they sparkled and glittered in the sun and shone in several colors. I was sure they were diamonds. I planned to come back when I was grown and open my diamond mine and become rich. I never told anyone about this because I was pretty sure my folks wouldn’t believe they were really diamonds. Poor people didn’t own diamond mines. I figured that if I told anyone else, they might steal my diamonds. Years later, I learned that what I had actually found were geodes which are fairly rare but were not uncommon on the hills of our farm. I wonder if little boys still find diamonds?

When I was a little boy, I lived on a farm, and it was a great place for a little boy. One of my great treasures was my secret diamond mine. Sometimes I found oval, opaque rocks and discovered that when I broke them open, they were hollow inside and crystallized so that they sparkled and glittered in the sun and shone in several colors. I was sure they were diamonds. I planned to come back when I was grown and open a diamond mine. I never told anyone about this because I was pretty sure my folks wouldn’t believe they were really diamonds because poor people didn’t own diamond mines. I figured that if I told anyone else, they might steal my mine. Years later, I learned that what I had actually found were geodes which are fairly rare but were not uncommon in one area of our farm. I wonder if little boys still find diamonds?

I was a little guy during World War II. In those days, before we had electricity, we all listened to a battery-powered radio at night. We had no reception until nightfall and even then, it required a very long, complicated copper wire antenna positioned just so. I can remember my parents both hunched over the radio every night for the latest word on the Battle of The Bulge and later, the war in the Pacific.

Our little farm was was in the Gila river valley of southwestern New Mexico, a valley surrounded by mountains. We had a small herd of milk cows and my mother milked them by hand twice a day. My job was to carry water to the corral so my mother could wash their udders before milking. I was so little that a half-bucket of water was awfully heavy. My father raised the alfalfa and grains that we fed the cows. Before I was old enough to go to school, we stored alfalfa hay in large haystacks. One time I found the hay knife, a wicked-looking blade about three feet long with very large coarse teeth and a handle at the top. I climbed a haystack and hauled the hay knife up with me, then proceeded to cut up the haystack. When I was done, I threw the hay knife over the side and jumped down after it. Apparently I landed on it for I had a nice slice in my leg just below the knee. I managed to get to the house and was taken to a doctor in the village. I recall he sewed me up with a cigar clenched between his teeth.
 
Thanks timetlvlr, I had never heard of a geode before. Apparently you find them in areas that had a volcano at one time, right?

Here is a video I just found. Cool!!! I want one! :)

 
Nancy, you have been one busy lady! We are also in the severe drought area with water restrictions. We reseeded our back yard last week because it all died this summer, we decided to go with annual rye grass just for ground cover until spring and then the water restrictions went in place the very next day! I almost am ready to give up. I have so many old azaleas I have lost this summer and fall. But I have to say, this warm weather has kept me outside (which I love) doing some clean up. I am like you...need some inside winter projects to keep me busy! I'm pretty sure we are going to have winter this year?!
 
maggiemae said:
... I almost am ready to give up. I have so many old azaleas I have lost this summer and fall. ...
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I had 6 azaleas that have been with me for years. Didn't do well where I first planted them, didn't have the heart to throw them away. Transplanted 2 more times and they still looked awful, but lived. They had become like old friends. This fall 3 finally died and the other 3 were looking so sick I just grabbed the lopping shears last week, marched over to them without looking them straight in the eye, and lopped them all off at ground level. It was hard.:( They better not come back now. Rain predicted Tuesday (60%).:rolleyes: We'll see...
 

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