A bridge real close

We were wanting to have a bridge over the Eastern arm of our little pond. The barn is on the other side and it seemed the convenient thing to do. So, in the Summer of 2010, Kevin and his son came to help me lay-out the posts that would be the main weight bearing members.

We found two polls that were the same size and all. Got'em free too. We like free. I figured getting the polls to straddle the pond would be the thing that took the most effort but, with a little help from my friend John Deere, I had'em in place in 30 minutes. Wonderful!

Janie caught me acting up while crossing over on one poll. the bridge will run right out of where the porch door is.

If you read back in October, you'll see where we had a guy dig out part of the pond. He was able to work around it with little problem.

Sorry, this is a phone picture. Here I've got the "Trusses" started. They took a lot of the bounce out of the polls. There will be three sections to the bridge. the polls, of course, and an approach on each end. This is all flat and everything, but we're going for a gracefull, sweeping look, which is difficult when you've only got utility polls to work with. It stayed like this all of the Winter.

Come Spring of 2011, I got to work on the walking surface of 2x6's. This angle shows how the approachs spread out, preventing a square, streight look for the bridge.

So you can see how the log railings tie all three sections together and make it one bridge. Now I have to add all the little sticks and limbs to fill in the opening in the railings, and then nail on the wavy siding to hide the utility polls.

A finshed project picture will follow.

This man has an Island

From the begining, our kitchen was to have an island in the middle. It has taken a while but we have it now. Here's a shot during construction. No island. Since we did most everything ourselves and, couldn't do everything all at once, there had to be a priority. The island's number has come up!

We used this little antique table for these last two years while we were finishing other things. It's nice and all that but didn't funtion well as counter space.

We bought a couple more cabinets from Lowes, put them together and covered the sides and back with our favorite bead-board paneling, then built the top like the rest of the counter using red oak flooring. That leaves it up to Jane to paint, stain and water proof. She likes using Spar varnish, 3 - 5 coats.

So here it is, we like it. That's 13.5sqft of counter space we didn't have before. Now the project will be to finish the bar chairs in black like the cabinets.

SIGNS

We live in a rural area with lots of log houses, vacation homes, and rental get-a-way cabins. We hadn’t lived here long before noticing that many of the folks had named their homesteads and placed signs at their driveways. Of course, we wanted to be a part of the local trend and right away, began thinking of a name of our own. We tried most everything we could think of but didn’t like any of it for one reason or another. Here’s a few from around the county. Some of these signs are very nice and must have been expensive. We weren’t willing to spend big money on any sign we were to come up with. In fact, we spent $0.00. (That’s a big dollar sign right there!) We liked this one, ….. because of the rust. And what a hill it is, very steep. Some are simple and to the point like this one about 3 miles from our house. This one is huge!! Around the corner from us. This one’s for sale. Big house, nice pond. This house came with a long range view as the sign states. So I’m about to show you what we came up with after mulling it over for more than 2 years. It’s not much, and not very sophisticated, but until another idea comes along, here it is. Jane did the painting of course. I picked up a limb from out of the woods, a scrap of treated 1x4, and the trunk of a small tree I had cut down last year. And there you go. Welcome to Mossy Point Cabin.

Stuff used as other stuff

A guy I used to work with, I'll call him "Dave" because that's his name,
gave me two old storm windows he didn't want. (For those of you
located in the South, storm windows go on in the Fall and off in the
Spring, providing extra protection from Winter wind and snow)
I put one of them to work as a divider in Janie's art room.



The other one I made into a door for this built-in cabinet. I had some
glass shelves cut to fit, installed a couple old hinges and small handle
I had laying around and presto, a curio cabinet is born.



One of the shelves has this picture of my dad and his sisters back in the day.
Dad's been gone since 1993 but my Aunts are still getting around. The little
picture is of Janie's Dad and Mom. The log cabin behind them was in the family
somewhere.



A little toy horse, sheigh and a painting Janie's Great Grandmother
did many years ago. She painted it on a hand mirror.



I wouldn't necessarily call this items antiques but they do have personal
significants to us. That's what your house should look like anyway. Not
what it dictated on some TV show somewhere, but what you like.



This is Janie's Grandmother. I don't remember much about it except
that Janie liked this sort of thing and spent time with her looking at
old things in trunks when she was little. I think that's the way it is with folks,
a person developes a taste for antiques early and tends to stay with it
for life.



This is likely the best example. The butter churn to the left in this picture,
taken from over the refrigerator, was my Grandmothers on my Mother's side.
She died when I was very young, leaving me with only a couple of memories of her.

Mom kept this churn in the basement and never displaying it. For reasons
I may never know, I liked it, wanted it and asked for it when I was 20.
I know full well that behavior like that isn't very manly, but I didn't
seem to care about it then, and I curtainly don't care now. You've either got the
bug for antiques or not. I started early as did Janie.



So, do you have the antique bug? Do you find yourself collecting
rusty junk? What do you collect?

The last of the Saturday pond pictures

Everything is blaaa in Week 44

Week 45

Week 46

There's a little ice on the pond in week 47

We'll have a white Christmas, week 48

Week 49

Warmed up a bit for Week 50

An astounding 61 degs during Week 51

Master Bathroom finishing touch

This month, the master bathroom and the work needed to put the finial
touches on it, came to the top of the list. Janie had struggled with what
it was going to look like. It's "Theme" if you will.
Our half bath is all about water spigots, the up stairs bath is all about
door knobs. (I'll show that some day.)

The thing that was holding up the decorating was this stained glass
over the "loo". This view is from the foyer, with the pottie just
on the other side.



The one thing she wanted from the start was a cabinet over the sink.
I had put up a mirror after she finished painting the bathroom, just
as a place holder until this project came to the top of the list.
So, last week I bought some nice clear pine and commenced to building.






Once that was finished and hung, Janie proposed framing several
little pieces of antique quilts she has had for years and years.
She wanted them framed with the same cedar wood as the
trim in the bathroom. There are 6 of'em.





So this was to be the theme, Quilts and more Quilts.
Janie already had a stack of them on the linen storage
cabinet anyway, and I thought it was an outstanding idea.





The patchwork mimics the stained glass. (There's a pane of
frosted glass added to this side of the window so it can't
be seen through.)



It also goes well with the quilt looking rugs and shower curtain.




The last thing to do was to paint the outside of the tub.
We had the inside re-finished in the Fall but the outside was
still white and needed to be toned down a bit.
Now it matches the color of both cabinets.





Up next? the kitchen island and more storage space !

Wife, Daughters, and other wildlife

As Winter sets in, we find ourselves with little to do but sit in
the house and wish for day light. It's dark by 5:30 now and the
hours we would spend outside doing things, or just watching
the pond, has given way to movies and a few inside projects.


Some folks like to bring in some green during the Winter.
Janie is one of them. She has hung and wrapped pine looking
deco under the shelves we have over our picture windows.




These little rusty stars are nice for the Christmas season.
Janie hung them with strips of cloth from the "rods" I cut
and secured at the top of the picture windows.



Here's the way she's finished it, with the tree branch, greenery
and stars all together. I like her country style.



DE lives in Califorina and is schooling in photography.
Last week she visited a ghost town named Calico and discovered
that the "Lanes" were a predoninant family in the town.
She is missed.



DC has taken to making jewelry and has had much success!
This piece below is one of her's. She makes earrings and every
sort of bangle. All pieces are made by hand, can you amagine
the hours it takes to put this together? She had an open-house
last week and sold lots of stuff. DC tends to take after her mother.



Oh, and Stetson says "Hay"