We re-rented the front of our house, and so we have new neighbors again. They seem very nice.
They have a dog. As part of discussion before move-in, I reminded them that we do not allow aggressive or excessively barky dogs. I asked if their dog is aggressive or excessively barky. They told me it isn't. They said the dog does bark when people comes to the door, or if people invade the dog's territory, but otherwise it doesn't bark much. (That's acceptable.)
Over the past week or so they've been gradually moving in. I can tell that they've brought the dog now, because it started barking around 1 pm today, and it has kept barking all day long--it's 8:15 pm as I type this and the wretched beast is still barking.
If you've ever met our dog, you'll know she is almost completely silent. That's on purpose. Jeff wanted a Chihuahua and I said "no way, Jose," because Chihuahuas are almost always extremely barky. (Does anyone disagree with this? Go visit the small dog room at the humane society and then visit the big dog room.) The reason I screen for barky dogs before accepting a rental application for our house is because our last renters had a dog that was extremely barky and aggressive when he was outside, and moderately barky inside. I hated it.
I don't mind hearing the neighbors' dog bark occasionally, but all day long?? Shouldn't it have a sore throat by now?
So, my dear friends, how did this happen?? Please vote.
a) The dog is adjusting to the new home and it will get much quieter very soon; it is not actually a barky dog.
b) The owners didn't realize their dog has a serious barking problem because it actually only barks when they are away, so they really do believe it is a quiet dog.
c) The owners lied or really exaggerated: the dog is barky and they knew it. (Asked about their dogs, how many owners would actually say, "Oh. Actually our dog is very barky, so this may not work out.")
d) Someone has been knocking on the front door all day long and the dog is just barking about that.
e) It isn't their dog. Someone else's dog is in the front of our house.
f) Some other reason. (Please explain in the comment space below.)
If this happens again tomorrow maybe I should text them to let them know there may be something wrong and they should probably check on their dog because it has been barking for x hours. Or slip some poison under the laundry room door. (Of course I could never actually do that, but my goodness, make the noise stop!)
And, for extra credit, will someone please explain to me why they keep making dogs like this? If it were up to me, all barky or otherwise "bad" dogs would be neutered or spayed, and then sent to Australia to live out the rest of their miserable lives hunting wild rats and being eaten by fleas.
Showing posts with label SJ home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SJ home. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Learning to be a Good Employer
I hired a lady several months ago to do some cleaning, organizing, and personal assistant type work for me. It's been working out all right. She was promised just 4 hours of work per week, but she's more than happy to work more hours, so it's fluctuated. For the past week and a half, we've had her coming every week day for 3-4 hours. Now, primarily she does cleaning, but she also runs some errands for me.
Today something happened that kind of put a bad taste in my mouth.
We're renting the front of our home again, and last week this lady offered to put an ad online for me, from her house. So she did, sometime at the end of last week. Honestly, I think the ad is terrible. It doesn't highlight features of the home, and it abbreviates too many words (which means it won't come up in searches), and she only posted it on Craigslist, which would be perfect, except that here in Utah people all use KSL, not Craigslist. Of course, I have gotten absolutely no response from the ad. Jeff says her ad is okay. It's better than nothing, and I've been too busy to spend time on that, he says. Well, that's fine.
Today, she asked me something to the extent of how did I want to handle payment for her placing ads. "Oh," I said. "Right. How much time did you spend on it?" "About fifteen minutes. Because it was the first time, and I had to download pictures." "Oh. Hm. Okay."
Now, here's the thing. I absolutely do not expect this lady to spend a second of her time working for free. I have every expectation that she will be paid for every bit of time that she spends working for us. That's only fair.
Really, though, I kind of thought that I had already paid her for her time that she spent on the ad. See, she comes late almost every time she works, and then she frequently leaves a little early, too. So I thought maybe she left early and completed her shift at home the day that she placed the ad. I didn't clarify that with her, though, so maybe I should have.
Here's the thing: I pay this lady cash every day that she comes to work for us. It's a pain, and it seems nit-picky to reduce her pay when she works 10-15 minutes less than her scheduled work time. What is 10-15 minutes if she's been working for 3-5 hours? Plus, we don't have a time clock in our house, so I don't want to accidentally round her time down just because I wasn't paying close attention to the time when she arrived or left. So I just round up. To be nice.
There have been a few times lately where I've invited her to eat lunch with me. On the clock. Just to be nice.
And, she's kind of a slow worker. We think we're over-paying her, by at least a couple dollars an hour. It seemed worthwhile when she was helping organize, but now she's not doing organization, and sometimes we wonder what's taking her so long to get things done.
We also reimburse her mileage when she runs errands, at .50/mile. It is obvious to me that she rounds these figures up. For instance, today she drove out to one of the properties I manage to drop some papers off, and she told me it was 35 miles. Google Maps says her drive was 23 miles, round trip. That's an extra $6 right there.
So...today I wasn't really sure what to do. The amount of payment in question is only $3. When she left today, she she was short on her time even today by 10 minutes. So I paid her the rounded-up amount for her hours today, and decided I would just think about what to do.
Here are my thoughts:
1. I should pay her the $3, I guess, since obviously she doesn't feel like she has been compensated for that time.
2. I should keep track of the time that she works, to the minute, and if it means she's getting loose change instead of dollars, well, that's what she earned.
3. Google Maps will be our authority for determining mileage.
4. If I feel like inviting her to eat lunch with me, I will, but I probably won't really feel like it.
Do I really need to be so militant about all this? It seems a little ridiculous. But still, really, she knows she comes late. (She apologizes when she does.) So, why would she make a big deal about a few minutes of work that she did from home, at her own suggestion?
I don't know.
What do you think, readers? What is the right thing to do? What would a good, fair employer do?
Today something happened that kind of put a bad taste in my mouth.
We're renting the front of our home again, and last week this lady offered to put an ad online for me, from her house. So she did, sometime at the end of last week. Honestly, I think the ad is terrible. It doesn't highlight features of the home, and it abbreviates too many words (which means it won't come up in searches), and she only posted it on Craigslist, which would be perfect, except that here in Utah people all use KSL, not Craigslist. Of course, I have gotten absolutely no response from the ad. Jeff says her ad is okay. It's better than nothing, and I've been too busy to spend time on that, he says. Well, that's fine.
Today, she asked me something to the extent of how did I want to handle payment for her placing ads. "Oh," I said. "Right. How much time did you spend on it?" "About fifteen minutes. Because it was the first time, and I had to download pictures." "Oh. Hm. Okay."
Now, here's the thing. I absolutely do not expect this lady to spend a second of her time working for free. I have every expectation that she will be paid for every bit of time that she spends working for us. That's only fair.
Really, though, I kind of thought that I had already paid her for her time that she spent on the ad. See, she comes late almost every time she works, and then she frequently leaves a little early, too. So I thought maybe she left early and completed her shift at home the day that she placed the ad. I didn't clarify that with her, though, so maybe I should have.
Here's the thing: I pay this lady cash every day that she comes to work for us. It's a pain, and it seems nit-picky to reduce her pay when she works 10-15 minutes less than her scheduled work time. What is 10-15 minutes if she's been working for 3-5 hours? Plus, we don't have a time clock in our house, so I don't want to accidentally round her time down just because I wasn't paying close attention to the time when she arrived or left. So I just round up. To be nice.
There have been a few times lately where I've invited her to eat lunch with me. On the clock. Just to be nice.
And, she's kind of a slow worker. We think we're over-paying her, by at least a couple dollars an hour. It seemed worthwhile when she was helping organize, but now she's not doing organization, and sometimes we wonder what's taking her so long to get things done.
We also reimburse her mileage when she runs errands, at .50/mile. It is obvious to me that she rounds these figures up. For instance, today she drove out to one of the properties I manage to drop some papers off, and she told me it was 35 miles. Google Maps says her drive was 23 miles, round trip. That's an extra $6 right there.
So...today I wasn't really sure what to do. The amount of payment in question is only $3. When she left today, she she was short on her time even today by 10 minutes. So I paid her the rounded-up amount for her hours today, and decided I would just think about what to do.
Here are my thoughts:
1. I should pay her the $3, I guess, since obviously she doesn't feel like she has been compensated for that time.
2. I should keep track of the time that she works, to the minute, and if it means she's getting loose change instead of dollars, well, that's what she earned.
3. Google Maps will be our authority for determining mileage.
4. If I feel like inviting her to eat lunch with me, I will, but I probably won't really feel like it.
Do I really need to be so militant about all this? It seems a little ridiculous. But still, really, she knows she comes late. (She apologizes when she does.) So, why would she make a big deal about a few minutes of work that she did from home, at her own suggestion?
I don't know.
What do you think, readers? What is the right thing to do? What would a good, fair employer do?
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Work, New Cat, Temple Pictures, Garden, and Moving.
Work
I've been busy with work lately, which is a good thing. A man in northern Utah asked me to manage his house for him. He's moving out of the country. Then, another man who has eight apartments and lives out-of-state asked me to manage for him too. So, this month I've spent a lot of time showing vacancies lately, and also responding to maintenance issues at the apartments. I've actually been busy enough that I haven't been doing any more marketing, although I plan to pick up with that again soon.
Jeff is back to work, too. He has been for a little while now. He did get multiple job offers again, but one of the jobs offered higher pay and really good benefits, so he accepted that one. It's with a company that most people have heard of. Jeff doesn't really like the job very much, because it's taking a long time for him to actually get started doing programming, and he is bored. That should improve over time, though. He keeps finding out about new benefits--we already knew our health care would pretty much be free, but on the first day of work he found out they were going to give him an iPhone--and pay for his service. (Cool! Although Jeff is kind of disappointed because he really likes his Droid.) Then, Jeff offered to work later hours so that he can work some hours with the Australians that are on his team...so the company gave him a credit card and said they will pay for his dinner every day. Nice!
New Cat
I brought home a new cat. I was showing the home that I'm managing to some prospective renters and I asked if they had any pets. (The owner allows up to two, with pet rent.) They said no--well, they do--they have cats--but they're getting rid of them. "Oh," I said, "Are they good at catching mice?" I explained that we've looked for a mouser before, but people always list cats online saying they would be good at catching mice, or saying they would grow up to be good at catching mice, but I want a cat that already catches mice.
They said, "Actually, they are!"
So we talked some more about it, and after I showed them the rental home, they invited me back to their house. I met two of their cats, and decided to take the one who had more of a history of catching mice. Her name is Kitty, she is 17 years old, and she has long fur that started getting ratty a few months ago. She is sometimes really friendly and sometimes really aggressive. Perfect.
So I brought her home, and let her out in the barn, and then I didn't see her again.
Jeff thought I was joking when I told him I'd brought a cat home, but it didn't really matter because she isn't really our pet, she's just [supposed to be] living in the barn and we're feeding her. We'd talked about getting a barn cat before, so it wasn't completely out of the blue.
And then, after a few days of Kitty being missing, I was out doing some work in the barn and I heard a meow that wasn't Paley. I walked around the corner, and (!) there she was! So I showed Jeff our new cat. And I fed her. Paley does not like Kitty. Kitty is disinterested in Paley.
Temple Pictures
This week my Relief Society (ladies church group) did a "Wonderful Wednesday" activity. The main project was making temple pictures. The pictures are beautiful (and popular up here in Utah) but if you just go buy one they usually cost about $200, so although I've wanted one for a while, I haven't bought one. For the activity they charged us $53, though, and that was totally worth it.
I invited my sister Jessica, and we each did pictures of the temples where we were married. (Jess did Salt Lake and I did Jordan River.) It was pretty easy. Basically, what you do is mount a print onto a board. Let it dry. Texture the print. Let it dry. Paint your frame. Let it dry. Add screws and little metal things to the back of the frame. Insert the mounted, textured print. Tighten the screws. Wait a day and add the bracket thing that lets you hang it. Then hang it.
Garden
My garden didn't go quite how I planned, mainly because I was unable to get a fence up to protect my garden from goats. So I never planted my garden. But, after I abandoned so many healthy plants at my in-laws' house, my father-in-law planted anything that seemed like it might survive. This resulted in a lot of produce, actually. We've been picking and eating purple tomatoes when we go over to my in-laws' on game days. And, I've had a couple of the Rich Sweetness 132 melons. They're small, but they're pretty delicious. A couple days ago, my father-in-law tore out all of my garden and harvested what he could. Frost is coming soon, anyway, and I think he is planning to plant some trees where my garden was growing. It was nice of him to let my stuff grow at their house.
Moving
We're only sort of moving. We've been living in the back portion of our house, and we've had the front part rented out. The guys living in the front have been there for over two years, but now they're moving. So we're going to move up to the front! I think it will probably need new carpet, and a little bit of work done...but we plan to move in the beginning part of November. I am SO excited to have a kitchen(!) and a bath tub(!) and a bigger office area(!) and a fireplace(!). Jeff is worried that moving will be a lot of work, and getting organized will take a long time. It kind of will, but I don't think it will be too bad, because we won't have to pack, or load things up in a truck, or anything like that. We'll just take things and put them in their new places. Easiest Move Ever. Did I mention I'm excited to have a real kitchen? Because I am. We finally got an oven back here a few weeks ago, though, and that's already been excellent.
We're busy and we're happy and these are the things that are going on.
I've been busy with work lately, which is a good thing. A man in northern Utah asked me to manage his house for him. He's moving out of the country. Then, another man who has eight apartments and lives out-of-state asked me to manage for him too. So, this month I've spent a lot of time showing vacancies lately, and also responding to maintenance issues at the apartments. I've actually been busy enough that I haven't been doing any more marketing, although I plan to pick up with that again soon.
Jeff is back to work, too. He has been for a little while now. He did get multiple job offers again, but one of the jobs offered higher pay and really good benefits, so he accepted that one. It's with a company that most people have heard of. Jeff doesn't really like the job very much, because it's taking a long time for him to actually get started doing programming, and he is bored. That should improve over time, though. He keeps finding out about new benefits--we already knew our health care would pretty much be free, but on the first day of work he found out they were going to give him an iPhone--and pay for his service. (Cool! Although Jeff is kind of disappointed because he really likes his Droid.) Then, Jeff offered to work later hours so that he can work some hours with the Australians that are on his team...so the company gave him a credit card and said they will pay for his dinner every day. Nice!
New Cat
They said, "Actually, they are!"
So we talked some more about it, and after I showed them the rental home, they invited me back to their house. I met two of their cats, and decided to take the one who had more of a history of catching mice. Her name is Kitty, she is 17 years old, and she has long fur that started getting ratty a few months ago. She is sometimes really friendly and sometimes really aggressive. Perfect.
So I brought her home, and let her out in the barn, and then I didn't see her again.
Jeff thought I was joking when I told him I'd brought a cat home, but it didn't really matter because she isn't really our pet, she's just [supposed to be] living in the barn and we're feeding her. We'd talked about getting a barn cat before, so it wasn't completely out of the blue.
And then, after a few days of Kitty being missing, I was out doing some work in the barn and I heard a meow that wasn't Paley. I walked around the corner, and (!) there she was! So I showed Jeff our new cat. And I fed her. Paley does not like Kitty. Kitty is disinterested in Paley.
Temple Pictures
I invited my sister Jessica, and we each did pictures of the temples where we were married. (Jess did Salt Lake and I did Jordan River.) It was pretty easy. Basically, what you do is mount a print onto a board. Let it dry. Texture the print. Let it dry. Paint your frame. Let it dry. Add screws and little metal things to the back of the frame. Insert the mounted, textured print. Tighten the screws. Wait a day and add the bracket thing that lets you hang it. Then hang it.
Garden
My garden didn't go quite how I planned, mainly because I was unable to get a fence up to protect my garden from goats. So I never planted my garden. But, after I abandoned so many healthy plants at my in-laws' house, my father-in-law planted anything that seemed like it might survive. This resulted in a lot of produce, actually. We've been picking and eating purple tomatoes when we go over to my in-laws' on game days. And, I've had a couple of the Rich Sweetness 132 melons. They're small, but they're pretty delicious. A couple days ago, my father-in-law tore out all of my garden and harvested what he could. Frost is coming soon, anyway, and I think he is planning to plant some trees where my garden was growing. It was nice of him to let my stuff grow at their house. Moving
We're only sort of moving. We've been living in the back portion of our house, and we've had the front part rented out. The guys living in the front have been there for over two years, but now they're moving. So we're going to move up to the front! I think it will probably need new carpet, and a little bit of work done...but we plan to move in the beginning part of November. I am SO excited to have a kitchen(!) and a bath tub(!) and a bigger office area(!) and a fireplace(!). Jeff is worried that moving will be a lot of work, and getting organized will take a long time. It kind of will, but I don't think it will be too bad, because we won't have to pack, or load things up in a truck, or anything like that. We'll just take things and put them in their new places. Easiest Move Ever. Did I mention I'm excited to have a real kitchen? Because I am. We finally got an oven back here a few weeks ago, though, and that's already been excellent.
We're busy and we're happy and these are the things that are going on.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Jack-O-Heifer, New Neighbors, and Work (or lack thereof)
I've been in one of those moods lately where I feel like I don't have anything to blog about. I guess I actually do, though. We went hiking near Heber for Labor Day. And we went to the State Fair. That was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the agriculture buildings more than I used to. It was fun to see the goats that people were showing. Also, the lady that a bunch of our goats are from was there, so it was fun to finally meet her. We talked with her for quite a while.
Farm News
Our animals are all doing well. Turkey is getting big. I wonder how much he will weigh for Thanksgiving.
Daisy lost one of her front teeth. Poor little girl! I suspect one of the goats shoved her too hard. (They're always trying to establish their pecking order.) We were wondering, will she have a gap in her smile forever??? Do cows have baby teeth??? I finally looked it up. Cows do have baby teeth. (GOOD.) Daisy will grow a new tooth in about a year and a half.
(I kept trying to get a picture of her goofy new smile and she wouldn't cooperate. So, maybe later.)
New Neighbors
Did I mention we have new neighbors? Because we do.
A couple days before our old neighbors moved, we were talking to them, and joking about whether the new people realize we have goats. Our old neighbors said yes, actually, they were excited about the goats. (They must not have shown the house at 6:30 am when our goats are noisy, I told Jeff.)
They really are excited about our animals, though. The neighbors have two kids: Peyton (a boy, 10? years old) and Tristen (a girl, 4? years old). They are adorable, and friendly, and they like us a lot. We went over to introduce ourselves right after they moved in, and Jeff told them they're welcome to come over any time to visit our animals.
So, they do.
Seriously, the kids hang out in their backyard (by our fence) waiting for me to come outside. "PEYTON, PEYTON! THE LADY IS OUT!" "CAN WE COME OVER?" "Sure!"
I let them collect eggs with me one of the first times they came over. I told them they could each take two. They thought that was a lot of fun. Peyton has come up with a schedule. He thinks it is a good idea for them each to collect two eggs once a week. That's fine.
They like to "help" me milk. "Okay. So you normally milk at 7:00? We'll be outside at 6:55. Wait for us, okay?" It's pretty cute. They come out with me, and I've shown them how to milk, so Peyton always wants to do as much of it as I will let him. He knows to spray the teats, and wipe them with a goat wipe, and then to spray one squirt of milk not in the bucket. "Let me do it, okay? I know how." Sure. So I'll milk one side, and Peyton milks the other side, at the same time. He chatters with me all about how fun it is to have nice neighbors, and about how farm work is like chores--except it is fun. And he talks to me about how farm food is better than food from the store. Then when we're finished milking, he likes to come inside and help me filter it.
Jeff thought it was really funny the other day because Peyton had suggested that he could help with the farm work and we could share milk and eggs and meat. So then we were in filtering the milk and he explained a good way for us to do things: when we filter the milk, if we get two quart jars, he'll take the one with less in it. Hahaha! He wanted to take half of our milk. "Yeahh, probably not every day, but sometimes you can!" "Oh, I mean, I know not every day."
So he wanted to try raw milk. I told him he had to ask his parents. So they both ran back to their house, and their parents discussed it and decided it was fine, and they came back and I let them take a quart of fresh, warm, raw goat milk back home. (Labeled, of course.) The next morning, Peyton told me he didn't really like it. It tastes really different than store milk. I asked if he had it cold. "Halfway cold." "OH, well you should try it when it is cold. It tastes a lot better cold!" So later he did, and now he says he doesn't think he likes store milk anymore because raw milk just tastes better. Good kid.
He told me he can milk for us when we go on vacation. It's tempting. He usually milks about 1/2 of one goat all in all, so I don't think he would actually be strong enough to milk all by himself yet, but maybe next year. It's cute that he enjoys it so much.
They also help with feeding the animals. Tristen likes to feed Daisy bottles. They both like feeding the chickens.
The thing about kids is, they're really funny. Sometimes I wish I could just do farm chores without "help" (because it takes about 2-3 times as long when they come over), but mostly we just really enjoy having them visit. They say the funniest things. Peyton was AMAZED by the door to our garage (from the hallway by our front door). "I can't believe this," he said, just standing there, staring. "I've always wanted to see one of these. It's just like I imagined." "What?" I asked. "You have an upside down door!" "Huh. I guess I do." "You never noticed???" "Well, I hadn't really thought about it."
Jeff's Job
Jeff got a surprise at work recently. Not this past Thursday but the week before, Jeff's CEO called him into a conference room---and said Jeff would be taking a six-day furlough, starting that Friday. They put 80% of their employees on unpaid leave, because they were having financial problems. Basically, they were receiving investor funds and the last installment was two months overdue. Jeff asked a lot of prying, hard questions, and left work with the impression that the investor had probably walked. "Take a vacation!" they told him, but Jeff knew after their conversation that he had pretty much been laid off.
So, the six-day break became a six-day intensive job search. We were disappointed about the furlough because Jeff really loved his job. He liked the work environment, and he liked what he was working on. Too bad.
This past week, Jeff has been to a bunch of interviews, and he got his first job offer. He has a few more second interviews at the beginning of next week, and he hopes to make a decision about his next job on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Finally, last night Jeff got a call from the CEO of his company. We assumed it would be notification that Jeff was laid off, and it basically was. On the message, the CEO told Jeff that unfortunately they were unable to secure funding, and everyone was going to be on "indefinite furlough" and he understood if Jeff wanted to find a new job, but the CEO hoped that he would still be able to secure funding.
So, I guess that's that. We are grateful that we are very prepared, and we don't live on the edge; we haven't had to change our spending at all. So that's a blessing.
Em's Job
I've still been doing a lot of marketing! My 500 flyers came, and they look SO professional. I think they turned out really nice. I sent a bunch last weekend to people who are currently trying to rent their homes. No response from that yet. I also talked with a guy who e-mailed me this week about managing his home for him. I think that one is going to work out. So, that will be really exciting.
I would love to get busy doing more real estate work and less marketing. (I think these things just take time.)
We're gearing up for a couple vacancies--we've gotten notice for two of our properties. It's kind of bad timing (summer would have been better), but not a big deal.
I also ordered my second set of postcards for the 273 people. I think they will arrive on Monday.
I'm participating with the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM), and I love their meetings. Everyone is very friendly and helpful.
Well, I think that's about it for now! We're doing well, and we're really happy.
Our animals are all doing well. Turkey is getting big. I wonder how much he will weigh for Thanksgiving.
Daisy lost one of her front teeth. Poor little girl! I suspect one of the goats shoved her too hard. (They're always trying to establish their pecking order.) We were wondering, will she have a gap in her smile forever??? Do cows have baby teeth??? I finally looked it up. Cows do have baby teeth. (GOOD.) Daisy will grow a new tooth in about a year and a half.
(I kept trying to get a picture of her goofy new smile and she wouldn't cooperate. So, maybe later.)
New Neighbors
Did I mention we have new neighbors? Because we do.
A couple days before our old neighbors moved, we were talking to them, and joking about whether the new people realize we have goats. Our old neighbors said yes, actually, they were excited about the goats. (They must not have shown the house at 6:30 am when our goats are noisy, I told Jeff.)
They really are excited about our animals, though. The neighbors have two kids: Peyton (a boy, 10? years old) and Tristen (a girl, 4? years old). They are adorable, and friendly, and they like us a lot. We went over to introduce ourselves right after they moved in, and Jeff told them they're welcome to come over any time to visit our animals.
So, they do.
Seriously, the kids hang out in their backyard (by our fence) waiting for me to come outside. "PEYTON, PEYTON! THE LADY IS OUT!" "CAN WE COME OVER?" "Sure!"
I let them collect eggs with me one of the first times they came over. I told them they could each take two. They thought that was a lot of fun. Peyton has come up with a schedule. He thinks it is a good idea for them each to collect two eggs once a week. That's fine.
They like to "help" me milk. "Okay. So you normally milk at 7:00? We'll be outside at 6:55. Wait for us, okay?" It's pretty cute. They come out with me, and I've shown them how to milk, so Peyton always wants to do as much of it as I will let him. He knows to spray the teats, and wipe them with a goat wipe, and then to spray one squirt of milk not in the bucket. "Let me do it, okay? I know how." Sure. So I'll milk one side, and Peyton milks the other side, at the same time. He chatters with me all about how fun it is to have nice neighbors, and about how farm work is like chores--except it is fun. And he talks to me about how farm food is better than food from the store. Then when we're finished milking, he likes to come inside and help me filter it.
Jeff thought it was really funny the other day because Peyton had suggested that he could help with the farm work and we could share milk and eggs and meat. So then we were in filtering the milk and he explained a good way for us to do things: when we filter the milk, if we get two quart jars, he'll take the one with less in it. Hahaha! He wanted to take half of our milk. "Yeahh, probably not every day, but sometimes you can!" "Oh, I mean, I know not every day."
So he wanted to try raw milk. I told him he had to ask his parents. So they both ran back to their house, and their parents discussed it and decided it was fine, and they came back and I let them take a quart of fresh, warm, raw goat milk back home. (Labeled, of course.) The next morning, Peyton told me he didn't really like it. It tastes really different than store milk. I asked if he had it cold. "Halfway cold." "OH, well you should try it when it is cold. It tastes a lot better cold!" So later he did, and now he says he doesn't think he likes store milk anymore because raw milk just tastes better. Good kid.
He told me he can milk for us when we go on vacation. It's tempting. He usually milks about 1/2 of one goat all in all, so I don't think he would actually be strong enough to milk all by himself yet, but maybe next year. It's cute that he enjoys it so much.
They also help with feeding the animals. Tristen likes to feed Daisy bottles. They both like feeding the chickens.
The thing about kids is, they're really funny. Sometimes I wish I could just do farm chores without "help" (because it takes about 2-3 times as long when they come over), but mostly we just really enjoy having them visit. They say the funniest things. Peyton was AMAZED by the door to our garage (from the hallway by our front door). "I can't believe this," he said, just standing there, staring. "I've always wanted to see one of these. It's just like I imagined." "What?" I asked. "You have an upside down door!" "Huh. I guess I do." "You never noticed???" "Well, I hadn't really thought about it."
Jeff's Job
Jeff got a surprise at work recently. Not this past Thursday but the week before, Jeff's CEO called him into a conference room---and said Jeff would be taking a six-day furlough, starting that Friday. They put 80% of their employees on unpaid leave, because they were having financial problems. Basically, they were receiving investor funds and the last installment was two months overdue. Jeff asked a lot of prying, hard questions, and left work with the impression that the investor had probably walked. "Take a vacation!" they told him, but Jeff knew after their conversation that he had pretty much been laid off.
So, the six-day break became a six-day intensive job search. We were disappointed about the furlough because Jeff really loved his job. He liked the work environment, and he liked what he was working on. Too bad.
This past week, Jeff has been to a bunch of interviews, and he got his first job offer. He has a few more second interviews at the beginning of next week, and he hopes to make a decision about his next job on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Finally, last night Jeff got a call from the CEO of his company. We assumed it would be notification that Jeff was laid off, and it basically was. On the message, the CEO told Jeff that unfortunately they were unable to secure funding, and everyone was going to be on "indefinite furlough" and he understood if Jeff wanted to find a new job, but the CEO hoped that he would still be able to secure funding.
So, I guess that's that. We are grateful that we are very prepared, and we don't live on the edge; we haven't had to change our spending at all. So that's a blessing.
Em's Job
I've still been doing a lot of marketing! My 500 flyers came, and they look SO professional. I think they turned out really nice. I sent a bunch last weekend to people who are currently trying to rent their homes. No response from that yet. I also talked with a guy who e-mailed me this week about managing his home for him. I think that one is going to work out. So, that will be really exciting.
I would love to get busy doing more real estate work and less marketing. (I think these things just take time.)
We're gearing up for a couple vacancies--we've gotten notice for two of our properties. It's kind of bad timing (summer would have been better), but not a big deal.
I also ordered my second set of postcards for the 273 people. I think they will arrive on Monday.
I'm participating with the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM), and I love their meetings. Everyone is very friendly and helpful.
Well, I think that's about it for now! We're doing well, and we're really happy.
Monday, February 07, 2011
Life Update
Things Happening:
1. My mother-in-law is helping me organize our house! I am not very talented when it comes to organizing, so her help is MUCH appreciated. She is also helping with other things.
Back from when our roof was leaking almost a year ago, we tore down a bunch of drywall to find the leak. And then we left it because other projects were more pressing. My mother-in-law helped me install drywall* in our alcove. I did the joining tape and spackling, and I painted it, and replaced the carpet with more fake wood floor. Now it houses our two big [empty!] water barrels and some shelves. Oh, I guess this isn't really about actual organizing--we've done that, too.
2. I installed fake wood floor in our old office! The idea was to swap the dining room and office, because the "dining room" has new carpet and the office had very old carpet. Having our table, refrigerator, and trash cans on carpet was just not the best. Now, we're not sure if the "dining room" will actually be moving to the fake wood floor bedroom or not. We'll see.
3. I'm teaching 8 year-old kids at Church this year. Last year J and me taught the 5 year-old kids. It was pretty fun. This year, we were assigned the kids who are turning 9 this year. So far I really like them. It seems like they all want to be best friends with me, which is fun. They fight** to sit by me. I've decided to stop trying to get the kids to sit still during class. Here's the thing: they have to sit still for Sacrament meeting (before my class), and they have to sit still for Primary (after my class), and it's just not worth it to me to try and make them sit still in my class too. So we DO THINGS.
A few weeks ago we acted out our whole lesson. The last time I taught, we made salt dough maps of the places Jesus lived (because that's what the lesson was about). The kids are loving it, and I feel less stressed about them not sitting still. We still look up scriptures together--I think that's super important, that the kids become really familiar with the Bible and learn to use the maps and footnotes, etc. I want them to love the scriptures as much as I do, so I'm trying to make the scriptures more exciting and easy to relate to. We'll see how the rest of the year goes. Maybe I'll change my mind about letting them be so squirmy. So far everyone really likes it. I think it's important that we stay structured enough that the kids can feel the Spirit and actually learn about the gospel.***
4. I am taking a GNOWFGLINS class about Cultured Dairy. I was going to do the Fundamentals class when Wardeh started it, but at the time I was just about to get married and trying to graduate and about 3000 other things, so I ended up canceling my membership. I knew I wanted to do it eventually, though. This month the Cultured Dairy class was beginning so I decided it was time to come back. In the class we will be learning to make a whole bunch of yogurts and cheeses**** so J and I are both really excited about this class because we love cheese! So far we've only had the introduction class, but tomorrow we'll actually start making things, so I'm excited. I've already been having fun meeting people on the forums*****.
5. I've been blogging for eFoods Direct! (I'll post separately about this when the new site is released.) My topic is "Emergency Preparedness" and I blog on Mondays. I absolutely love it. I've cared a lot about emergency preparedness for a really long time so it's fun to blog about it, and learn and think more about preparedness. J and I actually revamped our preparation efforts last fall because we're worried about the direction our country seems to be headed...but that's another blog post for another day, maybe.
6. J broke his finger. At the gym. He thought it was just sprained or strained, but he kept re-injuring it, and it kept not healing. Last Thursday (12 days after the original injury) he went into urgent care to have it x-rayed. It was definitely broken. Poor guy. The urgent care doctor said for sure we'll be meeting our deductible. Too bad.
So then on Friday, J got an emergency appointment to see a o. surgeon to have it looked at, and the doctor said "this needs surgery..." but then we talked to him about setting it. The trouble is, it broke at an angle so that the muscle in J's finger will naturally kind of slide the bone right back out. The doctor said there was a chance setting it would work, but maybe only a 10-50% chance. We decided it was worth trying. So the doctor set J's finger and it hurt very very badly. As he was massaging J's finger, I tried to distract my poor husband:
"So, J...what is your favorite flavor of ice cream?"
"Aouhmmm...cookies and cream..."
"Really? You like it better than all of your other flavors?"
"Uh...uh...aihhuhm...yeah."
"But what about chocolate peanut butter and strawberry? You like it better than those, too?"
"Uh...Yeah."
Poor guy. I don't know if it actually helped distract him from hurting at all, but it did make him happy because he thought it was really silly for me to be asking him about ice cream.
Anyway, after the doctor set his finger, they x-rayed it again to see if it stayed in place. IT DID! So J was splinted up and sent home with a return appointment for today--if his bone stayed in place, he would get a cast. If not, he would get surgery and a little metal plate and pins to hold his finger together. (Ouch.)
We hoped and prayed his finger would stay in place. J was very, very careful not to bump it over the weekend. (But it didn't actually need to be bumped to slide out of place.)
We went in for his appointment today and he had his hand x-rayed again to see how he'd held up over the weekend. Here is the new x-ray. What do you think, readers? Cast or surgery? (It's a strange angle because the splint is on and it holds fingers in a strange position for x-rays.)
The doctor said it looked good! He said it had moved a little bit, but not very much, so J was probably out of the woods now. He said he had tried to call his colleague who is a hand specialist to get his opinion on whether it was good enough or not, and he wasn't able to talk to him yet, but most likely J would be just fine in a cast! The doctor said he would talk to the specialist and call J back this afternoon to confirm it was all right.
The doctor said it was kind of like if you ask your mom, "Mom, can I spend the night at my friend's house?" and your mom says, "Probably, but I'll have to check with your Dad." And you're kind of like, "Well, hmm, can I or can't I?" And maybe your dad will say, "Oh, no, remember, we grounded him last week," or something that Mom just forgot or didn't know about, but probably you can. The doctor said it was like that. He said we shouldn't get our hopes up, but J could go ahead and get a cast because it looked good.
So, of course, we immediately got our hopes up.
We went to the casting room where J was going to get his cast. J broke his wrist when he was 12, so he's had a cast before. I asked him over the weekend what color of cast he'd get if he could get a cast and he said white. White? "Do they come in other colors?" he asked, not sure whether I was being serious or not. "Of course they do!" It's been a long time since he was 12. I suggested he go with pink or red, since it's about time for Valentine's day. We also discussed more work-appropriate options, like khaki or grey. (I don't think they come in those colors, though.) J wasn't sure which color he would want.
When we got to the special cast room, the girl putting his cast on showed him a ring of different cast color swatches. His cast would be on for two weeks, and then he would come in for an x-ray to be sure things were healing up right. The girl explained that they would remove the cast at the two week appointment. I suggested pink or red again, because Valentine's day is especially relevant for the next couple weeks. J was not convinced. The girl suggested red with pink hearts ("She's just a Ute, that's why she wants me to get a red one," J countered). So she suggested pink with red hearts. J picked dark green.
The girl wove cotton around J's fingers. He would have his index finger, but the other three fingers would be in the cast, and the cotton would keep them from rubbing and getting blisters. Oh. Then she put a special sock on J's arm, cutting holes for his finger and stuff. She wrapped cotton all around his arm and hand, carefully doing the spots where there would be edges of the cast, so they wouldn't rub. She got his green cast stuff out and got it wet. She brought it over to J and started to put it on...
And then the doctor came back in the room. He finally spoke with the hand surgeon, and unfortunately J's bone wasn't quite perfect enough. He will be needing surgery after all. Too bad! So the girl removed the little bit of green that she'd put on J, and she splinted his hand back up (on top of the cast stuff), and bandaged it all back up, and cut off the cast part that didn't need to be there since it is only a splint and not a cast. J will most likely be having hand surgery on Friday, but it will depend. It's too bad because it is going to be much more painful and expensive. We'll know more later.
* Although we both enjoy building things, we also both agree that we do not like installing drywall. It is heavy, and not fun to work with, and the insulation is a pain to work with. She was very pleasant about helping, though.
** Reverently, of course.
*** "Sister K! Can I sit on this tower of 4 chairs?!" "Yes! As long as you remove all of the chairs beneath you except one."
**** We're learning to make sour cream, cultured butter and buttermilk, clabbered milk and cheese, heritage yogurt, greek yogurt, kefir and kefir cheese, kefir cream and ice cream, ricotta and soft cheese, cottage cheese, feta cheese, Middle Eastern fresh cheese, Queso Fresco cheese, fresh Cheddar cheese, traditional Mozzarella cheese, and we'll learn about keeping mother cultures so that we can just keep going.
***** Can you imagine? There are other people like me that like doing things like making cheese. NEAT.
1. My mother-in-law is helping me organize our house! I am not very talented when it comes to organizing, so her help is MUCH appreciated. She is also helping with other things.
Back from when our roof was leaking almost a year ago, we tore down a bunch of drywall to find the leak. And then we left it because other projects were more pressing. My mother-in-law helped me install drywall* in our alcove. I did the joining tape and spackling, and I painted it, and replaced the carpet with more fake wood floor. Now it houses our two big [empty!] water barrels and some shelves. Oh, I guess this isn't really about actual organizing--we've done that, too.
2. I installed fake wood floor in our old office! The idea was to swap the dining room and office, because the "dining room" has new carpet and the office had very old carpet. Having our table, refrigerator, and trash cans on carpet was just not the best. Now, we're not sure if the "dining room" will actually be moving to the fake wood floor bedroom or not. We'll see.
3. I'm teaching 8 year-old kids at Church this year. Last year J and me taught the 5 year-old kids. It was pretty fun. This year, we were assigned the kids who are turning 9 this year. So far I really like them. It seems like they all want to be best friends with me, which is fun. They fight** to sit by me. I've decided to stop trying to get the kids to sit still during class. Here's the thing: they have to sit still for Sacrament meeting (before my class), and they have to sit still for Primary (after my class), and it's just not worth it to me to try and make them sit still in my class too. So we DO THINGS.
A few weeks ago we acted out our whole lesson. The last time I taught, we made salt dough maps of the places Jesus lived (because that's what the lesson was about). The kids are loving it, and I feel less stressed about them not sitting still. We still look up scriptures together--I think that's super important, that the kids become really familiar with the Bible and learn to use the maps and footnotes, etc. I want them to love the scriptures as much as I do, so I'm trying to make the scriptures more exciting and easy to relate to. We'll see how the rest of the year goes. Maybe I'll change my mind about letting them be so squirmy. So far everyone really likes it. I think it's important that we stay structured enough that the kids can feel the Spirit and actually learn about the gospel.***
4. I am taking a GNOWFGLINS class about Cultured Dairy. I was going to do the Fundamentals class when Wardeh started it, but at the time I was just about to get married and trying to graduate and about 3000 other things, so I ended up canceling my membership. I knew I wanted to do it eventually, though. This month the Cultured Dairy class was beginning so I decided it was time to come back. In the class we will be learning to make a whole bunch of yogurts and cheeses**** so J and I are both really excited about this class because we love cheese! So far we've only had the introduction class, but tomorrow we'll actually start making things, so I'm excited. I've already been having fun meeting people on the forums*****.
5. I've been blogging for eFoods Direct! (I'll post separately about this when the new site is released.) My topic is "Emergency Preparedness" and I blog on Mondays. I absolutely love it. I've cared a lot about emergency preparedness for a really long time so it's fun to blog about it, and learn and think more about preparedness. J and I actually revamped our preparation efforts last fall because we're worried about the direction our country seems to be headed...but that's another blog post for another day, maybe.
6. J broke his finger. At the gym. He thought it was just sprained or strained, but he kept re-injuring it, and it kept not healing. Last Thursday (12 days after the original injury) he went into urgent care to have it x-rayed. It was definitely broken. Poor guy. The urgent care doctor said for sure we'll be meeting our deductible. Too bad.
So then on Friday, J got an emergency appointment to see a o. surgeon to have it looked at, and the doctor said "this needs surgery..." but then we talked to him about setting it. The trouble is, it broke at an angle so that the muscle in J's finger will naturally kind of slide the bone right back out. The doctor said there was a chance setting it would work, but maybe only a 10-50% chance. We decided it was worth trying. So the doctor set J's finger and it hurt very very badly. As he was massaging J's finger, I tried to distract my poor husband:
"So, J...what is your favorite flavor of ice cream?"
"Aouhmmm...cookies and cream..."
"Really? You like it better than all of your other flavors?"
"Uh...uh...aihhuhm...yeah."
"But what about chocolate peanut butter and strawberry? You like it better than those, too?"
"Uh...Yeah."
Poor guy. I don't know if it actually helped distract him from hurting at all, but it did make him happy because he thought it was really silly for me to be asking him about ice cream.
Anyway, after the doctor set his finger, they x-rayed it again to see if it stayed in place. IT DID! So J was splinted up and sent home with a return appointment for today--if his bone stayed in place, he would get a cast. If not, he would get surgery and a little metal plate and pins to hold his finger together. (Ouch.)
We hoped and prayed his finger would stay in place. J was very, very careful not to bump it over the weekend. (But it didn't actually need to be bumped to slide out of place.)
We went in for his appointment today and he had his hand x-rayed again to see how he'd held up over the weekend. Here is the new x-ray. What do you think, readers? Cast or surgery? (It's a strange angle because the splint is on and it holds fingers in a strange position for x-rays.)
The doctor said it looked good! He said it had moved a little bit, but not very much, so J was probably out of the woods now. He said he had tried to call his colleague who is a hand specialist to get his opinion on whether it was good enough or not, and he wasn't able to talk to him yet, but most likely J would be just fine in a cast! The doctor said he would talk to the specialist and call J back this afternoon to confirm it was all right.
The doctor said it was kind of like if you ask your mom, "Mom, can I spend the night at my friend's house?" and your mom says, "Probably, but I'll have to check with your Dad." And you're kind of like, "Well, hmm, can I or can't I?" And maybe your dad will say, "Oh, no, remember, we grounded him last week," or something that Mom just forgot or didn't know about, but probably you can. The doctor said it was like that. He said we shouldn't get our hopes up, but J could go ahead and get a cast because it looked good.
So, of course, we immediately got our hopes up.
We went to the casting room where J was going to get his cast. J broke his wrist when he was 12, so he's had a cast before. I asked him over the weekend what color of cast he'd get if he could get a cast and he said white. White? "Do they come in other colors?" he asked, not sure whether I was being serious or not. "Of course they do!" It's been a long time since he was 12. I suggested he go with pink or red, since it's about time for Valentine's day. We also discussed more work-appropriate options, like khaki or grey. (I don't think they come in those colors, though.) J wasn't sure which color he would want.
When we got to the special cast room, the girl putting his cast on showed him a ring of different cast color swatches. His cast would be on for two weeks, and then he would come in for an x-ray to be sure things were healing up right. The girl explained that they would remove the cast at the two week appointment. I suggested pink or red again, because Valentine's day is especially relevant for the next couple weeks. J was not convinced. The girl suggested red with pink hearts ("She's just a Ute, that's why she wants me to get a red one," J countered). So she suggested pink with red hearts. J picked dark green.
The girl wove cotton around J's fingers. He would have his index finger, but the other three fingers would be in the cast, and the cotton would keep them from rubbing and getting blisters. Oh. Then she put a special sock on J's arm, cutting holes for his finger and stuff. She wrapped cotton all around his arm and hand, carefully doing the spots where there would be edges of the cast, so they wouldn't rub. She got his green cast stuff out and got it wet. She brought it over to J and started to put it on...
And then the doctor came back in the room. He finally spoke with the hand surgeon, and unfortunately J's bone wasn't quite perfect enough. He will be needing surgery after all. Too bad! So the girl removed the little bit of green that she'd put on J, and she splinted his hand back up (on top of the cast stuff), and bandaged it all back up, and cut off the cast part that didn't need to be there since it is only a splint and not a cast. J will most likely be having hand surgery on Friday, but it will depend. It's too bad because it is going to be much more painful and expensive. We'll know more later.
* Although we both enjoy building things, we also both agree that we do not like installing drywall. It is heavy, and not fun to work with, and the insulation is a pain to work with. She was very pleasant about helping, though.
** Reverently, of course.
*** "Sister K! Can I sit on this tower of 4 chairs?!" "Yes! As long as you remove all of the chairs beneath you except one."
**** We're learning to make sour cream, cultured butter and buttermilk, clabbered milk and cheese, heritage yogurt, greek yogurt, kefir and kefir cheese, kefir cream and ice cream, ricotta and soft cheese, cottage cheese, feta cheese, Middle Eastern fresh cheese, Queso Fresco cheese, fresh Cheddar cheese, traditional Mozzarella cheese, and we'll learn about keeping mother cultures so that we can just keep going.
***** Can you imagine? There are other people like me that like doing things like making cheese. NEAT.
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
The saga continues! - Episode 2
[CONTINUED FROM EPISODE 1]
I suddenly remembered--our carpet has gotten WET! Remember? When I walked in the alcove that one day, my feet got wet. We pulled the carpet up, pulled the sheet rock off, and set up a fan, but maybe we didn't get it dry enough? Maybe it molded?
And then I remembered the day that I had poured gallons and gallons and gallons of water in our furnace/water heater closet*, only a couple weeks before. When our furnace was installed, it had a little pump put beneath it. After I poured so, so much water in there, we tried to use a Shopvac to pick it up, but we got, like, a pint of water. "Huh, that's weird," I said. "I know there was WAY more water than we're vacuuming, but maybe the furnace pump already took care of it?" It seemed weird, but the water just wasn't there, so it had to have gone somewhere.
Maybe more of the water was in the carpet than we realized, and we couldn't dry it fast enough with our fans. Maybe it molded.
J and I decided I would pull up the carpet to take a look. Most likely, the carpet and carpet pad were moldy, and anyway, it wouldn't be a bad idea to replace them. I've really wanted fake wood floors, and one of my buddies at HD*** told me I could put in Trafficmaster Allure**** and it would be SO easy, and SO fast, and he said it's cheap, but it actually lasts. So. I was excited that I would be pulling up the carpet that day.
I got up to go look at the carpet by the furnace area, and as I headed that way I realized something. "J, no way, I just thought of something and you're not going to believe it..."
I crawled into the furnace closet to look beneath the furnace at the pump.
Back when I installed linoleum under our kitchen counters, I saw beneath the furnace: there was a line of 2x4s. It needed to be there to access furnace stuff, I just assumed.
"Yep. The pump is self contained. J. Remember how when you were buying this house, there was a line of 2x4s out in the hallway by the garage?"
"Mhmm?" (He was listening.)
"I think...I think the line of 2x4s goes all the way down the middle of our house...And that's why the floor is not level, and kind of goes up in the middle."
"Ohhhhh..."
I continued: "Yeah. I'll BET...I'll bet when all that water poured into the furnace closet, it wasn't pumped at all. It couldn't have been, actually, since the pump is all self-contained. You know what it did? It poured into this channel down the middle of the house. No way... Hm. I'll bet that's it. I'll bet that's why you're so allergic to the house. Think about it! The floor would get wet, from when it rained, and any water that got down there would sit beneath the floor, down the middle of the house. And it would just sit there. And that's why you're sick a few weeks after I poured so much water down there."
J nodded. "I think you're onto something. We never even thought about the 2x4s in the hallway. I think we just thought it was a vent..."
"Yeah."
J: "So you'll go ahead and pull up the carpet, then, because that would definitely cause mold under the carpet."
Me: "All right."
And I pulled up the carpet while J was gone to work, so he wouldn't get super-sick from participating in the project.
Sure enough, there were boards down the middle of our main room.
I started to pull up the 2x4s and I was in for a bigger surprise than either of us had imagined!
The ends of the boards were resting on little concrete ledges. Basically, there was a trench down the main room of our house. It was about 15" across, and about 10" deep. The bottom of the trench was gravel and dirt--just like the ground outside our house! Except, this gravel and dirt was damp, and very musty.
For sure, for sure, I had definitely found the source of J's allergy problems. No question about it.
The trench connected with the section outside. Down the middle of the trench, there was a 1" PVC pipe. The pipe we already knew about--it comes up from the 2x4s in the hallway outside.
When I talked to the previous owner (and also on the How the House Works DVD), he explained that the pipe went up along the wall of the patio, out to the roof outside, and then along a fence that no longer exists. They used the pipe to water their garden outside. Now, the pipe still goes up the wall, and outside, but then it is severed--there is no fence or garden.*****
So definitely, what happened is, all of the gallons of water went into a trench in the middle of our house, and sat there. But not only that! This year, we began irrigating. Any time water runs near the house, I am quite certain we have also been irrigating the middle of our house.
I determined that we should probably remove the PVC pipe and fill the trench in, but I wasn't sure what I needed to do, so I went to Home Depot to go find someone to explain what I would need to do.
[...TO BE CONTINUED!]
* This is a story that I meant to blog before, but I'm pretty sure I never did. Maybe I'll still get to it. This can be like LOST, with flashbacks that make the present stuff make more sense.**
** This is almost everything I remember about LOST, since I only watched part of one season.
*** Online, everyone calls HD "Orange" and Lowie's "Blue." So they're like, "I was at Orange the other day and they had x on sale!" Or, they'll ask "Orange or Blue?" and you're supposed to say whether you like Home Depot or Lowie's better. I don't get it. If I were talking about Vons, or Walmart, or Smithy's, or any other store, I would say the name of the store. Is there some reason we're not supposed to name names when it comes to Home Improvement stores? Like, I could say "Red, Blue, Yellow, or Green??" and mean, "Do you like Smithy's, Albertsons, Macey's, or Reams the best?!?" but I wouldn't...So, I'm not into using secret logo-color codes to talk about home improvement shopping, I guess.
**** When I say the names of home improvement project parts, it makes me feel like I am bragging about specs for something else--'It's got a 203948320 GIG HARD DRIVE, with 38 RPM!!' 'It's a Mac.' 'You just can't beat the suspension--nobody makes a better suspension than ThisBrand!' or 'We're installing Trafficmaster Allure. [*frownsmile*?] It has a 25 year warranty.' It's just like, whatever it is, it must be so good that for some reason I need to namedrop, and can expect people to know what it is. But actually, it isn't really bragging, because it isn't Pergo, and it's in my little house that is not deluxe deluxe at all.
***** The previous owner did not mention the trench went to the furnace closet. When I asked him about the 2x4s in the hall, and asked about what it connected to, he mentioned the garden, and he told me that, you know, they didn't do everything the best way, but that it had worked for them. When he said that, it confused me, and I just told him we enjoy the house a lot.
I suddenly remembered--our carpet has gotten WET! Remember? When I walked in the alcove that one day, my feet got wet. We pulled the carpet up, pulled the sheet rock off, and set up a fan, but maybe we didn't get it dry enough? Maybe it molded?
And then I remembered the day that I had poured gallons and gallons and gallons of water in our furnace/water heater closet*, only a couple weeks before. When our furnace was installed, it had a little pump put beneath it. After I poured so, so much water in there, we tried to use a Shopvac to pick it up, but we got, like, a pint of water. "Huh, that's weird," I said. "I know there was WAY more water than we're vacuuming, but maybe the furnace pump already took care of it?" It seemed weird, but the water just wasn't there, so it had to have gone somewhere.
Maybe more of the water was in the carpet than we realized, and we couldn't dry it fast enough with our fans. Maybe it molded.
J and I decided I would pull up the carpet to take a look. Most likely, the carpet and carpet pad were moldy, and anyway, it wouldn't be a bad idea to replace them. I've really wanted fake wood floors, and one of my buddies at HD*** told me I could put in Trafficmaster Allure**** and it would be SO easy, and SO fast, and he said it's cheap, but it actually lasts. So. I was excited that I would be pulling up the carpet that day.
I got up to go look at the carpet by the furnace area, and as I headed that way I realized something. "J, no way, I just thought of something and you're not going to believe it..."
I crawled into the furnace closet to look beneath the furnace at the pump.
Back when I installed linoleum under our kitchen counters, I saw beneath the furnace: there was a line of 2x4s. It needed to be there to access furnace stuff, I just assumed.
"Yep. The pump is self contained. J. Remember how when you were buying this house, there was a line of 2x4s out in the hallway by the garage?"
"Mhmm?" (He was listening.)
"I think...I think the line of 2x4s goes all the way down the middle of our house...And that's why the floor is not level, and kind of goes up in the middle."
"Ohhhhh..."
I continued: "Yeah. I'll BET...I'll bet when all that water poured into the furnace closet, it wasn't pumped at all. It couldn't have been, actually, since the pump is all self-contained. You know what it did? It poured into this channel down the middle of the house. No way... Hm. I'll bet that's it. I'll bet that's why you're so allergic to the house. Think about it! The floor would get wet, from when it rained, and any water that got down there would sit beneath the floor, down the middle of the house. And it would just sit there. And that's why you're sick a few weeks after I poured so much water down there."
J nodded. "I think you're onto something. We never even thought about the 2x4s in the hallway. I think we just thought it was a vent..."
"Yeah."
J: "So you'll go ahead and pull up the carpet, then, because that would definitely cause mold under the carpet."
Me: "All right."
And I pulled up the carpet while J was gone to work, so he wouldn't get super-sick from participating in the project.
Sure enough, there were boards down the middle of our main room.
I started to pull up the 2x4s and I was in for a bigger surprise than either of us had imagined!
The ends of the boards were resting on little concrete ledges. Basically, there was a trench down the main room of our house. It was about 15" across, and about 10" deep. The bottom of the trench was gravel and dirt--just like the ground outside our house! Except, this gravel and dirt was damp, and very musty.
For sure, for sure, I had definitely found the source of J's allergy problems. No question about it.
The trench connected with the section outside. Down the middle of the trench, there was a 1" PVC pipe. The pipe we already knew about--it comes up from the 2x4s in the hallway outside.
When I talked to the previous owner (and also on the How the House Works DVD), he explained that the pipe went up along the wall of the patio, out to the roof outside, and then along a fence that no longer exists. They used the pipe to water their garden outside. Now, the pipe still goes up the wall, and outside, but then it is severed--there is no fence or garden.*****
So definitely, what happened is, all of the gallons of water went into a trench in the middle of our house, and sat there. But not only that! This year, we began irrigating. Any time water runs near the house, I am quite certain we have also been irrigating the middle of our house.
I determined that we should probably remove the PVC pipe and fill the trench in, but I wasn't sure what I needed to do, so I went to Home Depot to go find someone to explain what I would need to do.
[...TO BE CONTINUED!]
* This is a story that I meant to blog before, but I'm pretty sure I never did. Maybe I'll still get to it. This can be like LOST, with flashbacks that make the present stuff make more sense.**
** This is almost everything I remember about LOST, since I only watched part of one season.
*** Online, everyone calls HD "Orange" and Lowie's "Blue." So they're like, "I was at Orange the other day and they had x on sale!" Or, they'll ask "Orange or Blue?" and you're supposed to say whether you like Home Depot or Lowie's better. I don't get it. If I were talking about Vons, or Walmart, or Smithy's, or any other store, I would say the name of the store. Is there some reason we're not supposed to name names when it comes to Home Improvement stores? Like, I could say "Red, Blue, Yellow, or Green??" and mean, "Do you like Smithy's, Albertsons, Macey's, or Reams the best?!?" but I wouldn't...So, I'm not into using secret logo-color codes to talk about home improvement shopping, I guess.
**** When I say the names of home improvement project parts, it makes me feel like I am bragging about specs for something else--'It's got a 203948320 GIG HARD DRIVE, with 38 RPM!!' 'It's a Mac.' 'You just can't beat the suspension--nobody makes a better suspension than ThisBrand!' or 'We're installing Trafficmaster Allure. [*frownsmile*?] It has a 25 year warranty.' It's just like, whatever it is, it must be so good that for some reason I need to namedrop, and can expect people to know what it is. But actually, it isn't really bragging, because it isn't Pergo, and it's in my little house that is not deluxe deluxe at all.
***** The previous owner did not mention the trench went to the furnace closet. When I asked him about the 2x4s in the hall, and asked about what it connected to, he mentioned the garden, and he told me that, you know, they didn't do everything the best way, but that it had worked for them. When he said that, it confused me, and I just told him we enjoy the house a lot.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The roof/floor saga begins! - Episode 1.5
Here is the extra content that goes along with the first post of my blog-saga*!
It is a video of J demonstrating the installation of our fancy snow & ice tape.
Kind of makes me laugh to watch it now. This is from our ^*~cR-aFt-eRNooN~*^ on Easter of this year.
* My bla-ga?
It is a video of J demonstrating the installation of our fancy snow & ice tape.
Kind of makes me laugh to watch it now. This is from our ^*~cR-aFt-eRNooN~*^ on Easter of this year.
* My bla-ga?
The roof/floor saga begins! - Episode 1
I have been so busy lately.
My main project over the past month or so has been replacing our floor. There have been other things going on. This feels like my capstone [home-improvement] project, though. Like, I keep telling my Homies* about it, and they just can't believe all this. It's pretty hard core. I'll blog about it, but if you're going to read this, you should probably take a break to go grab some safety glasses, ear protection, and a ventilator mask. You will probably need all that, just to read this post. It's pretty intense.**
SO, here we go.
J has been allergic to our house*** ever since he moved in. It's a mold allergy. Sometimes it's been better and sometimes it's been worse. Before we got married, he sometimes moved into his parents' house for a little while, until he got better. When he's having an allergic reaction, he just can't do much of anything. He feels blah, and just not really great.
Right before he closed on the house (last summer), the bathroom ceiling fell in. There was mold everywhere.
It was a problem with the roof. On the How-the-House-Works DVD, the previous owner talks about getting on the roof to re-tar it.
We had the bathroom ceiling replaced. We had our [not-very-]handyman replace the sheetrock, and I told him to also replace all of the insulation that had mold on it, please. So he did. The "handy"man also patched the tar on the roof for us.
J did well for a while. We patched the tar on the roof a couple more times in September, and during the fall. When the bathroom ceiling kept getting moist, we had a roofer come out to replace the flashing around the chimney. He did a pretty good job, we thought, but we kept having problems.
We called him out, as part of the warranty on it (because he said we wouldn't have any more problems with it getting wet), and he confirmed that it was done correctly, and told us we could pay more to have them look for another problem. They started talking about re-sloping the roof (because it's a pretty flat roof.)
J and I applied more tar.
I realized that the sheets of metal on our part of the roof moved around a lot. So we got silicone caulking stuff and lots of screws, and we fastened the heck out of our metal sheeting that was on our part of the roof. We sealed the seams like crazy! The problems magically stopped.
And then it became winter. And then a few months later, we started having more problems. I forget what happened first, but basically, we wondered if maybe the rest of the ceiling/insulation in the problem area was moldy. We determined that I would demolish part of our ceiling so that we could just see what it looked like (without having to hire someone and pay a few hundred dollars if we didn't need to). So I did that (March 8-9th). It turned out that the part I pulled down was moldy, so I kept removing sheetrock and insulation until the parts I was pulling down were not water-damaged.
We had a guy replace it. (A handier-man.) He sprayed bleach and painted KILZ to take care of the mold. He also put a plastic barrier in some places. He reminded us that he is NOT a roof guy, but he said he thought it would keep the mold from being a problem. He repainted the area so that it matched the rest of our alcove.
A few weeks later, on April 1st**** it snowed again. I happened to go into our alcove to grab some cleaning stuff, and about 4-5 ft from the wall, my socks got all wet. I was walking into a giant carpet-puddle. It was not fixed. In fact, there were pools of water under the paint, and spots where water was dripping from the ceiling. OH, no.
We tore the sheetrock down, pulled the carpet up, and set up a fan to dry things out, but about a week later, J was seriously allergic to the house again. He was mostly living at his parents' house.
I called real roofers. We wanted to know what the cheap, quick-fix would be, and then what the lasting solution needed to be. We had heard before that we may need a cricket (a built-in thing to re-slope part of the roof), but we didn't want to spend $2-3000 to fix the roof.
One guy suggested water and ice tape. We tried this, actually. On Easter, between sessions of General Conference, J and I got up on the roof. I re-tarred it, and J was going to put snow & ice tape along the seams, and along the rain gutter. What a joke! It didn't stick to anything very well. It no-way would have solved the problem. Even a lot of it wouldn't have. J just kept laughing because the whole thing was so ridiculous.
Another guy told me with great confidence that we needed a membrane. I liked him because he called me "ma'am" and took off his boots before he came inside, and he had a nice accent (he was from South Africa). He also seemed like he REALLY knew what was going on. He kept explaining things to me, and giving me metaphors, and showing me things on the roof, and he seemed very genuine.
He showed me that our roof was basically rolled roofing (not sure what that is even usually for, but it's very cheap, very flimsy, not-at-all durable stuff), with sheets of metal attached to it. During the summer and winter, metal contracts and expands. So it was impossible for the metal roof to do much of anything. Basically, a 20 year old rolled-roof was all that was protecting us! NO WONDER J was having problems. The worker told me we needed to pull up all of the old roofing, replace all of the plywood, and put a TPO membrane down. (Because after years of getting wet, there wasn't much chance that our plywood would be good anymore.)
A TPO membrane is what they use for really flat roofs. The stuff was originally formulated to line ponds--water can pool on it and just stay there, and it doesn't go through the membrane. I don't know how they got started using it in roofing, but nowadays, it's very common for commercial and industrial buildings. Most people just don't build houses with flat (or very low pitched) roofs.
Another company verified that we needed a membrane, but they were willing to just do the junction between our back portion of the house and the front portion of the house. That was going to be quite a bit cheaper. We liked them until we Googled them to see reviews--and it looked like they had written their own fake reviews. It seemed really weird and dishonest, so we left them alone. We called the second company to see if they would be willing to do just the junction between the roofs.
They were willing to do that. So we had them do it on April 18-19th. And we felt pretty good about their work.
EXCEPT, even though the plywood wasn't in great shape, and there was obviously a lot of water damage in some places, there really wasn't much mold. So we were kind of confused.
Within a couple months weeks, it rained again, and J became sick again. Summer kind of started, and as J got sicker, I arranged to have another [cheaper, but still good] guy replace the rest of our roof with membrane (on June 22nd). Obviously since J was so allergic, it must have been a collective problem, right?
No!
The rest of the plywood was still in decent shape. We replaced it anyway. None of the insulation had mold on it. Our roof looks nicer, and our makeshift-skylight was transformed into a pair of very pretty, real skylights. But J didn't get better. He only got worse. J kept wanting to sleep outside (which I really, really didn't like), and he did for a week. Then we began sleeping at J's parents' house. J started moving his stuff over there, because he didn't even want to come home to get ready in the mornings.
We wondered...what could J possibly still be allergic to?
It didn't make any sense.
We guessed that it might be the carpet. Although we had new carpet "installed"***** when J first bought the place, we left the carpet that was in the main room, because it didn't look bad. We also left the carpet in one of the bedrooms. But J thought it was more likely a problem with the main room carpet, because he didn't spend a lot of time in our office and when he did, it didn't make him extra sick.
And then I remembered something very important!
[...TO BE CONTINUED!]
* aka. my friends at Home Depot. I mean, the workers.
** I was so tempted to put something like this (for while you were getting your stuff):
....
...
..
.
ARE YOU BACK YET??
DID YOU GET YOUR SAFETY ITEMS???
.
.
.
MAKE A WISH!
NOW FORWARD THIS BLOG POST TO 30 OF YOUR BEST FRIENS AND IF YOU DO YOU WILL BE KISSED BY YOUR CRUSH BY FRIEDAY AND HAVE A HAPPY LIFE AND IF NOT YOU WILL FAIL ALL YOUR CLASES AND YOUR TOES WILL FALL OFF!
THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!
*** One way he knows it's the house is because he wakes up feeling like he is having an allergic reaction, and he doesn't do too well at the beginning of work, but then by the afternoon he is feeling much better.
**** Now, remember, J and I were married March 20th. So, I was tearing down sheetrock two weeks before our wedding (the day after my bridal pictures!), and hiring roofers, etc., was just a couple weeks after we got back from our honeymoon. Hey.
***** By the "handy"man. WORST Carpet Installation EVER.
My main project over the past month or so has been replacing our floor. There have been other things going on. This feels like my capstone [home-improvement] project, though. Like, I keep telling my Homies* about it, and they just can't believe all this. It's pretty hard core. I'll blog about it, but if you're going to read this, you should probably take a break to go grab some safety glasses, ear protection, and a ventilator mask. You will probably need all that, just to read this post. It's pretty intense.**
SO, here we go.
J has been allergic to our house*** ever since he moved in. It's a mold allergy. Sometimes it's been better and sometimes it's been worse. Before we got married, he sometimes moved into his parents' house for a little while, until he got better. When he's having an allergic reaction, he just can't do much of anything. He feels blah, and just not really great.
Right before he closed on the house (last summer), the bathroom ceiling fell in. There was mold everywhere.
It was a problem with the roof. On the How-the-House-Works DVD, the previous owner talks about getting on the roof to re-tar it.
We had the bathroom ceiling replaced. We had our [not-very-]handyman replace the sheetrock, and I told him to also replace all of the insulation that had mold on it, please. So he did. The "handy"man also patched the tar on the roof for us.
J did well for a while. We patched the tar on the roof a couple more times in September, and during the fall. When the bathroom ceiling kept getting moist, we had a roofer come out to replace the flashing around the chimney. He did a pretty good job, we thought, but we kept having problems.
We called him out, as part of the warranty on it (because he said we wouldn't have any more problems with it getting wet), and he confirmed that it was done correctly, and told us we could pay more to have them look for another problem. They started talking about re-sloping the roof (because it's a pretty flat roof.)
J and I applied more tar.
I realized that the sheets of metal on our part of the roof moved around a lot. So we got silicone caulking stuff and lots of screws, and we fastened the heck out of our metal sheeting that was on our part of the roof. We sealed the seams like crazy! The problems magically stopped.
And then it became winter. And then a few months later, we started having more problems. I forget what happened first, but basically, we wondered if maybe the rest of the ceiling/insulation in the problem area was moldy. We determined that I would demolish part of our ceiling so that we could just see what it looked like (without having to hire someone and pay a few hundred dollars if we didn't need to). So I did that (March 8-9th). It turned out that the part I pulled down was moldy, so I kept removing sheetrock and insulation until the parts I was pulling down were not water-damaged.
We had a guy replace it. (A handier-man.) He sprayed bleach and painted KILZ to take care of the mold. He also put a plastic barrier in some places. He reminded us that he is NOT a roof guy, but he said he thought it would keep the mold from being a problem. He repainted the area so that it matched the rest of our alcove.
A few weeks later, on April 1st**** it snowed again. I happened to go into our alcove to grab some cleaning stuff, and about 4-5 ft from the wall, my socks got all wet. I was walking into a giant carpet-puddle. It was not fixed. In fact, there were pools of water under the paint, and spots where water was dripping from the ceiling. OH, no.
We tore the sheetrock down, pulled the carpet up, and set up a fan to dry things out, but about a week later, J was seriously allergic to the house again. He was mostly living at his parents' house.
I called real roofers. We wanted to know what the cheap, quick-fix would be, and then what the lasting solution needed to be. We had heard before that we may need a cricket (a built-in thing to re-slope part of the roof), but we didn't want to spend $2-3000 to fix the roof.
One guy suggested water and ice tape. We tried this, actually. On Easter, between sessions of General Conference, J and I got up on the roof. I re-tarred it, and J was going to put snow & ice tape along the seams, and along the rain gutter. What a joke! It didn't stick to anything very well. It no-way would have solved the problem. Even a lot of it wouldn't have. J just kept laughing because the whole thing was so ridiculous.
Another guy told me with great confidence that we needed a membrane. I liked him because he called me "ma'am" and took off his boots before he came inside, and he had a nice accent (he was from South Africa). He also seemed like he REALLY knew what was going on. He kept explaining things to me, and giving me metaphors, and showing me things on the roof, and he seemed very genuine.
He showed me that our roof was basically rolled roofing (not sure what that is even usually for, but it's very cheap, very flimsy, not-at-all durable stuff), with sheets of metal attached to it. During the summer and winter, metal contracts and expands. So it was impossible for the metal roof to do much of anything. Basically, a 20 year old rolled-roof was all that was protecting us! NO WONDER J was having problems. The worker told me we needed to pull up all of the old roofing, replace all of the plywood, and put a TPO membrane down. (Because after years of getting wet, there wasn't much chance that our plywood would be good anymore.)
A TPO membrane is what they use for really flat roofs. The stuff was originally formulated to line ponds--water can pool on it and just stay there, and it doesn't go through the membrane. I don't know how they got started using it in roofing, but nowadays, it's very common for commercial and industrial buildings. Most people just don't build houses with flat (or very low pitched) roofs.
Another company verified that we needed a membrane, but they were willing to just do the junction between our back portion of the house and the front portion of the house. That was going to be quite a bit cheaper. We liked them until we Googled them to see reviews--and it looked like they had written their own fake reviews. It seemed really weird and dishonest, so we left them alone. We called the second company to see if they would be willing to do just the junction between the roofs.
They were willing to do that. So we had them do it on April 18-19th. And we felt pretty good about their work.
EXCEPT, even though the plywood wasn't in great shape, and there was obviously a lot of water damage in some places, there really wasn't much mold. So we were kind of confused.
Within a couple months weeks, it rained again, and J became sick again. Summer kind of started, and as J got sicker, I arranged to have another [cheaper, but still good] guy replace the rest of our roof with membrane (on June 22nd). Obviously since J was so allergic, it must have been a collective problem, right?
No!
The rest of the plywood was still in decent shape. We replaced it anyway. None of the insulation had mold on it. Our roof looks nicer, and our makeshift-skylight was transformed into a pair of very pretty, real skylights. But J didn't get better. He only got worse. J kept wanting to sleep outside (which I really, really didn't like), and he did for a week. Then we began sleeping at J's parents' house. J started moving his stuff over there, because he didn't even want to come home to get ready in the mornings.
We wondered...what could J possibly still be allergic to?
It didn't make any sense.
We guessed that it might be the carpet. Although we had new carpet "installed"***** when J first bought the place, we left the carpet that was in the main room, because it didn't look bad. We also left the carpet in one of the bedrooms. But J thought it was more likely a problem with the main room carpet, because he didn't spend a lot of time in our office and when he did, it didn't make him extra sick.
And then I remembered something very important!
[...TO BE CONTINUED!]
* aka. my friends at Home Depot. I mean, the workers.
** I was so tempted to put something like this (for while you were getting your stuff):
....
...
..
.
ARE YOU BACK YET??
DID YOU GET YOUR SAFETY ITEMS???
.
.
.
MAKE A WISH!
NOW FORWARD THIS BLOG POST TO 30 OF YOUR BEST FRIENS AND IF YOU DO YOU WILL BE KISSED BY YOUR CRUSH BY FRIEDAY AND HAVE A HAPPY LIFE AND IF NOT YOU WILL FAIL ALL YOUR CLASES AND YOUR TOES WILL FALL OFF!
THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!
*** One way he knows it's the house is because he wakes up feeling like he is having an allergic reaction, and he doesn't do too well at the beginning of work, but then by the afternoon he is feeling much better.
**** Now, remember, J and I were married March 20th. So, I was tearing down sheetrock two weeks before our wedding (the day after my bridal pictures!), and hiring roofers, etc., was just a couple weeks after we got back from our honeymoon. Hey.
***** By the "handy"man. WORST Carpet Installation EVER.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Update #1
We're married!
We were married at the Jordan River temple on 20 March!
This is the only picture I have so far from our wedding.* It is a picture of us arriving at the temple, taken on my phone, by someone we don't know, as we were trying not to be late.
Our reception was at J's parents' house, and it went well.
We spent Saturday and Sunday nights at The Kimball, in downtown Salt Lake, and then on Monday we flew down to southern California for the rest of our honeymoon. We stayed at a resort on the beach, in Oceanside.
This is a picture from our visit to the San Diego Zoo:
We had a second reception in Walnut (CA) on the following Saturday afternoon.
We flew back that Sunday, and since then we have had many, many fun projects. Some of our recent activities have been:
- me moving in.
- finishing taxes.
- a LOT of cleaning and organizing. (But lots more to go...)
- flooding our house, and trying to fix the roof.
- meeting with roofers, and replacing a portion of our roof.
- building a new area for the chickens.**
- pruning trees.
- tiling linoleum under the kitchen counters (to cover the concrete and reclaim some kitchen space).
- school projects.
- more school projects.
- weaning the calves.***
Those are the things that come to mind. Hopefully sometime soon I can begin to blog about recent things in greater detail.
Some upcoming projects include:
- writing furiously for the next day or two and then,
- hopefully, hopefully, most-likely graduating this Friday.
- Mom visiting for my graduation.
- participating in South Jordan's green waste collection day thing by hauling branches we pruned.
- actually (finally!) cleaning and organizing our house.
- getting started with ag water.
- implementing more of the Nourishing Traditions ideas into our diet. (To try next: sprouting our grains and using fresh flour for recipes.)
- learning to use Quicken better.
- finding a job.
- building raised garden beds? (maybe?)
- building some furniture.
- getting a puppy!****
- starting a compost pile.
- getting a goat? (may be delayed until next year)
- cleaning/painting the barns?
- fencing off the larger pasture area. (For calves as they get larger, and/or if we get a goat.)
- mayyybe getting more hens, since this is the right time of year. We're also considering a couple turkeys, for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
We have a lot going on. For now, I've got to get back to schoolwork. I'm still finishing a big paper.
* Jess and Mitch kindly shared some of the pictures they took, but we promptly laundered the SD card. So we haven't actually seen them yet.
** Since the calves were eating the chicken coop.
*** While we were on our honeymoon, the people that we paid to feed them felt like they were skinny, so they fed them twice as much milk as we told them to (and as the package said to.) So we had to like, double-wean them, because first we had to wean them down to the recommended amount, and then we had to really wean them. Not their favorite, but they like grass now. We also dehorned them, and castrated them. Worst day of their lives!
**** NOT allowed until the house is completely clean and organized. It will probably be a small dog (since J likes small dogs better and since it will be an inside/outside dog and our inside is not huge) but it may be a big dog (because I think I like big dogs better and if it's inside/outside anyway, if it has too much energy, that can just mean it's time to play outside.) If it's a little dog, it will probably be a mixed breed one (a yorkie-poo/chorkie/pomchi/yorkie-pom/porkie, etc.) because those are cute and have the benefits of mixed-breed dog (eg, better health and temperament). If it's a big dog, it will probably be a great dane. We'll see.
We were married at the Jordan River temple on 20 March!
This is the only picture I have so far from our wedding.* It is a picture of us arriving at the temple, taken on my phone, by someone we don't know, as we were trying not to be late.
Our reception was at J's parents' house, and it went well.
We spent Saturday and Sunday nights at The Kimball, in downtown Salt Lake, and then on Monday we flew down to southern California for the rest of our honeymoon. We stayed at a resort on the beach, in Oceanside.
This is a picture from our visit to the San Diego Zoo:
We had a second reception in Walnut (CA) on the following Saturday afternoon.We flew back that Sunday, and since then we have had many, many fun projects. Some of our recent activities have been:
- me moving in.
- finishing taxes.
- a LOT of cleaning and organizing. (But lots more to go...)
- flooding our house, and trying to fix the roof.
- meeting with roofers, and replacing a portion of our roof.
- building a new area for the chickens.**
- pruning trees.
- tiling linoleum under the kitchen counters (to cover the concrete and reclaim some kitchen space).
- school projects.
- more school projects.
- weaning the calves.***
Those are the things that come to mind. Hopefully sometime soon I can begin to blog about recent things in greater detail.
Some upcoming projects include:
- writing furiously for the next day or two and then,
- hopefully, hopefully, most-likely graduating this Friday.
- Mom visiting for my graduation.
- participating in South Jordan's green waste collection day thing by hauling branches we pruned.
- actually (finally!) cleaning and organizing our house.
- getting started with ag water.
- implementing more of the Nourishing Traditions ideas into our diet. (To try next: sprouting our grains and using fresh flour for recipes.)
- learning to use Quicken better.
- finding a job.
- building raised garden beds? (maybe?)
- building some furniture.
- getting a puppy!****
- starting a compost pile.
- getting a goat? (may be delayed until next year)
- cleaning/painting the barns?
- fencing off the larger pasture area. (For calves as they get larger, and/or if we get a goat.)
- mayyybe getting more hens, since this is the right time of year. We're also considering a couple turkeys, for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
We have a lot going on. For now, I've got to get back to schoolwork. I'm still finishing a big paper.
* Jess and Mitch kindly shared some of the pictures they took, but we promptly laundered the SD card. So we haven't actually seen them yet.
** Since the calves were eating the chicken coop.
*** While we were on our honeymoon, the people that we paid to feed them felt like they were skinny, so they fed them twice as much milk as we told them to (and as the package said to.) So we had to like, double-wean them, because first we had to wean them down to the recommended amount, and then we had to really wean them. Not their favorite, but they like grass now. We also dehorned them, and castrated them. Worst day of their lives!
**** NOT allowed until the house is completely clean and organized. It will probably be a small dog (since J likes small dogs better and since it will be an inside/outside dog and our inside is not huge) but it may be a big dog (because I think I like big dogs better and if it's inside/outside anyway, if it has too much energy, that can just mean it's time to play outside.) If it's a little dog, it will probably be a mixed breed one (a yorkie-poo/chorkie/pomchi/yorkie-pom/porkie, etc.) because those are cute and have the benefits of mixed-breed dog (eg, better health and temperament). If it's a big dog, it will probably be a great dane. We'll see.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Another craft.
HOLY SMOKES!!!
How am I so crafty?*
I made a fall wreath. Do you like it?
I've never made a wreath before.
Michael's is having a huge sale right now (50% off all of the leaves and stuff, plus grapevine wreaths are $1.99 instead of $3.99), so I went and bought a bunch of stuff. I didn't really know how much I would need. I just looked at the pre-made wreaths and picked stuff that I wanted, and kind of combined it all. (I think I got about 3x as much stuff as I needed. Oops.)
It was pretty simple. It took about 1 hour to make it. It has nice big leaves, smaller leaves that have glitter on them, big flowers, small flowers, little leaves that don't have glitter on them, and then a few gourds to add something. Plus a bow and then I used the same ribbon to tie it to the hook thing on J's front door. (His front door needed something because it is actually a back door, so I think the wreath will help people feel more like they are in the right place, instead of at someone's back door.) (I am also making him a sign with his last name on it, to put outside near the glass door that people need to go in to get to the back-front door.)
Now I want to make a wreath for every month and decorations for every season. Also, AUTUMN letters like Jessica's SUMMER and SPRING ones.
(P.S. I rotated the picture and saved it, soooo, not really sure why it's still sideways.)
* I'm not very good at being crafty, actually. Not yet. I decided I would use the glue gun to keep the ends of the bow from unraveling. You know, kind of like nail polish on nylons. So I put a line of glue on the bottom of one of the ends, and pinched my thumb and middle finger together and pulled them along the bottom, to spread the glue out in a pretty line and make it absorb into the ribbon and also remove the excess. Of course, right? Just like nail polish. Exceeepppt, hot glue is hot. So it HURT. And I peeled the glue off of my finger as soon as I could so that it would stop burning, excepppt, my finger came off with the glue. Ouuuuch! And gross! So I didn't pull the glue off of my thumb. I just left it on. And when it finally came off, it had a big blister beneath the glue. So no wonder my finger came off when I pulled the other glue off. I'll get better. I will. I'm learning.
Monday, September 14, 2009
*-cRaFt NiGhT!!!-*
J and I keep having SO SO many cRaFt NiGhTs, it's hard to even keep up with my blogging!
SO!
We've had this problem lately, which is, the roof leaks. J was thinking he needed to have the roof re-$loped, but we ended up deciding that the real problem is not actually the valley between the front and back of the house. [Actually, it's that the flashing (metal stuff) around the chimney is totally not up against the chimney right, so water can get in. (SOLUTION: put tar inside and use a special drill bit and special screws and uh, I forget what else, to reattach it better.) It's kind of confusing, but it will be wayyyy cheaper than having the roof re-sloped. We can do it.]
And then we had ANOTHER problem, which was, part of the skylight over J's part of the house flew off the roof a few days ago. (Whoops!) It's just the extra covering, but the actual skylight is cracked, so it is important.
So, it's not that big of a deal unless it rains.
And it's September, so no problem, right? Right?
We were on our way to church yesterday (on time!) and it started sprinkling. Like, sprinkling
big drops, though. So I said a prayer while J drove us back to his house so that we could put painter's plastic up. (Faith promoting story: It stopped raining right after I prayed for time to protect the roof! Neat. After we had the plastic up we went to church for the last two hours, and sometime during church it started raining again.)
We put plastic over the skylight and plastic around the chimney. We thought the whole thing was pretty funny. It looked pretty bad.
And then later in the afternoon, we replaced the skylight cover (because it's supposed to rain more today.) J mostly did that. I re-tarred the roof. I'm going to go back and finish it up, but I got a good start. There were a few cracks in the sealant they had used before.
We were up there for a little while, so Paley came up on the roof to check things out and see what we were doing.
Sometime later I'll blog about our FeNcE ~~~cRaFt NiGhTs!!!~~~
Monday, August 24, 2009
Life Update
School
School is starting again today. I had two classes this morning, and I have one more tonight, and two more tomorrow. This semester I am taking:
- English 5730: Studies Early American Literature - This class seems like it will be a lot of work. The professor seems very demanding, but seems to be a pretty nice guy. I've heard good things about him. When I went in to see a counselor for my graduation papers, she told me that if I go in for his office hours he'll love me to death, and I think that's probably true. This class will be a lot of reading early American documents (like the Constitution, or Pioneers, and Rip Van Winkle, which he says is the most under-read important novel). It's about new Americans defining Americanness. Cool.
- Philosophy 1250: Reasoning & Rational Decision Making - I'm not just crazy about this class. It meets my QB math requirement, so it is basically a class instead of "Statistics". It also seemed like a good idea because I'm about to take the LSAT. Here's the only problem: It's taught by a grad student. Why are 80% of all grad students so pompous?! Seriously, my impression of this guy so far is that he thinks he is a god and everyone should bend to his whims. DO NOT BE LATE. It is reasonable to expect people to be on time, but SRSLY, if I have another class that ends 15 minutes before, which I do, and that class goes over, which it does, you're really going to count all of my assignments late if I am not in my seat when the class officially starts? Give me a break. He is also a brat about e-mail. He will not e-mail about grades unless you are using your official university e-mail address. Does anyone even know their password for that? [No.] And what, are my parents going to pretend they're me and find his e-mail address to e-mail him or something? Really?
- English 3702: Intro to Literary History 2 - I think this is going to be a lame class, because the Literary History classes are all miserable and used to be required but are not any more. (But they still double count for requirements.) HOWEVER! It is taught by an amazing professor who knows her stuff and prepares like crazy and makes classes awesome. It will probably become my favorite class this semester, just like the Darwin class that I thought I would hate and actually loved, which she taught last semester.
- English 5885: Adolescent Literature - Very highly recommended professor. At graduation counseling, the lady said this class would be a riot. THANKFULLY, this class is not about the Holocaust like my Children's Lit class was, and includes Catcher in the Rye, which I haven't read since high school but remember liking back then.
- English 5110: Folklore Genres - This class has a big project attached to it, which is writing the life story of an old person. I am really looking forward to it. I can either interview a grandparent or other relative, or the professor will match us up with hospice care people. NEAT.
So that's what I have going on. I am also still preparing for the LSAT, so I have prep classes for that on Monday and Thursday nights.
Work
I quit my job so that I will have time to actually do my homework this semester. And so that I will have much more time to study for the LSAT. (It was really weird. My boss said they had 65 applications for my job. Holy smokes! And they even lowered the pay rate with budget cuts... She interviewed seven applicants and hired a guy last Thursday. I'm going to miss my coworkers since they were sort of my only friends.) I think I am also going to quit volunteering in Preservations, because: 1) I just feel too busy. 2) It doesn't feel very altruistic, so it isn't as rewarding as I had hoped. 3) They treat me like an actual employee and kind of glare when I announce that I will be missing days, but really, who has time to volunteer 10 hours every week? 4) The block of time that I was volunteering before is not free time for me anymore.
So I feel kind of like a quitter, but it's okay because it's really just a re-balancing of my schedule and life and priorities, and all that. And that's good and healthy.
Speaking of good and healthy, I am not. I'm sick today. And yesterday. I have a cold. The grad student said that the University is making accommodations for people with the H1N1 virus (he called it the "piggy sniffles"), which made me wonder if I have that. All of the symptoms are normal being-sick symptoms, so who knows, but I doubt that I do because I'm not vomiting or having diarrhea or anything like that, and I'm not enough of a hypochondriac to actually be concerned about that.
The Race
I am also sore, sore, sore, because my body is broken from running a half marathon this weekend. I ran the Hobble Creek 1/2 Marathon on Saturday. It was an adventure for a lot of reasons. The first reason is, even though I have been driving for a few months now, I have never driven anywhere near Provo. I one-time drove to J's new house in South Jordan, but I insisted upon taking State Street. Sooo, when J decided his move would be the same day as my 1/2 marathon, I realized I would have to drive to Mapleton alone. So far! I decided I would take State Street, since I had heard it goes all the way from Salt Lake to Provo.
Uhhh, it doesn't. I got to the end of State Street and took some road to like, Bangerter, to like Alpine Highway, to somewhere. I ended up in Bluffdale and Saratoga Springs, and eventually Lehi, and then I was okay. But I swear, with all the detours I totally went to like, every city between Salt Lake and Provo. I don't know how long it took. I had to change lanes a lot of times, which makes me nervous. I made it to Jessica's house safely, though. And then I had to take the freeway at like 5am on Saturday to get out to Mapleton. And the exit I needed was supposed to be closed, but it wasn't, so I took it. BUT THEN! The streets after the exit were closed! So I drove all around hoping that I would somehow find State Street and going in the direction I thought it was, until the street I was following ended. Uh oh. But I saw a few people who seemed to be going the same way and I followed them, and made a little loop and somehow ended up on State Street. And somehow got there.
And the race was fine. EXCEPT! Know how after I hiked the Grand Canyon in one day in May my left knee hurt for like 3 weeks? And then it finally got better but I could only use elliptical machines for awhile and then finally I could use the treadmill again? At mile eight, my left knee started hurting again. Badly. I found a way to kind of run by swinging my left leg instead of running on it, but it was lame. (hah. Literally.) I mostly walked the last five miles. So instead of improving my time this race, I was a few minutes slower than I was in the SLC 1/2 marathon. Too bad! At the end a few people (separately!) thanked me and told me I had been their pace girl and that I had kept them going. I told them they were mine, too, which was true. When you run, a lot of times you're running with the same people, so you push yourself to get ahead of whoever you keep passing, or to get ahead of the next person in front of you. Everyone inspires everyone else. And when people pass you they call out, "Good job! You're doing great, just keep going!" and they encourage you. It's pretty neat.
I was not last, but there were not a lot of people to finish after me. The race registration closed in two days, and who registers within the first two days of registration for a race?! Hard core people. So I was for sure one of the least-fit, least-trained, least-slim, least-fast people. But that was okay, because I was there. And I finished. And running 13.1 miles on a Saturday morning is much more awesome and healthy than not running. So I feel good about it. I don't think I will be ready for my full marathon next month, though. My cardiovascular system was fine, but my knee had a lot of problems, and if it's been 3 months since the hike, I don't know that 1 more month will make a big enough difference. We'll see.
Relationship
J and I have been dating for about six months now. It's still going really well. I am very happy. After we were dating exclusively, he asked that I please drive his other car, because he was driving a lot. And since he is quite allergic to Paley, and since my house is tiny, and since I don't have air conditioning, it made sense for us to spend more time at his house than mine, but that meant he would drive from his house to my house to his house, and then drive from his house to my house to his house again to take me home. And he was already paying to insure the other car, he told me, so me not driving it was costing him.
I didn't mind taking TRAX and was really afraid of driving because of my accident in...2002? So I was not crazy about driving at all. Plus driving is expensive. He said he would pay for my gas and insurance, and any repairs, etc. So I started driving when we would go places. Sometimes. And he was patient and confident in me. I was really nervous. But I became comfortable driving between our houses, which made dating me more pleasant, I think. I started driving his white car every day. And then one day I Stopped for Gas! Which was an exciting new challenge. And another day I Switched Lanes! And one day I Went to Walmart! And now I've been driving every day for a few months and I am pleased, because I knew I needed to start driving again eventually, and I can't think of a more ideal set of circumstances for re-learning to drive than the ones that I've had. So that's been good. I took the freeway back from my race this weekend. Go, me!
J moved this weekend. He bought a house in South Jordan, which I absolutely love. It's kind of ugly. Actually, it's the ugliest house in the neighborhood. But he got a smashing deal on it (he paid $30k less than it appraised for!) and it really is in a great area. It's a neat house. It's divided into two separate living areas (with a shared laundry room in between), so he's renting out the front (which is bigger and nicer), and he will live in the back. It is on half an acre, ag-zoned. It has a pasture that is already fenced off [perfect for goats!], and barns [we put the chickens in part of one!], and a big open backyard [perfect for gardening!], and mature fruit trees, which delight me. It has apricots (we ate like a billion of them and fed like a billion soft ones to our birds), plums (they're next), pears (!!!!!), and apples. The trees need to be pruned so so badly. There is also a ton of storage space. The garage is huge (it has a basketball court in it), it has two storage rooms built into it, plus an above space that is almost like another living area except that it has no water to it, and another area above that that is like a little secret clubhouse for kids, or something. It is an attic area, where the ceiling slants, but it has hardwood floors, and a desk built in, and windows that overlook the yard. It has a bed up there, which I don't know how they got it up there because the hole to climb up to the room is tiny. The neighbor kids said they used to spend the night up there. Fun!
So far we have painted the front kitchen (which was hot pink) and we've done a bunch of yard work. (Actually, J's dad has done a TON of yard work.) We've been getting the front unit ready to rent. I lowered the price on our ad yesterday and J has gotten 4 more calls about it in the past day, so I think it's probably about the right price now and I think it will probably rent soon. (I want to paint the barn, because it looks way run-down, which I think makes the whole property look more run-down, but whatever. We'll get to it.) I think so far we've shown the house to like...4 or 5? people? We had one applicant, but they were just way too risky, so it didn't work out. So this should be good.
Since J and I spend every day together and South Jordan = a lot of driving for me, his wonderful parents have offered to let me stay at their house whenever I want. It is 6 blocks away from J's new house, so it's really convenient for, say, Friday and Saturday nights. We are talking about driving up to Salt Lake in the mornings, and then I would stay there even more. I have my own bedroom and bathroom which are new and gorgeous, and I have drawers and a walk-in closet, and my own nice kitchen, as many cherry tomatoes and fresh garden vegetables as I can eat, etc. (Last night they served us fresh watermelon. It was yellow inside! It tasted delicious.)
The only trouble is, poor Paley can't move in with J or his parents, so she will become an outside cat at J's new house. I'm sure she will love, love, love living there, because the CHICKENS! are outside and they are SO MUCH FUN to watch. And there are grasshoppers! And rodents! And other fun things to catch. But I know she will be sad when I am inside and she can't come in. At least for a little while. The barn will keep her dry and warm, though, so she should be okay. For now she's still at my little apartment by the U of U, but she misses me since I only come home to sleep.
My Birthday
Last week was my birthday. I turned 26. Jess and Mitch celebrated with me the weekend before, and Jess wrote me a nice blog post. J and I went to Red Lobster for dinner. He gave me a little hymn book (in English! Which I have wanted forever but never want to spend the money on.) and socks (which I have needed more of forever but never want to spend the money on.) So that was nice. I like useful presents. (Jess also gave me useful presents. She gave me plates, silverware, pans, and kitchen stuff. Plus six Sees Butterscotch Squares, which I ATE, which I had been in the mood for for a long time since no Sees is near me.)
Hm. What else? I don't know. This is a pretty long post and I need to get some LSAT study in before my next class, so I think I'll stop here. (And hopefully update more often so that my posts are not as long.)
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