Author: Ann Marie Hardin

Fun with apple trees

Ann Marie HardinLeave a comment
First we need a little bit of background. Years ago, Grandma and Grandpa Lane (my mother’s parents who live in town about 3 miles from here) planted an apple tree in their garden. It’s one of those that had several different varieties grafted on to it. I’m not at all sure it has ever produced, but I digress. As time passed, it became clear that this tree blocked the water from the sprinklers from reaching a significant portion of the garden. So, Grandma and Grandpa went back to watering with a mobile sprinkler attached to a hose. But, now more time has passed, and Grandpa is no longer with us, and Grandma can’t drag hoses around so good anymore. Last summer, Steve told her he’d take that tree out so her sprinkler system would work again. Winter came and went, along with the dormant season for the apple tree. I’m sure you can see where this is going. No, the tree did not get moved. Now, Grandma is ready to start her garden for the year, but with the lingering effects from a Christmas-time shoulder injury she definitely can’t drag a hose around to water the garden. So, Steve is moving the tree – today. Yes, it’s a bit late, and yes, the poor thing has leafed out. So, he’s leaving a root ball intact.

Now, after 16 years of marriage, I know we don’t necessarily have to discuss every tiny little thing, but it was a bit disconcecting to arrive home and see the following scene in the front yard. Upon closer inspection, I see that yes, yes that is hole in the yard. No, it’s not a big hole, but it is a deep hole.

After a few minutes of head-scratching, it dawns on my that this is where Steve intends to put the apple tree! The apple tree that he is as this very moment removing from my grandmother’s garden, and that I thought would be going into the orchard. Yes, I know – silly me. OK – let’s put aside for the moment that we have not discussed where the tree would go, and the fact that I am not at all certain I want a little dwarf apple tree in the front yard. Because there is a much bigger issue at hand here. I’ve just come from Grandma’s house, and I’ve seen the root ball on that tree. It is much much wider than this hole.

He has taken our nephews (ages 14 and 16) back to town with him to get the tree into the pickup. I’ll try to document the effort to fit the root ball into that hole. I have no doubt at all that he will make it. I just am not sure he’ll get it in place before dark (it’s 4:45 now).

Staircase

Ann Marie HardinLeave a comment

The stairs are probably the biggest change we’ve made in the house. Really it’s more of a rollback or restoration than it is a change. You see sometime in the 40’s (we think), the house underwent a fairly major rennovation. From what we uncovered when we stripped the living room walls and ceiling out, we think there may have been a fire and the repair of that damage opened up the opportunity for some fairly significant remodeling. It appears that they switched from wood heat to fuel-oil furnaces. There was a wall furnace in the living room, and another one upstairs to service two bedrooms. Although Dad says the upstairs one was never used because it made Grandpa too nervous. At the same time, the downstairs ceilings were lowered by about 18 inches, and the stairs were enclosed. This effectively halved the amount of space that needed to be heated, but resulted in a hallway that was kind of dark and narrow.

The staircase itself was equally dark and narrow, and the room that we think was originally an upstairs parlor extended out over the base of the stairs, creating a pinch point that made it impossible to get a queen-sized box spring up the stairs. Our box spring went in by way of being lifted up the front of the house and into breeze porch via the openings that no longer had screens on them. I’m sure you can see the eventual issues now that we’ve put windows in place on the breeze porch.

We were pretty sure we could do away with the pinch-point by shrinking the room that was now just storage, but we weren’t sure how the enclosing of the stairs had been accomplished, so we had resigned ourselves to the dark narrow hall and the dark narrow stairs. But, during the demolition of the fir-tex (old sheetrock), Steve found what you see below. Notice that the wall appears to have been built right on top of the stairs. It looked like we would be able to reopen the staircase after all. Now, this eliminated the dreamed-of enlargement of the downstairs bath, and created a bit of strife with Steve as he wrestled with the trade-off, but I had no trouble with the concept.

So, 18 months or so later, we have an open but unfinished staircase. Although we do at least have a railing installed. At the moment, we have a sheet of plastic where that wall used to be, but I’ll live with that, since it means that Steve is once again making progress on this little project and is sanding the floors and stairs in preparation for staining. Actually, he’s nearly done and has only the final sand left on the upstairs floors, as well as a little trim work on the stairs. Then he can start applying stain. He says he’ll be done in about 2 weeks. I’ll be happy with a month. Of course, his true motivation is the fact that he’s can’t work outside for more than an hour or so until the floors and stairs are done, and he really really wants to get to that barn project.
If you want to see more pictures that were taken as the work progressed, please visit http://www.hardinsonline.net/stairs_hall.htm

Brands

Ann Marie Hardin2 Comments
I mentioned earlier that Steve wants to register a brand for the farm. I’ve worked up a few samples, and could use some second opinions, so, I’ve put samples here for your perusal, and would like comments, please. Remember that we’ll be using this not only as a brand, but as a kind of logo too. I’ve got my favorite, but I want to hear what everyone else thinks. Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from everyone.

We’re Official!

Ann Marie HardinLeave a comment

I just heard back from the Oregon Secretary of State, and our business is officially registered. Got a registry number and everything. So, Stewart Creek Somethings is officially open for business as a chicken egg producer. Yay! Now Steve wants to register a brand for the sheep too. I’m not sure why, exactly, other than he thinks it’d be cool to have and use as a logo. I’ve got a couple of designs sketched out, and the brand application is my list of things to do today. It’s off to a great start. I hope everyone else’s Friday is just as good.

Cat Antics

Ann Marie HardinLeave a comment

Back in October, we rescued a kitten from under a rock crib (you can access my LJ entry here: http://annmariehardin.livejournal.com/?skip=10). We’ve finally decided she was most likely abandoned my her mother because she’s quite a bit smaller than her siblings, and to tell the truth, she’s not exactly the sharpest tack in the pack. But, she’s in now and is turning out to be a very interesting cat. She and Sprout (the 10-lb dog) don’t either one seem to know they are different species, and play just like litter mates. He’ll even get toys for her, to the point of bugging me until I get them if neither one of them can reach them. Lately, she seems to have taken a liking to napping in a re-useable shopping bag that was emptied and not put away. She has relocated it to the middle of the morning sun pool and spends most of the morning curled up napping in the sun – inside the bag. When she’s not napping, she’s playing with the straps. The truly amusing thing is that we haven’t picked up the bag and put it away because the cat’s using it. Do you ever wonder who is actually in charge?