Who knew?

Full disclosure: this post has absolutely nothing to do with any topic even remotely related to this blog.  But because I'm in the midst of finishing some projects, and on the cusp of having LOTS of progress to post (though nothing at the moment), I figured I'd share something curious that has kept me entertained.

Over the past few months, while I was home (not The House of Goodwill), I observed something I've never seen before.

I was reading one morning in December, sitting in my living room, when I noticed my dog was fixated on something going on outside the window.  What was it?

Shiloh was watching a blue jay on the patio.

If it's hard to tell what the blue jay is doing in this pic, it's eating.

And while this may appear to be a small birdfeeder, it's not.

This is a bowl of...cat food.

Did you know blue jays like cat food?  I didn't.

Here's the blue jay again in February.  He's a regular at the cat food dish; in fact I often see multiple blue jays around the bowl.

I guess the cat must be sleeping.

Is it just me, or this a bit of a surprise?  And this isn't just regular cat food, this is special (expensive!) cat food created to help cats who suffer from urinary tract problems.  (The reason the cat mostly lives and eats outdoors.)  My guess?  That it wouldn't be as tasty as the grocery store, byproduct-filler-variety cat food, as it's more of a "food as medicine" type of kibble.

But what do I know?  I'm not a cat.  Or a blue jay.

And it seems the blue jay likes it even more than the cat.

So we have to place the cat food bowl in the center of the patio table, so the dogs can't reach it.  (Apparently ALL animals love this urinary tract problem-fixing food.)  If it's anywhere on the ground, it becomes dog food.  But if it's anywhere higher, now it's bird food.  (And there is an actual birdfeeder full of seed just a few feet from this dish; where the blue jays USED to eat.  Now they mostly ignore it in favor of the cat bowl.)

Now that I think about it, the only creatures I haven't seen in the bowl are the squirrels.  And that's definitely good, as the squirrels are always eating the food for the birds.

*Sigh.*  And this is not cheap, as the cat's food must be purchased from the vet's office, since it's a prescription food.  These blue jays are costing me a small fortune!

Oh well.  At least they're keeping me entertained.  And the dogs too.

As to the cat, well, let's just say if cats had their own feline police, mine would never make the force.

And if this little anecdote has a moral, I guess it's that many animals seem to highly prefer food designed for other animals.  So I guess animals and people really aren't all that different.

And urinary tract problem-fixing cat food is extremely appealing to blue jays.  You can wow someone with that little factoid at your next party.  

You're welcome.

A visit that made my day

Last Monday I came by myself back to The House of Goodwill to start work again.  (My husband and son had to stay home for ongoing rehab due to the knee replacement.)  The day I arrived, it started raining for three days and didn't stop.

The flooding was amazing.  I was glad our house is up on a hill!

Here's a photo of our neighbor's dock, which is right next to our property line, that I took last summer:

Here's the same dock, two days after the rain started:

Just in case it's not clear, the whole thing is underwater!

The water rose above the railroad ties that are currently serving as the (disintegrating) shoreline in our yard.  (The water has since receded back to normal level.)

Anyway, since we had our kayaks sitting under a shelter not too far from the water, I walked down the hill to tie them up.  I didn't think the water would reach them (it didn't) but wanted to make sure they were secure just in case.

As I went outside, I was blessed by one of my favorite Pine Lake occurrences: a random dog visit.

At home in the suburbs, it drives me nuts when dogs are let loosely free to roam.  Here, in "the country," I love it.  Why?  Well, I suppose partly because all the dogs around here are nice.  If they weren't, I'm sure I'd feel differently.  (At home in a way more population-dense neighborhood, so many people come and go that I don't know all the dogs.  A couple of weeks ago a loose dog attacked one of my dogs while we were walking; my dog was ok but it was a little scary.)

Though just as I say "all the dogs around here are nice" I realize I had never seen the dog that randomly showed up in my yard.  I thought I knew all the dogs around here, so I have no idea whose dog it was, but boy, was it nice!

It saw me, ran over, got petted, and did mad runs of excitement.

My new friend did a property inspection; he probably could smell my dogs and wondered where they were.

Is this not the SWEETEST face??

The face matched the personality!

My new dog friend accompanied me down to tie up my kayaks.

Here is the dock of our neighbor's on the other side of our yard.

Totally flooded!

Apparently the dog loved the taste of muddy water...

I have always loved the overwhelming enthusiasm and unbridled joy of dogs.  I can walk outside to get the mail, and upon my return my dogs greet me like I've been gone for ten days.  Everyone should be loved like that!  

I was missing my dogs, and this dog's visit was just what I needed.  He walked me back up to the house, and was apparently hoping for a longer visit (inside):

Who can resist a face like this?  I went in to get him a treat, which he took back out to the yard to enjoy.

And then - believe it or not - he was back! 😉

More, please!

Regretfully, I had to shut the door and say goodbye.  I still haven't figured out where he came from.  But when I'm here by myself, if I go for a walk, chances are good I'll be joined at some point by a dog (or dogs) who will join me on my journey.

I often will be sitting on the porch and see a Golden Retriever (or some other dog) cruising through the yard.

My dogs (who have spent their lives on leashes and behind fences) never know when the thrill of the random dog visit will brighten their day and give them something to bark at.  We've seen dogs, deer, foxes, herons and a few little cats.

Ah, the country life!  There's nothing like a friendly visit from a dog thrilled by your presence to brighten up a gloomy day. 💗

A new year's resolution

I thought I'd share today about one of my new year's resolutions that makes great use of thrift resources.  What is it?

It's about books, and what I'll be reading this year.  I love to read!

Like most everyone else, I've learned over the years that the more specific I make my goal setting, the better likelihood I have that I'll achieve my goal.  

I've come to love the week around New Year's Day; as a child, I always felt a strong sense of sadness as soon as Christmas Day was over.  The end of Christmas meant a return to school, and a whole 'nother year to wait till the next Christmas - nothing but a let down.

But now, as an adult, the Christmas season is so busy that the day after Christmas signals a time to slow down and enjoy the post-holiday peace, and I love New Year's as an opportunity to think through what I hope to achieve and change in the coming year.

A few years ago, I started setting goals for the number of books I wanted to read.  I love to read everything, really, but over the years I've spent enough time reading magazines that they started to eclipse the time I've spent with books.  So I wanted to up my book reading goal.

So I set a number last year - I think it was twenty-five books to read - and I fell a bit short.

So this year I decided to do something new and different.  This year, I decided to not only pick my number to read for the year (20), but also to also pick the books out in advance.  I have bookcases FULL of books I've picked up at Goodwill, thrift stores, etc. that are all waiting to be read yet (hence, the goal).  So how much fun was it to travel my bookcases choosing my books for the year?  So fun!

I picked the number twenty since I narrowly missed finishing twenty-five last year, and that was listening to a decent number of them as audiobooks (lots of painting last year).  I wanted to read twenty actual books this year, and that gives me a goal of just less than two per month, which seems achievable.  (It also leaves a little flexibility to throw in another few if I come up on something I just really want to read right away.)

So without further ado, here are this year's books:

So, I tried really hard to pick a diverse group with lots of different categories.  There's an extra book in there (the "Gone With the Wind" book on the bottom - it's more of a coffee table-type book so I'll read it but I'm not counting it as part of my twenty).  I also have one other that my son is currently reading; I like to read something and pass it on to him so we can discuss it.  (He's dyslexic, so I look for things I think he'll like to keep him reading.  We kind of have our own little book club; another reason I wanted to leave a little space for extra books.)

With a few exceptions, these are all books I've picked up at Goodwill, etc.

I've got:

-One book in Spanish (Aproveche su Dia)

-Two spiritually-themed books (How to Think about God and 90 Minutes in Heaven)

-One animal book (Alex and Me)

-One political book (An Inconvenient Book)

-One history book (7 Events that Made America America)

-Two classics (The Last of the Mohicans and The House of the Seven Gables)

-One psychology book (Dissociative Identity Disorder)

-Three books to learn from (Invent it, Sell it, Bank it, The Martha Rules and How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner

AND

-some that are just purely for fun! (The Glitter and the Gold, Camino Island, The Madame's Business, etc.)

So it's weird, but this pile's got me so motivated and excited!  Something about collecting them all in advance makes my goal seem more concrete, and makes me want to read extra.

How much of a book nerd am I?  Well, this is how I start every day.  EVERY DAY.  I get up, make the coffee, and read a couple of chapters.  If I have to be somewhere early, I just get up earlier to fit it in.  If the weather is amiable for being outside, I read outside (with a cat on my lap).  If it's cold, then I'm inside (with a dog on my lap) and some nice background music.  I hate to get up and frantically rush around; I like a nice quiet slide into my day.

And just to confirm how weird and compulsive I really am: I also have a Saturday book and a Sunday book.  These are different than the weekly read.  The Saturday book is always a "coffee table book" - the kind that you don't really read like a "real book" but they have a lot of great pictures, or else they're so full big and wordy you don't really want to read them every single day (but you do want to read them, if you know what I mean...like art books or travel books).  The "Gone with the Wind" book on the pile is my first "Saturday book" for this year.  It's a history of the book and movie, very photo-heavy.  It usually takes me a couple of months to read a "Saturday book," only on Saturdays (of course).

On Sundays I only read the Bible, or a Bible-study type read.  "Aproveche su Dia" is my current book ("Seize your Day"); I read one chapter each week.

So there it is.  And somehow I'll still find a way to filter some magazines (and of course, my vintage "Ideals") in.

How am I doing so far with the new plan?  Well, after two months I've read two books and I'm nearly done with two more.  So on track.

I find most of my reading material at Goodwill, and once I've read it, it goes on the shelves at The House of Goodwill to share with future guests.

After all, does it get any better than to sit by a lake and read?

I mean, really?

So much more than good will

This is not a post about thrifting, but really, it's actually better.  Much better!  It's about unexpected blessings.

This year, on Valentine's Day, my husband was scheduled to have a knee replacement surgery.  I had to leave the House of Goodwill to come home for it, as well as a few other commitments the week before.  Needless to say, I wasn't expecting much this year from Valentine's Day, but not a big deal, really.  We decided to celebrate Saturday night with a steak dinner and a movie at home.  (Our son cooked the whole thing; he will do anything for steak.)  It was great!  We had our Valentine's dinner.

Then Sunday was the Super Bowl, than we spent all day Monday at the hospital.

Anyway, I told my twenty-one-year-old son he didn't need to come to the hospital.  After all, it would just be a day of sitting around and waiting, and there wasn't anything he could do there anyway.

"Could you just empty the recycling containers in the kitchen?"  I asked him, before we left.  "And walk the dogs, since I'll be getting home late."  (We usually walk the dogs together.)  "Sure," he replied. 

Note here that I had a massive mess in my kitchen by Monday morning.  I had been running errands on Sunday between church and the Super Bowl, and by the time it was over I didn't feel like doing dishes.  There were leftover steak dinner dishes, homemade guacamole and chips dishes (what my son made for the Super Bowl) and lots of others.  It was significant.

So fast forward to Monday.  I did spend all day in the hospital (minus two Goodwill runs while my husband was in surgery - and were they good!  But more about that in another post.).  By the time we came home, it was about six pm.  I was sure my son had walked the dogs; the dogs wouldn't let him forget that.  But I wondered if he had remembered to dump the recycling bins?

So we walked in the house, me with my arms full of Goodwill bags.  And what did I discover?

Well, not only had my son dumped the recycling (as I'd asked) but he also took all the trash out.  (Which I didn't ask, and he never does.)  He had also walked the dogs.  But there was more!  My kitchen, which had earlier been an epic disaster, was perfectly clean!  All dishes were washed and put away.  He'd even cleaned and organized the countertops.

But wait, there's more!

He had gone to the store that day and bought me a dozen pink roses for Valentine's Day.  Then he went into my vase collection, picked a few out, and spread the roses between four different vases, putting them all around the house.  There were roses in the kitchen, roses in the hall, roses in the living room, and a single rose upstairs by my bed.

This is not the first time my son did this for me with the roses.  He did it once before this year, the night before I was starting a really long work week.

But there was more!  He had also bought a "Welcome Home" balloon for my husband:

But there was more!  On the way home from the hospital, my husband said he wanted to pick up ice cream from Andy's that night.  He was going to stop when my son took him to the drugstore to get his prescriptions.  But he didn't need to, because:

My son had already picked up Andy's as a Valentine surprise.

There was ice cream for both my husband and me in the freezer.

But there's more!

As I was trying to pick my jaw off the floor (still stunned about the dishes), I noticed a table with presents.  My son had two presents each for my husband and I, and a card to us both.  Wow!!

I really didn't know what to say.

So, the point of this post isn't just to share about my Valentine's day (maybe a little) or to share how amazing I think my son is (though he IS).  It's to share this:

My son in this story (my only child) was adopted six years ago, when he was fifteen-years-old.  I liken that experience to jumping off a cliff; we (and he) really had no idea exactly what we were getting into.  We just prayed and did it.

I imagine a lot of people think of adopting a teenager (especially one you've never met!) as a high risk proposition, and I certainly understand.  I think many people imagine lots of anger, holes punched in walls, and drama.  (Based on many people's comments - and warnings - before we did it, this is definitely true.)  I'm sure there are many of those scenarios.  I can't say it didn't cross my mind.

But while our adoption wasn't challenge-free, there were WAY more joyful moments that hard ones.  I can't speak for others, because I know of other adoptive families who struggle, but wow, was it worth it.  (I know lots of biological families who struggle too, for what it's worth.)  This adoption has brought so much happiness to all of us.

When I was twenty-one, I never did anything like this for my parents.  Not because I didn't love them, but just because I was too busy taking them for granted.  It just never crossed my mind.

Adopted parents and children don't take each other for granted.  When you wait a (very) long time for a child, you enjoy every moment that you have together.

When we adopted our teenager, I never imagined this.  I'm still amazed.

I have witnessed the power of God slowly transform the life of our son.  He is a caring, loving person and I am grateful for him every day.  Life can be so hard.  Which makes the unexpected blessings along the way even better.  It was a wonderful Valentine's Day this year indeed.

Half dead? still salvageable!

So every year before Thanksgiving I buy a huge poinsettia to put in my dining room, and I leave it there through New Year's.  

For the last couple of year I've been buying one that looks like this:

I like the color, because it looks like fall for Thanksgiving, but the gold colored leaves look Christmas-y to me too.  (I just switch the pot for Christmas.)

The leaves come sprinkled with gold glitter, which makes it shine.

This year, after New Year's, I was taking down all my little poinsettias (that were definitely done) and putting them in the compost.  I noticed that this particular poinsettia was half dead.  (When my household had Covid after the holidays, myself included, my plant watering got a little touch and go.)

As usual, I didn't think to take a picture.  Have you ever neglected a plant till it was half dead?  It looked pretty crazy, with half the plant shriveled and brown, with leaves falling off at the touch, while the other half was still green, gold and looking pretty good.  (I was actually surprised at how good the good part looked, considering how long ago I'd bought it, where it was situated - not receiving a ton of light - and my semi neglect of it the week before.

But just when I was about to pitch it, the thought occurred to me that the pretty part would still look great in a vase.

And all my other Christmas flowers were done; I had nothing else flowering.

So I cut all the pretty parts and vased them up and composted the rest (minus the glittery parts).

Not bad for six weeks after purchase, right?

They looked so good as cut flowers!

Both the vase and the plate came from Goodwill.

Sometimes our Goodwill gets lots of things from Target that don't sell, like this vase.  I was able to buy four matching ones for little arrangements.  I know it's hard to see in this pic.

The plate was a set of two beautiful red glass translucent plates.

They are beautiful under plants.

The funny thing is, after I cut these still good parts, they looked great for about three more weeks.  In fact, half of the half I cut are still in the vase looking nice right now.  

This poinsettia just won't quit!

And to think I almost threw it out...

Not a little undertaking...

Have you ever wondered what it would take to buy a house and get it ready to rent as an airbnb?

Well, I've been finding out.

Just over two years after buying our property, we will hopefully have it ready to rent soon.  We're hoping to have our first guests come stay this summer.  

When we bought our house, we weren't able to focus solely on getting it in shape to rent.  My husband had (has) a full time job, and I was taking care of two toddler-age foster kids for the first six months into ownership.  We've also taken weeks and months off the project when we've gone out of town, went home for the holidays, or just had to focus on commitments at the home/house.  So even with the help of my nineteen-year-old son, it's been slow progess.

There were four major tasks: 1) getting the whole house painted (including all the dark molding everywhere, my major time eater), 2) finding and buying all the furniture and accessories, 3) getting the waterfront excavated and boathouse built and 4) setting the house up as a vacation rental, something we've never done before.

So we're hopefully 4-5 months out from renting, and how are we doing?

As for 1) getting the house painted: we're almost done!  Finally!  I was told by my friend April, who is planning to manage the property for us, that we could have rented it as-is when we bought it, and lots of painting wasn't necessary.  But because the house felt so dark, and because we want to use it when it's not being rented (and have it feel like our house), I felt like it was necessary to paint it.  If it stayed dark and dated, and didn't look great, I didn't feel I'd be able to charge much for renting it.  And if the house isn't great, would renters want to return?  My hope is to find some great renters who want to return regularly.

As for 2) finding all the furniture, etc: that is 90% done.  And was that a task!  Aside from countless trips to estate sales, Goodwill, retail stores and craigslist pickups, we rented a uhaul many times to cart furniture bought in Nashville to here.  And many, many carloads.  At this point, I'm down to some very particular needs furniture-wise.  As I put the house together in the next few months, I can determine what is left to get.

3) The waterfront excavation: so, months away from (hopefully) getting this rented, we still haven't done a thing to the not-very-user-friendly waterfront.  It took almost a year to find someone help us make a plan for the land and get our permit approved by the state.  Then the excavator/dock builder interviews...but we tentatively have someone lined up to do the land excavation and hopefully the work will start within the next two months.  The excavator said it should take a week.  Then we'll have to get the yard back in shape.

We decided to wait on the dock build until after summer, as just having the waterfront done should make it rentable this season, and the sooner we have some income coming in to help cover the excavation/dock build, the better.  (I'm guessing the entire project will be in the ballpark of $100,000.)

And then I have to cross my fingers and hope the (only) dock builder I found last year is still interested and willing to do it!

And finally, 4): setting the house up as an airbnb.  I haven't even started on this yet.  This will consist of all kinds of little things: setting up the website, learning the best ways to outfit a vacation rental (as in, how many rolls of toilet paper to put out?  Should renters have access to cleaning products? etc.).  We also want to put locks on closets that are for our personal things; we need to set up a security system, iron out the management details with our property manager, etc.  Certainly, this will take more time than I anticipate.

Funny, this is not the post I intended to write today, and in the interest of not making it too long, I think I'll wrap this one up for now and post my progress update tomorrow.

I'll just leave this with one small update, that is actually HUGE to me:

When we bought this 1970's-built house, one thing I totally loved (love) about it are two enormous stone fireplaces, one downstairs, one up.  But one thing the living room fireplace just seemed to be missing?  A mantle!  The fireplace was just an enormous rock focal point with nothing on it.

After a lot of discussion, above the fireplace seemed like the best place to locate the tv, so that's where it went.  But it still seemed a bit naked.  I love, love, love fireplace mantles.  There's no better place to put candle and vases of flowers.  And that's what's missing!

One gloomy Saturday morning last February, I remember drinking my coffee early in the morning with a book (of course) and quiet piano music (of course), and I couldn't help but think that what really was missing were some candles glowing on the fireplace mantle that didn't exist.

But finding a mantle maker proved just as challenging as finding a wall-finisher, a dock builder, and everything else.

Finally, after contacting several possible carpenters, and having them all fall through, I was just about to lose hope when we got a new next door neighbor, who just so happens to own a contracting company with a great reputation.  ("He's expensive but does very good work" I was told.)  That's a great new neighbor!

So long story short, after nearly two years, we finally had a mantle consultation with the new neighbor who is planning to install a mantle for us in the next month or so.

Yes!!!

And here are the pics of what's to come:

I found these cedar slabs on craigslist; a guy was selling them who was processing trees on his property.  These 8' long, 3" thick slabs were around $100 each.

I thought they'd make perfect mantles, it just took some time to locate a maker.

The new neighbor was very impressed with the wood!

The fireplace now - isn't it missing something?

Our neighbor (the contractor) put that piece of duct tape in the center where the mantle's going to go.

That plank is heavy (!) and will involve drilling into the stones to mount it.

It's funny; once we installed the tv I realized for the first time that the fireplace opening is not centered.

How did that happen?

(It becomes pretty obvious when something is centered above it!)

Oh well - it's the little quirks that make it home, right?

Because our neighbor said there would be a lot of dust from drilling when installing the mantle, and because he's going to varnish the mantle in place once it's installed, I have been waiting to finally (!) get our living room set up till the project is done.  (Finally set up = mess out, final furniture brought in and placed, rug and artwork placed.

After two years of living with a house-in-process, it's finally going to resemble a home, and I could not be more excited about it!

Just in time to turn the keys over to renters...

Just beautiful!

Just a few quick picks from the evening I arrived last week; it was a beautiful 50 degree winter's day.  I arrived at The House of Goodwill just before sunset, and went for a quick walk just to enjoy the stillness.  It was my first time here since the beginning of October.

Here's a photo of the house from the road

Winter may be off-season in a lake neighborhood, but I absolutely love it!  It is so quiet and still everywhere, and without the leaves on the trees, you get interesting water views of things you never see in warm weather. 

Oh boy, have I missed the deer!

I love seeing deer out the window in the morning as I'm making my coffee.

And of course, on my return to the house I opted to take the long way so I could stop at a couple of antique stores en route (sort of, anyway).

I found this little guy (not an antique), but he just seemed perfect for the house:

I've been back and forth on making the house a pet-friendly rental, but since that's often what I'm looking for when I rent a house, I thought I'd give it a try.  I can always change that in the future if it seems to be a problem.  The fact that the house had no carpets when we bought it was a huge plus.

I'm going to put this little puppy in the entry to welcome the dogs.  

If only he was a basset hound!  Oh well, he's still cute. 🙂

Speaking of dogs, time to go walk my own and then get to painting.