My Mountain

Clinch Mountain is "my" mountain.......

Let me explain.

I didn't even know it myself two years ago.

When we were house shopping we looked over three counties for a house. Only one of those counties had mountain views.....and I realized I *needed* my mountain. We looked at several really nice houses in those places...one even had something like 17 rooms!....but nothing could be "really" considered, because it wasn't the right place.

I wasn't raised on the mountain, but I have lived within sight of it all my life. When I was small I lived in the foothills and if you climbed to the top of the hills you could see the mountain. When I was 12 we moved to an old farmhouse at the base of the mountain, separated only by a creek, and I spend lots of lovely hours exploring the mountain. When I was 16 we moved again, this time onto actual mountain land. :)

After I was married I spend 1 year on the opposite side of the mountain, then we moved back to where I lived when I was small and after that all my moves were repeated. ;) I just realized that while writing this.....foothills,at the base across a creek, then back onto my mountain.

Our house is situated so that while I actually *own* mountain land - yay! - every morning when I wake up I see the mountain, too...I LOVE it!

I hear rumours that the farm I grew up on is being logged, but I haven't been back in about 6 months. It doesn't bother me as much as I would have once thought, because I have my own little piece of heaven.....I mean mountain.... ;)

An Entire Year!

My library shelves are nearly finished....I LOVE my library!

After living here for a year some things have become more obvious than they were at the beginning....

At the edge of the garden isn't a good place for the asparagus bed.

The basement *does* leak - usually after two solid days of rain. When it leaks the trough around the edge of the walls doesn't help much, because it's leaking through cracks in the walls which squirt.

The attic REALLY needs lights! ;)

Someone...not naming any names, but it's the only other adult in the household ;)....should clean off the doggone carport. We moved a Year ago, for Pete's sake! (Who is this "Pete" of which we speak?)

Everyone else in the house has Too Much Stuff! LOL (Of course, *my* stuff is just the right amount.) ;)

I LOVE living here!!!

The lilac bush lived, the pear and plum trees lived, the bulbs I planted last spring came up and Bloomed this spring, and my garlic is looking Awesome!

The bulbs Ms. Ruth gave me are coming up....alliums I think, but having never seen them in bloom I can't really say. ;)

Some of the cannas froze last winter :( But the lilies are growing and even Spreading!

It's all good. :)

It's Been a BUSY Summer!

Peaches from our tree!

A sunflower in our garden...

Anna brought a praying mantis egg case from our old house, and let it hatch in her room! A couple hundred teensy-tiny baby praying mantises are VERY difficult to catch! We had SO SO many praying mantises around our house this year!

I suppose either the praying mantises or all the grasshoppers and crickets that were already here are what the turkeys came for! I enjoyed seeing the turkeys when they came out of the long grass. We let the hill grow up most of the summer, so I could just see the tops of their heads most of the time. :) (Click for larger, to be able to see the turkeys better.)

Well, let's see....since the last post we've finished *most* of the work on the house that needed to be done. The library shelves are the only major inside work that isn't finished, and I'm going to try to have them done by Thanksgiving.

The new roof if on...and looks wonderful!...and the carport has a new roof, the new heat pump is in, too.

We keep finding *little* things that need to be re-done....such is the joy of home ownership! :)

My plants all survived the moving! Even the hibiscus and lilac bush, which were the two I felt were most likely to die. My herb garden is doing even better than it did at the old house!

I don't know if the plum tree survived the summer....I wasn't too good about carrying water to it like I should have been. :( It's limbs are still red, though, so I'm taking that as a good sign, and hoping it will be happier now that cool weather is come. The little apple tree didn't make it.....*really* shouldn't have tried to move it bare-rooted. Live and learn.....

I found some daylilies at a library sale last weekend and expanded the bed that was already here a bit. Next spring I'll divide the ones that are here, and expand more, but there are asters growing there that I don't want to disturb right now. The bees are enjoying them. :)

The girls are planning on lots of Halloween decorations......I'm looking forward to Christmas decorating! We have a perfect place for the tree....never have had much room for the tree before. :)

VERY much enjoying our house!

Update, Perhaps?

Well, we've been moved about a month now. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE LOVE LOVE it here!

We're already getting started on the "farm" stuff....like bees. ; ) (beside our peach tree, which was here when we came.)
But the plum and pear trees are new....as is the apple tree I thought was in this picture, but must be just outside the frame.

This was my view this morning.

I simply adore this mountain. When we were house-shopping I *knew* I would live somewhere near this mountain. Everywhere we looked that was out of sight of it felt VERY not-right. Now I can see *my* mountain every morning...and I enjoy it so! Our bedroom windows face the mountain, and I wake up early almost every morning and watch the sun rise over the mountain.

I bought asparagus crowns today....couldn't plant yet because I need to go back to the old house to get some compost, but I have them and have their trench ready. I really wanted to go ahead and plant them so I wouldn't be wishing in 5 years I had. ; )

We've been working on the house, fixing this and that.....DH put the new front door on Sunday, and I felt SO spoiled getting a beautiful new front door that *I* picked out just because I wanted it. : )

He's fixed the kitchen up awesomely, too...for me. And I got to have the final say in EVERYTHING! Placement of counters, counter material, even placement of electrical outlets! I will put up before and after pics when it's finished completely...he still has to build in the pantry...but it already looks SO amazingly much better than it did when we bought it!

I cleaned out one side of the attic the other day...it's a space on both sides of the upstairs rooms...thought I was going to DIE! I swear, that attic hadn't been cleaned since the house was built. I found a cool newspaper from 1959, though. ; )

We thought we were going to have to put floors down up there, but under all the stuff...insulation and cardboard....there was already a floor there! We spent the $$ we would have used on the wood for a new water heater.

I decided to decorate the kitchen with crocks. It's different from anyone else's kitchen that we know of, and I already have lots of crocks that need places to live. I'll post pics of those, too, when the kitchen is finished.

Slowly But Surely!

Well, reading my last post I was struck how much time has passed in which I *should* have gotten a house!

It didn't happen...or I guess more accurately, hasn't happened yet.

The appraiser messed up the appraisal. Completely and totally screwed it up, then the lender didn't notice (we have doubts that he even looked at it, although he kept it on his desk a few days...) and finally the lawyer noticed when she did the title search.

BUT, all that mess is in the past, and we have a closing date! Feb. 26! I'm SO excited! I am SO ready to move!!! I've had everything packed up for weeks, and it is very difficult to live around boxes...I'm not actually living out of boxes, because I didn't pack things I use frequently yet, but still we have boxes piled on top of everything.

One other thing...a mixed blessing...the ferret died. He was old for a ferret (7 next Tuesday) and we knew he was going to go eventually. One day he went up to his hammock on the top level of his cage (4 levels, and the past year or so he's slept in a box on the bottom level and not attempted the top two levels at all) and he curled up in his hammock and died. I thought that was sweet. He came with the hammock (he was given to us) so I wondered if there was some remembering youth and the beginnings of his life as he went. I checked on him just as he was getting in the hammock, and I picked him out of the cage and held him a bit, and petted him and took him around to kiss everyone, so I think he died peacefully. Honestly, it's a bit of a relief, not having to find a place for a huge cage! ; P

I've decided against having a chalkboard wall in the kitchen....in favour of a pantry! It suddenly hit me that the kitchen is large enough to have room for my DH to build a pantry in! SO, I've gone on to convincing him I NEED a pantry, and he agrees...MUCH more than he ever thought I needed a chalkboard wall. lol

Oldest daughter saw a vintage vanity at a salvage store and said she'd like to have one...and Monday someone gave us one!

(Much like this one, only not painted, and lion drawer pulls....and I think the legs might be a bit shorter...)

I can't wait! I'm so excited about it! Hopefully we'll have it ready to move into by the first of March....woo-hoo! ; )

And it's been a while....

I've been meaning to post, but we've been SO busy *doing* the house-stuff it's been hard to write about it! : )

Unless something Totally unexpected and unforeseen happens we should be able to close on the house by the end of January! I'm so excited!

I keep coming up with new ideas and thoughts and plans....it's going to be SO much FUN having a house of my own to work on! ; )

I'm thinking a brown....chocolate...for the hall, browns and greens for almost every room, really.

The kitchen a creamy background with darker...coffee....over it, and I'm thinking knockdown or skip trowel texture (and the technique ). I haven't fully decided about that yet, though. The walls either are or might be in sad shape and require covering....two are covered with icky old paneling...so we have no idea what's back there. On the uncovered wall, though, there is a rough place where the removal of old wallpaper border broke the plaster. I'm thinking texturing might be the only nice option...who knows, though! : )

I also want a blackboard/magnetic wall in the kitchen. DH is arguing against it...he thinks it might be *too much* but I really want one. The wall leading to the hall is a short wall, maybe 8 feet to the doorway, and I want it like a blackboard with creme/coffee checkered border. Well...I can see it in *my* head.... ; )

The bathroom already has nice tan tiles, so I'm going with browns and greens there, too. A ferny green...I picked some and dried them and they're now waiting in a book for frames. : ) I'm thinking a chives green for the kitchen...it's brighter than the ferns, and I need to separate my chives anyway. ; ) I'll have some pots of herbs....that's what I'm thinking for the kitchen, browns, green and herbs....and maybe DH will make shelves for the herbs in the windows. The kitchen has two long south-facing windows that I think will be perfect for herbs. ; )

The living room I haven't been able to decide about yet. DH went and got a couch I think is lovely....but....it's not really what I wanted in *my* house. It has....flowers..... I was SO wanting a flowing theme throughout the house, and the other rooms seem to be flowing with me, but then I get to the living room and come to a screeching halt. It has......flowers.... I haven't envisioned flowers anywhere in the house...well, besides Anna's room, and she's 12. ; )

I'll live, I guess. ; )

Outdoor Bread Oven

We'd love to have an outdoor bread oven at our new place.....

we'd *really* love to have this one....

but considering our masonry skills we'll probably end up with something more like this. ; )as long as it works, I don't care what it looks like! I've wanted to be able to bake bread for the longest time EVER!

Places on the internet to read about ovens and bread.....

(Awesome photos on this first one!)
http://breadhunter-breadforall.blogspot.com/2008_05_04_archive.html

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/forum

http://www.grit.com/Tools/Backyard-Bread-Oven.aspx

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000jAl

http://www.heatkit.com/html/bakeoven.htm (Haven't looked at the links yet, but awesome photos!)

http://www.traditionaloven.com/

I'll come back later and make the links prettier. : )