Treasures under the house or surprise # 42

Well lets see, lots happening around here, the latest is we are getting ready for the foundation work to begin. They will be patching the foundation there are holes everywhere and its crumpling. Support beams will be replaced and we are hoping that once they get into it we wont have any more surprises, keep your fingers crossed.

So this is kind of cool, for me not so much for Joel. There is a crawl space under what will someday be the library it needs to be cleaned out so the workers can get under there and so we can insulate, this house is over 100 years and no one along they thought to put insulation under the house or even in the attic, that’s another story but I am getting side tracked.

The former owner had to get under there and had a small hole cut in the floor, apparently our workers did not feel it was big enough so Joel had to make it bigger. This is right up his ally as he was able to use lots of tools, I don’t get it but whatever, Lol. Once this is all done he will rebuild the “door” in the floor complete with handle. He will do an awesome job as woodworking is his hobby.

Anyway as the story goes, as it was told to us.....the old farmer that once owned this property apparently liked to drink, a lot. The people we bought the house from said for years and years they picked up liqueur bottles all over the grounds. Now when they moved in they noticed a hole in the floor and even though it seemed odd they did not give it much more thought as the condition of the house when she bought it was really something. They showed up pictures you would not even recognize it as the same house we bought, ok again I am getting side tracked. So... when they went under they found hundreds of old bottles! Now it makes sense, the old guy must have sat in this room drinking and getting rid of the bottles by throwing them into the hole.

What we were left with was bucket after bucket of broken glass and other bits of trash. We had to haul it out one bucket at a time. When all was said and done we now have about 200 old bottles that we will try and sell. Some we will keep as they are part of the history of the house and some I will paint as still life objects. I am thinking a painting in the library as a reminder might be nice.....maybe not, LOL.

Here are some pictures so you get a better idea of what I am talking about...

Cutting the floor

My first peek under the floor, no I did not go down there just the camera, LOL

First bucket full

First load of many

Now I have done a little research on bottles and one thing I read was that people got rid of bottles by throwing them in there privy (outhouses) why not they had a hole in the ground and it would be filled in. Apparently if you are into old bottles that’s were you want to dig, to each there own, LOL So I am thinking that the hole in the floor was made for this purpose. We have so many poison bottles and other household bottles that I don’t think it was just a place to stash the empties. I do however like the other story much better, it also explains the cigaret burns in the floor!!

 

Nice

Sometimes its just the little things the unexpected things that can be huge. Yesterday I threw some hay in the barn for the horses, I placed it in the isle so I could clean the stalls. I walked by Quincy who was eating and you all know how food oriented he is, nothing comes between him and his feed, without thinking I reached out grabbed his tail ever so slightly and just pulled toward me, not even pulled just a slight tug and guess what, he backed up!!!! Granted he was chewing he has his month full but wow ! Now I know that might seem silly to a lot of folks but to get a horse to back by tugging on there tail takes some doing, to get them to do this with just a slight tug not much more than a thought is awesome, to get Quincy to do anything much less backing, well all I can say is wow.

Site for the new arena

Barn before the storm

Barn after the storm, it seemed to move daily

All gone!!

Well the old barn is not only down, its gone and although this was not what we wanted mother nature had different ideas and we were left with no choice but to tear it down. When we got the property we knew there was a possibility that it could not be saved but we were hopeful. Then the storm came and left us with no choice but to take it down. We hired someone to do this for us and even paid extra to have it taken down in parts in order to save the wood, but, some genius had tied cables around the barn ( in an attempt to keep it standing)and when Ron, he’s the one taking it down, when he cut a cable and just gave it a little shove the whole thing just collapsed. Yickes that was not good.

We were also having the ground from the one barn to the old one leveled so we could put up the round pen, as we watched all this happening Joel and I were talking and one thing led to another, why not put the arena here ! Ron has the equipment he has the time lets just go for it. The reason we were not going to put it here in the first place was one it’s a very windy spot and two we were going to build a shop there but since we were not able to save much of the wood and since we cant put an arena in our chosen spot for two more years, ( its under contract with crp) we thought lets just do it!

We have not figured everything out as this truly was not something planed but hopefully in a few months we will have our arena. We are hoping in the future to have a covered arena but that has to wait till we hit the lottery, in the mean time this will work just fine. We are close to the barn so easy to tack up and ride. Visitors will be able to just pull up and use it. It will be a great spot to warm up the horse and rider then go for a trail ride, I’m thinking this is going to be great!!!!!.

I will post pictures when the arena is done but in the mean time you can all see the latest changes  here at Barking Dog Ranch. .

 

 

Happy New Year

Well it’s a new year, I’ve l made my resolutions, oh the dreaded resolutions, , still have my trees up, just been to lazy to take them down, and now I am really contemplating what to do next. I think this is the week for me to really think about some changes, to figure out what I want to do and to just get to it, wow 2010 !

So...If I don’t call them resolutions instead if I call them goals then maybe I will actually keep some of them. Lets see, I plan on calling home more, emailing more, writing more letters and card, I love getting cards and letters in the mail so maybe if I send more I will get more.... riding more, playing more, creating more , painting more, writing more and reading more. That’s a lot of mores but none of them are very hard and all of them will make my world a better place. That’s the plan lets see if I can stick to it.
Well then, I have a full week ahead of me, I will make my list but, and this is a big but, I will get done what I can and not worry if something prevents me from getting it done, there is always next week, I mean as long as I am accomplishing something, anything, then all is good and I will just continue the list.

So this week.... I really do have to take down the trees and put the decorations away, I cant believe I am admitting this out loud but do you know I still have most of the original boxes for most of my ornaments and some of them go back to high school, each ornament comes off the tree, goes in its original box then gets put into a container, that my friends is why it takes me so long to put everything away, and why I always put it off....why do I do this to myself ? I have a long list of things to get done this week, but I don’t wont to bore you all with it, I just need to get to it.

I do want to wish all of you a very happy, healthy, wonderful new year. I hope your dreams and wishes all come true. Stay positive, laugh a lot and do the things you want to do. Stay in touch with loved ones, find old friends, make new ones, let the past go and move on. Have a great 2010 everyone !!!!!

Facebook

I have joined a few web sites, social networks, blogs etc... I belong to art sites and horse sites and sites that I am really not sure what we do. The internet has been a powerful tool for me, I have my own web site for art, I sell on different sites, I buy on some, I talk on some, I learn on some, I hover on others. I have joined and quit, gotten confused and lent a helping hand. Its very frustrating at times and very very fun other times.

Well I am thinking facebook has become one of my favorite sites. I started there out of curiosity but it has turned into the most wonderful way to stay in touch. I have friends and family all over the place and now I can see what everyone is up to with a click of the mouse, its been just great. More recently I have been able to connect with people I went to school with and that’s been a blast.

Now some of my “friends” don’t understand that they actually need to write something in order for all of this to work but that’s ok they are just behind the times, perhaps they will catch up. But everyime I see a new face I just love it. I even have friends that I have never met in person but we “met” on other sites and just followed each other.

Well I just really wanted to thank all my friends and let you know I am loving being there and although I might not talk to everyone everyday I am thinking about all of you. If you have not yet joined what are you waiting for you will be so surprised how quickly and easily you will connect and reconnect with family and friends. Go on join!!!!

Tittle Change

Well ok then I decided on “I’m Just Saying...” Its something I say almost daily and usually in a sarcastic way, LOL but the title now covers just about anything I may want to write about. Briefly I changed it to Life at Barking Dog Ranch but decided I wanted it a little lighter. Not to say I wont change it back....

Thanks fo the input everyone !!!

Name change

Well as you all know I cant sit still or leave well enough alone. The title of this blog has been bothering me, I did it in a hurry and at first I thought I would use it for everything, art, horses and life but as it turns out I am using a separate one for my art so I need to get rid of that in the title. I have been agonizing over this for a bit and still cant come up with anything I really like so I am going to list a few ideas

I keep going back to Life at Barking Dog Ranch since that name has been a part of my life for many years but I have a few other ideas as well let me know what you think good or bad

Life at Barking Dog Ranch

Fragments

This end up

Just me

Its just me

Over here

I’m just saying

Thanks talk to you all soon