Prepping for Winter ~~ More in the Bedroom

I love to use my hurricane lamp and candles not only for heat but also for light.  I wasn't feeling safe after adding the blanket the other night so I found an old mirror that was left behind upstairs and polished it up and put it behind the dresser.  (when I say old, I mean actual antique mirror.  It's painted with silver on the back)  Not only does it hold the blanket back at a safe distance, it also makes the light brighter.

Fuzzy, our cat, has a bad habit of using the bed as a litter box when she isn't getting her way.  Part of it I think is she is lonely because she mostly only sees us at night when we are sleeping.  I used the last of our clear plastic (we bought for the windows) and pieced it together to make a cover for the bed.  I'm going to see how she behaves now.  Hopefully she is good and doesn't find someplace else to be naughty.

One half was a little extra long and I had another piece left over from something else, so I pieced them together.  It fits nicely here in the corner by the window where thee blankets don't meet.  I just tucked it in over the rails.  It's behind the dresser and there is a box fan holding the other side.

Slowly making progress.  I have 1 more "wall" to make.  I have been able to keep it about 20 degrees warmer in our "tent" than the temperature outside.  Every little bit helps.

Prepping for Winter ~~ Craft Room

I have a window in my craft room.  This is also the room where my computer is.  It's not is real good shape and mostly covered with plywood.  This past summer we cut a hole in the plywood so we could have more ventilation.  The USA map is taped on the glass over where the hole is in the plywood. There is a LOT of cold air that comes in the window at night.

Sitting next to the window at my computer gets pretty cold some nights already.  I can only imagine how much colder it's going to be once the snow starts falling.

I found an old quilt and a board that was just the right size to fit in the old blind holder.  I shoved the top of the quilt over the board and tucked it in on both ends.  It's long enough there us a good amount there on the window sill.  It may be old and torn but it sure does a good job helping to keep some extra cold air out.  One more step to being warmer.

It’s Time to Get Ready For Cold Weather ~~ Prepping for Winter

Cold weather is just around the corner here. Upper 30’s start tonight and low 20’s are just a couple days away. Burrrr! Thankfully as of the current forecast we aren’t to get any snow. If we do it shouldn’t amount to much at all. So what have I done to prepare for winter?  Well I've gotten out my candle holders and washed the globe on my hurricane lamp. Candles are fun to watch, can smell good, and they put off heat.   I did buy a few scented tea light candles from the dollar tree today. I’ll share about them in another post.

We also have a camping awning over our bed. It’s not anything fancy just a lower "roof" than our actual ceiling. Maybe I should note most of our time is spent in this room. Most of the remaining time is spent at work.

On 2 sides, the side towards the windows and the side towards the door, I have added sheets along the frame of the awning. I have safety pinned it so we can easily slide it back and forth.

I do plan to add sheets on the other 2 ends. Inside this little room in a room is the bed, a dresser, and a space heater. Be watching for more ways we get ready for cold weather. 

Hello!

It's been awhile.  I haven't been MIA, I've just been putting my time and effort into YouTube videos.  Boy do they take a lot of time.  If you'd like to check them out.....lots of yarn related videos.....Here's the LINK to my channel.  I think I still want to continue with my Monday Projects of the Week videos but I'm running out of content.  LOL!  So I hope to come back here and visit with you all for a spell again.

It's turned cold and winterization upstairs has started.  We have done a few new things so far this year.  I'll tell you about those in another post.  We haven't gotten the kerosene heater out yet, we have been able to keep it warm enough with just the space heaters so far.

I've been busy crocheting stocking hats for charity.  I talk about that in my Monday videos.  Our church has a free clothing exchange once a month as well as handling the coats for kids for the local assistance center.  People need hats too, right?

It's late and I'm tired but I'm looking forward to talking to you all again real soon.

Summer Heat Busters

Thankfully we have only had about 2 weeks of temps near 100 and heat index well over 100.  God has been good for sure.

One thing I did to help with the summer heat was put construction paper on the window.  It sure was pretty but I'm not sure how well it helped. Probably more than I realized.  Each morning when we got up we would close the window and put the curtains down.

I also added some aluminum foil to the top windows, but I think it added to the heat, plus opening and closing the window it came off pretty quickly.

each evening after the sun went down we would open the window and put the fan in.  Sometimes pulling the cooler air in, other times blowing the hot air out.  By the time we actually went to bed it wasn't too bad.  Still on the warm side, but hubby and I each had a fan blowing across us so we made it.

In the evening we would also put the moving blanket down (the door stayed open) to keep the heat from the rest of the building out and the cooler air in.

We did add a small window AC in the boy's room and had a fan blowing into our room but it didn't do much good, well it wasn't cold like we expected it to be.  It probably helped more than we realized it did.

This past week it cooled off down into the 80's  PTL! and we took the AC out of the window.  So far we have been quite comfortable.  I'd like it to be cooler, but then again we don't have as much trouble going out in the heat since we keep a rather warm "house".

 

How have you done this summer?

Recap on Winter Upstairs

I'm not sure I have found everything, but here is a recap on preparing for and staying warm upstairs for 2016/2017 winter.  I will link each one to the post I talked about it.  Some will link to the same post some are just things we did and have no post that I have found......

• We put our coats across the foot of the bed
• We used a warm fuzzy blanket as a top sheet
• We put some trim and weather stripping on the inside to where the door only opens out
• We used space heaters, a kerosene heater and candles to help warm the room(s)
• We bought a few moving blankets from Harbour Freight to put over our bedroom doors that lead to the main hallway.
• Space Heater, kerosene heater and candles again
• We put plastic over the windows
• We kept stocked up on Kerosene for our heater.  I think we only ran out once
• We put lots of extra blankets on our bed
• We added a blanket between the mattress and the bottom sheet
• We heated homemade corn sacks in the microwave and took them to bed with us.

One Screen Down ~~ Preparing for Warm Weather

We finally got one screen made.  We bought a roll of aluminum screen at Home Depot.  I didn't want the nylon screen because, well......we have Fuzzy, and I know what cats can do to screens. 

Hubby laid the screen out on the bed and measured how much he needed with the little boards he cut to fit in the frame.

Fuzzy is like "Woah! There is nothing here between me and outside!"  Notice her tail is outside the window.

"Mom did you know there is nothing there?" Note the tail is still outside the window.  

Yah I was a little nervous that she would go out on the ledge. It wouldn't be the first time.  

If you note in the picture above with Fuzzy, we have a 2x4 frame that is there to hold the top window up.  Hubby nailed the screen to that and then along the bottom of the window.  He did trim the screen also, so we could open and close the window.  

This is amazing!  I am very thankful and happy to have a screen.  Hopefully it cuts down on the little green grasshopper like bugs and the rest of the scary summer time bugs that like to hang around the street light.  It also allows us to open and close the window easier, and we can actually open it wider now.  Plus, unless fuzzy starts doing a lot of leaning on the screen (like cats like to do) I feel safer having it open.  We had been using metal shelving shelves and they didn't fit real good.  It was better than nothing though.

I do believe Fuzzy approves of the new screen.  

Next window is in my son's room.  It will require a lot more work.  The top window is broken out and we need to cover that more securely than we have it now, and we want to build a frame like we have in this window to help hold the top window up.  We will install the screen the same way.  I will share pictures when we get it accomplished.

Working on the Theatre Room

Finally we are getting ready to work on a room upstairs.  This will be the Theatre Room.  Don't ask why we didn't start with something like a living room or bathroom....we just didn't  LOL!  How this room got called the Theatre Room in the first place is it stored actual theatre chairs, that we got for FREE for just going to pick them up.  In a neighboring town the theatre was remodeling and removing the standard cushion chairs and putting in recliner like chairs.  We took a friend with us and were able to come home with 15 chairs....the allowed 5 per person.

These chairs have been this room for a good year or so. 

Yes there is a door from the hallway, and doors on each side of the room, kinda like a real theatre.

The walls, woodwork, and flooring is all original from 1920 when the building was built.

The floor has a green linoleum on it that is still in very good shape!

We are removing the plaster on the ceiling, which is cracking and some had already fallen.  We are going to put insulation and sheetrock on the ceiling.  Don't you just LOVE the bricks above the windows?  Believe it or not the plaster on that wall is probably an inch and a half to 2 inches thick!  We are leaving it and just going to remove the plaster that is damaged.  We are keeping the original light fixture on the ceiling as well.  The windows in this room, with a little repair would be is perfect working order.  The glass is not broken and the chain weights in the windows work perfectly.  The top windows need a little repair.  I'm glad they are so perfect and that the previous owner protected them even more by putting the green fiberglass roofing stuff over the outside.

Excuse the dust!  You can see I opened the windows a bit.  Not like it probably did much good for the ceiling dust.  It was just the idea they were open.  We have removed half of the ceiling.  We will remove the rest another day.  Whew it was a lot of work, for sure.  It's gonna be way worth it though when it's finished!  Looking forward to sharing the remodel with you.

Thanks for reading :-D

Homemade Laundry

I have been doing laundry by hand for almost 2 months now.  Why? Well Our local laundromat has a lot of broken down machines and the owners, being older, aren't wanting to put a lot of money into fixing things, or so I have been told.  It makes it hard to get a machine sometimes, especially when someone else is there and washing a month's worth for a family.  I just asked nicely on a local facebook group how the community could help spruce up the place.  It turned into a bashing session of different people saying things about me and on and on.  Well one guy said "why not get a washboard and go down to the river".  So I took his advice, sorta.  I DO have a wonderwasher that I love love love, so technically not washing everything by hand.

2 T-shirts is a load and it struggles with washing a pair of jeans.  Therefore there are a few things I DO have to wash by hand.  You cant believe how dirty the clean clothes were!  I spent nearly 2 weeks rewashing them and washing real dirty clothes to get them clean.  They smelled awful too.  They didn't smell clean.  It didn't matter how much laundry soap I put in the washer.   For the most part I used Zote laundry soap when I started washing by hand.  That stuff is AMAZING!  I used a lot of [off brand] oxy cleaner too.  Some items I had to wash multiple times to get them clean.

Now a month and a half later, doing laundry is a bit easier.  So far I have been able to keep up with it.  I just do a little each night as there is drying room available.  Smaller non bulky items I wring out by hand.  What do I use to wring out the bugger things?  The wringer on our mop bucket.  It does a pretty good job.  Some day I want a spin dryer.  Something similar to THIS ONE.  It would make getting the water out of the clothes much easier and drying time much quicker.

Now for the laundry soap?  Well I still have store bought liquid that I use occasionally.  It only takes at the most half a teaspoon for a load.  I have noticed though, which I find odd, is sometimes it makes our clothes smell like smoke.  We are non smokers and we aren't around any fireplaces, etc.  What I DO like to use though, like I mentioned above, is Zote laundry bar soap.  I bought several bars a few years back because I was wanting to make homemade laundry soap, but never did.  I also got them for $1 each!  SO what I have been doing is shaving a bar of the laundry soap and adding 2 scoops of the [off brand] oxy cleaner to it.  It's Amazing and takes about 1/2 teaspoon per load.  With all the extra washing I did on the first bar, it has lasted a month and a half.  I'm expecting this batch to last a bit longer.  But still it cost me so little to make, it's not that big of a deal.  LOL!

I know there is more I could put in there, if I followed the recipes found on the web, but why?  I have soap and the oxy cleaner stuff.  Together they do the job and it satisfies me and hubby.  Also if there is a smell that you can describe as "clean" it's our hand washed clothes.  I don't need any artificial smell ingredients added to my laundry, it would just add to the cost too.  :-)

More Ways to Stay Warm

A couple more way we are staying warm upstairs......We have been putting our coats across the foot of the bed.  Not only does it help keep our feet warm, it also makes our coats a bit warmer in the morning when we put them on.  I have started putting my jeans on the bed too.  They usually fall off, but at least I'm trying.  LOL!  

Hubby fixed the front door to where hardly any air comes in at all.  The door actually will swing in or out (it's pretty cool) but he put some trim and weather stripping on the inside to where the door only open out now.  That has made a huge difference in the amount of cold air coming in.  There was a good inch plus gap at the top and you could see all along the edge too.  

One other thing we did last night, which we used to do at our old house (and I had forgotten about until I seen the blanket we used to use) is between is and the top sheet we have put a warm fuzzy blanket.  Oh my that made a big difference in the covers temperature.  

We still have a bit more we want to do.  I still need to finish the moving blankets over the doors.  I think that instead of having to take them down or having to sit on the cold floor to sew them, for now I will safety pin them together.  Maybe come spring or summer I will officially sew them.  More on that later, when I really do have them finished I will share the end results.  So far though  do believe they are helping.  Should help even more after they go all the way to the floor.

I uploaded a short video to YouTube last night.  It's about the current tunisian project I am working on.

Thanks for stopping by!

22 with a wind chill of 13

We got a little snow today.  Tonight the temperature outside is 22 with a wind chill of 13. Upstairs it's a cozy 51°. Not too shabby.  We have our space heaters on and the kerosene heater going. A few candles lit and the oil lamp. Gives the room a cozy feeling.

Stocking Up

Snow is coming.  I checked the forecast yesterday and it's been moved up to today.  I don't know how much we are supposed to be getting or if we will even get any at all. I'm just thankful that we were able to get stocked up on kerosene earlier this week. We also bought a few moving blankets from Harbour Freight to put over our doors. I seen this idea from a van dweller who bought them to line the inside of their van. They are pretty cheap right now. I bought 3 and paid $4.99 each. I still need to cut the third one in half. I'm going to sew the halves to the full ones so it makes them longer and hang to the floor. Here's one door:

 This one is about a foot short and the other door about 2 feet. The blankets are about 6 feet long. I think it's going to work out pretty well. Even like in the picture it made a difference in room temperature.  

It Helps Keep Us Warm

We have a small space heater that we put in our sons room.  It sits in the doorway and oscillates to share the heat between rooms. We have been running it all night this past week. We also have a kerosene heater that we light right before we retire for the night. We do extinguish it before going to sleep.

I love the glow and the shadows it makes. It lights up the room enough to see pretty good too.  Of course there are always at least one candle and some incense burning too.

Thankfully it has been pretty mild.  Only a few days so far have been below freezing at night.  The thermometer I had been using got knocked off when we were putting plastic up over the windows. I found a different one and it seems to work pretty accurately.  It says the room has been between 56 and 62 degrees since putting the plastic up.  The other one....well it says a constant 42 degrees....maybe it had been wrong all along.  Who knows.  LOL!

Thanks for stopping by and reading.  

Warmer but Rainy and Winterizing

Winterizing.....it was necessary.  Over the weekend we were below freezing for a couple nights.  That made it quite cool upstairs.  This year we decided to put plastic over the windows.  One window we decided not to seal completely so we can look out and so Fuzzy can get some sunshine.  Kitty cat's need and like sunshine.  Please ignore the pac-man ghost....it was part of last year's Christmas Parade entry and we use it to help keep out the streetlight light at night.

 Plastic open.....

We bought a small space heater to help take the chill of the night air.  We will use it the most, but we also have a portable kerosene heater for those really cold nights to help fight the cold. 

This morning was a bit warmer and it was rainy off and on.  What more do you need on a cool, rainy morning than a cuppa coffee?  I had a long double shot dark chocolate mocha latte, with a bit of cream.  Oh.My.Word! I think it's my new favorite drink.  

Off to work.......Not a lot to do today as of yet, so I think I will try and work on that shawl.  The sooner I get it finished the sooner I can move on to something else.

Thanks for stopping by!

So Pretty....and Smelly

So this WAS an electric warmer....but the electric part was faulty when we got it.  The company said "Keep it" and replaced it with another one.  I cut off the cord and decided to use a tea light candle under it.  This worked good until I added oil to it [that was cold] after it was already heated up and smelling good.  I cracked the dish.  😧  Now the oil drips slowly onto the candle below.  It seems to work ok for now.  Eventually though I bet I will have to toss it or find a new dish.  Today I had lilac warming and I added some vanilla-grapefruit. 

It has cooled off and therefore has gotten cooler upstairs.  I know I haven't kept you up to date on that, but thankfully it wasn't a long super hot summer.  I think maybe overall we weren't able to cope with the heat for a week total.  Other than that 2 fans and 2 windows open kept us cool.  We had a portable AC for about a week, but it was putting off more heat than it was cool air.  We ditched it after a few days.

Even Fuzzy thinks it's too cold.  This has been her normal sleeping place the past couple nights it has been down near or below freezing.  

Sorry if it's hard to see but it's not easy to take a video in the dark.  LOL!  

We have done a little winterizing though.  I will share that soon.

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Too Tired.....

Between the summer heat and more painting I was super tired yesterday.  Hope you didn't miss me too much.  Yesterday I had an "oops" moment.  I realized I didn't pay the water bills.  Cost me an about an extra $30, but I got them paid.  I think this is the second time in 21 years I have done this.  Guess I have a pretty good track record. ;-)

I also had [what I think is] a brilliant idea.  Most nomads use reflectix as window covering to help keep the sun and heat out.  I don't have the money right now to buy any, I don't want blind the people across the street, and it's getting really hot upstairs.  SO, we stopped by the old house (that we are trying to clean out to sell) and got some of the [drop] ceiling tiles.  I figured since it's insulation on one side and white, well a dirty white, on the other it should work pretty good.  I got 2 windows covered.  and today it was hot but still between 2 and 4 degrees cooler than outside.  I have 3 more windows I would like to cover with them.  These three and one of the ones already done we don't open.  I almost wonder if we could get it really cooled down up there is the window coverings would make more of a difference.  Time will tell.

Today was a busy day at the lock shop.  PTL!  Wish every day could be like today.  It was hot and we did turn the AC on a few times to help take the burn off the air.  No way am I leaving it going.  It ran non stop for 2 hours and didn't get down to temperature.

At the castle I did a little more painting, but mostly tonight it was pick things up and clean up since we are open tomorrow, Friday and Saturday.

We went to the grocery store to pick up some bottled water and bottled tea.  While we were there we noticed they had a sale on eggs,  2/$1.  We picked up a couple dozen and I hard boiled one dozen.  Guess that's lunch tomorrow.  For supper I'm putting some canned beef stew in to crockpot to heat.
the crockpot doesn't heat up the Castle too much and I can also use it and have the AC running as well.

Sunday

At church we started "The Story" today.  All the Sunday school classes are studying it.  We watch a short video then break up into our class and discuss the questions.  The sermon is based on the "weekly chapter" and children's church lesson is also based on the weekly chapter.  There are 40 chapters, so this will take us 40 weeks.....almost a year.  Today Preacher did a comparison in the sanctuary of the sun, which was the size of a pea that he sat on the upper ledge of baptistry, to a globe he has in his office.  He set that about 3 feet away.....then walked through the sanctuary and helped us visualize just how far each planet was from the sun.  Neptune, which was a blue paper, was at the very back of the room, and pluto was somewhere out in the parking lot.  LOL!  Very interesting, and unfortunatly, like every Sunday, I had a hard time staying awake.  *sigh* (clicking on the book picture is an affiliate link)

We ordered out Pizza for lunch.  While I was waiting on it, I got a call.....someone locked out of their truck at the lake.  Told them they would have to wait, lunch came first.  After lunch Hubby and I headed to the lake to unlock the truck.  It was at one of the boat docks.....with boat on the trailer behind.  The guy said there was a big catfish tied to the back of the boat.

There sure enough was.  Look at the size of that one closest to his leg!!!!!  I don't think I've seen one that big in person.  On the way home I asked hubby if he thought they were going to eat the fish.  He said probably so.  I had a bad experience with fish once, and haven't had fish since.

While we were there unlocking I seen this wooly-bear caterpillar.  Unfortunately he was dead, he got squished, but I took it for the colors.  Just a bit of black on each end and all brown in the middle.  He was pretty fluffy too.

Heading back to the Castle, the weinermobile was at the grocery store! Even at my age it was exciting to see!  Might be fun to take a ride in it some day.  I peeked in but didn't take pictures because there were people in there.  

Next stop was the laundromat.  I had to wait on a couple of washers when I got there as they were all being used.  I washed 2 loads and dried 1.  The other load got brought home and hung up to dry.  Next time I go I think I will try 50 cents less in the dryer.  The clothes come out so hot, they almost feel like they are on fire.  They are dry though.

While I was there I started another hat.  It is going to be a piggy hat.

When I got back Fuzzy was enjoying the afternoon sun.  I was too.  It is kind of chilly today, but in the sun it felt kinda hot actually.

I found a practical use for hubby's weight tree, which we aren't using right now.  It's perfect for hanging my extra hangers on.

Remember I said Hubby said we need to get more organized?  Well I cleaned off this shelf and folded and put the towels and under things on it.  It's nice and organized now, and both my laundry baskets are currently empty.  Well DuH! I just washed clothes today.  I'm trying......it's a slow process for someone who is not a naturally organized person.  One thing at a time.


Oldest son came by this afternoon and stayed to play MTG.  I told him he had to stay and I fixed supper.  Mac and Cheese with hot dogs. Both boys had venti chocolate lattes, I had a venti hazelnut latte and hubby had a pepsi.

The rest of the evening was spent organizing shelves and cabinets in preparation for our target April opening for serving ice cream and coffee ans sodas at the Castle.