Down Mulberry Lane

Refreshing the wood stove...

Today I spent a couple hours cleaning and working on the wood stove.  The fire was still burning, so I did not clean the window as of yet, but you can see what was done today.   The stove was all rusted from the wet moist weather we had this summer, you know, when Iowa had all that flooding.   Well, I took a toothbrush and scrubbed all of the cast iron details.  I also cleaned up the cast iron pot on top of the stove.  After that, I took some vegetable shortening and a clean toothbrush and wiped down the entire stove.  I had only intended to do the cast iron, but the splatters ended up getting onto the soapstone so I just oiled them completely down. 

It looks nice, now.  The oiled stone brings out it's details... with our home being so dry, the stone had almost turned... flakey white.   You can notice that a bit on the top of the stove by the pot, where the oil has already seasoned into the stone... it is still a bit white.  However, I am still quite pleased with the results as the stone looks better than it has in years and the cast iron is nice and black again.  Along the top edge the cast iron looks a shiny brown color, but that is an error from the flash... it all looks nice and black.   I was a bit concerned about getting the oil onto the stone, but it has not appeared to have altered the stone color. 

Now, I need to get back down there and clean up the tiled areas.   I told the girls before I put up the tree, the fire area is getting a good cleaning and a good spiffing.  We need to redo the tile, you may have noticed the missing tiles in front of the stove.  Hopefully that will get done next summer.  It looks like the stove pipe could use a bit of oil as well!  LOL... too bad my toothbrush has melted into a hard piece of plastic from doing the door of the stove... that was quite warm and melted it very quick. 

Well, I've delayed long enough...

Warmly, ~Melissa

Pic's of new kittens

Rosco

The kitten with the bad eye.

Abigail

You can see her feet are orange, and a bit on her face as well.  She reminds us of Mark, a cat my mother used to have.  She doesn't like me much; she just scratches me and runs away.  She likes Kate, however.  She's the wild one.  Likes hiding under the couch.  Doesn't like being touched, unless it is Kate doing the touching. 

The Black kitten.

This is now "Paige's" cat.  We are trying to find a name she likes that she can say that everyone else likes.  Right now she is calling the kitten "SISTER".   She was the wild one when they first got here, but she has calmed down and sits on the couch, plays with the kids and seems to enjoy having a family.  She saw the door to outside and screeched and ran back into the house.  She'd been raised in a barn and must have thought we were going to shoo her back outside.  Too funny! 

Warmly, ~Melissa

Our improved entry room...

This was our recent project that we completed.  I don't have before pictures.  Dh got moving on the project before I really knew we were beginning. 

This is the entry room.  This was our kitchen when we first moved into the house.  It had an old metal sink and a small 3 foot by 2 foot counter to mix things on.... When we remodeled nearly 11 years ago, we moved the kitchen to a slightly bigger room.  Since then this room has been everything under the sun.  For this project Dh built the lower countertop with the cupboards beneath them.  The countertop was a 7.5 foot remnant that he got for less than $14, I think.  The wood was wood we recently picked up as a factory was closing down and they offered my fil the wood if he wanted... to them it was scrap wood, but it worked just fine for us.  We painted the cupboards the navy blue to match the wallpaper we already had up.  And we painted the doors a cream color and the knobs are just stained like the rest of the woodwork. 

This is our entry room and you will notice the boots on the plastic on the floor.  In a farm house, a room like this is definately needed.  Doing farm chores and having a place to drop the boots to dry... and not to track them into the house, well... I used to get upset, I think it looks messy, but my next door neighbor always comes over and says... I love your mudroom, it is such a blessing to have one of these in the house... every farm needs one... She was training me, I now know to love my home and it's way of dealing with the messy farm stuff. 

Anyways, the counter was short enough to fit two cans to hold pop cans and bottles in them.  You can't see the main entrance door, it is to the right of this doorway I took the picture through.  In front of the recycle cans there is a tiled area that comes straight out from the front door.  The small fridge is holding our eggs from our chickens.  You can see some spare cartons on top of the fridge and the cardboard boxes are just empty... I am still digging out and hope to use these to move things out of the house.  I guess the bottom cardboard box is holding the main supply of egg cartons...  the three silver stacking boxes are going to be used somehow, just not sure how yet.  Dh brought home the chickens from the butcher in those. 

This is looking straight onto the new lower cupboards.  It works very well with the upper cupboards.  Everything else that has been under them has stuck out so far that I, being short, struggled with using the upper cupboards cuz I'm not elastic woman!  I was so thrilled when putting things away realizing I could now reach into these cupboards without a step stool! 

You can see pretty much the arrangement... I have from the left... a breadmachine with my grinder behind it.  Another bread machine (and yes I use both at the same time OFTEN!), my bosch mixer with potato water and boiled potates in front of it.  In front of the window is a breakfast tray filled with teas, cocoas, and assorted extras.  I found this handy to have out as it makes others more at ease with having a beverage when they can see it is out and they have "choices"  LOL.   The teenagers that visit like it and help themselves.  Lastly is the huge roll of industrial plastic wrap. LOL.  Thanks to Sam's Club for offering something so large!  It doesn't fit anywhere else and isn't handy to grab it in and out so on the counter it will sit. 

My little one helped decorate for Christmas.  She especially likes the jeweled candy decorations on the lower right cupboard doors. 

This is the last picture.  This is taken from the other side of the room.  (This isn't a very large room).  The three-doored storage area is my pantry area.  The last cupboard holds my brooms and cleaning supplies as well as canned goods near the top (They go nearly to the ceiling, hence the need for a step-stool!).  The wall to the left got painted to match the kitchen which is next to this room.  A door is just to the left of the picture entering the kitchen... the doorway that I took the first picture out of.   I had to paint this wall since my little one had decided to strip the wallpaper off the wall one day last year.  I just painted it a few days ago.  I still had leftover paint from the kitchen, so it was fine... a little thick, but enough to cover the wall. 

The door on the right of this picture is to my appliance pantry.  This is actually underneath our upstairs stairway, so it isn't a great space.  But there is shelving inside to store my crockpots, ice cream maker, waffle irons, etc.  My tupperware sits in two boxes on the floor in this little pantry area.  When we moved in this was my ONLY space for storing food.  I feel blessed!  To the right of this door is another door, which leads to our basemen and another outside door, depending on which way you turn after going down three steps. 

Our last bit of the project still undone is the inside of the pantry cupboards.  We decided to put some coat racks in the other two using the same space as the broom storage in the third cupboard.  But, right now they are full of food.  If I go reorganize tonight, I may clear up one side enough to at least fit one hanging pole into it.  We figured each door would hold 3-4 coats.  With 6 in the family and 5 also having barn coats... I'll still need some more storage, but this will be better than having nothing to hang coats from.  I'm still looking for other possibilities.  We tried hooks on the wall, but the coats never stayed up.... although the rack held hooks too close together and the hooks were not very large.  I was out today and saw some nice big hooks and I'm thinking hooks may work if we space them far enough apart... they would have to go on the wall where the silver boxes were stacked... I'll keep thinking about it and pray about it until we make the final decision.  Either way we have to buy the hanging poles or the hooks... so it's just to decide which will work best. 

Well, that's our entry room. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

PS... These other pictures will be deleted for picture space later, but they might help round out the rest of the room...

Front door to the very right, with a hose and a bell hanging on it.  (I love bells on our outside doors!   No surprise visitors!... people always walk right in in the country!) Bottles are overflowing!  Kids just had some friends over this past weekend. 

The basement door is where the cat is.  (The cats name is Snickers).

The front door and the kitchen door.  (that bucket to the right holds flour). 

The front door to the right of the new lower cupboard.     

Sharing baby's room

I know it is fun to peek into other's homes.  So, I thought I would share a little bit when I have time.  This is my youngest's room.   Her room is next to ours, so it is close by to check on things and hear almost every audible sound.  I hear her roll over, Dh does not.  *grin*

This first picture is from her doorway.  It has a narrow entry.  Her closet is on the right, which you cannot see, but it is across from the wall on the left in front of the dresser.

In this picture, I am sitting on her bed looking at the crib and the dresser.  Under the crib I store blankets and my "step" which I don't use to exercise anymore, rather I use it to be able to get baby in and out of the crib easier.  She however doesn't use the crib anymore, so it is shoved underneath the crib.  Dh made the crib.  Just had a picture in his mind and went to work.  It turned out  quite nice. 

Above the crib and dresser is a shelf that should get cleaned off, but I don't often look up there since I am so short.  We put the extra stuffed animals up there.  The boxes hold odd baby items that are more sentimental than useful.  The dresser top looks messy, but is holding a picture, an elephant piggy bank, baby cookies (which are gone now) lotions, and shoes.  Things that have no other home.

Here is the bed where baby sleeps.  It is a full size mattress on the floor.  This way she cannot fall out of bed.  At around eleven months she pulled herself out of the crib and fell on the floor on her head.  I never could put her back in it, so I pulled out a mattress from storage and put it on the floor.  She was able to stand and walk pretty much when she was put on the floor bed.   The bed is in a part of the room that used to be in the closet, but we cut out part of the closet... The closet used to be in our room, but DH put up a wall (previously it held our older girls' rooms when we split the room and made it into two rooms.  By cutting out the closet space, we created a spot for another bedroom.  The ceiling comes down quite low, but it works for a child's bedroom.

This is the last picture.  Here you can see the closet door to the left of the main door.  The basket holds her toys and the baby crib... she has to rock her dolly to sleep nearly every night.  

I had a rocking chair in here before when I was nursing her.  I took it out, but it ended up going back into this room for lack of space elsewhere when we got our new living room furniture.  It is nice in this room.  I can rock her and read her books before bed.  The rocking chair is where the dresser is pictured above and the dresser is where the basket of toys is above.  The basket of toys is at the end of the bed between the crib and the mattress under the window.  It works for now since the crib isn't actively being used other than for changing diapers. 

The quilt on the bed, I made years ago.  In fact with so many washings the material is faded and you can see through it ... it is so very thin.  I'm afraid it won't last much longer.  I need to get making some more quilts as we need some more bedcovers.  I may try something that actually has a pattern next time.  LOL

Well, I will share other rooms as I get a chance to get more pictures. 

Warmly, ~Melissa