Preparation - Written on 8/26

Preparation: The first phase before any big storm hits, is getting ready and being prepared. For us this took us two whole days of running around and digging. Digging? Yep digging. We have a few flooding problems. :S

Problem 1: A mole dug up under one of the window wells to the basement windows.
Solution: Replace the window well with a new larger (going deeper into ground) composite window well. For this we dug out the old metal one and then had to dig down about arms lenght to get the new one into the ground. We put all the dirt back.
Result: Sore body and still flooding. :(
Solution 2: A 40 lb. bag of dirt to regrade the land around the window well. Amazing how it never seems that the dirt you dug out is enough to put back.
Result 2: So far so good.

Problem 2: Run off from the roof has warn a small ditch in the flower bed where the river rock is and it causes flooding in that part of the yard.
Solution: Two days before the hurricane starts put in a french drain- more digging. This we kind of just did with no real rhyme or reason as to how it's suppose to be done. We dug a trench about 1 foot wide by 18-24 inches deep and 25 feet in length. (This made me really just want to go out and buy a small back hoe. I'm sure I could find other uses for it too.) For those who don't know New England, especially my yard, has very rocky soil. That combined with tree roots made this an especially tough and long day.
Result: Praying it works.

Problem 3: (Geesh, I know. I think this is the last one.) It's kind of the same as problem 2. Run off from the roof on the concrete walkway foods the walk and it will come up over the box of the house and into the basement.
Solution: Short term- (10) 40lb. bags of top soil. (Hey, it's cheaper than play sand and sand bags.)
Long term - Lay some new cement down to regrade the walk away from the house.
Result: Short term - Praying it holds back all the water we're suppose to get. So far we've been shoveling the pooling water out into the yard. :S

That's it. So outside of digging and dirt bagging (hehe, because we used dirt bags instead of sand bags.) It took us 3 stores to find batteries. We got 2 packs of D's that were the last ones anywhere. Bought 7 gallons of drinking water and some canned goods to eat if we loose power.

Hurricane Irene Journaled

I lost power six days ago and finally got power back about 2 hours ago.  The hurricane knocked out power to half of Connecticut and it's taken forever to get power back. To deal with the loss of power and to keep myself from completely going insane from it I journal-ed about our experiences. I will be taking time over the next week or so to post my journal here and share this experience with you, from the getting ready and preparation phases, to during the storm, following the storm, the aftermath and what I learned and took from this whole ordeal, along with pictures of the aftermath.  I will share my frustrations and laughter with you.

Opening Day at the Farms Market!!

Today was opening day at the farmers market (CRFM - Coventry Regional Farmers Market) and what fun it was! I absolutely love the farmers market. I grew addicted to it last year as we became regulars even visiting the winter market when weather permitted us. This year it was so nice to see some of the familiar face that we have come to know again this year.  There were also some new people we met there too. The people at the market are simply wonderful.

They are so friendly and social able, as are the dogs and their owners.  The kids want to pet every dog they come across, however if we did that we would never get anywhere. We have met some really nice dog owners who are kind enough to tell you what kind of dog they have and maybe a story or two about them.

Today we came across some really big dogs. I'm not sure how the owners do it but if that dog crawled into bed with you there wouldn't be much room left. I had to take a picture, the dog stands roughly waist high or higher.We also met some cute small dogs too. It's a wonderful dog friendly environment. The market only allows well behaved dogs. (Definitely a place for our dog as he is scared of his own shadow.)

I got some nice pictures of various thing at the market. Lavender from Fort Hill Farms, who is one of the Farmer's Cow farmers. We learned they have a great corn maze, gem mining and a discovery barn. They also host birthday parties.

Today I can say that "I licked the Farmer's Cow."  At least that's what the sticker says. I just get a giggle out of that every time I see/say it.  I know, you say I liked the "Farmer's Cow" and think "what?!" It's referring to Farmer's Cow Ice Cream and boy was it good today. The perfect day for some ice cream.

Ice cream, iced coffee, raspberry crumble, strawberries, kettle corn, pizzas, tacos, pulled pork sammies, muffins, cannolis, quiches, basil that is so good you can eat it while you walk, mint, carrots, soups, pasta, breads (both stuffed and not stuffed), pancakes and sausage (which was amazing), garlic, caramel apples...do you see where I am going with this. There is just too many good things to pass up.  I blame the farmers market for me having to exercise so much during the week. 

This is all just from this week alone...we'll just have to see what next week brings.

If you want to see more photos from today check out my Deviant Art page. :)

Trying to organize the disorganized

I will admit I am probably one of the most disorganized people. That being said we had an extra room in the house that we spontaneously decided to turn into and office/studio. My husband is an artist, who draws for a living, and then there is me, who crafts for a living (or at least tries to.)

The house was built in the 70's and hasn't been updated in any way other than some paint and a small addition, so yeah, the house is ugly.  I really hate the dark wood paneling. I hate the people who put it in originally even more.  (This house was built by the original owners who lived in it while building it so nothing in the house is right.)  They glued the darn paneling to the drywall...the drywall does not go over the duct work for the heat so there really is no way to take down the paneling with out having to re-drywall the entire house. My sad solution to this is......get ready for this one....paint the paneling.  Yeah I know painted paneling. Sounds bad huh?  Not really to bad actually. I've already painted the living room a nice light green apple color. The paneling kind of gives it that country feel.

The color is going to be a nice yellow color, not to bright and not so light that it might as well be white.  We are completely rearranging the room too. The closet is going to be emptied and painted a bright white. A desk will be inserted in to the closet for under storage and then covered with a white cloth. Flood lamps will be placed in the closet and this is where I will be able to take all my photos. I plan to close off the closet with a white curtain so that I can hide it when not in use and then just pull the curtain back when I need to take photos.

We are doing all of this to try to take the best advantage of the space that we can, and to help weed out what we actually need and organize it all.  Big hopes for a very unorganized person. I fear that when it is all done I won't be able to find a thing.  It'll probably take a few weeks and I'll try my best to post in progress pictures. 

No Garden is Complete Without Signs

I decided since things really started sprouting in the garden that it was time to make the garden pretty and actually make some signs for the boxes. Right now I am using the empty packet from the seeds to mark what is planted where, and those poor little packets are getting ratty from rain and water. We have tons of polymer clay laying around the house for those....I've gotta sculpt something urges.  We I got the urge to sculpt some little signs for the veggies.  I figured I would just do signs for things in the long boxes to start and see how that goes.


I found some sticks that I could use as holders and started sculpting. I kneaded and kneaded and rolled out and rough cut out some rectangles. I stamped the clay rectangles with letters and designs. They got put in the oven to bake then cool over night and this is what came out.


I decided to leave them rough because I felt that it would be a better fit in the garden if they weren't so polished looking. I want them to look a little imperfect. I went ahead and brushed a white coating/primer on them. (Wishing now that I had used the airbrush or a spray primer for a more even coverage. It might not have taken so many coats of some of the colors to get them even looking.)

Once they looked all peaked it was time to decide on a base coat for each of them. This was the tough part. I wanted to color them to go along with the veggies but with SO many green veggies I was at a loss.  I used a few different shades of green that I had to give some variety to the green. There were also few that ended up with odd colors like pink and blue grey.

 Then I had to paint in the details. This was the tough part as some of the stamped parts were small. I had to use a really tiny brush, my favorite a citadel 0000, and lots of Liquitex Flowaid.  If you've never used Flowaid it's great. You mix it into your paint and it allows your paint to flow easily. I use a drop of paint to two small drops of Flowaid, mixed well, to get the paint to flow nicely from the brush and into the tiny indents of the stamped clay. Each one is different from each other. I didn't stamp any two the same.   The one problem I did have toward the end was that during the baking process some of the stick holes shrunk. To fix this I had to whittle away at some of the sticks till they fit in.  I must say that I am very happy with the way they turned out.


                                      They really brighten up the boxes and the garden!