A Trip To The Dump

On the way to the dump yesterday we saw a Mama bear with three cubs standing in the middle of the road.  They took off into the brush before I could even think about grabbing my camera.  Then a forth cub ran out across the road to catch up.  Cute, cute, cute.  Wait a minute.  4 cubs.  One mama bear AND FOUR CUBS!!!  Population explosion.

As we were disposing of our trash, this overly friendly fellow appeared on the other side of the dump.  He hung around for pictures, which was cool.

He looked like he was trying to figure out how to get down into the pit.  The lady working at the dump was surprised to see him there.  Not that bears at a dump are unusual, but this is free tip week.  The dump has been very, very busy. 

He started making his way around the pit.  Getting closer.

Ok boys, time to go.  Get in the truck.  #2 called me chicken.  Yup, that's right.  Get in the truck!

Dump bears are less shy of humans than forest bears.  But still...  free tip week.  The dump is very, very busy.  Middle of the day.  Mama bear with 4 cubs.  Population explosion.  Early spring.  Not a lot to eat yet.  Bear less than 100 feet away...  GET IN THE TRUCK!  That guy was hungry.

There were two pick up trucks blocking the end of the dump driveway.  One facing each direction.  Doors open.  Social hour.  Not unusual in the sticks.  The truck blocking us pulled out, and we started to drive out.  There was a woman with her camera phone standing there by the ditch.  There was a groundhog.  We took pictures of the baby groundhogs in our back yard 2 years ago.  They are pretty cute.  Then the dogs killed them.  Bloody mess when they got one of the parents.

This woman kneels down beside the ditch.  Now I'm fascinated.  The groundhog is less than 2 feet away.  She holds her hand out like you're supposed to to greet a strange dog.  The groundhog walks towards her.  #2 and I both start laughing.  #2 asks, "Is she really that stupid?"

The groundhog stops and looks at us.  I swear he's asking, "Is she really that stupid?"  He goes back into the ditch.  Picks up a potato chip bag and puts it on his head.  Tosses it.  We all laugh.  He moves back towards the woman.  She puts her hand out again.  He slowly makes his way towards her.  She's so happy.  She's making friends.  He stands up on his hind legs.  Looks at her hand.  And bites her.

I am roaring with laughter.  The look on her face is priceless.  Like it never even occurred to her that he might bite her.  Too funny.

As we drove out I said to #2, 'Hey lady, there's a real friendly bear in there.  Why don't you go see if you can pet him, too!'

Husband says I am mean.  I thought it was pretty funny.

Spring Clean Up

It's tip free days at the dump this week, which also means spring clean up at our house. 

The first trip was mostly from my new neighbour's yard- my parents.  They cleaned up a bunch of stuff left by the former owners.  Our couch- a total wreck- and a few smaller items from here topped the load.  Furniture has to go to the big dump, and I got 'lost' on the way to the dump.  Not actually lost, I still knew where I was, but the dump wasn't where I remembered it 'should' be.  Nothing like driving up and down the backroads with a truck full of junk.  We made it there before they closed.

Day 2, I took two loads to our local dump.  I don't go at all through the winter, so I had quite a build up.  4 bags of garbage and 22 bags of recycling.  There was a bear sitting on the hill watching when we got there.  He ran off before we could get a picture though. 

The first time I went to the dump when we moved here was in the winter.  I pulled in to this fenced off area in the woods.  Everything was white and clean, covered in fresh snow.  They told me to go throw my junk in the pit.  Totally disturbing.  You couldn't tell it was a dump, except for the signs.  And there I was, tossing garbage in the woods.  In the spring, there's trash everywhere, stuff that's blown out scattered along the fenceline, and it smells like a dump.  In the winter I feel like I'm being unfaithful to Mother Earth, and I'm a bad environmentalist.  So I don't go.

Yesterday we spent the day cleaning up around the workshop.  There's still a lot of junk left by the former owners to clean up.  An old oil furnace that's been sitting in the workshop since we moved in got the boot.  I'm not sure if it came out of my house, or if they picked it up somewhere with plans to use it for something.  We found 3 5 gallon pails of used oil just off the yard, along with about 10 empty 5 gallon pails.  The empties will get cleaned up and reused.  The oil has been relocated to the garage where it will find a new purpose and get used up.  Some broken feed dishes, broken buckets, broken heat lamp bulbs, etc, were cleaned out of the workshop, chicken coop, and tack room.  Then we were off to the pasture.  I think I could spend half the summer out there and still not get all the bailer twine and netting cleaned up.  I filled 4 feed bags with it yesterday, and called it a day.

After this load gets dropped off, we'll still have time for one more walk about tomorrow.  The space we use is pretty well cleaned up now, so we'll be working back farther into the trees.  Who knows what trash and treasures await us there.

Closet Space

We had none.  There is a closet in the master bedroom.  And a tiny one in the hallway between the bedroom and the bathroom.  There used to be a doorway there.  There is a closet in one of the upstairs bedrooms.  That was it.  6 people.  3 closets. 

There was no closet in the sun room.  It's our main entrance.  The front door opens into the living room, and is no where near the driveway.  We use the back door, through the sun room, into the kitchen. 

The sun room was added onto the house a number of years ago.  It's the length of the kitchen, about 12 feet, but only 6 feet wide.  It has huge windows all along the outside and back walls.  There's a small wood stove at the back.  The inside wall has a big hole cut into the wall over the kitchen counters, presumably to let more light into the kitchen.  The kitchen entrance is about three feet wide.  It was a clutter trap.  Between my plant stands, boots, shoes, mitts, gloves, hats, helmets, bridles, coats...  There was stuff everywhere.

This was before we moved in.  When we first got here.  It didn't stay that clean for long.  We took down that coat rack and put a book shelf in it's place- the shoe shelf.  Shoes and helmets.  We put hooks for the kids under neath that weird kitchen window.  The kids grew and everything was drooping on the floor.  We used bins for hats and gloves and mitts.  It was a pain.  And it was cluttered.  All the time.

Last winter my parents built a closet in their cabin out of rough cut 1X3s.  They're cheap- $0.83 here.  Then Dad helped us build a closet for the sun room.

It blocks part of that weird kitchen window, but you can see through it, so it still lets the light in.  Helmets up on top.  Everyone got their own bin for hats and mitts and stuff on the shelf.  Storage space underneath for horse meds, bridles, work gloves, hats, etc.  I was in the midst of sorting that stuff when I snapped this picture.  It's still cluttered, but it's organized clutter.  That just left the shoes and boots to organize.

The boys and I built a bench for the plant stands.  Perfect.  It lifts the plant stands up so the bottom shelves get the sunlight they need.  Lots of space underneath for boots and shoes.  Most days now you can even walk through without stumbling over everything, or knocking everything off the shelves.  Awesome.

Armed with my new found closet building expertise, we also decided to tackle the older boys' room.

It's kind of short, due to the slanted ceiling, but it works.  Storage space up top for sleeping bags, back packs, and other cadets paraphernalia.

Closet space.  Bliss.

The Centre of My Universe

AKA...  my computer desk.  I didn't take a picture of it before I started.  The clutter and chaos were unbelievable.  But then about halfway through clearing it off, I decided to paint it.  So I snapped a couple of shots to show you what it used to look like, kind of...

We used to have one of those big corner desks.  You know the type...  They look really cool in the store, or other people's houses.    But then you buy one, and discover that it's really very crowded.  And then you move a couple of times, and try to figure out where to shove it in a corner where it's not going to block a doorway or a window.  And then you still need another desk, because there's no place to put your printer without it being a pain in the arse.  And then your kids get bigger and you get a second computer... 

Well, we ripped that sucker apart.  The shelves you see on top and bottom come from the original desk.  Press board with that fake wood veneer finish.  Hubby cut a sheet of 3/4" plywood in half for the desk top.  The ends are two small MDF bookcases that we had at the time.  One was painted green, the other brown.  The book shelves face outward, which worked really well at our old place.  The desk fit perfectly between two doorways.  Here, that doesn't work so well.  There's only about a foot and a half of space between the left end and another book case on the wall.  I keep my printer paper and stuff I don't want the kids digging through down there.  It actually works pretty well that way.  Out of sight, out of mind.

I cleared off about half of the desk- all the stuff that was likely to fall off- and we pulled it away from the wall.  I washed the wall and did the putty.  And as I'm standing on the ladder looking down at the top of the desk, I am really annoyed with the whole mess.  The dust.  The clutter.  The crappy press board that's chipped in various locations.  The stains on the plywood.

I kept dusting and cleaning as I waited for the putty to dry.  Well, I got to wondering how the paint would go on over that crappy veneer.  Hmmm...  So I grabbed a brush and did a little test spot at the back.  I only did one coat, so it still kind of shows the wood grain look through the paint.  And off I went...  I had the desk done before the wall.  #3- the head of the computer addict department here- had himself a very miserable day.  But I think it was worth the whining. 

I think it came out pretty good in the end.  My crappy camera doesn't do it justice.  It is rather strange not to be surrounded by stacks of clutter though.  The really cool thing...  Right there in front of my keyboard...  That's $19.  $19 that I lost months ago in the clutter.  Money that we collected for a fundraiser, that I ended up paying out of pocket.  So it's kind of like I got paid for cleaning up my disaster zone.  Gotta like that!

I finished the final wall today.  Hung up the kids pictures that we had taken in the spring.  Nothing like getting things done in a timely fashion, eh?  Sorted through printer paper and books.  Tossed a ton of papers that I no longer need.  Still have two bins of receipts and bills and such to file, but at least they've been moved to the 'tax zone', rather than cluttering the computer desk.  By tomorrow night I should have the rest of the stuff back on the walls and put away.  Just in time to set up the tree!