Before and After (Finally!)

Okay, it has been a long time coming. And I still haven't unpacked the camera. But Michael and his trusty iPhone have gone through some of the house to give a few indications from where we have come. So, I would like to first introduce to you the before and after shots of our kitchen:





Still a few details to attend here ... a shelf over the window and some outlet issues, a hood over the stove and, clearly, some dishes I need to do! Look at that, messing it up already. Notice we've removed the laminate floor and put in a hickory wood floor and some tile in the kitchen. Here is a close up:



Okay, now the next shot is the dining room before and after:





Okay, and not the same angle, but perhaps you get the idea and can see a corner of the vanity we replaced and the paint, light, etc. But here are before/after shots of the kids' bathroom:






And Michael really spent some time building out our closets. I painted our entire room and the door and trim which you won't be able to see in the after shots I'll get a better shot later, but here are the closets before with the old unpainted doors and old floor that we replaced with that beautiful hickory (not pictured in the after shots yet!)







This just really shows off Michael's craftsmanship (all from scratch!) and the utility we are getting from this space now versus a single rod. We're so busy admiring this handy work that we don't actually have doors on the closet yet. Please note: NO WIRE HANGARS -- EVER!! (To quote Joan).

And just to take us out onto the land, I share with you this picture of Spot and Stripe (the two goat kids we are borrowing. Momma Starlight is pictured below her boys). Anyhow, these two kids have been officially fenced out of the poultry/orchard area as they are carb addicts! They can go through a bin of organic chicken feed like it's nobody's business. And they love to climb. Here you see them perched atop of the nesting boxes Michael built onto the "Chicken Palace" out back.



Okay, more pix and stories later. I still have boxes to unpack!

Last Day of Summer Break

Where has the summer gone? Well, I'm pretty sure I know. Of course, we're still not entirely unpacked. However, I plan to get a bunch of unpacking done this week and maybe, just maybe, I'll unearth that camera! So, in lieu of a camera I will have to paint a picture of the ever-expanding Tifftown with my words.

We "officially" moved into the new digs August 3rd. Of course, the house wasn't actually finished or anything. Our kitchen consisted of a utility sink, fold up table and a stove and fridge. (At least we had appliances. That made camping in the house completely civilized). We actually had the audacity to have some friends over for dinner one night. "Hey, we need steak knives! Hold this flashlight while I dig through this box!"

In the meantime our star thistle, bindweed and other as yet unnamed weeds continued to spring from the dried bed of foxtails left behind after the spring rains. Now, with all this land, that is a heck of a lot to mow! At the suggestion of Adam, our fantastic realestate guy (who made out like a bandit courtesy of us this summer) we are borrowing some goats to do the "organic weed n' feed". That's right, those things can turn the most invasive weed into fertilizer. I'm pretty stoked! The kids' strings teacher is letting us borrow a momma goat, Starlight, and her two kids. Actually, she'd like us to keep the little boys, but Michael insists that every animal on the farm has to be a working animal. So, he says if we keep them, we eat them. I am not quite there yet. Plus that was not the arrangement I had with Shelley when I loaded those goats into the back of the minivan. So, when they are done weeding the backyard, they will go back home to Forest Ranch.

And because we have all this land and enthusiasm for varmints, we took one of our contractors up on his offer of some chickens. Last Thursday evening Michael and I drove up to Los Molinos and wrangled five hens and a rooster. I was so stoked to wake up Friday morning to the "cockadoodledoo" Mr. Johnson (so dubbed by Michael) and the bleating of the goats. I felt like I was on a real farm. Quiche or pound cake anyone? We've got some eggs!

Of course all these rascally animals led to the necessity of a fence. I couldn't believe how fast we were going through the chicken food. Turns out those goats were having a feast. Carb addicts! So, while are cabinets were being installed in the kitchen the other day, Michael and I were fencing off the future orchard/poultry/bee zone in the back forty. Dang! It was hot out there.

And even without the garden of my own (yet!), we have been receiving gifts of fresh veggies from our neighbors and friends. I have a whole basket of tomatoes and basil and squash that are just begging to be sauced at this point (now that I have a kitchen!) And some friends called us last night and popped over with some freshly harvested raw honey from their backyard hive. How lucky are we??!

Okay, as soon as I discover in which box our camera lies, I will snap off some pix of the poultry flock (9 hens and a rooster) as well as those crazy goats. Plus, I'm hoping to put up some "before and after" pix of the parts of the house.

Love from Rancho Wilhelm ... come visit!

July 2011

And how was your summer break?

Break? Break??? If you mean breaking our backs, well, then yes we are having quite a break! Michael and I (and even the kids) get up in the morning, have a quick breakfast and pack lunches and haul over to the new house to get cracking. There has been so much to do. We have definitely bought a fixer upper. But it is also really satisfying to see large chunks of it getting done. We've been getting home and having dinner out someplace on what Michael refers to as Barcelona time.



We've had new hardwood floors put in throughout. We've torn down the ugly fake rock behind the ugly wood stove (and gave away the stove on Craig's List)and put up some slate and tiled the kitchen. We've had all the kitchen cabinets and appliances pulled out. We now have just toe kicks where the new ones will go eventually. We've had plumbers out to the house three different times and the well/pump people out twice. The electrician just spent 8 hours out there yesterday solving mysteries. Michael is insulating and sheetrocking this weekend as well as building out closets. I've mostly been painting. I find that to be very satisfying. There's going to be some color in this house. I will put up some before and after pictures soon.

Our kids are pretty stoked to find that there are actually kids in the new neighborhood. Actually, the other kids in the neighborhood are pretty stoked to have my kids move in. So, they run around like a mob on bicycles, eating otter pops, drawing with chalk, swimming in pools, shooting each other with squirt guns and running through the sprinklers. So, the kids are definitely getting some bonus out of this move. In our old neighborhood, there are no kids their ages to play with. How happy are they!

On another note, we've met so many of the new neighbors. They are all curious and extremely nice. We've already received veggies from some of their gardens and the neighbor across the street invited me over to see her back yard (full of fruit trees, veggie garden, grapes, pergolas, roses, play structure, etc.) And I can't wait to meet the people with all the animals. There are people on the street with horses, chickens, pigs, goats, etc.

We are supposed to close on our present house August 5th. So, we are going to physically move August 3rd. That's just next week! It will be really nice to just wake up in a house and stay there. Of course, it will be really nice when we have a kitchen to cook in. That's coming mid-August, allegedly August 10th.

Corporations versus People

I know it's a little political. But this reaches across party lines and is important. So, I'm sharing. I think this is a fantastic, well done video!

Zephyr Across the West

Since Rex got a special trip to Netherlands with Daddy last winter, the girls and I took a special trip to Colorado this summer. One thing that made this trip special was to take the Zephyr from Sacramento to Denver. We had never taken the Amtrak train before, so it was a new experience for all of us.






Before we'd even boarded the train, Amira and Valerie met two girls, Faith Anne and Mandi, the same ages. The girls were going all the way to Rochester, NY through Chicago. So, they would be on the train even longer than us. And we had the luxury of a sleeping car which provided tons of entertainment for all four of the girls.





I rarely see beauty in the desert. For me it is an arid, desolate place to be endured while I drive as fast as I can to the next oasis. However, while sitting in the dining car watching the long shadows of the sunset paint the sands and silhouette the shrubs as I relaxed it really became a magical experience that I wanted to prolong.



Faith Anne and Mandi's mom had brought a video for her girls to watch that evening. So, our sleeper became a "movie theater". We were all tuckered out and went to bed lulled by the clickety clack and gentle rocking of the train. Before I drifted off I spent a long time staring at the incredibly bright stars shining above the Nevada desert. Without any towns or freeways near by, there was no other light to compete with the stars above.



The next morning we woke early to sunrise over the Utah desert. The sun was bright bringing a different drama to the landscape. In fact, the desert in Utah had a decidedly more barren look to it than Nevada. But, it also had more dramatic rock jutting straight up in different colored strata from the desert floor.



The four girls were reunited for another day of fun and games in the observation car. They played dominoes and card games and chased each other back and forth to the chagrin of the people in the dining car.




As we crossed over into Colorado, we began to really feel like we were in the Rocky Mountains. The landscape began to be rushing rivers, pine forests and snow capped peaks. The sky was less open and a little more cloudy. Occasionally we would spot geese or deer along side the train. Most often we were not near a road or a town. Seemingly wild horses drank from rivers that flowed through the valleys in the mountain passes.



Just as we finished dinner on the train Tuesday night, we pulled into the station in Denver. This was clearly a big city compared to the towns we'd seen along the route. Well, we did go through Salt Lake City in Utah, but that was at 3:00AM and we were sleeping and missed it.



Just getting off the train, the girls noticed a sign for the "Rex Lounge" so we had to photo that for their brother. They really missed him a lot and wished they could have shared the experience with him.



Faith Anne and Mandi jumped off the train in Denver to hug their new found friends good-bye. They were going to have to find some new friends for the rest of the journey. The train is such a social place, I have no doubt they succeeded.



Grandma Kim and Paul were waiting across the street from the station. We could see them from the train windows.







Grandma Kim showed Valerie and Amira her "second life".



The girls built a fairy house together. Inside and later moved it out doors. Most of our dining has been al fresco at grandma & grandpa's house. There is a baby bunny that lives under the deck where we dine. He visits the fairy house regularly.










On Thursday grandma dropped us off at the neighborhood pool/water park. This gave grandpa and the nervous cat in residence a much needed quiet time. It was also delightful for the girls. This time Amira was tall enough to go down the big slide. Valerie and Amira had a blast playing together in the pool all afternoon.








Thursday evening Grandpa Paul took the girls down to a river to look for snakes and mules. They didn't see any. But they did see a rabbit. This pace is crazy with rabbits! Of course, while they were out, mom and I had a glass of wine on the back deck and a cute little deer ambled by.



Friday was a trip to the zoo. It is really beautiful built into the mountainside on the south side of Colorado Springs. Mom bought tickets to take a tram up to the top. The views were incredible.




One of the highlights of our trip to the zoo was petting the baby wallaby. Super cute!





Just as the heat and altitude were really getting to the girls, we said good-bye to the giraffes on our way out. And we are having a restful afternoon at home while Kim and Paul attend a doctor apppointment. Tonight I'll take them out for Mexican food. Tomorrow we'll head into Manitou for a nice breakfast. Sunday will see us flying home to Chico. Certainly a quicker trip home than out.

Rainy Day Chez Wilhelm

It's another drizzly day. This is great for drought prone California. And I shouldn't complain, because before you know it we will be over a hundred degrees and complaining about that. But since it was also rainy last weekend (when Rex was supposed to go trippin' to the water park with his friends) and we postponed it a week, we though surely the sun would be shining. There was even a brief moment when the weather people thought it would be sunny and ideal. So, the Michael, Rex and a pack of boys are off to play at some sort of "fun center" for the day. I hear they have laser tag and climbing walls and all kinds of activities really geared to the Y chromosome.

I'm baking the gluten free birthday cake and whipping up a little cream cheese frosting and slicing berries for the top. I should take a picture (if it comes out okay!)Did you know that Betty Crocker has a gluten free cake mix? I know I go on and on about shopping directly with the farmers ... but, sometimes a box mix is nice! Okay, I did take a picture. Note, ran out of frosting. But I tried to hide some bald patches with all that fruit. Hey, the fruit is organic and I bought it from the farmers! In fact, the sunflowers are a gift from Tava's parents (farmers)to Rex. How sweet was that? Okay, here is the picture of the triple layer gluten free fruitastic Rex special:



So, Amira helped pit cherries while Valerie played with her rats. Now Valerie is on to spirograph (a perfect rainy day activity if you ask me). Oh, a basket of rats just appeared. I guess nap time is over for the rodents. Wow. They sure are cute. Really frisky at the moment. Okay, Cream has turned into a spaz. I told Valerie, "no more cheddar bunnies for him." Must be all that "natural food coloring".

Last week, Neni baked up a gluten free cherry pie for the family celebration. I tell you, gluten free crusts for pies, quiches, tarts, etc. are NOT easy. I was super impressed with the aesthetics as well as the texture and the taste. Way to go, Neni! And, hats off to Rex for requesting his dad's favorite dessert and then sharing. Michael was thrilled. Here's a picture that really doesn't show off the crust, but all that fire on top is impressive.



Yesterday Rancho Wilhlem had the well inspector and the whole house inspector drop by. The good news is that the place has good bones, brass plumbing, good original electric, a newish roof, good heating and air, a clean aquifer and good water pressure. This is all good news. I also had a cabinet guy come by and give us ideas and quotes on dealing with that nasty kitchen. I'm going to be so stoked to get in there. I'm having dreams of orchards and chickens and geese.

Well, I have a cake to ice and a table to clean ... and rats to cuddle with. Valerie says I'm the "fun aunt" to them.

I heard it's supposed to shine up and be sorta sunny this week?!