Power Poles, A Clean Slate and Gathering

Monday the Trim Out Crew showed up early (their early K, not ours) to finish the House.  It took them about an hour to side the other end of the House and then they finished up a few more things.  Like the master bathroom door.  I had noticed over the weekend that they had hung the door backwards.  It opened out into the bedroom and covered the window.  So I asked them to rehang it.  Their reasoning?  If it opened into the bathroom, it covered part of the shower.  Let's see, covering a window or the shower?  hmmmm, tough one there.  Do you know anyone that takes a shower with the door open?  Do you know anyone that puts a window in so that they can cover it with a door?  When I asked them these questions, they just smiled and rehung the door without any more comment.  In less than 3 hours (so why couldn't they have finished on Friday?) they finished, packed up, I signed off on the work and they left.

I had my House all to myself.  No more workers.  No more construction noise.  Just me, my hills and the serene sound of the wind in the trees.




Oh wait, make that me, my hills, the serene sound of the wind in the trees and my piles of red dirt.



It lasted about 5 minutes. Up the hill came these guys.



Did I weep or wail or nash my teeth (Pop, what does that mean anyway?) for the loss of the solitude and the quiet time to myself. NO.  Not even a little.  Because they were dragging 3 power poles behind them and started placing them where they would go.  My Real Electrical Power was on its way!  And yes they had to drag the poles up the Hill to get them there.





This one is making a very lovely addition to my garden spot which I had abandoned for beds down by the Little Old House.



Just try to imagine, if you can, walking up this hill to garden.  In July.  In the South.



By next year we should have the beds moved up here and I will have a beautiful Square Foot Garden in Raised Beds like these. I hope.





Thank you Mel Bartholomew for showing me how to garden with ease in this soil that grows nothing as well as it grows rocks. We will just have to work the lovely power pole and the guy wire into the garden plan. hmmmmm I wonder how far up a pole scarlet runner beans would grow?

It didn't take them long at all to drop the poles and then they too were gone. Someone else comes to set them in place. After they first chop down and destroy a bunch of my trees. I mean a whole bunch. )`:

The peace and quiet returned. I walked into my house and had this.





A clean slate to work with.  The young man from the Trim Out Crew very nicely removed all but one of the carpets and took them with him.  Did I sit down and enjoy the lovely emptiness of no more almost mauve but really dust raspberry carpet?   Definitely not.  I grabbed the broom and the shop vac and got rid of about 2 gallons of slightly gray carpet freshener as fast as I could!

Tuesday, bright and early (almost our early K) the crew showed up to set the power poles.  It was then that I learned that getting power to the House on the Hill was going to take several days and it was a party I was not invited to.  The Crew Leader very nicely encouraged me to find something else to do.  They needed all the space up on the Hill to move their huge trucks around.  They had two of these and a smaller truck too.



So, J and I went on what he calls a gathering expedition.  (You know, anthropologically speaking. Men are hunters - women are gatherers. This is why women shop and why men - ?)  We set off to one of those big box home improvement stores to gather concrete to make a pad to set the air conditioner compressor unit on.

Let me take just a solemn moment to revel in the fact that this summer I WILL have central air.  Thank you.

We also needed to gather a few plumbing supplies.  Oh what fun.  As we were pulling out of the driveway, M called  and detoured us to the place where we bought the House.  To get a 200 amp thingamajig for that gray electrical thingamabobber.  Someone had lifted the one from the House.  Just let me say before I get phone calls from my bro or my Pop.  I do actually know what a 200 amp main breaker is and the electrical service unit.  But what fun is that, I ask?

Of course I took the back way, that's fun too.  On a small road we passed a neat little place called The Country Store.  J decided we needed to gather there.  He was looking for plow shares to beat. Okay, maybe just scrap steel.  He beats them into things like this (which now resides in the home of the famous LV artist MTZ)




and like this.  The handle and a set of hinges for my garden gate.  Pretty, though they do need to be painted.  I like rustic but I don't want these to get damaged!




I digress. (which I do quite well and often)  Back to The Country Store.  The gentleman that waited on us had a little trouble hearing. (Pop, he made you look so good!)  But he was a sweetheart and he sold me this door stop.  (K, I know you think I'm losing it, but I have a plan. Sort of.)




and these 3 little linen tea towels and 3 kerchiefs all for right around 5 bucks.  Sweet.



We got back on the road and made an almost quick stop to pick up the 200 amp thingamajiggy and headed out for that big box store.  We made it about a half mile down the road and J saw a store called Old Southe.  Does anyone else wonder why the e?  Again he felt the call to gather.  I'm remembering it was the women who gathered, right?  In all fairness, he was looking for steel and our sweet old hard of hearing man didn't have any.  At least we think, J couldn't get him to hear him enough to ask.  At Old Southe I gathered these.


I have a cup of tea nearly every morning, cold morning that is and I have never had a tea bag holder. I now have 2 at just $1.00 each.  The little elf on the mushroom was on a 40% reduction table.  Which made it about the same as the 2 tea bag holders. It's a bank and it's for the Girlies Room.  Their room will have a lot of red and white polka dot in it. (K, the blue teabag holder and the bank both had those stickers on them that we were looking for in Jan.)  The little trowel/scraper thing?  Perfect size for me to mud drywall cracks which I'm not supposed to because I don't do it well.  Which I'm going to go ahead and do so it will get done.  Just the rooms M doesn't use.  I'll let him do our bedroom.  Besides, doesn't practice make perfect?

This time when we got in the car I told J we had to get to the big box store to get what we needed.  We almost made it.  When I remembered that right next to the big box store is Hobby Lobby.  How could I be that close and not go in?  That would just be asking too much.  Besides J likes HL as much as I do.  So into HL to gather.  They were having a 40&50% off sale on a lot of stuff. So I ended up with these. The pompom was on their deep clearance and was 90% off!


I think they will go in the foyer.  I was looking for some little hangers with toile like animal print on them.  K had found some there and I wanted some too.  No luck, but I was still very happy with my day.  Especially when I found this



for GrandGirlie#1. She will love it, don't you think?



Oh by the way, we finally did make it to the big box store to get all the supplies for the House on the Hill.  We just had to do it fast.