Happy New Year from all the creatures and critters at Calamity Farm.
January 7th, 2023 was our 15th anniversary at Calamity Farm, my enthusiasm and love for my few acres and my rural lifestyle has not waned at all. In fact, each year I find myself counting my blessings more and more.
But I have a concern that I may end up in the Guiness Book or Records as taking the longest time ever to renovate a settler’s cottage! My problem is I would rather be outside than inside! But the rainy weather forced me to tackle some long overdue decorating and renovating over the holiday break.
The weather was so foul that I felt obliged to keep the dogs inside as I slopped paint on the ceiling and walls. My kitchen is now mainly blue and yellow and so are some of my dogs who seemed hell bent on sleeping next to a newly painted wall whenever they could. Penny stood in a tray of yellow paint and proceeded to tread dainty little yellow paw marks all over the wooden floors and then decided to jump on my bed to finish off her very artistic creation. Luckily, sanding floors was next on my list!
I hired the most “old lady” friendly sander I could. Rather than a belt it has 4 rotating disks that one had to frequently renew its gritty covers in order for it to continue to remove decades upon decades of previous varnish. This sander was extremely difficult to manoeuvre and if my concentration lessened even a little, it would take off on its own, swirling and sanding uncontrollably bumping into walls and eating any poor item in its path. It seemed to like electrical cords (luckily unplugged!).
Varnishing floors when one has so many dogs takes precision planning and my barricade to keep the dogs out the first section of the kitchen until the floor dried resembled a Les Miserables’ set! Still I did manage to keep Penny from any more creative paw work!
The sun has come out and I have gone back to work. But 2023 is my year for renovating!
