The Ceiling...

Like I said, I find myself in some interesting situations.  My family and I live in a home built in 1894...needless to say she has her problems.  Lately we had the ceiling tiles in our living room give way to age and humidity.  One Saturday morning I walked out of my room to see the ceiling tiles sagging almost to the ceiling fan blades. Needless to say I was not planning on doing a home makeover on my only day off.  Anyways, party on!

So to start I took down the ceiling tiles.  (The thought was take down the tile and finish the drywall backing.)  Guess what...that didn't work out.  There were about 500 globs of what appeared to be the great great granddaddy of liquid nails.  That was not expected.  My next move, phone a friend.  My buddy (the engineer) said the open floor joist look is in right now.  "Have you ever thought of that?" he asked.  The truth is, yes, I have thought about it and the fact that it would take my half day job and add at least another day and a half to it was less than appealing.  I was not thrilled.   The decision was made though...by my wife!

Down it comes!

The job went quite a bit faster than I had originally planned.  The fact that my buddy came over, I'm sure, had nothing to do with it.

 The work progressed as you might expect.  If you have any experience rehabbing or doing demo work in an old house you have an earned appreciation for the job at hand.  I had already torn down the press board tiles which left us with just the drywall and a layer of plaster and lathe.  

The plan was to tarp the carpet and haul out the debris that was pulled down onto it.  The tarp, as usual, let me down.  When we pulled the debris out we found quite a nice pile of debris around the edges.  The carpet was destroyed.

Bad news for me...great news for my wife.  Ever since we installed our wood stove and found out we had hardwood floors hiding beneath the carpet my wife was bound and determined to find a way to get them.  In short she did.

 The job did have a couple of pretty unique surprises as well.  First of which was a "mummified" cat (I assume it crawled up from the basement and got lost) that was totally dried inside and out and didn't have a hair left on it.  Secondly, we found an old pint wide mouth milk bottle (pretty self-explanatory).  Lastly we found some pretty sweet "artifacts."  We found some old newspaper that dated back to the late 1800's as well as an amazingly well preserved letter from a gentleman in Germany asking the recipient for a job.  The letter was complete and even included the envelope with postage and postmarks from both Germany and America!

                                     
Moral of the story...if your wife suckers you into doing some "last minute home makeover" project...courteously oblige her and hope to find some cool stuff!

Firefighter/EMT/sur

As previously mentioned I am a Firefighter/EMT.  It is a job like none other!  It allows me to do some stuff most people would never think of doing.  However, I was not always a Firefighter/EMT.



Like most firefighters I started out in the EMS field.  I went to school through a local community college and took my national tests at a local private EMS provider.  The tests were scary and, like most, I was sure I failed.  By the grace of God, I passed.



While I was in school I was always looking for someone to let me take their blood pressure or some other practical skill  that I would be tested on.  This turned into my dad considering me "the go to guy" for anything (and I mean ANYTHING!) medically related.  It had it's ups and downs.



I was (and still am) the guy that got the call to do anything from fixing up boo-boos to removing stitches (with the Dr.'s permission of course) and (what I'm most notible for) removing foreign objects from fingers and hands.  I have removed everything from splinters and thorns to glass shards and even the occasional handful of snake teeth.



My most recent patient was of the four legged variety.  We caught a small eastern cottontail that was feasting on our tomatoes.  To my delight my wife called me and informed me of our catch.  Later she informed me that the bunny had a big bump on it's side.  Her best idea was maybe a broken rib or something.  After work I came home and went to check on what would be one of my smallest patients.  Immediately upon seeing the growth, my years of experience (and an episode of the T.V. show "Monster Inside Me") told me this was no growth, it was a larva of some wasp or fly.  The patient was wisked away to the O.R. and the operation commensed.  A few minutes later the patient was patched up and back in the recovery room ready for some well deserved R&R.

My most frequent patient was a Mr. Jon Tegg.  That's right folks, my little bro!  That guy got more splinters, thorns, and slivers in his hands than anyone I know.  I distinctly remember about 2-3 weeks before his 2nd stay in China we met up in the "O.R." three different times for probably 5-7 splinters.



Now that Jon and Annie are in China my call volume has drastically declined.  However to the delight of my family (and some close friends) I am still the resident Firefighter/EMT/Surgeon.

Involve your kids

If you have kids you know things that were once events have become processes.  Before when my wife and I wanted to go to the store we grabbed our keys and sunglasses and headed out the door.  Now that we have three kids we have to get the kids dressed and shoes on (which normally involves putting shoes on at least one kid twice), diaper bag packed and ready, your keys and shades, your wife's purse (which is difficult to tell apart from the diaper bag at times), load the kids up and buckle them all in their respective car seats, only to have to come back home because you both forgot your phones.  There is no way to avoid the chaos.  In a growing family you learn to embrace the new normality.

This simple fact makes chores you want or need to do almost impossible at times.  The struggle is you are trying to fight against a "formidable foe"...kids.  The trick is to make them want what you want.  Our kids made it so difficult to get anything done outside.  One of us was always trying to entertain them while one would try to get some work done.  This proved to be futile.  Our strategy needed to change.  Our plan of attack; encourage the kids to use their uncontainable energy and endless curiosity to learn (and help with) our chores.

Our kids have taken quite well to their new "ranch hand" title.  Our kids love doing things mommy and daddy do.  A little direction and a lot of positive reinforcement can go a long way.  Davey loves using his wheel barrel to help dad move some old straw from the chicken coop to the garden.  Lydia loves helping mommy feed the chickens and collect the eggs.  All of the sudden our biggest "little obstacles" have become some of our best helpers.

Our mindset as the parents needs to change.  We can no longer expect to get a full days work in with two people working.  It is crucial we realize on a good day we will only be about 75%.  75% is 100% better than the alternative outcome.  Progress, however, is not only measured in how much work you got done "on the farm" but, is also to be measured in how much your kids have learned about life.  Success is when your kid explains where her food came from and realizes that it was made possible through hard work and dedication.

The kids of today lack so much encouragement and positive reinforcement.  Incorporate your kids in your chores.  They love to learn and are excited to please you. Encourage them.  Show them you care and want them to be a part of your day to day activities.  It will make a world of difference.

Wood Stove Part 2

 The idea of having a wood stove is somewhat of a romantic idea.  Since the days of old man has had quite the relationship with fire.  Fire has done everything from provide us with heat to being used as a weapon.  Using fire to cook with has long since gone out of style but heating with wood has a strange timelessness about it.

The fact of the matter is having a wood burning stove is a lot like having a starving teenager with a very poor work ethic.  The stove demands constant feeding and provides you with warmth...and endless work.  The amount of wood a single stove can consume is astonishing.  Fuel consumption in this magnitude requires what seems at times to be a lumber operation to rival that of 84 lumber.

The costs behind the savings are something that need to be considered before you decide to jump head long into owning a wood stove.  Our setup cost us about $1200-$1400 to purchase (We did the install, so labor was free).  Splitting wood is another inconvenience to owning a wood stove.  When it comes to splitting you have two basic choices; do it by hand the old fashioned way, use a power splitter of some sort, or pay for wood.  Splitting wood by hand is quite the task and not very time effective and paying for someone else to do what you can do is not what I'm into.  However, a mechanical advantage for a physical job is quite welcome!

A log splitter is quite possibly the urban homesteader's best friend.  The price of a splitter can vary from about $100 for a simple hand jacked model to thousands of dollars for one that attaches to your bobcat (because we all have one of those!).  We found quite the deal on our splitter (used for $500).  The original purchase price is not the only price that comes with a splitter.  Just like a vehicle, a splitter needs fuel and maintenance.  Fuel for us is not a huge setback simply because we have a pretty efficient model.  However, we have a small hydraulic
leak.  The piston needs new seals.  That is a bit of an expense so for now we resort to topping off the oil as needed.

I hope this doesn't scare you off from owning a wood stove!  Now get outside and split some wood!