Tag Archives: January Cure

January Cure 2018- Day 1- Clear and Organize a Drawer

02 Tuesday Jan 2018

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This may be as far as I got last year. I don’t remember and don’t intend to remember because I’d rather save the brain space for where I last left my phone.

I chose the “Stuff I use Daily” drawer in the kitchen. It has no real category other than that. It holds odds and ends that I use daily or even 2 or 3 times a week. At least, that’s what it’s supposed to hold. That’s where things like measuring spoons, whisks, bottle openers, ice cream scoop, jar openers, a butter brush, and such are supposed to go.  That’s not all that was in there.

I forgot to get a “Before” picture, but this is the big stuff that was in there. I had cleared out the ancient packets of yeast and soy sauce, the rubber bands, the loose change, and a handful of petrified jelly beans and other gleefus, and had narrowed it down to the stuff I actually use daily, weekly, a lot less than once a week, and never.

 

No wonder my whisks wouldn’t fit and I could never find my measuring spoons. WHO needs 4 ice cream scoops? Only 1 survived the purge. The survivor did not have a nice hand fitting handle, nor did it mechanically loosen ice cream from the scoop. No, it was old faithful. 40 year old, solid metal, no bells, no whistles, ice cream scoop. Easy to use, takes a sledge hammer to break.

 

Then there were these. I think we’ve used the corkscrew a half dozen times since it was given to us in 1995. I don’t think we’ve ever used the nutcracker we got at the same time. My husband’s grandmother gave them to us the first year we were together. I laugh raucously every time I see them, so they’re keepers. I just have to find another place to keep them so they can continue to appear and make me guffaw when I’m looking for something else.

No, I did not find dachshund or cat poop in my “Stuff I use daily” drawer. This is some kind of seed pod. I have no clue what kind of seed pod, and I have no clue why it’s in this drawer, but it’s been in there for several years because I keep saying “I need to plant that and see what grows”, and then don’t.

 

TaDA! 

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January Cure 2018: But first a word from our sponsor

02 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by in Home and other Repairs, January Cure, January Cure 2018, Uncategorized

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Last year’s January Cure didn’t go so well for me. I did something to my good knee early on and as it was only getting worse, I put myself to the sofa with the mutts and Netflix. That knee is no better now and the knee on the already goofed up leg is failing because it’s had to do too much to make up for the other knee. I won’t discuss other skeletal failings at this point, suffice to say I need an android body.

Another issue that will hamper my Cure this year is Art. It’s insidious. It slyly creeps into your life as an innocent and fulfilling hobby and then spreads like herpes. A friend got me interested in acrylic pour painting. It is very cool and very rewarding and makes watching paint dry actually exciting. It’s also a good way to participate in art for someone like me who cannot draw, much less paint.  What acrylic pour painting requires are, a sense of color and space. Lots and lots of space. Overheard in this house at the beginning, “Do we ever actually eat at the dining table? Okay, let’s do this there.” I’m no longer sure we have a dining table. We must, all those paint bottles, cups, popsicle sticks, jars, jugs, canvases and stuff can’t be floating on air. I just can’t see the dining table.

There’s a big mess to be made with acrylic pour painting. As the name implies, you pour paint. When you pour, there is inevitably runoff. Turns out, when this runoff dries, it too makes interesting and colorful patterns that can be peeled up, cut out and turned into really groovy pendants. No room on the table for that. Had to set up a jewelry making station in the actual craft room. That was art station 2.

I posted a picture of a couple of pendants I made and was asked “Do you sell those?” and answered “I guess I could”, which prompted “Can you do one in these colors <insert wild combos here>?” and I answered “I could try.”, which led to art stations 3 and 4, an Etsy shop and 12 hours a day prior to Christmas trying to balance art and rest for my busted up body. 

So, there’s art all over the dining table, 3/4 of the craft room desk my son and I built along two walls, a card table in the craft room and a card table in the den. We have renamed the house “The Mad Artists Laboratory” and our Etsy shop is named after the friend who started us down this road (probably rubbing her hands and cackling maniacally), my son (who also got sucked in) and me, JJaphne. If you’d like to see (and dear lord I hope you buy, because I need to reclaim some space and pay my Home Owners Insurance and Property Taxes) our stuff, the Etsy shop is here: JJaphne Jewelry and Art.

So, this year I have to have a different relationship with The Cure. Large projects will have to be done during the week on my son’s days off, and might not get done at all. The smaller “Jean Safe” tasks will be accomplished on weekends and on three days during the week which may or may not coincide with The Cure Calendar. 

That’s enough for the rationalizations. On to the first real assignment to clear out and organize a drawer in the next post.

 

January Cure 2016- The Bedroom and Guest Room/Office/Craft Room

16 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by in Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, January Cure 2016

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Today is the start of the weekend give my bedroom a thorough cleaning and decluttering assignment. WOOHOO there is no clutter! I decluttered and purged my brains out in there last year and did not even think about cluttering it up again all year. There have been times I had to store some boxes in there, but those were very temporary. With the AC crew coming in on Wednesday, I had already shifted and vacuumed under all but one piece of furniture and wiped down the night stands so even that was done. I do need to launder the bed linens and vacuum under the armoire, but John will have to clean the ceiling fan. The AC dude cleaned my vents until they look brand new so I don’t even have to do that!

This means I was able to spend more time in the Guest Room (which qualifies as a bedroom)/Office. Spend time in there I did too boy. I cleared out, packed up, pitched and outboxed everything on 4 shelf units and everything except books off the fifth big shelf. All my collection of nerdy/geeky toys is boxed up. Some of the beautiful models my husband built and painted of some of my gaming characters are now displayed in my den. Framed photos are boxed up. I’ll be thoroughly cleaning those empty shelves tomorrow, getting pictures and putting them up for sale on a local swap board. I’m still trying to decide what to do with some of the stuff. For instance, my husband had saved a commemorative coke bottle from the Rose Bowl in 1987, still full of coke. It’s worth anywhere from 10.00-30.00 depending upon who sees and bids on it. I’m not sure it’s worth the effort for 10.00 but 30.00 I could use. I have dutifully moved and dusted that damned bottle for 20 years. I definitely. do. not. want. it. Pitch or sell?

officeshelf1I just need to move the books and this shelf can be cleaned and sold or donated.

officeshelves2Three shelves fully cleared and ready for cleaning. I’ll be taking that wall unit down and reusing it over my crafting area. The shelf unit on the right wall is the one I’ll be keeping  for books and gnerdy toys.

outboxpileofficeUnless John needs this shelf in his room, it will be cleaned and sold or donated. Look how my outbox pile has grown!

officeshelf3The fifth shelf cleared and ready to be cleaned and sold or donated. That is the 2nd outbox pile in front of it.

I am determined to pick out a paint color and really get this project going next week so if these spare shelf units do not get sold over the next 4 days they’ll be donated on Tuesday. As soon as John’s work schedule permits this weekend, he’ll clean my ceiling fan and I can launder my bed linens.

January Cure 2016- Plan a Party and catch up

15 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by in General Farm Stuff, Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, January Cure 2016, Rural life

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The assignment for today was to plan a get together. Took about 10 seconds to realize the backyard is not going to be ready for entertaining because I have the office to contend with. My end of the Cure party will instead be held sometime in March after the office/guest room/craft room is finished.

My freeloading chickens have finally begun producing 2 eggs a day, so I used the 10 eggs collected this week to make a cheap and easy breakfast casserole to sustain me while I catch up to where I should be on the office and the hall closet. I even ate some of that casserole. I’ve never eaten fresh eggs before and knowing chickens as intimately as I do, especially one of them, this took a bit of courage. The casserole is delicious and I did not die from it.

Just as an aside, a friend told me that chickens are immune to the capsaicin in peppers, so if I feed them lots of hot peppers, their egg yolks will be red and spicy. In a fit of giggles I asked her if sprinkling a lot of Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning on their layer feed would work the same way. I’m thinking that would be a time saver in the kitchen. (Note: This is a joke people. Too much salt can kill a chicken.)

fresheggsLook at those pretty little eggs! They’re still pretty small because my hens just began laying, so it took 10 to make a 9 x 13 casserole.

fresheggbacncasseroleFresh eggs, bacon and biscuit casserole! Heat and eat breakfast all weekend.

I also still have a couple of bowls of zuppa left from last weekend for quick heat and eat lunches and some frozen slices of turkey and ham left from the holidays to cut up on fresh lettuce from my garden for suppers. I can turn all my attention to the bedroom assignment and the office. Well, I can after I pick up a new battery for the tractor.

I completely emptied the hall closet, wiped down shelves, swept the floor, pitched two sets of old place mats that were stained, saved one every day set and one special occasion set, washed the guest linens, emptied two shelves in the office and a drawer in my desk, organized office supplies on a shelf in the hall closet and took pictures of some of the items in my outbox to see if I can sell them online rather than trying to haul them to the corner swap.

Tada! My lovely organized hall closet. The linens will be on the top shelf with the blankets once I finish folding them.

hallcloset

On the office agenda this weekend will be to rearrange the craft items in the office closet so that there is a space for guests to both hang clothes and lay folded clothes. Then I will box up my toy collection and William’s computers so they can all be safely stored while we remove all the furniture. Then the room will need a thorough cleaning and paint. Then, at long last, we can build a bed frame and the wall mounted counter space for crafting and computing.

As for my bedroom project, I just need to wash the curtain and bed linens and give the room a thorough dusting. It’s also time to haul a lot of clothes to the donation bin.

January Cure 2016- Work on a Project

14 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by in General Farm Stuff, Home and other Repairs, January Cure 2016, Uncategorized

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Ohh the best laid plans…

Tuesday the assignment was to clear a closet. We all saw how that turned out. Wednesday’s assignment was to work on my “project”. This was great luck because my big project is the office, which is right next to the closet I wanted to clear on Tuesday and both are related to my end game plan. I knew I could catch up. Like Bullwinkle the Moose when attempting to pull a rabbit out of his hat, I thought “This time for sure!”

“The Crew” that the air conditioning company promised to send out Wednesday morning to clean my ducts, which were threatening to kill my brand new AC unit, turned out to be one guy. One guy who apparently thought I lived in east Egypt and so decided to allow a couple of hours for a drive that only takes 35 minutes. He arrived an hour and a half ahead of time. I hadn’t even glimpsed the bottom of my first cup of coffee, much less straggled outside to feed the animals.

After rousing John and corralling the dastardly, technician eating dachshunds I let the guy in. Turns out he was a talker. This girl can’t formulate a complete sentence until an hour or so after her second cup of coffee. The dachshunds yelling their warnings at the dude, his words bouncing around in my empty head and the noise of his machine had me just about ready to launch myself to a new planet in the first 30 minutes.

That’s when it became apparent that this was not going to be a three hour job as the AC company had promised. As the clock turned the fourth hour he’d completed four vents. There are TEN in the house. I could barely get to either of two bathrooms, much less the office and closet I needed to be working on. I spent a good portion of the morning whining on facebook about this.

acchaos

It took 8 full hours to finish the duct cleaning, plus the AC cleaning. I was feeling a bit on the miffed side, but then darned if that young man didn’t turn my lousy attitude right around. Turns out he is also a mechanic and just loves older engines. He’d seen our vintage tractor and asked about it. I told him it had worked great up until a few months ago when it decided it wouldn’t start. After he finished his AC work he asked if he could take a look at it. Sure.

He asked what it did when I tried to start it. I told him. “I bet I know the problem”, he said. He popped off the distributor cap, exposed the points and said “Yep”. With a screw driver he scraped some carbon off the points and darned if that tractor didn’t start right up! I am reunited with the most important piece of equipment on this farm all because the AC tech who enjoyed talking my ear off for 8 hours on his birthday took the time to check out my old tractor and do something nice. If I’d won the lottery last night, he and his wife would have never had to worry about paying a house note again.

Needless to say, I neither worked on the project or the closet, BUT I have a working tractor which is really much more important. In the words of Scarlett O’Hara “After all, tomorrow is another day.”