Who doesn’t dream about having an amazing laundry
room with enough room to move around, a sink to wash things by hand, a large
table or cabinet to fold clothes on, and finally, an area where clothes can be
hung when coming out of the dryer?
This house we purchased doesn’t have any of the
items I dreamed of in the laundry room.
Wait…..let me take that back, I did get the washer and dryer I
wanted…you know; the ones with the big drums so you can wash all kinds of
stuff……like a king size comforter and more than one throw rug. Slowly, I will create my ideal laundry
room…..even if that means I don’t get a large sink or more physical room.
I purchased two wall hanging racks that retract when
not being used for hanging clothes coming out of the dryer. These racks come in handy when I want to have
a shirt dry naturally. Granted, we have
a handmade clothes line outside for this reason as well; however, when it’s
extremely hot outside, you really don’t want your good clothes to fade from the
sun and heat.
I am taking advantage of every bit of space in my
laundry/mud room area. All the inside house tools were propped against the
wall, I purchased a hanging rack to get the tools up and out of my way.
In time, I will have Bulldog Man make me a table
hinged to the wall next to the dryer.
This table will fold down when I have laundry to fold, and when not
being used, it will fold back against the wall, out of my way.
*****
A goal we have living out here on this property, is
to level out and raise some of the land around our home, and install several
French drains, to move water away from our home and into one of our ponds. Here’s the start of this process--one trench
dug 75 feet, and another, close to the house, dug approximately 22 feet. We had to initially pull the gutter we just
installed on this side of the house in order to dig the trench against the
house. When we replace the gutter, it
will run on the side of the house, and down into the ground, directly to the
French drain, pulling the water directly away from the house. Bulldog Man will be picking up the pipes this
evening. Tomorrow morning, I will be
going into town with the truck, to pick up a load of gravel from the gravel
yard. Our goal is to have the French
drain completely finished by the end of the weekend.
We have another goal, to install two additional
French drains on our driveway to prevent washout when storms come through. As we all know, projects are set up on a goal
list, and priorities take precedence.
*****
The original faucet in our kitchen reminded me of a
faucet you would see back in high school, in the lab of the science
department. Water wouldn’t flow through
the faucet properly, and the pressure was terrible. Bulldog Man had me buy a new kitchen faucet
(I used a gift card we received from the phone company, when we switched
carriers) and found a commercial type faucet.
Bulldog Man installed the faucet for me, after we had to go back into
town and purchase hose extensions. I
love this new faucet, water flows with pressure and direction.
 |
| Old Faucet |
 |
| New Faucet |
*****
In between projects, life continues on…….
Our Grand Daughter, Megan, graduated high school; we
went down to Texas for her graduation.
We’re so proud of her, now she’s setup to start college in the
fall. Her goal is to become a radiology
technician.
While down in Texas, we found out our oldest son,
and his wife, are expecting their first child together. Bulldog Man and I are so excited, and can’t
wait for our 6th grand baby to be born in January 2018. It will be spoil alert time by
grandparents. This child will have 4
sets of grandparents…..LOL!!!!
While down in Texas for the graduation, we stayed
with my sister and had a great visit with her.
Of course we had to go eat some amazing Thai food before returning
home. There’s an amazing restaurant in the
small town where my sister lives; you just can’t get good food like this up
where we live.
My sister knows how much I love orchids, and sent me
home with an amazing Phalaenopsis orchid from Matsui Nursery on their 50th
anniversary.
She also had an eagle, a
piece of art made from steel, for my husband and me. She had been holding on to it, because it would
have been expensive to send through the mail.
I’m still trying to figure out where to hang the eagle in our home.
*****
I came across some more wild flowers and mushrooms
from our property I wanted to share with you.
*****
A friend of mine asked me how many ponds we have on
our 20 acres. Well……we have 2 ponds and
one lagoon. The large pond sitting not
too far from our home is the largest; approximately 1 acre in size, and 30 feet
deep. It’s stocked with fish, has a
couple of turtles, and a few water moccasins (minus 2 I shot after coming at me
aggressively). The second pond is 8 to
10 feet in size, called the critter pond; because it’s natural and is fed by a
spring, has cat tails, and we put a salt lick next to it. Then there’s the lagoon (oxidation pond) which
is part of our septic system. Lagoons
are commonly found in this part of Oklahoma, when living out in the
countryside.  |
| Large Pond With Fish (need to weed) |
 |
| Wildlife Pond Left Natural |
 |
| Lagoon (need to weed) |
*****
Another year has snuck up on me, I turned the big 55
on June 13th and boy do I feel it…..LOL
In closing, here are a few pictures of the area and what
it looks like living out on the prairie.
