Organizing the kitchen…

Posted on by January 30, 2012

As if working on the studio, business work, cold weather chores and all that were not enough, I just got it in my craw that I wanted to move the kitchen around.  Since we moved in and just sort of put stuff here and there, almost a year ago. I have begun to see some real weird situations and awkward cupboard assignments.  And finally, I snapped.  Haha..  and this morning, while waiting on my breakfast, I started to formulate a much better master plan.

Jessy came in, took one look and slowly backed away.  She knew that look in her mother’s eye.  She was running wild with the organizing fever and the evil would soon envelope everyone in the house.  But she was not fast enough and soon I had her helping me to take all the things out and start the process.

We had most of our food back in the pantry, in the corner of the breakfast nook and that was really not very handy.  We had all our small appliances in the main kitchen area and that was kind of dumb because we don’t use them all the time, but we use food all the time.  So I stewed and considered for a bit and decided that it would be better to have several cupboards devoted to things like baking, dinner prep and easy lunch stuff/soup and ramen noodles.  And all the appliances and not often used canning and baking weird stuff could go in the green pantry, ready and off the counters and in storage.

I’m not one for a cluttered kitchen counter.  I’d be happy if there was like NOTHING on the counters, but I know that won’t happen.  Still, I’d rather it be down to the slim necessities if possible.  Just makes it easier to clean and wipe it all down, and just work.  I know it might be funny, but I’m actually thinking about taking the racks out of my dishwasher and using it as a big pan storage area!  It doesn’t work well at all, and we disconnected it a while ago.  I haven’t gotten rid of it, because, well, then there would be a big gaping hole!  And it’s not a priority to replace, because, well, we never used it except like the rare occasions we had a party or something.  (Ah, like ah, once?  Twice?)  It might become the pop bottle holding area!  Yeah!  The recycling bin!!  That might really work.. hmmm…

We worked all weekend on getting our creative studio put together and emptying out our storage room.  The girls want to make that room into a game/guest room.  But first, it has to get emptied…  and since we emptied out the storage locked, that poor room was packed and you could not even walk through it.  Very stuffed.

We found our egg carton stash…  we knew it was in there, just couldn’t get to it.  Do you think we have enough egg cartons?  Our customers like to give them back to us and then we had bought a small starter stash in the beginning.  And then we find that the feed store has a bunch AND my buddy Bill gave us a huge stack of 18ers…   so we are ready for some super major egg selling soon!

Well, I got them all in the green pantry, and all the appliances, and lots of seasonal and not that commonly used pans and baking things.  That really worked out nice.   And I got all the canning stuff, but not yet all the jars.  I’m going to take all the canning jars and such, out of my big front shelves and store it all in there.  I want to go through the front shelves and the new little used shelf under them, but that will be later on this week.  One big mess at a time!

I put all our baking stuff in one big deep cupboard right there in front.  That is nice!  Stashed the extra stuff in the back ad the often stuff right up front.  Put all the soup and rice packs, lunch type easy make stuff in the corner twirly cabinet.  Still have to clean out the pots and pans cupboard directly to the left of this picture.  Right now, I have all my pots and pans in there, but to be honest, we only use about half of them regularly.  I’ll move the less frequent ones to the green pantry and that will give me more room as well!  And I won’t have to fumble over the non-frequently used stuff that seems to rotate around in the cupboard and just get in the way.  Weird how that happens.

Well of course, I didn’t get done and so now the kitchen is still kind of a mess.  The girls abandoned me about as quick as they could come up with some half hearted excuse.  They like to help me on most things but when I get into efficiency organizing, they just roll their eyes and ditch on me.  I guess it’s a teenager thing.  They have years and years of life ahead of them, but my days are measured and I hate wasting them on inefficient cooking!  (haha… ahem.  yeah.)  Naw, really, it’s just not their bag, so I don’t blame them not wanting to be around the Queen of Efficiency!  I just love making areas/systems work better.  I just hate when things are so ackward that they feel bad to me!

Of course, the fact that we spent all weekend working on the studio and storage unit, could have something to do with it.  Hmmm.   Naw….

Well, I’m trying to bust these winter blahs by getting busy busy busy!  I love doing this stuff and wish I could devote all my time to it, but I still have to work some…  help with the family business and all that.  I think I’m just an old farm housewife trapped in an entrepreneur’s body!!!  Agh!  Well, more likely, I just channel both of those types of ladies!  It’s nice to be able to switch hats because I would probably be bored as just one of them, all the time!

I’ll try and post followups after I get more finished up!  Shouldn’t be too long because I can’t function in a tore up kitchen for long!!!

 

 

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Winter Blahs…

Posted on by January 26, 2012

The winter blahs hit me today full force. I’ve been kidding myself, and pretending that I was just hopeful for spring and just trying to keep busy and warm, content to wait for the gentle little breezes of warm spring air to drift down and tickle me. But today, it just really slapped me in the face like a scorned woman.

I was out getting eggs, feeding the hens. We just had gotten done from a round of errands, feed store, bank, gas station, hardware and then visiting Dale, our hay guy. We had just feed the hoof stock hay after being out of it for a day. They acted like they had never eaten ever the way they were grabbing and snatching big mouthfuls of hay off our sleds as we dragged them back to their huts. (Mind you, they had been grazing all day on the stubby yard grass, which isn’t great, but still, something and they had gotten a bucket of grass hay pellets and sweet feed in the morning… so they were HARDLY starving, but still, they were very ready to tear into a nice fresh bale from Mr. Dale.)

But I digress.

I was standing there, watching the sheep chow in their hay, with my basket of eggs, hands and feet cold, and all I could think about was how dreadful the place looked. I mean, mud and straw and leaves all turned brown and yucky and fallen branches and little piles of pony poop and chicken feathers here and there from the molt. The house looks dirty and dingy, the pathways are all mud because we don’t seem to be able to do justice to winter here in Northern Ohio and let the ground actually freeze up. The yard is getting chewed up because it’s so soggy and rainy and yucky. It’s just cold enough with the wind that I can’t really stay outside too long before my feet get numb and my fingers ache. Even with good gear on. It’s just a blah yucky part of rural living.

The mud season.

It’s dark all day long, hardly see much sunshine. It’s been raining off and on again and is just dreary. Makes me want to write sad, sad lonesome bluegrass songs. Convinces me to stay and linger in bed extra long because the house is cold in the mornings before we start up the kerosene heaters and it’s dark and rainy. Ugh.

I just can’t imagine how it used to be in the old days, without DVDs and the internet to suck up all your blah time. No phones, no easy contact, days and days without seeing hardly anyone but your own family members. Trying to stay warm, trying to keep the mud and the dingy gray light from driving you insane! It must have been dreadful some long gray and cold days out in the prairies or anywhere rural.

I try hard to remember that everyone’s little farms seem to look pretty much the same. Some a little more tidy, others, well, even worse. I contemplate hiring some lawn care guy to come out and try and make the place look better! Silly me. Waste of money. I know it will look better as soon as the grass starts to grow and the sunshine returns and the trees start to bud and flower. I try and remember how the place looked when we moved in, back in April last year. It was dreadful!

Still… in my mind’s eye I think about the pretty little stereotype farms and grade ours against Martha’s places or like the Bob Evans farm… and we sure fail in comparison. I know it’s stupid… those are people with multi-million dollar estates and staff and all that. Windhaven would look magnificent if I was making a zillion dollars a year doing ah, whatever.

Too much thinking like that leads to a feeling of discontentment and that is just not like me. I know the well thing is kinda wearing me down some. I suppose the easy way would be to go and borrow the money from someone, but I just don’t want to. We’re getting close to having enough to fix it and I guess another week or two and we’ll be there. My feed guy just gave me a good lead on a local fellow that does heating and cooling, plumbing and wells and is well recommended. I’m going to give him a call and see if I can get an estimate from him. Got about $700 saved up so far, and I’ll feel happier with a grand ready. If it’s less, fantastic! More, well, we’ll just save another week or so. I want my girls to understand that sometimes you have to wait, work hard and budget to deal with unexpected trials in your life. No one is suffering or anything, it’s just a little annoying to keep forgetting the water is off and trying to flush or run the kitchen sink out of habit.

Oh well… I’m sorry to sound a little down in the dumps, but I am, just a little bit. Just would like to find something to distract myself when I’m out back and all. To keep those discontentful thoughts from my head and enjoy life as it is today, at this moment.

I got a kick out of Cody stealing hay from our bales as we tugged them out to the barns. He was as gleeful as a colt and he danced and pranced around us as we brought room service out to him. At one point he even dashed ahead and scattered the sheep in pure orneriness. He’s funny to watch when he’s done something clever, at least in his little pony brain. He stops and snorts and shakes his little hairy head and just looks positively pleased with himself. He dashed in to his barn and began gobbling up mouthfuls of hay, nudging us and being silly. And then he dashed back out to follow me to the sheep shack and make a point of eating some of their hay as well before frolicking off to do a victory lap around the yard like a big goof.

Now, why can’t I feel like that crazy pony in this blah time? Just happy to be alive and get a big lunch of my favorite hay and torment my yardmates with a little fun teasing?

Maybe I need lunch out at Olive Garden with some friends, and a little cheesecake and maybe a BIG margarita and then something like oh, a movie or maybe taking the girls to a hotel with a pool and we can swim all afternoon and order pizza and have a slumber party! Yeah… I think we need a little something, just something different, friends, food and exercise! Hmmmm…..

I’ll have to think about what we could do that would be fun like that. And sort of cheap, still… just something fun to plan and look forward to. I think some swimming and a long soak in a hot tub and a nice warm hotel room… that would be fun. And if we found a place right around here, we could still check on the livestock and then hurry back after we’re done! (haha… a farmer’s vacation!)

How do you all pass these winter blues? I know not everyone is in the same climate as we are, and there are different sorts of things going on, but still… it’s the after holidays time where there isn’t a whole lot going on, how do you pass that time? I’m just wondering…

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