Painting the Screen Porch & First BBQ



Now, I don’t know for sure… but right now, I’m not really digging the pale yucky yellow stained wall look for the screen porch. We want it to be nice and fresh and clean looking. We know that we need to replace most of the screening and that will take a little longer, but for right now, in the inside, it was really getting ready for a quick makeover!

So when Jan called and said, I want to come and help with something at the farm… we knew just what would be a nice fun afternoon job and managed to through in our first BBQ and yard bonfire too! SO FUN!

We had leftover blue from the big office and some nice crisp white. Sounded perfect! So off we started!



Most definately we are going to replace these screen doors… it’s just that we have 3 to do and they are about $30 each for a nice door that we found at Lowes. So it’s on the BUY list and in the meanwhile, Jessy did quite the little homeschool art project with two of them and duct tape.

She is scared of birds and was determined to keep that momma robin out of the porch!

I think they have a sort of modern art look, myself! haha…

And you can see, the curtain wall around the place is a sort of yucky battleship green. And just well, dirty and ucky.

We swept and cleaned up good and got it all ready. And then started to paint! And cook!



We had a fairly nice little gas grill, but the regulator valve broke on it! And I’ve been checking at the local hardware stores and they all tell me, sorry, that model is not repairable. Isn’t that a drag? It’s a stainless steel table top model. I haven’t totally given up, but I’m getting to the point that we may have to hit Craigslist for another gas grill. In the meanwhile, we got this cute little table top grill for charcoal and I love it! I totally overestimated the quantity of briquets I needed for a couple of hot dogs, but still, it was really nice to use and gosh, those dogs were so perfect! I seemed to think that the charcoal would take forever, but in reality, it was ready in about 10 or 15 minutes.



We found about 6 strands of little blue Christmas lights and they were perfect to string up around the top of the porch. There were already perfect little hooks and nails for them. It was just so lovely to sit in there! Luna came at one point and lept up on the little edge around the porch and got her feet all white! Of course, she proceeded to jump down and at her own little artwork to the whole porch floor! Haha… good thing we haven’t painted the floor yet! I’m pretty sure some lazy summer day project will be the floor and a faux painted rug in the middle!!! What fun!

Right now, as you can see by the little bits of cardboard here and there… we need to replace the outside screen. We’d like to take it all down, scrape the frame and paint it and then re-screen. But that’s probably a little way off. It’s on the list for this year, but it might be another few weeks for sure. We have a nice patio table for in there, and a couple plastic chairs. We’re going to be looking at garage sales for sure for some more suitable chairs and maybe a swing or something. I would just love to have an old porch swing out there for those lazy summer nights!



I definately need to get a little better photos for the whole effect, and of course, we need to tidy it up a bit! We got done and it was kind of dark, so we just sort of left it a bit of a mess so we could go out and sit by the lovely campfire that Maggie had made for us. She worked most of the afternoon finding cement blocks all over the property and carting them in with her trusty wagon to design a lovely big fire pit! And then carted in some dry dead wood and limbs for the fire. It was so magical! We ate banana cream pie and laughed and warmed our toes by the fire. I can see that I really need to stock up on marshmallows… we have the sticks, aplenty!

And I think I’m going to take Linda’s suggestion and look into canvas drop cloths as curtains for the inside! We’ve noticed that when it rains or is very windy, it would be nice to be able to draw some sturdy curtain in on either side, and to also make a nice little cozy private area if we wanted. I was looking at Lowes and sure enough, you can get big nice canvas cloths in various sizes for really very little. I think the largest one was only $19. And it was huge! They have some in different sizes too, so I think it would work nicely. I need to measure the space and then see what might work. I have a little grommet kit… I was thinking you could just put grommets in the top, and use a tight wire to string through and hang up. Easy to move back and forth and all. Definately on my radar for a good possible idea!

Well… that was Wednesday night! Things are moving ahead here at the farm, we’re trying to get into a schedule and get some work done so that we can make more money for our projects! We got a little frig… yeah… and Jessy has finally got her textured primer so she might be able to see a light at the end of her room tunnel soon! Poor kid… she’s trying to stay upbeat but I know she really wants her room to be done soon!

And of course, we got our little kitty!

Not sure, but I really really want to go to the livestock auction tomorrow… but it’s supposed to be all nasty and raining. Not sure I want to do that in the rain and all. Just going to see how the mood hits me tomorrow. I have most of my stuff for the chickens. Pine shavings for their barn floor, a feeder and water… still have to build a roost and some nest boxes. And get some feed. The feed store in town has a buy 2 get one bag free sale, so that sounds good. I SURE SURE do want to get some hens… I really do. We’ll see!

Pin It

Meet Topaz

Free Kittens.

Oh boy… that is a sign that is hard to pass up when you are thinking that it would be so swell to have a barn kitty to hang with Jack and Luna. Dixie will probably never really want to be outside much. Maybe the screen porch. If Jessy is with her. But Jack and Luna are already learning to be indoor/outdoor farm kitties. More about the dynamic duo later.

We were doing errands in the big city. And talking about chickens and kitties and chicks and such. And there… POOF! A sign that says FREE KITTENS… well, my goodness. Talk about positive signs. So I say to Jessy, lets go and look and she is the more mature and begins to tell me, Mom, are we ready for another kitty and just basically being the mom of the duo here… and well, I convince her, “Lets just look.”

Hahaha….

Well, they only had one kitten left, a little white and grey baby who was all squally and not happy with visiting with us. And little. MUCH too little to be outside. Hmmm. And they begin to tell us that they have more kittens ready next week. Huh? Well, then they begin to tell us that they have three momma cats and the all had kittens and so on and so on. We begin to notice that there are a lot of dogs walking around and more cats than you can shake a stick at. We say, oh, we probably need to get a little older cat, and thanks… but as providence has it, he says, well, you can have a mom cat. We have one that’s really nice.

And out he brings this teeny little young teenage mom of a calico kitty and Jessy melts like a huge big old ice cream scoop on the hot sidewalk. She loves calico cats. And this one is very agreeable, and nice and is young, and just well, ours. We tell them that we’d love her and she would have a wonderful home. The man smiles. He knows. He can tell. He’s a cat man, and loves them but it’s pretty obvious that he is a collector of critters. So we finish up the deal, roll up the windows and turn on the air for the trip home!

And you know, she just was as content as possible to sit in Jessy’s arms and purr, and was a teeny bit concerned, but never freaking out, or not a single meow. She looked around the car a teeny bit, but would rather come and snuggle in Jessy’s arms. She knew her mark and she was definitely not going to loose track of that nice human girl. By the time we hit Fayette, Jessy had named her Topaz. Believe it or not, our first rock inspired named animal.

Our plan is to keep her in a big dog crate for the rest of the evening. WIth many trips out to the potty and for snuggling and petting. That way she can have a nice safe little place to observe and pull in all the sites and sounds of the population here. Most of the animals have wandered over, sniffed and walked on. I like that most of our critters understand that this is a good gig and they don’t mind sharing.

Luna came over at one point and was sizing up the little mama. It was so funny, and so Luna. She just sat there for a good long time, being pretty intimidating without a single hiss or growl. Then she stepped up to touch noses and gave her a little hiss and walked off. She was just giving her a lay of the land. And off she went to go and sit in the bushes with Jack to wait for a foolish bird at the bird feeders. Another funny story.

We’ll see how things go for a few days and then consider where she might be calling home. If she warms up to everyone, then she might be another indoor/outdoor kitty. But then too, she might like to be the queen of her own domain out in the lovely barn with the chickens. Hopefully coming Saturday. But that’s another story!

Pin It

Our First Cow

Isn’t she cute???

Related Posts with ThumbnailsPin It