Rising Exec

Lee Ann has taken on more and more responsibility at The Tack Trunk. This year she was named to head up Breyer Day. Breyer is a maker of collectible plastic horse statuettes, and a hot item for the Tack Trunk crowd. The big day was last Saturday, and the turnout was pretty good. Here is Lee Ann serving up drinks at the Alex's Lemonade stand (proceeds to charity) and posing at the foam cutout she made for little riders.

Summer Projects

The Tower House garden is looking pretty good. Last weekend I harvested the radishes (not sure what you do with three pounds of radishes - suggestions?) Today I got the first of the banana peppers and a couple of okra pods. There are bell peppers on the vine (little), green tomatoes, and flowers on the zucchini and bush beans. The only disappointment so far has been the corn. I bought new seed, planted three 10-foot rows, and had about a dozen plants come up. That accounts for the blank area to the right side. I filled in part of the space with some last-chance watermelons that Lee Ann picked up at half off, and planted some more of the corn seed I had left over (what's that definition of insanity?) so hopefully that area will fill up soon.

My rainy day project is taking out the old kitchen. I disassembled the island and now am chipping up the ugly floor tile. Below that is cement board, and below that chipboard underlayment, and below that (hopefully) the original floorboards, waiting to be restored. I am using a spud bar to break up the tile but it's slow going and there are more nails and screws per inch than should be allowed by law. I'd like to strangle the people responsible for this mess! Lucky for them that they are probably dead already.

Annie - Graduating

That's Annie in the white.

We Survived...

...Annie's high school graduation!!! It's been a busy last few days, including the ceremony at Wright State's Nutter Center on Saturday and the party we threw on Sunday.

One fun thing was the graduate cutout Lee Ann made and stood up in our back yard during the party. She made this out of foam board, and painted it with chalkboard paint. Guests at the party had fun chalking in the names of their alma maters, and by the end we had gotten quite a few. Here is Lee Ann posing with her creation.

Latest Old House Crush

We are always on the lookout for some old house to buy that would screw up our lives even worse than they are now - call it a hobby. In the past year we have looked at maybe a dozen and made offers on two. We still have hopes for one of those, a magnificent house in Franklin, but the bank did not approve our short sale offer so we will probably have to wait until it goes through foreclosure to have another chance at it. In the meantime, we still are casually looking.

A few days ago this poor, bedraggled former farmhouse built in 1897 went up for sale. It sits on three acres just two blocks away from our Lebanon house. The land is zoned commercial and whoever buys the property probably will tear down the house, but it is the sort of place that appeals to us so we scheduled a showing. We went through it yesterday with Peggy, our intrepid realtor. (Think - what would it be like to be OUR realtor?)

We found out that the house is sound, despite pretty bad cosmetic damage from bad renters and a lot of deferred maintenance like we expected. But this house has two really cool features. There is a brick barrel-vaulted tunnel that runs out through the back basement wall and is filled with rubble about 25 feet out. And there is a shaft, as if for a small elevator, that runs from the basement to the attic, with doors opening from it into the adjacent main and second floor rooms.

I don't know that we would buy and renovate this house but I hope someone does - it is way too interesting to tear down for another quick lube place.

The Gardens

Things are sprouting in the "big garden." In the foreground are radishes and carrots, plus some onions in the back, covered by my "bunny buster" chicken wire cage which hopefully will keep non-human nibbling to a minimum. Behind that are pepper, tomato and okra plants with more traditional fencing to keep the critters at bay. I also have corn, bush beans, cucumbers and zucchini planted in the open garden area beyond that.

And wow, does the Lee Ann's pond landscaping look gorgeous. It seems everything decided to bloom at the same time. It could only look better if we had blue skies in the background, but the cool and misty weather has been good for the plants.

Roof After Pictures

Here is the flat part of the Tower House roof, newly resurfaced and ready for twenty years of leak-free service. These shots are from the tower room, a handy vantage point.