Spring MEGA Update

One better take advantage of spring in the week that it's here. April/May tends to be when most of the year's action takes place at citycabin.

First, a last act of winter involved covering a few bare walls.

Somebody had this tattooed:

From a soon-to-be-sister-in-law (you're going to have to get used to the sound of that, A.T.):

because I get my way once in awhile:

in remembrance of the former home:

and in honor of our new home, but an homage to an older one. My grandmother moved out of her childhood home this past summer. In addition to a number of wonderful home furnishings
and tools proudly displayed and utilized at citycabin


were some great postcards copyright, 1908.



Changing gears, the spring work has been advanced by the addition of a handy trailer. Gone are the days of folding down the backseat to push in 8' sections of lumber from trunk to dashboard.


problem(s):
1. desire, at least by 1/2 of the household, to grow stuff other than flowers
2. lots of rabbits, squirrels and shade

solution: the sunny, heat island, impervious surface of a garage top






Above are two 4'x6'x12" planter boxes. They should be the right height to be easy on one's back and also rabbit proof. The floors were tipped up and in soon after the photos were taken. Now all that's left is to do some strategic hole drilling for drainage and add soil. As soon as the temps are more consistent and the st. paul farmer's market rolls out more of the goods there will ideally be some veggie growth to photograph. Instead, it's time to be satisfied trying to grow grass over a season's worth of birdseed winterkill.

The trouble's mostly worth it. After a slow spring the past few days have offered a few never before seen visitors:

evolved, modestly-dressed squirrel

yellow-rumped warbler (which we didn't know until birdchick kindly helped with identification)

blackburnian warbler. Click on pick and zoom in to see a great Riddler's mask.

And, I know they're common and I came within six inches of hitting one with a golf ball on Sunday, but to wake up to a drake mallard swimming in your little backyard urban pond was much too fun.

He and his girlfriend took off before there was time for a nice photo.

It was before 7am today and the greater birdwatcher in the house excitedly pulled me out of bed. It was worth it.

Lastly, it's been awhile. Another jailbird sighting:

(back) into the wild

i'm going to totally ignore how long it's been since the last post. we've done some things--had a lot of art framed and matted (pictures forthcoming. i struggle with obscene amounts of reflection no matter where i try to take the photos), did some minorly epic oak tree trimming (oak is VERY HEAVY. that's why it's a HARDWOOD. we are geniuses), and small fixes here and there.

anyhow, it's spring.

the pond wintered fairly well. three mice lost their souls trying to cross the biggest body of water they'd probably ever seen. farewell, little Mouse Cortes.

and the guy loves to do things more than once. he calls this "fixing" while i call it "annoying". so, we dug up the pond yet again to re-level. i think we have it right this time.


and, as testament to the fortitude of carp across the globe, the goldfish lived through the winter. they were released back into their natural habitat of plastic vinyl tub today.


check that look of shock. lake's still a bit cold, little orange.



we're also planning another shade garden.

here it is, completely finished:



we'll throw these plants on the top, left in boxes and bags, of course.





and we're going to replace the bricks with old tires for full effect.

sometimes planting takes on proportions of danger, at least according to the box.

all epic. all. the. time.

i've really been meaning to update every month. looks like we didn't do much during december. hopefully this brand-spanking-freaktastic january blog will make up for it.

some people like to relax during vacations. not anybody living at this cabin. well, the female persuasion would appreciate chillaxin' time, but that was not to be. and to be honest, the 3.5 days of straight up standing-on-chairs-taping-electrical-paint extravaganza was more than worth it.

the living room before:

the living room had many issues, spanning from a totally crapola color scheme


to a ceiling falling apart


and very poorly done electrical outlets and vent.

i mean, ridiculous work preceded our moving here.

so, we fixed things in a few ways. since we're in no hurry to strip walls to the studs in order to re-sheetrock (what is known in my family as "some real shit work"), we instead texturized the walls with this great pre-tinted stuff known as 'manda mudd. check it:



the guy also practiced his audition routine for stomp:






and ceiling painting is totally the best and most fun thing to do



preceded by almost blowing my head off with the super-charged ceiling texture repair



but, finally, we conquered city cabin.

just to remind you, before:



and after:


and then there's the kitchen and accompanying hallway. an unstunning underwhelming use of some potentially cool space. here we re-painted the brick, more new outlets and covers, and new color in general. it was his idea for the blue, i think he credits mad men (which is, stylistically, a time period i envy in every way).

before:


(notice the little yellow helper above?)


during:



and after:
before:





during:


after:


and thanks again, swank, for cool old affordable stuff to tie things in together. the fact that it's a cat was a very small factor. really. really.

and lastly, two new light fixtures, one in the kitchen, one in the hallway, work off the same switch.

before:

(let me preface this by saying that we don't leave fixtures dangling from the ceiling. this might have been influenced by an early beer and a "let's get new fixtures!" decree.)



check the excellent taping job on this light:



after:

so, that's it. hours of grueling labor. a fair amount of trips to the hardware store. but i guess we did manage to have some fun over our winter break aside from digging the new digs:

before. during. after.

pictures probably speak more than words here.

also, gratuitous cute (note how the orange cat is rarely pictured? that's because he spends most of his time destroying things in a very un-cute way):

snowbirds

we've been winterizing at city cabin. and our noble 26 cent friends have taken a well-deserved holiday south. to our basement. where they will live in dark foodless comfort for the next six months. kinda like taking a winter vacation in sweden.




it's true--i've been dying to scoop up these fish for a closer look ever since we've gotten them.





over-priced and under-located glutted condo market:

man vs beast

in the eternal struggle of man versus nature, paths collide, wars are waged, and peace is a notion of utmost futility.