The Greenhouse

My mom passed away three years ago leaving a house filled with stuff.  It's taken me this long to liquidate and sort all of it.  Now admittedly, I have procrastinated on parts of the project.  There was just so much to go through, it was pretty overwhelming.  One of the things I've wondered what to do with was the greenhouse.  My mom had an 8-foot by 17-foot molded fiberglass greenhouse in her backyard.  I don't think I ever saw her really grow much in it.  At first I remember her starting some seeds, or baskets of fushia starts or begonias.  But I don't think she ever really "grew" plants in it.  Later on, she used the back half for storage and gradually it just kind of filled up with stuff.  When we started working on the house, when she was still in the hospital, we needed to move some of the stuff out of the house so my brother could have a bedroom to live in.  He emptied one bedroom to a rental storage place for several months.  When my mom passed away, I suggested he move the stuff back since it probably wasn't worth what he was paying in storage.  We decided to empty out the greenhouse and store the boxes and tubs in there.  In the process of cleaning out the greenhouse, he found a bunch of bees and a nest of rats, plus tons of blackberry vines.  For three years, we stored all the garage sale stuff in there between sales.  Then the estate sale ladies sold the rest of it.  Now the house is being sold and what to do with the greenhouse?  It is old, very dirty and a little fragile.  It has been sitting there for at least 25 years.  I doubt it was ever washed.  My mother had often commented that she wished it was smaller and could be moved to my place, since I have always wanted one.  I had visions of it shattering if we tried to move it.  I finally decided at the last, that I wanted to try to move it to my place if possible.  My son-in-law did a wonderful job of stabilizing, moving, and installing it in my yard.  This morning my husband and I scrubbed down one side of the greenhouse.  The two of us worked a couple hours on it, scrubbing and spraying.  Wow, what a difference!  Next Saturday, we'll clean the other side. Then to get things set up inside and start growing. I can just imagine my mom up in heaven saying, "Hank, look! She got the greenhouse home."   She would be happy, I know.

The greenhouse before cleaning.  It is black with dirt and mildew.

After cleaning.

 



Left side dirty, right side clean.  What a difference in the amount of light coming in.

~Jane

Gluten Free???

I've done a lot of reading about gluten-free diets the last couple of months, and I can see why you might possibly want to try it.  I might even try it eventually.  I would probably benefit some even though I don't have celiac disease.  But I don't understand why people insist upon cramming gluten-free down your throat. 

I was reading another blog this morning and the writer was commenting on sick day traditions.  How when she was a child her mother always made them Campbell's chicken noodle soup to make them feel better.  She ended her blog by asking what other people traditionally did when they or their kids were sick.  Amidst the multitude of answers were a couple people chiming in that they ate their gluten-free chicken soup and their gluten-free crackers.  Now why was the gluten-free part important?  Who really cares?  Why couldn't they just agree that they also love chicken soup and crackers when they are sick? 

I know.  This is just a stupid rant.  But really?  Why do they have to include that fact?

~Jane

Greenhouse Growing

My mother had a 7x17 foot molded fiberglass greenhouse in her back yard which my son-in-law is going to attempt to move to my yard.  Has anyone grown anything in a greenhouse?  Do you have any tips or pitfalls to avoid?

~Jane

Struggling On

Here I have all these great plans for what I'm going to accomplish while my husband's away and I sure am not getting very far.  I have one closet cleaned out from my mom's and have brought it all home.  It is a lot of my dad's stuff.  Some framed commendations from his military days, boxes and boxes of slides, some reels of film, the projector, the splicer, and the screen.  A few family heirlooms.  The only catch is that I had to have a place to store it here.  I don't want more boxes in the way when my husband gets home.  I ended up cleaning out the closet in my daughter's room.  After all, she's only been married seven and a half years.  :)  So all of her stuff is stacked and ready for me to dump at her house for her to go through.  Once I moved all of it out, I had more than enough room to store all those keepsakes.  I did discover while moving things around and vacuuming out the cobwebs in the closet, that the baseboards in that room really need cleaning.  So now before I can move anything more around I'll need to wash them down.  Unfortunately, every job I've attempted has been similar.  Major cleaning once you start moving stuff.  Eventually, my whole house will be cleaner and more organized.  Let's hope it's before my husband gets back.

~Jane

Kind of Absent Lately

If you know me, you know I work for my state legislature.  They are in session this year from January to April and I'm usually pretty busy.  I work 12-hour days regularly.  It's worth it though, because the rest of the year I only have to work a 7-hour day and I love getting off that hour early.  The downside to session though is you can't take any time off.  So life is busy, my house is messy, and I miss my grandbabies like crazy, since I can't do any weekday babysitting. 

In the midst of all this, I listed my mother's house for sale.  It's been a week and I have two good offers to buy it.  Well, one good offer and one other.  I've been over there a couple times this past week cleaning out some more stuff.  My mom had a fiberglass greenhouse in her back yard.  My son-in-law is preparing to move it to my back yard.  I'm hoping it makes it and doesn't shatter.  I'm also trying to figure out how I'm going to utilize it.  My daughter had already offered to come over and help weed the vegetable garden this summer.  Now we can expand some of our plans.  I'm researching greenhouse growing.  :)

If the house sale goes through, there is going to have to be a major clean out one weekend in the near future.  There is way too much stuff to leave for the new owners to deal with. 

I'm knitting on a sweater for Malachi.  I already have Zach's knit, but I think I'm going to have to give it to him before Malachi gets his or he's going to outgrow it.  Trying to make things for two little guys is causing Grandma some timing issues.

My husband is out of town visiting his brother.  I'm trying, amidst everything else going on, to do some much needed cleaning on the house.  I have lots of plans.  Let's see how far I get!  :)

~Jane

Malachi

Everyone who knows me knows my grandsons are the light of my life.  I just can't get enough time to spend with them and everything they do, of course, fills me with delight.  Zachary, of course, is too little to do anything but smile at you.  But some of the cute things Malachi has been saying lately:

I went into Malachi's Sunday school class to visit with him a few minutes before I went into the service.  He and another little boy were building something with large cardboard blocks and wearing Little Tykes construction hard hats on their heads.  Malachi said, "You come to teach my class, Grandma?" "No, Grandma just came to visit you a minute.  Can Grandma get a hug and a kiss?"  Malachi says, "Sure, I give you a builder's kiss!"  Then after giving me a hug, he turns to the other little boy and says, "XXX, don't you want to give my grandma a hug and a kiss?"  The other little boy looked at me with alarm.  "No, Malachi, he has his own grandma to give hugs and kisses to."  "Oh, okay."  The whole conversation was just too cute.

I work for the state Legislature.  When Malachi comes to visit, he sees the big legislative building with its dome and tells me I work in a castle.  "I come see you in your castle."

Right now, his current phrase is "Right?"  Everything includes the word, "right."  We're going to do this, Right? 

His favorite song right now is Jingle Bells.  He sings or hums it constantly.  I tried last weekend when he visited to get him onto some other song.  But Jingle Bells with its "Hey!" is the favorite.

He is such a little motor mouth.  I hear his little voice as a constant drone behind my daughter whenever I talk to her on the phone.  I know now why MY mother always used to ask, "How many children do you have over there today?" when she would call.  One noisy little child can sound like a dozen over the phone.  Apparently my daughter must have been just as noisy when she was little as Malachi is now.  :)

~Jane

Saturday

Started the day with a trip to the grocery store with my daughter and grandsons.  Several of us are starting the 17-Day Diet on Monday.  I've never really done this diet and obeyed all the rules before.  I've lost about 10 pounds over the summer and I'm stuck there. I'm hoping this diet with jumpstart some more weight loss, and having an eating plan may help me avoid the dreaded "session" eating.  Which is basically eating whatever comes into the office, usually fat and calorie laden comfort foods.  I stocked up on lots of fruit and vegies, fish and chicken, and yoghurt.  I have a few health issues that I've been told by various people may improve if I removed some of the carbs from my diet, so I guess I'm ready to experiment and try it out.  I also decided my refrigerator was the pits, so I cleaned it all out today of various moldy leftovers and bits and pieces of stuff lingering in there.  After cleaning the refrigerator, I ran back out to Costco to have them double check my glasses.  They claim they are spot on, and it's just that its a major adjustment that will take some days to get use to.  I hope that is all it takes, just wearing the glasses for a while.  Otherwise I'll have to go back to the eye doctor for an update on my prescription.  After all the busyness today, I think I'm going to spend the evening watching TV and knitting on Zach's sweater.

~Jane