Fire 🔥 Update #503: We have work dates!!! 🤸🏽‍♀️ Yippee!

Happy Saturday friends!

And a happy, happy day it is too! Goodness! This is the week we got the news, ManChild's windows have arrived, and the schedule has been made! OMG! We have an actual date of when the interior work begins in earnest! So many exclamation points and I'm only in the first paragraph! We've been out since January 2nd and are so ready to be back home!

Yesterday (Thursday) the mitigation company came in and sprayed oil based Kilz inside ManChild's torn out room to "encapsulate" it, aka get rid of the smoke smell. Last week they brought in something called a hydroxyl generator that is basically a giant UV light that kills all smell. The house smelled amazing, even ManChild's smoky room, but a few days later, the smokey smell in his room came back. So, the mitigation guy and I talked and decided that Kilz was the best bet. Boy is it over the top stinky in there now! Oil based stuff is nasty. Everything is open today with a huge fan pumping the smell outside. May the birds and bees stay far away right now! 

Today (Friday) the skylight in my new bedroom (previous bonus room) went in, it's on the north side of the house and will be directly above my art area. Excited!

This kind of skylight has a blind built in:

Monday the sheetrock guy comes to put in a real ceiling (Brad tore out the drop ceiling a few weeks ago.) He will also do the sheetrock around the skylight too.

Brad has wired all the new smoke alarms (if you remember, none of the existing ones went off during the fire) and installed can lights in my new bedroom and in the laundry room (it still had an old florescent on the ceiling.) 

AND THEN! The following Monday, April 28th the guys come in to sheetrock ManChild's room and tile his bathroom. Followed by painting the entire interior of the house and sanding and staining the floors! I can't wait! I'm hearing that they will be done by May 30th. After that the contents mitigation guys have to take everything out of the Pods and put it all back in the house.

Gulp.

That's when we find out if the fabric furniture smells like smoke. I had a friend in Colorado say to not close out the insurance claim until we've lived in the house for a full year. She had a fire and was surprised how in different seasons, humiditiy levels, and heat, the smoky smell would come back.

So...with a little luck, we could be back in our house by early June!

In even more good news: our insurance fought for us with the contents mitigation company and now they (not insurance which is what the contents mitigation tried to make happen) will be paying for the clothing, blankets, coats, quilts, etc that they ruined after we told them none of it could be dry cleaned due to my chemical sensitivities. Remember the ones they dry cleaned twice?? I am very happy with our USAA insurance, they've done a great job and even fought this battle on our behalf. Wow!

THE COMMUNITY GARDEN AT THE RANCH

The 4 of us installed three 5x12' beds next to the pond a few weeks ago. Today (Saturday, April 19th) at 2pm we are having another work day, come join us if you can! We will be gathering branches and brush to pile on top of these and then hopefully will receive a chip drop soon from GetChipDrop.com (their video at the top of the page about why you don't want a chip drop made me laugh) and the chips will be used in the spaces between the beds and on top of the dirt in the beds.

THE RANCH

We miss living at our home, it's so pretty! The mowing has started, which makes it sound like we have people to come mow but we do not, that's mostly me:

Some evenings I can do large swaths, but often I can get in about 30 minutes a day.

So many pretty things blooming around the farm and the rental. This is a fern frond, getting ready to unfurl. A Furled Fern Frond if you will. Say it 5 times fast, I know you want to:

Hellebores at the rental:

This particular photo spoke to me 👇🏽. These beautiful iris blooming surrounded by what has been feeling like chaos for months now—all the Pods in my front yard, the worker's truck in the background. And yet, beauty is coming up no matter what:

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A cute pic of my brother Michael and me, with little Penelope Poo too—out shopping at Cameron Village in Raleigh last weekend:

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I have a funny little story: A long time ago, my brother told me about driving in bumper to bumper traffic in Atlanta and seeing a person eating out of a cassarole dish with a fork. It cracked us up. This week Brad and I had to get ranch chores done early and then drive to Garner to pick out tile and carpet. We hadn't had time to eat breakfast so I packed us both yogurt and granola. Here we are, driving in my Tesla with full self drive on, eating LOL. The interior camera keeps an eye on your eyes and as long as you keep your eyes on the road (yes, you can look around a bit just like when you're driving) you don't have to have your hands on the wheel, like in the earlier software versions. I took this just for my brother 😆:

I took me sooooo long to get used to this crazy car but I have to say, the newest update to full self drive is really cool. (I bought my car for lots of reasons, which have nothing to do with a certain person :-))

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I was lying in bed last weekend, apparently for too long, because I Love Lucy came in and yipped at me. This is a demanding sound, usually saved for when she wants to go out. But Brad had just fed her and taken her out so I didn't know what in the world she was asking me. I thought: well, ok then, I should get up anyway and hauled myself out of bed. The moment my back was turned, I heard a sound, turned around and found this:

What a little monkey! 😆 I gave her a hug and found out her feet were cold!

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Cash is our boarded horse (she's the only full sized horse we have on the property now) and she's a sweet old girl. She's been pretty submissive and we have had to protect her while she's eating her grain so the others (mostly Blu and Jaffee) don't bug her until she moves out of the way. It's ridiculous really, they are too short to reach her food anyway, especially when we put it on the other side of the fence. But lately...well I guess Cash has been attending the Women's Circles here at the ranch, in spirit anyway! She suddenly has boundaries LOL! Go Cash! Whoohoo!

At first, like anyone learning boundaries, she was riding that boundary pendulum hard: ears pinned, teeth and feet flashing. But eventually she seemed to have made her point and they understood what she was saying, now she can just flick an ear at them (mostly ;-))

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I'm super excited about these beds I found on Marketplace! They are old and heavy and don't match which I am also happy about, but they do look great together! They are both full size and I'm going to put them in the loft area (my former bedroom) for guest beds, ooooooo, pretty! Here they are at the AirBnB they currently live in, I can't wait to get them home! 

Now, if only I could find something old and pretty like this, but in a queen size for me! They are almost impossible to find in a queen, even though with a quick search, I found that they were starting to be mass produced in the 1920s! So, where are those head/footboards in the size I need?? If you see one out in the world in the Raleigh area, let me know!

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I intended to do a livestream over on my Substack this week but after hours of fussing, I wasn't able so I did a little pivot, and just recorded this little illustration class instead, check it out! 

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Wednesday, April 23rd, 6-9pm (EDT, Apex, NC), every Wednesday evening for 4 weeks, Women's Circle, $140 is the total!
Read more about Women's Circles here!

Saturday, April 26th, 11am-1pm (EDT, Apex, NC), Watercolor rabbit class, just bring yourself, I have all the supplies! $35.  More details and sign up here!

Friday, May 9th, 4pm-5:30pm (EDT, Apex, NC), Meditation with the Animals of The Mother Ranch, $35. All the info and sign up by clicking here!

THE MEMES

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