Wyoming Breezes

  Not much sewing has been happening in this room, but it has been full of activity. This room has been cleaned out, too.  Hmmm, I can't say that about this large room. In fact, it closely resembles a scene from Hoarders . All that I've accomplished since last Tuesday is moving piles from one room to the next because the interior of my house is getting a fresh coat of paint. With luck, the painter will be finished with week, and I can put things back where they really belong.

Last week's cold weather was a true blessing in disguise. Wednesday night I grabbed a frozen dinner from the deep freeze in the garage, and when my hand brushed against a loaf of bread that was soft, I knew I had a problem. Since the electrical breaker and outlet were fine, it was obvious the chest freezer had died. I wasn't really surprised because the freezer was over 29 years old: it had been faithful for nearly 10,602 days. I worried that the contents of the entire freezer would have to be discarded. I tossed thawed vegetables and pizza, fruit and soups from the top of the freezer, but the meat at the bottom was still frozen solid. I put some of the packages of beef in my side-by-side in the house and the rest in a plastic garbage can.  I set the can outside the garage door where the sub-zero and frigid temperatures would keep the contents from thawing until I could find a replacement freezer. By Thursday evening the meat was back in the garage safely tucked in the ...

Keeping up with annual, exterior maintenance is a nearly impossible chore when I cannot bend and stoop without getting light-headed and short of breath. The alternatives I've used for four years were to ignore the maintenance and to hire someone to do it for me. However, it is getting harder and harder to find someone reliable. This fall, I decided to make as many of the surfaces maintenance-free. It was time for a face lift. The deck has been sheathed in plastic composite material, made from old pop bottles, etc. All I need to do is sweep and hose it off every year. The shed no longer looks like a homesteader's hut but is encased in vinyl siding and matches the house. I am pleased with the outcome, and I am very pleased that these surfaces do not require annual maintenance.

In May, I made the decision to upgrade the windows in my house (circa 1980) from single panes to insulated, double-paned. One of the women in my knitting circle lives in my neighborhood, and her house is the same age as mine. Last year, she and her husband replaced the single-paned window sashes for double-paned sashes. With her recommendation, I made the plunge. So, on Wednesday, it was out with the old, and in with the new. The windows were installed with minimal mess. The two-man crew was in and out of my house in two hours and most of that time was removing and reinstalling a window air-conditioner in one of the frames. The new sashes are aluminum coated on the exterior, so only the interior frames needed painting. Of course, that meant taping around the edge (I am a messy, messy painter), priming and then painting. I like the new sashes, but they are HEAVY , almost too heavy for me to heft around. I cannot remove the new sashes from the kitchen window because they are hor...