September 21, 2012
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Busy Day At Brat Farm Today
TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM
Today was a cleaning day at the Brat Farm. The Beast and I got busy working on the floors and things like cleaning the lamps, under the beds and other bedroom furniture. I worked on my rug. The Beast got me some spot cleaner instead of the foam rug cleaner I wanted but I have been using it on the various spots. It looks better even with just that done. I still have quite a few more areas to do but, hey, winter cleaning is just as bad as spring cleaning.
I cleaned up my door and door frame. One side had some tobacco residue, the other was mostly Chewlee’s dirty hands and Baron’s nose. I cleaned off the baseboard heater and the wall it is on. Chewlee is constantly putting her hands or feet on it if she is in my chair or hiding behind it for some reason or other. Tomorrow I will take down my curtains and the wooden blinds and clean those. I’ll also do the window which is one of those that you can clean both sides by just clicking these little levers on the inner frame. The windows then come down inside and you can reach both sides.
The Beast will need to get the ladder out to take the screen down so it can be cleaned. It has some serious lint and dirt from the fans on it that need cleaning. I’m going to start lobbying for a new desk because this one I have is seriously maimed and needs replacing. I loved the design basically but I need one that is just a little bigger. I also need a new chair. The *vinyl* has been peeling off the arms forever and I really need one with a well cushioned seat. I know they have them. I just hope we can afford a decent one.
I have this sudden need to get this room in some real order. I have things I would like to get painted and a few outside things that never got the good sealer on them that need repainting and then sealing. My Welcome Gnome looks great still and it’s been two or three years now since I sealed that after I repainted it. It hasn’t even faded like the old paint did. But then, I bought good paint for it. I’m sure that helps.
The Beast and I put fresh linens on the bed and he even decided it was time to clean the electric blanket. It SAYS you can wash it on the gentle cycle and we will put it on my umbrella lines to dry in the morning. I am NOT going to take a chance on drying it in our dryer, regardless of what it says. Of course, we have to have good weather. Even if it’s cool out, it will still dry. It will just take a bit longer. I told the Beast how we used to judge when clothes were dry on the line during the winter. First they would freeze, then when they actually dried, they would get loose and flap in the wind. He looked at me like I was crazy. I told him my family was poor and we did what we had to do. When you have seven kids, you can’t go without doing wash for more than a day or two. I remember when we finally got a real dryer. It was a gas dryer that we got along with a gas water heater after our landlord put out the money to bring it into both buildings he owned.
My uncle, who owned a furniture and appliance store, gave it to my mother either as a gift (he had a lot of kids, too…more than we had even) or at his cost. I really don’t remember which. But it was heaven to have hot bath water that we didn’t have to heat on the stove and clothes that got dried in an hour or less. Sheer heaven!
That was also when my dad and a couple of his brothers put a real bathtub in the house. We lost our big pantry to it but, hey, we learned to step up (the plumbing and all had to go on top of the real floor so they built a floor over all of it before putting the toilet, tub and little sink in place. One uncle ended up putting his leg through one of the back step when they carried up the cast iron tub. The landlord laughed about that once he was sure he wasn’t going to be sued. He replaced the step with some thicker wood the same day.
We take so much for granted these days with all our appliances. I will always love my dishwasher. That’s one appliance I could hardly wait to own. I have always hated washing dishes and pots and pans. We own one of the top of the line ones in this house and I am very grateful for that. The Beast also got us a very good hot water heater then he insulated it and boxed it in after making sure it wasn’t sitting on the garage floor. As a result, we have it on a timer but the hot water lasts us for almost 24 hours we found out when we lost our electricity from a tornado last year. That means we save a lot of money on electricity because the Beast is always looking for ways to do that. He’s been pretty successful on it, too, as we can see on our electric bills when we look at how we compare in usage from last year.
The Beast finally got down to the floors in the main part of the house. He moved all the furniture but hasn’t worked on the lamps yet. After seeing the difference in the lamps in the bedroom, it’s going to be amazing to see the big lamps we have in the living room cleaned up.
Well, time to get this posted. Love you all. Hope you are enjoying good weather and you have a great weekend.
