The Wigglebutt Blog

I kind of had to spend  a few extra hours a day at work recently. I usually work early and open the shop at 8 and I have a young lady that comes in later and closes up at 6. I can usually get out of there by 2:30 or 3:00. Well for a couple of weeks recently, my young friend didn't have transportation, so we car-pooled. That meant for some long days for both of us. I took advantage of being stuck at the shop by spending some quality time at my enamelling station . I have accumulated quite a few beads and I figured I had better, at least try, to make some time to make something with them. The one above is a work in progress. I just thought it was such a happy color, I wanted to include it☺ And just when I thought our "one big summer project" for the year was done when we finished the greenhouse........ I finally convinced the stubborn man that lives here that the grass  was not going to get green, no matter how ...

This is one of our sheds.  When we first moved here and got dogs we decided that they would be 'outside' dogs.   But in Alaska, in the winter,  you need to have an 'inside' of some sort, so we put in a doggie door on the  heated shed. Keeping them outside lasted about a minute;~) And they totally became house dogs. But the 'dog house' remained until about three weeks ago. (Yes, that is snow back there) I was able to cut all of the roof supports the same length with the same angles, so that went pretty quickly. But, since the ground slopes down towards the shed AND slopes down from the back of the greenhouse to the front, every wall stud had to be 'cut to fit', so that took a little longer☺ (That's not just perspective, the short wall really is shorter on one end  than it is on the other) I made the door out of 2x2s. I love my door☺ The outside is complete! You probably can't see them,...

I honestly cannot bring myself to stay in the house and clay.  I have tons of ideas.  But up here the weather is very, very  unpredictable, ( the weather predictors try and usually fail miserably, but at least they try ☺ ) so if the sun is shining, ( which it has been the last week and a half, and they have been predicting RAIN for the last 3 days ☺) I have to be outside.  Summer is short in these parts, and in the summer, I only clay when it rains! Here  I am half way done clearing 'treelings' and a very few weeds that have grown up in the garden.  We have surmised that the soil that we had brought in 3 years ago, was somehow 'sterile'.  Absolutely nothing, including dandelions, would grow in this dirt.  So, we are having new topsoil brought in and we are building it up another few inches, and I am DAMNED determined to grow something in here! Keep ya posted☺

my age, that is..... I spent the last week recovering from last weekend and catching up on some of the things that didn't get done last weekend, while we were building the shed. This weekend consisted of finishing the construction of the shed. The roof is on, the trim is on, the screen under the eaves is in so the birds won't be nesting in there. ( Can't guarantee there won't be bats.  They can fit just about anywhere. ) All that is left is the painting and the steps.  The steps are just going to be made out of old railroad ties stacked up.  We will have a movable ramp because the shed will primarily be for storing the 4 wheelers.  We will be able to put the ramp up to get them in or out then just fold it up and slide it into the shed when we're done. I was able to carve out some time to do a couple of experiments I've desperately been wanting to start since I got these . I really like the one at the top of the post, but I think I LOVE...

The shed kit. Looks exciting, huh? This is the end of day 1. Keep in mind Honey spent the morning going to town to get the kit and footings. We spent about 3½ hours getting to this point. We are now level and square. And it's time for Nascar ... And this is about ready to start. Here we are after day 2..... We worked on this from 8:30 to 5:00. It still needs the roof and some trim and, of course I will paint it to match the house ( that's the way I am), but I think we did a good job. We didn't kill each other ( he was ON HIS WAY OUT a couple of times, but then he came around to my way of thinking) and I like the way it looks so far. Just a side note:  If you don't here from me in a couple of days, send help. I'm probably still too sore  to get out of bed. Happy Mother's Day!!!

When we moved into this house it had white walls in the kitchen, I got tired of the white walls and white cabinets, so I did this. Now, for years I have wanted a kitchen island. We have a large kitchen and almost no counter space. We got our cabinet at Lowes. It was an unclaimed special order, so it was really cheap. There was only one problem...... I wanted a RED island and that would certainly clash with my "artsy" walls. So I informed my horrified husband that the walls were going to have to be painted to match the new island. My husband didn't have an issue with painting the walls (I do all the painting around here). He just couldn't quite wrap his brain around a "Red Kitchen". He picked out the tile for the top of the island. He thought that having dark tile might tone down the red. I don't know if it tones it down or brings it out more but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! We went with 12" marble tile. We decided that 24"x36" was too small for...