Log Cabin Design

I went to visit the houseplans shop website tonite because I wanted to highlight a vacation house/cabin for all of you to enjoy.

I came across this one and it reminded me so much of a cabin that I stayed in in Tennessee that I just had to feature it.

The cabin I stayed in was at the top of one of their mountains, just down the road apiece from the Dolly Parsons "Dollywood", in Pigeon Forge.

This is Vacation House plan # 010H-0006 with 1333 sq ft of living space and even though it is 2 bedrooms and 2 baths there is a lot of room that can be utilized efficiently for more house guests if you desire.

High up in the mountain, the back porch with the hot tub and all kinds of old fashioned rocking chairs out there to look out over the tree tops and valleys below. I would take my cup of coffee out there in the early hours of the morning, as the sun was just beginning to come up. I would sit and watch the sun's rays peeking through the mist as it lifted off the valley below us.

The cabin we were in, had 2 full sleeper sofas so we were able to sleep 8 people very comfortably. In this plan, you could actually use the upstairs studio for addional sleeping accomodations by putting in a sleeper sofa or even several single chairs that convert to sleeping units.

Since this is a vacation home, either located in the mountains or by the sea shore, keep your furnishings simple and easy to care for. Slipcover your sofas or upolster them in denim, duck, or sailcloth so that people will feel comfortable curling up with barefeet on the furniture!  Also slipcovers can be removed quickly and easily and thrown into the washer! Choose a basic color for your slipcovers, maybe light denim blue, white or beige. Use the other colors from your palette choice for throw pillows, afghan throws and comfy velour blankets to cuddle up in on cool nights, and other accessories.

If this is to be a waterfront home, you might want to consider using the colors of the sand, sky and sunsets to decorate with. Go with off white or wheat/creams along with several shade of blue, the azure and pinks of sunsets.Keep your window coverings simple or as non existant as possible. Consider bamboo roll up shades for privacy areas and soft opaqe panels to soften if you wish a more suble effect. On the great room, perhaps you might not want any window coverings at all if the area behind you is secluded, otherwise go with just the bamboo shades or wood slated vertical binds.














If you are up in the mountains, maybe you would want to go with bolder colors, deeper shades of blues or greens, or even work in some vibrant rose or reds shades.

Buckets of Rain

They say if you live in Oklahoma and don't like the weather here, just wait five minutes and it will change!
Actually we did have to wait a little longer than that the other day, but when the thunderstorms moved in, I guess they thought we needed to make up for our extra dry weather and they meandered slowly across the expanse of our state leaving a trail of destruction behind.

We ended up with over ten inches of rain in some parts of the state.Numerous little towns and cities had massive flooding problems. Governor Henry ended up declaring a State of Emergency in 56 counties! Some of the farmers who were in the process of bringing in their wheat may end up losing their crops.In Oklahoma City and Edmond, there were areas where streets became raging rivers of water and there were many people who ended up having to be rescued from stalled vehicles. Many buildings of our State Capitol complex have received extensive damage.

Now the process of cleanup begins and much of it will fall directly on the shoulders of the homeowner  because many people will not have flood insurance coverage on homes.Of course rain like we had only happens about once every 500 years and unless you live in a flood plain area, where flood insurance is mandatory, one doesn't usually add that coverage onto their insurance policy.

If your home received interior water damage, it is going to be imperative that you start the drying out process immediately in order to keep from getting mold damage. You have water in your home, all your carpet and the bottom of your furniture is wet, who do you call? I would suggest that you contact a fire restoration company immediately! Most likely you will have to pull up all the padding and carpet, but you may be able to save your sheet rock walls if you can get them in there quickly enough with some of their huge fans. If not, you will be pulling out the walls of your home also. Do not think that they are just going to dry out on their own. You will need to take immediate action. Once black mold forms you will have a very toxic situation on your hands! If electrical sockets got wet, be sure to have an electrician come check things out to be sure that you are safe.
 
If you have a vegetable garden and flower beds, you probably will need to be checking them to see if too much water is standing in the beds. If possible, remove retaining borders to allow excess water to run out of them. There is a good chance you will need to purchase some new top soil to mix into the existing soil in order to help absorb some of the excess moisture.

If you ended up driving through high water, chances are the floor coverings in your car will need to be replaced.  Don't forget to also do the trunk area while you are at it. Depending on how deep the water was, you may need to have your mechanic check out your vehicle's mechanical and electrical systems.

When all is said and done, we were extremely fortunate that even though the losses will be into the millions if not billions of dollars and it may take time to recoup from these losses, we will in deed recover with time.

Sundays Country Cottage blog

Summer has arrived I guess!

It was hot hot hot here in "Okie" land today! The last I heard, it did make it to 100 in some cities and it made it to 97 here where I live. It was a good day to stay inside, laze around and eat ice cream.

I had visions of getting out early this morning and working on the backyard but that went out the window real quick!

I have some weeds that I swear are growing into small trees! I'm going to need a hatchet to chop them down rather than pruning scissors if I don't get out there and get them cut back. As it is, there is no way the electric lawnmower is going to chop them down.

My tomatoes look like they are doing great, they didn't wilt at all today in this heat. I thought for sure they would be but they appear to have done just fine. Since we only have a slight chance of rain tomorrow night, I am going to go out and give them some water in the morning. No sign yet of any potatoes trying to break ground, I am anxious for those to sprout.

Oh oh, I just thought of some seeds I forgot to get. Watermelons and I am sure it is too late to try and plant any of those. I guess I need to go check out some gardening websites and see.

I went out after it cooled off some (to a whopping 90) and since rain was taken out of our forecast for tonight, I went ahead and watered the garden an my new lilac bush. I even attempted to pull some of those tall weeds, to no avail. I tried cutting the stems with scissors, that didn't work either! So I guess it is going to take something more drastic to get them out of there. I did manage to get up some of the dried up burr weeds. Should have thought twice about pulling them with bare hands because now I have some of the stickers in my hands.

It looks like we are in for another hot day tomorrow and like it or not, I do have to go to the tag agency and get the tags for my car. Thank goodness there is a/c in the car and I am sure I'll end up having to use it. Get out early and scoot home and take it easy the rest of the day until the sun goes down.

Trip to Farmers Market

A beautiful sunny Saturday and a great way to get out of the house for awhile and go exploring. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, Norman has the Farmers Market up at the County Fairgrounds. The problem is it is only open until noon on Wednesdays and till 12:30 on Saturdays. If I work late at night, it leaves me little time to get up there. I was bound and determined I was going to get there today because I needed some tomato starts before it gets too late to start planting them. I managed to get there about noon and wandered through just a few of the booths. Some were set up outside in the parking lot and then there is a huge building filled with vendors. I parked the car up by the livestock barn and walked to the market area. As I did, I heard the loudspeaker from the barn saying "one of the things I look at when ..........." Oh dear, keep walking! I know that I am a sucker when it comes to animals, no matter what kind they are. I was on a mission and the vegetables came first!

Many of the vendors outside had vegetables from different states and some from outside of the United States. I wanted to find locally grown products so I kept searching. It didn't take me long, just inside the building and the first booth to the left was a local vendor with a table filled with a nice assortment of beautiful plants. Being the first time gardener that I am, I asked for some advice not only on the actual planting but which varieties to purchase. Next week, I will probably be going back and grab some of their patio tomatoes as well.

They also had a lilac bush and since it was close to closing time, they not only discounted my tomato plants but the lilac bush as well. She said that the lilac plant was already two years old and should produce some blooms later on for me this year. I am so anxious to see some beautiful fragrant lilacs growing in my yard.

After putting my purchases into my car, of course I had to go check out what was going on in the livestock barn. They were having a goat show! Since I've been reading up on goats, what a wonderful opportunity to get up close and personal with some. I got a chance to visit with some of the gals that were showing their goats. It was lunch time for the kids and it was fun to watch, the nannies so patient with their babies, as they nursed. I swear, they were fast little critters, took them no time at all to totally empty mama out!

I came home and got some more of the weeds pulled and the ground raked so that I could start turning some earth. I guess there are some advantages to having a yard full of weeds, underneath there isn't any grass! So I was able to get my beautiful lilac and tomatoes planted with ease.

My little climbing rose bush out front had a profusion of red/pink/white peppermint blooms this year. I was so afraid that when the workmen were here earlier this year and they helped me clear all the ivy out of the flower beds around the front of the house, that they had killed the rose bush because someone cut it way way back. Of all the things that I've planted, that has done so well. I did transplant some jonquils a couple of years ago into the front beds but the ivy overtook them and it wasn't until all the ivy was removed that they began to flourish. I do need some other plants in there since those jonquils only bloom for such a short period of time and the beds look naked!

Think I'll head to bed and have dreams of beautiful fragrant lilac blossoms and fresh red tomatoes!

Weeds, Weeds Everywhere Weeds!

Oh boy, do I have a problem! These recent rains have created an abundance of growth of nothing but weeds in my back yard! I don't see this many weeds in any of my neighbors yards..... I think they all decided to grow in mine.

I went out and started pulling them by hand. Now mind you, I have a large corner back yard so I'm looking at probably 1/4th to 1/2 an acre of land back there! Once I began this chore, I came to a horrible conclusion. By the time I get all the weeds pulled, I am going to have nothing but big patches of bare dirt back there. That's a good thing in some respects because I want to add more garden space and some pretty wild flower areas, paths, but little did I know that Mother Nature was going to help me along the way so well!

I hate pesticides with all their chemicals so I guess I am going to renting a rototiller and just plow up the entire yard and start with a clean slate.

Guess it is time to go browse through some books with gardening ideas. I've been wanting to turn my yard into a nice cottage garden retreat and now it looks like I'm going to get the chance to do so all at once.





I love P. Allen Smith's gardening techniques so I better be looking at some of his gardening books as well. I like this one about container gardens, that way I can move things around and follow the sun and bring them inside in the winter and put them under grow lights if necessary.



Time to go get those fingers dirty again!

Massive Damage In Oklahoma

Today, we were hit with numerous tornadoes across Oklahoma. I have only seen and heard about the damage on the television, I haven't ventured out yet to see first hand the damage that has been done in my city.

What is surprising is that they are saying there was quite a bit of damage done here in Norman, but I haven't seen any in the few blocks close to my house in the Central north part of the city. Yet, about 2 miles away, where the National Weather Service building is located, they are saying that they lost many windows. I am not sure if it was from an actual tornado or just the 100+ mph straight line winds or outflow winds that were created which caused the damage. I'll have to venture out tomorrow and see what I can see.

So far, most of the damage I've seen on the television has been south and west of us down off I-35 and Hwy 9 and also north and east of us out towards Lake Thunderbird.

Luckily I have an underground shelter, which my neighbor and I went to as the sirens began going off. It was interesting in that I was watching television and they were talking about a storm forming down to the south and west of us and then almost instantaneously they stated a tornado warning issued for Norman and the next thing our sirens were going off. It was a good thing that I had already gotten my animals into their carriers and taken down to the shelter because once the sirens went off, it was just minutes to get us humans down into the shelter and safety.

We listened to the weather radio, that I had taken down with us, as the wind and rain pelted the door of the shelter. I kept listening for the "sound of a train" that everyone says you usually hear as a tornado roars through, but I didn't hear any sounds like that. But of course with the continual sound of the siren along with the wind driven rain it made it difficult to hear anything that might have sounded like a train going through.

Finally there was silence, no more sirens, no more rain and no more wind. I listened to the radio to see if they would announce that we were now in the clear but they were too busy announcing warnings for other areas. We continued to stay in the shelter for awhile longer and then I ventured out and went and checked the television to see if I could determine if we were now in the clear. It appeared that we were so I had my neighbor come on up out of the shelter and I started making us some ice tea. Before I could even get the tea made, our sirens went off again. We looked at the television and weren't able to tell if they had another sighting or if perhaps that siren was the "all clear" siren. We decided not to take any chances after having seen some of the video of the recent destruction in our area. So back down to the shelter we went again. This time we were down there about 30 minutes before I once again ventured out to check the situation. The weatherman was saying that all of Central Oklahoma was now clear and the storms were moving East into Arkansas traveling at about 60 mph and would be totally out of the state soon.

This was the first storm of the season and they are saying there were somewhere between 25-35 tornadoes that touched down in many communities in Oklahoma. This is more than we normally have in an entire tornado season per year. There are massive power outages, with the big metal towers down as well as telephone poles which have been snapped off at their bases. First estimates are that most of the twisters were between F3 & F4 strengths as they uprooted trees, flipped large tractor trailer rigs, destroyed homes and snuffed out five lives.

We are due to have more storms come Wednesday and Thursday. Please say some prayers as we begin the massive cleanup ahead of us and those who lost loved ones are able to lay them to rest and have some time to grieve.