Teeny, Tiny House: Gardening

I have mentioned ad nauseam on here before that one of my favorite things about living out in the country is the wildlife. Specifically, I love the deer! I love watching them and especially right now, I love watching all the leggy, knock-kneed babies wandering around. As I am want to do, I find myself getting overly-emotionally invested in them and grieve when I find they have been killed by careless drivers.  

Hubby and I have a different approach to wildlife than most. Our philosophy is: they lived here first. We do everything we can to ensure they have access, nourishment and safety. We don't view the wild animals on our property as nuisances to be removed but rather original inhabitants. In an effort to create a deer Utopia, we even went so far as to plant white clover in a small section of the yard this year because we knew the deer would like it. 

Sometimes, however, the desire to give nature precedence conflicts with being a homeowner. For example, I have been wanting to garden outside the confines of our gate, but found it overwhelmingly impossible because the deer - literally - eat everything. After a lengthy trip to our local garden center, I now have a list of deer "resistant" plants that they hopefully won't be interested in.

Before

After

After

Hubby built me that amazing shelf on top of the fence for my herbs (left to right: rosemary, thyme, chives, purple basil, garlic chives and regular basil). You might be wondering why? We have .25 acres that is fenced in, there must be someplace to plant? Yes, yes there is. But...

Enter, Little Miss Sweet Face, who also eats everything she can get her mouth on. She was actually eating the herbs straight out of the cartons as I was potting them. I have also been attempting to grow strawberries in that wine barrel but every time there is even an inkling of a new berry, she eats it. *sigh* She's real lucky she's cute!

Teeny, Tiny House: Coffee Station

When you live in a tiny home, it is essential to find tiny furniture, but more importantly, it is imperative that all furniture serve dual purposes. For example, the coffee table in the living room is both a coffee table and a trunk for blanket storage. My desk in the computer room, it is both my desk but also a bunk bed for when we have company. You get what I am saying...

I have known for quite a while that I wanted a coffee/tea station in the kitchen, I just wasn't sure how it could be accomplished. With hubby's electrical ingenuity and a few online coupons, we were able to pull together a small area which serves as our coffee station but also additional storage for cookbooks and appliances.

Teeny, Tiny House: Gardening

I don't know if I will ever get used to gardening in Oregon. Every year I watch winter roll in and my plants slowly "die" or go dormant and I swear to myself, "this is it, this is the year that they don't come back" and every spring they come back bigger and more beautiful than the year before.

I thought, for sure, that this Clematis was a goner but I was wrong. 

Teeny, Tiny House: Firewood Shed (Part 2)

House projects take forever, don't they? I am happy and relieved to announce that the firewood shed is officially complete! Hubby did such a wonderful job on all of the finishing touches and it is even more beautiful than I expected. Painting the shed gave us a very good idea of what the house will look like in the same color scheme. I cannot wait to break ground on painting the house, but first a few smaller projects to complete...

During Construction

Completely Built

Finished!

Teeny Tiny House: Bathroom

When we moved in...

Remember the bathroom? Well, its undergone a bit of an overhaul in the past few months. When we first moved into the house we chose the paint color via computer. I know! A terrible idea! What were we thinking? What we wanted was gray, what we ended up with was purple.

Before (2014)

After (2018)

It probably doesn't appear to be much different, but we changed the paint color. Finally. It is now the gray we had always wanted. Matt also installed a new light/exhaust fan over the shower which helps tremendously with moisture (but we still need the dehumidifier too). The light made the biggest difference in my opinion. This room needed two light sources, especially with the absence of a window.

All of the towels and other accouterment were already things I had in the house. It's really nice when you find a box in the garage that you can simply swap out items and everything feels new.

The bathroom is still a work in progress, as is most of the rooms in our house, but it's a step in the right direction.

Teeny Tiny House: Kitchen

It's been awhile since I have posted anything about the house but in our defense, its been a little busy and morose around here. In this photo from November 2016 I see both Trudy's pill container and her oatmeal. How different our life is now without her and Piper.

Anyway, lets not all start crying again. Let's talk about the kitchen. Matt painted the cabinets white about a year and half ago and moved the fridge into a different area, thus creating more counter space. Even with the addition of more countertop, it still didn't feel like enough. The microwave was taking up a tremendous amount of space, so Hubs built a shelf using some wood and pipe and put it where the fridge used to be. I think it fits in rather well in our rustic cabin.

In the lower left corner is the table that Piper had her food and water bowls on. Before that, this was the area where Trudy ate her breakfast and dinner because she needed as much light as possible to see. Change takes time, we haven't moved that table yet and Trudy's oatmeal nose prints are still on the wall. 

Stay tuned for more home improvement projects! Hubs and I have been working hard, both inside and out, to make this tiny house more functional.

Rose City Comic Con 2017

I just realized that I had these photos sitting on my desktop that I still hadn't posted from Rose City Comic Con back in September of 2017. Yoda got famous at this convention! We have another Wizard World Con scheduled next month.

September 8, 9 and 10, 2017

Brent Spiner (Data) from Star Trek: TNG

Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) from Battlestar Galactica

Didn't realize Yoda had his picture taken until hours after the event when it was splashed all over social media.

Piper (2001-2018)

Well, I am back here again to notify my friends that we have lost another member of our family. Piper passed away on February 3, 2018 after a two month battle with kidney disease/failure. She fought hard and Matt and I worked diligently to make her last few months comfortable. After suffering Trudy's loss not 4 months ago, I was ill-prepared to say goodbye to my beautiful kitten.

Piper was born on March 20, 2001 and came to live with me in my very first apartment on May 26, 2001. She was from a litter of kittens which was completely unplanned and needed a home. Her situation wasn't the best and the "free" kitten I adopted needed a tremendous amount of medical intervention. $$$

When Piper was 9 months old, we moved into an apartment with my sister. I remember my sis being as in love with her as I was, although Piper did not feel the same way in return.

9 months after living with my sister, Piper and I moved into our own apartment again. This was the apartment on Grant Road, the one where we would eventually meet Matt at. There were a sequence of several more apartments after this (my brain can't keep them all straight), Matt and I added Lily to the family and we got married. Piper was underwhelmed with this decision (Lily and the marriage).

We moved Piper (and Lily) to a house out in Rita Ranch which was preferable as she had more places to hide and windows and doors to sun herself in.

Than we added Trudy to the family...
And guess what, Piper wasn't happy about that either.

Surprise! We moved again (to Water Street near the U of A) when I decided to go to college full time and Piper helped me every step of the way!

And guess what? We moved again, this time to the house on Hospedero and when Matt left for the Marine Corps, my little companion was right by my side. My sister also lived with us during this time, so that would be twice in Piper's life that Auntie Pillows lived with us.

Than Matt and I did something truly insane. We packed up the house and all the animals, threw them in a U-Haul and drove them from Arizona to Oregon - by ourselves. I think Piper enjoyed this house (in Tigard) the most, it had the most space, the most carpet, the most windows and two levels. She spent a lot of time on these stairs.

Piper finally got her forever home when we moved into the cabin.

She was much older then but it didn't stop her curiosity.

Just a few years ago, we added Churro to the mix but this time Piper didn't care.
She was too old and likely had given up on the idea of a quiet home ever again.

We even puppy-sat from time to time which she tolerated rather well!

For 16 years and 11 months (almost half my life), Piper was my tiny, little love. 

She loved taking a shower/bath...

and getting wet...

warm blankets...

and sunshine.

And eventually she even let Matt touch her. 

Back in December she was diagnosed with terminal kidney disease and she was hospitalized for 3 days. She rebounded, something the doctor's thought was impossible. She was down to 4.9 lbs but was stable enough to come home.

But she continued to lose weight. Here she was around 3.9 lbs.

And here she was around 3.4 lbs.

On the day of her passing, Piper weighed 2.9 lbs. She had stopped eating, stopped drinking (so she was having fluids put in subcutaneously) and she was unable to walk. She made the decision to leave us herself, we only helped end her suffering. That doesn't ease my pain or the heartache I experience at every moment of every day since she left us. Piper was not an easy animal to care for. She was sickly and expensive. She was mean and vicious to everyone, including me from time to time. Her litter box etiquette left much to be desired and she was the source of many a fight between Matt and I during our marriage. But in the end, he stood beside me, he held me as I held her while she died and he continues to hold me because she was family and I loved her endlessly and he loves me. I am so grateful to him for his compassion and his unquestioning willingness to pay for whatever she needed these past few months. While it is difficult to get the images of the past few weeks out of my head, as I watched her slowly slip away, I am trying to remember Piper as she was, when she was younger and healthy and happy.

I will miss you for the rest of my life, my sweet Pips.