Today the something was the "arch room" which is kind of a hallway made from the old Mennonite chimney/fireplace space in the center of the house. Victor used to use it as the dining space for his bed and breakfast and until about five years ago, our dining table was there, until it seemed too crowded as we added furniture.
Three years ago, a clothes dryer moved in there, joining the bookcases that started lining the walls. I don't use it often, in summertime everything is hung outside to dry, but the girls have overtaken my indoor folding drying rack, so I was drying the load I washed Monday while they were out today, when I remembered I wanted to wash the floor in that space. The girls wash the kitchen floor, and the hallway from the outside door, past the bathroom at least once a day, but the arch room gets less attention. It was my chance to wash without someone taking over for me, so I moved everything, including the dryer while it was running (dryers here don't vent outside, instead you dump a container that water condenses in). I got a little voltage tingle from standing on the wet vinyl floor when I pushed it back while it was running.
The reason I wanted to clean under the dryer was I had run a load last Tuesday morning for our visitors before they left and as the dryer and the floor under it heated up I was smelling urine. I figured it was something the puppy had left behind in the winter months. It gave me a good reason to start some spring cleaning before Jack arrives next month with a building team.
Speaking of Garry's little pal, Happy, she continues to get into trouble by chewing on things.
My chair at the kitchen table looks like we have a pet beaver, and some helpful person (assuming one of the girls) locked the dog in the guest bedroom sometime tonight and when I found her at 11:30 while locking the outside door she had pulled the tent from under the bed, chewed on it, chewed a hole in the good blanket... I need to get him to talk to them about her not being in there, it's the room where I have been putting things so she doesn't destroy them.
All winter the girls were keeping their barn boots in the bathroom because she would chew on the tops of them if they were by the door. They are all in the entrance Garry built now, since we finally got the outer door unlocked, so barn coats and boots go out there. It's a little cold with temps dipping below freezing right now, but spring is around the corner!
So by the time the girls got back from class, the arch room was looking good, my clothes were dry and dinner was ready. Garry had to drive out to the field to talk to Artom (as I was putting the food on table), who started harrowing to level the field they hope to plant in alfalfa this week (don't know if he finished before the drizzle got heavier. By evening it had changed to snow flurries that were making the yard kind of white. ) Max had gone to buy the alfalfa seed, and Artom was concerned that even though the top was thawed, there was some frozen ground under he was hitting with the harrows.
Garry had been outdoors working on repairs to our picket fence, after trying to get the bathroom sink to drain better. One of the added bonuses to being group home parents is our one bathroom gets overused with us and four long hot shower loving twentysomething young ladies!
Unfortunately as Garry continued looking for the problem (turned that there were several blockages slowing down the water) one part broke, and when the girls came in I forgot I needed to tell them not to use the sink, so after lunch I had to use my mop inside the bathroom cabinet before Garry fixed it, since the sink was not connected to the drainpipe at the time. His first try, a old drain part from the old milkhouse was the wrong size, but he did find the exact one he needed in an unopened package in the cheese room, so it was fixed after lunch.
I just realized that I am never going to get to telling you about our visitors or trip to Kiev or the sauna last week, so I'll try to write about it tomorrow!
Garry and I went bowling this afternoon (it used to be our game until he had his ankle operation two years ago. Our excuse was he plans to take the students tomorrow morning for an outing and Nelly couldn't get them on the phone to make a reservation. I think we'll try to go more often, I mean the two of us, because we can still bowl. Garry had some good games, and I made a big comeback in one, finishing with three strikes to beat him 158 to 154.
On the way into Zaporosia as the light rain was falling, we stopped to take pictures as were going around the traffic circle, because we saw a huge flock (or murder) of crows. They seem to gang up in the early spring.
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