Neverending Saga: Fall Cleaning again (sigh)

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Marty

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Lily Munster checking in. I am completely in my element now that harvest time is upon us. I love the change of seasons and all the great colors, and of course, fall decorating. I’m so excited!

Where did the time go? Seems like I just finished spring cleaning and suddenly its already time for fall cleaning and once again I am under siege by every cleaner known to man. I’ve been at this now for three weeks. This is a lot of work, but I’ll be thankful for it when I find myself in the dead of winter knowing that I’ve made this old homestead as cozy as can be. Of course for now, my payoff is once things are squeaky clean, I get to bring out my rubber maid containers filled with loads of pretty fall decorations.

Hus and I tore down our old hay barn. What an eye sore it was and we were happy to see it go. I didn’t need it, and I have another storage shed to use for hay. Problem is that one needs a roof but for now, it will do. I cleaned it out from top to bottom, knocking down cobwebs and sweeping ready to accept my load of winter hay. It sure could use a coat of paint but seeing as how this one is the next to get knocked down next spring, I didn't bother. But in my industrious decorating mind, it needed something besides hay, so I shoved an old grapevine wreath on the door and some gingerbread corners I had laying around and said “boom, you’re decorated.” Who does that??? Dumb I know but I think its kinda cute in its own way.

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After the demise of the old shed, Hus went on to remodel the bathroom, while I carried on doing my own thing. I began my fall clean up outside in the yard by removing all our fun summer yard art, lounges and lawn chairs. That took me half a day because there was just so much stuff. Can’t help myself, I love to decorate the yard. I felt like a pack mule toting so much stuff up in the barn loft. Then, I gave a new coat of paint to the mail box and all our picket gates in the barnyard, all 8 of them! Now that was a messy job that took me a couple of days. Of course Amy was at my side every inch of the way helping me out. Amy and I now have bright white highlights in our hair, ears, legs, well, most body parts. That’s when I noticed that the white vinyl fence needed a good washing down. It had collected some algae looking yukky stuff from being under the trees so I bought a cheapo mop from General Dollar Store for $6.00, 4 gallons of Clorox and began to mop the entire fence dragging a plastic water troff with a water Clorox mixture around. I didn’t get very far because my brand new Mr.Clean mop busted after using it for only 10 minutes so I ended up using my good house mop. That job was so boring and took a couple of days but you should see how bright and shinny the fence is.

Next I did a barn yard pick up of stuff that just didn’t need to be in the barn yard which doubles as my dry lot. Why do I have a dozen PVC pipes laying by my trailer I do not know, so out they went. I admit I guess I’m a hoarder of pallets. Seems I can’t go anywhere without bringing home a pallet if I spot one that's pretty and new so I sorted out the old pallets that aren’t pretty and replaced them with new ones in the hay barn. The hanging baskets of flowers on each side of my barn doors were pretty much croaked out for the season, so I planted them back in a little forest area of our property and bedded them with leaves for the winter. Maybe they will come back next year. Still working in the horse domain, I hand plucked a bunch of weeds growing on all the fence lines and got a bunch of blisters. Ouch. I cleaned out and re-organized my tack room cabinets and straightened out all my shelves; knocked down cobwebs in the main barn and dusted.

As the outside work continued, I moved on to the yard where I weeded our front and back planters at our entranceways and Michael’s Angel Garden. I never really weeded before and I don’t like it. Nasty time consuming job and so not fun and the result was an aching back. I don’t know how the gardener people do it. Nobody told me I should have garden gloves so I now have some great potting soil imbedded under my nails that I will be hauling out till Christmas. Lovely. The good part is that looks like all the mums that I planted last year know its fall and are coming back and attempting to bloom! I gave them all a good dose of Miracle Grow and they will be a pretty addition to my fall outside displays. This is going to save me a bunch of $$$ this year on buying mums. Yay!

Finished up with the outside and began overhauling this mountain mansion from he’ll. Here’s what I did so far: I removed and put away all our usual nick nacks so I have a clean pallet to decorate with. Washed every wall in the house. How do my walls get so dirty? Painted all the woodwork. Washed the front and back doors. Washed and cleaned every window with window cleaner.

Itty Bitty Tippy: I used the Walmart brand window cleaner. It cleans fantastic and doesn’t leave hardly any streaks! Then I defrosted the big freezer in the back room and cleaned out the kitchen refrigerator. Scrubbed and shined all our appliances, the washer, dryer, stove, dishwasher, and the microwave. Itty Bitty Tippy: An easy way to clean the inside of the microwave is to put a cup of water in it and turn it on high for a couple of minutes. That loosens up any cooties that may have exploded on the top of it making it easy to wipe out clean. I use a damp rag with baking soda. Smells nice and clean. Moving along, I cleaned and polished all the furniture, washed the leather couch and chair, washed and ironed the curtains and valances, vacumed and aired out the rug runners, and gave the stinkin dogs a bath. Scrubbed down my kitchen counters and back splash with a scrub brush and added some extra tile sealer. Washed all the lamps, dusted the light bulbs, added new lamp shades, painted the hallway and molding and wiped down Hus’s repulsive recliner that he refuses to part with. Crossed my fingers that nothing moving would emerge from it, sprayed it with fabreeze and added a slip cover on it. My house actually smells clean! Not to worry, it won’t last long!

Somewhere in the midst of all this cleaning madness I was able to give the Prancers a good bath this week and clipped up heads, bridle paths and fetlocks. Added new scrunchies to their forelocks and they’re good to go. With a seasonal nip in the air and a cool crisp autumn breeze, this may very well be the last bath for them of the year. I’m sure you’ll hear me scream as soon as they roll in the dirt.

Back to the house, bringing on the troops, Dan and my step son are supposed to show up on Thursday to rip out my kitchen floor and tile it while Hus works on the bathroom remodel. I’m about to give up on that bathroom; its going very slow and I’m impatient. I feel like sitting on my tired butt and just watch them work while I take a well deserved rest! But that isn’t going to happen because guess why? Last weekend we went up to the loft and got down all our fun Harvest/Fall/Halloween decorations! There they sit on the front porch with a couple of hay bales I drug up there just waiting to be used.

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I’m exhausted but just the thought of decorating my house gets me pumped and helps me find new energy! If you visit my website, you can see some of my outside last year fall decorations on my Farm Tour page.

Itty Bitty Decoration Tippy: My newest decorating creation is my fall leaves project. I printed out some fall leaves from my clip art collection and ran them through my laminator. Then I punched a hole in the ends and threaded through some raffia. I’m hooking them together with some pine cones here and there and that will give me a new fall garland I can use over and over. Simple, easy and fun.

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I can’t wait to get the decorations up now that I have a really clean pallet to work with. Looks like a decorating weekend for me after all this work. Toldya, that’s my fun payoff. YAY!

Ok now your turn. Whatchadoing this fall?

Lily Munster

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Wow Marty - I'm exhausted just ready this. You sure have been busy girl! This is my favorite time of the year also and I am in the cleaning mode. Currently working on windows and curtains and pulling the flowers from the flower beds that now look awful. I also need to trim the bushes again and at the very least give Whirlwind one last bath for the season as her tail is full of poopy. It is getting chilly now...........

I am going to go shopping for some new fall decorations soon and cannot wait to start decorating. Then, of course our annual trip to the cider mill.

I need to clean my basement in the worst way, but that is a winter time job I think.

I am ALSO WAY WAY behind on the September CMHR newsletter again because of the funeral.

Make sure you take LOTS of photos after you get all your decorations up - I can't wait to see how pretty everything looks!

LOVE those fall leaves with raffia!
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Whatever kind of drugs you're on I want some!. I can't wait to start cleaning the house like you are. We are in the middle of putting in underground sprinklers and curtain drains and getting close to putting everything back together. The wind has been blowing and I think there may be more dust inside than out. Meanwhile it looks like an army of gophers has attacked the yard with trenches everywhere. I am getting very tired of crawling around on my hands and knees with my arse-end up in the air.

ps-more bathroom pics please.
 
marty you make me chuckle.
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all of my fall cleaning and sprucing will have to wait for a while. doctor said i can't lift anything over 15 lbs for 6 weeks while i recover form my c-section. she also vetoed any stretching over my head or to the sides, i looked at her and asked if she remembered i have horses and lots of outside and inside chores
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and she laughed. fall is also my favorite time of the year a chill in the air and all the beautiful colors, once i get the okay i have ton of flower beds that need cleaned out put some finishing touches on the corrals, i would have liked to bathe the horses one more time but i think it will be too late in the year before i get the okay. i can see my horses writing thank you noted already to my doc!!
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then comes the inside i would like to totally reorganize the house (agian) my hubby dreads when i get my mind set on this - he becomes the pack mule and ends up moving furniture up and down stairs depending on where it feels right. once i get everything to feel just right then i would like to start taking some trail walks while the weather still permits. then around x-mas time the reorganization will start again
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i always thought when i owned my own home that i would get everything just right and not want to change it, boy was i wrong and now it is something i look forward to.lol

great topic marty
 
Oh my goodness Marty!!!! I don't know where you get that energy from (although my lack of energy at the moment is still stemming from the all night stint at the vet emerg clinic Sunday night/Monday morning!!!!!!)

This fall I will be busy with the puppy!!! So I'm hoping the weather here will be nice through Oct and early November (unlike last year, where it snowed the first weekend of November, and every other day after that!).

We are also in the process of building a new shed!! Which will house my business & kennel in one half of it!! I'm pretty excited to get out of the dungeons of the basement and be able to look out a window and see what's going on outside! Plus the dogs will be able to come and go out of the shop as they please, once we get the dog yard up to the back side of the building!!!

It's also apple season now....so we have been busy gathering apples for applesauce (my Mom's applesauce is to die for!!!!). And we'll have to clean out the garden in the next month or so...dig up the potatoes, beets, carrots, and whatever else ended up being planted this year.

We don't do too much sprucing up around here in the fall....

~kathryn
 
Thanks for checking in ~ I love to read your posts.

I also got tired after reading about your fall clean up, whew !! Good job I must say
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I survived fall decorating! It was so fun. It was pouring down rain, thunder, lightening and I put in an old video, Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein and baked a homemade apple pie thanks to Sara Lee to get me really in the mood.......then I let it rip. I fussed in the living room for hours until I placed everything where I wanted it. I usually don't repeat the same stuff in the same place each year so it doesn't get borring, and I added a few new modest little extra things. My desk is decorated too and I have my fall screensaver up of course. I don't have a lot of decorations for my kitchen, just some festive towels and pot holders, coffee cups, and a few ceramic dish items. I just have to set the kitchen table and do my centerpiece when they are done with putting tile down on the floor. I'll probably do the piano over; I don't like the way it came out. Thinking it needs candles and another scarecrow or something. Still have to clean my fall throw rug for the living room, add the matching throw pillows and one of Karla's special quilts and it will be 100% cozy as can be.

Since its been raining for days, I did manage to slip outside between raindrops and get most of the decorating down out there on the porch, front and back entranceways and mailbox. The mailbox came out cruddy because I got in a hurry so I'll do that over. All in all, it looks nice.
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Marty-

Pictures please!!!

Barbie
 

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