Table Project, Completed

I've never been reticent to admit that the philosopher and I are pretty handy around the house. We've hung sheetrock, rewired boxes, fiddled with plumbing (successfully), repaired walls and floors, installed insulation, and dozens of other things. When we took on our most recent project, though, I was afraid we'd bitten off more than we could chew.

Some of my errant thoughts over the last two weekends:

"This table is 100 years old... what if we damage it?"

"We just bought these chairs, yeah, they're unfinished but what if we muck up the stain and ruin them?"

"We've matched the stain as close as we could, but what if the chairs and the table don't look right together?

"Can you get polyurethane out of leg hairs, or will we need to shave his leg?"

At the end, though, it was worth every bit of the 100 degree days in the shop, the layers of stain and poly coating fingers and clothes (and yes, legs), the sanding masks and the ventilator masks as we applied the stripping compound.


And here it is, set and ready for Father's Day dinner with my dad. Yay!!

Vacation memories...

Well, my vacation (such as it was) is over. As I said before, we didn't really go on any adventures, but we did have some great "down-time" and recharged the batteries a bit. I'm not getting a full week off this summer, but I am getting three smaller "vacations". My next one will be Fourth of July weekend, when we actually ARE going out of town to visit our favorite biologist in West Virginia. Yay!

But I digress - what did we do this past weekend? We started a project long anticipated... we stripped and started the refinishing process on my grandmother's dining room table. We had always assumed it was walnut. Nope. After we got the 100 years of stain and shellac off, we discovered a beautiful wood that was almost pink in color. But it's not cherry. It's mahogany. And it's absolutely gorgeous. To prove it, here are a couple of photos. The first is the professor (in full respirator gear) as he started the stripping process.


This next picture is the table after two coats of polyurethane. We decided not to add any stain at all, and just let the wood speak for itself.

I can't wait to see how it looks when we get the chairs finished too. (We bought ones like THIS at Wood You in Opelika.) We're planning to go to the local paint store and get them to custom color-match the table with their computer system. So theoretically, even though the table is mahogany and the chairs are parawood (from the rubber tree), the coloration will be very, very close. We're hoping to finish up the process this weekend. If we succeed, I'll post a before-and-after pic for your perusal!

Vacation!

"Vacation, all I ever wanted, vacation have to get away....."

Well, it's a vacation from WORK, anyway. We're not actually going anywhere exotic, or doing anything fabulously interesting. But it's a few days away from the library, and that indeed is a Good Thing. But, we will do some fun things, like...

*Visit the philosopher's sister who lives a couple of hours away
*Go for a hike on the Pinhoti (this time Salem Church Road to the High Point trailhead)
*Watch movies and do some scrapbooking (yes, at the same time)
*Lounge in the hammock (or maybe even *in* the pool if it's really hot)
*Cook something fun, bake something tasty
*Complete one designated house project (as yet to be determined)

So there you go. And off I go!

Happy Birthday!

No, it's not my birthday but the philosopher's. We're celebrating with dinner out. I already gave him his present... new hiking boots. Though we may go shopping for a new weed whacker this weekend, that in no way counts as a present. It would be like him giving me a vacuum cleaner! I told him yesterday that this weekend was his. We'd do whatever he'd like to do, whether it be hiking or talking philosophy or reading Tom Clancy, J. K. Rowling, or Stephen King (oh wait - that would be me. He'd probably be reading Wodehouse or Charles Taylor). As of last night, he was still considering all the possibilities!

A Random Aside:

We received TEN POUNDS of napa cabbage in the most recent farm delivery. Holy cabbage, Batman!!

UPDATE:
So, we went to Olive Garden for dinner. We went to his favorite coffee shop for lattes and dessert. We went hiking at Cheaha State Park (and found ourselves trailblazing off the wrong trail. More on that in a later post.) My mom took us out to lunch on Sunday. We spent time by the pool, the philosopher on a float and me in a hammock. It was a great weekend!

Summer Fun

Over at Blondie's Bits, she goes through a list of her top ten fun activities to do during the summer. It sounded like a great list (and since I'm all about lists) so I decided to do one myself. Some of these things may not sound like fun to you, but to us they'll be a blast!

1. Refinish dining room table and chairs (once we buy the unfinished chairs, that is). We have my grandma's very old round farmhouse table. It's solid walnut (except for the veneer around the sides) but the top is in very bad shape. Since the pedestal is in good condition, we're hoping to gently refinish the top so we don't have to keep it hidden by a tablecloth. We are also planning to buy four unfinished mission style chairs to go with it, and then stain them to match.

2. Go hiking to the Walls of Jericho and Dismals Canyon. These are our goals, anyway. The Jericho hike is a tough one, so we're hoping to build up our hiking muscles over the summer and cap things off at these two sites.

3. Go to an outdoor theater or musical performance. I don't know what, or where, or when. But it would be stupendous!

4. Visit West Virginia. We're going up to see a friend for her birthday. Last year we went to Pipestem State Park and talked about the philosophy of literature and its role in classical education. This year, who knows what fun we'll get into!

5. Eat at Johnny Rockets. Ooooohhhh - their milkshakes are fabulous!

6. Camping in the back yard (sort of). Make a bonfire in the back yard (we have a fire ring where we burn yard debris), cook hotdogs and make s'mores. Then sleep inside, in the air conditioning, in our own bed. What could be better?

7. Go see Harry Potter on opening weekend. Yes, I admit it. I'm a fan (and so is the philosopher!) We saw the fifth movie in IMAX at the Smithsonian in DC. I doubt we'll get that fancy this time.

8. Chow down on summer's harvest. We'll definitely eat lots of fresh produce from our garden and from the farm too. Yuuuummmmmm.....

9. Pools and hammocks. Spend time in our pool and relax in the hammock. (Well, the philosopher likes to swim. I'm more of a "read in the hammock" kinda girl!)

10. Complete home decorating projects. We want to build a Wardian case and make a faux window sash for a windowless room.

15 Years in a Flash...

So, the philosopher and I will be celebrating 15 years of marriage this Friday. I can't believe it's been FIFTEEN YEARS. Wow.

We started dating in 1990, both still in college and young and crazy like most college kids are. We graduated, and he asked my father's permission in my dad's study (not realizing at the time that my dad's guns were hanging on the wall behind him. ::heh::). He promised my dad he would always take care of me and treat me right. He proposed on the beach near his hometown and I was completely clueless, even when he went down on one knee, until he pulled the ring out of his pocket.

We lived a very sparse and poor life our first few years in Miami and Tallahassee. Then we moved out of our comfort zone (well, ok, out of *my* comfort zone) to Virginia. We bought our first house. It was in need of major TLC, and we doled it out happily, learning how to strip paint and frame new walls and hang insulation and do plumbing and electrical repairs. I cried when we sold our stone cottage, but we moved back to the deep south and that made it easier.

Now we're in another series of "life changes" as the philosopher continues to look for full time work and finish his book. We've almost finished the TLC on our second house (I think we're fated to buy old houses and fix them up!) We've discovered new things we like to do together, like hiking and astronomy. We'll probably end up moving again with another adventure on the horizon. But through it all we've loved each other and trusted each other and supported each other. He is my true love and my best friend, and I thank God every day for bringing us together.

Oh, the Places You'll Go

So, as I mentioned a little while ago, the philosopher and I have started hiking on a regular basis. With the advent of digital photography, we can also indulge our propensity to take photos of pretty scenery (both flora and fauna) as well as the occasional majestic vista. On our trip to Little River Canyon back in April, we got some photos of some incredible wildflowers, and yes, a majestic vista as well. And since I think they're beautiful, I thought I'd share them with you, my faithful readers (both of you!) ::grin::

This is a view from the upper edge of the canyon near Eberhart Point Trail, looking back down the river. There's an incredibly steep drop-off at the edge of the rocks, and you can see almost down to the canyon floor. Definitely not a place to be wobbly on your feet!

As soon as we hiked down into the canyon (the trail was well marked but *incredibly steep*) we started seeing beautiful early spring flowers. Since I don't want blogger to take away my bandwidth, I'll only post a few, just to tantalize you!



The first one is Blue Dogbane (Amsonia tabernaemontana), the second is called Fire Pink (Silene virginica), and the third is a wild iris. We haven't identified the exact species of the iris yet, but we're still working on it!

We're definitely "ambling hikers" - we like to stop and look at things, and smell the flowers, and take pictures, and enjoy the views. So our hope is to find some hiking buddies who feel the same way. There are a lot of folks out there who see hiking as a challenge - get from one place to another - but for us the joy is in the journey. And as we go on more journeys, I'm sure we'll document. And you may even get to read about it here! (OK, stop rolling your eyes.)