CAMPER CUSHIONS

Countless hours, blood, sweat and tears went into reupholstering the camper cushions. I should rephrase that...Lindsey put countless hours, blood, sweat and tears into it. I sat on the couch eating bon bons while telling her how it should be done.

The previous material was a lovely floral pattern that basically crumbled when you touched it.

Once again I was petrified of mold and could feel my throat tightening up so I'm not sure why I was so eager to model the old material.

Picking out the fabric was a tough decision. Ultimately we wanted some red faux alligator material. However, when you're camping in 112 degree weather, the last thing you want to do is stick to the cushions when you are already playing a heated game of spoons.

We wanted it to be funky and make a splash yet practical and somewhat basic so that it flowed with all of our other design elements. Being on a budget was also a key component in the decision process.

So we ended up going with this combo, which I might add, was all on sale!

We topped all the cushions off with over 100 feet of piping. I was going to go into the riveting details of how to make piping but I will spare all of you. Your welcome!

Here Seamtress Lindsey slaves away on one of the cushion's zippers.

Cushions are complete!

A CAMPER UPDATE...

We haven't posted much about the camper's progress recently. You are probably thinking that we have been eating snack mix and watching TV. Well we have. BUT we have also been slaving away on the camper.

We will post more pics of what we have accomplished so far, but to summarize we have done the following: removed the old furnace, rebuilt the cubby in which the furnace sat, put subfloor down, painted, rebuilt the top bunk, put up trim, painted hardware, picked out fabric, drank a few beers, painted some more, scooped snow out of the camper after one blizzard managed to completely fill the camper after the wind tore a window off, replaced more rotten wood, fabricated a new backsplash for behind the stove, painted the appliances, drank a few more beers, painted a lot more, and completely reupholstered everything. This is not even a complete listing of things we have done so far.

Our original goal of having the camper completed by Easter was severely overshot. We were upset for a moment, then decided to enjoy the journey.

The following pictures show some of the stuff we have done to the kitchen area. It is not finished, but it is closer. The upper cabinet floor had completely rotted out. We unded up ripping that out and replacing it.


Although the green/copper walpaper is neat-o, we thought that it was time for it to go also. That was a mistake. Evidently the wallpaper was the only solid piece of that wall. We had to replaced the wall behind the stove completely also.

We wondered what to do with that wall after we put the OSB in. We bought a roll of aluminum flashing and cut a piece for the backsplash. Can't show that yet though.



We primed the cabinet and decided that it was much better. Notice the canned-pea green stove? It's not canned-pea green anymore. It's rockin' some new paint! We can't show you yet.

BEFORE AND AFTER...

4/Today I will be showing you a before and after redo project that I had done. This redo project was a chair that I purchased and refinished several years ago. But before we get into that, I must confess something.

A few years ago I had a problem. I fondly refer to that stage in my life as the "Chair Era." It started innocently enough. As a newlywed, I needed a couple of chairs in which my husband and I could sit upon as we ate the homecooked meals that I so lovingly prepared for him. So I acquired two antique, somewhat shabby dining room chairs to fulfill that need in our lives. Then I had the opportunity to purchaes a couple more chairs that were quite similar to the others. My rationale was that we may someday have guests and they too would like to be able to sit and enjoy my cooking. It seems that that particular style must have been common as I found and purchased many more of the like. I also thought it would be fun to paint them all different colors. I now realize that was probably violated some interior design law. Not the first time, not the last.

Shortly thereafer, a dear friend purchased a new dining set and generously gave me her six matching antique chairs. Then it seemed to consume me. I would find miscellaneous dining room chairs at auctions or garage sales or people would just give them to me because they knew my love for chairs.

At one point, I took a rough count of dining room chairs, which at this point had been scattered throughout the house. There were 17. I had a full-blown problem. Matt started to question the need for so many chairs when there were only two occupants in the house, and we rarely had guests. Like a junkie, I started to hide them from him. I hid them under piles of clothes; I stacked them on top of each other in less-used closets; I even started stashing them in the crawlspace under our house.

The addiction soon spilled over to chairs of the upholstered nature. I would buy any simply upholstered chair that I thought I could ruin with my rudimentary upholstery skills. This is one of the acquisitions during the "Chair Era."



I purchased it in an antique store in Mitchell. The wood's finish had faded to an ugly olive color. The joints needed to be tightened up. The upholstery was of a hideous nature, somewhat resembling Velco-like Astro turf. It hurt my eyes.

An interesting note about this chair (I don't have pictures of the actual redo process) was what I found when I ripped away the old material. No it was not a mouse nest of Guinness book proportion. It was a note inside the springs of the seat.

In scrolling cursive writing on yellowed paper, the previous owner had written the date and a few other details explaining that they had reupholstered the chair back in 1978. I wish I had taken a picture of the note, or at least remembered exactly what it said.

Before I put the final tack into the upholstery, I slipped the original note, along with my own note into the seat of the chair. Someday, someone will think that this fabric is ugly and "What was she thinking!" and decide to recover the chair in Velcro-like Astro turf. They will find both notes inside.

In case you were worried, I have since downsized my chair collection drastically. I now have a very healthy number of chairs in my house and only a couple stashed underneath in the crawlspace.

A BEFORE AND AFTER...

Annie and I plan to post before and after pictures of different projects that we have done and plan to do in the future. The camper will be one of our big before/after projects. But until we get that finished, I thought I would post a very random Before/After.

Let me paint the picture for this Before/After. This past summer, Matt was a groomsman in a close friend's wedding.

As you can see, he is smartly dressed in suit and tie, complete with the standard dress shoes, versus his usual cowboy boots. Just couldn't lose the hat though. He would feel naked then. He is carefully shaved and groomed. He looks daper.

After the nuptials, the dance started heating up and so did Matt's dance moves. Here he demonstrates one of his signature moves - "Air guitar" complete with rock and roll face. At this point, you can see that the suit jacket has been discarded.

Here he rocks the Hokey-Pokey by putting his right hip out. The nice black dress shoes have since been traded for cowboy boots.

And finally.....

The After shot.

The dancing is over and it is time to relax. The cuff links are lost and the tie is gone. Evidently, Matt's shins were overheating from all the dancing, so in an attempt to cool them off, he rolled his pants up. That happens when you bust some moves like that.

HUNTING PORCUPINES

The recent blizzards that had us snowed in the house takes me back to memories of snowstorms that occurred during our childhood. As most young kids, when we did not have school due to a storm, we jumped with glee at the prospect of staying home unfettered by the confines of the education institution. Our minds raced of all the possibilities of how to fill this free day.



During one particularly bad winter, that of '96-'97, an anomoly occurred. We actually almost got sick of snow days. The winter was so bad, that we actually ran out of things to do. Sure, we helped our dad feed cows in the mornings and then rode or drove through the cows to check on them. Then the rest of our day was free to do as we pleased.



We filled these days with whatever entertainment we could find. We did not have television (gasp!) and this vague concept of the "world wide web" evidently was world-wide except for our area. So therefore, after feeding, losing a few games of cribbage to dad, and 1/2 hour of torture, otherwise known as "practicing our piano lessons," we soon grew bored. It was then that we did what every other sibling group does when confined, they fight and bicker. "Bickering" was only briefly tolerated by my parents, and then we were instructed to take it outside.




Once outside, the frigid air would rally us together and we would try to find something to do until it was determined by mom or dad that we were through bickering and would be allowed back inside. It was during one of these outings that we discovered one of our favorite winter activities - Porcupine Hunting.





Our creek was plagued by porcupines that eat bark and kill trees. So we were free to kill porcupines at will. We would take dad's little pump-action .22 and set off down the creek in search of the ever-elusive porcupine.












(Disclaimer: We had been taught proper handling of firearms from a young age. Porcupines were extremely overpopulated in the area. Any e-mails to us about killing of harmless creatures or gun-control will be promptly deleted. As Joe Dirt says: "Don't focus on the wrong part of the story.")





In an effort to maximize the experience, we pretended that we were on a televised safari, like those on the hunting channel, hunting the cagey, wild porcupine. How we even knew about such hunting shows is odd because as mentioned before, we didn't have television. But, anyway, two of us commentated the hunt in loud whispers as the "hunter" pretended to be stalking the sly porcupine. A special note here, the commentators always talked with an Australian accent for whatever reason.





Someone would then say "to hunt the porcupine, you understand the porcupine" and then we would all errupt into giggles. The hunt would usually be over because we would be laughing too hard.

Here is Ris demonstrating porcupine behavior. I laugh everytime I see this picture.

Gosh, we were odd kids. Probably still are.

LET THE DEMOLITION BEGIN...

We were so excited about our camper purchase. We knew that there would be some work involved in getting the old girl up and functioning. The camper is a 1969 model, therefore, older than either of us. As it takes a FEW cosmetics for us to look decent in the mornings, we knew that it would also take some cosmetic changes for "Barbara" to look good as well.



Our intent when we started this project was never to refurbish the camper to it's original 1969 state. Moreover, our goal was to repair it as best as our limited skills would allow us, and to add a little bit of flair.



We knew that there had been some water damage in places. It appears that the roof had leaked and damaged much of the back wall. The veneer walls had peeled like a 3-day old sunburn as you can see below.







We decided that we would start on the back wall. We removed the bunk and also the couch. With immense apprehension, we wielded crow bars with the precision of neurosurgeons. We started tearing off the veneer to reveal what was underneath.








When the dust and debris settled, we found that there was extensive water damage below the surface. We looked at each other with fear in our eyes. We sat back on our haunches, drank a beer, and deliberated our next move. We decided to dig even deeper to remove more rotten material. It was at this point, that Annie decided she was getting a sore throat due to all the mold she had breathed. We then spent the next hour convincing ourselves that it was just the start of a cold, and that there were no mold spores present.



We finally reached the end of the rotten wood when we saw daylight.

The silver door is actually the door for the compartment that is accessed from outside. We completely removed the lower half of the wall. We then started to rebuild the back wall.

We replaced the studs, and some of the floor that was rotten. This is the water tank that supplies water to the sink. But not the bathroom. There is no bathroom.

Then Annie measured how much plywood we would need to rebuild the wall.

We installed the plywood by the light of the work lamp.

Tracking material in and out caused a huge, muddy mess.

But, we were pleased with the results.

NOTE: At no time during this phase of the project did we have ANY clue what we were doing. We were the lucky victims of a series of "happy accidents" as the painter Bob Ross would say.

Stay tuned as we search to uncover more rotten infrastructure!

GYPSY, THE STORY OF A DOG

I never thought I would be one of those "Dog people." The type of person that talks to their dog and truly believes she understands what you are saying. The type of person to let the dog sleep on the couch or bed, to generally treat the dog like one of their children. Well, I became that person. Don't judge me. Seriously, I quit caring.



Gypsy, is a miniature Australian Shepherd. She also goes by G-dog or a host of other ridiculous pet names that I have concocted. Her hobbies include sleeping, laying on the couch, chasing rabbits, and following Matt or I around. Now, her breeding would indicate that her talents lie in the cattle-herding area. This is not the case. No matter how much we wish she did herd cattle, she has no interest in this field. This could partially be due to our poor dog-training skills, or her general lack of interest in anything other than lounging. Nonetheless, she is the most faithful canine companion either Matt or I have had. She is also the most polite dog that I have encountered.



The story of how she came to live with us is actually very cute. Several years ago, we had different dog named Barbie that was killed when one of the feed pickups ran over her. Now that part of the story is not cute, it was actually quite sad. Our sadness over the loss of Barbie was noticed by our neighbor's young son. His grandmother raised Australian Shepherd pups that she was quite proud of. He convinced his grandma that he wanted a pup. She finally parted with one as a gift to him. Much to everyone's dismay, he then, headed straight to our house and gave the pup to us with all the sweetness that only an eight-year-old possesses.




We named her Gypsy. What a cute puppy! I can only imagine why we took this picture, but obviously it didn't make the Christmas card cut.





The winter we got her was particularly bitter cold, so she stayed in the house much of the time. It was then that she quickly found her new favorite hobby...lounging on the couch. Thus a pattern was set for the rest of her life. Occasionally, she does get off the couch.



Sometimes she will Foxtrot with me. Surprisingly, for as much as she is sedentary, she is an extremely athletic dog. She has a shockingly high vertical jump that she does when she gets excited.





She unabashedly likes to ride horseback too. No matter how much ridicule she receives from the other dogs. She doesn't care.





This picture is testament to her zeal for cattle in general. While all the other dogs are behind the herd, nipping at the lollygaggers' heels, Gypsy is tracking behind a horse with her tongue out, waiting for a rabbit to jump up.


Her glassy-blue eyes seem to hold an undetermined understanding. (Okay, that might be pushing it!)

These eyes are saying "I am so humiliated."

REVEALING THE NAME!!!

Many of you have been curious as to what we will be naming our 'summer fun wagon.' My initial thought was to hold a contest and pick the wildest name. However, after further discussion we decided to save that idea for our next camper.

While we thought long and hard about her name, it was pretty obvious what the slogan should be, especially after the first day of demolition.

Rotten to the Core

Yep, I think that's quite appropriate. Anyway, back to the naming. Lindsey and I brainstormed and finally came up with the perfect name.

Drum roll please......

Yes! Barbara! We decided to name her Barbara after our Aunt Barb who was our inspiration for this project.

I came up with a few little acronyms for her. These do not necessarily represent our Aunt Barb...just Barbara the camper.

B is for Boy deterrent (There were big plans coming from the husband and boyfriend about taking her elk hunting, etc. That came to a halt as soon as they learned about the pretty pink heart and rhinestoned pillows)

A is for Ancient (1969 in camper years is actually very old)

R is for Rotten to the core (enough said)

B is for free Bird (my address is like my shoes, it travels with me wherever I go)

A is for Airy (when the wind blows there is a bit of a draft...or when it blizzards we find snow packed in every little crack and crevice)

R is for Rebellious (well behaved women rarely make history)

A is for Adorable (she is basically the cutest thing ever except for our nephew and Gypsy and...)

Here's a little teaser of the future decor.

Throughout this post I have given several clues that elude to some of the future details of the camper. Can you guess of any of them?

One more clue: $18 bottle of turquoise spray paint

A TOUR OF THE NEW CAMPER...



When Annie and I got the camper home, we parked it in front of the shop and admired it from afar. It was cute and quaint. We stood in silence, imagining the fun trips we would take, the open road, the far-flung places that we would tow it. Ahhhh! What a summer this will be!



Let's take a tour of our new fun wagon!




When you step into the camper, you can see the huge amount of storage area. It also comes with a full-length mirror and a furnace, for those chilly nights.



The kitchen area features a three-burner gas stove and very clean oven. All appliances, including the range hood are a lovely "canned-pea green" color. There is an economy-sized sink and plenty of storage. The cupboard doors are painted a chartreuse-ish color that compliments the color of the appliances and also the upholstery throughout the rest of the camper.

The backsplash in the kitchen is a psychedelic green and copper wallpaper.

Moving to the dining area, you will notice the large windows that let in plenty of natural light. The booth-style eating area also conveniently turns down into an extra bed. Overhead storage space will be great for storing all the necessities for life on the road.

Finally, the sleeping/living area. The couch easily pulls out into a comfortable bed. The upper bunk also folds up for extra head-space.

Now, I will give you a tour of the bathroom.


Wait, where's the bathroom?



Lindsey: "Annie, I can't find the bathroom."


Annie: "It's outside."

(silence)

Lindsey:"So you're saying that nature is our bathroom. Is that what you are telling me?"

Annie: "Mm-hmm. Less plumbing to worry about that way."


Lindsey: "What about showers while we are on the road or camping?"

Annie: "It's CAMPING, not a Holiday Inn."

YET ANOTHER SNOW DAY...

We are being hit with the third blizzard in as many weeks. The drifts are as high as the deck railing and almost over my car. I am in my nice warm house with plenty of projects (like reupholstering the camper cushions) and a bottle of wine, so I can't complain. I do worry about those that are tending stock right now. Western South Dakota ranchers are in the middle of calving season, and the blizzards don't help. Lots of calves have perished in this weather so far.

Matt, our brother-in-law Joe, and our friend John took off this morning to go ride through the cows and try to save some calves. They took fresh horses, a team of horses and hay sled, and hopefully enough warm clothes to get through the next 24 hours or so.

Here is what the hay sled-thingy looks like. This picture was taken over a month ago. The Three Amigos (Matt, Joe, and Zach) were taking the team for a spin.

The guys plan to camp out in an abandoned line shack down in the pasture. They have a kerosene heater that should keep them pretty warm. So they can ride and check cows and bring calves back to the shack to warm up.

This is what the shack looks like in warmer weather. That is Joe and our sister, Larissa. Don't let the shack's extravagant appearance fool you, it is pretty humble :)

Thanks to the modern technology and limited cell service, the guys have been able to phone the main house and request that a deck of cards and a bottle of Forty Creek be delivered. Unfortunately, that request went unanswered as there is no travel advised. Going to have to just tough it out guys!

Matt just sent the above picture message to me. Well, at least visibility appears better! Anyway, we hope all you West River ranchers come out of this storm okay. Spring is coming.