Chinks in the Armor

Hello Everyone,

Here is what I worked on yesterday, the border on my new pattern called "Crossing the Pond".  I have three sides done, just one to go.

Today I will attach the borders to the quilt.  I also have to make the corner squares.   The entire time I've been making this quilt, I'm contemplating just how I'm going to quilt it.  I have a lot of light space to fill in addition to complex blocks.  My brain has been working overtime in addition to my hands.

Now let me tell you about yesterday, and explain the title of my blog post.  We contracted with a well-respected painter to stain our log home. Our logs are very thirsty and need to be stained.  This is not a trivial matter, and I feel like I'm hemorrhaging money. This is probably going to be the last time in our lifetime that we will have this done.

So, let me set the stage at 7am yesterday morning.  The painters showed up and immediately started working.  We listened to the drone of the power washer from 7:30am to 3pm. The 2-man crew worked so hard all day long.

Our job was to stay inside and wipe up the water that "may" come through the logs.  Well, now we know why it is so hard to keep this place warm in the winter......it's full of gaps between the logs.  We don't have your normal "chinking" like most log homes.  Our logs fit together like Lincoln Logs.  It's a post and beam cabin, so where the beams meet the logs, there are some gaps from the cabin settling over the years.

We soon discovered we had an immediate problem around the front porch area.  I now know where the term "bat sh*t crazy" comes from. The bats enjoy the comfort of our front porch, and poop in the cracks.  That poop was catapulting into the house from the shear force of the power washer.  The poop was coming in from all angles along with the solution of water and bleach.  It was all hands on deck with towels, and the vacuum cleaner.  Mr. Joe always thought I had bats in my belfry, now it's confirmed.

We also had an issue in the master bathroom.  Mr. Joe got a shower without even stepping into the shower.  Twelve years of dirt and dirty water coated him from head to toe.  I now have a very clean bathroom inside and out! Mr. Joe is clean now too.

The painters will be back today to finish power washing the rest of the house, so we will be manning our mops and towels.  The logs will dry over the weekend, then first thing Monday morning the first coat of stain will be sprayed on.....then coat number two will be applied during the week. 

On a positive note, if a fire came along this weekend, our logs are too wet to burn!

Soon,
Lynn