No More Three Weeks!

We're no longer counting "three more weeks" to this and that. The project is near enough completion that we can live here now. The plumbing is in, our furniture is out, some artwork is hung, our clothes are unpacked, and dog toys are all over the floor. My office is set up, my desk is appropriately cluttered, and all is well.

Don's helping the carpenters with the last-minute details--installing doggy doors, hanging cabinets in the laundry room, helping install appliances. We haven't had time to sit down and relax and enjoy it yet, but our energy level is so high that both of us have a hard time going to bed before midnight. This part is fun!!

The photo above was taken this afternoon. The snow's melting fast, but there's still a good 18 inches on the ground.

Our $254 Toilet Paper Holder

Ah, the adventures of internet shopping....

Pictured is a $306 towel rod that now belongs to us, by accident.

When you stay with us at Shorthorse, you'll have the distinction of using the guest bathroom, outfitted with a $254 toilet paper holder, a $306 towel rod, and a slightly shorter $285 towel rod.

Before last night, I didn't even know they MADE $254 toilet paper holders. I certainly didn't pay that much for this one, although that's apparently the going price for this particular model.

Here's what happened. About 18 months ago I ordered some nice but modest hardware for our bathrooms from a very nice, very large internet company that sells bath fixtures. The shipments were sent to our contractor's house and remained there, unopened, until last fall when he brought them down to our place. Then they sat, still unopened in our barn, waiting for installation day in the house. That didn't happen until yesterday. We opened the boxes and marveled at how heavy and high-quality these nickel-pewter rods and paper holder were. Don began to mount the paper holder and then discovered--ah hah!-it wasn't a paper holder at all. It was a TOWEL RING.

I was quite sure I'd originally ordered the right stuff, all those many months ago. So I looked up the company and the merchandise on line. Sure enough, I'd been sent the wrong three items. I had ordered nickel-pewter hardware, but at about one tenth the cost of these babies!

Frankly, it's rather embarrassing and uncomfortable, to think that anyone would even willingly pay $306 for a 24-inch towel rod. Maybe no one did...maybe the company was trying to get rid of them...who knows? After all this time, I'm sure it's a non-issue that would be way too complicated to try to resolve.

What a country we live in!

A Home for Doug

Meet Doug, our official greeter. He's a little hard to miss as you walk into our living room.

Doug PCS'd (got a permanent change of station) three months ago, after hanging out at Shooters Supply for many years. Doug, a cape buffalo, was one of Don's trophies from his second trip to Africa about 10 years ago. He spent this past winter in our basement at Shorthorse, wrapped up snugly in green cellophane Don procured from the Yakima U-Haul Store. He made the six-hour trip in the bed of our little blue Dodge Dakota, and didn't get unloaded for a couple days after we got here in December. One day I had to drive the truck to town, with Doug still in the back, mummified in green cellophane. I got some pretty strange looks. One brave soul stopped me and asked, "What IS that?" There probably aren't a lot of cape buffalo heads in Sanders County.

But today was the big day, when Doug was permanently mounted in our foyer. Don's kudu, gemsbok, springbok and hartebeast are already mounted on the high living room walls which are tongue-in-groove cedar.

Now all we have to do is move our three live horses from the neighbor's pasture to our own, and we'll have the whole family all together in one place.