Lehman's Country Life

I spent a good part of the day yesterday getting back into the swing of things at the Kidron store in the Buggy Barn. The wall of roosting chickens I began painting a few months ago now is almost complete– heads and all! A couple chickens were in the unfortunate position of not having a head for the last 3 months! Even though many customers mentioned being in grampa’s barn as a kid and their memories of ‘headless’ chickens I didn’t want to go there in this buggy barn! I told them this buggy barn would be peaceful! The chickens now look much happier!

I enjoyed meeting and talking with people at the store and getting the instant feedback to my artwork. This really is the best part of this project! So if you are in the store please stop by!

I will probably move on to a large back wall starting next week to paint a life sized hitching post with a couple Amish buggy horses tied to it. My hope is to give the impression of being in an actual buggy barn so of course you have to have buggy horses tied right outside! As many of you may know in our little town of Kidron there is a very large hitching post directly across from Lehman’s. I will paint a simplified version of this with the Lehman’s sign off in the distance just as you see at the actual hitching post in Kidron. I am creating a space for people to stand beside the life sized buggy horse mural to take photos as a keepsake from their visit to Lehman’s.

To see the ‘works in progress’ pics stop by often! I will post here on a regular basis so you can see it take shape. To see the completed outdoor murals that are a part of the outdoor cafe area go to the Mural link of the blog’s front page. To see more of my artwork go to www.suesteiner.com Thanks for stopping by!

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I am writing several blog entries, documenting my experience with the Hitzer coal burning stove. The following is the third entry. Oh and by the way, names have been changed (sort of) to protect the innocent. I recommend starting at the begining with The Coal Chronicles – Book I and The Coal Chronicles Book II

Problem: The Hitzer is in the basement, the family lives in the floors above.

The heat isn’t going to do much good trapped in the basement. As readers might remember, our house came complete with electric baseboard heaters. These heaters are attached to the wall and wired to the 240 volt electric. There is no duct work in the house, making circulation of heated air a bit of a challenge.

The challenge is to move the heat into the upper floors of the house and return the cold air to the basement.

The house is a rather unique house, a split level overrun with stairs. This was a novelty to us, coming from the flatlands of Michigan’s Saginaw Valley. The novelty has worn off now, since you have to go either up or down in most cases simply to use the bathroom. But, I digress.

The house has a very large patio door on the northeast side, or as I have heard it termed around here, a door wall. To provide heat in the area of the door wall there are two unique heaters in the floor. They are quite large and deep. I surmised that they were deep enough to go through to the basement, but could not verify this due to the finished ceiling. I had taken the grates off the heaters several times to retrieve lost toys and other droppings to the child’s “wishing wells.” I carefully removed the ceiling tile in the basement where I thought the heaters would be located. Sure enough, there was the bottom of the heater enclosure. The heaters are simply oil-filled elements in a steel enclosure, nothing to them. I have worked with high voltage electricity in a past life, so working on 240 volts does not bother me. I removed the wiring and with a bit of effort the enclosure came out of the hole. I was delighted to see that the resulting space was nicely framed with floor joists. After a bit of trim work in the basement ceiling I was golden.

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Our old Border Collie was looking kind of “creaky” last fall, and later when the weather turned really nasty she stayed in her dog house for long periods of time. On the occasions when she did come out, she was really gimped up. At the worst, she was carrying her hind leg as though her hip pained her considerably.Contemplating her pain, I recalled an old timer once telling me that a teaspoon of pectin a day would both get rid of and keep arthritis away.

I checked the information out and putting it together with additional information gleaned during research, I came up with a recipe for “dog treats” that for the old dog have turned out to be the equivalent of an ancient “spring tonic”.

Within a week of putting our old collie on these treats we could see an improvement. After a couple weeks she was running around again – on all four legs.
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As spring approaches, I look forward to longer days and the time to spend outside after the work day is over. I always enjoy looking for spring flowers and planning the gardens to add color to the emerging green landscapes. Another spring topic is that of making good choices concerning our health or trying to improve our habits on a daily basis. What does that mean to you? Have you ever thought about what things you might change to improve your health? Or the health of your family?

The American Heart Association recommends the following several steps to help us live a long and productive life. Many of the suggestions are simple additions to the meals you may already be planning. Others are just ways to make you aware of the possibilities of things you can do to set a good example. Remember, all we need to do is take one step to get started. Change happens slowly and becomes a habit with each day that it is practiced. Take the first step and try one of the following suggestions:
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Waste management experts report that “food waste represents almost 15 percent of the total waste sent to public landfills each year- this is the single largest type of disposed material.”

Composting may not be the most glamorous of home improvement projects, but name another scenario where you can improve your garden, and do something for our planet by having less trash to go in our landfills every week. Starting your own compost is simple and has an enormous return. Compost is essentially layers of natural material that eventually break down to produce an extremely nutrient-rich soil (gardeners often call it “black gold”). This natural fertilizer is great for your garden as it replenishes nutrients missing from damaged soil. As any gardener will tell you: the success of your garden depends largely on the quality of your dirt.
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