Help Stop Hunger?

How can I "Help Stop Hunger" when there isn't any candy for me to buy to end my own personal hunger?

Friday's Flight of Stairs

This post is another little glimpse into our home renovation progress for friends and family that won't be visiting our stairwell along the Ausable anytime soon. Oh, and I can't forget the maniacs out there like me that spend hours looking these silly things up on the internet. I thought I'd share with you our latest house project, painted and stenciled stairs.

Years ago, even before moving, I had ripped out a page from Country Home Magazine and kept it in a folder. Turns out, my sister tore out the same picture for me. I never knew if we'd have stairs some day, let alone ones we could paint as beautiful as these stairs I drooled over in a magazine.

Turns out we ended up with a narrow painted grey stairwell that was sandwiched in by lovely wood panelling. We ripped down the faux wood (correction, Drew ripped it down), and went to work on new walls. It's been a long process, but I was patient waiting to get up close and personal with the stairs.

Before

AND

After

So, there you have it, our flight of stairs painted in green with a stencil on the risers. Does this mean I can finally recycle that magazine picture?

We have one more day of driving the cats insane by locking them up and sealing the stairs with a polyurethane. Yeah, that's fun. Um, not. Oh well, Happy Friday!

p.s. If anyone out there would like our extra gallon of Louisville Mint Julep floor paint, let me know!

It's Nana Time!

Over the years, I have picked up the nickname, Nana. Yes, as in the old lady Grandma kind of way. As the seasons change and darkness creeps in on us, the Nana in me is more noticeable. I like to go to bed early, before all my television shows even start.

Just now, I ignored my phone ringing downstairs because it was 9:00 pm. Most friends and family know I'm pretty much not available to talk at that hour. However, I listened to my voice mail and it went something like this: "Hi Nana. It's 8:59 and I thought I'd be safe calling you before nine, but I guess not. I'll just have to catch up with you tomorrow to coordinate our run together."

This made me laugh because she is a new friend and has caught on rather quickly to my habits. Her five year old daughter lasts longer than me at parties. Do you think I can use the last month of marathon training as an excuse because I need to rest my muscles and sleep should be a priority?

When Drew asked why I was laughing at my message, I filled him in and he proceeded to laugh along. I decided to come clean about what caught my eye on the bulletin board at the bank this afternoon. There was a flyer that said: "Do you like to eat? Do you like to play bingo?" YES, YES, I DO!!! Before copying the information down, I noticed the fine print welcoming me to a night of socializing at the senior citizen home.

Yup, that's me, Nana along the Ausable. Good Night!

Which Way for Wood?

Let's pretend that you are a tourist in Wilmington staying at one of the campgrounds and you want to build your family a fire and cook up some s'mores. You head into the center of town and at the four corners you are faced with making the difficult decision of turning left or right for camp wood.

I'm guessing you choose right because it takes less effort to make a right hand turn than a left hand turn because it doesn't involve crossing the yellow line. Right? Right.

Wrong! You are a failure. You reach the matching camp wood sign .5 miles later and see that there is no wood.

You make a gesture with your arms questioning the sign to the man driving out of his driveway and he shakes his head, NO.

You drive back to the four corners and head only .2 of a mile up the hill and see an amazing display of Camp Wood. Score! Here they have nice cubbies of about 20 pieces of camp wood for $5 and also starter wood to get you going for $2.

They even demonstrate on site how wood burns and creates smoke. The sign also reminds you that fire can be "Danger Hot" and you feel like this camp wood seller cares about their customer's fire safety.

Before picking out the camp wood that you were trying to buy you check out the rustic chainsaw carvings. Out of the corner of your eye you see a sign, "Take Your Picture with Dad Wilminon NY" Yup, right there in "Wilminon" you start acting like a true tourist and get camera happy.

Big Al with "DAD"

Drew, aka Fred Flintstone

After all the fun, you get back into your real car and head back to camp and discover you never even bought any Camp Wood.

20 Main, We're not Scared!

The night started with a simple plan to go to Ladies Night at the Hollywood Theatre in Ausable Forks, but since Lori's coworker dared us to go into 20 Main, the night didn't just end with Eat, Pray, Love. 20 Main has over the years gotten a bad reputation. Some natives have told me they wouldn't dare step into the bar.

I'm not really sure why or how 20 Main got their reputation, perhaps it had something to do with this sign.

Needless to say, I'm a curious person and the ladies didn't put up a fight about checking it out. No "dive bar" was going to scare us. We are a tough group of ladies that are not to be messed with. Look how unapproachable we are.

Here's your proof Chuck!

Honestly, I'm a bit sad that I hadn't been into 20 Main sooner. Hello? Why did no one tell me they had table shuffleboard? I love shuffleboard and hadn't played it in years.

As a kid, my parents would take my sister and I to the Chase Mills Inn in the middle of nowhere St. Lawrence County for dinner. While waiting, I'd annoy my big sis by sprinkling sand all over the place and knock her discs off while she tried to play a "serious" game of shuffleboard.

So, the discovery of the shuffleboard's existence at 20 Main thrilled me and we started a serious game of our own!

Oh, dirty sand and germ ridden shuffleboard discs

how I've missed you!

The ladies divided themselves into two teams - red vs. blue or A&E vs. J&L. The game was tied up until the last match when I placed a red disc onto the 3 and no one came close to knocking it off. Emilie and I won 10 to 6!

Now that we know the music didn't stop when we walked in and didn't get our teeth knocked out, we'll be back to perfect our game of shuffleboard at 20 Main!

Largest Beer Selection?

Wilmington's North Pole Camping Resort has a new sign out front announcing that they have the "Largest Selection of Micros & Craft Beers In Town!"

Knowing that they have two major competitors in town, the gas station and the Little Supermarket, we were curious to see their beer selection.

The five shelves probably shouldn't be described as large, but then again, I guess it's all relative, especially in Wilmington. We were happy to see that they did carry a few hard to find varieties of beer. They let you mix and match and put together your own six pack which is always fun.

Drew ended up with a six pack of Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Otter Creek Copper Ale, Negra Modelo, Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA, Smithwick's Irish Ale, and a Hoegaarden White Ale. He quickly cooled them off after the car ride home in his "dorm room fridge" in the garage.

We also walked away with a bottle of Samuel Smith India Ale. Sammy Smith beers are my favorite and being able to buy them in Wilmington makes my life even better. Now, I think I'll go find myself a cold beer...

Musty Smell Solution for Furniture

I used to spray myself with Gingerale Perfume until my sister started accusing me of smelling like an old dirty basement. Yup, my family tells it like it is. Straight up honesty, like soda bubbles up your nose.

As much as I loved the scent, I certainly didn't want to smell musty. That goes for my husband too. We recently acquired an old dresser for him, but my nose immediately detected the scent of that Gingerale Perfume and so I went to work researching how to spare his clothing from smelling musty.

I realize that this is probably far too much background information and this really has nothing to do with being along the Ausable, but in case anyone else out there has searched high and low for answers on how to eliminate musty smells from antique furniture, I now present you with a solution.

1. Put furniture outside on a hot, sunny day to let it breathe.

2. Clean out all the dirt with a rag and vacuum out any remaining debris.

3. Using a diluted water and Murphy Oil Soap solution, wipe down the entire dresser and let air dry in the sun.

4. Put trays of baking soda in the drawers for 24 hours.

5. Dump out the baking soda and then put Activated Charcoal on baking trays inside the drawers and dresser for at least a week.

Activated Charcoal can be purchased at any Pet Store. We found it in the Fish section. I guess it makes aquarium water crystal clear and removes organic waste, colors and odor. Drew read somewhere that one gram of charcoal is equivalent to the surface area of 1/10 the size of a football field!

6. Remove charcoal trays and give the furniture another wipe down and it should be ready to store clothing!

So far, it seems to have worked. Cross your fingers for us that we have found the solution and if your nose tells you we haven't, please be honest and tell my husband he smells like an old, dirty basement as my sister once told me.