Tuesday, January 06, 2009, 14:44
Let There Be Light
Although I have only had it for two weeks, the solar light Randy bought me for Christmas and installed in the barn is a Godsend. When I go down to give the horses more hay at night and to give the barn kitties more food and warm water, I merely have to reach up and turn on the light and I can see what I'm doing.
One nice thing about the solar light is that it leaves both hands free when I'm in the barn. Before this, one hand was always occupied holding the wind-up flashlight. Don't get me wrong. The wind-up flashlight I received from my sister-in-law for Christmas a few years back is the best thing since sliced bread. Over the years, I would be willing to bet that I have saved hundreds of D-Cell and C-Cell batteries. A regular flashlight will go through a set of batteries in a week during cold weather and in about two weeks in warmer weather. With the wind-up flashlight, it's always available and ready just as soon as I wind it up.
But the solar light adds another level of comfort and security to my nightly visits to the barn. I still use the wind-up flashlight to check Isabelle's water and Kajun's water and to see my way around Isabelle's shelter. Then when I get back to the barn, I put the flashlight in my pocket, and both hands are free to carry hay and to put out kitty food and water. It also gives me plenty of light to see to tie and untie Kajun's water bucket when I put it in the barn during very cold windy weather or snowy weather.
So, if you have a garage or a shed or a dark area of the barn where you need light, I would recommend a solar light. It only took Randy about 10 minutes to install it. He ran the wire through the top of the door frame, and the light is hanging on a nail by the door where I can easily reach up to turn it on. If I really needed to illuminate something over by the hay, I could unplug the light from the solar panel and could stick it on the tractor. The back of the light also is magnetic.
Like I said, I've only had it for two weeks, and I cannot testify to how well it will hold up over time, but for right now, it absolutely the best. The one I have is a Sunforce 10 LED Shed Light.
You can see the one we've got here.
You can see other Sunforce products here.
(do a search for "Sunforce" but do not use quotations)
LeAnn R. Ralph
AUTOGRAPHED BOOKS MAKE GREAT GIFTS -- For yourself or someone else!
Click here to order the Rural Route 2 Cookbook
My new book, The Coldest Day of the Year, is now available.
Click here to order LeAnn's books
Tuesday, January 06, 2009, 09:26
One Thing Leads to Another
I don't know about anyone else, but for me, when I start a project of some kind, it seems to end up being "one thing leads to another."
Like cleaning my office, for example. Being a writer and a newspaper reporter means that I accumulate a tremendous amount of paper. Rough drafts of this and that. Agendas. Background information. Envelopes. You name it.
Sunday I decided I ought to give my office a top to bottom cleaning. It really needed it. So, I straightened out the closet, moved furniture, wiped down furniture, washed the walls, sorted through papers, cleaned shelves, moved books,
Moving the books was interesting. You wouldn't believe the number of lady bugs -- errrr -- Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles -- I found snuggled together along the backs. I felt terrible doing it, but I vacuumed them up. I know they are just trying to survive the winter until they can go outside again, but in the meantime, they are coming out of hibernation periodically and are roaming around the house. I am tired of finding lady bugs in my measuring cups and coffee cups and mixing bowls and in the bathroom and in the laundry when I'm ready to wash clothes and in my plants and on the windows. The other day I moved a bale of hay in the barn and there were hundreds of lady bugs clustered along the wall. If they need someplace to winter, I would prefer that they stay in the barn.
Anyway, I started my office project at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. I took a break to feed the horses at 5 p.m. and a break to eat supper at around 7:30 p.m. I finally decided to call it a day at 11:30 p.m. I wasn't quite finished yet but I knew it would only take a little while to finish my office. I merely had to vacuum the carpeting and straighten up a few more things.
Right.
Monday when I was ready to work on my office again, that's when the vacuum cleaner decided to quit.
Before this, the switch had been temperamental, but jiggling it would always do the trick.
Not on Monday.
It's not an old vacuum cleaner, either. We've only had it for three years. It's a Hoover Savvy. And prior to this, I thought it was a pretty good vacuum cleaner. It really worked well to pull dust and dog hair and cat hair out of the carpeting.
I called a vacuum cleaner repair place Monday afternoon, and of course, the man I talked to did not have a very high opinion of Hoovers and said he had seen lots of them in his shop for repair. Coincidentally, the man also sells vacuum cleaners and seemed to think that I needed to buy an expensive one made of durable steel that would hold up for 25 years.
Vacuum cleaners built of steel only mean one thing as far as I'm concerned.
Heavy.
I also am reluctant to spend hundreds of dollars on a new vacuum because the carpeting is, after all, 34 years old. I am thinking that replacing the carpeting with linoleum might be a better idea. I can sweep and wash and dust mop linoleum. I am fairly certain that the person who invented carpeting did not have allergies of any kind. But for me, it's important to be able to sweep and mop.
At any rate, I needed to finish cleaning my office, so I got out the hand-vac. Do you know how long it takes to vacuum carpeting, even in a small room, with a hand-vac? (sigh)
Well, perhaps it's all for the best. Maybe I'd better start thinking about what color I want my floor to be . . .
The other interesting thing about cleaning is the astounding array of kitty help. When I opened the closet door in my office, you would think I had opened a door to a new world. Which, I suppose, in a way I did. My old kitty, Billie, who is 14, along with with the one-year-olds Henry, Katerina, and Dora, three-year old Sophie and two-year-old Snowflake took turns crawling to the back of the closet snooping around and then crawling back out. When I was ready to close up the closet again, I had to do a head count to make sure everyone was accounted for.
The kitties were also right there when I pulled out the furniture. They really enjoyed snooping. They weren't so crazy about being in the room when I turned on the vacuum cleaner to use the attachment. But when I shut it off again, it didn't take them long to return.
Well, at least the vacuum cleaner worked long enough for me to be able to use the attachment.
Now -- if only I could teach the kitties how to use the lamb's wool duster, I'd really be getting someplace, wouldn't I.
LeAnn R. Ralph
AUTOGRAPHED BOOKS MAKE GREAT GIFTS -- For yourself or someone else!
Click here to order the Rural Route 2 Cookbook
My new book, The Coldest Day of the Year, is now available.
Click here to order LeAnn's books