Home Sweet Home and Office

James and I are semi-officially settled in Wyoming. After two days of cleaning, dusting and rearranging we have created a livable, mostly allergen free home. After going through all of my father and uncle's stuff, it makes me think about how much of my stuff I really should go through at my parents. It feels so safe to return to your parents and have everything just the way you left it the day you graduated. However, after 30 or 40 years have passed and your children have to go through your things, it starts to feel less comforting and more dirty, old and broken.

Nonetheless, I have quite an exciting and interesting series of projects ahead of me. There were quite a few gems in what has become our current bedroom. Old models, science kits (you know, the ones that used to actually have dangerous chemicals in them!), instruments, yearbooks, awards and 4-H projects abound. Love letters and notes from my mother to my dad and lots of old pictures will make for great scrapbooking projects with grandma.

The office component of the Watson residency in my grandmother's upstairs has been a little less sentimental and a little more of a harrowing experience. The first thing to keep in mind is that my grandmother and grandfather built this house in the 1950s, using old lumber from a coal mine that was being sold. The lumber in the house is from 1902. The house was built over a few summers using only family labor. With probably the exception of the main (trunk?) line of the telephone service and the digging of the well, everything in the house has been built, installed, wired and repaired and remodeled by my dad's family. Listening to the history of how the house has evolved and in just admiring the longevity of the house is quite an event.

The side view of Grandma's house

Though the house is a true testament to homesteading and the pioneer spirit, there are a few drawbacks. First, the house was designed to live very lightly on the power grid and really, how much of a power grid was there in rural America in the 1960s. Grandma has very few appliances that draw power when in a resting mode. The microwave and her bedside clock were probably the only things before our arrival. Now, in our office alone, we need at least 12 outlets and are drawing what probably works out to a gajillion volts. The environmentalist in me says, wow, we should really just cut back and only use one outlet's worth of electronics, but then I realize that my husband needs to be employed. So here we are with 2 surge protectors, 15 outlets and lots of hope that we don't blow anything up.

Grandma has also lived through 70+ summers here in Wyoming without air conditioning by staying true to the traditional farming lifestyle. Grandma moves through the house and indoors and outdoors allowing natural heating and cooling to do its thing. This is awesome . . . except when you are trying to set up a stationary office. Until we get everything worked out, James is sweltering in his upstairs office. Just pick up a small air conditioner you might suggest. Well, that brings us back to the 1960s electricity issue. So, for right now it's windows open at night, shades drawn during the day and a little desk fan to help move the air.

James' new office

My other grandmother has picked up a swamp cooler for us from the thrift shop so we'll give that a whirl when desperation kicks in. It uses less electricity than a/c by harnessing the powers of evaporative cooling. It works great in arid climates, but requires a lot of filling and refilling, which brings us to our next lifestyle change . . . water. I could write a novel about water and the west, so I'll save this topic for next time. Right now, it's time to address my newest and most favorite farm life battle . . .