Homesteader Blues
Page 5
Every muscle in my body ached. Rolling out at 5:00 a.m. was one of the hardest things I have done in a long time. I don't sit on my lily white out here. There is a lot of hard physical labor associated with farming. And when you add the Alaska element, it's just a little harder. But this was one real bitch.
Damn, could I use a hot shower, but not yet. Today was cover the walls and ceiling with something. The something would not be sheetrock. Do it yourself sheetrock takes too long and almost always looks like shit. I didn't have the expertise to tackle that, and I didn't have the money or time to hire it out.
I found a cheat. The lumber yard had a product, these plastic wall panels sort of like the thin paneling that used to be put on basement walls back in the 1960's.
This stuff is waterproof, and the old lady won’t need to scrub to keep the thing clean. The best part was, it went up like the old paneling. Eureka!
All the bathroom walls and the ceiling got clad with the stuff. It was the only reason I figured I had a chance to get this done in the timeframe I had.
The only cuts necessary were around the door frame and the window opening. I went to great lengths to lay the room out so the interior measurements allowed me to use full sheets. I bought two extra in case I screwed the job up. Since I would do that part alone, there would be no one to blame, but me.
And I got all the cutting done before the kids showed up. That job required all my concentration, and I didn't want to blow it. By the time Trooper Daniels dropped Jade off, the stuff was cut to size, and it was time to hang it.
It had to be the slickest idea I ever had, without a doubt. The panels went up smooth as silk, and I didn't have a problem fabricating the hatch to allow access to the water bladder.
After drilling a few holes in the ceiling, I fed the wiring through for the lights. On the pretext of easing the electrical load in the kitchen a month ago, I put in two extra lines from the breaker box.
Tina doesn't pay much attention to that shit. I gave her an extra line but fed in one for the dryer and a second line for the new lights.
The plan worked just fine. I know what I can sneak past Tina. And I gotta say, she doesn't have a clue when it comes to the electrical wiring in this place. All she wants to do is flip the switch and have the lights come on.
The whole time I was working, the thought of a hot shower was in the back of my mind. There was one little problem; I wanted to share. I wanted to soap up that lovely body of hers and get down to some other things after rinsing.
Tina has gotten a little shy with me over the last year, and I'm not having any more of it. It comes and goes depending on the ten pounds she keeps stressing over. I do not give a shit if the woman isn't skinny as a rail. I couldn't care less if she doesn't have a body like Angelina J 'cause I sure as hell am not Brad.
What I care about is the beautiful, caring heart in that lush body of hers. The heart that takes the time on cold mornings to have a bowl of hot oatmeal waiting for me when I get back in the house from working in the barn. That little extra caring earns her so many brownie points the woman can never go in a negative direction.
There's always a warm washcloth at the end of the day and hot water waiting in the kitchen sink for a quick wash off for me. And that washcloth always gets scrubbed over my back before I towel off.
The late night perusal of those romance novels she likes to read had taught me a thing or two. I open doors for the woman, hold her hand in public and don't give one little thought to what anyone else thinks about it. Helping her into her jacket often earns me a little hug. If two seconds is all it takes to make me a white knight in her baby blues, I've got those and more to spare.
In winter, it doesn't take me but a couple of seconds to hold down the remote start button on the keys to her car when I know she's going somewhere. I make sure her headlights are clean so my baby can see to get home safe. The windshield washer fluid never runs dry for my old lady.
Much as I wanted that first hot shower, I wasn’t going to take it without my Tina. And I intended to make damn sure she knew I waited for her.
I could've gone forever without this bathroom. There are a couple of bachelors I know up here who are real grimy at the end of the week when they take their Sunday shower at the laundromat. Guess what? They're still single and with that attitude might stay that way.
Thinking about Tina and how much I missed her, kept me quiet all day. I'm not sure what had Mark and Phil quiet, maybe they thought I was still pissed at them, but they kept their mouths shut and got on with it. Suited me fine. I had enough of their teenage crap the previous day.
The next thing to go down was the cork flooring. The instructions said it wasn't a good choice because it doesn't like getting wet and can swell. I thought about it a lot and had a solution of sorts. Simple rubber backed mats laid down around the shower opening should keep the water off the floor. I was hoping it worked.
As soon as the flooring was down and the kids were gone, it was time to climb into the attic and get the fitting installed. With a hose dangling down the wall outside, I could hook up the pump to the bladder in the attic and fill the thing.
After about two minutes of tossing the pros and cons around, I put the second bladder into the back of the pickup and headed down to the community well.
Did I want to do this? I did. Grabbing a headlamp for me and a book, the old pickup and I headed down to the well.
I needed to know right away if I had any problems with the installation. If I did, the next day was Saturday, and the lumber yard would be open. I could get parts if something went wrong. Sunday, I would be out of luck.
Calling Tina from the truck while the bladder filled let me act relaxed. She questioned what I was doing, and I told her, getting water before she got home. There was a little sigh on her end of the conversation and a quiet declaration of love. Works for me. I'm insatiable; I'll lap up all she gives me.
Filling the five hundred gallon receiver tank upstairs took a while, but it all worked as I hoped. There were no leaks inside and on the following day I could install everything, hook up the lines and spend Sunday getting any loose ends taken care of.
Man, was I looking forward to Sunday evening. Although knowing Tina, she would be on the road as soon as she could. All the more reason for getting the whole mess almost ready for her on Saturday.