Category Archives: life on the farm

so, what’s up doc?

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I need some of these.

See, I had a loose filling. It had been loose for a long time and it was bothering no one. But I got a reminder in the mail that it was time to visit the dentist, and, being a good little girl, I made an appointment.

Only about 2 months later.

I got a clean (youch. hate that!) and had the loose filling, which wasn’t hurting, replaced with a new one.

Soon as the numbness wore off I began to have a headache… you know the type? Its all on one side of your head, in the temple and in the jaw… you don’t even realise you have a headache really, till you realise you’ve been rubbing your temple with your thumb and using your knuckle to pound your jaw joint. That’s when you realise that not only do you have a headache, but its really a toothache pretending to be a headache.

Well, I’ve had that headache for almost 2 weeks now.

I got the filling replaced on Tuesday, then on Friday I finally called the dentist to say all was not well. I saw the owner of the practice on Saturday. He took an xray and said the filling wasn’t too close to the nerve, he showed me the enlarged xray and it looked damn close to me. Still, he didn’t think we should be ripping out the filling just yet. He did a little drilling to lower the height of the new filling in case I was causing pain by clenching (which I do, I have a splint I wear at night for that). He also cleaned around the gum which was sore cause of the clamps the first dentist put around the tooth while filling it.

I was hit by a wave of unbearable pain.

I think the dentist realised how bad it was when I sat there holding my jaw with tears running down my face.

I got antibiotics and painkillers.

The good stuff.

I took two of them and then stuck to over the counter stuff the rest of the time.

The following Tuesday I was back again. The pain was persisting even though I’d just finished the antibiotics. I was still taking pain killers.

The dentist said “Give it another 3-4 days. It shouldn’t be a problem. It just needs to settle down.” Uhuh.

Sometimes I think its settling down. It doesn’t seem so bad. Then I get another headache/toothache… I’ve been woken up twice in the last few days by the pain.

That doesn’t sound like its settling down to me.

Still, I’ll give it a few more days. I’m not too keen to have the tooth touched again any time soon.

I am becoming very scared of dentists…

I know I’m old, but our family dentist in Athens used to fill teeth the ‘old fashioned’ way. Firstly he never used anaesthetic (yikes) so he’d always drill one day, then fill the tooth up with an antibiotic paste/temporary filling. A week later we’d go back and he’d take that out and fill the tooth.

There were never any problems at all with fillings his way.

I’m told that was done very long ago cause anaesthetic was expensive and they couldn’t drill too close to the nerve. That meant there was always some bacteria left in the cavity. In order to get rid of that they’d use the temporary filling with antibiotic in it.

Nowadays its so much easier. We have the numbing stuff so we use it liberally, we drill down and play chicken with the nerve, slap a filling in there and say “She’ll be right mate!”

I’ve lost two teeth due to this method. First time my tooth abscessed before I got home from the dentist. Second time the pain started when I got home. I really don’t want to loose another but I also don’t want another root canal…

I think I might ask for the dual visit method of tooth filling from now on.

z

this one’s serious

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I got home just before 4pm on Friday afternoon to find the dogs barking at something at the back fence. It was a tasmanian devil.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Firstly it was daylight, secondly I’d never seen or heard a devil in this area, and third, the dogs weren’t really carrying on… the devil had obviously been here for a long time.

It was only small, a female, and she was growling at the dogs but she was sick. She had a huge tumour on one side of her face which was bleeding in one spot and had a huge hole leaking disgustingly green pus. The eye on that side was squeezed almost shut. She was thin and her back and rear legs were motheaten with mange.

//www.youtube.com/get_player

I started calling anyone and everyone I could think of to come catch and help her. I called a neighbour who does wildlife rescue, no reply. I called the vet. They gave me the number for Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary. They sent out a guy from Hobart to catch her. He works for Save the Devil and volunteers for Bonorong.

My job was to make sure the devil was safe and to keep track of her so we didn’t lose her.

I sat on the porch and waited. Once I locked the dogs inside she moved away from the fence and found a sheltered spot among the reeds near the dam. She then just sat there quietly.

When the guy arrived he went out and managed to catch her without too much trouble.

The horrible news is that not only was she really sick with the tumour, she was also a pregnant female whose babies had died inside her. She was septic. She had to be put down. He was taking her straight to their vet but he said both the tumour and the sepsis meant she had no chance.

I have been heartbroken since. I’m glad we found her and that her pain was ended humanely. It would have been a very slow painful death otherwise.

I’m so sad for the devils. I love all animals, natives in particular. And the tassie devils are really special to me. Them and ringtail possums, quolls and bandicoots. All the ones who are threatened.

What’s happening with the devils, with this disease, is just horrific. I’m considering becoming a wildlife rescuer (seeing as I have so much free time) because I become involved anyway.

Read some of the happy rescue stories here.

I pick up injured animals off the side of the road. I’ve now begun to overcome my fear and actually check fresh roadkill for babies in pouches. I’ve never had the stomach for it before cause I couldn’t face the tragedy of it. So far I’ve found two babies in pouches, unfortunately, both already dead. Even if I manage to save one I’ll feel better.

I just hate it when I see animals dead on the side of the road. Its bad enough if its rabbits or a cat, a possum or a wallaby, but when its the endangered species like the devils or quolls I get really upset. Or echidnas or wombats… its not like they dash out in front of cars fast! People have to literally TRY to hit them!

I wish people would slow down and avoid hitting things.

Anyway… it was capped off this afternoon when the dogs sent up an alert.

Yep.

Another animal in distress. This time it was a young male wallaby with toxoplasmosis. A disease spread by domestic (and feral) cats which native australian animals have no immunity to. It attacks their central nervous system making them blind and wobby and they slowly starve to death or get hit by cars.

I went out, caught him easily and called my neighbour. Her son (who’s also a wildlife volunteer) came down to pick him up. They’ll have to put him down too.

Ahhh, the fun of living in the country!

z

time is(n’t) on my side

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 I look forward to the day when I have time.

I figure I need about another 10 hours in every day just so I can do all the things I want to do, let alone the things I have to do.

For instance… this is our carpet near the front door.

Our front door is a door we rarely use as its on the back side of the house from the front gate. It opens directly into the hideously salmon carpeted living room. I made the mistake of letting the dogs in through that door a couple of weeks ago when it rained for about 2 weeks straight.

I had steam cleaned the carpet a couple of months ago (to impress visitors) and if I had a steam cleaner I might do it more often. I was actually tempted to buy one… but who am I kidding? I hate vacuuming and avoid it like the plague, how often would I steam clean a carpet I hate?

I yearn for the time I’ll have off over Christmas: three whole weeks! I have an intimidating list of WANT TO DOs including ripping up the carpet in the living room, and I can’t wait! Other things on the list include doing something with the floor after removing the carpet, putting in a new/refurbished wood heater, finish painting the exterior of the house, painting the mud room, organising coat hangers and other necessities in the mud room and enclosed porch space, making stuff for another market, working in the garden and trying to fix up the casita.*

Basically I think I need another year of time just to keep up.

Of course, like everything else, a ‘simple job’ like removing carpet will turn into 3 solid weeks of work, effectively bumping everything else on the list to ‘another lifetime’.

I mean, it sounds simple, right? Rip up carpet. Paint floor (cause we can’t afford to put in new flooring right now and only 1/4 of the room has floorboards, the rest is chipboard, and I promised Wayne this won’t cost a lot).

But the job isn’t simple. You have to break it down into steps to understand the enormity of it:

– remove all furniture from the living room (or more likely, push it from one side to the other and listen to Wayne complain)
– remove carpet
– remove underlay
– move furniture
– crawl around on hands and knees (and butt) pulling up tacks and staples
– move furniture
– encourage Wayne to wear shoes the entire time to avoid hearing him swear when he punches holes in his feet)
– clean floor
– move furniture
– sand floor
– move furniture
– find someone to fix problems under the floor which cause the floor to be uneven
– move furniture
– wait for things to be done
– find more things that need to be fixed, replaced, removed
– move furniture
– find hidden treasure (I wish)
– pick floor colour and paint the floor, 2 or 3 coats
– move furniture
– seal the floor, 2 or 3 coats
– move furniture

EASY.

Meanwhile I’ll use my spare time to paint the exterior of the house cause I’ll already have finished painting the hallway, entry way and mud room in all the spare time I have between now and then.

Not to mention getting back in the saddle! I need to commit to working with Dancer soon as the ground dries out enough, otherwise why do we keep horses?

…

As I said, I dream of a world where I have time.

Its not all bad. I’ve had lots of good times lately, where nothing has been done but I’ve socialized and relaxed. Wayne and I have had breakfast out a few times over the last couple of months, we’ve had visitors, and we’ve spent a lot of rainy days inside complaining that the rain stopped us from working outside (but secretly kind of glad to be inside and not working outside).

One thing I look forward to is visits from Zephyr and his mom. They come over every 2nd weekend for a play and groom. I adore little Zeph and having him around is my puppy fix. My kids like him too and love getting out for a romp.

Here are some pics of them running around last time he was here. It was a gorgeous day (though pretty cold) and our top paddock is the driest spot to play.

Lining up for treats.

Romeo can fly.

Zephyr trying to keep up with the big guys.

You gotta love the awkward poses dogs sleep in.

*The casita… sigh… We have another possum living in the ceiling in there. Only he’s not living in the attic of the original part where Mr Ponsonby lived, he’s living over the laundry. He’s created 2 large holes in the ceiling from where he occasionally peers down at me, his little pink nose twitching. The plasterboard is mouldy in places and stained. Its disgusting.

In fact, the entire addition part of the casita (the flat roofed part) is disgusting. The floor is a concrete slab sitting on the ground, probably without proper lining to stop the damp. The walls in the laundry and toilet have mould growing on the plasterboard. YEECH.

The ceiling fell down in the dog wash room.

The grooming room floor flooded with water coming in through the wall/floor join when we had all that rain a couple of weeks ago. I removed all the vinyl to let it dry out and don’t plan on replacing it. The ceiling is sagging too and there are holes made by the millions of birds nesting in it.

I want to remove all the ceilings, but I’m afraid that if I remove it from the grooming room I’ll never be able to work in there in summer – it’ll get way too hot.

I will definitely be removing the ceiling from the laundry and toilet though, to encourage Mr Possum to move on.

We have birds dancing around in our house ceiling too. There must be a village above our bedroom and another above the living room. The only way to fix that problem is to hire someone to come put gutter guards on all our guttering, then go around and plug all holes around the house using wire – NOT in the same way as my failed fix of last year.

… Anyone feeling bored and want to do something useful? I sure could use a hand or three.

z

we’re gonna need a (bigger) boat

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Its only rained twice this week.

Once for 3 days and once for 4 days.

Ok. Its been raining a lot.

This morning we had pools of water all over the paddocks. At lunchtime we had a lake.

It all starts up here, where the creek overflows near the ford.

The problem is ongoing and we’ve been trying to fix things since we bought the farm. First thing we did was hire someone with an excavator who swore he knew exactly what needed to be done, then went ahead and did what he wanted even when we and the neighbour behind us jumped up and down and told him not to.
See, it all began way before our time here with a combination of things.
First the landowner up the hill sold off blocks but kept the road/driveway as a private road. And didn’t put in culverts. 
And the council allowed that to happen.
Next, the creek that runs down from the hills behind us was redirected by the guy who owned our property before us. The creek used to run through the middle of the top paddock and he moved it to where the ford is now.
This resulted in an unnatural sharp bend on the creek which overflows every time we get more than a light rain. Add to that the fact that there are no culverts on the road above, so we also get sand washing down in the stream. The sand fills up the creek bed and, when it rains heavily, the water overflows the creek sides and floods our paddocks.
For the first two years we lived here we couldn’t get up to the top of our property in winter cause we couldn’t get over the ford. It was under water.
Enter our amazing excavator man who decided we needed a ‘secondary creek’ for overflow and this is what we have now:
See where the water runs into the creek at the top of the pic? Now notice where the sand filled ‘overflow’ has overflowed into the paddock.
This is the result:

The creek is on the other side of the fence on our next door neighbour’s land at this point… the lake is ours. It follows the line of the creek, not IN it, all the way down our property.

In case you’re wondering, the water at the bottom of the pic is dam overflow…  that joins the creek overflow at the bottom of the middle paddock and forms a bigger lake in the bottom paddock.

 
Then it breaks out and flows onto the road…

Both at the side of the creek in a small waterfall:

And over our driveway:

Down past our gate:

Where the two rivers happily join together:

Rushing down the road and eventually crossing it in a couple of places:

Straight down into our neighbour’s property opposite:

Almost to his doorstep. This is his driveway outside his house and shed.

It then runs off over his paddock, joins another river coming down from the road and runs down to the river beyond.

Needless to say, our neighbours love us.
This is our dam. Its pretty full. Note the overflow spot our newest excavator man put in? (near the top middle of the dam about where the geese are.) He did a better job than ‘amazing excavator man’. Only one problem… the overflow doesn’t go down into the paddock as planned (where it would just add itself to our lake and the river flowing into the road)… it just follows the side of the dam and floods the areas just below our house.
 
 
Meanwhile, this the side of the shed… my poor plants. That’s a very sickly mexican orange blossom near the corregated iron. Not looking happy at all. Lucky I put the hardenbergia in a pot!

The good news is the hardenbergia is flowering!

The bad news is the grooming room is flooded. And at this stage I’m not sure if its come in from the slightly opened window or through the floor!
If its from the window, how come there’s no water near the other window??? 
If its from the floor, how come this has never happened before? Sure its damp in there when it rains, but never so damp you could swim in it!
Then again, the casita in that section has concrete floors… I bet they weren’t built to withstand this much water. 
I’m seriously considering making some major alterations to the casita – namely removing the flat roofed sections of the building, leaving only the older/original part. It would mean some knocking down and a lot of rearranging the spaces that are left. Doable… but I think Wayne will kill me if I mention it…
Maybe I’ll get him drunk, then tell him…
z

accidental stripes

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You know how sometimes things work out in ways you never expected? Well, that’s how it turned out with the striped blind in the kitchen.

One morning soon after I installed the blind I went outside as the sun came up and noticed the way the stripes in the blind and the stripes on the enclosed porch side sort of matched. It was totally accidental – when Handyman was enclosing the end of the porch he used some of the old bits of timber from the front of the house where the window was put in. The new timber is unpainted, the old timber is the light yellow the house was originally painted.

I kinda like it.

I’m considering painting the enclosed area two colours – the antique white I used on the posts and the white pepper I used on the house and the handrail slats. It’ll be way more subtle than it is now, but it might be interesting.

Then again, it might be stupid and it’ll be a ton more work…

So, what else’s has been happening?

Well, the office floor is half sanded. I’ve finished a couple of projects and am close to finishing another. Plus I’ve started on the costumes for the movie we’re making at work.

Other than that, I’ve been having a quiet time.

ha.

More later. Check back soon.

z

not quite what I’d planned to do…

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I had a plan.

I was going to do a ton of stuff while at home this week.

I was going to empty the office and sand and polish the floor. And the small hallway floor. And paint both spaces. And finish a couple of projects.

But I told myself, this was not the time to start new projects. I had to concentrate on the office. And hallway. The floors. And walls.

Well… I started on Sunday. It took me two days to empty the office of furniture. Mind you, I had to move it all somewhere, right? The living room seemed the most reasonable spot for it all.

Again.

Plus, I had to set up the old coal burner (my old pc) cause the new whiz bang laptop has gone to hospital. I think it had a loose cable in the hinge area which caused interference when I moved the monitor… which, by the very nature of a laptop, you do often. Not good.

Actually, it wasn’t just that… I’ve also got a sore back. Since last week. Just in time to do the hard work I’d planned. Great.

No wonder it took me 2 whole days to empty the office. No need to push myself too hard, right?

Being Superwoman, I’ve been working through the pain and not let it stop me, just slow me down.

I also spent a fair bit of time shopping on ebay.

Ugh. I just couldn’t stop!

I need an intervention… I shouldn’t be allowed near ebay…

Still, I’m getting there. I think. I’ll let you know soon.

z

the best thing about living in the country

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One of the things I love about living in the country is the sound of animals instead of humans around us. Every morning we wake up to the sound of the ducks and geese fussing around the dam. Birds hopping around the roof and catching up on gossip. The sound of Chipmunk telling us its time to let him play with the big guys. Not to mention the rooster crowing about how great life is.

I just love it.

This morning when I woke up the dogs let me know we had a visitor. A big wallaby was spending some time in the middle paddock. I tried to creep closer but I spooked it.

Probably a good thing. The dogs were all set for a game of chase.

Today the sun was shining which was a nice change from the cloudy days we’ve had lately. The horses were up near the mostly finished stable munching on hay. There’s Cass, making a break so I won’t put her mask on (she has to wear a mask to avoid sunburn).

Chipmunk is now enjoying days out with the others. They all get along pretty well. The girls sort of avoid him but he and Wally are still best friends.

He’s put on a bit of weight since we got him. He’s got a big round tummy now. He’s just so adorable I can’t stand it. He comes into the casita every evening when we’re preparing their dinner and he follows us around like one of the dogs. We love him.

Wally is the biggest of the horses. And quite round. Though not as round as Cass!

Dancer is much finer than the others. Unfortunately I haven’t ridden her for a long time. I’ve been so busy and the weather hasn’t been nice. To be honest I want to ride, but not if the ground is muddy and slippery. I’m nervous enough on stable ground!

I love having horses so close to the house that I can hear them chomping grass.

When I feed them I spend time cuddling each one. Except Wally. He gets butt scratches if he’s good but no cuddles. I don’t trust him to keep his teeth to himself.

The girls love having special one on one time, though sometimes Dancer chases off Cass so she can get all the cuddles.

Animals really are good for the soul…

z

thats the way the apple crumbles – kitchen update

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A bunch of hydrangeas from my garden adorn my new kitchen…

Don’t get your hopes up. This is just the magic of creative cropping at work. Here is the full picture:

The kitchen is still a non-working mess. )

Though there has been progress… let me fill you in.

Last Thursday Handyman came in the morning to start work again since the electricals had all been moved. He arrived with the warning that he could only work 3 hrs or so cause he had to go to the other job he took on (after mine I should point out) which is a huge entire house makeover. Apparently the owner changed his mind about the type of shower he was putting in so Handyman had to go back and get the base ready for the plumber who was arriving the next morning… ie it was urgent.

I said fine, that was ok. It would be good if he went through with me and we wrote out a list of all the things that needed doing in the kitchen to get it finished. That way we (I) could plan ahead, buying or preparing each area for the next job. We wrote it out and then measured and made a list of things I needed to buy.

The list of things to do went something like this:

-put in window which involves: patch timber outside house, put in lintel for new window, move old window to porch
 
-put in rangehood which means making a hole in the roof and ceiling to vent it, getting a rubber seal for the roof


-mount glass splash back which should be easy as I already have the clips for it


-put pine lining on 2 walls


-plaster and smooth ceiling and one wall we’re not lining


-put up cornice around entire room


-put in skirting boards on 2 walls


-put in benchtop once its finished – includes some kind of decorative trim for edge where bench meets wall, there will be a small gap there we need to cover. i need to find/pick that, and let me tell you, the amount of decorative trim and moulding available in Australia (or Tasmania?) is pathetic


-plumb in dishwasher


-put in sink – add a new hole for 2nd tap (for the gravity fed bore water – a necessity for us)


-plumb in sink 


-patch a hole in the cabinet which my kitchen man thoughtfully put in for the power point for the dishwasher but which the electrician didn’t use … its now a hole that just needs filling. 


-put the sliding door back in kitchen (we took it off to make it easy to bring things in and out) – after giving it a coat of paint and painting the frame


-paint all woodwork – all the new pine lining, window and door surrounds


-paint the unlined wall


I mean, it looks like a ton, but it shouldn’t be that much! Not really.

IF I had a Handyman…


This is what he did last weekend when he worked a couple of hours on Thursday, all day Friday and Saturday.


He cut a hole for the new window.


He put in the new window and we love it. There’s so much more light in the kitchen now and it has a view! Downside is we can’t walk around naked in there any more!

He lined the entire front wall of the kitchen with pine. We definitely need a frame around the window and I have found a moulding I like. Unfortunately he’s not here today to tell me if its ok. I plan to buy it anyway and hopefully he can make it work.

 He chose to come back on Sunday (his choice. I’m not a slave driver!) to finish the third wall so I could gap fill and paint during the week. He didn’t finish it so I didn’t paint it.

Do I sound a bit peeved? Well, yes, I am. Not cause he didn’t finish last week. I’m peeved cause he called last night to say that he can’t come in to work today. Which means one less day of work this week, which delays us further.

Actually, it means that he’ll only work one day this week. Just tomorrow.

Yes. I’m very annoyed right now.

Deep breath. Its progress. If I wasn’t going to be flat out this weekend I’d undercoat all the timber, finished or not. I’ll give it a go and get what I can done anyway.

I’m so over not having a kitchen. I’m so over the entire house being a mess.

Did I mention that one of the dogs had diarhea in the office a couple of weeks ago? I just cut out a section of carpet and threw it away. I’ve started removing it anyway, may as well not waste time and effort cleaning it.

Well, someone did it again yesterday. No better way to wake up than to find a mess to clean up.

Another bit of carpet bit the dust.

I’m itching to get the office emptied out and get rid of that carpet and do the floor in there. That way, if someone does get sick in there its easy to clean.

I want a dog door.

What worries me about a dog door is dogs who go outside to hunt all night. And bark.

What worries Wayne is that a dog door for my dogs would be big enough for a small person to get through.

*sigh*

As for hunting… Came home last night to be greeted with Montana proudly carrying a prize. A huge dead rat.

Took them out to pee last night and found another offering on the mat outside the door. Another dead rat.

They’ve caught two mice which they’ve given me to dispose of. Both alive. Barely.

Nice.

But the fact is they give me their catches! I’m so impressed.

Yesterday they were sniffing and digging under something in the yard. I lifted it and sure enough, there was a mouse underneath. Romeo caught it and there it was, hanging out of his mouth, tail out the side. I asked him to give it to me and he stood till I grabbed the tail.

Ugh.

Ok. All these rodents are sick and dying. We’ve had to resort to poison as there are just so many of them. Luckily the dogs don’t eat them, just catch them, kill them and present them proudly. It still concerns me and I hate finding them dead, or worse, alive.

Oh the joys of country life!

z

reaching new heights

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I’ve been offline for a little bit but trust me, its not cause I’ve been flat out busy. 
I’ve been mildly busy and mainly lazy.
Having said that, I did do a few things when the inspiration hit me, usually at really inappropriate times.
I finally finished painting the first coat on the fascia at the front of the house. This is a job I do not enjoy. Its so high! I need to do another coat and maybe I’ll tackle that today… Maybe I’ll only tackle half of it today… Who knows?

I mainly did it yesterday cause I was sick of watching the potato vine grow into a heap on the ground and start to crawl under the deck.

Once I finished painting the first coat on the fascia I attached some wire (leftover dog fencing) to it on either side of a post and the downpipe. The idea is to hide the downpipe one day…

The potato vine is growing like a weed. Its already wrapped itself around one of Wayne’s sculptures but I love the way its swirled around it.

It does need trimming though. I cut off all the bits that were growing out along the ground, pulled any long bits I could up onto the wire but I have a sneaky feeling I need to thin it out a whole lot more so that the upward growing vines get stronger…

I’m not a gardener. I never claimed to be good at it. One day I might show you my attempt to sculpt shapes into my box hedges…

Another little job I managed to do was put names on the new winter rugs for the big horses. I do this every year since all the rugs are the same colour and we need to be able to tell them apart without looking for size tags inside.

Other than that… I’m in limbo. Waiting for the electrician and the electricity company to come move the power so work can continue in the kitchen.

z

a special find

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I found the most gorgeous step ladder EVER.

I was picking up Wayne at work when I noticed this beauty in the middle of the training room.

You know me. I have an eye for special things. And this is special.

I had to have it. Turns out it belonged to a good friend of mine so I made an offer and this gorgeous stepladder is now living at my place.

Its in great condition considering its very old. There’s some staining on the timber and the middle step has broken off. Nothing a bit of sanding and gluing can’t fix.

(You don’t want to know what I paid for it, but I think it was worth it.)
I already have a spot planned for this baby. I’m going to put it in the entry/pantry.
This is the plan:
The entry to our house is a tiny little area which holds the fridge and the pantry cupboard I moved from the living room. (Minus its doors as the space is too cramped for doors.) Eventually I’d like to build a custom pantry which will go over the fridge to maximise storage space. 
This is what I’d like to build (from DIY Showoff).
The main problem, however, is that any pantry will be high and I can’t easily reach things on the top shelves.
This is where the step ladder comes in.
With a custom built pantry cupboard I’ll have a spot for the ladder to sit, keeping it handy for when I need to step up and get something from a top shelf…
…With the added benefit of looking pretty and being one of the first things I’ll see when I enter the house.
The custom pantry is a long way away, especially since I’m told that making it out of galvanised pipe will 
cost me an arm and a leg, so there’s no rush to fix this beauty up, but I’m sure glad I have it!
z