I've been busy lately, with work and projects, including my role as vendor coordinator and first aid leader at a fire and flow arts festival that is approaching in two weeks time. In addition, we managed to break our IKEA bed, and my latest project this past weekend was building us a new one!!
Browsing on the internet, I was inspired by photos of hanging beds that people have made. We have exposed beams in our bedroom ceiling, and I thought to myself that we could certainly make such an idea a reality in our room.
I started by searching through the piles of old lumber, windows and hay in the barn, left there for god knows how many years. I found some beams that were likely original to the barn, and therefore 200 years old. They were filthy, but solid, and just the right length for our queen size mattress.
I also found, by happy accident, an old case, in which I found a 1920s typewriter. With a little cleaning and TLC, I learned it works!
Anyway, I sanded the beams, ground down or hammered in the exposed nails, and shined them up really nicely with tung oil. They turned out beautifully.
We screwed a 2x3 to the inner lower edge of each, to act as a rail for the support planks that would form the platform our mattress would be resting on.
The most difficult part of the process was carrying it into the house. That ish was heavy as hell. We are now simply waiting for the 1 1/4" manila rope to arrive in the mail. We will drill a hold through the ends of the header and footer beams, attach the rope, and hang it from heavy duty ring plates attached to the ceiling beams. If we angle the ropes out away from the center of the bed, it will have a minimal amount of swing, but still be a nifty floating bed!
In the meantime, it's really nice to be sleeping on a bed that isn't caving in at its center!
I'd also like to introduce a new member of the clan, the Lady Marquis de Carabas.
The Lady Marquis came to us as a surprise. On my morning drive to work, I noticed a strange sight: a little black and white domestic rabbit running wild in a corn field with the native brown bunnies.
It was obvious that she was a pet that someone had abandoned. For two weeks, I would pull my car over and try to catch the little dear. She would let me get close, but never close enough to grab her. One evening, the folks across the road saw me chasing her. They told me that each afternoon, she would cross the street to lay in the shade under the boat in the driveway. They said that they were trying to earn her trust to catch her and find her a home as well. Together, we concocted a plan that involved a net. The next afternoon, they called me to say they had her trapped in a net, and could I come get her??
I went over right away, and within a few minutes we were back home and I was giving her a bath in our tub. She had a few fleas, and a tick on her ear, and as I bathed her I felt hard nodules in the fold of her neck. Concerned, I called our vet and took her in for a checkup. Upon inspection, the vet said that it was bird shot. Some horrible person had been shooting at this beautiful little critter, and she was lucky to have survived. The wounds had healed over, however, and there was no sign of infection. We went home with a clean bill of health.
So now our lovely little friend lives in what used to be the chicken tractor, moving about on the lawn twice each day to get the tastiest of the clover, dandelion and grass. She is fat, healthy, and lets me pet her, though being held still makes her panic and kick. I'm hoping she'll warm up to us a bit with some time.
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