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Finds From Our Week in the Woods

April 20, 2020

Karen Camp house, Country Style, Nature, Redneck Retreat, Roadside Finds , , , Leave a comment

We just spent a week at the Redneck Retreat. The weather was beautiful and we spent the week getting some projects done and spring cleaning. It is the perfect place to walk and enjoy nature. There are trails, creeks, a pond, flowers, and animals a plenty.

While on one of my walks I discovered an interesting dump site. The dump site was virtually all old dumped alcohol bottles. The bottles are tossed in the woods along what at one time was the main road past the land the Redneck is located on when the land was part of the Weir Long Leaf Lumber Company. The article below is from Galveston in 1922. I find it unbelievable that the town, company, railroad, swimming pool etc. was built with the expectation that it would only be there 18 years or until all the virgin timber was gone.

After the mill moved along the land was left in rough shape and the area suffered. It did have one benefit though, until Jasper county changed their laws in 2017, Newton County was a wet county while adjacent Jasper County was dry. Basically you could buy alcohol in Newton country and not Jasper. Our property is just over the county line. The landmark we use to tell people that they need to turn is County Line Liquor.

I can’t imagine why this particular road (trail really) was party central in the 1960’s ( after a little checking most of the bottles and the few cans I saw were from that time) but my guess is that it was a quick trip for more supplies if needed.

The phots of the site are terrible. I was wearing shorts and no gloves so me tromping off into the brush wasn’t going to happen. Snakes, spiders, chiggers, poison ivy… but I will be gowing back fully armed in the future.

I did pull a few bottles off the top and brought them back to clean up.

I loved the green ones so I searched them online. I now know that they were Mickey’s Widemouth Bottles and that they switched from snap on lids to screw on in 1980 but were made starting in the 1950’s.

They are plentiful on ebay and Etsy.

The ones I found will be holding the wildflowers I love to pick when we are up there.

We have lots to still explore on the property and look forward to making memories there for years to come.

We are so blessed to have a place to get away to and share with our family and friends.

We love hearing from you all.

Blessings,

Karen

Plans for the Cabin

March 27, 2017

Karen Camp house, Country Style, fireplace, Fun with friends, Texas , , 2 Comments

This weekend The Social Planner ( TSP), her hubby Larry, Mr. Math, and I spent the better part of a day cleaning up and making plans for the cabin we are getting.

There were so many more happy surprises on the first “walk through” of this project after the tenants moved out than we did on our Huntsville rental property.   The electrical was done properly.  There is an ingenious system for water in the house even though there is no well or city water. The house is well insulated. The appliances work. They did a good job of moving out without destroying.  Winner, winner chicken dinner.

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(We have a lot of stuff to move along.)

The problems with the interior of the cabin are mainly unfinished projects or space planning issues.

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The kitchen cabinets are unfinished at the bottom.
I would like some that look like this:

Cabinets

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But I wan them washed in barn red.

The top cabinets are warped, laminate-over-particle board office cabinets.  I hate them, but for now we need to make them work.  I will keep an eagle eye out for someone who is getting rid of   real kitchen cabinets and will haunt the ReStore for upper cabinets that will work.  I can be patient.

The wood burning stove sticks out too far from the wall, the cement backer board behind the stove is unfinished, and the stove needs to be painted with high heat black paint.
The dudes are going to move the stove back about six inches and fix the stove-pipe.  We ( The Social Planner and me) are going to paint the stove and I am going to attempt to install plank tile that looks like whitewashed wood vertically over the backer board.  Mr. Math will be my backup in case of disaster.

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(The picture above is of the place with the tenants.  It is cleaned out now, but I did not get a picture that shows the space between the wall and the stove.

Tile


The cabin is not too far from the Alabama Coushatta Reservation, and the area has a strong western cowboy history.  We are going to try our best to honor the area through our decor but with more of a deer camp feel.  We both have quite a bit of western stuff that will be coming in. Our bedding for the six beds will be a mix of plaids, solids, and even  couple of native inspired.  The inspiration from the cabin colors will come from these pictures.

I actually found some bedding really cheap on Amazon.

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A lot of what is going into the house is coming right out of my old lake house “bunk room” and The Social Planner’s stash.  These vintage canisters came from the stash.

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The flowered couch is getting a chocolate-colored slipcover that will make it work for us.  The bonus is that it is washable.  The love seat is going and a vintage vinyl western couch is coming in to join the brown couch. 

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I plan on doing a piece for the wall sort of like this one.

I found this letschipit.com color scheme based on a female cardinal.  It is exactly the colors I see us using.

It is going to be fun making this small space functional and FUN.

The journey continues,

Blessings,

Karen

Little Cabin in the Woods

March 18, 2017

Karen Camp house 3 Comments

What have we gotten ourselves into now? Well, it is something that has been in the works for a while will be ours the first of April.  We are going to have a little 720 square foot of one large interior space cabin plus a bathroom. It will be for hunting and a getaway in deep far east Texas. It is located on almost 100 acres of piney woods with a clear, sandy bottomed creek, a pond under construction, cut trails, and rolling hills.


The cabin is solid and functional, it just isn’t very cute on the inside.  Yet.  All of the pictures below are of the house when occupied by tenants.


There is work to do in the kitchen.  Lots of work.

Something doesn’t seem safe about this picture.

When we visited, the one main room open space of the cabin was a mishmash of stuff. The living space is a jumble of assorted furniture items.  The fridge in the main room when there is already one in the kitchen…No idea.

The bunk beds are built of two by fours and are attached to the walls.  They are staying although we plan on reorganizing them.



I am not sure why the fun noodles are on the ladders.  Hmmm.

The bathroom will be pretty quick to get fixed up.  Someone did a great job on the shower and the vanity is fine.  It all just needs finishing.

The bathroom has a separate space for the toilet with a door, but it needs a little organization of the space, and better storage solutions.

There is no well here so water is pumped into a tank for use and there is a rainwater collection system completely around the house that we will be revamping a little bit to make it more functional.

The exterior has a great porch,

Oh that porch.  Once it is cleared of miscellaneous office furniture and debris we are going to have a great outdoor space.


Office furniture may not be my choice for furniture, but I do like the swing at the end and the screen door.

The carport…


Well, lets just say that an upgrade is planned for it.   It will be a great place to park four wheelers and provide cover for the grill when we are coooking outside.

I will bet that more than one of you are seeing this and thinking we have lost our minds.  It is hard to look past the mess and clutter but this will be a great place to hunt and disconnect.  We are planning on sharing the space with our friends.

We are planning on getting started in April.

My buddy, The Social Planner and I have plans for this place and you are going to be along for the ride.  The men who are excited for a place to hang out and hunt, and we ladies who just want it to be cute and clean. We and our kids are going to be busy for a bit getting it ready but it is going to be a great place.


I can’t wait to show you what The Social Planner and I have collected, mostly right out of our own homes, for the place.

Welcome to the deer camp.

Thanks for following along and feel free to offer suggestions.

Blessings,

Karen