Decorating the Nickel and Dime Ranch Headquarters: Part 4

The Nickel and Dime Ranch Headquarters is just a fancy way to say our house, an Airlock Log Home built about 12 years ago as a vacation place for a rich doctor in Kansas. Now we live here full time.  People always wonder how we ended up here, so suffice it to say that Southern California Edison and an eminent domain situation gave us the opportunity to give up our old home and relocate to Northern New Mexico. It was either this or a tract house in Riverside County. What a choice.

Chief decorator is Tom, with the same decorating sense as Sherlock Holmes which can be good or bad, depending on what he finds and brings home. As a historian, he wants his memories in plain sight, anything from an old glass Clorox bottle to turkey feathers to bones. So I live in a sort of museum of the interesting and weird.

Bones and skulls have been a recurring theme and yesterday when I was dusting, I discovered this gem setting on top of the lamp.

I am not sure why this bone is here, and I haven't asked.

In the background of the photo above, on either side of the doorway, is a pair of ship lamps that we use when the power is out for an extended time. 

Here is a closeup of the lamp with the clean chimney. The markings indicate it's from a ship called the SS Caledonia, from Glasgow, Scotland. I think they are neato.

The entry was a screened porch, which we really didn't sit in, preferring the outside porch and deck instead. So we windowed where there once were screens, which makes it more of a mud room now.

It holds hiking stuff, boots, gloves, hats, scarves, turkey feathers, more bones, pack baskets, cleaning stuff, paper for starting fires, and extra dishes and little appliances. We try to declutter it once a month, and it is due for another cleaning and purging right now, so I won't show you all the dirty details.

Here's a wall with some of our stuff on it. On the right is a Duluth bag with a pack basket in it along with some military surplus bags and canteens. I like the little school chair hung up because it makes a good ledge if you have to set something down.

We need more quilts around the house to add some soft, girly decor to the Holmsian interior. My quilts are usually given away, but with all the man stuff around there is an obvious need for more quiltiness. Tomorrow I will show you a quilt project which will add some yin to Tom's yang. (Hmm. Tom's yang. Sounds weirdly suggestive.)

Pin It