She's 50 and her three grown sons have always thought of her as mom, homemade-cookie maker, quilter, artist and elementary school teacher.

But then she morphed.

There have been changes in the last couple of years that her friends and family are trying to get accustomed to, says Kathryn Horton, of Wilton.

Horton, grandmother of two, now often wears black leathers, essential protective gear when participating in her new lifestyle - riding her Harley to motorcycle rallies and elsewhere. She put on 18,000 biking miles last year. A cherished framed photo on a wall shows her riderless bike and her boyfriend's bike parked side-by-side in a scenic Black Hills spot.

And there has been a job change. And other changes.

Horton - who has taught special education in this state, starting in the Flasher School District, and in other states including New Mexico and Texas - isn't teaching anymore and in her spare time, mainly lives in the backyard of a friend's house.

In a workshop.

The workshop has in it a potbellied stove of undetermined old age. It was eating real wood recently, exhaling a campfire aroma and warmth, which mixed with spiced-cider fragrance coming from a pot on simmer.

In this comforting room, she can be there all night working, before she returns to the nearby basement apartment she rents in the friend's house.

In the workshop there's evidence of her traditional pursuits:A sewing machine is on a table in the center of the room, a new quilt under way for a grandbaby. And on a counter is her finished painting of a rabbit crouched on crystalline sandy ground that looks like it could scatter and fall off the canvas if there were ever a workshop wind.

Nearby is a project she's doing for a son, repairing an antique rocking chair from an abandoned building; the upholstered leather top eaten away by elements and mice.

But then there's her baby. In the workshop's one-stall garage is her purple Harley low-rider motorcycle bought aobut 11/2 years ago.

"It was the most gorgeous thing I ever saw,"she said. "It took my breath away."

She said it represented freedom. "I found a part of me that was ready to explode."

Her dream job is to become an illustrator for Harley Davidson publications. For now, her bike art projects include taking photos of bikers at rallies and then making paintings from the photos for a fee.

But that's not her new main job.

Parked outside is her work vehicle with a "Kat"on it, her nickname.

Horton is now a licensed contractor with the state.

Kat's Painting Plus, a one-woman operation started in 2005, offers such skills as drywalling, brickwork, tiling, the designing and building of such things as fireplace mantles and other wood projects, new kitchen cabinets, floors, countertops and custom painting.

She said she's been called a mix of Martha Stewart and Bob Vila.

Arecent job had her removing damaged boards on the cedar windows and a partial restoration of the front door of the historic former Patterson Hotel building that now houses the Peacock Alley Bar & Grill at 422 E. Main Ave.

She said people often are surprised when they find out she's a woman.

"People have told me, 'You must be pretty tough to be in a men's world,'" she said.

Horton, who is 5 feet 101/2 inches, with barely enough pounds to cover it, skinny all her life, said she's been able to physically manage, including handling the physically tough drywalling projects and hanging of exterior doors.

"I can handle it,"she said.

"She's doing a wonderful job," said Tom Fairburn, a local emergency room doctor, who hired her to remodel his kitchen and is now letting her design a new fireplace mantle and new brickwork at his Bismarck house.

Horton said she's been accumulating skills for years.

Adults around her realized her artistic skills when she was in elementary school. Horton, considered to be gifted academically, finished fifth grade in half of a school year and was assigned to complete a Leonardo da Vinci research project for the rest of the year.

The building skills started soon after her mom packed up the kids and moved from a city existence in Long Beach, Calif., to marry a New Salem farmer. She remembers helping to build a pole barn and taking tractors apart and other farm work.

She graduated from Flasher High School after the family bought a farm there. She married at age 18, started having children and worked as a special education aide in the Flasher School District. That wasn't enough. She decided to get a teaching degree, and with her then-husband's support and with her sister baby-sitting the kids, she did. She commuted 50-some miles to University of Mary and got a four-year degree in two years - graduating with honors, while also working as a college math tutor.

During the years of raising children, and her teaching career, through various moves she gutted and remodeled the homes they moved into, and she started an antique restoration business, got a computer science degree, got into woodcarving.

"If I didn't know how to do something, I'd do research,"she said.

"She was so creative," said Beth Davidson, school secretary at Lakeland Elementary School in Humble, Texas, where Horton taught. "I figured she had skills with a jigsaw." She said she remembers the wooden creations Horton would bring to work.

Davidson said she isn't surprised at Horton's contracting business or motorcycle interest.

"She reminded me of someone who (would) put on hiking boots and hike 50 miles … She was really energetic," Davidson said.

Horton's teaching days started winding down after some inner-city school experiences in Texas where kids brought weapons to class.

Turning 50 was tough, she didn't even really feel like celebrating another step toward olderster-hood. But even so, the contractor and biker likes this new path.

"I think I'm just beginning to live," she said. "Life looks bright."

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@bismarcktribune.com.)