Beauty Farming Life

Every Thursday we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm.  Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and someday, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy! Small cedar closet  Here is something that's always been in the back of our minds and when we were at the farm the other weekend, we both kind of said it at the same time while we were hanging up some t-shirts in the closet.  Cedar closets!! Our closets are small, not too different from either of these.  So when I Googled some images and found them, we knew immediately that this is what they  could come out like and we like it! Cedar closet with shelves It appears that they are mostly DIY kits that you can easily (according to them, ha) do yourself.  You just get the wood, either composite sheets or tongue and groove planks.  We'd choose the planks just to make a nice finished and more "substantial&quo

Short post today, Internet connection was spotty last night.  So here are some words of wisdom for a Friday posting... I took this picture a few weeks ago and ran across this quote.  They seemed the perfect match... Whoa!  It's DECEMBER already?   Where DOES the year go?

Feel like I might be getting sick, but I'm bulking up on Vitamin C, etc. Still have to go to the farm and check on things and water, etc.  Might not do too much, just come back and rest.   Here's a different angle of the barn and shed.  Thought it might be fun to take some pictures from different angles/directions.  This is from the wooded area that I cleared, looking back toward them. Lots of potential there for future things, flowerbeds, planters, awnings, decor, etc.  We have a wet forecast coming this week.   And then cold.  Next weekend looks to be like it might be really nice and cool.   Hope you are having a good start to the weekend!  More later!

Since I'm feeling a little bit under the weather, I'm bulking up on Vitamin C and Zinc and so far, I'm staying ahead of it.  Homemade chicken soup with butternut squash and carrots While I was at the farm yesterday, 2nd Man made me some homemade chicken soup!  With parsley and garlic and carrots and butternut squash diced up.   It was so good.  I've eaten several bowls.  I still had to go to the farm just to check on things.  Speaking of checking on things, I found this!  Two scorpions (thankfully dead) in this clay wine chiller in the mudroom/pantry.   Since I'm guessing we all want to see something cute after nasty scorpions, I found this online.  This is a young, Golden Snub-nosed monkey.  Quite possibly the cutest thing I've seen lately.   A. DOR. ABLE. It's a rainy weekend (so much for watering yesterday, ha) but we need it so it's OK.  Plus it's a good day to stay in and eat soup! We hope you are havi

We're sure many of you are familiar with Coyotes.  They are in many places across the United States.   The Texas variety is of course different.  TEXAS COYOTE INFO   Coyote, image courtesy of Wikicommons Since our video captures have been at night, we thought we'd post a picture of what they look like.  Here is the video we captured: This is through the wooded area that we cleared this Summer.  One quickly at the beginning, followed by a second and then wait for it...a third right at the end of the video.  It seems to be a path, from the front yard, diagonally across into this area and then I presume they hop the fence at the back and then have a few hundred acres of empty land to explore/hunt.   Now, let's just hope we don't capture a video of a coyote chasing down a fawn...

Pimento cheese spread is one of my guilty pleasures.  For 2nd Man though, not so much.  He said it tastes like the middle of an olive, which in a way makes sense since the red thing in middle of a green olive is usually a pimento, ha! For those in other parts of the country (or world) who haven't heard of it, it's a Southern staple for sure, a mixture cheddar, mayo, pimentos and other goodies. Pimento Cheese Spread I bought some this Thanksgiving and put in a bowl.  I think I ate most of it, I even put some on a slice of bread and ate it like a sandwich.  Price's Pimiento Cheese Spread This is the brand I usually buy because it's good and is made with real cheese and all natural ingredients.  Honestly though, I've never made it from scratch, I just buy good tasting brands. That being said, maybe 2nd Man needs to have some homemade spread to realize how good it can be?     I know I can Google it of course but I'd like to try something that

Every Thursday we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm.  Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and someday, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy! We are in the planning stages of an area for a fire ring.  We've gone back and forth with just putting the ring in the spot and then chairs/seating around it.  Then we thought a small sort of raised bed around it and the chairs around that.   Then we saw this and we kind of like the way this is done.  It sets aside a part of the yard and delineates it from everything else as the designated fire pit area.  We have access to those large timbers like that (delivered of course, ha) and we'd have to have a lot of gravel delivered (after putting our commercial woodblock fabric down of course) but it seems like a nice solution.  We're still planning but it's getting closer (hint, we just bought the fire ring!).  

Regular readers know that I have a favorite place to look for bargains...our downstairs trash area!  Our building has trash chutes on every floor and they feed into a separate room, but for boxes and other things that people can't put in the chute, there is an area (indoor) near the loading dock, where people can put the things they don't want.   I've found several cool items so far. Last weekend I went down and someone had left this beside the trash bin with a note "FREE".  It's an indoor sandbox of sorts. Or maybe for building sand castles?  It had the sand in it, two sticks for smoothing and leveling and drawing designs and... Wooden molds to make shapes!  It's pretty cool and I will admit to spending about 30 minutes after this photo was taken just "playing in the sand".  Hey, someone got their use out of it and instead of consigning it to the landfill, they gave someone else the opportunity to have fun with it.  

I'm sure some of you may have heard about our rare snowfall, yep it snowed in Houston. We have some pics to share in a later post, but here is a quick one (click to enlarge): Snow in downtown Houston This was Thursday night as the snow started to fall.  I wasn't going to take pictures because, well, it was night and we're in downtown, but I thought I'd try.  Turns out the flash reflected off the snowflakes and made for a really cool picture.  Anyway, that was just the beginning.  Will have a "snow post" later this weekend including pictures from in town and pictures from 2nd Family. The weather for the next week is amazing. This is what we wait for around these parts.    So today it's off to the farm to check on things and see what I can continue doing in the barn/workshop while it's cool and I'm not sweating my you know what off.  Hope you are warm and your weekend is off to a great start.  

Well after the "great blizzard of 2017" on Friday, we had to check things at the farm. Though the temperature only dipped down to about 31 for a couple of hours, it took a bit of a toll... The Lantana has a bit of frostbite, hoping it bounces back.  Thought it was a more freeze tolerant but maybe it just needs to be bigger for that.   The Penta's on the other hand, dead.  Didn't make it all.  Scratch Penta off the list of flowerbed plants.   The garden though is doing well.  The garlic is doing what it does. This is the cabbage, each planted a week apart and each growing nicely.  I think they like the cold weather.  And these are the collards, also doing well and enjoying the cold.   The Fall garden (as is the Spring garden) is just a test to see what varieties grow best so that in the future we can plan ahead for planting without being so hit and miss.  These collards and cabbage, so far anyway, appear to be hits.   So at

OK, a warning, this is a picture heavy post but it's because we don't see this around here very often.  In fact, we could count on one hand the number of times we've had a snow like this in the past 20 years.   So, as small as it was compared to what other parts of the country get, it was pretty exciting around these parts.  Be sure to at least see the last photo, our absolute favorite and a COMPLETE lucky shot... (as always click on any picture to enlarge) Pink is sleet/freezing rain and of course snow flurries mixed in. Light blue is snow.  At midnight here in town, we had just moved from rain to freezing rain (the dark blue is only rain). The farm however was about to experience snow. This was at midnight, snow just mixed in lightly with the sleet and freezing rain. So pretty. By about 1:30am we were in full on snowfall at both places.  I got a text alert saying that heavy snow was falling and so we got up and I went outside on t

When the weather is too extreme outside, it's a good time to do something inside.  There is ALWAYS something to do inside.  Recently, we decided to tackle this spot in the bedroom.   The dilemma was this.  We have the sitting area (hereafter referred to as the craft area) off the master bedroom.  First thing to do was find a rod that would fit from side to side of the opening. It is a WIDE opening.   RoomDividersNow.com tension rod We found this one on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link:  RoomDividersNow Tension Curtain Rod   *affiliate link* It spans the space, has the tension to hold it up and best of all, there is no sagging in the middle. You pay more for them of course, but there's a reason, they are heavy duty and actually work! Next, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and found two panels.  The first set we got were not lined and the light came through after we put them up.  Even though it divided the spaces, we needed something that would still mak

Every Thursday we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm.  Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and someday, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy! Outdoor DIY chalkboard image via Pinterest.com Here is another, perhaps, odd one. Yes, something I've always wanted just like that TeePee a few weeks back. Maybe it's the inner child in me but I've always wanted a large chalkboard!  Perhaps there is some childhood incident I can't remember involving going up to the chalkboard in front of class, ha. Of course having a large one inside the house would take up a lot of room, not to mention we literally have NO wall that would have space.  Plus where would you put it inside?  The bedroom?  The dining room?  Not a lot of obvious spaces.  So when we ran across these the other day we thought they were pretty cool.  Outdoor chalkboards!  There are numerous