Beauty Farming Life

Tree lined driveway, image courtesy of dreamstime.com Here is a picture that shows something we've always wanted as an entrance to our property.  Now first of all, we share a driveway for the initial part of the driveway with 2nd Family.  From the road to where our property begins is theirs, so we can't ask them to plant and do stuff on their part but from our part forward, I know we can create something nice. Below is where our portion starts.  I mow this every week and have gradually widened it.  I figure it needs trees, after all, a tree lined driveway is always a sight to see.  Of course, this year I worked on getting the fruit trees in before it got too hot.  But I think this Fall will be a good time to plant some trees along here and let them start growing so that SOMEDAY , they look like above.  We'd also like a fence like above that frames each side of where you drive in, so we can do that as well (and have a post already there, h...

Christmas Eve is here! Wishing you all the best.  We'll be having a quiet Christmas Eve, and our tradition is to open presents Christmas Eve, but we usually save one for Christmas morning as well. I love this old postcard image, but of course, we would never have this kind of snow in our part of the country.  However, it IS cold here, a light freeze actually, so that's good.  Christmas needs to be cold, right? Stay warm wherever you are!

Oh happy days, Shark Week is COMING! For those who don't know, it's a week long series of shows about Great White Sharks that has become an annual tradition on the Discovery Channel.  We enjoy the week, as the shows are fascinating and enjoyable. And you have to watch this video, it's the commercial for Shark Week for those that don't have cable or maybe haven't seen it. Be forewarned, it has a twist at the end but remember, it's not real. It's amazing to see these terrifying creatures, from the safety of our living room of course.  Click  HERE  to go to Discovery Channel for more info. I can take the snakes, spiders and mice...I'm just glad we don't have to worry about THESE when we go to the farm! Speaking of, we w ill be out at the farm all day on Saturday.  Had hoped to spend the night but we have plans early on Sunday in town so it will just be a day on the mower, edging, and doing small projects inside where i...

HO! HO! HO! 'Tis the season to remember those we love and celebrate this wonderful gift we call life.  Also time to eat great food and laugh and just be happy. Did Santa bring you everything you wanted?  We sure hope so. From our home to yours, from our state to your state , from our country to your country, 2nd Man and I are wishing you the most love and most happiness, Merry Christmas!

Got to the farm and found this greeting us.  A large section of one of the mesquite trees in front of the house ( NOT Barnabas), had collapsed and fallen across the yard.  No storm or high winds caused it though. Mesquite trees grow oddly.  They have these long, meandering limbs and can have relatively thin branches.  As they get longer, there is more and more weight on the end  and they sometimes break at the joint of the limb and the trunk, usually the weakest point.  I'll have to cut it loose from the main trunk but don't have a chainsaw yet. I'll have to work on it in the next few weekends, or if this heat doesn't let up, sometime in late September. We will definitely get some good mesquite logs out of it.  We don't have a fireplace but I do have a fire pit on my shortlist of projects and some mesquite wood burning this Fall might be nice on a cool evening.

Christmas tree on front porch, image via PINTEREST With the weather, the illnesses and the loss in our family this year, we didn't decorate much for Christmas.  So now I'm starting to think about next year and things we can do. I'll be honest, I never thought about putting a tree outside on the front porch.  Lights, garland, other decor of course, but I love the idea of putting a whole tree out there.  I'm thinking about the after Christmas sales, I might look for a tree that would work next year on the porch. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and spent time with family.  And of course, hope Santa brought you everything you wanted. Be inspired!

Vintage NEED MORE FISH poster, image courtesy of New Jersey War Archives Here is a poster that was pushing self sustaining food.  The same reason that the Government wanted people to garden and can food, was the reason behind this one.  Being self sufficient was the best way to make the most at home of supporting the war effort. Great graphics in this one too.  We need more fish! Hope you are having a great weekend.  It's H-O-T again here. 103 yesterday at the farm.  August is traditionally our hottest month.  It's also the first of the two busiest months for our Hurricane Season.  Here's hoping that both of those Summer routines are broken.  More later today!

Let it frost, let it frost, let it frost.... Frost on the driveway at the farm OK OK, so it's not exactly snow , but there was some white color on the ground at the farm this Christmas.  Since we stayed in town for Christmas this year, 2 nd Family took these pictures at the farm to share with us. It was a light freeze but there was moisture on the ground and so it created some beautiful frost.  I'm guessing this means that everything is certainly dormant and/or dead for the season. Closeup of frost on the ground I guess it's time to start dreaming of Spring, right? Feline Friday will return next week, just need some time before going through photos of the kitties.  This weekend we'll be heading to the farm to do some cleaning while the weather is cooperating. Stay warm wherever you are!

Old Mesquite Tree It was a good weekend...to stay inside! Phew, it was SO hot at the farm.  I didn't need to mow, the lack of rain, again , has started turning everything brown again.  This shot of the area around Barnabas, the old mesquite party tree, is once again the last bastion of green grass.  I did need to edge but really, when it's 103 degrees and the feels like is 120, there is only so much 'outside' stuff you can do. I actually got the weed eater machine out,  fueled it up, went outside and stood there for a few minutes.  Then I thought "this is crazy" and went back inside.   I did take some pictures to share in the days to come, and did a few more things inside but that was about it.  The heat is just too much. Hope whatever you did, wherever you are this weekend, you had a good one!

Don't Shiver Order Coal Now, vintage poster, image courtesy of US War Archive OK, I'm guessing this poster was put out in Summer or early Fall. Still, a very cute method of reminding people to get their coal early instead of waiting until the middle of Winter. Makes me wonder, do they still use coal today in any home heating systems?  Or is it just fuel oil and/or wood? Stay warm if you are somewhere cold! Another post later today!

I was driving to the farm the other day and noticed these new trenches dug from the main highway all the way to the farm and beyond.  In fact, the picture above is on the road where we turn to our farm and this corner is actually the easement to our property.  I saw it and wondered what it was they were doing. Turns out this is fiber optic cable being laid as part of the infrastructure for the area.  High speed Internet and HD Digital cable is coming... So that begs the question, is the city getting closer?  We bought a rural property to be able to leave the city behind when we wanted to.  I think it's wonderful that they are trying to bring Internet and cable to rural areas that have never had it before.  It's great to have that option.  We purposely have no TV at the farm because we want to get out there and be unplugged.  Sure, I have an iPad with 4G cellular and we both bring our smart phones so we CAN have news and access to the ...

2nd Man surprised me for Christmas with a new camera.  It's a Nikon with interchangeable lenses and something like 28 megapixels.   So I spent part of the day at the farm yesterday, roaming around taking random pictures and experimenting with different effects and lenses. Mistletoe in a tree I found this mistletoe up high in a tree. I was able to get some good details. Red Fall leaves These red Fall leaves were on a tree on the other side of the property, I just zoomed in on it. Mesquite leaves closeup I LOVE this photo of the Mesquite leaves.  This was probably 100 feet away. It will be neat to focus on the subject and have the background in blur. Blue the dog As usual, 2nd Family's dog, "Blue" came to visit.  Of course, he killed a rat under this brush pile shortly after this photo was taken, but I'll spare you those pictures, all 'circle of life' and all.  I should add, as scary as he looks, he's a sweetheart and...

Our property is made up of mostly mesquite trees with a few oddball random trees thrown in, like these. I'm a newbie when it comes to "oh that's a such and such tree".  Sure I can identify some of the obvious (Mesquite especially, LOL) but there are these two that I'm not sure what they are.  I'd like to know so that I can properly care for them, prune them correctly, fertilize them, etc. Here is a closeup picture: Standard size trunk, rough bark, with small, oval green leaves. The Two Sisters There are two, so naturally I created a winding path between them with the mower.  I've taken to calling them "The Two Sisters".  On all of the property, there aren't any other trees like these two. Since they aren't really native to the property, as in there aren't others like them all over the place, and they are both the same height, it makes me wonder if maybe they were planted, once upon a time, on purpose?

AVERT YOUR EYES IF CREEPY CRAWLIES FREAK YOU OUT! OK, here is the latest drama at the farm that I thought I'd share on this lovely Monday morning.  So this weekend we're at the farm, and since we hadn't been out for a bit, I thought I should check the area around the water heater just to make sure it's alright and nothing is leaking.  I pulled back the curtain on the water heater closet and had my flashlight looking around at pipes and then I glanced down and saw this... Snake skin! My apologies for the blurry photo, I didn't want to think about hanging around too long to take the picture, because I'm assuming the snake that this skin belonged to could still be inside somewhere .  We were all over the house doing cleaning, looking in drawers and moving stuff in cabinets and closets and didn't see anything. Now the bathroom doors stay closed shut when we're not there so if it is still there, it's probably back underneath the tub. 2...

Shelf for mudroom sink Remember a few weeks ago when I put up the shelves above the mudroom sink?  Click HERE for that posting.  Anyway, I bought a set of 4 shelves from Ikea but only used three of them above it.  I was trying to think of what to do with the extra one when I temporarily laid it across the sink. Turns out it fits nicely and gives a sort of extra horizontal space to sit things on,  for example, a basket to strain and rinse veggies in.  Even with the faucet running, the stream of water runs out passed the shelf when it's pushed to the back.  I am thinking about actually getting another one so I can just make the top an extra table surface for the mudroom when needed.  They can easily store at the side of or underneath the sink.  A coating of some water proof deck type stain might be good as well, just so no worries with being wet. I love it when something unexpected comes out of something else.

OK, after yesterday's creepy snake posting, let's get back to something fun, like food!  LOL!  It's  that time of year again, bargain turkeys! We got some more great turkeys on sale since it was after the holidays and they were  fresh, about 14 lbs a piece, and best of all, only $5.00 each! So we bought three. First we get out our handy dandy trusty beer can turkey roaster. Yes, there IS such a thing , but apparently not for long, as they've been discontinued by the manufacturer.  We don't use any beer or other liquid for them though.  For these turkeys, we just rub them down with olive oil and then some of our house blend (or is that farm blend?) of seasonings all over that.  We then put it and the giblets and neck on a foil lined baking sheet. We remove all but one rack from the oven and then roast them on that bottom rack, standing up just like this, for about 50 minutes to one hour, or until done. ...

Back from the farm, well, back last night and then out again early this morning then back again tonight.  A renovator's work is never done, ha. Took this picture when we got ready to leave today.  Notice how things greened up?  Of course, some might be weeds, but hey, I'll take the green.  It's a color we missed most of this Summer.  Color from any source is welcome. It's also nice seeing the porch without all the construction stuff laying around.  For those wondering, the porch railing and stairs were built using pressure treated wood (lasts a long time and is termite proof), and it has to cure before we can paint it.  Side note, never use pressure treated wood in your garden, the chemicals used can leach into your soil around your veggies. Alas, that tree there in the middle of the photo died in the drought.  It's fate was always up in the air because it had several things going against it.  Now that we have the new st...

Well, as you know, the other night we made a "during the week" trip out to the farm to get the Lillesand (that's the name of it) bed frame out there.  It barely fit, maybe an inch to spare, but it fit, that's all that matters. Master Bedroom Before Above is it before, with the parts all laying around ready and waiting.  This one was even easier to put together that the white one I blogged about last week.  So about ten minutes after I started... Master Bedroom After ...here it is finished.  Super easy to assemble.  It does fill up the space, so I'm not sure we'll have room for end tables here, but we're thinking some sort of vintage style floor lamps, one on each side of the bed.  As for the color palette in this room, we're thinking white, blue, gray and black.  For the blue, we're thinking of a mix of cobalt and light blue.  Something that looks relaxing and works well with the gray.  We've always liked bedroom colors that a...

Drawers are lined It's the little things...I was also able to get all four drawers in the kitchen lined with the rubber non stick stuff like we have in the city house now.  In the city, we use a beige, since i figured this was going in the bright white freshly painted kitchen, I'd get white. White Non Slip Drawer Liner We love this stuff.  It's great for the bottom of your drawers (and shelves) because it keeps things from sliding around.  It also keeps utensils and such from scratching the paint in the bottoms of the drawers and acts as a bit of a cushion as well. Best of all, it's removable...it doesn't even stick, it just stays down by itself and doesn't move around.  You can find it just about anywhere, hardware stores, Walmart, Target, etc. So, we got this done in all the drawers.  Now we can start putting stuff in the drawers as we get it.

This is the orchard rack that I blogged about HERE .  As you can see, it's all in pieces in a box.  It looked fairly intimidating when I first opened it until I realized it was already mostly assembled.  It went together very easily...it's just a matter of installing the sides via cross bars across the top and bottom, and then front and back.  After that, you just slide the drawers in place.  It couldn't have been easier.  I'm considering adding wheels to the bottom to make it easier to moved around, especially when it's full, so that might be a later modification. And here it is in it's new home.  We were originally going to have it next to the other shelving.  But because it's the same type/color wood as the shelves, it looked strange, almost like an unfinished set of shorter shelves.  So we traded places with it and the water cooler and we think it looks much better this way. Here it is with ...

This is one of those things I grabbed from storage and put in the back of the car just because it was small and fit.  Now it's at the farm and we're not sure how we're going to use it.  I wish it was a bit taller.  We found it at a yard sale once upon a time, and painted it white for my Mom.  Now it's found its way back to me and it's time for us to use it.  For now it's in the dining room corner, but it's one of those things that can really go just about anywhere (well, anywhere with a corner, ha). It will be fun to see what becomes of it.  But again, that's why we started this blog, to share in the process from the very beginning.

I was recently over at Donald's Organic Texas Garden Blog  and he had some beautiful photos of a type of flower that he grew. (Actually ALL of his photos are beautiful, please visit his blog for inspiration). It is called a Zinnia, and is probably familiar to many of you from the South as it is a pretty ubiquitous flower down this way. Here are some examples I found online of what a Zinnia looks like.  As you can see, they come in many color combinations. Zinnia Flowers Seeing his posting reminded me of something from when I was younger.  My Grandmother used to plant flower seeds by the thousands every season.  She loved her flowers.  And her favorite was one she called her "ZINNY'S".  Even her neighbors called them Zinny's.  I was probably in my 30's before I discovered that the flower she was talking about was actually called a Zinnia. More Zinnia Flowers So that got me to wondering, now that I have a blog and can ask an...

Cracker Jars for Pantry Storage 2nd Man was refilling some of his pantry jars today and I said "whoa, wait, let me take some pictures!".  I'm not sure he still understands this whole blogging thing, but whatever, I took the pictures anyway. As you can see these are the jars we use most often for storing dry ingredients in the pantry.  In this photo, we have two of the large ones, with jasmine rice and brown sugar, a medium one with oatmeal, and a small one with corn starch.  I used one of these Dymo Label Makers with the clear label tape cartridge... Dymo Letra Label Maker ...to make the labels on the jars.  It's quick and easy and easy to replace if we change out a jar for something else, and gives them all a unified look.  These label makers are awesome little gadgets to have around.  You can buy a good one and just about any big box store like Target or WalMart or office supply store like Staples or Office Depot.  I would highl...

Patchwork Quilt Teddy Bear This is a favorite of mine.  My Mom found it somewhere, we're not even sure of it's history.  One of her many travels to an estate sale or a tag sale or a thrift store or who knows, but somewhere, she found this cute stuffed bear.  She always had it on the bed in her guest room, and so we felt it appropriate to have it on the guest room bed at the farm. Granted we don't have the mattress yet, ha, but I just had to grab the bear out of the storage unit when I stopped by. Stuffed bear in his new home And here he is sitting in his new home in the country.  I guess we need to hurry up and get the mattress, he looks uncomfortable, ha.