Beauty Farming Life

A couple of weeks back, I blogged HERE about something eating/scratching/chewing on some of our fruit trees.  Well, our recent wet weather was a bit of a blessing, because it allowed me to find THESE : Deer tracks These are, I believe from my research anyway, deer tracks.  I didn't have anything to put down for scale but they were smallish, so I'm guessing, just as several of you commented about, that young deer rubbing on the trees, were the culprits.  I have seen some rabbits around too, so it could even be some sort of combination of the two. Whatever the creature is/was, I came up with this solution.  Hopefully it's a bit better than the strong smelling basil. Fruit trees with foam pipe protectors These are the foam pipe protectors used in Winter to cover pipes to keep them from freezing.  Since they're already slit on one side, I just wrapped them around the trunks. They have been keeping them safe for the last week until I can get som...

Yummy Fruits and Vegetables  One of our favorite DIY cleaning projects in the kitchen is a wash for the produce we buy.  You know, when it's homegrown, you have control over knowing what's on your own stuff, but when you buy from a store, you never know what was sprayed on it, how many people have handled it along the way, and so on.  It's better to be safe.  Most of the news stories you read about E. coli outbreaks come from contaminated produce. A simple washing will get rid of anything you might be worried about.  You can buy a product in the store that will do this, but it's very pricey and you don't exactly know what's in it.  So a few years ago, we found the following "recipe" online and now we always keep a bottle of this under the kitchen sink, ready for a moments notice. Instructions: 1 Cup water 3/4 Cup distilled white vinegar 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice 1 Tbsp baking soda Get an inexpensive spray bottle, pour all ingredients ...

Magnetic Jar Rack Ran across this terrific idea on the Internet the other day.  Someone took a magnetic strip and mounted it under their kitchen cabinet.  Then they took metal top jars and hung them, magnetically, from underneath the cabinets.   We have those two new white upper cabinets in the kitchen, this might just be a great thing for them.  I like the way it is mounted further back so that they don't cause you to lose counter space below. Awesome idea that I thought I'd share. If/when we do it, I'll be sure and post details of what we found and how it came out.

T-Shirts as Cleaning Cloths This weekend, 2nd Man and I realized that it was time for some new T-shirts since we both wear them everyday under our work shirts and the previous ones were pushing a couple years old.  So we ran down to our  favorite store  and bought new ones.  Since we strive, in our own little ways, to be as green as we can, we decided the farmhouse could use some cleaning cloths. So we washed a load of whites with just the old T-shirts, folded them, and found this really cool basket to keep them in.  They are now located in the "farm holding room" (formally known as the "guest room") at the city house, waiting to go out to their new home the mudroom at the farm. T-shirts make great rags to use for cleaning.  They are 100% cotton, lint free, soft (usually very soft after having been worn and washed a hundred times), and they work for all sorts of projects.  You can clean windows with them, counters, wa...

This is all you need to make homemade vanilla extract.  A package of vanilla beans, a bottle of vodka, and a knife (or scissors)!  That's it.  We have been buying our beans online for the last few years from the same place, they have a great quality product.  Their website is http://www.topvanilla.com/ . For my "recipe", I buy a package of 20 vanilla bean pods, and then I get a 750ml bottle of Vodka.  Now in this picture, you'll see I got the higher alcohol vodka.  That is only because it's what was on sale and cheaper than the other.  Otherwise, you can get whatever you can find. Slice each bean in half lengthwise.  This isn't necessary but it does speed up the process by exposing the tiny vanilla seeds. Speaking of, do you see that on the knife blade and the stuff on the upper right side of the picture?  Those are vanilla seeds, the tiny little black specs you see in vanilla bean ice cream.  That's pure...

Muffins in an egg carton  I'm always on the lookout for neat ways of taking something ordinary and making it just a little bit 'extraordinary'.  I found this online and thought it was such a fun idea.  It's an egg carton, used as a presentation "box" for mini muffins!  Of course this one is decorated as well, looks like someone decorated it for Earth Day.  A very neat idea! I just found the picture randomly with a google search, so I'm not sure who gets the credit for this.  As always, if you know, let me know and I'll make sure they get credit and a link back to their website. In the meantime, I think I foresee some mini muffins brought to the office in an egg carton...courtesy of Seda Bolsa Farm! Enjoy!

Mason Jars for Christmas With only 20 days to Christmas, I thought I'd post this.  I found Yet ANOTHER cool use for Mason/Ball Jars...making Christmas decorations. I think this would look so nice this season.  Pretty simple, just fill bottom of jars with fake snow, put some decorations in the bottom and you're done.  In this one, there are Christmas lights strung up behind the jars to add that extra sparkle while on display. I'm sure if you were so inclined, you could put battery operated lights inside the jars themselves, hidden by the snow and/or decorations. A festive way to show your love of the holiday season and use some of those old canning jars you might have laying around. Enjoy!

Clothespin Jar We finally did our own 'canning jar' type storage, I took one that we had laying around (a large size) and filled it with clothespins.  We use clothespins for many things other than the obvious.  And trust me, living in the city, we don't use them for THAT since the neighbors would think we lost our minds. They can be used for clipping chip bags closed, in place of twist ties on loaves of bread, or as a quick substitute for paperclips on a stack of paper.  You can use them to clip to a stain on a shirt or piece of clothing so you remember where it is or use one to identify a cord or two behind a TV or computer.  Use another to hold a screw or nail in place while you drive it in (my Dad taught me that one), or to clip photos or papers onto a wire display.  Of course, you can always decorate them with any number of things, paint, glitter, pieces of stuff and make them "your own" style.  Or write on them to make them in...

Old Doorknobs As we had the the work done at the house, these were the old "non functioning" doorknobs around the house.  None were original to the house, they had been replaced and added over the years and they didn't work.  They didn't fit most of the doors either.  So as we removed them, I put them aside.  I call it a collection for a future DIY project, but 2nd Man calls it borderline hoarding, LOL. I don't know what I'm going to do with these, but I just can't bring myself to throw them away.  I think they would make a pretty awesome future project and would be a great way to re-purpose something that was in the house for decades already.  They just need to be cleaned up a bit.   I'm thinking of some sort of long board, with these used as knobs to hang things on.  Perhaps as a towel rack for either the kitchen or the bathroom, or maybe a coat rack for the entryway? Either way I'm keeping them, hoarder or not...ha.  

  This is a neat craft project and it's pretty simple too.  I don't have step by step pictures, because I haven't made one yet, but the instructions are pretty clear.  You simply glue a teacup to a saucer using some glue... Lightly sand the bottom of the cup so that it will make a stronger bond to the saucer....  E6000 Craft Adhesive (available most anywhere) would be the best type of glue to use...glue the cup to the saucer, let set, and if putting a spoon on it, repeat steps for that as well.  Let dry for 24 hours (I know, waiting is the hardest part).  Then get a 1/2" copper cap, sand the top of it and glue it to the bottom of the saucer.  This must also wait for 24 hours, and be sure to use lots of glue, it's the part of the project that needs the strongest bond.  After the cap is good and stuck, insert a length of 1/2" copper pipe into the cap (this is what holds it on) or you can use a wooden dowel...

Remember when I blogged  HERE  about how to make homemade vanilla extract?  Well I thought since it's closing in on three months since I did it, (where DOES the time go?), I'd give you an update. We keep the bottle in the top of a cabinet that is rarely opened and then a few times per week, just whenever I think about it, I take the bottle out and shake it up for a few seconds and then put it back in the dark. I shined a flashlight on it to let you see that in just about 3 months, it's becoming dark and very  'vanilla extract like', for lack of a better term.  Even though you can use this at about 3 months, we like to wait a full 6 months.  So for this bottle, we'll be looking at May 6th. And on that same weekend, we'll start another batch so more will be ready in November, just in time for holiday baking and gift giving.

Here is the mirror I found for use in the master bedroom.  This color wood, while nice in other rooms, wasn't going to work for the blue and black color scheme in the bedroom.  The first thing I did was cover up the mirror portion to keep paint off of it. Here it is, freshly spray painted a dark navy blue.   I used a couple of coats, and this is the almost end result.  I let it dry for about an hour and then it was ready for hanging... ...and here is the finished mirror hanging on the wall. It originally hung horizontally, so I had to change the hanging wire on the back to make it vertical.  I think it came out pretty good!  It's above a small chest of drawers that is currently green but in a few days, the next project on my list is to repaint that.  Should look pretty cool with the rest of the furniture in the room.  I also painted a small table the same color blue, just forgot to get pictures of that.  Will get those this weekend ...

Here is another weekend project.  I took this little plant stand that I had and decided it would be repurposed into a small bedside table. I made sure it was clean and then I took it outside to paint it. I spray painted it using Rust-oleum's Painters Touch 2x paint in the same navy blue I used for  the mirror the other day.  That round thing under it is a Lazy Susan that I use for painting items, it makes it easier to rotate things as you paint them.  It came out very nice and I couldn't have been happier. Here it is in its new home!  Because of the queen size bed on the small wall, there is not much space for a large piece of furniture like an end table.  All we needed was a place for an alarm clock.  So one plant stand, some spray paint, a crocheted doily and one wind up alarm clock later, we have an "end table" that fits the space and looks great.

This is something I did for 2nd Man a few years ago for his baking/cooking needs and of course, now I had to make another one for the farm fridge.  There are many times you need a calculator in the kitchen.  Sure you keep one in a drawer or laying around, but it never seems to be there when you reach for it.  I bought an inexpensive solar calculator and a package of adhesive magnetic strips. Flip the calculator over, peel back the adhesive portion and stick them on.  In this case, they didn't even require cutting, they were already the perfect length, but if that's necessary, they can be simply cut by scissors. After that, you're done.  Just flip it back over and voila... ...you have an instant magnetic calculator that you can hang on anything metal in your kitchen.  For us, it works best having it on the side of the refrigerator but you could put it on the stove or dishwasher or vent hood or wherever you can get to it when you need it.

Here is the project taking up my spare time the last couple of days. It's an old dresser we had that was green (sorry all you color green fans, ha) and we needed it in the bedroom which is blue and white.  So I cleaned it up and got out the cans of spray paint. Dresser being painted I sprayed it a navy blue.  It was a pretty easy process.  The dresser itself was easy as it didn't really require any covering, I just removed the drawers and painted.  It took several coats, spray, let dry, spray again, but it wasn't bad.  Side note, I love painting at the farm, I can just plop it down in the yard and paint away, no worries of over spray getting on something "nearby". Dresser drawer being painted The drawers required a bit more preparation.  I got out some painters tape and a trash bag (hey, it's all I had on hand at the time) and covered everything but the front and edges.  Sprayed them as well.  Then came the hardest part.  I knew for ...

Closet shelves before I promised some pics of the rainy day projects I did last week.  This is one that I'm very happy with how it ultimately came out. On the lower portion, there was already one board on each side of the closet as a support, but no shelf.  I figured that there must have been a shelf over the closet rod once upon a time.  I then found two small strips of wood in the scrap pile, cut them to the same length as the lower ones, painted them white, and screwed them into the wall above the lower ones.  I'll take some white paint and touch up the screw heads.  These closets extend to the full 7 1/2 foot height of the ceilings in the house so I was able to effectively double the space that was already there by putting another set higher up.   I put two shelf boards on each set of supports.  These are 3 foot long boards, 12" deep.  The best part is that since the support boards on the sides were 24" deep, I was able to use two of those...

Recently, I received a gift of seeds.  In preparation for our garden, I need to store them for the time being (as I'll be getting more each month). With the help of your comments and some online research, I found that the 3 most important things are dry, cool, and dark.  I was roaming around in the store the other day and came up with this idea. A one gallon paint bucket (inexpensive at any hardware store), a bag of "Silica Gel" (already had that) and a small flow thru bag of some kind. Pour some of the silica gel (they are granules) into a bag of some sort.  You could use an old sock, pantyhose, mesh, whatever will hold it in but still allow air to flow through it so that it will do its "moisture absorbing magic".  I used a small muslin bag leftover from a craft project and just tied the bag at the top with some string. Drop the silica gel filled bag inside the can and that's it. Believe it or not, you are done with...