Beauty Farming Life

Outdoor Chess Set I'll admit, I've never been a big chess player, but when I saw this online, I thought it would make an awesome idea for "someday" on the property.  This would be such an easy DIY.  A couple of benches, a big square table, a painted checkerboard pattern on a large piece of wood, and you'd be done.  I bet the hardest thing would be finding large playing pieces.  Hmm, you could even do checkers, and for that, you could very easily find something round to substitute for the actual checkers themselves. Anyway, just a random thing that I thought was a pretty neat idea.

Planters on fence posts While we don't have a fence out there just yet, I really thought this was a cool idea.  Putting planters like this on each post and filling them with plants.  I could see them filled with tall flowers, or something pretty and colorful cascading down the sides.  Should be very easy to do. I'm guessing a galvanized bucket would be the best thing to use (at least that's what we would use) but you could probably just as easily use plastic or anything else you find.  Just drill a hole near the top edge, put a nail on the fencepost, and then hang the planter just like you would hang a picture on the wall.  Oh, and don't forget a drainage hole in the bottom either, otherwise your plants will "suffocate" from too much water. A neat and simple project!  We can't wait to do little "extra" things like this!

Burn Pile! It's our first burn pile.  I know, I know .  For most of you in the country, this is probably a regular occurrence.  For us, in the city obviously we can't have this and even in the country, there has been a burn ban in effect for over a year and no one was able to do any burning at all.  All of the stuff I have cut down and put aside, has just been in a pile for the better part of six months.  Flash forward to this past weekend when 2nd Family came up to the house and did a TON of yard work for us as a surprise and when we got out there, they were just starting the burn pile.  We got to help get it all set up and burning and then we were in charge of stoking it and keeping it going.  As you can see, there was a nice breeze blowing the smoke AWAY from the house... Burn Pile Closeup It was kind of exciting, and a mini milestone for us.  It's funny, we stood around for probably 30 minutes just staring at the fire.  What is it a...

As many of you who have followed the blog know, we have this awesome, old, Mesquite tree, that we've called the "party tree".  2nd Family has a similar tree and it becomes the gathering place at parties, you know, just like the kitchen in your house becomes the gathering place.  So they started calling it the party tree and now we do the same (even though we haven't had a party yet). Recently, we got the area around it all cleared out so we could see what we have to work with later this Spring... Here is the area looking from the front porch.  You can see the spot back under there where we would like to make a dining area.  There is also room for a lot more to happen "around" the tree, now that we have it cleared, my mind races at the thought of possibilities.  Maybe we should call it the dining tree? Here, I am standing in the spot where we'd like to put an outdoor dining table (as indicated in red by my lifelike graphics skills). ...

Here is a new area I've started clearing.  I wish I had a before photo, because a year ago, it was covered in brush and random branches.  It's not entirely finished of course as the rain has slowed my progress but I took this photo to share anyway. It's in the midst of a grove of trees and we thought this little clearing would make a nice spot for a small bistro  table  and chairs. I'm not sure what to put down under it, I think I would be OK with just keeping it mowed and put these there since they would be movable and it would be easy to get it all out of the way for yard work. We're thinking just a small table and chair set for two would be best, something more personal for us rather than large tables/seating for groups at future dinner parties. Yellow is pretty... So is blue... And of course there is always red... I t faces the neighbor's fence (and occasional cows) but it has a nice view of green ...

Photo Courtesy of:   Sunset Recently, I blogged HERE  about our tree and how we hoped to put a table under it to make it into an outdoor dining area.  NO, this isn't what we did, ha, but we did find this picture online.  We love the more informal and casual look of this kind of setup.  We could totally see something like this underneath the tree.  It even has a pea gravel "floor", which several of you suggested.  Add some overhead lanterns and some white Christmas tree type lights wrapped around the branches (as was also suggested by several of you) and we would be good to go.  I'd even like to add some billowy fabric for a canopy to make it desert chic (another awesome suggestion!)  Now, I just have to keep my eye out for a table that is similar to the one in this picture.  So what do you think?   Is this a good inspiration for our picnic tree area?  We want something not quite so formal, something that fits a more rustic f...

This is the area I got chopped/mowed/dug up so far under the big tree over the weekend.  It's where we want to put an outdoor dining table.  I'm trying to get rid of as much as possible since it's totally shaded and the only thing growing is tall, grassy weeds.  I think (hope?) I made a pretty good dent.  There is just about as much cleared when turned to look the other direction. I'm thinking it's at a good enough stopping point (soon anyway) for me to put down some landscape fabric/weed block cloth, throw some heavy stuff on top, and let it sit to "smother" out the leftovers. The only thing I'm not sure of, is how much more I'm going to weed along the perimeter.  I like the green and leaving it natural, and whatever that grass is, it's growing just fine...it could also just be a lot more work that I could concentrate elsewhere for now, since so many areas on the property need work.  Then maybe next Fall, I could do some more clear...