Blueberry pie is happiness

Posted on August 8, 2013 by admin

We have done a lot of research on the history of this house.  Through social media and ancestry.com we have tracked down some of the relatives of the man who built this house (Horace) and his daughter (Helen) who lived here longer than anyone else.  It has been amazing to get stories and photographs from these relatives.  These photographs and memories have been exciting to hear and super motivating.  Helen’s daughter in law (Becky) has been especially helpful, sending us envelopes full of photographs from the past.

You may recall that a month or so ago, I posted about how surprised I was that people in the country weren’t more neighborly.  For some reason, I expected one of our new “neighbors” to bring us a pie, but we have gotten more cold shoulders than warm pie.  Today, I got a phone call from a guy named Nathan who had a pie for me.  What???  A Pie???  Is this a neighbor who finally decided we deserved a little neighborly love?  Nope…apparently Becky (the daughter in law of the person who lived here the longest) felt that we deserved a pie, so from 130 miles away, she contacted a friend and organized getting a pie delivered!

How absolutely amazing is that???!!!  Oh, and this was not just any pie.  No frozen pie from the grocery store….this was a hand made, beautiful, fresh….blueberry pie.  LOOK how beautiful:

Nom nom nom nom

And, look how excited and shocked the kids were:

We were so thrilled, we could hardly stand it!  I literally jumped up and down for joy!  We all enjoyed a slice last night after dinner and I was excited to have another for breakfast this morning.

What???  Pie for breakfast???  Well, of course!  You see, when I was a kid, if there was pie in the fridge, my grandpa would cut himself a huge slice for breakfast.  As a kid, I thought this was daring and naughty.  Pie for breakfast??  Mother would click her tongue and shake her head for sure!  Grandpa was a lawyer and had a logical argument for everything.  The argument for pie for breakfast?  Well, it has fruit which is good for you.  Aaaannndddd…the rest of the stuff in pie…flour, sugar, butter….that’s no different than doughnuts or waffles or pancakes!  Plus, the fruit is good for you.  So, pie is no worse…in fact it may be better for you…than other breakfast options.  Did I mention that fruit is good for you?  Grandpa taught me well and my kids are learning this valuable piece of information from me.

This morning, I enjoyed a slice of blueberry pie for breakfast.  I reminisced about my grandpa as I ate that slice.  I also thought about how amazing it was that we received a pie from someone we’ve never met.  Now, every time I enjoy pie I will have those memories.  I can’t wait until I can pay the pie gift forward and share the joy!

 

Posted in Meanderings, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Breakfast Room Before and After

Posted on July 30, 2013 by admin

There is a room in this house that sits just off the kitchen and was originally (I believe) a bedroom.  We weren’t really sure how we would use this room.  It’s sort of small and in an odd spot for a bedroom.  After designing the kitchen, we realized there really wasn’t a great place to eat in the kitchen.  The kitchen has 7 doorways (7!), so putting an island in would screw up traffic flow.  There really wasn’t a good place for a bar area or a table, so we decided the little bedroom off the kitchen would make a good breakfast room.

Here are the before and afters:

Breakfast room facing East Before

Breakfast Room facing East….after

Breakfast Room Facing South Before

This door went into the downstairs bathroom.  While having two doors into the bathroom may have been handy when this was a bedroom, we were hoping that we didn’t need to use the bathroom that urgently while eating breakfast.

No more door!

Here’s another before….we had to remove part of the ceiling where water had damaged the plaster.

Before, facing kitchen

And…..after:

The built in closet/armoire was pretty cool and in really good shape.  We turned it in to a pantry:

Pantry

So, while it is weird to say we have a “breakfast room”, it really is quite useful.  Also, since we don’t have the dining room done yet, it is the only table in the house we can eat at as a family!

We got the table and chairs at a local antique store.  I liked the idea of mis-matched chairs….good thing because mis-matched chairs are easy to find!

Posted in Before and After, Breakfast Room | 2 Comments

Monster House

Posted on July 21, 2013 by admin

Have you ever heard the saying “Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better”?  I think the first person who said that was restoring an old house.

At some point, we are thinking possibly in the 1980’s or so, vinyl siding was installed over the clapboard siding on this house.  The vinyl siding was in pretty good shape, but knowing the original siding was sitting under there was just too much to handle.  The vinyl siding had to go.

Over the past two weeks, with some hired help, we got all the vinyl siding off.  Here’s how it looked with the vinyl siding:

With vinyl siding

And, here’s how it looks now that it is removed:

Looks worse, huh?  I think it looks sort of like the house in the movie “Monster House”.  What do you think?

Monster House

Here’s another before:

And after:

Ya, doesn’t look good.  We have lots of prep to do before we can even think about painting, but I think this part of restoration is kind of cool.  We uncovered some of the secrets of the house.  For example, what is this door for?

And, what kind of trim was on the soffit here?

I think these little finds are exciting.  The process of trying to figure out the mysteries.  I like having all the pieces of the puzzle and enjoy the process of putting the old house puzzle together.  Sometimes, the house throws you a bone.  For example, you can see the trim on this window was removed so the vinyl siding could be installed:

But, when you are on the front porch, the original siding was left intact as were the window headers:

At least we know how it should look when it’s done.  Finding the correct trim will provide an entirely different challenge.

Another puzzle piece we found through the magic of social media.  Through research of records on the house, utilization of Ancestry.com and searching Facebook, we have connected with ancestors of the original owners of this home.  The original owners and family members of theirs lived here from the time it was built until 1996.  That’s 95 years of one family owning this home.  How amazing is that?  Last week, we received an amazing letter from one of the family members with more information on the family and a couple pictures!  Here’s how the house looked September 11, 1960:

September 11, 1960

I have to say it was very inspiring to receive the letter and the pictures.  They came at just the right time and provided a little push of motivation.  I only hope we can do the house proud and return it to its former glory.

Posted in Before and After, Outside, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Can’t explain my eggcitement!

Posted on July 10, 2013 by admin

We got our hens on St. Patty’s Day and I knew they would start producing in early July if we were lucky.  On one hand, I thought it was pretty amazing that at only 14-16 weeks old some hens can start laying eggs.  On the other hand, July seemed like forEVER away!

Mid-June, I started scouring the internet to learn more about how to tell when the hens would start producing.  I opened their nesting box up for business.  I put a golf ball in the nesting box to encourage them to lay there.  (Yes, a golf ball…)  I started checking the nesting box a couple times a day.  I searched the bushes around the coop where they like to spend the hot part of the day…just in case.  I sat and watched their behavior.  I went back online and read more.  Mostly, I waited in anticipation.

Last week, I noticed the rooster mounting one of the hens.  I noticed even more that she was a willing participant in the activity.  So…I went online again and read that when a hen allows a rooster to mount her…you can eggspect an egg within one week.  One week!  ACK!

The kids and I are going to visit an old friend of mine (like I’ve known her a long time, not like she is old…) and I figured the first egg would come when we were away.  Hubby will be here, but something tells me he wouldn’t be nearly as eggcited as I.

Tonight, I went out to lock the hens in their coop.  I looked in the nesting box and there were 2 golf balls inside!  Wait!  That’s not a golf ball, it’s an egg!!  I could hardly contain myself!  I ran in the house “We have an egg!!  We have an egg!!”  The kids ran down stairs, we all hooped and hollered.  I egged them on.  It was eggstordinary.

Sorry, you’re probably getting pretty cracked with me.  I don’t want your brain to scramble with anticipation.  Here is an eggcelent picture:

How Eggciting!

I was so proud of our little layer.  Isn’t it just eggsquisite?  Truly Grade A.  I just can’t eggsplain how cracked I am about it all.  Maybe I’m being a little eggcessive.

Anyhoo..

Here’s some updated pics of the flock…they don’t pose well, so there are a few pics…

Pepper (on the left) and Brenda…

Pepper and Brenda

This is Clover.  She is the only white hen who we can identify because she has a couple black spots on her back.  We got the chickens on St. Patty’s Day, so one of them had to be named in honor of the holiday, right?

Clover

The orange-ish hen is named Ginger because she’s the only red-head in the bunch.  Isn’t she fluffy and beautiful!  She’s my favorite.

Ginger

There are 3 white hens who we can’t differentiate.  I call them all Whitey…

I am pretty sure the one on the right is the egg-maker.  Goooo Whitey!

The Whities

And, finally, our rooster….named Roo…again, not very original.  Here he is eating some spaghetti…

Handsome little bugger, isn’t he?  They love spaghetti.  And yogurt…yogurt is their favorite, but they are quite messy…

Yogurt!

I hope you aren’t scrambled with all these chicken pictures.  I wouldn’t want to make anyone feel hard-boiled.  And, most of all, I hope you can take a yoke.

Posted in Chickens, Meanderings | 5 Comments

Tractor Love Part Deux

Posted on July 2, 2013 by admin

I have mentioned my love of the tractor before.  If you remember, I was jealous that hubby got to drive it down the road to the John Deere shop for maintenance.  Jealous like when your best friend got those sweet pair of Guess jeans before you did in high school.  So, you can’t imagine my excitement when he said to me the other day “Tomorrow, I’ll drive you to John Deere and you can drive the tractor home.  I’ll leave for work from there.”

Waaaa???!!  I get to drive the tractor all the way home from John Deere?!  Whatever will I wear?

As I approached J.D. (that’s what I’ve named the tractor-I know it’s not very creative), I noticed that they had detailed him!  This beat up old tractor had been detailed!  And he looked so pretty!  I jumped on and started off towards home.

Purdy tractor!

We’ve lived in the country for nearly a year now (yes, I’m counting the time we lived in the camper, but also in the country).  I’ve been very surprised at how the folks out here don’t fit the stereotype I had in my mind.  I figured our “neighbors” in the country would be more…well…neighborly.  I pictured hot apple pies and farm fresh veggies being brought over from time to time….home made preserves and a warm welcome.  I thought the “two finger wave” would be a common practice when passing each other on the road.  That has not been the case.

None of our “close” neighbors have even stopped by.  I’ve had to stop by, or flag them as they drive through on their tractors.  Most are moderately nice when I chat with them, but some seem to harbor some resentment.  I don’t know what that’s about…  Is it because we are “city folk” who moved to the country?  Is it because we are the third owner of this home trying to “fix it up”?  Do they think we won’t be here long?  I just don’t get it.  One of our “neighbors” (he’s about a mile away) has been a friend for 14 years.  We were neighbors in the city years ago.  He moved to the country 10 years or so ago and he has noticed the same thing.  He, too, bought a 100 year old, neglected house on a few acres that he has meticulously restored.  He has experienced downright rudeness (including people criticizing the color he painted his house!).  Weird, huh??

Anyway, back to the tractor….as I drove J.D. home, I noticed that all I needed to do to get some kindness from my neighbors was to drive a tractor down the road.  As I bounced down the road, wind in my hair, the smell of diesel in my nose…things changed.  Every driver in every truck I passed waved.  The good ole’ two finger country wave.

Maybe once we have a couple cows grazing, a pig wallowing, and some goats bleating on the “farm” we’ll get a pie.

Posted in Meanderings | 3 Comments

Tractor Love

Posted on June 20, 2013 by admin

I love driving the tractor.  It makes me happy.  I can’t explain it, it just does.  I wish I had more to do on the tractor.  I wish I had a field to plow, plant, and harvest so I could spend more quality time with the tractor.  Our tractor is used mostly for moving stuff.  Trash, branches, rocks….stuff.  Hubby likes to get in it and grade the driveway, but I am not very talented with the road scraper, so I use it to move stuff.

The lawn tractor (known to most as a lawn mower) is not bad to use, but it isn’t the same as the tractor.  Sure, it is easier to mow the lawn sitting down and the trailer has been useful, but it is no tractor.  Even calling it a lawn tractor offends tractors everywhere.

Last Sunday, I really wanted to move this big bunch of rocks that were in the middle of the garden.  I figured it was the perfect excuse to use the tractor.   The kids were helping load the little rocks, directing me, and learning how to tilt and lift the bucket on the tractor.  At one point, I went under the bucket to grab something as the youngest decided to drop the bucket a bit…as I felt the bucket push the fabric of my hat down on my scalp, I let out a blood curdling scream and moved faster than I think I ever have before.  My life truly flashed before my eyes.  When I realized that I was not only alive, but unharmed I tried to talk my heart into slowing down.

We had a little safety meeting after that little incident.  Then, we got back to moving stuff.  That morning, I discovered that the tractor brings joy to all the members of this household.  Our son likes to work the bucket and has gotten quite good at it already.  Our daughter is content to just ride along.  Hubby and I see it as free therapy.

Yesterday, hubby took the tractor to the John Deere dealership to have some maintenance done.  I can’t tell you how jealous I was that he got to drive that awesome machine all the way to the dealership.  It has a highway mode so you can drive like the wind (a whopping 25-30 miles per hour-yee haw!) down the road.  I bet he was grinning the whole way.

I miss seeing our tractor parked in the barn.  Hopefully it will be home soon.  Maybe I can be the one to drive it back home…..

Posted in Meanderings | 2 Comments

Girly Girly – Before and after

Posted on June 7, 2013 by admin

Here’s the full before and after of the eldest’s room.  I posted about her creepy closet before, but here is the whole thing!  We refinished the floors, patched and painted the walls and ceilings, and re-did all the electric.  We still haven’t put pictures on the walls, but you’ll get the idea.

She likes pink, so it had to be pink.  Boy, is it hard to go pink without going Pepto Bismol.

So, here it is before…

Bedroom 2 before

 

And after…..

Bedroom 2, after

 

Bedroom 2 facing East

After, facing East

You can see, the camouflaged cat box is in her room and looks much better than a nasty, stinky cat box (in my opinion…you may feel differently).  The bed actually came from Ikea.  I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the bed and think it fits into the “Victorian” theme pretty well.  Also, the pink rug on the floor is new, but designed to look like an old worn out rug.  I got that at overstock.com and think it adds a nice *pop* of bright pink.  We also installed a mini chandelier from Lowe’s…maybe it was Home Depot….I don’t know, but isn’t it purdy?

Ooooh…preeeety!

She loves it, and has kept it pretty clean.  We’re just glad to have one more room checked off the list!  Hope you enjoyed!

Posted in Bedroom 2, Before and After | 5 Comments

Before and after – The creepy closet

Posted on May 30, 2013 by admin

The eldest’s room was a pretty easy re-do.  (Full before and after here)  There was some texture on the walls we re-skimmed, the floors were re-finished, and everything was painted, but there was one drastic transformation….the closet.

I think the closet may have been an after thought.  It is sort of popped out on the back roof, the ceilings are very low, the wall between the room and the closet is obviously an exterior wall….  Anyway, this is what the closet looked like when we got here…

The creepy closet…before

The eldest didn’t think she would ever be able to use this closet.  She would not sleep in her room with the closet door open…she worried about spiders…big green monsters….

We started by ripping out the plaster.  We went all the way down to the lath in the entire closet and put up drywall.  We also refinished the hard woods when we did the rest of the room.  A little creative shelving and some hooks and……

Not so creepy!

Voila!  She has actually been able to keep it pretty clean and organized, too!  That’s amazing in itself, since she is not the cleanest creature in the house.

Posted in Bedroom 2, Before and After | 3 Comments

The Coop for the Troop

Posted on April 29, 2013 by admin

We have our first “farm animals” out here.  Chickens.  We figured they were the easiest, would have the quickest “reward” (eggs), and would be a good start in our little venture.

We started with 6 and two days later, I added 2 more (they were just too cute to leave at the store).  We thought we’d have 8 hens, but, alas…we have one cock.

Hubby thought it would be easy to build a coop and enclosure.  “One weekend.” he said.  “It’ll be easy.” he said.  We looked at pre-built coops, we looked at plans, we looked at Pinterest.  Hubby had a plan…an epiphany, if you will.  I just went along for the ride.

That was at least four weeks ago.  Near as I can figure, we have put over 50 hours of work into the coop.  Hubby designed a beautiful chicken penthouse.  A chicken oasis, if you will.  It is beautiful, but holy hell was it a lot of work!

The first weekend, we got it all framed up.  That’s got to be the hardest part, right?

All framed up

Oh, no!  It had to be insulated, roofed, sided, painted, and vented.  Windows had to be built, nest boxes built and attached, a fence installed….  Holy crap, what a long list.  I began to wonder if the chickens would be paying rent to start paying for their poultry penthouse.

Hubby finished the coop and fence this past weekend while the kids and I were out of town.   Maybe I need to go out of town more often!  We moved the ladies (and gent) in.

The dog was PISSED!  She thought we were building her a dog house.

The first chicken checks it out.

For me??

The chickens and recess monitor

So much room!

We even have a happy cock!  He started crowing this morning…happy guy.

Happy cock

Not surprisingly, we still have some work to do.  We need to put permanent roosts in and re-do the nesting box lids.  But, we have happy chickens and are happy people.  The dogs are less happy about the situation.

Posted in Chickens | 5 Comments

The cock in the flock

Posted on April 29, 2013 by admin

On St. Patrick’s Day, we went out and bought 6 chickens.  The chickens are our first “farm animals” out here.  I had chickens in town for 4 months or so, but that’s a whole different story.  We bought everything we needed to get them through the first 6 weeks of life in the “brooder”.  I added two more chicks to our flock two days later….they were all alone in the brooder at the store and I felt sorry for them.

Baby chickens!

I REALLY didn’t want a rooster.  The crowing in the morning, the aggressive behavior, the hens getting over-mated….no thanks.  I made a point to ask multiple times to be sure we were getting sexed hens.  “Guar*an*teed”, they said!  “All hens for sure!  Well, 99% sure, at least…”

Fast forward a few weeks and one of the hens is larger, looks different, and is a little more aggressive than the others.  The old Sesame Street song “One of These Things is Not Like the Other” comes to mind.  Hubby said “Do you think that’s a rooster?  (S)he looks different.”

A little online research later and, for the only time in our lives, we are the 1%!  Not the 1% we’d want to be, but…alas.

The next day, I researched when and how to slaughter a rooster.  Maybe that’s a little harsh, I haven’t even given the little cock a chance.  Maybe he’ll be a cool cock and protect the girls.  Maybe I’ll enjoy his crowing in the mornings.  I don’t have very high hopes.

He is a handsome devil, though!

The cock in the flock

We’ll wait and see how it goes before convicting him to the death penalty.  I’ve been sure to hold him every day in the hopes that he stays tame.  But, I’ve pinned the post on slaughtering roosters….just in case…

 

Posted in Chickens | 3 Comments