this old farm

Wax and Water Woes

2012-01-21T13:52:00.000-08:00

Who knew...it takes a flood to get a lazy blogger to get back on track. I'm not whining...life is good...messy...but good.
The Party Barn was a gigantic kiddie pool yesterday, the blowing snow clogged the ditch and all that water had to go somewhere - the path of least resistance was the field, then the back yard and right through the Party Barn.
Oh my.
I don't want to go out there and sift through my soggy icy belongings...whatever is gone is just that...gone. I know there are books and pictures and Christmas decorations that are dumpster bound. I told myself this morning that there will be no sadness over any of it...but craaappp...my cherished case of 8-track tapes was bobbing in my barn/lake! Go ahead and laugh...granted, I no longer listen to them, but it was always fun to pop open that case because it brought back a flood of memories of high school, dates with my hubby and grand adventures with old friends. I shall bid a fond farewell to Carly Simon, Dan Fogelberg, the Guess Who. We've had a lot of laughs over the years about those tapes...why can't we get rid of them? It's time to move on...seriously.

While I've been avoiding the barn today I've been working on a couple of paint projects. A lot of the project girls out there are having fun with the Annie Sloan paints...of course I had to jump in and try them.

Here's the first one...a close up of a little drop front desk that I bought for forty bucks back in the eighties...yikes...that's a long time ago. I remember the day I bought it and that I crammed the thing into the back of a corvette...heck..who needs eight track tapes to remember stuff?!?
The big selling point of the paint is that you don't have to prime, but I'm not really sold on that - I put two coats of the color Old White on this desk and I could throw on a third... I'm not going to but it sure could use it. Next up I put on the wax that they sell to seal the paint, I used the clear wax and it changed up the color quite a bit...lots of yellowing but that's fine. I bought the dark wax but I don't think I'll use it on this one.
Sorry for the poor photo quality but I wanted to show how two coats doesn't really cover.Here's the little desk, not quite finished but it has a couple coats of wax and I'm thinking I can start putting a few things away - too bad I can't find the hinges for the lower shelf door, they'll turn up eventually....I'll just make sure that whatever I put on the bottom shelf looks nice...it could be months before I find 'em.

The next project is a lingerie chest that I'm painting in Annie Sloan Graphite, so far I've waxed the drawers with cheesecloth instead of the waxing brush that they recommend...that was dumb. I read somewhere on somebodys blog that cheesecloth was a great way to apply the wax, uhhh - not so much.
Now my grey drawers have little white fuzzies stuck in the wax, do not do as I do...spend the 35 bucks and buy the brush. ;-(

Gone Huntin'

2011-10-28T14:40:00.000-07:00

Deer hunting season is over...phew. Unfortunately those dastardly hunters always leave a few bits and pieces scattered around the property. An arrow here, a few other things there...and legs...Bergie always seems to think that she needs to bring legs back to the cabin to show me what a good little hunter she is.
I tell her what a good girl she is, and then I encourage her to bury it...
wish those hunters were as neat and tidy as my dog.
Oh well...

Dear Tami

2011-08-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

Just a little note to my dear friend Tami.

Hey girl,
Garden party was a-ma-zinnggg.
This is the only picture I have of my table.
Ya, remnants of a yummy appetizer course if I do say so myself.
Will you share your photos?
Cuz I got nothin'...

Love,
S~

Rhubarb Dream Bars

2011-06-02T15:42:00.000-07:00

The last few years I've been on the lookout for a good rhubarb recipe, and I've tried out a whole lot of them. Goofy concoctions with cake mixes and packages of jello....not exactly my cup of tea.
When I saw this recipe on Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen website I figured what the heck, I thought it was just too easy to be good, but goodness gracious was I ever wrong!
In a word, yum.
Ya, the kind of yum that makes a girl sorry she ever tried the recipe because when she's out in the garden she wants to sneak into the kitchen and grab a fork. Not such a great idea with summer approaching, that whole short sleeve, bare arms, why didn't she go on a diet, can't she just stay home in her baggy clothes issue....
It happens, I'll admit it.
But right now I need to pass this on to anybody else out there that has a big patch of rhubarb...you gotta make these.

Rhubarb Dream Bars

For the crust:
2 cups flour
3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter

For the filling:
4 whole eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups diced rhubarb

Preparation instructions:

Crust:
1. Whisk 2 cups of all-purpose white flour together with 3/4 cup powdered sugar.
2. Cut in 1 cup of butter, until crumbles form.
3. Press into 15 x 10 pan (I used 9 x 13).
4. Bake 15 minutes at 325.

While the crust is baking, prepare the filling.
1. Blend 4 eggs, 2 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup of all-purpose white flour, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
2. Fold in 4 cups of diced rhubarb.
3. Spread over hot crust and bake 45-50 minutes (or until light brown) at 325.

Cool, cut into bars, and enjoy!

So, since we're being all naughty here with white flour and processed sugar...let's just nuke these little goodies for about 25 seconds in the microwave and serve them with a dollop of cool whip.
Just an idea...to really ramp up the yummy factor.

I'm off to the store to buy more cool whip.

Next up on the rhubarb list?
Rhubarb Cosmos!
Hmmm...I wonder if Rhubarb Dream Bars and Rhubarb Cosmos go together,
we'll soon find out.

"You need to blog"

2011-03-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

"You need to blog".
That's what a longtime friend told me yesterday, but the old Bloggie Buzzard seems to have landed here at this old farm. Nearly every day I think of a topic to blog about but they get dismissed as too negative, too close to ranting, or dull... then something pretty pops into my line of sight and I think I should turn into a little post about the pretty thing but it gets dismissed. Blogland is overflowing with people who do pretty so very well, there is truly a plethora of pretty out there in the Bloggerville.
So, I'll just carry on here with my projects...none of which seem blog-worthy. I'm truly loving my new kitchen, even though there is still a fair amount of finish work to do. The old cabinets will get a fresh coat of paint and we'll install them in the party barn, that will be like another kitchen remodel!
The weeds are growing, the seeds are purchased for the veggie garden...of course this year will once again be "the year" where we truly get a handle on the yard...but of course we all know how that goes - the garden fantasy vs. the gardeners reality...the garden wins - or shall we say the weeds win. When the weeds win we'll smile... again, and once again we'll say "next year"!

Of course it's not all work and no play around here...the photo is one I took at Twin Rocks in Oregon on a great trip with "the girls"...thanks for letting me tag along ladies!

In a couple of days I'll be getting my passport stamped, maybe I'll come back home with a photo or two and a story that's "blog worthy".
Ya just never know.

Happy Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T15:10:00.000-08:00

Heart Rock
On the beach at St. Vincent last spring,
makes me want to charter a boat and sail away
with my sweetheart.

I Say We Party

2011-01-22T13:47:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me, knows I love a good party ...a theme party...big parties, small parties, garden parties, dinner parties, drinks parties, tea parties...who the heck cares people - let's gather and celebrate!
My parents threw great parties when I was a kid, we weren't always a part of the action but I always paid close attention to all of the planning my mom was doing, the food she was making and such, filing that info away in my "someday" file. Since dad passed away mom has created her own style of party, a neighborhood Christmas coffee gathering,a cousin get-together, last summer she even hosted a block party!
Tuesday night she played hostess again, and it was lovely...if I do say so myself.
My nephew got married in a civil ceremony and my mom, my sister and I couldn't let such a memorable occasion pass without a celebration. Mom ordered a cake and made finger sandwiches, I made a couple of appie trays ...we all bought a couple (or several) bottles of champagne and presto-partio!
I forgot my camera so I don't have a single photo of the bride and groom, the cake...nothin'...silly me. I found this one of me, mom, my niece, sissy and her hubby. It was taken this past June at my niece's graduation from college...

from the left, moi, mom, darling niece, sissy, sissy's hubby
the party peeps - my sissy isn't so much into party planning but she's my go-to girl for recipe taste testing...her hubby too...they're so much fun to cook for because they're enthusiastic with their appreciation - what's not to love about that after a long stint in the kitchen?
Now that I don't have a single party on the calendar until May it's time for the Jan-Feb pantry, fridge, freezer clean-out. I do it every January, go through the cupboards etc and get creative making odd meals out of odds and ends. We've taken to calling these meals "freezer surprise", I must admit they're not always a hit, but the good Dutch girl in me believes in the whole "waste not want not" quote so on we go.
Now about those 8 bottles of champagne leftover from the wedding reception Tuesday evening...I think I should call my sissy and niece for a little taste testing.

Garden Dreams and Water Features

2011-01-20T14:54:00.000-08:00

Gorgeous no?
This is the fountain at my friend Saundra's house.
The fountain is situated on the front walk to her home.
I covet it.
I pretty much covet Saundra's whole house and garden...except for her property taxes and maintenance costs...she can keep those.

January is when I start thinking about gardening, when I itch to get my fingers into the soil - but I can't because every square inch of soil here at this old farm is a muddy mucky mess...
so I dream.
Lately I've been dreaming of water features...especially fountains like Saundra's.
Except today, when my dreams of water fountains came true.
In my kitchen.
My kitchen sink became a lovely water feature, shooting water straight up into the air, onto the window and all over me and the counters and floors.
I bet that doesn't happen at Saundra's house, Saundra's faucets wouldn't dream of exploding all over her kitchen - Saundra runs a tight ship.

On a happy note, Moen is sending me a replacement faucet.
Thank You Moen, for not making me jump through a lot of hoops and standing behind your warranty.
Disclaimer* The nice guy that I talked to from Moen didn't ask me to say nice things about them, he doesn't even know that I have a blog that nobody reads.
I can't say that he doesn't know who I am except he does, cuz he's sending me a new faucet. I doubt he knows that when you blog and say nice things about faucet makers that you also have to say that they aren't paying you to say those nice things.
I wonder how much we paid our elected officials to make up those silly rules, oops...I think that's another post - for another day.

I shall resume my dreams of water features..but I shall be more specific, all water features must be outdoors.

Back on the Ladder...Again

2011-01-19T21:42:00.000-08:00

In keeping with the age old remodeler mantra "as long as we're at it", I decided to get rid of the heavily textured walls by applying several coats of drywall mud.
I've been craving flat walls for years, this is my chance, before the new floors go down and we wrap up this silly little project.
It's a lot of work...but it's pretty good exercise, what the heck - I have the time since finding a "real job" doesn't seem to be in the cards.
It seems like I've been at it forever - I sorta have...five skim coats takes a lot of time.
Of course there have been interruptions, many in fact.
It goes like this, mud - party, mud - party, mud - party...
Sling mud, put all mud stuff away and wipe the house down for a party.
Host the extended family Christmas party.
Sling mud, put all mud stuff away and wipe down the house for a party.
Have all the neighbors over for dinner since our closest neighbor and renter is moving away (insert sad face).
Sling mud, put all mud stuff away and wipe down the house for a party.
Have the "Seattle Girls" over for a ladies luncheon.

The ladder is back in the house, the mud stuff is out and I don't have a party on my calender...
I offered to have a wedding reception at my house last night but my mom stepped in and had it at her home.
Looks like I just might finish this monster before the first day of spring...

Unless of course I can think of another reason for a party.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-22T10:47:00.000-08:00

It's all good.
It's fun, it's crazy, it's exhausting.
It's been too long since I've posted but I
want to take a moment to wish everyone
a very Merry Christmas.

photo of the Chihuly glass art taken at Meijer Gardens
in Grand Rapids, Michigan...so beautiful

At Least It's Not Snowing

2010-11-23T11:03:00.000-08:00

And we have power.
Sure...it's cold.
But there aren't any big snow drifts.
The water lines aren't frozen (yet).
Look honey...there's a beautiful ice skating rink in the back yard,
look how the sunlight makes it all look so pretty.
Oh goodness..the ice skating rink even goes into the barn!
We can do a loop-de-loop!
Let's call our friends and have an ice skating party ;)
We'll have to move some of the furniture...oh wait...it's stuck to the floor by the ice....oh well...they'll just have to skate around the furniture.

Isn't it pretty?

It reminds me of that pretty pond we had in the back yard last summer.

Denial...it's a good thing.
Just trying to make a positive out of a negative.
Life is good.
Ice dams in the ditch in front of my house are good.
No..really...it's all just stinking good.
;)

Man Camp Week

2010-10-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

It's "Man Camp Week" in the Methow Valley.
Oh yes...deer hunting season.
Where 99% of the hunters make the other 1% look bad.
Every year it's the same story. We're working on our property, we cross paths with a hunter, we tell the hunter he's on private property.
Hunter tells us he's on state owned land.
He has a map in his truck.
He's been hunting here for years.
We don't know where our property lines are.
He has permission from the owner.
Those fence wires were cut when he got here.
The gate was open.
There aren't any No Trespassing No Hunting signs.

I'm curious.
Are all these corny excuses printed in the Hunters Manual?
Because every cornball camo wearing beer guzzling binocular peering doofus in a pickup truck going 30 mph in a 50 and shootin' from the side of the road seems to spew the same drivel.

There...I feel better.
Thanks.

Ladders and Bits and Pliers...Oh My!

2010-10-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

And saws and dust and giant messes.
Soooo...the "remodel recess" is over - time to start whacking away again, on to the dining room!
More layers of flooring to peel back, once again we're having to cut a grid with a skill saw and use pry bars, hammers - and lots of muscle.
Just like the kitchen, five layers.
Berber carpet, over glued down 70's "indoor/outdoor" - isn't that what they called it? The indoor outdoor was glued down to some old 60's beige fake stone linoleum...which was glued down to plywood - which was megga nailed into some groovy 40's linoleum-ish stuff that I kinda like. Under all those layers is the original t&g fir flooring which is in pretty tough shape.
I'm throwing in the towel on that one and covering it up with a floating wood floor.
I'm tough...but not that tough, no more refinishing of wood floors for this girl...at least not on the main floor.
Upstairs?
Maybe ;)

Light on the Horizon

2010-09-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday.
Noon.
I make a dash to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients for a cook-a-rama.
While I was stopped at Main waiting for my turn a low rider sedan passes in front of me...all three passengers have sideways ball caps and are slumped down in their seats. Odd...I think to myself. I pull out behind them and we get to the stoplight. While we're waiting for the light to turn I watch them pass a crack pipe - lovely.
It made me sad...what the heck is happening to my little town? Did they just come from the grade school? It was only a mile back from where I noticed them passing.
I had visions of them parked at the convenience store right next to the school, it's a huge hang-out for kids...it's where they buy junk food, pop and deep fried joes. Guess it would be a good place for the creepy peeps to hang and set up shop.
I know...my wild imagination.
Fast forward.
This morning.
Still working on the cook-a-rama. Cracking the last of the crab to put into the freezer, blanching and shocking corn on the cob. Still wondering about my little town. Out of the corner of my eye I see someone in a hot pink sweatshirt coming down the driveway. A woman I don't know...must be car trouble. I open the front door and she asks me if I know a specific young lady, whose name she gives me. In her hand is a handful of credit cards with the young lady's name on them. Ms. Pink was out for a walk and happened to notice the cards alongside the road, our farm was the next stop so she came down the driveway, knocked on a total strangers door and asked if I could help her locate the owner of the cards.
Thank you Ms. Pink.
You didn't know it but I really needed someone to remind me that this is still the sweet town I've always known and loved.
I got in touch with the young lady's husband...they're stopping over tonight to pick up the cards.

Be Still My Heart

2010-09-25T20:37:00.000-07:00

I'm in love.
The search is over...I've finally found it.
The barn of my dreams, OK....barn(s).

This is it, they don't have barns like this where I live, so I guess I have to move.
To Michigan.
Where it seems there is a plethora of beee-uuuu-tiful barns.
The Husband and I took a short trip to see my fabulous cousins - honestly...they're fabulous. R.W. and M.E...their initials stand for Really Wonderful and Marvelous Entertainer!
We had five days and four nights of perfect sights, wonderful company, lots of laughs...serious R & R all the way around.
I know I know...we were there in September so the weather was perfect for this sissy girl. I know the summers are hot and muggy and the winters are bitter cold...so cold my favorite gal at the post office who used to live there says your nose hairs freeze...ow!
But I love barns...serious barn love is a problem.
I think I could handle the weather...
if I lived in a really cool old barn.

What's That Weed?

2010-09-12T15:32:00.000-07:00

Weeding like a maniac...here at the farm and over at the cabin. I've been weeding here at the farm for 30 years...I know every weed, when it sprouts, when it sets seed, how deep the roots go, if it's clumper or a runner...and if I have to get nasty and use an herbicide.
But the cabin...oh goodness gracious the cabin.
The weeds there are evil, mostly stickers.
Last year a new weed sprouted at the cabin, and it didn't have stickers! It was even pretty, and it thrives in the heat with very little water...it's even my favorite color of green.
I've asked several people if they know what it is and if it's noxious, but nobody has a clue.
So...I'm calling on a professional. My neighbor at the cabin, he's a weed patrol extraordinaire.
Dave?
Can I keep it or do I have to clobber it?

It's moo-thirty a.m....do you know where your cows are?

2010-08-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

I mean...2:30 a.m.
The husband's cel phone rang this morning at 2:30, it was Antonio the night milker - there was a cow having a calf and he needed hubby to come over and "pull a calf"...guess you could call him the mid-wife for cows.
Hubby heads out to the other farm, I snuggle in hoping to go back to sleep. I start to drift off...
I hear a moo, the moo is coming from the wrong direction. After living here for thirty years a girl gets to know which direction a moo should come from, if it's a stress-moo, a horny-moo, a pain-moo...you get the picture. This was a stress-moo...and it was coming from the northwest - moos here should come from the south.
That's it, if a moo is coming from the wrong direction this could spell serious trouble.
I got out of bed, went to the upstairs window to listen, "moooo, moooooo".
Downstairs I go, outside...in my jammies and sandals. Walked into the backyard and out to the veggie garden, no moo. Walked back to the house to get a flashlight, moo, dang it...moo bouncing off buildings. Walked out to the silage bunker, hear stress moo. Brain wakes up a little more, perhaps it would be"hoove" (pun intended) me to get my car so I can drive behind the barn and use my headlights to scan the field...grab the cel phone and dog too! Drive out...and there she is - what the cow-crap??? She's brown - at least I think it's a she...the bovine is in the field and with the lousy light and long grass I can't see so good and I for sure can't see her "privates"! I know I can't chase her alone, in the dark, with a bad ankle to boot. If I did chase her...where would I chase her to? I don't know anybody in the neighborhood who has reddish brown cows - where on earth did this beast come from.
Think to call hubby, who I think is still at the other farm, get hubbys voice mail - I'm thinking he's busy with maternity duty and can't answer. Sooo...I go back to the house, thinking I'll wait for hubby to come back...then I hear the beep - his cel phone voice mail alert...he doesn't even have the stinking phone with him.
What's a girl to do?
Go back to bed, not my cow, can't chase it alone, where would I chase it to?
It's stinking dark, my ankle hurts, I walk verrry carefully - I dO NOt RUn!
Go back to bed is the only clear answer, I wouldn't even know who to call because I don't know anyone who has cows that look like that...in the dark I was guessing she was a beef cow. She's in the field, there's lots of grass...settle down missy and we'll deal with you in the morning and don't you daaaare get lost in the corn field...cuz we'll neverrr find you in there.
Hubby comes home an hour later...he had been home earlier but when he didn't see my vehicle he went down the road where he saw a lot of other trucks. When he was at the other farm there were two cows on the road, he also had no idea where they came from...so he locked them up and came home, he figured when he didn't see my rig I went to help with the rodeo-round-up...little did he know I was in my rig behind our own barns scanning the field for strange bovines.
We jumped in his truck, ( I changed from jammies to jeans fyi ), there were more cows, more guys in trucks, and some ATV's...while we were telling them about the beast at our place two more moosies came running out from some body's back yard. They were WiLD! CRaZy! BEaStS! The other farmers told us where the strays came from, and it was wayyy up the road, and they were scattered over a couple of miles - these gals crossed busy roads and nobody got hurt...a-freaking-mazing.
When we got home we checked the pool for cows, just in case - cuz it's happened before. No cows taking a midnight dip...whewww.
This morning when the sun came up there were three brownish/red cows hanging over the fence trying to make friends with our black and white girls.
Somebody came while we weren't home and loaded them up in a cattle trailer and took them back to wherever it is they belong, I hope they ship them someplace far away, becaue these girls obviously have a serious case of wanderlust.
Somebody owes me somethin', I hear the cattle hauler that was housing them at his place was out fishing or crabbing or something ....I think that a nice fish or a dungeness crab or two would be a lovely trade for a lost night of sleep.
Doncha think?
Just sayin'

The Happy Cook

2010-08-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Oh my...I'm a happy little cook.
The kitchen isn't finished, but it's in hold-mode so that we can take some time to enjoy the last bit of summer. Remodeling isn't for sissys, especially if you're trying to do a lot of the labor yourself - but I wouldn't change a thing.
Last week I put the kitchen to the test and cooked like a maniac for our annual Garden Party...oh.my.stars!
I loooove my new kitchen.
I have counter space, and lots of it! Well, I guess not compared to the McMansions that I've seen, but when you consider that my washer and dryer took up a lot of space in the old kitchen it was always a little challenging to do serious cooking.
But now? Ooooo la la!
This girl has room to spread out! The photo is of the bar which has become command central in the kitchen, I can really spread out. I can cook three recipes all at once, I can get out all of the ingredients and line them up like little soldiers in my cooking army! I know I sound over-the-top giddy but cooking in the old kitchen was like cooking with one arm tied behind your back.
Now that I've rambled on and on about counter space...can I tell you how much fun it is to cook really seriously with a dishwasher? A dishwasher! Now that's somethin' I tell ya...washing dishes never really made me cranky, but it ate up a lot of time...especially during a cook-a-rama. I'm calculating that I can cook twice as much stuff in half the time with my little friend from kitchen-aid.
I gotta watch it, I don't want to have to buy bigger jeans because of all of the good food I'm planning to make.

Celebrate!

2010-06-23T10:15:00.000-07:00

The cabinets are coming, the cabinets are coming!

Ok...they've been in the garage for months...but tomorrow they're getting installed, I wish it was me (and hubby) doing the installation but he's drawing the line - he won't budge - he won't install cabinets with me.

Sunday we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary, two months ago we took a wonderful sailing trip, a gift we gave to each other...we think thirty is a really big deal, we love sailing so that was how we opted to mark this memorable occasion.
The photo is of us after a great week on the boat...bliss baby.
We both want to take another sailing trip, the dream is to go to the South Pacific.
What do sailing and cabinets have in common? In my cajoling conversation with hubby about cabinet installation...he said "you really think we'd still be married if we tried to install those cabinets on our own?"
He has a point, cabinet installation is tricky,
and I want another anniversary so we can go sailing again.

I give.

My New Reflecting Pond

2010-05-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

I love reflecting ponds.
When I travel I love to go to beautiful gardens... water features always catch my fancy.
My new reflecting pond was installed last night courtesy of my upstream neighbor.
He mowed his ditch...all 40 acres of it...and then he let the long canary grass fall into the ditch....and then it rained last night...and it rained some more.
All that canary grass worked its way downstream - until it ran into my culvert -
where it stopped.
And it plugged.
And the water had nowhere to go.
Except my back yard,
and my front yard
and my field,
and my veggie garden,
and my party barn...
where I was storing my dining room chairs,
and my rugs,
and some furniture.

I would like to take this opportunity to present my upstream neighbor with...
drum roll please....

THE DARWIN AWARD.
OK...so nobody died...and to officially qualify for a Darwin he would have had to trip and fall into the ditch and croak.
Can I just give him the "ISNY"?
That's Inconsiderate Stupid Neighbor of the Year Award...
works for me.

I have to go now...I'll check back in a month or so after I finish cleaning up the mess.

Here Chicky Chicky

2010-05-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

I want chickens.
Everywhere I look I see really groovy chicken coops, cute chicks following mama hens. Hubby is totally against the idea, he says I'm too busy...and he's right.
The kitchen remodel is still hanging in the balance.
There is a garden to be weeded and planted.
The cabin is a work in progress.
There is a half-finished waterfall in the back yard.

Monday was the frosting on the cake, we were standing in line to board our plane on the way home from vacation...and there were chickens on the runway.
I think they're trying to tell me they want to come live at my house.

Floored

2010-04-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

The kitchen floor saga continues.
If Bob Vila was doing and episode of "This Old Farm" and someone had asked if this old kitchen floor could be saved, two days ago I would have said no...give up girl...go shopping for something to cover up that nightmare.
But today...the sun is shining...and the floor looks like something I just might be able to live with.
The journey to this point was long and arduous.
It consisted of peeling off all of the layers of old flooring - I won't go into that since I already posted about our escapades on the floor peel-a-rama.
Next up came...
sander rental, big...
but not big enough or mean enough...call it the sissy sander...
another sander rental and the meanest roughest sandpaper on the market...
two buckets of gap filler goop...
a palm sander for edges...
a random orbital sander to sand out the ruts and gouges from 100 years ago...
four batches of stain color trials...
first coat of stain...yuck
next coat of stain...uh ohhh...nooo likey!!!
fix it with the third coat of stain...
Hubby peeked in at it last night when I was close to finishing up the final coat of stain..he said "looks good hon"...it was like music to my ears. I think both of us thought this floor was probably more work than it would be worth...but neither of us wanted to spend a bunch of money on new flooring - since I was willing to tackle it he got out of the way, smart man that one ;)

This morning - - the floor looks decent. I think I'm ready to put on the first coat of sealer.
Unfortunately I don't think my knees will bend for me to get down there with a bucket and a brush.
I don't even want to think about how many hours I already have in this floor...and there are still several more to add to the tally.
Where the heck is that ibuprophen?

Hurry Hurry Stop!

2010-04-05T22:51:00.000-07:00

We pulled it off.
Everyone is happy.
I love spending holidays with family.. but sometimes it's a bit of a challenge to make sure that we don't play favorites.
Easter Sunday was fun, lots of family, food, chatting, driving...and it went off without a hitch.
But then I saw this field of tulips...take a right and pull over honey!
Hubby pulled over, he doesn't really get the whole photo thing...sweetie...I really need you to come to a full stop so I can get a good shot ;)
I really wanted to get out and take more photos, actually I just wanted to stand and stare at this glorious riot of color.

Isn't this just crazy beautiful?

What are you feeding your kids?

2010-03-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

I'm stunned.
I just saw a clip of Jamie Oliver in a classroom with what looked to be first graders. Jamie held up a cluster of vine tomatoes...none of the kids knew what they were, the same thing happened when he held up a beet, cauliflower, eggplant...and on it went.
I've been mumbling, sometimes ranting - about what the average American feeds their child, it's pretty pathetic. Chicken fingers and tater tots seem to be the norm...along with mac and cheese and drive through mickey d's...lovely.
If you love your kids start to feed them like you love them...stop poisoning them.
Heck...plant a garden and show them where food really comes from.
And yes...the gardening here at this old farm has already started, the raspberries are tied, we've planted two kinds of peas, beets, spinach, arugula...and four kinds of lettuce.
The cilantro is growing like crazy...time to chop up some tomatoes and make some salsa!
I still can't get the image out of my head...a whole classroom of kids and not one had a clue what that round red veggie was.
Sad.
Heartbreaking actually.

Tile Time

2010-03-07T20:28:00.000-08:00

Okay...that was fun!
Here's a shot of the back entry - we couldn't decide what to put on the floor, I was a little obsessed with the possibility of the washer leaking - been there done that...too many times. I stumbled upon this flooring at the local home improvement store, it was really inexpensive and I was hoping it would match the other flooring - the colors were perfect! This weekend I decided to see if I could put it down...what a breeze, it was so easy I could hardly believe it - sometimes this home improvement adventure is just plain fun...and sometimes it's not... but we won't go there right now.
I don't know how long this flooring will last, but for right now I don't care...it's in....I love it...it was super easy - - - I'm happy ;)

And now for something pretty outside.
Goodness.
The magnolia is ready to pop...this is always my favorite stage of bloom,
this amazing promise of beauty

Sedums

2010-02-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

Oh dear me...it's been forever since I've posted a pretty picture.
The weather has been absolutely beautiful here so I've pressed the "hold" button on the remodel to work outside...I've been weeding like a maniac, pruning roses, getting a few of the raised beds ready for spring veggie planting.
While I was weeding my little sedum bed I was reminded of this shot I took last year when The Husband and I went on a garden tour.
I love this!
I don't have an old urn lurking in the barn, but I do have a pretty terracotta pot that would work...and it's a great place to plunk some of the rocks I've collected on my adventures.

The weather report says rain for tomorrow...so I'll be back inside stirring up the dust and taking more photos of chaos.

What's That Stuff?

2010-02-21T20:42:00.000-08:00

The biggest challenge in the remod has been the kitchen floor...testing my patience I tell ya.
100+ years of flooring, one stacked on top of the other. I've had several people tell me it would be best if I just covered up the mess by adding another layer.
Uh uh.
The top layer was curling linoleum, and there were soft spots where the dishwasher and sink each had their little hissy fits over the years. There was no way I was going to stack my new cabinets over potential dry rot?
Dumb...approaching stupid.
So, we got busy. We're down to the original t&g fir flooring, lots of water damage but no rot. The base layer of linoleum was backed with tar paper that was stuck to the floor with some kind of adhesive - I was able to get that off with my favorite Jasco stripper. But the Jasco doesn't touch some kinda wierd gunk that was under the tar streaks..it looks like floor wax, or glue of some kind.
After a lot of internet research I thought a steaming process would take it off.
Nope.
Mineral Spirits?
Nope.
Paint thinner?
Nope.
Acetone?
Nope.
I talked to another know-it-all guy at another paint store and he asked me if I'd tried Denatured Alcohol...he was sure that would take it right off - so I bought it.
Nope.
Then I remembered that a friend had told me her husband had the same problem with the floor in their bungalow. He'd tried absolutely everything and then someone told him to use boiling water. I tried it...scrubbing with steel wool right after pouring on the water - - - it worked! The boiling water/steel wool scrub turns that gunk to muddy water. It's a really slow process and the water has to be boiling or it's a no-go.
I talked to that friend this week and asked her who told her hubby about the boiling water trick...he told her it was me.
Yikes.
I hate middle-age brain fog...I seem to have lost a few chunks of really good data.
If you find my data would you please be so kind as to send it to me?
Oh ya...and if you have a really old house with strange gunk on the original wood floors...try srubbing with boiling water first before you buy buckets of chemicals.

It's a Dirty Job

2010-02-13T11:39:00.000-08:00

The dust is flying, landing, sifting, migrating.
Why does he have on a hood but no dust mask?
Oh honey, I guess I should ask you what you ask me all the time lately.
"Where's your mask?"

The Treasure Hunt

2010-02-13T08:55:00.000-08:00

Oh. My. Goodnes.
I'm on a little remodeling break, this stuff isn't for sissies ...or for that matter fifty year old women with back issues. It's still fun, even through a haze of muscle relaxers and pain killers...better remodeling through chemistry.
I keep looking for treasures, for that wedding ring of Carolines that was lost more than forty years ago, anything! There was a newspaper from July 27,1961..it was stapled into the soffit in the kitchen - that was fun to look at...coffee was 69 cents a pound. It's obvious that every farm family that lived here over the last 110 years was on a shoestring budget, nothing was wasted, this old house was built sturdy but without any frills. The remodel from 1961 gutted the kitchen and changed the footprint from what I can tell. I was told that in the late sixties they blew in insulation...well...they did that on the north side of the house, but not a spec on the south wall...I guess insulation was considered a frill. Bare studs, not a spec of fuzzy stuff anywhere - unless you count spider webs...no wonder my heating bills cause choking and gasping every winter.
I've taken little snapshots of all of the different wallpaper samples...some are pretty...others...not so much.
But last night while we were peeling back layer after layer of linoleum, sub floor, plywood and tar paper...I found this flooring.
I like it!

I wish I knew the stories of the families that lived here before me...because I think I would like the lady that chose this flooring for the living area.
I can't help but wonder who she was and how she spent her days.
These are the things I think about while I'm crouched on the floor with my nail puller and pry bar.

For "the girls"

2010-01-27T21:32:00.000-08:00

Or....the project that ate me up...hopefully it will spit me out ;)

My girlfriends haven't seen me for a while...heck...I haven't seen me in a while!
The kitchen remodel is in full swing, walls are coming down, windows are changing or getting eliminated...all in the name of progress. I love it, most of the time. Except for times like today when I had a rather intense discussion with a plumber, then my hubby, then my helper, then the electrician...ayyyeeee!
When it was finally all over and I thought I could finally put away my hammer and start diner...the washer overflowed, over the floors that I SAID should get sealed first.
Crabby farm girl.
But I have a laundry "room". My washer and dryer are no longer in my kitchen...they can no longer be seen from the front door...I am over-the-moon-happy!!!
I guess that makes me a grown-up now, because I have a la la la laundry room!
This photo is for Mary...look Mar! No back entry wall! Cool huh? The kitchen feels huuuuge.

Lookie lookie...I have a "laundry room". All smiles.
And...you can't see the washer and dryer because they're hidden behind that little wall, groovy baby.

And a back door! Where farmer hubby can come in, hang up his coverall and not get hay all over the kitchen.

I'm doing a happy dance and singing a happy song.

Now that all of that water from the washer flood is cleaned up....and the guys admitted that I warned them this was going to happen.
Just so we're clear.
Right boys?

Cuckoo for Coco

2010-01-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

The uncertainty over the living room color is over, no more doubts, no scrunched up nose, no more squinting of the eyes.
Saw this photo over at Houzz.

It's Coco Chanel's living room, hey...if the color was good enough for Coco I think I can look at it in a little different light.

Random

2010-01-09T10:28:00.000-08:00

Just cracked open my fourth gallon of paint...for the living room alone.
Stucco = yucko...and no...the room isn't huge.
My paint guy said he loooves stucco...of course he does!
Not even sure I like the color, keep telling myself I need to just finish and put everything back where it belongs before I start all over again with another color.
Still haven't come up with "my word" for 2010...
maybe it should be a phrase.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T17:41:00.000-08:00

We're staying home tonight...it's all been lovely...but I'm tuckered out.
Last night was the last hurrah of the holidays, and a big hurrah it was!
Fab friends, fab food...oh my.
I stole this photo of hubby and I off of my pal Tami's blog.
Pop on over to her place to get all the lovely details...bliss!

Tomorrow?
Back on track with the wrecking bars and drywall.
Wishing you all a Happy and safe New Year...
Cheers to a New Year full of never ending projects!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T19:01:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from this old farm.
In this holiday season may we celebrate our blessings
and share our joy.

Somebody's Gotta Do It!

2009-12-19T22:39:00.000-08:00

So it might as well be me.
Tough duty, I know...testing the holiday cocktails.
My new favorite?
Champagne with a healthy splash of St. Germain...oh goodness gracious, I like it.
I've always had a fondness for champagne and a new version of a champagne cocktail was offered to me by my pal Lynne, thank you my dear friend...this is definitely a keeper...as are you.

Lynne added some of her hand foraged huckleberries, they literally danced in the glass! I don't know how she got them to do that but I intend to find out.

Just so you know, this champagne cocktail goes well with everything...
especially a selection of fabulous desserts.
Yes indeed...it was a very good week.

A Garden of De-Lights!

2009-12-09T22:13:00.000-08:00

If you love Christmas lights as much as I do and you live in the Seattle area, the Bellevue Botanical Gardens has a display that just gets better every year.
Last night it was brrrrr cold but we bundled up and walked through the gardens...it was so much fun.

This is a shot of the mixed border, every year they add something new...I can spot sunflowers, daylillies, hyacinth, tulips...the details are amazing - can you imagine the effort that goes into this?

This spider and the fly cracked me up.

This arbor was yellow wisteria, there was another one done in purple...so pretty.

This walkway leads down to a tropical garden, my photos of that area are a little sad...chilly girl = shaky camera.

Maybe someday I can have a little display in my own garden like this one...
I'll add it to the list of "stuff I wanna do".
Oh dear me...that list is getting long.

Peeling Back the Layers

2009-12-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

While everyone else I know is decorating for Christmas...I'm demo-ing for the holidays.
The whole house is covered in a layer of plaster dust...I'm pretending it's snow, remodeling is like that...if you pretend it's really fun - then it is ;)
Oh yeah..and I haven't even started on the kitchen yet.
I'm in the office - doing demo.
Because the new kitchen plan doesn't include the washer and dryer in full view,
they have to move to the office.
The office has to move to the living room.
The office is also our dressing room - because old houses have teensy closets.
So my dresser is in the dining room, hubby's is in the living room.
Chaos...but fun chaos. I keep telling myself that.

Buckets and buckets of chaos.

Unexpected water feature...like a lake under the house - set up the pump and spray down the driveway. Funny how nobody wants to crawl under the house to move wires and pipes, a little bit of standing freezing water never hurt anybody!

Of course I have lots of helpers.
Official "plaster catcher"

Wallpaper I've never seen.
Pretty...buh bye.

Last week I was at the grocery store and I saw Caroline, she lived on this old farm before my in-laws. She told me that her kids were playing in her jewelry box one day and her wedding ring got lost. So...now, while I'm smashing and peeling and scooping up buckets of cracked plaster - I'm looking for Carolines ring.
Oh, how I want to find that ring.
I want to drive down to Caroline's house (she lives at the end of the road now), and give her back her ring, on Christmas morning.
That's the kind of stuff I dream about while I'm smashing old plaster.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T11:34:00.000-08:00

From this old farm to you...
We're thankful and blessed.

Tunnel Vision, The Remodel Saga

2009-11-19T15:19:00.000-08:00

Goodness...I didn't think that lighting would be where I would get stuck. So many choices - and I like them all!
This one is Limoges, it's one of my favorites but I don't really like the cord, it seems a bit cheapy-creepy. It seems to me that Limoges and exposed cords shouldn't go hand in hand. Yes, I'm an opinionated farmgirl indeed.

Is there light at the end of the lighting tunnel?

Don't you love this? It's a photo of my girlfriends driveway.

My posts lately have been quickies, or... um...nonexistent.
The kitchen thing is fun, but it's where all of my creative energy is going...blogging is taking a back seat for sure. I haven't been visiting other blogs much but hopefully I'll be able to click around and see what's shakin' the blogosphere soon.
I'm finally wrapping up the materials gathering phase, I haven't smashed a single thing yet. A friend advised me to make sure I have all of my decisions made and my materials chosen before I start demo, and since we'll be doing a good portion of the work ourselves it's not like I can go out shopping while the carpenters are doing the labor...this old farmgirl is the laborer. Woohooo!
The one thing I didn't have definite opinions about was lighting. Now I know why...it's because I like it all! Well...except for that look where there are fifteen pot lights scattered all over the ceiling - not a big fan of that.
Come along...go light shopping with me..and please, opinions are most welcome!

Cool, I like this one. Oh...wait a minute - it's a whole lot like the fixture I've had in my kitchen for the last 25 years...
moving on.

Bling? In my kitchen? It could be fun, I saw something like this last year on a holiday home tour and loved it. Oh wait, I'm not a bling girl, more of a barn boots and hair out of the way kinda gal. Oh...and this one was a spendy little number.
Pass!

Totally love the shape, but yikes...wayyy too shiny and bright. I like dull, well... I like dull surfaces - not dull parties or friends.

Industrial meets schoolhouse, would I get sick of it?

I like the lines, it just seems a bit heavy for the space.

This one is pretty dang cool, it looks handmade....like blown glass. I sure wish the folks that make my favorite Limoge fixture would take lessons on cords from this manufacturer, this is beautifully done.

So, I think these are my choices...until I go to another lighting store, or Home Store, or junk shop.

Don't worry, it's not all work and no play around here. I finally made it to the city to take my darling niece for her 21st birthday lunch....delightful and truly lovely...oh yeah...the food was good too.

I'd love a comment or two, help me choose....because I really do like them all ;)

Five Minutes, Five Bucks

2009-11-05T12:32:00.000-08:00

Oh yikes...the front porch was looking nasty last weekend.
Even though I live in the boonies and trick or treaters are rare, I like to be prepared. I had a giant bowl of candy ready to go but...oh yikes, the porch.
Frightening.
The planters were filled with summer annuals that didn't have an ounce of lovely left in them.
Ta Daaaa....
Found these mums at the garden center for $4.99 and plunked the whole thing into the planter, garden center pot and all.
Why on earth do I wait so long to do this?
Presto...prettio!

Sink, Sunk, Sank

2009-10-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

Shopping and researching sinks.
Thanks goodness for cousin Mary, the girl is a fountain of information. She told me about Houzer sinks and I just got off the website....after running around all day yesterday and not coming up with a single thing - here we go.
The whole sink thing has been a bit confusing for me. I think I know what I don't want - but I'm not sure what I do want.
The groovy new kitchen will have two sinks! After having a washer and dryer in the kitchen for almost thirty years I'm getting ritzy. Since the water pipes are already in the wall on that side of the kitchen I figured I should take advantage of the situation and have a designated clean-up zone.
So...I like this one.
Does anybody have any advice for me? I hand wash my wine glasses and delicate china and crystal...thought the built-in drainboard was a cool feature.
Yay?
Nay?

Spring Bulb Reminder

2009-10-27T16:24:00.000-07:00

Since I have kitchen remodeling stuff on the brain the garden is pretty much on the back burner. I hadn't even thought about buying tulip or daffodil bulbs this year...until I started looking at the pictures from the garden tours we went on this year.
Uh oh...I gotta go!
I neeeeeed some of these.
Allium giganteum...they make me crazy.
Now I just have to decide where to plant them.

Doesn't this make you want to plant some too?

Time to DIY

2009-10-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

The never-ending saga of the kitchen remodel...continues.

There is a little part of me that would like to have a section of my kitchen counter done in wood...not butcher block but face grain.
I've been doing a lot of online research and surfing through my kitchen books, boy have I seen some beauties...
Love the look!
I went to see a few people, talked about the pros and cons...got a rough idea on pricing from one guy - a thousand bucks for ten feet of kitchen counter.
Choke.
Until today...when another guy called back with his bid,
drum roll please....
$2230.00 for a ten foot counter, no back splash... a hole cut for an under mount sink.
I think it's time to do a little more research, and perhaps it's time for this old farmgirl to get out her power tools.

I found this.
My recycle maniac is shifting into high gear.
Old maple gym flooring in 4' x 12' sections.
$108 bucks in materials...
plus some elbow grease and sandpaper...maybe a little molding, some tung oil.
If I hate it I'm sure I can find a home for it around here someplace.

Maybe I can sell it to some fool for two thousand bucks...
rofl.

***materials update....got the flooring for 30 bucks!!!
Yippieeee ;)

Well Helloooo There...

2009-10-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

Wanna come live at my house?
How do you feel about living on a farm?
We promise to be nice to you.
We'll let you hang out with our friends in the kitchen,
you'll get to be a big part of every party.
Really...it's gonna be fun.
Promise.

Dead Salmon on the Wall?

2009-10-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

My little vice is magazines...always has been. Last week I was cruising through a shelter mag and I saw an article on paint colors. Oh dear, I found a color that I really liked...Farrow and Ball "Dead Salmon".
What the ????
No way.
Sorry Farrow and Ball.
I just can't.
Paint names matter to me, call me a sissy-girl.
My house is Edelweiss with Stonewall trim.
The studio is Sunshine, office / Buckskin, cabin cupboards / Heartsmere, dining room / Providence Olive...I gotta love the name to buy the paint.
Even though I love the color...I just can't smear dead salmon on my walls.
Ewwwww!

Turn Back the Calendar!

2009-09-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

That's right...turn it back.
Back to June...I want a do-over.
Not because it wasn't right the first time, but because it was so sweet -
great weather,
great houseguests,
fun parties,
things got DONE!
The garden...oh the garden - the best year ever. The freezer is filling up fast with organic fruits and veggies...today I'll pick-shuck-blanch-cut-freeze another 50 ears of corn. I think that will get me close to the 200 mark, 200+ ears of corn, beans, raspberries, squash and more...my goal this year was to focus on not letting my garden produce get away from me and go to waste - it happens too often.
My only garden regret is rhubarb, I didn't get one single stalk into the freezer, oh well...there is always next spring.
And speaking of next spring...maybe we could just turn the calendar FORWARD!
The kitchen remodel is freaking me out, can't turn the calendar back on that one, the cabinets have been ordered and should be finished pretty soon. Yiiiikes.
I've been in the garden, hiding from the decision making process.
I haven't started demo,
I haven't decided on countertop.
Hey...I have an idea ;)
Here...you pick.
Hubby and my BIL picked the exact same one - I think it's too busy.
What say you?

While you're making up your mind I think I'll go make a giant batch of applesauce and put it in the freezer.
Happy choosing!

Making Marinara

2009-09-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

There are a whole lot of cherry tomatoes in my garden. This year I'm trying really hard not to waste any of my garden produce. The tomato plants I bought this year were miss-marked so I ended up with four cherry tomato plants, two golden and two red...hubby doesn't really care for tomatoes and the yield of four plants is a bit much for just lil' ol me.
I decided to try to make marinara, what the heck...never done it before - thought I'd give it a whirl. I'm two batches in, the first one was a little bitter, the second is a bit too sweet...this weekend I should have more ripe tomatoes so I think the third batch should be just right...sounds a little bit "Three Bears" doesn't it?

I looked online for marinara recipes that I could freeze, I combined three different ones and thought I'd post the recipe just in case there is anyone else out there with a garden full of tomatoes and a little bit of time to putter in the kitchen.

This Old Farm Marinara
10 cups cherry tomatoes, a mix of gold and red
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 yellow onions, chopped
2 tablespoons garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup dried parsley flakes
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 bay leaves

Heat the olive oil in a large pan, I use an 8 qt Belgique...add the onions and saute for about five minutes, add the garlic and saute for another 4-5 minutes.
While you saute the onions and garlic, put the washed uncooked tomatoes into a blender in batches - blend on medium speed for a minute. When you have blended all of your tomatoes strain out the seeds with a piece of cheesecloth. Add the blended tomatoes to the sauteed onions and garlic, add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for a couple of hours, stirring every fifteen minutes or so - just make sure it doesn't scorch. I simmered mine for about three hours because I wanted to reduce it a bit to make a thicker sauce.
Cool and freeze!
In a couple of weeks my spaghetti squash should be ready ;)
Spahgetti squash, homemade marinara and fresh parmesan.
Yum!

****If I was using regular size tomatoes I would have peeled and seeded the tomatoes, a ridiculous task with cherry tomatoes. The first batch of marinara I made I just quartered the tomatoes and threw them in the pot...the seeds in the sauce made it quite bitter - there is a remarkable difference in taste when you strain out the seeds... do it, it's worth the little bit of effort it takes.

Home Again

2009-09-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

This little birdie had lunch with us on Catalina Island. My goodness...such a charming island, I found another fantasy place where I would like to live someday...guess I better get busy and buy lottery tickets.

All six little birdies in the family are home safe from a wonderful vacation.
I'd never been on a cruise, never had a strong desire to go on one...but now I understand why some people are so fond of them. A cruise ship is a little crowded for this farm girl, but our service was fantastic...the staff on the ship was charming and attentive.

I haven't unpacked, haven't started the laundry...but I've spent several hours in my garden, I've made two batches of marinara with my home grown tomatoes, garlic, onions and herbs.
Nothing helps me settle back in like playing in the dirt and stirring up something in the kitchen.
Ahhh....home!

Now...about that laundry.
Tomorrow.
Maybe.

How Grandma Stimulated the Economy

2009-09-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

Here's where I'm going tomorrow night.

And here's where I'm going on Monday...be back on Saturday.

Mom gave us kids a money gift last Christmas. I asked my baby sister what she was going to do with hers and she said she wanted to go on a cheap four day cruise with mom. I told her that sounded like fun to me...count me in!
We took our Christmas money and bought tickets for a cruise.
Then we needed to find air fare to San Diego.
Of course we all needed to buy a few new things to wear, ya know a girl has to dress up for dinner on those cruises....don't forget accessories...and cute shoes!
Maybe a new bra for that cocktail dress that dips a bit too low in the front.
Sunblock...4,8,15 & 30.
Sunglasses, readers for hanging out by the pool and reading a book.
Spanks...duh...remember that cocktail dress? Mandatory.
Maybe some new flip-flops.
Tank tops are on sale right now!
Does my sundress look too shabby? Oh look...there's one on sale.
Assorted toiletries in those oh-so-handy travel sizes...keeps the weight down on the luggage - I'm all over lightening the load when I don't have hubby with me.
Of course we can't fly down there and get on and off the boat and then fly back! We have to add a day at the beginning of the trip and at the end...wouldn't want to rush too much ;)

So...multiply these purchases by six. Mom, me, baby sister, middle sister, sister-in-law and darling niece.

That's how grandma stimulated the economy!

Ouch.

I know the stories will all be worth that big Visa bill next month.

I know I'm not the only one

2009-09-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

It's a little out of control.
Just a little.
It's not something that bothers me, or my husband.
But I know it's a little over the top.
I've heard it tagged a few different ways.
Dishease.
Chinaholic.
A friend openly calls herself a dish wh*re.
I'm right there with her.
It's time to clear out the kitchen and dining room to get ready for the big smash-up in the kitchen...de-construction they call it.
I started with the stemware. There's a lot of it, I'm just moving it out to a cabinet in the party barn so it's safe and easy to get to if I want a champagne flute while I'm sweeping up sawdust, plastic cups just don't do it for me...especially with champagne.
I giggle when I go out to the party barn and see all of the stems lined up.
Looks like we should have a party...pick a glass and we can make a beverage to coordinate with the stemware.

Moving on to dishes...and china...and teacups.
Guess there should be a tea party too...
And maybe a girls coffee time.
Goodness.

It can't be all bad...it's not like there's a twelve step program for it or anything.

Is there?

Surfing for Surfaces

2009-08-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

So...I've finally tweaked the kitchen cabinet design for the last time - they're ordered! Yikes.
New dishwasher and fridge - chosen and ordered.
Next up?
Floors and counters...
Plain Jane, practical and economical farm girl that I am ...I'm seriously leaning toward Formica.
I don't drive a foreign car, don't have any fancy high heels like Manolo's or Jimmy Choos...never has a fancy handbag caught my fancy.
Since I've never done this before I'm trying to challenge my own thought process. Will I be sorry I didn't take the big leap and go for the granite?

I'd love some advice, Formica? Granite? Tile? Composite?

Next week...flooring...oh, I'm going to miss my curling 70's linoleum...
Yaaa..right.

The Party's Over

2009-08-25T15:58:00.000-07:00

Oh...I suppose.
That's as good a blog title as any.
It was an unintentional month long blogging break....I guess we could also call it
*And she lived to tell about it!
or
*Are you still here?
or
Fifty ways to hit fifty.
Yup..it's true. This old gal at this old farm hit the big five-oh, and it didn't hurt even a teensy bit.
Somewhere in that month I
got a job
quit that job
got rehired
quit again
had some wonderful house guests
had a not-party birthday celebration
went to a few outdoor concerts with fabulous friends
got invited to some really great parties
nailed down the design for the kitchen remodel
freaked out about kitchen remodel costs
moved the fridge to discover rotting floor
decided kitchen remodel isn't optional, it's mandatory...
unless I wanna fall through the floor

I was a whirlwind month, several times I tried to sit down and blog...but the words
just didn't flow...yup...the girl who can hardly talk today because she wore out her voice last week can't pull together enough words to write a paragraph or two.
Odd..I know.

So, if I find more words I'll be back..if not...I'll pop in now and then and read what the rest of you are doing out there in blogger land.

Cheers!
I'm off to the lumberyard and then it's time to sit down and plan the kitchen demolition...
Woohooooo!
I just love the feel of a properly balanced wrecking bar ;)

Boursin, Boating and Best Buddies

2009-07-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

Ahhh...summer. I love it...but there are days when I wish I could hit the "pause" button. The garden is growing like crazy, I made a few batches of raspberry jam, the peas are about done for...pretty soon we should have beans coming out of our ears.
There is more than enough work here on the farm to keep me busy every day, oh yeah...and then there is that j.o.b.! Hokey pokeys kids my head's a-spinnin!
Lest you think it's all work and no play around here I must confess that I had an incredible 7 hour lunch with dear old friends on Monday aboard my friend Sheryl's boat. We didn't go anywhere, which was just fine with the girls.
Tami
posted this week all about the day so if you want to see a few more fun pics pop on on over to visit her... but right now I think I had better get this recipe posted..pronto!

Tami and I...at the end of a really fun day.

Now for the recipe that I promised Tam I would post...

For my contribution to the luncheon I made a trio of spreads, a Boursin...a Shrimp Paste/Pate, and Red Onion Marmalade.
I really like the Boursin that you can get in the cheese section of the grocery store, although it's rather expensive. This tastes almost exactly the same and I think I prefer the consistency of this one.
This one's for you Tam!

Boursin Cheese Spread

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
1/2 teaspoon pressed garlic
1/4 teaspoon dried dillweed
1/8 teaspoon thyme
Cracked black pepper

Whip the cream cheese and the butter with an electric mixer until it's fluffy, add the remaining ingredients and whip until blended. Chill, covered, until ready to use.
I made it the night before to give the flavors a chance to blend. I served it with rice crackers and a loaf of crusty garlic sourdough bread.
Yum.

Berry Breath

2009-07-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

The mystery has been solved.
There isn't a fence around the garden so we have to share.
The bunnies got all the basil...I was cranky but got over it.
I've been stalking slugs so that they don't cut down my beans again, I had to replant because of those slimy creatures.
The raspberries aren't netted so we lose quite a few of them to birds, but birds don't usually go for berries at the lower end of the bush...we just couldn't figure it out.
Bunnies?
Raccoons?
Possums?
Possibly.
But then we caught this little dear out in the raspberries, snacking away.
Yup...my sweet little Bergie has berry breath, guess I should offer her a bowl and some ice cream.

My Little Party for One

2009-06-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

My apologies.
I know I said I would post garden party recipes.
They're going to have to wait...how about some pretty flowers and a little update on this groovy thing called life.

Oh...it's been fun.
My little fairytale life here on the farm. For two lovely years I've been unemployed, happily. There hasn't been one day of boredom. So many things to do here on the farm, from gardening, to painting, to dreaming and planning my next project. I've spent time at the library, learned about solar power for the cabin, I've framed walls, hung drywall, built rock walls and even built a cocktail bar in the barn.

Fast forward to a lousy economy, dairy farming is in a world of hurt right now - we don't milk our own cows anymore but hubby is a herdsman for another farm and things are more than a little unpleasant in the dairy economy.
I haven't been blogging much, I've been getting things in order and oh yes...searching for a job.
I finally got the call...today...I start at 2, going to fill out the new employee paperwork.
Eeks.
Tomorrow it's eight to five.
Thanks to my fabulous friends and former employers for those glowing references.
Gotta get my game on so I don't make liars out of you guys.
Oh yeah... and a big thank you to my new employer, for taking a bit of a chance on an (almost) fifty year old woman with skills that are a little rusty.
Signing off now -
Gotta go find something to wear - don't think jeans and a tool belt are going to work for this one.

One more thing. Tami did a lovely post today on Saturday nights dinner here at this old farm, pop on over there and take a peek!

My Favorite Evening

2009-06-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

I'm exhausted...but it was all worth it.
Last night was one of my favorite evenings of the whole year, it was our annual progressive dinner / garden party.
When I get overwhelmed with how much time and energy my yard and garden take...it's all worth it when I can go out with a clippers and a bucket of water and pull together an arrangement for a party. Yesterday I grabbed a couple of slips of scrap paper leftover from making my menus for the party...and ta daaa...the arrangement came together in no time flat - there is just so much to "pick from" here at the farm.
The really great part was that the arrangement perfectly picked up the colors of the drinks I served, sangria with slices of orange and lemons.
The funny thing is I was trying to pull out the colors of the menu and table settings, such a happy coincidence that I ended up with a drinkie matchy matchy, wish I could say I planned it that way ;)

Here is a little peek at the menus from each home...oh goodness gracious it was all so good - there are no words.

The menu for main course here at the farm.

Tami's menu for the appetizer course.

and Karen's menu for the dessert course.

I'm going to try to post recipes later on this week, Tami made a special request for a couple of them and I'm happy to share.

Good food, good friends...good times.

The Messies

2009-06-25T23:05:00.000-07:00

Dark cabinets...

Or light painted cabinets.

I love the cream colored kitchen...hubby likes it too.
But I think we have to go with a wood stained cabinet look.
I found these pictures online cruising real estate listings...these condos have the same layout but different color schemes.
The layout is quite similar to the layout of the kitchen upgrade we need to do here at the farm. When I look at the two photos side by side I really prefer the cream colored cabinets.
But I don't think I can have them, it's just not practical.

We're messy... plain and simple. Call us Mr. and Mrs. McMessie.
Hubby farms, he's dirty. I garden...I'm dirty.
We eat almost all of our meals at home. I cook a lot, and I don't mean popping something out of a cardboard box and shoving it into the microwave.
I chop, slice, dice, saute, fry, bake, and simmer...my kitchen gets a serious workout. That means splatters and spills, hubby opens cabinets with sticky fingers and no amount of whining from his lovely wifey will change this behavior.
So...I think dark cabinets are our only option - to hide some of those splatters and sticky finger smears until they get cleaned up by yours truly.
If anybody has any advice for me on kitchen remodels I'd be more than happy to hear it, all I know how to do is dream about a new kitchen...never really done more than that.
Yikes.

For my irl friends, yup...it looks like it's going to happen.
I'm getting that kitchen upgrade that this old farmhouse is sorely in need of.
Guess we better plan a little farewell party for those nasty 60's cabinets and the lovely 70's linoleum.
Maybe it should be a demolition party.
Champagne and crowbars ...
I just love a good theme party.

The Dizzy Gardener

2009-06-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

Lovely...absolutely lovely.

The Husband and I went on the Horticultural Society Garden Tour this weekend.
Ooooo Laaa Laaaa!

We've been trying to play catch-up around here, the last thing we need is to go trotting off to drool over other peoples gardens, and that's exactly why we try to go every year.
To dream, to gawk, to marvel at the time, energy, creativity and oh yeah...lots of money that other people spend on their gardens.

The other thing this gardener/blogger doesn't need is more ideas for her own garden, because she has about 3767 unfinished projects at this old farm.

But there they were, those chairs..painted black...next to a big black shiny pot.

Wait...I have chairs just like that! I should paint them black!
And set that big shiny black pot I have next to them..and plant purple blooming plants...and set it on the dock just like they did.
OK..so I'm lacking a dock.
I still want to paint my chairs shiny black and find a pretty spot for them with that big black pot.

Make that 3768 projects.

Winter / Summer

2009-06-12T09:45:00.001-07:00

Summer is here! Yikes.
I can't keep up, every year it's the same story. I think everything is going pretty good,and then bam! The gardens explode with weeds, everything needs to be mowed or pruned or picked.
I race around as fast as I can but no matter what I do I can't catch up.
The fantasies of moving to a condo return.

Next winter when I can't wait to get my fingers in the dirt, I'll look back at this post.
Here's the veggie garden in summer.

And winter! Brrrr.

I'm weeding, planting, transplanting, waging war with slugs and bunnies - they don't seem to want to share.

If I need a break from the garden there is always this cabinet to work on, replacing glass, fixing the door...and then paint...hmmm.
I'm thinking white, with a little scuff sanding on the edges...or maybe silver...or gray?

Mal's Mallard Magic

2009-06-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

Some days ... I tell ya.
When you don't know what on earth you're going to do, somehow your friends swoop in to save you.
That's what happened here at this old farm last night.

There I stood, in the middle of the driveway - camera in hand...with a frantic look on my face. Like magic...my "niece" Malorie appeared, a knight in shining armor, ok...a knightess in a shiny new Pathfinder.
You see...I was trying to rescue some duckies that had fallen into the fishpond that we had drained for repairs. The mama duck thought I was up to no good, so she chased me away from the pond, hissing and attempting to peck at my bare legs with her beak. Note to self: when doing battle with an angry duck, don't wear shorts and flip-flops.
I was at a loss as to what to do. The mama was so upset I was afraid she was going to hurt herself.
Then....ta daaaaa.
Malorie pulled on the driveway, I frantically told her my story and she said "I'm not afraid of a silly duck!"

Here's the really mad mama duck, standing at the edge of the abyss, where her two little darlings were four feet down...quacking for all they were worth

Hellooo...anybody up there?

Malorie walked right up to the pond, the mama quacked, hissed and fluttered...Mal stood her ground. Mama took to the air, flew around in circles to divert us I think. Hubby fished the ducklings out of the pond with a swimming pool skimmer. Hey...desperate times call for desperate measures!

The ducklings waddled off to the creek, mama flew back and landed in the water.
Hooray!

And they all lived happily ever after.

I love a happy ending, don't you?

Crazy Recycle Lady

2009-05-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

That's how I feel.
Like the crazy recycle lady.
The tiki bar is slowly taking shape...of course the lumber is recycled.
I don't know the story of the support posts or the rafters, I bought them from somebody else who had a lot of used lumber they needed a home for.
But the 2x12's that we used for the bar top...this is the third time I've built something out of the same boards, and I'm pretty sure this is where they'll stay.
It looks unusual, maybe a little goofy...
Goofy works for me.
Next step is sanding and sealing...so I can do some sitting and sipping!

Have a great weekend, be sure to enjoy your views ;)

The Deer Hunter

2009-05-25T20:03:00.000-07:00

Quietly... she approaches.

She is walking very slowly, something is off. She doesn't usually walk, she lopes...or gallops.
She appears to be carrying something in her mouth. She almost appears to be shy...she's acting like she does when she's in trouble.
Oh dear, what is that in your mouth Bergie?

She finally gets up the nerve to come close, she sits...now that I've convinced her she's not in trouble...she's almost proud.

Oh. My. It's a deer tail.
Oh puppy...
Where have you been and where is the rest of the deer?

Would you look at the grin?
It's kinda creepy.

Orange Explosion

2009-05-20T22:14:00.000-07:00

In a couple of days there will be an explosion of orange on my driveway...
Strangers will stop...slowwwwly drive in, pause for a few moments, and then leave.
It's OK...I can share - the poppies are only beautiful for a little while.
They don't like rain, they tend to drop their petals if they get too hot.
But it's worth it for the fabulous show they put on, even though it's brief.

It all started with one poppy transplanted from my moms.
They set seed, and multiplied,
over and over...
year after year...
and ta daaaaa...
it's a giant poppy party.

From Creepy to Tiki

2009-05-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

When we bought the property where our cabin stands we considered hiring a bulldozer and taking down the existing structure...it was pretty gross. The funky structure was solid, but nobody had ever lived in it... unless you count rodents and gophers. We decided to put on our masks and gloves, clean it, strip it down to the studs...new windows, doors, siding, the works - we're still running wires for the solar system and we should have running water by the end of summer. Yippieeeee!
The picture is of the shed in the back yard, we talked about demolishing it as well but it has come in handy for storage so we're doing a little work to it...trying to make it a little less ugly.
Today we put up rafters to extend the roof line, tied in the support posts and - yiiikes - I helped put up the 18 foot 6x6 header!
It's starting to look a whole lot better, I wasn't sure that was even possible.

I'm back home tonight cruising blogland for tiki bar ideas.
Fire up the generator honey...we're makin' pina coladas!

Happy Mothers Day!

2009-05-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

My mom and my two little sisters.
I think this photo was taken in 1966. It was for a feature story that the local newspaper was doing for Mothers Day.
I can't believe I found it! I'm not one of those super-organized people when it comes to photos...or anything else for that matter. lolol

We've had a busy weekend...spoiling moms with flowers, dinners out...
just plain fun - for our moms and for us too ;)

Happy Mothers Day to all of the moms out there!

More Ladies

2009-05-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

Thought I should offer a bit of floral loveliness and take a break from all of the bovine babble.
When I was a kid we called these "Lady in the Bathtub"...I've always liked that name a lot better than "Bleeding Hearts".

Good Morning Ladies

2009-05-06T22:31:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung at the cabin.
The balsam root plants are blooming.
The cows are out on our lower range before they
move up to the high country for a few months.
I feel like I'm on a speeding train headed straight
for summer.
I need to remember to take the time to look out the window and enjoy the ride.

This Chicken Doesn't Care

2009-05-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

This is where I should be checking in today at about noon.
But I'm not.

Oh my goodness.
Blogland is humming with what I'm calling "Pig Flu Posts".
Everyone has quite the opinion on what everyone else should be doing, goodness gracious!
Here's what I say.
Use some common sense people, settle down and settle in.
Play it smart...or play fast and loose and suffer the consequences.

Today was supposed to be departure day for a family adventure with my mom, sister and sister-in-law. We were flying to San Diego, staying at the Hotel Del Coronado tonight and then going on a little cruise to Mexico for four days.
We're not going.
Mom has a kidney condition that has left her with a seriously compromised immune system. She's finally off the chemo and steroids...yayyyy! But she needs to be careful and avoid putting herself into risky situations.
We've rescheduled for September.
Call us sissies, chickens...say we're overreacting to the media hype.
I'm tough, I can take it.
I'm protecting my mama...it's what all good daughters should do.

Hottie with a Heifer Body

2009-05-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

We let the cows out on the pasture a few days ago. It's officially spring here when the ground is dry enough to let the girls out of the barn after a long winter inside. It's always a bit of a rodeo for the first five minutes, then they settle down and start to graze...I guess that would be like eating a fresh salad after eating crackers (hay) all winter.
They were all running around bucking and crow-hopping...making a loop around the lagoon, headbutting and having a good time.
Except for little miss attitude here, serious attitude.
Notice the placement of the hooves...strike a pose baby.
"I think this is my best side, see? Look...I don't think this is the best shot - how about like this?"
What a diva.

And then there's this girl...not really in the mood for a photo shoot.

No to frescoe, no to faux

2009-04-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

I took this picture while I was sitting on the couch at the cabin, a really crooked snap - no thought to what was in the frame, no getting junk out of the way. I've been looking at it trying to decide on paint colors.
The views are one of the things I love about the place. I think the only answer when it comes to paint colors is white, I want the emphasis to be on the beauty outside...don't really want to detract from it.
I'm not really a white paint girl, well...except for barns - I like white barns - and farmhouses. But inside? I'm all over the color..fearless as a matter of fact. I've painted rooms moss green, chocolate, oxblood red...you name it.
But right now, the only answer that I come up with that doesn't compete with my views is white...boring old white.
Ideas anyone?

Bluebird of Happiness

2009-04-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

Every spring these little guys are everywhere I look when I'm working at the cabin.
So cute, and sooo blue!
I wish I could get good pictures of them...they're so busy, snacking, fluttering, pecking at the bird seed I scatter for them. I don't have a snazzy camera so the odds of getting a good shot are pretty slim even if the little guys sat still for a photo-op.
I'll just enjoy them while I do my spring chores, I guess they're not the only ones who can't sit still for a good shot.
It's spring... the list of chores is long!
Things are growing and blooming.
Happy blogging garden girl ;)

Big Fat Ice Trucker Fakers

2009-04-25T19:30:00.001-07:00

I'm not much into reality TV...so I wasn't aware that there was a show called "Ice Road Truckers"...or something like that. From what I gather it's a Discovery channel show about truckers driving on icy roads, okie dokie...not interesting to me but I guess there is somebody out there watching, and they think it's the real deal.
Well, last night I had the misfortune of watching them "fake it".
Driving home over the mountain pass from the cabin, the seventh car in line, the first ones through after the long winter closure...I was soooo happy not to have to drive the long way around.
And then.
We stopped.
Because this truck was hanging off the edge of the highway at the hairpin curve. The story is that the Ice Road Trucker people wanted to roll a big semi truck over the cliff and film it, but the truck got stuck...no tumbling, no rolling, no fire, no crash...no Big Faker Ice Trucker footage to suck people in...oooooing and ahhhing on cable TV.
Just one cranky lady who still had three hours to drive who really wanted to get her own show on the road...dang it!
Today I googled Ice Road Trucker just to see what all the fuss was about.
Hmmm....people watch this stuff.
Oh well....some people babble away on blogs ;)
Other people watch fake truck crashes on cable TV.

The show is supposed to air in May, I think I'm busy.

Perfect Planters

2009-04-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness...I want these planter boxes. This is the worst case of planter box-itis I have ever had. They remind me of the old whiskey barrel planters, only with attitude... sometimes a little attitude is such a good thing.

We're racing around handling a lot of deferred maintenance here at the farm. Lots of blackberry brambles are getting chopped and snipped, branches are getting sawed and hauled off to the wood shed. Yesterday we put together some new raised beds since my old ones are falling apart.

Today I'm off to the cabin to get a handle on the weed problem there...but ohhh boy...when I get back?
I wanna build some planters!

Honey? Did you say you have some old weathered lumber in the barn that I can use?

I didn't need to know that

2009-04-07T18:14:00.000-07:00

Last week the furnace croaked.
Saturday the furnace sales guy came over, gave us the sales pitch, tried to sell us a heat pump (unsuccessfully) and today the new furnace was installed - sans heat pump.
Here's the deal. My house is 100+ years old, don't get excited...it's not a cool 100 as in built-in cabinets and character. It's a really simple plain farmhouse that was built solid but on a budget....no frills whatsoever.
The furnace sales guy crawled under the house to look at the duct work...he crawled back out and said it was icky under there. Duh...then he said something about a bio-hazard. Not really sure what that means, maybe because over the years a few critters were making themselves a little under-house home there.
I didn't really need that little morsel placed in my brain...under my current living space there exists a bio-hazard.
Today the installation guy needed to go under the house to add a drain pipe to the furnace...he said it was scary down there. He said that there is a tree stump holding up the center support beam of the house, if there is an earthquake - the whole house will cave in on itself - he advised me that if I'm in the house when there is an earthquake I should try to stay to the exterior walls of the house.
I'll put that on my "to do" list.
Thanks so much guys.
This is all stuff I would really rather not know.

I'm going back out to the garden where spring is making all sorts of beautiful promises...sunshine and lollipops and rainbows and daffodils.
There will be no talk of bio-hazards and structural instability in my garden.

A New Adventure

2009-03-31T22:50:00.000-07:00

Finally...I can spill the news.
We bought a house on an island! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.
Things have been really crazy around here for the last couple of months, I haven't been blogging much because my brain has been on overload.

A couple of months ago I went to visit a dear friend out on San Juan Island. We had so much fun, she's a realtor and I helped her host an open house for other realtors at one of her listings. At the end of the tour we went to look at some other properties. While we were looking I asked her about a house I had looked at last year...it still hadn't sold and the price had dropped quite a bit.
Uh oh.

I've always wanted to have a place on the island, we've rented a couple of houses for the summer ...and we have friends who live there that we always have a great time with.

So, we made an offer..and it was accepted! We're going to open a Bed and Breakfast and live there. We've had offers on the farm so we've decided to sell while people are still interested in it, after all...who knows what's going to happen with the economy - strike while the iron is hot!

Hubby is looking forward to hanging out, hiking with Bergie and he says he's going to take up kayaking.
I'll be managing the Inn and doing the cooking. Hubby will take care of maintenance, maybe he'll even do some kayak tours - the house is in a perfect location for whale watching and kayak tours.

I don't have a lot of photos but here are a few to give you an idea of what the place looks like. We'll be doing some redecorating so I'll be posting about that and probably asking for some advice on how to make our guests comfortable.
Oh...and of course we'll be setting up a website for the place.
Such an adventure, I'm on overload!

Looking up at the house from the pool deck.

The view! The house is built so that you can see it from virtually every room.

The swimming pool, covered for the winter.

The breakfast nook in a turret!
Ever since I was a little kid I've wanted to live in a house with one of these!

I'm so excited...and I hope you will come stay with us at our B & B...I'll make you one of my specialties - a baloney sandwich....because that's what this story is - a big bunch of baloney.

April Fools!

Bistro Baffi

2009-03-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

Chef Michael with the birthday girl

The good news...I have a new favorite restaurant, the bad news is that it's two-plus hours away from home!
Saturday night we had a little birthday dinner for my friend Diane at Bistro Baffi in Burien.
Eveything about this place is delightful. The decor is warm and cozy, the staff is attentive and charming. The food? In a word, absolutely fabulous.

There are a lot of restuarants that serve great food, but these days...if I'm going to dine out I want the total experience. I'm thinking twice before I spend money at a restaurant, a lot of people are doing the same. This little Bistro makes sure that every patron feels special, I noticed that Chef Michael stops at every table to make sure of that.

I just wish I didn't live so far away.

Basal Cuts and Budget Cuts

2009-03-25T20:11:00.000-07:00

My lovely corsican hellibore...last year.
It's nice to have a picture, since that's all I'm going to get this year.
There will be no blossoms on my corsicans this spring...the cold and the snow did them in, the whole plant was flattened by the snow, the freezing temps didn't help a whole lot - the poor thing is a big pile of mush.
So, today...I gave the little darlings a buzz cut, they're not a total loss...there is new growth, there just won't be any of those lovely flowers for me to admire out my kitchen window.
Sad blogger face.

There could be some big changes in the garden this year, lots of winter damage...a few things look like they're total gonners.
Prune heavy my friends, no sense forcing a plant to struggle to maintain dead or dying branches...take a deep breath and make the cut.

Sort of reminds you of the economy...doesn't it?

I feel the need....the need for speed

2009-03-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks I've been working in the office, cleaning out files, catching up on my filing system that has been sorely neglected for far too long. It's amazing what you find when you dig in and pay attention. Items from 2006 kept turning up in strange places, finally it dawned on me...that was when dad was failing - and when he passed away. Sometimes we just click on auto-pilot and carry on...sooner or later the pieces will get picked up and put away.

One of the boxes up on the shelf contained an assortment of cards, photos that friends had passed on from wonderful shared ski adventures in the mountains. An unfortunate series of injuries has kept me off the mountain for a few years. As I flipped through the photos all of the memories came flooding back, getting up early to make first tracks, brunch with friends at the top of the mountain - a girlfriend who shows up at said brunch with a whole roasted ham, still warm from the oven. I think that's my favorite story...you just gotta love a girl who roasts a ham, stuffs it in her backpack and gets on a chairlift to meet her friends for lunch at the top of the hill, and yes....the ham was still warm, and yummy!

I miss gathering for apres ski to share a pitcher of beer and laugh and brag about who had the best crash, best saved crash or who hasn't crashed for three days running.

I miss it, I miss it all. The big swooping turns taken too fast..that fleeting thought that "if I crash this could be really bad", but not slowing down because the rhythm of the dance with slope of the hill is too beautiful to abandon.

I think it's time to dust off the sticks and make a few turns....
just to see if I still can.

Some of my favorite ski buddies.

Apres ski...always best when you can sit outside, waiting for the gang to trickle off the hill.

"The Red Rascalls"...
the best day ever
sunshine and snow
brunch on the mountain...
the stuff memories are made of.

The Evil Troll

2009-03-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

Adding on to the farmhouse.

There...I said it. Now I'll never get a building permit.
I made a little trip to the county building permit office to ask some questions about getting a building permit to add on to the farmhouse. The Husband finally admitted he's never going to move. If this is going to be where I'm going to live until my dying days it might be a good idea to make it "old lady friendly" - that means a bedroom and bathroom on the same floor, right now the bedrooms are upstairs and the one bathroom is on the main floor. Negotiating the stairs in the middle of the night with arthritic joints is becoming more of a challenge.
The guy in the permit office was a creep...there were three other people who weren't, but the guy that they made me talk to about the process of adding on couldn't have been less helpful.
Here's a little of the conversation...I'm still seething.

Him: Who is drawing the plans?
Me: I've drawn it to scale and your inspector told me I should be fine.
Him: Do you even know how to draw a plan?
Me: Uh...well...I aced my drafting and design class but that was a few years ago.
Him: You think you can draw a plan? Are you an engineer?
Me: No, I'm not...
Him: I require a plan of the existing structure, a plan of the proposed addition, section elevation drawings and site photos.
Me: Okay...I've done that. Anything else?
Him: They're probably not to scale.
Me: Actually...they are.
Him: But you said you're not an architect or an engineer....they're probably not to scale.

At that point in the conversation I got a hot flash...or perhaps it was seething rage...not sure.
The evil troll inside of me is doing a freaky little happy dance that the construction boom in the county has come to a screeching halt.
Maybe that little creep at the county permit office will get laid off....
Oh...I can think that but I shouldn't really blog it.
Hot flash.
I did.
I AM the evil troll.
I am the evil troll that will never get a building permit.
Oh well, one more excuse to not spend the money on an addition.

Country Living Envy

2009-03-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

photo from Country Living

I love this picture. The garden shed, the pathway...all of it.
It's a little messy...and I still think it's stinking cool.
Why is it that when a magazine like Country Living publishes a photo like this one I think it looks so perfect, quite beautiful actually.

Here at the farm we have all of the above, the shed, the peeling paint, the weedy pathway... the sparsley planted corn because the crows got to the seeds before they germinated, it's all here...all the time.
But.
Here at the farm I think it's all a big mess that needs to be cleaned up, painted, weeded, replanted....
but in Country Living it's stinking cool.

Is there therapy for that?

Little Miss Snooty Face

2009-03-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

This is Bergie out in the barn with her "don't mess with me" face.

I'm nervous. My sister decided Bergie needs to go to the doggie park. Bergie gets to go a lot of places but she doesn't get out of the car a lot, sister says that's like taking your kid to the circus and making them stay in the car and watch from the parking lot.
So, today is the day...we're off to the dog park at Lake Padden.
Yikes.
This dog mom is nervous. Don't laugh at me but I googled "dog park manners"...hey, Bergie's a farmgirl, she gets to run around her as much as she wants but she doesn't get to play with a lot of other pup-kids.
I'm ready.
Plastic baggies - check
Doggie treats - check
Strong leash - check
Clothes that can get dirty - check
Towel for dirty dog - check

Cross your fingers and wish us luck ;)

Oh...and have a great weekend!

Bright Lights, Big City

2009-03-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

And deep fried truffles?
Oh. My.

When I was released from my jury duty on late Monday I met "the girls" down at Elliots on the Pier...it's one of our regular spots for chick chat and catching up.
Since I'm a foodie I tend to watch what the waitstaff is bring to other tables.
I was in the middle of a sentence and came to a stop...I'm a talker, it takes a bit to get me to shut up. My girlfriend chuckled and said "what did you spy?"...I said I saw what looked like a plate of meatballs and ice cream! I was close...it was deep fried chocolate truffles with a couple of scoops of ice cream.
Hmmm...
I'll think I'll stay with their fabulous deep fried halibut cheeks, maybe a shared knife and fork salad...and crabcakes for appetizers.
Thank you very much.

Sleepless in Seattle

2009-03-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday night I drove to the 100+ miles to Seattle so that I could report for Federal Jury Duty Monday morning. I had made reservations at the Hyatt because it's so close to the Federal courthouse and they were willing to give me a deal on a room because I was a potential juror. When I printed out my confirmation before I left the farm there was a note on the confirmation that my reservation had been changed...uh oh. Hmmm...the date was correct, the price on the confirmation was what I had been quoted, so I dismissed any concerns and loaded up the car for the drive.
The drive was fine...although it was snowing, I was really glad that I had made the decision to drive down in the evening instead of waiting until morning.
Check in...no problem, although they seemed to be extra nice.
The bellman pretty much insisted on taking my luggage up to my room with me, normally this strong farmgirl carries her own bags..but I had a lot of stuff because of the potential length of my stay and frankly I was too tired to care.
Off we went...and the elevator went up...and up...all the way to the 30Th floor, the very tippy-top. My dear bellman directed me to turn right, then left, then right again. Finally...it hit me, those darling people at the Hyatt took pity on me and gave me a corner suite, it was huuuuuuge. This farmgirl immediately spazzed out and got all hyper...while the bellman tried to show me around my new digs, the mini bar that looked more like a mini-mart, the twelve foot high windows with electronic window shades...good gravy it was deee-luxe.
The bathroom? A marble palace as big as my living room...
The picture is the marble foyer,
I shoulda packed my roller skates, seriously...a girl could do some spins that place was so big.

The bummer is, I got in late Sunday night and had to leave that glorious room at 7:15 on Monday morning to report to the courthouse. It took me forever to go to sleep because I was soaking in all that luxurious beauty, I've never had the space needle as my night lite!

After a long day in jury voir dire I was released from my civic duty and sent on my way.
Even though I was only in the city for one night it feels like I've been gone for much longer, the jury selection process was long and complex...it was the largest group of jurors they've ever called in because of the sensitive nature of the case.
I came close...but they didn't pick me.
It would have been intense...and I know I would have shed some tears.

It's lovely to be back home among the swirling clouds of dog hair and to my bathroom that's the size of a closet.
Ahhh...
Farm Sweet Farm.

Sharing Backyards.com

2009-03-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

A lovely raspberry vine in my garden last year...yummmmm!

Just ducking into blogland to share something I learned about today.
Sharingbackyards.com
such a fabulous idea!
I'm incredibly fortunate (and sometimes overwhelmed ) because there is a whole lot of space here at the farm for me to play at being a gardener.
When I moved here in 1980 the yard was about 1/4 of what it is now. Yep, I'm a gardener run amok - the garden has grown to the south, west and north...I couldn't go east because there is a road in my way ;)
This site I bumped into today is for folks who don't have the space for a garden...and for folks who do but would like someone to share the toil as well as the bountiful harvest!
Most of the folks I know have enough room to grow a garden, but just in case there is somebody out there wandering around on blogs I thought it was worth it to pass the info along.
Okay...I'm back to pruning roses, planting peas and watching patiently for that first daffodil.

Wants vs. Needs

2009-02-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

Where I want to be.
In the barn, painting, organizing, playing, junking, listening to music.

Where I need to be.
In the office, finishing farm taxes and bookkeeping, cooking, preparing for two weeks away from the farm.

I found another inspiring studio photo on flickr at LimonVerde - her photos are beautiful...this shot made me want to go find those IKEA shelves I have somewhere and get crazy with paints and paper scraps.

Have a great weekend!

PBS...or Paperbackswap.com!

2009-02-25T09:17:00.000-08:00

OK...so maybe everybody else knows about this and I'm the last girl to the party but this is making me happy. Paperbackswap.com is my new favorite site. Post a book, mail a book, get a book...no fees, just the price of postage to mail off the book - usually a little over two bucks. What a groovy way to recycle books.
I love books, always have...and I buy books, it's one of my guilty pleasures. I need to have at least two books in my "waiting to be read" stash. It's the law, if there aren't any "books in waiting" this farmgirl gets cranky. I'm sure you're thinking "hey girl, ever heard of the library?", yup... I use the library too ;)
I read more in the summer than I do in the winter. So I'm posting like crazy...getting ready for summer. At this rate I'll have a giant stash of books here at the farm, and more at the cabin! We read like crazy at the cabin, no TV and no computers there...it's great.

So far I've posted about 100 books, sent out over twenty, and have two in the stash.
I wish I had known about this years ago.

Raccoon Rascals

2009-02-22T10:23:00.000-08:00

The mystery of the muddy pawprints has finally been solved. All winter I've been noticing muddy paw prints on the lawn furniture that is stored out in the barn, I couldn't figure out who the dirty rotter could be. The prints were too large for a cat..unless it was a verrrry large kitty. Possum? No. Puppy? No, if she's in the barn she's running around...not sitting on furniture.
Yesterday I was playing around on my computer and something caught my eye out in the front yard, two raccoons were running around like they didn't have a care in the world, last week it was a coyote, this week raccoons....next week?

James + Carly = Ben

2009-02-21T10:13:00.000-08:00

Talented.
Charming.
Amusing.
We went to see Ben Taylor Monday night at the Triple Door in Seattle. Truly one of the best concerts I've ever been to...and I've been to a whole lotta concerts in my almost 50 years. If you ever get the chance to see him. Go. Don't hesitate...just go.
Even if you don't know ever word to every James Taylor and Carly Simon song like this blogger... because she listened to them over and over again in the 70's, and never got sick of them....and yes...she still listens to them.
I played Ben's CD yesterday while I was in the garden...I'm pretty sure I won't ever tire of this one either.

Cutting Back Ornamental Grasses

2009-02-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

Every spring here at this old farm it's the same old story. When it's time to tidy up the gardens after the winter wind, snow and rain, I'm looking for shortcuts, I'm game for anything that whittles down the time it takes to get things done around this place. I don't trim back my ornamental grasses in the fall because I like the winter interest they provide, and of course the birdies like the seed heads. But when it's time to cut the grasses back, that's late Feb - early March here in the Northwest, they're pretty ratty and messy...quite frankly it looks like somebody threw a bale of hay into a giant blender and sprinkled it over my yard.
This time I thought I'd take a tip from another gardener and use tape to hold the clumps together before I got out the hedge trimmer and whittled away at the base of the plant. The idea was that instead of the grasses falling all over like pixie sticks they would be contained in a nice upright stack.

Yah...whatever. The tape kept breaking while I was trying to gather the bundles, so then I switched to string, not a whole lot of success there either.
So...we're back to the old tried and true grass rodeo. I wrap my arms around the clump, The Husband slices through the base with the hedge trimmer and tries not to nick my ankles or slice through the cord of the trimmer.

Here's a clump bundled with string,

and another bundled with painters tape.

Maybe next year I'll come up with the perfect solution...but for now it looks like we'll just stay with the old tried and true method of "hug and hack".
Anybody else out there have a good idea?

Calming Colors

2009-02-17T11:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning was spent painting out in the party barn studio, I'd been wanting to eliminate the colorful walls for quite a while...wanting to get away from the energy of reds and yellows and going for a simpler palette of greys. I love how it's all coming together, there is a mural of clouds up in one of the eves that I don't intend to change - it was my first attempt at painting a large scene and it was so much fun I doubt it will ever get covered up as long as I live here.
But....
After a morning spent painting I picked up my baby sister and we headed to the big city for a concert and lunch with my darling niece. That's where I got into trouble, no...not the kind of trouble you're thinking. No car trouble, or money trouble or speeding ticket trouble.
Color trouble.
We went to Agua Verde for lunch, it's been on my list now for quite a while...and I absolutely loved the restaurant...but what I loved even more was the mural.
Ohhhh...the mural, the clouds, the color, the giant flowers!

Fire up those brushes baby...I feel a giant floral mural coming on.
OK, not really - but wouldn't this be cool?!?!!!!!

Cooking by Committee

2009-02-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

I love gathering with friends, making a meal together...we call it "Cooking by Committee". Give me a knife and I'm happy to chop, a pan and a spoon - I'll stir 'til you tell me to stop. It's so much fun to create a fabulous meal while chatting and catching up, unless I'm in charge! I had a dear friend who was a fabulous cook and she was always so relaxed in the kitchen, something I need to work on.
Multi-tasking in other areas of my life? No problem!
Cooking and chatting in my own kitchen? Problem! I get totally confused, lost, distracted...and something usually gets burned.
I think the trick is to just smile and nod...and keep my eyes on the stove!

Studio Inspiration

2009-02-08T09:21:00.001-08:00

Studio Inspiration
Originally uploaded by Art·Craft·Thrift

Cruising around flickr looking for some ideas while I organize things out in the party barn/craft studio.
Whoa ....some seriously overwhelming inspiration pics.
Yowza!
Bummed that I can't make the pictures larger.

Buckets of Fun

2009-02-04T22:34:00.000-08:00

Photo of the veggie garden last week.
This week?
Beautiful sunshine, no coat... and seven five-gallon buckets full of weeds,
oh...
and a few blisters on my hands to reward me for my labor.
It felt so good to be out in the sunshine.
Next week?
The weather man says maybe more snow.
Oh well, at least I got a little head start and those beds are ready
for me to plant peas next month.
I have visions of sugar snap peas dancing in my head.
Yum.

Champagne for Valentines Day?

2009-02-01T21:33:00.000-08:00

If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion.
Gruet.
Bottled in New Mexico...but made with grapes from my friends vineyard in Washington.
Perfect for Valentines Day or anything else you might want to celebrate.
I'm turning 50 this summer...I'll be ordering a case...maybe two.
It's going to be a champagne summer.

Door a Dear

2009-01-28T22:43:00.000-08:00

photo - one of my lovely old doors, waiting for me to come up with an idea

Several years ago I was at my favorite recyled building materials haunt and I found a pair of doors. It was love at first sight and I plunked down the money for them. It's never a lot of money at the ReStore but considering the fact that I didn't need them, didn't have a place for them, didn't really have the foggiest idea what I would do with them...it's a bit odd that I made the purchase. But...like I said - I saw them - I loved them - I bought them.
Ever since that day I've been moving them from one spot to another out in the barn to make sure they don't end up sitting in a puddle of water (leaky roof) or get bumped , knocked over and broken....perish the thought!
This week the light went on...I found a picture that will now give those doors a home, a function , a chance to be all they can be!
And I will have a really groovy cabinet....
I just have to build it....hmmmm.
I'm sure The Husband would be happy to give me a hand, this thing is gonna be big, and those doors weigh a ton! Really honey, I've got it all figured out...it doesn't have to be fancy...it's just going in the barn!

Of course the idea photo is painted gray...it's all I see these days. ;)

I won, I won, I WON!

2009-01-27T12:04:00.000-08:00

Yipppieeee...I'm a winner!
Lori over at Lipsmacking Goodness (she's on my sidebar over there on your right )had a contest for her blogaversary a while back. Lori is cooking light and she bought this Cooking Light book for herself..and one a a give away to her readers. I love to collect cookbooks so I was particularly interested in the contest.

Here's the deal. I never win. The Husband is the winner around these parts, not me. So imagine my surprise when Lori picked my name out of the hat! I about fell over. The neat thing is that I was one of her first commenters when she started her blog, I was also new to blogging and when I saw her first posts I wanted to encourage her to keep up the good work - and helllooo...the girl posts wonderful recipes.
The book came in the mail today and it's fabulous. Much like Lori I'm trying to
lighten up my cooking a bit. When I diet I tend to stick to the same old recipes, afraid that if I branch out I'll completely fall off the wagon - which of course always happens. I looove good food, good cooks, parties that good cooks host where they serve yummy stuff. If someone tells me they went to a party my first question is usually about the food, not "who was there" or "what did you wear".

So, thanks to Lori...I can still be all about the food, it will just be a bit lighter - and hopefully so will I :)
Cheers!

Pop on over to Lori's ....there's lots of yummy stuff. The last recipe of hers that I tried was the miso salad dressing... it's fabulous!

*Sorry about the sideways photo, Blogger is being a bit snarky lately.

Ready. Set. Go buy paint!

2009-01-26T13:00:00.000-08:00

But first...is anyone else having problems loading pictures on blogger? I've written a few posts with pictures and they come out all garbled so I just give up and go do something else...mean old blogger.
Okay...I've decided to start playing around out in the crafty part of the barn. It's the old calf nursery, we cleaned it all up..lottts of pressure washing...ewwww - how do tiny little calves splatter pooh that high? Hubby helped me hang some plywood on the walls, they had some barn insulation so that's good. Then I got kooky with paint, one wall is red (it was 5 bucks on the reject cart at Home Depot)and the rest are yellow. It's still a barn but the feeling is a little bit red/yellow/funky/Scandinavian kitchenish. Friends gave me a reject desk that you see in the photo...the orange chairs are from my friend Susie, they're from her childhood breakfast table... that chair with the red throw was my moms, for my entire childhood that was the chair she sat on in the evenings to do her needlepoint.
The place is full of old rejects but fun none-the-less. It's where we have the pumpkin carving party, where we have the wreath making party...you can make a huuuge mess and close the door and walk away.
Since I have a giant itch to paint -and I'm kinda sick of the yellow/red thing...this is where the grey is going to go. I'm going to do one corner at a time and the desk corner is where I'm planning to start. Using a dark gray on the base of the desk, a softer gray on the upper shelf...maybe a faux stone treatment on the half/walls, they're yucky old concrete and need something, not sure about that though cuz I know "faux" is sooooo over. But hey...it's a barn. I don't know that I care if I'm totally off trend, faux is fun annnd cheap...this place is all about the cheap.
Oh...and the circus tent treatment on the ceiling would be so cool out here!
What do ya think...do it? Am I nutso?
Too late, as soon as I post this I'm headed to the paint store!
Wanna come over and help paint?
he he he

Circus Circus!

2009-01-22T10:49:00.000-08:00

photo courtesy of House Beautiful

More paint fantasy...ooo la la!

Now this is just plain fun, the ceiling treatment looks like a circus tent to me. I'm having visions of painting the ceiling of the party barn to look like this...just dreaming though, there is no stinkin' way I'm going to spend that much time on a ladder, this circus clown is too dang old for that....bummer.

A Sirius Question

2009-01-21T13:25:00.000-08:00

Yup...that's my roof, and my TV antenna. No cable service here at this old farm, we joke about getting a satellite dish but we just never do it, the list of reasons is long and boring.
The new vehicle that we bought last fall came with satellite radio, and a free trial period of Sirius Radio. Well...the free ride is over and it's time for us to make a decision. I love having satellite radio, especially when I drive to the cabin - when I go over the mountain pass I don't get radio signals but I DO get Sirius....and I love it. Part of my decision making process for any purchase is research, that's just what I do. The research on Sirius has turned up a whole lot of unhappy customers...oh. my. if the posts are to be believed the folks at Sirius have built quite a bad reputation.
So...any advice? Do it? Don't do it? Anybody out there been double billed and had "sirius" problems trying to deal with the customer service department?
As it stands right now I won't be signing up....ahhh...the power of the internet.

I'm Officially A Fuddy-Duddy

2009-01-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

In my oh-so-square little world I've tried to play by "the rules" of fashion...most of them make a lot of sense to me, I grew to like and even embrace those rules...I was comfortable with those rules....but oh my gravy kiddos...all of those rules have been tossed out the window.

I am throwing in my "fashion don't" towel. Our new First Lady wore glitter for her first official daytime appearance....ayyyyeeeee! Oh dear oh dear oh dear, I'm sorry...call me old fashioned, call me Mrs. CrabbyPants. It is what it is...a really big glamour "don't".

I'm looking forward to "Change"...bear with me while I get used to all of it, this reaching across the aisle. I'm stuck in my ways, but I'll try hard to change with the best of them.

The lovely Mrs. Obama isn't the first person to give me cause to pause...this whole fashion shake-up has been going on for quite some time, but today was the final blow...the proof is in the Presidential pudding.

So....I'll change. What will I wear to embrace change?

For starters:

flip flops and a hoodie to a memorial ( toe frostbite will be a problem in winter)

strappy open toe high heels in the snow....(more frostbite, and of course a pedicure for any toes that survive that initial case of frostbite)

fuzzy wool in the summer....(followed by a nasty rash when I have a hot-flash)

intenionally visible bra straps (guilty...but it wasn't intentional!)

crisp white cotton pants in December (never wear white on my lower half...therapy to follow for all)

corduroy in August (more hot-flash issues on the horizon)

diamonds (blingggg) for daytime (note to self *save up for diamonds)

a white dress to a wedding that isn't my own (all three of my sisters-in-laws wore white to my wedding...who knew they were trend-setters?)

a splashy print frock to a funeral (oh dear, I'm visibly squirming)

white shoes from Labor Day to Memorial weekend (they will be orthopedic, it just makes sense)

and...

lots and lots of cleavage, daytime cleavage, night time cleavage, all the time cleavage...if ya got 'em flaunt 'em! (even if said cleavage is that of a wrinkly fifty year old chubby girl who got too much sun in the 70's)

There will be a period of adjustment so please bear with me. If you happen to spot me wearing dark jeans or slacks, a conservative sweater, a jacket that covers my rather ample rear end and sensible shoes...please bear in mind that it will take some time for me to assemble the appropriate attire for all of these new changes.