Welcome to the Farm

Guess who’s back, back again?

Shannon’s back, tell a friend. (I was an Eminem fan in college, but just the mainstream stuff!)

You may have not missed me, but I missed writing so much. We were without internet for a month. (Yes, we survived.) But I have been dying to talk about the move, as well as other farm happenings.

We had so many family and friends help us! 

We are officially in the farm house!

The renovations are done and walls are painted. We need to change out 2 more ceiling fans and a hall light fixture, but I am so happy with the way everything turned out.

Master bedroom

Organized spices

Antique hutch from previous owner

Coffee bar with handmade shelves

Read the dish towel.

My grandmother's hutch filled with my mom's dishes.

Formal dining room

This room leads into the formal living room.

I want to hang up black and white family photos in this room.

And eventually I want to turn this fireplace into an electric or gas so we can use it anytime.

Each room leads into the next creating a circle.

One of the entry ways.

This will be a gallery wall soon.

More handmade shelves

Family room

Lazy dog in the family room.

A lot of people ask me about ghosts. I do not believe in ghosts, nor do I search for them. But since it’s an old house and it’s a new place, I am cautious and scan the room when I walk in. (However, since we’ve been here for a month now I find myself doing it less and less.)

If I do feel the occasionally heebie jeebie I think – if it’s a man ghost he needs to go find something productive to do. If it’s a woman ghost she shouldn’t be so judgy. I’m sure she didn’t keep an immaculate house either. If it’s a child then they need to go play somewhere else. And if it’s my mama she knows better than to surprise me with an abrupt appearance.

But seriously, we feel like this place is already home. Please come visit! We don’t have an official guest room, but we have a good air mattress. 

Come visit and have coffee on the front porch.

You can see views like this.

And this.

And even this!

Quick sand and corny jokes

The past few months the creek has been flowing steadily. Partly due to the weather and also because we’ve been cleaning it. But it started running slow again.

We took a walk along the creek, picking up trash and sticks. There is a part where the stream feeds into the pond.

My hard working husband got in there and really started kicking things around to get it moving. But all of a sudden he started sinking. (My childhood fear of quick sand really came true!)

Since he was already wet, he decided to walk in the pond to see what the bottom was like. All of a sudden it got deeper, and he started to sink fast. 

He hightailed it out of there and was soaked – and we all had a good laugh.

Michael escaping quick sand.

But the discussion turned serious about the pond and how we should clean it and make it bigger. I asked Michael if there was a professional who could come help us.

He turned to me and said, “Yes, Bob the Pond Mon.”

At first I couldn’t tell if he was joking, but then I realized he was, and I started to belly laugh and couldn’t stop. I get it’s not funny to anyone else, heck, I don’t know why it was so funny to me. But this was days ago, and I keep laughing about it.

The quick sand and corny joke are a few things that I love about the farm. We’re making great memories without even realizing it. And learning lessons that will last a life time.

In fact, another bird got in the house. Lesson learned to always shut doors and windows.

Another interesting fact, dirt can be really hard. (I guess I was the only one who didn't know this.)

Michael has been tilling a garden, but it’s not going great. So we are using shovels and various other tools to get the ground ready. Anyone have a spare tractor we could borrow?

Bailey helping getting the garden ready by being cute. 

Also helping by being cute. And I think she broke up a few clumps of dirt. 

We need a tractor! He's cute too.

Of course, I think she is cute. She's a worm whisperer. But when she finds them she cleans them with a bristly brush. We kiboshed that.

I was wearing my good running shoes and took them off so they wouldn't get muddy. I felt like such an earth goddess or hippie or maybe a hipster. Either way I wasn't much help. 

It’s an exciting time though. Strawberries have been planted. The remodel is supposed to be done tomorrow, and we have a move-in date. (A year later than we thought.)

Will we get strawberries?

Rhubarb

Master bath

Extra shelves

Ship lap! Ship lap!

I need 2 hampers and some wire or gray baskets. Who is a power shopper and can find these items?

It just proves no matter how hard you plan or how much in control you feel, life always throws you curve balls. It just matters how you handle it.

My secret – always laugh at the corny jokes. 

Flowers from my girls.

So sweet. 

From the Farmer: Seeds!!!

The end of the renovation is near. The light at the end of the dusty, dirty, frustrating tunnel is growing. I can now turn my attention to what has brought us to this wonderful farm in the valley; growing things.

I have never considered myself obsessive or even particular. Then I started growing things. I have a fever and the only cure is more seeds. I have a spread sheet with everything that I have planted in the last 3 years and everything I want to plant this year and next year and rough seed counts.It has germination rates and times. Producing percentages and failures. It will spit out raw data a botanist would spend days looking at. It’s a sickness man, a sickness.

Some quick data for you. I have planted 31 different types of vegetables and fruits in the last 3 years (a couple are the same but different verities) with about a 70% germination rate. As of last night I have 46 different type of seeds right now (some from previous years) and I ordered 15 more. I harvest seeds, I save them and I buy seeds.  I have a seed count that exceeds 1100. I am not obsessed enough to count every seed.  I found seeds I forgot about in the freezer from 2013 and I am keeping them. Oi. I need help.

These are some of the seeds. The rest of them just came in the mail. 

I will try to grow anything (that is legal). I have people tell me “I have a brown thumb” or “I just don’t have the time.” I tell them, true some people can kill a cactus, looking at you Shannon, but it only takes 30 minutes on a Saturday and 2 minutes every day to start a small patio or window sill garden. You don’t need a 20 acre lot or even an outdoor space. 

Getting the kids involved.

Here is what you do: go to Lowes or Home Depot get a couple of 2 to 5 gallon pots, get enough top soil or potting mix to fill each 2/3s, and here is the most important get 2 or 3 of your favorite herbs. Not strawberries or some hybrid tomato that produces fruit the size of a dinner plate but herbs. Herbs are weeds. They grow like weeds. Most are perennials (you don’t have to plant them every year).  And DO NOT START FROM SEEDS, get the seedlings. It’s easy to kill seeds.

Plant your herbs in the pots and put them in a window sills or back porch and keep the soil damp. All you have to do is water them when you drink your Ovaltine in the morning. And you will have fresh herbs in about 3 or 4 weeks. Cut them and cook it. If you have too much hang them with dental floss to dry and you have herbs all year. 

I am always curious of what fresh produce people really like or what you want to try but do not know how to prepare. Let us know!

Comment on Facebook or below and I will give you some pointers or ideas

Mud on the tires

Brad Paisley’s song Mud on the Tires was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard charts in 2003, and it describes our weekend perfectly.

Written in the lyrics – and then with a little luck, we might just get stuck. Let’s get a little mud on the tires.

Ours wasn’t so much luck, but it made for an exciting 20 minutes!

Michael drove his truck through the front field to take some tools to the garden. He was ready to start tilling so in a few months we could start planting.

On the way out, the truck was stuck in mud. 

Stuck.

No one was around to help Michael except me.

Now, I am good at a lot of things, but I really hate driving. I told you before – driving the John Deere lawn mower was a little wild for me.

But we took the UTV and drove it in front of the truck. Michael tied some tow rope up between the two vehicles, and I took my place in the driver’s seat of the UTV.

Tying the tow rope

Michael yelled for me to go. I gunned it. Mud was flying everywhere. Engines were roaring.

Moral support from cousin Leslie.

Getting some mud all over the truck.

I was actually towing the truck out of the mud while my children looked on with wide eyes.

Instructions were given to stop, but when Michael tried to go again the truck wouldn’t budge. In the end, we used some hay, he gained traction and everything was great.

Hay saved the day.

I felt like a billy bad a though. I now felt confident in the driver’s seat.

But the best part was when the girls came over to me to talk about what they saw.

Madi said sweetly, “Usually you go really slowly when you’re driving us in the UTV, but that was cool. I guess you’re a pretty good driver.”

Big compliment coming from a six-year-old who has a big sense of adventure. 

Raking after mowing.

Look at our muscles.

First mow of the year.

Playing on the farm.

The girls built a bridge.

Looks like spring.

First time eating Pop Rocks.

She wasn't a fan at first.

Stopped by Tractor Supply and learned about baby ducks and chicks.