Birdhouse Update

Jordan has been working on the birdhouse when Tom doesn't have him knee deep in farm work.

He has chipped and sanded all the bark off of the big stump.

Then, oops, most of this side was rotted, so he took it out.  I don't think any bird would live in such an abode, but Jordan assures me that he has a plan.  It involves rocks from my front flower bed.  I am trusting in the artistic process.

He has been trying his hand at carving and having fun visiting woodworking shops (candy stores for carpenters) and buying toys...um, I mean, tools.

More to come...

Birdhouses in the Making

A few months ago Jordan cut down a dying Maple tree that was in our front yard.  He saved some piece of it make some birdhouses for me.  Not just any ol' birdhouse.  Just wait and see...

The tree was hollow in the middle, which makes it perfect for a birdhouse (or some other critter).

He saved a couple of pieces about this size.

And this huge one.

He's working on chipping all the bark off.  It's a lovely bird's eye maple underneath.

Hollowing out a knothole for a bird entrance.

A natural little opening at the bottom that looks like a little fairy door.

I'll keep you posted.  They're gonna be great!

Dining Chair Redo

It's time to reupholster my dining room chairs; probably past time.

First of all, let me show you my dining room in my last house. 

This dining room I loved.  I know that pink ceilings are not everyone's cup of tea.  It certainly wasn't our realtor's cup of tea and he lobbied to have the whole room painted beige.  He finally won when the water heater broke and ruined some walls.  I gave him permission to have the painter paint the dining room "while he was at it".  Blah.

Anyway, I had the chairs upholstered in a pink tweed-like material.

  I paid to have it done instead of doing it myself, like I normally would, because I wanted the seats to be sort of rebuilt with new padding, because these are the most uncomfortable chairs on the planet.  Pretty, but uncomfortable.  And, you know how people won't leave the dining table after a dinner party.  I can hardly drag them away from the table and into the living room.  I can't imagine why anyone would want to sit there any longer than necessary.  So...I paid to have it done right.  Did they do it right?  No.  There was no extra padding and since the fabric covered everything, I didn't know what was under there, until now.

So, there is no pink in this farm house.  The pink must go.  While I was at Hobby Lobby buying the iron scrolly things for the doors, I saw that fabric was on sale and there was some that I really liked.  Instead of my usual waffling and agonizing, I just bought it.  Just like that.  Bought it.

Now I have this terrible, excruciating job.

Pulling the gazillion staples out to get the old fabric off.  As I was pulling it off, I saw that the old fabric was still on there and is attached with tiny little tack nails.

Man, the crummy upholsterer must have wanted to make sure that the pink fabric never came off - ever.  There are two rows of staples, most of them about a half an inch apart.  Ugh.  It may be a very long while before I get one chair done,  much less all six.    

This may be what my dining chairs look like for the coming year.

Repurposing

Replacing the screen on our screen doors has been something I've wanted to do since we moved to the farm.  They were full of probably thirty years worth of dirt, rust, and holes.  There were complaints of West Nile Mosquitos coming through the holes now that the weather has turned cooler and we're leaving the doors open and the A/C off.

Jordan offered to replace the screens and Tom happened to have a roll of brand new screen in his stash.  So Jordan got right on it and replaced all four in one afternoon. 

Wow, what a difference - no holes, no dirt, a clear view, and no more West Nile Mosquitos.  I was so inspired that I went on a cleaning spree and cleaned all the windows and doors across the back porch. 

So, the problem became "how to protect the screens from being pushed out and hole-poked" by big hands, little hands, and other body parts opening and closing the doors.  I ran to Lowes thinking they would have a myriad of choices, or at least a couple, of screen guards.

Nope.  They had one ugly style that I just couldn't bring myself to purchase.  So, I searched the internet...nada.  What happened to those decorative screen guards that used to be on all those screen doors that I remember from my childhood?

I did the next best thing...repurposed.

I went to Hobby Lobby and found decorative ironwork that's meant to be hung on the wall.

And I had Jordan screw them onto the door.  Voila!  Protects the screen, looks great.  At least, I think so.

Lobster Popcorn

I'm a once-a-week popcorn eater and on that one day, I will eat popcorn for dinner.  I like to dress my popcorn up.  I make my popcorn in an air popper, so I start with a blank slate. (Sometimes, I'll have microwaved kettle corn when I'm too lazy to get the air popper out...and that's pretty lazy.)


For a few years, my favorite recipe for my popcorn was butter, salt, cayenne, and grated parmesan (or peccorino).  I often add curry powder to the mix.  For the past month or so it was simply butter, salt and black pepper. So, I bought some coconut butter this past week and thought I'd try that on my popcorn on Friday night.  I didn't want to go coconut all the way, so I halved my regular butter and replaced it with the coconut butter.  Then I added salt, a few dashes of cayenne, and my freshly ground parmesan.
And, I kid you not, it tasted like lobster.  Not bad.

And this is my gigantic popcorn bowl.  I don't fill it up, but I need lots of room to eat it from.

The Weed Problem

We have this obnoxious weed, called goat weed, that will take over the pasture if unchecked.  It seems to be particularly bad this year.  I think it's because the drought last summer killed off so much other vegetation that it left room for the goat weed to really take a stand.

Goat weed is especially hard to kill with herbicides, but we're keeping our hay organic anyway, so Tom's answer to the goat weed problem is to pull it by hand.  He pulled for a few hours every day last week.  In one day, he counted 2,400 weeds pulled. 

This pile is waiting to be burned.

For now, thanks to the liming, the fertilizing, and the weed pulling, our hayfield looks fantastic, but new goatweed pops up every day.  The hay needs to be cut, but we're hoping for one more rain before cutting so that the fertilizer will be soaked in good and we won't lose any of the benefits.  So we're holding out for another week with our fingers crossed.

Deer Harry

Harry showed up with this baby deer a couple of mornings ago.  We don't know if he caught it himself, stole it from a coyote, or found it dead, but to get it into the yard he had to jump at least one and possibly two fences with the deer in his mouth.  He was panting heavily, so however it was obtained took quite a bit of effort.

I felt sorry for the little thing and am glad it was dead when I saw it, otherwise I would have had to save it from Harry which could have been a bit dangerous.

Harry's the kind of dog that you don't try to take food from (except he will let Tom do it) unless you want to lose your hand.  He spent the next three days alternately hiding, burying, and consuming the little critter, all the while guarding it or it's hiding place from the chickens (as if they wanted to eat his dead deer).  As of yesterday, all that was left was the head.  I guess it's completely gone now because Harry hasn't been guarding any particular spot since yesterday afternoon.

On a lighter note...

look what I found in the garden!  I was pulling the canary melon vines (which won't stop producing those canary melons that nobody seems to want to eat) out of the raised bed and I came upon this watermelon.  I found it just in time because it's on the verge of being over ripe.  It's nice and sweet and hadn't gone mushy yet.  What a nice surprise.

More Trench Action

Next up was, or is since he's still working on it, gas and electric lines.

As a back up energy source, Tom bought an electric generator that runs on propane a couple of years ago.  Remember that giant propane tank?

A gas line must run from the tank to the generator.

Then the electric line must run from the generator to the house.

In case of a major power outage, we should be able to run the house electricity for quite some time with the propane/generator set-up.

What Has Tom Been Up To?

Y'all might think I do all the work around here. heh.  Nah, Tom works like a mule, it's just that I'm not out there with the camera when he's working and I forget to write about it. 

His big project for the last month (in the blistering heat) has been digging trenches for water, gas, and electric lines.  Up until now, the water in the barn apartment has been supplied with the same water lines as supplies the water to each paddock.  This is problematic in the winter because when the weather is freezing, the paddock waters must be turned off.  That means no water to the apartment.  Tom wanted to run a dedicated line from the well house to the barn.

So begins the trenching.

Dug with this trencher borrowed from a friend and a lot of help from Nephew.

And, thank goodness he didn't have to dig this by hand.  It was 600 feet from the well to the barn.  (This is the trench already filled in after the water line was run.)

Well, Hello Clematis

I was surprised to see this clematis in bloom.  I planted the little sprig earlier this spring and it has been barely making it through the heat.  I certainly wasn't expecting any blooms from it this year.  But we've had a surprisingly mild August, so I guess it finally got brave enough to put on a bud when I wasn't looking.

Burlap Bedskirt

So, since I've bought this new machine, it's time to do some projects. 

I got this burlap on sale at Hancocks several months ago to make a bedskirt for the queen bed in the barn apartment.

I bought a cheapo twin size sheet to use as the base for the skirt.  It almost fits a queen size box springs so I only have to cut off a little bit.

The great thing about burlap is that you don't have to worry about cutting straight.  You can pick a thread loose on the end and pull it all the way out.  It slides out easily.

And leaves a nice straight line through the fabric.  You can see it in the middle-right of this picture, just below that fold line.

Then you can just cut along that straight line.   I needed to find the middle of the fabric (which wasn't at the crease ironed into the fabric) so I could cut it exactly in half.  I just folded it in half and picked out a thread right at my fold and pulled the thread out.  No measuring, no marking!

It's also easy to gather.  Instead of pulling the thread all the way out, you just pull it, but hold the other end so that it doesn't pull out, gathering the fabric as you pull.

After I sewed my two long lengths (created by cutting the fabric in half, lengthwise) together, I gathered them to fit the sheet, which I had cut to the exact size of the box springs, then penned them together.  Then I sewed the whole thing together.

Since the bed has a footboard, I needed to put slits in the skirt to fit down over the legs.  I never like how skirts are split all the way up letting the box springs show.  So, I sewed mine without slits, then went back and put them in by, once again, snipping and picking a thread only the height that it needed to slip down over the bed rails, but still cover the box springs.

After I made sure everything fit, I took the bedskirt off and ironed out the crease.  Then, using a zigzag stitch, I stitched all of the raw edges to (hopefully) prevent the burlap from raveling.  It's great to use the raveling to your advantage, but unless preventative measures are taken, you can have a big raveled mess on your hands.

I pulled about six layers of thread off the bottom to give the skirt a frayed edge.  I'm considering using some hot glue on it to keep it from fraying further, but that's a project for another day if it turns out it needs it.

Finished in just a few hours!  How easy was that?!

Sewing Machine Retirement

Remember that old Singer Featherweight that I was so attached to?  ( http://tilemosaics.blogspot.com/2010/04/old-technology.html )  I finally decided to bite the bullet and retire it.  It was having some problems that I'm sure could be easily fixed, but I couldn't find anyone around here that works on sewing machines.  I had some sewing projects that I wanted to get done; sewing machines were on sale at Costco with free shipping, so I ordered one.

They don't make 'em like they used to.  This new one is actually light as a feather, but that's because it's made of plastic parts.  I bet it won't last 50 years.  But...it will do for now.  It's easy to use and, I'll admit it, it does more than my ol' Singer does.

Apparently, there are some seamstresses out there who like to have a picture of their beloved handy at all times.

Montauk

Me and the Mr. at the lighthouse in Montauk.

They show this lighthouse frequently on Royal Pains.

Look!  We can see Connecticut from here!

Our Trip

Aside from the actual travel, which was hideous, our vacation was lovely.  Our hosts, Tom's cousins, were wonderful and fed us gourmet meals every day.  Gourmet and healthy and beautiful, I should say.

Here they are.  They look like they might be having fun.  Imagine that, having fun cooking.  This is a new concept for me.  I'm a good cook,  in my Southern cooking kind of way;  I cook because I want to eat and nobody else is going to do it for me. I cook good tasting things because I don't eat bad tasting things.  But fun?  Cooking?  Not. 

But, yes, they actually enjoy cooking and they do it well.

Grilled striped sea bass straight out of the ocean, with a wonderful topping of cucumber, red bell pepper, and olives; sides of steamed asparagus and corn on the cob grilled in the husk.  The corn was lightly buttered (with olive oil mayo, actually, but butter works) then rolled in freshly grated parmesan.  It was all wonderful.

Penn Station

When we traveled on our Royal Pain adventure, we had to pass through Penn station on four different occasions. Although, it was not my first time to travel by train, not by a long shot, it was my first time to experience Penn station and it's weird little idiosyncrasy.

There is no regular schedule for which track a train will be arriving or leaving on. Yes, the trains are roughly on schedule time wise, but it's all a suspenseful surprise as to where you are supposed to be when actually catching a train. They have these big signs with the destinations posted on them and a blank spot beside them for the track number. A great crowd of humanity stands in front of the signs staring at them intently, then at approximately ten minutes before the train is scheduled to leave the station, the number of the track appears on the board. As soon as it appears, there is a great surge of the crowd while everyone makes a mad dash through the appropriate door, down the escalator (or stairs when the escalator is not working, which happened more than once), and onto the train.

Apparently, people-who-know-best have decided that this is the most efficient way to handle the train traffic and make it more fun for people-traveling-with-suitcases.

There are no pictures of this event because this person-traveling-with-suitcases was afraid she might miss the all important first viewing of the track number and mad dash to the track.

Ah, Home Again

There truly is nothing like like home.  I knew I wasn't in Texas anymore when I entered the Starbucks in Penn Station to order my favorite mocha coconut frappuccino.  Enter surly barista who made the drink wrong and sprinkled cookie crumbs on top of the whipped cream.  As much as I'd love to have had cookie crumbs, my body doesn't allow gluten so I handed it back.  After several tries too boring to write about, I finally was able to drink my watery frappe.

In addition to taking a few days to laze about and recover from the trauma of traveling,  I've been playing catch up around the farm.

Things keep growing even on vacation and we got our much needed rain, so things have really greened up.  What is it about rain that is so much more effective than watering with a sprinkler?  I've been watering our yard faithfully through the hottest part of the summer, but the best results I've gotten are green circles right around where the sprinkler heads are buried.  A week after it rains, the whole place comes alive and the spots that were green now pale in comparison to the rest of the yard.

I spent most of Friday mowing and weedeating and using the blower trying to get our yard tamed. 

And we're getting more rain as I type this, which is crazy wonderful.

Our Big Royal Pains Adventure

We haven't taken a vacation in ages.  I guess, other than going to a couple of family weddings that were out of town, I haven't traveled more than a few hours away from home since we bought our farm.  Those really aren't vacations, so I guess it's safe to say that we haven't taken a vacation since we bought the farm.

It's not for lack of trying.  Tom is always trying to get me to go here or there.  But, at heart, I'm really a homebody and since all this nonsense with "security" at airports, I just don't enjoy the process.  I figure that if I don't enjoy it and if I don't really have to get on a plane, then why do it?

Well, I finally gave in and consented to a trip to The Hamptons in New York to visit some of Tom's family. 

Tom and I have TV shows that we watch together and one of our favorites is Royal Pains (although we call it "Hank Med").  It's about a concierge doctor in The Hamptons.  In case you don't know what a concierge doctor is, it is one that makes house calls exclusively and is at your beck and call if you can afford the retainer.  Anyway, supposedly it is filmed there, so we feel like we kind of know the place already.  Of course, it's probably like the show Dallas where pretty much nothing really looks, in real life, like it does on TV (we used to live near and drive by Southfork several times a week, so we're pretty familiar with that phenomenon - people, don't be crushed, but the house is not some great big mansion as you've been led to believe).

So, maybe something fun will happen that I can blog about (anything is better than my squash bug saga)...that is, if I can remember to take my camera.

So, off we go.

Buh-limey, Waiting for the Rain

This looks like a foggy day, but it's lime in the air instead of moisture.  (And sad little dogwood that looks like it might have died of thirst)

Tom sent some soil samples to some university to get tested and the results were that we needed lime and certain fertilizers added to the soil to grow better hay and choke out the weeds (theoretically, I'm doubtful that any amount of hay or grass growth will choke out weeds).  Tom searched for weeks for someone to apply the lime - one big outfit told us they are only applying lime in the winter because they're too busy applying fertilzer right now - he finally found a man nearby that would do it and he got the application scheduled.  Of course, his equipment broke down and we had to wait several more weeks for him to finally show up.

We were curious as to how the lime would be applied to the fields.  Turns out they just dump it with a dump truck.  They hauled tons of it in from somewhere in an eighteen wheeler with four large dump things on it.  They look kind of like those big commercial trash bins like are out behind stores or apartment buildings.  If you look close, you can see them in this picture.  By turns, they were each dumped into a regular dump truck.

Then the driver took off across the field with the tailgate of the truck loose and flapping. 

As he zoomed around the lime fell out the back and onto the ground.  It was pretty windy so a lot of it blew around before settling.  Our neighbors probably got a fair amount of lime on their fields.  We're glad to share.

The fields were white. 

And as we wait for the rain to water it in, the wind blows.

More Squash Bug Damage

I think I've mentioned fighting the squash bugs all season.  It has sort of  been a losing battle.  I've only managed to keep them from completely destroying all of the vines like they did last year.  But, every morning, when I go out to search them out, I still find them - fewer, but still eggs on the leaves, nymphs, and adults crawling around sucking the life out of the vines.

I smash everything I find.

These are the pumpkin vines damaged by the bugs.  The whole area was full and lush and full of pumpkins.  I was able to pick several before the bugs managed to kill off over half the vines.  It's still blooming and still putting on some small pumpkins, but I can't imagine that it will last much longer.

I really need to find a good preventative.  That will be next season's task.

We can't complain too much because we've had a fairly mild summer here in east Texas, especially compared to last year.  But we've had temps in the 100's for the past week with no end in sight and it's taking it's toll on the grass, hay, flowers, and trees that are already stressed from the drought.  We've also had no rain for several weeks, which isn't helping.