April report

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s the last post of April, so time to report on my accomplishments for the month.

My plans for April consisted of a few leftovers from March and a theme of “green.” So how’d I do?

Finish the projects for my home and work offices

I just can’t seem to motivate myself to complete the last few details for prettying up my work office. But my home office is getting much more organized and looking much prettier.

~~Add organizers to the new dresser and start filling the drawers~~ – Done April 27
~~Make bulletin boards for my home~~ and work offices – One done April 20
Recover the shade from my work office desk lamp

Don’t spend any green (on the house)

I didn’t spend any money on the house (I had purchased all of the supplies for my office projects long ago). In fact, I didn’t spend much money at all… aside from a completely unnecessary parking ticket. Country girl goes to the city and forgets the side of the street you can park on depends on whether you’re in the first or second half of the month… argh.
We spent a whole lot of green on the solar panels. As much as it hurt to write the massive cheque, we were very happy that we were able to pay for them in full without borrowing any money.

Go with green projects

The solar panels are obviously about as green as we can get. Our hook-up was delayed by one day, but on Friday the inspector cleared us, and we were connected to the grid.
For my office projects, I was able to reuse some supplies I already had like spray paint, fabric and the boxes I made into dividers.

Start planning for a green (outdoor) project

At the start of the month, I said that I’d like to get a few quotes to see if it’s possible to get some help to clear the brush from the east shore of the pond. I’m not going to be hiring any help until our bank account recovers from the solar payment, so I’m back to DIYing it. Anyone have a bush hog I can borrow?
On the DIY front, two gardens have been weeded. Two more gardens have been de-edged of stones. Some of the grass has been raked. Brush has been cleared off of about half the vegetable garden area. And our free trees have been planted.

When I set my goals for April, I said that I was giving myself a bit of a break. Last Saturday afternoon, I actually crawled into bed and took a nap–unheard of for me. Even though I gave myself permission to take it a bit easier this month, I still feel I did a lot in April.

What did you do in April? Who else is getting organized? Going green? Saving money?

Project Replant

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

You may remember that our trees took a bit of a beating during the Christmas ice storm. So you can imagine that I did a double take when driving home on Friday I heard the words, “Lowes is giving away free trees this Saturday” come out of my radio. Free trees? Even better, I didn’t hear any words like “conditions apply” or “minimum purchase required.”

I walked in the house said something like, “Free trees!” to Matt and then dashed to my computer to look up the details.

It was true! Lowes was giving away 2,000 trees. And one of the locations was our local store.

The giveaway was called Project Replant, and the idea was to “help rebuild some of the tree canopy lost in … the ice storm.”

The giveaway started at 9:30, but I wanted to be absolutely sure I got a tree, so I got to the store 45 minutes early. Twenty-six other keeners were already lined up in front of me. About a half hour later, Matt arrived and joined the end of the line. Yay, another much needed tree!

There were coffee and hot chocolate and donuts and great camaraderie amongst the people in the line. The Lowes staff kept the hot drinks flowing and walked the line chatting with people. When the trees were finally wheeled out, I thought that people were going to cheer. They were 1 gallon red maples, about 4-5 ft. tall, and normally cost $30 each. But Saturday they were free!

And Sunday they were in the ground.

Our poor willow beside the driveway took such a beating over the winter and a tree-lined driveway is one of my big wants, so one tree went there.

On the turnaround our big maple only lost a few branches, but it looks so fragile and old that I’m not sure how much longer it will last, so we decided we’d better get a new tree started sooner rather than later. (Especially since the new trees are so small. In the photo below, you can see the metal stake that we used to keep the tree straight better than the tree itself).

Small or not, the trees are so nice to have. Thank you, Lowes.

Did anyone else get anything free this weekend? Did you do any gardening? Any tips to help our trees get established and make sure they survive?

The artist in the family

Posted on April 25, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Back in January when I posted about the special painting by Matt’s grandpa that we received for Christmas, a couple of people expressed interest in seeing more of his artwork. You caught a little glimpse of the paintings when I shared the hallway reveal. Today I’m going to give you a closer look.

Matt’s grandpa was a draughtsman. He worked on the Avro Arrow, which in the 1950s was Canada’s most-advanced (and most expensive) jet aircraft.

Painting was his greatest hobby. He painted portraits, still lifes and landscapes.

The four pieces that we’ve hung on the main floor are landscapes featuring rustic buildings.

There’s the two barns that Matt’s parents had framed for us for Christmas. We hung this painting in the foyer. When we were searching for our farm, a lot of the properties we toured had pictures, paintings or aerial shots of the farms hanging inside the entryways. Since this painting looks like it might as well have been painted at our farm, it was the perfect choice for a welcoming image right inside the front door.

Along the hall, the two smaller images are of Matt’s aunts’ former cottages. Matt remembers spending time at the green cottage as a child. His aunt has since sold it, and I never had a chance to visit.

The red cottage has been knocked down and a new cottage built in its place. Matt’s aunt and uncle still have the property. In fact, this is the cottage that we visit every fall. It’s special to have this very personal record of two memorable family places.

The large painting at the end of the hall shows the garage at Matt’s grandpa’s house. Surprisingly, this painting was stored away and unframed for decades. The sunlight in this picture is beautiful. It’s my favourite painting out of all of Matt’s grandpa’s pieces.

I’ve always said that I’d like to own some original art. I realized as I was writing this post that I do. Most artists make art because they love it, not as a “job.” As far as I know, Matt’s grandpa never tried to sell his paintings. He was prolific, and he painted because he loved it. He was most definitely an artist, and I’m very proud to display his paintings in our house.

Looking to hook-up

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Today is connection day.

We have a very long, very expensive wire running from the solar panels on the barn, into the inverters affixed to the wall, through metres of conduit, along the 300+ foot trench and up into the box on the pole.

Today is the day our feed makes it to the top of the pole, into the power lines and back into the grid.

That is, as long as everyone shows up when they’re supposed to, the work passes all of the inspections and the right wires get plugged into the right spots.

Keep your fingers crossed for us. Tomorrow when the sun comes up, we should finally be generating electricity.

(And yes, I will do a post with all of the details on our solar project once we’re up and running).

What exciting happenings do you have going on this Wednesday?

Update: Connection was a no-go. The hydro inspector wanted to see the wire and conduit laying in the trench, but the trench was back-filled. The excavator is back sitting in the driveway and the trench has been dug out. We have a conditional pass, but we can’t connect until he inspects the trench. We’re still crossing our fingers.

Easter egg

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

As we wrap up Easter, I thought I would share a special family heirloom that has figured in our annual celebrations for as long as I can remember.

This antique silver egg coddler belonged to my grandmother. Every Easter, she would display it on her coffee table.

I like to collect silver, so I was very honoured to add this piece to my collection when my grandmother passed away.

This dish is notable for the bird and her nest that form a kind of handle at the top the large egg. This bird was never attached when I was growing up. At some point, it had broken off, so each Easter my grandmother just perched it on top of the nest. A few years ago, I found an outstanding silversmith, and he was able to rebuild the bird’s legs and put her back on her nest. There are still some obvious quality issues with the dish, but I didn’t want to make too many repairs given the age of the piece.

When you lift off the lid, inside there is a frame to hold six (very small) eggs.

I believe how this would have worked was you would fill the inside with boiling water and place your eggs in the holder. At the bottom of the dish, there is a spot for a burner of some kind, which would keep the water hot and cook the eggs.

I have no plans to coddle any eggs, but I do plan to display it every Easter. It’s a piece that I treasure.

Do you have any Easter traditions in your family? Have you ever used an egg coddler? Does anyone else collect silver?

Happy Easter

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A little bit of Easter fun for you today, as Baxter helps you gear up for the big egg hunt this weekend.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Crazy for a full moon

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I think we’ve established that we don’t have a fenced yard, and we’re still working on helping Baxter remember he has to come when called. So any time Baxter goes outside, he’s wearing a leash, and a human is holding the end.

As the human responsible for the first and last outings of the day, I love a full moon.

Being able to see my shadow at 6am and 10pm is a luxury.

On most of our walks this winter, I was stumbling over ruts, tripping over tufts of grass, straining my eyes for telltale strips of white–and my nose for the putrid scent–that signifies skunk.

Now that the days are getting longer, our walks are starting to be lit by the rising sun. However, I still have a special fondness for moon walks.

While the full moon is reputed to cause craziness, full moon walks are so much more relaxing. What drives me crazy is if my full moon is hidden behind cloud cover.

Aside: Apparently there was an eclipse yesterday. I missed it. Eclipses are neat enough that I would have given up my full moon without complaint.

What’s your favourite phase of the moon? Is anyone else wandering around outside in the wee hours of the morning and night? Did you catch the eclipse?

DIY wood countertops one year later

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

See an update on our counters after four years.

A year ago, I wrote about how we DIYed our own wood countertop. Since then, this post has become far and away the most popular on the blog. Given that we’ve been living with our homemade counter for a year now, I thought a good topic for today’s post would be an update on how our DIY counter has worked for us.

The simple answer is the counter has worked great. Here’s what it looks like today.

Just a reminder, here’s how the counter looked a year ago.

Here are a few more details on how the counter performed.

The biggest measure of this counter’s success is the joints. After a year of use, they’re still nice and tight. Squaring off the edges of the boards, gluing the seams before screwing them together with my Kreg Jig, cramming every joint full of wood filler and sanding everything perfectly smooth have ensured that the counter has held up really well for us.

The finish has held up as well. The tone of the wood has stayed constant, and the Waterlox sealer has been a great protector. Originally, the finish was pretty shiny. It has dulled a little bit over the past year. We’re not the best at wiping down the counter religiously, but no matter what we spill or how long something sits on the counter (ahem), it wipes up easily.

We have one spot that has stained, but it wasn’t from food. Of all things, it was from a plastic bag. We had set a regular grocery store bag on the counter. The bag had some red writing on the outside, and that dye somehow transferred onto the counter. No matter how much I scrub, this dye will not come out.

It’s well known that wood is softer than the other countertop materials that are out there. It dents pretty easily. After a year of use, there are some imperfections in our counter. Most are the size of a quarter or smaller, and this one’s about the deepest.

The dents don’t worry me at all. We use a cutting board when we’re chopping, but if something leaves a mark, I don’t get upset.

Along one edge of the counter, we have some small chips. These were from a unique incident that had absolutely nothing to do with cooking. The night that we picked up our dining room table, Baxter got a little upset at being left alone in the house. To make himself feel better, he ate the pan of brownies that had been left on the counter. When he reached for the pan, his toenails left some marks on the edge of the counter. These marks are particularly noticeable because they go down below the stained surface. (The dark marks near the middle of the image are features of the board and aren’t a stain or damage that we’ve inflicted).

In my post a year ago, I talked about how the counter had warped a little bit and how we were able to flatten it by trimming the end and carefully screwing it to the cabinets. The boards have warped a little bit more over the past year. If you run your hand over the surface, you can feel a bit of a wave. The middles have curved up and the edges have curved down. The warp isn’t severe enough to impact the usability of the countertop and it’s not noticeable to the eye, unless I pull out the level to show you the gaps.

We don’t coddle the counter, and a year later it’s obvious that it’s had some use. I am really pleased with all of the choices we’ve made a year ago: going with wood, the colour of the stain, the Waterlox sealer, and especially making it ourselves. Everything has worked out really well.

The counters are still going strong four years later–although there are a few provisos.

Six tips on how to stay organized when buying a house

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

When I was organizing my office the other week, I came across the binder I made when we bought the farm. This thing was my bible. I thought it might be helpful to share how I stayed organized during our relatively complicated house closing.

1. Come up with a system capture the paper work and information that comes with selling and buying a house.

You want to have all of your information in one place that’s easily accessible. For me, this system was a binder that I carried everywhere for about three months. For you a file folder might work. You might even be able to set up an electronic file on your computer, tablet or phone. In my experience, buying a house comes with a lot of paperwork, so having a paper-based system worked for me.

2. Once you capture all of the information, keep it organized.

I used dividers to categorize information in my binder.

You’ll have your own categories that work for you, but the ones that I used were mortgage broker, mortgage provider, mortgage quote, life insurance, house insurance, lawyer, storage, eco-energy audit, geothermal, insulation, water, internet, home inspection, property taxes, finances, offer, move-in and “fun & plans” (more on this one later). Sections were a mix of information we needed to complete the purchase of the farm and the sale of our first house, along with the fixes we planned to tackle first.

3. Keep track of everything

Make note of every conversation, every contact, every transaction, every flyer. You never know what you’ll need some day. I found it was particularly important to have a photocopy of our official offer and all of our financial information that I could quickly refer to.

Here’s the first page in my “lawyer” section. I have everything from appointment times, notes on title insurance and land transfer tax, even the scrap of paper where my dad first wrote down the lawyer’s contact information (which I’ve blurred out) stapled onto the page.

Other sections have written quotes from insulation contractors, flyers for rural internet providers and business cards from other contacts. Our water section had the reports from all of our initial well inspections, but then it grew to include research that I gathered on different water treatment and pumping systems, estimates from contractors and other notes as we went through the process of installing our new system.

4. Keep a calendar

There are lots of things to remember when buying and selling a house. A calendar or schedule is essential to keep things on track. I made a customized calendar that showed the two months from when we purchased the farm to after we moved in all on one page. The front cover of my binder had a plastic sleeve, so I slipped the calendar in there, where I could always see it at a glance.

5. Make sure your system is flexible.

In order to work throughout your whole house purchase, your system will have to grow and adapt and travel with you. Part way through the closing, I bought a second package of dividers and doubled the sections in the binder. As new information came in, I could write it down or print it out, punch holes in it and slot it into the appropriate section. Wherever I was, I could whip out the binder to access information or jot down a note.

6. Make room for some fun.

Buying a house can be stressful. Often, it can seem that you’re spending all of your time with depressing inspection reports that show everything that’s wrong with your house, exorbitant contractor quotes that show you’re never going to be able to fix your house, or complicated legal and financial forms that make you question if you’re ever going to be able to actually buy your house. Occasionally, you’re going to need some help to look on the bright side.

The final section of my binder was called fun & plans.

This wasn’t a huge section, and I confess it didn’t get a ton of attention, but it was a spot where I could do things like this.

Or this (pre-Pinterest).

Our two-month closing process was a little complicated because we were dealing with a country property and a fixer-upper, but I think a binder like this would be helpful no matter what kind of house you’re buying. It can be scaled and customized for whatever you need. And its usefulness continues after the sale closes. It’s been two years since we moved to the farm, and I still pull out this binder occasionally to find a contact or double check some information.

Now it’s your turn. Anyone have any tips on how to stay organized when buying a house? Are you a paper or computer person?

Our new pond

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’ve written before how important it was to me to have a pond on our property.

Well, this spring we have a new pond, although it’s not quite what I imagined.

Behold the pond in the driveshed.

Can’t you just picture it? A peaceful afternoon at the shore, watching the trees reflect in the water’s surface, surrounded by recycling bins, tools and the smell of oil. Ahhh.

There’s always been a low spot inside the door of the driveshed. Occasionally after a big rain, we have a puddle. However, this year’s thaw resulted in more than a puddle. The really hazardous part of our new pond was that for a long time it was still partially frozen. The bottom layer of ice was extremely smooth and extremely slippery. Taking out the recycling took on a new layer of adventure.

Even now that the ice has melted, the adventure remains. Ralph was helping Matt with the garbage this week, and she had to make quite the leap to get in and out of the driveshed.

Addition for the spring to-do list: as soon as the gravel pile thaws, pick up a big scoop (or two) of stones for the driveshed.

How are things thawing at your house? Any water where it’s not supposed to be?