Celebration

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This past weekend, my extended family came together to celebrate my youngest sister’s wedding.

Another sister and another wedding mean another special dress. Given that my post about my bridesmaid dress for my middle sister’s wedding last year is still the most popular post on this blog, I of course have to write about the dress I sewed for this latest wedding.

This is Simplicy 2253. When it came time to choose bridesmaid dresses, my sister the bride said, “Whatever you want.” My other sister already had a dress that she liked, so I just had to find something that complemented her dress.

My Mom, who taught me to sew, also sewed her dress (Vogue 1182). If you want the details on my dress, here’s my review.

As fancy as we all look here, it was a construction themed evening, as my sister and her new husband are building a house together. The message of my Mom’s speech was how building a house is like building a marriage. Her take away quote: “When the mud gets deep, celebrate. Buy a great pair of rubber boots and celebrate that you have each other and you can handle whatever comes your way.”

The wedding was a great celebration for our family. Congratulations to Cynthia and Dave. I wish you a great marriage and minimal mud.

Battling the litter bugs

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our property is situated so that we have three road frontages. What this means is that we have about 2 kilometres of ditches that to passing drivers apparently look like one large trash can. A recent notice in the mailbox for a community clean up was the motivation I needed to pick up after all of these litter bugs.

The saddest thing about this photo is that I didn’t stage it. I simply set the notice down amongst the trash.

Outfitted with my rubber boots, work gloves and multiple garbage bags, I headed out. I had two bags on the go at a time, one for recycling (mainly cans and bottles) and one for garbage. I could have probably separated the garbage a bit more, but two bags was about all I could wrangle. The most common finds were takeout coffee cups, plastic water bottles and cigarette packs.

There was lots and lots of plastic.

We have a creek that runs along the front of the property, and while it is set farther away from the road, it was still full of trash as well.

These particular pieces of plastic turned out to be a very big sheet of bubble wrap and a large jug which had formed a dam.

Some of the more unique finds included a shoe, two gloves (not a pair) and the remains of a wine glass.

Sometimes, I wasn’t sure what things were right away. As when I first spotted this item a few feet back in the reeds along the west side of the property.

It turned out to be a small photocopier. Yup. Someone went to the effort to carry a photocopier out of their office, put it into their car, drive it to our property, pick it up out of the car, carry it across the ditch and heave it into the marsh. They didn’t even just open the car door and push it out. They put work and planning into this–I know, because I climbed into the marsh and dragged it out and it was heavy and awkward.

Fortunately, I was able to leave the photocopier, other large items and even the full bags of garbage on the shoulder and our amazing garbage men took them away on our regular pick up day. The recycling I carried home and dumped into our bins.

The final tally on the clean up was

5 1/2 hours (over three days)
7 1/2 bags of garbage
5 bins of recycling
One awful sun burn
Multiple scratches
Numerous ant bites
One ruined pair of gloves
A general feeling of disgust towards my fellow humans

Some people were encouraging–one driver honked and gave me a thumbs up as he drove by and another pulled over to say how great it was that I was cleaning up. However, I probably was not as gracious as I could have been to them as I spent most of the clean up being royally ticked off. Who finishes their coffee and decides the correct action is to roll down the window and pitch the cup into the ditch?

My irritation went to another level when Matt and I went out and passing by two of the garbage bags I’d left on the side of the road I saw that someone had pitched a Blizzard cup and two plastic spoons onto the shoulder–and they’d obviously aimed to get them right beside my bags. Who is that rude?

Fortunately, our garbage men are incredibly considerate, because not only did they pick up all of the trash bags and larger items I’d left on the side of the road, they also picked up the cup and spoons.

Out of the whole clean up, I only found one item worth keeping.

You better believe I tucked that 5 cents into my pocket and brought it home with me. I need some new work gloves!

Finally forsythia

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our forsythia is finally in bloom. It’s more than a month later than last year, which shows just how long spring has taken to arrive. I think with the appearance of the bright yellow blossoms we can safely say that spring has finally arrived.

Happy birthday, Easter

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our fluffball, our baby, our idiot, our kitten, our Easter turns one year old this week.

She snuggles like a baby.

She has the attention span of a toddler.

She has the ambition of a teenager and is keen to get her driver’s license.

She wrestles with her mama Ralph, errant stones on the driveway or the strings on my lawn chair.

She’s always starving and has been known to break into the house in order to get to the milk at the bottom of my cereal bowl (seriously, she’s crafty). She has also learned to hunt for herself.

She thinks she’s a dog, chasing sticks, digging holes and coming when Matt whistles.

Her voice is still her squeaky kitten meow unless she thinks we’re abandoning her–going down the driveway to take out the garbage or walking around the corner of the house out of her line of sight are cause for very long loud meows.

Around the farm, she’s known as baby (my label), BH (Matt’s holdover from when we called her “Big Head“), DB (“Dancing Bear,” Matt’s label for her tendency to rear up on her hind legs so that you can scratch her head), and occasionally Easter.

Happy birthday, Easter.

Medium rare with a side of blue air

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The result of writing a post showing your barbecue bursting into flames is that your in-laws send flyers full of barbecue sales home with your husband. As a result of those flyers, you arrive home later that week to find a very large box sitting in your foyer.

That very large box leads to a very big mess all over your living room as your husband assembles the new barbecue. It also results with you being kicked out of the house so that your husband can curse in private.

Readmission to the house is conditional on your participation in carrying the new barbecue outside, which results shortly thereafter in dinner–cooked by your husband.

So he took care of the shopping, the swearing, the constructing and the cooking. I’d say I got the better end of this deal.

Doe a deer

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s apparently wild kingdom week here on the blog, and I’ve saved the best for last.

For the past week or so, deer have been grazing in the back field. They show up every night around 8 o’clock and eat their bed time snack before heading back into the bush.

Some nights there’s been only one. Usually there’s a group of three or four. The high point was a herd of seven.

We can walk partway along the back lane towards the field without them bolting. Usually we just watch them with binoculars and try not to spook them.

Fortunately, Matt’s brother, who came to visit last weekend, has a better camera than we do–and is also apparently a bit of a deer whisperer–because he was able to get quite close and get the best pictures so far for us. Thanks, Greg!

Operation identification

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

While I didn’t see any ducks or geese at the pond this past weekend, there were lots of other animals. Red-winged blackbirds, a turtle, a frog, seven (!) fish, jitterbugs, waterstriders and this guy.

It’s been almost exactly a year since I asked for your help in identifying a pond creature. I’m pretty confident that last year’s was a beaver as everyone said. I’m also pretty confident that this guy is not a beaver.

I know the video is not the best. He was all the way on the other side of the pond, and it turns out that’s quite a ways away. But what do you think? Is he a mink? A weasel? The Loch Ness Monster?

For rent: pond (feathery young couple with family aspirations preferred)

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our tenants on the pond seem to be changing daily. Everybody seems to be looking for the best spot to set up housekeeping.

Our usual guests are Canada geese and mallard ducks–or both as seen in this picture from a few weeks ago.

I went down to the pond to get a more up to date picture on Saturday and only succeeded in spooking a very large solitary Canada goose. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I also succeeded in catching a nap, as I got tired of sitting quietly on the shore waiting for a bird to show up and laid back in the grass where I fell asleep. I also succeeded in getting my first sunburn of the year as a result of laying flat on my back with no shade.

Anyways, back to the uncooperative birds.

They mostly show up in pairs, although we have hosted singles as well as three mallard drakes for a bachelor party–perhaps the word on the wing is that our pond is the neighbourhood mixer?

Everybody is pretty spooky. I can’t get too close without them springing from the water and flying away–as my Canada goose did on Saturday. I am hoping that a nice young couple comes our way soon and decides that our pond is the perfect spot to start a family. I promise, I won’t take anymore naps on their lawn.

Treasures

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

In the most recent issue of Style at Home, editor Erin McLaughlin talks in her column about what makes a house a home. She writes, “It means filling your space with things of significance, things that are a reflection of who you are.”

Then this week Jen at Rambling Renovators posted about a painting she had made of her wedding gown as a reminder of the feelings she had that day wearing that dress.

These two articles got me thinking about the different treasures that I have gathered through the years.

One of my favourite treasures is a watch pin that I inherited from my grandmother.

My grandma wore this everyday. She couldn’t wear a wristwatch, because they always stopped–I have no idea why this was. My mom told me once that when a dowser came to dig a new well at their family farm, my grandmother found out that she could witch water, so maybe she had some unusual energy?

The watch is for the wearer, so it hangs upside down. When I remember my grandmother, I can vividly see her tilting the face up so that she can see what time it is.

I treasure this pin for its uniqueness–I haven’t seen many watch pins–and also for how it signifies my grandmother and the times we shared together. For a small metal object, the associations this pin has for me are very strong.

What about you? Do you have any treasures that remind you of favourite people or occasions? What makes a house a home for you? How do you enjoy your treasures? Do you wear them or display them around your home? What are some of your most treasured things?

“I could be Thor!”

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Pop quiz:

You’re walking in the forest and you see this tree.

What do you do?

Marvel over the crack and continue on with the hike. Nature will take care of itself.
Marvel over the crack and make a note to invite your father-in-law over with his chainsaw.
Marvel over the crack and decide that it’s too dangerous to leave and go find a saw to deal with it yourself.
Marvel over the crack. Poke sticks in the crack to try and lever the tree off the stump. Fail. Decide that this tree must come down right this minute. Decide that the best tool will be a sledge hammer. Saw, pshaw.

So my answer would probably be ‘B,’ but of course my resident lumberjack saw an opportunity to advance from his most recent experience felling a tree with an ax to be even more manly. The words “I could be Thor!” did in fact come out of his mouth.

A couple of hard whacks popped the tree off its stump–all while I watched and photographed from a safe distance. However, the tree is still standing more vertical than horizontal, branches tangled in his closest neighbour.

We are now moving on to plan B.

What would you do? Any idea what made the tree crack like that? We had a big ice storm the other week, so it could have been the weight of the ice, but other trees that came down didn’t crack horizontally across the trunk. Anyone else living with someone who fancies himself a god?