Blog-iversary

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

Along with it being the one year anniversary of the farm this week, it’s also the one year anniversary of this blog. Today, I’m taking a look back at some of the highlights of my first year as a blogger–and, yes, after a year I am calling myself a blogger.

Here are some of my favourite things that have happened this first year:

Having the bridesmaid dress I sewed along with a link to my blog featured in Vogue Patterns magazine
Talking to the Toronto Star about our experience paying off the mortgage on our first house
Being nominated for One Lovely Blogger Award by Julie at Outtakes on the Outskirts
Seeing my blog listed in another blogger’s blogroll
Experiencing the support and input from the blogging community–Dyson dilemma, where I asked people what vacuum we should buy, got the most comments of any of the posts I published this year
The friendships and connections I’ve made over the past year with people I’ve never met, but who share some of the same interests — Diane, Lyndsay, Mathew and Carly to name a few

In the first year, I published 171 posts and uploaded 652 pictures. At the start, I was posting four times a week, but now I’ve moved to three times a week. I like having a regular schedule for posting, and I find it pretty manageable to think of and write three posts a week

The blog had 16,815 views in the first year. It averaged 44 views per day in 2012. So far in 2013, the average is 57.

The busiest day of the year was July 23 when I had 543 views in one day. This was the day I published Change of pace, the post about the bridesmaid dress I sewed for my sister’s wedding.

Surprisingly, for a blog that’s supposed to be about home renovation and country living, this sewing post was my most popular for the first year.

Here are the posts that make up the top five from the first year and the number of views they had:

Change of pace – 828
The reveal… aka how to strip wallpaper – 363
How to install a pot light – 223
Free furry friends for you – 157
Umbrella-ella-ella, the country version – 114

This list shows some of the different ways people find the blog. Most of the traffic on Change of pace came from Pattern Review, a very active online sewing community where I shared the dress. This post continues to get a few hits every day and got a little boost in the fall when the Vogue Patterns article was published. The second and third top posts are how-tos, which turned out to be popular for online searches. The fourth most popular post was our free kitten promotion, which Matt and I sent to pretty much everyone we knew. Number five, which I posted only last week, was my Pinterest Challenge entry, which got a lot of traffic through Young House Love.

The other posts that round out the top 10 illustrate the interconnectedness of the blogging communities. The Pinterest Challenge is an obvious one, but other top posts got a lot of traffic simply through comments on other blogs.

The posts that have been the most popular have been a bit surprising to me. I expected my geothermal series to be more popular than it was. I’ve now realized that geothermal is a project undertaken by a smaller number of people, whereas lots of people want to install potlights and strip wallpaper.

Probably the biggest surprise from the first year has been all of the different places visitors have come from–94 countries in all.

Here are the top 10 countries and the number of visitors from each:

Canada – 8,870
United States – 5,951
United Kingdom – 390
Australia – 241
Switzerland – 156 (hallo to Matt’s relatives!)
Germany – 120
India – 95
France – 54
New Zealand – 48
Philippines – 44

Search is of course a common way visitors make their way to the blog. The most frequent searches were for home on 129 acres (obvious), kioti cs2410 (our lovely tractor Wiley), pyjamas and snow boots outside (???), benjamin moore wrought iron (the paint colour I chose for the basement bathroom), wallpaper newspaper (I didn’t like it, but apparently a lot of people do), and carpeted stringers on stairs.

Most common searches are one thing. The best ones, though, are the ones that come through much less frequently:

tile saw spraying me in face — Yup. That’s how it goes.
why was well drilled by barn and not house — Who knows? I’d really like to understand that myself.
how long will dry wall dust stay in my nose/drywall dust in my mouth how do i clean/basement drywalling how to not get dust upstairs — Answers: a long time/spit, rinse & repeat/not possible, sorry, deal with it
we bought a farm now what — Good question. I’m working on figuring it out.

As we work on figuring out this farm living thing, the blog has been a great way to capture all of our adventures–both for myself and for all of you out there. To all of my visitors, thank you very much for reading. I like knowing you’re out there. Year one has been a lot of fun. Stay tuned. There’s more to come.

Year one theme: Go big

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

For me, our first year of farm ownership can be summed up in two words: big and more.

Everything we’ve done, every experience we’ve had has been bigger and more than I expected. It’s been amazing, frustrating, awful, exhausting, expensive, testing, uniting, surprising and wonderful–all to an extreme degree.

As this week is the one year anniversary of the farm becoming ours, I thought it would be a good time to look back at some of what we accomplished and a few of the lessons we learned over the first year. Click here for the two-week and six-month wrap-ups.

We started big, installing the new geothermal system the very first week. The excavation was bigger than if we’d been digging a foundation for a new house.

Upgrading one central system for the house was quickly followed by another, when we decided to redo the entire water system, including a new well.

Our original plan for the basement to patch the walls, move a couple of things around and redo the bathroom quickly grew to a full gut job that involved reframing, rewiring, reinsulating, redrywalling and recarpeting.

Eventually, we did get to painting, furnishing and decorating. We still need art and furniture in most of the basement, but the TV area is done. And it’s awesome. We spend every night here–if we’re not working on one of our other projects, of course.

So far, the basement has turned out even better than I envisioned.

The bathroom, which was the most disgusting room in the whole house when we moved in, is now one of the best thanks to new plumbing, marble tile, dramatic dark paint, extra storage, a shower bench and a big mirror. After breaking the concrete floor, running all new waterlines, marathon tiling and grouting sessions and, oh yeah, the snake, we ended up with a bright, clean, shiny, functional and modern space.

While the basement has been our longest project and most dramatic transformation, it wasn’t our most difficult. The hardest project was definitely the roof. Over five days in the middle of the summer with average temperatures around 30ºC, Matt reshingled our house. For him, this project is his proudest accomplishment for year one. For me, this project taught me my most memorable lesson: roofing is not a DIY job.

Away from the work and the projects, there’s been a few other big developments in our lives over the past year.

First, the property came with other occupants already living here: most notably, Ralph the barn cat. Sticking with our theme of everything being more than we expect, Ralph kept things interesting by turning out to be both female and pregnant.

Her four kittens were a fun addition to the farm for the spring.

Gratuitous kitten cuteness

Three went on to new homes in suburbia, but one, Easter, stayed on at the farm. Learning that I’m a cat person–as long as they stay outside–has been my most surprising lesson from year one.

Ralph and Easter pay a visit to the dining room window sill. This is Easter’s “meow–let me in!” face. Ralph knows better.

In addition to our feline family members, our family expanded with the addition of Wiley, our tractor. He’s been quite handy for the various jobs we’ve had to do, from mowing the grass to blowing the snow. Tractor maintenance and how to use the front end loader are lessons we’re still in the process of learning. Lesson from last weekend: a hairdryer can be used to get a tractor to start.

Outside, we’re still learning how to manage a large property. We’ve had the paddocks and run-in shelters removed from all of the fields, added a gate to the driveway, cut down a few trees, put in a flag pole and cleaned up the property a bit. We’ve eaten apples and raspberries from our own land, and watched two hay harvests. We’ve spent hours walking the fields, admiring the pond, hiking the woods and even managed to go tobaganning on our own hill and skating on our own pond.

When I imagined living on a farm, I envisioned lots of friends and family around, fun parties and big gatherings. This vision has absolutely come true, whether it’s the fun days we’ve spent with nephews, the relaxing nights we’ve had with friends, or big family parties we’ve had for Christmas, Easter and just because. Most rewarding of all, though, has been all of the help our friends and family have given us to make the farm ours over the past year.

We’re still in the process of putting our own stamp on the farm. We know there are more projects and more lessons to come.

Between rural living, a farm, a large property and DIY home renovations, we’ve chosen a somewhat unique lifestyle. And it’s exactly the life for us.

The first year has been more than I ever expected. I’m excited to see what comes next.

Farm-iversary

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

A year ago tomorrow, the farm became ours.

Late in the afternoon on Friday, March 2, 2012, we finally got word that the deal had closed. We immediately drove to our dream property, talking excitedly about our plans for the next week and everything we had to do before we moved in.

It had been a long search for the perfect property. The two-month closing had been a little uncertain, as the sellers were in a very difficult situation and it was not a pleasant sale for them.

The sun was going down as we turned into the driveway, and we could see a fire burning at the top near the house. Ummmm, who’s having a campfire at our farm? It’s ours now.

It turned out that one of the sellers was there with his friend reminiscing. We chatted for a little while, and then as the rain started to fall, they went on their way, and we went into the house.

Dream house it was not. The heat was still turned way down, possessions and garbage left by the previous owners littered every room, lights were burnt out. It was cold and dim and dirty.

The scene a few weeks before the sale closed. We kept the desk, but threw out the dead pillow.

But this is what we had expected. This is how we saw the house for the first time at the beginning of January, and this is what it had looked like every time we’d come back. Now it was ours–all of it. We rolled up our sleeves, tugged on our gloves and got to work.

My priority was the fridge, because we had both of our families coming the next day to help with the clean out and we needed to feed them. Unfortunately, along with having next to no heat, we had absolutely no hot water. Cleaning a cold sticky filthy fridge was a slow process.

Matt started picking up cardboard, paper and anything else that was burnable and carrying it out to the still smouldering fire. Eventually, he had a roaring blaze going, even in the pouring rain.

This is Matt’s “I have made fire” pose

We stayed for hours, finally heading back to the city near midnight. The next morning, we were back–this time with a kettle and helping hands.

When my mother walked into the house, the first words out of her mouth were, “Oh, Julia.” The tone was not happy or congratulatory. Her lips firmed into a thin line–you know the look–and she said, “Where do you want me to start.” I assigned her to our bedroom, where the closet was still full of the previous owner’s clothes–eight garbage bags worth.

My sister got another bedroom. Matt’s mom–who cleaned the bathrooms at our first house when we moved in–went to work on the main bathroom. My brother replaced light bulbs and washed the fixtures. Matt’s Dad headed out to the barn. The seller and his friend returned with pick-up trucks and trailers–told you it was a weird situation–and they, along with Matt, my Dad and me, went to work clearing out the basement. Three trucks and trailers fully loaded went to the dump that first day.

Pick up trucks and trailers full of garbage

That’s Matt playing peek-a-boo from behind the trailer

A year later, the clean out and clean up continues in a few spots. We still have campfires every so often.

But the best part is that the novelty has not yet worn off. Thinking we want to live in the country, have a large property and DIY our own house is one thing. Actually doing it is another.

Now, a year into it all, I couldn’t imagine us anywhere else. It feels exactly right, but at the same time it still feels very new. I am amazed that it’s already been a year.

Umbrella-ella-ella, the country version

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I finally took up the challenge, all in the hopes of resolving a challenging situation that has plagued me for years.

I’m speaking of course of the Pinterest Challenge and umbrella storage–life changing, I know.

The idea behind the Pinterest Challenge is, in the words of Sherry from Young House Love, to “stop pinning and start doing.”

My (p)inspiration was Karen’s Country Living-inspired basket. Karen posted a great tutorial on her blog, The Art of Doing Stuff, back in the summer that I pinned right away with exactly this project in mind.

I used a few different materials (no peach basket) and changed up the assembly a little bit, but the end result is the same–a rustic, stylish and super functional basket. Perfect for wrangling all of our unruly umbrellas.

Here is the cast of characters:

Tools and materials for building a rustic umbrella stand

The materials: sturdy wooden board, wire mesh, veneer, wire and wood strips. The tools: sander, jigsaw, staple gun, snips, tape measure. Absent from this shot is a sharp utility knife, a metal ruler or straight-edge of some kind and a glue gun.

I chose a sturdy piece of wood for the base, as I wanted the stand to have some weight so that it would not tip over once it was full of umbrellas. Instead of a peach basket, I used a roll of veneer. The strips are the spacers that are used in big skids of lumber.

That woman in a business suit and heels you saw last week at Home Depot crawling around, stretching to reach under the stacks of lumber? Yeah, that was me. It’s hard to find strips that are long enough as most of them get snapped as people go through the piles, but they were the perfect rough texture for my basket, and best of all they were free.

First step was to make the base. I used a plate as my pattern and cut the circle with my jigsaw.

A few passes with my sander smoothed out the edges and took off the weathered grey outer layer–I wanted a natural wood finish for my basket.

I rolled the base in the wire to figure out how long to cut the mesh–very scientific measuring method, I know–and nipped it across with my snips.

To form the mesh into a cylinder, Karen showed two options in her post: green wire and twine. I chose a fine silver wire that I already had on hand and wound it through each square. It blends in with the mesh perfectly. To deal with the springiness of the mesh, it’s helpful to “tack” it in a few spots with small lengths of wire.

My wire tube was pretty good looking, but to make it a functional umbrella stand, it needed a base. I slid the wood disc into the mesh, lined it up along one of the rows of wire and stapled it in place.

Now for the finishing touches. To cover up the staples, the raw edge of the base and the end of the mesh, I went to my roll of veneer. The veneer was about 6 inches wide, but I only needed strips that were 1 1/2 inches. This is where a good straight-edge and a sharp knife came in handy. I measured off my strips and then scored the veneer along the edge of my ruler.

The veneer was very thin, so the knife cut through it easily. The only challenge was that the knife wanted to follow the grain of the wood rather than the straight edge, so I had to make sure to keep the knife snug to the side of the ruler as I was cutting.

I had planned to tack the veneer to the basket with a couple of staples or small nails–I figured those would be in keeping with the rustic aesthetic I was going for. It turned out though that the veneer was pretty fragile. It cracked as soon as it was pierced. I returned to Karen’s tutorial and decided a glue gun was the way to go.

However, out of all of the tools that I own, a glue gun was not one of them, so the project was delayed until I could borrow a glue gun from my Mom. Turns out she had an extra from my grandmother that now belongs to me. Who knew Grandma was so crafty?

A bunch of daubs of glue around the base attached the veneer to the bottom of the stand. At the top, I sandwiched the mesh between two more strips of veneer and stuck them together with more glue. My edge turned out fairly tidy, so I didn’t apply twine like Karen did.

A couple quick nips with my jigsaw cut two of the lumber yard strips to the right length, and four more daubs of glue had them attached to my basket.

Using a glue gun to stick wood to wire mesh

Sorry for the poor image quality. The sun had set by the time I got to the glue gun stage.

I had forgotten how easy it is to work with a glue gun. It held all of the wood in place really securely and the glue set up really quickly. In no time, I was able to transfer my finished basket to the mudroom and fill it with umbrellas.

Rustic wood and wire mesh umbrella stand

We do not do cute shiny rubber boots here. They started out cute and colourful, but they are now very muddy.

The basket is perfect. Exactly the right rustic style, and exactly the right size (9 inches in diameter and 25 1/2 inches high, in case anyone is wondering). It easily fits our four umbrellas and could probably handle a couple more. I am quite excited to finally have a place to put them and to no longer have to deal with them flopping out of the closet at me. In fact, every time I walk past the mudroom now, I switch on the light just to look my new umbrella stand sitting tidily in the corner. Yep, I’m a little weird.

Now we just have to finish off the rest of the mudroom. We painted the walls on the weekend, but I still need to tackle the trim (currently painted a flesh-tone, ugh), fit out the closet, refinish the closet doors and build a bench. Right now, the umbrella stand is the best thing in there!

Are there any other Pinterest addicts out there? You can see all of my boards, including the mudroom one, here. Have you been inspired to make anything from Pinterest or participated in the Pinterest Challenge? You can check out all of the projects on Sherry’s, Katie’s, Megan’s and Michelle’s blogs. Anyone else have a crafty grandma–or are you a crafty grandma yourself? Does anyone else find umbrellas hard to store?

All about farm property taxes

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The first installment for our 2013 property taxes are due this week. I realize this topic will not apply to some readers, but I decided to write this post anyways, as our experience may be helpful to some of you.

Property taxes on a rural property can be a bit complicated. However, it’s worth it to seek out rebate programs, as the savings can be significant.

For us, the farm is divided into three parcels: residential, agricultural and conservation.

The residential section is exactly the same as most people’s property taxes. It includes the house and one acre of land immediately around it. These are taxed at the regular residential rate.

The agricultural section of the property is the fields. These are classified under the farm property class and are taxed at 25% of the residential rate.

The conservation section of the property is the woods and marshland. For us, this adds up to 42 acres that is classified as “provincially significant wetland.” Under the Conservation Land Tax Incentive Program, these acres are tax exempt as incentive to maintain them as natural areas.

None of these tax rebate programs are automatic, as we discovered last year. Previous owners had let the rebates lapse, and between 2010 and 2011, the property taxes nearly doubled. The whole 129 acres was being taxed at the residential rate–ouch.

The residential classification was still in place when we took possession of the farm last March. We went to work right away to apply for the rebates that were available to us. What we learned is there is no single point of contact for farm property taxes.

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) handles applications for the Farm Property Class Tax Rate. Operations such as tree farms, animal farms, greenhouse operations or crop farms like ours count under this class of property. The farm must simply generate at least $7,000 of income a year. The most important part of the application is the Farm Business Registration Number. Since we do not farm the property ourselves, the farmer who rents our fields has to complete this portion of our application and supply his registration number.

The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) manages the Conservation Land Tax Incentive Program. Most of our property is restricted under the local conservation authority. However, this does not automatically qualify us for the CLTIP. The Ministry has to deem a property—or a section of it—as provincially significant. Fortunately, our property was already in the MNR’s system, so we just had to apply for the rebate.

We also went through our local municipality for a few other adjustments specific to the house itself: their records showed a mobile home on the property and a working indoor pool, both of which did not exist and which impacted the value of our house. After the “demolition” of the mobile home and the pool, our taxes decreased by a whopping $257.56–hey, I’ll take whatever I can get.

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) is the overarching organization in Ontario that manages everyone’s property taxes. Approvals from the city, OMAFRA and MNR flowed through to MPAC, which pulled all of the information together, determined our tax rate and notified the city of what we should be billed.

The flow of applications, approvals and adjustments is very, very slow. Our applications went to the various organizations last spring. I followed up monthly by phone to make sure all of our applications were wending their way through the system and no information was missing.

Some of the approvals came through in the summer. However, none of the adjustments were applied at the city level until the fall. We paid three installments at the full residential rate—ouch again. However, by the end of the year when the reclassifications finally came through, we had a huge surplus on our account—so much so that we didn’t have to pay our last installment and the city still sent us a cheque at the end of the year.

Now heading into the 2013 tax year, all of the rebates are in place, and the quarterly tax bills are very manageable. In fact, the amount of property tax that we’re going to pay this year is equivalent to what we paid when we were living in our little house in the city.

How to use preglued veneer edging

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’ve posted an addition to this tutorial: How to apply pre-glued veneer on curved edges

Our new TV cabinet that you saw at the beginning of this week is a thing of beauty in my (admittedly biased) opinion. However, this wasn’t always the case.

The cabinet is made of 3/4″ pine plywood. It’s paint grade, so the surfaces have a nice smooth finish. However, the raw edges are just that… raw. They’re rough and the layers of plywood are clearly visible. To finish off the edges, I used preglued veneer edging. This edging is very easy to use. Here’s what you do.

1. Gather your tools and materials.

This is a simple job that doesn’t require a lot of technical tools. Clockwise from bottom left, I have my roll of preglued veneer edging, my iron, a scrap 2×4 block, a file and scissors.

2. Set your iron to the cotton setting.

3. Prepare the edging. Use your scissors to cut a section of veneer that’s roughly half an inch longer than the edge you’re going to cover. You don’t have to be precise in your measurements. I just hold the veneer against the cabinet edge to figure out how long the section should be. You can work directly from the coil, but it’s easy for the veneer to get twisted, so I recommend cutting it into lengths first.

4. Starting at one end, carefully position the veneer against the edge that you want to cover.

The veneer will be slightly wider than the edge that you’re covering. Keep it flush on one end and one side and let it overhang the other.

5. With your edging in position, apply the iron to melt the glue.

I’ve found a “pressing” technique rather than an “ironing” technique works best. Just hold your iron in one spot for about 20 seconds. When you remove the iron, make sure the veneer is still aligned along the edge of the plywood. The glue will stay soft for only a couple of seconds so adjustments have to be made quickly.

6. Using your block of scrap wood, firmly press the edging onto the plywood.

Press hard and slide the block back and forth over the section that you ironed making sure that the veneer fully adheres to the plywood.

Repeat steps 5 and 6 until the raw edge is completely covered with veneer.

7. Once the veneer has cooled, trim the excess that’s overhanging the one side with a file.

File towards the face of your plywood keeping the file at roughly a 45 degree angle. There are tools that will trim the veneer as well, but the file has always worked well for me.

Your edge should now be nice and smooth and ready for stain or paint.

Some tips for using preglued veneer edging:

1. When cutting the veneer with your scissors, try to get a nice 90 degree cut. This will give you a good starting point for your next piece.

2. Check for joints in the veneer before you glue it to your plywood.

The veneer is connected by finger joints that aren’t the most attractive and wreck the illusion of a solid piece of wood.

3. Don’t skimp on pressing the veneer with your block. You don’t want your veneer to peel off once your cabinet is done. Pay special attention to the edges of the tape to make sure it’s firmly stuck.

4. If you use the file to trim the veneer, clean the file every so often. The sawdust will fill the grooves and make it more difficult to get a clean edge. I just tap the file to knock out the dust.

5. Watch out for splinters.

Ouch!

Although iron-on preglued veneer edging can be slightly dangerous for klutzes like me, it is very easy to use. Ironing is one of my least favourite tasks, but for some reason ironing wood is less tedious than ironing clothes for me. Just a little bit of effort results in a very nice polished finished for furniture, shelves or other creations.

Have you used veneer edging before? Who else is not a fan of ironing? Is anyone else susceptible to splinters? I seem to get a few a week. I’m sure a few are in my future this weekend. How about you? Any special projects on tap for the weekend?

I’ve posted an addition to this tutorial: How to apply pre-glued veneer on curved edges

Our $9 TV

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It sounds like an episode of extreme couponing. Customer goes into a store. Cash register rings up a charge of $819.24. Customer opens wallet and pays $9.24.

Well, we’re not extreme couponers, but this is exactly what happened when Matt went to buy the new TV for our basement.

50 inch LG LED TV with DIY network on the screen

You know I had to put DIY Network on the screen for this photo

So how did he do it? It’s all about the points.

For years, Matt has had a Sears Mastercard. He liked it because he could redeem his points for gas or restaurant gift cards. But then everything changed. A couple of years ago, Sears decided that points could only be spent at Sears. We don’t shop at Sears a lot (at all), so Matt’s been building up his point balance for a long time.

Knowing that we wanted a second TV for the basement, Matt decided that this purchase was the chance to finally use his points. He did his research to figure out what TV he wanted. He cashed in his points for a couple of gift cards. He watched for sales. And then it happened.

A 50-inch LED LG TV came on sale. The total price after tax (including Ontario’s special e-tax) came to $819.24. He plunked down $810 in gift cards and charged the rest to his Sears Mastercard.

Depending on how you look at it, the TV cost either $9 or $81,000–the amount of money Matt had to spend to earn all of his points. Buying on points is definitely not a quick process.

I should also say that while Matt and I use our credit cards often, we pay off the balance in full every month, so there are no interest charges and we didn’t go into debt to buy our $9 TV.

Have you ever bought anything on points? Are there any extreme couponers out there? What’s your favourite rewards program for collecting points? What’s the best deal you’ve ever found?

Video game heaven

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Anybody know what this is a picture of?

I wouldn’t know what this is except that I live with someone who exposes me to such things. This picture is from Final Fight, a video game for the Super Nintendo.

Rather than asking what the picture is of, however, I should be asking you what it signifies. What this picture means is that Matt finally, for the first time in his life, has all of his video game systems set up at once.

The reason for this momentous occasion is our new TV cabinet.

I’ve never been into video games, but Matt has played his whole life and has built quite a collection. However, it’s always been a case of he would get a new system and the old one would be packed away. On those days when he really wanted to relive his childhood and play his old Sega Master System (the first he ever bought), he was out of luck.

When we were renovating the basement, one of the criteria was to have a good TV area for watching movies and playing games–any game he wanted. So, we needed a TV cabinet.

And the cabinet needed to do a few things:

Accommodate all of the equipment: the TV, the satellite receiver, the Blu-Ray player and at least 10 video game systems.
Store DVDs and video games.
Keep all of the controllers, connectors and wires that come with video games handy but out of sight.
Keep everything tidy and organized.

I decided my best option was a custom cabinet, so I sketched up a plan, and my Dad and I went to work.

We went with adjustable shelves on the top section and drawers on the bottom. The overall dimensions of the cabinet are 80 inches wide by 16 inches deep by 33 inches high. The top gives us a spot for our phone (we need a land line in the country where cell service is a bit unreliable), our new 50-inch flat screen (more on that later this week) and a little bit of display.

The shelves are dedicated to all of the systems.

Matt has set up his XBox 360, PlayStation 2, Sega Dreamcast, Gamecube, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Nintendo 64, Wii, original Nintendo, Super Nintendo. Holes drilled in the back of the cabinet allow him to poke the wires through to hook up the systems.

The best part of the cabinet is the drawers.

There are four nine-inch-deep drawers along the bottom, and they hold DVDs, games and controllers. As we were building the cabinet, I kept increasing the size of the drawers, and I’m so glad that I did. They hold so much and make it so easy to keep everything tidy. It was a big pain to get four drawers perfectly lined up and sliding smoothly, but I can say now that it was worth it to have everything so well organized.

It’s also worth it to see how much Matt enjoys having all of his games at hand.

How many of you recognized the picture at the top of the post? Are there any other video gamers out there like Matt? In addition to Haggar and Cody from Final Fight, our basement has also hosted Link, Zelda and Mario over the past few weeks. What’s your favourite game? Have you ever built a piece of custom furniture? Any tips for constructing drawers? How do you keep video games or electronics organized at your house?

History lesson

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A new flag is flying over the farm this week.

Forty-nine years ago, when Canada was deciding what its national flag should look like, this was one of the options.

Prime Minister Lester Pearson put out a call to Canadians, asking for them to submit ideas for a Canadian flag. Pearson’s own suggestion was for a flag with three red maple leaves bordered with blue bars on either edge–symbolizing Canada’s position as a sea-to-sea nation. Artist Alan Brookman Beddoe drew the actual design, which came to be known as the Pearson Pennant.

Throughout 1964, the government and citizens debated what was the best design for our flag. Eventually a submission from two men, George Stanley and John Matheson, was chosen as Canada’s official flag. Today, their design of a single red maple leaf between two red bars has become an iconic image, and the Pearson Pennant has become historical reference.

Feb. 15, 1965 is Flag Day in Canada, the first time the maple leaf flew as our nation’s official flag.

While it seems a bit backwards, this week we’re commemorating the flag debate by flying the Pearson Pennant.

As a history buff, Matt has a special affection for the Pearson Pennant. For his birthday last year, I had one made for him, knowing that we’d soon have a flagpole and be able to fly it ourselves.

We’ll go back to the maple leaf soon enough, but for this week I don’t mind a little history lesson.

Thanks to Matt for helping to write this post. Happy Flag Day everyone.

The party after the storm

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

The morning after the snow day dawned bright and sunny and mild–perfect for our winter party. Outdoor activities were the plan for the day, and we were well set with the weather… if only people could make it up to the house.

First on the list was to clear the driveway so that it was passable for a car.

Matt went to work with the tractor, while I dug out the walkway and our cars with the shovel. A flat tire (beyond repair) presented some challenges, but Wiley managed to power through.

Second task of the day was to prepare the pond for skating. My plan had been to send everyone down to the ice with shovels, but, with the huge amount of snow that had fallen, that probably wouldn’t have been the most fun. Thankfully my cousin had offered to help, and he showed up with another snow blower mid-morning and went to work clearing the pond for us.

By early afternoon we were all set, and a couple of hours later people started to arrive. Arrivals for the most part consisted of people opening the door, handing me the food they’d brought and then turning around to head out to the pond or the fields.

It was good that we’d cleared the ice, because nearly everyone had brought their skates–including my Dad with his vintage pair.

The rink was a huge hit, even considering the cracks that opened up around the shore. We’ve come to the conclusion that our pond does not like to freeze. The ice held Matt, my cousin, me, the snow blower–and later two small hockey teams. It was solid. However, a few fissures along the shoreline and the water that bubbled up between them resulted in some soakers when people went for out-of-bounds pucks. It made for a unique and memorable hockey game.

Away from the rink, a large group with two four-legged scouts headed out across the fields thanks to a bunch of snowshoes supplied by another cousin.

The final piece of equipment that arrived–albeit a little bit late–was another cousin’s snowmobile. (Yes, I have lots of cousins).

In addition to providing hours of entertainment, we also provided food and tours (for most people it was their first time at the farm) when they finally made it back to the house.

I have a fairly large extended family on my Dad’s side, and most of us still live fairly close. We don’t get together as regularly as we used to though, so it was nice to see everyone and catch up.

The morning after, hockey sticks, pucks, snow shovels and Matt’s GT in the snowbank in front of the driveshed are a reminder of the fun.