Fruits of the farm

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

We had our first harvest at the farm of actual edible food.

This black raspberry bush is growing beside the barn

There are clusters of raspberry canes in a few spots around the property. I thought that they were all just regular berries until the ones on this bush started turning black.

From tiny green berries to red and then to black.

I’ve been snacking on them every time I went up to the barn, and finally the other night enough were ripe to get a bowlful.

It’s a small bowl, but a bowlful nonetheless

They were an excellent dessert to have with dinner–and exceptionally tasty with ice cream.

Yum!

We’ve had strawberry season and now we’re in raspberry season. What summer fruit are you most looking forward to eating?

We have walls!

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s been more than a month since I posted the first pictures of new drywall in the basement. Things definitely don’t move quickly when you’re DIYing–or at least Matt and I don’t move quickly!

I am pleased to announce that thanks to a big push this weekend as of Sunday afternoon all of the drywall is installed. Yay!

The new view in the long room

The total tally was 59 sheets. The entire bathroom, all of the exterior walls, and the ceilings in the main room and long room all got new drywall (click here for a refresher on the floorplan for the basement).

And taping is already underway. The bathroom has its third (and final) coat, the office has its second, the main room has its first. Matt has taken the lead on this part of the project, and my Dad has come up several times to help out. Between the two of them, they are motoring.

My Dad and Matt put the second coat of paste on the office

With three coats of paste plus sanding between each coat, this will be a big part of the basement renovation. Hopefully the next update is less than a month away.

Garbage day

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

In our relationship, Matt and I have worked out a certain division of labour. I do the laundry, and he does the grocery shopping. I clean the bathroom, and he takes out the garbage.

Matt may want to renegotiate our agreement since moving to the farm.

Wrangling a big green bin, at least one recycling box and a garbage bag down a 150 metre driveway takes a bit more effort than it did in the city.

The other night he roped Wylie into helping.

Wylie was happy to oblige.

Matt usually uses a little pull cart that perfectly fits our recycling boxes. He can fit two blue boxes and balance a garbage bag on top. It can be a little hazardous to the heels, though, because the cart has a tendency to pick up speed going down the hill on the driveway. And towing the green bin with one hand and the cart with the other takes a decent level of coordination.

I think the tractor is the way to go.

What’s the division of labour in your house? Does anyone actually like taking out the garbage?

Tool time

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Another Friday, another quiz. However today you don’t have to wait until next week for the answer.

It’s very simple. Only one question.

Name this tool.

We used this a lot when we were demolishing the basement.

If you said crowbar, I’m sorry, but you are very, very wrong.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a wrecking bar. My Dad trained us all very early. If we were working with him and we asked, “Can you pass me the crowbar?” or “Where’s the crowbar?” the response would be something along the lines of “What are you looking for?” or “What is it you need?” If he was feeling a little more generous, he would perhaps just say, “What did you call it?”

Don’t get me wrong, we used crowbars as well, but a crowbar is a straight bar in our family. A wrecking bar is recognizable by its distinctive hooked end.

The curved end of the wrecking bar can be used for prying, and the fork is also useful for pulling nails.

The other end of the wrecking bar is a chisel.

Like the hook, the chisel end is also used for prying, although you have slightly less leverage.

Wikipedia confirms my Dad’s label and offers an explanation of why this tool is so often called a crowbar.

In the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, “crowbar” may occasionally be used loosely for this tool, but may also be used to mean a larger straighter tool.

Ahhh, so my Dad is calling on his previously unknown Australian heritage when he insists that we use the label “wrecking bar.”

How’d you do on the quiz? If my brother and sisters didn’t get this right, I’m sorry to tell you that Dad has now disowned you. Anyone else out there have a term that’s unique to your family?

Snapshot

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Papa, mama and baby toadstools in the west meadow

And yes, that is old horse manure they’re growing in.

Wild kingdom

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I love seeing the wild animals at the farm.

Last week, I added a few new ones to my list:

Bunny–surprisingly, I’ve not seen a rabbit up until now, and last week I had two sightings, including one directly across from the front door when I came out in the morning.
Hummingbird–at a distance from the kitchen window. There were a lot of hummingbird feeders in the gardens around the house when we bought the farm, and I’ve just been stacking them on one of the wood piles. Maybe we should fill some of them instead.
A wild turkey family, complete with chicks–not actually on the farm, but on the drive to work on two separate mornings.
Turkey vulture–on the drive home from work. I’ve seen them before, but never up close. The nicest thing I can say is… ummm… her head was really red.

And in other wildlife news, my quest to photograph a deer continues.

The best I’ve done so far.

We see deer fairly frequently at the farm. Their tracks and trails are everywhere. One showed up in the flesh (fur?) walking along the row of pines right beside the house. She was within a dozen metres of us. Of course, as soon as she realized she’d been spotted, she bounded away rather than posing for a picture.

I do think the deer that we see are getting more accustomed to us. I can walk out into the fields trying to get closer to them and they don’t spook immediately anymore. However, documenting them is a different story. Maybe they’re just camera shy.

Mystery marble

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on what they thought was the answer to Friday’s mystery photo. Most people recognized pretty quickly that it was stone of some kind and guessed they were looking at tile or a countertop maybe. Close, but not quite.

Dave got it right: this is in fact marble for Matt’s bathroom shower. More specifically, it’s the slab that will go on the top of the bench in the shower.

It’s a beautiful piece of white and grey marble.

This was my first time buying marble, and finding the perfect piece was not as easy as I expected. We needed one solid surface for the top of the bench. No seams or joints minimizes our risk of leaks. However, none of the tile or home improvement stores that we visited dealt in large (but smaller than counter-size) pieces of marble. The top of the bench had to be 18″ x 32 1/4″, and the best I found was 18″ square tile. That would have meant a seam, so that was a no-go.

As well, I was picky about the colour and veining on the marble. I wanted something mostly white with smooth grey veining (not too speckled). Granite suppliers are common in our area, but in my experience they tended to have a very limited selection of marble. Plus, understandably none of them wanted to cut into a countertop-size slab and end up with a leftover that was too small to use on another project.

Finally, we found a granite supplier that had a larger selection of marble and a good collection of remnants. They let us go through their warehouse and pulled out many pieces for me to examine. In the end, we found a piece that was just the right size and just the right colour. They gave us a good deal on the price and cut and polished it to my exact specifications.

Here’s a sneak peak of how it looks with the marble mosaic we’re going to be using for the shower floor.

Marble slab with hexagon marble mosaic tiles

The slab is a great match to the hexagon tiles.

I love marble over any other stone, and I’m really happy that we’re going to be able to use some in Matt’s new bathroom.

Our tile order should be arriving shortly, so stay tuned for more updates.

Any other marble fans out there? Anyone have tips for sourcing natural stone? And looking ahead to the next stage, any advice for installation?

Guess what

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Another Friday mystery for you.

This arrived at the farm last week.

Once again, it’s up to you to figure out what this is. Leave your answer in the comments and tune in next week for the answer.

Wishing everyone a great long weekend. Happy Canada Day! And to my U.S. readers, happy early 4th of July.

Lighting love

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

If you’ve been following along for a little while with our renovation saga, you’re familiar with some of the lighting that we started with in the basement: ceiling fixtures mounted on the walls, a ceiling fan recessed up into the joists. As you can probably imagine, I have a bit of a need for new lighting.

With the Barn Light Electric giveaway making the rounds of the blogosphere, I saw an opportunity.

Once I was browsing the web site, however, I was seduced. I was sidetracked. I decided I can live with bare bulbs and pigtails in the basement.

But I absolutely positively cannot any longer live with this.

The green and brass and faux wood ceiling fan in the living room.

Wouldn’t this be a fun replacement?

Barn Light Electric Outer Banks Chandelier

We have a beautiful big living room with lots of natural light, wonderful vaulted ceiling, great rustic beams and a stone fireplace (that admittedly could use a bit of work). In the middle of all that, we have a huge, horrific green ceiling fan.

This is never appropriate.

Barn Lighting has tonnes of great options that will satisfy my need for a pretty, polished, traditional aesthetic that’s in keeping with our rustic country setting. We have an actual barn on this property. We should choose a company with “barn” in its name.

Once I was focused on the main floor, it was easy to line up other lighting options.

Barn Light Electric Mystic Seaport Chandelier

Mystic Seaport Chandelier (in dark brass) to replace a distinctly non-country chandelier in the dining room.

Barn Light Electric Mayfield Semi-Flush Ceiling Light

Two Mayfield Semi-Flush Ceiling Lights (in old bronze) to replace a pair of unfortunate boob lights in the hallway

Barn Light Electric School House Pendant "The Brevard"

School House Pendant “The Brevard” (also in a bronze finish) to replace a flush mount fixture over the island in the kitchen–a pendant is much more appropriate and will balance the space nicely.

While I need the Outer Banks Chandelier for the living room, I just want the Halstead Semi-Flush Ceiling Light. I’d put it in my sewing room to replace yet another boob light.

Barn Light Electric Halstead Semi-Flush Ceiling Light

Or I’d put it in the bathroom to replace a weirdly located globe that’s straight out of 1989.

Halstead is not really country and it’s definitely not rustic, but oh it’s pretty.

Do you have some lighting needs of your own? There’s still time to enter the Barn Light Electric giveaway.

Look around online at Barn Light Electric and pick lights you’d love to own.
Feature your lighting picks on your personal blog, and link to the lights if you can!
Copy/paste these rules at the bottom of your blog article so others can enter.
Once your personal article is up, you must email your blog link to: marketing@barnlightelectric.com to be qualified to win.

The contest ends Monday, July 2, 2012. If you don’t have a blog, but do have need of beautiful lighting you can still enter. Find out how by reading the Official Rules.