Big news from Illinois!

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Before I get into today’s guest post from Sarah in Illinois, I wanted to mention that I guest posted on That Mutt yesterday. Visit Lindsay’s blog to read all about Baxter’s favourite toy–and enter to win one for your own furry friend.

And now on to Sarah’s latest post. (I won’t say any more because I don’t want to scoop her big announcement!)

There has been a lot going on over here in the past two weeks! The big news is that the day before Thanksgiving Steve and I went to the courthouse and got married! We have been dating for almost 6 years and engaged for close to a year and anytime anyone asked, we told them that we were not going to have a big wedding, but no one knew when. It was a Thanksgiving surprise for everyone!

Sarah and her new husband Steve

We got together with Steve’s family for Thanksgiving and had a great time and ate too much and visited and watched football. I also had Steve’s niece take our picture for our family Christmas card. Back at home, I have started my Christmas shopping, our tree is up, lights are on the house, Christmas is in full swing!

We bought new LED lights for our tree and we were so excited to see the patterns that it splashed on our walls and ceiling!

Since there is so much that goes on leading up to Christmas, I wanted to make sure we focused on our favorite things and didn’t get overwhelmed with trying to get everything done. I asked the kids what was something they wanted to make sure we didn’t forget to do and they both agreed that we can’t miss making gingerbread houses! So we still have that to do, plus finish shopping, plus all our family dinners. And I still have a gift to make for our handmade gift exchange that my girlfriends and I are going to do.

As for home improvement projects, I have to admit Steve and I kind of burnt ourselves out over the summer. We have done absolutely nothing around the house and I think we have both decided that it is time to get back to work! I came home one night this past week, and Steve had grout mixed up and we got to work grouting our hallway.

Grouted tile

We laid the tile early in the summer and have been walking on ungrouted tile all this time. I am so thankful that we both have our drive back to work on the house! We have a sort of game plan for this winter, and I am getting excited about tearing the house apart and fixing it back up! I am hoping that my future posts will be filled with projects that we have finished!

Congratulations, Sarah and Steve! It’s great to get your DIY-mojo back. Oh, and getting married too. That’s big. 🙂 All the best to you both.

Sarah will be back in the New Year with more updates about (married) life, home renos and country living.

Hard-working farm dog

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

You’ve read my perspective on mucking out the barn. Now Baxter shares his point of view.

Being a farm dog is a lot of work. The last few weeks, we’ve been cleaning out the barn.

Usually, Matt and Julia don’t let me in the barn.

They say it’s Ralph’s home, and she’s allowed to have her own space no dogs allowed. I don’t know what the big deal is. I don’t chase her too much. And I’m her brother. Aren’t I supposed to bug her?

The first time I came into the barn, it was very interesting. There were so many sniffs. Ralph was there too. And I didn’t bug her at all.

By the third weekend in the barn, I was exhausted.

Ralph was guarding her food dish, so I climbed into her bed. It’s a big pile of straw, but all of the nests are cat-sized. I turned and turned and turned, but I did not fit. I dug around and was able to make a dog-sized nest.

I gotta say. I’m a farm dog. But I’m not a barn dog. That straw was prickly. This is my not impressed face.

Baxter curled up in the straw

Ralph seems to like it for some reason though. She left her food dish and came over to give me dirty looks from the stairs.

Stand off over the pile of straw

Apparently I was still bugging her. My work as a farm dog and as a brother is never done.

Oh, Baxter. You have such a hard life.

Want more Baxter? Check out That Mutt tomorrow where I’m writing about his favourite toy. There’s even a give-away for your own furry friends.

Mucking out and working out

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

You’ve been hearing about me spreading manure on the garden pretty much all fall. However, this post has been an even longer time coming. In fact, it’s been sitting in my drafts folder since June 2012. Way back then, Matt and I mucked out our first stall.

I was responsible for raking up the old straw.

And Matt was responsible for getting the straw out of the stall and into the field behind the barn.

We just used rakes, rather than bothering to find the pitchforks, and then we piled the old straw behind the barn. This stall became Wiley’s garage.

The previous owners of our property had boarded horses. When they left, they didn’t bother to clean out the stalls.

And this fall, three years later, we still had 14 stalls full of straw and manure.

We also had a brand new vegetable garden that had been super productive. If I wanted to keep it productive, I needed to replenish the soil.

That meant it was finally time to tackle the barn.

It took me about 9 hours spread over three weekends. There were more than a dozen trailer loads of manure, and I don’t even know how many wheelbarrow loads. There were two assistants, Ms. Scratches and Mr. Sunbather, neither of whom gave very much assistance.

Ralph and Baxter in the barn

There was no way to get the tractor or the trailer into the barn, so I wheeled all of the straw through the barn, up a plank and into the trailer. When the trailer was full, I towed it out to the garden.

I got very proficient at backing up the trailer through this project. It just fit through the gate on the garden.

I usually laugh when people ask me what my workout routine is. I own a farm. That means I work. No need for a gym membership. Here’s my version of a workout video. Repeat that about a 100 more times.

So it only took me three years (or really three weekends once I got started), but finally the stalls are clean.

Now to find a new workout…

Have you ever had to muck out stalls? Any tips to make it easier? (Not that I’m planning on doing it again). What’s a project that you’ve had hanging around for awhile?

Three weeks left to get my act together

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Ladies and gentlemen, I have to inform you that this is the first post of December. We have just three weeks until winter.

And that means I have just three weeks left to finish up my fall to-do list.

I’m actually not doing too bad.

The vegetable garden – Done for the season

As you saw last week, I’m declaring the vegetable garden done for the year. Never mind that I didn’t finish everything I wanted to. I have high hopes for productivity come spring.

Frost covered raspberry cane

The bird feeder – Done for awhile.

Our birdies are loving the feeder. So is Ralph. She camps out under Matt’s car and watches the feeder intently. So far, I don’t think she’s caught any birds. A trio of neighbourhood crows showed up on Sunday morning. If Ralph wants to deal with them, that would be fine with me.

Firewood – Done thanks to Matt and his Dad.

Here is my view as I type this post. I love our evenings in front of the fire.

Stone fireplace decorated for Christmas

Get Wiley ready for winter – Done thanks to my cousin.

Our little tractor will need his snowblower soon, but the rest of him is ready for winter.

The house – Almost done.

Matt cleaned out the gutters again a week ago, and I took off the screens last Saturday–Baxter thought we should go on a third walk instead.

Baxter waiting while I take off the screens

The outdoor water is off, and all that remains is the annual service and filter replacement on our indoor water system. That’s scheduled for next weekend.

So only one thing left to do before winter. That’s probably a good thing because I have a long list of things to do before Christmas. At least life is never boring.

How are you doing on getting ready for winter? What progress have you made in getting ready for Christmas?

How to add a harp to a lamp

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

My thrift store lamp that you met on Friday had a lot of things going for it, especially after its spray paint makeover. However, there was one thing missing that I didn’t notice until the very end: the harp.

The harp is the little bracket that goes around the light bulb and holds the lampshade.

I admit, I was a little intimidated by the prospect of installing a harp. I hear about a lot of people rewiring lamps, but I’ve never attempted that myself. It turns out it’s not hard. In fact, I just started trying to take the lamp apart and was able to figure it out pretty much on my own.

Step one was to remove the socket from the lamp base. It just unscrewed, and the cord was loose enough that I was able to pull it out a little bit.

Removing the socket from a lamp

The wire was still buried deep in the socket, so I started trying to figure out how to access it. A close examination revealed a seam in the middle of the socket. You can see it partially opened here.

Removing the socket from a lamp

The socket easily unscrewed, and I could see where the wires attached to two screws. I could also see a really intimidating knot. Gulp.

Taking apart a lamp socket

A couple of turns loosened the screws enough to unhook the wires. Quick tip: I marked which wire went to which screw (one’s gold and one’s silver) by straightening the gold one and leaving the silver one hooked.

Taking apart a lamp socket

I was really, really hoping to not untie that knot, but in order to remove the bottom part of the socket–never mind putting on the harp–I had to. With the knot untied, the socket easily slid off and the harp bracket easily slid on.

How to add a harp to a lamp

After that, it was a (relatively) easy process of reassembling the socket. I slid the bottom part of the socket back into place. I retied the knot. (Okay, this was a bit complicated.) It turns out the knot is called an underwriters knot. I watched this animation a few times as I was tying my own knot. I hooked the wires back over their screws, and then screwed everything back together. I had a reassembled lamp that now included the bottom part of the harp.

How to add a harp to a lamp

The upper part of the harp slid onto the bottom bracket and I gave myself a congratulatory pat on the back.

How to add a harp to a lamp

And then I had to choose a lampshade. Last week I asked for your input, white or grey. So what did I end up choosing?

I went with the grey. It was pretty much the universal favourite last week, and I decided that I liked its flared shape best.

Purple lamp with flared grey shade

And another detail on the basement comes together. Slowly but surely I will finish this space.

Have you ever rewired a lamp? What DIY projects do you find intimidating?

Linking up to #DIYLightingChallenge

Lamp makeover

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

November is turning into lighting month over here. Last week was the dining room chandelier and the basement chandelier. This week I have a new lamp to show you.

If you think back to February, you might recall that I posted about struggling to find a lamp that I liked for the end of the couch in the basement. Well, things move like lightning over here–lightning I tell you–because just 9 months later I’m ready to show you my solution.

Lamp makeover before

Ummm… not quite.

A thrifted lamp was my starting point. It was the right height. I liked the shape. The base wouldn’t take up a whole lot of space on our tiny end table.

I took care of the brass with the same shiny silver spray paint that I used on the original dining room chandelier.

Lamp makeover

As much as I liked the turquoise colour, I was not a fan of the flowers. So everything got a coat of deep purple spray paint.

Purple lamp

Purple?

Yep.

I like having pops of colour in the basement, and purple is a colour I’ve not used yet.

Turns out the purple works. I really like how it looks in the basement.

But I have a dilemma.

What lampshade looks best? (Ignore the shiny cellophane wrapping.)

I have a (slightly crooked) grey option.

Grey lampshade

Or a white option.

White lampshade

What’s your vote?

Christmas card display

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s Thanksgiving this week for my American readers, but as she celebrates Sarah in Illinois is already looking ahead to Christmas. Timely, as we’re exactly one month away from Christmas. Yipes! Sarah is back today to share a cute DIY for displaying Christmas cards.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is checking the mail box for Christmas cards. I love sending and receiving cards and putting them on display. However, I have never really had a way to display them that looked nice.

This year I decided to turn to Pinterest to come up with a plan. There were so many cute ideas, but I did not use one specific image as my inspiration. I searched for “Christmas card holder” and used an idea from here and a feature from there, and this is what I came up with:

Christmas card display

I started by making a frame out of simple 1×2. I decided I wanted the inside of my frame to be about 16×20 inches, but that measurement could easily be adjusted to any size.

I cut my 1×2 at a 45 degree angle making sure that the right and left side were exactly the same length and did the same for the top and bottom. That way the frame would be square.

Cutting 1x2s on a mitre saw

The trickiest part of the whole project was nailing the frame together. Because I am stubborn, I didn’t ask for help. But having someone to help hold the pieces would be easier. Using screws would also have been easier, but I didn’t want the screw heads to show.

At this point, I grabbed some stain that we had sitting around and gave it a good coat and wiped off the excess. Many of the inspiration pictures that I was looking at used chicken wire as the background, but I felt the chicken wire was too “country” for my taste so I planned to use hardware cloth.

I found these little bitty clothes pins to use to hang the cards on the wire.

Mini clothespins

They came as bare wood, so I used the same stain as I did for the frame to give them a little interest. I used tin snips to cut the hardware cloth to size and then stapled it to the back of the frame.

Hardware cloth stapled to a wood frame

For the pennants, I had to do some experimenting. I used quarter-inch plywood and cut it in a strip 2.5 inches wide. Then I had to cut it into the pennant shape. But I didn’t know what angle that should be. So I just tried until I liked the way it looked.

I set my miter at 45 degrees, and I didn’t like that angle, so I changed it to 30 degrees. That was better, but I still felt it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. The next pre-marked measurement on my saw was 22.5 degrees, so I tried that and thought it looked just right!

Cutting penants on a mitre saw

After I cut several pennants, I used a little drill bit to put holes in the top to string some jute through.

Drilling holes

But before I strung them up I painted with a little craft acrylic paint. All that was left was to hang them at the top of the frame. I did that by tying the string to the back of the frame on the hardware cloth.

My frame is now hung on the wall and ready for the first card to come in the mail!

Christmas card display

What a cute display, Sarah. It’s just country enough, in my opinion. To see what else is inspiring Sarah, follow her on Pinterest.

I hope that Sarah and all my other American readers have a great Thanksgiving.

Garden wrap-up

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’m calling the garden done for the year. I didn’t do quite as much as I wanted (edging it and putting in some raised beds around the perimeter), but I’m satisfied with where we ended up.

Matt and I spread manure (and a lot of straw) over the whole 2,000+ square feet. We couldn’t get Fairfield, the rototiller, going, and we suspected the soil might be too wet and sticky for him anyways.

So Matt drained the gas from the tiller, and we’ll revisit the cultivating in the spring. Let’s just say that for now we’re embracing the no-till philosophy.

Garden covered with straw

This post should perhaps not be called a wrap-up, as for the first time the garden is unwrapped… pretty much.

Since spring, half the garden has been covered by a tarp and a section of carpet. Matt and I finally lifted them to spread the manure.

The coverings did a great job of killing the weeds. We have one little corner that escaped the tarp, so we moved the carpet over that patch… another thing to revisit next spring.

Carpet covering a corner of the garden

In fact, we were so impressed by how effective the tarp method is that we moved the tarp around to the back of the house where I want to tame the “jungle.”

Here’s the view from last summer:

Jungle of weeds behind the house

And here’s the view now from the roof. Trust that this isn’t a garbage bag weighted down with bits of gravel. That’s the whole area behind the house covered with a very large tarp.

Tarp covering the backyard

But that’s for next year. For now, look at the garden.

Manure in the garden

Oops. Sorry that’s horse poop in the garden.

Let’s see… what can I show you beside more manure.

We discovered four more acorn squash–just what we need. Anyone want some squash?

Acorn squash

I think we finished gardening season just in time. As of yesterday morning, the farm was covered with our first dusting of snow.

Garden dusted with snow

How did you spend your weekend? Have you seen any snow yet where you are? Will you?

Great gardening weekend, fall edition

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

We’re basically a month away from winter. Just enough time to squeeze in another weekend of work in the garden.

Never mind that winter is forecast to arrive on Saturday with our first snowfall of any substance.

Weekend weather

Back at the start of October, I said that I had four things I wanted to do in the garden before winter:

Hang the gate
Edge the garden
Put in raised beds
Spread manure

I’ve still not made great progress on any of these… except for one.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working my way through the barn, emptying the stalls of their manure. As of this morning, the score stands at 10 stalls done, 4 to go.

Cleaning out the stalls in the barn

The plan for the weekend is to clean out the remaining 4 stalls, and then Matt has pledged to till the manure into the garden (if the snow melts).

I’d still love to tackle the other items on my to-do list, but I’m willing to call this it for the year… maybe.

I’ll see how much snow we get.

What’s your plan for the weekend? What’s the forecast where you are? Have you seen any snow yet this year? What outside work are you trying to squeeze in before winter starts?

Dining room chandelier reborn

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’m thinking I may have been a little hard on our old dining room light in my last post. I may have given you the impression that I hated its copper-wired, frosted-glass, brushed-nickel guts.

That’s not entirely the case.

I just hated them in the dining room.

Ugly dining room chandelier

I actually thought the light might work in the basement.

We’ve had one persistent pigtail hanging around in the basement since we finished the reno down there (almost, ahem, two years ago, ahem). I always have a hard time finding lighting that I like. But then it occurred to me that with a little bit of help, the dining room light might work just fine.

The help came in the form of bright silver spray paint.

Rustoleum metallic finish

I spy with my little eye a chandelier hanging in a tree (and a finial stuck on a stick).

Spray painting a chandelier

I’ve used bright polished silver lighting in other areas of the basement, so I wanted to stick with that theme. The spray paint isn’t quite as shiny as I’d like, but it’s close.

I’ve not yet found a way to photograph the basement that doesn’t come out with it looking horrendous. So just trust that this light is an improvement over the pigtail, okay?

Basement chandelier