Odds and sods

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s been a good vacation week here. I feel like I’ve found the balance between productivity and relaxation.

All of the gardens–flower and vegetable–are weeded. We’ve bought wood for the garden gate but not built it yet. We “fixed” the bathroom tap–when we couldn’t find a new cartridge that fit, we lubricated the old one and reinstalled it.

I’m 2 1/2 out of 3 on my vacation goals: I’ve had lots of long walks with Baxter, one with Matt and one with our hike group (and one more to come this morning). I spent a late afternoon on the couch with half a movie (as opposed to a lazy morning and a whole movie). I discovered that I can in fact still turn a cartwheel.

Here are some other things that have caught my eye recently:

Some great art–including DIY options–from Brooklyn Limestone and The Makerista. I love the room that Gwen made for her son. The gallery wall is outstanding.
I just discovered Love Grows Wild a few weeks ago, and now it seems to be popping up everywhere. Liz has been open about finding her style, and the spaces she’s making are beautiful. Plus she lives on a farm, so she’s totally someone I love to read.
And speaking of open and honest, Jen at IHeart Organizing wrote a great post about the challenges of blogging for “the reveal.”
Eat that frog totally helped me get ready at the day job for this vacation, and it’s helped with the small day job tasks that I’ve had to deal with during the vacation too.
My Mom brought me a beautiful bouquet of gladiolas. Our flower gardens are pretty much done blooming. I need some plants that bloom past August. Perhaps gladiolas would work?
I’m feeding my love of gardening with a new Sarah Addison Allen book. Now if only our garden had a magical apple tree…

How has your week been? Any suggestions for late summer flowers to add to my gardens? Have you read Sarah Addison Allen? Did anyone else try a cartwheel?

Over-thinking

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

My thought process went something like this:

“Now that we have the garden, we could really use a composter. I should put it near the kitchen so it’s convenient.”

“While I’m out here, I might as well clear the weeds from the patio.” (I did not ask Baxter to pose. Dude was in a photogenic mood.)

My technique is to take a sharp spade and shove it sharply against the joints between the slabs. If you feel like you might break your wrist, you’re doing it right.

“Now that I’ve cleared the weeds, I might as well see if I can uncover the steps.” (We’ve never seen the steps, and you probably can’t either).

“Holy heck. What was I thinking trying to clear the steps? This ivy is ridiculous!”

“Wow, these steps are much bigger than I thought. And they look amazing.”

“Now where to put the composter? I’ll just clear a little more of this ivy.”

Clunk.

“What was that? Are there more stones under this ivy? Why?”

“Oh hello, husband. You have great timing. Milkshake? Yes, please.”

—Break for Matt’s amazing chocolate peanut butter milkshake—

“Alright, that gave me the fuel I needed. Let’s do what I came out here to do in the first place.”

“Finally done.” (And yes, the dog abandoned me after the milkshake break).

“All this work for a composter? I think I need a shower.”

“But hmmm… what about the patio on the other side of the house?”

“I need to stop thinking so hard.”

Who else has ever over-complicated a simple project? Do you have a composter at your house? Do you have a weedy patio? Any tips on how to do battle with ivy?

Take it easy

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s vacation week, people. I’ve been trying really hard not to come up with a big to-do list for this week. (I can hear Matt scoffing as he reads this).

I’m not good at sitting and relaxing. Honestly, I find I relax the most when I DIY. Gardening, painting, working around the farm empties my mind usually.

However, I’ve been trying to set different types of goals for this week:

Spend a lazy morning on the couch with a blanket, hot chocolate and a pointless action movie (my favourite kind of movie)
Check if I can still turn a cartwheel (Matt’s scoffing again)
Go for a few long walks with Matt, Baxter and our off-leash hiking group

Of course, there will be other activities. The gardens are all weedy. The cold water tap in my shower is so stiff that it barely turns–and Matt’s brother and sister-in-law are coming to visit at the end of the week, and part of being hospitable involves not asking your guests to shower in scalding hot water. I might finally put a gate on the vegetable garden.

But who knows. Maybe all of the books I’ve ordered from the library will come in, Ralph and I will hang out in the hammock, and our guests will have to double fist it when they turn on the water.

We’ll see what happens. For now, I’m trying to make like the Eagles and take it easy.

What’s your plan for the week? How do you like to spend your vacation?

Harvest!

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

I know this blog has turned into more of a gardening blog over the last little while as opposed to a home reno blog. We have many more renos to go, but in our limited Canadian growing season, I am going to garden. I appreciate you all sticking with me. In case you can’t tell, we’re loving our new vegetable garden. We’re especially loving all of the food that we’re harvesting.

We were a little late on planting (the whole building the garden thing delayed us a bit). So I’ve been trying to be patient when it comes to looking for edible vegetables. However, I’ve perhaps been a little too patient.

I thought the zucchinis were still at the blossom stage. A closer look revealed we were past the harvest stage for some zucs. Yipes. There were nine good-sized (really fairly large) zucchinis. And two days later, I harvested seven more (and there’s been one more since then).

So far, I’ve made grilled zucchini, chocolate sour cream zucchini cake, zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini bread, zucchini soup and zucchini parmesan. I even snuck a few into my parents’ car when they came to visit the farm. More are coming though. Anyone have any good zucchini recipes?

Out of a whole package of bean seeds, only four plants have grown (the others were nibbled right after they sprouted). That means our harvest has not been huge, but we’ve had a few lovely yellow beans.

Beside the beans, the tomatoes are turning red. The cherry tomatoes blow me away. I’ve never seen tomatoes grow in clusters like this. And of course, they’re my favourite sweet tomatoes. Very few make it to the house. I eat ’em like candy right in the garden.

The potatoes plants are blooming. I hope potatoes themselves grow in time for harvest this fall.

And beside the potatoes, in a mass of leaves and vines, squashes are starting to form. I’m absolutely going to figure out a trellis system next year for the squash. They’re taking over. Good thing we have a big garden, but there are lots of other plants on the wishlist for next year. The squash are going to have to learn to share.

We’re picking lettuce, beets and green onions as we need them, the red raspberries have transplanted successfully, and I have hope that a few of the black raspberries are going to make it. It looks like even the peppers may be perking up.

This is the closest I’ve ever been to being a farmer. And I have to say I like it.

What are you growing, harvesting and eating at your house?

Rough ride

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The car was up on the hoist. Matt was underneath. The mechanic turned to him and said, “What are your intentions with this car?”

Never a good question when you’re standing under a 12 year old vehicle.

There had been signs that not everything was right: warning lights, new noises, a dozen years on the road, the 262,000+km on the odometer.

Driving home, the car broke down three times on the side of the road. Jumper cables were required.

I was at work and unaware all of this was happening, so my question when I got home of “How did the appointment with the mechanic go?” was met with an answer I didn’t entirely expect.

“Ummm… I hope you don’t mind, but I bought a car today.”

To roll out the red carpet for Matt’s new car, we pushed the old car out of the way of the front door (the dealership sent someone to pick it up… with a tow truck), and we patched the potholes in the driveway.

We can’t have new suspension and steering put to the test by the obstacle course that is the usual access path for the farm.

What state is your driveway in? How old is your car? Have you ever had to buy a car urgently? Who else thinks I should have got to drive the tractor while Matt handled the rake?

Cool dude

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Today’s Civic Holiday in Ontario, so I’m taking it easy (thanks for understanding). Be cool, dudes.

Pepper problems

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Anyone have tips for growing peppers? Our plants aren’t doing so well over here.

Remember this picture of the little pepper and blossoms from a few weeks ago?

Well, the plants haven’t grown at all. In fact, they’ve regressed. See the little green nuggets laying on the soil?

The little peppers fell off their stalks. (My finger is in the shot for scale to show you how little the peppers grew).

The peppers are the only things that aren’t doing well in the garden.

I thought maybe they weren’t getting enough sun, but we’ve planted two different batches in two different locations.

We’ve tried jalapenos as well as sweet red bells.

None of them are growing.

Do you have any tips?

Uncovering a favourite perch

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

So you have a spot like this in your yard, right? Somewhere that you just let things go a little bit?

My pledge this year is to not worry about the yard and focus only on the vegetable garden. But this clump of overgrowth at the edge of the south lawn finally got to me. My inner Edward Scissorhands came out (along with a pair of clippers, since I don’t actually have blades on my hands).

Who knew there was a dead curlicue bush, a mostly dead catalpa, a huge flowerpot and two stone benches hidden in there? (Well, we did, since we’ve seen them before… and put some of them there during our previous yard clean-up episodes).

The bush and the tree froze to death last winter. The big flowerpot is a gift from previous owners that I haven’t bothered to get rid of yet. The benches? Well, the benches belong to Ralph.

While she didn’t express gratitude (are cats capable of gratitude?), I think she appreciated our work.

The benches allow her to ascend to the perfect height for convenient scratching.

But most importantly, the benches allow her to assume a superior height over her brother.

So our landscaping meets with the cat’s approval, if not the dog’s. Now to convince Matt to get out his chainsaw and deal with those dead trees…

Do you have an overgrown spot at your house? Does anyone else’s animals “help” with the yard work? What furniture belongs to furry friends? Who’s the boss, your cat or your dog? (I think I know the answer to the last one… in my experience that relationship only goes one way).

Learning to like lilies

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

Last year, when Matt and I transplanted a lilac from beside the driveshed, I dug up a few other plants that looked like they might be something (as opposed to just being weeds). I was wishing for hollyhocks because I had found a plastic tag near them that said hollyhock. (Plus I love hollyhocks).

This year when they started to grow, I realized they were probably not hollyhocks. As they started to bud, I thought lilies, but maybe (wishfully) calla lilies? Surely they wouldn’t be ubiquitous day lilies, would they? (Not my favourite flower, honestly).

Well, they are day lilies, but they’re a bit special. They’re two-toned, which is kind of cool.

A bunch of lilies still in their nursery pots were among the plants we inherited from the previous owners. I stuck them in the ground last year, and they’ve done super well.

There’s the orange sherbert (again, I’m not the hugest fan of this version).

The lemon sherbert is a bit more palatable.

Then we of course have what I classify as regular orange day lilies.

The late bloomers that have come on in just the last week are these dark red ones. I actually like these quite a lot.

But the star of the show is one special lily. Yes, this an Easter lily. I stuck it in the ground last year. And this year, after doing nothing (except having a close call with Wiley), it’s blooming. In fact, it’s bloomed so big that the second blossom has split open.

The success of our lilies makes me think I may not have such a black thumb after all. Or else lilies thrive when neglected.

As the lilies are growing in the garden, they’re also starting to grow on me. I think I actually like them. I know for sure that there is one type of lily that I’d really like to add to our garden.

Growing up, we had two clumps of tiger lilies in our backyard (basically day lilies with spots). My Mom had transplanted them from her family’s farm where she spent childhood summers. The tiger lilies eventually got squeezed out of the garden, but I’m hoping I might be able to find some for our farm. For now, I get my tiger lily fix from a plate painted by my great grandmother that lives in my Mom’s china cabinet.