#Farm365

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

I’m taking a little side step today. I’ll be back with my 2015 Home Goals next week. Yesterday I came across something that I feel is important, and I wanted to share it with you.

At the end of December, Andrew Campbell, a dairy farmer here in southern Ontario, posted the following tweet.

Excited about 2015 as I aim to post a picture every day about what we are doing to grow grain and produce milk. I'll post under #farm365.

— Andrew Campbell 🇨🇦 (@FreshAirFarmer) December 29, 2014

This blog post explained that “the project’s goal [is] to shed more light on the daily happenings of a farm [and] … to spur on conversations around food production.”

I love the concept. Obviously, Matt and I are not farmers, but we’re supportive of farming, and since buying our own farm, I’ve gained incredible admiration for contributions farmers make.

I feel that #farm365 and social media can raise awareness of farmers and the work that they do.

Here’s Andrew’s first tweet:

With a little help, our New Years calf arrived at 1:40am. She will be standing within an hour #HappyNewYear #farm365 pic.twitter.com/73wFRrK5Hq

— Andrew Campbell 🇨🇦 (@FreshAirFarmer) January 1, 2015

Unfortunately, basically as soon as Andrew started posting his pictures, #farm365 was highjacked. Rather than a respectful productive discussion about food production, Andrew and other farmers were attacked with accusations of animal cruelty. It’s very nasty–and I realize by writing this post I may be opening myself up to some of that.

Andrew’s response to the highjacking and to the nastiness was actually the first post I saw. This was the post that introduced me to the rest of the campaign.

I think this is one of the most thoughtful, positive, informative, personal, passionate blog posts I’ve read. I’ve included a few excerpts here, but I encourage you to read the whole thing.

“What started as a simple idea on New Year’s Day based on other photo-a-day challenges, #farm365 on Twitter has turned into something far greater than a few pictures of corn or cows. It’s turned into a great force of farmers sticking up for themselves and consumers getting a better idea of what it takes to send food out of the driveway…

Farmers are compassionate, well-meaning and very proud individuals… Many showed their farms in the moment, sharing their beliefs and systems and they did it with the great passion they work with every day. They are the true heroes of what #farm365 is. A look at what really goes on behind a barn door or in a field.”

Country living–and by association, farming–is something I’ve become passionate about since moving to our own farm. I realize my point of view–and Andrew’s–is not shared by everyone. Even though I’m not a farmer, I’m going to be looking for opportunities to support the #farm365 campaign. This blog post, building awareness in my little corner of the internet and lending my voice to the conversation is step one.

Looking back at home goals 2014

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

Before we dive too much into 2015–boy it feels weird typing that–I’m going to take a little look back to my Home Goals from 2014.

I’m proud to say that Matt and I kicked butt in 2014. I don’t mean to sound boastful. But we got a lot done around the house over the past year. Today’s post is about celebrating some of our accomplishments. Woo-hoo!

Here’s the list of my original goals and how we did on each.

1. Painting. Check!

Main floor hallway
Kitchen
New addition – Living room

Painting the hallway and kitchen was the first project we tackled last year, and we crossed them off the list in February. The living room wasn’t on the list at first, but over the course of the year we slowly got it painted one wall at a time. In fact, we finished the final wall just last week (okay, so it was Jan. 2, but who’s counting?).

2. Laundry room. Check!

The laundry room was my first participation in the One Room Challenge. I love how I was able to transform this utilitarian space with just a bit of paint, some simple updates to the cabinets and a few fun accessories.

3. Master bedroom. No check.

We were not very successful at the master bedroom makeover. I was supposed to scrape the popcorn ceiling back in the summer but never worked up the effort.

… That is until last week. Yup, the master bedroom makeover is underway.

Matt and I bought a new bed (a king-size one–yipes) just before Christmas. Its imminent delivery motivated me to deal with the ceiling. We’ve got a bit more work yet to go, but that’s what Home Goals 2015 are for (that post is coming up next).

4. Furniture. Partial check.

I had a few pieces of furniture that I wanted to find/make last year. I can cross off about half of my list.

~~Refresh bookshelves and living room TV stand with new trim and paint~~ – More on the bookshelves here and the TV stand here and here
Coffee table for the living room
~~Sofa table for the living room~~ – Details here
Hutch/cabinetry/built-ins for dining room
~~Narrow dresser for my office~~ – Details here
Hutch for my office
~~Free-standing cabinet for the hallway to the laundry room~~ – No details, but you can see it with the ironing board hanging on it here

5. Living room fireplace. Big fat check!

I honestly did not expect to be able to cross the fireplace off the list this year, but I can. And it makes me a little bit giddy. We squeaked it in right at the end of 2014. The full wrap-up post is still coming, but I can let you know that the fireplace is fabulous. It was wonderful to lounge in front of the fire over the holidays.

And no, you’re not getting a picture of this yet. 😉

6. Landscaping. Maybe a partial check.

Landscaping continues to be my nemesis at the farm. I did some work outside, but not as much as I had hoped.

Reestablish the flowerbeds around the house. I’m about halfway around the house and have come to the decision that we don’t need flowerbeds on the south side or the back. It will take a lot of work to rip out the old beds, but once I do mowing will be quicker than weeding.
Plant grass seed where old firepits were and clean up the detritus that’s still hanging around. Again, halfway done. The grass is growing, but there are a few more piles still to clean up.
Tidy the east shore of the pond and build a new firepit near the water. I decided that this task is too big to take on myself, but budget constraints prevented me from recruiting some professional help. Maybe next year.
Continue to plant the turnaround. Half the turnaround is in really good shape. The other half we’ve gone with grass until I can work up the energy to make it a flower garden.
Put in a vegetable garden. Oh I had such ambitions around this one, but it was a complete non-starter.
Continue with the landscaping master list. I don’t think this task is ever going to go away.

2014 was much more successful than 2013. Last year at this time I was quite frustrated with how little I had accomplished. This year, I’m over the moon by how much we’ve done.

Having my goals was really important to help me stay focused. What made the difference this year was translating those goals into monthly projects. Thanks to all of you for sticking with me and encouraging us through 2014. Coming up next, Home Goals 2015.

Was 2014 a productive year for you? What was your biggest accomplishment last year? How do you stay on task?

Tips for renovating with your dog

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

Hello everyone. Holidays are officially over and it’s back to the regular routine.

Except, that is, for today’s blog. I have a different type of post for you.

As you know, before Christmas we redid the fireplace at our house. Today isn’t the full project post, but that’s coming, I promise.

As part of the renovation we had to make some special considerations for Baxter. Today, I’m sharing some of my tips for renovating with a dog over at ThatMutt.com.

Baxter and I would both appreciate it if you’d click over there to read today’s post.

And for That Mutt readers who are dropping in, welcome. My husband and I live on a 129-acre farm in Ontario, Canada. I blog about our adventures in country-living and DIY renovating, which of course includes our favourite furry fellow, our dog Baxter.

Here’s some links to help you get to know us:

More posts featuring Baxter
All of the fireplace posts (except for the final reveal. You’ll have to come back again if you want that one 🙂 )
Top posts of 2014

Thanks, Lindsay, for featuring Baxter and my reno tips.

Our very first farm

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

Happy New Year, everyone.

Jan. 2 is always a special day for us. Three years ago today, we finally found our farm.

It took us a long time to find our perfect farm. The search started about a year and a half before our forever farm even came up for sale.

I still remember the very first property we saw. Want to see it?

Ummm… yeah… it didn’t look like that when we saw it.

At the start of our farm search, we were looking for an empty piece of property. Our plan was to build our own house from scratch.

So when we went and looked at this farm, it was a rocky cow pasture. There were no buildings, there was little grass. As we stumbled through the rough field, I realized that building from scratch was going to be a lot of work. We’d have to put in a driveway and a well and hydro and never mind actually building the house!

Well, two years after we passed on the cow paddies, someone else built their dream home. I can’t say that this is anywhere close to my dream home, but I do have to give them a bit of credit. They built the barn first.

(And for scale, that’s a full-size barn behind the trees to the right of the house. This place is massive.)

Because our search went on for so long, we saw a lot of properties. Since we looked at them, a lot of them have gone through renovations or even complete rebuilds. It’s kind of neat to retrace our steps sometimes and see what people have done to build their own forever homes. Fortunately, we’ve found our own forever farm, and it’s so nice to start another year here.

Have you gone through a long real estate search? Or what about a really short one? Do you ever go back to your former houses, or houses you looked at and see what’s been done to them? Are you in your forever house yet?

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon will be here.

And yes, we actually have a working chimney and a way for St. Nick to enter for the very first time.

A full fireplace post will come in the new year.

For now, I want to say thank you all for reading. Have a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy the holidays.

Odds and sods

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Some happenings from this week:

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of #IceStorm2013. Parts of it were neat. Parts of it were really challenging. Moving out of my own house over Christmas was memorable, but something I’m hoping not to repeat.
A friend at work sent me this meme last week. I probably found it funnier than it truly is, but I can see Baxter trying this logic on us if he ever finds himself in this situation. It’s been years since we’ve had a Christmas tree, and he definitely won’t get the chance this season.
I discovered a new blog, Finding Home, last week. I love their story and their style.
I’ve been able to work from home for a few days over the past two weeks. I rarely work from home–I like the discipline that comes from being in the office–but I have really enjoyed my days at the farm, and I’ve been pretty productive.
A thoughtful post on the evolution of a blog and finding your niche.
I donated blood this week. I was a regular donor for years and years, but then I fell out of the routine. I restarted donating earlier this year, and it feels good to be back. Are you a donor?

We have lots of family activities happening this weekend–a real kick-off to Christmas. Can you believe Christmas is here already? I have one more day of work left and one more blog post for you next week before I take a little break.

Now it’s your turn. Were there any exciting happenings for you this week? What are your plans for the weekend? Has Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) “started” for you?

Colour of the year

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Maybe it’s because I don’t drink wine. I’m not feeling it for marsala, Pantone’s colour of the year announced last week. (Admittedly, it could be some of the weird photography on their site. More on that below–all in good fun, of course).

This muddy, dull red seems old fashioned, but I don’t know what era I’d put it in. I don’t see myself putting too much of it in the farm.

Sarah Richardson used some muddled marsala-like tones as accent pillows in the living room of her farmhouse, and they look great. I’d love to do a bunch of jewel toned velvet pillows for the couch in our living room. But jewel toned means brighter and deeper to me. Marsala is just too dull.

Source: Sarah Richardson

I think marsala’s best hope is as an accent colour… or fashion or makeup. Or Sarah Richardson. She can make everything better.

What’s your opinion on marsala? Do you see yourself using it anywhere?

And just for fun, because I truly am puzzled, what story do you think Pantone’s trying to tell in the Tasteful Hue section on the marsala page?

My theory is a love triangle between a stubbled florist (his apron doesn’t say chef to me), an oblivious tipsy strawberry blond and an apparently headless person wearing a marsala-toned bow blouse.

My thoughts on last year’s colour of the year, Radiant Orchid.

Fireplace update – Week 2

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Work on the fireplace continues. Our mason originally expected this to be a one-week project, maybe a day or two over. But it turns out our fireplace is large. After two weeks of 9+ hour days, the fireplace is not yet done. But we’ve come a long way.

Last week, the fireplace looked like this.

Now, it looks like this.

You heard a little bit about the hearth stone on Friday. Before I get into the other activities from the week, Baxter has a video to share with you about carrying in the slab.

A few other things happened before we were ready for the hearth. First, the chimney went up both inside and out. As you may recall, the old chimney was pretty much the whole reason for this redo. It’s surprisingly thrilling to have a big, solid, proper chimney. My Dad and I still have a bit of flashing to do, hence all of the wrapping.

The cinder block rough-in was completed, and then the firebox was constructed. That’s what our mason was working on in this photo that you saw on Friday where he’s sitting inside the fireplace.

The second most exciting part of the week was installing the mantel. When he was building the structure of the fireplace, our mason installed four pieces of rebar. The bars went back into the block about 2 feet and were securely cemented in place. They stuck out on the face of the fireplace by about 1 foot.

My Dad and I drilled carefully placed holes on barn beams that matched up with the pieces of rebar, and then Matt and I slid the beams onto the bars. Voilà, mantel. Or half a mantel. This photo shows the first beam in place. The second beam goes on in front of this one and hides the ends of the rods.

This weekend, I gave the mantel a few coats of clear varathane to protect it and bring out the quality of the wood a little bit more. I’m giddy over this mantel. The rough barn wood is just so beautiful.

If the mantel was the second most exciting, what was the first, you ask? Absolutely the most exciting development of this whole project was seeing the face stone going on. I picked the stone fairly quickly, but then I doubted myself for the past three weeks. Had I picked the right stone? Would it look good in our house? Would I like it once it was installed? Should I have made more effort to source other options?

Well, I love the stone. It’s exactly what I was envisioning. Rough field stone that looks like it could have come from our own farm.

Here’s another montage of how the fireplace has progressed from the start up to now.

We have at least a few days yet to go. By the end of the week, everything should be done (although I can’t promise the post-reno clean-up will be complete).

Stone moving party

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I was super happy when our stone supplier was able to source a single piece of stone for our hearth. No seams! Score. 🙂 However, now we’re at the point of installing the hearth. Moving a who-knows-how-heavy stone! Not so score. 😦

The stone is 10 feet long by 18 inches wide by 2 1/2 inches thick. Every time it has moved up to now has involved a forklift. However, we face two problems:

We do not possess or have access to a forklift.
A forklift will not fit into our house.

We are relying on people power. Pure brute strength.

I do not have good photos to illustrate the scale of this task because, you see, I really didn’t think ahead to consider the scale of this task.

So here’s the hearth at the far right peeking out from behind the skids of stone back when they were first delivered two and half weeks ago.

And here’s our mason sitting inside the fireplace, just to give you an idea of the size that we’re working with.

The plan was that Matt and I would get home from work a bit early last night and together with our contractor we’d move the hearth into place. Well, I made it home, but Matt got caught in a snowstorm and spent two hours on the road. Our mason and I tested moving the stone on our own. Not gonna happen.

New plan. The three of us would reconvene this morning at 6am before Matt left for work.

Matt and I did a test last night when he finally made it home. His verdict? “Woman, I don’t know if this is gonna happen, even with three of us.”

So we did what you always do in this situation: call Dad.

So the new, new plan is a stone moving party at our house this morning at 6am. There will be Matt’s Dad, the mason, Matt and me. Baxter will be here too, though he probably will not be very much help.

Wanna join us? It’ll be a special way to start your day. 😉

I realize most of you will be reading this after the stone moving party has ended. However, we’d still appreciate if you could send your good wishes. Heck, send levitation charms. Send muscle enhancing drugs. We’ll take all the help we can get!

Update: The stone is in place and is still in one piece. Yay! Full fireplace update to come on Monday.

1. DIY wood countertops one year later	2. Reading nook details	3. Laundry room before and after	4. How to make a DIY ottoman	5. How to refurbish a ping pong table
6. One Room Challenge Week 5	7. One Room Challenge Week 4	8. Green sleeves	9. Office nook details	10. How to build your own shaker cabinets

Bringing back the books	#ALSIceBucket Challenge country style	Basement barn door makeover	Silver wings	Baxter’s Gotcha Day & Gotme Day
A painter’s premonition	Loss	How to make a tall narrow dresser	Car trouble, cold snaps and wishing for a garage	Looking back at home goals 2013