16 things

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This list was originally published as “15 Ordinary Things that Amuse City People*” in the June 2007 edition of Harrowsmith Country Life. The asterisk led to a footnote: “and that country dwellers should never take for granted.”

Matt’s aunt–a fellow magazine and book hoarder–passed the magazine on to me last weekend.

As I typed them out, I realized there are actually 16 things–I counted twice just to make sure.

It also occurred to me that today, as we celebrate Thanksgiving here in Canada, these are pretty good things to be thankful for.

Living on our farm is one of the most meaningful experiences of my life, and I’m grateful everyday that I am able to see, appreciate and enjoy these and so many other things:

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians.

Summer to-dos done

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Is anyone else mourning the passing of summer like I am? While it seems like summer ends with Labour Day, I’ve been holding on to my favourite season. However, as of yesterday, I can no longer pretend. Fall is officially here.

Three months ago, I posted four projects that I was hoping to accomplish over the summer. You know how I like to hold myself accountable. So let’s see how I did.

Project #1: Build a closet in the basement

Done. This one felt so easy it surprised me. Doing the drywall in the basement the first time around was a massive job. I was not looking forward to doing any drywall at any time ever again. However, this time around I was doing such small areas that it seemed like it took next to no time to put on a coat of paste.

This area has given Matt a tonne of extra storage, and the basement is (almost) tidy and organized. I’m only sharing a progress shot because the closet holds Matt’s stuff and I like to give him his privacy. But trust that it is done.

Project #2: Sand scrabble tiles

Done. I can’t wait to share these with all of you. Sanding 16 wood tiles was the definition of not fun DIY. However, the end product is (spoiler alert) awesome.

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Project #3: Strip paint off the guest room bed

Done. Okay I’m calling this one done, but it’s more like I gave up halfway through. The metal underneath the drippy, chippy spraypaint is not in good shape. So after stripping the headboard and side rails I decided to skip the footboard and just repaint everything. I’ve just been waiting for the weather to cool down enough to be able to paint (not a project for the summer to-do list).

Maybe project #4: Makeover office cabinet

Not done. This was a maybe project from the beginning, so I don’t feel bad about not finishing it. Although I do really, really, really want to put my office together.

Perhaps a project for the fall to-do list…

However, I’m still in denial about it being fall, so I’m not prepared to write a list quite yet.

How are you feeling about the changing seasons? What did you accomplish this summer? Are you thinking about fall to-dos yet?

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A look at life on 129 acres

Posted on August 15, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Due to some technical difficulties too ridiculous to explain (and a wee bit of procrastination), I had not set up an Instagram account.

However, I finally changed that last week… and I see what all the fuss is about.

I’m loving seeing what people are up to and sharing a bit of what’s happening in my life.

Here’s a glimpse of a few of my first posts.

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Want to see more? Follow me at @juliaon129acres.

I love finding new people to follow. Feel free to suggest your favourite accounts in the comments.

Things I think about while splitting firewood

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

We’ve been gradually amassing firewood on our side patio.

On Saturday, I was away from the farm for a few hours, and when I came home Matt was deep into splitting. In all, he spent 7 hours splitting. I put in 5 hours stacking.

By the end of the day, we had three rows of wood split–my goal for our annual firewood allotment.

Of course, by Sunday one of the rows had partially collapsed, but on the bright side I cleaned up most of the wood chips, bark and small branches that had littered the patio.

I’ve been thinking about making a little sitting area here.

We’re not really good at sitting, especially when we’re outside, but maybe that’s just because we don’t have a spot. That could be, right?

It has nothing to do with spending a whole day splitting wood or the next one picking up bark or weeding the garden or… or… or…, right?

The mosquitoes haven’t been bad this summer, so sitting outside is actually a possibility.

I love this patio makeover from Love Grows Wild. Back in the spring I uncovered some huge slabs of 6x6s that had been bolted together. I wasn’t sure what to do with them, but then I saw Liz’s chunky rustic table and was inspired.

I feel like this post has been building to a reveal of a relaxing new patio area… or at least our own rustic table.

Ha-ha. Yeah right. Projects do not happen that quickly around here.

But we still had a productive weekend. Getting that much firewood put up is a huge accomplishment.

What did you get up to this weekend?

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Summer progress in Illinois

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Sarah is back today with more news from Illinois. Like me, she has a long summer to-do list, and she’s made some good progress recently.

Things have been pretty busy around here.

This past weekend Steve and I spent over 4 hours trying to get the garden back in shape. Weeds had really gotten ahead of us.

It’s crazy how a good rain and warm sunny weather for a couple days can turn weeds from “manageable” to “out of control,” because that is exactly what happened. But we do now have a handle on things, and I need to work on it every day, even for just a few minutes, so that we stay on top of things.

The rain and sun has been great for the kale though. I have added it to my salads, and I have made some kale chips. But truthfully I really needed to find a way to use more of it and quickly.

I was listening to Young House Love’s podcast, and John mentioned that he blends his kale with just a little bit of water and freezes it in ice cube trays. Then he uses a cube or two to drop in his smoothies. Wow! That was such a simple idea and I had never thought of that or read that idea anywhere. So I cut a bunch of kale, rinsed it and did exactly what John suggested.

I used a lot of my kale. It only took a few minutes and now I can add it easily to my breakfast.

I will have more to harvest. This is AFTER I made my kale cubes.

The other thing that we worked on over the weekend was the chicken coop.

We had just been using wood that we had laying around, but we got to a point where we had to make a run to the home improvement store and get more supplies.

We are basically making a small room inside one of our barns. The exterior wall and the roof will be insulated.

I am still kind of designing and redesigning things as we go, but I have a pretty good plan in mind. I am hoping we will be ready for chickens by the end of this upcoming weekend.

This summer seems to be flying by so quickly. We have gotten so much done, but I feel like I have so much more that I really want to get finished.

I don’t want another month to go by without checking so much more off of my to-do list!

Oh, I know what you mean, Sarah. Summer is the time to get things done. I’m glad I’m not the only one with an ambitious to-do list. You’re doing a really great job, though! I can’t wait to see the rest of the coop–and its occupants.

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Dry fields hoping for rain

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Last week our farmer harvested our fields. It’s been an incredibly dry season. As the tractor rolled across the fields dust plumed behind the wheels.

The fields had been planted with oats. Our farmer was not happy with them, but it looked like he got a good quantity of bales.

He was hoping desperately for rain in the next couple of days. Underneath the oats, he had also planted hay. We needed rain or else we were going to lose all of his seeds.

On Wednesday night, just a few hours after the harvest, the skies opened up. We had rain off and on for two days.

Hopefully that means good things for his seeds.

It would be nice to have another harvest yet this year.

What’s the weather been like in your area?

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Snapshot

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Finally finally yesterday we got some rain.

So needed by the garden and the fields beyond it.

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Wild raspberries in Illinois

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Sarah in Illinois is kicking off summer with a quintessential summer activity: a family berry-picking outing.

One of the perks of my husband being a farmer and spending long days driving around backroads and secluded fields is that he finds secret spots.

Like the best mushroom hunting spot. Or like one day this spring when he took us out into one of the fields that he was getting ready to plant and showed us an eagle’s nest. The nest was so very big. We waited for quite a while but never got to spot an eagle.

His latest secret spot came to us Friday.

When he got home he said, “Tomorrow we are going raspberry picking!” In years past when he would see that the raspberries or blackberries were nearing ripeness, we would wait too long and the birds got to them first. So this year Steve said we had to go and we had to go immediately.

Saturday after breakfast we rounded up ice cream buckets and baskets, picked up Steve’s mom and headed to the field.

I think we were still a little too early but we picked for at least two hours.

And believe it or not, after Julia posted about her run in with a turtle, we ran across one in the field.

We ended up bringing home enough raspberries to freeze 3 quarts.

We have given Steve instructions that as soon as he sees these blackberries begin to ripen to take us back! There were even more blackberries than raspberry vines!

What a great bounty of berries, Sarah! Strawberries have just started in our area, so we have a little while to go until the raspberries are ready. I can almost taste the sunwarmed berries when I look at your photos. Enjoy!

The best and the worst of people

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’ve written before about people throwing things in our ditches. A couch. A printer. Litter.

Last week, as best we can guess someone threw a cigarette. Now on it’s own, a cigarette is not an unusual find. Butts are plentiful on the shoulders of the road and in the ditch.

However, this butt ended up being unusual because we haven’t had much rain this spring. We ended up with a fire.

When Matt arrived home from work, he was greeted by good Samaritan who had spotted the flames, pulled over, poured her water bottle over a smoldering fence post and called the fire department.

We are very thankful that damage was minimal. The tree that was in the centre of the fire has some singed leaves, the fence posts are slightly charred and a patch of grass is ash.

I keep thinking about the Fort MacMurray wildfire and being grateful that this didn’t take off. The woman who stopped said to Matt she was surprised that no one else pulled over. We’re very thankful to her as well.

So litterers… the worst. Our impromptu firefighter… the best.