Self revelations

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I can be a bit snobby sometimes. I’m somewhat prim.

So when a caricature artist showed up at the very fancy restaurant where my sister was having her wedding rehearsal dinner, ready to draw all of our portraits, I may have sniffed a bit disapprovingly.

Matt and I were up first. There was no way out. After all, it’s not proper to insult my sister or her soon-to-be mother-in-law.

The artist—a large man who looked a bit like Steven Seagal, with a long ponytail wearing a Samuel L. Jackson beret—asked us in a loud raspy voice to tell him about ourselves. Matt said, “Well, we live on a farm.”

And that’s all it took.

Perhaps it because the farm has become so central to my identity, and I love it so much. Perhaps it’s that Wiley was included in our family portrait. Perhaps it’s because Matt and I are obviously having really, really good hair days.

I love our caricature. The artist was amazing. He captured us well (although I absolutely do not have those cheekbones IRL, and I don’t recognize that chin that Matt’s sporting). He was very friendly and obviously very skilled at his craft.

This picture is being carefully protected until I find a frame and hang it in the basement. I think it fits in perfectly with the fun atmosphere I’m trying to create down there.

So lesson of the caricature: loosen up, have a little fun, be open to new experiences, don’t worry so much about what’s proper. In this simple caricature, I found a bit of extra happiness, both in the moment of the portrait and now whenever I look at it.

Thanks to my sister, her mother-in-law and our amazing artist, Cartoon Bob.

Lakeside Living Home Tour

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Not far from the farm is a decently sized lake. One day each year, various residents on the lake open their homes for tours. I missed last year’s, but I knew I wanted to go this year, so Saturday morning I slathered on my sunscreen, grabbed my camera and headed out.

The tour is run by volunteers and funds raised support the lake’s restoration. People from all over the lake take part, shuttling visitors from house to house on pontoon boats.

At each stop, more volunteers greeted and directed us, including these two pint-sized safety-conscious tour guides.

I was very impressed by how the whole community came together for this event. A few of the houses even had artists set up outside painting.

The houses we toured ranged from rustic cottages…

To slightly grander new builds.

Many of the homes were quite personal and had some unique features. Like a sink made out of petrified wood.

A screened porch with a built-in barbecue, vent hood, tap, flat screen TV, stainless steel counters, stamped concrete floor and large wood-topped bar.

Unusual light fixtures.

Built-ins constructed by the homeowner from reclaimed wood.

A hammered sink from Mexico set in an antique dresser.

I wish I had a better picture of this vanity, because the dresser was amazing. In fact the whole bathroom was pretty unique with murals painted on the wall and the tub clad in wood that matched the dresser. Unfortunately, I couldn’t zoom out enough to get the whole room, and I thought climbing into the shower to get a wider angle might be too a bit to invasive.

While I don’t think a petrified wood sink is totally my style, the tour did give me a couple of inspiring ideas for our place. I think pretty much everyone on the tour was inspired by this closet.

On a slightly simpler scale, I love this twig and branch archway. I think something like this would be great at one end of the vegetable garden.

Seeing some unique homes, supporting my local community and floating around a calm lake on a bright sunny morning. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

What did you do with your weekend? Anyone else get away to the lake? Have you ever gone on a home tour? Or have you had your home featured in a home tour? Who wants a wooden sink?

Oz

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

We’re definitely not in the emerald city, but last night somewhere over the emerald fields and out beyond the verdant green forest, we had a beautiful rainbow.

It has been a very rainy week—a rainy spring, in fact—so I’m hoping this rainbow is a sign that the weather is taking a turn for the better.

Fortunately, the farm is not plagued by any flying monkeys. However, we do have enough mosquitoes to carry off a small dog or a full grown woman, so heading out into the hay fields to take pictures of rainbows is hazardous.

Raindrops, mosquitoes, even flying monkeys, bring it on.

There is absolutely no place like home.

Snapshot

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Anybody able to identify these pretty pink posies? They’ve popped up at the corner of the driveshed. I have no idea whether they’re wild or domestic. I do think they’re extremely pretty, however.

Path preview

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Please gaze upon my bliss.

Yes, that’s right. My definition of bliss is a brick pathway. So what?

But isn’t it so pretty? I realize some of you who voted for the traditional brick pattern–or “running bond” as I learned from a commenter–may not agree that this looks lovely. The vote came out very close, which really surprised me: 63% herring bone to 38% brick. I honestly thought herring bone would be the clear favourite.

I chose to go with the herring bone after spending a few days looking at the layouts that I’d mocked up last weekend. I just decided that I really, really liked the way it looked.

Laying the brick in the herring bone pattern and getting the bricks to bend smoothly around the curve was a bit more challenging than it would have been if I’d chosen another pattern, I’m sure, but I just fudged the spacing between the bricks as I needed to.

I still have to fill all of those spaces with sand. I found two bags of something called “magic sand” in one of our junk piles. The description said that it was a polymer infused sand made to fill the joints between paving stones. That sounded like just what I needed so I dumped the bags onto the bricks and managed to fill the joints for the first three feet of pathway. I’ll pick up the rest of the sand this week and hopefully finish off the path next weekend.

I say hopefully because along with needing more sand, I also need a few more bricks. What might be a little hard to see in the top photo is that as the path heads into the shade, about six feet from the end, I ran out of brick.

I knew I was going to be short, and I actually made it much farther across the turnaround than I expected to. Apparently 362 bricks are just not enough. They are enough to make me blissfully happy though.

Time to zigzag or stay on the straight and narrow?

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Remember this picture from my 2013 home goals?

This is my inspiration for the garden I’m building on the turnaround at the front of the house. Lush. A little bit wild. A beautiful brick walkway winding through.

Honestly, the path is an excuse to use up some of the piles of bricks that we have lying around the farm. But, it does have two additional benefits: the path will save us from having to walk all the way around the turnaround when we want to get to the other side (it’s farther than you might think) and it will be an attractive feature at the front of the house (I hope).

The path is next up on the landscaping list. I’ve dug out the route across the turnaround and gathered my bricks. Now I’m just trying to decide how to lay them: trendy herring bone or traditional brick pattern.

If I go with the straight brick pattern, I’ll probably do six courses, not the five that are pictured here. If I go with the herring bone, this is pretty much what it’s going to look like. I’m not going to cut the bricks, so the edge will be a bit ragged. It will probably be hidden eventually by all of the lush plants, but that might take a little while.

I think I know what you’re all going to say, but I’m going to put it to a vote nonetheless. What do you think?

For those who might be concerned by the photo above, I am not going to lay the bricks directly on the dirt. I’m planning a base of sand, which we also just happen to have a huge pile of lying around. I’d use gravel, but the gravel in our pile (yes, we have one of those too) is a bit too large to provide a really stable base.

No matter what pattern I end up using, I’m planning on leaving about a half inch gap between the bricks. Does anyone have any experience with polymeric sand? I’ve heard that it’s good for filling the spaces between the bricks.

Feel free to expand on your opinions on polymeric sand, the beauty of herring bone, dos and don’ts of brick laying, fast growing plants and any other topic that strikes you in the comments. I appreciate any advice.

How to mend a torn window screen

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

In the category of better late than never, I’ve finally fixed our torn window screens.

You may remember that one of the last jobs I completed on my fall to-do list (on the first day of winter, no less) was to remove all of the window screens so that I could clean and patch them over the winter.

So yeah. That didn’t happen.

Now June is here and I’d really like to open a window without inviting the local mosquito population inside. It was time to get on with mending the tears.

First I trimmed the ripped screen so that I had a regular shaped hole.

Then I cut a patch from my replacement screening. The patch should be about 1/4 inch bigger than the hole all the way around.

Next I lined the patch up over the hole and sewed it in place. I used regular black polyester sewing thread and tacked the screening about every three holes.

I stitched my way around the patch and when I got to the end I simply knotted the thread a couple of times.

The patch is not invisible, but it’s not very noticeable. Most important, it does the job of keeping the skeeters and other flying critters on the outside while letting the fresh air come through to the inside.

I will take an open window over air conditioning whenever possible, so with the weather getting steadily warmer, the repaired screens are a cause for celebration for me.

How about you? Are you a fresh air lover or an air conditioning aficionado? Does anyone else have experience patching screens? I’m sure my method isn’t the only solution. What’s the mosquito population like where you are? We seem to have had a baby boom this year, so the screens are absolutely essential.

Naked snake

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A flasher recently passed through the farm. He left his coat behind.

We’re keeping our eyes open for a skinny fellow, more than two feet long, currently wearing shiny new scales. He’s not considered dangerous.

In case anyone still hasn’t guessed the answer to last week’s guess what post, it’s a freshly shed snakeskin.

I found it in one of our flowerbeds last weekend. I’ve never seen a snake skin before outside of exhibits at the zoo. I found it really neat how it was all in one piece and how the scales were so clearly defined.

A few of you guessed that it was a milk snake. Matt and I have conducted extensive research online, and we’re pretty confident that this skin belongs to just a regular garter snake. Regular or not, for me the snake skin is another novelty of country living.

Guess what?

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Hints:

Found while weeding the garden last weekend.
While it’s not that exotic, I’ve actually never seen one before.

How to play:

Leave your guess in the comments.
Check back next week for the answer.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Ready for Rover

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Matt and I are ready to expand our family. But not in the way you might think.

We’re expecting a furry, four-legged bundle of joy in the next month or so. Last year we were distracted by our four furry, four-legged feline bundles of joy. This year we’re hoping for something of the canine variety.

We haven’t met our new addition yet. We’re planning to adopt, so we’re keeping watch on the local shelter and foster web sites.

In the meantime, we’ve been readying his or her room. There was already a dog run behind the driveshed, but it was a little run down.

Homey, no?

Matt and my Dad spent an afternoon clearing out the barn doors, pallets, rocks and weeds. They patched the siding, built a sun shade/elevated perch and made the gate swing the right way.

My job was the house, which is an insulated box inside the driveshed. (Ignore the clutter around and on the house. Cleaning up the driveshed is on the summer to-do list, right below playing with our new dog.)

I converted the house from a duplex to a one bedroom and blocked off the second entrance. I also had the pleasure of cleaning out the interior. I don’t know who the most recent residents were, but no self-respecting dog would create such a mess in its den. In addition to the… mess, there was a piece of carpet, a few bones, a couple of toys and some hunks of ropes. Cleaning it out was a lovely job.

However, the job is done and now our doggy will have a lovely home.

Doggy won’t be expected to spend all of his or her time outside. We want someone relatively energetic who will go for runs, hikes and long walks with us, but also someone who is relaxed enough to be inside the house when we’re cooking dinner or watching TV.

Anyone have any suggestions on breeds with a good balance of energy and calmness? I’d like a big dog (the bigger the better in my opinion), but Matt’s a fan of the smaller varieties (not tea cup or handbag size, but a funny looking Boston terrier is his ideal).

What about advice on adopting a dog? I like the idea of helping a dog who needs a home, but I’ll admit that I’m concerned that we might end up with a dog that has behavioural issues. I’d appreciate any tips anyone has.