Raised dog food stand

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Special occasions should be marked by presents. So for Baxter’s Gotcha Day, I made him a dinner table all his own.

I took inspiration from the DIY Pet Food Station that Kim and Scott made for their Jack over at Yellow Brick Home. As much as I coveted the hairpin legs that they used (love the industrial-rustic mix), I didn’t find any at a price I was willing to pay. So I went to the bench I made for the mudroom and adjusted it to be doggie size.

Like with the bench, I dug into my beat-up antique lumber stash in the barn. People, these planks are absolutely amazing. Sure they weigh 3 tonnes and are covered in poop and who knows what, but they’re phenomenal. The plank I chose was too big and heavy for me to move on my own, so I lopped off a 4 foot piece with my circular saw and got to building.

I think the details on the construction are pretty self-explanatory, especially if you reference my bench plans. I used my Kreg jig to attach the legs with three screws each. In terms of finished measurements, the stand is 10 inches high, 24 inches long, and 10 inches deep. The legs are at about a 15 degree angle and are 8 1/4 inches end to end. The bowls are 7 1/2 inches in diameter.

Cutting the circles for the bowls was the hardest part. I drew my circles using the bowls for a template. Then I drilled a hole so that I had a spot to insert my jigsaw blade, and I cut along the line. I think I figured out why this wood is so darn heavy. It is super duper dense. My jigsaw blade broke before it was even halfway around the first cutout. Initially the cutting was so slow that I thought my blade was dull. But when I installed the new blade after my first one snapped, it still took a significant amount of force to push the jigsaw along the line ever, ever so slowly. And I had to do it twice! Darn dog needing water as well as food.

To seal and protect my dense, hard, beat-up beautiful wood, I turned to Waterlox, the same solution we used on our DIY kitchen counter. It’s food safe for humans, so it’s an appropriate finish to use on a stand whose sole purpose is to hold (dog) food. Nothing’s too good for my puppy.

From my past experience with the bench when it turned black because it sucked up so much stain, I knew that the wood would be thirsty, and boy was I right. It took about three coats before the finish started to build up and look shiny on the wood. Even then, there were some sections (the ones with the most worm holes) that just sucked the Waterlox right in. All in all, I did a total of 6 coats of finish.

After that, it was simply about putting the bowls in the stand and filling them up! Tip: kibble on its own isn’t very appetizing. Sweet potatoes make it much more palatable. (That is, if you’re Julia. If you’re Matt you give in to the sad eyes and put ketchup on it. Yeah, my husband and the dog are totally related.)

Bon appetit, Baxter. Or as Matt says, “Mangey, mangey”–as in French “mange” with an “ee” ending. (He and the dog share their own language as well as the same taste buds.)

Do your pets get presents? How do you handle pet food at your house? What’s your pet’s favourite food?

Where to buy inexpensive cloth napkins

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

Last year for our Christmas party, I really wanted green napkins. I went to all of the usual stores, and even though it was just a month before Christmas, I had absolutely no luck. Then in July at Value Village, I found a dozen dark green napkins.

Christmas was honestly not the first thing on my mind in July, but I knew I’d use the napkins and the price was much more reasonable than at any of the usual stores, so I bought them.

We use cloth napkins all the time at our house, and I’ve had the most success finding napkins at a decidedly unusual source: the dry cleaner.

You know the rack of abandoned clothing? One day at the cleaners, hanging from the rod alongside the shirts and trousers and outdated suits were dozens of napkins clothespinned to wire hangers.

I picked out a set of gold and a set of chocolate.

They must have been from a nursing home or restaurant because there were so many of them. It’s been a few years since I bought them, but I’m sure I paid less than a dollar each. They’re all large and nice thick fabric.

The one issue with formerly institutional napkins is that some of them are stamped on the back side.

For me, that’s a small price to pay to get 12 napkins for less than $10.

Do you use cloth napkins or paper? Where do you usually buy your napkins? Have you ever bought anything at the dry cleaner?

Pudding puppy

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

Baxter was feeling a bit lonely one day last week while we were at work. To show us how much he really cares, he decided he’d bake something for us.

Okay that’s not it. That’s the birthday cake that he helped Matt with last month.

Check out Bax’s solo effort.

He got as far as getting the flour out of the cupboard. Then, unsure what to do next and still feeling a little lonely, he did what most of us do. He turned to comfort food.

In Baxter’s case, that’s chocolate. (If there was any question about whether he’s meant to be our dog, his chocolate obsession has cleared that up).

Fortunately, there were three boxes of instant chocolate pudding powder in the baking cupboard. Snuggling down in his bed–his favourite place to eat his kong–he eased his lonesome heart with powdered sugar and chocolate crystals.

The good news of the day:

Baxter’s new bed launders very well.
I store the real chocolate–bakers squares, wafers, chips–in large canisters, so the foods that are really truly dangerous for him are not accessible.

That afternoon we arrived home to our usual enthusiastic greeting and an unusually messier house. Matt took our baker for a long walk to work off his sugar high, while I stayed behind to install baby locks on the cupboards.

Baxter seemed to suffer no side effects from his pudding powder binge, although he did have the inevitable sugar crash.

The best news: A week later, the baby locks seem to be working, and Baxter’s baking urges and chocolate cravings seem to be under control.

Does anyone else have a lonely dog? How about a baking dog? Who else’s dog likes foods that are bad for him or eating in bed?

Tomato trials

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

Our first year as tomato farmers is not turning out so well.

We had a bumper crop of green tomatoes, but rather than ripening our tomatoes are rotting.

We’ve had a couple of frosts and tenderly covered the tomatoes with a tarp to protect them, but our care was apparently unnecessary. The plum tomatoes ripened and remained edible, but the big round tomatoes have become pockmarked with big spots of I-don’t-know-what.

So much for my plans for fabulous flavourful homemade tomato meals.

Anyone have any idea what went wrong?

The fruits of our labour

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

For the first time ever, Matt and I have grown food for our own consumption. Sure we’ve eaten food from the farm before, but we’ve never actually grown something ourselves.

Ladies and gentlemen, gaze upon these beautiful tomatoes.

We worked for these tomatoes. There was watering and weeding, suckering and staking. Sweat and dirt was involved. Alright, not all that much sweat and dirt, but, still, we worked!

And the results are oh so tasty. In the words of Matt, “I’m not the biggest fan of tomatoes, but we grew these ourselves. I’m going to eat them forever.”

I think he meant that figuratively, but given the number of green tomatoes we have yet to ripen, we may literally be eating tomatoes forever.

Some other words of wisdom from Matt, “Bring on the canker sores.”

You won’t hear me complaining. Matt may not be the biggest fan, but I love tomatoes. Caprese salads, homemade soup, burgers, sandwiches… I see lots of tomato goodness in my future.

What about you? Are you a yay or nay for tomatoes? Any tips for avoiding canker sores? Anyone have any favourite recipes to share? Have you grown anything to eat this year? Do you feel pride in eating the fruits of your labour?

Savouring summer

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Fresh-picked corn symbolizes summer for me. Sure you can get any food any time of year now, but corn on the cob is something that I eat only in the summer time.

Pair it with zucchini from the garden and burgers from the barbecue, and you have summer on a plate.

Although my eyes are perhaps bigger than my stomach in this case. I ate my vegetables, but Matt and Baxter had to help with the burger.

What food do you wait for every summer? Anyone else a fan of corn on the cob? What’s on your barbecue these days? Any special meals on the menu the weekend ahead? Wishing everyone a wonderful summer weekend.

Ralph’s raspberry patches

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The rainy spring and the hot summer have conspired to produce a bumper crop of raspberries this year at the farm.

Black raspberries grow wild on the bank outside of the barn.

Ralph keeps a careful eye on them and performs quality control inspections during picking.

Just to the east of the barn–in the spot where I want to put the vegetable garden–is a patch of red raspberries.

I’m going to try and preserve some of these canes when we dig out the garden, so we can continue with our raspberry bounty each summer.

I’d love to transplant the black ones into the garden as well. Does anyone have any idea if they would survive a move? Any tips for transplanting? The black ones are smaller, seedier and sourer than the red ones. Do you think if I watered them or fertilized them they’d plump up?

That time again II

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our local strawberry farm opened last week, and you better believe I was there during the opening hour on opening day. I picked two baskets before heading in to work, and the next morning went back to pick some more.

So far, we’ve been eating strawberries for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Still on the menu for this week: waffles with strawberry maple syrup.

I love this time of year.

Have you had many strawberries yet this year? How do you like to eat them? Does anyone else have a bowl of whip cream in the fridge? Who else has gone picking? Are you growing your own berries?

Medium rare with a side of blue air

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The result of writing a post showing your barbecue bursting into flames is that your in-laws send flyers full of barbecue sales home with your husband. As a result of those flyers, you arrive home later that week to find a very large box sitting in your foyer.

That very large box leads to a very big mess all over your living room as your husband assembles the new barbecue. It also results with you being kicked out of the house so that your husband can curse in private.

Readmission to the house is conditional on your participation in carrying the new barbecue outside, which results shortly thereafter in dinner–cooked by your husband.

So he took care of the shopping, the swearing, the constructing and the cooking. I’d say I got the better end of this deal.

Having a blast

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

I suspect that the universe is trying to tell me that it’s not yet barbecue season. When I fired up the grill for the first time this year, I had a bit more fire than I expected.

Further investigation revealed additional flames around the pipe fittings on the underside.

Fortunately, the combustion was confined to fire and nothing actually exploded. Unfortunately, barbecue was not to be on the menu, and we had to rely on indoor appliances to salvage dinner.

Our barbecue is an old hand-me-down, so it may be time to replace it. However, I don’t like to give in that easily. Do you think it can be fixed? Tightening the fittings or maybe adding some teflon tape is a lot easier and cheaper than buying a new barbecue. Has anyone else had a problem like this? I’m open to advice for repairing barbecues or for grilling steaks. Any suggestions?