SOME FUN CHRISTMAS GIFTS

Before it gets too far away from Christmas, thought I'd share these.  While 2nd Man and I didn't exchange gifts this year, my office did some gift giving and I scored a couple of really fun things.

The first one is this:

What is it?  It's a really cool, handmade wooden trivet set.  They all stack on this holder and when you pull them off, they look like this above.  Each piece of wood is hooked together with an elastic band and when you push it flat...

...it becomes the perfect trivet for your hot pots and pans!  It's already come in handy a few times.

And then I got this set of vintage style John Deere popcorn containers!

We love the look of them, the are a wonderful off white/beige color with the original John Deere logo.

Another friend gave me these bee themed gifts:

First, this rather large stepping stone.  When we get bees again at the farm, I think this will go in the ground between the beehives.

 

A crock and to hold pens and things and a similar one that has an artificial succulent.  Very cute.

In the middle is a Gnome paperweight, well, the head of one, wearing a cap with bees on it!

I'm going to have a desk in the barn, under the rear window, and I'd like to keep items like this out there since that will sort of be my farm office space, ha.

Thank you to everyone!

GOOD WINE AND GOOD CHEESE

When we planned the house, one of the things I suggested was finding a place in the kitchen for a wine fridge.  The way we redesigned the island, moving some cabinets and extending the length, gave us the perfect spot at the end nearest the dining room.

We found the right one for the space and best of all, it holds 48 bottles.  We only had a few to bring from the apartment so we need to get a few more.

We found these deals.

This was a curated set of twelve different wines that we found online and it gives us a nice mix of reds and whites and again, they are all different.

Then, we love the O'Leary wines (Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank).  His wines are really good and we saw a collection for sale that was also twelve bottles, with two each of different reds, whites and rosé.

We got these 24 loaded in with the others we brought (including some sparkling on the bottom shelf) and we still have space for more.  But these should last us for quite a while, allowing for an occasional gift from somewhere or a special treat.

What goes best with a couple glasses of wine?  A cheese board/tray!  We got this set as a gift from our mortgage broker after our closing and put it to good use.  I picked up some small cheese pieces to try:  Beemster Swiss, Westminster Rustic Red Cheddar, and Sartori Montamore Cheddar.  We added some assorted crackers, wonderful plump and sweet grapes, Sicilian marinated olives and red pepper jam.

#goodlifegoodfood

DIY PANTRY GATHERING TRAY USING A PIZZA PAN

 This was something that I made that has been invaluable now with the pantry and the larger kitchen/island.

I was at the store one day and found this deep dish pizza pan on clearance.  It was only $5.  I didn't buy it for us to make pizza (2nd Man has a cast iron pizza pan for that).  I bought it to create something else useful.  Super easy project, if you can even call it a "project", ha.  I picked up some of the large thick felt pads like the ones that go on the bottom of chairs...

...and stuck them on the bottom.  For what you might ask?

For this!

It's what we call a "gathering tray" (the high side is what I liked about it).  When we go into the pantry, we can gather up the ingredients we need and put them on this tray, then stop off at the freezer or fridge and add more, and then carry it all to the island to work on for the meal.  The felt feet keep it from scratching or clanging on the counters and bonus points, you can grab the edge and pull it or push it around as needed.

TRASH TO TREASURE FINDS TO HELP MOVE STUFF

Figured we should update on some of our unpacking.

We have books.  A lot of books.

In the study, we are going to have four new bookcases with glass doors to hold the majority of our books.

But we still have four more bookcases (one at the apartment and three at the old farmhouse) and so we are going to use those around the new house.

 In the master bedroom, we decided to put one on each side of the window, with the desk in between under the window itself.

Here is one of them.  We moved them both into the room.  That was the easy part.  Then we needed to move one huge load of books.

These books have been in the back of 2nd Man's Jeep since we moved in.  It was time to get them out.  When we moved them from the apartment to the car, we used one of those valet carts that the apartment had and it was pretty good but it took quite a few trips because the sides were open and you can only stack so many before they slide/fall off.  But we got them in the car (these books are three, four  five deep, ha).

I had to think outside the box (no pun intended).

This was a a shipping crate/box that I found a few years ago in the trash to treasure area.  I put in the barn thinking "I might be able to use this for something".

This was another find that I saved after it was discarded. a dolly.  It was probably used to move appliances or something else heavy.  I figured I might could use it someday as well.

That someday was last weekend!

The box + the wheeled dolly = this...

               

Our own movable heavy-duty cart!  We loaded the books from the car into the box and rolled them into the bedroom and loaded them into the bookcase.  It was only three trips total to get the car empty.

We got one bookcase loaded.  This won't be the final arrangement.  We sorted through them and there are some stacks elsewhere.  We had cookbooks.  Vintage cookbooks.  BBQ & grilling books.  Gardening books.  Canning books.  And finally, all other/misc books.  With another bookcase on the other side and then four more in the study and one in the guest room, we'll have space for them and can keep them organized.

In the meantime, four stars for our homemade "trash to treasure" moving cart!

GOOD FOOD SUNDAY

Forgot to share our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals...one of my coworkers makes tamales every year and sells them.  We bought several dozen to package up and freeze but used some for our new traditional dinner of the last few years.

We had two tamales each, fat free refried beans, some Mexican rice (using brown rice) and then fresh avocado and pico de Gallo with a dollop of greek yogurt (instead of sour cream).  So delicious!

Sunsets out here are so pretty.  This is one from the front porch.  Unfortunately ,house doesn't face sunrise or sunset but we still get to enjoy it and they are stunning for sure.  

This weekend is more unpacking and organizing but it's also cold.  A front came through and we dipped into the 30's last night.  Also had a LOT of rain Friday and Saturday so there is standing water.  Speaking of, gutters on the house are coming soon!  More on that as it happens (week after next).

Hope your weekend is going well!

 

SUPER FULL MOON WAS BRIGHT

Recently, there was what they call the "supermoon", the brightest one of the year.  We made sure to go outside and it was awesome.  The smartphone cameras take the light around and amplify it...

This is the moon, looks like the sun in this photo, ha.

Check this out.   It was midnight when I took this, the porch completely dark, porch lights off, but the sidewalk is lit up like a light is shining on it.

Got a picture of the moon from the side of the house, that window is the one in the shower.  The sky was lit up from the moon.  Again, this is around midnight!

Lit up like a country church house?  Yep, pretty much, ha.  Couldn't resist this picture from the back fence on the other side of the orchard looking back toward the house.  Side note, we now have temporary shades on the windows until we can get proper curtains, etc.

 

UV LIGHT FOR SCORPIONS

This was one of those things that we read that was a must have if you are in a rural area.  We weren't sure about it but figured let's see how it would work.

It is a UV (ultraviolet, also known as a black light) flashlight.

Here is an AMAZON LINK to all the kinds they sell  depending on what you are looking for.  In the end, we decided to get the one with the most lights for maximum effect. 

The actual one we decided to get is HERE.

That's a lot of LED lights!  128 to be exact.

Here it is turned on.  Might be hard to read all those uses on there so  here they are.

While we aren't worried about several of those things, ha, and we got it for scorpions, we had no idea it would help in the (future) garden with vegetable worms and plant pollination!

The first time I went out, all sort of weird things lit up.  Mostly little bits of trash or leftover construction materials, though this was some sort of plant or mushroom.  I wished I had gone back in the daylight to check it out.  But there will always be a chance for that.

But the next night...

SCORPION!  It was actually outside the screened in porch making its way for the screen door.

The next time I went out a few days later found another one on the side of the house.  Now, I check every few days, it's actually kind of fun, and so far these are the only two I have found.

2nd Man wants me to get up in the attic next time.  I sure HOPE there aren't any up there, ha.

#thescorpionhunter

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2026

 Wow!

We are starting our first full new year in our new house.

We stayed up 'til midnight, had some sparking red wine and twelve grapes (one for each month of the new year, it's a lucky thing).  The neighbors (well, somewhere down the road, ha) had a nice little fireworks show we could see from the porch.  We heard some coyotes howling.  Saw a couple rabbits hopping through the yard and ended it...

...looking at the constellation Orion.  There is a full moon in 2 days but we could still see the stars to ID it.

Life is good out here on the farm.

We are thankful for all you coming along on this journey and here we are!  This year is going to be full of epic new things to see and do out here where we now live!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

THIS ONE IS FOR THE BIRDS

 So the other day, we got alerts on our phones from our Ring doorbell...an "animal detected" alert.

I was at work, 2nd Man was at home and I said "birds on the driveway, go see what they are..."

Umm...wait.  Is that a vulture?

Where are the others?

Oh yeah...a dozen of them!

Didn't they make a movie similar to this?  LOL.

We had to look it up and read that vultures like to rest up high and on a cold morning, they like black rooftops because of the warmth.  They also like to be able to see 360 degrees around while they groom themselves and dry their feathers of the morning dew.

We love it out here, vultures and all, it's our little piece of heaven!

CHRISTMAS JAM AND LAZY SUNDAY

 We didn't exchange gifts this year because, well, we bought a house!  Ha.  Plus with so much going on with unpacking and getting settled in, it was easier to eliminate that pressure.  But birthdays are coming March, watch out!  Ha.

But we did get some gifts from friends.

A very sweet friend sent us this.  It's a jar of homemade cranberry jam or also called Christmas jam.  We couldn't wait to get into it.

We broke out the toaster and toasted some English Muffins.  Oh my gosh it was SO good.  Cranberries and I believe some orange flavoring along with the traditional Christmas spices.  I am currently checking recipes to put in my canning folder and I can't wait to make some and gift it next year.  Pay it forward, ha. 

We bought these really neat flickering flame led lights for the two beside the door and we are obsessed with them.  They look so cool at night, like there are gas lights on each side of the door.  Had to share.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and holy cow, a new year is coming this week!