INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Flowers, trees and blue sky

What a pretty view.  This almost looks like a painting.
I'd love to look out our back door someday and see something like this as the view
(minus the cars driving by, have enough of that in the city, ha).

Very nice.

See you back here tomorrow morning!

ANOTHER DAY AND TWO MORE FRUIT TREES

Got two more fruit trees today at lunch...

• Wonderful Pomegranate
• Page Mandarin Orange

We'll have quite the orchard going if we can just keep them alive and get them in the ground in time for Spring.  Now watering them "long distance" will be another issue but we'll figure it out.  We can always hold out hope for a wet Spring!

MORE HOUSTON TEMPERATURE RECORDS

As if we needed to break MORE records, see my earlier post HERE, we have now broken more:

Earliest 100 degree temperature - June 2nd

Earliest 102 degree temperature - June 5th

Latest 102 degree temperature - Sept 13th 

It's so dry down here with the drought, we are having a serious problem with wildfires all over the area. Last week, 2nd Family said that ash was falling in the yard at the farm from fires about 30 miles to the North.  Then yesterday there was a major fire at a park here in Houston and ash was falling all over the West side of town.  This morning my wise friend Diana said:

"It's sad that the only thing that's fallen from the sky since May is ash..."

Truer words were never spoken...

NEW SHANNON BATHROOM VANITY SINK COMBO

Shannon Bathroom Vanity

We got this bathroom vanity the other day, it was too good a deal to pass up.  It will replace the one that is there now.  It's a little smaller, and somewhat farmhouse looking. We were told about it by the contractor, and it was the perfect fit for now.  All we had to get extra was a faucet and we chose the one like in this picture, retro with "hot" and "cold" handles.  Less than $100 for the base, the cultured ceramic top, and the faucet set.  Told you it was too good a deal to pass up!  It should be installed once the painting and flooring is done.  It will save the contractor from having to strip and paint the old one. It has to be removed anyway to paint behind it so he can just remove the old one and throw it away and then we'll put this in later.

Our new toilet, exciting huh?

Oh, did I tell you the new toilet was put in?  Figured that was a necessity with people in and out of the house.  Here is a picture of that excitement.  Sometimes it's the little things in life, ha. 

FRUIT TREE INVENTORY

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been shopping at a local nursery that is putting all their stuff on 70% off. 

I'm lucky to have one near my office and so I can go at lunch, load a couple of trees in the car and take them home.  So far, this is our fruit inventory:

• Tropic Snow Peach
• Dorsett Golden Apple
• Kieffer Pear
• Pineapple Pear
• Santa Rosa Plum
• Celeste Fig
• Texas Everbearing Fig
• Arapaho Blackberry
• Navajo Blackberry
• Carlos Muscadine Grape Vine
• Cowart Muscadine Grape

This is in addition to the trees I already have at home: 

• Desirable Pecan
• Choctaw Pecan
• Mexicola Grande Avocado
• Arbequina Olive

So as you can see, we have a lot of potential for fruit, berry and nut production.  There are more that we want, notice the lack of citrus.  We would love a lemon, lime and orange...also want to try some blueberries, but for now, this is what we have.  They are best planted in their dormant season, usually from December to March, so if I can just baby them through the rest of this heat and then protect from freezes, we'll be good.

Hopefully in a few years, we can go out and gather up something like this!

CUPCAKE LINERS IN A JAR

Found this cool idea on the internet.  Not a Mason jar for a change but still a neat and colorful way of keeping all those wayward cupcake liners that seem to have a mind of their own in the pantry.  It also lets you keep a variety of sizes and colors in one convenient spot.

We love using jars for storing things, and to be honest, I never thought of this but I like it!

Enjoy!

CHANGING THE FRONT WALKWAY PATH

This is the original path going from where everyone parked, up to the steps of the porch.

Since we are moving the steps over, and making them wider, we felt it was time to change the path that leads you to the front porch, and that I needed to pull up the timbers and the pavers.

Our new path will be wider, reflecting the new 4 foot wide stairs, and it will be curving toward the parking area instead of a straight line.  We like curving lines at the farm.  Perhaps because the city house has very straight lines now; the driveway, the front flower beds, the sidewalks, they are all straight and geometric.  We want curves and a more fluid, natural looking design at the farm.

So last Sunday, I took all of this up!  For now it will just be left as is, but once the weather cools down and we're ready for some landscaping, we'll do something creative out there.

We can always do the walkways and flowerbeds now and then do the plants next Spring.

Now if we could just get some rain, the brown, dead grass makes me sad...

PLANTERS ON FENCE POSTS

Planters on fence posts

While we don't have a fence out there just yet, I really thought this was a cool idea.  Putting planters like this on each post and filling them with plants.  I could see them filled with tall flowers, or something pretty and colorful cascading down the sides.  Should be very easy to do.

I'm guessing a galvanized bucket would be the best thing to use (at least that's what we would use) but you could probably just as easily use plastic or anything else you find.  Just drill a hole near the top edge, put a nail on the fencepost, and then hang the planter just like you would hang a picture on the wall.  Oh, and don't forget a drainage hole in the bottom either, otherwise your plants will "suffocate" from too much water.

A neat and simple project!  We can't wait to do little "extra" things like this!

WELCOME CAMEROON AND GREECE

We had visitors today all the way from Cameroon and Greece!

How cool is that?

Thank you for visiting, hope you both enjoyed what you saw and we are looking forward to having you visit us on the farm again soon!

MASTER BEDROOM BEFORE AND DURING REMODEL

Here is a view of the master bedroom before they started work.  Note the pole on one side, the pole in the middle, and the beam and glass "windows" on the other side...we came up with a solution...

We had the center pole removed, and large support beams placed a bit closer together in order to make up for the missing center pole, and then we are having half walls built...

...as you can see in this picture.  This will create a separation of the two areas, while still allowing light and air circulation from the windows into the  bedroom.  We intend to make that space a reading area with a couple of comfy chairs and ottomans, a lamp or two, and a small table.

VIDEO TOUR OF THE FARMHOUSE KITCHEN BEFORE

Just posted another video on our YouTube channel.

There is a video of the kitchen that can be viewed by clicking HERE, or, I have attempted another way of posting this, and that's by embedding it right here in the blog.

You should be able to watch it above.

Enjoy!

LIVING ROOM BEFORE AND DURING REMODEL

Here is the living room as it looked just about a week ago...

Here is what they have done as of yesterday...






We had those two openings/walls sheet rocked closed (they aren't finished of course) but wow, it sure changes the room.  In fact it "creates" two rooms, with two defined spaces.  The foyer/entryway which will eventually hold a desk, and some other fun stuff, and then more wall space in the living room for furniture that can be arranged.  Should be wonderful when it's done.  As always, click on the photos to enlarge.

REMEMBERING 9/11

VINTAGE POSTER SUNDAY

Vintage Canning Poster

Always enjoy seeing these posters, and this one is really neat because it combines the gardening movement with canning.  The caption "...and ration points won't worry me" was to remind people that if you grow your own and can it and put it up, you'll always have more to eat than just what your ration points allowed.

As always, it fits in with modern times...while we don't have ration points, food prices are going up and growing and canning your own makes just as much sense today!

Remember, click on the "history" label on the blog and you can see all the vintage images I have posted here.  It's sort of a "Sunday tradition" now.

Enjoy!

HOME FROM THE FARM

Got home a little while ago, ran some other errands on the way home.  So much going on at the farmhouse.  He ran into issues that slowed him down, so no texture on the walls and ceilings yet, but lots of changes happening anyway.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow and more details.

It's going to be so cool when finished!

OUTDOOR CHESS SET - FARM COOLNESS

Outdoor Chess Set

I'll admit, I've never been a big chess player, but when I saw this online, I thought it would make an awesome idea for "someday" on the property.  This would be such an easy DIY.  A couple of benches, a big square table, a painted checkerboard pattern on a large piece of wood, and you'd be done.  I bet the hardest thing would be finding large playing pieces.  Hmm, you could even do checkers, and for that, you could very easily find something round to substitute for the actual checkers themselves.

Anyway, just a random thing that I thought was a pretty neat idea.

BIG DAY AT THE FARM TODAY

We're off to the farm this morning, it's a big day.  We get to see what has been done all week by the painter/contractor!  It should be a pretty amazing transformation, and it's not even finished yet.  Last weekend, I took a bunch of pictures, so as to have a "before" series of photos, and today I hope to get some "during" pictures, and then next weekend, fingers crossed, it will be the "after" pictures.

Porch Man is coming today too, to start work on the concrete footings for the new stairs.  His work will be spread out over a couple of weekends.  Again, I'll have lots of pictures to share.

More when we get back this afternoon evening!

LIGHTS FOR THE FARM

Yesterday at lunch, I bought lights for the house.  The electrician comes on Monday.  I bought two porch lights and two motion sensing security lights, one for each end of the house.  We're starting to make lots of progress!

NEW CAST IRON TETSUBIN TEA KETTLE

We purchased a new teapot / tea kettle recently, this black cast iron style.  It's very pretty, a matte finish with a beautiful nail head design. These are more commonly called Tetsubin...which is a Japanese teapot.

They are often handcrafted as this one is.  It has a nice stainless steel basket insert for putting loose tea leaves in.  It's made of a heavy cast iron, which means it will heat up very quickly.  We figured this will be a good addition to our farmhouse kitchen, and perfect for those cool nights when a nice cup of hot tea is perfect before bed.  Or in the morning while watching the birds from the front porch.  Of course cool nights are not in the foreseeable future now, but they will be at some point this Fall and Winter.

Here is a link to a similar one if you are interested:  Japanese Cast Iron Tea Pot

CHINESE PISTACHE TREE FOR TEXAS



Chinese Pistache Tree in Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

We have an area on the farm where there is a back pasture that belongs to 2nd family.  We were thinking of planting some trees along the fence line, as a kind of wind break from that big field, and to give us, and them, something nice to look at.

I found an interactive "tree guide" for Texas online and every time I searched, I kept coming up with a list of trees that included this one, the "Chinese Pistache".  The arborists at Texas A&M rank it as one of the best shade providing, easy to grow trees in Texas.  Once established, they are even drought tolerant, which could be important in future seasons.  Another feature is that they have year round style and color.  Most all the landscaping on the farm is green and then goes to "dormant" in Winter with no color.  These actually turn red, orange and yellow in the Fall.  That would be a welcome change.

Click HERE for more information about it.

Flash forward to yesterday when I was at the Houston Garden Center and I found a whole bunch of them, on sale of course for 70% off.  I'm trying to decide on getting them and, if so, how many to get.  Of course, the trees are small and it will be a few years before they are mature and providing what we need...

...but we've always realized this farm project is a long term investment for our future, and so we can get something small now and let them grow and turn into something nice.  I'll keep you posted.

INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Russian Sage

Sometimes, the inspiration comes from just a single plant.  A picture like this of a pretty plant speaks volumes to me.  It makes me want to run out and buy this plant and put it in the ground now...and I guess that's the point of any inspiration.

Have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow!

BARN KITTENS - RANDOM FARM CUTENESS



Mama barn cat and her two babies

 I know we can't have pets out there for awhile, and we technically don't even HAVE a barn yet,

but I hope that someday we can have a barn cat (or two).  Or a porch cat.  Or an under the house cat.

What can I say, we love cats!

WEEKEND PORCH PROJECT

No, this isn't a "before and after" of our house but it's pretty close!  This is what is being done this weekend.  The husband of a friend of ours does projects like this and he's going to build us a porch railing and two sets of stairs. 

It should be pretty cool when done and will look very close to this picture.  The difference being that we will have an extra set of stairs coming off the end of the porch as well.  It will TOTALLY change the look of the house and we can't wait.

YOUTUBE VIDEO UPLOADED

I Just uploaded our first video, filmed with my iPhone video camera, to our You Tube channel.  It was a little windy on Sunday, so my apologies for the audio quality, it's a learning process.

You can WATCH IT HERE.

It's a video tour of the famous "party tree" that I have mentioned many times on this blog.

This is the first of several that will be uploaded in the next week or so.  Enjoy!

MORE FRUIT TREES FOR THE FARM

Today's fruit bounty

Today, I found some more trees for the farm.  In this picture is a Santa Rosa Plum tree, one of the best plums for our area, another of the Muscadine grape varieties that I wanted, already trained into a vineyard style trellis shape, and a bonus find, a Barbados Cherry tree/bush.  It's not a true cherry tree, they just call it that because the fruit looks like a cherry.  It's a tropical plant so it should do fine down here.

Got all three of these for $14 at Houston Garden Center.  I love a bargain!

Looking forward to getting these in the ground at the farm later this Fall.

CLAY POT WREATH - FARM COOLNESS



Clay pot wreath

We have no DIY on how to do this, but I'm sure it's out there on the Internet.  I'm posting it because it's just kind of cool looking!  It's a wreath that's made using small, terracotta clay pots.  This would be an awesome garden decor on a fence or gate.

Or perhaps for the front of my recent potting shed makeover.

Enjoy!

CHECKERBOARD FLOOR DECISION

Black and white flooring on the diagonal........?

...or straight in a row??

Decisions, decisions....we will have the mudroom floor, entryway floor, and bathroom all done in black and white vinyl tile.  At first it seemed like an easy decision.  Now however, we have run into the conundrum of either setting them on the diagonal or straight across.  We lean toward straight in a row, but we're not 100% sure.

Some schools of thought seem to say diagonal is more "formal" but others say it's too "busy" on the eyes.
Straight in a row seems to look more "orderly and neat" but others say it's more "contemporary".


Anyone have thoughts either way?


UPDATE 10/2011: We had to change our plans for the flooring, you can read all about it by clicking HERE.  It's always something with an old house.

HAPPY LABOR DAY

Hope you are enjoying the long weekend, we're taking the day off too

and we will see you back here tomorrow!

POST FARM TRIP UPDATE

Doggie Visitor

Today was very productive.  Got the farmhouse emptied of all extraneous stuff, took doorknobs off the closet doors, took down the mini blinds in the dining room, had the table and chairs picked up, made final plans for the porch railing and stairs, pulled up the timbers that made the old pathway to the stairs, took a bunch of "before" pictures, some videos, and put some things in storage.  There was more I wanted to do, but I just ran out of time and energy.  Before I left, I was visited by this sweet dog who belongs to 2nd Family down at the end of the driveway.  She apparently comes up to the house for some "quiet time" in her spot under the house.  She's a sweetie pie.  Hope she visits often when we are there.  Tomorrow is a trip (or two) to the Houston Garden Center locations to find some more fruit trees.

AT THE FARM AGAIN

I'll be at Seda Bolsa today, cleaning things up and getting ready for the painter.

Probably not much outside, more just getting the inside ready.  I'm also going to take a LOT of pictures of the inside, since this will all be "before".  Might also take some video as well.

Hoping the wind stays up today (remnants of Tropical Storm Lee) so that when I open the windows, it will be nice and cool in the house.

More later!

VINTAGE GARDENING POSTER

Here is a very unusual poster featuring only children in the image.

It dates from WWI, and was used in schools to teach children the value of gardening.  Most schools during this time had gardens on site to provide not only food, but to further teach children to take the importance of gardening home.

Once again, a message that's just as relevant today.

TROPICAL STORM LEE SO CLOSE YET SO FAR

Tropical Storm Lee slowly churns just off the coast of Louisiana. Sadly, they are getting inundated with rain, which they don't need and we are are in a record drought and DO need it. It's tantalizingly close, and some outer bands are swirling this direction.  Hoping for rain tomorrow, but we'll take whatever we can get.

UPDATE: Nothing, no rain of any significance, just a few sprinkles.  Lots of wind, it was VERY windy, but alas, none of the much needed rain.

FRUIT PURCHASES TODAY

Look, it's fruit salad on a cart!

Went to a local garden store chain here in town, Houston Garden Center, because they are having a 70% off EVERYTHING sale.

Last night, I made a list of what we wanted, based on the county recommendations for fruit production, and picked the varieties that had the characteristics we liked most.

So on the cart above, there are 2 Fig trees, 2 Blackberry bushes, and 1 Muscadine grapevine.

All five for $30!  I love a bargain, especially when it comes to plants!

I'm going to another location tomorrow for more grapes, and some more fruit trees, hopefully a peach, pear, and citrus.

ORCHARD RACK HAS ARRIVED

It came!  It came!  We made our first (if you don't count ceiling fans, trees, and a toilet, LOL) "farm specific" purchase.  This isn't something we can use in the city...well we could use it I suppose, but we have no SPACE for it so it really is only for the farm. When we first saw this and I blogged about it HERE, it was always intended for use in the mudroom/pantry.

Here it is, all 55 lbs of it.

Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago when there was a sale on the website, plus a discount coupon code for an additional 20% off, and it was just too good of a deal to pass up.

We ordered it and it arrived yesterday afternoon.

I want to put it together (it looks to be a pretty simple process), and then we can transport it out there already done.  I figure that saves me from doing it out at the farm.  2nd Man thinks I should wait and do it there because it's easier to transport in it's box.  I'll keep you posted on the outcome...and post pics of the final product.

GLACIER BAY WALL MOUNT KITCHEN SINK FAUCET

Glacier Bay Wall Mount Faucet

We found the kitchen sink faucet, an exact duplicate of the one there now.  That one has some broken pieces and was just generally old and ready to be replaced.

Got this at Home Depot.  It is online to look at but it says only available in stores.  It was $46.97, so really not a bad investment to get a brand new faucet in the kitchen.  Installing that this weekend.

BUSY WEEKEND

This being a long holiday weekend, and with painting/work on the farmhouse starting Tuesday, there is a lot we have to do.  The "to do list" is getting longer and longer and time is running out!  We're both taking off today so we can get a jump start on the weekend.

I will post to our TWITTER and FACEBOOK accounts while I'm out and about, but I might not post much here on the blog, at least throughout the day.  If I'm not worn out, I'll do a nightly update when I finally come home and crash in front of the computer.

BEEKEEPING CLASS

Beekeeping

OK...so yesterday morning, I was given a heads up by my dear friend Dawn that the website groupon had a deal for me.  A beginners "Bee Keeping Class"!  She knows from our chats that I have always wanted to have a hive at the farm so that we can harvest our own honey.  Ironically, her Grandfather used to do this as well, and so she is very familiar with the joys of getting honey at home.  This was just too good of a deal to pass up and the timing seemed perfect.

I signed up for the class, it will be on a Saturday in October and I'll be sure and post all the details!

Until then, it'll be nervous anticipation (and some book reading).

Class courtesy of Round Rock Honey

Honey

I can't wait until we can say that we have "honey from our own hives".

And of course, Dawn will get the first jar! 

INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Field of flowers

I like this sort of "wild" look,
it might actually be closer to what we end up with, ha.

It's nice with the different heights too, always an important design element.

Today is blog day off, so enjoy this picture and I'll check in tomorrow!

Have a good day!