Happy Fall, Y'All

Just wanted to wish you all a lovely Fall.   The leaves have barely begun to turn here on the plateau and I'm enjoying each day as the temperatures slowly start to decrease.   It's time to start putting the garden to rest, but first I have to finish cleaning out the last of the veggies still ripening.   Joel and I went into the garden this morning and cut some of our dried corn stalks to use as a decoration at the mailbox.  

Joel was laughing and asked me who I thought was going to see it way out here in the country?   Seriously?   Doesn't he know me well enough by now to know that I did it for me to enjoy....not to decorate for the folks who pass by our farm.   It only took us 10 minutes to cut and bundle them so I could attach them to the mailbox post, but I think it turned out charming.   I'm having too much fun!

Maybe I'll plop one of our pumpkins beside the mums when I harvest those next week.   For now, I'm just tickled to be "getting my country on".  

Happy Fall, Y'All,
Debbie

Quilt Retreat-2014

Because I didn't have enough to do around here (just kidding), I took 5 days off last week and went on a quilting retreat with 24 ladies.    Read all about it by clicking on the link to my sewing blog @ www.pinkfloridathreads.blogspot.com.

  A fun time was had by all!    And I was fortunate to start some new friendships, too.
Debbie

The Studio Has Arrived!

Yes, the very next day after the kitchen cabinet installation began, the studio was delivered.  Um, yeah, we like to keep things hopping here.   Nothing like 2 major projects happening at the very same time.  

I'm not sure if I was more excited to see the kitchen cabinets arrive the day before or if the studio getting delivered took First Prize.   I guess it's a toss up which one won.   Let's just say that getting closer to a fully functioning kitchen and sewing room are both at the top of my "happy place" list.

Mose was driving the truck and he took a running start to pull the heavy load through the small gulley between the road and our yard.   I held my breath but he's an old pro at delivering these buildings and it was just another day at the office for him.

He was able to maneuver the truck and studio into position perpendicular to the enclosed porch where my sewing room is currently located.    To do that he had to thread his truck in between a giant oak tree and one of the grape arbors.   It really was interesting to watch him continually adjust the angle of the truck and the studio....all the while keeping an eye on the obstacles in his way.

And now for the fun part.    His truck is equipped with an intricate system that allows him to slide the building off the trailer and then continually adjust the angle and height of the building until he can place cement blocks underneath it as he levels the building.   It took him the better part of 2 hours to accomplish everything, but when all was said and done he had leveled the new studio to within 1/2" of the old sewing room porch.  

The new studio is now perpendicular to the house and the door at the left end short wall is perfectly lined up with one of the windows in the old sewing porch.   The plan(plan?   really? ha!) is to remove the window in the sewing porch, replace it with a door and build an enclosed breezeway to connect the new studio with the old sewing porch.   That will allow me access to the studio without having to go outside in inclement weather.  Yes, I do love spending the day sewing in my jammies.

Now this looks like a fun gizmo to play with, doesn't it?  Each side of the trailer can lift or lower independent of the other side.   It was very cool to watch them ease the studio into the perfect position.

Now that the studio is in place it's time to level it and put the blocking underneath it.

See what I mean about the huge oak tree?    And you can see the arbor with it's white painted posts behind the trailer.   Not exactly the easiest place to deliver a building, 'ya think?

We chose to have hardi-board put on the studio that matches the workshop and the chicken coop.  Eventually we will have to remove the brittle white vinyl siding on the house and then we plan on matching the house to the new outbuildings.   But that's a project for another year.   Thank goodness.   All the buildings on the farm have matching green metal roofs, white trim and white windows.   As we change out the house to tan hardi-board, we'll incorporate some stone work around the foundation of all the buildings and that should give the farm a cohesive look.   But, like I said, that's a project for another year.

As all our neighbors drove by the house that day they slowed down to see what in the world the new city folks from Florida were doing now.   At least they all smiled and waved as they drove by....

Gotta love living in the country,
Debbie

Phase One: Kitchen Cabinet Installation

Yes!  The cabinet guys were here today and began putting our kitchen back together again.  Can you say,"Debbie is so happy!"?

 But before any new cabinets could go in, the few remaining old ones had to be removed.   Boy, were we ever glad to see those bad boys go outside.  Not the cabinet installers, the old cabinets.  The installers were wonderful!

And now we're starting with a blank slate.   The door to the right is our laundry/butler's pantry where the canning shelves that Joel built and old cabinets are now in place.

As two of the cabinet guys were preparing to install the new cabinets, one of the men took on the task of repairing the sub-par work of a previous carpenter.    Right after we moved in, we hired someone to built this pantry surrounding the refrigerator.   On the right of the refrigerator is a bookshelf that holds all my cookbooks.   The problem is, the drawer slides were installed underneath the drawers instead of on the sides.....and the weight of the canned goods was causing the drawers to collapse.

Um, yeah.  Not good.   Especially since this is supposed to be a pantry.....a place for canned goods.   Hmmmmm......well, it took the better part of the morning but they now work like a dream.    Thanks to the conscientious  work of one young man.   It's amazing how well things work when they get installed as they were meant to be installed.

Another mistake we made was the paint color I choose.   It was too creamy and pretty much looked awful in our kitchen.   So our new guys took off the doors and they will get sanded nice and smooth(they were really rough, too) and repainted to match our new cabinets.  It's my job to use the paint they gave me to repaint the cabinet cases so when they return with the newly painted doors everything will match the new cabinets. 

They even removed the upper portion of the cookbook case so it could be properly sanded and painted in their shop.    Things are starting to look up now.  This will create a really polished kitchen that has all the same quality workmanship.

I just loved walking out to their truck and seeing all our new cabinets lined up, ready to be installed.

That's quite a pile of old cabinets, the one counter I used for the last 8 months and the utility sink.  Guess we'll repurpose the sink in my potting shed some day.   As for the cabinets....good riddance.   They went back with the cabinet guys.

Now for the fun stuff.    Drumroll, please.    The upper corner cupboard is the first to get installed and all the others build off of that one.  These guys were perfectionists about leveling everything.

I'm liking it already!   The right hand wall is where our new sink will go under the curved arch cabinet with the dishwasher to the right of the sink.    And there will be counters everywhere!!   Yippee!

Our guys even installed the stove hood that Joel spent hours and hours researching on the internet.   We were afraid it wasn't going to arrive until mid-October but we got a call late last week that the hood had arrived at the plumbing supply in Chattanooga, so we drove down there Friday to pick it up personally.   It was worth the trip so it could be put up right away.   One problem occurred, though, after it was up as the installers realized the two upper cabinets on either side of the hood were each 1" too wide.   Rats.   I felt really bad that they now have to remake those two cabinets so they will fit in the space remaining.

 Once again our rocking chair porch served as a staging area.   Out with the old folding tables we've used for 8 months and in with the new hood, sink, and cabinetry.

Ok, things are starting to take shape now with the lower cabinets in place.    I'm so excited to have real drawers and shelves and cupboards to store all our kitchen items that have been in boxes for over a year.   It's going to be wonderful to cook in a fully equipped kitchen sometime soon.

This is how far we got today.   After the guys cleared out their tools I took a few pics of the beginning of our brand new kitchen.   I kept pinching myself all day today because I could hardly believe all our planning finally resulted in our kitchen being transformed before my very eyes. 

The huge cabinet to the left is my baking center.   The wide drawers below will hold all kinds of baking tools while the upper cabinets will hold flour, sugar, etc.  The stove looks so pretty now with it's complementary hood(it's hard to tell in the pic but the hood has chrome rimming the curves up to the ceiling with a wide band of chrome in the lower front).  The center island will house my pots and pans and the baking sheets have their own special cabinet with pull out dividers to hold them in place.

The black beadboard behind the baking center has sanded edges to make it appear more aged.   So does the center island.  It'll be wonderful to have actual counters to work on once again.   Our old kitchen was a dream to cook in and I've missed the functionality of it.   I believe I'll have that once again in this smaller farmhouse kitchen.

Once the pantry is repainted and the doors are back in place it should marry seamlessly with the rest of the kitchen.  There will be a place for everything and everything will be in its' place.    Can't.  Hardly.  Wait.

And I almost forgot about the farmhouse sink!    This beauty is porcelain and should provide a lifetime of service.   Pretty soon it will be in working order and paired with a lovely faucet and sprayer.

Please ignore the ugly glue and various colored paint on the wall behind the stove.   As soon as the counters go in Joel and I will commence with the tiling.   Yes, we're going there again.   But we're good with that.   That's my story and I'm sticking to it.   Simple white subway tiles are all this kitchen seemed to call for and I think I'm going to enjoy the ease of cleaning with them in place.  

Now we just wait.....wait for the countertop folks to let me know what day they will be here to template for the counters.    And then the counters should be installed a week after that.   Then the plumber can hook up the sink and dishwasher and I should be fully functioning by that time!   And sometime in between the cabinet guys will be back to reinstall the doors they're painting for us and put up the 2 cabinets they had to rebuild.  Hopefully 2 weeks from now I'll be unpacking the remaining boxes from Florida and lovingly placing my kitchen tools in their new home.

But wait, there's more!   We got the call that the studio we ordered 8 weeks ago (it was supposed to be done in 4 weeks) is going to be delivered tomorrow morning.   Yes!   How crazy is that?   I had been hoping the studio would be here on time so we could work on one big project at a time.   Oh, well, what's the fun in that?

Going to bed early tonight,
Debbie

Check Another One Off

 Yes, we can finally check another project off our very long list.   Joel built the shelves for inside the laundry room and he and Jeremy installed them a few days ago.   Yippee!

When we moved into the farm house we removed most of the existing kitchen cabinets and repurposed a few of them in the long laundry room for some much needed additional storage.   The wall you see above actually had a door in the middle leading into the master bathroom.   Weird.  So, Joel removed the door and door frame and dry walled the opening.   That gave us a full wall in the laundry room to put some upper cabinets on and made space for the shelves he just built.

See what I mean?    Storage!   Yes!   The baskets below hold our harvest of butternut squash and acorn squash.   And the Ball jars are filled with the goodies from the garden.   This room is just off the kitchen and will be so convenient to access the canned goods.

Then last Friday Joel and I drove down to Chattanooga and picked up the butcher block countertops.   It took the three of us to hold them and run them through the saw to size them and then the guys installed them.   After I oiled them with food grade mineral oil, they were all ready for us to use. 

Ta-da!   How pretty....and how useful....and it's done.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.

This is the washer/dryer side of the pantry.   The space was wide enough over here to put some leftover lower cabinets in place.   Wow!   Now that's a butler's pantry!   Woo-hoo!   Can you tell how excited I am to have another big project completed?   And talk about function.....I have tons of space to store all sorts of items now.

And I just can't believe it's done.   You know, completed.   Finished.   All ready to use.   Yessirree....we're feeling pretty happy with how this has all turned out.

Now after all the labor of growing, harvesting and canning the foods into Ball jars....I feel like the jars have a safe place to sit with easy access to the kitchen.   We installed 2 curtain rods and as soon as I find the right fabric for some cute curtains, I'll sew those babies up and this room will be pretty as a picture.

Guess what is happening here today?   Yes!   It's "THE KITCHEN IS GOING IN DAY"!!!
Tomorrow I'll show you pics of it all.   Gotta run for now and see what the cabinet guys are up to.

Till then,
Debbie

P. U.

Yes, it has finally happened.   When you are leaping into the unknown and most everything you do on a daily basis is a new skill, you're going to fail....and fail big!    Well, that's what happened to me this weekend.

  So far the gardening has been a pretty big success.  We've had more yield than we ever dreamed possible.   And the canning has progressed without too much of a hitch.   The learning curve has been somewhat long, but I'm feeling more like an old pro now.   And the rows of pretty canned foods on the new shelves Joel built have given me the courage to continue on.

But then there was the cabbage.   Yes, the 8-10 heads we harvested way back when and I shredded and salted and "worked" until the juices flowed from the shredded beauties.   And the whole lovely mess was put to bed in the crock and the weights put on top to hold the cabbage down into it's juices.  And I thought all I had to do was wait.  

Well, this weekend I thought it was about time I canned it all, so I took the lid off and..........blech!    The stench was horrible.   The little white crawly things creeped me out.    And now I know the little fruit flies were not being brought into the kitchen by the masses of tomatoes I've been canning the last few weeks.   Gross.  Me.  Out.

Um, yeah, I reread several more recipes for sauerkraut and noticed something new.   I was supposed to skim the slime (it was supposed to make slime?) off the top of the liquid DAILY.   Really?   Um, I seriously missed that point when I started this whole experiment weeks ago.   Needless to say, the whole nasty mess got dumped down in the woods to rot on it's own.   And then I scrubbed and scrubbed the crock, weights and lid to make sure I eliminated any traces of the whole stinkin' mess.

Do  I have to explain things any further?  I didn't think so.   Amen.   And now I'm going outside to breath in some fresh air.   We three had a really good laugh about the Great Sauerkraut Failure of 2014.   Let's hope it never gets repeated.   Ugh.


That's all I'm gonna say,
Debbie

"Done"

Yes, I have actually finished one project!   We have been so busy putting in infrastructure that it seems none of our projects are Done.  Completed.   Finished.   We get almost done with something and then another part of the farm requires our attention and the first project gets put on hold.   Well, that works just fine for the two procrastinating men in my life, but for me......well, let's just say that's enough to drive me around the bend.   And as Joel likes to say, "That's a short ride.".    Harumph.

Ever since we installed the bird feeder last Spring, I've had an idea in my head about how to create a small flower bed around it.   A few weeks ago we had a pallet of local stone delivered so I could start working on some smaller projects over the next year.   The bed around the bird feeder was going to be my first experiment working with stone.   Ha ha....how hard can it be?

Um, yeah, that's a lot of stone.   Well, I figured I may as well just jump in and get started.   At least this was one project I could do pretty much on my own.   I used my tractor and the green trailer to haul the stones I choose over to the project.   I just love my little tractor!

After digging out a shallow trench I laid a row of stones even with the top of the grass in the shape of an oval.   Mowing around this oval is much easier than mowing around a 4" post....and it looks prettier, too!  Now I can use that first level row of stone to run the tires of my tractor on when I mow and get up nice and close to the bed without having to use the weed eater.   Hey, I'm all about creating low maintenance beds here.

The second and third rows of stones were fun to lay....it was like figuring out a jigsaw puzzle.   And because the land is sloped where this particular bed lays, one end has only 2 rows of thin stones while the other end has many more.   Well, I tried to keep the top of the wall level.   This adorable bird bath was a purchase I made very early in the summer.   One problem with it was that it needed to be elevated above ground level so the birds would use it.   Ta-da!  Problem solved.   Jeremy pulled a huge tree trunk from a pile in the woods and now the bath is raised up to the perfect height for bathing.

The three plants in the front are sedum and they come back year after year, so I won't have to replant this bed.   They will fill out nicely by next year and each fall the flower heads turn a beautiful red.   The plant hiding behind the tree stump is a clump of daisies that will also come back each year.   I tried to put plants in the bed that won't get too high or too bushy so that the birds feel safe coming to the bird feeder.   Birds don't like it when they think their enemy can hide in bushes near their food source....gotta think like a bird to keep them coming back.

In order to get to the bird feeder I put down 2 large stone-topped cement stepping stones.    And I had Jeremy help me pour out the bags of river rock to cover up the landscape cloth and fill in the area between the walls.   Done!    What a feeling of accomplishment that at least now one more project was completely finished.

  And the birds seem to be happy with their new digs.   Gold finches and blue birds and doves have been visiting the bird feeder and bath ever since the area was completed.   I just love watching the birds swooping in from the large oak trees overhead and listening to them chatter to each other as they tell their family it's safe to come and eat.

Not bad, not too bad at all, even if I do say so myself.

Hmmmm, I wonder what kind of trouble I can get myself into today?
Deb

One More Thing

Um, yeah.  I just had to show you the prettiest items in the garden right now.  Here are one of the Amish Pumpkins I started from heirloom seed.   She has several sisters growing nearby, too.   These pumpkins are supposed to be really good when cooked and turned into pies.  Can you say, "Thanksgiving"?

This little beauty is an acorn squash.   I love them split in half and baked with a little butter and brown sugar sprinkled over them.   And they're so good for you, too.....loaded with lots of beta-carotene.  

And my next favorite squash is the butternut.   After these guys get peeled and cut into 1" chunks, I usually marry them with chunks of potato, sweet potato and carrots.   If I'm really lucky and have some fennel I add that into the mix as well.   Put all the veggies on a baking sheet and toss them with olive oil and sea salt and pepper.    Roast in the oven at 425 degrees for 35-45 minutes until they are caramelized.   Oh.  My.   Goodness.   Veggies have never tasted as good as they do when roasted in the oven.

And here is the star of the late summer garden.    I wasn't sure if these would even grow here, but I took a chance and planted some heirloom seeds and darned if they didn't go crazy!   As a matter of fact, these plants took over a good section of the garden.   If you haven't guessed already, I'll tell you what it is.   A watermelon.   A watermelon named Stars and Moon.  Do you see the larger yellow spot?    That's the moon, and it's surrounded by little stars.   Cool, isn't it?   We're eating one today for our Labor Day picnic.

And last but not least are our concord grapes.   I've talked about the arbors even since we purchased the farm last fall.   Here is one of the many bunches of grapes draping down from the arbor.   Aren't they gorgeous?   I love the color....so deep and rich.   The skins are a little sour and make your mouth pucker, but if you squeeze the grape and suck out the pulp into your mouth, you discard the skin and spit out the seeds.   Yeah, real lady-like, but that's how the farmer showed us to eat them.   And it works.  

Pretty soon I'll be putting the garden to bed.  I know I could be planting a fall garden, but I'm done.   Yes, I know.  It's hard to believe, but even I know when to cry "uncle".   And now is the time.   Between the canning and the impending delivery of the kitchen, I am officially on overwhelm.  

"Nuf" said,
Debbie

Almost Here

The cabinets, that is, are almost here.  Yes, it's really going to happen soon.   Seriously, the install is just around the corner.   I stopped in at the cabinet shop to pick out the paint for them and they walked me back into the shop and there they were.....our kitchen cabinets.....at least the start of the cabinets.  

This beauty will eventually become my baking center......oh, joy!   I can hardly wait to see it all painted and installed.   

And these are some of the drawers and lower cabinets.   I finally decided to have the cabinets painted white since our kitchen doesn't have access to any natural light.   By choosing white I can vary the decor by changing accessories.   And we all know how much I love to change my decor from time to time, right?  The center island will be black with a distressed finish to it.   And there will be little pops of some black that you'll see when the kitchen is completed.  Hey, I don't want to give away all the surprises at once.  

This is Harold, hard at work making all the doors for us.   He's awesome!   See all the plans on the clipboards hanging over his bench?   Oooooo, I love the smell of wood shavings early in the morning.

Just thought you'd like a sneak peek,
Debbie