Last Harvest

Several days ago, our temps were predicted to drop down near the 30's so I took a break from all our other activities and went out to the garden one last time to pull the remaining tomatoes off the vine.  Even though a lot of them were green, they are ripening nicely on the windowsills in the laundry room & kitchen.  

 I drove the Polaris around the farm and picked whatever produce I could find.   At the bottom of the bushel basket are some pears from our granddaddy pear tree.   Then there were quite a few tomatoes still left on the vines, most of them green ones.   I also found more onions and pulled them from the ground.  And on top are the leeks that remained in one row of the garden.  

I decided to dig up a few more potatoes and make a batch of leek-potato soup.   Oh.  My.  Goodness.   It was so yummy!  Leeks have such a gentle flavor, not as strong as onions, and make the soup taste so delicate.   I added some of the tarragon that I grew this summer and dehydrated to finish it off.   Nothing like homemade soup and a sandwich to warm you on a cool autumn day.

Cooking in my new kitchen is such a pleasure....it just warms my heart to spend a few hours puttering around in my new digs and putting homemade food on the table for my guys to enjoy.   It just doesn't get much better for this country girl.

Happy Days,
Debbie

Sweet Company

Before I tell you about our weekend, I thought I'd share one last remnant of damage from our lightning strike.   Joel had turned on our air conditioner late last week so we could work in the kitchen in comfort.   NO AIR.   Yup, we had to have a new compressor motor and computer board put in our unit outside.

Fortunately, the same company that did our drywall in the studio has a division that takes care of heating and cooling and they were able to get it all covered under warranty.   Whew!   Hopefully, we are completely cured  of all our lightning issues.

Early Friday morning, our friends Joyce and Dick from Florida arrived for a quick visit.   They were on their way to their retreat in GA and made a little detour to see us and check on all that we've accomplished since their last visit in May.   It was so great to see them again. 

It's funny how you can go a long period of time without seeing good friends and as soon as you sit down with a cup of coffee and start chatting the months just melt away and it's as though you saw them last week.   That's how it is with Joyce and Dick.   While the guys hung out at the farm, Joyce and I ran to our local yarn shop....twice!   Yes, it was so much fun the first day that we went back there the second day.  

One of the stops Joyce and I made on Saturday was at Miss Miller's doughnuts.   Dick just couldn't get over how huge they were.   He said they were big enough to be a life preserver.   It rained all weekend so we stayed indoors most of the time, but the guys did eventually take advantage of  a break in the weather to do a little shooting down into our woods.

And sweet Joyce kept insisting she was serious about helping me unpack some of the remaining boxes of our kitchen stuff.   During a break in the rain, the guys went down to the pavilion on Saturday afternoon and they hauled up 6 boxes for us.  We got them all unpacked, and washed and dried the dishes and put them all away.  Whew!   Thank you so much, Joyce, for jump starting my final unpacking!

All too soon it was time for them to head to GA and we reluctantly said our goodbyes.   We hope they both come back to see us again..... soon!

I was sad to see their white car disappear around the bend below our farm, but at least we had a few days of great fellowship together.  While Joyce and I had been driving around in the mist and drizzle, we both kept remarking about how much the leaves were changing each day.   And of course, I didn't have my camera with me when we were driving around.   So, Sunday afternoon during halftime of the football game, Joel and I jumped into the car armed with my camera and I snagged a few shots of our fall foliage in the misty weather.

This is part of the curvy country road that leads up to our farm and I think it looks particularly pretty dressed in fall colors.

I hope the leaves stay pretty until we have a sunny day with blue skies so I can get some more pics of the local color.   It's still very foggy and misty today as I type this and we are expected to get some bad storms again tomorrow.   So, I'm not sure if the leaves will stay on the trees if we have high winds again.

The local cows seem unaffected by the weather.   They just kept looking at the crazy lady with the camera who was talking to them as though the bovines would understand what she was saying.  Hey, I just wanted a pic of the cuties.

"Cutie?   Are you talking about me?   How flattering!"

"Who are you calling a cutie?    Get back in your car lady!"

Gotta love the pretty lime green field of newly sown hay with a little cabin and fall treeline behind it.

As we pulled into our lane we could really begin to appreciate the changing leaves of one of the oaks near the potager garden.   Our other oaks have barely begun to turn color, even though they are pelting us with hundreds of acorns as we walk under them.    The wind keeps blowing the acorns off the trees and when they hit the metal roofs of our outbuildings it sometimes sounds like gunshots going off.

The black walnut trees have yellow leaves and they are almost half off the trees.  Last year we had hundreds of black walnuts and this year we only have dozens.    The trees alternate years of plenty and little, so, this must be a year with little yield.  How disappointing.   Well, we'll harvest what we get and wait until next year to see what comes.    The freeze and snow on April 15th really decreased our yields as the pretty blossoms froze and it's those blossoms that become fruit.   No flowers, no fruit.   And so it is on the farm.

And I love every single minute of it,
Debbie

Final Kitchen Reveal

Yes, it's true!   We are finally done with the entire remodel.   I still have boxes in the pavilion and our front porch that are marked "kitchen" from the move, but I can unpack those one at a time over the next week or so.   The point is, there are no more piles of tools, materials and dirt lying around.   Even the trusty folding tables are all gone.  

Joel popped the cork on a lovely bottle of red wine for us to toast the successful completion of another Roberts remodel.  It was worth the wait to get the kitchen we are really happy about.

 We can finally use all 4 chairs to sit at the table now that the folding table is gone from behind the left hand chair in the pic. 

I went back and forth trying to decide what kind of light to put over the table and this is what I came up with.....a retro looking bare Edison bulb light with a cloth cord attaching it to the ceiling.   The baking center is one of my favorite parts of the kitchen and I think it will get a lot of use over the years.   The black beadboard is distressed to age it a bit and I really like the deep contrast to the crisp white cabinetry.

To the right of the baking center is a stack of drawers with a cutting board on top of the counter.  That makes it convenient to chop veggies since it's right next to the stove.  The small cabinet to the right of the stove has a pull out drawer which holds baking sheets and muffin pans.   Very handy.   The corner cabinets above and below both have lazy susans in them which makes it so easy to access the contents.

The center island will be a workhorse, too, as it holds all my pots and pans and has another pull out drawer for more baking sheets and cutting boards.   Right now it's all set up as a coffee station....I just had to decorate a little bit, now that I'm finding all my pretty dishes and things.

 The cookbook shelves are put back together again after being repainted to match the white cabinets.  I decided to add the black beadboard behind the shelves here as well to tie it in with the rest of the kitchen.

I love the way the baking center turned out.   All my ingredients are stashed away in the upper cupboards and the lower drawers hold all my measuring cups, spoons, tart pans, fancy baking pans, and cake decorating "stuff".    And that's a lot of "stuff"!  

The counter will be so nice to roll out pie crusts and cookie dough and the mixer never has to be put away...it now has it's own space....handy, but not in the way.  Did you notice the curve detail at the bottom of the baking center?   It is repeated around the kitchen under the sink, the center island and the cookbook shelf.   For me, it's the little details that make this room sing.

So, just to the right of the baking center is a bank of drawers with silverware and my Cuisinart and other large doo-dads.   Yes, I have doo-dads.....and I like my doo-dads....and now they have a home close to where I will be using them as I bake.

Of course, the stove is next....with it's awesome hood.   The hood has great lighting so I never have to squint, wondering if my soup is coming to a boil.   And Joel just finished installing all the lighting underneath the upper cabinets all across the kitchen.   There are no dark corners in this kitchen, no sirree.

As we turn the corner I have loads of empty counter space....something I'm happy we were able to accomplish.   And then our caffeine fix is lined up near the water filter spigot on the left side of the sink.  

And oh, how I love the sink.   This kitchen just cried out for a farmhouse sink.   And I really like how large it is, making it easy to wash even the largest of pots and pans.   The high faucet stays way above the top of my tallest pots, even the canner, so, I don't have to struggle to fill and remove a full pot of water from the sink.   Then the dishwasher is to the right of the sink.   I picked out a Bosch again because it is so quiet you don't even know it's running unless you look to see the red light shining on the floor.

I went back and forth about the center island and whether to paint it a different color than the main kitchen cabinets.   I'm glad we choose black because it seems to "ground" the other light cabinets.   The edges are all sanded to a "worn" finish to age the island more like a piece of furniture.  

When we were in the showroom choosing our countertops, I instantly knew this was the corner treatment I wanted on the island.   It's called a Kentucky corner by the owner of the shop.  He told Joel he saw it at another shop in Kentucky and got permission from that craftsman to replicate it on his own.   In the showroom it had another thicker piece on top of this one, but that would have been a little over the top for our little farmhouse.   And by the way, the counters are all quartz!    I really like that they look like French marble....without all the hassle of maintenance.

The pantry we had built several months ago by another carpenter got their new paint job and handles applied and now they blend in seamlessly with the new cabinets.   The painted finish is much prettier now as the old doors were not sanded well at all.   Now they are smooth as a baby's bottom.  And we have an amazing amount of pantry storage behind those doors which we've put to good use already.

It's so wonderful to have all this open space around the table for the first time since we moved in 8 months ago.   Up until last night, there was a 6' folding table along the left wall behind the door, effectively blocking anyone from sitting at the chair on the left.   Now the eat-in portion of the kitchen feels so spacious!  

 Joel and I kept trying to figure out if we wanted to tile all the way up under the cupboards over the sink....or leave some space open and painted the soft blue of the rest of the room    Finally I decided I really liked the relief from all the white tile and we left the space free of tile.   I'm glad we did that now and we hung my fun mixer clock with the cupcake pendulum in there. 

Here is one of the two sliding baking sheet/cutting boards holders in the kitchen.   What a clever idea!   The cabinet maker suggested them and I'm so glad he did.   No more struggling on my knees to retrieve a baking sheet from a tangled mess of pans under a dark cabinet.  

Well, that's the grand tour.   I hope someday you come to see us and you can visit the kitchen in person.   It's taken a lot of work and planning, but we're both thrilled with the end results.   Not only does it please me aesthetically, but I think the kitchen is going to be very functional. 

 A lot of canning, baking, cooking and preserving is going to get done in this room and now I can hardly wait to dig in.   We'd like to offer many thanks to the very talented folks at Chuck and Cyndi Palmer's cabinet shop here in Crossville.   They were so easy to work with and produced a high quality kitchen for us.....one we're sure to enjoy for years to come.

Feeling like one very blessed lady,
Debbie

The Final Stretch

Yes, it's hard for us to believe, but we feel we are approaching the final stretch of our kitchen remodel.   And boy, are we ever ready for it to be done?   You bet!

Sunday afternoon we decided it was time to tackle the subway tile backsplash.   The application was pretty straight forward....the only hassle was the 450 lb. stove that could only be slid part of the way away from the wall.   Joel came up with the idea of screwing a small board to the wall to support the tiles so they wouldn't go sliding down the wall (behind the stove) while the adhesive dried.  Worked like a charm.

 It was a bit of a stretch for me to reach the middle sections of the wall behind the stove, but we got it done.   Joel and I have done tile jobs before and we only get cranky with each a little bit during some phase of the job or another.    By the time we're done, though, we're high five-ing each other about how great it looks.

Putting up tile is actually a lot of fun.   I get to use my quilting skills for measuring the cuts and I even use my quilt ruler since it's much more accurate than a tape measure.    We only goofed on a couple of cuts, so, that wasn't too bad for a bunch of amateurs.

Pretty soon we had the job done....just in time to watch Sunday Night Football.  Yippee!    I really like how the tile turned out and after waiting overnight it should be ready for us to grout.

Grouting.  Yuk!   I despise grouting.   It's hard on the arms, especially when you have to reach over cabinets and up at an angle behind the stove.   After dinner Monday night Joel asked me if I had enough energy to tackle the grout.   Sure, why not?   After all.....the only thing we had happen was a lightning strike earlier that morning and lost our phones and tv and who knows what else?   Yeah, I had recovered from the scare of a lifetime.  Ok, let's have at it.

We grouted and scrubbed those tiles until 10:30 PM.   I could hardly wait to clean the counters and have the guys push the stove back in place.   Ahhhhhh.....now that's better.   At least we went to bed with our mess cleaned up.   There's nothing like waking up and walking out to view your work from the night before and being able to enjoy the fruit of your labor.

Now we just need to return the sanded caulk that Joel mistakenly picked up at Lowe's and get the smooth stuff.   Once the caulking is done, the only job left is to install the under cabinet lights which will help eliminate the dark corners.   Simply amazing.   As I put more items away I'll post some final pics of the kitchen.....ALL DONE!!!

Meanwhile, the dry wall guys made good headway yesterday hanging the drywall in the studio.   They ran 3 sheets short so they brought those with them when they returned today to start taping all the seams.

This is going to make such a great space for my sewing, scrapbooking supplies, and extra, much needed storage in the back room.   I can hardly believe I'm going to have a studio once again to work in! 

Meanwhile, the DISH repairman came this morning to straighten out our lightning strike mess.   And would you believe, in the middle of his repairs our electricity went out for over half an hour?   These storms are wreaking havoc with our area.   As I type, the wind is blowing, we have intermittent rain or drizzle, and a fog keeps trying to blanket our whole farm.  By the end of the morning, the power was restored and the phone guy came a day early and he was able to repair our phones, too. 

Whew!   What a crazy start to our week we've had.   We're heading into town now to pick up some more supplies and hopefully settle into a quieter week.  

Almost there,

Debbie

And Then It Rained...

Yes, because we didn't have enough adventure in our lives, Mother Nature decided to add some more spice to our life.   Today started out as a typical Monday, we knew we had the dry wall subs coming to start in the studio and the electrician was on his way to finish up connecting the studio to the main power in the house.  

I had decided to take a quick shower before anyone showed up and the wind had picked up considerably, so, I was super quick about getting in and out of the shower.   I am deathly afraid of being in the shower during any storms as our house was hit years ago during a storm and the lightning traveled down the plumbing system of the house.   Not exactly the place I want to be during a storm!

Joel had just walked into the bathroom when a tremendous "BOOM" shattered the quiet of our house.  I screamed and jumped out of the shower so fast it startled Joel.   We both looked at each other, trying to figure out exactly what had happened.   As I was drying off, he shouted that I needed to get dressed as he smelled something hot in our living room.   Ummm, yeah, I got dressed pronto.   We both ran around the house, checking for signs of smoke and damage. 

At first, we thought a huge tree limb had broken off of one of the trees over our master bedroom.   But then we talked it through and realized we had been hit by lightning.  He yanked down the stairs leading to our attic and checked it out first, making sure nothing was on fire or smoldering up there.   After half an hour, we discovered our phones were down, our fax machine was fried, and our satellite box and Blue Ray player were also toast. 

Hey, if that's all, we felt pretty fortunate.   I just kept whispering, "Thank you, Lord.   Thank you for protecting us.  Thank you, Lord."   It took us the better part of the morning to shrug off our initial shock and shakiness.   Our electrician arrived just after all of this happened and he helped Joel check out everything to make certain we were safe and nothing was going to start a fire. 

Just after the lightning hit, the heavens opened up.   Joel was watching out the window and said it was hailing.   By the time I looked for myself, this is what I saw.

 The noise was deafening in our house as the hail continued to pelt our buildings.   And the wind was crazy ferocious.

Doesn't the pavilion look like it has snow on the roof?    See all the hail on the pavement and how far inside the pavilion it blew?

When I looked out front our lane looked like it had snow on it, the pieces of hail were so large.

When the storm calmed down a bit, I dashed outside and grabbed this hailstone.   After laying it on the floor, I fished around in my purse for some change and placed the quarter next to it so you could see how large the hail was that pounded us.   When the rain, lightning and hail finally stopped, we went outside to survey any damage that may have occurred.   There was most definitely no huge tree limb on our roof, confirming that we had to have been hit by lightning.

The only other damage we could find was one of the windows on my new studio broke from getting pelted with the hailstones.    I've already put a call in to our builders to order a new window as they can't repair the upper portion that is broken without replacing the whole window.   Oh, well, if that's the worst of it, we feel we got off easy.    It'll be a couple of days until our house phones are repaired and the DISH guys said they will be here tomorrow to work on that end of things.

So, yes, it rained on us this Monday.   The sun came out just after noon and the wind is still pretty brisk.   The weather channel says we are to get more severe storms this afternoon.   And now I can see the dark clouds moving in once again.    I can handle more rain, but this time I hope the severe stuff goes somewhere else.

Moving right along,
Debbie

Project Updates

We're chugging along here.   Just one simple project after another.....ha!    Our handy electrician came last week and did his thing installing the wiring for the studio.   Then it was our turn.  

Joel and I hung insulation on the walls in preparation for the dry wall guys.   Yes, we are actually paying someone to put up the dry wall.  Sometimes you just have to know when to let the pros do a job.   We both know how to hang and tape off and mud drywall joints, but we hate it!    And those sheets are pretty danged heavy, too.

That's a lot of insulation to put up.....but it will go up....one batt at a time.

And a few hours later, ta-da!   The walls are done!   Now, let's switch gears.  Yes, welcome to our world......two major projects going on at the same time.

The cabinet guys came back and installed the upper cabinets on either side of the stove hood.   They also put all the knobs and drawer pulls on for us.   I really like the dark finish on the metal against the white cabinets.

Now we wait for the counter tops to come.

And here is the first one going in!   Yea!!!!    We picked white quartz with grey veining and blotches.....it looks like French marble....so pretty.   And it will be a dream keep clean and to roll dough on, too.

A little fine tuning was needed to fit a couple of the counters in place.   But, oh, how pretty it looks now.

The one special touch I requested when we ordered the counters was that the center island have a different edging.    The owner of the counter store calls this his Kentucky Edge....because a fellow counter maker in Kentucky showed him how to do this pretty corner treatment.   I just love it!

I'll be showing you more shortly....
Stay tuned,
Debbie