Update on the Cat Hostal

Posted on May 29, 2016 by farm2011

My brother said he would help with the metal panels in the small chicken coop and he picked up the one piece that he would use it for an example in the afternoon and just like that he was back with all 15 brand new pieces. BAM! 

So my nephew helped me replace them and man they are looking really good! DSC_0513

Tomorrow I definitely need to see how this whole thing is going to look. I mean I don’t want to put anymore time into it if it’s going to be something that I can’t use. The first thing is to see if putting soap into will look good or not. I know this answer is probably going to be yes, but I better double check to make sure.  

Then I need to find a table to set it on. The Vendor show doesn’t have tables available so that’s OK. I’ll see what I can find. 

Next I want to see if I can get some magnets made for the soap examples in the coop. Now I think this would work out really well, but not sure if I can get them done. I want to print copies of the pictures of the soap and then glue them on magnets for people to know what’s inside the coop. Pretty good idea right? 

After that I need to steam the soap and get it all wrapped and boxed up. 

Make a few signs and get some things organized for my display. 

Holy Smokes do I have a lot to do in 4 days!! 

Posted in Soap | Comments Off on Update on the Cat Hostal

Cat Hostal

Posted on May 28, 2016 by farm2011

I was able to pick up an old chicken feeder at an auction that I went to last year and had it stored since then. And guess where it was stored – where else? In the brooder house. 

It was one of those times when you are at an auction and mistakenly say out loud that you are going to bid on that one item. Yea, not the smartest move. I’m sure you know why is because then everyone is supporting you no matter how much you’re going to pay for that piece. See if you don’t know by now, I don’t mind paying for something that I really like, but I’m also pretty frugal. And then to top it off when I was bidding there was a lady there that seemed that she really had to have it. OK, now it was game time. 

But I finally did get the winning bid and into the back of the truck it went and ever since then it’s been stored at the farm. 

The reason that I wanted to buy it was because I wanted to see if it would work for a soap display. It was a little bigger than I wanted, so that’s my project for this weekend. Thank goodness it’s a long weekend. 

With the upcoming Vendor show next weekend, it was time to dig it out to see just how this whole thing is going to look. DSC_0459One thing for sure is that I’m going to need a new floor in each compartment. DSC_0460 So today we went to a local town to see what is available. In the meantime, I talked to my brother and I think he’ll be able to help us get this part of the project done. Yea! 

The other part that we have to do is to put the chicken stands still on the outside. So part of our trip to town was for to look for some new wood that looks old. Which is kinda hard in a lumber yard. But luck was on our side and did you know that the cheaper the wood is the worst it looks 🙂 

With a bunch of storms rolling through, I realized that I had left the portable little coop out in the rain. Now I’m not saying that it’s not a bad thing to get it’s first bath of probably many, but it’s made of galvanized metal and will rust even worse if I’m not careful. So up on the porch it goes to dry off. 

And here is where the Kitty Hostal comes in. Our cats have quickly made it their home. Just too funny! Check it out. DSC_0476

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Outside work

Posted on May 27, 2016 by farm2011

It’s a holiday weekend!! WhooooHoooo! 

I’ve got a lot to do this weekend but I sure hope that we also fit in some fun things. So tonight I go the rest of the flowers thinned out by the old milk house. Seriously, how big do iris’s grow? I’ve given a bunch to Daryl’s niece and now I’ve got this huge tub full again. I’m trying to see if my niece will take the rest of them. I’m not sure she will, but I’m going to give it a shot at least. 

With getting quite a bit of rain these past few days it made digging them up not a problem at all. I kind of made a mess with it using my sand shovel, but if they are as hardy as they seem to be  – well shoot I won’t have a problem at all bringing them back to a nice border soon. 

After that, a pan of lasagna in the oven and because we’ve been taken over by eggs from our chickens, I put a pan of experimental breakfast bake into the oven after the lasagna was done. It was a recipe that uses a dozen eggs at a time, and honestly it wasn’t too bad.

Now it’s getting late and I want to work a little bit more in the scrap book room. But before I leave you for the night – check out this frog. Have you ever in your life seen such a black frog? And even though he seems like he might be a happy little thing, well I’ve never had a frog pee on me so much in my life! I brought him in to show Daryl and I’m guessing that this frog doesn’t like to be in our house at all.DSC_0443

 

Posted in Gardening, Picture of the day | Comments Off on Outside work

What I should have been doing..

Posted on May 25, 2016 by farm2011

Now normally my flowers are not always the show stoppers, and honestly I’m OK with that. But for some reason these past few years the iris’s really took off and I know that I have to do something about it. 

I’ve got a home for them after they are thinned out, but I just need to dig them up and deliver them first. I’ve never had to thin out any flowers of mine, so it’s going to be a new experience. Honestly how hard can it be? I guess I’ll find out tomorrow. DSCN8888

So if I didn’t thin out the flowers tonight what actually did I do after work? Well I had big plans … yes very big plans until I sat down on the couch. Yup, not the smartest thing to do if you ask me. And then shamefully I took a little nap. 

When I finally got the ambition to get off the couch, it was time to make a decision. Should I actually do something productive? Or should I go back on the couch? Now my first choice was to go back on the couch (duh!) but I knew that this probably wasn’t the best choice to make. So I got up and tried to catch up on a couple of things. 

So what did I do?  Well I did some house cleaning, ran 3 miles (OK, TRIED to run 3 miles), did a little research on some supplies needed for bath bombs that I want to make, placed orders on 3 different web sites for the bath bomb stuff, and worked on some stuff in my scrap book room. Not bad, but should have got more done. Darn that couch! 

 I’ve got a couple of meetings tomorrow night in the early evening, so my plan is to NOT sit down on that couch no matter what after work! If I don’t get much done, I really want to get the flowers dug up and delivered before the meeting. 

Posted in Projects completed | Comments Off on What I should have been doing..

Chores first!

Posted on May 22, 2016 by farm2011

We knew that we wanted to try to get some bicycle riding done today, but there was a lot of projects that had to happen before that. You know, the old rule of thumb that you have to do your chores before you can play outside 🙂

So what did we have to do? Well I wanted to get some of the flowers planted that were making a home on our porch and Daryl had a bunch of farm chores to do. Time to get started so we could have also some fun today. 

Well everything was going well, I made some homemade flower planters out of burlap that I bought yesterday when I was with Ma. What you do is to line the pot with the burlap so it holds in the dirt DSCN8883and it really works well. It’s kind of a thrifty answer to a flower pot. But I soon found out that I ran out of flowers and potting soil so I had to stop with any new projects after this. I honestly couldn’t believe that I ran out of flowers. Next year I so need to get them planted in William’s greenhouse so I can have my own supply! DSCN8884

But it didn’t stop me from working on the small flowers spot in front of our house. And man oh man did I get into some trouble! I’ve never dug up an ant farm and granted it was only a little brown ‘normal’ ant farm – but they were mad! Saying that they were mad is such an understatement! By the time I realized what was going on, I literally had them crawling inside my gloves and up my arms. Before the whole thing was done, I was smacking the gloves on the porch to see if I could get them out of it, I was stomping on the ones on the ground, and I swear they got inside my clothing because I felt that they were crawling in my shirt and shorts! Now that was it!! Because I was at the end of what I could do with the flowers, and those ants were making me so mad, I went inside the house  to see what I could find to get back at them. Yea, I’ve never claimed to be nice now did I? So what did I find? Well I had some Citronella essential oil. With a smirk on my face, out I go back to the ants and sprinkled the oil on top of the ants. Now I’m sure that these ants are not vicious ants, but if you ever put citronella essential oil on an ant hill (well anyway this one) they get mad. They get REALLY mad and started to bite me. So what did I do? I grabbed my bottle and kept putting it on them while stirring the dirt around. Yup, one victory for the farm girl!! WhooHooo! Now after I didn’t see any of the ants anymore, I put a layer of dried egg shells over the whole thing to help deter the bugs.DSCN8886 After that I put a layer of potting soil over the whole thing and put rocks down so the dogs and chickens don’t dig it all back up again. Whew! I’m sure glad that was done! DSCN8887

Now it was time to have some fun! Daryl and I found all our bike stuff and went on a bike ride on the Decorah Trout Run Trail 20160522_124337_resizedand to say that it’s beautiful, is an understatement.

Dairy cows just hanging out by the stream

Dairy cows just hanging out by the stream

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There are a lot of rolling hills on the trail. Just beautiful!

There are a lot of fish at the Trout Hatchery!

There are a lot of fish at the Trout Hatchery!

Fish at the Trout Hatchery in Decorah along the bike trail

Fish at the Trout Hatchery in Decorah along the bike trail

After the bike ride, it was time to head over to some friends farm for a graduation party 20160520_182253_resized_1and then back home for a meeting at our house was in store for the upcoming Irish Fest book committee .

And now? Well it’s time to start next week! 

Posted in Gardening, Places to visit, Riding bikes | Comments Off on Chores first!

May is my month!

Posted on May 21, 2016 by farm2011

Mother’s Day has been now a couple of weeks ago and now that the flowers were all planted and hopefully didn’t freeze too bad last week, it’s time for Mom to enjoy her other part of her gift. 

The gift is a ‘Mom’ book that has the upcoming months until the end of the year and with each month each of us kids book a month. Now what am I talking about? Well we’ve done this before and it’s a cool thing to do. To try to explain it better, May is my month to do a road trip, dinner, just about anything that you would want to do. So what did we do? Check it out! 

We started around 10:00 on Saturday and headed North to Decorah to our first stop at Seed Savers.20160521_112340_resized If you’ve never heard of Seed Savers out of Decorah Iowa you really need to check it out! What they do there is to preserve heirloom seeds for future generations. Now until I actually started to read up on this, I thought well there are a lot of people who sell seeds. But these people go to extreme lengths to ensure that the seed that you are buying is  truly that seed and is not mixed with anything else. 

So like I said we headed North to find the place and I realized that I took the long way there. But the scenery was beautiful and how can you go wrong on such a great day like today?20160521_112243_resized

We finally got the business and after we checked it out 20160521_111753_resizedit was time to keep moving and see what was up next. And if you live around Decorah you probably know that there is a winery almost right next door. SCORE!20160521_113942_resized

Now I could hear my stomach growling and I’m sure Ma could hear it too, so we went back into town and headed down the gravel road to McCaffery’s Dolce Vita & Twin Springs Bakery. It’s a great place to eat and if you like pizza from a stone oven – it can’t be beat!20160521_124819_resized

While we were having dinner, we were talking about a cousin of mine that lives in town, so a quick call to her and after dinner we went to her house for a nice visit and to see all her projects that she’s been working on.

And you can’t hardly be in Decorah without stopping at Walmart now can you? I didn’t know what Ma needed there, but I found out that she wanted MORE flowers to plant. I’m not sure where these are going but I guess she has a spot picked out for them.

While we were in a shopping mode, we then headed uptown to check into what some of the local stores had for sales. We had pretty good luck if I say so myself, and with our bags in our hands we decided that we should start back home.

But first we wanted to check out a country locker that we weren’t sure where it was. So off to the gravel roads we go and when we found it – it was closed 🙁

At the end of the day, and all of Ma’s new flowers were brought up to the house along with her shopping bags, it was a full and really fun day! 

Next month will be one of my brother’s turn and it’ll be fun to see what they end up doing for June’s Special day with Ma! 

Posted in Family | 2 Comments

Rock Star!

Posted on May 18, 2016 by farm2011

I know this might sound pretty weird, but now that my garden is in, I just can’t help walking by it and taking a look at it! It looks so good and clean that I catch myself even stopping and staring. I don’t know if I think it’s going to change or what, but I sure seem to be finding excuses to hang out in the back yard lately.And if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t worry. I took a picture tonight to show you that my garden is awesome and that I am a Rock Star! Bam!! 20160518_171804_resized-2

Now I’m not promising that it’ll stay like this, but for now I’m pretty pleased with myself. And to make me even happier, Daryl came home tonight with a new water can.  It’s kinda sad on the simple things that can make me happy, but for tonight I’m thinking Life is pretty good! 

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Garden is planted!

Posted on May 17, 2016 by farm2011

I finally got our garden planted! WhooHooo! 

Not to sound like I’m bragging, but I’ve to 16 tomato plants, a row of celery, two rows of kohlrabi, 4 pepper plants, 2 rows of peas, 2 rows of onions, and a row of lettuce. It looks pretty good if I say so myself. 

Now will it last? I have no idea. But for tonight it looks AWESOME! 

I wanted to take a quick photo because it did look so good, but by the time I got the garden all tilled up and planted tonight it was literally dark outside. 

I do know one thing. I am for sure getting a new water can to water the garden with. I’m using one that the dogs chewed the end off of and it doesn’t work the best. I had it only for about a week last year when they decided to eat it, and I wasn’t too excited on having to buy a new one. But I’ve changed my mind. 🙂

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Staying in bed?

Posted on May 15, 2016 by farm2011

How come when you have a chance to sleep in, you just can’t do it? Maybe you’re a lot luckier in falling back to sleep on the weekends, but I’m just not so lucky. 

So just like on cue, I woke up early on Sunday morning and realized that it was the weekend. SCORE! And that only means one thing. We can sleep in late. So I laid there and even pulled the blanket over my head just to try to try to relax and fall back asleep. 

And was I successful? Absolutely not. Finally after laying there for about an hour, I had enough. I definitely had plenty to do, so I should just get up and do it.

First things first, I started to do some laundry and then to get the dishwasher unloaded and scrub the floor. I got the chickens fed and eggs picked and washed and then moved onto getting some paperwork done. Finally I started to clean the basement and try to work on downsizing my stuff that I’ve got stored that I’m positive that I don’t need. 

When the rest of the crew got up, bacon was done and the house smelled great. 

Now what should we do with the rest of the day? Well Daryl got out the Chevelle and it was  a road trip kind of afternoon. We ended up going to Gunder Iowa 20160515_134259_resized_1and had a LOT of good food! If you are ever headed that way and are able to stop in, you’ll know what I mean. 20160515_134312_resized_1

Time to head home. We took the long way home just to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.20160515_134649_resized_1 And once we got home Daryl worked on mowing the lawn, and I took some notes that was needed  from the teacher interviews that Kyle and I did for our upcoming town book.

You know maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t stay in bed after all!

Posted in Places to visit | Comments Off on Staying in bed?

Living the green life

Posted on May 14, 2016 by farm2011

I do not claim to be an expert in this ‘green living’ that is becoming more and more popular, but I’m trying to do what I can. 

And what is today’s green living activity? It’s making another batch of homemade antiperspirant. Now before you roll your eyes and get all weird and everything, there has been a lot of information lately that deodorants are linked to breast cancer and alzheimer disease. Now is it true? Who knows right? I mean it’s on the internet and everything so it’s anyone’s guess. But if you use ‘regular’ ingredients instead of chemicals, it just has to be so much better for you don’t you think? Now don’t worry, I do have a container of boughten stuff just in case. 

Here is the recipe that I use, and when it’s all mixed up, I let it set up for about 30 minutes and then just literally pour it into a cleaned out container. 

Recipe for Homemade Deodorant

3 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp shea butter
3 tbsp baking soda
2 tbsp cornstarch
5 drops essential oil (I used Lavender and Frankincense)

Make a double boiler by placing a half-pint glass jar in the middle of a small pot of water. Bring water to a simmer. Add coconut oil and shea butter to the jar and let melt. Turn off the heat, add baking soda and cornstarch, and stir until completely smooth. Mix in the essential oil of your choice. Let cool.

Posted in In the kitchen | Comments Off on Living the green life