Escaping Suburbia » The Homestead

Strange Visitors

Kate — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:54:01 +0000

One morning, around 5:30 am, I’d just come back inside from letting the chickens out and was heading back to bed, when I happened to glance out the bedroom window and was startled to see these two birds sitting on the roof, peering down into our yard:

unexpected peahens are unexpected

Well, that’s new.

They flapped down into the yard and proceeded to spend the entire day there, freaking out the chickens and the cat and just generally being weird. Actually, at some point they both settled down on the deck in front of our sliding door and didn’t budge for a long time.

And then they just disappeared, some time before it got dark, and we have never seen them again. I still wonder where they were going, where they belonged, and if they’re okay. They were beautiful… but I’m glad they didn’t stay.

Remodeling

Kate — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:38:21 +0000

My husband has been working in the kitchen for the last 4 1/2 days straight, tearing out the old cabinets and the lath and plaster. Next post will be a photo-tour of the mayhem and destruction.

Meanwhile, though, I want to show you the bathroom walls:

I don’t even really have a defense for this. It was like this when we got here. And knowing exactly how much is involved in tearing out lath and plaster, we haven’t wanted to touch this because you just know the walls will start crumbling as soon as the paper comes down.

The bathroom, in general, is hideous and I hate it. There’s no tub and these walls speak for themselves, and there’s an 80s era medicine cabinet/light fixture thing… oh here, let me show you:

… and those lace whatsits over the window that I honestly don’t know why we haven’t removed. And look! More plaid and tulips!

It’s unrelenting, the plaid.

Gives me nightmares.

So, anyhow, after the kitchen is done, or at least well on its way, we’ll tackle this bathroom. I’ve already selected a color scheme – white walls with blue accents and I’m hoping to do copper fixtures, though I’ll switch to chrome/silver as a backup plan. The blue comes in because I’m making lamps out of some blue glass Ball jars that Mama Wolf gave us. I think I determined that a few of them date between 1910 and 1923… if my internet sleuthing is accurate. (See a lovely example of some mason jar lights here on Design*Sponge.) And we’ll put in a tub. Probably not a claw-foot tub, much as I would love one. We’re not sure the floor can handle the weight, and the last thing I want is this scenario:

Right?

Tiny World IV

Kate — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:52:22 +0000

These sweet flowers are in big blue pots on my front porch. I found the first tulip in our yard today — not quite open, but any minute now. The magnolia tree is covered in pink blossoms, the daffodils and forsythia have been giving us beautiful yellow color all over the yard for a few weeks now, and pink and purple hyacinth have joined them.

Welcome spring!

We love the time change. I realize there are people who hate it… sorry… but we love the extra hours of daylight after the workday is over.

The chickens, well, I think the chickens need a whole other post of their own. They’re crazy.

News from the homestead – September, 2009

Kate — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:15:25 +0000

It’s been slightly less than forever since I did an update on the yard and house. We’re starting to think about how to prepare for winter, and seeing what we can get out of the garden for fall and winter. We also need to make sure the chicken coop is well-insulated, and we’ve already gotten a remote-controlled lamp set up so that we can let them have light a little longer in the evenings and first thing in the morning.

The chickens will be 29 weeks old tomorrow. We discovered that they purr when they are content. It’s adorable!

We’ve finally managed to fence in a good-sized portion of the yard so that they can run around free & they won’t damage the garden. They may be locally famous, soon, too, as we were recently interviewed for a story about people who are doing a bit more than vegetable gardening — such as keeping chickens for eggs, or raising bees or their own livestock. I can’t wait to read it! Look for it in the Home & Garden section of the DH or GT… oh, who am I kidding, I’m sure I’ll link to it. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that I don’t come across sounding like a complete blathering idiot. No more than usual, I mean.

The gang currently provides us with 4 to 5 eggs a day. We’ve given several dozen away and I’m always on the lookout for good recipes to use ‘em up. This weekend I made a 10-grain bread from a Bob’s Red Mill mix (yummy, but no eggs needed), so tonight I think I’ll make mayonnaise and have sandwiches for lunch the rest of the week!

Inventory! We’ve been getting fruit trees from the clearance section over at Garland Nursery. If you don’t mind waiting a season or two to start seeing yield, this is a great way to get young trees for a good price. We go for the dwarf varieties so that we can fit more into the yard, and the yields will probably be more than enough for the two of us. We’ve got 1 peach, 1 fig, 2 pears, 2 cherry, and 2 apple.

The strawberry plants are putting out an insane amount of runners. We’re thinking we’re going to have to move everything out of that area and let them take over the whole patch. We’re getting a few concord grapes from our vines — these must be the few that were able to hang on after the rooster decimated them the day he got loose. Er. The day I forgot to secure the door to the run, so he got loose. Whoops.

We also didn’t get any blueberries this year — partly because of the chickens and partly, they just didn’t do too well. Don’t know if it was location or some other cause, but I think we have five or six blueberry bushes now, so we’ll see what happens next year.

Dennis has removed a huge row of box hedges along the street-side of the yard and we’re going to fill that space in with lavender plants. We’ll probably be putting up some kind of fencing — just for looks.

We’ve planted pole beans and pumpkins, the broccoli is making a second showing (and now that we’re keeping the chickens out of there, we might actually get to eat some…), and I think there is still some corn growing. Next summer we’re going to be more methodical about the corn & I need to make sure we’re growing an open-pollinated heirloom variety. I think we are now, but I’ve forgotten what kinds of seeds we bought.

The tomato plants, a gift from my friend Erica, are going like gangbusters. Dennis made a sauce with stuff from the garden (tomatoes, onion, garlic & some herbs) which cooked for two days in the crockpot and drove me crazy from how good it smelled. I also dried some tomatoes that I got from a co-worker (pictured). Nom! Quite tasty. We picked two more batches yesterday and I think I’ll make some salsa. I hate handling tomatoes, though, blech.

And, finally, it’s hazelnut harvesting time. I gathered a big basketful yesterday and there are still more out there.

Well, that’s it for now. That’s sort of a lot to have going on out there, isn’t it? And I didn’t even mention the weeds.

Kitchen desconstruction

Kate — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:37:15 +0000

We’ve started doing a little bit to the kitchen to get it ready for the changes we want to make. Step one was tearing out the false ceiling:

Step two was tearing out these cabinets:

So, now it feels much more open from the kitchen through to the dining room and beyond into the living room:

All the photos can be clicked to see larger images with more detail. Including our slightly sloppy counter tops & dining room table!

The plan is to get a new stove, and put that in the breakfast nook. In here, on the left side behind the curved wall… that’s where the fridge is now:

In that photo above, the floor-to-ceiling cabinet will be coming out too. That’s another false wall between the kitchen and the dining room. The fridge will be moved over to the wall that is to the right of the current stove. The unit where the stove is now will come out, and we’ll probably put in an island, so there will be kitchen entrances on both sides of that.

We’re going to get some metal cabinetry to put down in the basement to store food, keeping only the day-to-day items upstairs. We’re considering open shelving for everything else, but we have to plan that carefully now that we have these two cats.

And that’s been our Saturday!

Just shovel it in!

Kate — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:11:23 +0000

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

Feeding Time!

Kate — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:32:03 +0000

The previous owners of our house left behind four or five birdhouses around the property, and I’m pleased to say that they all have occupants this spring. The one above is right off our backyard deck, so we can sit in the living room and watch all the activity. Mr. Wolf snapped this awesome photo over the weekend. The next day, the baby birds had flying lessons.

Here’s a shot that I was able to get that isn’t nearly as good, but you can see some of the big old bug that’s for dinner:

Both of these can be clicked to see larger versions with more detail at Flickr.

In other news, we discovered yesterday that Miley (pictured in the post below) had been bitten in her right paw. We came home to find her limping on three legs, holding the swollen paw aloft. We thought maybe she’d broken it, because we also found a very heavy vase knocked off the mantle. Took her in to the emergency vet who said, nope… puncture wounds. We don’t know if it was Marcus who bit her or if she’d been bitten at the shelter before we adopted her. Before yesterday, we saw no signs of a hurt paw, but she had an unexplained fever on Monday when we went to get them both checked out. If she was bitten sometime between Sunday afternoon and Monday by Marcus, could she have developed that fever by Monday afternoon?

I’ve never had two cats at once, and it’s been just about forever since I had a healthy, young cat, so I’m not sure what’s normal. I can’t tell if the two of them are playing when they chase each other around and she smacks at him, or if she really doesn’t like him near. He watches her all the time (if he was human, he’d be a little creepy), but if he bit her…? I haven’t seen him make a gesture like that. I don’t know. It’s been four days and I’m sure I’m just over thinking… I just hope they can get along and be companions.

She is amazingly affectionate and purrs like a motorboat. He’s a little more standoffish and skittish, but still quite the love. With the long weekend, I’ll be trying to get some photos, if they ever sit still!

Sun, glorious sun!

Kate — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:54:38 +0000

We have had such a wonderful weekend here… two full days of sunshine. On Saturday we made up a pen out of four posts and some burlap & bird netting and we let the chickens into the yard for the first time. They loved it, and it made me really look forward to when we can move them out into the coop.

I don’t know why Flickr’s having some trouble with uploaded photos right now and cutting off the bottoms on a few of them, but I don’t have time to investigate. I’ll try to fix them later. All of these can be clicked to see larger versions at Flickr. Check out that middle shot… they’re establishing pecking order all right.

Our magnolia tree is covered in blooms and just between yesterday and today, they’ve opened up even more. Here’s a shot from yesterday:

And, today I started on a project I’ve been wanting to do for a while — painting the chairs on the front porch. This blue is just going to make the porch so bright and inviting.

Ummm, please ignore the fact that I need very badly to sweep! The porch will need a fresh paint job this year, too. Actually, the whole house will… and that is not a project I look forward to.