Homemaking

This past weekend was nice. Who doesn't like a three day weekend? On Saturday, we went to Bloomington's Fourth Street Festival and then to the Garlic Fest. Doug's oldest son and wife and their two year old, Lilly, met us there. Lilly is so cute, she calls Doug "baaapa." Anytime he steps away, she is searching for him "where baaapa go?" So cute. We were also joined by my friend Karen who is doing Sober September with me. Guess what? We had a lot of fun being sober! This pic of me was in the paper on Sunday following our attendance on Saturday. I joked that they "got my best side." 

 

Sunday, Doug returned to work and I did what I love to do - putzing and piddling around the house. I started the day with tea from my new mug I purchased at the festival. Isn't it cool without a handle and just an indentation for the thumb? It will be a nice hand-warmer as the temps come down this fall and winter. 

Although general cleaning is kind of boring, it seems even though there are only two of us, it is often a necessary evil. With a Corgi, I mean EVIL. Corgis are shed machines. Corgi owners joke there are two seasons for shedding - January to June and July to December. With my resident Taurus, this shine won't last long.

During the summer, I take most all of my houseplants outdoors. We live in the country, so by the end of summer, they are full of dead leaves and spider webs. When it gets close to time for frost, I want to be ready. A gal I work with gave me a ton of hens and chicks, so I planted some of those. I re-potted a small cactus, I'm curious to see if it will get taller and or wider in the new pot.

I stole, I mean helped myself to a start from a plant in my building's lobby - the one with the red stem. I do not know what it is, but I like it. (Can anyone tell me what it is?) When I broke the piece off, it was very sticky and oozing. It took forever to root. So I potted it and put some chicks around the edge of the pot. We'll see how it does. I re-potted the Christmas cactus my sister gave to me last year. We keep our house so cool in winter (the better to huddle by the fireplace, my dear), and I may need to take it to work to get it to bloom. I have a lovely big window near my desk. Last year the cactus had small pink buds all over it, but it never bloomed and then the buds fell off. I will have to take the tropical fern back to work as our house is anything but tropical!

What is your favorite season? Mine is FALL! I have the fever so bad! I got out my fall table runner and napkins and put a fall towel on the stove. I go crazy sticking pumpkins and gourds all over. For now this is it. Oh, and a few fall candles. The little one is pumpkin chai. So yummy.
This was my adventure in homemaking. I love to make a house a home. I don't get to do so as much as I would like as I work full time. Work is such a bother, getting in the way of what I really want to do! On Sunday I sewed. Christmas will be here before we know it and I have lots of handmade items on my list. How was your weekend?

All things MAGNOLIA

First, I just want to say that whenever I hear or say the word Magnolia - I feel it should be followed by the word "darlin." It is just one of those things that is meant to be.
In this case, however, the word Magnolia is followed by the word FARMS. As in Chip and Joanna Gaines of the HGTV show Fixer Upper. Are you just in love with them? I am!
I am a baby fan - as in, I just discovered them when I lay on my deathbed, I mean the sofa, vegging on HGTV, last week. I was sick, sick, sick and my favorite thing in the world - sick or otherwise, is to watch HGTV. Doug would ever so often come into the living room and perch on the sofa and say "aren't you sick of this?" Me: "nope. go away. I'm in heaven." (Except for the being sick part.)
Anytime I find something new that I'm crazy for, I do as much research as I can about the subject. I hopped online and read all about Chip and Joanna.

I mean, are they about the cutest couple ever? She is the brains and he is the brawn...

even though I have to admit he has a lot of brains, too. I see that man tear into stuff and tackle things and I think "wait, how did he know that?" I learn a lot just watching the show. I love how he unabashedly adores her and calls her Jo-Jo. That is how the man really displays his intelligence - he is always cooing about how pretty she is and how wonderful she smells. Did you see the season premiere last night? I loved it (well, I hated it actually) when Chip ate the cockroach and Joanna was all like "I'm not kissing you for a long time because it is going to take that roach about four weeks to be digested and all the way out of your body." I love how Chip isn't perfectly buff (sorry, you aren't) but how he pulls his shirt up to flaunt his stomach and act stupid. Did you see the show where he took off his clothes in the antique store and had on the old tool belt and wooden shoes? I was sick as a dog with a cough like a bark and I was about to fall off of the sofa in laughter.
I love their farm - I love how the door are usually thrown open and the cats are wandering in and out. I love how when Chip took the kids to the pound he came home with two kittens and got a dog and Jo-Jo threw a fit about it. This stuff really happens in real life and I'm sorry, but it is hilarious. Especially when it is someone else's hubs bringing home two kittens and a dog.

 I love how their kids are on the show and how comfortable the kids are with the goats and chickens. You know we are chicken people ourselves and I refer to our little piece of land as a farm or the "farmette." My daughter says it isn't really a farm until we get goats. She said it wasn't a really a farm until we had "farm animals." So, I got chickens and then it was determined that we need goats. I guess one of these days I'll have to get a couple of goats. Mostly, I think about how much our grandchildren will love seeing chickens and goats. Heck, everyone enjoys chickens and marvels at how soft they are and wants to hold them. Last night on the show Chip had a fireworks display for his children and talked about making memories for his kids. That is really what it is all about. It would be so cool to hear my granddaughters talking when they are grown and say "yeah, my grandma had chickens..."
I love, love, love this show, but mostly, I love Joanna.

 

This woman exudes confidence. I love her decorating style. I want to rip all of that brown Home Interior junk off of my walls and paint it with white paint and make it all chipped and rubbed and worn. I've always loved the rustic style Joanna uses and now, because of her, I love it all the more. I sit there watching HGTV and eye my walls and think about what I can do. (This is why Doug hates it when I watch HGTV.) I'm ready to tear out walls. I at least want my front of my house to look like the one from last night's show: 

 



Don't you just adore those industrial lights? I do!

O.k., hop on over and read Joanna's blog now and tune in and watch them - I promise, you will fall in love, too!

Take a walk with me

Last blooms



Doug built this chair for a Christmas gift to me a couple of years ago.

The bird bath I bought in memory of mother.

Coleus I allowed to run wild

perspective

another view

steps fashioned from local limestone

everyone calls her the baby

the old man

the best chicken, ever - Ms Ella Fitzgerald

Doug built this years ago

heads bowed

property across the road

property across the road

at the end of our drive

When I walked out to my car, after work tonight, you could feel the winds of change blowing.  I walked about the property this evening, taking these photos, with temperatures of warm 83 degrees. We are expecting thunderstorms tonight which will take the temps down to 66 degrees. They are predicting an overnight low of 37 degrees on Saturday. The temps have been as low as 40 thus far, but we haven't hit the 30s, yet. Soon the fall rains will begin and with them, the leaves will come down. I hope we have some time to enjoy the changing colors before that happens.
In the summer, we are mostly outdoors. When we are in the house, we never go into the family room which we refer to as the fireplace room. We only use the fireplace room during the months we have fires going. I need to get to work cleaning the fireplace room as we may be in there soon. Before I do that, Doug will need to clean the chimney. When I sat down to write this post he walked in and said "time to batten down the hatches, right?" Usually we don't light the first fire until mid to late October. If it is cold enough to turn on the heat, we usually have a fire going. Our fireplace has an insert in it with a blower, but often we sit in the fireplace room with the door open basking in the heat.
Certain things ruin you. I've had a sunroof in my car for years now and can't imagine not having a sunroof. The same with a fireplace. I just can't imagine winter without being able to sit in front of the fire. In winter, evening after evening, Doug and I sit in there, surrounded by our two cats and our Corgi. Doug is usually dozing. I read or get on my laptop. As long as I don't have to be out on icy roads, I don't mind winter. I have a friend who teases me, but I always stock up the larder. She started teasing me about this years ago when I lived across the road from a grocery - telling me if I did run out of something, I could just walk to the grocery to fetch it. She loved to say "this isn't Little House on the Prairie!" Even so, I like the idea of stocking up - of being secure in knowing if I'm snowed in I can bake bread or a pie or cookies or make chili and all of the ingredients are at hand. I need to get to work laying in the food supplies for winter.  
We are considering finding new homes for the chickens. We are both tired of caring for them. We've kept chickens for four years now and this past year, we didn't get new chicks in the spring. I made the mistake of naming a few of my first batch - my Barred Rock, Ella Fitzgerald, my speckled Sussex, Marvella and my California white, Jenny-O. These girls probably don't even lay any longer, but it is hard to let them go. But neither of us want to hike out into the snow and break the ice or make certain the water heater is working.
October is my favorite month of the year and we've only just begun, so we aren't quite ready for snow. I love crisp leaves crunching underfoot, football games droning in the background, sweatshirts, warm cups in cold hands.
I hope you enjoyed walking with me about the property.

Bloomington, IN - 10.5 inches of snow, or more!

At one point in my life I had a great desire to move to Alaska to teach.

Alaska?

Everyone was incredulous at the mention of this desire.

I am able to romanticize about most any situation and my dream to moving to Alaska was no different. I imagined a cabin in the woods with a big four-poster bed, piled high with quilts, candles burning, a pot bubbling on the stove, perhaps an Alaskan man to cuddle with.

 

Today, I got a little taste of what that dream might have been like. Winter storm Cleon hit us hard. Last night we had freezing rain and hail. Then it began to snow. I love storms. I think storms are exciting. They make me feel alive. Last night we built a fire, I lit some candles and we scurried around locating flash lights. Fortunately, we never lost out electricity.

 

At some point in the night the snow ceased. Today, it started to snow again around 7:30 a.m. I woke to the sound of shoveling. I waited until this morning to make a decision as to whether or not I would go to the office this morning. The university was open, and I understand, because most of the students are on campus. But  it was not too convenient for those of us who do not live on campus. The roads were extremely slick. Only one of my colleagues made it to the office. I exchanged a couple of texts with him and he declared the situation a mess.

 

Around 2:30 this afternoon I bundled up to take Chelsea for a walk. I took my Nikon along. A heavy, wet snow was falling. It was difficult to keep my camera dry and to keep my lens from fogging. And, my trigger finger about froze off of my hand.

 

When we have freezing rain, I worry about the big pine out front falling on the house. The pine towers over the house. I'm certain it has an elaborate root system, but if it was to fall, it would demolish the house - not a very romantic notion.

Like a student, I greatly enjoyed this unexpected snow day.

The drive looking towards the road



Woodpile & Canoe

Our road - heading towards town



The road heading past our house towards Herrodsburg -
no one lives on the curve, but if you notice, a car is parked off of the road.



No paper today. I tried to see if there was mail,
 but the mailbox was frozen shut

The big pine out front -
the one I do not want to fall on the house

 Rolled hay made me think of loaves of cinnamon bread with icing

Looking towards our place from the road out behind the property

My Welsh Pembroke Corgi, Chelsea Kabob
She loves the snow - hops like a bunny and snuffles her nose in it

Pampas grass & small pine

Clothesline & the small chicken barn

Hurray for the snowplow

Heavy boughs on the big pine

Drive up to the house - shoveled at 8 a.m.
This photo was taken around 2:30 p.m.

I love this tree - the big Sycamore on the other side of the drive

Burning bush

Sundial in the garden

Bench with watering can in the garden