The Dirty Life

No, I am not talking about the new house.....at least not directly.  

  A few weeks ago one of my aunts contacted me to tell me about this book she had heard about on the news.   It was called The Dirty Life by: Kristin Kimball.  If you enjoy the country life and a story about farming, it's ups & downs, and everything in between you may really enjoy this book.  I ordered my copy on Amazon.com for a good price and I would say I read it in less than one week.

  The story synopsis is a young journalist who goes to PA to write an article about a farmer whom she falls for.  They end up living together and starting from scratch on borrowed land to create a full fledged CSA where members can buy shares and be provided everything from meat, milk, cheese, butter, maple syrup as well as fruit & veggies.  This is a true story and they are currently still functioning in upstate New York.  The farm is completely organic as well.  Their adventures, troubles, and life unfolding is a heart warming story that I felt was relate-able.  She describes using good detail (which I like) and one can feel the emotions being conveyed.  You can even check out their website & blog online with pictures of the farm.  Another perk is that there is a lot of talk about cooking,  and the back of the book contains many of the recipes for you to make!  Double Bonus!

So, if you are looking for a heart warming read and you enjoy, life, love, the country, cooking, farming.....I highly suggest it.  The beginning may be a bit of a slow start, but give it a minute and you will be sucked in!

Enjoy......and if you read it, please let me know your thoughts! I'd love to hear what you think about the book!

Here is a link to Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Dirty-Life-Memoir-Farming/dp/1416551611/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377467214&sr=8-1&keywords=the+dirty+life

Nature at its best!

Living in the country could not possibly put one closer to nature.  Thanks to the newly brush hogged paths, my trusty sidekick and I have been taking daily walks.  I have captured some shots along the way to share with you.  I hope you enjoy......

 

Sunflower

Trusty sidekick

creek

Lil waterfall that adds great sound on the walk

deer tracks

 Can you see them??

 

Flowers

 

tree frog

Golden rod

Dogwood berries

 



 

 

This is by no means everything we saw.....or do see on a daily basis.  However I have to be honest....I am tired of uploading pictures! LOL  Hopefully this little photo montage lights your fire to go take a walk in nature today.  I am loving my life here and dreading my return to work, meetings and stress next week.  I suppose one needs to pay for it all!  Each day these photos and the memories of this summer will pull me through each day.  I believe my level of appreciation for all of this will increase as well! 

The sun is just starting to rise at this point and it appears that it is going to be another gorgeous day!

 

Carpe Diem!!

Happy, Happy, Happy.....

Do you watch Duck Dynasty?  I do....and I LOVE it!  I find this show to be completely hilarious, and I greatly enjoy their value of nature, keeping life simple, and their devotion to family.  It has a good balance, but after a long day of work, their random encounters & conversations make me laugh so hard that the stress literally melts away.

Now that we moved to our 40 acres, I am starting to feel as though we are living a Duck Dynasty episode every day..... Well despite being broke in comparison to those guys.....we are about as happy as can be.....some days, I even say 'I'm Happy, Happy, Happy!'

Did you know that everything just looks better in the country?  I'm convinced that this is true.  The sky is simply gorgeous .....every morning I see a beautiful sunrise, every night....unbelievable sunsets, and throughout the day the skies are bluer than blue, or I am able to watch storms blow in with their front lines or large storm clouds....it is simply amazing.  The fireflies are more vibrant, the birds sing in chorus, and there are deer everywhere....as well as snakes!  The snakes don't bother me, and I find deer to be beautiful & tasty but those buggers better not decimate my garden or war will be wagged in a Dynasty episode type way!

Here are a few of the photos I took of the sky line around here.....

 



Isn't this pretty!?!

Looking a bit stormy?!

 

Even the night sky is quite gorgeous....wouldn't you say?!!

 

So go outside today, take a look at the sky and notice it's beauty!  You never know what you will find up above, but most days it is quite glorious.  I find that the more time spent outdoors, the more I appreciate the world around us, our impact on it, and my desire to do my part to protect it grows.  What are you doing to make the world around you a better place?  Think about that, figure something out, and do it today, tomorrow or everyday!!  We need to leave this place better than we found it.

And, doing so just may make you feel

 "Happy, Happy, Happy!"

 

Go ahead and try it and let me know how it turns out.

 

 

Scavenging....

So.....I have been dying to scavenge around here some more for 'treasures'.  Up until this point there has not been much time as I have been trying to get the house in working order and eliminate boxes completely from the first level and as many as possible on the 2nd level.  While working in the landscape a few treasures have popped up along the way which has continued that desire to get out and pick around some more.  As I understand it, back in the day, there was no garbage service and so farms had their own dumps somewhere on the property.  We just so happen to have a couple locations which would make sense if this place was settled back in the 1890's.

 

We brush hogged some paths which makes getting around much easier as the pastures have really filled in with wildflowers and weeds.  I set out with my 'trusty'  partner in crime....

This is a picture of her

trusty sidekick

 

She gets really excited when I go to put my boots on and head for the door.  Plus she doesn't talk much, always keeps a watchful eye, and she listens quite well!  Now if only I could get her to help me carry stuff.....haa!  Our first venture was to a section of woods near the creek where I had previously found a neat old cast iron stove door. It was rather heavy and so I was never able to take it out with me before.  It was a one item trip. Below is a picture of that.....

Jewel Stove Ranges

is the name on the door

Our next trip took us on the other side of the property where the larger dumps are located.  We first stopped off at an area that is typically a pond and under water but due to a recent dry stretch it was dried up so I climbed down in there and started rootin' around.  Found some old jars, car parts and other rusty junk!  I think there was an old mattress dumped in there as I found some springs(which I will later salvage for an idea I found on Pinterest!).  However the big find half buried in the ground....the rest of that neat stove!  Or so I think.  It is rather large, has some of the same ornate looking cast iron and is submerged in the muck.  I may need the tractor to pull it out, but you better believe that I will be revisiting it to see what I can do with it! 

 

A little further down the path there is a large drum tipped on its side, half rusted out and filled with old jars & bottles.  Of course a lot of them are broken but if you sift through the rubble, you are bound to find a gem or two! The next picture shows a few that I carried out of the woods in my galvanized bucket.

I should have rotated this....I am trying to decipher the codes on the bottom of the bottles if they lack markings, but it is a bit more of a project than I thought.  There is an old Faygo pop bottle, some Anchor Hocking jars that appear to be from 1937-1960(according to marking research), and a few other random ones.  I found a gallon sized blue ball jar out there but it was broken :(  Hoping to find a few more neat ones!  Then I plan to clean them up and use as flower vases or décor.

I also found this neat galvanized watering can:

 

 





It won't hold water because the bottom was buckled out but I am hoping that my handy dandy husband can change that with his magic work in the garage!  If not I have a neat new planter for annuals next year!! ;)  May even look cute with a mum stuffed in there this fall and a few pumpkins flanking each side!  One person's trash to another person's repurposed treasures is fabulous isn't it?!  The possibilities are endless!

 

The next few shots are things that I found right here in the immediate yard while landscaping and monkeying around.

 

This was dug up by previous owners but left for us because he felt it was good luck!

 

After a big rain storm, I found this lying on top of a washed out hill.  Mind you we have driven the pick up as well as several loaded dump trucks over the top of this and yet here it is with not a crack in sight!!

 

Dug this little thing up too.....not sure what it is, maybe it goes with the stove?!?  It obviously attached to something and appears to be a swinging arm.  I think that maybe a finial or something was on the end of the piece but the top has a look as if something broke off of it. Appears to be cast iron as well.

 

Well, I am going to stop here for now.  I know there is a lot more!  However I have chores to do and am starting to work on plans for the orchard and garden that we are putting in.....lots to think about and prepare for!!  Until next time! Have a great day/week!

Why's?..

We are often asked why??

Why did you move?  Why the country? Why 40 acres? Why an old farm/ farmhouse?

The last one also evokes further questions like, what are you going to do with that much land? Are you going to have animals? How big of a garden will you have now? Have you any experience with a farm? Do you know what you are doing?

Those are just a few of the many questions I can recall over the past few months since our move.  There have been many more. Trust me!

The truth is we weren't completely sure what we were looking for.  We knew we needed more space...that was #1 on the list of wants!! We had a few other things that we both wanted in a future home and we set out to see what we could find.  We discussed a subdivision but we feared it wouldn't be possible to meet all of our 'wants' and we checked out many different styles of homes from new to old.  I am not sure we ever thought that we would buy a place that was well over 100yrs old! It just happened.  We intended to get closer to work, but we only managed to subtract about 5 minutes off of our commute!  You can't have every thing!! LoL We actually found a neat home in August but it sold so fast we didn't even have a chance to think twice! Obviously it wasn't meant to be and I am thankful it worked out the way it has!  I think basically it came down to timing, pricing, and a good mix of our combined 'wants list' that moved us to buy our 'new' old home.  

I got to work one morning and my phone beeped with a new msg.  I checked it to see that the real estate site I was using had found some new homes that matched our 'likes'.  I opened it up and looked it over.....I wasn't crazy about the exterior appearance but the inside was surprisingly nice, lots of land and barns for the hubby, and it was priced nicely.  I forwarded the message on to see what my better half would have to say about it and there was a rather quick response stating....'let's go look at it tonight!' I did not expect to hear that from him because he seemed content with where we were....little did I know that was all about to change!

After the first look, I loved the interior, hated the detached garage & lack of closets/storage, there was a basement, a Michigan basement, which creeps me out a bit but it had some neat history to it with bottles in between the stones in the wall.  Someone else seemed to have love at first sight....that person was not me!  We agreed to go look again and check out everything we had questions about.  Visit 2 had me much more interested as we also walked the land.  We agreed....on one thing.  Getting everything that we both wanted was not going to be possible unless we started from scratch.  We knew that the only way to get EVERYthing we wanted was to build and that was not financially a great idea.  It would be double (if not more) to get this land and home size with barns and everything that was here. So 19 days after our first look, we put in our offer and the rest is history!  

So, as you can see, we didn't seek out a farm per say....it just happened to us!  We love it and we would not trade it for the world!  Since we moved in, we have begun to plan for our future 'bigger' garden, fruit trees, blueberry bushes, and flower gardens.   I am so excited! We have been acquiring some tractors already too!  Nothing new....both are vintage....one is in the 50's and I believe that the other is a '49.  We did just purchase a 3rd but it was mostly a packaged deal....as it doesn't run.  We needed parts to refurbish one of the tractors & this one had lots of what we needed + it came with a back blade.  We have also acquired a brush hog as a gift, and we've purchased a double bottom plow for tilling up our garden area.  It's really been thrilling the past 3months.  

Animals? Well, it sounds like fun, but it will also be a lot of work.....we haven't agreed to that idea yet.  Stay tuned.....it may happen, but don't hold your breath (you may not make it )!

Hope that answers all the questions you have about our new move!  If not, feel free to ask.....I may or may not have an answer for you. ;)

For the love of cooking......

So, this has nothing to do with the house directly.....oh well.....consider it a branching out!

I like to cook.   Well, not ALL the time, but most of the time.  I am also interested in trying new things.  I used to have a bit of a phobia with cooking, especially with trying new recipes!  However, thanks to my husband and his interest in cooking, over the years, that has all gone to the wayside.  AND..... Thanks to Pinterest I have found a plethora of new recipes to try.  I especially like the recipes for dry mixes such as taco seasoning, ranch mix, fajita mix....etc.

Last week, for my birthday, a good friend bought me a a fabulous new cookbook with wonderful pictures.  I find that a cookbook with pictures is very motivating.....I don't know why, it just is!  Maybe because your mouth begins to water looking at the pictures!?!
 So last night I set out to make a meal from this new cookbook.  

The menu: Crispy Chicken avocado tacos with spicy salsa ranch
Serves 6 (I cut this recipe in half for us)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2eggs
2c flour
1.5 tsp salt
1.5 tsp black pepper
2c crushed tortilla chips
1/2c vegetable oil
18 sm. corn tortillas (I used flour)
2c shredded cabbage (I used red leaf lettuce)
2med. Avocados
1/2c. Fresh cilantro, chopped

Slice chicken breasts in strips, dip in beaten eggs, flour(mixed with the salt & pepper), back into beaten egg, and then roll in finely crushed tortilla chips.  In a medium hot skillet lightly sauté chicken strips in the vegetable oil.  In a skillet, lightly(very lightly, or spray) olive oil to fry the corn(flour) tortillas, until golden brown.  

Place chicken on tortillas and top with lettuce, avocado, (we also added tomato), and drizzle with spicy salsa ranch.

Spicy salsa ranch
1c milk
1tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice
1c mayonnaise
1pkg ranch dressing mix
1c fresh salsa

Mix, chill, serve.

The verdict....they tasted great!  We loved them and they will be made again!  There was a lot left over even after I cut this recipe in half so I sent them off as lunch today as well! My husband appeared excited about it too ;)

When you have little successes like this in trying new recipes, it is motivation to try something else new!  I think I will, so, stay tuned!