Happy New Year!!

I can't believe another year is gone.........and that I say that every year!  Part of my new year's resolution is to be a little better about updating this blog.  (Thank you to all who still care!) 

The first thing to catch up on is the progress of our "Nell Hills inspired" kitchen eating area.  It's hard to see, but on the other side of the table is a built-in bench seat with cubbies below.  The added cabinets are great storage for extra dishes.  It was a very happy day to finally unpack the rest of our dishes.  I spent the day thinking of sweet, Audrey Foley who packed ALL of those dishes almost 2 years ago!   

This "before" picture was taken right after Christmas 2011.  When we bought the house there were cabinets above the penninsula.  We took the cabinets down almost immediatly then El took out the soffit right before they went home after Christmas.  What a difference a year makes!

The second order of business is to show off the new dining room!  In October we offered to host Cassidy's marching band party - they said that they really wanted to go bowling.  So, that weekend, Jim and I tore apart our dining room.  A couple days later I got a call to see if we still wanted to have the party here!?!  I'm sure that nobody would've minded a little construction, but I was determined to have the room done before the party - and I just barely made it!


before

This year it was much more fun to decorate for Christmas.  Mom and El came down to help, go on a home tour, go to a concert, and play.  We packed as much fun into the 3 days they were here as we could.



Not that we like to procrastinate or anything, but Jim was finally home on Dec 21 and we decided we should go Christmas shopping.  While we were gone, the kids (mostly Karryn) worked on this gorgeous gingerbread house!  I think they did a GREAT job.

Bennan made the trees.

I looked out of my kitchen window this morning and saw our biggest accomplishment of the year - the building of the barn (which Tom actually built).



This picture was actually taken from the kitchen window - this is really our view!

The horses are fat and happy.  Mrs Captain Davy Jones (the hen) has just laid her 14th egg in as many days.  Snuffles (the rooster) has learned to crow - and does whenever we turn the barn light on.  Tiger (the kitten) is a big Tom cat now and Bella thinks she's a house cat (she is wrong).  Maggie is on new vitamins and seems to be getting around a little better.  Pirate Freckle-pants (the bunny) just eats and poops!

Life on our little farm is really good.  As we're putting together our list of projects for the new year, we're feeling very blessed to be on this adventure. 



So, from our crazy family to yours, have a very happy, blessed, god-filled, fun and slow (for a change) New Year!



We Have Horses! (now what do we do?)

     The horses arrived Tuesday, June 26th!  It was a bit of a surprise - we thought they would be coming the following Monday, but the vet visit went faster than expected.  So, Don (the horse whisperer) called and said he was bringing Coco and Frito out that very afternoon!  And then the fun commenced.................................

Day 1 - Even though the horses were coming from the same place, they had not been together at all until the trailer ride to our house.  That evening there were a few scirmishes - we're not entirely sure who came out on top but we think it's the little one, Coco.  Tuesday evening was beautiful weather and everyone in the neighborhood was out walking.  Frito and Coco aren't used to living in town - they stood at the fence on the street side and watched the "parade" of people with dogs and strollers.  They even liked to watch all the cars driving down the street.  Coco was very interested in Maggie - then he tried to stomp her.  When they weren't looking, Maggie ran to the middle of the field and "marked her territory". 

Day 2 - I woke up really early and walked out to check on the horses - Coco had a new "owie" on his back and Frito had a new scratch on his nose - not exactly sure what happened.  They seemed to get things figured out because the kicking each other has stopped.  Frito likes all sorts of treats:  carrots, apples, celery, most anything.  Coco doen't like treats at all so we didn't have anything we could hand feed him until.............we discovered sweet grain (grain with molassas).  We went to Charlie's Farm Supply and met Jennifer (the horse girl who introduced us to sweet grain) and bought some general supplies.  When we got home it was about 100 degrees out but we couldn't wait to try out the lunge line and see if they would listen to us.  They did pretty good then we gave them a couple of handfulls of the sweet grain as a treat - Coco eats it out of our hands now and Frito if trying to get in the barn to find it.  We think they might like us now.  Later that afternoon Karryn and Emily (girl next door) played "beauty shop" with them.  They opened the top half of the stall door and pulled a bail of straw over to stand on - the horses stuck there heads in there and the girls brushed and styled their manes.The horses were really enjoying it too!  That evening we decided to saddle up Coco for the first time - he was so good that Brennan even got to ride him.  Frito, on the other hand, was tied to a post (to keep him out of the way), got himself tangled up in the little bit of rope he had and fell to the ground - Jim was right there and pulled the rope free really quick and Frito got up just as fast.  Now he has a new "owie" on his back too (not as bad as Coco's though) and is only allowed about 18 inches of rope (he can be a little naughty when he's tied up).  When we were done we hosed them off - I'm not sure either one really enjoyed it but they stood there for us...................then they went and rolled around in the dirt like big dogs.

Day 3 - Cassidy, Karryn, Jim and I got up at 5:45 and went out to "play" with the horses.  Cas went to the fence and whistled - both came right up to her (looking for more sweet grain, no doubt).  We were all able to ride Coco.  Cas and I worked with Frito on the ground (we still don't have a 2nd saddle for him).   We were done by 8:00 - and gave them their treats in their own buckets.  It;s supposed to be pretty hot again today and we're going to Hannibal to see the Gertners this evening, so other than a brushing from Cas, the horses are probably done for the day.

The Animals of Wieda Farm

Maggie - Head Dog and Home Protector. 

• Keeps strangers at bay 
• Fearless while confronting the UPS man (especially from behind a closed door)
• Keeps Bella from wandering too far from the house 
• Sleeps on the couch when nobody is looking

Bella - Rodent Hunter Extraordinaire. 

• Angers birds
• Keeps mouse population down (we think)
• Sneaks in the house to sleep on Cassidy's bed (or Karryn's bed, or under the guest bed, or under the dining room table, or under my desk, or in my closet.......... she's pretty sneaky)

Snuffles and Captain Davy Jones - Chickens at Large.

• Squeak - cluck
• Eat and poop

Pirate Freckle Pants - new member (no title yet)

• Super cute
• Wiggles nose and hops

Tiggs (short for Tiger) - Mouse Hunter in Training and Barn Guard.

• Found his litter box already (YAY!)
• Your guess is as good as mine......



Coco - arriving TODAY!!!! (June 26).

• Rocky Mountain horse from East Kentucky.
• Still in training (more to come).

Brennan on our "Wild Horse" - he's a crazy man!

Frito - The tank on legs! 

Frito was kind of a surprise - When I called Don (the horse whisperer) to check on Coco's progress, he told me about Frito.  He's a Tri-colored Paint horse with a gentle spirit.  He's about 15 hands and built like a tank, but seems to be a gentle giant.  So we had to make a deal on both of them.  We feel sooo fortunate to have met Don and to learn from him.  He has such a way with the animals and is a great teacher.

Frito & Don

The Wild Animals

The Killdeer - made a nest out in the middle of the old burn pile.  If you look close you can see the speckled eggs under her - she was yelling at me for getting so close.  To protect her nest she would run a few steps away from the nest and pretend her wing was hurt.  It took 4 weeks for the eggs to hatch and when they did we happened to be near by.  As soon as the babies were hatched they jumped up and ran around in circles - then the parents moved them to a new location. 

The Love Doves - enough said.

One day this spring there was a parade of 4 pairs of geese parents with their babies walking across our field to the lake behind us (evidently it was time for a swimming lesson).

The animal population on "the farm" is growing and the kids are happy with the new pets.  I'm just hoping the excitement continues as they care for them!  (The wild ones are on their own)

Summer's Here!

Kids home from school, roses blooming, pool parties, weedy gardens, overgrown trees..... we love working on all the things outside, but it stops the progress of the interior. 

Our big project so far has been the deck.  Jim started by powerwashing the deck... which is how we discovered that we have a redwood deck.  The first rule in redwood decks (which we then learned) is "never powerwash a redwood deck".  Powerwashing raises the grain and then you have to sand it before you can stain.  First of all, we didn't know it was redwood and second, we didn't know rule number 1!  Our weekend project quickly turned into a week and a half project.  After sanding and re-securing the floor we stained the floor, painted all the railings, stripped the top board of the deck railing and stained it.

Jim had the great idea of "carving" a horse into the floor of the landing - so, Karryn and I got creative with the Dremmel.

We decided that a lonely umbrella in the middle of the table wouldn't be enough, so we found these three matching umbrellas.  They weren't tall enough to walk under so we built little bases and attached them to the railings with copper plumbing straps.  I'm not sure how affective they are in giving us shade, but they look nice.

The Barn..................................

The barn is FINALLY finished!  They started construction in October and they finished this week.  We decided to go with a Kentucky black barn and fence.  When they were putting the roof on we changed the plan - lifted up the center and added the clearstory windows. 

It looks soooo cute from the house.  Jim and I made the bench in front of the fence.  When the contractor picked up the wood for the fence from the mill, they threw on a half log - so we made a bench.  We put it by the fence so the little kids could stand on it to pet the horses without having to climb on the fence.

We still have a little dirt work to do - and a lot of grass to replace.  The lights on the front are from Ebay (of course).  Jim really wanted vintage lights.  These lights are a green color - we didn't want the door color to compete so we went with a gray and white color scheme...

and painted the shutters to match.  But when we went around to the back...............

it looks like a party barn (kinda like a mullet - business in the front and party in the back).

The 3 dutch doors under the porch go right into 3 stalls.

The stall doors are from out neighbor, Toni.  She wanted to turn her barn into a garage so she gave us the doors, hardware and bars. 

There is a center aisle with the tack room shown on the left and the stalls on the right.  The big windows in the front doors and the clearstory windows make it pretty bright even without the lights on. 

The door for the tack room was our laundry room door (remember the barn door project?)  Beyond the tack room is the wash bay.

Jim came up with a brilliant idea for the lights and basically married 2 light fixtures together to make these "designer" lights.  (I painted everything black)

These fans may not look that big in this picture - but they are each 72" - and remote controlled (also a Jim thing). 

And..............there's indoor plumbing!



Now for the livestock.................

These little guys were all that Karryn wanted for her birthday.  Their names are Snuffles (on the left) and Captain Davy Jones.  So far they're living in the bathroom - but I'm hoping to promote them to the barn soon!   

The Hallway in Progress..............

As you all have seen in past posts, El built a closet in the hallway, taking a small corner of the family room, which we access from the hallway.  We then used the laundry room door for the tack room in the barn so we built a "barn door" for the house (to hide the mess and non-painted laundry room).

  The opening on the left is the laundry room and the unfinished opening is the new closet.

Again, the door on the right is the new closet and the barn door hides the laundry room.

The barn door was distressed during the "family beating" (of the door, not the kids) and a good time was had by all!  Maybe it was wrong to give Brennan the heaviest hammer...............  We stained it black then put a walnut stain over top to "warm it up".  2 coats of sand sealer then 2 coats of poly.  The door hangars are from Ebay, the rail is from the farm store, the handle is from Hobby Lobby and the corner braces are from Home Depot.  All hardware except the handle was painted black. 

New Kitchen (or at least half of it)

The kitchen is another one of those rooms that took a lot longer than we thought it would - but, then again, haven't all the rooms taken longer that we'd planned?  We have the work area of the kitchen done and now we're working on the eating area. 

Right after we moved in we removed the upper cabinets above the penninsula, and were left with just the soffit.  At Christmas El helped us remove that soffit and the soffit above the sink.  Another problem was that the room was really dark, so Jim took down the box light and installed recessed lights, undercounter lights, lights in the corner cabints, a new light above the sink and the big carriage light above the penninsula (yes, we do own GE stock). 

After we patched the ceiling, we added moldings on the soffits and on the penninsula base cabinets and installed a second-hand trash compactor from Craigs list.

All of the cabinets were primed, painted, antiqued and polyed inside and out.  The hinges got spray painted and the rest of the hardware was replaced. 

Next we tackled the backsplash.....

We had a large blank wall - so of course we had to put moldings on it............

We're still working on the eating area of the kitchen.  We've installed the base cabinets and added a bench seat.  We want to add shelves above the cabinets.........when we get to it.