Home Sweet Home!

We have been home for a week now and the vigour of a week of holidays got my butt right into gear on Saturday afternoon when we returned home.  Poor DH - He really had no idea what a short rest was going to do to me!  :-)
First off I came home to 3 happy faces.   Unbelievable how much you can miss your furry kids when you are away!  

Molly on the other hand was excited to see us but quite literally exhausted from being with her Grandma and Dora for the week!   She slept for nearly 2 days straight!

My mom worked her magic in so many ways around the farm when we were away.   Look at this beautiful little vignette she made at the barn entrance.  

(Now I need to white wash that barn wall!!)

She also knew that my gardens around the house have been really bothering me and have been more than just a small eye sore.   It's the entire perimeter of the house that needs to be redone...so for me the job of starting has been a very difficult one.    Mom of course has no trouble starting and just takes the bull by the horns, so to speak and kicked started the back of the house with my niece Bella into a much tidier and aesthetically pleasing garden.   She always knows right were to start too...right were you walk in, so you get the most enjoyment everyday.   This has motivated me to keep going along the driveway side and around under the bay window in front.   Pictures of that area to come.

Upon arrival we also rented a 100' power snake to clear the downspout drain on the bank barn roof that feeds over to our pond.   The pond level is about 2' below what I would like to see it and the only way it gets new water is from the rain.   It has no spring feeding it.   So DH and I spent the remainder of our Sat night right up til dark snaking that drain and then running the hose through it.   It runs water now!!! So we just have to wait for rain to see how it works when mother nature turns on the tap!

DH bought a hammock when we were in Barry's Bay.   He believes I need to learn how to use it more often than just look at it!!  :-)   So I thought...well girl, you will never learn how to use it if you don't hang it up!   So it has been hung in the yard were I can look out over the pasture or over the pond.   I am sure someone will get good use out of it...if not me maybe DH or visitors!

The pond had a waterfall when we purchased but the previous owner thought it was within their right to take the pump with them when they left.   Just another of the many things "missing" on the closing day!!   We got a new pump and that was installed on Sunday so that we could enjoy the sound of water rolling down the waterfall whenever we sit out on the pergola.
Here I am wading in to place the pump.   That's a totally slimy bottomed pond too...in bare feet.   Reminded me of the creek besides my grandparents house that we would catch crayfish and tadpoles in!

Since we had the ladder out so I could climb to the very top rung of the full extension ladder to have a look in the bank barn eaves troughs; to see if there was anything blocking them...DH decided he would put it in the loafing barn so we could actually see what was in the loft.   Last look was late last fall when I stood on the very top of the step ladder and was eye level with a ca-zillion mice!!   ~~Side note~~ What is it with me defying safety with ladders anyway??   That's 3 notable incidences where I have done less than safe practises on ladders...the 3rd is in a post last month when I painted the stairwell wall.    I hope Darwin doesn't catch on to my ways!

Here are a couple of the old items that were up in the loft.   Also there was an old settee that the mice have really done a number on.   The convertible section of an old buggy, some old tin siding tiles, several old wooden doors and lots and lots of mouse poo!

 A beautiful ornate headboard.

 An old wooden wringer washer.

I can't even imagine using that old washer.   I know I have an ancient top load machine by today's standards but really this thing is from way before my time!   Thank God women have gained some rights over the last 50 years so that we could have a say in the design and function of domestic appliances.    This machine would just be a device of torture and inconvenience!   My grandmother had the next generation metal version of this contraption. I remember watching her wring out the clothes through the rolls as a small child in her basement and if I got too close to the drum she would holler at me to back up because I could crush my hands in the rolls.   I remember being scared half to death of doing laundry!

Lastly what would a post be without at little bit of Molly to finish it off?

Molly as you are all well aware has a real appetite for destruction when it comes to her toys.   A once overflowing toy box now has metal showing at the bottom and a very large pile of toys in the infirmary for various carnage that has been inflicted on them.   It's not uncommon for me to have a pile of fluff every single day as I walk through the door when I get home from work.    I clean up saying a little prayer for the death of a beaver, rabbit, squirrel, skunk or the likes.   It seems too that the newer the toy, the faster it goes!   The water bottle fox lasted about 1 hour before it lost an ear and it was torn beyond recognition only 8 days later!   This week behold the crime scene(s) I discovered...ALL ON ONE DAY TO BOOT!!

Exhibit A - Entry from Back door.

Exhibit B - Entry to Kitchen

Exhibit C - Gym

Summer Vacation - Part 2

It's been a pretty hard week up here!   LOL
This is what my days consisted of...relaxing, napping, reading, running and eating...not necessarily in that order.   Oh ya and useless surfing of the internet too!

The cottage here is in a lovely spot.  Lots of mature trees, lake front and within 2.5K to downtown Barry's Bay.

Here is the front...facing the lake.

Here is the road view.

This is the path to the dock from half way down.

And is the view from the dock.

I spent a considerable amount of time here...

And in this position...

Lots of wild life to keep us entertained too.

I fed the ducks everyday when they visited.

Me, Feeding the ducks!  :-)

We even had a visit from a raccoon late one night on the deck.  We had left peanuts out for the chipmunks but the raccoon decided he was hungrier!

DH had lots of R&R too and he even caught a small rock bass off the dock.

And what would holidays be if we didn't eat too much! 

Surf and Turf night.

Hangover Burger night.

I successfully killed this pile of literature...

I did get a chance to run everyday tho...if that's any consolation for the way I ate!  It's been awhile since I have had that luxury.   I have missed my running buddy Lynn at the office a lot.   I did tried out some new barefoot shoes...my feet need a bit of time to adjust but can't wait to give them a try on the trail at home.  I started my week and ended my week with 11+K runs.   All the days in between had no less than 6K.   Its not great distances and not great times but I feel good about moving at least a little bit.

Here are my 3 shoe choices...my old faithful runners, barefoot shoes and barefoot toe shoes.   I am still run/walking in the barefoot shoes and have yet to run in the toe shoes.   I have been wearing them around the cottage all week and they are surprising comfortable.

Tonight is our last night and we return to the farm where I know my Mom has been tending to the horses and Molly with expert care.   I am ready to go home and get back to the projects that I have been away from and put a leg over Izzy after a week away.   I hope the rest for her has revitalized her sense of willingness to work and she is refreshed with new enthusiasm; just as I am.

Summer Vacation - Part 1

It has been a crazy couple of weeks on the farm!   Less maybe due to farm related work and more due to my day job that has kept me busy the past week on an extended shutdown.  
My heart has been back at the farm tho and dreaming about all the fun there.   I guess I should qualify this tho...I don't hate my day job.   I actually have a rather interesting job were I get the opportunity to work with a lot of different cross functional disciplines installing equipment and working on improvement initiatives that help my company make more money...which in turn ensure I have a job and more more money too.   Facing reality here is the fact the I need a day job to finance the love of farm and the horses that bring me joy.  :-)   So after a great deal of extra overtime last week I now find myself sitting on a dock with DH relaxing with a beverage....We are on our summer vacation!

This was my view yesterday afternoon.   The weather here has been cooler than at home with yesterday a cloudy high of 23C.   Today is cloudy again and not as warm, however I am still on the dock but with my yoga pants and long sleeve T.  I guess it all feels cooler after the scorching week we had last week in the high 30's pushing 40+C with the humidex.   No matter the weather, it's nice to get away and relax.

I found myself getting laughed at with a solid belly laugh from DH.   In turn his laughing got me to laughing and finally I said, "Why are you laughing at me?"  His response was, "I have never seen you like that!"   He was in stitches from seeing me fall asleep in the lounge chair and wake up and stretch after an hour and half of peaceful sleep in the middle of the afternoon.   He's right I don't think I have taken a nap in years in the middle of the day...just not my MO!   I guess the 50 odd pages of the book I am reading combined with the gentle lapping of the water against the dock lulled me into a sleepy trance!  

I must add in here that we are lucky enough to be able to take these stints away from the farm because I have wonderful family that stays and takes on the farm duties while we are away!   My mom and my nieces are again staying at the farm while we are here for our 8th year at Barry's Bay.   We actually started coming here together in 2003 and have only missed 2 summers here.   We rent the same place every time and love the peacefulness and lake view.

On last call back home it sounds like they have all been busy doing spruce ups and chores.   I can't wait to be surprised by the transformations they have talked about!

More to come...

Painting the House

First off, I want to say a huge thank you to the followers and friends that have commented, emailed or spoke to me in person about how much they are seeing a transformation in the farm.   Thank you for your encouraging feedback.   We love it here...and knowing that it shows in our efforts, our smiles and our ambition is a huge support network that I feel truly blessed to have.   Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

It's been a busy 2 weeks here at the farm.
Our back 40 is now planted in soya beans that have started to sprout.   The roof is on and looks fabulous.   The new facia, eaves troughs and gable vents are up and changing them all to white has updated the look of the house.   The entire second floor (3 rooms and the bathroom) with the exception of the office / junk storage room have all been painted...INCLUDING the huge hallways that start in the kitchen downstairs.   The gym has been painted, the mudroom now has 2 new doors as well as new insulation and new drywall.   Still need to paint the mudroom but DH put the primer on so it's on it's way to finished as well.

I now have a new BIGGER studio which was formerly our guest room.   The guest room is now the small 3rd bedroom in the house which is fine as a guest room since it has a queen bed and a side table.   Not much more room than that and I doubt the guests we entertain would complain.   :-)

This is the new colour for the studio at the beginning.

And here it is with paint on.   I will post pics later on when I actually have the studio put back together!

PS - Don't look at the hideous light...that was there when we moved in and it hasn't been changed yet!

The new guest room...sorry about the TV...That's actually destined to my studio.  AND time for a new quilt!  :-)

I have to send a big shout out to my mom for spending the weekend and working her butt of with us to get this done.    We would never have got so much accomplished without her help.   Painting has been on the to do list for awhile but had really never made it to the top of the list.   We are approaching one year here on the farm and the house hasn't really been much of a priority so getting this cleaned up and looking smart will make the day to day life inside that much more enjoyable.    Now we can start the process of decorating!   O how I love (insert sarcasm font here) decorating!!   Seeing what I like in magazines is really easy and fun.   Seeing what I want at a store and buying it to pull it all together at my own house...not so much fun!    

Here is my mom painting the hall upstairs.

My mom took this picture of me cutting in the top edge of the 17' wall that goes from the kitchen to the top of the stairs on the second floor.   She thought she had better have proof when she submitted my death notice for the Darwin Awards!   Don't try this at home folks!

PS - DH was thinking I looked like a thing of beauty wearing shorts and my wool socks!   I always remind him in moments like that He asked ME to marry him!

Here are a few shots of the mud room as it underwent it's transformation.   You may remember this post when Dora made her mark.   Molly then helped here to leave a bit more mess by chewing the drywall.   We still have to finish the colour and trim...will post more pics when that's finished.

From an equestrian perspective, this weekend was dry.   No riding at all.  :-(   The horses however didn't seem to mind in the least!   All 3 (Izzy included) are covered in mud from this mornings rain and are happy, fat and relaxed.   It's still a beautiful site to see them eating grass or dozing in the sunshine.

This is a shot from this week at morning chores.    Morning chores are my favourite...its a wonderful time of day and now that the sun is actually up when I do chores in the morning it makes it that much more wonderful.   The sun was just cresting the tree line when I went out.  5 happy horses waiting for breakfast!

 Last but not least, we must have a brief posting of Molly!   This shot is from outside our kitchen bay window looking into the house.   We have a small table that is a heirloom handed down to me from my Grandmother.   Miss Kitty has taken to sitting up in this window sill to watch the birds and chipmunks in the yard.   Well...Molly has learned everything she knows from the cat...and thought it a splendid place to sit and keep an eye on us as we surveyed the work from the roofing contractor!    What a little stinker!

Please excuse the peeling pain on the windows...that's another painting project on the list before winter this year!

HP Haven Happenings

Lots on the go around the farm.   All the spring projects are now rolling around to the summer projects. There is never a shortage of things to do and I am really starting to get comfortable with the fact that I just can't do everything...at least not as fast as I want to and not in the first year!   I know you peeps that are reading this who know me well are laughing out loud about now.   My A Type personality is scream with pain and my reality portion of my brain is calling "uncle"!   So...even if I am making a muck out of letting go...I am trying to consciously not get bogged down in the details of the long, O so very long list of things I see on a daily basis that I want to make changes to.

DH and I bought the place with the thoughts of a 5 year plan.   I know, I may have pulled the wool over his eyes just a little on that 5 year thing...but he has played along so far so Shhhh...it will be our little secret!   Five years is an optimistic view of the future but I know we will get there.   AND even tho it's far from perfect it's still home and I can feel how right being here is for my insides.   This place has felt like home since the first night.   Even tho I have experienced the odd melt down over simple things like knotted fencing after 3 straight days of 12 hours of stringing new fences.   But hey, if the biggest road blocks are a few knots, a bunch of weeds and a half empty bank account...I have gained far more in joy than any of the troubles this places as presented.

The only flowers that this house has are four lovely clematis vines at the back door and side of the house.   I miss my gardens and all the spring bulbs but as the summer rolls forward I know I will get more time to address the loss of those beds from Decewsville and have the joy of creating a complete new perennial garden from scratch here.

 

My mom and I also did a bit of a transformation on the garden at the barn entrance.   

Here is what it was when we moved in.

This is what it looks like now.   Just need to add the cedar mulch to help keep those weeds at bay.

My mission on the weekend was get rid of the ugly garden at the front of the house.   When we moved in the old owners had taken out some of the boards on the front deck and filled it with soil to plant the veggie garden.   Yes, you are reading this correctly...the veggie garden was directly out the front door!

This is how it looked when we moved in.

This is what it looked like when I started...we had already ripped out the ugly broke fence, weeds and over grown shrubs late last fall.

This is now.   We still have a lot of landscaping to do here but the structure is mostly gone, with the exception of the little walk out.

We are in the middle of having a new roof put on the house.  As I type we still have about 1/3 left to be redone.   It's been a big job as there were 3 layers of old shingles on some portions and some of the boards were broken as the roof had no plywood sheeting.   That has now been added and we will follow this with new eves and new venting.   We chose a brownish colour shingle as in the future 5 year plan we will change the colour of the house.

Here are the guys at work...more photos to come after the weekend.

Here is the damaged roof with no shingles that needed to re-sheeted.

DH has started to rip out the drywall in the mud room.  We knew this had to be done when the new door was replaced.   This started as just a repair to the holes that Dora and Molly had picked away at.  But being an old house, one thing always leads to another...so this will be a full gut and re-do.   **Reminder to self...Rome was NOT built in a day.**

And LAST but not LEAST...there must be a Molly update!

She is growing like all the weeds in the yard.  It seems like everyday she gets just a bit bigger and fills out just a little more.   She is back in full force from here spay surgery.  I even took her on a 8km hack earlier this week with Izzy and I through the bush.  

She has taken to getting up on the foot rest at the island bar in the kitchen.   She also has taken to squirming her way into position to see what might be up there to eat.  Like all golden retrievers there is nothing more important than food!   I am not condoning this behaviour...but as you can see someone at the homestead is!!!!