Bloom Where You're Planted Farm

Today is the first day this spring that we've spent the entire day working outside.  The weather was beautiful and the threat of not-so-nice days for the rest of the week got us motivated to get out there and get going. 

The first thing Terry did was cut down what was left of an old maple tree.  It was huge but so hollow that it wasn't too hard to cut up and haul away.  Getting rid of that eyesore was a great way to start the day!

After lunch we worked on tearing out a section of fence along the horse pasture that was badly in need of being replaced.  We plan to replace a large portion of it with smooth wooden fencing like we have in other places around the farm.  The new fence will be more attractive and provide a nicer area for our customers to visit with the horses.  Plus, it will be safer for both horses and people than the old barbed wire.

Despite wearing sunblock I can feel a little sunburn/windburn on my cheeks.  Ahhhhhhhhh.... Spring! 

This past Monday evening we lost power for almost four hours.  We had very heavy winds here, and six tornadoes touched down within 20-30 miles of us.  I was just starting to fix supper when the outage happened, and with an all electric house I didn't get very far.  So, it was peanut butter and jelly for us.  I talked to some friends who were also without power at the same time and they had PB&J as well.  I'll bet there was a lot of peanut butter consumed that evening.

After an hour or so the winds went down a little, the clouds broke up, and it brightened up enough to go outside for awhile.  What a relief to have something to do besides sit around and listen to the battery-powered radio.  We walked around to see if there were any limbs down (the only one was a dead limb that we'd been meaning to get out of our cedar tree for a year or so--thanks, storm!) and stopped to visit the horses.  It was pretty chilly so we headed back inside for more junk food and a few games of Yahtzee. 

What a relief when the power came on just before 9:00.  It got me to thinking about our house's younger years when there was no electricity.  Even with all our candles burning it seemed so DARK in the house.  I suppose oil lamps were brighter than candles, but I imagine the evenings got pretty long and cold in the winter.  I used to think I'd like to live in pioneer times, but Monday night made me rethink that opinion.  Life was simpler, but I love my electricity too much! 

I can hardly believe Friday is the first day of spring already!  The signs are all around -- the grass on the roadsides, in the pasture, and even in our yard is getting greener every day.

This fat (and somewhat angry looking?) fellow is a sure sign of spring, too.

But why is it, that the first plants to really get going in the spring are always the WEEDS???

I love old barns.  I photograph them on vacations and use a barn in our farm's logo.  I really love our old barn.  Not because it has any particularly flashy architecture or stands out amongst other barns -- I just love it because it is OUR barn. 

When we moved to the farm, even before we decided we wanted to open an on-farm business, we knew preserving the barn would be a priority.  I'll cover more of the before & after of restoring the barn in a future post.  Today I wanted to share with you one of my favorite parts of our old barn.

The barn overall is very "no nonsense" and practical, without any real bells and whistles.  That's why I love these support straps on the sliding hay loft door so much.  Their decorative star cutouts are an exception to the strictly-business hardware on all other parts of the building. 

To learn more about barn history, preserving a historic barn, or for a really cool barn-related road trip, visit these links:

National Barn Alliance

The Barn Journal - "Dedicated to the preservation of traditional farm acritechture."

Sac County, Iowa's Barn Quilts

Our weather has been cold, rainy, and downright gloomy the past few days.  It was a welcome surprise when one of our pumpkin patch customers Deanne emailed some photos of her kids visiting the pumpkin patch last fall.  I remember their family well, because Terry sold his prized "butt pumpkin", a true natural wonder, to their teenage son.  It was hard for Terry to part with his treasure, but having been a teenage boy himself he knew the pumpkin was going to a good home.

The first photo is one I took of the prized pumpkin with its new owner.  The next two photos were taken by Deanne, and show their two girls on the nature trail and the pumpkin in its new home.   

 Ahhh, the fond memories of fall!!!

Yesterday the temps rose into the lower 70s, and when I went outside in the morning I noticed the first little green sprouts peeking out in the flower bed on the south side of the house.  That was all it took for me -- I had Spring Fever, big time.

I was itchin' to get out there and accomplish SOMETHING, ANYTHING toward our goals for the season.  It was too muddy to do much, but I headed out to the schoolhouse with my tape measure, graph paper and camera.  One of our projects for the year will be to turn this...

 ...into a kitchen for concessions.  Making it especially difficult is the fact that this little 7.5 ft. x 10.5 ft. room has two doors, one window, and will need a pass-through service opening.  I think I've finally got it figured out, and the contractor/hubby didn't have any complaints about my drawings when I showed him last night.

In case you haven't been to the farm yet or haven't visited in the past year, here are a couple more photos of the schoolhouse.  It was our old neighborhood school, and my mom, who grew up here on the farm, went to school in this building.  It was moved a couple times and ended up at our county fairgrounds.  We had it moved to the farm last spring and spent the summer renovating & restoring everything (except for the room above, which was originally the entryway and stairwell.)

I'm stuck in the office today working on our income tax paperwork.  Our accountant called over the weekend wondering when we wanted to schedule our annual appointment.  Guess I can't put it off any longer.

Doing our taxes is one of my least favorite things about running this farm business (and Terry's construction business -- he's also self-employed).  If I was a better bookkeeper the rest of the year I'm sure it wouldn't be such a daunting task.  But, I can only seem to get this type of work done when I'm forced to -- and today I'm forced to. 

It could be worse.  It is a little bit fun looking through receipts and remembering back over the past year.  Plus, it snowed over the weekend so it is cold and wet outside.  Not much I could do out there, anyway.  Or, I could be working outdoors building an addition to my parents' house like Terry and my dad and brother are doing right now.  Maybe stuck in the office isn't such a bad place to be.

Have a great week!