We have a garden!...Well, we have a dirt rectangle.

We're planning on starting a garden next Spring, so we had to dig up the grass in a section of the property because there wasn't any garden from when the last owners lived here.

We decided to tackle the huuuuuge task this fall so that we'll have a nice level area to make a skating rink for this Winter and then in the Spring, we can get right to work planting.

It's really just a dirt rectangle right now, but we have plans for a white picket fence around it with gates on either end and berries planted all around. Maybe next year. Maybe.

Lucky for us the old owners left behind a whole bunch of amazing garden tools for us, which made the job really fun.

A rusty old red wheelbarrow. You know getting to use something as cool as this would make even the most reluctant gardener at least a little tempted to get to work.

I actually used a pitch fork! For something other than just posing for funny pictures!

And how amazing is this pile of bricks?

Chris found these behind the garage when he was landscaping back there. He just stacked them up neatly until we decide what to do with them.

We think they must have dumped them back there when they were tearing out the wall between the original house and the master bedroom addition.

Any great ideas out there for what to do with it? Pin It

Some Amazing Discoveries,Then Some Cake

So, blog-worthy things happen around here pretty much ten times a day, but time to actually document and share them... not so much. Anyway, here's one thing!

Oh yes. That's original hardwood there.

Isn't that kinda the dream? You buy the big old country house in need of love, pull back some of the ugly and find tons of original beauty waiting for you to unleash it!

But how to get rid of all that glue from the peel 'n stick tile?

The varnish has yellowed like crazy, so I don't mind that some of the cleaners I've been trying have been taking off some of the top coat. We'll be sanding and staining again anyway.

And then we started ripping out walls.

Our master bedroom is an addition so behind the entrance wall is the original brick exterior wall. Well, how cool would that be to expose it and get to see that everyday?

 

Answer: Pretty cool.

It's going to take a lot of work. They pretty much went crazy with the demolition of the wall for the doorway, so lots of insulation and thick moldings will be needed, but I think I'll somehow manage. 

On a completely different note, I've been doing some baking, as have a lot of us I'm sure. 

Last year I found myself wanting a "signature" fall recipe that I could make for my family that would just feel like home. I think I found it this year in a recipe for apple spice cake from Martha. 

 

Simple ingredients, seasonally appropriate, and both Kennedy and Chris ate it up! Score!

I think we've got a winner!

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Early October Mini Tour

Hey hey. I just wanted to pop in and show you a few pics from around the property right now. I took these a few days ago as the leaves were starting to really get fally.

Here's our house on a beautiful sunny Fall day. You've seen our mudroom entrance way already, but I guess this sort of our "real" front entrance decorations. Although we don't use that entrance. Chris decorated the front of the house for me using corn stalks, a pumpkin, a hay bale, and a big ol rusty corn thresher he found in the garage attic. How cool is that?

He also found this big plastic light up pumpkin up there. I have to admit that I love it. It's cheery and big and you can see it from the road.

You want a closer view of our corn thresher don't you?

Here you go!

 

He's actually updating the decorations by adding more pumpkins and some leaf piles since I took these, but alas, I haven't been out there with my camera again yet. 

I keep thinking that when our house is all big and fancy and renovated in a few years, these photos will make for good "first year" memories.

 

The 13 giant maples around the property are just starting to change color and drop their leaves. What are we going to do with all those leaves??!!?

 

We have some red too.

Looking back towards the house. You can see the soy fields here are starting to change. Many of the other fields around here are already completely brown and are being harvested.

A blue sky and the barn peeking out over the browning corn fields. Can't wait to watch all that corn being harvested soon!

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Harvesty Corn Bundles

I did an easy little craft a couple of weeks ago when I was setting up my fall mudroom and I'm pretty much in love with it. I felt like I was making real authentic country fall decorations now that we live in a real authentic country house, but then it occurred to me that I could have been making these all these years when I lived in the city, I just never thought of it.

Wanna make some with me? OK!

So, just go out back to the cornfield and grab yourself about 6 ears of corn.... What? You don't have a cornfield out back?

OK, I'm bragging. Just let me have this.

It occurred to me that you can just buy the corn in the husks from the grocery store too and that would be perfect. Peel the husks back but leave them attached. Let the corns dry out for a couple of days, then get down to business.

 

There's really nothing to it. Grab three corns together and tie them tightly with twine, then stand back and admire.

 

There it is. Pure harvesty goodness. 

Why don't you make some too? Trust me, you'll love them.

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