Farm Living Suits Me Just Fine!

It's hard to believe we have been out of the city for three years. This feels so right and good. No traffic, now sirens, no "people" sounds. Quiet. Peaceful.

Our children have thrived on the opportunity to work really, really hard. Our boys have become so strong and manly, going out and making their way in the world of farmers and country folk. They are pursuing real dreams ~ their dreams ~ and they put their own lively-hood on the line in order to do it. I'm so proud of them. Proud in a good way, mind you!
God is so good.

Our neighbor cutting hay with his mules, Kit and Kate. They are beautiful animals.

My little man working hard.

Unloading brush with Daddy

My man and his truck!

This is one of the smaller cows on the farm.
I like this size.

This one, one the other hand, is a different story! BIG! You will never guess who it's owner is!
I'll give you a hint: she has a blog called Country Maiden Lane!

Sayre has such a way with animals! His calves just love him ~ especially when he brings them alfalfa cubes!

You've heard of "a boy and his dog"? Well, . . . what can I say?

A Little Bit of This, and A Little Bit of That

There is so much to catch you up on. The house at Bull Run has just sprung up out of the ground, and it is exciting to see our son preparing his home.

For those of you who are not reading Ashley's blog, I will be glad to show you a few pictures I took. Here are Ashley, Trevor, and Sweet Pea.



He has the cleanest, neatest, most spacious crawl-space in the southeast!



It's not everyday a guy has the opportunity to help his brother build his house. I'm sure Sayre will have some good memories of time spent with Trevor.



Sawyer loves being over at Bull Run with Trevor.



The first wall goes up. How exciting!



Our lovely Thelma.



A woman's touch is just what this home needs!




Here's the best looking man on the job site, and he's ALL MINE !



Fearless.



Up goes the roof.



Notice the clear, clear blue sky.



He's done this a few times!





We believe these to be graves.



The home at the end of the road.

I'm so thankful that I've been able to catch up on many of the projects around my home this summer. I'm hoping to show you some of the fruits of those labors. It is so wonderful to be able to find great contentment and joy in these domestic projects!



A friend of mine is getting married for the first time at the age of 40+! So the ladies in her church are making her a friendship quilt. This is my quilt square for her which I hand embroidered



I've also been recovering lampshades. I don't know if I'm doing it right, but I'm doing it!



I've had lot's of help!



Canning season was a time of learning for me. My mother canned up until a couple of years before her passing away, and I was able to help her some. But there's nothing like doing it yourself. I'm thankful for Marmee who answered a lot of random questions!
Here you see me squishing all the blackberries I have been freezing the passed couple of years in addition to a bunch I brought back from Michigan.



The bounty of the summer. Tomatoes, peach , blackberry, and strawberry jam.


Now that the weather has turned a bit cool, the flowers are going crazy!



This rose was given to me by the dear Mother of my Sister-in-law, Mrs. Doney, when my Dad passed away. It is called Perfume Perfection~a JacksonPerkins rose. It is heavenly to sniff.



I'm normally not a fan of calla lilies, but the price was right the day Ashley and I visited the Jackson Perkins outlet in Greenwood, SC. I had no idea they would be so pretty!. They are only about 15" high, and they keep producing these lovely flowers that last~litterally~ for weeks in a vase! The more you cut, the more they produce! These are called Captain Romance.



I can not remember if I had a name for these. They are left over from the Wilson's garden when they lived here. Very pretty.



The "MONSTER COSMOS" (my name for them) finally bloomed and boy are they striking!




Thank you Lord, for your great goodness to me.

The Country Clothesline

One of the things that is such a simple delight to me is to hang out laundry. When my children were young, I would so enjoy getting out of the house for a few minutes – alone at my clothesline, hanging up their little clothes. At that time, it was only some simple rope strung up between three trees! What lovely memories!



Upon moving out here to our place, I was gladly anticipating a "real" country clothesline! But alas! My dream of "real" clothesline poles swallowed up in hollyhocks and morning glories was temporarily put on hold. I was back to trees with rope; and just two trees this time!



Then upon completion of the addition, my dear son, Trevor, had some spare time. He was ready to get me that clothesline!



It also helped that Marmee wanted me to write as a guest for the HomeMakers Mentor, and she liked the idea of doing a Laundry Day lesson (which could easily include the subject of clotheslines). So Trevor was glad to help out with his building skills. This was built earlier this year.

We started with the "inspiration". Do you ever save pictures of how you would like "yours" to look?

Then he went out to the woods and cut a couple of nice straight cedar logs.





These are the end posts.(I guess were back to trees!) He notched them out by hand.

He used pressure treated wood for the cross pieces.

He borrowed one of Hamlin's tea-party plates to get the rounded design.

He used his thing-a-ma-jig saw to cut.

Woo-lah!

Now just a little sanding . . .

and it's time to bolt the cross-pieces to the "poles".

On Tuesdays, I change sheets. I also wash the white shirts worn by my men~folk on Sunday.
Using my Charlies Washing Powder, I wash them in hot water and add a bit of non-chlorine bleach. I also put some liquid laundry softener into the rinse compartment.

I love white linens. I love white sheets on the beds in my home. I hand embroider the sheets for the Master bed.

Here's a close up.

This is the cut-work design I did for the pillow cases for this set.




There are no hollyhocks or morning glories around my clothesline pole ~ yet ~ but how God has blessed us with so many other beautiful surprises at "our place".