My color pallette

Ivy loves this one..

We are in the middle of cleaning and packing, here is some inspiration to keep me going....

Happy Birthday to Daddy-Feb 20

Wishing you many many more!!!

This project has kept you sane for the past few years!  Your almost done, it's awesome...

Your such a good daddy!  We need to go fishing more often.

You are the killer of many rattle snakes.  My hero!

Working 

You are a good boss,  regardless of some peoples opinions!  There is nothing wrong with treating others how you want to be treated.
Also,even at 38,  you are a tall drink of water!

Your Hattie, always a daddy's girl!

Woooo-hooooo, good times.

You sure have your hands full.  Love you always.

HAPPY 38TH BIRTHDAY HANDSOME!

Twister

We will miss you boy.  This picture is from our fun neighbors's beautiful website:

                                                           www.blackwillowranch.com  (we will miss them too!)

Happy Valentine's Day

my favorite flower

Then again, what is better than fruit tree blossoms?  Pure magic.

My big plans

Just doing a little planning and organizing.  I need to see how these ideas look on paper....

Cream?  Yes please.

www.doublenickelfarm.blogspot.com  I admire a well stocked pantry so much.  Maybe insead  of buying extras we don't need, I should start buying some we do.

this thing can bake 17 loaves if bread at one time, also known as an outdoor pizza oven

(www.fastgrowtheweeds.com)  a loven oven to bake with in my back yard

I want this on the front (south) of my house. Passive Solar, heat the house, grow veggies all year, and purify the air.  There must be a way to make it look good on the front of our house????  Then again, does it really matter that much???  I can't imagine a better place to drink a cup of mint tea and think.

also need one of these put up= at least  $50 savings per month

What am I missing?

The garden plot

Italy or France?

             As the kids do their schoolwork, I appreciate a little time at the computer.  This is the time of year I get really excited about gardening, as do many other gardeners.  This year I get to start from scratch.  Goodbye bind-weed, also goodbye lovely raised beds and earthworms and compost.  So I am starting over.  My goal is to not introduce any invasive weeds and to have everything extra straight in this new garden.  I also have issues with planting things that I don't really like or enjoy harvesting.  This past year, I couldn't stay ahead of the broccoli harvest.  I just wasn't that interested because I had cooked some up and their was a worm in it when I put it in a serving bowl to set it on the table.  A cooked worm.  I kind-of let it go after that.

       I have been gardening hard for 10 years, but I am just learning how to do it.  I love lasagna gardening.  Its hard work to get the beds built, but after that,  smooth sailing!  I have a big collection of things to use for my new garden, but not enough.  I need a tractor, then I could clean our  people's barns for them and haul off the refuse.  This year I will have to manage with  a wheel barrel.  Several neighbors at the new house have sheep.  I hope to find a lot of manure and old rotten hay to clean up.  The kids are starting a worm bin today.  More on that later!

     As for plants, I want to plant stuff that we will eat and that will save us some money.  Potatoes and onions are first on the list.  I was doing some math.  If we used 10 pounds of potatoes a week, that would be 520 pounds in a year.  So that works out to about 53 pounds of potato seed.  I ordered 30 pounds, and I am wondering where I am going to plant all these potatoes.   I will need some long raised beds.  I am doing 3' wide by maybe 20' long.  The good thing about lasagna beds is how much denser you can plant them.  So I can get quite a few pot. in a smaller area.  The potatoes I ordered are early and I read that you can plant green beans after the potatoes are harvested.  If I get the pot. planted mid March, they should be all done by the end of May.  Then I can plant the green beans.  I am planting pinto beans that a family member gave me.  They say these taste better as green beans than many green bean plants do.  I heard this was a southern thing.   As for the onions, my plan is to plant about 300 Spanish Sweets, with rows of heat tolerant lettuce between them.
 
     As for other plants, I am trying to use some restraint.  I am going to try a big plot of sweet corn as this is something we will for sure eat and freeze.  My mom always says that pumpkins planted in the shade of the corn do really well.  So I will plant my pumpkins in the corn and hope for the best.  We will have to put up some electric net wire fencing to keep the raccoon out of the garden or they will destroy it.  This will be a first for me.  Cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, and watermelons will finish off the list I think.  Simple is my goal this year.  I usually plant a few herbs, but I will try to use restraint in this area as well.  A little goes a long way for basil even though I love it.

    My expenses will be in the drip system  ( couple $100) and the straw (maybe 20 bales= $100) to put between rows to prevent weeding.  The potato seed was $60.00.  Everything else should be inexpensive.  I will just have a lot of  sweat equity in the garden this year.  The start up cost are high, but worth it for improving the soil.  If you amortize it our over several years, its not so bad!  I will never till a garden again!  In the future, I will just add compost and mulch...Voila, its rich soil.

      So, that is the simple plan for me.  Wish me luck.

Kitchen dreaming

Perfection:

Restoration Hardware

This is where we start.  Hmmm....Its fine, useful, easy.  But aesthetically not very inspiring!

Change the knobs!   Oh why did they do the dropped ceiling in the 1980's?  When did that ever make a room feel/look better?  Goodbye 1980.

I have a small collection of this!  Hang some bleached out antlers next to it....

For now, I want to take all the uppers down?????  Paint the cabinets white.  Change the lighting.  Can you see it?

Old world meets white?  

This is perfection, do i dare?  I have the concrete floors, the mirrors,  and the table.  I can tell this is Atlanta Bartlett w/o looking!

Now to convince the husband!  (I have an armour just like that for my appliances or pantry cabinet.)
I would put my big butcher block in the middle of this kitchen and warm it up a bit.

My idea of a nice kitchen:  (this is just a start)
1.  Free standing cabinets or furniture

2.  Real, not plastic countertops, flooring

3.  Lots of light and nice windows

4.  simple, spare, and easy to clean

5.  White dishes

6.  A little bit industrial!

7.  A place you want to spend a lot of time.  A place that takes your breath away a little bit.  A place that is clean and elegant and rustic at the same time.

8.  Kids can jump in and cook

9.  Casual and comfortable;  friends can drop in and eat without me being embarrassed.

10.  Fresh herbs in the window, lemon in a baskets, bread baking in the oven.

More to come on this topic for sure!

Ode to Russian Sage

Soon you will be back, oh how we have missed you.
 This summer we promise not to take you for granted.  You are not a peony or a rose, but we love you just the same because you are so simple and strong.

My Little Mice

Staying warm!

Homeschooling

Do I have the patience for this?  Not today.

Crazy Modern Log Cabin Quilt

This is what I have been doing:

                                                 Then I got sick and this happened:

So I need to finish it.  It is sitting on my table and has been all week.  I still have to quilt a few blocks.  Baste it and sew on a back and then bind it and viola, 20 hours later, we have a quilt.  I will finish this thing this week, because I am on a new month for my audible downloads and so I get a new audio book and all of a sudden I am quilting like crazy.  Then, the house gets cleaned up and everything gets done because I want to quilt (without guilt).  Scary but true.

Toots gets new boots...

New used ones anyway...and is she ever  happy.  

Remember doing that when you were little?  You just couldn't stop looking at your new boots?

Don't ask me what she is wearing, I don't know.

   She is the fact checker.  Keeping everyone in reality.

 Here they are, dancing again, in the sun.  Hattie's is dressing like a rock star these days.  

perfect color, can you imagine?

Beautiful January Day?

Down in that canyon is the road to our house, this is up on top....

Casey's Bronco, mid-restoration, fun rig

Pippi found a rock to use as a stool to get a little drink.

tiny breeze pumping water...

We are going to miss this beautiful ranch!

New Looks for 2012

Beaded pipe cleaners as headbands, who new.  Ruby loves to spend her time making these.  She has amazing focus for someone who is just 2!  And then they dance!  Where do they get this stuff?

This look will go down in history as adorable!

Forward Motion!

Most friends who read my blog know that we are getting ready to move and start a new business.  (Casey's Windmill and Well Service).  Whats hard is being at a stand still.  We have sort of moved some stuff, everything we don't need.   Anyway, I really need forward motion to keep me going.  I am not finding that right now, so its pretty frustrating.  Don't get me wrong, there is plenty, and I mean plenty, to do.  But, I work best under pressure, so I am not doing it.  So that is what is happening around here.  Plus, we were back to school this week, after a 3 week break that was suppose to be really fun, but really wasn't too great for the most part.  (again because of the lack of forward motion.)  Does this make any sense at all?

So, since we are moving soon, here are some more home pictures just because...

I like to bring weeds in the house as much as possible.

I love crazy quilts.  The deep colors and textures of all the fabrics put together.  These are mandatory at our house in the winter!  BTW, Casey made this bed for Ivy, she is letting us use it until we move to Fort Sumner.  He is quite the craftsman, it is iron.  Someday he will make me a iron canopy bed I am hoping.

A very spare bedroom for quick clean up and relaxed sleeping (wish it helped anyway).  Trust me, I need all the help I can get to relax, it runs in my family we are not relaxed people.

I will say that the minimalist look that I am going for is easy to clean up and dust.  I love it when everything is put away and tidy.  This week we cleaned on Thursday, and have somehow managed to keep it pretty picked up over the weekend.  It is so much more relaxing when there is not junk everywhere in this house.  Especially since we have all been sick with fevers and colds.  ALL of us!  At least this way we can get it all over on one weekend and not stretch it out over the entire rest of the month and into Feb.  I HOPE!!!

So when we move, I am going to have many many huge garage sales at our new house.  It has a garage attached and is in a community where there are people!  Both of these things are helpful for successful garage sales  right?  

Stop by our blog next week to see the quilt we are working on....