Weekend at the lakehouse...

     It's been a little quiet on the blog this weekend as Mr. Rural and I went away on our first adult only vacation! To celebrate our eight year wedding anniversary (May 1st) we went away to our family vacation house at Shaver Lake in the Sierra Mountains. What a beautiful weekend.

     Friday we had a great dinner at The Trading Post (a local favorite), then Saturday we visited the local gallery and some other shops and then set off on a hike. The Balsam hike, recommended by the sporting goods shop, took us to a man made lake and we were literally the only people for miles. It was perfect weather for hiking and for our dogs to take a swim. This is the first time our rescued Golden Retriever had been swimming with us and she proved a champ.

     Sunday we slowly made our way back down the mountain saying goodbye to the picturesque scenery and quiet. We stopped by a lovely high altitude nursery and then it was back to reality, grocery shopping and getting the kiddo ready for school tomorrow. We will definitely be heading back up to the lake VERY soon!

Teaching our son about service.......

     One of the lessons we try to impart on our son is service to others. For years we have raised guide dog puppies for Guide Dogs of America (2 dogs, almost three years). We trained a hospital therapy dog, we participate in local charities. When we do these things we try to talk to our son about the reasons behind our actions, how giving just a little of ourselves can make a larger impact on society as a whole.

     The hardest part of service is explaining the benefits in the way a five year old can understand. Service isn't like making a purchase. You don't hand over cash and receive a tangible item in return. The gifts we receive are of the conscience, a mere feeling of good. How does one explain that, when we hand over a beloved puppy to GDA, we are receiving in turn a gift of gratitude? Gratitude is hard to hold, much as a puppy's presence is quite easily felt.


     Then I realize that by showing our son the work we do, talking to him about giving to charity and skipping out on a movie or two, he already feels the benefits. When he wakes up every day (and he does) and says, "today is the best day ever," I realize that his spiritual self is already well developed. While he may not exactly understand the correlation between service and emotional reward, he is feeling the rewards within his life, within his soul. We hope to inspire our son to be generous with his friends, generous with his time and to know that sometimes the greatest gifts are never held within your hands but within you heart.

   

Yard tour.....

Before- new constuction

       I've had a few people send emails asking about my yard setup, how many square feet I have, etc. I thought perhaps a yard tour (in photos) might help everyone see what it is we're working with. Excuse our mess because we are still very much in progress. If you want to send emails you can send them to edwards1616 (at) sbcglobal.net.

Overlooking the run

Eating area- more to do here!

     Our yard is roughly 7000 square feet. This is about 2000 square feet larger than the average SoCal suburban backyard however, it's pretty small when you are wanting to grow your own produce, raise chickens, etc. Though we have a small yard and awkward space we are maximizing the space for producing while trying to maintain a cohesive space conducive to entertaining. It isn't always easy.

Main yard- four raised beds and running beds along the sides

Back 40- major before pic

The second tier

     Though the yard is long and narrow we have some clearly defined spaces. Below the deck is a space gated off just for the chickens with it's own storage area as well as an area for our worm composting bins. We can view the chickens from the deck, but once you walk down into the yard the chickens are not a focal point. We have a dining space, a central yard space, and through our new archway we have the main garden entrance with a future seating area. In the very back, behind my studio, we have what we lovingly refer to as the back 40..... feet. This space is roughly 40' by 20' with a cement patio and plenty of space for the food growing expansion, our composting area and our future greenhouse (fall of this year).

another view looking down

     We haven't done much with the front yard, but standby. We plant to dedicate this space to ornamental edibles which should be both challenging and fun. Hope you liked the tour, and can see the progress. Please feel free to ask questions or make comments.

Moxie- Guide Dog Puppy in Training- update

     Today our family received a second postcard from Moxie. We were excited to read that he has finished learning his right and left turns and is now on to crossing the street safely in traffic. It's been 2.5 moths since we sent our boy off to guide dog college and each Friday that goes by without a phone call from GDA I have a mini celebration. We continue to keep our fingers crossed that in only a few more months we may see Moxie cross that graduation stage with a recipient.


     In other news our Gertrude (Australorp) has made a good recovery from her illness. It turns out that she was merely molting (18 month molt) and is already looking much better as her new feathers come in. As is typical with molting she has lost weight and stopped laying. Hopefully she feels back to her old self soon and gets back to work.

     Tomorrow we begin more work in the garden. I have eagerly planned six or seven projects which I don't plan to divest to Mr. Rural until after morning coffee. Shhh! It should be a productive weekend for our little homestead!

Oh beautiful day....

      It's been a little quiet on the blog this week and I won't lie, I've been hanging out in the sun. Finally we have some nice weather and temperatures creeping up into the 70's. I'm waiting for the weekend to start another landscaping project but I have been sketching. My chickens spent the afternoon following me around the garden, fertilizing things and tilling soil. Chickens are excellent, fuel efficient little tractors for the small scale backyard farmer.

     I visited our local thrift shop today to say hello to everyone and found the most darling owl mug. It's perfect for my afternoon tea and has that great thick ceramic that was so popular in the 70's. Though nobody really needs yet another coffee mug I couldn't resist for a mere fifty cents.

     What projects have you been working on this week? Are you enjoying warmer days as well?

Small project to hide the clutter.....

     When I enter my studio the first thing I see are my two large built in bookcases filled with crafting and sewing supplies. Though the supplies are fairly organized it's still an explosion of color and distracting when you have work to be done.

     Recently when I was visiting Ikea with my friend Cindy (SweetPeasandButterBeans) while she purchased a room divider I started thinking about using curtains to cover my bookcases. It's not a new concept and one I often forget about, but curtains are great at both dividing a space and acting instead of doors (think laundry room). I decided to pick up a set of curtains ($19.99 with Ikea Family), two rods ($3.50 each), mounting brackets ($1.50 each) and get this space covered.



     A very easy project later my supplies are now covered up. I do want to go back and add a second panel to each side so the curtains have more pleats and don't look like a single sheet hanging. For now though, they are really making my space feel less cluttered and helping me focus. Notice I was too lazy busy to iron the curtains, but that will be done today.

More of the studio makeover to come. Next- no sew, no tools required curtains.

What we fed the dog......

     It's snowing here again in the mountains of SoCal. It's not abnormal to have snow until after Mother's Day or even into June. However, this year, I'm ready for the spring. Today with the rain pelting down and snow coming in we raced down to town to get groceries for the weekend. Before we left, as we went to feed the dogs, we noticed that we were out of dog food. Like out out. One must learn to improvise when living so far from a large town.

     Don't panic, we didn't let the dogs go without breakfast. We did what any self respecting dog owner would do and made them a meal of what we had in leftovers. A little lunch meat, a few pieces of homemade challah bread, some string cheese diced up. Yep, classy. However, the dogs didn't seem to berate us too much. Strangely predictably they were all too happy to eat the leftovers.


     Now that dog food is stocked, people food is replenished and the plants are covered as best as they could be, it's time to enjoy a roaring fire, good wine and some movies. The snow is continuing to fall and the quiet is ensuing. Ah the peace of the end of the workweek, the end of the school week and the end of a busy day.

     Want to see an anxious gardener get angry? Just wait until after a snow! Last night we were expecting rain and I should have realized this would probably mean snow. Remind me to come back in my next life as a weather reporter, you only have to be right 50% of the time. This morning I quickly added frost cloth to the newly planted grape vines, lavender, pea plants and mint. Now it's fingers crossed that this all survives!

     It's funny because each year I can't wait to start gardening. This year I've been trying to focus on getting the hardscape and the soil mixtures ready telling myself that I can't plant until after Mother's Day. Still, a few things slipped into our car and fell into the ground completely without my notice. Yep, garden fairies!

     So, while I'm staring out the window and praying to the snow, soil, and plant gods this morning I hope everyone is off to a great, or at least better than mine, day!

Happy Easter

     Wishing everyone a very Happy Easter. Though Mr. Rural and I aren't particularly religious we understand and value that this day is very important to some of our very dearest friends and family. Today we will spend the day in the company of family and yes, Mema has an Easter egg hunt which our son is really looking forward to. I hope everyone who travels today stays safe and those spending time with family enjoy and cherish that time.

     This morning our chicken, Gertrude, is still with us. It's possible she's going through a molt. We will hope for that and hope that she stays with us. We are very used to having our six girls and we'd hate to lose one of them as each is a pet with a unique personality.

The garden gate is complete....

     Yesterday I showed everyone photos of the found wrought iron gates and super steal Cragslist arch find. Today we finished putting these three pieces together for our new grape arbor. Then it was a quick trip to Lowes where to scored two huge concrete urns for $49 each. The manager at Lowes couldn't find the price so he gave us a discounted price for waiting. Awesome!

     We have a lot of cleaning up to do and planting to make these gates less see through. However, I'm really liking how this project came together. Mr. Rural and I work well together. I say, "I want this," with my hands showing him in the air how I want things to be and then he draws things out and does all that planning crap I can't stand.


     On a side note one of my chickens, Gertrude, is not acting herself. We ended up leaving her out of the run well we left the house to run errands. I half expected her to be dead by the time we got home. I can't explain what's wrong, she's just off. Well, she was thankfully alive when we got home and I stuck her back in with the flock. She is eating which is a good sign. Fingers crossed that this is just a molt or a fluke.

   

A garden gate with found objects.....

Original gates

     A while back (a couple years) I found two large piece of handmade wrought iron in an antique shop. They looked like they used to be two gates and the dealer said he'd made them for his home, but his wife hadn't wanted to use them. At $30 a piece I saw their architectural value and thought they'd add visual interest in our garden. They've spent the past two years leaning against our fence.

$20 arbor

     When we began our backyard makeover I wanted to make sure we used materials we had on hand before purchasing anything new. This would not only serve to save us money, but to also look for uses for items we'd already purchased that sat forgotten. Our two gates immediately came to mind. In addition I had purchased a wrought iron arbor on Craiglist for $20 three years ago that sat against my studio, also unused. I wanted to find a home for these piece in our new garden.

Gate framed out

     Thus, the challenge began. How could I incorporate three mismatched pieces of wrought iron into our new garden? I knew we wanted an arbor with gates on either side but by themselves these three pieces had little chance of uniting. I drew out a plan to frame the wrought iron gates in wood giving them both legs for support and also tying them in with our raised wood beds and wood fence. This is the beginning. Tomorrow we assemble the pieces and see if we created something wonderful. I leave you with the before and after photos.

Porch revamp...

     Sometimes the best way to change a space doesn't require any money at all. A little rearranging, paint if you are working with an indoor space, and moving around some accessories can transform a space and make it feel new. Today my focus was our back deck as it's an entranceway to our outdoor space and literally the focus as you walk out the back door as you can't see our sideyard backyard from the back door.

     First, the barbecue needed to go. We have a lower, larger, eating area and the barbecue could easily have a home down there where it's less of a focus upon exiting the house. Once the barbecue was off the porch our entertaining space increased dramatically. Now the small bistro table, chairs and bench were more centered which allows for easier conversation. I brought a few pots from other parts of the yard and created a vignette along with my new St. Francis statue. Now I get to plant them (bonus!). I found the statue and the green pot at Home Goods. Isn't HG so much fun? I'm always finding treasures there at bargain prices.




     In addition to the added space we now have there is also room to set up a couple extra folding chairs when we have more guests. As the Japanese Maple grows it will give us more privacy from our neighbors. I can see up spending many evenings on the porch with our friends!

A visit from Hilo- a guide dog puppy in training.....

I've been quiet the past two days though it's been busy at our house. In addition to some planting, potting, seed transplanting and other yard work we also picked up Hilo, a guide dog puppy in training that will be staying with us this week.

Hilo on the ride to our house

     Hilo is a four month old black lab. It's funny because it seems only black male labs seem to find their way to our house. Though he is the third male black lab guide dog puppy here recently he is quite unique. Hilo is VERY smart and already so well behaved. I guess it comes from having a couple of wild puppies that I'm not used to one who is so calm. He has already mastered sit and heel and has done well at down today too.

     So, after a couple walks to the post office and through a bit of traffic and barking dogs we are back home for some rest. Hilo is wonderful at kenneling when I can't give him my attention and my dogs are enjoying keeping him busy as well. While at first he seemed a little intimidated by my two dogs he is now coming into his own and is very funny. More photos to follow!