Yup. You read that right..I’m gone fishin’ this week. By the time you read this my husband has kidnapped me for a week of roughing it in the ‘great outdoors’ of the Northern Saskatchewan forrest. *sigh*
You see, my husband loves to fish and he loves going up North {aka: No Mans Land} because its quiet, peaceful, uncontaminated and the fishing is supposedly some of the best you’ll ever see. He wants me to experience it for myself, he knows I’ll love all the photographic opportunities I’ll find myself in, and..I also told him I like to fish. Why did I do that, you ask? well..I did..when I was, like…10. Okay so I might still like it, you never know til you try it! Right??? Anyways, its too late now the bags are packed and we’re on our way! With that being said, I have come up with a plan. A plan that will ensure I have a good time to matter what! Alright, you ready to hear my plan?? Okay….
I’m going to fish. And I mean really fish..give it an honest to goodness try and if I don’t like it? Well then I’ll know for sure…
And I’m going to take a lot of books so I can catch up on my reading on our down time..
I’m going to take refreshing 3 minute showers with lake water heated up on the wood burning stove..
I’m going to sit on a boat for 12 hours a day with my farmer, and dang it..I’m going to enjoy it!
I’m going to reconnect with wildlife..
I’m going to dip my toes in the pure glacier waters of Canada’s True North…
I’m going to help prep lunches for the boys to bring on their boats..
and who knows. Maybe I’ll even convince Adam to bring out his guitar so I can belt out some tunes by the old wood burning stove..
I mean, who knows! Maybe I’ll really get in to this and want to swim with the fishies all.day.long!
Okay, so maybe that last one was a little bit sarcastic 😉 But in all honesty. I’m going to really give this a try. If not for anything else, its for my husband. Because he loves it, he wants to take me with him and he deserves it. So..pray for me people..I’m in the land of outhouses, grizzly bears and shotguns..I may need a week of Michaels and glitter after this just to recover…
The Happy Homemaker, yup thats me! Well, getting there at least. Lately I’ve been really settling in to my role as a farmers wife and homemaker. After a year of living on the farm {today is my anniversary!} it is no longer a strange concept to consider myself the care taker of the home and family, I’m quite content with it actually and thats a pretty comfortable feeling to have! With that being said {and because its Friday} I thought I’d present to you two fun things/tips for being a happy homemaker.
First up a nice little gem of a cleaning tip I recently came across and tried. At this point in time I’m pretty sure my mom is a little shocked by this. You see, growing up I shared more of an affinity for cleaning as my new friend Hilda here demonstrates:
You see I have always enjoyed a tidy home. I revel in it. But cleaning? Umm, not really my thing. But, nevertheless, I’ve grown up and although I would rather cleaning take a back seat to something more fun like, say a dentist appointment..I have started to enjoy keeping things up around here and I know my hubby loves coming home to a nice smelling, clean environment after being out in a noisy, dirty field all day. With that being said, a little gem for making your faucets shine up like a new penny. I came across this tip from a book a bought a few years ago entitled,
To begin, wipe off whatever is easy to remove. Then liberally swab the fixtures with white vinegar
Soak a cloth or paper towel with vinegar and wrap it around the faucet. Go away for an hour and let sit
After an hour, remove the wrappings and give the fixtures a final rub with a fresh paper towel. And voila..its shiny and new again!
I did this the other day and I have to say it really worked! The faucets are still gleaming today and the smell of vinegar is nowhere in sight! Give it a try someday, you’ll be happy you did!
And while you are waiting for that vinegar to do its thing, why not whip up a batch of homemade biscuits? They make the home smell divine and they are truly a delicious treat, hot out of the oven or even cooled on the countertop! My dad is famous for making these biscuits and I request them from him often, I can gobble quite a few up in one sitting..trust me, they are that good!!
Alright, you ready for some homemade goodness? Here is the recipe for the best homemade biscuits, ever {Recipe from Company’s Coming Cookbook}
Ingredients
2 Cups flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
4 Teaspoons baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 Cup butter or 1/2 Cup margarine, cold
1 Cup cold milk
Directions
1. Put first 5 ingredients in a bowl, mix thoroughly
2. Cut in butter til crumbly
3. Pour in milk, stir quickly to combine. Dough should be soft
4. Turn out to a lightly floured surface
5. Knead gently 8-10 times
6. Roll out 1/2″ to 3/4″ thickness. Cut out biscuits with small round cookie cutter
7. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 450 for 12-15 minutes {mine started browning way faster so I recommend watching them by 8 minutes for browing}
8. Enjoy!!
Morning Everyone!!
Today I got up with the sun, let my flock of chickens out and headed out for my 2 mile walk with the dogs in the refreshingly crisp, early morning sun. It was so peaceful and beautiful and definitely the perfect way to start my day!! Now I’ve eaten breakfast, have a load of laundry in the wash and am sipping on coffee as I type! Harvest is going well and could be finished within the week, which is kind of surprising how fast time went as it feels as though just yesterday I was so excited that we began!!
Last night before bed, Adam and I talked about our plans for this winter and became overly excited about the possibilites of finishing this house we’re living in so that we can move out to the farmhouse and finally be in a home of our own {if you are just joining us here on the blog, Adam & I are living in the upstairs of a monolithic dome that is currently under construction and being built for my inlaws}. I can’t wait to move in to the old farmhouse and renovate it to suit our needs and have a home again, I’ve missed having one. Our place here is beautiful and very comfortable but its not our home. We have big plans for our new place and I have pretty much everything decided on and picked out already {giggle} I know the paint colors, the flooring..you name it, I’ve got it picked out!! But last night I came up with what may have been an odd request of my husband, I asked him for a clothesline in our backyard. Yup, the old traditional way of drying your clothes is something I asked for. Why? Well, I think its beautiful having a line of freshly laundered clothes hanging out in the sun, flapping in the breeze. I’ve wanted one for awhile now and I think the farmhouse is as good a place as any to put it, don’t cha think? Of course Adam was 100% up for it, saying he loved the way laundry smelled coming off the line…don’t you just love when your spouse is in to something as much as you are?!
 
I can just smell the fresh laundry now…yum!! And, with that in mind I have to share with you this “recipe” I found on the internet for a new bride in 1912. It was written down by a Kentucky grandmother to give to a bride on her wedding day, please enjoy {spelling mistakes & all!!}
{My dads going to love this!}
- Bild fire in back yard to heet kettle of rainwater.
- Set tubs so smoke won’t blow in eyes if wind is pert.
- Shave one hole cake lie soap in boilin water.
- Sort things, make three piles. 1 pile white. 1 pile cullord. 1 pile work britches and rags.
- To make starch stur flour in cold water to smooth then thin down with boilin water.
- Rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, then boil. Rub cullord but don’t boil — just rench and starch.
- Take white things out of kettle with broom stick handle then rench, blew and starch.
- Spred tee towels on grass.
- Hang old rags on fence.
- Pour rench water in flower bed.
- Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
- Turn tubs upside down.
- Go put on cleen dress, smooth hair with side combs, brew cup of tee — set and rest a spell and count your blessins.
Ack! this just kills me, I love it! Gosh, what it must have been like to have been a woman back then!! Hope you enjoyed this today, have a wonderful Thursday everyone..September is just around the corner!
For the last few years, I have become quite fond of 1940-1950’s pin up girls, I think they are so cute and fun and the scenarios they have been painted in are sometimes quite amusing. The last few years I have always bought myself a new pin up calendar for my studio that is filled with the drawings of Elvgren, probably one of the most famous pin up artists. But, I’ve come across an entirely new pin up girl and I’m proud to say you will be seeing more of her around this blog..she cracks me up! She wasn’t your typical pin up girl but she became increasingly popular in the 50’s and 60’s for her plump figure and her all around happy zest for life! One of my favorite, farm related images now holds a permanent place on my side bar, which you can view to your right if you scroll down a little. Its okay, I’ll wait……. —>
Isn’t she cute? I’ve been enthralled by her drawings lately..I just love them! Anyways, I thought I’d introduce you to her {incase you didn’t know who she was, maybe you did?!}. Hope you enjoy seeing your hilarious depictions around here from time to time!! Have a great day everyone!!
As I type this, combines are humming outside my window in the wheat fields across our yard in every which direction. The sunset happened a few hours ago and there is a thick dust hovering about with no place to go. As farmers, this is an exciting time of year for us. Everything we have worked so hard for is finally paying off and rewarding us for our time, blood, sweat and tears. On the other hand, it signals the end of a season as well. Harvest time is the last stop for summer before Autumn takes over and soon enough, the snow will begin to fall. As excited as I am for the new season {I do believe I have mentioned many a time that Fall is my favorite time of year?!?}, I have found myself to also be a little nostalgic that Harvest is almost coming to an end. I love this time of year. I love the combines, the ripened wheat fields, the harvest moons, the traffic jams of tractors moving augers at a turtles pace..it makes me giddy. Its when this part of the country truly comes alive. And, after all the wheat/grain has been harvested, the combines will shut down for the year and its almost as if the country dies a little too. It becomes quiet again, peaceful..and still. It truly is a beautiful life and I cannot tell you how blessed I feel to be a part of it. This week marks my first anniversary of living on the farm and I can’t tell you how much happier I am after trading in my black heels for tractor wheels!
I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about my life and how somehow, I’ve just magically started settling in here..finally. It took me almost an entire year and let me tell you, there were some dark and difficult times but then, all of a sudden..I started feeling comfortable. I starting feeling at home and like I belonged here. First it was my chickens that grounded me here, after all, somebody needed to care for them. Then it was my garden..and then? It hit me..this is home. I belong here. I am…happy here. I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for this feeling to hit me! I was just discussing this feeling with Adam last week and he told me he noticed it in me as well. Something changed. Something just started to click. *And its a beautiful feeling*
This summer I worked hard in my garden, creating a haven for myself that I could go to and just be myself. I could talk amongst my flowers and watch my favorite foods grow before me, all because I planted them there with my very own hands. Foods I have eaten for years but never thought twice about where now sprouting out of nowhere! No longer where they just a picture on a seed packet, they were grown, sliced and diced right here before me. Biting in to my first cucumber is an experience I will never forget. I was nervous it would taste horrible, bitter, even. But it was crisp, cool and delicious. It was perfect! Now, every day I wander out to the yard, collecting tomatoes, zinnias, peppers, potatoes, beans and decide what to make for dinner based on my latest harvest. Its an amazing experience that I truly believe everyone needs to have for themselves.
My chickens are the other thing I am most proud of this summer. I knew I wanted them as soon as I laid eyes on my farmer and made plans to love him forever. I pictured our quaint farm with a full flock of clucking hens and he fulfilled my wish this past Spring with a starting flock of 15 of the most beautiful chicks I had ever laid eyes on. When I reached in to that cardboard box and picked up my very first chick {incidentally it turned out to be Lacey}, I had tears in my eyes from being so overwhelmed with how attached I already was to them. Those first few days they were here, I never left their side. Housework went by the wayside, it was all I could do not to sit and stare at them 24 hours a day. I marveled at how beautiful they were and how quickly they grew! To this day I still get excited every morning to wake up and have them be the first thing I do in a day! I walk down to their coop, gather fresh food for them and giggle as I get closer and here them anxiously cluck, knowing I’m on my way. When I open their door to let them out I love how they run thru the door and greet me so happily! They truly make this place feel more like a farm should feel. And tonight? They made me even more proud!
After going in to town to pick up some groceries, I came home to hear some more odd clucking noises coming from the coop. In the last few days since our infamous chicken rodeo, something happened. They started to change. The atmosphere felt different. They were still happy and clucking like crazy, but I could just feel that something had changed. And tonight, I found out why..
Yup, my chickens laid their very first egg!! I have been waiting and waiting for this day to come! I have been checking their coop daily to see any notifications that an egg might be on its way but became convinced it wasn’t happening any time soon. But then I came around the corner, pail of freshly chopped carrot tops in hand and found this little beauty sitting on the floor of their pen, the chickens happily clucking around like nothing had happened. I was so shocked and excited that I barely looked around to really see if I could tell who laid this egg for me {I have 9 options to choose from}. There wasn’t a specific chicken that looked shocked, scared or hurt so I gave a quick and general thank you to all my ladies and ran off to show my mother in law my latest exciting news! I can’t tell you how proud I am to say my very own chickens laid this egg..I mean, I just can’t wrap my head around it yet! A year ago today was my first day after quitting my job in the city..and now, look at me! Collecting eggs and gathering vegetables while my husband is out running the combine and celebrating with me via texts that we have our very first egg. Of course what Adam is really celebrating tonight?? Well he’s pondering lifes basic questions, such as: Scrambled? Fried? Omelet? or Poached? the possibilities are endless…
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dawn - Hi Dawn,
WOW a week away at fishing, hope it all went well for you. I’m not into fishing but hubby loves it. Not sure me and the wilderness can survive a week together, haha hope you are stronger and braver then me. LOVE LOVE all the pictures here, soooo funny and matched your words perfectly!!
I did a special garden post while you’ve been gone, try to visit when you can and scroll down to see it. The title is COME TAKE A WALK WITH ME THRU THE GARDEN or close to that anyhow, look out for that and read it, had you in mind when posting and taking pictures.
Take care and welcome home, enjoy sleeping in your bed and using the inside bathroom, lol
HUGS!!