3.28.2019

spring is here.... grow what is important.

Each season I usually have a list of plans, a bucket list if you will, of things I hope to accomplish. This helps me to prioritize things because I usually have so many things I want to do, it would be easy to get lost in it all and not get much actually done.... Since Spring officially started a week ago, and I have a good idea of where I want things to go in the next few months, this is my Spring bucket list!
make custom work table (I have an idea in my head for this... I have some vintage table legs, and leftover wood from my flooring project.

revamp online store for Fox & Forest (for the most part everything has been on hold during the move to the workshop), annnnnd get the online vintage store back up and running....Spring is my favorite time of year for the photoshoots!

gym in shop; move weights/ yoga mat to workshop - more space to spread out there....

more instant pics (instax & polaroid)
start work on Deere's book/ "Deere ~ The Little Blue Pibble That Could"
grow what is important. I mean this in a broader sense than just my garden..... I have been making changes to stress less and say 'NO' more, focusing more on myself and what I love to do. Create more, learn more, sew more, photograph more (with my actual cameras and not my phone).
Reducing tasks/ obligations that involve me leaving the farm. I want to STAY in this peaceful place more....

Suppertime strolls. Christian & I did this every evening after dinner in 2013. We also lived in the city where it was easy to walk out the door and be on a sidewalk. Now I drive a few miles to do my morning walks, but I also benefit so much from a nice long walk in the evenings. Working on a plan to 'borrow' a dog that can make a nice little trek in the evenings to keep me accountable, since Christian is so over the strolls, and my sweet, ol' Eddie really can't physically make it.
On that note, I leave this list with one more thing I hope to make some progress on this Spring.... Mr. Reece. He is a great dog, and I love his spirit and energy. He wasn't dealt the best cards and needs a good bit of work, but does SO WELL when he is at the farm on little day 'breaks' from the shelter... I believe Reece will also be included on my Summer bucket list as well, but I hope he is adopted and in his forever home when the time rolls around for me to compile the Fall bucket list....
...and gahhhhhh leee! It is Thursday! This evening after work I am taking a dog to meet her potential foster family and hopefully it will be a great fit, as she needs knee surgery and a home to recover in. She reminds me so much of Baby, and she will make someone the best companion!!!! Let's hope tomorrow I am scheduling her surgery!! <3



3.27.2019

extra hours = happy gal...

I am loving the extra hours at the farm. Of course I am referring to the time change, and having all these fun projects to dedicate these extra hours of daylight to.....  As you all know when we bought this farm, it was overgrown, and had been unloved for quite a few years. The building that is now my workshop was an old 'pet resort' building with FIFTY doggy doors that were wide open, so the building itself was more of a home for the foxes, skunks, bunnies, stray cats, opossums, rats, birds, and whatever else decided to come right on in. I found animal skeletons from where other animals had dragged their prey inside to feast, as well as leaks in the roof, water damage, and spiders, bugs, and rodents GALORE. I even tried to lure people here to do it for me.... Bahahahaha!!!! No bites on that lure, so two years later, I finally started it myself....
Last winter, I started tackling the inside of the building, and am pleased with what I have done so far (see inside HERE), but the focus has shifted to the land around it now. The building itself is around 1300 square feet, and sits on a 3600 square foot slab. The slab has lots of chainlink around it, decorative landscaping that I feel can still be saved (clematis vines that just pool in a pile on the ground), and probably a good dumptruck load (or two) of junk that was thrown out when we started to clean out the building and make it useful.......

I am sure you've seen the progression of the workshop and the land around it if you follow me on Instagram, but I am SO EXCITED about the current situation and what that will mean for the future. I cannot stress enough how much this entire section of land and the building just was too much for me to even begin to work on for several years.... We have been here almost FIVE years now! All the doggy doors, all the chainlink, all the posts, all the overgrowth that had actually grown into the chainlink. All these things had been neglected when we bought the farm, and I had not touched it since we bought it, so imagine what can happen in that time. Here is a peek at what we've been doing:

...as you can see here, I had even lost interest in painting the backside of the building.... I did leave two doggy doors for the runs out back jusssssssst in case. A few weeks ago, I had a couple Great Pyrenees show up, and luckily they were returned in less than an hour, but in the future, I will have space to temporarily keep safe....

The plan back here is to fence in this big mound of yummy grass, and have the goats clean it up for me. I want to also fence it well enough for Reece to run around as well, since I don't really have a fence out here secure enough for a dog like him (high prey drive) at the moment....
He has been loving hanging out in the back kennel area while I decided to pick up with the painting where I left off a few years ago....
I also even spruced up the privacy fence with some fun colors!
....then last weekend the totally overgrown dog runs were the project....  Another task that had been put off for years, and now included trees that had grown through the chainlink fence....
I decided to keep the pines and the evergreens, and may keep any bigger trees that we come across, but most of this chainlink will be removed, and reused for a new fence that will hopefully be secure enough for the goats AND dogs like Reece that I may want to bring here from the shelter for field trips and a little training out of the shelter.... I want to transplant the clematis vines and train them on a portion of the chainlink fence to create a natural privacy wall ..... high hopes for this place...
So, I also learned something new! Apparently when you do this criss cross on stumps when you cut down trees, it prevents them from regrowing sprouts out of the trunk!
...so a couple more burn piles for next winter, and hopefully a fence will be up by this summer! Keep following, as I will also hopefully have some plumbing and a bathroom installed in the workshop sometime this year as well!
...well, we are almost halfway through the week! C'mon, 5 o'clock!!! I have plans for more fun this evening already! 

xo

-s

3.25.2019

chevron floor tutorial & workshop transformation

....and now the tutorial of the chevron 'runner' floor, followed by the transformation in pics of the finished section of the building.....
What you will need for this project:
a floor (I made one out of 3/4 inch plywood)
white paint
carpenter's square
yard stick or tape measure (I used both)
painter's tape
pencil (or sharpie - what I used)
paint for stripes (I used a deep hunter's green)
paint tray
narrow paint roller
scissors 

first, painted plywood sheets white.... if you already have a floor in place that you can paint, obviously you won't need plywood....
I then measured where I wanted my 'peaks' to be. I made dots with a sharpie 8" apart.....

I had an old carpenter's square that I used to make the angles, which I also drew the lines with a sharpie....
as you can see, my lines are not perfect, but since this was my first time ever doing something like this (hand-painting a floor), and this was just a workshop, I didn't sweat it. In my opinion, it is hard to mess this up if you have a carpenter's square, but draw it all out, you might want to use a pencil, and then you will tape.....
the painter's tape will go along the inside of the lines that are to remain white....
paint the colored sections...
 I had limited space to work in, so I would measure, draw, tape, and paint a few 8' x 4' sections of plywood at a time so that I could finish other projects inside the workshop as the floor was drying (see pics at the end of this post)
 peel your tape off once the paint has had plenty of time to dry. I waited 2-3 days. Notice in the pic below, my lines were just a tad off. I got a little lazy with the measuring as I went, but this can easily be avoided by sticking with the set width of the strips (measuring, drawing, and taping without rushing through). Again, since this was my workshop, I wasn't that worried about it, and the end result wasn't hurt at all! 
 Once my huge plywood tiles were dry, I would stack them against the wall to accommodate more room for painting and other work inside the building....


 ....and peel the tape off....viola! 
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
 .....now a peek into what the building looked like before. You see this space was an old boarding facility for dogs. Complete with 50 little doggy doors that needed to be blocked up and sealed. This daunting task intimidated me to the point of ignoring this building completely for almost 5 years.....

I did decide when closing up these doors, to leave two unsealed and create two larger sized kennels/ safe areas inside for farm ICU or spaces for sick farm critters that needed spacial care. In the past our laundry room has been the chicken ICU, and now we can actually have an area dedicated for animals out here. 

A ceiling got installed, duct work repaired, and I even learned how to do electrical work when my friend Angie came over to give me a lesson!!! 














 ....and more to come as the building isn't quite finished, but we have come a LONG way, baby! 
 Happy Monday! 

xo

-s