Posts from the ‘Around the “Farm”’ Category

Feb 28

Inspiration Needed for Front Pathway

We were chatting about how we were going to remove my front pathway and before I knew it my pathway was being broken up into tiny pieces. It was way easier to remove than we thought. Unfortunately, I haven’t decided what I’m going to put there INSTEAD!

I have my two inspiration pictures (at bottom) that both have large pieces of stone leading through a garden. I guess I figure when I get to the stone yard I’ll pick a stone that speaks to me.

I appreciate any ideas, tips or encouragement you can provide.

Here’s the space we need to add a new pathway:

Pathway leading from the street to the front door. Check out all the river rock they used as a base!

A different view of the entire front yard

Here are my inspiration pictures:

Red-ish Stone

Black Stone

I don’t have sourced for these pictures because I clipped them both from magazines awhile ago. Let me know if you know the source.

Jan 31

22 Comments

Welcome My New Hunter Boots!

Used Armor All on left boot. Right boot has 'blooming.'

I’m happy to report I bought my first pair of Hunter rubber boots yesterday! I really wanted a ‘fun’ color (like lime green), but ended up buying black. I just can’t help it.

I’ve been looking online for a pair of black Hunter boots in size 8 but they’re always out of stock. I guess this is another reason I should’ve picked a different color. Anyway. I finally found a pair at the Bellevue Nordstrom — the last one.

When I called about the boots they explained to me the boots had a white film or ‘blooming’ all over them. Apparently a natural aging effect. This wasn’t discouraging to me since Nordstrom has a fair return policy and they mentioned Armor All would clean up the ‘blooming.’

Since I’m impatient and always a sucker for something that needs to be fixed, I bought the boots. And guess what, Armor All works great!

10/13/2010 Update:

I was on the Hunter Boots Web site and found their recommendation to fix the blooming:

Every Hunter rubber wellington boot is made from 100% natural ingredients and small amounts of wax are included in the rubber compound during the vulcanization process that is used to make each pair. When exposed to certain environmental factors, this wax can “bloom” to the surface and appear as white marks.

This is not a defect with the boots, and is completely natural. If this does happen, you can wipe this blooming clean with a warm, damp cloth. We also recommend UV Tech* Spray which can be found at boating, hunting or fishing stores.

Dec 30

3 Comments

My Favorite Garden Memories This Year

Since this is my last Wordless Wednesday post of the year, I decided to share some of my favorite ‘gardening’ events from 2009:

New Front Door & Painted Front Porch

Planting a Ginkgo Tree

Getting My Silkie Chickens & Reed Fencing

Fresh Silkie Eggs

White Lilacs Blooming for the First Time

One More Year with Pepper (R.I.P)

Blueberries & Raspberries

Stella Bella

Garlic Scapes & Garlic

Warty Volunteer Pumpkin

Veggie Harvest - Including Potatoes!

Discovering Toad Lilies

Stella Bella & Mazie Boo (Mazie arrived at Christmas)

Dec 2

9 Comments

Holiday Gift Ideas for Gardeners

Since I put a lot of thought into my holiday ‘wish list’ this year, I thought I’d share it in case you missed something on your list.

1. Hunter Rubber Boots: http://usa.hunter-boot.com

2. Ethel Gloves: http://www.ethelgloves.com/

3. Bert’s Bees lotions, creams, lip balms and soaps. Love them all.

4. Magazine Subscriptions:

5. Gardening Books:

From the Ground Up by Amy Eureka
The New Low Maintenance Garden by Valerie Easton (Author) and Jacqueline M. Koch (Photographer)
For more garden book ideas, check out Gardening by the Book.

6. Rosies Workwear: http://www.rosiesworkwear.com/

7. RapidReel Hose Reel. We already have one in the front but need one for the back yard. Love it.

8. Hose/Nozzel/ Sprinkler Quick Connects: http://www.dripworksusa.com/store/hose.php (scroll down to Quick Connect Hose Fittings)

9. Nejiri Gama Hoe

10. Get our Soil Tested! Instead of asking for a soil testing kit, I’d rather have it sent to a lab for testing.

I’m sure I missed something good but don’t want to be too greedy. Enjoy.

Nov 2

13 Comments

Harvesting & Drying Walnuts

I may be the only one that LOVES this walnut tree. It’s technically our neighbor’s tree but since it’s just over the fence, I get to claim the half that hangs over my yard. The reason everyone dislikes the tree is because of the mess.

I just can’t get over how beautiful the tree is and really don’t care about the mess.

Because we get so many nuts, I’m ashamed to admit we haven’t harvested any until this year – but it’s better late than never. So, instead of simply tossing the nuts in our yard waste bin, like we normally do, we collected a big pile of nuts and stomped on them to loosen the nut from the husk. Then, we went to work removing the nuts from the husk and set the nuts in a bin for washing.

Once the nuts were rinsed and remaining chunks of husk removed, I placed the nuts on a wire rack to dry. Again, since we’ve never done this before, we have no idea how long they’ll need to dry. We assume they’ll be ready in time for Christmas.

On a side note, if you ever plan to harvest your own walnuts, be sure to wear gloves. I don’t like to wear gloves and now my hands and nails are stained a dirty yellow/brown color.

Apparently, the husks are also used as a permanent dye for reed used to make baskets, like the ones my friend Kari Lonning makes. I just hope the dye washes off my hands soon, since it was a little embarrassing having dirty “looking” hands at work today.

Below are a couple pictures to help you visualize the process. Enjoy.