Wahsega Valley Farm

Opening gifts

I love the holidays - and seeing my son Jesse, Sarah and granddaughter, Margot. They came up from Atlanta on Wednesday after the snow melted and spent the afternoon with us. I'd not decorated very much in the cabin since there really isn't room for a big tree or other decorations, but here is a shot of our little Christmas area:

 
And from afar:

 
And from the other direction:

 
Tiny decorations for a tiny cabin...

We had fun opening our gifts and here is Margot wearing one of the sweaters I made her while she was practicing standing up - with Sarah holding the chair steady. The little chair was Jesse's when he was a toddler. Mike replaced and hand whittled the two side spindles and made the whole chair more secure and comfortable, and I painted it. I'm going to post before and after pictures in another post; it turned out so cute!

 
 
Jesse was giving Margot a "horsey ride" here and she loved it. She's added the matching hat and is wearing it in the "slouchy" option.

 
And here's Margot wearing her new scarf that matches a little cardigan sweater I made for her (not shown), while holding her juice cup and one of her new moccasins.

 
Here is Sarah trying on the hat and scarf I made for her... I just knew she'd look beautiful in it! ...and Jesse smiling in the background of course.

 
And here is one more shot of Margot in another hat I made her. She wasn't feeling great when she first arrived since she'd just gotten a shot for a bad ear infection she's had - so was a little quiet and subdued, but she livened up quickly. She is the best natured baby ever and so much fun to be around. And Jesse and Sarah are such good parents; I love seeing them all together.

 

I'll post more detailed pictures of all the things I crocheted tomorrow for those who are interested since most aren't in this post. I made some hats for Jesse too, but didn't get a picture of him trying them on... and quite a few other things...

Here is the present I made for Mike this year, "50 Reasons Why I Love You", in a little bottle:

 
He takes out one "reason" a day, each morning, and reads why I love him. It was fun making a list of all the reasons and I've come up with a few others since I filled up the bottle. I'm thinking about just adding them as I think of them.

 
And Mike gave me a honker of a pressure cooker - one I can use for canning when my garden really gets going. Check it out; I love it!

 
We had a wonderful extended Christmas and today is New Years Eve already! Holy cow, time is flying by. Our big plans are to stay home and have a quiet evening tonight; we're not one for crowds and noisy places. I think we'll try the new wine that Jesse brought Mike. We won't make it to midnight though; we never do!

Happy New Year everyone!

A white Christmas

 
 
I had my first white Christmas this year - and it was beautiful! It snowed once on Christmas day when my son was around 14, but it lasted only a couple of hours and didn't stick around. But this snow came down for almost three days in chunky soft flakes and covered most everything - until the wind blew it out of the trees. The cabin was cozy even though it was in the 20's outside, and we enjoyed the whole day watching the snow and enjoying the quiet. Here are a few pictures.

The creek in the front pastures...

 
Looking at my garden area with the mountains in the background...
 

The bench above the garden...

 

A close-up...

 
Our cabin...

 
Looking out the kitchen window as it snowed...

 

And looking out the same window the next day (a little to the left) when the sun came out and after the wind had blown the snow from the trees...

 

And here is Sophie hanging out inside when there was just too much snow for her to deal with...

 
It's finally warmed up and the snow has melted, though there is still a patch here and there. Tomorrow or the next day I'll post some inside pictures and some of the things I made, including Margot modeling one of her sweatersI crocheted. We didn't finish our Christmas festivities until yesterday since my son's family couldn't get here before then because of the weather. Making Christmas last longer was pretty nice though.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

A grand birthday gift

 

There is waaay too much to write about, so I will condense it a bit and say... we've moved! Yep, we spent our first full day living at our farm this past Sunday. We were surrounded by boxes and too many projects that need to be done to even begin to list, but we are at the farm! And our old house is almost completely fixed up and staged to be put on the market. Mike and I worked lots of 10-hour days during my vacation from work and it was truly exhausting. But most of it is done now - at least for the first stage of moving. We're leaving all our "real" furniture at the old house, along with lots of books and items to make it look inviting y'know. When it sells, we'll have to rent a storage unit to put all that in until we add on the the cabin. Our storage shed and chicken house are now stuffed to the gills with our belongings... mostly tools and building materials.

Our new commute is a doozy. For me it's only temporary until I retire, but Mike will have to make the trek until he retires - and we don't know when that will be yet since he's still a young'un. But at least he is his own boss and can drive in on his own schedule, unlike the way it is now. My drive used to take 30 minutes and I got up around 5:15 a.m. Now it takes and hour just to get from our cabin to our old house, where I pick up my vehicle and go on to work, which takes the same 30 minutes that it used to. That's one long commute! When we sell our house, we'll shoot straight in to my work though and it will be faster. Fortunately, we drive in together from the cabin and that's super nice. I wonder how people who drive similar commutes every day, day-in and day-out handle it. I guess we all do what we have to do, and adjust to the changes. We're also adapting to getting up at 4:30 a.m. now too, but that's nothing for me though because I've done it for years and years. 

This morning when we left the cabin it was 5:30 and there were stars all over the dark sky sparkling like diamonds. It was a sight to behold just before leaving for work and helped start the day off with a little punch of "wow". It was like a special little gift. My mind is muddled with everything we need to do, but I am thrilled to be living in our little cabin after all this time. That's my birthday gift from Mike this year - to be at our farm... and what a grand gift it is!

Walking through the cabin

I never finished posting pictures of our cabin after we made it livable, so I'll do that now. This is all temporary since we will be remodeling during the next couple of years and the kitchen will become our master bath, the living room will become our bedroom, the loft will become our office, and so on. And, we've not exactly "decorated" yet because it lacks curtains still and the green around all the doors in the living room will be painted brown, and the things we've taken there aren't particularly items I love, etc. But since we don't live there full time yet, we don't want to take anything too valuable, and are keeping it a bit spartan.

Starting in the kitchen and going towards the living room:

Here is the fireplace that Mike wants to rework since it's laid out kinda stupidly. For instance, why is the mantle so long on the right side? We use the fireplace a lot though and have enjoyed it immensely.

This is the living room with my old furniture in it. That chest being used as a coffee table is older than I am and my father used to call it "the coffin"; we used to play in it as kids.

 
  
This is looking back towards the kitchen. We were lucky and "inherited" the entertainment center thingie recenly from one of Mike's clients. People throw all kinds of stuff away!

Here is the start of the stairs going up to the loft. Mike is putting up new black pipe hand rails because this one is quite worthless it is so low.

 

Looking down from the loft stairs:
 

The loft bedroom:

 

Here's Mike reading a book he got for Christmas from my son about log cabins. All the windows in the loft are awesome; at night we can see the stars and in the morning we wake up to a mountain view.

Showing the fancy clothes storage system:

Here is a shot of the one finished room in the basement. The other room has the washer, dryer and a big freezer that all came with the place. This red rug and the blue one in the loft were both given to Mike to "get rid of" from one of his clients a couple of years ago.

 
  
There you have it. Nothing fancy, but we love it so far and look forward to moving in full time. We dropped by this weekend to drop off a few things, but priorities were to work on our current house. We got the attic completely cleared out and cleaned! It took all of one day, but it's finished. My closet is done! I got rid of so much stuff it filled six of those large yard bags, plus a big box filled with shoes and boots. I also have a bunch more I'm thinking about putting on Ebay since they are new or almost new. Why was I holding on to those fern green high heel shoes that I never ever wore and had for... 10 years?

Next is the jewelry room. Mike needs to pack up all his jewelry making/repairing supplies and furniture and I need to pack up my beads and findings that I've not played with in at least five years... along with a lot of silver jewelry I'd like to find a home for.

I do love simplifying... getting rid of clutter and clearing out. It's a lot of work, but my head is geared for it right now. And we are making progress!

A few bumps in the road

When Mike I and decided to take on the adventure of starting a little hobby farm, we knew there would be some challenges along the way. This past weekend, we encountered a few bumps in the road.

We'd gotten snow in north Georgia and it was chilly, 29 degrees F, when we arrived at the farm. Here is a picture of the road, right before reaching our place:

Upon arriving, we were surprised to see that our pond had frozen over. It's quite large, so I'd not imagined it would freeze. 

One could tell that it wasn't frozen solid however, so when we discovered that a person and his or her dog had walked across the lake, leaving footprints, we were quite concerned. Who- ever it was had tested the thickness of the ice out with a few rocks - some of which had gone through and hit bottom while another sat on top.

The problem is that if someone broke through the ice and drowned, for example, we'd possibly be liable if we were sued - so said the the lawyer Mike consulted when we bought our place, although I have read that we wouldn't be liable. Either way, and sad to say, two teenage boys in another part of north Georgia drowned over the weekend for falling into an ice-covered lake. So it happens.

We hadn't wanted to put up no trespassing signs right off the bat because being the new neighbors in town, it just doesn't look very friendly. But to protect ourselves and those who don't use common sense, I'm afraid we'll have to. Then, if someone is crazy enough to walk on thin ice on our lake, they'll at least know they don't belong there... not that they don't already know that since our land is private property and common knowledge to those in the area. The funny thing is that the tracks from the pond went right to a house across the street from our place - so we know who it was!

So Mike bought a sign that says no hunting, swimming or trespassing. I particularly like the no hunting part because we have deer and wild turkey in our front fields and I really don't want bullets flying around where we live. So up the sign went - and we probably need a few more.

Next, Mike said he was going to check the gas tank to make sure it was filled with propane as was promised the week before by the gas company. Well, it was empty and there was a note hanging on the front door:

Now, that note was written by either an uneducated soul or someone high on crack. I don't know which, but as you can see he was spelling phonetically as he "mist" us and he wrote it in the year 2015. We weren't even supposed to be there when the gas was delivered, so "misting" us shouldn't have been an issue. While the note was mildly amusing and annoying at the same time, it got much worse when Mike called the company. They didn't know why the fuel wasn't delivered and they didn't have any idea when it would be delivered! What? Is that what you call customer service? Quite disconcerting I must say. And I can tell you Mike had steam shooting out of his ears.

So I couldn't use the stove and had to cook on the electric griddle and George Forman grill again. Mike had detached the gas line for the stove from the temporary grill-sized gas tank and it was too much trouble to change it back and would probably confuse the gas delivery guy if/when he ever shows back up to fill the tank.

And finally, when Mike went to look in his old work truck to see what sort of plumbing pieces and parts he had stored in it for a project he wanted to work on, he discovered it had been broken into. The window on the passenger side had been bashed in and Mike said it looked like as though it had been done quite a few months ago - way before we moved into the cabin. Fortunately, there was nothing valuable in the truck - an old FedEx truck that Mike has his company name on - but still, was it a neighbor? Who? Do we need to get a home security system and land surveillance? So disappointing. People can be such pills.

While those three things didn't sit too well, they didn't dampen our spirits and we had another wonderful, if not magical, weekend there. We took only one kitty with us this time since the other two disappeared when we started packing up. And because we were going to be gone only one night, we figured they could fend for themselves during that short period. They did, but they were not happy with us when we returned. No sir. Acting as though their feelings had been hurt. Perhaps they will show a little more enthusiasm next time? Hm?

We took Zena because she likes adventure and doesn't mind riding in the car - and sits in Mike's or my lap and looks out the window - and because she's a mouser. The cabin, since it's out in the country, has little mice when there aren't cats around, and when arriving this past weekend, I noticed that they had eaten my soap! Yes - and gnawed off one corner of it. You can see the teeth marks!

Why would a rodent want to eat soap? I don't have a clue, but it was one of the ones I made last year and since it was "all natural" and had calendula flowers in it, maybe they thought it was a treat. Other than that though, I didn't see much evidence of their scurrying about, though I had wisely put all food they might have a yen for in plastic containers. I'm not one to be afraid of rodents and such, I just don't like little mousie poo here and there; it's just not sanitary. So I can't wait until we live there full time so's all three cats can take care of that problem. When our tenants lived there with their two kitties, they didn't have a mouse problem at all anymore.

Zena follows Mike all over the place "helping" him with all the updates he's working on; I think she's enamoured with him. The sound of a drill and other loud tools Mike uses don't phase her in the least. She's Mike's workin' bud. Here they are putting up a new mirror in the bathroom:

We didn't get as much done as we'd hoped, but for some reason being at our little farm strips all the stress away from Mike and me. Not sure why, but I sure like it. I rented the old show Northern Exposure for while we are there and we watched three episodes. I used to love that show.

Here is one more picture of me when we were following the snow tracks on the pond. If I look a little cold, it was 29 degrees F and the wind had been blowing.

And, oh yes, one more picture of footprints in the snow at the cabin - the neighbor's cat tracks, a raccoon I think, and a human.

 
 

Miscellaneous cabin and farm photos

I wanted to post pictures of the cabin bedroom loft and living room today, but for some reason those pictures didn't upload yesterday, so I'll post a miscellaneous mish-mash for your viewing pleasure... :)

Here is a shot I like - of my boots in the loft. Hey, where is the girlie stuff? Note: the second pair from the left with the fake fur-like trim are Earth Shoes if anyone remembers them from the old days... though these are relatively new and muchly loved for traipsing around the acreage.

Here is Sophie in the as-yet-to-be adorned bathroom, with the closet/pantry to the left...

And Zena hanging out in the tub...

Here is a picture of our new shower curtain that has yet to be hung... we like Southwestern designs...

And Sophie on the top shelf of in the pantry looking out the window...

You can see our little cabin on the hill in the winter as seen below; in summer it's lost behind all the leafed out trees...

Nice winter light on top of the hill...

And on our woodshed...

In the picture below I was standing in the front pasture looking towards two of our neighbors and a cow barn...

And lastly, here is a shot of the fenced-off garden our tenants' used that I will take over until we move to the farm full-time. This isn't nearly as big as I will need ultimately and I'm not sure it gets quite the amount of sun I want, but it's a nice size to ease into the process of gardening, especially part-time. The fence is to keep the deer out. Right in front of this garden Mike is going to build a large temporary pole building so we can start moving a lot of our things out of our current house to get it ready for putting on the market to sell. Mike is measuring the garden so I can lay it out on graph paper and plan what I want to grow this spring.

And today is Thursday already and we'll be heading back up again tomorrow after work. My brain is split crazy trying to figure out what to cook here and/or there. I usually make my week's worth of work meals on Sunday at home, but now I think I'll have to do that at the cabin on Saturday and tote it all back on Sunday. It's going to take a while to get a routine down I think!

Cadillac sink

When Mike put in a new sink for one of his clients awhile back, they told him to just get rid of their old sink. So he brought it home thinking we could use it at the farm one day. This "old" sink looks brand new, came with some gorgeous fixtures and is deeper than the sink in our cabin, so he installed it last week. And made a few improvements along the way.

Here's the sink sitting on the floor along with some of Mike's tools, waiting to be installed...

And Mike after he removed the old sink... (He is wearing a hand-made felted ball cap - backwards - in this picture. It's kind of goofy looking, but is very warm. I think he put it on his head to keep Zena from dragging it around the cabin like dead prey.)

Here is the empty space being checked out by Sophie. Check out the crazy cabinet to the right and how it looks as though it was made by a drunken sailor! The drawer above it is way wider than the cabinet and it's not even centered.The whole kitchen is cockeyed like that. (When we add on, these cabinets will be removed to make way for our bathroom in this same space. But that will be later on down the road. In the meantime, we need a relatively comfortable place to work from. We've got lots to do outside too.)

Mike putting the new sink in...

Adding the fixtures...

A thumbs up on all the guts working properly. What you see under the sink, in addition to the regular plumbing parts, are a reverse osmosis filter and disposal. Mike had a heck-of-a-time getting all of it to fit in the limited space.

And here is the finished sink after lots of work from Mike! Check out all the "controls"... I call this my "Cadillac sink". I've never seen a sink with so many knobs and handles; it's crazy. Mike had to drill new holes into the sink to accommodate the knobs and whatnots. The controls, starting from the left, are:  dish-washing liquid dispenser, faucet, hot/cold handle, side spray, reverse osmosis faucet and disposal button. My sink at home has just a regular ol' simple faucet and the little sprayer and that's it.

Mike cussed a few times while working on this project, but it's a mahvelous sink and I love it. Here is another picture where you can see the cabinet doors still missing under the sink. Since the new sink is a bit larger than the one he took out, the doors don't fit anymore, so he will have to reconfigure them. That's a project for a wood day... which will be soon since we need shelves, veggie bins, a spice rack and a new front door, among other projects. I'm so lucky to have such a talented and industrious man!

Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the bedroom loft and the living room; they are more finished looking - though I must say that the kitchen is progressing in leaps and bounds thanks to Mike.

After three years it is so nice to finally be working on our place. Mike does the hard stuff and I do the soft stuff, like making the cabin look nice and keeping it clean and all of us fed. We're a team!

Time passes slowly...

Time passes slowly up here in the mountains -
We sit beside rivers and walk beside fountains
and catch the wild fishes that swim in the stream -
Time passes slow when you're lost in a dream...

- Time Passes Slowly, lyrics by Bob Dylan
  (but I always loved Judy Collins version of the song)

 
Clouds covering the mountains near our cabin

Time certainly passes more slowly up in the mountains for Mike and me; it was amazing and unexpected. The days moved like cold molasses slowly dripping into the next. The lack of crowds and traffic and running around, in addition to being surrounded by nature and quiet, must have slowed our internal clocks. Whatever caused it, it was remarkable.

We spent most of my two-week vacation at the cabin making it more comfortable and getting it ready for our upcoming weekend trips. We took furniture we had in our basement and books and dishes and all the little things one needs to live these days - except for no computer or TV hookup yet. And no phone since we are about four miles outside of any cell phone reception. Some things Mike had to fix or improve upon and here are a few pictures of some of those improvements.

The first project was replacing the stove. The one that was there was electric and old and on its last legs. I can cook on electric stovetops if I have to, though prefer gas and the quick response of a flame, but since this stove was so old, it was a no-brainer to upgrade. There was no gas at the cabin, so we got a propane gas stove and Mike temporarily set it up to run from a grill-sized propane tank. Today the big tank is being delivered.

Here is Mike working on installing the new stove:

 
 
And here it is, all new and working - even though the kitchen is still junked up a bit because of tools and pieces and parts scattered about. The stove has some dings on it, but the price was right and it cooks great. Propane creates hotter flames than regular gas stoves - something I didn't know. And the flame is a different color; it has no yellow in it.

We also needed more electrical outlets in the kitchen, so Mike added quite a few, along with a new light switch with a dimmer for two of the kitchen lights. We still need to all a lot more light in the kitchen and will get to that in the next few visits.

Here is Mike adding a new light switch:

And adding a new outlet:

One of the first things Mike did in the kitchen was raise all the cabinets; they were way too low for us. Just raising them a few inches made the room feel bigger.

And then he reversed the direction of the bathroom door, seen below. It was opening into the small bathroom, taking up way too much room. Now it opens into the kitchen, creating a much better flow. 

And, for the last picture today, here is Mike, tools in hand, having a grand time. He had started to grow a beard here, but has since shaved it off. I'm glad about that because he doesn't need to be hiding behind a scratchy ol' beard!

He is so good at what he does; it always impresses me. His next big project is to create a small bathroom in the bedroom loft.

More pictures and rattling on to come!

Cabin "before" pictures

Mike and I spent Monday afternoon at our little farm looking at the cabin. I took pictures while Mike measured everything. He wants to use a house remodeling software to draw out the changes he'd like to make. Since I took quite a few pictures, I thought I'd post a few and do some 'splainin' on what they are now and how we hope to change them. Click on any picture to see larger.

First up is a picture of Mike dumping some the oak trees that he's hoping to make our kitchen cabinets out of.

And this one is the same shot from a different vantage point. Isn't that dump trailer da bomb?

The following picture show two trees that Mike says need to be cut down in order for us to be able to add on to the cabin. I'm having a real problem with it and am hoping we can find a way to leave them. They're such nice trees and I loooove them. They speak to me. I don't think they speak to Mike. The front deck will also be removed and this level of the cabin will become the second level.

This is the room we walk into first thing right now through the front door. We have tenants currently living in the cabin and it is furnished with their things. (I would never have a dead animal head hanging on my wall!) This room will become our bedroom and the room behind it - the current kitchen - will become the bathroom and closet area.

The picture below shows the fireplace that is currently in the living room, but once we remodel the cabin will be in our bedroom. That will be so nice! The walls will stay the nice wood and we're hoping we can keep the pine plank floors.

And here you can see the ceiling and front doors of the future bedroom. Those doors will open to a balcony once the changes have been made.

Here is the current kitchen, that will become part our bathroom/closet combo in the future. All the cabinets will be removed or at least reconfigured.

I like this picture of the kitchen wall where the door to the bathroom is. I love the wood. The current bathroom itself is quite small and will be removed totally to make way for a bigger and better one.

And here is the ceiling that will stay in the new bathroom.

That's it for the interior of the existing main floor. In the picture below, it is the middle floor from the back and the first floor from the front of the cabin. Once Mike changes the level of the dirt around the cabin, it will become the second floor all the way around and be our bedroom area. The ground floor will become the living and kitchen area. And the room on top will stay the room on top. And Mike wants to add another room or two as an addition, but hasn't put his ideas on paper yet.

We really can't wait to get started, but we're still in the planning stage. It's nice to look at the pictures and dream though. And the ticker in the green left column says "387 days until we move to the farm" today!