Dress A Girl Around the World

Hopeful Threads is a blog I've been following for quite a few months. Each month, Kristy picks a project and asks for donations. It's really quite incredible what she does. Earlier this month, I found two vintage pillowcases and finally got around to finishing them. You know, nothing like waiting until the last minute or anything!

They have the sweetest pale brown flowers on them so to add some color, I used light purple bias tape. A pillowcase dress is one of the simpliest things to make. If it wasn't for distractions (children), a person could whip up 10 in about two hours. I did two in two hours.

Lisa

Bees and a bear warning

The bees arrived and where installed on Sunday. We're adding three hives and replacing one that we lost last year to swarm so we'll have a total of six hives! Bees being installed is fascinating...I like to watch from a distance! Ha! There have only been two years that I've had to really work with the bees and that was while the Farmer was traveling. One of those years I was pregnant. So yes, beekeeping can be very safe when you're safe about it!

Way over on the right hand side of the picture is the electric fencer. Ours runs off a battery. Two years ago, we have two hives destroyed by a bear so now we take precautions. Installing new bee hives is not an inexpensive hobby to have so we like to protect our investment as much as possible.

It wasn't even 30 minutes after we had the new bees installed when we saw a bear walking up our property line on the backside of the barn. Luckily the bees are on the other side of the property. The Farmer followed behind the bear to see where he went but lost track of him (from like a distance of half a mile!). Fortunately, we haven't seen the bear since. And being the good blogger that I am, I scolded the Farmer for not taking the camera. He gave me the "you're nuts" look. So I gave him the same look because hey, I'm not the one that was following a bear! :)

Lisa

Future Farm Girl Fashion Designer

What you get when you tell a "Farmanista" to get some clothes on so you can go do chores.

Lisa

The Chickies - 1 Week Later

Only two chickens hatched. Well, technically three, but one didn't make it very long outside the shell.

They grow so fast. Pretty soon they'll be out struttin' around with the hens.

Stay tuned...next week I'll post a picture at two weeks old and clean the brooder BEFORE I take the pictures!  :)

Lisa

The Power of Paint

When we were cleaning out the rental property, there were these two pictures hanging in the bathroom.

They remind me of the 80s. I think it's the powdery blue plastic frames. I had tossed them into the wagon going to the dump and like any good cheap frugal girl would, I dug them back out. I liked the flowers and figured Miss Em would like them so I planned to reframe them.

And then I remembered I was cheap so dug around until I found some purple spray paint. And like any good little crafty girl, I had several cans in different colors and shades of colors laying around.

I like them much better with purple frames. They also add a bit more non-pink color to the Pepto Bismol room.

Lisa

Conversations with Kids - 2

We got home tonight and there were two peat pots with a stake in each.

Me: Where did those come from?

Emily: Umm church. See the message from God.

Me: Oh okay. Why?

Emily: Duh, we live on a farm. That means we have to grow our own food.

Me: Oh okay. Why?

Emily: Duh, how else are we going to get beans to eat! Remember, that's why we have cows.

Me: Why do we have cows?

Emily: Duh, to make hamburger.

I love talking with my kids.

Lisa

Hatching Eggs - A CHICK!!

Last night I would periodically hear a PEEP. This morning, my daughter climbed into bed, snuggling up wondering what all that whistling was. I knew but we talked for awhile until she remember. Then up out of bed she popped to go check it out. Then we had to call daddy and give him an update (with body movements and all) about what was happening.

And this is what happened...

AWESOME!!!

He/She will hang out in the incubator for awhile and I'll move it into a box on my other dresser until its ready to head to the barn. Yes - I'm incubating chickens on my bedroom dresser and they'll live there for about a week. :)

Lisa

Hatching Eggs

We started out with two dozen eggs in the incubator but are down to five that we know have mass inside. This morning, I found this!

It's been really cold so we've been running the wood furnance which dries out the house. I'm hoping it's not too dry for this little one to finish hatching!

I love hatching eggs. It's awe inspiring to watch them come out of their shells. The kids also love this and it's a great learning experience!

Lisa

Barn Window Picture Frame

I had a need to create today. However, I didn't want to sew. Now don't get me wrong, I am madly and deeply in love with my sewing machine and my fabrics. But sometimes when I want to create and sew, it's using a pattern. I needed to use my imagination and I wanted a tangible result today.

So what's any good farm girl to do? Head to the barn of course!

To find an old, worn out, window frame that is covered in barn dust and pretty much falling apart.

But that's nothing that a good scrubbing, a little Elmer's glue and some chicken wire can't fix! I left all of the nails in it and simply stapled chicken wire to the back. Found some cute little clothes pins in a drawer (Seriously those little clothes pins are so cute! I wish I knew where I got them so I could get some more.) and printed out some pictures.

And it's exactly what I wanted. Whew!

Lisa

Spring is a great time for...

Letting your chickens weed the gardens.

And easily convincing the Farmer to dig a new flower bed in the front yard. He's much more agreeable to doing this in the spring since he's itching to get into the fields.

Hey, you gotta take it when you can!

We have a dirt basement, which means no isolation. Every fall, the Farmer stacks old stray or haybales around the house. So last year, I put in lots of cedar chips. And then the Farmer used some old loose stray from the haymow to put around the house. Time to rethink the flower beds around the house since most of the cedar chips got raked out when I cleaned out the stray. In the meantime, the girls are scratching up weeds...bless their little hearts! I'm thinking I'm going to incorporate vegetables into my flower beds to tie these beds together. Might make me weed them more often when there are vegetables in there also.

Lisa