Sunday Dose of Cute: Looking Out

Toward a brand new week.

Wishing you a beautiful one.

More Mr. Midnight? Here.

More of the hayfield? Here.

© FarmgirlFare.com, sleek, black, and able to easily see long distances (thanks to the pair of binoculars we keep in the kitchen).

Wednesday Dose of Cute: Doodlebug vs. Dog

Getting ready for another hostile takeover

More Molly Doodlebug? Here.

More beagle Bert? Here.

© FarmgirlFare.com, where the cats refuse to acknowledge the words dog bed. And 16½ year old, 3¼-pound Molly Doodlebug (aka The Doodle Monster), who was diagnosed with mouth cancer and given just a few months to live back in December 2008, is, thanks to a whole lot of TLC and chicken, still going strong (much to the dogs' dismay). Oh, and less than ten minutes after I snapped this photo, she was laying in that bed.

Monday Farm Photos: Out the Upstairs Windows

9am last Monday. . .

More photos below. . .

Friday Dose of Cute: (Still) On the Move

Hello from the new house! Although we moved ourselves over here late last summer, until yesterday our satellite Internet connection was still located in The Shack, so I've been blogging all these months from my old cluttered little studio office (which you can read a little about here).

The commute across the farmyard, which I made numerous times a day, was very pleasant, and Sarah Kate and Mr. Midnight, who still prefer to hang out and sleep in The Shack, kept me company, but it feels so good to finally be over here in the new house.

More below. . .

Saturday Dose of Cute: Hostile Takeover (of the Best Pet Purchase Ever)

Beagle Bert loves his Coolaroo indoor/outdoor elevated dog bed.

Back in July we decided to buy Bert a Coolaroo bed for his first birthday, after seeing them on a dog days of summer amazon ad. I'd never heard of Coolaroos, but there were over 500 rave reviews, along with dozens of seriously cute photos of happy dogs laying on theirs. Well, you can add Bert to that list of comfortable customers! He tried to climb on his (which is cadet blue—they come in four colors) before Joe even had it fully assembled.

This is seriously the best pet purchase we've ever made—with the Cozy Cottage Dog Houses coming in second. (We've had one Cozy Cottage over a dozen years, and it still looks like new.)

More photos below. . .

Sunday Farm Photos: Vintage Corners of Our New Home

More below. . .

Wednesday Dose of Cute: Organizing the New Pantry

Kitchen linens all in one place (at last!)

More photos below. . .

Monday Dose of Cute: Moving Day (One of Many)

Moving across the farmyard, rather than across town or across the country, is both good and bad.

Good: There isn't that one big exhausting moving day.

Bad: There isn't that one big exhausting moving day.

We actually started moving into our new home, which has been under construction for 8½ years, last year (we've been paying as we go and doing a lot of the work ourselves). The washing machine and a couple of new chest freezers went over, we started filling up the big walk-in pantry, we carted over various boxes and plastic tubs of stuff.

We began sleeping in the new house (which Joe says we need to just start calling 'the house') in August, the night before our new fancy air conditioning system broke for the third extremely exasperating time. Cross your fingers it's finally fixed (now that we don't need air conditioning).

More below. . .

Saturday Dose of Cute: It's a Brand New Year

Full speed ahead!

© FarmgirlFare.com, the airborne foodie farm blog where that is indeed a new beagle puppy (!!!) you see flying through the hayfield (and who is now sacked out about five feet from my desk, even though he technically lives outside). I'll formally introduce you in a day or two, but I couldn't resist posting this picture of him launching himself—as only a puppy can do—into the new year.

Hopefully this will be the one where we finally move into the new building you can see in the background that we've been working on for nearly eight years. But if The Shack falls down around us before we make the move (you think I'm kidding), there's always the new (to us) little 'guest cottage' parked right next door to our future home. It's good to have a backup plan—and a puppy. Happy New Year!

Catching Up: A Book, Building, and Bread Bakery Update

I'm loving this autumn color

If everything had gone according to plan, right now I would be in a massive, fruit- and vegetable-filled frenzy trying to finish up the gigantic cookbook project I started working on last November. Unfortunately plans have a way of changing—especially if you live on a farm—whether we want them to or not.

Back in March, I did such a good job whacking my head on a low ceiling beam in one of our chicken coops that—seven months, three doctors, all sorts of treatments and therapies, and numerous hours spent with an ice pack and this awesome massager later—my neck and shoulder are still screwed up.

And the thing that causes me the most pain just happens to be sitting at the computer (although putting up hay was a close second). This does not mesh well with very tight and very inflexible writing deadlines (or blogging!).

The new building, which is basically a big metal barn, looks out on the Hayfield

So no cookbook. But no massive October frenzy either. It's disappointing, of course, especially since this was a really exciting venture that went beyond just writing a book about making the most of your seasonal bounty. Because of proprietary and legal mumbo jumbo, I can't share any more details about the project; I'm not purposely trying to be secretive.

I've been approached by other editors at some wonderful publishing houses who are interested in my writing and photos, so there might very well be a book of some sort in my future. I figure an even better opportunity will present itself if and when the time is right—and I thank you for all the support you gave me for this one.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to sharing more of the Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes I created for the cookbook, including one for a ridiculously easy—and ridiculously delicious—homemade pear butter that I will hopefully have up this weekend. Update: the pear butter recipe is up!

With three big sinks and My Favorite View, doing dishes will be a pleasure

We're also back to contemplating our wholesale artisan bread bakery plan (you can see a photo of the whole building and read a little more about the bakery here), which was shelved last year due to a combination of skyrocketing gas prices, skyrocketing wheat prices, and all of my spare time being spent writing the cookbook.

Since we already have the 7-foot wide deck oven and 60-quart mixer installed in the commercial kitchen on the bottom floor of the new building, I know we'll eventually come up with some delicious way to use them. Joe says that if nothing else, every few months we'll simply bake a lot of bread for ourselves and our friends all at once.

Our new bedroom (and the locally made oak stair treads)

As far as my healing and physical therapy are concerned, we finally fixed all the plumbing problems in the new building (thankfully without having to tear into the beautiful bathroom tile), so although it'll be a while yet before we move in—there are still hundreds of feet of baseboard and trim to put up, the 'real' stairs to be installed, 17 windowsills to be built, light fixtures to be mounted, and a bunch of other stuff I'm probably forgetting, all of which are much better accomplished if you aren't already living in the space—the glorious whirlpool tub is fully functional.


Oh, baby

And after spending 9 years without a working bathtub, boy does it feel nice. This is one splurge that was definitely worth every penny.

© FarmgirlFare.com, the soak away your troubles with champagne, candles, and a bathtub built for two (only 6½ years after putting up the shell of the building!) foodie farm blog where this whole neck/shoulder thing has put a big damper on my ability to respond in a timely manner to your comments and e-mail. I love hearing from you, and I thank you for your understanding and patience.