Chestnut branches cleanup

 uh oh . . . remember what I said about ladders leaning against trees?

Well I see a ladder leaning against that bean tree up in the corner, ya know what that means? hubby'g getting chainsaw happy, and I we still have not finished chopping and stacking the chestnut trees!

but that's ok we might as well get to it all at once and do the cleanup only once right?

chainsaw is getting a workout today

branches everywhere

welp, got work to do, will post more of the flowerbeds later :)

More morel mushrooms & homemade pies

 oh yes, more morels have been caught!

NICE SHROOMIES!!!

more hunting outback, these were the pics of the day

one happy hubby

so he can clean them up for supper, my daughter wanted to make a pie, cherry pie to be exact, so she set to making her pie and I set to making my apple crumb pie, so we broke out a jar of our apple pie filling that we had canned for me and she set to making a pretty pie for herself,

LOL yes she is 15 and Justin Bieber is her idol right now, she even learned how to make pretties for on top of the pie and how to crimp the edges, never too late to learn, someday she can make it all from scratch for me

and my apple crumb topped pie

Recipe for the apple pie filling we canned and I used for my pie

if you want a crumb topping on your pie, just mix your oatmeal, brown sugar and a little flour, half a stick of butter and crumble it on top instead of putting a lid on the pie

and yes, I like to make my own recipe books and digital scrapbook as well, this is a page from my recipe book.

the finished pies! YUMMY!!

It's sprinkling outside, but makes for some pretty photo snapping, the hosta are coming in pretty good out under the old maple tree

hosta around the dogwood tree are filling in pretty nice too

the old split rail fence was here but I added all the other plants and have some double clematis planted on each post, they were a birthday gift from a friend that I transplanted from the old house and they survived the winter YEAH!

You can see I finally got the front window trim painted, had to put rocks under the ladders one leg to have it stand properly, but it worked ok, and see the strip of flowers along the walkway, all those were transplants from the old house and all are looking great, they must be happy here :)

Chestnut trees are coming down!

April 28, 2010 ~ Chestnut trees are on their way down! Finally, we can walk around the yard bare footed and not get pricked with those nasty seed pods :0) 

yuppers, it's a mess but once we get the wood all stacked and the scraps burnt, we can get the yard rake out and rake up all those seed pods with the awful pricklies on them, bare feet time!

got the fire started and it's time to burn some scrap tree branches

glad I got those field stone around the fire pit!

and lookie there, a hammock, just waiting patiently for us to get our chores done so we can relax in it. next on the list to chop down is that nasty ole bean tree blocking the lilac up there on the hillside, it's another very messy tree, I want tons of trees on my property, however I want trees that will be producing fruit that I can process and can and EAT! apples, cherries, peaches, plums and such . . .

and talking about things to eat, we love to mushroom hunt, which we did this morning before we started with the tree cutting, found some nice morel mushrooms back behind our property ~ yea buddy!

just look at those yummy shroomies!

Found some mushrooms

We love to hunt mushrooms, have been doing it with my family since before I started in school, my dad once went hunting before he took the family and had sneaked some into trees, telling us kids, now remember to look up in the trees too, yeah whatever, I was like 5, I found them, in the tree

now I know better HA

anyway we love hunting, just out enjoying a nice walk and my hubby actually found the best spot this time around, usually its me

we are in opposite areas of the woods when my cell phone goes off, it's hubby texting me to meet him by the big apple tree, off I go and look what he found!

they were everywhere, YUMMO let's have some for supper tonight!

I have to admit, this is a first, usually I get the treasures, he won this time

whatever mouth!

Rocks for around pond, window painting & new strip beds

Finally we are getting some things done around here!

Remember I said when I had time I was going to go out back in the pasture field and haul home some field stone? Well I did, have now gotten enough for a fire pit, around some trees for flower beds and I built up the field stone around my pond :)

adding rocks around some trees, will fill in with a little more soil and put some hosta around there, maybe some black eyed susans too

and remember the fish pond, I have a bed full of field stone now to choose from so finished the pond rocks, and I love it, the old hand pump was my grandmothers, years ago it was in her kitchen!!

I love how it is turning out, we also ripped out those privet hedges along the house, gosh now you can see even more how steep that area is

now to concentrate on getting the window trim painted, going from brown to off white

I painted up as high as I could reach, need to get the step ladder out, but hard on that slope!

yes, I think I like the off white trim on these old windows, eventually I will have some new windows put in, ones that can open from the inside to clean, these are hard to clean!!

Scooter says "howdy"

a great picture of my nephew taken back in my grandmother's woods, he's up on top of the rocks with a view of grandma's house in the background, AWESOME!

since we are at grandma's house, if you look above where my explorer is, up there you can see the rocks my nephew's photo was taken from and  I am digging up some peony and hosta that I planted for grandma many, many years ago, since Grandma has passed, I am moving the plants down to our new home

There's my daughter, age 15, not quite ready for her permit for a few months, but let's get some practice in while we can, she did a good job, didn't plow the tree or hit the house LOL

now back at the homestead, I have 2 new flowerbed strips, the front row has now some peonies planted

and the other side end, showing the new planting strip, with some hosta from grandma's house, hubby has the ladder up there, I had said I wanted to do away with those chestnut trees because they are soo very messy, and I think it's almost time for them to come down, when hubbs gets the ladder out, I know the chainsaw is next . . .

Laminate wood flooring in living room

 continued project with laminate wood flooring in living room

 I chose oak, as much as I would have loved to get the walnut like I had at the old house, this home has lovely old solid oak flooring down the front hallway and 2 bedrooms, and the stairs to upper bedrooms, so I stuck with oak to match, and it really does match pretty darn close 

My apologies for not taking photos during the process, it was a job I wanted done rather quickly the next day so I totally forgot to have my daughter snap photos as it was being laid down!

so there ya have it, the new flooring goes all the way over to the front door and ties into the hallway perfectly, do I love it? oh yes I certainly do, and the kids do as well, they have been sliding around all day in their sock feet!

as you can see, the baseboard trim is not back up yet, it's still down in the basement out of the way, and you can see I stopped at the entryway into the kitchen area where I just redid that flooring with those laminated 12x12 inch square peel and stick tiles, when we rebuild kitchen cabinets, this flooring will also go in there.

We only just started bringing the furniture back into the room enough that we can have seating LOL

I need to get the double bookcase shelves put back in place too, the bookcase was built by my gorgeous husband :) I love it!!

and do you remember that old ugly wing back chair? Well there is the covering I ordered for it, doesn't it look like a whole new chair, for around $35 I got the chair and ottoman coverings!!! woot woot happy camper I am, and yes the covering fits the chair perfectly, it just needs pulled and tucked in properly, ok well I will try to remember to take better photos next time when I am working on a project for you all.

Until next time . . .

Box turtle out of hibernation!

Well I have to say this, my box turtles knew we had an early spring, today is March 22, 2010 and this is the earliest I have seen them come up, just hope it's not going to turn nasty again and snow because Bucky is up and wanting some food! I found him when I went out to see if any daffodils or tulips were sprouting up yet.

See he is still covered with mud, ready for a soak in his bath

I better get digging for some worms for him, don't see any sign of the others just yet, he's the only one who ventured out this early in the year

being the little piggie that he is, I know why he is awake, he wanted first dibs on the food!

Just see how he looks at me, like . . . more please, that one snuck off before I could finish it LOL