Christmas

                                     Merry Christmas!

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas! I just couldn't wait for Christmas this year. The day after Thanksgiving I started on decorating the house. I had been on Pinterest looking at a lot of ideas for inspiration. Here are the ideas I found and my own version of them.

 I started with my porch. I created the wood sign by painting the letters J-O-Y with red paint on a piece of barn wood. The wreath was from Lowes. I purchased it at the end of the Christmas season last year when it was on sale.

I love this sign! The idea came from hometalk.com

My porch with the sign and wreath

Here is my version of the JOY sign

We also decorated the top of our barn. We made a large circle wreath with barb wire and I found a large metal star to hang with it.  We wrapped the barb wire with Christmas lights. I love how it looks at night.

We don't have a mantle to decorate so I have been trying to come up with an alternative. I found a door at an antique store and tried to create the picture below. I also wanted to try a galvanized tun instead of a tree skirt.

I love this door from unskinnyboppy.com

Here is the little door I found. I also used a galvanized tub to hold our tree. 

I had a few branched left from our tree and I wanted to put them to use. I create a little swag to hang on our chicken pen door. It was so simple and took a few minutes.

First you need three branches from your tree, scissors, floral wire, ribbon, and a few plastic ornaments.

Next lay out the three branches and wrap them with wire. Attach the ornaments and tie a ribbon to cover the wire. 

I love using Pinterest for ideas and inspiration!

Merry Christmas!

~Chelsea

Fall

I love Fall! My yard finally starts looking wonderful after all the work I put into it over the summer. The trees all start turning colors. We have been very busy around here with planting hay. This year we are planting wheat, oats and alfalfa. The weather has been unusually warm. We have only had a few days of rain and today it was in the 70's. The first field we planted at our house has started growing. It is always exciting when the grain starts coming up.

The roses in my yard have beautiful flowers on them right now. I have been enjoying the last few blooms before it get too cold for them.

I have two pomegranate trees. This year we have been able to pick a few. Our neighbor has pomegranate trees that are very large. I was able to trade her some eggs for a gallon of pomegranate juice. I put it in the freezer and plan on making jelly for Christmas.

When I was walking around the yard I spotted some paper whites coming up. It is a little early for them to come up but I will enjoy them while they are here.

Tomorrow they are calling for rain so I am glad I had the time today to enjoy my yard before winter hits.

~Chelsea

Winter Garden Update

There was no school today so I was able to spend the day working in my garden. When I planted the garden I planted two types of lettuce. The lettuce in the center row was a mix of varieties. It has done well. We have been using is for the past few weeks in salads. The left side was romaine lettuce. It hasn't done as well. I don't think ill try romaine next year.

I planted this mint in July and it is taking over. It smells wonderful.

The kale is doing well and keep growing.

The romaine lettuce is growing very slowly. we will see what happens with it over the next few weeks.

Carrots are doing well and have a few more weeks.

The weekend I planted the garden I also brought in some herb cuttings. The all have produced roots and I plan on planting them next weekend. I also added some mint cuttings to group.

basil cutting has roots

rosemary cutting has roots

~Chelsea

Pot Roast

 I love this time of year. The leaves are turning and its getting darker earlier. Pot roast just sounds warm and yummy.

Here is my recipe:

 In a crock pot drop one sliced onion in. Place roast of your choice on top of it. Add carrots to the crock pot as well. I use salt and pepper and a can of beef broth as my seasonings. I also top the roast off with rosemary from my garden. I set the crock pot on low and cook it for 8 hours. A few years back I stopped cooking potatoes in with the roast. We like to make mashed potatoes to go with it instead. It is an extra step to dinner but well worth it.

~Chelsea

Happy Halloween!

So better late than never :) Halloween was a bit wet and rainy this year but still was fun. My class had a little party and we made cute juice box creatures. They were very simple to make all you have to do is hot glue the items to the juice box.

Pumpkin carving was fun. We decided to start carving a pumpkin with our brand each year. We even had three sets of trick-or-treaters. We knew all the families but still it was fun to pass out some candy.

~Chelsea