Pumpkin Patch

The beginnings of my pumpkin patch.  Gareld had mowed the lower half of the field a couple times now.  Today our farmer came and plowed up the ground a little with his tractor.  I think it is now ready for the rototiller.  It will be a learning experience as we go along.

Here are some of the seeds I am going to plant.  I hope it all works out so in the fall we have a big selection.  Fall is my favorite season so I am looking forward to this adventure.

S

As you can imagine I like the letter "S".  It may have something to do with my name, Stephanie.  I have sisters named Sandra and Suci and a brother Stephan.  I guess my parents liked the letter s also.  I only dated guys with an S last name (kidding) but I did end up Smith.

When choosing a name for our business I liked the idea of using sister/sisters and came up with a play on the word chic.  Shabby Chic was taken so we went with "Sister Shic".

Since I had my little shop built last fall I have been trying to think of just the right name for it.  This is a big decision and I have to like it for a long time.  It needs to represent me and what I want to do with it.  Morgan and I were walking one day and I mentioned it to her.  She said call it "Shabby Shack".  How perfect is that?

October 6, 2012 we are having our first show out here on the property. 

Sister Shic presents "Shablous"  and don't miss the grand opening of the "Shabby Shack".

You can't get any more s's than that.

Decomp

Here's what I have been working on this week.

This is how the pump house looked when it was built.  It looks a bit like an outhouse.  I had plans for it.

The first thing I had to do was recruit some help to get it painted.  When the Ohio Pedro's came for a visit we had a family work night and many hands made light work.

I decided it was time to doll it up a little.  I sprayed the weeds a couple days ago and shoveled up the flower bed.

I hauled enough rocks to line the area I'm working on. It's nice to have rocks readily available.

I have this old pump that seemed fitting to be sitting next to the pump house.

I have a rooster to stand guard over the chicken feeder full of Hens and Chicks.  The deer already came and ate the blooms off the flowers.

I invested in a product claiming to repell the deer so we shall see.  I applied it as directed and have to repeat once a week for three weeks.  It had a strong odor that Gareld said smelled like a dead animal.  Decomp, yep that's what it smells like but if it works I'll be happy.

Arbor Day

Grow little tree.     

 

I was able to bring home some of the left over trees we gave out at our garden center grand opening at work.

  

Arbor Day was last Friday.  We celebrated today by planting 30 trees up on the hill. (A small amount compared to the 500 trees Jeremy planted a few days ago for Grayback).



Now the rain can roll in and give them a good drink of water.

Playing With Fire

We have been busy burning this past week.  We started with weeds between the house and the road.  We moved on to some rocky knobs on the hill.  They are surrounded by plowed field so it has been pretty easy to control.  A couple of nights a nice rainstorm passed through to cool things off.  We had a burn pile we've been adding to for a couple years so we lit it up and got rid of it.  We still have a few more knobs to go.  It is so nice to make progress on the property.  Daylight and nice weather give us opportunity to be outside working!

Walkabout

I've been going on a walk everyday. I walk down Kerns Loop road and back. This day I decided to walk around a bit and see what was going on. The grass is greening, the weeds are growing, the water is running, the ground squirrels are digging and spring is here. I made it without picking up any ticks. This view is looking down at Gareld's shop from the orchard.

This old relic is currently residing in the orchard..it looks a lot like the other tractor we have. Seems like they would both like to hang out down by the antique store.

The last I've seen of the elk this season. It sure was fun watching their routine. Maybe I'll take this home for Gareld to use tying flies.

Nice springs pop up out of the ground in several places on the property. We want to have a duck pond someday and one of these springs should feed it nicely.

We have many rocks on the property. This pile is leftover from long ago when Gareld and his brother had to pick up rocks as kids. Their dad farmed this ground for awhile and the rocks were in the way. We need to put them to good use. Any ideas?

Helping Hands

Here's my guy helping me out again. He does so much for me and I love him for it. I am working on some name tags for the Sisters on the Fly Northwest Gathering camp. It's in June. The theme is Fishin' Reels and Cowgirl Heels. I thought flies would be a cute addition so I started looking for them. I thought I could get them cheap wherever they sell them in bulk. I couldn't. Gareld said he would tie them for me. That's 120 flies! What a sweetie.