Life at Our Farmhouse (March 2018)

This month was a busy one!  Spring technically arrived and while we wait for it to feel like it, our schedule exploded.  This month included a family trip to Gatlinburg.  It was great to get away from the weather and the list of spring things we need to get done.

In terms of projects inside the home, I was able to tackle washing all the woodwork in our upstairs.  I have yet to do the downstairs but it felt good to at least get half of the house done.  There is so much woodwork.  I love the woodwork but it does need a good cleaning once in a awhile. 😉 I clean our floors once a week with Bona but the doors and moldings get cleaned about once a year with Murphy’s Oil Soap.  I do love that they barely show any dirt since they are stained.  But then I go to clean them and I wonder if I should do it more often.  How often do you clean your woodwork?

Our biggest accomplishment of the month was finally getting our burn pile burned.  This pile has been growing and growing and growing.  We started it when we demo’d the house.  It’s been so long since we started the burn pile that we laughed about the fact we couldn’t remember what was in it.  My brother also had projects like trimming his fence lines so all of the trimmings went into the pile along with all the wood chips when we had a few of our trees removed.

It was a big fire but we had a strategy and kept it under control on a rare calm night.  We called the fire department ahead of time to not waste their time with calls.  We have a volunteer fire department and I’m sure they appreciated it.  We also alerted the neighbors so that they didn’t think it was our house since most of the burning was at night.  We also wanted to get it burned before my brother planted his crops.  The majority of the fire was out the next day but we had the wood chips burning for four more days!  That was a pain but luckily they stayed in their place.

And because it’s March, our little ice cream place in town opened!  Of course, we went and enjoyed!  In reality it makes sense to eat ice cream when it’s cold because it doesn’t melt!  Of course, we enjoyed our ice cream in the car but the days when we’ll be enjoying it outside are not far off!  I hope.

Then the snow fell, again.  I just love our red barn especially when it snows.

Speaking of our red barn, it will most likely be coming down next week. 😞  In order to prepare for that, we needed to start cleaning out some of the items that have been stored in there. The main one was an old tractor that my grandpa used decades ago.  The pathway to the tractor however included a section of the barn that was falling down so we had to fix that first.  Like I’ve said before, nothing is ever simple and a one step process around here.

We had success!  This tractor hasn’t been out of the barn for awhile!  It will go to my brother’s and the goal is to someday restore it.

We’ll be keeping the “lean to” section of our barn.  My brother has been busy putting in supports about three feet in so a company can remove the old barn and reuse the wood.  We’ll put in more permanent supports once the barn is taken down.  Oh, how sad it will be to see the barn come down but I am also relieved that I won’t have to worry about the boys, or anyone else for that matter, getting hurt since it’s in such bad shape.

In happy news, we changed our view for a few days and headed to Tennessee.  I’m going to share more about our trip next week, but it was well worth the drive to take in the view and enjoy time with family.  I know this spring is going to be super busy so the time away was priceless.

On one of our hikes we stumbled onto an old cabin.  The boys mentioned how “old” it was.  Just like our house at home!

And we returned home to more snow that was melting!  Now as I type this we’re having a thunderstorm with lightning.  At least we’re getting closer to a real spring!

You know it’s spring and close to planting season for my brother when the truck marks are in our yard!

Since it’s April we hope to start tackling some outdoor projects.  Here’s a few items on our list:

• The barn will be taken down.
• We’ll have the area where the barn was as well as a few other areas re-graded.
• Plant grass in those areas needed.
• Hire someone to grind out the tree stumps.
• Have lightning poles installed on our roof. (Every time we have a storm, I worry!)

What projects do you have this spring that you hope to accomplish?