The Month of May!

It's been a hectic May here on Old Crow Farm! May is always a special time...One in which we run ourselves frantic trying to keep up with the ever growing grass and getting new flowers set out. This years as has been even more wild. We have had two graduations with parties following. Drew has been having his usual round of sickness and now we have added bad teeth to the list. Surgeries are scheduled for next month and I'm hoping once they are over all of this will be behind and he can start leading a normal seven years old life. (No more staying inside with Mom while Jeni goes out to play!)
Keith has been working on our cabin and it's slowly coming together. Each day we try and spend a few hours out there just enjoying the peace and quiet. I feel that sometimes we get so caught up in all the "work" on our old farm that we don't have time to enjoy the rewards of it. This year I have decided it's going to be different. We will finally MAKE ourselves stop and enjoy what we have been working so hard on. The cabin has been a good place for this. Not only is it quiet out there but the place actually stays clean! What heaven to open a door and walk into a room without stepping over toys!!!
In just a few days June will be upon us but for now we are going to enjoy these last few days of glorious May!

There Should Be a Law About Roses!

As I was working in my "Rose Garden" (Each of my gardens have a name) I suddenly thought how there should be a law over the way my roses look! I swear girls, the first year I planned them they were gorgeous (I'll post a picture so you can see what they looked like) and now they look like death warmed over. Each year I feed them and cut them back and each year they look horrible. My first thought is to just dig them up and re-name the garden but there is something about those poor little things clinging to life that stops me. I mean, doesn't it seem somehow criminal to you to kill something that is trying to hard to cling to life? So, I'll continue to baby them along but you can bet I'll be filling that spot in with other flowers and one of these days my "Rose Garden" won't have a rose in it!

"The Money Pit"

I think most of us have seen the movie, "The Money Pit". If I'm not mistaken, it stars Tom Hanks. This the movie about a young couple who remodel an old home and find it takes more money than they ever dreamed possible. As Keith and I work on the new cabin I am starting to see us following their footsteps! Who ever dreamed something as small as this cabin is going to be could eat up so much money????
If you'll all remember, we started this little cabin because we had picked up wood at such a good price. Well, once Keith got the foundation there was no turning back. First it was the weather....You can't have a house sitting "open" to the elements. That meant we had to buy everything to get it enclosed. From there it was a like a ball rolling...Fifty dollars here, one hundred dollar there. As of Tuesday we were up to $2,000!!!!!
We are now at a point where we can sit back and say, "The rest is going to wait". No more buying high priced wood. From now on we are back to our shoe-string budget...Buying things here and there and using them as needed. There are still things that need to be done to the outside (The soffits around the tin roof, a new storm door, a porch, ect..) but they are things we will find that are within our budget.
Of course it kills me to walk in the house and see it not done but my family has to eat too. So, we will continue to buy things as we find them and before we know it, it will all be done and I'll be decorating it the way I want.
So, the next time you see "The Money Pit", remember to tell all your friends, "Oh yeah, I have a friend who can relate to that!" Hugs, Sher

The Perfect Piece!

The past two days we have been running around and I'm to the point I'm about to drop! Don't get me wrong, the "running around" we've been doing has been wonderful! First we attended two auctions (Bought several neat things!) and then Keith told me it was time to hit the REAL antique stores and see if I couldn't find the 'perfect piece' so I could make up my mind on how I wanted our "cabin" to go!
I guess I had better back up here and explain that statement. For weeks we have been calling this new building, "the cabin" and yet in the back of my mind I wasn't sure I wanted it to be a cabin. You see, I love the primitive, rustic look of a 'cabin' BUT I also love the soft, romantic look of a 'cottage'. Now Keith doesn't care which I go with but he's got to know within the next few weeks which it's going to be so he'll know how to do the outside of the building!!!
So, yesterday he took me antique shopping. He said he didn't care what I bought, or what I spent...It just had to be something that would be the deciding factor on what our building was going to be decorated in. We tromped in and out of antique shops and suddenly there it was...The perfect half corner piece! Once it had been painted in that old timey green paint but it was all peeling off and had left it with that look I love. I flipped over the price tag and decided we could eat beans for the next week and said I wanted it! (I got lucky...It was 15% off when I got up to pay for it so we only have to eat beans for half the week!!!)
Now with my first real piece for the building you would think I would know if it's going to be a cabin or cottage...WRONG...This piece would go either way!!! It has a rustic look to it and yet it has that Shabby Chic look I love so much too! So, once again I'm right back to where I was...Cabin or cottage???? What do you think????

Our Exciting News!

For years we have talked about it....At long last we are starting to fulfill our dream! As of Thursday Keith has started the work on our very own "Little House on The Prairie"! How this house will turn out I have no idea. It's being built with used lumber and anything else we can pick up at sales and auctions. One thing I do know, it's going to be the perfect place for our little ones and us to get away from the daily routine of life. It will have two rooms as the main part and then a small room that in time we hope to put a real bathroom in. It will be built in our pasture and just like those that came before us, it will look out onto the Kansas prairies. When will it be done? Not anytime soon that's for sure! At our age everything is done one day at a time and in very slow motion. However, I do know it will be completed as soon as Keith's old bones allow. He says that will be no latter than May!
For now it's string laid out into a 16X21 rectangle and concrete blocks where the foundation will soon be. To most people it looks like string and blocks, to us it looks like another dream being carried out on our little farm!

Old Bottles

Several months ago, Keith and I were at an auction when this strange looking box appeared. The box itself was filthy and the contents not in any better shape. Digging through it we found it to be filled with old bottles. Now I sure didn't have any use for old bottles but I told Keith if it didn't go to high to buy it. Sure enough, we picked it up for a few dollars.~~~ We probably spent more money on the water and soap to wash them than we did the bottles themselves!
Most of the bottles are now out in my shop in an old wooden basket with a tag reading "Old Bottles $1 each." I'll probably never know what they once held. One can only imagine as they look at their different sizes and colors. One thing we can be sure of, those that held medicine would be surprised to see their plastic sister bottles of today.

The Old Arbor

It's that time of year again.... Keith has been busy getting our old arbor re-built! Every year we say we are going to retire that poor old thing (It was cheap to begin with and nine years of bad weather has just about done it in!) and every year I can't bring myself to let it go. Have you ever noticed how some "things" suddenly become "family" they have been around so long? That's how this old arbor has became to us. Each time I look at it I think how excited we were when we bought it and how many family pictures have been taken in front of it. One only has to look at the old gate to remember our "babies" standing there so shortly after we adopted them to have their pictures taken on their first days of school. It's seen proms, high school graduations, romantic shots of young love and soon it will have a college graduation picture taken in front of it. To let it go would be like saying good-bye to a very dear friend. So, once again Keith will try to repair it and once again we will say, "Next year we'll replace it." I have a feeling "next year" will never come and our children will be tearing it down when we have left this old farm for good!

Happy New Year!!!!

It's official~~~2006 is now here!!!! I honestly planned to watch it come in this year. I mean, it's been thirty years since I've watched a new year come in!
Here was our plan...We all had our snacks early in the evening so no one would be hungry. Keith and I then settled down to watch a couple of good movies, "You've Got Mail" and "Sleepless in Seattle". Now I ask you, what better way to bring in a New Year than to watch movies about love with the man you love?
Our two youngest are children who will not sleep. (It all goes back to their lives before joining our family.) Last night proved to be no different than any other night of the year! So, instead of watching the New Year come in with the oldest man I love, I spent it with the youngest man I love! I vaguely remember waking up to Keith kissing me on the forehead and saying, "Happy New Year", mumbling something and promptly going back to sleep!
So, nothing has changed in thirty years. Another year arrived without me being awake to see it in and once again it came in just fine. The thing that has changed is what the year will bring. Hopefully all the changes will be good ones. One thing we can be sure of, no matter what changes come in 2006, we'll all weather through them and hopefully become a stronger Nation because of them.