View from the Kitchen Window and a Quick Tour

My kitchen has two windows.  This is the view from the east window over the sink.  The shadow is lace from my curtain.  Couldn't quite edit that out.  Next time, I'll step outside for the picture!  Not a bad view to have while washing the dishes.  This other post shows the south window which looks out to the future flower and herb garden as well as the garage.

We have a lot of fences.  The first fence in the picture is of the immediate yard.  Not shown in the picture to the right is the (ugly) pump house.  Today Sweetheart took down the lovely collection of rusted rake heads with no handles, rusty horseshoes, rusty sprinkler parts, an old Easter basket that had seen a few too many Easters, and a few other random things that just needed to go.

We also worked hard cleaning out the mudroom this afternoon.  Since everyone comes in through the back door, we need a place for all the boots and coats.  It still needs a lot of work, but at least when the lady comes for knitting lessons tomorrow, I'll have a place for her to hang her coat. 



To the left is the homestead house.  My dream is to turn it into a little retreat/studio/guest quarters.  Right now, it is home to only bugs and mice,  and is missing some serious boards and glass in the windows.  We dug out some treasures though.

I salvaged an old framed etching.  It has some water damage, but I cleaned up all up and put it on the mantle in the family room.   There is a boiler I'll probably try out for canning this year, an old wood cook stove, some wooden trunks and crates and pots for plants.  There is also a lot of trash to haul out.  It's basically a one room house with an open shop area for working on tractors and a lean to for storing wood.  It has potential though. 

The next fence separates a large area for a garden.  This will be our main food growing area for this year.  There is another huge area in the backyard to the south of  the house where I'll plant flowers and herbs this year.  (see picture below) I've got an enormous list of herbs I want to plant, both culinary and medicinal.  I would like to grow as much as I can for my herbal medicines and body products.

Future Flower and Herb Garden

Past the second fence shown in the very top picture and out to the third fence is pasture.  It is almost bisected on a diagonal with a grove of trees.  (Can't wait to get the hammock made and hung out there.)  That fence is our eastern property line.  Behind that is just empty land up to the top which becomes BLM and National Forest Land.  Eventually, we'll plant more and more of the pasture land into crops, but for now we'll start with just the first section.  I'm sure it will be enough for now.

To the north of the house is the barn.  It is surrounded by a level fenced pasture area.  It also needs work.  As the snow melts, we're finding more and more farming implements out by the barn.  Apparently, one of the family members was planning on taking them, but changed his mind.  That's ok with us.  We'll use what we can.  There are some really neat pieces.

Just another picture of the barn.

There is more to show, but it's covered in snow.  It is great to see a bit more ground each day.  I am curious and excited to see what will come back on its own this spring.  We've got some apple trees as well, east of the homestead house and the pond northeast of that.  Can't wait to see it all green and alive!  The periwinkle ground cover is all around the sidewalks by the house and under the enormous tree out back.  I enjoyed seeing a glimpse of green amidst the snow.

The birds were out in full force today, singing and hopping around searching for bugs.  They'll eat well here that's for sure.  It was great to hear them chirping away.  I also enjoy the faint calls of the neighboring roosters.  We'll be adding our own to the mix soon.

I think I'll try to draw a picture with an aerial view of the property and just take a picture of that.  I think that will help you to picture the layout better.  It's a bit confusing this way, I know.  This link will show some of the highlights from inside as well, if you are interested.  Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Hop on over to the Barn Hop #3!  There are lots of great places to see.