Quick Projects Around the Farm

We headed to the farm on Thursday to check on the bees and water plants.

I am happy to report the bees are doing well...it looks like new bees have hatched and all is going as it should.  And the plants are thriving and blooming (yay).

I ended up not having to water - a storm blew in Thursday evening and we got an inch of rain. Afterwards the weather was just gorgeous with perfect temperatures! And check out the sunset - isn't it so pretty with the sun gilding the edges of the clouds?

The next morning dawned sunny and cool The mowing got done,

 And I planted plants in the new front bed in front of the guest room. Looking forward to those growing and softening the edges of the rain drain.

I placed the little tractor in the flowerbed - when the plants grow up around it, it will look so adorable among them!

I also got a couple of smaller projects done.

One of them was redoing the small metal table we use out on the back patio. I'd painted it yellow a couple of years ago. Here's what it looked like shortly after I painted it:

But now the paint was starting to peel and I was rather tired of the bright yellow. It didn't go with anything I had.

This time I painted it red. Love the way it turned out! hm, I forgot to take a picture of it.

I put the tiered cart with dog art in place of the school desk on the back porch (it looks great there). Oops, I forgot to take a picture of it in it's new spot. Blogging fail again!

The next project I took plenty of pictures of - The telephone junction box stuck out like a sore thumb along the garage wall. (I guess the electric meter isn't all that pretty either but it doesn't have a pole going down into the flowerbed). What can I use to hide it?

Let's see...I have several old fence pickets; I have a new Ryobi circular saw; I have Bruce to show me how to use the little circular saw. Sounds like I have everything I need! So with Bruce's guidance, I cut supports and the pickets to size. Then Bruce used his new Kreg pocket jig to put the supports together and I nailed the pickets to them.

An old garden fork head screwed into the pickets hold my cute chalkboard sign I picked up in Canton.

Isn't it wonderful? I like how it hides the telephone box and gives the flowerbed a focal point.

(I still need to put the supports on so it will stand up straight. )

Plus, I got good practice using my circular saw!

Soon it was time to head back to the city. But that's ok. The kids were taking me out for Mother's Day Saturday night and we were honoring my mother-in-law on Sunday.

I'll see you soon, sweet B Farm!

Linking up here:
Vintage Charm Party
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Progress at the Farm

I've been hard at work on the flowerbeds - along the driveway, around the house.

Leaves had to be raked and briars dug up. Good grief. Those things have huge tubers...no wonder you can't kill them!

I kept finding more and more until I had a huge pile of potato looking tubers.  The plant is Smilax. It grows all over the place.

They fought me leaving me scratched up but I won! The bed is cleaned out. 

 There were several creeping lantanas in front of the garage. They take over the sidewalk every Summer so I dug them up - all sixteen of them. I transplanted them to the driveway bed which should be the perfect spot for them. They can spread out and bloom away. A big bonus - butterflies love them!

I know it doesn't look like much now, but soon the slope will be covered in yellow blooms.

My oldest sister gave me 4 native lantana bushes. They got planted along the driveway too in the back of the bed.

Oh! While digging the briars out, I kept finding these concrete edger pieces buried under the dirt. Once upon a time, I think there were some really pretty flowerbeds here. #thankyouformerowners! 

I used them to edge the back flowerbed behind the garage. It should help keep the dirt and plants where they belong. :o)

Jay and Bruce got all the leaves raked up in the front wooded area where the little dogwood tree is budding out. I see a flower peeking out at me!

I'm excited about getting this area cleaned up! I can't wait to plant a woodland garden!

Random bulbs that were half buried in the leaves!

I can just picture a pretty bench in this area facing the house with pretty plants. With the years of leaf accumulation gone, I can finally see my vision coming to life!

Plus, I started weeding the front flowerbed. Can I just say it's going to take time? #neglectedforwhoknowshowmanyyears and full of weeds.

Spring is showing up early in all sorts of ways - tiny wild violets

With several of the trees sporting a hint of green and the redbuds blooming.

The bees were buzzing all over the redbuds! #buzzbuzz

And all the outside trim on the studio is up and painted! Woohoo! It looks so good!

Next time the door will get its new red coat. Then the outside will officially be done and it's onto the interior!

Definitely making progress! It sure helps that the weather has been so mild. I just hope we can get most of the outside stuff done before the heat hits. All in all, it was a very productive couple of weekends.

Random Tuesday

Hi Friends!

I just have some random things I want to discuss with you today. Maybe get your thoughts and ideas.
Definitely share what's going on.

Here's a view of our driveway from about half way up looking down toward the road:

This is one of the areas I want to make pretty for the wedding! It needs a lot of work.

A zoomed in view of the flowerbed that needs to be cleaned out:

There's landscape timbers at the top that probably need to be replaced, I need to dig out all the weeds, and then plant flowers. But whatever I plant needs to be deer proof and butterfly friendly would be a big plus. I have several lantanas that need to be moved so they will probably be planted along here for starters. I open to suggestions but they need to be tough. And I'd love to have a low fence too - maybe split rail?

 And when I turn around, the top of the driveway. The house is to the right:

There's a small strip of woods on the right where I spent a long time raking up leaves. (Pretty sure it caused my allergies to flare up from all the damp leaf mold.) I want to clean that up and plant it with pretty woodland plants since it's a view we see from the front porch. Again any suggestions on pretty deer proof or resistant plants? I'm in zone 8.

Then there's these beauties. They're confused by the warm weather we had up to the end of December:

 Pretty - we don't usually see them until February.

On the front porch is my large lantern turned gnome home:

 I need to work on it. The house is a birdhouse I repainted (it was a schoolhouse and ugly) and added some bits of whimsy to but it still needs work (I don't really like the color I painted it). Plus I need to secure the pieces down - they keep falling over.

Doesn't this look like a fairy door in the tree trunk? I might have to dress that up as well if I can figure out how to get the dogs to leave it alone.

And remember this guy? I finally named him! I figured he needed an English name so I decided on Wyndham. It's really fun watching him change directions as the weather changes. I love that I can see him not only from the back porch of the house but also the art studio. I think we're going to have a lot of adventures through my artwork. He's a friendly dragon after all. 😊

Lastly, I'm in the process of purging the studio at the city house. I have so many bits and pieces from old hobbies that I no longer need plus just the accumulation of stuff that needs to go. I'm making room for my new toy I got for Christmas too - a Cameo Silhouette! I'm not letting myself play with it until I'm done with this purging project because I know once I start, I'll be hooked and not want to do the cleaning I need to do. So, I'm forcing myself to stay on task.
What that means is you might not hear from me much in the next couple of weeks. But don't worry. I'll be back to share more progress on the studio and other things.

Until then, stay warm and well!