2014 was indeed the year of the Scribs!

Just about a year ago, Scribs and I sat down with our blank white board and decided to make 2014 the year of the Scribs. We wrote out our goals for the year, that included move to a new state (check), buy a house (check), make 52 new recipes (check), read 6 books (I think I read 12, I'm not sure) and knit a stocking for each of us (mostly done). Well our goal was to move to a better place, donezo! I also wanted to run 100 miles, but quit shortly after we moved. I was on track but lost my motivation when we got here. Maybe it was the cold or because I'd rather spend the time exploring with my family. 

We were very mindful of our goals throughout the year. Every time a job opening was posted Scribs and I looked into the area, checked available housing, schools, crime etc before he even put in for it. He put in for a few transfers all of which we would have taken, unlike previous years where he'd put in for anything and everything. Everything we did, we did to get to our goal for the year. "Do you want to buy a new couch?" "I'm not moving a new couch. We can get one when we move." There were a lot of conversations like that!

Goals that we work constantly work towards are a bit more our style. Putting a new calendar on the wall and saying "This year I'm going to train and run 850 marathons, be the best parent wife, employee etc, save $100 000 and travel the world in a hot air balloon." Doesn't work for me and I don't think it works for most people. Whats the point of setting a goal (that we know we aren't going to complete) and then beating ourselves up for it once we give up 12 days later. Seems silly. 

It's time to put up the new calendar, conscientiously work towards a new set of goals, even if I don't finishing everything within the set time, I'll be well on my way!

Here's a little something pretty to end your year!

Goodbye 2014

See you soon 2015!

Living Room redo part deux: Hello lights and fixed window trim!

Here we go, it's time for the electrical! We had a few companies put bids in before choosing our electrician. Let me tell ya, they're expensive! Definitely worth it to not burn our house down or electrocute ourselves! Mr. Scribs cut all the holes for the outlets and boxes for the lights. It was easier than expected once we made sure there wasn't any studs where we wanted everything.

We put gang boxes in where the TV would be so there is no visible wires, everything goes in the wall behind the TV and out near the bottom. Well worth the extra money and effort to not see any ugly cords!
All the windows and doors on the first floor have the same trim. They all have the weird over-hang on each side. I don't get it. Doesn't make any sense to me, so we took it down, cut the extra off and fixed it.

Before

 After

Much better! Up next the fun stuff, paint swatches! Don't forget about part one!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you have a wonderful, magic and love filled day! Merry Christmas everyone!

Lots of love from all of us at Scribs Farm

Living room redo. Part 1 goodbye wallpaper, hello cedar walls!

We're finally getting around to redoing our living room! I say finally like we've been putting it off for years, we've only been here for 3 months. It is an enormous room! Theres 2 windows, 3 doors and about 400 square feet. I know theres  a lot of potential in there! The first thing we needed to do is get rid of the wall paper. Let me tell you, that was a spectacular woodsy scene!

Tan walls, tan ceiling, red wainscoting, wall paper border mid wall and extra molding. It was… let's just say not our style and dark.

The wall paper came down fairly easily. We peeled off what we could before wetting the rest with sponges and hot water. Wet, scrubs, pick and peel. Surprisingly after 3 nights we were finished. That was the easiest part.

Next came figuring out where we'd need plugs and lights. I have no idea how the previous family only lived with 4 plugs in such a big space and no lighting. At all. It was like a cave in there, even with lamps. Obviously we needed to have some lighting put in. We opted for four wall sconces, added 4 plugs and a light switch. Good god, electricians are expensive! And who knew that were wasn't a "proper" place to put a sconce other than the tallest person shouldn't be able to see the bulbs. We marked the walls where we thought we'd like the sconces by putting up pieces of paper and leaving them there for about a week. We drew a spot of the TV and marked for outlets and left it for more than a week. By the time we were ready to cut the holes we knew thats where we wanted everything.

Cutting holes in the walls always makes me nervous, our house is almost 100 years old. I was convinced there was going to be a nightmare of something in there. No dead bodies, no monsters living in there. Thankfully there was a pleasant surprise. PILES OF CASH! No wait, that didn't happen. Our walls are two inch cedar planks with half an inch dry wall on top. Hello insulation! 

  

No wonder the stud finder kept showing studs everywhere! Step one complete. Wall paper removed!

Geminids Meteor Shower

Did you see the meteor shower this weekend? I went out around 10ish last night for a few minutes to see what I could see. Ah, the joys of country living! The sky was clear, the air was cold, still and thankfully not freezing. After only a few minutes and a few meteors I went in to get the Husband and Father-in-law.

I think we stayed out for maybe half an hour. I put on my brave-pants and laid down on the driveway. We all saw maybe a dozen or so meteor, each time yelling and pointing "There's one" with the wonder of children! Red nosed, and rosy-cheeked we came back in and watched Step Brothers. Mother-in-Law came to visit and she got to see a flood, Father-in-law came and he got to see meteors.

Nasa says "Geminids are pieces of debris from an object called 3200 Phaethon. Long thought to be an asteroid, Phaethon is now classified as an extinct comet. Basically it is the rocky skeleton of a comet that lost its ice after too many close encounters with the sun. Earth runs into a stream of debris from 3200 Phaethon every year in mid-December, causing meteors to fly from the constellation Gemini. When the Geminids first appeared in the early 19th century, shortly before the U.S. Civil War, the shower was weak and attracted little attention. There was no hint that it would ever become a major display." 

The more I think about it, the more I am so grateful that my kids will get to grow up in the country. They'll get to lie in the grass and watch the stars, see the constellations, and meteors while coyotes howl in the background. You just don't get that in the city. Whilst I know they will complain and may not appreciate it until they're grown. They'll have a great childhood filled with rosy-cheeks, shooting stars, bon fires and grass stained knees.

I wonder what other cool-space stuff we've missed that we'll now be able to see?

Blame it on the rain!

It's here, our first flood season at Scribs' farm! A few nights ago around 5pm, our neighbor came by to tell us "it's coming." my stomach dropped and I felt that I was going to throw up and cry at the same time. Scribs and I went out to check things out and it was indeed coming. I had no idea what to expect! It was already dark out making it a challenge it see exactly what was happening. We walked out in the feild, then checked the neighbors berry farm. And there is was, coming across rows of berries.

For the rest of the night we were watching and waiting for something. We didn't know how much water would come or how fast it would rise. Once the sun came up, and I was sure that the water wasn't at the house I took the dog out and looked around.  This is our newly formed Lake Scribs. 

 

I went out to check how thick the ice was and how much was was under it. I'm surprised to say that there is 3" of ice but nothing under it. I'm guessing the ground has absorbed the water. I'm hoping the weather cooperates and melts the ice before it rains or floods some more.

I noticed a hole inside the fire pit, after breaking the ice I found nothing under it.

Watching water creep into your yard is terrifying, especially when you have no idea whats normal river flooding and what might wash your house away.

Some pictures from around the farm

I am definitely no photographer. I have no idea how to use photoshop, nor do I have it. I can crop and remove red-eye from pictures. Thats about it. I will say that I LOVE the macro setting on my old camera. It's probably close to 10 years old. I know, I'm so not up to date with my technology!

Here's whats been going on around here lately.

A few weeks ago, maybe a month, (I'm not sure I have no concept of time anymore) There were hundreds of lady bugs flying around! I went outside for a few minutes and had 10 on me. They were everywhere. I'm guessing its from all the corn fields being cleared but I could be wrong. It was kind of magical!

Our hole-y, lichen covered barn is pretty spectacular. There's a Northern Flicker that likes to hang out inside while it's rainy. I call him Harold. He's pretty tough to get a picture of. He's coming around. Last week instead of panicking and flying around the very top of the rafters, he was flying around just above the lights. I think I'm wearing him down. It is supposed to rain most of the week (What a shocker!) I'll have to try and sneak in and steal his soul. 

Crows have been rolling walnuts off the barn roof to crack 'em open. They got one right in between the fire pit stones. There's a murder of around 60 hanging around the fields. 

First thing I noticed when we moved in was the enormous, fully bloomed hydrangeas. Who know the leaves would change to such a pretty color. I'm slowly learning how to care for all the plants we have, let me tell ya, it's a daunting task. 

Last one from the lady bug invasion. There's still a few lady bug stragglers hanging around. I found one on the ceiling yesterday morning and a few upstairs this weekend. 

Things are busy as usual around here. Whenever it isn't raining the Scribs are running around trying to get as many outdoor projects done as possible. I have taken a ton of pictures that just need some of those pesky words to go along with them! Every time I sit down to write, upload pictures or get anything done thats when the kids wake up. Speaking of which….

Old McScribs had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!

This year we set very specific goals for our family. 2014 is the year of the Scribs! Most importantly was to:
Move to a new state - Done.
Buy a house - Done. We bought the farm. Literately.

We've got space and lots of it, but what to do with it and where to start? Chickens and a giant garden are our main goals for the spring. We'd like to have our living room finished before Thanksgiving since we'll have guests.

This was be our second move in 6 months, with two kids under 3 and working on potty training. We must be crazy! Surprisingly, it went pretty smoothly. Nothing was broken, we found almost everything and meltdowns were minimal. Minimal, of course that means often and over the top dramatic.

I'm hoping by mid-september we'll be settled enough to start doing some of the fun stuff. Painting the living room is on the top of our list. The wallpaper has come down already. Let me tell you that wall paper and trim was something special! We just started with paint samples, there will be more on that later.

We've been renting since we got married and really have yet to make any of the houses our own. I've got 2 kid's rooms to decorate for the first time. I've been pinning ever so much that I want to do! The challenge is going to be choosing what to do, where to start and to set a budget.

We've been here for about 2 weeks now and I've gotta say there is so much to do and I can't wait to see what our house and farm will become.

I get up even earlier than I did before, 5:30 am most days to get myself ready, do some of the never ending laundry and have a cup (or two) of coffee. The best part has been the sunrise and the misty field. Waking up with this every morning hasn't been too terrible!

We're just starting our farm journey, I'm so excited to learn along the way. Hopefully we don't mess anything up too badly! What is your top proprieties after moving?