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Farm

Feral Cats & Fen

November 20, 2016

Things are quiet at the farm right now. Aaron and I have been driving out every weekend to feed the several feral cats that live there to keep the mouse population under control. We bought a big auto-feed container that dispenses food as it gets eaten – it’s always gone when we check in, so either the cats are eating it or something else is! Hopefully the cats. When we were there yesterday, we saw one of them… a pretty, small, black cat who was very skittish and ran off as soon as she saw Fen. Fen was so funny… barking and growling with her hackles up. She thinks she’s Queen of the Farm.

Aaron is working away today on a foam board model of the farmhouse. We appreciate my mom who’s spent many hours creating multiple versions of drawings and layouts for us to consider! The 3D model should also help us figure out exactly what we want so that we can get plans nailed down. Aaron is working with an architect and engineer who will be coming out to see the farm soon to help us draw up the formal plans that will be approved by the city. We’re hoping to get moving on that sooner than later, as we’re sure that things will pick up for contractors in the spring.

During our visit yesterday, we spent about an hour walking around and thinking of ideas for things… we are looking at perhaps doing solar tiles for the roof (Aaron found out that Elon Musk is putting out new, less expensive tiles this spring – Aaron loves what they do, and I like how they look compared to solar panels, even though I find myself pulled back to the idea of a corrugated tin roof), painting two of the currently red outbuildings a pretty charcoal grey, maybe doing a circular driveway, and putting together some big planter boxes for vegetable gardening.

We continue to be daunted by the amount of junk around the farm… yesterday, we noticed a set of lawn chairs and a grill almost completely covered by grape vines in the front yard! Both Aaron and I have some time off in January and we may try to devote a good chunk of that to hauling things to recycling and the dump. We mentioned again yesterday how thankful we are for good family who came to help us do a very successful demo day a month or two ago.

Farm

Safe in the Storm

October 15, 2016

It is stormy here in Washington! We’ve had several long, full days of heavy rain and winds that are expected to be 50+ miles per hour tonight and tomorrow morning. Yesterday as I was leaving for work, I heard water running in the bathroom (at home in Tacoma – not at the farm). When I went upstairs to check on it, I saw a huge portion of the ceiling was caving in! The latex paint had basically turned into a big water balloon holding gallons of rainwater that was leaking in from a hole in the roof where some of the shingles had blown off and the plastic panel underneath had either worn away or wasn’t put on properly. Luckily someone was able to come out right away to help us do a temporary seal so that it’s watertight for the rest of the weekend until a roofer can come out on Tuesday.

We drove out to the farm this afternoon to make sure that everything was ok and that no trees had fallen onto the house. We did see several downed trees and lots with broken branches, including one of the pear trees lining the driveway, but the buildings all seem to be intact.

Aaron just made a batch of homemade crockpot hot chocolate – yum. The recipe says it’s supposed to simmer for three hours… I’m thinking that could be a flexible estimate. 🙂 I’m grateful for Aaron, who’s helped me with so much over the last few days, cozy living rooms, candles, and a dry house! We hope everyone else is staying safe and warm in the storm.

Farm

Sorting & Recycling

September 24, 2016

Lindsey here! We don’t have too many new pictures to put up, as we are deep in the process of paperwork – many visits to county offices and phone calls to insurance companies and city services. My mom and dad came up to visit for a few days this week and spent hours working at the farm while I was at work at school! We appreciate them.

Some of the ongoing projects while we get all of the permits we need include sorting through the piles and piles of old things on the property. We are quickly learning that the family who lived there kept EVERYTHING! We’re up to a count of about 18 broken-down lawnmowers now, and in every cupboard and corner, we find new “treasures.” There is a landfill about three miles from the farm that takes most materials and doesn’t charge for recycling, so we are trying to sort old and unusable things into piles of metal, plastic, rubber, etc. We have a new (to us) trailer to haul things back and forth, which is helpful.

While walking around the property a few days ago, we came across five different LARGE piles of bear scat! We are obviously not in downtown Tacoma anymore! The fruit trees are dropping loads of dead-ripe summer/fall fruit, so I’m sure the bears are gorging themselves at night. We’ll be keeping a close eye on Fen as she roams around the property! One of the best parts of being at the farm is watching her barrel race around, full-speed, going as fast as her chubby puppy-body can take her. She loves it there.

Farm

New Beginnings Part 2

September 18, 2016

Aaron wanted to title our first post, “new beginnings,” and it really is for us! For the last year or so, we’ve been wanting to take on a project together and fix up a home, and a few weeks ago, we bought a beautiful old farmhouse in a town called Buckley about 35 minutes from my work at PLU. I don’t think either of us knew HOW big a project this would be, until it was too late and we’d already fallen in love with this 1930’s, Dutch colonial farmhouse on six acres. Some of my favorite things about it are the old fruit and nut trees around the property, the many small “outbuildings” including chicken coops, goat sheds, cow stalls, etc., the gambrel roof on the farmhouse, the spring that sources all the water, and the family history there. The last owners lived on the farm for about seventy years, building everything on the land themselves (they lived in a tent in the yard for months while the house was being built!). There’s an old milking shed behind the barn, a room with a concrete tub to put the milk jugs in to cool, four different chicken coops, and plenty of interesting farm tools – one of them is a “hog cane,” which looks a bit like a walking staff, but was used to steer pigs around the farm.

The home is tiny – two bedrooms and one bathroom. We’re hoping to do some additions that will add a bump-out on the second floor for a third bedroom and bath, and some space below for a covered porch. We are so thankful for family and friends who came to help us do a “demo day” last weekend where we were able to get most of the downstairs demo done – old, 1960’s cabinets removed, walls taken out, and many, many bags of old, peach-colored sheetrock removed. We found the happiest surprise of cedar shiplap walls and ceilings under the old sheetrock, and beautiful old original fir floors under teal and pink floral linoleum. We filled about 35 contractors bags! At some point, we’ll need to get a big dumpster in to get rid of those, and all the other things left on the property. Aaron was disappointed that the sellers took an old motorcycle behind the barn before leaving, but left us a broken down station wagon covered with tarps!

We’re excited to document this adventure together, and hope you can come visit us when we’re finished with our farm on Fettig Road!