Vintage Home and Farm

It gets so horribly cold here from October through May. In this drafty old house, we've found it difficult to warm ourselves up, and so we have been talking about putting in either a hot tub or sauna. We know that come fall and winter, the idea of slipping into a hot tub or sauna and relaxing for a bit will be pure heaven. We've also been reading about the health benefits of using a hot tub or sauna, which I especially appreciate since I have problems with poor circulation.  Since a hot tub requires maintaining the water levels and monitoring the chemicals or salt (depending on which option you choose), we decided it would be easier and more economical to put in a sauna. So, we ordered one from Costco. It was delivered rather quickly in one giant box to our front door. It took most of a day to put together, and that included the usual amount of arguing, head-banging, and starting over when it fell apart. Below are a few photos of the process and the finished result. First, Paul...

There are numerous old fruit trees on our property, including apple, pear, cherry and plum. The trees' enormous sizes and moss-covered, gnarled branches suggest they are likely at least 40 and maybe up to 70 years old.  Each year since moving here, we have been blessed with fruit from all of these old, beautiful trees.   Yesterday, it was time to harvest the apples and pears. A few of each had fallen to the ground to be consumed eagerly by the deer.  So I took our ladder out there with several buckets and began working my way around each tree, avoiding spider webs (there were several with enormous spiders on them), and using a fruit picker (one of those wire baskets on a broom  handle).  There were only 22 apples on the apple tree, but all were giant-sized.  The pear tree was loaded, however, and generously gave us about 75 pears this year.  I brought the fruit inside and put the two ginormous containers in our mudroom next to the buffet cabinet t...

During the chilly winter months when there were fewer outdoor projects, we spent more time indoors doing creative activities like sewing.  One of the sewing projects we enjoyed was making envelope-style pillow covers for our living room using flannel fabric that I bought on sale from Jo-Ann Fabric.  The material was only $2.99 a yard!  We bought enough fabric to make curtains for two bedroom windows as well.  It was fun choosing from among the hundreds of different prints in their flannel fabric department. Envelope-style pillow covers for toss pillows have an opening in the back that you use to slide your pillow form through.  The cover easily removes so that it can be washed.  You can see from the image above why it's necessary for us to wash the toss pillow covers on our couch fairly regularly. Mojo is such a spoiled doggy. Many websites offer instructions for how to make envelope-style pillow covers.  Here are the instructions I followed from the ...

This project was fairly simple and the stools with their new padded seat covers looked so nice that I thought I'd share a few photos.  Recently, we picked up a couple of old bar stools for dirt cheap at an online auction, for using in our kitchen. After cleaning up the stools, we decided to staple padded covers onto the seats.  I purchased the canvas fabric, called Watercolor Houses , from Jo-Ann Fabric.  My sister has added padded seat covers to chairs a number of times over the years and I've always thought they looked so nice (she has an amazing eye for color and design!). With her creative ideas to inspire me, I decided to give it a try.   For about $16 at Jo-Ann, I purchased two green foam seat covers.  I already had some white felt for laying between the foam and the fabric. (The white felt isn't really necessary; I just decided to use it to give the fabric a smoother look, since I already had it in my fabric drawer.) The only tools that were nee...

The other day, a visiting friend noticed a cookie sheet filled with baked eggshells cooling my counter and inquired about it.  I guess it does seem a bit odd to have eggshells sitting out on the counter.  I can certainly appreciate the novelty of it as it's not something seen in every home.  Prior to starting our own flock a few years ago, I'd never heard about chickens eating their own eggshells, either. Eggshells are a good way to supplement calcium in a chicken's diet.  Chickens need extra calcium in order to maintain their health and for hens to produce a thick protective shells on their eggs.  In fact, one of the signs that hens need more calcium in their diet is if their eggs become thin shelled.  This has happened with our own hens a time or two when I haven't put an extra form of calcium out for them.  At times we have provided them with crushed oyster shell, which is also an excellent calcium supplement.  However, purchasing oyster shell ...

Dry skin in winter can be a persistent concern and can lead to rough, cracked skin that takes months to heal. Whether it's your hands, knees, elbows or other areas that are super dry this winter, you can begin to heal your skin by using a good sugar scrub and moisturizer. A few years ago I bought a sugar scrub for my hands and while I loved the quality of the scrub that I'd purchased, it was an expensive product that I used up much too quickly.  Since then I have been on the lookout for a good sugar scrub recipe that I could more affordably make myself.  I came across this recipe from Melissa K. Norris , who has a very helpful and enjoyable homesteading vlog. This sugar scrub has three simple ingredients that nearly everyone has in their pantry.  Sugar, oil and vanilla.  That's it!  For this jar that I made the other day, I used: 1/3 heaping cup of sugar 1/3 cup olive oil 1 teaspoon of vanilla Simply mix the ingredients together in a jar, put a lid on...

Homemade vanilla extract is incredibly easy to make, requiring just a couple of ingredients and only minutes to prepare. Until recently it never occurred to me how simple and enjoyable it is to infuse vanilla beans in alcohol in order to have my own pure, homemade vanilla extract.  Just before the Christmas holiday, I noticed that Costco had on its shelves organic Madagascar vanilla beans. You can also buy vanilla beans online, most likely at an even more affordable price and in greater bulk than what Costco carried. Seeing the vanilla beans readily available on the shelf at Costco finally prompted me to take the steps of making my own vanilla extract. You may be wondering why anyone would choose to infuse ingredients like vanilla beans and make their own extracts. The primary reason for me is the cost.  Real vanilla extract has gone way up in price over the past few years, and is currently about $20 an ounce for a store brand bottle.  For an organic brand the cost ...

It's taken me a little while to figure out how to light a fire in the wood stove and perhaps more importantly, how to keep it going. What I struggled with the most was determining how much paper, kindling and bigger pieces of wood needed to be in the pile in order for the firebox to become engulfed in flames, and then how quickly to add more wood to keep it burning efficiently.  Finally, after much trial and error, I  succeeded in building a great fire that quickly engulfs the wood, builds up a nice base of coals as the wood breaks down, and stays going late into the evening. Our wood stove is a free-standing Jotul F 3 CB.  It's not a very large wood stove, and so sadly stuffing it full once lit isn't actually an option.  We have to continuously feed more wood to keep it going.  The longest it can burn without inserting another piece of wood is about 3 hours, but then you'll need to start with some kindling and really coax the fire back up from nearly-exting...