Vintage Home and Farm

It's getting closer to New Year's Eve, and so one of my tasks is to begin putting together time capsule ideas. As promised in an earlier blog , the time capsule will be placed behind a secret door, hidden deep inside a closet of our old farmhouse.  We still have no idea what's behind that tiny door. I quiver with childish delight thinking about what could be hidden in there. And, if there is nothing really cool lurking behind the tiny door, we'll be placing a time capsule there for future homeowners (or our grand kids) to find some day. Which brings me to a really import part of our planning: The Time Capsule Ideas List. I'm basing this list on what I wish I could have found left behind by prior homeowners, here in the house, as a new homeowner wondering about the history of this old place. Who lived here before us? What were they like? What was their daily life like here on this farm?  What did they do, and what did they produce using the land?  What was

There was a knock and a whinny at my door late this morning.  When I opened it, I was delighted to see one of my neighbors with her sweet miniature horse, Reggie.  She said he was visiting his neighbors to say "Merry Ho Ho!"  He was very excited when I came outside, and he tossed his head happily and whinnied again. Oh, how I love our friendly neighbors, and living in the country! Fortunately I had just baked some homemade granola and packaged a bunch for the holidays. It was a wonderful surprise to find them at my door, to visit for a few minutes and then send them on their way with a homemade treat. Here is the recipe for the granola, which originally came from Bon Apetite but I've altered it slightly. Vanilla Almond Granola Ingredients 4 cups old-fashioned oats 1 cup sliced almonds 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/3 cup canola oil 1/4 cup honey 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar 2 tea

Rather than visions of sugarplums, we've got kitchen islands, bathroom remodels, and tractors with all the implements dancing in our heads.  We're anxiously awaiting Santa to deliver on the close of sale on our previous home. The closing date has been pushed out a couple of times, but it looks like Santa will make it in time for Christmas. The next steps on the remodel of this old house are dependent upon funds from closing on the previous house, so that we can let go of some bills and invest the equity in the new home. But, no worries, the waiting has given us a bit more time to contemplate what would work best in the next stages of the remodel. Meanwhile, we decorated the inside of the old house for Christmas. My living room somewhat resembles a log cabin at Christmas. It's time to curl up by the fire with cookies, cocoa and a good book, while we wait for Santa Claus. Our family wishes yours a very happy Christmas, and many blessings in the new year.

There isn't an overhead stove vent in our vintage kitchen, and installing one would require remodeling that we don't want to undertake, but that's okay -- the other option that we went with was to install a downdraft vent for a downdraft stove. As we went about deciding this, we also learned that Kitchenaid and Jenn Air are pretty much the only two stove manufacturers that make downdraft stoves.  All that boils down to me being one of the luckiest cooks around, with a very fancy Kitchenaid stove! I couldn't be more delighted! We installed the stove ourselves. It took two days. We decided to put the stove in the middle of the kitchen floor, where we will soon build an island around it.  Day one of stove installation involved the wiring, as we needed to put a plug in the middle of the floor. Day two was focused on the downdraft vent pipe and putting the stove into place. One factor that made the stove installation a little easier was that there was no exi