I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world. (George Washington)

We made it. We finally made it. And just before the cold winds and snow started to blow. Home. The sweetest four letters in the world.
We went from this:

Our lovely apartment living/dining/everything else room 

To this:

Kate enjoying wifi in our new living room.

Please note the crappy ersatz Christmas "tree" in the corner. By the time we moved in all the tree lots were gone. I suppose we could have gone off with the chain saw and cut down some wild pine tree at night when no one was looking but I don't want to get off on the wrong foot with the neighbors. Also just tromping 350 feet down to the mailbox every day is exhausting! And I have to get on boots, a coat and gloves just to do it! Maybe I can train one of the dogs to fetch the mail and paper (and make me a nice cappuchino while he's at it). No wait that's what I have Tom for.

Anyway, here are the rest of the interior pix:

View from kitchen into dining/living room.

Kitchen (yay finally got the counter top)

Den/office

Master bedroom

Family room in basement

Queen bedroom basement (aka the jungle room)

 

smaller basement bedroom

Basement area where you don't get to look

After big snow, the view from the upper acres towards front property.

The money shot. That's why we moved here. It was beautiful up there. We have seen many eagles, some as close as Otterville Rd. Yes, the drive to anywhere is long, but I like being out here. It's peaceful. We have met so many interesting folks. Many, like our plumber who gardens (so big he needs a tractor) on the side. He has promised to introduce us a guy who starts tomato plants for the truck farms around here. Apparently he is into heritage varieties. And the appraiser who is doing vermiculture (worm composting to you regular people out there). And our builder who hunts and processes his venison. Many of the men even do their own canning! Tom refuses, says it women's work. I'll give him a pass if he ever gets that pizza/bread oven going.

We are hoping to get started on the "farm" this spring but know it to be a long row to hoe (if I may use a farm term). I will keep this blog going as we document how we start a small organic farm. As always, we welcome visitors. You can even stay overnight in your own suite of rooms complete with Dish network TV and DVR! And you know we love to cook. 

In other news: Kate is off to Brussels for 10 days. Then she is looking at an intership this summer with the USDA at Land Between the Lakes, Ky. After that the big plan is to get accepted at a field school for Marine studies in the Turks and Caicos for fall semester. Hello Keith Richards! (He owns a compound there).

Joe just finished his first semester in grad school and did pretty damn good. Maybe soon we can call him "Master" Joe Owen.

Wishing everyone a great 2011. It has to be better than 2010, right? An annus horribilis if ever I saw one.

Patience is not my Strong Suit

Well here it is Dec. 10 and we are not yet in the new house. In fact we just got some upsetting news this week that got worse today.
It seems the kitchen counters were improperly measured by the computer (yep, when in doubt people like to blame technology). But as we all know its GIGO (garbage in garbage out, it's always human error, stupid). Anyway, the replacement counters were going to be delivered in a few days, so we thought, sure we can live with out a dishwasher and sink and counter for a day or two- no sweat we'll eat out a lot! Then today we get a call from Quint, it seems K & D cannot get the new counters in until Dec. 21st. Tom went ape-shit and got right into his old "dealing with vendors mode" (ah, those old management skills never die). The upshot is they are going to put in a sink with 6 feet of generic counter until ours can get done. So Mike and Rach- we can still host you and make meals and kids: don't worry, there will be sustenance and water. The counters BTW are gorgeous (a small section next to the stove was installed).

Here is the finished front.

Yes, there is a sea of mud. We will be buying tons of grass seed this spring. Hopefully, my Master Gardener training will kick in. I just completed my 60 hours volunteer work and got my official badge. But I digress...

Side (south) view.

I'd show you inside shots but since it is a mess with no furniture and, oh right,

NO FLIPPIN' COUNTERS!... what's the point? We move the storage stuff in tomorrow and on Tuesday Dec. 14, we move the apartment stuff. The Pod gets delivered on the 17th. Just in time for Christmas. Every time I will open a box up, it will seem like Santa brought me something. The saddest thing is I won't be able to make cookies or nutroll (the mind is willing but the body is weak).

Rear view.

See, I said there was a party deck. Sea of mud in back too.

Oh, the other crisis was placement of mailbox and existence of our address. It seems because we were a field of soy (not dreams) a few years ago, the post office says we do not exist (yet). I want to make some sort of existential comment here, but I just can't think of anything witty. Maybe Tom and I live in some sort of alt-verse, or in a hiccup in the space/time continuum. Yeah, I sort of like that explanation. We reached a compromise with mailbox placement by promising to build a small turnaround off the drive.

Once we get the place looking habitable, I will post pictures of the inside. It really does look good.

So Happy Hanukah, Merry Christmas, Krazy Kwanzaa and my favorite: a joyous Festivus (Dec. 23) to you all and to all a good night.

Holy Crap!

Things are moving real fast now. We could possibly be moved by Dec. 10. In short order they have painted, put in most of the flooring, started the trim work and interior doors, finished the deck (and it is righteous!), started to install bathroom and kitchen cabinets and lights. The appliances are to be delivered Monday and phone/internet to be installed Tuesday. Here are what the paint colors look like:

This is the master bedroom.

This is most of the rest of the house (Kilim Beige).

This is the study (Taupe).

Here is the kitchen. Notice bamboo floors. The walls will have a backsplash of subway tiles in biscuit and browns. The counters are a mottled dark brown (laminate).

Hope they don't get screwed up. We were supposed to get a green counter for the powder room, but all three bathrooms are now biscuit.

Tom on party deck.

That's one hell of a deck, eh? It is 32 feet long and 12 feet deep. We already decided to put the gas grill on it, plus adirondack chairs, a dining table with chairs and umbrella. Join us for mojitos this summer.

Site of the future Owen Family Farm.

We had Stan D.  plow this up for us, since we don't own a tractor. He also ended up plowing up some history.

Notice the creepy glass doll head...

Anyway, it seems the story of the old house located near the road is true. Joe, Tim and Ryan spent part of a lunch break kicking this stuff up. I'm sure the rain and weather will expose more. Hope there isn't an ancient Indian burial ground nearby (like in Poltergiest). Whoa, watch out for the TV!

They say the best stuff is often found in old privies. Guess the soil may be more fertile then we thought.

Happy turkey day to all.

Whoo-Hoo! (And All That Jazz)

It's been a while since I last posted. Sorry, guess having to eat all the leftover Halloween candy put me into a sugar coma. Quite a bit happened since the 31st of October. But first, I digress: we found out an interesting tidbit about the property. It seems during the Civil War (you know, the one Taz calls the War of Northern Aggression), part of the land was used as a staging area for local troops. A house once stood at the front of the land, close to the cemetery, according to Stan Drainer, who used to own the land. He said I need to talk to his mother about the early history. I am intrigued, especially since an old coin ( a half dime to be exact) and button was found.
So in short order here is what has transpired:

Walls went in. Tom talking to Kenny, aka "the drywaller"

Seems Kenny knows someone in Litchfield-small world.

Poop processor, aka "sand filtered septic system"

Siding all up (looks like the Signal Hill stuff, right?)

Actually you be wrong. Looks like wood, but it's concrete siding, aka "Hardie board".

Peek-a-boo wall in basement.

Cistern.

It doesn't look like much, but it goes down pretty deep. Our builder, Joe, created this on the fly. It harvests rainwater off the roof. An electric pump then permits us to water the garden. The whole time he was explaining to Tom how he might need to go down and do maintenance, I am thinking: "No flippin' way is Tom going down into that thing!" Just like Tom is not going to crawl through the attic to pull insulation off the attic fan. These are recipes for disaster, or at least unexplainable emergency 911 calls.

The walls are being painted in the next couple of days because on Wednesday the flooring gets installed. The overall colors are Kilim Beige for most of the house, Timeless Taupe for the study and Smooth Sailing Blue for the master bedroom. The kitchen is supposed to be delivered to the warehouse by Friday and we have gone nuts and ordered all the appliances. Stan said he would till the front acres this week and we plan on planting the mailbox post before the ground freezes. I keep trying to pin Joe down on move in dates. He vaguely says early December.

We will be out again this week as we must get the mirrored vanities to them and we want to talk to the closet guy. By the way, we have tried a few eateries in Jerseyville: Fran and Marilyn's (delish pork tenderloin sandwich and fried chicken livers), Hickory Grove (more fried pork tenderloins-very yummy) and The White Spot (killer onion rings). Do I detect a pattern here?

Parting shot:

Jerseyville courthouse, 1893. Pretty, huh?

Oh Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo (gnats) Roam!

I'm back...
Ah, it felt good to get away from it all for a week. Yeah, I know all you wage slaves are thinking: what do two retired people have to get away for? Hmmmmm....I'll get back to you on that one.

Anyway, spent 8 days roaming the Natchez Trace (almost all but about 10 miles of it). Stopped in Memphis to get good and greasy with BBQ.

Sampler Plate at Interstate BBQ.

And loaded up on Rock and Soul at, where else? The Museum of Rock and Soul. Highly recommended. Had a hard time pulling Tom away from the jukeboxes. Stopped at Vicksburg (we are such Civil War sluts). Never did get to try those Delta Tamales- oh well guess we'll have to make a trip to New Orleans now.
We ended up in Nashville to see our friends and fabulous hosts, Norbert and Joanie. For Tom's sisters: he is still the same crazy Norbert, but with less hair. The same could be said of Tom.

Tom with Norb (BFF) and Joanie.

Meanwhile, the house progressed while we were gone. The plumbing is roughed in, so is most of the electrical. The furnace is in (pieces) downstairs and the front porch got concreted. Poor Tom. He so wants to write his name for posterity.

Garage door in, garage is huge!

Living room needs an interior decorator.

Hey Kate, you can have this bedroom or the one next to it.

View into pantry, powder room beyond and study.

Hell of a porch, Tommy.

View out the front door.

We asked one of our "neighbors" to disc and plow up the front for the farm. We got to have that truck soon! I see all these leaves and horse poop we need and I am NOT putting them in the back of the HHR!

We'll see what this week brings. Hopefully drywall.

Holy Crap!

When Joe, the builder, called last night and listed off everything that was done, I sort of had to have the ground truth. So sure enough when we drove up today we saw this:

Looks more like a domicile.

The roof was on and shingled, it was wrapped, there are windows and doors, the stairs are in, the plumbers and electricians were out and about and Hank Hill, the propane guy came to discuss propane, the clean fuel of choice (actually his name was Chuck).

Whoa!

So were were given our homework assignments: get the fans over here before we leave on vacation (Friday). Yikes. So we bought a big, honking whole house fan that will probably suck in every bug and insect through the screens, including the bane of my existence: buffalo gnats.

View from back, facing "crick".

The lower level, or basement, whatever...will have close to 9 foot ceilings now. So it won't seem like a dungeon, kids, should you come to stay and stay and stay....

The one bad thing is that we will NOT be in by Thanksgiving, most likely it will be early December. Look for an Owen Open House sometime that month. We expect all of you to show up.

Tom taking a shower.

We did lose an alcove in the pantry due to the basement stairs, so I don't know where we will put all 200 of our cookbooks. It's amazing how many course corrections Joe has had to make from the plans. We just trust him. It's a small house, so when you come don't be surprised. The not so big house. I shall not want what I haven't got and all that. Anyway, it will be a cozy 1800 square feet.

We are trying to find a farmer to disc up our future garden, but no luck so far. We did go on a tour of a large organic farm outside of Edwardsville: Biver Farms. It was really cool.

High hoop houses with tomatoes.

Our neighbor, Adam, works part time for them while going to SIU-E. So we got an insiders tour. We met the original land owner and organic farmer: he was a hoot!

It's Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm all over again folks. They also had bees, chickens and horses.

That's all for now. We are going on the Natchez Trace and then visiting friends in Nashville. So I'll be ya'alling as much as Paula Deen. Next post probably won't be until Nov. 1st or so. By then the drywall will be in and then they start the flooring.

Little House on the Prairie

Paw! Paw, come quick! The Little House on the Prairie is a-growin'. Jumping Jiminy so it is!

We gots walls.

The driveway is, well, almost normal.

Tom was happy about this as the wood burning pizza oven, smoker and grill are all going over here.

And then there were walls.

Two days later the first floor was getting framed.

Front door. And yes I am wearing my Dharma shirt.

Tom contemplating the dining area.

So it looks like next year we will have one of our big, famous Thanksgiving dinners. There is no way we will be in before then. I am hoping for a couple weeks before Christmas (although I don't know why that is important to me). We are already complaining about how we will have to scale back what we cook in the apartment: maybe a small bird with a teaspoon of stuffing, only one pie (damn!) and a couple of sides. This is killing us, folks!

Back acres: Mowed!

So after we messed around on the house site, Tim and Ryan chased us away. They were using nail guns and we were in the line of fire. We went off to see what our neighbor, Dave, did in the back. The 6 feet tall weeds are gone. He has planted pasture grass on his land but we will just let nature take it's course on ours. Besides, someday I will have my very own baby tractor. I am lusting after a nice John Deere.

Neighbor Dave and Tom.

They just have a small shed on their property. We took Dave over to see our house and he started talking about maybe putting in a double-wide. Tom and I both sucked our collective breaths in. We had placed a covenant on the other lots when we bought ours: no mobile homes. So we'll see what happens. Right now they are only talking about a horse, cow and maybe a pig (or prosciutto, as Tom calls them). All will produce nice poop for the farm.

I promised a photo of our other neighbors:

Ottterville Twp. Cemetery.

See? It's small and quiet and will not be putting a double-wide on itself anytime soon.

That's all she wrote, most of the lighting, plumbing, cabinets, counters, doors, windows and flooring have been picked out. Next week the roof goes on and the weather has been with us so far.

Far From the Madding Crowd

When your neighbors are dead people, you have to wonder. We make jokes about how they are quiet and don't have wild parties. Most of you do know that there is a 1/2 acre cemetery on the north east corner of our land? Somehow it doesn't bother us. I donno, the place seems almost happy: whirl-li-gigs on some of the graves, fresh plastic flowers. What's not to like?
Last week saw some progress: walls went up and the driveway from hell (and then purgatory) became less so.

Basement got framed first.

The "family room" is on the left and two bedrooms are on the right. They will be for visitors, kids who can't get jobs, guests who drink too much....believe me you do not want to drive at night on Otterville Rd. It seems like every time I open up the newspaper, someone has gotten into an accident. Lots of motorcyclists use the local roads in the fall. Tom will have to be careful when he opens his baguette and Calvados stand.

Tom and Joe (the builder) checking out stud work.

Most of the wood for framing is fir. Joe said pine is very hard to come by. Wonder if the pine borers have done damage to the forests?

Outstanding in her field.

We took a look at our weed crop in the upper acreage. Yikes! They are taller than me. Asked our neighbor if he could cut them down with his tractor.

We are going to check things out tomorrow. Let's hope they have started framing the first floor. We are getting tired of this teensy tiny apartment. It's been made worse by the fact that whenever a piece of furniture that we will need at the new place goes on sale, we have been buying it.

Coyote food.

This is why we keep telling well meaning family and friends that we must have BIG dogs. We have seen at least two kills on our land (one a small dog with tags) and a bobcat recently crossed in front of our car on Otterville Rd. Plus the buffalo gnats will probably kill small dogs too.

So visit us at your own risk.....bwah hah hah! (Supposed to be an evil laugh)