The Perks of Snowmageddon

If you haven't been paying attention to the news, you may have missed that Kansas is buried under snow. We have had not one but TWO large snowfalls. Large amounts of snow may make you think that I would be questioning our move to a smaller town because our streets take forever to get plowed and cleaning our driveway is an all day affair. Yet, I've grown to appreciate our life out here more since Snowmageddon has happened.

Dharma appreciates the snow, too.

First of all, we have gotten to know more of our neighbors. When we first moved into our house, I imagined our front door being blocked with large baskets full of homemade baked goods from our loving neighbors. Instead, we got a riding lawnmower when one of my neighbors saw me pushing a mower around our very grassy acre of land. The rest of the neighbors have stayed closely shut in their houses. So much for country hospitality. Well last week, while my husband and I were struggling to shovel 10 inches of snow off our driveway with a shovel and a sled, our neighbor across the way, who we have never met, came to our rescue with a second shovel and proceeded to introduce herself....10 months after we first moved in. We had only met her cats before, so it was great to finally meet her.

Yes, she lives in the house at the bottom of our driveway, and it still took us 10 months to meet her.

We've also been able to enjoy the hospitality of our neighbors. The same neighbor who let me borrow his riding mower also owns a bobcat. He had our cul-de-sac and everyone's driveways shoveled hours before the city came by!

Bobcat FTW

The snow has cut into my trips to the gym, but who needs a gym when you have a unique form of exercise that works your quads, various arm muscles, and abs. Thanks to our steep, long driveway, I get all the exercise I could ever want....and more.

This is what we had to shovel when we had a light snow. Now add 9 inches.

Another perk of the snow was seeing the city's version of a snow plow. I looked out our door one evening to see a Transformer-like John Deere machine shoveling our road. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It looked like it could shovel snow and save the world.

The last neat thing about the snow is that it reveals how many creatures prowl our yard. Our front yard is covered in mysterious prints. The snow has also proved quite entertaining, because I get to watch creatures frolic and wade through the snow.

Hi-ho! Hi-ho! We wade through the snow!

New Year, New Cat

Update: In my last post, I mentioned that I didn't like seeing discarded Christmas trees in the lake. Well, I heard a story on NPR a couple weeks ago that said fishermen actually like having those trees in there because fish like to hang out and feed among the trees! Now we know!

To begin this New Year, New Cat post, I will apologize for not writing as often as I could. My goal has been to write once a month until the summer/gardening/composting/etc adventures begin. Life is a little slow out here in the country during the winter. But to make winter a little more exciting and to ring in the new year, my husband and I adopted another cat on New Year's Eve. Meet Hurley:

Herro! (When Hurley meows, it sounds like he's greeting you.)

"Herro?"  "Get off my tower."

Hurley is a lovable, overweight ball of love. His passions in life are eating, opening any and every door, getting in his little (by size and age because he's a little older) sister's way, and greeting everyone with a friendly, "Herro?"

Talking about Hurley is a nice intro for a post I've been wanting to do about pets in the country. It seems that adopting Hurley will bring up our country cred because most people that live around us have a good number of pets. There are some strict laws in the suburbs about keeping pets on a leash. (My dad got ticketed in the park for letting his shih tzu off the leash in a very large open field. I would have hated to be the park ranger who gave him the ticket after just hearing my dad angrily tell the story.) Yet, one of the things I noticed when we were even just looking for houses is that pets, especially dogs, get to roam around. After one house visit, we actually had to trail behind a pack of dogs as they took over the small road.

This roaming behavior has become even more apparent as we have lived in our house for almost a year. Here are some of the funniest tales:

DOGS
We have a lot of dog encounters on our walks and bike rides. A couple yorkies  live down the street. While they charge at us during the day, yipping and jumping for attention, they stealthily stalk us at night. I have come home at night and seen a creature darting up my driveway at full speed. There are no street lights on my street, so as you can imagine, I maced the thing. Just kidding! I just kicked it and ran in the house. Also not true.

A pair of smelly golden retrievers live on one of our favorite walking routes. Although we have now learned to walk single file sneakily on the opposite side of the road, in the past we have had to endure them charging at us. After a little bit of barking, they decide that they would actually love a walk and will follow wherever we go. We have had them follow us on a two mile walk. They walk in the middle of the street and go wallow in the golf course pond. They do this while staying pretty close to us, so I spend a good portion of the walk letting people know these are not our dogs. I'm sure they assume I'm a complete liar.

One of my least favorite dogs is on our bike route. He is usually passed out on his porch until he hears the gentle hum of bike tires on pavement. There is a sign in the yard that says BEWARE OF DOG, but what it should really say is THIS DOG WILL RUN AFTER YOUR BIKE, AND EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE A FENCE, HE KNOWS WHERE THE WEAK SPOT IS. The dog usually chases us a couple feet past his fence and then gives up. I thought about bringing mace on the ride, but my dad pointed up that, with the wind, I might just mace myself in the process. I now keep my water bottle ready in case the dog needs a shot in the face.

CATS
Very few of our neighbors have come to introduce themselves but have opted instead to send their cats. Our neighborhood is full of roaming cats, and they are extremely friendly. The only bad thing is that they don't understand privacy or creepiness......

'Sup?

Trees and Cats

A couple days before Thanksgiving,  my husband and I went Christmas tree shopping. We could finally fit a big tree in our abode! Previously, we were making due with a 3-foot tree that I had been putting up in my room since I was in sixth grade. It was time for an upgrade.We wanted a tree that was fake but looked real. I know a real tree would fit a "country" style better but cutting down a tree for a month of use does not really fit my inner hippie. It always makes me sad to see Christmas trees in the middle of the lake. Anyway, I digress.....

 We also wanted to put our own lights on it, but practically EVERY tree we found was prelit. We know how to put lights on a tree! We went to Target, Home Depot, and the other usual culprits, but all of the unlit trees were hideous. We ended up at Sears. They had our dream style of tree, but it was, of course, prelit. We hadn't found a tree that looked like this at any of the other stores, so we ended up relenting and decided to invest in some wire cutters. Although the tree came in both colored and white lights, we picked the white because we're racist the colored ones weren't very pretty. 

Dharma wishes you a Merry Christmas...kinda

The tree is now wrapped in pretty colored LED lights. We have yet to cut out the white lights, because they are easy to ignore. We turn both the white and colored lights on when we want that Griswold Christmas vibe.

To conclude, I share these pictures with everyone to raise your Christmas spirits!

Dharma got chickies and air pockets in her stocking!

Feliz NOM-idad!

The First Thanksgiving

When I say the "first" Thanksgiving, I don't mean the one in which the Native Americans saved the pilgrims. I mean the first Thanksgiving that I've had at our new place, in which I (sorta) played the part on the Native Americans and my extended family (not really) played the part of pilgrims. They have yet to come back and demand my land, so I'm feeling pretty good.

Thanksgiving was a big deal to me this year because it was my first time cooking a turkey. Also, it was my first time hosting a party of 10+ in which the guests weren't expected to graze off a bag of chips, a vegetable plate, and whatever beer could be found in the fridge. This was a CLASSY meal and my first attempt to prove that I was in fact edging my way into adulthood.

My first issue was that I was missing some of the key classy kitchen supplies. When my husband and I were registering for wedding presents, we were living in an apartment with a kitchen the size of a broom closet. I enjoy cooking, but I knew I could not fit half the stuff I wanted in the kitchen. I had to pass on the items that were use-once-maybe-twice-a-year-if-you're-lucky types of things, so I was missing those all important Thanksgiving dinner items: butter dish, gravy boat, and a turkey roasting pan. I know I referred to this as an issue, but it was the best issue to have. It gave me an opportunity to visit Pryde's, the wonderful, local, hole-in-the-wall kitchen store in downtown Westport. They have kitchen crap piled EVERYWHERE. It's orderly, but it's certainly no Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Every inch of this store is taken up, and they have every kitchen doo-hickey you could imagine. I got to enjoy a free cup of coffee while I ogled their gigantic supply of Fiestaware. We got a lot of beautiful Fiestaware for our wedding, and I wanted to continue the colorful trend in my Thanksgiving service. I hadn't been able to find a Fiesta gravy dish in the larger retail stores, and Pryde's had them in every color of the rainbow. I got a beautiful lemongrass gravy boat, because what goes better with brown gravy than bright green (just go with it). My parents, either out of love or trying to make sure I didn't embarrass myself during my first Thanksgiving, rounded out my collection with a Fiesta butter dish in flamingo and a stainless steel turkey roaster.

Just like the pilgrims used hundreds of yeas ago.

So I had my kitchenwares; now I needed to put them to use. It's overwhelming how many different turkey recipes are out there, but lucky for me, Food Network Magazine's November issue was really an idiot's guide to Thanksgiving. I used their basic recipes to make what I think turned out to be a pretty darn good turkey. My gravy was so good that my dad said so, which is a big deal coming from a man who has worked in and around the restaurant industry most of his adult life. My husband made his signature mashed potatoes, and the rest of my family filled in the gaps with all of their delicious sides.

20lbs of beauty

Apparently making a turkey was not a enough of a challenge, so I also made my own centerpieces based on something I had seen on Pinterest. With the guidance of my husband, I (mostly him) drilled small holes from the tops of gourds and inserted votives. I don't know how safe it was to have open flames on the table as my family handed dishes back and forth, but no one caught on fire from my festive table decorations. I think I learned in leadership class and from Stephen Covey that this is what we call a win-win situation. They win by not being caught on fire. I win because something I took from Pinterest actually worked out.

Don't burn yourself reaching for the butter!

Pinterest FTW

Overall, the first Thanksgiving at our country home was a success. Both the food and the company were exceptional. My favorite part was seeing my family sitting on our porch, swinging on our tree swing, kicking the bouncy ball, using our playset, and enjoying each other's company. It's a great way to break in a home.

Fall is in the Air

Fall is in the air and so are all the leaves. Well, they're actually ALL OVER my yard. I know I should have seen this coming, but we bought our house in March when all the trees were barely getting their leaves back. I loved how many trees we had in our yard because I was getting tired of all the pansy, just-planted-because-we-tore-out-all-signs-of-life trees in the suburbs. But with so many trees comes a bajillion leaves. What are we to do? I have a fence, so I can't just wait for them to blow into my neighbors' yards. Is it really worth it to put 100 compost bags of leaves on the curb? (I've seen the houses that said "Yes" to this last question, and I secretly judged them.)

"We laugh leaves in your general direction! Bwhahahahaha!"

My dad told me that if I mowed frequently enough, the mower would mulch all the leaves. I rode the John Deere around the yard a couple of weekends ago, and I was fairly satisfied to see grass in my lawn again. BUT a storm came that night and knocked all the rest of the leaves in my yard. I'm fully prepared to go back and mulch the yard again, but now I have to deal with the piles of leaves that have nestled themselves on my back porch. Mr. Deere can't get into these nooks.

Blerg.

My father-in-law has so graciously offered to lend us his leaf sucker/mulcher thingy to tackle this project, but we're going to wait and make sure the trees don't have any more leaves to throw at us. I think this will mean more compost bags than I would prefer to put out, but my only other option would be to collect all the leaves and make thousands of leaf pressings in wax paper. I'm pretty sure I'm losing country-cred either way since I should be burning all of this.

On a final note, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I'm not sure if we'll get any trick-or-treaters out here (which is sad), but we have a lot of candy (which is happy). Maybe I should give out waxed paper pressed leaves?

Hedge Apple Hell

      I have always enjoyed seeing green hedge apples strewn across open fields. In fact, I like them so much that they made a guest appearance in my engagement photos. But my love was lost when I realized I had one of those prolific trees sitting it my front lawn.

"Let's make sure to not buy a house with a hedge apple tree after we get married." "Okay, I'll try to remember that."

     When we bought our house, I noticed that there were some hedge apples around the base of our front trees, working almost as a mulch. They eventually decomposed, summer came, and I didn't see any hedge apples for a few months. 

This is my second bin today.

     A handful of hedge apples started showing up in my yard a few weeks ago, but the squirrels made quick work of them. Unfortunately, the squirrels have not been holding up their end of our hedge apple bargain (many of my other trees have nuts of them now, so I get to enjoy the gentle crashes of discarded nut shells hitting my roof in the morning). My front yard, my driveway, my cul-de-sac, and my neighbors' yards are now covered in hedge apples (it doesn't help that I live on a hill!). While I would have probably let them mellow, I felt bad that my neighbors had to deal with my hedge apples, so I've started picking them up when I get home from work. I took a page from the previous homeowners, and I've been using the hedge apples as a pretty mulch (also I'm too lazy and cheap to buy mulch). 

fml

     Picking up the hedge apples has become more of an endeavor than I expected. Every time I think my hedge apple tree is done dropping its bundles of joy, I wake up to find my yard once again covered. But after getting two bins full today, I'm convinced they're almost all gone. We'll see.......

Please let this be the last bin of the season!

  

The Spirit of Making

When you live in the suburbs, you're close to about everything your consumer-driven heart could want. Before I moved to our country home, I lived in between two major shopping centers. I could turn right OR left out of my apartment complex and be at Target in five minutes. With everything within reach, or at least close enough to be shipped to us in two business days, I think we've lost the ability to make or to even think about making stuff for ourselves. Yet, I feel that with a more country-esque environment comes a spirit of making.

This spirit of making afflicted my husband back when our country home was just a twinkle in our eye. He's a computer engineer, so his brain is always thinking of cool things to make/build/crush Windows. When he asked me a few years ago if I wanted to go to a Maker Faire in San Francisco, I agreed without really knowing what I was getting  myself into. Turns out it was a super cool two-day event where people show off the stuff they make. Yes, there were women with quilts and other crafts, but it was predominantly neat (Chill out. Quilting is neat too.) projects like a robot giraffe and a bike the draws as you pedal. There were soldering (pronounced sod-dering) stations that taught kids (and perhaps twenty-something ladies who dated engineers) to solder and make cool electronic kits. Adam Savage from Mythbusters spoke on the main stage. Overall, it was just a neat event that encouraged everybody to deconstruct and reconstruct the world around them, to know how things work, and to make. 

Who knew molten lead could be so fun?

Adam Savage is a righteous dude.

The spirit of making stayed with us after San Fran, and lucky for us, Kansas City has held its own Maker Faire twice already. Now that we're in our own home, and free to use power tools at all times of the night, my husband and I have set forth making that which we could have bought from the store or internet but preferred to try on our own.

Project #1- The Cat Tree

We got out a wooden ladder to replace a light bulb in our living room in our apartment one day. The ladder is now and has been a (semi) permanent fixture in all my living rooms. Why? My cat LOVES it. She races up and down the rungs, sharpens her nails on it, and sits on the "This is NOT a step" section while watching birds out the window. As you may imagine, I'm not too stoked about a ladder in the main area of our house, so my husband agreed that we needed a cat tower. When we looked at the ones at big chain pet stores, we weren't excited about the designs or the prices, so my husband decided to build one himself. Not only was it cheaper (if you don't count all the tools he bought to create it), but it had all the elements that our cat, Dharma, would love: a ladder, a hammock, and plenty of looky-outy places. Behold the awesome cat tree:

Note the ladder right next to it. We're slowly weaning her off it.

Dharma tries out her hammock. My husband  made that too!

Project #2- The Necklace Holder

I joined Pinterest around the time we moved. It has been an excellent resource for cool country-inspired crafts. One of the things I saw and liked was a necklace holder made out of a scrap of wood and door handles. I found some beautiful (and well priced!) handles at World Market. With the help of a drill (and my husband), I had a cool necklace holder in minutes. 

Follow me on Pinterest by clicking on the link on the right hand side of this page. You may enjoy my board "Country Home."

There are still a lot of projects we have up our sleeves. My next project (c/o Pinterest) will be to turn a mason jar into a soap dispenser. I'll let you know how that turns out!

SPEAKING OF MAKING Bike MS is less than two weeks away! I made my goal (thanks to some lovely people), but I'm trying to help my dad make his. He's only $45 from his goal, so if you have a few dollars to throw his way, he and I would certainly appreciate it. Donate here!