Redoing The Deck

 

I started with an after picture.  Because it makes me so happy!  :-)  

I didn't take a good before photo of the deck.  It was last stained in a dark brown, more then half of which was peeling, and a good half the deck was green with mold and mildew - it's a fairly shaded area.

This is the "during" photo.  This is after spraying it with a deck wash, and then hours of power washing.  At this point I've just started spraying the railing

I didn't really choose the deck stain color.  We went to Lowes for me to choose it, and in the "oops" pile was a huge can of deck stain.  $30, for $150 worth of stain.  Yes, that color will work just fine..  :-)

Next is the furniture I got free along the side of the road.  

When I saw the price of replacement cushions, I knew why it was free.  You can buy new furniture cheaper then you can buy new cushions!  Thankfully, I can sew.  :-)

A close up of one of the chairs, before - 

First I stained all the wood - along with an adirondack love seat and a few tables that I'm using on the deck, using leftover stain from the last time we stained the deck.  Then I went to my favorite outdoor fabric store - Surplus City, and bought outdoor fabric - $30 for 5 yards.  5 yards was almost exactly what I needed - I used the last scrap to make a pillow for on the swing/hammock.. so there is literally not a one inch scrap of this fabric left.  Not bad for guessing how much I would need!

I'm so happy with the result.  Here's the same chair, after - 

I bought a flat of the flowers shown here, and added them to two old metal pans I had kept in the shed to use for something like this.  

On the other side of the deck I added a new hammock/swing, and to the far right  I am fixing my broken table (the glass shattered in one of our storms last year) and I got a pretty new umbrella..  I'll have more pics later.

Each morning I come out here with my coffee, open the canister of sunflower seeds I keep on a table, and sing to the peacock, peahen, and 5 peachicks.. who come running as soon as they hear me sing, knowing I'm going to toss them sunflower seeds.  It's the favorite part of my day!

Geocoin Challenges

This site lists them all, by state - Awesome!

http://www.corfmania.com/geocoinchallenges

In PA we have - 

Allegany Geotrail http://www.alleghenygeotrail.com/

This is actually 11 challenges in one.  There is a coin for each county that you find 6 caches in, then an additional coin if you complete all 10 counties.

Allegany River Wilderness Island

http://www.alleghenyindianwaters.com/geotrail.html

a 26 mile stretch of caches located in the water - would make a GREAT two day kayaking trip!

http://www.armstrongcounty.com/geocaching.php?id=2

Get your passport at one of 3 locations, find 25 caches

Butler Freeport Trail

httpA%2F%2Fwww.butlerfreeporttrail.org%2FBFTHGTpassport.pdf

I LOVE it when the passports can be printed ahead like this!

http://www.butlerfreeporttrail.org/geocaching.html

They request a $10 donation when completed, to receive the coin

Legends of Conservations Geotrail

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/geotrail.aspx

Collect all 30 cards.  Coin is not trackable, I've been unable to find a photo of what it looks like.  We do have a couple of the cards.  :-)

Mainline Canal Geotrail

http://www.mainlinecanalgreenway.org/geotrail.shtml

Logbook here - www.mainlinecanalgreenway.org%2Fdownloads%2FLogbook.pdf

Brand new - just started June 1st, in time for GWS11

" If you want to earn a commemorative NCT 2011 Medallion, you will need to find 50 of the 100 caches and get the hidden code word written on the inside of the lid of each cache. There is a coder sheet you can download on the cache pages. Find the cache, get the code word, write it down on your coder sheet, and once you get 50 caches, you can submit it to the ANF Chapter communications director for verification. If the codes match, you will receive your Medallion. There are only 100 Medallions being offered, so first come first served."

bookmark list of the caches

South Mountain Geotrail

http://smgeotrail.blogspot.com/

Get your passport at these locationas - http://smgeotrail.blogspot.com/p/rules-guidelines.html

Clearfield County Geotrail

The Clearfield County Geotrail is now open.  Log onto www.geocaching.com to get the official cache cordinates, register now its Free!   2011 theme is cemeteries of Clearfield County.  First you need to pick up an official Clearfield County GeoTrail Passport book, then you need to find 25 out of the 30 geocaches spread throughout the County.  At each geocache location there is a unique stamp to use inside your passport.  After collecting 25 stamps you can bring your passport book into our office or send it in for validation, then we give you a unique wooden coin for completing our geocaching trail.

http://www.seawaytrail.com/geotrail
Bookmark List - http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=565b3237-3f5e-4ca3-bcca-7d7108baadf4

Sheep Shearing today!

This should have been done a long time ago, but with our super wet spring..  we're running late.  The sheep look good, except for Delilah..  we knew she wasn't doing well, but it's shocking to see how tiny she was under all her wool.  We wormed her specifically for lung worms today, thinking maybe the broad spectrum wormers we rotate are missing something.

You can see all the pics on our farm blog - 
http://hickoryspringfarm.blogspot.com/2011/06/sheep-shearing-today.html

Sheep Shearing!

This should have been done a long time ago, but with our super wet spring..  we're running late.  The sheep look good, except for Delilah..  we knew she wasn't doing well, but it's shocking to see how tiny she was under all her wool.  We wormed her specifically for lung worms today, thinking maybe the broad spectrum wormers we rotate are missing something.

Before the shearing - Samson, Delilah, Lucy

Delilah being sheared.  I don't know when she was sheared last, if ever.  I'm thinking that may be, in part,  why she is not healthy 

Delilah, after.  look how tiny she is!  My poor girl!

Lucy being sheared. She's Delilah's baby, and not so tiny.  :-)

wool

Lucy, with her baby that was born this spring.  The baby didn't get sheared, she will next spring.

Samson

Samson after

http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/

Tuesday Garden Party

My Tackle It Tuesday Project today -  Before.

There was a butterfly bush here, but I trimmed it a bit too enthusiastically the other year, and it didn't come back.  :-(  The one on the other side of the steps is now huge, and taking over..  but I'm afraid to trim it back!  :-)

After -

The iris are blooming!  They are one of my favorites, even though they don't make a good cut flower usually...

Just a tad overgrown.  :-)  I'm really thinking about pulling those bushes out completely..  but for now I really need to trim them back!  I cut all the iris that are on the ground here and put them in vases in the house.

More flowers in the house - 

I found a plant stand, like a yard sale, but all plants, in Muncy..  everything was $1!

Black raspberries, conflowers, brown eyed susans, shasta daisies, sweet pea,  lily of the valley...

I cleaned out the bed to the front of the house, and planted a lot of the new plants in here.  It will  probably be too crowded when they all get big, but I can always move them later.  :-)

In the vegetable garden, my beans are coming up nicely.

Farm Work Monday

My husband has Monday's off, so it's the day we try to get most of the farm work done around here.

This morning we knew it was going to rain..  so we skipped breakfast and got straight to work, hoping to get a bunch done before it started.  We did pretty good!

Moved the ram, Samson, from the front pasture with the goats, to the maternity pen with the sheep.  We meant to move him with the sheep earlier this spring, but couldn't catch him.  :-)  The shearer is coming on Wednesday, so we wanted all the sheep together and easy to catch..  which is why they are in the maternity pen, it's a much smaller space. 

 Earlier this spring one of the high wind storms collapsed a small shelter we had in the lower pasture.  It's been so wet, we haven't been able to get a truck into the field to clean it up.  We were able to get in there today finally!

Also from the lower pasture..  each year after a local town does their christmas tree collection, the boy scouts collect them and bring them here to the farm.  We throw them in the pasture for our goats, who love them!  Then in the spring we gather them all up and take them out to the fence row for the rabbits and pheasants.  We had three trucks full like this to take out today.

In the last series of strong storms (tornadoes touched down nearby) the roof came off the goat shelter, and the extra shelter on the back of the upper shed, for the horses, collapsed.  The roof, which was a heavy metal, of the goat shelter twisted like foil - it could not be saved.  So for now we brought down the roof from the horse shelter that collapsed (the horses have a barn  too) to give the goats shelter until we can rebuild shelters for them. 

The roof bends a little in the middle, but Dan assures me it's sturdy and will hold until we get the new shelter built.  This one took a beating in that last storm, it will hold, but we'll want to take it down and rebuild it completely before winter/heavy snows.

During the worst of the rain we cleaned the garage..  I got some the garden weeded and  the front flower beds cleaned out and planted with some flowers...

All in all, not too bad.  It's a mess out there, there's still SO much to do, but at least we made a dent today.

Twix Bars

Recipe from the peppermint plum blog.  They are easy, and really good!

48 Club Crackers 

1 c. graham cracker crumbs 

1/3 c. sugar

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/3 c. milk

1/2 c. butter

Topping*:

1 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Layer crackers on bottom of pan

Cook sugar, milk, and butter over high heat.  Add graham cracker crumbs, bring to a boil, let boil for 5 minutes to make caramel.

Pour over crackers, immediately top with more crackers, then top with melted chocolate.

The Application of the Martha & Mary passage

A  woman I know had a practical "today" application for the Martha/Mary discussion.  She helps a lot in the kitchen at our church, and she said (NOT naming names) that there are some women she will not ask to help, and if they are signed up to help, she makes sure to line up additional help to cover for them.  Because when they are supposed to be helping in the kitchen, they end up spending the time talking, then apologizing because they "just wanted to check on so and so" or "say hi to so and so that was visiting".  She equated this to Mary - seeking the spiritual, and a GOOD thing.  But the reality is, someone needs to do the work, and when  you are signed up to be the Martha that week, you need to let someone else be the Mary. 

I thought that was good.  :-)

Another online friend mentioned that she sees the story as a heart issue only - that Martha should have been happy to do her work, not focussed on what others were not doing.  "Do everything as unto the Lord".

In the NLT (which is a paraphrase of the bible, not the whole bible, but I sometimes like to check when I'm having trouble with the subjective meanings) says
 "41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”"

So based on that, maybe it's about not sweating the small stuff - more about perfectionism and lack of proper priorities? 

This makes me wonder if Mary JUST sat at Jesus feet, or if she did the work that truly needed to be done, then went to sit and hear Jesus..  and maybe Martha was a bit more concerned about everything being "just so" ?  Obviously pure speculation..  but it doesn't actually say that Mary didn't help at all, just that Martha was "cumbered" about it. 

Cumber - 1. To weigh down; burden: was cumbered with many duties.

The KJV says -

"40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

My husband sometimes tells me that I make work for myself - worrying about unimportant household tasks and details.  I wonder if that is what Martha was doing?