June is flying by, and it is hard to believe that July is just a few weeks away! For the last month, the farm has been a whirlwind of activity. We dubbed this the “year of chaos”, knowing that the calm of the farm would need to be interrupted a bit to get the new house and garage built. But so far, so good – especially knowing that all of this temporary “chaos” will soon be replaced by the joy of living at our little farm.
The new garage is now up – and the foundation for the “Simple House” is complete and ready for the builders to begin this week to raise up the first walls of our home.
We thought for today, we would take a little tour around the farm in photos and show the progress. We hope you enjoy.
Happy Gardening! Jim and Mary
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The Farm In Photos:
It always amazes me every year how beautiful some of the blooms in our herb garden can be. The chives are always one of the first plants the bees will find and work in the garden, and their long gorgeous spiky blooms are easy for the bees to find!
“Grandma’s Flowers” No, that is not the actual name of these beautiful perennials – but it is the name my entire family has called them from as far back as I can remember. The original start to this flower came from my Italian Grandmother’s home in northeast Ohio and was transplanted at my parent’s house. Fast forward many years later, and nearly every one of my siblings has a start in their yard now – and they have found a permanent home at the farm as well.
The Chicken Coop with a fresh coat of paint. We built the majority of the coop with reclaimed metal roofing and barn wood, and it remains one of the favorite places for visitors to the farm to check out – especially when there are kids involved. Raising our own chickens has been one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things we have done since creating the farm. It also really helps power our garden!
The view of the upper pergola – still one of our favorite places to sit and enjoy the farm.
The completed concrete countertops for our barn’s outdoor kitchen area. We had them poured at the same time the foundation work was being completed – and so happy with how they turned out! We got to put them to good use for the first time yesterday at Wes’s high school graduation party at the farm
The potatoes are growing like weeds in our potato crates! Growing our potato crop vertically was one of the best decisions we ever made in our garden – not only saving space, but making the chores of weeding and hilling obsolete!
So far, June has been a great month of weather for all of our hanging baskets around the farm. Warm days and warm nights make for a great growing season for all of the plants at the farm!
Enjoying a little rest and relaxation at the firepit. I am sure in the coming week’s we will be spending many a night here looking up at the progress of the farm house at the top of the hill.
The daylillies in full bloom on the hillside behind the barn. This entire hillside planting was created for free from perennial cuttings and transplants from friends and family.
The house foundation is poured over the radiant heating tubes. It was exciting to see it all start to come together for the house. The radiant floor heat will not only be a huge savings to heat the house, but incredibly comfortable for Mary to never have cold feet in the winter!
The garage is up! It seemed absolutely unbelievable to us – but the crew from Weaver Barns showed up at 6 am – and had our garage up and completely sided 6 hours later. We have been so fortunate to work with so many great people on this project – from Ratai Builders, who excavated the entire site and created all of our foundations for the garage and house – to Weaver Barns with all of the details for the house.
With the garage complete in the background., the foundation for the house sits ready for the builders this week! This has been an exciting time for both Mary and I – and we both cannot wait to call the farm our home later this summer!
