Kitchen & Garden. . .Garden & Kitchen. . both are looking good!

What a handy guy!

It's been a while since my last update and the kitchen is really starting to come together.  Steve got most of the lighting installed last week and it looks great.  After taking down nine florescent fixtures we were worried that the six can lights and three pendants wouldn't give us the light we've been used to, but we really like the new look.  
Last week we went to pick out our slabs of granite and the backsplash tile.  They are scheduled to be installed next week then it's just fixing the sheetrock, a little paint and getting everything put back together.  Oh and the floor, I bought the stuff to 'refinish' the slate floor on one of our many trips to Lowes, so that will probably be the finishing touch.  I can't wait. 

Last week Steve and I took a break from working on the kitchen to trim up the trees around our property.  It was an all day task that really gave the yard a 'face' lift. We decided to trim up a large cedar tree back by the barn that we have said we wanted trimmed up for years.  'Papa' Steve cut the branches on the back side of the trunk longer than the others so the grandsons could have a 'ladder' to help them climb up the tree.   It's a great climbing tree for growing boys. 

If you haven't figured it out already, I think I'm in love with the greatest guy EVER!  And, if the kitchen project and hours of tree trimming weren't enough, he recently bought me the greatest gift a garden-girl could ever want.  It's like one of those Mantis tillers you see on TV, but this one is a Sears Craftsman tiller with a 4-stroke engine. . . yee haw!  After the nice rain we got last week the garden really began to grow, as did the grass and weeds.  So today was weedin' day.  Usually, this time of year I'd take on several rows everyday and hoe, hoe, hoe.  This morning I mini-tilled 70% of the garden in just over an hour.  Yea!  It was incredible!  Thanks, baby!  I love my new toy!


The plants really like the rain we got last week and has begun to look like a real garden.  The potatoes are getting tall so I've mulched them with lots of hay, along with the tomatoes and peppers.  I've been picking peas, radishes and spinach.  The onions are beginning to make bigger bulbs and the late plantings of melons, cukes and winter squash are all poking their head out.  Late last week I planted another row of okra and soybeans so the harvest will be a little longer, even though I'm not sure what I'll do with more.  I just can't stand to have blank garden space.  Here's a few new pictures so you can see how it's grown.

Potatoes, beets and asparagus

Brussels Sprouts

New lighting.  I don't know how this wound up down here?! 
Someday maybe I'll figure this program out. 

Peas ready to be picked

Pretty Day for Working in the Garden

It's May so I need to spend quite a bit of time out in the garden.  This morning it was such a beautiful morning, I hurried out right after breakfast.
  Over the weekend Steve bought me a handy-dandy mini-tiller that is just about the best gift ever!!!  I love this thing!  It's small and easy to handle between the rows in my garden without harming any of the plants.  Steve and I made quick work of all that tiny little grass that was growing in the aisles and between the rows of corn, beans and the like.  Yea!  Weeds gone in a fraction of the time.  I love my husband!!  

Potatoes and Leeks

Transplanted corn plants

This morning I planted gourds and mulched tomatoes and peppers with hay.  Then I did one of the hardest jobs in the garden. . . thinning.  I am so bad about planting too many seeds in a row.  I guess I'm afraid some won't come up or something, but they always so.  Then I have to go back and thin out perfectly good plants and them out.  Some of the corn plants had really gotten tall so I tried to be careful as I thinned them so I could transplant them somewhere else in the garden. 

Exciting Weekend with the Grandsons

'Papa' Steve and I drove to Texas this weekend to watch the grandsons play ball and to take Leyton his birthday kitten.  Leyton is now eight years old and quite a good little ball player.  Friday evening we went to watch him play a make-up game from earlier in the week and then he had  a regular game Saturday morning.  Saturday was the first game where they allowed the kids to actually pitch a couple of innings, then the coach finished out the game as usual.  Leyton got to pitch one of the innings and was so cute.  It was just like watching a major-leaguer in miniature.  He's growing up way too fast for his Grandma's liking!!!

Leyton loves his kitten 'Stormy'

Friday evening I went to watch Maddox practice with his TBall team and, as you'll see by my story, I'm so glad I did.  We expected to go watch Maddox and his TBall game after Leyton's ball game Saturday morning.  And, we were so looking forward to it.  He and his team are so cute. . . and funny.  They don't pay attention to the coach very well and spend most of their time in the field looking around, playing with their buddys or, like a little kid at the practice, picking a flower for his Mom then yelling from the field "I love you Mom".  Four year olds are so cute!!   Anyway, back to my story, Saturday morning after Leyton's game we were all getting ready to head over to Maddox's game when he ran around the back corner of their car just as the tailgate was lowering and smacked right into it.  It was totally an accident, but the corner of the door hit him directly in the forehead.  So, instead of getting to watch Maddox play ball, we got to go with him to the ER for six stitches. Poor, sweet boy. 

After lunch, Steve and I headed back to Oklahoma.  Later that evening I called to check on him and how he was doing with his stitches and he was playing at a birthday party.  Trin said he was doing fine and having fun showing off his bandaid.  In true Maddox form, nothing keeps that kid down for long. 

Hoping for Rain

The garden is beginning to take shape and looks different every morning when I go out.  Today the weather 'people' say we may get some rain this afternoon so my morning was spent spreading a little fertilizer around the plants that are well established.  If they get some good mosture this afternoon it should give them a boost and help with root development. 

Some of my potato plants have gotten tall so I wrapped the biggest ones in hay. I hope the wind doesn't blow it all away.  Later I will have to wrap the others and then cover the hay with a layer of dirt.  This will not only keep the weeds down and the mosture in, but the actual potatoes will grow in the hay/dirt mix. 

The carpenters came again yesterday and brought the new butcher block island top.  I love it and think it looks great!!   They also added some drawers and doors and are suppose to be done with their part of this transformation later in the week.  The granite won't be installed for about three weeks so we'll have time to get the lighting installed and get the accent walls painted.  So, while there's still plenty to get done, it's really beginning to look like the kitchen I was dreaming of.  I'm having problems uploading pictures today so I'll try to send new kitchen pictures later. 

Leyton's Kitten & First Veggies

Trip home from the Shelter

Making himself right at home!
Steve's chair is his favorite place.

Leyton celebrated his 8th birthday last week and by all the pictures Trin sent, it looks like he had a wonderful time.  Steve and I got him a new baby kitten (with Kris & Trin's approval) and we can't wait to take it to him this weekend.  I don't think he'll be too surprised since I've sent him lots of hints, but he is going to be very happy.  We went to pick it up at the shelter last week so we could get it 'box' trained and used to being held and played with. 

I've also been spending lots of time in the garden lately finishing up the planting of all my fruits, flowers and vegetables.  Lots of seeds are beginning to pop out of the ground and some stuff has even begun to bear 'fruit'.  I picked the first broccoli today and a small amount of peas.  I can't wait for Steve to get home so I can cook them up. 

Monday I had to spend all day in the Logan County courtroom waiting to see if I was going to be selected for jury duty again.  The selection took all day since it was for a murder trial and everyone had to stay and listen to EVERYTHING in case they were called.  I am so glad I wasn't chosen!  The defendant was a 16 year girl that 'alledgedly' helped her 21 year old boyfriend kill her father two years ago. . . when she was only 14.  From what little I know about it, it sounds like she may have helped in planning the murder, but I'm not sure I could have sentenced a child to life in prison, which is what the state was looking for.  

Paint's On. . yea!

More Kitchen Pic's

West wall.

East wall

Just thought I'd post some new pictures of the kitchen.  Most of the woodwork has been installed and there's just a few more things to do before the painters come.  On the west wall you can see the new structure for the 'soon to be' wine bar with big drawers below.  The top two drawers will be for napkins, openers and things like that. Then he made the other drawers deep enough so we can set bottles upright and store platters upright. 

On the east wall you can see the 'desk' area that has small drawers for pens and pencils, etc. and big deep drawers that will hold files for pictures, garden stuff, catalogs and the like.  As soon as everything's finished, I'll see if I can find a comfortable bar stool that will fit under that open space. 

All the doors and drawer fronts are at the carpenters shop and have already been painted.  So, after the painters come to paint what's been installed here, it will look finished in little to no time.  Granite guys are coming tomorrow to make the template for the rock and talk about the backsplash tiles.

Steve has done quite a bit of electrical work and added a plug-in next to the desk area.  He's been working to get ready to install the range hood after the paintings done and hopes to start the overhead lighting today.   I peeled off the old wallpaper on the north wall the other day and sanded the door and woodwork that we want painted to match the cabinets.  It's been busy times around here. . . but, I'm so excited seeing it come together.   

1889er's ?

Last weekend Guthrie celebrated 89er's Day, an annual festival to commerate the land run of 1889 when the unassigned lands of Indian Territory were opened to non-native Americans for settlement. And, while I could be sharing pictures of the carnival or of the parade (if I had been there), what I'd like to show you is something that I have found facinating for years. . . and truly is the story of people coming here to live in those early days. 

About fifteen years ago Steve leased 240 acres about ten miles from where we live to run his cattle on.  As you drive into the property there is this old house, which as obviously been well lived in over the years and added onto several times.  I've often tried to figure out which part actually was built first and which parts were added as the family grew or, maybe, as money allowed.  When we first began to lease the land you could actually walk through parts of the house as long as you were careful not to step in a hole or trip over fallen ceiling boards.  You could see the layers of old wallpaper and linolium floor coverings and I even scavaged a few cool old glass door knobs.  I always wondered about the people that might have lived there, were there chickens or cows or kids?  And, especially what it might have been like to prepare a meal in that tiny kitchen for, what may have been, a large family.  There's a storm cellar that's always full of water now, but I would bet, was once full of bushel baskets of potatoes and shelves lined with goods canned for the winter. 

Now, here's the part a about the land run. . .  just out behind this house is what remains of an old two story log house.  It's hard to say how big it once was since most of it has long since been eaten away by decades of rain and wind, but I'd say from what't left of the foundation, maybe 10 or 12 feet by about 15 feet.  The logs have all been cut down and knotched with an ax and, in some places, you can see how the corners once fit together.

Now, this is a place that makes you wonder.  

What makes a man, or a family, just stop at a place miles from any town and decide THIS is where they're going to stake our claim and build their lives.  I actually know how the land run worked and understand how someone may have had to take whatever land they could find.  But I can't imagine how difficult must it have been in those early years to grow enough food to feed the family that lived in that log cabin or begin farming or make it through Oklahoma's weather extremes.  I wonder if there were there children born in that cabin or how many people might have been sick or even died while living in that little log cabin a days ride from the nearest big city. 

Anyway, that's my 89er's story, even though I'm not sure that the builders of the cabin actually made the run. But, from the looks of it, they couldn't have been far behind.    Everytime we go out to 'the lease' I wonder about the two houses and wish I could 'see' what it might have been like to live there when they were new.