Country living Archives - Page 2 of 7 - The Weekend Country Girl

Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, family, ship lap, shopping, Style

A Fixer Upper Trip

April 12, 2016 Karen

Hello guys. Have you missed me as much as I have missed you, and sleep, and a clean house? We are almost moved out of the burbs and into our forever home. Just a few more trips I hope. Monday night I sat on the porch and cried because my long-suffering husband asked me what to do with a box of spray paint. I am so over it when it comes to moving that I am not even rational any longer. In the near future I am going to tell about our experience downsizing, but not tonight because I couldn’t be a lady about it right now.

On this night, oh my gosh, do I have news for you all. I promised you a while back I would fill you in on our trip to the Waco area and things to do when you visit and I am going to fill you in, BUT IT GETS EVEN BETTER AT THE END.

First of all, the map below shows you where Waco is in relation to Austin, Belton, Salado, and Round Top (east of Austin).

Austin, the undisputed hippest city in in Texas, is an hour and a half away from Waco. I am not going to fill you in on Austin tonight, but if you are making a visit to Magnolia Market part of a vacation, make sure to include Austin in your trip.

On my last post I shared with you that we recently visited Magnolia Market (The Silos) and Waco. One question I got asked over and over again was: was it worth the drive. As a huge fan of JoAnna’s style, I loved the market, but the drive for us from Coldspring was over three hours there and the same back. I enjoyed shopping in the market and had a great day, but in order to make the trip really worth while, our next trip will be a weekend adventure. (We will drive up Thursday night, then spend Friday and Saturday exploring and head home Sunday.) wait for it friends, it is going to be good at the end. ( Skip to the end here if you want my super cool news first.)

Here is what I thought our future trip was going to include:

Thursday I thought we would be staying at a bed and breakfast- There are two I was interested in:

Friday

Breakfast at the B and B then off to
Magnolia Market which opens at 10:00 but we will try to get there about 9:30. We should finish at Magnolia Market by 11:30- just in time for lunch at one of the food trucks conveniently located.
Harp Design Co because I want to see the shop where all those amazing tables and benches come out of and hopefully I will find something I can’t live without. The Harps have a whole list of Waco favorites. The two that caught my eye are Lula Jane’s if you are driving in for breakfast and Club Sandwich if you are looking for a fun food truck lunch.
The Findery. How did I miss this one the first time? It is for sure going on my list next visit.

Junque in the Trunk Waco- I could only find a Facebook page, but with 70K follwers, they must be doing pretty well.

I have a feeling the guys would rather hang out at one of the restaurants or diners on LaSalle while we shop.

Head on to McGregor, Texas. The Magnolia House and the Carraige house just on the show is there and it is worth a visit.

I also want to visit the Cedar Chest Antique Mall that has been featured on several episodes of Fixer Upper.

Another fun place to visit is Megregor General Store.

I got this cool sign there.

Friday evening will be up for grabs. Lake Waco looks beautiful.

Saturday

We will head out to Salado, Texas. I love this place so much that we visit every chance we get. Here is a blog post I wrote about that cool little town a few years ago.

Sunday we will head home slowly. Eating Kolaches, stopping at fun shops, and enjoying central Texas.

Okay. Here is the big news. (It is big news to me anyway!) After I already started this post and was all set on going back, I saw on Country Living that two houses that were on Fixer Upper are now rentals in addition to Magnolia Home. One of them was my absolute favorite from season 1. The Gorman Story. On a whim I decided to look it up just to see if we could rent it and guess what? They had an opening in October Friday and Saturday night. I am so excited to get to check it out, spend time with my sweet family in the home, and visit Waco again in the fall. Woo Hoo.

We are going to get to take Lucy, Sweet Amanda, Baby Boy, The Southern Belle, Big Cat, and our buddies The Social Planner and Larry on the trip with us. It will be fun. I have a feeling the guys will find something other than shopping to do all day Saturday, but we are going to enjoy our trip.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my posts. I love hearing from you,

Blessings,

Karen

Building a Home, cedar lumber, Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, mudroom, Ranch House Overhaul

Creating a Mudroom

March 18, 2016March 19, 2016 Karen

Well, after 6 months, we have 99% completed our mudroom.

We started with one large room that at one time was a two car garage. The room was great, but in a home that is on a dirt road, in the country on 15 acres, in an area that gets a lot of rain, with muddy shoes, and a large dog (get the picture?) I needed a place for messy stuff to stop before making it all the way into our main living area.

The photo above shows the room without the wall and the previous owner’s stuff inside.

Before we even started, we installed vinyl plank flooring. I still love it and do not regret the decision. We also added recessed lighting and a cute little schoolhouse light above the door.

The first step was adding a wall to define the space. I am crazy about our tounge and groove pine walls that are whitewashed.

The next step was to add a bench. We hit the jackpot when my dad gave us a 2 inch slab of live edge cedar that is almost 18 inches wide and 90 inches long. It was the perfect bench seat. It is installed into the studs with cleats underneath. I cannot stop staring at it every time I walk in.

We need storage in this home. Desperately. So instead of cute open storage that I could fill with accessories, it was closed 30 inch stock cabinets painted white that are filled with bbq equipment, marshmallow roasting devices, tools, light bulbs and other not cute items. Our thought was that we would put things we keep inside but use outside in the space. The knobs are plain Jane and functional, but I like them.

We also added board and batten walls with a tall ledger board for coat hooks. I bought a multipack of hooks at Lowe’s for the space. I like how rounded they are in case one of the giant men who come in our house should connect their head with a hook.

Because there was a large open wall space and I hadn’t come up with a plan for a mirror or umbrella storage, we moved a very narrow hall tree that was a gift from my buddy, The Social Planner. It has a place for umbrellas at the bottom, a cool round mirror and additional hooks that will hold caps.

I painted all but the wood detail with chalkboard paint. I wanted the piece to go along with the large chalkboard on the other side of the door and the oak table. Don’t hate me for painting wood. I like a mix of wood and color. It was in rough shape at the bottom after years of mopping around it, and the metal umbrella holder needed to have the dents fixed. It will proudly serve us well for years to come.
The other side of the mudroom connects with our laundry room. We plan on adding a broom closet in the corner that currently holds all the dog toys. ( Just keeping it real, folks.) It will have a cool screen door when it is my closet!
We are also planning to add a pocket door to the laundry room so that the current 36 inch door is out of the way.

As soon as the suburban home sells I will be moving the galvanized tubs from the laundry room under the bench. I did bring one so I could make sure it will work. It does. I will be adding felt bumpers to the bottom of the tubs to protect the floors.

We have not been able to find the right ceiling white to touch up the ceiling. I really do not want to paint the entire ceiling right now so we will keep searching and the patch from the lighting will stay unpainted. We may have to take out a section of ceiling to color match if we can’t find it soon. (I have done that before, because I hate to paint ceilings.)

I am calling this room done enough that it doesn’t bug me and can move on to other projects once the ceiling is done. Our next step is to get the barn door in between the mudroom and dining area and enlarge our master closet. Slow and steady progress.

Thank you all for following along on our journey.

Blessings,

Karen

Building a Home, Coldspring, Country living, JJ Lane, mid-life

My Dream to Buy an Old Home

January 24, 2016January 24, 2016 Karen

I am about to share something with you all that is probably going to convince those of you who weren’t sure yet, that I am in fact totally insane.

It has been my dream for years to buy and old home and restore it. (Old homes in Texas are not the same as old homes on the East Coast. 75 years old is an old home.) I always thought we would buy a historic home (100 year old) and bring it back to life when we retired, but providence (or Providence Acres) had other plans. It looks like we are going to end up on 15 beautiful acres that we love with a 1980 ranch home to mess around with.

The yearning to own and restore and old home has remained even though I love our spot on JJ Lane. My buddy, The Social Planner, knew my dream and came over with news when we arrived Friday night. She had seen an old home that needs to be moved not too far from us. Saturday morning she and I headed out to check the place out.

The land around the house is being cleared. It appears the home was buried in the woods around it for a while. I was smitten with the front porch. My guess is that this home was built in the 1940’s.

Beadboard barrel ceiling with side lights.

The inside…well, let’s just say it would probably scare most folk off. (The sane ones, anyway)

The Sheetrock has been removed and only the shiplap is showing.

The front bedroom above is a nice size the windows and the hardwood flooring is still there. All the rest of the room and the bath down the little hall have been gutted. I saw potential.

The kitchen is a mess.

At some point the kitchen was remodeled and a tile kitchen counter was added.

The sun room on the back has beautiful beadboard and a bank of Windows across the back.

Someone has removed the wall between the two rooms in the front of the house and I am not sure how long that temporary support is going to hold. There is also a brick chimney on top of the house that would have to go. The pipe in the wall leads to the chimney.

The back bedroom has some shiplap that is 18 inches wide. Termites ate the Sheetrock paper but didn’t seem to touch the wood. The lines you see are termite tunnels.

Someone has removed every door and the frames are stacked in the front room.

The front door is still there, which I love.

All that sheet rock removal helps to see the structure of the house which is solid. The old girl is even still level with no sloping rooms.

I have no idea if moving this house is possible, if it is feasible, if it is financially possible, or even if this house is worth saving, but it has sparked a renewed desire to have a home to restore. We have a lot of checking to do before we even make an offer. My heart will not break if it doesn’t work out.

This may be an opportunity for us. We live near where the new Houston Area Boy Scout camp is getting built. They are anticipating 1000 boys a weekend yearly up here with at least that many for weeks during the summer. That means lots of parents driving up. We think that a bed and breakfast VRBO or Air BnB type home will be in demand when the Boy Scouts desend.

Right now we are prayerfully considering adding a cottage along with The Guest Shed for guests. This may not work out and it probably would be cheaper to build new, but I can dream. Between us and The Social Planner and her hubby I think we could manage. Especially once I retire. My buddy has a stash of supplies as big as mine and would enjoy the process as me.

Either way, I will let you know what we decide.

On a happy note Mr. Math got his tractor Saturday. He found an 8 year old tractor online with 102 hours on the engine for a great deal and he is thrilled.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

I love hearing from you.

Blessings,

Karen

collecting, Country living, Country Style, crafting, Decorating with mirrors, DIY, home decorating, Map, Ranch House Overhaul

Craft/ Guest Room Update

January 5, 2016February 11, 2016 Karen

Over the holidays we got a little done on the craft/ guest room. We aren’t finished with the room, but I am excited with how it is turning out. I love that this room really will have two functions.

The Guest Room

It is a guest room when the Murphy Bed is down and the Expando-Matic is closed.

See my zinc mirror? It found a great home after I changed offices and lost space at work.

I am planning an accent wall inside the Murphy Bed.

The quilt 0n top was made by my great grandmother. I just picked up the turquoise suitcase for fifty cents at a resale shop. I had to show it off.

The shelves that hold my globes collected over the years are made from left over plywood from the Murphy Bed build and brackets from Lowe’s. The yellow clock has a story. My dad was getting rid of the clock frame so I snagged it. The shutter was out of my stash. It got a coat of paint and will be my idea board.

The Craft Room

When the Murphy Bed is up and the Expando-Matic is pulled out I have six glorious feet of craft space. The most unfinished function of the room is the craft part. I need the leaves for the epansion built, some things installed, and the closet redesigned.

It is going to be awesome.

I am a lucky girl.

Here are some closer shots of the walls. The Texas map was rescued from the trash. Someone used permanent marker on it, the frame was broken and the bottom was messed up. It was perfect for me. I got the market off with hairspray in case you didn’t know that trick.

The room is coming together.

Thanks for following our journey to make our ranch into our forever home.

Blessings,

Karen

cedar lumber, Country living, mudroom, ship lap

Creating a Ship Lap Wall for the Mudroom

October 28, 2015October 28, 2015 Karen

Eight years ago the second owners of Providence Acres, our weekend home, took in the garage of our rambling ranch. The end result was that there was more room inside the home, space for a dining room and more usable space.

See the beam in the photo above? That is where the garage wall used to be. The garage space is what they used as their living space, as you can tell from the photo. They largely ignored the space around the fireplace that we use.

The downside to the former homeowner’s room configuration was that entrance to the house most used did not have a place to drop muddy shoes, coats, bags, and other assorted items. That door at the end of the room is the most used door in the home.

My solution was to build a wall at the end of the garage addition. Although it was my solution, Mr. Math did all the work to build the wall with a doorway connecting it to the main room.

Wow we have come a long way. No more concrete floor.
The great thing about the location of the mudroom is that we will be able to enter the house go directly into the laundry room and kitchen.

Before the wall was even up, I knew it would be covered in ship lap siding. I could not imagine the wall looking any other way. Oh, and it needs a barn door. An X style barn door. With black hardware…wait. I digress. We are not there yet.

Back to the ship lap. This time we went back to a product we used eight years ago. V Groove pine planks. We used them to fix the ceiling at Star Hill when we realized that the ceiling needed insulation

You can see the ceiling in the photo above. We installed it and allowed the wood to naturally darken over the years.

The wood comes in packages of six eight foot boards and is reasonable. Like less than $11.00 a package. All in, to cover two sides of a fifteen foot by eight foot tall wall it was right at $200.00. We added 1X4 pine boards as trim for the door, ceilings, and baseboards for another $50.00. Mr. Math put it up with the air nailer after he located the studs and marked them so that they could be quickly nailed.

We picked one crazy weekend to get the wall up. A tropical storm blew in. It rained. Buckets.

Insert Coldspring into the red band north of the 13.40

The wind blew. Hard. Our dog was totally freaked out by the air compressor being in the house. She got out and ran to hide at our neighbor’s house. She wouldn’t come home. Even in the rain. Fun times. Add to that a dead battery in the truck Sunday and you can imagine how grumpy we were.

We started by laying a plank on the floor and using it as a spacer. Be warned about this wood. You have to look at every single package. This is not first quality wood. I personally like the look of cracked boards, a bit of bark showing through and knot holes. Mr. Math…not so much. Neither one of us liked the warped boards that we had to convince to lay flat on the wall with a block and hammer.

In spite of everything, the wall got finished,the nail holes spackled, everything put away by dark Sunday.

I love the look. The texture is exactly what I wanted in the house. I plan on adding this treatment to the other end of the room eventually and our bedroom wall. But first, we need to get the mudroom done.

It was my plan to prime and paint the wall, like this room done by House of Smiths

but Mr. Math, the wood lover, has asked me to at least try whitewashing the wall.lie our suburban master bedroom.

He even agreed to sand the walls where I spackled. I am going to give it a shot, even though I see it painted white in my head. We shall see.

After the wall is taken care of, I will be sanding a beautiful two inch thick live edge cedar plank that is going to be our bench and the wall behind the bench needs to have some simple wainscoting and cabinets installed.

After the bench we get to build the barn door.

Thank you all for following along on our journey to turn this home into a place that reflects our rustic, easy care, dog friendly, family and friends welcome, home.

I love hearing from you. What are your thoughts? Painted ship lap or whitewashed?

Blessings,

Karen

Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, DIY, Flooring

The Flooring Reveal

October 6, 2015October 6, 2015 Karen

I do believe we have discovered the perfect flooring for our hard-working, very active house. It is durable, water-resistant, doesn’t take any special equipment, and it floats over the slab so it allows for movement.

We purchased Tranquility brand Rustic Reclaimed Oak click and lock vinyl planks from Lumber Liquidators and I am so happy that we did. The cost for vinyl plank flooring was less than $2.00 a square foot.

This picture was taken in the sunshine so you could get an idea how realistic the pattern is.

We have purchased the quarter round shoe molding but it was a very busy weekend and it did not get installed. Bummer.

I just couldn’t wait to show you the floor. My buddy, The Social Planner, also clued me in to this amazing microfiber mop/ duster thing from O’Cedar. It is a must have for this type flooring.

Make sure to get an extra cover. They go right in the washing machine and come out spotless every time.

O’Cedar Dual Action Microfiber

So, minus the shoe molding, here is my beautiful floor.

The coffee bar goes here. It will look amazing with this flooring.

In this picture ( of my beautiful whitewashed fireplace) you can see the shoe molding we had out to see how it looks.

Full disclosure here- the awesome olive bucket is not mine. I am babysitting it for a friend who is building a home.

The hallway is so pretty!

Do you notice I painted the coffee table? It looked too dark against the floor. I love it now.

The room is coming together. I love the floor in this space.

Thank you for joining us on this journey to reimagine this ranch home.

Blessings,

Karen

Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, fireplace

Whitewashing a Dated Fireplace

September 29, 2015September 29, 2015 Karen

This was our fireplace at Providence Acres when we bought the place. The photo is from our first walk-through of the house so the furnishings are not mine. I found I did not have another picture… probably because I did not like the look of the fireplace very much.

I have one word to describe the fireplace. Dated. Dark stained trim around the fireplace, reddish brick, and brass blower vents.

I decided that while Mr. Math was busy getting the flooring down, I should get busy whitewashing the fireplace.

Inspiration for whitewashing the fireplace came from a friend of my daughter who updated her fireplace and totally changed the look of her room. I knew it would be the fix for the hulking giant in our family room.

I went to the source of all things home related for instructions- Pinterest- and found a ton of sites that explained how to get it done.

Farm Fresh Vintage

The Yellow Cape Cod

Heap of Love

I believe that there are two reasons that whitewashing a fireplace is so common on Pinterest:

There is not a lot of skill that goes into whitewashing.
The change in the look of the fireplace is quick and dramatic.

The process is very labor intensive, but there is not much skill required.

To quote The Yellow Cape Cod “I apologize if you were waiting for a long, drawn out, step by step tutorial. This project is too simple and easy for me to complicate. If you are a fan of intimidating, stressful, complicated, multi-step, time-consuming, DIY projects that require a ton of special supplies and mad skills, this isn’t the project for you.”

Remove what you can before you start then cover everything with drop cloths and or blue tape that you don’t want painted.

Collect a bunch of cotton rags, a paint brush you do not love, and disposable gloves then get busy.

Mix one part water to one part latex paint. Paint the watered down paint on in small sections then use a damp cotton cloth to blot the excess paint from the bricks until you get the desired effect.

One blogger said she did this in three hours. I am not saying she didn’t, I am just saying that I worked as hard and fast as I could and it took me a little over 6 total hours and an Epsom salt soak for soreness to get mine done. An additional hour to paint the trim and vent covers.

It is scary to start. The contrast made me think I had lost my mind.

Once I got going, I really liked the look.

The top is whitewashed the bottom is not. The drips were a pain to clean up. Drop cloths would have helped as I worked down the fireplace.
FYI. I painted the vent covers with Rustoleum White Heat Resistant Spray Paint. No worries about the fireplace ruining the paint.

I love the look.

The screws are now painted, but I lost the light before taking another shot. We need lighting in that room!
The mantle decor for fall is not something I am crazy about but I am working with what I have this year.

Lumi loves her bed in front of the fireplace.

I would love to hear from you.

Blessings,

Karen

Comfort Food, cooking, Country living, Fun with friends

Belly Up to the Bar

September 11, 2015September 11, 2015 Karen

I know what you are thinking… and by bar I mean taco bar, waffle bar, ice cream sundae bar, salad bar, and grilled cheese bar.

Feeding a crowd is hard. Feeding a bunch of kids who can be potentially a bit picky, even tougher. Feeding 15 or so people quickly is almost impossible.

That is where a bar saves the day. The concept is simple; pick a theme, food or holiday then design the meal as a “Build Your Own”. This past weekend we had a group and had three meals that were build your own with options.

Check out these bars I have saved on my Pinterst board: (kasmithson) How to Feed a Crowd. The links to each of these bars is located just below each picture. Check them out.

Your Home Based Mom

Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms

We may have a hotdog bar this weekend. I just have to get someone to come eat them!

By Stephanie Lynn

The taco bar above uses chip bags as bowls.

Celebrations at Home

The spud bar will be a winter meal for our Thursday night group.
Sunday night we had the best bar. It was a grilled cheese bar. Gouda, mozzarella, cheddar, colby jack, and American cheeses.were the star along with three types of bread, carmelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, pancetta, homemade macaroni and cheese, and bacon were all options to put on the sandwiches.
The trick to a grilled cheese bar is to have one cook and not to assemble the sandwiches until the cook butters the bread and puts them on the grill.

Here is my friend, Tina giving instructions before the feeding frenzy. She manned the griddle until the bitter end.

Before the hoard descended on the grilled cheese bar I was able to snap a couple of pictures.

The surprise ingredient was macaroni and cheese. It sounds odd but the kids loved it. Oh, they loved the bacon, too. The huge griddle came in handy.

Monday morning (Labor Day) it was a waffle bar. There were some hiccups… Mainly because this one was mine. The smoke alarm went off a couple of times, and the breaker was thrown umm… twice. Note to self. Have a pile of waffles ready for the kids cooked ahead and ready to pop into a toaster.

The waffle bar consisted of waffles, regular syrup, blueberry syrup, chocolate sauce, strawberry syrup, whipped cream, peanut butter, chocolate sprinkles, cinnamon, rainbow sprinkles, and more bacon.

Our late (after boating, tubing, and jet skiing) lunch was a sort of fajita bar. I say sort of because there weren’t as many options. It was definitely build your own. We had chicken fajitas, guacamole, queso with tortilla chips, shredded cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pinto beans, and my favorite cilantro rice. I was way to pooped and overwhelmed to get any photos. Sorry folks.

After diving in to the bar scene all weekend, I did learn a few things.

There are a couple of tricks to a build your own meal bar.

Organize your items so that they make sense when assembling. Start with the plates, bowls, etc. and end with the silverware and napkins so they don’t have to be carried from station to station.
Prepare as much ahead as possible. Having things made ahead made the meals more enjoyable for all.
Make sure that whatever you are serving can be assembled quickly. Everyone is happy when you can keep ’em moving.
Have plenty of room for folks to move around. Our bar is perfect inside for serving. When the weather is nice, we will be serving outside.
Have a plan to keep the hot foods hot and the cold foods cold.

Have you ever had a “build your own” bar? If you have, I would love to hear from you. I will bet you have tried things I haven’t even thought about.

I love hearing from you.

Blessings,

Karen

Behr Paint with Primer, cedar lumber, Country living, Country Style, family, Fun with friends, home decorating, Ranch House Overhaul, Real Life

Week 5 Progress

September 9, 2015 Karen

Knowing company is coming can motivate a person to get busy on their home. Knowing several of those guests are active elementary and junior high students really motivates me to get the house de cluttered and ready for the crowd.

Here is the weekend progress:

1. The Guest Room is now presentable. There are still areas that need touch ups.

The walls got painted.
A set of donated shuttered got painted and hung on the wall.
At
Art, a mirror, and a window got hung.
New curtain rod.

2. This awesome light now hangs where the light I lovingly called the pool table light was over the bar.

Before

The awesome after.

3. A section of the bathroom now is under way. The mirror will be framed with rustic wood and the bathroom cabinets will be painted white. The rest of the bathroom needs to be painted still. The color is a pale bluish green. Never judge a color until the old paint is out of the way. Look at them together… yuck.

Before

During… did you notice the name of the bathroom hardware? I did not until I edited the picture.

You have to wait to see the bathroom. Sorry. I want you to see the full effect once it is done.

We also did some really boring but necessary things like mow, organize closets, and unpack boxes.

Then… the fun started.

5 kids and their parents showed up. They played, they explored, they fished, they ate s’mores, they went tubing, jet skiing, they threw the frisbee for the dog, they played nines, the ate… A Lot. Those kids can flat eat.

We were sad to see them go.

This week I am going to give you our tricks for feeding a crowd and a few hints for Christmas presents if you have outdoor space.

Happy belated Labor Day to all of us who get up every day and go to work.

Have a great week.

Blessings,

Karen

Building a Home, Coldspring, Country living

What’s In A Name?

August 21, 2015 Karen

Several people have asked what the name of our soon to be second home will be. The answer is…

Providence Acres

Mr. Math and I had discussed possible names but nothing felt right. Creekside? Bar S (the name of a family ranch)? There were several more we thought about but nothing stuck. We decided that whatever the name would be it had to come on its own and it has. The more we talked to folks about how we had this home placed in our path and how the path has been astounding to us the way that things have worked out, we used the word providence. We used it a lot. It just stuck.

It was three years before Star Hill got a name. My youngest, Baby Boy, decreed that our weekend home needed a name. I believe any place loved by the owners or visitors will be named.

My mom and dad are practical folk. They have owned two places over the years that they loved. He first they called The Farm. The second, The Property. They probably think I am silly worrying about the right name for our home, but we are not alone in naming our place and it is not a new idea.

Ever heard of these places?

I m sure you can think of others as well.

Ranches and Farms are almost always given a name as a way of branding their name. Their way of branding themselves comes from having a name to associate with their product be it produce or livestock. If you are a middle ager like me, I will bet you remember Southfork Ranch.

I even grew up with fictional ranches. Do you remember The Ponderosa from Bonaza?

There are websites dedicated to helping you name your farm or ranch.

If you want chance to be how your spot is named, use this generator.

Farm Name Generator

We are also learning that we have to name our outbuildings for practicality. This is how a lot of our conversations go right now.

“Where is the ladder?”

“In the shed.”

“Which shed?”

“The back shed.”

“The back shed? Which shed are you calling the back shed?”

“You know, the one with tractor tire in front.”

“Why is that the back shed?”

“It just is.”

“That makes no sense. There are three back sheds depending which direction you go.”

“It makes sense to me.”

“What were we talking about before we started talking about this?”

“I have no idea.”

The buildings will be named. The ladders will be located.

I hope you enjoy our journey.

Blessings,

Karen