Sunday, May 27, 2012

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Painting Job!

Well, today we had a few minutes of time , and Rebekah had mentioned that the Coffee Lake Farm
Playhouse located in the garden was in need of a paint job on the west side where the door is!
I asked Rebekah what color she would want to paint it, after I told her we were going to paint the door side of it.  "Pink" is what she said. The old door is on the left!

I told her at the time, I would have to see what I had for paint, and when I was walking up to the shop to grab some paint after we scrapped and wire brushed off a lot of the crusty brown paint that was falling off the side of it!
I had just purchased some white paint and also had some red paint mixed to update a sign at Wooden Nichols, so guess what...red and white mixed makes a nice bubblegum pink! 

So I gave Rebekah a brush and I had a bigger brush and we painted the door and west side of it, with a couple coats of bubblegum pink paint! Then we rehung the the stars and it is now named "Rebekah's Pony Palace"
Below is an inside picture of her cute tea table and stuff, already for the big party tomorrow at Coffee Lake Farm!

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Thanks Grandma, for taking the nice pictures of our completed job!

Saturday, May 19, 2012

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Yard Projects 2012

The last two weekends, I have worked on some yard landscaping projects. Below is where I am at so far, which is most of the construction is done and the earth moving will begin soon.
The first project was to expand our parking area garden area to include a larger hosta garden and also other plants, this frame takes in the oak tree which is a bad mowing area anyhow.


The next area was where our new septic tank sits in the yard, with it's 3 covers having to be a part of the yard landscape, we decided to move our old buckboard sleigh, and put it up on a frame. The area underneath it will be filled with rock or mulch. The area with in the rocks will be a home for more plants, mostly perennials and some shrubbery.

This photo gives you an idea of where it is in the yard, in relation to the corn crib gazebo. next to the little donkey is the beginning of a wall, and also an outside outlet.

The below photo is a wall I have constructed out of 26- 4 x 6 treated timbers. The goal here is to remove the sod with a sod cutter, than fill in sand and black dirt and also cut down the hillside close to the deck, and basically make this area fairly level for future family get together's and also events.

This will make for a nice outdoor seating area under the huge old oak tree, just off the deck in the cool grass, I left my posts for the walls higher in case I need to raise the wall another row of timbers, which may only be 4 x 4 pieces, but I want to wait and see how the fill process goes first.

The SW corner of this wall by the electric pole, has a couple of little areas that will be planted into other shrubs, maybe even some of those by our deck will be moved down there.

This is basically two days of work for me, as I started one evening and finished everything today, now when my father-in-laws loader shows up I can start moving dirt!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

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A Grandaughter Day!


I mentioned a little bit ago we had company, and while they are here, a specail event was on the calendar and Rebekah and I had last Saturday to take in the Ballet Recital "Imagination" of Livia and Addy's in the Twin Cities!
But first I decided to make a day of it for Rebekah and I, so we left Coffee Lake Farm, 8:30 am on Saturday morning and took my truck down to Falcon Heights, MN to My Daughter Misty's home.
From there we walked over to Como Zoo and Rebekah and I went through the Zoo together, had lunch there and then went to ComoTown...the mini-midway that is part of the Zoo and Como Park!


Rebekah, enjoyed many of the rides, including the bumper cars, the tilt-a-whirl...twice, the tornado, the roller coaster and the frogger along with the swings. of course Grandpa went with her on most of them.
After our 3 and 1/2 hours at the zoo and comotown, we were off to see the Ballet!

The group above has both Livia and Addy in it, as Livia was the leader of this group and she is front and center. Addy is in the middle back of this bunch! They did a great job and their costumes were really cool!

The group above is the group of Livia's age and talent level, and they performed two different numbers one in these springy green costumes and another in some blue whimsical outfits, which my pictures were not the best due to lighting. Another great job!

There were 82 girls in various age groups and all the performances were great, Rebekah enjoyed it all and was very impressed by the costmes and the ballet performances!

After the ballet, we went back to Misty and Chris's to enjoy a light supper that was prepared by Chris, joing the other family members who attended. Rebekah got to spend some additional time with her cousins and we enjoyed the whole day of course. We then hopped back in the truck and headed back to Coffee Lake Farm, where we arrived around 8:45 pm, a long day and lots of miles but it was worth all the smiles and laughs we shared and the great ballet performances! Oh by the way the two performances were sold out!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

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We have Company!

Yes, we have some company from out west!

Ricki, Grant and Rebekah showed up on May 3rd, in the early evening after a 3 day trip from Ocean Shores. It is great to see them all again, and life has been busy here at Coffee Lake Farm!

Wooden Nichols also opened it's doors for the 2012 season on that day. Crystalie has been so busy getting everything put in place and many of her consignors have been by, dropping off the new things they have found or created for this years 18th season!

I spent Saturday morning power washing a bunch of stuff Crystalie's Dad has dropped off for the store, all rusty old farm and metal stuff. I just try to get the dirt off of it and clean it up a little bit. Rebekah and I then hauled it down to the store and unladed it for Grandma to put tags on it while we positioned it all around the yard and porch!

Sunday, we have spent time doing more outside, in between the rain showers we have gotten. Yes, we have been getting plenty of rain lately also...about 5 plus inches over the last 15 days or so. So things are lush and almost all the trees have leafed out, and all the summer birds have arrived. We have seen Orioles and Hummingbirds and also various Grossbeaks, along with lots of waterfowl and other birds.

I also have spent some time playing cards with Rebekah, crazy 8's, kings corner and some other simple games without a lot of rules. She is pretty competitive and loves to win!

We also have played some Scrabble with Ricki and enjoying the time to visit, and share what is going on around here and at the store!

I spent time doing some farm stuff today also, washing out a water tank, and trimming Bucky's mane and tail along with applying some fly control for the gnats that are bothering her ears! I have to make an appointment to get her hooves trimmed soon.

I also have spent some time pushing Rebekah on the tire swing!

Life at Coffee Lake Farm is busy as usual!