FINALLY, THE GRAND TOUR! Inside of the Home

 Here we have our living room corner.  The walls are the colour of a nice ripe peach.

The couch is a deep red, sitting on a brown, beige rug. The cabnet you see is where the

gas-fireplace will be installed (later). Lots of windows in this corner!

 Right behind the couch and in-front of the island is our kitchen table.

This is our dinning area!

 This view of our living room corner, is the view you see when

walking in our front door.  The floor is bamboo, now you can see my area rug!

 The small arm chair and stool is a childs size set.

You can also get a feel for how the loft is open above the living area.

 Here is the birds eye view looking down from the loft.

Please note Wendy's  begifted quilt on my new chair...

I have grown very attached to my quilt!

 The grandchildren LOVE this loft and view.

 Looking down from the loft into the dinning area!

Please note Norah-Jean's placemats! Use them everyday!

 The guest loft...it will have a bed real soon!
This is where Granny lives (Puppet doll from the Murphy's)

 But for now it has two memory foam and is cozy.

 This is the kitchen Island, but I do not have the "top"

counter on the island yet...just plywood and a table cloth.

 This is also the view of the kitchen from the front door.

The walls in the kitchen are butter white, matching the antique

colour of the cupboards.  This is the brightest living area you will

ever see.  When it snows, I feel like I am living in a snow glob!!
Again note the open loft area!

 Here is a full view of the living-room, dining-room and kitchen!

The whole end of the house is glass..both up n the loft and down in this room!

 This is the Jet tub room off of the Master-Bedroom

I am enjoying this tub!  So do the little ones!

 Walk in/through, closet  from Jet-tub room to bedroom

This side holds our hang-up clothing.

This side has cubby selves.  Againgreat hady-man work from Mark!
This elimanates the need for a dresser.

I have not taken photos of the Master Bedroom

yet as we are waiting for our New King bed. When it is set up
photo will follow. 

 The base-boards are re-used from the "Old Farm House"

Mark (Papa)did such a beautiful job on the whole interior of our home.

 The large mantles over the windows are also from the

original farm house that was built in the 1940's

 I love that they have history and I LOVE the GREAT

job Mark (papa) did in refurbishing them.

 The railing on the stair case matches all the old trim. Again Mark (Papa)

really did a nice job in the details...I am so proud of him!  Sigh..xoxox

 Mark (Papa) did a fantastic job here!

The stairs are finished in the same bamboo

as downstairs.

 Our main floor bathroom.One piece tub/shower.

Mark used ever square inch of space here!

Neat shelf ideas, between the wall and tub!

There is another 1/2 bathroom up in the loft too!

I still need to post photos of the upstairs, but it still has some finishing.

  COMING SOON!!

The house had taken shape throught out the winter. Mark had worked

continually day in and day out.  I still live with lots of dust and

sawdust as everything is done indoors...of course. (smile)

The bamboo floor shows ever speck too!!  But it is a quick

clean up as it is a small space.  I have discovered Murphy oil!!!

We have had up to three families

at once here, since furnishing, and so far so good.

We never installed our slide yet, for the kiddies...next year we will

have get that slide from the loft to downstairs installed!

The grand kids love the loft, and the secret cubby holes.

We have one or two grandkids overnight from Thursday

to Monday...different ones on different days .
 I work Tuesday and Thursday and Papa works

every morning and then late afternoon at his job, Mon til Fri.

I will post all the rest at the end of this month...come spring, we

will be venturing forth with building animal pens, and such!

I hope our garden this year is as successful as last year!

NANA STANDRING

Two weeks ago it hit -40, but just so we did not feel to bad, the skies were alive at night! All photo from Valhalla Farm.

Sunrise...Driving to work.

It is kind of funny how sometimes I dread my drive to work because of the dark and the road conditions, and then to boot, I often drive home in the dark too......However sometimes I am reminded and rewarded for all efforts.  Maybe it seems like nothing at all, yet to see the sunrise over the a small mountain (Saskatoon Mountain), and reflect such beauty over the frozen snowy Prairie ground was enough for me to stop my car, aim my camera and capture the beauty that was there.  I often see such a vast difference between a sunrise and sunset...so why do we not see as many photos of sunrise???
Here is what I saw Back Road Driving to work yesterday!   ENJOY!

There is Honey in Walls my Brother! What An Amazing Find.

Back when we were building, Joe, Papa (Mark), and Kristopher removed the front deck off the old farm house...as it was caving in!  At that time, Joseph (our middle son), said he could smell honey!...?  He went upstairs poked some holes in the walls and found nothing.

In late spring, early one morning while Papa (Mark) was up the ladder working on the New home, a swarm of bees....seemed liked thousands, arrived and began building a nest a way up in the eve of the old farm house...he knew they were honey bees right away.  It has become increasingly more rare to find feral honey bees.  At first we thought some local farmer might have lost the bees, from a bee farm...we tried to make contact with some local bee farmers...no one was a all interested.  So we thought, well maybe they are the old fashion wild bees.  We left them alone.

Joe had not forgot about the honey he smelled in the spring, and he watched with great interest as the bees worked in two locations in the  old house (We have only open one location).  

This is kind of humorous as Joseph has a real phobic fear of bees and wasps and such.  When he was dating Corinna his darling wife, she tells the story of a walk in the park in Halifax.  Holding hands, walking in the evening breeze, when a bee buzzes toward them....the next thing she knows is Joe grabs her and dragged her in front of his body, using her as a human shield, ducks behind her and shouts,,,"Beeee, oh nooo it a bee!"  She knew that day in the event of  a bee hurting her or Joe...it would indeed be her...Bless her heart, she married him anyway! LOL.

Joe did watch these buggers from a far.  As winter settled in we all ceased to see any more activity at the old house.  Joe...of all my darling kids...Joe wanted to look for some honey.  December held temps around 25 to 45 below.  However January brought mild temps 0 to +9  and sunny days.  Finally Joe and his dad decided to go look and see what was in the walls.

Did they ever find honey!!!!....Oh My Goodness,  the eves was full, as far as the eye could see...and it is easy to tell that the bees have been using this for a long, long time.  They brought in a small amount of honey comb inside to me and I was able to get 4 jars of honey.  It was free...sort of?!

 I cannot give you a really good reason, for the fact that not one of us....Joe, Papa or myself,  to the time to looked up "how to extract honey"  Papa took the lead (as he so often can and does) and put the honeycomb in one of my pots...and let is slowly simmer....to melt the wax, and pour out the honey...sounded like a solid plan to me.  Oh it was solid all right!!!...That wax was the most solid, hard, cement stuff I ever dealt with.  As soon as it melted...wax rose to the top...honey on the bottom....just poured off the liquid gold...Oh we were such a happy little group in the kitchen that evening...Joe, Mark , Corinna and I.  and then......then....

I went to wash my pot.....Ollie old dickens, I could not scrap it off.....I could not wash it off...it turned into demon glue.  I looked around the kitchen, seeing little dripples here and there...in the sink, on the stove,on the counter....and that was when the whole production of honey came to a very abrupt halt!

I now had two or three pots covered, as well as two measuring cups and one large mixing bowl. We finished bottling the honey that was melted....I put all the dirty waxed glued dishes in my roastpan and began cleaning the sink...if that stuff went into the drain...just kiss your pipes good by. 

When Papa saw the cause and effect..(of the wax I mean ...not me) he help as best he could.  Joe and family left for home...and after a few hours, papa and I went to bed, dishes still in the roster.

A fresh start in the morning after the mess of the night before, brings new and fresh ideas...I had to wash the waxy dishes.  I filled the roaster with warm water and a  generous helping of soap....put if on the middle burner of the gas stove....as the water became hotter and hotter I began to scrub the dishes, first the glass measure cups....came off not too bad, then I dried them lifting of little bits that were still sticking.... finally all the glass was done, I notice a thin film forming over the water....but I only had two more things to clean....so I did not want to change the water yet!  Changing the water involved me carrying it outside and dumping it to the ground. I grab the last pot and that was when it slipped right out of my rubber gloved hand and fell into the roaster making a splash of water bigger then life.  It splashed up on the wall....to the top of the stove panel and down into the grates....there I stood with that demon glue all over!  I cried out in great tears of complete frustration...Mark came running.  "Don't say anything to me" I warned him. "This is a dreadful mess"...heated bees wax is not like candle wax.  "How do people do this" I demanded he tell me?  Mark was being kind enough, and said we would get it cleaned up...."How"? I lemented.   Is this how people do honey.  I went and sat down with my computer to do the thing I should have done yesterday. RESEARCH!! No people do not slowly warm honey in THIER kitchens and bottle it! 
1) do this outside
 2) do not heat your honey(kills the living good of it)
 3)have all equipment ready .........the list went on and on....all you have to really do it drain the combs for goodness sake...or if you want honey combs just crush it all up and strain it in a strain or cheese cloth  .THAT's IT!!....THAT IS ALL!!!!!  Good Gravy!! SAKE ALIVE!!!

Now how did we clearn it.......Mark has used braked cleaner over the years for many, many things including laundry. I do not know were or how he ever came to the knowledge of the "wonders" of brake cleaner...because as handy as Mark is ,,,,and he really is....the one and only area I never see him tackle is mechanics. I do want to report and with a most grateful heart that Papa was able to clean my stove and "others" stuff with brake cleaner and at the end of a long cleaning day, nothing was truly harmed excepted my nerves.

We have also been studying all about "Bee Keeping" because without a doubt, we are wanting to keep these bees...They are the real deal.  Wild Canadian bees that can live through -50 weather and boy can they ever build hardy hives and hey did I ever mention that the wax they make is extraordinary...I think it could be use to weatherproof a roof!  Yep we are learning....here are the photos that have been taken over the last few days. (most photo are after t we educated ourselves))
Who knew that when we wanted a farm...it was going to be a BEE FARM!  HA!  Our first animal was already here!  Came with the land as they say!!!

White honey comb are royal honey...stuff used to feed the Queen...it taste great but is a thiner more watery honey and because it had more water it can ferment.  Ripe honey cannot!

Another educated fact we have learned is that we have Canola honey which is know to be the mildest tasting honey.  It is a light colour. Mark has built a bee box which we hope they will like and use...just to make the harvest easy.  Today Papa got his first bee sting from the brood, right on his wrist.  He was replacing the boards back on as we are headed from colder more seasonal temperatures this week.

Oh Honey....by the way, I really do love you!!!

A New Year has Arrived! 2014

Papa's Barn

Here we are in 2014, and yes indeed I am aware that I have not posted anything at all since our wonderful gathering at thanksgiving.  It is NOT because we have not had any progress, but rather because I have been very unsure at how to go about it.  Mark has worked continually, putting down floors, painting walls adding boarders, sticking on tiles, and so on.  But it just seemed hard to always be posting these, as I would look at the photos it was Mark (Papa) on his knee, bent over his chores....sooooo, I simply decided that I would wait until these inside finishing are done and I would do a full and complete photo shoot of the inside of our home.  The time is here and over the next week or two I am going to be showing you all our finished home.....the down stairs anyway.  We still have some work to complete our guest suite but even that is now "livable" should we have company...errr minus beds...but we do have really comfortable mats!

We all had a great Christmas, and no we did not have Christmas gathering at the farm.  30 people are simply too many to fit into our space now that our furnishings are in.  We rented a hall in Sexsmith and gathered there for a dinner, talent show, and presents from Nana and Papa.  All this can always be seen on our other blog...The link is above titled "Link to Family News Blog"It is just under the title picture.   I really try not to post the same things on both blogs, as this blog is especially for the building of our retirement home.

We have No Furnishing yet...but with Folding Chairs and Tables...They All Came Together for Thanksgiving at the Farm

Of course we did not have Bexs, Zac nor Jake...and missed them today!


 

 

 

 

A Complete and Working Kitchen....Just in Time for Apple Season!