Pledl's Farm En Plein Air: Getting Started

Getting Started

So, we now own the old farm house and 15 acres of land. When we closed on the house we stayed the weekend in a hotel. We spent some time looking around the house trying to decide what to start with first. We decided the most important place for us to start was the bathroom. We dove right in and started ripping it apart. We also ended up ripping up some other ceilings and ugly old paneling on some other walls. As we did this we thought about how much we had done and started getting the notion that we could get the bathroom done in another visit or two. Well... we quickly realized that everything takes much longer to do than you think. Once we took a look at the plumbing of the bathroom, Greg realized everything needed to be redone. Thank goodness, Rocky (Greg's brother), had recently told us about a new type of plumbing that would save us a lot of time and money. While Greg got started working on the plumbing after we stripped the bathroom, I refinished the old bear claw tub and tackled cleaning up cracks on the walls in our bedroom. The inside of the tub was in great shape so I just had to clean it, sand it down (I used a wire brush attachment to a drill), primed it and painted it with Rustoleum gray paint. I spray painted the claw feet white and then used the gray in a dry brush technique on top.

Getting started in the bathroom

Greg installing Pex plumbing

We used the bedroom next to the bathroom to put the torn down bathroom in as we dismantled it.

Greg had to rip up selected floor boards for the plumbing.

Our stripped bathroom (minus the floor).

The refinished bear claw tub.

We have spent every weekend on the farm after that which took us to the end of the teaching school year for me. This is where the teardrop becomes a huge help. We can't afford to stay in a hotel when visiting the farm so we park our teardrop in the little barn and live out of there. We also brought a griddle, coffee pot and a small refrigerator that partially works for the house. We do have electricity. So, it is basically like camping in our own yard. Showering gets tricky and so does going to the bathroom. However, remember, people didn't always have these modern conveniences and so we make do. We do have water we get from the basement.

Our mornings are pleasant. We get up at sunrise around 6:00 am. Greg usually gets up first and then I follow about a half an hour later. I wait for him to make the coffee. We sit around and chat about the day ahead of us and what we think we will get accomplished. Next, comes breakfast which I cook on the griddle. Sometimes dishes after that but many times the breakfast dishes don't get done until after dinner.

Greg joined the Arbor Day Foundation and bought many trees. They also give you free trees with your purchase and so we got a lot of trees. We have now planted 22 new trees on our property. Some fruit trees so we can have a nice orchard and some red maples, sugar maples, oaks, birch and more. We wanted to start these trees now so that if they survive, in five years they will be established when the house is finished and we begin our farm life at retirement age. This is our big plan!

Watering the trees is usually done in the morning when we are there. When we are not there, we have to rely on God to send the rain. We use 5 gallon buckets with lids and put them on a small garden cart that we attach to our riding mower. Greg usually sits on the back with the buckets while I drive the mower. We travel our mowed paths and stop when we get to the orchard. Here we usually both hop out and grab a bucket and walk to various trees to douse them with water. Then we move on to the next set of trees. We go from one side of our property to the other side. We only have two buckets so this takes about a good hour because we have to keep going back to refill them. I must say though that during this time I am really enjoying myself. I imagine I am a real farmer plowing his field in the early morning hours as the sun rises. I now understand why farmers love what they do. I am also amazed at the beauty of our land. We bought it in winter and I had no idea. I see a multitude of greens in the rolling hills and fields. I see scattered blossoming wild flowers in various colors. Red winged Black birds, brightly colored orange, yellow and blue birds dart around our property. Monarchs and other various butterflies are plentiful as are the deer. What will it look like in the fall? I can't believe that we own this land.