Friday, October 18, 2013

"Harvest Widow" Project

With harvest well underway I find myself a “harvest widow”.  This simply means that for the months during the fall I literally don’t get to see or talk to my husband unless it takes place in the field, the shop, the combine, the tractor, or the semi.  He comes home to sleep and that is it.  Even on days when it is rainy or conditions aren’t ideal to be in the fields, there are always crops to be trucked, equipment to maintain or fix, or something that pulls him away and contributes to my “harvest widow” status.

Luckily Claire and I really do enjoy going out to the fields to ride in the combine with Daddy.  Even though our visits with him are short they are still the highlight of our days.  And I think he would easily admit that visits from us are the highlight of his day as well!

Over the years I have come to embrace my alone time during the fall.  I take advantage of this time to catch up on organization projects, deep cleaning, browsing on pinterest, and watching TV shows that I actually want to watch rather than staying on the History or Discovery channels at all times, ha-ha. 

This year I find myself spending a lot of time being inspired on pinterest; anything from recipes, to home organization ideas, to decorating ideas.  I recently found this cute idea someone had posted of a fun way to repurpose an old window.  I really like this sort of decoration, so I decided to give it a whirl. 
 
This is how I did it:

1-    Find an old window that you like.  I had some windows given to me by a relative, but I have seen them at thrift stores, antiques stores, alongside the road for free, etc.

2-   Clean up the window and make it sturdy.  The window I used was not only was dusty and dirty, but it also had flakey paint, and loose window panes.  I like the distressed look of the paint, so I just scraped all the loose paint off with a flat head screw driver and cleaned it up with Windex and a rag.  You could strip, sand, and repaint the window frame if you don’t like the distressed look.  To keep make the panes more solid in the frame; I simply used some caulk adhesive to go around the edge of each frame and pane on the back side of the frame.  It was very easy, cheap, and fast; just the way I like my projects, ha-ha.

3-   Make a shelf.  I found a piece of barn wood lying in our hip roof barn that fit perfectly across my window.  I simply drilled holes and attached a shelf bracket on each side and viola, I had a shelf.

4-   Attach frame hangers.  I attached 2 of the claw like frame hangers to the top of the window frame so hanging on the wall would be easy.

5-   Arrange pictures and embellishments.  I glued (with clear scrapbook glue) the pictures and embellishments onto the burlap.  I don’t know yet, but I am hoping when I want to change the pictures I can just pull the old ones off and glue new ones on?  Because I don’t know how they will come off I did glue copies of the pictures onto the burlap, in case they rip while being removed.

6-   Attach burlap to window frame.  From the back side of the window, I stretched the burlap and used a staple gun to attach the burlap to the frame.

7-   Hang the window on the wall.  This may seem like the easiest part, but it is most challenging for me, ha-ha.  When using anchors in our wall I always ask for Brad’s help because I don’t seem to be very handy with them.  Even though this is a quick task, he isn’t fond of “honey do” projects so it usually takes some coaxing, and possible bribery to get these things done, but I have my ways J

8-   Accessorize your shelf.  I just put fun trinkets on my shelf that I had lying around.  I will keep my eye out while antiquing for any other interesting things that may be more fitting for the shelf.

And that’s it!  My window picture frame is hung right in our entry way.  It is the first thing you see after walking through the door, and it makes all of us smile.  Claire is always pointing out Daddy, and Brad is always saying what a cutie Claire is.  What a fun “harvest widow” project J

Monday, October 7, 2013

What's Going On In Our Fields Right Now?

Soybean harvest has begun!  Harvest definitely is the most tiring and stressful time of our year, but it is my favorite time of year!  Harvest is also Claire’s favorite time of year even though she does miss her Daddy a lot.

The highlight of Claire’s day is going out to the fields, usually with dinner, and getting to see her Daddy, Nana, and Papa, AND getting to ride in the combine.  We typically visit during dinner for a few minutes then ride in the combine for an hour or so.  It may not seem like much, but to Claire it’s her whole day!  If it weren’t for our combine rides in the evening she wouldn’t get to see Brad much in the fall months due to his long hours in the fields.

The combines are very comfortable and safe to ride in with passengers.  The driver has access to all controls on the right hand side of the cab.  On the left side of the cab is a seat for a passenger and ample leg room.  There is heat, air conditioning, radio, and most other common luxuries that you would find in a vehicle.  Claire and I comfortably and safely ride and talk with Brad at the end of our days. 
I just snapped these pictures a few days ago while waiting for the combines at the end of the field.  We didn’t have dinner for everyone that night, but Claire had her hands full of snack size candy bars that she was excited to give to her Daddy and Papa.  I am so happy that Claire enjoys the farm life as much as the rest of our family does J
 

We had waited quite a while for the combines to pick us up. 
I think she was considering eating the candy rather than giving it to Daddy and Papa, haha!

She sees the combines!
Waving and yelling at the combines :)