Peck Lake Farm pictures from the past

Jim recently got in contact with a gentleman, Mr. Smith, that grew up on our farm in the early 1960's.  We invited him over for a tour of the house and barns.  He had a wonderful time and was excited to see how some things had not changed that much.  We were very excited to hear how things were back then and it explained alot about how additions and improvements were done over the years.  He later loaned us some photos he found of the farm back then.  Above you can  see the milk room on the large barn is the same, just in better condition!

This shows the Corn Crib Carport with a gas pump in front of it!.  There is also another building between the Corn Crib Carport and the small barn.  Mr. Smith called this the oil barn, cause they stored oil in it.  I was excited to see the two trees on the right.  The Pear trees that are still there today. 

This is looking from the back of our property towards Peck Lake Road.  On the far right you can see a farm house and a barn that used to be across the street.  Both of those buildings are no longer there.

This shows the field behind our property.  You can see far in the distance some post, Mr. Smith said there used to be a road that ran through the field. 

There used to be another pole barn next the Corn Crib Carport.T

 

This open structure next to the smaller barn is no longer there. Looks like they stored hay in it.

 

The big barn and both silos are still here. Minus the cows!

 

So fun to see the cows that used to be raised here.

 

That round metal building on the right is not here but the round cement from the floor of the building is.

 

 It was really nice to hear the stories Mr. Smith told about growing up here.  In the spring he might bring one or two of his siblings over for a tour, Can't wait!

We are finally here!

It took 182 days but we finally are all moved in and we only own one home.

You can see in the video that Charlie is so excited to be at his new farm!

The chicks will be here in 2 weeks. I finished painting the brooder today.  I'll work on it the rest of the week after work to finish it up. I can't wait for them to get here.

First night

I spent my first night at the farm, finally!

Charlie and I stayed at the farm on the first weekend of the month.

As I replied in a text to a friend when he asked how my first night went: the mattress was uncomfortable (not my own bed), the light from the garage shined in the window (too cold to go out and turn it off), didn't sleep very well...IT WAS GREAT!!

It is hard to sleep in a different bed but for the occasional overnight at the farm it will be fine.  Charlie did not care for the very cold winds when going outside.  He would sniff around for the perfect spot to pee then a strong cold wind would whip across the field to the house and he was like, nope not doin' it and would run back to the door to go inside!

We did have a very pretty sunset to enjoy.

farm pictures

Just wanted to share a couple pictures I took at the farm the last week in November. 

This was after the first snow of the year.  This is the big barn with the two silos.  The second one is hiding behind the barn, it does not have a dome and you can see the edge of it peeking behind the roof.

This was a sunset I caught behind the smaller barn a couple days after the first snowfall.  This was taken after I locked the keys in the van and Jim had to drive to the farm after work to bring the spare!

...and this is the special holder the frig at the farm came with for my vodka bottles.  Isn't it amazing we would get a frig that had a vodka bottle holder, what are the odds!

New Chainsaw

Jim has a Husqvarna too!  His is a bit more lethal than my sewing machine.

We have a couple trees at the farm that we want to remove.  Jim rented a chainsaw to cut down one already.  We needed to get it out of the way so the fence for the dogs can go up, which will be going up Monday....yeah!

We figured if you rent one 3 or more times you were basically paying for one so we thought we might have need of it down the road so we should just buy one.

We put it to work right away and cut down the half dead tree in the front yard.

We really wanted it to fall across the driveway.  Trees are always taller than you think and the power lines and the house were in the other directions, of course all the branches of the tree (the main weight) were in the direction of the power line and the house!

Then it got stuck! Jim had to run to Menards to get a wedge.  This is why you always buy those things first, you will never know when your going to need them.

T-I-M-B-E-R

I was all ready to take a picture mid fall, but it started to fall towards where Jim was cutting and I got scared for him and didn't even think about taking the shot. 

Luckily the dead top broke off as it was falling so it was not tall enough to hit the power lines at that point,  plus the little crabapple tree stopped it too.  I really need to start using the video camera when we do things like this!!  We got most of it cut up and loaded in the truck.  Jim is giving it to a co-worker that burns it for heat.  I hauled most of the limbs to the ever growing brush pile out back.  We still have the main trunk to cut up and haul away but we ran out of light and room in the truck.

Tree down

Farm update: 

We are not selling the farm, we are going to move after all.  We are going to keep our Grand Rapids house and rent it out.  We are looking at a five year trial to see what we want to do at that time...move back to GR or stay on the farm.

Jim rented a chainsaw on Friday and cut a pine tree down that was in the backyard next to the garage.  By the time he got it cut up it was dark, so Sunday we had to go move the pieces out of the way because they will be putting up the fence for the dogs soon.  You can see the pile Jim had started to the back of the photo.  We had to move everything to the left of the photo back to that pile. 

Now we have a huge pile ready to burn!  We won't be doing any burning until next year.  Next we have to cut down that big pine tree you see next to our pile.  That all needs to be cleared out next year so the following year I can build my quilt studio attached to that side of the garage.  It will be never ending projects for awhile! We just have to take one at a time.

Chicken Peck Farm

We bought the farm! Ha!Ha!

Well my dreams of having a little farm are finally going to happen!  We have been looking at houses for almost 2 years now.  We signed the mortgage today on this property in Ionia, Mi.  Its a cute little 3 acre farm house. 

I'll share more photos as we get settled. 

Welcome to the farm

The last five are done! I really like how this bag turned out. The embroidery took so long to stitch out but it was worth every minute.  Of course, the bag I made for myself has more chicken themed prints in it!

 

There will be no rest for my sewing machine!  I've got to get some knitting dopp bags made for a Grand Skein and get the quilt for my family reunion made!  Oh Boy!

Farm Bag Peek

Here is a peak at the new Farm Bag I've been putting together.  I found this great embroidery that I am putting in place of 4 squares on the side of the chubby charmer bag. The embroidery is from Embroidery Library and takes about 4 hours to stitch out all 70,000 stitches!  There are 44 thread changes using 22 thread colors. I really like the way it turned out so far. I think I have enough farm fabric to make 7 bags total, so be looking for them on my Etsy site in a couple weeks!

Chapel Hill Arts & Craft Show

Yesterday morning I went with my Auntie Ann and friend Lynn to the Chapel Hill Arts & Crafts show.  It was at the Berrien County Youth Fairgrounds in Berrien Springs, MI.  We had a wonderful time.  We got there right at 8am when it opened and spent over 3 hours walking around enjoying all the fabulous talent on display!  I even saw my next door neighbor and her mother at their booth.  They travel around to a lot of craft shows selling the cutest kids clothes. 
I had to have this little wooden spool painted with my dream farm yellow house and barn!

Isn't it darling! Amazing detail on such a ting spool! And I love the old price of 15¢.  I also had to have this nook cover made out of an old hard cover book and covered in recycled jeans! The lens cloth in the pocket alone is a fabulous thing to have!

I will have to get used to having it in the cover cause I've gotten used to holding it on its own.  I think it will be good for it to be protected. The elastic straps are quite tight so its  held very securely. The inside cover is a soft cloth to help protect the screen. Such a fun thing, don't you think!  Well of course 3 hours shopping wasn't enough for my Aunt and Lynn!  We then proceeded to go to 3 or 4 more stores until we were finally done around 3:30!  At least we ended at Joann's were I found some fabulous chicken fabric!!