taking life by the ears...

 

Today marked day one of corn cutting season. It's quiet around the farm now that everyone is off in the fields and riding on the combine this morning with Brent brought back great memories from last year. Everyone is getting along today which is a God sent blessing from the heavens. My life is better when they all get along and I am sure that everyone else's wives and girlfriends feel the same way. We had a severe lack of rain and a lot of the corn didn't reach it's full potential. I am praying for rain daily so the cotton and soybeans will make a good crop.

I thought that the cabinets would be ready to install this week but it seems that they had a bit of a problem with our wood having too high of a moisture content so they are coming the first of next week. I don't know when we will ever be able to move into the house. I am starting to get a little discouraged, but I know everything happens for a reason.

Brent's birthday is this week. He is finally turning 25! I think he has said he's 25 for the past year so now he'll probably think he's turning 26. I am a big proponent of celebrating birthdays, especially my own ;) so it's been frustrating that they are going to be harvesting corn and we can't really celebrate. I guess when they get finished for the day we will have a late supper for him Thursday night and he can open his presents. I got him some really awesome stuff! Although I can't put it on here just in case he happens to read this before Thursday!

We had Laura's baby shower this past weekend and I also got to visit some old friends in Howards Mill. The baby shower turned out great and Laura got a lot of wonderful gifts. It was great to see all the girls even if it was for just a few hours.

I hope everyone has been doing well! I will update again soon with more pictures and recipes!

  

it's almost monday again already?

It's the end to another wonderful weekend and time to start a new week. I feel like the weeks are just flying by and we are in a permanent state of chaos! Life around the farm is always busy but it seems more so than usual these days. We haven't even started cutting corn yet so I should probably enjoy it as much as I can.

Friday I went to finalize everything for the cabinets and I am SO excited about them. The man said they would start on them Monday (tomorrow) and they would be finished in a week. So hopefully that means just a few more weeks until we can move in! I'm hoping once we live there people will stop showing up to 'check out the house'. I am not a fan of unexpected visitors and was always taught to call before you drop by. I think that chapter of Emily Post didn't make it in the etiquette books down here. It usually goes something like this "Heyyyyy there I heard y'all were building a place back here. Billy Bob told me it was real niiiice. I'm Fred from yonder down the way and I just happened to be riding through and I thought I'd just come and take a look for myself and see what y'all was building back here." It's seldom that I know the people that I find wandering around in the yard and letting themselves into my house but they seem to know who I am and even if they don't, they're friends with Jim Bo's cousin that lives over in Silver and Betty Sue gave them permission to come on by. The last guy was trying to pick the lock to get into Brent's shop and thought it was ok to just break in since he had permission to go over there, even though he didn't receive the said permission from myself or Brent.

But who doesn't love good ole country living. I reckon' I'll have to post up with a shotgun and be the crazy lady with wild signs everywhere. I recently read a book called 'Forty Acres and A Fool' and the man in the book had the same problem we are having. He wrote about how the locals would trespass and hunt on his property and joy ride down his road. We have the joy riding and right now the random people fishing in the pond. In the book, the man puts up signs saying 'Beware of the Monkeys!" ... Wendy suggested I try "Beware: HIV patient on the loose" ... it's worth a shot!

Aside from the craziness at the house and the farm, some friends of mine from college are orchestrating a baby shower for one of my best friends, Laura, and that will take place this weekend. I went to Florence on Friday to pick up some things and I will head to Charlotte tomorrow to pick up a few more. I am so excited to see everyone again. It's been two months since we've all been in one place together and I'm just tickled that it is for a baby shower. Laura and her husband Ben are having a little boy and he is due to come into this world on October 20th. Hopefully he will get to come and visit Aunt Carson and Uncle Brent on the farm! :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and a happy July 4th. I am heading to bed to watch some more Harry Potter. The new one comes out Friday so I am catching up with the old ones and Brent is learning who the people are and what's going on. After two days of HP he is developing a British accent and calling Lainey "Hermione" ... but he pronounces it "Her-whiney" :) God Bless y'all!

sweet summertime

I just realized I hadn't even posted pictures of Lainey! Wendy and I had a great, but long, trip to Missouri. It literally took exactly 16 hours. The worst part was when you are going towards Branson on "Old 76" and it's like driving through the mountains for 3 hours on scary curvy roads! But we made it safely and without too many bumps in the road. So here she is: 

Lady Jane Cogdill aka: "Lainey"

So far she has been a good pup. She has had a few accidents in the house but I think it's mostly she is trying to communicate with us that she has got to pee but I just think she's whining because she's bored or hungry or just being whiney. I guess I need to be more in tuned with her needs! She loves to swim in the pond and the lake and enjoys her new brother and sister, Hank and Birdie, and biting their tails and chasing them around the yard. She is very relaxed and laid back and starting to get protective, which is a good thing. Brent and Gavin came to the lake last night and she barked and growled at them until they came in the door and she figured out who they were! She is sweet as can be.

She also enjoys laying out on the boat :)

I had a request for some ideas for July the 4th menus so I'm going to include a new tab at the top and make that a separate post. I have been doing a lot of recipe searching lately. My good friend Stephanie gave me Southern Living's 1001 Ways to Cook Southern and I finished reading it last night. I have also been checking in on Tasty Kitchen and The Pioneer Woman as well for new ideas. 

I can't wait to get into the new house so I can start cooking again. I have been cooking more than usual at the lake, but mainly sticking to pasta dishes so there is less clean up. Last night Brent requested a late night snack of fettucine alfredo and surprisingly I had everything to make it! Mainly because I used the Alfredo sauce in the jar but some good ways to spruce up stuff like that is some good fresh parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. I also cooked the pasta noodles in water with chicken base and salted it well. 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. We are headed to the beach on Friday for a few nights. My brother is flying in from Vermont on Saturday and I haven't seen him in a while so hopefully we will go play some golf on Sunday before Brent and I head back. 

I will post some festive recipes next. Have a fun and safe July 4th holiday!

who am i?!

It's one of those days where I wish I was back in Raleigh. Yes, I hate to say this but it's just one of those days. We decided to let Birdie sleep in the bed last night, which was a terrible idea since Brent had just given the dogs rib bones before bed... So around 4AM Birdie projectile vomits on the comforter. (Thankfully she happened to be on Brent's side of the bed at the time..) So naturally I leap from the bed, grab the dog and the comforter, and run to the door. Then I proceed to clean up the dog throw up, put a new comforter on the bed, console Brent as he is very disoriented and not sure what just happened, gather the dogs, put them in the pen, wash my hands, and try to go back to sleep....

Then 5AM comes around and it's time for Brent to get up. This time I was disoriented and wondering why someone was yelling at me about clean pants when it was still dark outside and I remembered "oh, we live on a farm and get up before the chickens do..." so I yell back that all the clothes that are folded in the laundry basket are clean and attempt to go back to sleep. Then the dogs start to bark and by now it's almost 6AM so I let them out in the yard. Sure that they wouldn't be eaten by an alligator that early in the morning, I tried to take a quick nap. Unfortunately our horrible neighbors were at the lake with their dogs and the chaos ensued. I quickly dressed in gym clothes, ran outside to grab the dogs, threw them in the car, and drove to the office. 

Nothing was new in the folders or the voicemail or email so I took the dogs to the new house to put them back in their pen. We have no water right now so they dogs will have to deal with the bucket of water that was already in there until I can figure that one out. I can't water my garden and frankly the garden is so huge now I don't even know what to do with it. My vegetables were so big once again that they were no longer good so I threw it all out into the woods. I picked the few squash and zucchini that still looked decent and put them in a crate and while fighting the gnats and the heat I jumped into the car and nailed my head on the top of the door.

I sat there for a moment and truly just missed Harris Teeter and Cameron Village and the mall and sushi and the convenience of having my bank right around the corner and getting my nails done and then I remembered how much I hated all of that when I was there. I dreamed of having a garden and dogs and living the good life in the country and I remembered something my uncle Bill told me once.. "the grass may be greener on the other side, but the bull shit is still there too," very smart that man is! 

So now I am back in the office making my to-do lists and updating spreadsheets and I thought I would take a moment to write in here. Our house is a wreck, literally, the dogs have destroyed the yard and the laundry is piled to the ceiling. We come home, unpack, pack again, and head back out the door. We just got home last night and already I've got to pack up again to head to Missouri. I have to be in Branson on Thursday morning so I'm going to try to leave early Wednesday morning and drive it in one day. It's the same distance as it was to Maine and to Wisconsin so I'm pretty used to that drive! Brent has to work so his mother has offered to go with me so we will be on a long road trip this week! But we will come back with my beautiful Lady Jane (whom we will call 'Lainey'). Then in the midst of the fourth of July, my Dad's birthday, Laura's baby shower, and Brent's birthday we will have to start packing up the house and starting the big move! I am praying we will be able to move in before they start cutting corn. 

And then once we get all moved in and settled it will be dove season, deer season, Clemson football season, and time to get married! And then it will be Thanksgiving, cutting soybeans, and then duck season, and then Christmas! Hopefully we will settle down next February :)

back to life, back to reality....

i'm back home again after almost a full week away from the farm. of course a lot happened while i was gone.. my zucchini grew the size of baseball bats, i had okra pods bigger than my hands, and the cucumbers, oh Lord, the cucumbers. well let's just say, they don't look anything like what a normal cucumber does! it rained while we were gone, finally. not sure if it did any good with the corn or not but it will be a great help for the cotton and soybeans.

saturday i had a wedding shower on lake norman. it was my first shower! we have had lots of parties but no showers yet so it was a really nice change. the party was given by some close family friends and was absolutely amazing! the weather was beautiful and they had gorgeous sunflowers and fun cocktails and delicious food. i couldn't have imagined anything better! it means a lot when people go out of their way to do for you and i got some incredible gifts! i noticed a trend that i have had parties and such on my bridesmaids birthdays... one the day before sara beth's, saturday was elisabeth's birthday, and then i think we have another shower on septemeber 10th, the day after weldon's birthday! i hate that it keeps happening, i am surely not trying to steal anyone's thunder. i'm thinking that i'll just have a celebration for weldon after the shower! :)

as for the house, i think our target date to move in will be the third week in july. i'm crossing my fingers and praying hard. that would be a wonderful birthday gift for brent! i had hoped it would be sooner but they can't start on our cabinets until after July 4th so we've got another month to go... everything is pretty much ready to go except setting the cabinets and countertops and finishing up the plumbing. i am so ready to be in. i swear it didn't think it would take us this long but it's been a bumpy road!

i almost forgot to mention that we are about to introduce yet another puppy into our home. not that three isn't enough, four is always better. back in february i wanted a springer spaniel and i wanted one for my birthday. after doing a little research i realized i didn't want a black and white one and i didn't want a liver and white one, i wanted the red and white kind. well that's NOT an english springer spaniel, it's a welsh springer spaniel and they happen to the one of the rarest dog breeds in north america. perfect. just my luck... well we found a breeder in kansas, signed a contract, made a deposit, and now the dog is ready to be picked up. so next week we are meeting Peggy Ruble of Ky-Bryn Welsh Springers in Branson, Missouri to pick up "Lady Jane". the breeder has named her "Lainey" so i'm not exactly what i will end up calling her, but i have always referred to her as Jane so i'll stick with that for now!

i will be sure to post pictures as soon as she is in my arms! hank and birdie are passed out on my office floor right now and i am going to get jack today to try and work on some pointing techniques. i have been told to tie a rag of fabric to a cane pole, 'cast' the fabric out like i'm fishing and get jack to point it. i'll let y'all know how that goes. maybe i could be good at it? i did teach a beagle to retrieve and do tricks so maybe i'll have good luck with pointers!

have a wonderfully blessed day y'all

longest day ever

i feel like today is never going to end! i guess that is what happens when you're up before the sun. i've had a very productive past couple of days in the office with filing and billing and such and now it's almost friday again! 

it's already at a heat index of 100 again today. this has been the hottest week so far this year. my face is a permanent shade of red and i run from the office to the car to avoid the heat as much as possible. we desperately need some rain down here to cool it off a bit and help our corn come back to life! it would be nice if we could hurry up and get all of the wheat out but that's a whole different story. i think brent has cut over a thousand acres already but everywhere i go around here i see another field they haven't done yet. we might be cutting wheat until the fourth of july at this rate! i had hoped that they would finish fairly soon so we could take off to the mountains and relax in a milder climate for a few days but it's not looking promising. next weekend i have a shower at home with some close family friends and the weekend after that is my cousin bonnie's wedding reception/party and father's day. 

on a good note though, my final proofs for our wedding invitations came today and they look amazing. tifany is an amazing designer. check out her work at http://gourmetinvitations.com/. she does some very unique stuff. i am so lucky to have found her! i won't give away what the final invitation and everything else looks like until after the wedding. i want people to be surprised when they get it in the mail. i feel like the invitation sets the tone for the wedding since it's the first glimpse people get into the overall feel and theme. i think ours will make an impression!

the garden is still producing at a rapid pace. i find new squash, cucumbers, okra, and zucchini daily. i'm trying to give it away but everywhere i go people have tons of squash! i think i might plant one more squash plant for late summer and maybe two more okra. i've thought about doing some onions as well and maybe a watermelon! i have to get all of the weeds out first. i'm glad i did the garden this year so next year i'll know what to do differently. 

the house is coming along quite well. they stained our concrete yesterday so no one can go inside for a while. i think they are working on our cabinets as we speak and i need to send the form back in on our countertops. everything else is ready to go. we just have last minute trim work, finishing the floor and stairs to the loft, and finding a shower door! i'm SO ready to move in. hopefully we will get some things that we have registered for next weekend since we need just about everything for the house! 

i hope everyone is having a wonderful week and staying cool :)

friday!

it's finally friday! i wasn't so sure that this week was ever going to end! i just finished with the pay check sheets for the truck drivers and now i'm taking a personal moment so i don't lose my sanity!

in the midst of it being pay day and wheat harvesting, my FIL sold 40,000 bushels of corn to be delivered by today; so it's chaos! there are trucks everywhere and everyone's hair is on fire! i just updated the grain contract so yes, i am taking some time for ME!

i am getting back in the swing of cooking again and getting excited about recipes. i made brownies yesterday and today it's tuna salad day! i included the recipe for tuna salad on the recipe page. two summers ago i had the pleasure of eating some tuna salad at the beach that my friend mimi made. i'm usually not a big tuna salad fan but it was delicious! i have been making it ever since. i've also been craving a big bowl of pasta. my favorite when the weather is hot is to cook up some fettucine and toss it with asparagus or peas and a light cream sauce. i have a good recipe for this as well that i will also include on the recipe page.

i haven't quite figured out how to use this blogger thing with the pages but apparently i can't put posts on a page. i started another blog for recipes and still i can't figure out how to link them so stay tuned! eventually i'll get this all figured out!

it just started raining here. and i mean downpour. big raindrops mean it probably won't last long. i can't remember who told me that, i think it was my friend Weldon. i faintly remember her learning that at camp thunderbird and passing along the info to me during college. OH! and speaking of Weldon! i think she will be adopting miss Louise! [crossing fingers] Brent and I can't possibly keep 4 puppies and it stinks to have to leave them in the pen all the time. Louise is very sweet and mild mannered. she doesn't seem to be as crazy as hank and birdie but she has her moments. yesterday she made an escape from the pen and found the leftover lunch from people who were working on the house... styrofoam was everywhere! and i found her passed out underneath the fan at the dog pens. sweet weeza!

happy friday y'all! i hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!