Old Glory

Since I mentioned it in my last post, I thought maybe I should explain just what Old Glory is.  Before Cam and I got married, we purchased 24 acres near Patoka Lake.  Our original intention was to build a log cabin from scratch and live out there.  However, we realized that my interpreting work would be in the Louisville area and an hour commute each way was not what either of us wanted to do.  We kept it as a getaway spot and spent lots of weekends there camping, going to the lake, and improving on the land.  However, once Lila was born, and especially after we got goats, it became harder and harder to make the 40 minute drive from our home.  We eventually decided to sell it and look for something closer to home.  

It just so happened that at the end of our road, there was a beautiful property that seemed to have been abandoned.  It did, not however, seem to be for sale.  But, Cam had big dreams for this property.  It couldn’t get much closer than the mile down our road.  The property had an oooold… um… house might be too strong a word..shack that had been abandoned since the 1960’s.  Needless to say, it was in quite a state of disrepair.  It had at one time, been a bustling home, but not any time recently.

 

The property is bordered on two sides by Big Indian Creek, a definite plus for us.  It did not have electricity or running water, but it had promise.  It had a large field that had at one time been a crop field.  Cam decided to contact the owner.  At that time, the owner told Cam he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with it.  Cam was persistent over the next few months, calling and writing the owner, continuing to express interest.  We later found out that shortly before Cam’s first call, the owner’s son had passed away.  The owner had planned to give the property to the son, and so was trying to decide what to do with it now.  Cam let it rest for a month or two and finally gave it one last shot.  At this point, the owner was ready to sell and accepted the offer that we had made on the property.  The owner had decided to sell the property and give the money to children of his deceased son. 

After the sale, the fun began.  Not one to shy away from hard work, Cam jumped right in and got his hands dirty. Quite literally.  There was trash in the house from the 60’s.  An old sofa had been lived in by mice and other critters. 

But, once we were through with it, it actually is quite a nice little retreat. 

Both Cam and I love to take something worn and ragged that most people have disregarded as junk, and turn it into something really cool. 

Since we painted it red, white, and blue, we started affectionately calling it “Old Glory”.  Since we bought it, we have cleared the overgrown field, put up a fence to try to keep little kiddos out of the creek, built a barn, renewed the house, cleared some trails, enjoyed the creek, and had several camp-outs complete with campfires.  The girls love to go down there.  It’s our little private retreat. 

Eau de Toilette... errr a new bathroom

When we moved into our home in 2004, the bathroom had a cutesy, teddy bear border up that I’m sure if Lila had been around, would have insisted it stay.  However, since it was just Cam and me, we decided it had to go.  We redecorated with a lodge feel, including some authentic deer antlers and feet in the décor.  I crafted faux rocks from foil and joint compound and painted them to look like “real” rocks.  Then, I mounted them one of the walls.  It looked pretty cool, I think.  Sure, it wouldn’t be for everyone’s home, but I live with a hunter out in the country.  I think it worked.

            However, as the years went by, the “rocks” did not hold up too well to little hands.  I removed those a couple years ago.  The border I put up with the silhouettes of moose and deer was starting to peel as well.  But, the thing that broke the camel’s back was that when Maggie came along, we all started spitting on each other at teeth-brushing time.  One sink was just not enough for four people to share.  (We do have a second bathroom that’s actually quite nice, but it’s in the basement and none of us really want to go down there for our grooming.)  So, I convinced Cam that we needed a second sink in the bathroom.  Actually, that part wasn’t hard.  It was the convincing him that we needed to redecorate while we were at it that took a little more smooth-talking.

However, after several months, he got on board with me and helped develop a “look” for the bathroom.  We now have a lovely, barn-themed bathroom.  Barns kind of have a special place in my heart.  Cam and I bought some property together before we were even engaged and built a large barn on it, mainly just the two of us working every weekend in rain, bitter cold, and wind without electricity and sleeping in a tent!  It was our first big project together and something we both took a lot of pride in and learned a lot about each other while doing it.  When we moved to our home, Cam designed a barn to house the livestock we planned to raise.  I honestly didn’t help much with that barn.  I’m going to say I was pregnant or something, but it might have just been so darn hot.  But, I’m sure I held at least one board and hammered in a nail or two.  Our third barn is down at “Old Glory”.  It’s the hay barn.  With two babies underfoot, I again was much less involved in this barn, but helped out when I could.  Anyway, I love the look of barns.  The smell of them (most of the time) is very pleasant.  The light can be really beautiful.  Plus, it’s just cool how they’re put together.  

I am so pleased with our new bathroom!  We used old barn lumber that our friends had offered us to make the walls look like post and beam framing.  Cam built a cabinet for the sinks from the same lumber.   

We found this great lighting in the “outdoor lighting” at Lowe’s for $20 a piece.  Similar fixtures I had seen on a “barn lighting” website were upwards of $150 each!   

The splurge was the great faucets.

 But, I couldn’t *not* get them.  I mean, they’re perfect for a barn bathroom.  I couldn’t find anything I liked in the way of shower curtains, so I made one from burlap and stenciled the name of our farm on it to look like a feed sack.   

We also put up corrugated metal around the shower and on one wall, which I didn't get a photo of. Overall, I'm just tickled.  It's been super handy to have the second sink, and it's a pleasure to go into a pretty bathroom!

Ravioli!

I made ravioli from scratch!  Sometimes I even amaze myself.  =)  I stumbled on a recipe for it the other day and thought, “I could make that!”.  I decided I would try my hand at make the ricotta as well.  We have Alpine Goats here on the farm that produce an abundance of milk.  Up to this point, Cam has done all the cheese making around our house.  I watch him spend several hours, or even days in the process and it's never appealed all that much to me.  Heck, with aged cheeses, you can wait years before you taste the fruit of your labor!  But, amazingly, ricotta is super easy to make!  It’s like the easiest cheese ever!  And, you can try this at home!  You can use cow’s milk, too.  I only had a quart of milk on hand and that made about a cup of cheese.  All you do is raise the temperature to 185, add a Tbsp of apple cider vinegar per quart, stir, and drain into a colander double-lined with cheesecloth.  That’s it!  After 20 minutes of draining, you have ricotta cheese ready to use!  Aghhh!  How could it be that simple!? Are you as excited as I am!?  Probably not.  Anyway….  So, I followed a recipe I found in Hobby Farms magazine of all places, for the dough.  The hardest part about that was rolling out the dough. 

 

After tasting our ravioli, I decided I should have rolled out the dough thinner.  Live and learn.  I rolled out the dough, scored it, scooped in my filling of homemade ricotta, garlic, onion, and some fresh chopped spinach, and put the other layer on top.

 

I cut the squares using a pizza cutter.  I don’t have any fancy ravioli equipment, so I just used a fork to pinch the edges of the squares together.  

  I boiled them for 8 minutes and, voila! Ravioli.  So, to recap, I made the cheese, pasta dough, rolled it out, filled it, cut it, pinched it, boiled it.  Then, I’m a little embarrassed to say, after all that, I poured on a JAR of RAGU spaghetti sauce.  But, it was really tasty!