Summer's End

I pulled our jackets from the back corners of the closets today. Our days of swinging barefoot in the summer sun have come to a close.

Thrifty Genes

I failed to inherit the thrifty gene. I don't wash and reuse Ziploc bags like I should, and I've been known to throw out clothing that needed mending simply because I knew I would never get around to doing it. I've always admired my maternal grandparents and their ability willingness to save, create, and reuse.

My mother brags that my grandmother would bring friends to her house in the midst of the depression, and her friends would drool. There was canned chicken, tomatoes, eggs, and preserves aplenty. They rarely went without a good meal.

My grandmother has rescued every fern and dying potted plant placed along the roadside, and within a year has them looking better than a newly purchased plant from the finest nursery. My grandfather disconnected the light in their doorbell to save on energy costs. No lie.

Recently, my grandparents brought my husband a stack of my grandfather's old clothing . Hubby is always ruining shirts on the farm, so it's a nice way to recycle. My grandfather finally retired, so he had a good excuse to downsize his wardrobe. I just had to take a photo of one of the shirts in the bunch.

My grandfather worked as a civil engineer for about 60 years. Like most nerds engineers, he had to have several pens and pencils available at all times. To this day, he carries a few writing instruments in his front pocket for working crossword puzzles. Well, sometimes my grandmother would find an exceptionally nice shirt at a garage sale or Goodwill, but it wouldn't have a pocket for my grandfather's engineering tools.Thus, the tail-pocket was born.

For as long as I can remember, my grandmother has cut off the shirttail and sewn a nice pocket on my grandfather's work shirts. She is so ingenious!

The title of this post reminds me...

    Following the birth of my 3rd child and a subsequent weight gain,  I went to an endocrinologist to check my thyroid levels. When all of my tests returned normal, he told me that I just had DNA that liked to store fat and that it's probably what saved my ancestors from many a long winter. He said I am blessed with "thrifty genes." Doesn't that sound a whole lot better than "You're fat!"

What's on YOUR answering machine?

A friend of mine posted this on facebook yesterday. She is a teacher, and this was an answering machine greeting that she heard when she called one of her students. I think it is hilarious!

...this is the outgoing recording on an answering machine I heard today: "I'm a cotton-picking, cornbread-eating hillbilly, the government's broke, what's in your wallet? I'm out feeding the chickens, answer to the beep." 

 

Time for some couture

I received the sweetest comment on my last post from a new reader. I visited her blog and realized she has a love for design. Her beautiful photographs made me realize that someone new to my blog would wonder "Where is the couture?" Well, I aimed to post items only relevant to farm life on here because I wanted to record all of the ways that the farm has changed who we were into who we are now. I still love design, even though it's become less of a passion as other stuff has become priority!


Anyway, so here's one example of how I got my blog name. Some couture to add to the country...

This room started off with 8.5' ceilings, dark moulding, and nasty sheetrock. It has since gotten new windows, so I need to take some new photos. It's hard to believe that we gutted that room, vaulted the ceiling, refinished the floors, hung sheetrock, and put a young toddler in that room over 2 years ago.

Posting these photos was therapeutic. I needed to show off something couture:



to make up for feeling oh so country:

We've had a week of rain, and I counted 20 pairs of muddy shoes by the back doors last night. Hubby and I returned from an evening out and couldn't help but laugh and take this photo with my phone. I couldn't even fit them all into one photo! The kids would have NEVER gotten away with this at our old house!