Wedding Trees

Since Logan and I are preparing for a wedding, and we have knocked down 17 trees in our yard, my mom and I have come up with some good decoration ideas involving trees for our wedding reception.  

My parents and brother came out this past weekend to chop up a few trees for the wedding! Of course, this event did not take only an hour or two, but about 4.5 hours! My family came down with their 30 year old chainsaw that ran perfectly fine.  My dad started cutting trees when Logan pulled out their chainsaw.  My dad's chainsaw started acting up, so he used Logan's.  We were moving right along until this chainsaw ran out of gas.  So my dad filled it up and it started acting up too!  He ended up spending a half hour trying to get the chainsaw to work when we decided we should go get a new one.  It was 4:20 and Runnings closed at 5:00.  Needless to say, we buzzed up to Aberdeen and got to Runnings with 7 minutes to spare and ended up with a new chainsaw.  

Once we got home, it took us another half hour to get the new chainsaw running, but once we got it going, man did we get some tree cutting business done!!  Below are a few pictures from the tree cutting event, but I am not going to show any pictures of what we actually cut down...I'm keeping it a secret until the wedding!  I'll give you a hint...think birch branches and lots of pieces of tree trunk! :)

Farm Girl Tip #96: If you want trees for wedding decorations, just cut down some trees in your yard and use them! It will mean so much more if you cut your own down!!

Toothbrushes....

Logan and I have moved up to his parents place to stay while our house is being built and our old one is being tore down.  While we were here tonight, I was helping Michelle clean up from supper.  I went to put something in the dishwasher and noticed toothbrushes in the dishwasher.  I was quite confused by this, so I had to ask if those were really toothbrushes in the dishwasher! Sure enough, they were! Michelle tells me that once a year she takes the toothbrushes from the camper and sanitizes them by washing them in the dishwasher.  Let me tell you, you really do learn something new everyday! 

Farm Girl Tip #95: If you need your toothbrushes sanitized, I guess you can put them in the dishwasher! I still am quite confused by this....

Old to New

If you have read a few previous posts, you can see that Logan and I are getting a new house! We have removed trees, packed up, seen too many mice (dead and alive), and moved out.  This post is just to showcase the old house compared to the new house!

Here is the old house.  Honestly, I'm not sure how I lived here for a year and how Logan lived here for 2 years.  This place is DISGUSTING!! I don't even know where to begin on explaining how bad it is.  Between dirt, mice, and water leaks, it was time to move out and destroy.

This was taken on a day when I was packing up and hauling stuff to the box.  I would back the pickup right up to the door and haul out!

Here is the new house.  I CANNOT wait to live in this baby!! Especially compared to what I've been living in for the past year!

Farm Girl Tip #94: When it's time to move, DO IT! If you have mice, water leaks, and dirt that you can't even clean up anymore...Call Steinmentz in Watertown and have them build you a new house! It really is simple!

Tree Demolition

Whew!! These past 2 weeks have been crazy! I have finished school for the summer, moved out of a house, and moved into a different house.  Logan and I are finally starting to get settled in and are ready to burn the house down and get ready for our new house!! 

Along with moving out of the house, we have also been tearing trees out! We tore out 17 trees and WOW does the yard look great!! All of the trees we tore out would have been in the way of the new house, so yes, we had to take all of these trees out! This really opened up the yard and will make the house look real nice!!  

Here are some before and after pictures of the house without trees!  Hopefully I have labeled the pictures in a way that is easy to understand!  I wouldn't want to confuse you!! :)

Here is the front view of the house:

Before:

After:

Side View of the house:

Before (The trees hid the ugly house):

After: (There is so much more room for activities!!)

Looking from the road:

Before: 

After view:

After view of the soon to be backyard:

--There wasn't much back here, just a few trees. I don't have a before picture of this.

And of course, I can't forget to showcase the beautiful house! This was a before picture, as you can tell by the trees peeking over the house, and the tree on the right back side of the house. It sure is a beaut!!

Farm Girl Tip #93: Tree demolition is quite exciting!!  If you are in need of some entertainment, call your local tree guy and have him come dig up 17 trees in your yard! And who knows, maybe you can save some of the branches for decorations for a special event!! 

****More to come on this in a future post!!****

The Box

Well our house is progressing right along, and with that in mind, the time has come for us to start to move out of this house.  Yesterday, we received a big box to put all of our stuff in.  According to the people, this box is mouse proof and I sure hope they are right!!

Since we now have a big box sitting in our yard, I have started the packing process! I was absolutely exhausted yesterday, and it didn't even look like I made a dent in the box!!  I guess that is probably ok since we have LOTS of big items that still need to fit in here!!

When I said the house is progressing along, I meant that it was progressing quite quickly!! Here are a few pictures of the house!

This is the back of the house.

 Here is the front of the house.

 And here is the back of the house with shingles on it!

Farm Girl Tip #92: When your house is in the shingling stage, you know it's time you should probably start moving out of your old house.  P.S. It's really creepy looking in places you have never looked before to see if you should keep anything.  You never know what you might find...

Spring At The Farm

Yesterday was a nice South Dakota spring day...with wind of course!  I got home from school, and decided to plant part of my garden.  I planted my potatoes and carrots in my freshly tilled garden.  I had a little company the entire time watching me as I did all of the work!

Then a little while later, Logan was thirsty and invited me to bring him some water and food.  If I did that I could ride with him for a while.  Since I was not doing a whole heck of a lot, I decided this would be a good bargain!  I brought him water, pop, chips, and freshly baked cookies.  (Real healthy huh?!) In turn, I got to ride along in the planter until he finished the field.  Then he kicked me out because he had to plant the headlands (around the edges of the field) and he needed to do that by himself with no one in the planter.  How rude!!

Farm Girl Tip #91: You never know when you will get a nice day to plant your garden so do it even if it's windy.  Invite your dog to come keep you company, too!! Also, when you are ever invited out to the field, take advantage of it.  It's always so relaxing and peaceful!