Gallery 10 - My (New) Indiana Home in the Good Ol' Summertime

Just a half mile down the road and a hundred years into the past - We spent the first summer 2005 painting and remodeling and putting up some finishing touches such as new curtains here and there. The previous owner was THE curtain guru, so I saved as much as I could of her curtains, but where they were coming apart I had to replace them.. As we do more work on the inside and out, our new Indiana home continues to be a work in progress

Click on an image to see a bigger picture

"Life's Ordinary Beauty"

Summer number 4 ... started off hot with lots of rain ... and then stayed mostly cool and frequently rainy. Temps often struggled to get into the 80's even, and the nights often were in the 50's! This was a summer where I didn't have to do much watering. And we haven't turned the air conditioning on all summer - and most of the time I haven't even needed the fans!

Room Remake

Ditch Lilies

Shade Garden

Garage Sale Finds

Clematis

Butterfly Bush Bloom

Annabelles

Snap Dragons, Petunias and Pansies - it's been so cold and wet this season, the Pansies are still going strong!

Peach Atilbe

Front View of House

Hydrangeas

Clematis

View of Back of House

Clematis

Back Flower Garden

Clematis

Firefly on Annabelle

Annabelles

Yellow Holly Hocks

Shade Garden

We've had an exceptionally rainy June - very cool weather the first three weeks and then in the nineties the last week! Anyway, we don't usually have dramatic skies out here, at least since I've moved here - but all this last week we've had very dramatic sunsets - the sunset pictures that follow were taken over a series of three days.

Yellow Holly Hocks

Shade Garden

Storm Cloud over Barn

Fireflies Awakening

Storm Cloud over Barn

Day Lilies at Dusk

Storm Cloud over Barn

June Sunset

Stormy Sunset

Garden Layers

Red Holly Hock

Garden Layers

Stormy Sunset

Butterball resting on Picnic Table

Hazel behind Lilies

Nimbus over Red Barn

Nimbus

Stormy Sunset

Brushed Cotton Sunset

Mail Box Lilies

Ditch Lilies along Drive

Cone Flowers

June Fireflies

Home Grown Bouquets

Living Wreath in July

Summer creatures - this has been a bumper year for fireflies - hope that means even more next year! We have one little brown toad living right outside our back door. Sometimes when we open the door, he hops in the back porch and we have to put him back out. We've tried relocating him once or twice - in the rose garden under the night light where he can catch lots of bugs. We also have to watch not to step on him when we go out the back door. Then there's a bigger black toad living in my shade garden - and the tree frogs are quite plentiful this year as well. One lives right outside our kitchen window and sometimes right on the kitchen window.

Fireflies and Moon

The ol' gal gets a new roof

Hazel perks her ears

THIS OLD HOUSE TOUR of 2009

Okay, with my summer of unemployment I have been a busy bee around the house first with spring cleaning and then finally getting to finish moving in after all these years!

Rather than keep adding pictures here, I have decided to do a special exhibit called "This Old Farm House Tour 2009." You can also access it from the Galleries Page.

The chickens debut! Whatta year! In the spring our Belgian mules arrive and in September, the chickens! We got them from a 4-H leader in the Poultry Division so they are rather showy if I do say so myself. So much going on, the rest of the photos on this page won't each appear on their own webpage, but you can still click on them to see a bigger version. :)

Benny built a coop right across from the mules' stalls. The mules find them quite interesting as it turns out.

Meet our new family members, Dharma, Buffy, and the Jersy Girls.

Buffy - a Buff Orpington Hen

Dharma and the Jersey Girls - Brahma and Black Jersy Giants

"My Li'l Wooster" is still a baby - too little to be in with those big pullets and hens. He's a Dark Brown Leghorn. He sure is a cutie!

Buffy - Buff Orpington Hen

Dharma - Brahma Hen

View from the Chicken Coop - where I sit and have my morning coffee these days. Have you guys ever heard of "The Backyard Chicken Movement?" There was an article about it in the Journal and Courier the same week we got our chickens.

Annie takes an interest in the goings on

That kitty seems to be a new addition to our family. He's in love with Annie - and I think he lives under our shed. I've been putting out food and water for him - I think he's half feral and half friendly

Too cute

View from the chicken coup

The last days of summer - with fall only a week away or thereabouts, here are a few remaining memories from this lovely, lovely summer ...

Dramatic Sunset

Firefly invasion

The ol' gal gets a new roof and the driveway repaved

$$Repaved driveway$$ - ouch! But we do like it.

I wish I could remember what these flowers are called. My aunt gave me a seed packet of them - and I never expected them to get so big! I've noticed them flourishing all over the county this summer!

Flowers around windmill

Distance view of our rosebush

Potted Petunias and Snapdragons. Even a pansy or two left from spring.

Flowers around windmill at sunset

Foggy September morn

Foggy September dawn

Benny's online horse trailer find!

Foggy September morn - view of the horse pasture.

Back Porch in September

And a "few" leftovers from This Old Farmhouse Tour...

More new roof pix - can we help we're proud parents? ;)

Paved driveway to the garage - used to be gravel

Summer Flowers

Summer Flowers and Vegetables

Kitchen in August

Summer Flowers

Goodwill Finds

Kitchen in August

Good Will Finds

Kitchen in August

Fruits of Summer

Storm Flowers

Kitchen in August

Living Room Shot

Back Porch in August

Best Geranium Planter I ever had - I ought to see if I can keep it over winter!

Bumper year for spider webs - they have covered our ever greens and they are even scattered out in little patches on the lawn.

Garden decor - I planted the living wreath out back in August to see how it would do - Benny's grandmothers old soap making pot and birdnests blown down from the summer storm.

My poor Annabelle's have had a hard summer with the roofing. They are happy with the watering I just gave them now that September has turned dry. I sure hope those are little sweet pea vines and that they will come back next year - and bloom!