Dream Valley Farmstead: Kitchen Update and Outdoor Work

Earlier this week I returned home after a two week trip to Florida where I attended a Sewing Expo and quilt retreat. I had a great time but, boy, is it good to be back home!

CountryBoy kept busy (in between dealing with another snow storm, cold weather and rain. Lots of rain, with flooding and boil water alerts. Poor guy!) working on the kitchen.

He finished out the open ceiling...

framed out the false wall (to accommodate existing plumbing that can't be moved), reworked the electrical outlets and light switches, and framed out the platform for the range...

and the boards for the wall finally dried out enough to hang...

It's coming along bit by bit.

I also came home to some signs of Spring!

Clumps of Daffodils all around the property and possibly even some Tulips! We'll just have to wait and see what all starts popping up.

Since we would like to have a small garden and get chicks this year we are dividing our time between working on the kitchen and prepping both the garden and the chicken coop/run depending upon the days' weather.

Both the garden and chicken run were extremely overrun with weeds and brush.

weed-filled garden beds

weed-filled chicken run

another view of weed-filled chicken run

view of chicken run from coop

Yesterday was a nice, non-windy day so we worked outside pulling, raking and burning the weeds, fallen leaves and brush in both areas.

They're looking much better now...

The 'thing' standing up behind LizzieBelle is an old piano that we found underneath all the weeds and brush. It had been burned for some reason and that's all that's left of it.

We even cleaned up the area beside the chicken run...