MINNESOTA

Headin' to Minnesota tomorrow morn. SOoo excited!!!

... Which Is Why We Have 4 Driveways!

The farm's previous owner, as I may have mentioned before, had an affinity for asphalt... which is WHY, perhaps, we have 4 driveways. Our favorite driveway we are keeping. The others will have to go. All four ports of entry flow into one communal asphalt arena that dominate the very heart of the property. So what I (we) need to do, is figure out what to keep and what to dig.

Yike!*

The land around the asphalt is mostly just tall grass, which I love (as do the deer ticks, I'm SURE!). At times the ground looks like the ocean. An unforgiving sea of hard, grey matter encroaching upon the fresh grass.




Leaving paths and sections of asphalt will prove useful, but will require serious planning. I've printed out an aerial map of the land, using Google maps, which has helped get a different perspective... an aerial perspective, duh! The inspiration is flowin', but a girl from Brooklyn has only so much landscaping capabilities... I may need some pro advice here. After my walk through the nursery at Adams last Saturday I feel like I've got the gumption to landscape the whole world!!!



Mainly I'd like the land to feel wild and unmanacured, yet have the humble simplicity of a classic a farm landscape. In most places I'd like the grass long and the paths through them to be crooked and winding. There should be more trees planted and perhaps a garden. Here are some inspiring photos:


I know that last one is a little... suburban, but I like their plant selection!!!

Well, here's to our soon-to-be new best friend, the BACKHOE!!!


* My half brother Bobby says, (or said, he's probably learned by now) "Yike!" instead of "Yikes". And since hearing that I have a tendency to say "Yike". YIKE!

So We're A Little Trashy

As I've mentioned before NYC's garbage is unbelievable.


Not to be a Debbie Dumpster Dive, but this city continues to give me reason to keep my eye towards the curb. I came to meet Nick at work on Thursday to find him covered in filth, lugging an ENORMOUS WINDOW, most likely discarded from an old loft...

Nick had been bit by the "vision" bug. Our little barn's back wall has been compromised and we're replacing the wall and framing it out with windows. We needed big ones... check.


Cut to Friday evening- Nick and Milan (Milan Dale) are heading Upstate in a borrowed Ford Explorer, *TWO* ENORMOUS WINDOWS fill up the back, preventing me from coming along. I sulk all of Friday day right through, till about...

10:30pm- The weather is warm, the streets are busy. I am alone, watching the 3rd season of x-files on DVD while eating Ramen, wondering:

If I go to bed RIGHT this moment will I honestly
be able to live with myself in the morning?

Sulking continues into sleep when sometime between Midnight and 1am, 8 miles into dreamland, the light left on (the x-files was too scary), THE PHONE RINGS...

Cut to around 3 or 4am- Joanna and I arrive Upstate. We all go to bed shortly after 5.

*MAY I ADD THAT NICK AND I USUALLY CAN'T STAY UP PAST 1am, SO THE SITUATION WAS MORE THAN EXTRAORDINARY.

The next morning :

The Dale House

...we hit a couple of yard sales after a wonderful breakfast/lunch (NOT brunch) at Tony's Newburgh Lunch. OH, and we went to Adams Fairacre Farms!!! Joanna almost threw up and fainted when the butcher taught her about various meats and I nearly cried when I went to their nursery, I was just so happy! Nick and I almost got a Forsythia bush, but were wise to wait, as we had booty to acquire from the yard sales to come. Par example:

Then we went back home to introduce our new treasure to our old, such as 4 chairs that Milan's mom gave us:

Which we'll be adding to our OTHER chairs... now there are 20.

It's like I asked the "Before and After" Gods to bring me something to transform and they are seriously calling my bluff.

Over and Out.

WOOD.

I was lightly flipping through a West Elm catalog when WHAM-

Try and look past the wicker furniture (I know it's tough) and take a good look at those stairs!!! They're planks of wood, unfinished, with yellow paint from the lumber yard and printed serial numbers. AHhhh... "rustic industrial".


If I could live in a lumber yard I... would (WOOD) consider it.

Oh wait... I kind of DO live in a lumber yard. (Inside of the barn above are various wood pieces from old beams and 2x4s to siding. And when I say "inside" I mean the whole barn is filled with wood.)

Imagine stairs made out of those beams?! (But only if that guy would help me build 'em.)

This image is a favorite of mine I discovered at Apartment Therapy.

And aren't THESE gorgeous?!

"Honey, unload the wood, we makin' stairs!"

You Drive Me Crazy or What Ever Happened To David Curtin?

When I was a kid I had a favorite car.

And that is strange for two reasons; one, I don't usually have favorites, as I find them limiting, and TWO, I've never had any real experience being around cars, having grown up in NYC. I suppose that that is exactly the reason why I had a favorite car, which is the same reason I love cheerleading: it is completely foreign to me.

My favorite car was a wood paneled station wagon. I would see one on the road and get butterflies. I wanted to pile all of my Cabbage Patch Kids into the back and go to the grocery store! I wanted to take them SHOE SHOPPING!!! etc.

My second favorite car was a Dodge minivan... 

Yes, WITH a wood panel. (But this might have been my favorite car {van} because David Curtin's family had one and HE was gorgeous.)

My third favorite car was a Ford Taurus (with or without wood paneling). 

I think wood paneling fell out of fashion for the time. Foolish people. 

It was such a sensible car. A CLASSIC. "Who in their right mind WOULDN'T buy a Ford Taurus?!" I thought.

Then I stopped looking at cars. 

Then I liked the Mitsubishi 3000GT. 

(Everyone goes through a phase now and then.)

Then I liked the Jeep Grand Cherokee. 

(There's an old one that parks on my block and sometimes when I pass it I'll take my picture with it.)

But now my favorite car is... If cars had a romance novel this picture would be on the cover:

a Subaru Outback. 

I eye them on the street like a dirty old man at a pep rally.

Nick and I are trying to gently acquire a vehicle... So I started becoming conscious of what kind of automobile I'd like to own.

We'd like a station wagon, which lends itself well to people with an affinity for finding furniture and renovating old barns.

But one thing is for sure, if it's got a wood panel, I'm SOLD.