Single Tree Farm Junk Curtain

So farm tools and upcycled junk has become popular decorating items recently. I guess I've been part of this movement long before it was trendy. As I promised in a earlier blog post, I am sharing part of my farm tool decorating ideas.

I got this single tree from my great uncles estate a few years ago. A single tree was used to hook a horse or mule to horse-drawn farm equipment such as a plow.

 As I was redoing my bathroom, I realized that the single tree was the same width as the window. We put a big rusty nail near the ceiling to hang the single tree on and the small curtain rod that was previously used on another curtain, slipped perfectly into the hooks. I made the curtain out of some material I found in the fabric bargain bin. I tied the curtain back with a few strands of raffia.

I'm linking this post to Donna's

non traditional WINDOW TREATMENTS 

Fall Blooms

I have been blessed with a few fall blooms in my yard! A few of my day lilies by my porch have bloomed over the last week. It was quite a pleasant surprise to have the repeat lily blooms.

 No matter how much I water, there is no replacement for real rain water. Last week we got little over an inch of rain and it helped some of these flowers look revived and happier. Its amazing that the morning glories have survived with out any water from me. They are growing on a fence too far away from my water hose and somehow have managed to bloom during the drought.

 This butterfly fluttered about recently, feeding off the zinnias growing around our porch. My yard is usually full of butterflies during the summer, but we've only seen a few passing through on occasion. I'm glad I had a little something for them to feed as they stopped by.

I just found out I get a three day weekend! Woohoo! I've got a lot of projects that I would love to work on, so hopefully I'll get a few of them accomplished this weekend. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Fall Yall!

Happy 4th Day of Fall! Bet ya never heard that one before! ;) Whew, its hard to believe its been a week since I last posted.

What a week it's been... it was homecoming week at the flower shop and we both have suffered with a virus. Thank goodness both are past us now. I hardly ever miss work for sickness - usually once every two or three years and I missed a day during the week that no one is allowed to take off!

Finally this week, we are both feeling much, much better and can finally take notice that fall arrived on Friday!

I changed my picture frame wreath to suit the season. When I dug out my fall decor a few weeks back, I found the wooden pumpkin welcome sign and decided it would look great on my picture frame door wreath.

After

 I cut off the cross and welcome sign and wove the wire on the pumpkin stem through the chicken wire on the frame. It took a  whole 2 minutes and I never took the wreath off the door! I like it much better...I wish we could decorate with pumpkins all year. I love the oranges, yellows, reds, and browns of fall.

Before

With the fall season upon us, the days are getting noticeably shorter and our chores must start earlier to avoid being caught by dark and feeding animals with a flashlight.

Fall means county fairs are approaching in the coming weeks and its about time to dust off my Yam Pie Recipe in order to defend my Champion Pie Title at our fair! I won the pie contest last year and I need to defend my title this year. Can you say p-r-e-s-s-u-r-e? I'm sure my family and friends won't mind me making a few test pies for them to taste test!

I'm seeing all the fall antique/junk sales and blog post about Warrenton, Round Top and other big markets and its making me sad I'm not there. I MUST make plans for next year.

Fall means cooler temperatures and hopefully some much needed rain. We did get little over an inch of rain last week and our pasture has a little bit of a green glow across it. The animals are sure happy to see some grass growing again. I have had a few new blooms on my flowers and hope to share some pics sometime this week.

Fall means the new season of tv shows. I haven't been watching much television lately, but was ready for the premiere of Castle. I usually watch Dancing with the Stars, but haven't got excited about it this season. We are waiting to see how the new Tim Allen show is going to be. Farmall Man misses the days of Tool Time and he is ready to see Tim on TV again. We only get ABC, NBC, and Fox at our house as we don't have cable at home. The Junk Gypsies are getting a show on HGTV this fall, and I sure hope I can get them through iTunes on our iPad!  So what are your favorite fall shows?

After the summer we have had, I hope this fall is much happier.

So what is your favorite part about fall? Anything you are looking foward to doing this season?

Brenda Photo Challenge - Dog Daze of Summer

Its time for the Brenda Photo Challenge and this week the theme is the Dog Daze of Summer. We have had plenty of these type days around here this summer. Texas has just had the hottest summer on record and now we have record number of wildfires burning across the state. Its just unbelievable. Thankfully the fires are under control in our county, but smoke still drifts through the air from large fires in surrounding counties.

As I finished up my Gazebo Project and was taking pictures for my blog reveal of the gazebo, Suzy just made herself right at home in her favorite chair.

Trixie thinks she has an extremely hard life on the couch. If she only knew how lucky she was...

{I am saddened to hear that Miz Brenda has lost her husband this week. My thoughts are with you and your family Miz Brenda.}

More Fires...

Fires are continuing to rage across the area today. One of the "big" fires last night has now burned over 1000 acres and is about 50% contained. These fires are jumping roads and taking houses in their path. There are at least four large fires burning in our county now. Other fires in the East Texas area are still burning as well and have taken at least two lives.

These pictures were taken just a few moments ago of 2 new fires burning to the northeast of us about 10 to 12 miles. The wind will not bring this fire towards our house, but we have to worry about fires starting closer to us.

 My brother is on the scene of one of the fires. We have heard on the scanner that the third house was fixing to burn at his location. The last picture shows darker smoke starting to billow up and we expect it was the third house. The other location was threatening several houses and racing across fields. There are actually two seperate fires burning in these pictures. They are very close together and the smoke is joining together and travelling south.

On my way home from work this afternoon, our community VFD was dispatch to a illegal trash barrel burn that had got out of control just 2 miles from us. What are these crazy people thinking???

This is scary people. I'm sure half the USA know Texas is under a burn ban, yet we have people trying to burn trash and BBQ today.

We heard Volunteer Fireman from several counties away are on their way to help our guys. I'm thankful for all our men and women who are working these monstrous fires this weekend.



There have been 2 airplanes flying over ALL day. We have determined that these are Air Tractors are helping fight the largest fire by dropping chemical retardant from them.



The darker smoke on the far left in this picture is a house on fire.

 I know it will be a long night for all the firemen working these fires and now that my brother is one of them and these fires are so close to people I know, I am really concerned for all their safety.

Update: At last check only three fire departments were still on the scene, with my brother's crew being one of them. The fire was contained, but they are staying on scene till the fire is out. We only know of the three houses being lost to the fire. Once I get to talk to him, we will know much more info. I heard on the scanner that someone was being fined for burning trash, although I cannot confirm if that was the cause of this particular fire.

I have also been reading about the huge Bastrop County fire in central Texas that is just devastating.

I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers as we continue to pray for all the firefighters and victims of these fires.