Back porch dreaming....

IS IT REALLY MAY????

Well, someone better tell that to Mother Nature.....

because as of right now, I am looking at my freshly manicured lawn, budding trees, perennial gardens, and nicely swept front porch......

ALL COVERED WITH SNOW!!!

I am even too upset to take a picture. Making "history" this way, is not my idea of fun!

So while it is a winter wonderland outside, 

I am trying to keep my mind on the warm summer months (if we ever have them!)

I am taking my back porch inspiration from this:

via Pinterest

and these:

via Pure Style Home blog

via Pinterest

I have also been doing some shopping via our wonderful WWW

 and have purchased some of these pillows from Pottery Barn:

This is my starting off point, here is an image from last summer:

I am not going to purchase any more furniture, just using what we have, maybe doing some DIY projects and making this fit more with the inside of our home. 

Here are some images of things I'm interested in adding:

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

via Pottery Barn

Our back porch/ deck area is actually made up of 3 different zones. 

1.The upper portion, which is enclosed with railing. 

2. The open, larger area, which I have had trouble getting the right look for. 

Don't you like our ornamental turkeys? These are no longer at Irishman Acres, 

but thought I'd show you how the deck looked last summer! :)

3. And our brick patio, which has our fire-pit.  Which you can see off of our deck:

Hard for me to totally plan it from the looks outside today! But these pictures are helping! 

Maybe when my new pillows arrive from Pottery Barn....or I dig out my outdoor rugs....or actually am ABLE to plant some of my flowers I have hidden in our garage, I will finally be able to put this winter in the past!

Like I said......*dreaming*.....

~Kim

Being married to a DIRT DIGGER.....

Well, being married to a "dirt man" does have it's advantages when it comes to certain yard work....

 and crazy ideas that certain wives may have....

Like when it comes to the relocation of a chicken coup because it is blocking the view of our barn. 

Daddy brings in the BIG GUNS....and carefully lifts and carries it to it's new location.....

Now the chicken coup will have prime real estate next to our garden/ feed shed. 

And believe me, it's getting a cute little make-over with a rock path and possibly window boxes?!

But sometimes, being married to a dirt digger is a MESS....having access to such machines, can be dangerous on our yard! 

This time he used his mini-excavator. And to quote Baileyhusband, "It's like digging with a spoon". 

He is digging a water line to our cow pasture, so no more running a hose clear from our house over to the water trough.....really not fun to do in the dead of winter!! So even though my yard is quite a mess for the time being, eventually it will be worth it. 

But no more fun watching this:

I feel a little lazy just watching him do all the hard work, but since these pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago, I have done TONS of yard work and spring cleanup....and even got to mow this past weekend! YIPPEE! Yes, I LOVE MOWING! Especially since it is too cold for snakes still! :)

 

Loving spring around here, can't wait to get my inner gardener goddess out of hybernation, 

I've got my lists made for the nursery.....

~Kim

Where I've Been....

I know....

It's been a LONG time since I have been on my blog.

I've been reading all of my favorite blogs everyday, just not been posting any here.

I wanted to ease back into it slowly...

and fill all of you in on where I've been and what we've been up to.

As mentioned on my post about the blogger's Midwest Meet-up, I did go to the Chicago area over Spring Break and was fortunate enough to meet some amazing "new friends" from blog-land. But the unfortunate thing is....ready for this?....I did not take ONE SINGLE PICTURE!!! What?!?!? Here we were all bloggers and all I seemed to have taken pics of were the little shop we met at! 

I want to thank the lovely Jennifer Rizzo for making this meeting a reality....and her post is alot more informative than mine! Now I will show some pics that I did take......

See the large globe in the picture above? Yep, it came home with me! 

Thanks to my friend KariAnne from Thistlewood Farms for talking me into it...

The shop, called Room 363, which has it's own blog you can find here, is stuffed FULL of beautiful finds and inspiration! It is in an old house and each room has it's own look and style, I will definitely be stopping back in on my next visit to Chicago.

And speaking of Chicago.....I took my daughters with me on this little Field Trip to the awesome Windy City, and while there we did some MORE shopping on the Magnificent Mile (aka Michigan Ave.)

Even though this cowhide chair is a little too modern for our home, I would proudly own it....seriously THEE MOST COMFORTABLE thing ever!!!

Some time with my girls is all this mama needed! And a little vacation from reality is never a bad idea! :)

We were there on St. Patty's Day, and Chicago dyes the river green! 

Nice welcome for us Irishman Acres gals! 

My only regret was that we didn't stay longer, another couple days would have been nice!

Oh well, there is always next year! 

Now back to all the other things I've been doing.......laundry, dishes, running kids to practices, working at my day-time "real" job, and reading.....and not just the home decor magazines and catalogs....I have finally rediscovered my love of reading REAL books!!! 

We have also been busy doing not-so-fun projects around the farm.....

more on that another day! 

Hope you all have a great weekend! 

~Kim

Felipe and why we love him!

He is  LOUD, he is obnoxious at times, his poop is LARGE.....

and he is very beautiful. 

All winter long, we have had him roaming around our farm, CAGE FREE!!

And he is always popping up somewhere to surprise us!

He is sometimes in our garage if our door is left open. 

I haven't had my camera ready for that one though!

Peacocks CAN fly, but I was nervous he was going to get caught up in these branches.

And this morning, we awoke to some loud honking from our front porch....

as I type this post, he is still there, starring at himself through the door reflection....

Good morning, Felipe! 

Have a great Sunday everyone!

~Kim

My FAVORITE time of the year

We are now into the best part of owning a (hobby) farm.....BABY SEASON! 

We have been on "calf watch" for one of our miniature herefords for the past couple weeks, when I received a text picture message from Baileyhusband the other day!

Mama Clover (our black angus/simmental) had SURPRISED us by giving birth....2 months sooner than we had anticipated! 

While we were all at school/work (March 5) ...FIRST TIME Mama to be, Clover, had not only given birth, but had delivered, cleaned, and fed her newborn calf! And the new little one was walking around the pasture with her!! 

Meet our newest addition to IRISHMAN ACRES:  Crissy

If you are new to this blog, I posted about what we now know to be the actual conception....

back on June 1.

(that picture was taken far away on purpose, for privacy) hahahaha

And then I posted about the ultrasound....and the doctor WAS correct,

 in October, Clover was 3 months along. 

Now, I know what you're thinking, if we saw the conception, and we had an ultrasound....then why was it a SURPRISE when she delivered in March?? Well the answer is quite simple.....we saw her "being bred" again the next couple months. So, according to all vets and other farmers we have talked to, she wasn't pregnant yet.  I guess there are exceptions to every rule....and of course, our little Clover happens to be one of them! 

We always knew she was special.....

Sierra and Clover's "photo-shoot"

 .......And now, so is her first-born, Crissy.

 She is named after my sister, Krissy, who shares her birthday! I am quite certain that my sister is honored to have a cow named after her!! :)

 We had to give Clover some love and tell her what a great Mama she is!

We are glad with our decision to breed her with Ken, our miniature hereford bull. It gave her a first time birth to a smaller calf....and a very precious one at that! 

Now I just hope and pray that our other two expecting mama's have it just as easy ....but they have both done it twice before, so they are experts! :)

~Kim