Before, During, After

We moved into our new, old house last week. Before we moved, we wanted to get as much done as possible ahead of actually living there to minimize the amount and duration of dust we'd be exposed to. So, finally, we are filling the spaces with our stuff and really enjoying the new place.

Before we owned the place, previous owner's decorations and all.

When we removed the carpet, it revealed an economical refinishing some decades ago.

After the first sanding, before the finish was applied.

Refinished floors, fresh coat of mossy green paint. Just about ready to call it home.

Spiders and scenery

Garden Bounty

Finally a little bit of produce for all of our efforts in the city.

Fireflies

Not a great photo but taken the first weekend we saw them. It was amazing. A goal is to learn how to photograph them better in the coming years.

Pollinators

I'm amazed at the diversity our little habitat creates for insects of all kinds. Here are a few shots of some of my favorites that we've seen this summer. We easily have more than a dozen butterfly and moth species in our prairies, had a huge hatching of fireflies in June, and have all kinds of beautiful bees and moths, like the ones below.

Giant Swallotail feeding on our beebalm

Hummingbird clearwing moth (my favorite!) feeding on bee balm 

Bumblebee on our purple coneflower

Spring at the farm

It has been wonderful to observe life awaken out at our farm. All of these surprises are new for us: various spring prairie plants, flowering trees like prairie crab apples, flocks of baltimore orioles who have come to raise their young, and so on. It is lush and alive and we all take wonder at everything from a small beetle crossing the driveway to a heron flying overhead.

silo foundation = sunken firepit

We literally stumbled upon this circular silo foundation last fall after our field was mowed for the first time. It is down near all of our old buildings where it was the hub of farming activities of decades past. Following the big blizzard, we encircled this mysterious area about 10 feet around. Before the big blizzard we managed to cut back the grass and clear an area for a fire pit which was flush with ground level.

After our barn fell from the blizzard, we had large machinery on site to deconstruct the barn. We asked the excavator to scoop some of the earth out so we could transform this into a fire pit. Now the silo foundation is a circular bench that can comfortably sit many friends around a large fire. Coupled with our chain saw that's getting a workout a few times a month, this area will definitely be put to good use for many years to come!