Painting The Guest Cottage Front Door

 We perused facebook marketplace.  We were looking at antique stores (this predates the "Big Quarantine"). I even looked at a company in Springfield that crafts high end custom wood doors in vintage styles.  What we wanted was a front door for the guest cottage that had some character.  Solid. With a window. And that we could afford.

Then my husband was digging through my stash in my shop and found one.  Yep, I already had one.  Maybe not as old or full of character as I desired -- but you can't argue with FREE. To add character we found some old scalloped trim pieces (yes, also in my shop) and attached them to the top and bottom of the window on the exterior side of the door.

Then we choose Home Depot's color of the year -- "Back to Nature" to paint the exterior side. Another piece of the guest cottage puzzle done.

Midland Brownsnake Sighting

Saw this cute guy last week.

He was really more light tan than brown.

Only about 9" long.
Not poisonous.

Pond Fully Stocked

We have a tiny little pond that we put in a few months ago.  Because our guest cottage construction has been hogging all of our exterior electricity, the pond has never had (and still doesn't have) running water.  Just sitting around collecting rainwater and growing mosquitos.

I had both of my sons at my beck & call this week, so I had them empty out the nasty water and clean that hot mess out.  My husband picked up some aquatic plants and minnows to stock the pond.

(Because we are cheap!) 

 That way if they don't last we won't cry big tears. 

 We'll see how it goes!

My Husband's Corona Virus Isolation Project #11 -- Repairing The South Side Garden Shed & Rock Sign

This little garden shed was originally a well house.

It was in poor condition when we moved in 

( worse than this, 

 because my husband had already done Stage 1 repairs before I took this photo.)

When we bought our property, we thought we would tear itdown.

That makes us laugh now, because we like the well house so much.

 To ensure it's survival my husband has patched up the deteriorating stone walls

and corrugated metal roof while he had the time.

The stone walls were so bad that metal mesh was involved with the patching process.

And we wanted the roof repair to appear "original" so it was OK to

put willy-nilly replacement pieces of metal in the bare spots.

He made a rock mosaic with the name of the conservation area

that we live close to.  And attached it to the repaired wall.

With a bit of paint, it looks like it may last another 90 years.

My husband is going back into the office now,

so this is his last official corona virus isolation project.

Sold This Week On Facebook Marketplace

When we bought the ostrich ferns last week off of Facebook Marketplace,

I decided I had some plants that I could be selling on FM.

I listed them on Sunday,

and by Wednesday night all of these things had sold.

I had potted them all at least a month ago,

so they all looked great by this time.

Most of them I planted in vintage containers

that I had picked up for little or nothing.

And at one person purchased a boatload of antiques besides

their plants.

Plus we sold these mid-century lounge chairs for $95 each.

It was a good FM week.

Chooks Have Moved Into The Herb Garden

Update On Stonecrest Cottage Guest House

What an agonizingly slow process.  I guess it is teaching us patience.  Insulation and drywall went up this week so it is looking a bit more like a house than a worksite.

Bunk niche in the bunk room.

View from just outside front door

(if there was a front door.)

I am itching to get it to the point where I can paint the walls.

Of Iris, Alpacas, Circus Ponies & Ostrich Ferns

It started out as your normal quarantine Sunday morning.
(Which is to say, not going to church.)

Just wandering around the yard.

Not enough important stuff to occupy the gray cells.

This is iris season.  

We have a gazillion irises planted around the birdbath.

Perfect location.

ONE stinking bloom.

A little one at that.

I mention to my husband that NEXT year we should tear out all of these non-blooming, common-looking piddly iris and replace them with iris from our favorite iris growers (pic above from their iris farm.)

Well, that is all it took.  Like lighting a match to tinder.  We are in the van and on the way to Dopey's Hillside Gardens before you can say Corona Virus.

By the way.  That is not their official business name. Yet. I suggested it, and they are considering it.  Another BTW.... Dopey is their rooster's name.

These lovely alpaca that we pass on the way to Dopey's are just a bonus.  And did I mention we also pass circus ponies grazing in a field? I am not making up the circus part -- these are arrogant, gorgeous little creatures that relax at a spacious country home when they aren't working under a big top.

So we buy a boatload of iris.
(Disclaimer: the above pic is from our trip to Dopey's two years ago.)

I leave my husband to the ripping out of the non-productive iris and installing the new iris.  

Both of us were very pleased with the results.

But what to do with the discarded, non-producing iris?
(See the ONE bloom on the right?)

Plant it next to a concrete wall where we need leafage (is that a word?) and blooming is optional.

It has good company next to the ostrich ferns that we bought on Saturday off of 

facebook marketplace.

On The Hunt For Ostrich Fern

On our way "into town" we pass a perfectly manicured

farmhouse that has lovely ferns out front.

My husband has been jealous of them for weeks.

We looked high and low at garden centers looking for similar ones.
We had learned in our search that they were called

ostrich ferns.

We did see many lovely ferns in our search.

But no ostrich ferns.  Until...

I looked on facebook marketplace and there they were!
Our hunt took us to a lovely home, where I took all these pics.
The groundcover above is strawberry geranium, which I don't believe I have seen before.
So we also bought some of it from the homeowners.

And more importantly (cue angels) our hunt is over.
I will take a pic of our new "fern area" sometime in the future.

Froggies In My Irises

I was outside admiring my irises today and I

noticed that one had a hitchhiker.

How cute is this little guy?

I went a little crazy taking pics of him because

I thought I may never see anything like that again.

 After an hour or so I decided to take some pics of

my other gorgeous irises.

And guess what I found?

Maybe it is more common than you would think

Fossils Everywhere You Look

I mentioned in my last post that we have more than our share of rocks on our property,
and many have been put to good uses -- click on that post here.
 Almost every rock on our property has a fossil in it

if you look hard enough.  

We definitely were underwater here

a long time ago.

 So many different types of crustaceans.

There is a limestone plant close by that makes countertops,

and they said the largest fossils they have had are starfish.

 This is a rock attached to our house.

You would have to click on it on see it well.

The fossils wear down from the elements after

they are exposed.

I just found this rock recently,

it has a lot going on.

Most fossils we found are impressions,

but this one has the 3D shapes.

 Another rock used in building our house.

 This large shell left such a clear impression.

This large rock was broken in half during the building

of our guest cottage -- revealing all of it's inner treasures.

Just layers and layers of sea creatures.

They are so crisp because they haven't been exposed to the elements.

Love the cross section of a crinoid.

 If you look closely at this it has (what I think)

is an impression of an aquatic leaf.

Great pattern.

Maybe my favorite because it has all that I mentioned above

going on in one little piece.  

Anyway, the possibility of a great fossil makes me look at every rock

on our property (and that is a bunch.)