Old Meets New: Denim Blue and Rusty Gold

The snow is gone and we're starting to see a little green creep up from the garden but for the most part, we're still color deprived.  

Inside, however, is a different story.  

Sara turned my grandmother's 1967 retro sofa into a beautiful shade of blue.  Denim blue velvet to be exact.

The fireplace room is coming together with a newly arrived ottoman that's a light shade of red and we bought a fox silhouette from Hammertown that we've named Renardo after Sara's first French word.  

We also discovered Battle Hill Forge in Millerton, NY.  Lots of rusty gold outside so we'll certainly be back to find some treasures for the garden in the next few weeks.  

Spring Is Coming...?

Yesterday was the first day of spring and we thought for sure we'd already be seeing shades of green and budding flowers up at the farm.  

Storm Stella had other plans, however, crushing the east coast with nearly three feet of snow and five feet blocking the driveway.  We'll obviously need to find a more suiable solution for the winter of 2018 in removing snow despite our stone driveway.   

On a brighter note, a successful seedling crop is flourishing inside under some grow lights with peas, tomatoes, and peppers starting to sprout.  

Barn Hunting

Found this beauty just outside of Tivoli, NY  

Tale of Two Seasons

Late Summer 2016

Late Fall / Eart Winter 2016  

Plans For Spring

All the animals are gone and we've already gotten our first snow -- early this year. However, I can't stop thinking about spring and the garden.  

I think I'll turn this old animal shelter into a gardening house and all the unused paddocks into areas with raised beds. After all, they're already framed out and the water spiggets from the far should make installing a drop irrigation system pretty easily.  

Sad Day @ The Farm

It's been a couple weeks since we were at the farm but the last weekend we were there was filled with rain and sadness.  

On one hand, the goats and sheep were on their way to greener pastures -- literally.  We never intended to keep all the animals but it was still sad to see them go.  As weekend farmers, caring for a family of goats, a sheep named Ella, 50 some odd chickens, a dozen geese and a duck named Charlie would have been too much to handle.  

Ironically, I was finally able to get Sara into the enclosure and she actually took a liking to one of the goats named Zelda.  Perhaps a little cashmere goat may enter the picture come springtime.  At the moment however, all three goats and the sheep made their way into a trailer and headed down the road to a larger farm where they'll reside until the original owners find a new farm.  The geese i'm told are on their way to a sanctuary in North Carolina. 

Battle of the Bulbs

Last weekend on the farm, I felt this overwhelming. urgency to plant. It's already autumn and Murray Hills Farm is covered with fallen leaves and it's too late to plant anything of substance.  The ground frost is around the corner despite the record high temps we've been  experiencing for the past few days in NY.  Our options are limited and skills as gardeners non-existent.  

Enter "Battle of the Bulbs"

After consulting our newly purchased Farmer's Almanac and tearing through numerous Gardener's World videos hosted by the BBC's Monty Don, it seems like garlic and tulips are our only viable options.  Sara and i have picked our sides of the fence -- garlic for me and tulips for her.  

Our new home actually has a small vegetable garden just outside the animal pens that already has some flourishing crops such as rhubarb, green peppers, raspberries and pumpkins.  All of these will dissapear in in the next couple of weeks but there are a few raised garden beds that remain empty.  I decided to take the smallest one at the front corner near a stone rooster that looks over the space. After purchasing a few heads of garlic from a nearby farm stand in Red zHook, I carefully dug out some holes in four rows and planted the largest of the cloves pointy side up as Monty instructed. Assuming I followed directions correctly and didn't over water, I should have a decent harvest by spring of garlic scales and hopefully some sizable bulbs.  That's of course if the vermin don't get to it but i'm hoping Sally our recently discoverd ferrel cat will take care of that.  Better keep feeding her.  

Sara on the other hand purchased a large order of tulip bulbs from a Dutch online flower shop that arrived a couple days before the weekend.  A very large bag and some smaller ones of varying colors.  she also bought a special drill bit for planting them.  She planted a number of them in front of the farmhouse near the turquoise blue door that rarely got used by the previous owners, something that we've followed suit.  i wasn't watching her the whole time but I'm told there are a few other patches around the property.  

Come spring we'll find out the winner of the battle and crown the a king or queen of the bulbs.  

Blank Canvas

n college, I studied art history with a minor in fine art and my wife history.  Yet somewhere along the way we  both found ourselves working in the field of marketing.  In part, our desire to buy a place upstate was rooted in getting back to some of the passions we both enjoyed in our youth.  

Living in the city can be transient life.  During my sixteen years in the city, I've virtually lived in every neighborhood having moved seven times.  Picking up so often has an interesting impact on what you buy over the years.  Will it fit when you move in two years?  How much should i invest in a piece of furniture, art or stuff because of it? 

For the first time ever, we find ourselves with a truly blank canvas, one we can fill over a lifetime.  It's an incredible feeling and we're going to do our best to exhibit restraint.

After spending our first nights in the home with nothing but an Aero bed and some drinking glasses, it has become obvious that we need some essentials  Luckily, this weekend was the annual Rhinebeck Antique Fair at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds and we felt it important (and by we I mean I) to buy at least one piece.  So we bought an old yellow cupboard from the 1930's. The paint is peeling in a way they'd charge us a fortune for in the city to reveal the original coloring, a muted green, perfect for the array of pastel colors hidden throughout the home. 

It's a start...  

Beginnings...

After 16 years of living in Manhattan, longing for more space and a reprieve from the urban jungle, my wife Sara and I decided to buy a farm in the Hudson Valley.  Technically her dream was to own an old yellow house and i added "farm" but nonetheless, we're now the proud owners of of both. 

"Wildly Charming" was how it was described in the listing and every corner of it is, embodying everything we could imagine a country home outside the city would look like.  The elderly artist/woodworker couple who owned it, bought it back in the 80's when they were the age Sara and I are now and kept it immaculate condition.    

Built in 1780, Black Sheep Farm, sits on a small parcel of land in Staatsburg, NY, just outside Rhinebeck.  The small yellow farmhouse has a tin roof, and turquoise blue door.  The gardens were meticulously designed, the vegetable garden flourishing  and every time we visit it, we find something new and quirky that we fall in love with.  There's a revolutionary war stone wall surrounding the property and a hobby farm that completes micro-farm.

I quickly lost the battle to keep the animals that once included four sheep (one black), three goats, about two-dozen geese, a duck named Charlie, a ferrel cat named Sally and roughly twenty chickens.  All but one goat, the duck and the cat have since made their way to their new home but the farm structures remains so it not out of the realm of possibility to own  few.  Perhaps a few ironic named farm animas may make their way back on over the years like a pig named Bacon and a sheep named Chops.     

I should add, I grew up in a New York suburb and my wife in a Detroit one. We don't know a thing about farming.  The closest thing to a garden i've ever had is a Click-and-Grow hydroponic in our apartment in the city. i call the super to get our light bulbs changed.  This should be an interesting adventure to say the least and at best, a modern day Funny Farm  but we couldn't be more excited.  

First order of business --  rename the farm Murray Hills Farm after our black lab Murray who's named after the West Village cheese shop and ironically the a NYC neighborhood i despise.