The Farm & Very Old House – Page 2

Christmas on the Farm

January 9, 2018 18 Comments

Well, holy shit, it’s 2018. This year stared out by giving me a solid ass-kicking just so I would know who’s actually in charge around

In The Garden: All The Zucchini (and all the ways to eat it)

August 2, 2017 24 Comments

Every spring as I’m starting work in the vegetable garden– hours upon hours spent planting seeds, weeding, building garden boxes, mulching, composting, transplanting, watering, and

Summer on the Farm

July 24, 2017 21 Comments

Every year I go into spring with a ton of energy and a ton of projects, and I’m always convinced that energy and motivation will

Building a Vineyard Trellis

June 16, 2017 11 Comments

When I first considered adding a few rows of grapevines to the farm, I figured building the trellis to grow them on would be the

Spring Garden Tour

June 7, 2017 20 Comments

For so many of the early years on the farm spring was a daily, relentless battle against grass and weeds. One I almost always lost.

Orchard: Spring Maintenance 2017

May 23, 2017 9 Comments

My little orchard is still in its early years– which means it’s still a fair amount of work– but there’s such an amazing sense of

A Top Secret Project for Mother’s Day

May 16, 2017 10 Comments

If there’s an unsung hero in the epic adventure of buying and fixing up this little farm, it has to be this woman: That’s my

Building a Chicken Run: Part Two

April 13, 2017 16 Comments

Let me just start out by saying this: all the animals on the farm are alive and well. Whew. And, after 3 straight weekends of

A New Couch (and Other Things That Don’t Suck)

April 3, 2017 22 Comments

I’m currently trying to dig myself out from under the overwhelming amount of day-job and farm-related work that March continued to pile on–relentlessly and with

Building a Chicken Run: Part One

March 27, 2017 21 Comments

It feels like ages ago that my biggest concern around the farm was cutting and installing the kitchen counters. Then the big windstorm hit, which

Year 5: Taking Stock and Being Grateful

March 13, 2017 21 Comments

Last week marked 5 years to the day since I officially closed on this property and took my first victory lap around the farm. That inaugural

Kitchen Process: The Holy Shit Edition

February 24, 2017 26 Comments

Yeah. That’s all I have to say about the 22 hours of counter-installation I did this past weekend. Holy. Shit. Looking back on it, it’s

Kitchen Counter Progress

February 16, 2017 23 Comments

The good news about spending 20 hours in my garage last weekend with a couple bottles of wine, approximately 700 lbs of butcher block, and almost

Kitchen Progress: The Hardest Cuts

February 7, 2017 32 Comments

I’ve been posting about a lot of smaller, fun projects lately, but rest assured most of my focus (and anxiety) is still centered around the

Kitchen Progress: The Next Three Things

January 11, 2017 18 Comments

I officially started the kitchen renovation about a year ago, and between February and May I tore most of the kitchen apart, rearranging cabinets… Taking

I'm not interested in a mediocre life. I'm here to kick ass or die.

(formerly DIYdiva.net)

THE STORYTELLER

Back in 2004 I started writing about my adventures in fixing up houses on the internet. A lot of things have changed since then, with me, with my houses, and with the internet. These days I am basically a cranky old man trapped in a slightly less old woman’s body. The internet has changed and I am staunchly refusing to change with it. You won’t find any algorithms here, or feeds, or ads, or social media. Just good old-fashioned stories about a woman drinking beer and building shit, and living an unexpected life.

(While you won’t find updates on social media, you can sign up to receive new posts via email here.)