Learning on the Curve

Not too long ago I wrote a blog entry about our kitchen design and how things would continue to change and morph.
Well, I was thrown a huge loop about a month ago that has changed our whole design to the point I wanted to pull my hair out!

It all started when I went online to research wood fired stoves and whether I wanted to have that as our main cooking source in the kitchen.

I gathered a lot of inspiration from watching Jamie Oliver’s show on the Cooking Channel and how he uses wood fired cooking. I’ve never cooked using a wood stove or oven, so I wanted to know exactly what I’d be in for if we made the investment into an old fashioned stove.

I was on a wood-fired odyssey watching youtube videos showing people cooking on their wood stove and there was this one teeny, tiny, little sentence that one of the homesteaders used that rocked my world… “we’ve had just about all our animals at one time or another in our kitchen on a cold night.” LOL I’m laughing only to keep myself from crying!

I’m on a learning curve here since we’ve never had a homestead, and as I looked around our home I had to ask myself if I was being practical about my interior design. The answer was no. I wasn’t being practical, I was operating under the assumption that all animals would live outside…even on super cold nights. But that might not be the case, and if I do need to bring in a new lamb or kid where the heck was it going to stay? In our living room? On our white shag rug? We shifted gears a little and changed where the dining room and living room would be.

It was as easy as changing our minds right? Wrong! I like where our dining room is, and our imaginary farm animals have ruined my design before they even come to fruition. Geez! So now I’ve been busy dreaming up a new plan, which not only will include a very modern and streamlined wood fired stove, but I’ve also been eyeing up our fireplace and how I know we can probably make some food in there too.

They say that using a wood fired stove and/or oven is an art, and if we get a wood stove it will be learning a whole new way of cooking. I’m willing to learn. I’m getting used to the idea of switching the rooms now, and if we never need to bring an animal into the house, at least we’d be prepared.

The photo to the right is a wood fired stove and oven. It comes in white and also in black.

I don’t think we’ve come to a decision about what color we’d go with, but I must say that this stove impressed me as far as the price goes as well as the fact that it looks so streamlined and modern.

I was willing to go so far as to have one of those big majestic wood stoves, but not in the house.

This model is more up our ally. We’ll be putting a wood fired oven and stove out on our sun porch because at this point, well, we’ve redone the kitchen and gave it a little mini lift.

That’s what I’ve been busy doing over this last month. I need to learn how to manage my time outside, inside and online. It’s just easier for me to stay offline and get things done right now, especially since it is so nice outside. When I finish the kitchen up, I’ll take photos and post them.

I love the little mini lift so much that I think we are very content to just keep it as it is and not gut the kitchen and redo it.

The kitchen has this retro throwback look with a modern twist. LOL It feels very homey yet upbeat. We’re waiting on a few things we ordered, but as soon as these things arrive I think we will have a complete kitchen.

With the way I work (very very slow!) I would have to say the kitchen will be photo ready in about three weeks. I still need to do a little more painting, and that takes time. Anything worthwhile takes time to complete.

A lot has happened in the last month. Dom’s mom and dad came for a week, we planted out broccoli, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, rosemary, dill, thyme, sage, cilantro, marigolds, some tomatoes and peppers (many suffered from the frosts) and in the back courtyard we planted two large containers with red oleander. There was only one weekend that we didn’t have a brunch, and while I know I said that I would take photos, I just didn’t have the umph to come online and post. It has been a whirlwind of activity in this month.

There is one thing that I decided to do a few days ago…

I decided to have 365 days of planting. That means that each day for a whole year I go out and plant at least one thing. It will either be sowing or transplanting, but it will be at least one thing a day.

I wonder what our property will look like one year from now? I’ve become strangely addicted to planting things and now when I do plant, I’m thinking about what I’ll be planting tomorrow. With the 365 days of planting, I’m hoping to at least make a short post online of what I’ve planted for the day. I haven’t been outside yet today to plant and water the mini garden, but since making a personal commitment to the 365 plan four days ago, here is what I’ve planted so far: