farm Archives - Spoonful of Imagination

Building a Fire Pit

July 1, 2013 By Erica Deuel 1 Comment

Would you believe me when I say that this fire pit was free? It didn’t cost a dollar. The sweat and time were the only price for this huge, beautiful fire pit.

When we were visiting my sister the other week in Arkansas, we wanted to help her with some projects while we were there. She had on her to do list to build a fire pit. We literally found all these big rocks on her property and carried and carted them over to where she wanted her fire pit built. I wish I had huge gorgeous rocks like this lying around on my property too, don’t you!?

Of course, we had some really excited helpers that wanted to be apart of this project. Lucky for us, we did need some smaller rocks so they were quite helpful and of course good company.

The first step was to create the base size/structure of the fire pit by laying down the first round of rocks. My sister, Olivia, made it bigger than I was expecting, but I love it! I wouldn’t have thought to make such a huge fire pit, but it fits her property and land perfectly. This fire pit is easily four sizes larger than those metal circle pits they sell at hardware stores that I am use to seeing as fire pits around these parts.

We decided we thought about three rows of the big rocks would look the best. It then became a puzzle of aligning the rocks and placing them in the best way to create a circle rock wall with as level/sturdy foundation as possible.

After we got the rock wall in the shape and height we wanted, we inserted some of the smaller rocks into niches to create the most sturdy base as possible. What we wanted to prevent was any one siting or standing on the fire pit (when it’s not in use) and it tumbling over.

The last step was to test it out! I loved building the fire and watching the grass inside the pit immediately spread and burn away. The rocks kept the fire in though, so it worked. We had dinner grilling hot dogs and smores over the new fire pit to enjoy our hard work.

You might not have free gorgeous rocks on your property either, but would you build a fire pit out of rocks instead of buying a premade one? I know this project is now on my to do list for my home! To see more pictures of this fire pit in use and of our trip to Arkansas you can go read about the beauty of country living. Thanks so much for stopping by!

The Beauty of Country Living

June 30, 2013 By Erica Deuel 4 Comments

Do you ever dream of a life you don’t live? Maybe you dream of living…

…in the 90’s with big hair again

….or maybe it is early colonial days when big puffy dresses were the fashion

…or maybe it you don’t like big things at all and you are content in this era

you just dream of a different location.

Sometimes a different location can seem like a different world. I love our new house because it is surrounded my cow fields and animals, but we are still in a neighborhood. I often dream of living REALLY in the country. We visited my sister at her home in Arkansas about a week ago. Although it is a good 12 hour drive to get there, it is a trip I will do at least once a year.

Visiting Olivia and her family is like visiting another world. The ways and systems in their daily life are just different from ours. Life is simpler and it is something I dream about. I want to share a few things about the beauty of country living that we got to experience on our trip. Some of these are things we do here, but they may be harder to implement and have to be intentional in my world (living in the metro Atlanta area).

In the country, you may…

…look out your window and see the Chick-Fil-A cow everyday.

…change outfits four times a day due to sweat, water, dirt, etc.

…start and end your day milking a cow.

…chase chickens and try to catch a baby without the mama pecking you.

In the country, you may get bored and…

…have to find something to do rather than be entertained.

…walk through a field picking grass to feed it to a thankful horse who gets a break from grazing.

…sit on rocks and just talk.

…play with kittens.

…explore old barns.

When you live in the country…

…fire pits can be part of your nightly routine.

…you might burn your own trash.

…you can pee outside.

…you drink from a hose.

…you wake to roosters crowing.

…dirt roads don’t surprise you (so you prob don’t own a mini van).

…you can yell “yea haw” while really riding a real horse (Reagan was thrilled).

…driving to get a sweat tea may take a little longer.

Country living is appealing to me cause…

…it’s a slower pace to life.,

…the to do lists may be long but the priority of them really seem to matter.

…hard work requires sweat most of the time.

…the natural way of life has you outside more daily.

…experiencing the simple rawness of nature and its beauty is energizing.

…family can stay together easier than all going different routes and places regularly.

We had the best time visiting my sister and her family. We are already trying to figure out how we can go back this fall. I love the way of life the country brings. I probably drive my brother-in-law crazy with all my questions about his lively hood, but it fascinates me and is all new! I could see us moving to have more land and country living someday, but for now I am thankful we can escape to my sister’s whenever we want.

What about you? Is there a way of life that appeals to you? Are you more of a city, mountains, beach or country lover? Thank you so much for checking in! Tomorrow, I will be back to show you one of the projects we made while at my sister’s!

The Corn Maze

October 25, 2012 By Erica Deuel 5 Comments

Yesterday, I showed you a glimpse of our corn maze adventure. The boys loved going down the slide that was at this farm.

Today, I have part two of this “family date” post to share with you. I don’t know what we are going to do with all the pictures from this outing, but I can’t stop looking at them! Please enjoy this photo book below :).

We all started really, really excitedly going through the corn maze. It was an adventure. This was a perfect environment for my little independent toddler as well. She loves to walk, and we could just let her GO here, with all her walking going in the right direction.

I don’t normally make my kids wear “dressy, church” clothes as they like to refer to them. Knowing we could get awesome pictures, I laid out special outfits for them. Nothing against the usual wardrobe revolving around Superheroes. I like that too.

She melts me and totally has me around her little finger. My best girl is my daughter. What a gift!!!

As our time frame in the maze got “lengthened” by our wrong turns, the boys got hot and started shedding some layers. It became like an episode of Survivor as we got hot and ran out of water.

We call this J’s “million dollar smile”. When he smiles with those big blue eyes, you can’t help but smile back!

This son of mine is hilarious and a complete blast. He’s got a sense of humor that could land him a stand up comedy job (we think) anytime he wanted one! 🙂

There was a little game throughout the maze about a mystery to solve. Every sign gave you some clues, and if we made it to the end, I’m sure we would have figured it out.

They are best friends! It is a completely beautiful thing as a mom to see.

After a few “self-made paths,” we finally emerged from the maze. There is nothing wrong with the entrance also acting as the exit, in our case.

We got on the wagon ride, and took it around the property to their little farm.

On the farm there were live animals that you could pet and feed.

There was also a pumpkin patch! You could pick pumpkins right off the vine to buy.

As part of your entry fee to this corn maze adventure place, you got to pick a free small pumpkin to take home. Reagan was thrilled!

After the farm and wagon ride, we went back to the entrance where the big slide was and enjoyed some of their other activities. One of which were these stacks of hay to jump on and from.

It was a boy’s paradise!

Reagan was obsessed with this “cow train” and might have ridden it a couple of times in a row. She even got her own ride when other children choose to get off and do other activities. She was obsessed!

There was a big corn silo that you could climb in and play with all the dried corn kernels.

Boys will be boys and find a good fight at all times :).

The boys got a kick out of shooting corn stalks at wood cows as well.

As you can see, we are a fan of this place! We had so much fun, and we stayed the whole four hours it was open on Sunday! Now do you want to know where it is!?!

It is at Mitcham Farm which is located just 30 miles east of downtown Atlanta in Oxford. If you go to this link you will find it at on Half off Depot. This coupon is for $5.00 admittance for everything I have talked about! That is a great deal for a corn maze, hay ride, farm experience, free personal pumpkin, cow ride, slide, corn shooter, and corn barrel! Reagan and J were both free too, so it only cost us $15. We were thrilled!

If you go and try this place out, I’d love to hear about your experience! Remember, pay attention to your map in the maze. You could get lost. It happens.

I hope you are having a great week! It is almost the weekend! If you haven’t entered my giveaway yet, there is still a small window! You have till midnight tonight!

**Neither Half Off Depot nor Mitcham Farm has compensated me in any way for writing this post. Neither one even knows I exist. I paid for my coupon like everyone else. We just had a great time, and I wanted to share it with you.

My Grandparent’s House-an ode to a place I love!

July 25, 2012 By Erica Deuel 5 Comments

As you know, last weekend I went to Ohio for my grandparents auction. They have lived in Farmersville, Ohio for the last thirty years in a log cabin that they built. I grew up visiting them at this house. There are so many awesome memories of family trips and family reunions here. At one point they owned lots and lots of acres, but as they have gotten older they held onto only six acres and sold the rest. These acres have a creek and open field with a closed in gazebo that has been called the “campground”. There are corn fields all around them. As city kids, my siblings and I loved visiting them because it was a kids paradise. There was always an adventure to be made and things to discover.

Recently they bought a smaller house in a retirement community. It is a really cute brick house with neighbors and a cul-de-sac. I’m excited for them as they are excited about this change, but it is very different from the way of life they have lived.

(My boys here are attacking my 15-year-old brother, Gus, in the front lawn. They were some kind of superhero here…aka..getting energy out after a nine-hour drive!)

As my grandparents have gotten older, it has been harder for them to keep up with such a big house and large property, so they decided to downsize. My grandparents are some of the hardest working people I know. They owned and ran a drug store for a long time. My grandpa has always run his tractor and cut the fields/grass at their place. He is an amazing wood worker. His work shop and collection of tools is a craft-er’s dream!

Although we (the family) all knew it was the right thing and time for them to sell, it is still hard to say good-bye to such a special place. Isn’t change hard!?! After we got in town and saw the new place they bought, we drove down my favorite roads to their old house.

There is something so simple and beautiful about country roads with corn fields on either side of you.

I think it is stunning!

Now, here is your tour of the house I love and keep rambling about! You pull in this long driveway and pass a huge barn that at one point held their motor-home. That has long been sold, but it was they way they traveled to Georgia to visit us for many years.

I am so thankful that I got to go say “good-bye” to this place and also share it with my boys. I wanted them to see a place I love so much. It’s so hard to get so far north with three kids that we haven’t been back all as a family since Caleb was about 16 months old. J and Reagan weren’t even here yet!

When you walk in you are immediately on a long screened in porch, that leads into the kitchen.

It was so weird to see their house empty. All the furniture and items that didn’t go to the “new house” were already set up in the barns for the auction the next day. I love this light fixture they had above their dinning room table.

The family room is open and was full of couches and chairs that we all hung out in. In the winter ,they always had the wood burning stove going.

When you looked the other way in this room, you saw the exposed loft. It is HUGE. It held like a king size bed, a queen size bed, and a pull out day bed. This is always where we slept.

Haha my mom would say it was always hard to visit because putting nine kids to bed here was well hard. (Yes, I am one of nine kids…all from the same two parents!!) As kids, we loved it! We would peer over the railing and listen in to the “adult” conversations below.

My grandparents have kept their bed at this house and still have been sleeping there up till the auction. That bed is the only thing in their room right now except for a small dresser.

Here you can see the back of the house with the long screened in porch.

In the basement, was two rooms that were my grandpa’s wood working area/shop. It’s so weird to see this empty. It was his hobby/love to work and create down here.

I Love the huge deck they built! We ate out here a lot. There is also a hot tub around the corner in this picture.

The deck over looks the creek where we spent lots of time wadding in and throwing rocks. My boys fell in love with this spot…just like I did.

My Jeremiah is a nature boy. He would spend all day, everyday outside in the woods. He couldn’t get enough of this creek bed.

Following the creek to the right you go into the back field “camp ground area”. One of my best recent memories of this house is a bottle rocket war, at a family reunion, about six years ago. It was Matt’s first time to my grandparents. There was a mad football game too. We got home from this trip and found out a week later we were pregnant with our Caleb. We had no idea while I was out there running around and being rough and rugged that I was carrying a baby.

These pictures will always be special to me. This post might be more for my family that weren’t able to go and say good-bye, or maybe just part of my processing that another phase/season in life is changing. Trips to Ohio will not be the same, but I am so thankful I still have my grandparents and family there. That love is stronger than a love for a house.

Thanks for checking out a place I love so much! I will post #2 of this weekend showing the auction soon!

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