bippity bop bop blah

Sunday, November 27, 2011
yo. as i log my forth hour in front of the tv this chilly, windy sunday evening i am motivated. no. not to physically do anything, but rather list some goals for the coming week.
here is what's goin' down:
  1. i'm going to get dressed every day this week - does this sound weird? probably. i work from home and it is surprisingly difficult to put on anything other than yoga pants.
  2. i'm going to cook dinner at least three nights - no, popcorn will not be considered dinner. 
  3. i'm going to run at least four times - be it one mile or six miles, i'm going to run.
  4. i'm going to take new pictures of the house! things are pluggin' right along over there. tomorrow brings insulation and later in the week we have drywall going up!
yep, so that's it. goals. maybe i'll make it a sunday thing.

a baby named roger

Sunday, November 27, 2011
guess what. i don't have kids. i'm not even pregnant. we're not even trying. we're not even thinking of trying. but, one of the biggest fights the farmer and i have been in was about a baby named roger.

baby named roger came into our lives when we were talking about what we would name our unborn, untwinkled in our eyes baby. roger, if you please.
we were chatting away throwing around names for said baby and all of a sudden farmer said, "wouldn't it be hilarious to name our baby roger?"

i said, "you don't name a baby something to be funny."
farmer said, "don't you like it?"
i said, "no, it's horrible. do you seriously like it?"
farmer said, "yes."
i said, "well i don't like it, so it's off the list."
farmer said, "i don't have to like everything you like, so i'm keeping it on the list."

i was dumb-struck. obvs. he doesn't have to like everything i like. but when it comes to our unborn baby's name, don't we have to agree? so if i don't like a name or he doesn't like a name it's black-balled. kaput. curtains. right?

then we repeated pretty much those exact lines of conversation for about 20 minutes. this all happened during a one hour and 20 minute drive back to the farm from the big city. i became so enraged at the idea of him wanting to name our baby, OUR UNBORN, UN-THOUGHT-OF BABY, roooooogerrrrr, i just came unglued. so for a solid hour, we didn't speak. we got back to the single-wide around 10 pm and we didn't speak there either. we went to bed.

but then, just like magic, we woke up the next morning and made a joke about baby named roger. now i'm pretty sure we're going to have a baby named roger. or maybe a nicknamed baby named roger.

do you dig a baby named roger?

let's be friends

Saturday, November 26, 2011

happy saturday. are you sipping coffee? are you getting ready for some diy projects? (or watching it?) or have you been super motivated and already went for a morning jog? i envy you...kind of.

me? i put some jeans on. that's a start. now i'm sipping coffee with just a splash of delicious AND i'm watching diy. good for me. but i justify it because not only am i writing this little post here, but i'm doing house research. i think i've finally convinced my farmer on the hardwood and pretty soon i'll talk him into a sectional for our great room. why is furniture so expensivo?! i'm going to start selling my non-vital organs soon. who wants an appendix?

i wanted to write an impromptu post today because a few weeks ago i had a thought. i weird thought. and then i forgot about it; but then just now i remembered again. as of late i've kind of become mildly obsessed (in a very non-creepy way...promise) with sydney from The Daybook and ree from Pioneer Woman. seriously, if you visit their sites, you'll probably become addicted too. but here is where things get extra creepy. i think that if i met them in real life, we would all probably be great friends. i really do!

ree is this totally hip and with it lady from oklahoma who married a rancher and moved to the middle of nowhere (kind of like me!) and embraced life away from the hustle and bustle. i totally aspire to be her...err...like her. i swear i'm not a creep.

sydney is this adorb. fashion-forward chica FROM IDAHO!!! but i think she lives in DC now. she is pretty young (i think like 23 or 24). she just had a wee-babe, but has all these amazing ideas for pairing clothing pieces together. pieces you would never even consider...at least i wouldn't, because i'm boring. but now that sydney is in my life i'm really trying to jazzy things up. farmer appreciates it.

so here is my dream: what if one magical day they e-mailed me because they saw my blog and then they wanted to be friends too?! what if?! oh. em. gee...wouldn't that be the wildest?!

(i'm expecting to be slapped with a restraining order early next week. i'll blog about it.)

he's building me a house

Friday, November 25, 2011
yo, so, you may or may not know that whilst inhabiting a glorious little single-wide trailer my farmer has been building me a house. a house on a hill that overlooks pivots. i never thought those pivots would look so so good. allow me to bring you up to speed. this is what we started with. farmer brought me up here before we were even married and said he would build me a house right here...


and he meant it! he started with the excavation and concrete...
and then they put up some walls...
and then i showed up after work and demonstrated what i would do in different rooms of the house...

showering, obvs.

having a sleep in my future bed.

and what the...sick. in the bathroom.

okay, bare with me here folks. it's been months in the making. 10 months to be exact. so after i did my posing/helping i snapped this photo...the house was really movin' and groovin' until...

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see all the white wrapped around the house and all the black on the roof? well...in our neck of the woods we get the most ridic. wind storms. ri. dic. we had to re-wrap and re-cover the house three or four times. i don't remember the exact count. i've blocked it out. the wind just kept tearing it off. it was a pretty stressful time. farmer was trying to farm and build at this point. it seemed like every time we thought we were at a stopping point for the season a wind storm would come along and rip everything off. i hate the wind. it messes my hair. it dries my skin. wind delays my house. but then...a miracle happened and we were able to shingle the roof and get siding on the house...

note - this isn't the actual color of the house...we still have to paint.
so then our sad little house sat like this (minus the deck) all summer long. and i would come up and visit her and have really elaborate daydreams of cooking in the kitchen and sleeping in our new bedroom and doing laundry in our mud room. yes, i dream of doing laundry. whatevs. and then another miracle happened! we got a break in the farming season! it's a magical time between haying finishing up and waiting for the corn to dry. that's when my farmer hit it hard. he's been working every day since. my dad even designed and stayed with us for two weeks to build this glorious deck!


and while i'm handing out credit, let's give some where it's due:
russell's mom - electrician guru! the lady wired our whole house and i was her assistant.
russell's dad - a wealth of knowledge and jack of all trades. he helped wherever he could.
uncle rick - thanks for helping us finish up our deck!
ryan johnson - i saw you "helping" with those trusses. nobody could have held that rope as well as you. you're the best!
kod - i don't know what you did, but you were there!
kell - i don't know what you did, but you were there in the rain and wind.
otto & jeanine - the most fun i've had at the house to date.

okay, now that the thank-you's are taken care of...
we finally got the deck completely covered and when i woke up on saturday around 6 am, i rolled over and told farmer i had an idea. we bundled up, drove to the 1-stop (tiny market/liquor store), purchased some bailey's, drove to our house, drank coffee on the deck = heaven.



i love you house. i'll see you soon!

holi-daze

Wednesday, November 23, 2011
i have a friend. her eyes glossed over weeks ago when the time change hit and she started going to sleep at 7:30 pm. oh wait, that was me. seriously, i went to bed at 7:30 pm last night watching an episode of 30 rock. i woke up at 8:45 pm embarrassed and mildly impressed with my sleeping ability. i turned, looked at my farmer and immediately felt better. he was asleep too. we're going to start doing geritol commercials.

anyway...with the time change causing it to be dark by 5:30 pm and my insane attraction to be cuddled up under a blanket with a bowl of p-corn, i'm in a daze. a holi-daze if you will. here are the things i love most about this time of year:
  • soup
  • crock pot food
  • excuses to go to sleep at 7:30 pm (it's already dark outside)
  • baggy/layers of clothing
  • uggs
  • flannel shirts
  • tall boots
  • but most of all - CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!!!
oh. em. gee do i love christmas music. and i really love it when it starts a week before thanksgiving. it's almost like, when i hear it, i've been given the green light to throw on some chili and chow down on a pumpkin pie. if i could bake myself inside a pumpkin pie and eat my way out, i totally would.

oh! i just had another idea.
amy - if you're reading this, you've been given the green light to make those spice cake pop thingys. i'll come help. then as we eat our way through those, we can sit and watch a marathon of teen mom or real housewives of (name city), or how about both? yes please.

...two hours later...

with all the talk of food i had to go make myself an apple pie. i really did! i'll post pictures and the recipe for the best apple pie...ever. seriously, it's so tasty. my very best gals and i made about 30 of these and were served in lieu of cake at our wedding. it was a hit.

happy thanksgiving ya'll.

about bell

Monday, November 21, 2011

hi hi hi hi hi. my name is karli and i'm the lucky bride of my farmer. that's right gals. MY farmer. we live in a small farming community in idaho. we were married in august 2010 and it was a magical day full of nerves, dancing, champagne and oodles of love. seriously! you would not believe the love pouring out of me. (i've been known to have a cold, dead heart. emotionally unavailable, if you will.)

let's see...i grew up in a town of about 50,000 and followed my older sister to college in a town eight miles from my parent's house. while in college i did some dating, minimal studying, a little travel and managed to wind up with a degree. what?! then i moved to the big city, bumbled around with jobs for a bit and that's when i met my farmer. oh, what's that you say? how did i meet him? glad you asked...

i met my farmer when my farmer was an engineer. we met at a golf tournament and i had my eye on the prize from the moment i saw him. we played 18 and parted ways but i knew i needed to see him again. so what does any girl do with the power of the world wide web at her fingertips? she sufficiently stalks him until her heart is content. we're talkin' sizing up old girlfriends and close family friends that he's known since he was two that you think could still pose a threat. Once you've sufficiently talked yourself up proving to yourself that you've got all the other gals beat, track down his e-mail address and ask him on a date. oh, do girls not normally do that? just me? oh. minor details. i asked him out. end of story. and now look at us! yay! i win. i really really did. oh wait, that's not the end of our story.

so the next thing i know, we've dated, broken up, dated, broken up, dated, i moved to prague. yep, i did. this back and forth bizz was not sitting well with me. so distance makes the heart grow fonder, right? right. what does any logical girl do if four years later she's still trying to win her man? girl moves across the atlantic, obvs! everyone knows this.

while in prague, engineer decided it was a great idea to buy a farm. so he did. with the help of his fabulous, hard-working parents, he bought the farm right next door. they've been farming the land together ever since. so, engineer became a farmer and moved from the big city to here...


fast-forward. i couldn't stand being away from farmer, and as it turns out, he couldn't stand being away from me, so i just had to move home. fast-forward. he proposed. fast-forward. we were married and i moved here...


then we started building this...


we're still working on it. slowly but surely we're going to finish it up and be living in our little love-shack.

snick 'n trix

Monday, November 21, 2011
meet snick.  she killed a skunk once without getting sprayed. that's impressive. my farmer heard the commotion outside and found snick standing over the skunk. she nonchalantly looked at farmer like, "what? what's the big deal?"

snick is high maintenance and every other year she gets off the farm for a haircut. every gal needs pampered now and again.


meet trixie. she killed a weasel once. weasels are mean. trixie is vicious. we were impressed.


oh trixie. you're the cutest. you could pet her once a week and she would just die of happiness. sometimes just to be funny we beg and beg and beg her to come inside. she won't do it. she's an outside dog. she's killed a weasel once. we were impressed.

sometimes trixie goes running with me and we get chased by badgers. trixie has never been off the farm. her world is small.

sometimes my farmer and i like to make up elaborate stories about snick 'n trixie and what they do while we're working. i'll write those down one day.

two bucks-a-tail

Friday, November 18, 2011
so...guess what everyone. i live on a farm. a farm that is slowly being overtaken by gophers. gross, big-toothed, dirty, little gophers. and guess what we do to gophers that try to take over our farm? (i use we loosely as i have nothing to do with this.) we whack 'em. ice 'em. git rid of 'em. they. are. gonners.

so, one of the farm employees rides her little four-wheeler out into the fields. she marks some holes with pipe flags and this indicates to her where she will soon find a dead (rest it's soul) goph. basically, she does what she needs to do and traps 'em. then she waves her wand and they die. just like that. (i don't know what actually happens, but this is how it goes in my mind.)

so about every two weeks we get a knock onour door. the farmer gets a plate of homemade tamales in his right hand and a ziploc freezer bag of (i just gagged) gopher tails in the other. AND HE HAS THE NERVE TO BRING THEM INSIDE AND SET THEM ON THE COUNTER. ON. THE. KITCHEN COUNTER! now, i sent this picture to my girlfriends this summer because they live in the big city and i think they are still confused by the world i live in.

in the picture please note - gopher tails with their respective counts. dirty, dirty farmer hands. spring mix.
after i sent the above picture, you can imagine the response i received. horror. disgust. one was even kind of impressed. (and pay no attention to the giant knife the farmer is holding. he's just trying to demonstrate that the tails have been cut off. (it's his creative licence.) but one response was totally valid. it came from my dear, sweet cathie, "please tell me those are not gopher tails sitting on your kitchen counter next to your spring mix." yep, i was caught. i was preparing a delicious salad next to (i gagged again) cut off gopher tails.

you see, we need the tails so we know how much to pay the gopher catcher. she gets two bucks a tail. we figured once that she probably makes an extra $4 grand a summer. and i'm going to tell you something...that lady has some serious job security. those gophers breed. they breed like it's their first time every time.

@karlibellmeier