Tidy Brown Wren, bringing order to your nest

      There's always something that needs fixing here at Brown Wren Acres.  Right now the most urgent project is a new fence enclosure for the chickens and goats before the weather gets too cold.    We had to move the chickens to the front of the property because the varmints who live in the woods out back were enjoying our flock as a drive through chicken dinner diner.    So, we (and when I say we,  I mean Hubs and Son) tore down the old layers of fencing and started from scratch.    Son's shirt was an appropriate one to wear - it says "My Achen Back" which is from the summer World Changers trip he went on a few years ago to Achen, South Carolina.  One hole after another.     The "girls" are enjoying their new hen house and getting fresh air and sunshine within the safety and confines of the netted hoop houses.     The girls were happy to see the work be...

I'm reposting a post from last year about refurbishing your collection of ornaments.  I've added a few notes which you'll find in italics . This was the first year, in many years, that Hubs and I decorated our tree by ourselves. Our daughters are married and have homes and families of their own. Our son is away at Marine training (but will hopefully be home for a few days near Christmas).  Said son is now a Marine Reservist while finishing college and working two other jobs so he still wasn't home to help with the tree decorating. Without the kids around to fight over ornaments or step on each other's toes, the house was strangely quiet, except for the Christmas music playing in the background. What I noticed when opening our box of ornaments was that several of them needed a bit of TLC. Over the years, I haven't really done much with the ornaments except unwrap, hang, unhang, re- wrap, and re-pack. I decided that this ...

      On a recent Saturday morning, Hubs and I enjoyed a bike ride at The Great Dismal Swamp Canal Trail.     Lots of spider webs.     As the sun came up, everything glistened.    

  Whoot!  I got a special package in the mail this week!       Ever since we moved into our house, I've been bothered by the hooks in our foyer.  Builder's grade hooks in a handmade house - not good.    Thin, pokey (as in - if you back into them while standing in the foyer, you will get poked) One of the hooks was broken several years back.  We never replaced it. So, I did what I had to do. . . I ordered something older, better, and sturdier.  I found 8 antique acorn hooks on ebay.  I won the bid and couldn't wait for them to arrive.  Unfortunately, the bidding ended the day before Hurricane Sandy hit and my source was in New York.  I only had to wait for a few extra days but they were worth it.  I hope that means that my source and his family are safe and sound (and warm).  They are antique "acorn" hooks from an old school house.  They have a patina on them and ...

This past week I had a whole day to stay home and take care of household things.  Time to "putter" is a luxury these days and I enjoyed every minute of it.  A good portion of my day was spent in the kitchen and laundry areas and I was able to make up several batches of homemade cleaning solutions.  Since November is the month I've chosen for laundry room organizing, I thought this might be the  perfect time to share my recipes with you. If you want to try these recipes, please test them out on a small area first to make sure your home and the cleaning recipes will play nicely together.  Laundry Detergent: 1 cup grated bar soap (I use Fels Naptha) 1/2 cup washing soda (not baking soda) 1/2 cup borax I make a triple batch and store it in a canister in my cupboard.  I use 2 Tbl. per load. Dishwasher Detergent: 1 cup baking soda (yup, the baking kind) 1 cup borax 1/3 cup Lemi shine crystals (I buy it at Walmart) Mix toget...

November is here and that means time to organize the laundry area.  I've collected all of the laundry organizing posts from last year and combined them here to get you motivated.    Putting Your Thoughts Together About Laundry Room Organizing I've chosen November as the month to cover the topic of organizing the laundry room. source So, this week is all about deciding what you'll use your laundry room for. Here are some questions you'll want to ask yourself: 1. How many people use this room? 2. What types of laundry are handled in this room? (whites, lights, darks, linens, delicates, dry cleaning, diapers) 3. Do you hand wash any laundry? 4. Do you hang laundry up to dry? 5. How many loads do you do in a week? 6. What types of laundry products do you need to store? 7. Do you need space to hold dirty laundry until it is washed? 8. Where is clean laundry folded? 9. Where is ironing done? ...