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Renae Huffaker

@honinghuffacres

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Honing our 24 acre 19th century farm.
Collecting and sharing good and beautiful things from home and wherever I find them.

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I added a little fall and Halloween fun in the dark little corner coat room. I also removed a bajillion jackets that were hanging in here and left only the ones I thought were aesthetic enough.

Life is too short not to use Halloween lights. 🎃✨️ by @honinghuffacres

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16 hours ago

Sometimes I'm asked what our spaces looked like before. It just takes some time for me to go back in my photo storage and find the before and during pictures. But here's a recap of our living room from what it looked like in 2020 when we bought this home, through several stages of restoration/renovation to what it is today.

Usually I have a pretty specific vision for what I want the end result to be when I start a project, but I remember this one turning out so much more beautiful than I had envisioned. (If that isn't an allegory for my life, I don't know what is!)

We took out so many layers that the home surprised me with the large old fireplace, the gorgeous blue plaster, the beautiful ceiling that is just the underside of the attic floor, the exterior wall that became an interior wall, and of course the well that is right under the floor next to the fireplace.

Thank you, Lord, for a husband willing and able to put in all this effort for me to make this place a dream come true. by @honinghuffacres

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3 days ago

We finished Evan's bed curtains!

Evan has been asking for bed curtains since we redid Micah's room with curtains and then Charity's with a canopy. Evan, our middle child, is usually the quietest and easiest to please, so no surprise he'd be the last of them to get his bed curtains.

I found yarn dyed, 100% cotton fabric on Etsy in green, his favorite color, odered 18 yards and hoped it would look OK in person. I took it to heart when I heard the famous designer John Fowler said, "all greens go together my child, just look at the hedgerows." And I think they do!

The kids each hemmed one of the hems in a sewing lesson and I finished up the rest. Evan loves his new curtains and so do I!

Do you like them tied back or left straight down better? I'll share what Evan and I prefer in the comments. by @honinghuffacres

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7 days ago

We love fresh homemade donuts! I also love that they are less than $2 a dozen made at home compared to 3x that price at the store or more. Fortunately, these addictively delicious donuts are very simple to make.

Simple Homemade Donuts:

-Spray a parchment paper lined baking sheet with oil.

-Arrange frozen yeast rolls on the baking sheet. You want them a couple of inches apart. Cover with an oil sprayed plastic wrap or lid that doesn't touch the rolls.

(We have used Rhodes rolls for many years. They are fantastic for donuts among other things.)

‐After about an hour, when rolls are thawed but still cold, poke a hole in the center and stretch the dough a bit to form the classic donut shape.

‐Cover and let them rise for about 2 hours.

This was how long mine took at 68°F. You want them puffed up a little, but not overprooved that they deflate when handled.

- Heat your frying oil to about 350°F.

I don't use a thermometer. I just look at it until it looks pretty hot and then plop a donut in to see how fast it fries. It shouldn't cook so fast that it darkens quickly with raw batter still inside, or too slowly that the donut is overly soaked in oil. I use Canola oil because it's one of the lowest saturated fat oils out there and has a high smoke point.

- Fry your donuts!

I don't time them, but they seem to take only a minute or two per side. It goes quickly!

- Top your donuts!

Or not. They are really good plain, too. I like to plop mine directly into a bowl of cinnamon sugar like I'm doing here, or a simple vanilla glaze made with a little powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla.

- Eat them up!!

They are heavenly fresh out of the fry pan. Don't burn yourself! by @honinghuffacres

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8 days ago

Are you team hide the TV or let it be?

Thank you to Brad, the husband mastermind behind all of my design dreams, for bringing all my ideas to life. 🩷✨️ by @honinghuffacres

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13 days ago

September!!!!!

Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful month with my family. I am always marveling at how my real life is better than anything I ever dared dream.

We visited Boston for Brad's CE course and stayed for Fenway Park, the Freedom Trail, John Adams' Peacefield home, and the crypt of John and John Quincy Adams and their wives, which was shockingly moving for us. Crying by their graves was not on my radar. Later we confirmed we are related to John and Abigail Adams.

From there we drove up to Sharon Vermont in the stunningly beautiful Green Mountain range. Hiking Patriarch Hill in the rain in church clothes with its very Appalachian elevation of 1,400ft was a big highlight for me. Our little Airbnb in Shushan, NY and our visit to the burial site of our common 5th great grandparents in Arlington, VT was another highlight.

Thank you, Lord. by @honinghuffacres

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17 days ago

John Adams might be our family's favorite founding father. Brad has many books about him and we often listen to them together in the car. We admire his passion and integrity. John was not a man who said one thing and did another. He meant what he said and said what he meant. He felt things deeply. He gave all of his energy, time and talents towards the things that he felt were most important and good for his fellow man. He was born for the time he lived and the work he did, and he did it with all of his soul.

Thinking about that, I shouldn't be surprised by the reaction Brad and I had upon entering the sacred crypt of John and Abigail, and John Quincy and Louisa Adams under the United First Parish Church in Quincy, MA. I had been enthusiastically soaking in the historical details of the 1828 church building like I always do when we visit historical buildings. I was not looking forward to the visit of the actual crypt for any reason. So the way my eyes immediately began to well up in tears caught me completely off guard! I could not figure out WHY I was feeling SOMETHING so strongly. The tour guide was talking and I tried to pay attention without anyone noticing my emotions. Brad later told me he was feeling the same way.

I think it must have been gratitude for their service that I was feeling.

John Adams wrote, “Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.”

At some point, gathered around Abigail's grave, I remembered I had seen that we were related. Later I looked it up and found we are 5th cousins, several generations removed. Brad found he's cousins with John Adams. Perhaps it's no wonder we are drawn to this family! I hope we do make good use of the freedoms they worked so hard to preserve for us. ❤️

My thoughts on our tour of the Old House at Peacefield in the comments, since they don't fit here. by @honinghuffacres

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22 days ago

Al Prindle was the postmaster of Shushan, a little New York town just down the road from Arlington, Vermont where Norman Rockwell was famous for his American life paintings. I believe he lived here in this little now Airbnb. He and his friend, the barber of Shushan, Alva Roberson, modeled several times for Norman Rockwell. See a few of those if you scroll to the end of these pictures. Al was the bigger man, Alva the thinner.

Today, thanks to thoughtful restoration efforts, this little old house still has a magical, casual, effortless, Americana folk 1920s feel. It's gold. by @honinghuffacres

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24 days ago

A new muse.

We booked this little old home for our last night in New England, and our first time staying at an Airbnb.

We arrived in the dark on a Sunday night after a long day of driving and sight seeing. I noticed the siding is old restored wood, the windows are old restored wood, the floors are old restored wood, the trim and doors are old restored wood. Vermonters and upstate New Yorkers value these details. The entire house breathed openly through porous wood. You can't replicate the wholesomeness and aura of real wood.

In the light of morning, lace curtains filtered glowing sunlight onto the restored plaster walls.

But nothing about the house says "restoration." Nothing says "renovated." It doesn't say anything because it looks like it's been there, exactly the way it is, casually collected over decades, unassuming, unpretentious, completely effortless, like it's never tried to be anything but itself for a single moment.

Something about the whole vibe has me utterly head over heels, completely filled to the brim with inspiration, and unhurried to run off chasing any certain look or trend. Because a house that is just itself—whole, eclectic, folksy, unbothered, full of completely random stuff with no seeming rhyme or reason is somehow the most put together, beautiful relaxed country vibe of dreams.

It is no wonder to me that so many iconic artists, poets, and authors hale from places like this.

I have a few more pictures to share of this home in another post, and I'll share it's connection to Norman Rockwell. ❤️ by @honinghuffacres

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24 days ago

Life is a great adventure—too adventurous for me sometimes! I'm thankful for slow, happy days at home.

The last few days were full of homeschool of course. I have been consistently very pleased with our homeschool curriculum. We use a variety of sources, but the one that has us gathering and pressing wildflowers from our pasture while studying Emily Dickinson is our Good and Beautiful ELA High School 1 course. I've loved every level we've done of it which has been 2nd through 7th grade and now high school.

After school there are always many homestead and homemaking projects to keep us busy. This week I took down our red, white, and blue.

It's still the semiquincentennial, though! The kids and I read and studied the constitution and our founding this summer, and visited several historical sites. It was the perfect year to cultivate appreciation for the sacrifices made to enjoy our free nation today.

Another ongoing project is tending to our waning garden, preserving what it gives us, and maintaining our food storage.

Our dehumidifier in the basement is having some issues and fuzzy mold was creeping on my canning shelves. No thank you! We donned our N95 masks, took everything off, scrubbed the whole thing down with vinegar, including every jar and surface, and put it all back. A new dehumidifier is in our future, I think.

Today, our family is off to the DC temple for a youth baptisms trip. I'm so thankful for God's and Brad's constant help on this great adventure of life. by @honinghuffacres

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a month ago

Late summer snaps around HuffAcres.

I can hardly believe I am living my wildest dreams come true. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Brad.

Last pic is our home turned Minecraft style by ChatGPT at Charity's request. by @honinghuffacres

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a month ago

What luck to have more sunny days! Cold, cloudy ones are coming. Those days are beautiful, too, but the sun is a treasure.

This living room wall has since had a coat of pink paint. It's too pink. I'll be repainting it lighter at some point. I haven't shared it in stories yet, but I will, so take a peek if you want to see.

I praise God for the privilege of using my home as a canvas for creative projects. I praise Him for my husband, Brad, who is my willing accomplice in all of my design dreams, very often bringing them to life with his time, talents, and financial means he works so hard for. These great blessings are not lost to me. I'm so thankful.

Also a couple bug videos. I do love bugs. by @honinghuffacres

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a month ago