Tuesday, November 1, 2011

5 Things post Halloween!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween and weekend.

1) I am still in shock that it's November already.  Just can't believe it.  The weather isn't hateful, although the last few mornings have seen a bunch of frost on the ground early.  Today's high is an average 58 with plenty of sunshine.  I'm ok with that.  Prefer warmer but for winter that wouldn't be a bad place to stay.  No freezing water buckets.  Easy on the fuel oil cost for heating.  *sigh* I probably should just stop before I get depressed that winter is coming sooner rather than later, right?

2) The weekend was a flury of activity at the farm.  A.J. and Mark were up from First Class Home Solutions LLC again this weekend working on a few bigger projects.  In the last 2 weeks, with their help, we've gotten the roof over the mudroom/bathroom fixed, gutters cleaned, trees trimmed, roof in the back of the barn fixed, barn foundation shored up really well, gutters attached to the barn (to help with the flooding experienced last spring), garage people door threashold replaced and a plan going forward for getting water to the barn.  We even took a trip down the road to Nikol's new place and looked around so they could do some work for her (egress windows, dutch doors, panelling and fencing mostly).  I'm extremely pleased with the amount of work accomplished, not to mention the cost and quality of said work.  If anyone is looking for contractor/handy-man type work to be done, please contact A.J. at dryflyadams@aol.com or 513-535-7434.

3) Had fun at the Halloween party on Saturday.  Small attendance but still fun.  It was cold.  We decided not to put up the canvas on the bar.  Looked at the forecasted temperatures and decided it wasn't worth the effort.  We stayed in the bar for quite a while, eventually spending the last hour in the living room warming up.  I guess that probably does it for parties in the bar for the year.  Maybe a daytime gathering on a warm day wouldn't be out of the question so we'll see, but defnitely planning to have a few next summer.  Would love to do a pot luck dinner type of thing in the bar one day.  Why not -- we have the room!

4) Did some minimal decorating for the party.  Saw the idea for the carved pumpkins online and with having the party in The Shindig, it was more than appropriate to steal the idea.  So after feeding the chickens a bit early on Saturday, I put the pumpkins, along with 2 of the giant mums, 3 hay bales and a few beer and liquor bottles, out in front of the barn: 


They looked wonderful with the candle glow after the sun went down.  However, with the chickens getting out of the pasture, by the end of Sunday, they looked less cute (although a bit more horrifying if you think about it):


Yep, the chickens pecked and ate the pumpkins.  The one on the right had a giant hole in the back, while the front one was missing it's face!  Oh well, it was fun and they enjoyed it.  Ended up throwing one of them in the pasture for the chickens (and Stewie, but he didn't eat it and just kept bellowing for pears) and the other 2 ended up in the turkey pen.  May have to hit the "clearance" sales for the pumpkins for the birds now.


5) The appraisal for the land deal is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.  Crossed digits, prayers, good thoughts, whatever... I'll take them!  Been doing monster cleaning all weekend in prep.  Special thanks to Thom for helping to clean the barn/bar for the party (while I was cleaning the house) and to Sparky for coming over and helping clean on Sunday.  I'm not "done", but the house overall looks nice. 

Bonus Thing:  Since I'm officially late this week (again), thought I'd add this bonus Thing -- The turkeys are only going to be around for another 2-3 weeks, but their pen was looking pretty beaten down.  Last night I added 25' of fencing and increased their pen to include the rest of the "garden" and a bunch of taller grass and clover.  Hopefully they'll enjoy it.

Bonus Pictures: 

1) Reilly on Sunday afternoon... obviously helping me clean the living room:

2) Me in my Halloween costume -- I'm a "Train Wreck"


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