Thursday, January 30
Last night I ended up working on the hexagon afghan for a little bit and then CountryBoy and I spent the rest of the evening playing Fast Scrabble. What’s Fast Scrabble (or Speed Scrabble as called on the internet)? You can read about it HERE but in a nutshell you play the game just like Scrabble except… you don’t use the board and you play on your own tiles. When a person has used up all their tiles (seven to start with) they say “pick” (or “take one” as in the article) and everyone continues to do so until all the tiles are gone. The object of the game is to use all your tiles before anyone else. It’s really fun and it’s a great exercise in vocabulary and spelling. (I won three out of four games!)
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It was fairly steady at work today. Nothing crazy or chaotic – just steady. Just the way I like it!
After work I decided to swing by our new library that is in the finishing stages of construction…
If there’s one thing I am truly excited about it’s our new library. It’s huge and going to be wonderful! Our current public library is small and cramped. They offer lots of programs varying in nature and at times it feels more like a zoo than a library.
The right side of the new library in the above photo is the original structure from way back in the day. I’ve heard it was a Kroger (sure wish there was STILL a Kroger in town), a tire store, and several other businesses throughout the years. I don’t know the date the original building was built but I do know that it has been empty since we moved here five years ago. I am thrilled that there is one less vacant building in town.
I don’t know if you can tell in the above photo but the roof of the original building is arched but here’s a shot of the back of the building where you can see it better…
I love this feature and was hoping that it would NOT be covered up with ceiling tile inside. Well, I peeked in the front windows and, lo and behold, there was that beautiful arch with brand new tongue and groove and the exposed metal trusses. Swoon! It’s going to be a GRAND place for our community and I can’t wait until opening day!
The right side of the above photo is all brand new construction which appeared to be meeting rooms.
For the past year I have been saving dimes for the new library. It’s a campaign that the ‘Friends of the Library’ started and I picked up one of the containers and have been saving dimes ever since. I believe the dimes will be put towards buying items for the children’s section if I remember correctly. (A year was a long time ago, ha!) Nevertheless, I need to find out when they are collecting the containers. Should be soon I would think.
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As I was pulling in the driveway this evening our neighbor was heading down the drive with his tractor. He had been up the road to the cabin spreading rock…
Bless him! There was enough rock to get almost to the top of the drive. I know we need at least one more load and it may be possible that a rock truck could make it up the road now to deliver it. We’ll have to see.
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Farm news: NINE eggs! good job girls!
Friday, January 30
We played another round of Fast Scrabble last night. This time CountryBoy won three games and we tied one. Good times!
This morning, as I was dusting our bedroom, I finally finished cleaning out my little jewelry box in preparation for donating it. One less thing sitting on my dresser now. yay! I found a few pieces that need fixing which I should be able to do myself – some day ;).
This weekend (starting this afternoon) is my B&B boss’s big birthday celebration. Lots of women coming, going and/or staying at the B&B with games, food, entertainment and visiting all weekend long. I’m heading over there in a bit to work, eat, visit, play, work, eat, visit, play, repeat. It’s a lot of fun! Last year I had the privilege of singing harmony with Sylvia Hutton who sang the hit “Nobody” back in the 80’s. We’ll see what happens this year!
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We are on our third toilet for the cabin. Third time’s the charm, right?! The first one we installed was a regular toilet. (We did NOT want to utilize the standard outhouse style toilet because, well, they’re just scary! Who knows WHAT could be hiding under that huge box the toilet seat is mounted on. No thanks!) But, as the temps dropped to below freezing the water froze in the toilet rendering it useless. The second toilet we bought and installed was a composting toilet. It works great but during the winter months the waste does not break down as it needs 55 degrees or higher to actually turn into compost. Plus, constantly dealing with other people’s waste is just gross. The third toilet we decided to try is an RV toilet. It came yesterday and CountryBoy installed it this morning. If you’ve never used an RV toilet they work a little different than a regular toilet. There is a foot pedal that when pressed halfway down fills the bowl with water. When pressed all the way, a little trap door opens and flushes the waste and no water remains in the toilet which therefore, solves the frozen water issue. We don’t have water hooked up to the bathroom yet so the guests will have to fill a stainless bucket from the rain barrel and pour it into the toilet before using then they can press the foot pedal all the way and it will all flush into the septic system. We are hoping this is the perfect solution (as long as the rain barrels don’t freeze!).
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Well, I took an hour long bath, put a little bit of makeup on, and even painted my nails for today’s shindig. I don’t wear much makeup nor do I wear it very often so we’ll see if anyone recognizes me. I may be incognito – ha!
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Farm news: eight eggs
Saturday, February 1
It’s actually Sunday morning as I write this but yesterday I started my day doing laundry while having my coffee. I slept in till 7:30 but I managed to get two loads washed, dried, folded and put away before I headed back to the B&B for day two of the big birthday party. It was almost a twelve hour day. A long day but a day filled with talking, laughing, eating and of course, working.
I didn’t do much singing. I didn’t know very many of the songs. We had some talented ladies entertaining us and they sang a lot of original songs they had written. That’s OK. It was nice just sitting back enjoying the moment.
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Farm news: eight eggs
Sunday, February 2
We slept in again today till 7:45 and woke up to the sun breaking through the clouds…
Everyone’s been fed and watered and we’ve had our two cups of coffee and I had some peanut butter toast. We’ll be heading to church soon.
I won’t know until after work whether or not I have to go in this afternoon. I’m kinda hoping that I don’t but then again, EVERY bed has been slept in so there will be a LOT of sheets that need to be washed and then ironed and I’m not sure if there are enough sheet sets already ironed to get the rooms and cabins turned over. It would be nice to have one day off to regroup and relax before starting another work week. I’ll find out after church.
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The sun is shining bright! We’ve had several sunny days this winter and it has been wonderful! Months and months of grey days get both of us down so we have been very grateful for these sunny days interspersed here and there this winter.
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The verdict is in… I do NOT have to go in to work this afternoon. Yay! I was OK either way but it sure is nice to have the rest of the day to do whatever. So far, I’ve packed up some stuff to be donated and I’ve sewn four chair pad ties back on. We’ve had those chair pads for a really long time and recently a few of the ties have pulled out. It’s been on my mental to-do list for months and today was the day I felt motivated to tackle them. I’m not sure what else I’ll end up doing as it’s only mid-afternoon.
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The rest of the afternoon was spent heading up to the cabin to take some photos of the newly installed RV toilet so that I can update the Cabin Guidebook; checking for eggs and feeding Mabel (who is looking quite svelte these days – her protruding monobrow is gone!); and sitting on the front porch – in FEBRUARY! It was wonderful!!! We watched several chickadees hitting the bird feeder and then the cardinals started moving in. We have had lots of cardinals this year. One day I counted nine males and five females hanging out in the trees in the front yard where the feeders are. We’ve actually had lots of different species of birds hanging around this winter. It’s been nice to see and hear them.
On our way down from the cabin CountryBoy mentioned that he needed to grade the rocks that our neighbor spread for us so I encouraged him to go ahead and do it since it was a nice day and it was warm enough that the tractor should start. He got it done fairly quickly. (I think he’s ready for me to go back to work ;)!)
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I was going to publish the blog tonight but it’s Super Bowl night. I have no idea who is playing nor do I care. Now the Super Bowl snacks – that’s a whole ‘nother story! But, I’m thinking lots of people will be tuned in to watch so I’ll publish it in the morning.
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Farm news: five eggs
Dream Valley Farmstead 