Thursday, September 3

If at any time you ask me the date I will start with a Thursday and either count forward or backward until I’m at the current day. I usually know the dates of all the Thursdays a couple weeks ahead or a couple weeks back because of the issue date of our local paper. Thursday is typically my Friday but because of the Labor Day holiday on Monday I will be working tomorrow making it work day number six in a row. To say that I am looking forward to Saturday is an understatement. This homebody is ready to be at home for a day!

Work was extremely slow this afternoon. No one responded to my emails regarding ads and I had one call come in around 3:40 for a line ad. The caller was wanting to place it in the other paper but the girl that handles those ads is working from home so I handled it. In doing so, the caller decided to place the ad in both of our papers and for two weeks. Nice!

On my way home I stopped at the B&B to fix the Rates image. It didn’t take long and I was headed home. After supper I put my nightstand together…

Finally. I love it and it fits perfect!

I bought the milk jug years ago while visiting CountryBoy’s folks in Arkansas and I repainted it when we lived in Florida. It has sat in my craft room with fake greenery and a found bird’s nest in it for years. It was the perfect height for the nightstand so now it has a new purpose. I also grabbed an old milk bottle off the kitchen shelf to hold water for the diffuser and a vintage doily that was given to us as part of a housewarming gift from a former EMS coworker. The goal for this nightstand was to use what I had on hand and I think it came together beautifully.

The second coat of polyurethane did the trick in achieving the look I was going for…

It’s glossy and shows all the chainsaw marks, the rings and lines, the worm holes – it’s perfectly imperfect! This slab was a piece of the neighbor’s oak tree that he wanted CountryBoy to cut down.

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Farm news: 24 eggs

Friday, September 4

I survived day number six of work. yay! It was actually an easy day although it seemed like we had just gone through the process of finalizing the ads, putting them on the pages and starting another issue. Which, I guess we just did since we typically finalize and figure the pages on Mondays. At any rate, I did all that I could do with the pages for next week so I left at 2:30.

Meanwhile CountryBoy opened up the pop-camper and discovered that a mouse had chewed some holes in the vinyl and screen and used quite a bit of the camper manual to make a nice cozy nest. sigh. Looks like we’ll have to set mouse traps and just leave it up. After all, we do live in the country and there are plenty of mice that are looking for a nice home!

Before supper CountryBoy and I checked out some of the lighting options I had found for the cabin. We decided on two battery operated vintage looking lanterns and a battery operated lamp for the nightstand. I didn’t really want to fool with batteries but we’re going to get some rechargeable ones and hope that they’ll last and function like regular batteries. Maybe down the line we can figure out how solar systems work and how we can get it to work up at the cabin without drilling holes to run wires from the solar panel to the stuff indoors.

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The guests drove up as I was taking my last two bites of supper. Good timing!

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Farm news: 27 eggs

Saturday, September 5

My day off – woohoo!!! What to do, what to do?! For a fleeting moment I had decided to get back to painting the ceiling in the dining room. It didn’t last long though, ha! Instead, I decided to spend some time putting things back where they belong or finding a home for them other than the mud room. It’s amazing how quickly things accumulate and don’t make it back to their rightful spot.

This morning I de-crystallized the last of our honey…

… our beautiful, dark, Fall honey from two years ago. After filling this jar I still have some more in a mason jar. At the rate I’m going through honey right now it won’t last long. I have some feelers out for more local honey but people ’round here have lost some of their bees. So it has been decided – next Spring we are going to get more bees – enough to fill the two hives we’ve got – which will probably be 3 lbs. of bees plus a queen for each hive. My allergies have kicked back up today so I am going to be devouring honey every chance I get. In fact, I just had some organic cinnamon wheat cereal drizzled with honey all over for breakfast and I’ll have some hot tea with honey later today. But if I can’t find more local honey I don’t know what I’ll do. We’ll probably have to make a special trip to Amish country so that I can get some that’s fairly local. Not that I mind, we enjoy the trip and the shops – it’s just finding the time.

Speaking of time, our guests left early as they had hiking plans so after washing some eggs CountryBoy headed up to the cabin to strip it of the sheets, towels and dirty dishes before he went to town. He’s working today for my B&B boss today. He’s meeting her son and grandson at Lowes and is hauling some stuff for them. She is adding on to one of the cabins (it’s going to even MORE adorable than it already is!) and they needed a truck. She’s very generous so she’s paying him to pick it up and deliver it. Not a bad gig since he doesn’t have to do anything but drive. Of course, he can’t watch someone else work so he’ll be helping load and unload. He’s been a busy man already today.

I’ve got the sheets and towels in the wash and after I wash the dishes I’ll take them up and finish cleaning the cabin. Divide and conquer! But for now, I must get back to straightening up.

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After finishing up the cabin I lost what little motivation I had today. It seems I can’t be far away from a box of tissues so that has made getting much of anything done today a little tricky. It’s a beautiful day so I can’t help but be outside to enjoy it. I’m sitting in the greenhouse as I write with a box of tissue and a hot cuppa tea right beside me. I did manage to finish the dishcloth…

It turned out really nice. Boy is it thick. I’m giving it to a coworker at the B&B to test out. I’m still undecided on the thickness. Well, not so much the thickness but the amount of yarn used for this one dishcloth. With the price of supplies these days I’m not sure people will want to pay extra for a dishcloth. If she loves it then maybe I’ll give them a whirl.

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CountryBoy made it home shortly after I finished the cabin. We had a meatloaf ‘sammich’ in the greenhouse then he hopped on the mower. I went to gather the eggs and no sooner’n I got back to the house with a basketful o’ eggs I heard an awful loud ‘thwack-crunch’! Apparently he ran over a rock and it broke the spindle on the mower. sigh. He ran up to town to get the part. It’s always something.

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I have been thrown off course all day today not just from the allergy attack but from working yesterday. This morning I knew it was Saturday which is the day I typically do laundry. The thought came to my mind only once this morning that I needed to do the laundry but there weren’t enough dirty clothes to even make a load so I dismissed it. Never once did the thought occur to me that I needed to wash our sheets. Nope. Didn’t think of it until 5 o’clock. At that point it wasn’t going to happen today.

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Farm news: 25 eggs

Sunday, September 6

This morning we woke up to some much cooler air. In fact, we both donned some winter wear for our morning coffee in the greenhouse. It won’t last long though as the forecasters are calling for warmer temps in the upcoming days. We’re still hoping for a long Autumn season before ‘ol man Winter sets in.

Speaking of ‘ol man Winter… I think the cooler temps have made me start itchin’ to create something. The problem is – I don’t know what I want to create and I before I can do so I need to straighten up my craft/sewing room. When I relocated one of the storage units to the mud room it left a lot of stuff needing a place to be stored. sigh. I seriously have TOO much stuff! But with the cooler temps the craft/sewing room will be cooler making it more comfortable to be and work in there.

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So far I am fairing better today than yesterday. I’m at least able to walk away from a box of tissue. The diffusers, filled with lavender, lemon and peppermint and of which are scattered throughout the house, are getting a good work out these days as they are running almost non-stop.

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CountryBoy fixed the mower this afternoon and managed to get the yard mowed as it needed it. I’m so glad he knew how to fix it.

Work was quick and brief. There weren’t that many sheets to iron and I didn’t have to wash any so in two hours I had them all finished. I did some odd jobs for another 30 minutes and then left. It was nice to have such a short day. Come Tuesday, I will feel like I had the whole Labor Day weekend off!

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Farm news: 25 eggs

Monday, September 7

Happy Labor Day!!! I hope y’all had a great holiday weekend. We had plans today of cleaning the cabin after the guests left then heading to the big city to browse a huge Peddler’s Mall. We’ve been once before and it took us over three hours to get through it. However, I checked our cabin email account after breakfast and we had a request for tonight for two nights. I went ahead and accepted it. We are now waiting for the finalization of the booking. We’re hoping we can still go but it will all depend on their arrival time. There are times when last minute bookings stink. Like today. Well, we’ll see how it goes.

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Last night I walked around the farm a bit and took a peak at the scuppernongs. They are coming along…

Aren’t they beautiful? When they turn a golden color they will be ripe and ready for pickin’. I wish our Concord grapes would do this well. We may have to consider relocating them.

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Everything worked out well today. By the time we finished cleaning the cabin and had taken our showers we had an approximate arrival time for today’s guests. We had plenty of time to zip over to the big city of Lexington to wander around the massive Peddler’s Mall. We found a few items – one was a vintage tin that I am going to place in the center of the table at the cabin to elevate the battery operated lanterns. That is after we get some batteries for them. I found an autographed book of photographic images of Kentucky’s Shaker Village which is not too far away from us. And, I found two blue Currier & Ives plates for my B&B boss which she uses for breakfast. I found some other items that piqued my interest but I didn’t get them. I did find a nice vertical wooden WELCOME sign that would’ve been perfect for the cabin but CountryBoy said no. We would’ve loved to have had more time to truly browse some of the booths but the store was closing at 5 o’clock and we needed to be heading back home by then anyway. Another time.

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Farm news: 19 eggs