Saturday, October 31
As the years go by I find myself becoming more and more of a morning person. I remember the day when that was not so but these days I’m thankful to wake up each day and I wonder what the day will bring. I especially love mornings on my days off. This week I only had one day off and this morning, as I drank my coffee, I thrilled at all the possibilities of the upcoming day. Other than laundry I didn’t have anything pressing on my to-do list or on my brain so my plan for the day was to just let the day unfold. Laundry took a little longer than usual. I did an extra load because I wanted to bring one of the porch chairs into the house for extra seating in the living room and the cushions were in desperate need of being cleaned. I worked on the stains for quite some time and was able to wash the bottom cushion but had to spot treat and rinse the back cushion. I’m happy to say that they cleaned up pretty good and the chair is working out great for extra seating. It looks pretty good too.
I’m also happy to report that we only had patchy frost last night so my flowers still look good. They’re calling for temps in the twenties tomorrow night so that may be the end of them. sniff. I can’t complain though, as it’s been a lovely October. Many folks ’round here are grateful and appreciative especially after the trying year everyone has had and have taken full advantage of the nice weather by being outdoors. It was the perfect month to usher in ‘Ol Man Winter’.
We were given a mess ‘o green peppers and jalapeños so this afternoon CountryBoy and I made some jalapeño poppers and ate some while watching an episode of Poldark. My brother got us started watching it and now we’re hooked. My editor friend had watched it and had talked about it in the past but I never took the time to watch an episode. I see now why she enjoyed it. Now that winter is approaching the chores are lessening as are the daylight hours and there will be more time to sit down and watch some TV especially since it will be dark at 5:30 starting tomorrow night after the time change.
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Happy Halloween! It’s just another day ’round here. Since moving to the country we’ve not really done anything for Halloween. You don’t get trick-or-treaters out here and we’ve lived so far off the road that decorating seemed like a waste. CountryBoy did, however, set up his Halloween light with a flying witch and she’s flown across the house for a few weeks. That’s been the extent of celebrating Halloween this year.
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Farm news: 20 eggs
Sunday, November 1
Ah, November! I’m not sure if I’m happy you’re here or not. As I welcome the beginning of a slower time at the farm it also ushers in a busy holiday season. I do enjoy the holidays but not all the busy-ness that comes with it – extra commitments, parties, shopping, etc. For me, all that takes away from the enjoyment of the holiday. I know it’s just me because I’m such a homebody. I do my best to not get overwhelmed with all the busy-ness but it happens. I imagine this year, however, will probably be different and I doubt there will be very many extra commitments or parties due to COVID. We’ll see if I actually wind up missing all that!
Monday, November 2
It was a much calmer Monday at the newspaper. In fact, it was almost too calm but after the last several Monday’s I’ll take it!
The sky today was a brilliant blue and this evening, driving home after a stop at the B&B to help with dinner, it was a beautiful pink and blue sunset. I was wishing I had my camera with me as I would’ve pulled over to capture it hovering over the mountains. So lovely!
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Farm news: 16 eggs
Tuesday, November 3
Election day. Brother-in-laws birthday. Drone delivered to warehouse day. Layout newspaper day. It’s been a good day. A day that has flowed without any hiccups. I like those days.
Our pages were okayed by the printer shortly after noon today so it was a short work day. I don’t mind, trust me. I stopped by Save-a-Lot on my way home to pick up a few things and spent the afternoon doing some crocheting. It’s nice to have a few extra hours in the day to get some things done and to have a little me-time. While I was at work CountryBoy tackled an area of the woods that had received some damage when the cabin road was cut in. He cut down and pulled out a cherry tree that was badly damaged from the dozer. He then cut, split and stacked it in the wood shed. That wood replaced what we’ve used so far and then some. That’s good news! Now to find the time to get the remaining months of wood that we still need.
Last night’s frosty temperature put an end to my flower garden. Thankfully I had taken this photo the day before to remind me what it once was…
I also cut a bunch of them and brought them indoors to enjoy for a few more days…
As the leaves continue to fall the rocky mountain top across the street becomes more prominent…
It’s amazing how trees grow and survive on such a rocky foundation.
Wednesday, November 4
It was a busy day. I did not have to help with dinner at the B&B today so I went in early. Since I was able to go in early we had decided during coffee to make a trip to Rural King after I got home. Meanwhile, CountryBoy stayed busy making two batches of banana bread and he cut and split a pine tree that had fallen across the cabin road. The tree was in the area that he is working on cleaning up – the area that was destroyed when the road was put in.
We had a successful trip to Rural King and CountryBoy unloaded the feed in the dark. It wasn’t even 7 o’clock. After that, I made a cuppa hot tea, donned my robe and we watched a couple episodes of Poldark before retiring.
Thursday, November 5
I dreaded getting up today. It was cold and the impending election results kept me up part of the night. I just wish it was all over so that we can accept the outcome and move on. The fact that I am even typing that wish is just sad. The whole election process (campaigns included) has gone downhill and is very disturbing. I can only imagine what other countries think of how low our great nation bows during election year. I long for the days where candidates actually spoke of their values and intentions if elected. I despise the campaign tactics that many, if not all, politicians have succumbed and that is bad-mouthing their opponent. It’s a disgrace. So yea, I am more than ready for all this to be over and no matter who wins I know that God is still in control.
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Work was dreadfully boring. Not one ad was waiting for me in my email and not one ad came in all day either. Only one email regarding a billing issue was all that needed my attention. I filled the hours making templates of our pages for the next two weeks; counted the money from the counter sales; and did this week’s billing. A long, boring day especially when I really didn’t want to be there in the first place. The nice thing? I came home to a house that smelled of supper. Don’t you love that? CountryBoy had some meat in the crock pot for Beef Stroganoff. Yum!
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Farm news: 17 eggs
Friday, November 6
It seems strange typing ‘November’. It just doesn’t seem like it should be November already. For such a crazy year it sure has flown by. Many would say ‘thank goodness’ and ‘good riddance’. Not us though. We’ve had a good year. A busy year but good. There are times when I begin to feel the busy-ness taking its toll. Like today. I did not have my normal day-to-day energy level and I had to force myself to keep at a task when all I wanted to do was leave it for another day. I did manage to get a start on digging up the orange lilies in front of the house.
Since the new porch will be going where they currently are I am going to try to over-winter them and then plant them somewhere else come Spring. But, holy moly, there are a LOT of them! I managed to get about 1/4 of them dug up. I also cleared away the morning glory vines at the side of the house and trimmed the trumpet lily stems. It looks a tad bit better with some of the ‘dead stuff’ gone but I tell ya’, I had to make myself get that much done. Typically I’ll work on something, many times without stopping so I can get it done but today, I just didn’t have it in me.
When I ventured to the barn to get some feed sacks to put the tubers in I took the opportunity to spend a little time with Mabel and Speckles out in their paddock. They were both very sweet today. Mabel was freely giving pig-snout kisses all over my legs and Speckles was right there wanting to be petted as well. I even gave her a hug. She’s such a sweet turkey.
Before tackling the lily tubers I started putting up the basil. I had put about 1/3 of the basil stems in the dehydrator a few days ago. I had turned it off after about 24 hours but didn’t take the time to do anything with it. I took the leaves off the stems and then crunched them up and put them in a container. I put the rest of the basil in the dehydrator for a few hours just to make sure they were good and dry and then processed them the same way. We have enough basil to last us a while.
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CountryBoy spent his day working on the well. He set the vertical posts for the roof and finished placing the rocks. It’s really looking good!
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Farm news: 13 eggs
Saturday, November 7
This has been a day for sure. Not a good. Not a bad one. Just one that did not turn out as we had planned or anticipated and one I hope to not repeat anytime soon.
This morning, bright and early, we headed to town with our second cuppa coffee in some to-go mugs to pick up a backhoe we were renting from a local hardware store. Since we don’t have a trailer we were going to rent a trailer as well to haul the backhoe. Long story short, the ball on our hitch was the wrong size. Since the store did not have one we could borrow so we cancelled the rental and got a refund. So much for digging out the old culvert and replacing it with the one we had in the former pond. At least for now.
While in town we filled some gas cans while the price was low which resulted in over-drawing our account. great. CountryBoy went back to town to deposit a check via the ATM because, by now, the bank was closed since it was Saturday. He was unable to make the deposit for whatever reason. great. Two trips to town in one day and nothing accomplished in either trip.
Thank God this election is over. And I mean that literally. I am just so very thankful that He is still in control. I also hope and pray that our nation will learn from this debacle and will make some much needed changes to the campaign and election process.
My goals today were to do laundry and deep clean the downstairs bathroom and in the process, do some re-organizing. I asked CountryBoy to make me a couple of shelves in the bathroom. My current metal shelf unit was OK but was flimsy. He got them made but had to install them a bit differently than he originally figured. Luckily, he got them in without too much fuss after resorting to Plan B. I washed all the towels to refresh them and put them on the nice new shelves which are working out great.
While I was working on the bathroom I also dried some eggs shells in the oven for a bit. After they were cooled I crunched them up. We’ll put give them to the chickens tomorrow. The egg shells supply the girls with calcium for nice, strong shells.
I also wanted to tackle the kitchen but I ran out of steam. Another day.
After the second unsuccessful trip to town CountryBoy decided he wasn’t going to anything today since nothing was going right. I don’t blame him. He did clean the cabin though, and got it ready for tonight’s guests. Thankfully that went OK.
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We are still waiting on a quote for the bedroom addition. I’ll be honest, I am growing weary of trying to get anything done these days. On a positive note – it was another gorgeous day and we spent some time sitting on the front porch soaking in the lovely weather!
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Farm news: 12 eggs
Dream Valley Farmstead 