Saturday, November 14
The plan for today was to get the laundry done as quick as I could, throw something in the crock pot for supper then go help CountryBoy get some wood. Plans changed when we discovered that our guests were unable to get the fire going in the wood stove and the smoke was coming out of the stove and not up the pipe and out. It must be clogged. So, while the guests were on an outing CountryBoy took it apart and cleaned it out. Thankfully the task went smooth and the wood stove was working again. We felt so bad that this happened but the guests were gracious and still enjoyed their stay. After that we just hung around and puttered around the rest of the day. One of those little puttering tasks was using up leftover chocolate. We had some white almond bark and some partial bags of milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips as well as a partial bag of chocolate & toffee bits. I decided to melt all the chocolates together using a double-boiler and then I spread the mixture onto some wax paper on a cookie sheet and topped it with the chocolate & toffee bits. I put it all in the fridge to harden and I have to say it turned out pretty yummy.
It’s very rich so a small portion goes a long way.
Sunday, November 15
Can you believe we are halfway through November already? Mercy! Today also starts a long work week for me. I honestly never realized just how quickly the days go by until I began journaling. Now it seems that one day I’m typing a brand new month and the next we’re halfway through it already.
The long work week is due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday next week. This week there will be two deadline days – Monday, the normal deadline, and Friday, for next week’s paper due out on Thanksgiving day. The printer has bumped their printing schedule up a day so instead of me being off on Friday I have to go in and finalize the ads for Thanksgiving week and start laying out the paper.
Work at the B&B was pretty easy today. There weren’t a lot of sheets to wash and iron but I did iron some napkins that I pulled out of the dryer. It was a short day but I added an extra hour to my time because I need to make another cover for the iron. My boss hoped I could get it done in an hour! If not, I’ll add the extra time to Wednesday’s hours.
I spent some time this morning and after work crocheting. I am almost finished with the body of the first baby blanket with little more than one skein and a partial one to go. The border should go fairly quickly and I can start on the second baby blanket – after a trip to Hobby Lobby for the yarn!
Monday, November 16
It certainly has been a Monday. Once again we are having server issues at the newspaper. Thankfully, it did not affect me today but, just in case, I saved the pages I usually lay out to my desktop and we all worked on getting as much of the paper done this afternoon as was possible for we don’t know what tomorrow and the server will bring.
CountryBoy took me to work today so that he could run some errands. We went to our local Mexican restaurant before heading home. I got a Mushroom Quesadilla, ate a few chips with salsa and I am miserable. I told CountryBoy on the way home that I need to just eat a few bites to ward off hunger and call it a meal. I just can’t seem to eat very much at one time any more and yet I’m still overweight. go figure.
Tuesday, November 17
The server cooperated today and we got the paper out without any hiccups. whew! As one co-worker says “we work on caffeine and fear” these days.
Our nightly temperature tonight is supposed to be in the upper twenties. That being said, I spent some time this afternoon gathering the seeds from the Cosmos flowers I dried in the greenhouse. It was a little tedious but using a pair of tweezers I was able to get them all giving me quite a few seeds for next Spring. I also shelled the dried black eye peas for planting next year as well. Let’s hope my seed saving efforts pay off.
After that I worked on making the new cover for my iron at the B&B. It has been so long since I have worked on any type of sewing project that it took me a while to wrap my head around it. Eventually the cobwebs disappeared and I was able to figure out the necessary measurements and the best way to cut the sheet. Once that was done it was smooth sailing.
You can see the old cover (on top) was in desperate need of being replaced. It was torn and stained from the heat and the torn end was starting to be a real pain when ironing. I’m glad I finally knuckled down and made a new one.
This evening I did some more crocheting. I am on the last skein for the body and then it’s on to the border…
Once this one is finished I need to start another one just like it which means I need to make a run to Hobby Lobby soon!
Wednesday, November 18
I didn’t have to be at work until noon today so I spent the morning relaxing, filing LizzieBelle’s nails and even did a row of crochet before heading off to work. While there I wore three different hats today – that of an iron maiden, a graphic design guru, and a sous chef. Overall the day was busy but smooth.
CountryBoy spent his day whipping up two large loaves of banana bread.
Work at the B&B is a physical job especially on Wednesday’s when I help prep and deliver dinners to the guests at their cabins. This evening my plan is to put my feet up on the couch, rest my back, do some crocheting, and probably scroll through Pinterest for a bit.
Thursday, November 19
It was another non-eventful day. Work was steady and good. There was about an hour when the day dragged on but other than that the work day was over before I knew it. Tomorrow will be two days rolled into one but should be OK.
We still haven’t gotten a quote for the bedroom addition. It’s quite frustrating but we’re now thinking to just hold off. Maybe in the near future the timing will be better and the price of materials will be more reasonable. It’s disappointing when your heart is set on something, but our timing is not always God’s timing.
Friday, November 20
Work day number six. It was a crazy day with last minute ads, last minute ads to create, last minute ad cancellations – do you get the gist of the day?! It’s funny how we advertise in the previous weeks paper that we have an early deadline due to a holiday but few people seem to pay attention. I wonder how many ad requests will come in Monday morning and I will have to tell them they missed the deadline. At any rate, I managed to get a few pages laid out and I left at 3:30.
Our guests are arriving after check-in time (I honestly don’t know why we bother posting a check-in time because so many arrive after the allotted time frame) so we flew to town so that I could get some yarn and a few groceries. The yarn I need for the second baby blanket is not on sale this week so I decided to pick up a different type of yarn for a different baby blanket. I found a cute pattern and it called for Bernat’s Baby Blanket yarn. It’s thick, super soft and I think it will make a nice, comfy blanket. I’m wondering how easy it will be to work with. I’ll soon find out since I’m almost finished with the body of the first baby blanket. When the yarn goes on sale (I think it goes on sale every third week) I’ll get the yarn I need for the second baby blanket so that I can get started on it.
Saturday, November 21
My day off – woohoo!!! And the best part? I have no plans other than laundry and creating some labels for my handmade Dish Scrubbies. A co-worker is buying a bunch for gift-giving and I wanted to attach a cute label with the item name and care instructions. While the laundry was going I started on the labels. I enjoy these types of projects but I also have to be in the right frame of mind to tackle them. Thankfully this morning I was in the right mindset to get it done.
I think they turned out cute! I’ll punch a hole in the top right corner and tie them onto the scrubby.
While I was working on that CountryBoy was putting his new hedger to use and cleaning up the yard and shrubs and ‘putting it to sleep’ for the Winter. In years past we just left it all be and by mid-Winter the farmscape looked pretty rough. We’re hoping that by doing the Autumn cleanup the bushes will do better next year.
After chores were done we played with the drone. I’m happy to say that this one is working well. Here’s a shot of the neighborhood…
Our driveway is on the lower left. Here’s the neighborhood on the other side of the farm…
Here’s a shot of the farm from the front…
Starting at the barn and circling around is the barn, the house, the wood shed, the shop, and up the hill is the cabin. This place looks quite different from when we bought it over five years ago. I wish we had an aerial shot of it from back then with all the out-buildings and the grounds all overgrown.
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I finished the body of the baby blanket last night and started on the border today. The first round of the border is the same color yarn as the body and I ran out with only an eighth of the first round to go. shucks. I was hoping to finish this one before I started the next one but that’s not going to happen until I can get more yarn. That’s OK. I have plenty of time to get the two commissioned blankets done before the babies are due. They are going to be the same color so when I get the yarn for the second blanket it won’t take me long to finish it up. So, this evening I’ll start the blanket using the yarn I bought yesterday. I’m curious to see if it’s easy to work with or not.
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Farm news: 18 eggs. Several of ‘the girls’ have been sneaking under the gate and are spending their days scratching around in the barn. They never venture far and they make their way back to the coop at night so we’re OK with the little hoodlums escaping their paddock during the day. The egg count has been down but that’s because there have been some secret nests in the barn where CountryBoy found quite a few eggs. silly hoodlums!
Dream Valley Farmstead 