Christmas

Christmas week and Josh and Rachelle and family came for a visit.  We had progress on the house.  Busy week.

Claude and Sallie came over on Christmas Eve day.  We had our family Christmas dinner and then went to Christmas Eve service at our church, the Wilmore Free Methodist Church.

Sallie enjoyed holding baby T.

We started our Christmas day with reading the Christmas Story.  We need to be reminded of why we give gifts at Christmas time.

We opened gifts.

And decorated gingerbread houses

And did crafts, this one called Perler beads.  We put these plastic beads on a form and then heated them with an iron to make Christmas ornaments.  One pink kitty on the table is an example.

J and K had a wonderful time playing together.  We had mild weather, so the kids were able to play outside and play in our house.

They have partially built the hallway that will connect our main floor to the upstairs of the kids' house.  They won't make the final cut through until the new house is heated.
In the meantime, though, you can go through the mini door where they put stuff to store in the eave/attic.  The kids can go through that door and into the new house.

Jackie really enjoyed time with baby T.

We had a lot of work on the house in the past couple weeks.  Lots of tradesmen's trucks.

We passed inspection for HVAC, Electrical and Plumbing.

The first step of the insulation was done.  We did a thin layer of spray foam insulation and then will use fiberglass bats which will give us a value of R38 in the attic and R26 in the walls.  The foam will act as the vapor barrier.

I've been choosing paint colors.  That's a scary time for me because we will not easily re-paint.

Well, that's what's been happening here in the Bluegrass.

It's been a while

Where do I begin?  It's been so long and we've been doing so much. 

Bob & Charley had one afternoon to work on the line fence  They need to have a whole week when Charley doesn't have to work and the weather is good.  We'll keep whittling away on it.  John and I "helped."

I went on a road trip with Josh, Rachelle and family to Iowa.  We had a wonderful trip.  We started out in Fayette.  We had time with my brother and family and were able to do an early celebration of my Mom's 94th birthday. Then on to Charles City where we had some time with Bob's brothers.  Then on further to see my other brother in Thornton.

When we were at Fayette, we were able to go to Northeast Iowa Community College where Shelia works.  We saw the working milking barn.  Also, they are about the open the robotic milking barn.  It is mind-boggling how they can do that.  We were able to see them setting up the equipment and I'm sure it is now in production.

 

On our way back, we had a night in Galena where the family had time in the pool.  We had a great time!  Josh took K down the water slide.

We ended the trip with our friends in Wheaton - College and Church.  Wonderful to have a few minutes with old friends.

Then, back to Marion and then on to Kentucky. 

When I got back home, they had made so much progress on our house.
The siding will be finished tomorrow, the plumbing passed inspection today (12/18) and the electrical inspection is tomorrow (12/19).  The HVAC is nearing completion.

We now have a picture of how the hallway will cut through to the existing house.  Today they had to move a duct that was in the way.  I'll be anxious to see when that is out of the way.  They were still working on it when we left tonight.  The pink stuff is where the door will be.  The dark gray you see is the roof of the existing house.

Anyone who is planning to come visit us and can stay in our guest room - this is what it looks like now.  The bed will be in the center of this wall and on either side of the bed will be bookshelves which are actually built out over the shingles.

They started the siding on the back side, so that is all done, the end of the garage and the lower level in the front.  The ceiling is in for the porch, and the wood was delivered today for the porch floor.

It's one week until Christmas and progress is great.  Our first Christmas as residents of The Bluegrass.









 

Shingles are on!

The shingles are on!  They finished at dark tonight, Nov 21.

You see Charley & Jackie's house on the left.  Then the piece that is their new family room on the lower level and our guest room on the upper level back.
The front porch - and the view is as fantastic as we had imagined it to be.  We are so excited to get finished so we can have friends come and share with us.  I'll let you know when we can start scheduling visits.  I was hoping for January, but I don't see that will happen.  The lower level is another guest room, a canning kitchen/mud room, and Bob's woodworking shop.

 

This is the front door and garage.  I can't believe these guys walking and running around on the roof.

 

The step before the shingles was getting the framing all done.  They were a wonderful bunch of guys to have around for several weeks.  Steve Beachey and his crew.  Their final step was putting the decking on the roof.  Again, the steepness and how they moved around was amazing.

 

 

 

Last Saturday we had a family Thanksgiving dinner with Wilma, Wendell and Amy, Darin, Holly and the kids, Josh, Rachelle and kids, Charley, Jackie, J, us and Jackie's parents Claude and Sallie.  19 of us.  I can't believe we didn't think to take a picture.  I did however, get a picture of the kids playing out on the dirt pile.  They had a wonderful time.

When we moved here (in our temporary apartment), we asked Charley about parking.  Those of you from Wheaton know that there is no street parking overnight.  He just said that we didn't need to worry about that.  We live on a cul-de-sac and this is how our neighbor handles having 4 cars most nights.  Just park 2-deep at the curb.

And then to end on a very special note.  Josh and Rachelle had family pictures taken now that they are 5.  Aren't they a beautiful family?!

A busy but wonderful few weeks here in the Bluegrass!

Where do I start?

We went up to Josh and Rachelle's for the weekend.  We had B's birthday, grandparents' day at K's school and Trick or Treat.

At grandparents' day, the children made a turkey using cutouts of traced hands for the tail feathers.  It was a fun time.  They had a book fair and a photo opportunity.

T is doing well.  He's doing the things 2 month olds are supposed to do.  Eat, sleep and cry.  He is a very good baby and his sisters love him.

 

 

Trick or Treat was fun.  B was piglet.  K was a Rock Star (which is a character in a Veggie Tales video).  Josh wore this wig.  When he took it off, we said, "Where is your hair?  Or is that Grandpa's hair?"

K responded to say, "No!!  Grandpas don't have hair!"  Any of you who know both of K's grandpas know they don't break their budgets with hair products.

 

 

We helped celebrate B's 2nd birthday.  She is growing up to be such a caring, loving little girl.

 

 

 

Back at the farm..  We had 2 litters of baby pigs.  One litter of 7 and another of 8 (born Sunday morning).  They are guinea hogs which are a heritage breed that forages for their food.

 

 

Progress on the house is fantastic and exciting!  They built the deck for the front porch today.  John took this picture of Jackie and I standing on the porch.  The framing crew is hoping to finish this week.

 

 

Another beautiful sunset in the Bluegrass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of different things

I haven't had time or energy to post for a while.  Things are really happening fast.

We were driving down to the farm earlier than usual because the framers were starting.  As we came to the point to descend into the Kentucky River valley, we saw ahead this wall of fog.  The blue you see directly ahead on the highway.  As we drove down onto the bridge, we couldn't even see the railing on the side of the bridge.

As we got close to the farm and the river near our house, the fog is sitting like a bed of cotton all along the river.  We have fog every day, but on this day, it seemed softer - like a bed of cotton candy.

 When we got to the farm and I looked toward the hill where the sun was peeking over the top of the hill, it was shining through a tree.  It looked almost like the wings of a dove flying into a ray of light.

 

The weather reports predicted a frost, so I pulled all the pepper plants and pulled off the peppers.  I had a bumper crop. 

 

 

I sat at the picnic table the pulled the fruit off the vines while I watched the framing team begin to build our house.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Sunny and warm with a nip of fall in the air.

 

Now - what do I do with the peppers?  I did some research and decided to try to make some pepper rings.

 

 

The internet said to wear gloves to handle the peppers.  I didn't and now, 2 days later, I can still feel the burn on my hands.

 

I ended up with 8 pints.  We can't taste for 4 weeks, so we'll have to see how they are.

And now the exciting progress on our house.  The basement walls are framed in, the main floor deck is on ...

And most of our main floor walls are up.  The angled wall you see below is our front door.  Just around the corner to the left is the kitchen window.  Then the center door and 2 flanking windows onto the porch and will be our dining room, and then the far left, my sewing room.

Below is a view from the back, from a distance.  The difficulty that you cannot see from this picture is that the new roof is going to be in the way of the satellite dish antenna, which is currently located on the back corner of the existing house.  We cannot relocate the antenna to the new roof because it does not exist yet.  At least, that is what the DISH network guy says.

 

 

Tomorrow, Friday, I expect the roof to go up.

We are soooo excited!!!

An exciting time in the Bluegrass.

 

 

 

 

 

Fairyland

Fall is beginning here in Kentucky.  The nights are cool and the days still warm and sunny.  The trees are beginning to show some color.  It’s a beautiful time of year.

But, the weeds that although being obnoxious in the summertime, really were beautiful when they flowered -  purple, yellow and white.  In the fall, though, those weeds are ugly – with their irritating stick-tights and seed pods promising a bumper crop of weeds again next year.

This morning, though, we woke to a fairyland.

Every morning, the farm is covered with fog that has risen from the Kentucky River and flowed up from the lower areas so that we feel like we are on an island here at the top of the hill.  I watched the “kids” heading off to work and the fog had begun to dissipate.  But then the sun came up above the even higher hill behind us in the east and the fog immediately surrounded us again – even more than before.  The porch railing was covered with water as if it had been raining all night.

Within a few minutes, the sun had conquered the fog and the fairyland appeared.  The spiders must really kick it in gear in the fall.  There are spider webs all over in those ugly brown weeds.  But now the sun is up, the fog is gone, and the spider webs look like fairy wings with big drops of water.  With the sun shining through them, they look like they are dripping with diamonds.  The ugly weeds themselves actually look softer with the sun shining on the moisture.

The fairyland doesn’t last very long, though.  The sun dries the moisture and the day begins.  The rooster is crowing and the chickens want to be fed.  The peppers need to be picked and I need to figure out what is for supper.

But – for a few minutes this morning, my little corner of Kentucky was a fairyland.

This week

I want to get pictures of all the cows for record keeping. I got a small start.

This is Gretchen.  Charley milked her for a few days and plans to again after she has a calf

This is her current baby.

This is Will, the bull.  His breed is Dexter which is a more short-legged breed.

 

 

Saturday was the visit day for the CSA members.  Two families came and we had a wonderful time.  They met some of the animals, picked some vegetables, dug some potatoes and had a hay ride around the property.  We are so glad they came.

 

 

We have the floor poured in the basement.  Hopefully, framing will start next week.