Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Wayne's Finished Project

Here are the promised pics of Wayne's hooked rug project. He came up with the design after thinking about all the castles we saw while living in England. He'd like to design some more with familiar sights of our time in England.
This chair has a history in our family. When we lived in the Washington DC area I would walk through base housing with a friend for exercise. One evening we were walking and I saw this chair in the trash heaped in front of a house that was obviously being packed up to move onto the next base. I went home and told Wayne that I had spotted a neat chair that I thought we should rescue from the trash. Being the wonderful husband that he is, he followed my directions to the house and salvaged the chair. We stripped and refinished the wooden frame and added a new seat pad. It's been through several seat covers, but I think this one will hold up better than the others.

Just a blog

I thought I'd share some pictures from the last couple of weeks. Last week was VERY crazy with either a medical/dental appointment every day of the week, but mixed in were some fun times...

Matt had some church friends over last Wednesday and they made Chinese food--authentic Chinese food. One of the guys was a missionary to China and learned how to make some tasty dishes. The verdict was... "It's better than any Chinese food I've ever had!"

Wayne has been working on his rug hooking project and is almost finished with an original design...I'll share the finished project in a future blog.
My friend Tami came over the other day and asked the girls if she could braid their hair. Here's her finished handiwork.


Sunday, October 18, 2009

Signs of Fall...Winter...No, Fall

The other morning we had our first 'killing frost'
A few days later we had more than frost!

Later in the day the snow melted and it looks more like fall again.
The ultimate sign of fall was the NY State Wool and Fiber Festival at Rhinebeck this weekend. Once again I had a wonderful time wandering through fiber related booths and displays. This year I had an extra special trip to Rhinebeck...Wayne was able to go with me!
We were able to park in the handicapped parking area since he has a parking permit so when he had enough he could go back and rest in the car. As he left me in the midst of all that fiber, he said, "Go buy something that you'd really like." Here's what I bought...
some beautiful roving and fiber batts to be spun into yarn (I'm planning on mixing that cranberry colored roving with the yarn I made from last year's purchase), a book about fiber festivals with patterns for sweaters, socks, and such, and some wool fabric for Wayne to use in his hooked rug projects. It was so much fun spending the day with my husband and experiencing the festival together.

Hey, he's even mentioned sheep might be nice to have on the farm! Fiber can be addictive!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Just Hangin' Around

A red-tailed hawk decided to come in for a closer look at the chickens. He left without sampling any of the poultry.Jonathan loves to climb an oak tree in the backyard that's just his size...

Sunday, October 4, 2009

A View to Share

What a welcome sight after a day full of rain...

Man's (Child's or Woman's) Best Friend

Captain is so photogenic...
and always close by!

A Sad Note...

The local area suffered a great loss last week...an arsonist torched the Methodist Church which was built in the late 1800's. Sidney Center is a very depressed little hamlet about 6 miles from us. The church and the parsonage behind were two of the prettiest parts of the main street. Now the church is gone and the parsonage suffered a great deal of damage due to the heat of the flames. Thankfully, there was no loss of life, but this was another bitter blow to a depressed community.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

October Saturday

It's been a busy day on the farm...so busy that I didn't take pics. Wayne took the 2 little boys to get their hair cut so the rest of us started the Saturday barn chores. On Saturday the barn is supposed to get a total clean out, but I think we missed a Saturday or two since there was plenty to attend to.

Rachael did the alpaca's barn and yard. That was a special job since Mr. Wonderful got sprayed by a skunk yesterday and their area is quite aromatic. We're very thankful he was sprayed now and not in the spring just before shearing!

The 3 goats were taken to the 'buffet bush' on the edge of our property to browse on some weeds and bushes while I cleaned out their pen. Once they got over the new environment they happily chomped down the overgrowth. Until they realized we had done them a favor, they made quite a ruckus.

The rabbits came next. Their cages got a thorough clean out and we filled the worm bed beneath the cages with soil, peat, and bunny berries. Now we just need to add the red worms and let them do their thing. Arthur gave me a nice supply of rabbit wool to spin.

Our friend came and helped move some top soil to low spots in the lawn and in the area where I want to put a lavender bed next year. I love the smell of lavender and can use it in our handcrafts.

Captain got a haircut.

I changed out my 'summer decor' to my 'autumn decor' in the kitchen and made the crescent rolls a woman had ordered a couple weeks ago.

Katelyn left a note on the porch door for Nathanial when he comes home telling him that there's been some changes since he last was home. (We've rearranged a few rooms over the week). The last item she listed was: #4. The leaves have been dropping on the lawn (HINT, HINT!) For someone who complains about raking leaves she certainly enjoys going out and making leaf piles.

So now that the barn and lawn work are done, and the pizza is baked, it's time to call it a day and enjoy a quiet evening.