Early Fall



Notice, the window is cracked to let the cool air of the early morning, inside.  Yes, it is August...still summer.  Loving this wonderful late summer weather.



The Pumpkin Patch...what can I say?  I can say, that we live in the woods with a bunch of animals that like to eat what ever we plant.  Every few days, I walk down there to see what is going on with the pumpkins and one evening, I noticed one of the pumpkins, half eaten.  I just knew if I left the other ripe ones on the vines, they would be gone over night.  So, I picked them!  I didn't care much about the little orange ones but I wanted my Cinderella one for Fall.  Even after you pick them, they will still turn orange or what ever color they are suppose to be.  So, we now have pumpkins on the front porch and every time I go out there, I'm reminded that Fall is just around the corner.  I'm ready for a "season" change and so happy that I can even say that. 

Wrapping Station

Another project done!  I love this one!!  I cleaned out one of the cabinets in the laundry room so Chuck could take it down to the barn, to give me more space behind the laundry room door. Believe me!  I filled it up fast once it was in the barn.   Then, we both started figuring.  Me, what I wanted and Chuck how to build it.  First he made me a little table to fit the area and then he measured how big the paper dowels had to be to hold the longest rolls of paper that I had.  I cleaned out one of the plastic carts that I had been using in the studio by my desk and put it under the little table to hold my tags, tape, tissue paper, etc.  The garbage can fit perfect under the table too.  The last of the project was to make three boards with dowels to hold all the colors of my ribbon that I had bought years ago at the party store, on sale.  I never dreamed that I would ever need a wrapping station in my life but since we have moved up here, I have been mailing things to everyone!  I got tired of pulling the tub of paper, tape and scissors out from under my bed and having to sit on the floor to wrap presents.  When I saw a picture of some one's wrapping station, I just knew I needed to have one! Now I do and I'm loving it!  It will soon be time to break it all in, with wrapping Christmas presents.  It will be here before we know it!

Rose Hedge

When the electric company came and bush hogged the area between our post to the gate and the first power pole, it looked really ugly.  As Chuck was bush hogging the ditch the other day, an idea popped into my head, that a hedge of knock out roses would look nice in that space.  There is a man in town ( Moulton) that sells the knock out roses.  That's where we bought the one for the mail box a couple of years ago.  So, this morning, we took off to run some errands and to stop to see the "rose man".  We bought five bushes and he told us how to even start more rose bushes.  I just might try it come February.  That's when he told us to cut back the bushes and to stick the cuttings in the ground in the shade.  When we got home, Chuck took the tractor down to the mail box and leveled the area where we wanted to plant the roses.  Then we started digging.  Actually it wasn't to hard to plant them because of the rain we had.  It sure looked nice once we got it all done.  If I ever won the lotto, or some one gave me a "zillion dollars", I would plant knock out roses all the length of our land.  Wouldn't that look like something you would see at Disney!!! 

Fire Pit Area

It's finally done!  A really nice fire pit that I've been wanting for months now.  We were at Lowe's the other day, looking for some flower pots and there it was.  A fire pit kit!  We decided to buy it instead of trying to make one out of the left over fire bricks we have from them building our fire place.  We were in the Explorer and had to go to the grocery store yet so Chuck went back to pick it up in the truck once we got home.  Before he could put it together, he took the tractor with the box on it, down there to level the area for the pit and chairs and all.  It turned out nice....until it rained last night.  Now all our new fire pit and the nice painted table and chairs are all dirty from the mud.  We laughed because now we are planning on "buying" some mulch to put around the area.  Remember the mountain of mulch we had at the end of the house for over a year?  I knew one day, we would be wishing we still had that mountain.  Well, at least some of it any ways.  The weather has cooled off nicely for the end of summer, but it's not quite cool enough at night for a fire.  Soon though.  It's going to be a fun Fall and Winter. 

Birdhouse Fence

We've been working on several projects this week.  The birdhouse picked fence that I saw on Pinterest, was one of them.  How come when ya see a picture of something you think " oh that won't be so hard to make...just a little cutting and painting and it ends up being a major project, time wise.  Chuck did all the figuring, cutting and he painted the fence.  All I ended up doing was painting the roofs to each slat.  It did turn out cute.  We put it in the flower bed that we cleared out between "Brambly Lane" and the drive way to the basement. The BNOE gave me three clumps of elephant ears and I planted them behind the fence.  Once they get big by next summer, you will be able to see them over the fence.  I plan on planting some ferns and some hostas in front of the fence.  It should turn out to be a fun flower bed. 

Mow, Mow, Mow Your Ditch



After a nice young man stopped and helped us get Little Red out of the ditch.



BEFORE!



Thank goodness for the bush hog!





AFTER!



For weeks now, I've wanted Chuck to weed eat around our mail box but with the rain we have been getting, it got so high that more than the mail box needed to be done.  The county doesn't mow our ditch, they just come out and spray it with weed killer and we end up with high brown grass rather than green high grass.  Chuck thought we could mow a couple of strips with Little Red, but that didn't work.  Little Red wasn't powerful enough.  So, Chuck went and got the big tractor and bush hog.  It was still scary just watching Chuck mow along the road, where people zoom over the speed limit and the chance of him falling into the ditch.  On the one side of our gate, the big tractor wouldn't fit so Chuck tried to use Little Red again.  Well, it got stuck in the ditch.  I mean "stuck!".  I got in the ditch and tried to push as Chuck tried to pull.  It wasn't going any where.  A red pick up truck stopped and a kid about 20 years old jumped out and offered to help us.  Little Red was free in just a couple of minutes.  When we thanked the young man over and over again, he just said " I try and help when ever I can".  He got back in his truck and drove off.  I have to say, that Mama raised her son right!  We have found how people are so more willing to help people up here.  It's a great place to live. 

Two New Things

Only $7!

We have another favorite junk store but it's only open the second and forth Friday and Saturdays of the month.  Chuck likes to go out there because Melvin is always putting out new "old stuff" and half the time Melvin, ends up giving Chuck what he has picked out of these baskets of old stuff, for free.  The prices are very reasonable also. That is where we got our fancy $12 mirror in our dining room.  This trip, I found a big blue pottery bowl that I had an idea how to use it.  You hardly ever find blue/white ware and I have found two pieces there now.  I pictured pretty flowers in the little blue/white pitcher.  We came home with the bowl, pitcher and a couple of gun cleaning kits that Melvin gave Chuck.  When I went to the " Candle Garden gift shop, with Charlotte last weekend, there was this ceramic laying hen, in a bowl of hay.  The price was totally out of the range that I would even think of paying for it (like $40!) but I remembered that I had a laying hen that I had paid $2 for a couple of years ago. It was in the girls mansion.  All I needed was the bowl of hay.  There it was and the bowl was even blue.  I went over to the BNOE and got a cart load of hay for the chicken's nesting boxes and for my blue bowl.  Went down to the wild flower garden and picked some flowers for the pretty little pitcher and I had two new things for the house.  ...smiling!