family – Page 5 – This Old House 2

Should I Stay Or Should I Go

Due to business and farm obligations and a husband who is a very capable person who gets a lot accomplished but has an aversion to stepping out of his comfort zone which means going anywhere that he is not familiar with, which means no further than our state lines or the next state over more often than not, we don’t travel much. On occasion, I have managed to talk him into a nice trip somewhere outside “the zone”. Much goes into the actual taking of that trip, ’tis no easy feat, let me tell ya. I make sure all travel plans are laid out well in advance, the destination is mutually agreed upon well in advance, the accommodations are not complicated or iffy in any way, shape or form so that all hopefully runs relatively smoothly and the Mr. can actually relax.

That doesn’t mean the panic doesn’t set in on occasion, regardless. Case in point – Last time we went on a family vacation to St. John, USVI (ten or so years ago now) all was going well, we arrived on St. Thomas after a loong car ride to the insanely congested JFK airport, then an uneventful plane ride, non stop!… then landed on a tiny island airport runway that JEEzus CHRIST really didn’t look possible but hey, we made it, obviously … And the Mr. was still sane. You’d think the scary part was over, right?

We grabbed a van taxi that took us to the ferry dock to board the ferry that would bring us to the island of St. John. The Redhook ferry is not a huge boat – We’re not talking the Staten Island Ferry here – if memory serves me correctly there are two decks, upper and lower – and you could throw a ball in a game of catch from the front to the back if you wanted to. We had a pile of luggage and there were seven of us – we boarded the boat as the luggage was handed to the employees of the ferry – and somehow the Mr. lost sight of us for about 35 seconds. There was only one boat, we were all on it, and you could get a good scope of everyone on board in about 2 minute’s time. You’d have thought we left him on a deserted tropical island with Wilson the volleyball as his only companion for a month.

Then!… after the scorn was laid upon us thick and we reached our destination island, we walked up the street to pick up our rental Jeep. The Mr. suddenly became aware that everyone was driving on the wrong side of the road – and it was determined right in that same moment that I would be the designated driver for the week. Upon arrival at our rented villa, it was also determined that holy-mother’a God the driveway was so steep with no guardrail going down a cliff that said Mr. did not want to trust his wife to navigate, however, the fear of the driving on the wrong side of anything was just too much… and SO… he was indeed stuck with me driving Miss Daisy for the week.

And here we are… preparing to go on another family vacation to the same destination… and I saw the warning signs a few weeks back.

“Ugh, I’ve got so much work piling up, I don’t know. ”

” Jeez, this really isn’t the best time to be going on a vacation, you know? SO MUCH WORK. ”

” This is ridiculous, the stuff just keeps piling up! How can I go away and get anything done?”

Then (when he’s truly already made up his mind and there isn’t going to be any negotiations here at all) … “ I just don’t think I can go with you”.

The corona virus was all he needed to put a big exclamation point on the ordeal, feet dug into the mud of it. “I’M NOT GOING”.

And he’s not. And maybe that’s OK, less stress for me. I’ve done it before without him because the above scenario is not a new one. And.. he can watch the house and look after the animals. But also.. .maybe we shouldn’t go either? I’m on the fence. I’ve asked a few people who travel often, I’ve asked the local Pharmacist, too. They have said – just use the standard precautions – and WASH YOUR HANDS A LOT.

If we don’t go, we will lose all of the money we paid for this trip. And as I’ve said already, we don’t vacation often, we’re really looking forward to it. Anyone have any opinions or advice you care to share? In the meantime, I’ll be keeping an eye on the travel recommendations on the CDC website. So far, travel to the USVI’s is still green lighted.

Also in the meantime, here’s an awesome dessert being shared online that would be perfect for a St. Patrick’s Day Celebration…

Bailey’s Chocolate Cheesecake Pots

Ingredients

8 (+-140g / 0.59cups) double chocolate Digestive biscuits (in the US Graham crackers are a good equivalent)
360g / 1.5 cups full fat cream cheese, chilled
60ml / 2 fl oz double cream
60ml / 2 fl oz Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur
100g / 0.42 cups caster sugar
30g / 0.12 cups cocoa powder

To serve

125ml / 4.2 fl oz double cream
½ tsp caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate sprinkles

Method

Roughly chop the biscuits with a sharp knife. Tip: We prefer doing this so that you don’t end up with fine crumbs and powder as you get when you crush them.

Spoon the crumbs into 4x 250ml preserve jars. Set aside. Tip: If you don’t have preserve jars, you could also just use small bowls or drinking glasses.

Place the remaining cheesecake ingredients into a medium-sized bowl. Using an electric mixer beat on low speed just until dry ingredients are combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl then beat again on high speed until the color is uniform and mixture is smooth and has thickened slightly for 1-2 minutes.

Spoon the cheesecake mixture into the preserve jars on top of the biscuit crumbs, close the lids onto each jar, then refrigerate until serving time. Tip: The quickest and neatest way of filling your cheesecake pots is to use a piping bag. Fill a large piping bag with the cheesecake mixture, cut the end of the piping bag off, and then squeeze the mixture into your preserve jars.

Spoon generous dollops of the whipped cream on top of each cheesecake pot, then decorate with chocolate sprinkles.

Cheesecake pots can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days, but the biscuit crumb base will lose its crunch after the first day. Still tasty, though!

Breaking things Up A Bit

I have several things to share with you today, but this…. this…. well, sometimes you just gotta laugh out loud, the bust a gut type of laughter, to get past a certain thing. Which is what I did yesterday morning when I tried on a few of my bathing suits and asked my husband’s opinion regarding which one he thought looked OK. We’re going on a family beach vacation in the not too distant future, I’m a water bug and I’m trying to plan. After the third try-on he says… “THAT ONE… that one is good, it breaks things up a bit. ”

Right there is when the peals of laughter coming out of my own mouth went rolling down the hall, bounced off the walls and fell flat on the mudroom floor.

(Fucker)

So… anyone looking for me this morning will have found me in the gym… Breaking things Up A Bit…

The day did get better – we went treasure hunting at Brooklyn Restoration in Brooklyn, CT, where 90-something year old Rudy still presides over an acre of outbuildings packed with old house stuff. I’ve blogged about this place before, when we restored Gracie (this old house) we visited often for old hardware and other odd stuff our restoration guru Jeff and my husband needed to bring her back to life.

My son was looking for a mantel for his fireplace and a door for his kitchen pantry – he and his GF did find a door, no such luck with the mantel.

Oooh, the old treasures in these sheds.

That’s Rudy – just before he took advantage of our ignorance/Kind nature/stupidity and did not give us one iota of a deal, but that’s OK, I’m still very happy with my finds.

These items below are my new treasures – old hand forged kitchen gadgets that now hang over the kitchen sink on either side of our farm sign… a ladle, a strainer, and what we are assuming was a grater of some sort.

Our good friends Jeff and Raven met us there to help sort out what we’d need for my son’s house, and we should have let Raven negotiate with Rudy. He has a fondness for her, they are long time acquaintances due to Jeff’s line of work (restoration), he knows they know what he knows, and he is more kindly to her in the price department. Live and learn.

After the treasure hunt we went to a local restaurant, The Court House, which I believe used to be the actual Court House in the town of Putnam, where we enjoyed nachos and burgers in abundance.

I hope all is well in your neck o’the woods –

Karen

This neck o’the woods

I could write all day about the current list of atrocities and tragedies in the news, but let’s heed the advice we’ve been giving each other here on this blog and focus on the good things in our lives, shall we? I want to thank each of you who stop by to read my musings and join the conversations, it’s encouraging to hear from like minded people, truly. #MakeAmericaKindAgain #MakeAmericaSaneAgain either would do.

It’s maple sugaring season here in the Northeast, but you wouldn’t know it by the current weather trends. We’ve had very little snow so far, the trees are tapped on our farm with a little flow, but the temps have not been cold enough overnight to get the sap flowing when the heat rises during the day. We don’t have a sugar shack here on our farm, so we take ours to the community farm Sugar Shack in our town, where volunteers process it, bottle it and sell it to continue to support the farm. You might wonder why pure maple syrup is so expensive compared to the fake stuff like Aunt J*mima, and the answer is there is so much work that goes into it, and so much tree sap is needed – 40 gallons of clear tree sap boils down to one gallon of actual syrup.

Have you tried Maple Water? I have found it in a few of the grocery stores in this area, but not all. I absolutely love it – light, refreshing, with just a hint of maple – it’s the pure maple water(sap) that comes out of the tree, is flash pastuerized and sold in stores. YUM! And it’s hydrating, it’s actually good for you! I’m not getting any compensation for saying it – treat yourself to a bottle if you find it in your local stores. Canadian runners have been using it to refuel for some time.

In my better health/better weight quest I have lost a few pounds and have gained some muscle, I’m not perfect with the food intake but I’ve made some headway. My clothes are starting to feel better on me and that is a good beginning. I continue to walk/hike/jog with the dogs, light weight training and all of this helps greatly with the Fibromyalgia I’ve been dealing with for the past five-six years give or take. If you suffer from the same, in my experience, keep moving – that’s the best line of defense. And.. eat much less sugar and dairy, much less processed foods.

L-R – My Sally and Frasier, K’s Gizmo on the right. Now that we live nextdoor to each other, we often take the dogs on walks together. It motivates us both to get out there and keep moving.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

– Henry David Thoreau

Our dear old retired showhorse, Max, is now dealing with Glaucoma in one eye, thankfully not the painful variety. He’s on four different meds to try to stave it off for a while and seems to be learning to live without vision on the left. I’m glad we can give him the peace to deal with the handicap and he will not be shipped off to a kill pen like so many others, no longer useful. Another reason to be so very grateful for what this old farm affords us.

Our son has begun the construct of his home just over the hill, the foundation is poured… and I am over the moon to have both kids so close by. Over the years we will all benefit from this little patch of farmland not far from everything else, just the right mix of country and suburb. He and his GF have worked hard to begin and build their careers and are very excited about the plans they’re making for their future together, it does my heart good. 🧡

That’s my mom in the red hoodie up there, the one who leaves awesome comments now and then and hates her picture to be taken but I do it anyway because – I GOTTA BE ME- .. and I love my mom.

One more update – I’m not happy about global warming so a mild winter is concerning, BUT… I do believe, because it’s been so mild… this batch of christmas trees might just actually survive. Third time’s the charm? Stay tuned…

I’ll close this post with something to ponder. Why is it that men or the kids think they’re doing us a HUGE service when they lift a finger in the direction of cleaning up after themselves such as… oh, say… changing the toilet paper roll or washing the dinner dishes or flipping the load of laundry into the dryer or taking the trash out or putting the sneakers back in the closet instead of under the bench in the mudroom. Aren’t they also the ones making the mess? AmIright? Just sayin –

Karen

Revisiting The Golden Girls

My mother has always had a wide circle of friends, whether it was within her long career as a public school teacher, as a neighbor or a volunteer (Snug Harbor, Staten Island, Democratic Town Committee, to name just a few). Unlike so many friendships of my generation, they have remained close despite moves, retirements, etc . These four in particular are what I’ve always referred to as The Golden Girls. They have a comfortable friendship that spans decades, still going strong. They’ve each known personal trials, moves to different cities, illnesses, and in one case the worst form of grief. None of these things has frayed the ties that bind these women, and I’m grateful to bare witness to it all. Below is a piece my mother wrote this fall after one of their trips together.

** Mom’s version is spaced properly. For whatever the reason, my tech incompetence, perhaps? I haven’t been able to fix the spacing.. my apologies.

✨ Autumn’s Golden Girls✨

I am picked up at Metro Park by my friend with a sandwich in her hand

for the drive to Cape May

Never at a loss for words the chatter begins there and continues in Dawn’s driveway

Hugs all round and cookies from Staten Island’s Cookie Jar

Soup, talk, and cookies from the Cookie Jar

Gracious Thomas grinds coffee beans for tomorrow’s breakfast

Chattered out, sleep beckons

Plans for the next day revolve around cloudy skies and the threat of rain

A visit to Stone Harbor with the movie “Downton Abbey” in mind

And shopping, of course, clothes today

Autumn colored blouse for Roseann and tailored coat for Dawn

Necklace thrown in there somewhere

Diane and I literally sit this one out in the store’s comfortable sitting area

(Probably meant for bored husbands)

Walk through the boutique hotel The Reeds at Shelter Haven

Menu there for Thanksgiving Dinner

Not bad price, Dawn

Movie theater for snacks—nice set up

And then a reunion with Lord Grantham and other old friends

Whether upstairs or down, Mr. Carson greets us still as Violet raises her brow at the intrusion of the hoi polloi

Dining out at Ebbitts after drinks by their fire

Good food, good drinks, more good chatter

And home to those wonderful cookies

Ball game on, Tommy keeps us posted as we catch up on pretty much everything

families, the state of the younger generations,

old friends, new homes and a LAP POOL , trips enjoyed and those planned

It’s pretty much all good

And now everyone of us is in our seventies (at least until next May)

Where did all the decades go?

The lesson there: Seize the day, every damn day!

So we seize a shopping day, you knew that was coming

For the first time I spend the most, in a Christmas shop no less!

Even need to mail stuff home.

It is the proximity of Rosie egging me on I think.

So yeah, Rosie’s fault.

Lunch at Congress Hall

and more shopping

How do you spend $37 on Birthday cards in five minutes?

Easy at the Whale’s Tale

Diane and Dawn are the most restrained shoppers this go round

Dinner of sandwiches and left overs and cookies

Earlier to bed for tomorrow’s trip home

Breakfast and chatter

Pack up and head out

Train is not missed, Diane is home before it leaves station

Another visit of friends, a little creakier and grayer

But just as happy to share time together, a glass of wine together,

A walk through an iconic town center together

The Cape May of a golden October afternoon

A few thoughts found and cherished about friends and friendships

“Life is partly what we make it,

and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.”

Tennessee Williams

“Friendships multiply joys and divide griefs”

“Friendship can’t be a big thing. It’s a million little things.”

Til next time, my friends. While we get grayer the friendships remain golden. And that’s a fact.

What matters

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner here at This Old House and I hope wherever you spent the day and with whom, you did too. The food was delish, minus the Chocolate Cheesecake flop. King Arthur Flour recipe.. ….shoulda worked… .. but… something went wrong and it was so heavy you wouldn’t want to have to hang onto it if you fell in the water somewhere unexpectedly. That doesn’t really make sense, but you know what I mean. It sucked. Thankfully there were two pies and cookies to fill the gap.

Empty plates at the end of a meal are always a good sign, although Frasier was scoping for scraps, hoping for something different.

In these pictures you’ll notice the “theme” is not Thankgiving at all. Indeed, Christmas swooped in the day before, for no good reason other than a rainy day and a little impatience. That would be mine. Mom said… “but… Fall is such a pretty time of year..” Indeed it is, and Fall has been living in This Old House since September. It was time. At least the food reflected the proper holiday decorum, right? 🙂

Is this the weekend you begin your Christmas/Holiday Season? We are officially Decked. While at the tree farm up the road, we discovered the secret to starting young trees…. plant them very very close together in a big patch where they almost look like a carpet – and then transplant once they’ve grown some. This gives them protection while they grow a little more hearty. Ah Ha! That’s why our first few attempts failed. Those poor babies were out on our windy hill all on their own, too far apart from each other to gather the necessary support. What were we thinking.

We got two smaller REAL trees this year instead of the big FAKE one. I’m so done with fake news, ya know? We’ve got one at the corner of the family room where we can also see it from the Mancave, and one in the kitchen/dining room area. I love the heavenly scent of fresh pine.

Yesterday morning as I looked out over the fields from our kitchen window, I saw two bucks up on the hill, one a juvenile – father and son? Brothers? Donner and Blitzen scouting for Santa, perhaps. I managed a few blurry shots before they darted off…

… and was reminded again how very grateful I am for the opportunity to live here on this little farm, for as long as life will allow it.

Gizmo (my new grand dog) is also very grateful he has landed here with us. Oh, how I love this little scruff.

Till soon, friends…

Let there be Light

The Mr. wasn’t particularly fond of the pendant lights we had over the kitchen island, so we started looking at other options. There are SO MANY!!.. just browse Pottery Barn (my favorite for lighting) or Bellacor or Seagull lighting websites and you’ll be amazed and confused. After a significant search and a little bickering, we did settle on globes we found on Lamps Plus….

Out with the old..

In with the new…

I like them! I have found the glass globes are a bit of a pain in the ass because Smudges*smears*streaks*dust, but I do like the overall look.

The blank spot on the wall over the sink used to display three of my small paintings. I found a fairly local craft person on Etsy who makes rustic old wooden signs for a very reasonable price. She’s doing a farm sign for me and it will go right there where the paintings used to live. I’m a big fan of changing things up around the house now and then, and it doesn’t have to be much at all. A change of throw pillows on the couch to reflect the season, moving a painting to a different room, adding a plant or two, etc. And the best decorating tip of all – get rid of clutter noise. I tend to be a knicknack collector, and sometimes it becomes too knicknacky so I pick through and simplify. Cleaning up a disastrous closet or counter, folding that mountain of laundry that’s been building in the (fill in the blank) can give you a feeling of renewal. All those shoes that accumulate in the bottom of the coat closet.. some that haven’t been worn in three years? Out.

My guy is very type A – he is not fond of clutter and on the island we go back and forth with his love for -nothing at all – on it, and my love of decorating to create *cozy*. Sometimes I do a big decluttering around the house and he is in love all over again…. only to come home a few days later with the now familiar words… “Uh-oh.. I see clutter forming again”… tumbling out of his mouth. I’m just redecorating, that’s all.

The big glass hurricane candle holder thing we had on the island didn’t look right with the new pendants, so I went up the road to a local shop that sells wonderful things, so many wonderful things you can get in trouble quickly if you have to answer to a husband who balances the household budget in the aftermath.

This was yesterday’s score…Simple.. and I can leave it there all winter, change out the greens, etc. for other seasons.

Have I told you lately about our new granddog, Gizmo? We are all in love with him, hard to imagine someone dumped him on the side of the road, where he was found matted and afraid and wondering what the hell happened. He’s house trained and so loving, just wants to be up in your lap kissing you. He’s good to his brother by another mother, although he tries to herd Rex when they’re outside. I think he’s got border collie in him, Shih tzu border collie, that’s my guess.

Are you hosting any of the holiday meals on the horizon? We will have both Thanksgiving and Christmas meals here with the extended family and I’ve begun planning the menus – below are some awesome cheeseboard ideas, I plan to use these photos to create something similar here at This Old House.

I hope all is well in your world – Till soon, friends.. OOh.. and if you don’t already follow Susan Branch’s blog.. she just published a lovely Thanksgiving post.. worth the click over to HERE… where you’ll find lots of lovely things, including her uplifting spirit.. and this recipe below, which is also her artwork.

Morning Commute

After 31 years of the same old grind, I still love my morning commute. Although this is our fourth small farm in those 31 years, this one in particular, of which we hope and plan to retire on, is the most extensively “farmed” – we hay our fields, raise chickens for eggs, my horses adorn the fields as lawn ornaments for the most part but they do get use, sparingly. (those spoiled, spoiled horses).

We used to have a huge vegetable garden, but with enough produce yield to feed a lost continent full of folk and a weed war we could not possibly win, we downsized eventually to a two-raised bed configuration 1/8th the size of the original, now located in our back yard. We also have a small young apple orchard with peach and plum trees, blueberry and raspberry bushes, and a Christmas Tree lot in a back field. (haha..hahahaha… I’ll ‘splain later in the post).

So.. my morning starts with breakfast for the two of us around 5:30 a.m. for no good reason at all other than that’s when the Mr. and I religiously wake up. And we aren’t religious. We’re just *UP*. The dogs are let out to do their business and then fed. If it’s chilly, like this morning, I put on my outer layer of barn attire and Miss Sally waits by the door because she knows the routine and she loves OUT. And OUT with MOM is the stuff dreams are made of.

We head out into the frost coated everything to begin the rounds. Sally stays within the dog fenced area, but it allows her to follow me up the driveway to the barn area where she waits around while I feed and muck.

Side note: (I’m a little ADD, I’m pretty sure of it ) Peering over to the left in the backyard, my daughter’s home is in sight. We are absolutely loving our new neighbors 💖. Her new family member, adopted adorable Gizmo has blended very well with their dog Rex, and all is well in their new little kingdom in the field across the way.

Back on track we go – morning commute… The chicken coop comes first – I let the girls out into their coop yard and refresh the water and feeders, rake the chicken yard, and once a week the whole coop gets an overhaul of fresh shavings, swept out cobwebs, new hay in laying boxes, etc. This year’s babies have already been laying for months and they’re beautiful! The two shown here are Light Brahmas. They have feathers on their feet! They are part of my GOT flock. Winter and Ghost , with Arya on the right. Cersei died early on of a deformed beak ( if only that had happened in the series! ) Sansa and Daenerys are doing well.

Once the girls are all set for the day, I head up to the barn to feed and water the horses and turn them out for the day.

The two old boys.. Max1 and Max2.. are let out into the fields after they’ve finished their morning grain. They’ve just started wearing their fall sheets to keep the chill off on these 30 something degree mornings. Older horses have trouble keeping good weight on due to teeth that are ground down with time, so we give them a little help with special grains for seniors and blankets for added warmth.

The mini horses are little cherubs, chubby little cherubs. Their weight needs to be kept reasonable and so they are not allowed on the big grassy fields with the larger horses as they’d eat themselves to oblivion. So we keep them in a smaller dirt paddock and give them the appropriate amount of grain and hay for their size.

Once feed is done, I usually muck stalls. On Sundays our boarder does stalls to give me a reprieve, so this morning I walked about the fields and took a few pictures instead.

Our little orchard on the hill behind the house. The apple trees on the left are a few years old and have produced very little so far. It takes a few years for trees to establish themselves, and we’re still learning about proper pruning and fertilization – must be enough, but not too much. The blueberry and raspberry bushes will get a netting cover once berries appear, lest the birds and squirrels get them all. Yep, That did happen, lesson learned.

In the field behind the horse barn is a tree lot … where for three years, we’ve planted 100 Christmas trees. The first year we had a wicked winter and the wind chill was awful, killing most of the trees. *ah, crap. We replaced them with slightly bigger ones the second year… of which we lost more than half to a grub infestation. *crap again. And why does it seem so many have just planted a ton of trees and lo and behold, a tree farm was born – like, super easy. I mean it was such the infestation that when you walked among the saplings the ground crinkled and crunched for all the grubs squirming around just below the surface. BLEH.

We’ve planted the new little baby Christmas trees in this third year of tree farming, with a fence around lest the deer eat them up, ( can you imagine?) the ground is treated for grubs and we’ll cross our fingers for a not-so-terribly-cold windy winter, shall we?

With the walk about done and checking for downed fence rails, I walk back down to the house where Miss Sally has joined me along the fence line and up onto the porch where she waits to be let in while I shuck off my muck boots. We then get on with our day.

It’s a dirty business sometimes, this job of mine, and never is it glamorous – but I wouldn’t trade it for the world and then some.

Another Side note: Have you been a Downton Abbey fan? I hadn’t paid any attention to it for all these years, how did I miss such a gem? – just got hooked on Amazon and within three weeks I’m almost done with the six seasons, looking forward to the movie! I love it! Fantastic actors too – What a different world. Living not far from Newport, I’ve toured some of the old “cottages” and saw first hand their elaborate lives preserved for all to explore. These are not the estates of Europe, of course, but the summer colonies for some of the wealthy elite Americans of the late 1800’s early 1900’s.

Till soon, friends –

Welcome Gizmo!

For years I’ve been a volunteer at shelter dog adoption events here in Connecticut, and was a founding member of Homeward Bound CT. Due to my hearing loss I stepped down from the Board eventually, as it became increasingly difficult to hear conversation at meetings, etc. I no longer work the events as a conduit between the adopters and the dogs on three day stretches for the same reason. I didn’t want this damned hearing loss to squelch my shelter dog assistance efforts, however, so I contribute in other ways that don’t require conversations in the crowded busy barky affair that is an adoption event. I bring food for the many volunteers, photograph and advocate for the dogs coming to the event, and donate money to the rescues to help them accomplish their monumental tasks.

Two of my three current dogs are rescues, and my daughter also has an adopted pooch, Rex. Well.. she did, but now she has two. K and D adopted Gizmo this weekend at Homeward Bound CT’s latest event, and I can honestly tell you I have not ever seen a more grateful dog. Gizmo just absolutely loves everyone. As soon as he locks eyes with you, if you don’t melt, you don’t have a heart in your chest cavity, I’m telling ya. He was picked up by an ACO as a stray in Georgia, where he landed at a kill shelter – and was quickly pulled by a rescue friend of ours, who vetted him, fostered him, and brought him up here to Connecticut with her other saves. A more loving, cuddly dog does not exist. We don’t know what his circumstances were that landed him in a kill shelter, but he’s out of those woods now.

Welcome to our family, Gizmo!

We took her boyz for a walk around the property yesterday to help Gizmo learn what home is to him now.

This picture shows the relationship between our two homes – It’s so awesome to have our girl and her little family right nextdoor. This old farm has truly become our family’s haven and I can’t begin to express appropriately how grateful I am.

I remember vividly passing this place on our way to visit my aunt many years ago. As a young girl I would glance at the overgrown fields behind the viney overgrown roadside and the ancient peeling sinking house…. and dream a little dream of living in the country on a place such as this. Never would I have guessed I’d call it home someday. It all started with a desire to live in the country with horses and dogs, and a big leap of faith to make a bold move when I was 19. The support of family and the love of a good man was the glue that kept the dream together.

Both in Vermont and here in CT, the fall foliage has been oustanding. What is fall looking like in your neck’o the woods?

Till soon, friends…

A Palate cleanser

After the last post I feel I need to sprinkle some happy up here in this space. Let us not allow the *crazy* to infect every corner of our world, because truly there’s so much to appreciate and good works we can do and fun and adventure to be had, regardless. I find a lot of solace in the every day, in the routines, the natural beauty outside these old doors, my animals up on the hill, the family that gathers round the table and the dogs curled up under my desk.

Here on the farm the leaves are turning and beginning to blanket the stone walls and pathways. My gardens are depleted, but there is still much color and many blooms and berries…

Zinnia still reaching for the sky…

The Dahlias – easy to grow and just so stunning…. I do need to pull the bulbs out of the ground once the frost hits if I want to use them again next year. And I might not, because sometimes I’m lazy that way.

My New Dawn roses have made a second appearance, just a few on a very lengthy vine along the dog yard fence.

I forget the name of these hydrangea trees, their blooms are prolific this year! My mom has been here several times collecting bunches for friends, they are great for drying.

Beautyberry – a more vivid purple berry you have never seen.

More Dahlia….

And although the daisies were done over a month ago, because of the warm weather, a few have shot up again.

Inside the house I’ve brought in fall – one of my favorite seasons to decorate. Pumpkins everywhere! and.. I bring bittersweet vine in from the fields and drape them along the fireplace mantels. There are pumpkins on the front door steps and over the door itself on the “shelf”, too.

I’ve been holding on to a painting by my late great grandfather in 1949 for some time now. His writing is on the back, so it was easy to discover what this painting was of – The covered bridge in Arlington, Vermont just in front of Normal Rockwell’s beloved home on the green. Above as it appears in our dining room, Below is a picture of the area now, and his painting up close. I recently had it matted, framed and glass covered for protection as it was in rough shape – it’s hard to get a photo of it without glare. The white house in the very background was his home.

Current….

And as my great grandfather saw it in 1949…

I hope to get up there in the near future to stand at this spot myself, with a nod to my deceased ancestor who did the very same. He and I have a similar painting style – not too detailed but the end result is pleasing to the eye, if not very professional or precise. Right now I’m reading Normal Rockwell’s autobiography and I look forward to the inevitable mention of his beloved home in Arlington.

11/28/1939-ORIGINAL CAPTION READS: Norman Rockwell, artist. Photo shows Rockwell painting with smoking pipe in his mouth.

Hopefully Getty Images folks own’t mind that I used their image.

I’ll leave you with a link to some scrumptious fall recipes from a favorite blogger of mine, Jane of Blondie’s Journal. Visit her post HERE. I’ve got the beef stew on my stove as I type this, and the other recipes will get a chance here at this old house as well. The stew is delish! Perfect for a cool fall evening.

Till soon, friends –

The Lights are on and Everyone’s HOME

When we bought this run down old farm, our goal was to restore it and create a family gathering place for many years to come. With our kids now grown and making their way in the world, tonight I see the bonfire up on the hill with the boy and his cousin and long time friends gathered round the fire once again as they have since their high school days, all college graduates and professionals living near and far. Next door, I see the lights on for the first time, my daughter and her boyfriend’s first night in their new home. I have a husband with vision and tenacity who saw this all through, and I’m grateful for every second of it. ♥

A little tour of the new home…

Wishing my daughter and her partner in life many happy years here!

While the new home owners were unpacking, the Mr. and I went down to Stella by the Sea to sit on her now vacant deck once again and enjoy the early fall breezes. (more like… he enjoyed the breezes and took a nap while I did laundry, picked tomatoes, dusted, vacuumed and packed away bedding for the coming winter months.)

I did manage to stick my feet in the water and absorb a little more Vitamin Sea.