Update

Been busy at home and at work the past few weeks so I thought while I had a little time this beautiful (cool) morning I would try to recap.

The work on the ‘barn’ is progressing now with the laying of hardwood upstairs. Bill almost has it all down now. He called Wednesday morning and asked me to bring down another 100 sq ft as he was short just that much. So Tom and I picked it up after work. I had called Lumber Liquidators where we had gotten all the other wood to find out if they had it in the warehouse – they did. I told them I would be in between 5 and 6 to pick it up expecting them to have it ready. Ha. Not only did they not have it ready but it was buried behind several pallets of other flooring. 45 minutes later they pulled it out and loaded it on Tom’s pickup. We had planned on going by Costco to pick up some shelving for the shop on the way to discussion group at 7 but didn’t have time. It looked like rain and the bundles of hardwood were too long to put the tailgate up so after going by Harbor Freight to get ratchet straps to tie it down, we unloaded it into the garage at home and went on to discussion group. I’m really glad we unloaded it as it rained Wednesday night.

Thursday we loaded everything back up after I got home from work and had just dropped Aubri off at her work when 3 bundles flew out of the truck as we pulled out into traffic! YIKES! Thankfully, Erik was at work (yeah, three of them all work at the same place!) already and saw us and came out to help us get it all picked up. I’m hoping that we didn’t ruin too much. We had to break done the bundles so that they would fit with the tailgate up – leaving no room for shelves. Bill will just have to wait another week for shelves!

So today Bill will be putting down the rest of our flooring upstairs – hopefully I’ll get a pic once it’s all down. :)

Last weekend during a break in flooring – Bill and I went out into the campground with the tractor to pull stumps. We had three right around the fire ring that were in the way for Samhains labyrinth and if we had very many people trying to sit around the campfire they were right where everyone wanted to sit. So – up they came:




This weekend we are having a few folks over for Lammas on Saturday. So today after the floor gets finished, Bill has more leaves to blow out of the campground so that anyone that wants to camp will be able to find the ground! LOL We have a lot of leaves down – looks like fall!

Tom is down for the weekend to go through his storage shed and decide what to take to Texas with him. I know he is planning on getting all his clothes out, washing them and deciding what to keep and what to Goodwill – he has a lot of clothes! So, maybe we will have room in his shed to put the 10 x 20 that we bought at PSG to get it out of the camping trailer. We can’t get to our camping gear until we do!

Yesterday was Bill and I’s 4rth anniversary of being handfasted. It sure doesn’t feel like it’s been that long and we only have two more years before we can officially get married. August 9, 2014 – save the date! LOL

I’m hoping the heat has broken finally – it’s supposed to be in the 80s all weekend with overnight lows in the 50’s – actually chilly! Great camping weather so hopefully we will be able to get to our gear by tomorrow evening. We’ve had some rain both in St. Louis and at the property which is helping those trees in the woods to start leafing out again. We will have a really thick layer of leaves come fall!

Oh – I almost forgot I canned my first batch of tomato sauce this week. I forgot to take a picture but I was pretty excited. I ended up only getting a pint and a half from our roma tomatoes but we should have more on the vines ready this weekend so maybe I will be able to can more next week. I’m going to have to find some apples soon – we are all out of apple butter and the kids want more. Usually I can in October but I may have to do two batches this year if I can find good local orchard apples that haven’t been washed and waxed yet. If we had time to go pick our own I would but we just don’t have the time – fall is the busiest for us (like this summer has been any better actually!) We only have a few weekends left that aren’t booked up already!

I was hoping to be able to can green beans this year but the heat, drought and deer took care of our green beans. We got one nice batch – which we ate- and that was it. I can’t even find them at the farmers market – apparently everyone is having the same problem. I’ve managed to freeze a couple of squash but the plants are only producing 1 or 2 per week so I’ve mostly just been eating them as they come ripe. That pressure canner may not see much use this year after all!