Still Dreaming

all photos in this entry are borrowed from the internet, thank you.

 I've been dreaming again...

I'm still yearning for a, wait for it, wait for it,

 a SUNROOM...

just like the yellow one,...

still dreaming.

 One I can enjoy while basking in the sunshine

during our long, long winter days,...

one to bring a new year in with...

a place for that perfect Charlie Brown Christmas Tree...

still dreaming.

 Look, here's a dream of a sunroom for my daughter's

large farm house, wouldn't that be dreamy?

I'm still dreaming of the day I can curl up in my Crazy Quilt,

just like this one., while I carefully cut~

 Snowflake Ballerinas .

One can dream, can't she???

I'm reminded by my dear, once again ~

" Don't rush me," he says.

So I dream on.

Hmmm, shall I hire a carpenter?

Have a fun weekend  and

DREAM BIG !!!

' The Hunt '

Are you one that is driven by ' The Hunt?'

 This past spring, I had the honor of scouring throughout 

an old barn.  There were treasures everywhere like weathered old doors like the one leaning above, inside a barn stall.

There were a number of antiquated chairs, each with their own charm, barn charm, in this case.  I'm partial to the blue one.

 Look who caught the corner of my eye...

well disguised on a fallen leaf as I walked by him

trekking through the woods.  Was he hunting too, for a place to burrow into the mud for the winter?

 OK, back to ' the hunt.'  Lying on the loft floor of the old barn was half a round table top that will later be made into a side table.

 What do you think ~ a trap door or a hay hole cover?

One thing I knew for sure, I loved it, especially the handle.

 These are old piano panels, left to be re-purposed, I suppose.

The keys and inner workings of the piano were later found all charred on a burn pile.  What a pity.

 On another ' hunt,' this beauty of a woodstove was found.

Bill helped to lift and load it later, for it's trip to a new home.

Notice the door ~ angels or eagle's wings, mountains and trees ? 

Inside the door of this grand primitive stove was a thick roll, I mean thick, roll of money that went with the stove.  Hmmm.

  My guess ~ a test of trust.

Back in the barn were more treasures such as these 

cross-glassed windows. I'm in love.  

 Mirrors are always a great find., especially when they are

plate-glassed.  They still are the most treasured to me....

heavy, strong, long-lived.  This one came off an old dresser.

Even antique re-bar can be re-purposed into something useful.

Tho none of these items came home with me,

I know they will all be put to good use sooner or later.

I simply enjoy ' The Hunt.'

Thanks for hanging around while I turned a few antiques over and checked them for sturdiness, usefulness and charm.

Maybe, just maybe, 

my next hunt, I'll bring something home to work on.

For now, I have plenty of projects in my own barn

that need dusting off and enjoyed in our home.

Enjoy ' The Hunt ' if that's how you roll.

Until next time, keep it wonderful, fun and safe.

\o/

                                                     /\

Harvest's End

Late into Sept. and we were harvesting potatoes on a sunny day.  Bill dug them with his homemade digger that he pulls behind the tractor.  Next ~

 since my bender doesn't bend so well I can still handle the tractor.

I do the driving of Lil Blue while Bill fills the bucket with the spuds.

Back at the house, the potatoes are rinsed the first time while still in the bucket of the tractor. 

 The bucket is tipped slowly, that's my job, then poured carefully on the self-fabricated screen.  After they are sorted and the last of the dirt is sprayed off, ( we both do that ),

they are left to dry in the breeze before ~ we start

 sorting and bagging.  They are left in a dark corner of the garage until we finally move them to the cellar in the basement.  Normally, we store them right away, but this year, our basement is damp from all the fall rain we've been getting.  In the meantime, we have been warming the house on cooler evenings to help the drying process along plus fans.  

 This year's harvest includes German Butterballs, a few Yukon Gems, All Blues and Purple Vikings.

 The onions suffered some of the hail damage on their tops.  They've been sorted, brushed clean  of the garden soil and 

 braided for winter's many meals.  There are 5 braids all total and a small onion sack full of the one's without a stem long enough to braid.  The bruised ones were cleaned and salvaged what I could by chopping and freezing for hot-dishes.

I apologize for the length of this post, but I promise this is the end of our gardening and harvesting.  The apples too, were hail damaged so most of what we picked was sauced and made into pie filling.   

 Who needs an apple picker when you have~

 the real deal !  Bill trusts me to lift him as high as the tractor bucket will go so he can hand pick as many apples as he can reach.

 Sad, but most of these were so badly damaged that they became deer food.  I couldn't even make sauce out of all those bags of apples.  The basket and bucket were the best we could do....such a treat, at that.  

Our harvesting is nearly done.

Today I canned the saurkraut that was fermenting in the garage.  I only have last season's photo  ~ sorry, but we got the same amount.

Oh, and

we were blessed to save a total of a dozen pumpkins...mostly pie pumpkins that I baked off, pureed and stored for later use.

And that's it folks.  My pantry is full, the freezer is stacked to the top and I have no complaints.

We have no control over the weather so we are just very grateful for what we 'were' able to salvage.

Amen to that for God is Good !

Have a grateful week dear friends and family.

\o/

/\

The ' S ' has Returned

I guess all I can say is...Dag Nabbit !!!

 Yes, you're seeing it, all right ~ that nasty white stuff.

Bill didn't even get his easy chair off the deck yet.

 Just a couple days ago, 

 we were enjoying the beautiful scenery across the road and

the gorgeous Sugar Maple in our yard around the treehouse and the barn.  Woe is me :/

 My favorite tree by the cabin no longer sports it's

Red Coat.  I'd much rather see these vibrant colors we've been blessed with the past couple weeks than ~~~

 THIS.  Go away ' white stuff falling from the sky.'

BUT, on the brighter side...

I've once again dragged out the canning supplies, 

 you know, all the things that make life easier for this domestic diva and her dear hubby.

 In the past two days, I've whipped out 51 pints of Raspberry Jelly, 18 pints of Pickled Beets,

5 pints of Pickled Carrots, 11 quarts of Canned Apples ready for pie, and another 7 quarts and one more pint of Applesauce.

Phew, I'm tired but it's a good tired...a feeling of accomplishment.  Next time I will show you what else we did this week.  We feel like little squirrels and the birds, storing food for a long winter...so we've been told.

THAT, I'm not quite ready for tho.

So it goes in our great north woods where we happily choose to make our home.  The changing of the four seasons is actually quite OK with me.

Have a great weekend.  I'm going to snuggle under the workings of a warm shawl with my crochet hook and some yarn.  What are you going to do?  Whatever it may be, may it make you happy.