One more post

Before the end of the year.
Thought I should talk just a little about our trip to the farm again.
Just a short post.
One day when my hubby was out mowing, he saw a snowy owl! Now this is not my picture, I borrowed it from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology .

And while they do not say it on their web site, I did a google search while we were headed in town and found an article that said the owls do sometimes come as far south as Louisiana and Georgia (so we didn't call any local bird groups about our sighting. Don't want people coming around when we're not there, after all).
I was in the house doing something or other so I didn't see it, and it happened so quick he didn't take a picture with his phone.
It flew out of the old barn when he was mowing, he said, so we definitely won't be tearing down that barn until we know for sure that the owl isn't coming around any more.
I know they are bad if you have animals, but all we have right now are mice and rats and they are more than welcome to them. ;-)

The other thing is that more than a few times, sometimes at night and sometimes in the early morning, in addition to the trains passing in the distance; we hear this really low "hoo-h'HOO--hoo-hoo."
I used the Cornell site to identify the sound. A Great Horned Owl.

This picture is also theirs, as we have yet to actually see the owls; I think it's neat. Might not think so when we have chickens, but right now, I think it's neat.
I have seen a fox around, too, so if an owl decides to eat a baby fox, I'd probably be okay with that, too. Don't know which might be worse when we have chickens. The fox or the owl.
I think we'll need a couple of roosters....

If I don't get on again to post before the New Year, I hope you all have a safe New Year's Eve; and may God Bless you all with a healthy and prosperous New Year. ♥

Merry Christmas!

Since I fail at doing things here on Blogger, here's a little something from me to you. :)

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a happy, safe, Holiday week!

This month is going to disappear before we know it!

So I put our tree up. It's a little 3 foot artificial tree that we've had for years. I'm not really feeling the spirit this year, like a lot of the bloggers I follow. I don't know what it is, or why, but I do understand it.
Still, like Thanksgiving, I have a lot to be thankful for - and Jesus is one of those things - so I put the tree up on the hearth this year.

Like so many, Money is tight, so there will be one gift for everyone with a reminder of what we have to be thankful for. Like family.
While I think I am all but over whatever I had, hubby announced this morning that he thinks he is coming down with something.
We had already (thankfully) decided not to go to the farm this month (February now - will be soon enough.); so hopefully staying home and resting will see hubby well quickly!

Since I think pretty much everyone is cold, if not snowy right now; I'm going to wish you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and hope you all stay warm and healthy!

*hugs* ♥

Just wanted to say

That I've started a blog on Wordpress. http://klsgrem.wordpress.com/
I'm still going to be here, probably; but there have been some strange things going on and I figure a backup is a good idea.

I'm feeling a lot better. Seems like the antibiotics did the trick.
We've had a lot of rain the last two days. Supposed to get some hard freezes next week. Hope the roads dry before it does.

Hope you all have a great week!

Kitchen

Yup. Thought I should talk about the kitchen just a little. We didn't get the flooring put down - I'm having a LOT of trouble deciding on what to use. I don't want a white and blue diamond pattern. UGH.
But my sister-in-law was a big help in getting it painted. I thought a  bit more about just painting the windows, too, since I am terrible painting around glass. Besides, it would have given me this nice yellow light in the kitchen and then I wouldn't need curtains, either. ;-)

But, in the end, I didn't paint the glass - well, not all of it, anyway. Besides, the windows all need fixing or replacing and I can worry about the glass then.
So, here is how the kitchen looks now - besides empty, I mean.

It is 15 feet 8 inches by 15 feet 8 inches. The pantry is there on the left of the bottom picture. It is part of the measurement. The ceiling is 11 feet 9 and 3/4 inches, which is apparently a French measurement. All the ceilings are that high. The windows - which I still need to write down so I remember - are approximately 75 inches by 43 inches. They let in a LOT of light. :-)

It has OSB on the floor. Sort of like plywood. But for some reason they put some of it down upside down, completely ignoring where it said 'This side down'. My brother thinks if we sand it, it will probably be fine. Otherwise we'll have to put some thin luan down over it, for attaching the linoleum or tiles with. I am thinking linoleum, but what hubby and I like best is apparently special order - which makes it hard to get when we're going to be there.
Oh well. We'll think of something.

We're also having trouble trying to decide on cabinets. At first we were thinking custom, but we haven't won the lottery yet. ;-)
We've found some we like, but it's bits and pieces at several different places so I'm not sure how they would fit together.

My  brother also said he was pretty sure the older tiles, like in the pantry and hallway, were asbestos. So the crappy hallway job will need to be finished. Since the tile in the pantry is almost complete - only a small chip or two - I think we'll just cover over that. I'd like it to look similar to the kitchen.

And that's about all I can think of for now. lol. Got antibiotics from the doctor Monday. She thinks I may have a sinus infection. Feeling a little better, and I hope I KEEP feeling better.
Hubby wants to go back to the farm. Over Christmas. I'm not keen on that - expense and all, and finances are tight now. But I guess that is where we will be on Christmas day...

Enjoy your week, all - and stay warm!

Steppin' on up.

So this trip, one of my brothers and his wife came down to help us. He works in construction so he knows a lot about the kind of stuff we need to do to get the house livable again. It's a long trip from Michigan so it meant a lot to us that they were willing to use their vacation time to do it, too.

Of course the first two days they were there, it rained. We all drove to New Orleans on Tuesday, since we couldn't do what we needed to while it was raining; but we did get beignets at Cafe du Monde! Yummy!

Anyway. Remember the steps I showed you in this post here?
Well, here is how they look now.

Don't they look great? My brother did a fantastic job! And he did them in a day and a half, and made the stringers for them, too. My husband helped with setting the posts for the steps, but after that it was all my brother while the husband did mowing and my sister-in-law and I finished painting the kitchen.

And I thought I should post a picture of my brother, sister-in-law, and me.

Yup. We're standing on the steps. I love those steps. :)

What do you do?

How many of you have a wood table? Do you polish it? Do you also use it as extra counter space for baking? If so, do you cover it with wax paper or something similar?

The house we are in now has a small kitchen, and even less counter space. Much of which, like the kitchen table, is taken up by stuff; not all of which is used by me, the cook.
I am thinking of putting the table in the kitchen in the farm house, to use for kneading dough and such, since it will probably be lower than the counters an I haven't grown taller in ages.

Anyway, I was wondering what you all do. And now I think I'll go back to my nap.

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