dirt, dirt, dirt....

Before I talk about our dirt, I just want to share with everyone that Mocha is "famous". Perhaps you remember that last February our friend, Dusty Perin, came and did a photo shoot with Mocha. She had been hired to get some photos of mini horses for a new book... now there was no guarantee that Mocha's pictures would be used in the book, but it turns out that they were!!!! I haven't seen the book in real life (will be ordering a copy of it soon)... so, I don't know "where" the photo is, or what it represents, but she's there!!! So, if in your travels, you come across this little book, take a peek.....

Next topic... dirt! Ed saw all the fun that Rick was having in HIS dirt, that he just had to get back to work with ours ----boys and their dirt piles!!! Actually, Ed is trying to beat the freezing weather, and have all the dirt in place before it becomes in movable!!! It's a big job, and the little tractor has to take it in bits and pieces, but, it's doing it and I can see the face of the house better and better!!!







The nice thing is, this is "good" dirt, it's actually loam, so we should have a nice lawn come spring time (plenty of grass to mow!!!) Ed is having to haul in some gravel for the driveway, but with Rick's dump truck, even that job is going very well.







It was pretty exciting when he made it to the top of the dirt pile and began pushing from there... I am hoping that by the end of next week, there will be no more piles!!!!!

And I just had to get some photos of this house that is all decked out for Halloween. This is the prettiest little house, the owners always keep it as neat as a pin. And I like the decorations, because they are tastefully done and fun... not all "creeped" out!!!!

I am quite certain they made all these and it's just all in fun.......

Abbie had her two week check up today and is doing very well. Sadie is feeling great and got the "all clear" from her doctor as well. It feels like things are getting back to "normal" around here, and I even managed to get Tonka out this afternoon and play around with him for awhile... nice to do some work around the dump truck!!!! so do I dare jinx myself and say.... "we're on a roll"......next blog... baby Abbie goes to her first "steak night"......

The great pumpkin.....

After such an emotional day at my Uncle's funeral, it was nice to come home and get into my pj's and just call it a night. Actually, I have been "bumming" all week, because my Tuesday night dog training classes did not fill up for this session, and so, it has been decided to put these classes off until the New Year. As much as I love being home at night, I feel like a "slug" not "working"... but as Ed so wisely said, "take advantage of this time, because after the holidays, you might be busier than you like".. so.. guess that's what I'll do.







I bought a couple of pumpkins to carve and roast the seeds from. After all, Abbie has to have her first pumpkin, even if she has to wait before trying roasted pumpkin seeds!!! And I was so very excited to find out that "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" was on TV. By the way, what IS with the TV lately.. I hardly watch it anymore, but is there anything "good" on??? I can find all the Halloween horror films on most any channel, but what has happened to the nice family shows... like the "great pumpkin".... The girls (when they were little - actually even when they were big) and I always watched the Great Pumpkin each year!!!!!



Course during all this "exciting/traditional" time.. Miss Abigail just napped in her little swing...

These were "good pumpkins" full of nice plump seeds, and not too much "goo"..

We got a nice big pan for roasting!!!!

and Abigail slept................

That's OK, I personally, enjoyed "Charlie Brown".. it made me think of one year when I was little... my sister Becky will remember this too.. I am sure...

Becky HATED to wear hats!!! and we walked to school back in those days. Well, one October morning, off we went to school... Becky was wearing her hat, until she got down the street, then the hat came off, and was stuffed into the lunch box. Well... my Mom (who is very clever).. just "happened to drive by" and saw Miss Becky without her hat on. She pulled over, told her to get that hat back on her head.. and that she would NOT be watching Charlie Brown later that evening... a punishment that was horrible!!!!

And, good to her word..there was no "Charlie Brown" for Becky that year!!!!

I thought that there might not be any "Charlie Brown" for Abigail this year, but about halfway thru the show, she did wake up. And even though she was more interested in her bottle than the TV.. I can officially say, that Abbie and I (and Sadie too) watched the "Great Pumpkin", ate roasted seeds, and will have jack o' lanterns to lite...

traditions continue.....................................

sending home

Today my family and friends gathered to bid farewell to Uncle Paul, my Mom's brother. He passed away on October 21 at the age of 82, very unexpectedly. Which, for him, was a blessing, but for the family - a shock.

I have so many wonderful memories of my Uncle Paul, but I mostly think of him as a farmer. I know that I was always a little jealous of my cousins, Dave, Carolee and Kevin, as they lived on the farm and we lived in the "village". I can remember when Carolee got her horse "Charlie" and how I wished that we lived were I could have had a horse. I remember going up upon occasion and helping out with haying, and the black Angus cattle he raised (and how mean they were). I remember many holiday gatherings.... and I feel so very honored (happy) that my Uncle Paul and Aunt Doreen came to our "timber raising" last fall and to our "open house" this past spring.. and my Uncle saying to me.... "You got quite a place here"......

The family had a private graveside service, the day was cool and gray, but the trees all around us were in their full beauty. And after the graveside service we went onto the church for a memorial service. Here the true testament of his life was seen in "living color"... a church absolutely filled to capacity!!!! And people running about looking for extra folding chairs..... I have always felt that if one "needs a bigger church to hold all their friends", you certainly know what kind of life that person has lived. Many folks stood to tell their favorite stories......happy stories that made us laugh

I made a comment on my facebook page that God blessed our family with the arrival of Abbie.. and that as her life begins on earth... Uncle Paul's life begins in heaven

"to everything there is a season" ----- Godspeed Uncle

OH MY!!!!!!

Our friend Rick was having a bit of work done in his back yard and things didn't go exactly to plan!!! this certainly turned out to be one of those "oh my" moments!!!!

With the work of another machine, a skidder, and some good friends.......

All's well that ends well, and the "digger" is once again on solid land........

getting organized....

First off, how do you like my new title picture?? Yesterday, as Ed and I were doing barn chores, we heard a plane land on the air strip behind the farm. Ed said.."suppose that's Dale?" so we ran out of the barn just as a pretty little blue and white plane flew over the farm. We gave a big wave, and sure enough, the plane tipped it's wings in a "hello" sign. It circled once and then came around again, so we knew it was Dale!!!! I wished I had thought to grab my camera, and take a shot of her flying by... she gets so many good photos of the farm, maybe she would like to have one of her flying.... (next time Dale!!!)

As previously reported, we have the outdoor wood furnace chugging.. it's doing a great job at keeping the house warm, and for this winter, it will be our main source of heat. Right now we are just burning "junk wood", which is a two fold blessing.. warmth and clean up!!!!!


Here, Ed is loading the wood furnace.. which isn't such an exciting shot, except that.. look who's helping...

Annabelle... we thought she was a "barn cat", but now that she has discovered us working up around the house, she comes and hangs out with us there!!!! Ed thinks she'll be a "house" cat before it's all said and done... I say "NO.. I need a barn cat".....

When the builders finished their work early last summer, they began to clean up around the house. Normally, they would take away all the scrap wood and it would just end up in a landfill somewhere. Knowing that we would be using the wood furnace, I couldn't bear the idea of all this "free" heat being thrown away, so we asked them to pile it up and we would take care of it.


With all the "other projects" happening over the summer, moving the piles wasn't high on the list, but now that Ed is trying to move dirt around, and the thought that snow isn't that far away... it's time to get these piles into a usable fashion.

Ed took some palates that had been left behind and made them into wood racks. The open ones are for the bigger pieces and the "green" boxes for all the little stuff that can either go into the furnace or in the wood stove.

We had some big piles that needed to be sorted thru, but it didn't take as much time as we thought. And by placing the wood on the palates, it's easy to move them around with the tractor. Once we have all the dirt in place, the palates can be kept near the stove, but for now, they are in the garage..keeping dry on a very rainy day.

When the work was done, not only did we end up with several nice loads of wood, but everything looks so much neater!!!

Now we can move some dirt and get rid of those "piles" that have been making me "crazy" all summer.

I don't know if it's a "new england" thing, or if it's the same with anyone who lives with a "cold season".. but this time of year, I just get a feeling to get organized and picked up, days are getting shorter and cooler.. it's time to button up......

a day on the farm....

Yesterday Abbie had a "well baby check" with a visiting nurse from the hospital. (yes, they actually sent someone up from York)... and it turned out to be a dear and long time friend, Katie...who I have known for years via the dog world. Katie pronounced "excellent" with both Abbie and Sadie. Since the day was absolutely beautiful, and Sadie is getting a little "house bound", we decided to take Abbie down to the farm to show her where she is going to live and introduce her to the animals....

I'm not sure what's up with the ladybugs!!!! They are absolutely everywhere!!! and even though I like them very much.. they're kind of annoying. Just coming in from outside, you almost need to take the time to brush them off. They certainly liked the warm side of the house and barn, and considering that they are "lucky", we'll invite all the ones that would like to stay!!!!

Ed has fired up the outside wood furnace and we have heat in the house now. We need to.. since the plumber has finished his work and there is also water in the house... we're keeping it on a low temperature, just enough to take off the chill, and it's working very well. The house has a nice "feeling" about it... oh I can't wait to live there....

We had lunch together.........

Then went down to the barn to do chores and show Abbie around. We wanted to be sure that Mocha got to meet her "new owner"... course if the "new owner" had been awake.. well, that might have been a little more interesting. But Mocha seemed interested (or maybe it was just the funny hat that she was looking at!!!) Either way, one day if someone asks Abbie, "when where you first around horses".. she can truly say... "I was 5 days old".........

AND... you just know we had to get a photo opt of Abbie and chicken (who inspired her hat)... not so sure that either one cared... but we thought it was funny........

the time zone called Abbie....

You'd think that when Sadie and I traveled to York last Thursday for her doctor's appointment, I might have thought that they would keep her. But, as we loaded all six cocker spaniels into the truck and went over our "list" of things we would get done while "in town", it never entered my mind that this would be the "beginning of things to come!!!" Sadie's blood pressure had been quite high at the previous appointment, so they wanted her back in a few days to re-check it, selfishly all I saw was "two hours in the truck for a 5 minute doctor's appointment" and never dreamed that they might want her to stay... which is exactly what happened. Poor Ed, not only got the call that Sadie would be staying at the hospital until Abbie arrived, but also that he needed to come down and collect the dogs!!!!

I notified Kassy, Diana and Kelli that Abbie might be arriving in the night. All three of them arrived to be Sadie's support team, and we kept a careful vigil all thru the night. All three gals had worked all day long, so it was going to be a pretty long night for them, as well as for Sadie. "Things" progressed well to about 8 centimeters and that was about as far as it went, for several hours, Sadie tried to move "things" along, but to no avail. At about 8:00 am, the doctor and mid wife had a long chat and came to Sadie with the idea that Abbie was going to need some help, and thus a c-section. At that point and time, Sadie was more than agreeable, and so Abbie arrived in the world on a slightly different game plan (hope that isn't going to be some omen with her life :-0 )........

And as you all know by now, baby Abbie was born at 1:22 pm on Friday October 16th!!!

Sadie and Abbie had a long list of company that came to visit. I think I got photos of almost everyone with baby Abbie, too many to post, but I hope that one day I will make a scrap book for her and she can see all the people that have been waiting to meet her. Sadie and Abbie also received so many nice gifts, (including this wonderful fruit basket from "aunt Kelli and uncle Rick") it's going to take her weeks to get all the thank you cards out... but, in the meantime, may I offer my sincere thank you to all of you for your support, encouragement and lovely gifts!!!!!

One of the "treats" from the hospital is a gourmet dinner the evening before you take a baby home. Sadie invited me to be her guest of honor.. and my goodness, it was a gourmet dinner!!! Here our chef delivers the meal... he was such a funny guy!!!

Both Sadie and I chose a wonderful dinner of haddock with all sorts of good trimmings...

And the dessert?? well, I'll just let you drool over them for a moment..........

As it turned out, the day was "quite messy" weather wise, in fact, we had just enough snow to say that we had our first "official" snow of the season.... I had already decided to stay the night with Sadie and Abbie, being "tucked" in at the hospital, that amazing meal and the excitement of Abbie heading home the next day, made for a very special evening.

Monday morning, we packed up and headed out. (don't you LOVE the hat???) Because I was teaching my dog classes in York that evening, we decided that Sadie and Abbie would just spend the afternoon at Kassy's house, that way they wouldn't have to "be alone" their first evening. ( Fire chief had to be at the station that evening!!!) That idea worked very well, Sadie had some visitors there, and Abbie got to meet the first part of the "dog family" (I'll put those pics in another blog).... It also gave Sadie a chance to catch her breath before heading home.



And so, life begins at home with baby Abbie, we don't know "night from day"...any little peep is heard by all (including a gaggle of cocker spaniels)

and "people" sleep in the strangest of places.. (due to the "surgery" Sadie finds a chair is more comfortable than a bed just now) I haven't slept thru the night, but I wasn't doing that anyways.... so as Ed said "now you have something to do when you can't sleep!!!"

and our "little peep" runs the show and has totally taken over our lives.... we are now living in the "time zone" called...

Abbie................

just a blog

I must be tired, because I have tried twice to write a blog about the arrival of Abbie, and it's just not working... so, for your entertainment... how about some pictures, and when my writing skills (such as they are) catch up to me.. I will tell the story of Abbie.... until then... enjoy!!!!