Getting an Order Ready

Today, I sat down & worked on an order for the farm. While doing that, I decided to make a master list of all the trees, bushes and perennials we've planted since we bought the farm. I feel like I am a little more organized now :-).  So before I tell you what I am ordering, I'll share the list of things already planted.

The first year was 2007. It was a planning year, walking around, deciding what to do and working on the major challenges we faced (landscaping, well, septic, electric & plumbing) as well as deciding what the layout of the house would be. In the spring of 2008, we planted the garden (almost the size of a football field) and started planting our edibles. Edibles? Yes, almost everything we plant is or will be edible. This is a permaculture principle. Here is the list...

2008
Antanovka Apple root stock 25
Montmorency Cherry trees 5
Luscious Pear trees 5
Korean Pine Nut trees 25
Common Purple Lilac 10
American Cranberry Bush 10
Nanking Cherry 10
Rugosa Roses bushes 10 (rose hips)
Blueberries
   Chippewa 8
   North Country 8
   Polaris 8
Hops
Jerusalem Artichokes
Horseradish
Rhubarb (didn't live)
Many herbs

2009
Hazelnuts 100
Chestnuts 10
Black Alder 2 (non-edible but great for coppicing)
Sugar Maples 10 (someday, probably not in our lifetime, maple syrup)
Staghorn Sumac 3 -lemonade-type drink from the crushed fruit
Red Osier Dogwood 10 (decorative)
Northern Gold Forsythia 2 (decorative)
Strawberries
    Northeaster 25
    Jewel 25
    Annapolis 25
    Ozark 25 (everbearing)
Raspberries
   Boyne 6
   Autumn Bliss 6
Illini Blackberries 6
  
2010
Jostaberry 2
Pixwell Gooseberry 4
Paw Paw 3
Russian Olive 4
Siberian Pea Shrub 4
Aronia 10

That brings me to this year's order (so far)
2011
Polaris Blueberry 12 (the best producer in comparison to the others I planted)
Rhubarb-Canada Red & Victoria. 1 each
Sea Buckthorn-Leikora  1
Sea Buckthorn-Male 1
Aromatnaya Quince 1
Ligonberry 3
Current-Red Lake Red Current 1 & Ben Sarek Black Current 1
Kiwi (the ones I ordered last year didn't make it into the ground)

There are other plants & trees I will be ordering or propagating too. I would love some willow trees and poplar for coppicing, osage orange for fence lines, ground covers for areas we do not want to mow anymore and hostas for our very shady north side of the barn. If I could figure out an edible for the north side, that would be great. Any ideas?
We are also thinking about ordering more hazelnut bushes. We would consider that one of our cash crops in a few years along with the garlic. Oh, and more apple scions to graft this spring.

Enough about that...now I need to figure out the seed order :-)

A Safe & Happy New Year to You!

Mia on the way to the farm.

We just got to the farm & thankfully it was just foggy, no freezing rain like they were predicting. We are heading into town soon for pizza and then home to watch a new DVD we got for Christmas, the Northern Exposure series, and maybe The Great Outdoors if we can last that long. :-). Party animals we're not, nor want to be. I am feeling better today. No sinus pressure, finally. Every day a little better, I hope. Completely better by next weekend which is Jaelyn's first birthday & party. Can't believe it's been a year.

This morning we went out to eat with Amy & Rob for Steve's birthday at a great new restaurant in St Charles, IL. called Prazino which means "green" in Greek. The food was excellent and they are organic for the most part. They have fresh-squeezed juices and wheat grass shots....our kind of place.

Foggy day, but at least we could make it into the driveway this time :-)

 We want to wish all of you a very happy new year! May this new year be even better than the last!

Garage Doors Ordered

These are the garage doors we ordered last Saturday morning. http://www.amarr.com/residential/browse_material/steel/classica/style_guide/s2.html?dir=single
We really like the crossbuck design & think it will go well with the look of the barn. We are working with Doug Swenson at Swenson's Doors in Viroqua. A really nice guy just like all the business people we've met here so far. They even throw in a key pad. It takes about 3 weeks to get them so we have until then to do some framing around the door openings we have now. Can't wait to get them installed. It will change the whole look of the barn. (And make it more weather tight). We still need to replace the entry door in front that goes into the laundry area but will try to get that done before the weather changes too.

It will look so much different in a few weeks!

Labor Day Weekend

I got a better nights sleep last night so I'm not dragging around as much today :-). I promised in my last post to put up some pics of our Labor Day weekend with Kristin, Tim & Jaelyn.

Dakota wanted to snuggle up to Jaelyn. Very curious about her.

Before my daughter & family got to the farm, we set up the queen-size bed in our new, unfinished bedroom area. I finished 2 curtains & started on a third so it made a "nap-friendly" area for Jaelyn. I didn't get a pic before they came, so here is one after we stripped the bed when they left.

We are starting to be able to picture how it will all come together now.

This is the curtains I made from 2 full-size bedsheets. No sewing needed, just open up the side hems at the top & stick a rod through. I used a bamboo pole we had laying around. These all are temporary curtains until I make insulated shades when we live there. We turned on the radiant floor heat & it was nice & toasty for them.

Jaelyn had fun in the new bedroom before going outside to see the horses.

Saturday night we went to the Driftless Cafe in town and had an early night. Sunday we woke up, had a big breakfast & started on the siding. Later we cooked out brats & hot dogs (veggie versions for Steve & I). The co-op in town had a 15th anniversary party so we headed there around 5:30. It was unbelievable how many people were there!

This is part of the line to get in. It's almost a block long. We decided not to wait in line for food so when we got back we heated up the left over pizza from the night before. Tim played with Jaelyn before it was time to put her to bed.

She is starting to anticipate when the "tickles" are coming.

After a beautiful sunset, we headed down the hill to have a campfire. It was partly cloudy with no moon so we could still see quite a few stars. It's a nice, relaxing way to end the evening.

Jaelyn got to pet Mia. Mia was surprisingly calm.

Steve, getting in some Grandpa time.

Monday morning it was time for them to head back home so we harvested some fresh veggies to take with. Kristin is making all Jaelyn's food and we love being able to provide organic produce right out of the garden. They took home, zucchini, winter squash (pumkin & butternut), pototoes and carrots. I was hoping to give them some apples but they all blew off the trees the other night.

It was nice to have family time up at the farm again. Next time they come up Jaelyn will be walking & we hope to have the house put together a little more.

In a couple weeks, Amy & Rob will be coming up to see us for the Vernon County Fair. We are looking forward to that.

British Car Trip With a Visit to the Farm

Thursday afternoon we left for our annual British car trek with the final destination being Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for the vintage car weekend. We went with our friends Bob & Pam who haven't had the chance to see the farm since right after we bought it. So much has changed since then. The barn was kinda nasty back then. The basement floor was dirt with manure & dead rats laying around. Yuck. We were in the process of having the well drilled and were still using the sawdust toilet. They were troopers for coming to see it then :-). Now, even though it is far from finished inside, it is very livable. It was dark when we arrived. A beautiful clear night after the hot, uncomfortable day with temps in the nineties & very high humidity. We grabbed the lawn chairs and a few beers and sat out back & stargazed. We were watching for shooting stars & satellites &  each saw a few. Then the weirdest thing happened. Three of us saw a satellite & then a bright (like flashbulb in the sky bright) light. So we discussed what it could be. A spy satellite taking our picture :-) or a satellite colliding with space debris. All we knew is that we had never seen anything like it before. Without Internet access (my computer was fried by lightening a few weeks back), we had to wait until we got home Sunday night to look it up. So this is what I found out. It was probably an Iridium flare. These are communication satellites. The antennas are the size of a door with a mirror-like finish. when in the right position, they reflect light from the sun. Thus the flash of light. Okay, so the space aliens or the government isn't watching us. After a beer or two, we were off to bed dreaming about our big trip across the state the next day.
We got up fairly early and went straight for the garden where we picked our breakfast. We picked blueberries, new potatoes & spinach along with zucchini & yellow crook neck squash.

Bob helping out in the garden.

Steve digging potatoes.

Me with some blueberries. That's Bob & Pam's car by the barn. Cute!

Shep, the Amish dog, hung out with us while we worked.

  Thanks Pam for taking all the pictures. (My pocket camera quit working :-()

Steve & Pam went up to Eli & Lizzie's to get fresh eggs. The meal consisted of eggs on toast with wilted spinach, hash browns & blueberries along with a couple cups of local Kickapoo Coffee. After packing up, we headed into town & stopped at the Viroqua Food Coop for snack & some iced coffee drinks. It was already getting hot at 11am. The area has been getting some torrential rains lately and we drove through parts of the Kickapoo watershed & the Baraboo River valley. You could see the swollen waters had left the banks but luckily no roads were impacted. We stopped for lunch in Montello at The Stonecutter restaurant. We did the same thing three years ago. The owners are very friendly & the sandwiches were great.

The Stonecutter

A couple hours later, we were glad to get to out of the hot sun & into the shade of the campground. That is until we were swarmed by mosquitoes. All that rain makes for lots of mosquitoes. After putting on bug spray (homemade, of course :-), we put up the tents, blew up the air mattresses and headed into town.

Bob setting up the tent.

It is always exciting on Friday night in Elkhart Lake. All the race cars come into town and park on the street so everyone can see them up close. Then, a couple hours later, they all take off, some a little faster than others. There are usually police watching so no one gets too out of hand, but that doesn't stop the crowd from cheering them on. We met up with Bob & Pam's son Charlie & wife Leslie along with Leslie's mom, dad & little brother in town before heading back to the campground.

                                                                               

Charlie, Leslie & family

After going to the race track to sign in as workers (Steve & Bob) and guests (Pam & I) and look at some of the displays, we headed back into town for the Farmer's Market. It gets bigger every year.

Love all the colors of carrots.

Pam & I spent the day at the beach in town talking, reading and people watching while the guys went back to the track to work gridding cars. We got the better deal, believe me. It was hot at the track but on the beach, we sat in the shade with the breeze blowing on us. Nice.

Saturday night in town is a car show & judging. Most cars are vintage. Anything from old Porsches to Mini Cooper wagons. It's fun to walk around looking at all of them.

Bob with an Austin Healy

We were back at the campground by dark. There was a storm brewing to the north that looked to be a good one. We sat at the campfire a while and went to bed by eleven. About 1:30 am, the tent stared to rock. (No, not that :-). The wind came up fast & then it poured. The little rain flap on our tent couldn't keep it out so we had water dripping on our feet. It lightening & thundered quite a bit but calmed down enough to get back to sleep. Charlie & Leslie weren't so lucky though. Their tent pole pierced the top of the tent so they had to sleep in the car. It was still raining in the morning when we went out for breakfast & we decided to leave for home. Pam & I knew that the guys felt guilty about not staying to work at the track & about a half hour after we got on the road, they decided to go back & work. It turned out to be a nice day. Hot but not rainy. They worked two races, we ate lunch, then back on the road for home. I have to say that I felt like I was roasted over an open fire by the time we got home. Riding in a convertible in 90 degree heat with the sun beating down on you is hard. But we always have such a good time, it is worth it. Something we look forward to every year. Good friends, fun little cars, the beach & a racetrack. Who could ask for more.

A cutie in her own vintage car.

So Much Rain at the Farm

We are back from Minnesota. We spent Saturday & Sunday at the farm, leaving Monday morning. It started raining Sunday afternoon. I mean it just poured! It was getting darker & darker so I looked out the west facing window & I wasn't able to see the neighbors farm. A sheet of gray rain coming at us. It didn't stop raining until Monday morning. In the weeks before that we had several inches of rain too. We had to have more gravel brought in for the driveway. In a hard rain, the water rushes down the hill & cuts gullies through the driveway. We have to work on the channels for drainage soon. On the way to Minnesota we stopped at the farm overnight. I noticed the computer wasn't working but it is old & I thought it finally just quit. When we were there this weekend, I tried turning on the printer/fax machine & it was dead too. When trying to hook up the laptop I couldn't get connected so I checked the phone & it was dead too. Our neighbor Jim came over & he said that there was a lot of lightening & one was really close. Maybe that is the problem. There is also a sensor on the solar hot water tank that is flashing an error code. I hope that is not something serious. We are having that looked at today. So next time I am up there during the week, I will have to have the phone company come out top fix the problem & will also have them hook us up for wireless. Then I can just bring the laptop with me. I have another printer I can use, it just doesn't fax. I do work for the shop when I am there during the week, so I will have to go to town to fax if necessary.

                                                    Steve loading up the bikes in the rain.

The garden is doing great & is almost all the way weeded. The Amish neighbors have been trying to keep up with it between the raindrops. There are a few things that just didn't grow because of the weeds, but there is still alot coming up. We picked blueberries, raspberries, Nanking cherries, radishes and lettuce last weekend. There'll  be a lot more blueberries  & raspberries to pick this weekend. I am freezing the cherries for later use in jelly.  The garlic is also ready to harvest so I am hoping it will be a rain-free weekend. Don't know how I am going to get everything done in two days but I'll try my best.
Work has been so busy this spring that we feel like we are ignoring the farm. Steve is stressed out about getting jobs done on time. He relaxed on vacation, actually more than he wanted to since he hurt his back the day we got there. (More on that in my Minnesota post later).

                                                             Daddy Tim with Jaelyn

Mommy Kristin with Jaelyn

                                                     Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!

Farm Stuff

Garlic Chives Blossom

The few days I spent at the farm between the weddings was spent mowing and planting the garden. We  had the drywaller come while we weren't there to do the ceiling. It looks really good (which is a relief) and saved us a lot of time.
Gardening update... neighbor Jim came over with his tractor & plowed two long furrows for potaoes. That saved me so much time. I planted Yukon Gold, Yellow Finn, Rose Finn Fingerlings & German Butterball. Most of them are coming up already after a week and a half. Next came ten kinds of beans (Lazy Housewife, Calypso, Ireland Creek Annie, Hidatsa Shield, Hidatsa Red, Charlevoix Dark Red Kidney, Boston, Lina Ciscos Bird Egg, Fiskeby soybean , Envy soybean), Purple Top White Globe turnips, Lacinato kale, Silverbeet & Rainbow chard, radishes (French Breakfast), sunflowers, cilantro, beets (Detroit Red, Chioogia), zucchini (Black Beauty, Cocozelle Bush), cucumbers (Double Yield, Poona Kheera, Parade), pumpkins (Small Sugar, Young's Beauty, Dickenson) and squash (Jauneet Et Verde, Verte Et Blanc, Table Queen, Summer Crookneck, Waltham Butternut, Long Island Cheese).
Then & planted some flowers. Feverfew, Crane's Bill, Rudbeckia, Carpathian Harbell & Astilbe. That was all in one day. The next day I planted transplants. Peppers (Habernaro,
Sheeprose Pimento, Golden), tomatoes (Cherry Roma, Beam's Yellow Pear, Amish Paste), eggplant, leeks, brussels sprout, cabbage (green & red). One to the herbs of oregano, basil, chocolate mint, hyssop & plain & curly parsley.
This was all planted on half the garden space. The other half I planted in organic clovers (Cinnamon & yellow). I plan to leave this area dormant until we move up there. Clover will help bring nitrogen into the soil and hopefully keep the weeds out. After I broadcast the seed, I went over the soil with the golf cart to compact the seed so the birds wouldn't eat it all.

Clover is coming up.

I still had a few things left to plant before I left the next day, so I planted peppermint, Black-eyed Susan and ten Blue Spruce pine trees I received for joining The Arbor Day Foundation again. Oh, I also put down 5 bags of mulch in the flower border.
I was totally whipped after a hard day of mowing and two full days of planting. I left the next morning for home to start packing again. Can't wait to settle down again into a semi-calm state :-)
We were at the farm this past weekend (Memorial Day) and moved a lot of our stuff. After unloading the van & trailer, Steve started mowing & trimming and I went to work in the garden again.
Here is what I planted on Sunday...
Lettuce-Gold Rush, Slobolt, Barcarole, Jericho
Spinach-Monnopa, America
Carrot-Scarlet Nantes, Scarlet Keeper, Dragon
Two other squash-forgot to write them down :-)
Eggplant (3)
Onion sets-yellow, white & red (60 each)
Tomato transplants-Amish Paste, Hartman's Yellow Gooseberry
Pepper transplants-King of the North, Wenk's Yellow
Nasturtium-Black Velvet & Ladybird (edible flowers)
More mints-catmint & peppermint

I tried something different this year in the garden. I pla nted onions throughtout the garden & leeks bordering the one side of the garden by the potatoes. I am hoping that plants in the allium family will help keep away pests when mixed thoughout the garden.

The garlic is huge now. Should be getting scapes soon. After the garlic is harvested in July, I will be planting the fall crop of lettuces, etc. where the garlic was. The beans are all up too. Strawberries are getting started. A few ripe ones on the vines and there are a lot of blueberries on the bushes. We covered them with netting before we left for home so the birds won't be the ones enjoying them.

Columbine

I am done ( I think) planting the garden. This coming weekend is the final move of excess stuff to the farm. The townhouse here will be empty and I will be cleaning it next Wednesday before the closing on Thursday. We are very lucky to have sold it when we did. Even though we lost a lot of money, it could be even worse. A short sale went on the market last week for $40,000 lower than what we got. It is a terrible time for real estate around here now. We are thankful we didn't end up paying the bank to get rid of it. An option if we wouldn't have sold it was to rent it out, but we didn't want to take the risk of a non-payer when we are on a lower income at the farm. That would hurt the budget.
So I have written enough and taken up an hour of packing time. Have to get busy now. Hope everyone is having a great spring!

                                              Garden is planted and beans are up.

Catching Up...

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day yesterday. It was a beautiful day in Illinois. We left very early in the morning for Jaelyn's baptism south of Peoria. Tim's family lives there and that is where the church is that they attend. Jaelyn was a good girl all day. She only cried when the holy water was poured over her head (the pastor got carried away a little :-).

So sweet in her dress & tights!

We are the short ones next to Kristin :-)

                                      Son Shane, Tim's sister Meghan and husband Jeff were Jaelyn's sponsors.

Tim's grandparents shared the day with Jaelyn.

After the service, we went back to Tim's parent's house for lunch, opening presents and cake. It was a wonderful day at the Leesman's. They are a close-knit, fun family. We are very happy that Kristin is a part of it.

On the way down, we went past a lot of windmills. I took this shot on Route 30 headed west. The smoke in the backround to the right is the Byron nuclear power plant. I think I'd rather look at windmills :-)

On the way back, we attempted to find Henry's Farm.   We were in the area, but didn't see a sign. Weren't sure of the exact address. I read the book The Season's of Henry's Farm and Steve is reading it now. The land in most of Illinois is so flat, but around the area of the farm it is quite a rolling river valley. After we got home we took a walk down the path by the creek. We have both been tired lately. Steve from overworking at work and me from overworking at home with sorting & packing after work. So it was early to bed.

I haven't been blogging much lately because of being tired. My brain just seems to shut off. Don't want to be writing jibberish, so I just stay away from it when tired.

Last weekend at the farm we met with a contractor who does drywall. We finally decided that the ceiling finishing is too much for us to do with our necks being hurt in the accident. He got back to us this week with the estimate. Although it seems high, we are going ahead with it. He is probably finishing it up today or tomorrow. He has worked for the neighbors before, so we trust him to be there without us. We also planted more trees. Ten aronia bushes were planted by the hazelnuts. Four Siberian Pea Shrubs in the orchard along with four Pixwell gooseberry bushes and two Jostaberries. Four Russian Olive were planted in misc. spots near the wooded area of the property. The Siberian Peas are good chicken feed, so we planted them close to where we want the chickens to be. We still have three Kiwi and three Paw Paws to plant. We received the kiwi's the Friday that we went to the farm & put the box in the van. When I opened the box, the instructions said they first should be planted in a pot indoors and placed in the sunshine until they get stronger (a couple weeks). Well, we forgot them along with a box of other stuff at the farm. The Jostaberries got here after we got back. So by the time I get back to the farm to mow, the kiwis might be dead. I won't be there until next week sometime. That's quite a while to be in the box with no water.

      Trees planted in the orchard.

          Sunday morning at sunrise.

       Steve playing with Shep, Eli & Lizzie's dog

We also mowed on Sunday and weeded the garlic. Next visit, I hope to get to the strawberries and maybe plant the potatoes. I might ask Eli or one of the boys if they can use the one bottom plow to make a couple rows for me. So much easier than digging it all myself.

Amy & Rob's wedding is this weekend! Time is going by so fast. Amy is so organized. Everything is all set. Hope everyone has a good week.

Beautiful Weather and Then....

We got to the farm. Right before the storm hit. Really, it wasn't much of a storm. A little lightening, some thunder and a lot of rain. It is now 57 degrees and still raining. I had plans of a leisurely walk around the property, examining all the plantings. Oh well, there is always tomorrow :-). Supposed to be sunny & sixty. I'll take that. Steve plans to install an exterior door & then we will be going to a "green building fair" in town for a while. Somewhere in there, we will be drywalling, too. Right now, we are going to our favorite place "The Driftless Cafe" in Viroqua. Yummm...pizza.

Back at the Farm Again...sigh

Friday we headed back to the farm. It's been a long time since we last set eyes on it. Tension gone, worries subside and the enjoyment of the country life begins, if even for a short time. We caught up with some of the neighbors, went to our favorite restaurant, slept in and didn't get much done. Steve worked on the drywall a little and I went through seed packets to see what else I might need. Eli & Lizzie are selling eggs now from their 43 chickens so we now have 2 dozen wonderful looking & tasting eggs. The first one I cracked open yesterday was a double yolker. Saturday morning Jim came over with 2 goose eggs for us. So fresh eggs all weekend. We talked with Jim about cover crops, the garden and fencing among other things. Spring is just around the corner. My new thought on the existing garden is to grow oats this spring & follow with a cover crop of winter rye. Having it fallow will help the soil replenish nutrients. A new garden would be added behind the existing one for this years veggies and herbs. Still in the thought process...
As good of a weekend we had, it ended with a phone call from Steve's brother about his mom. She has been in a nursing home for several years with vascular dementia. She has been shutting down in the last week and they thought that she was dying yesterday. Her breathing was labored, lungs filling with fluid and blood pressure dropping. We packed up everything as fast as we could & headed back. She is still with us but probably not for long. It has been very hard for the family to watch her go through this process since being diagnosed. We can only hope that she is at peace now, waiting to join her loved ones.

Hops (Not the Bunny Kind)

While at the farm this weekend, I read an article on growing hops in the LaCrosse Tribune. Here is a link ...
http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/article_cd1ed592-f828-11de-853a-001cc4c002e0.html

When we first bought the farm, we talked about growing hops. Then a conversation at the Renewable Energy Fair a couple years ago got us thinking about it again. The article about Gorst Valley Hops has renewed our interest. There is a Midwest Hops Production workshop in February we are thinking about going to. We are trying to find a cash crop that we can produce on our land. The goal is to have our cabinet /furniture shop at the farm and was to have my practice in town. Now that the practice is out of the picture, we need something that will make us money until the cabinet/furniture business gets established. Hops could be it. It is certainly worth researching.

Blue Moon and Happy New Year!

Eli & Lizzie's house through the frosted window pane

Happy New Year everyone! I hope all of those resolutions are taking effect now that it is the 4th day into the month. We had a great weekend at the farm. We arrived at the farm on Thursday afternoon, brought in some wood, got the fire roaring & relaxed for a while.

Shane made us this wood rack for Christmas. It really works great!

Our lives have been very hectic lately so it was much needed. I actually thought the whole weekend would be a relaxing one, but Steve had a different idea.
On New Year's Eve there was a "blue" moon, which is the name for the second full moon in the same month. We decided to celebrate that event by going cross country skiing (Steve) and snowshoeing (me) around the property. It was a clear, beautiful night. The temps were near zero but no wind. This is the first time I've snowshoed. Steve had an old pair from his college days that I used. It was so peaceful. The moon was so bright that the shadows from the tree branches laid on the snow.

That was so much fun, we went again the next night. Not for too long though. The wind started to pick up and it just got too cold. After playing in the snow on Thursday, we played Backgammon, ate snacks & had some wine. We actually made it until midnight! That hasn't happened for a few years. Friday we took it easy, had a nice dinner, then Steve started talkng about drywall. Uh oh...looks like my relaxing weekend was slipping away.
So the next day, he was down at the local hardware store renting a drywall jack. (I had been trying to talk him into having someone else finish all the drywall & taping). So here it is, the drywall jack.

We worked all day & into the night on the ceiling. By 8pm Steve was so tired of putting in the screws above his head, we stopped & decided to finish on Sunday. The radiant floor heat is so nice! It was well worth the time, effort & money we spent for it. We couldn't have worked on the new area without it with the temperature so cold outside.

We did have a few visitors during the day on Saturday which was a welcome break. Eli came over to visit for a while, letting us know that the family is doing great and they are keeping warm. We told him he could have a cabinet that we didn't need so he & a couple of the boys picked it up later & dropped off some fresh baked bread & butter.

Later on, neighbors Jim & Nancy stopped by to catch up. This was our first weekend back at the farm since the first week of December. We were in bed by 9:30 that night!
Sunday morning we awoke to this...

That's 16 degrees with a 29 below wind chill. Brrrr!

Looking into the bedroom area from the living room.

We started working again around 10am. We had a nice lazy breakfast. The ceiling was finished around one. Time for lunch, hot showers, clean up and head home. As hard as we worked this weekend, we also mixed in sleeping in, fun & friends. It was a great weekend!

Peace for all in the New Year