Happy Halloween!

I just finished my mini-sized Kit Kat and decided that it was time to log on and tell all Happy Halloween.  Ross is in the kitchen making us chicken paprikash for dinner.  This is one of those cold night meals that will really hit the spot tonight.

Last week we had our Indian Summer.  Temps got into the 70s and it was rainy-it felt like a balmy Spring day.  I was OK with it but felt it was almost too warm.  Once I get used to it being cold I don't want to get warm and then have to get used to cold again which is exactly what happened.  By Friday the warm weather was gone and was replaced by clear, cold weather (tonight it should get down to 25 degrees).  With the cold weather is a chilly arctic wind that can cut right through you.  It makes me a bit happy, I must say, because it makes the candle light in the jack'o'lanterns dance.  More on that later.

We started the weekend by doing another Halloween cemetery tour (we did one last weekend when my sister came to visit).  This time the tour was in Washington and was really well done.  Ross and I had decided to only wear our puffy vests; I wish I had worn my winter coat.  The weather was biting but the tour was still fun.  It was nice to get into the car afterwards and turn on the heater.

On Saturday Ross and I ran some errands and then came home to give the chickens some free range time.  Most of the underbrush has died away so we can get a clear view of the woods.  There are still some beautiful colors hanging on out there so it was a nice time to walk and look.  Ross took a nap for an hour or so (he got a head cold late in the week so Dr. Shannon prescribed rest).  After he got up and did some chores (Saturday is clean the coop day), we went on a hike of our property.  It is nice to look at the different parts of our land at different times of the year to see how dramatically different they can look.  After the hike came pumpkin carving.  Earlier in the day we bought some pumpkins (Ross got one and I got two to go with the one I already had).  I love to carve pumpkins, and this year it seems Cloe was in on it too.  I think she thought we had some good food since we were at the table, but she stayed for quite a while.  It made my day to set our jack'o'lanterns out on the stone wall.  I think I went out about ten times to look at them.  I asked Ross if he thought it made people smile to see them.  He said yes.  That makes me feel good.

Today is Halloween-the most frightful day of the year!  And, Ross and I did the most frightful things today; we winterized.  That's right we winterized.  Who'd of thought that getting everything ready for winter could be so frightening.  We got rid of the last of the annuals, washed the pots and put them into storage.  We took down the deer fence around Ross' vegetable garden.  Ross sanitized all his tomato cages, and we put them up in the garage attic.  We drained and stored the hoses.  Ross put fertilizer spikes around all the fruit trees in the orchard.  And the worse of all, we got out the snow shovels.  I bet you just shivered from fright!  It was a nice feeling to get everything done just in time to dip below freezing tonight.  After we finished our tasks I took the chickens on a Halloween parade (yes I am somewhat insane).  They came with me to light the pumpkins as it was getting to be dusk.  We then put the girls to bed and came in to warm up.  I have been out twice already to check on the pumpkins.  Ross told me that someone earlier stopped their car after passing our house and backed up to look at them.  I just love that something so simple can give so much enjoyment, but isn't that usually how life works!  I wish you all a Happy Halloween.  And now, I'm off to look at my jack'o'lanterns once again.

Good Daddy, Bad Husband!

Every time I have to start a story with "so I got a call at work from Ross" you know it is going to be interesting...

So I got a call at work from Ross.  For a brief second I thought someone was pulling a prank on me because all I heard was heavy breathing on the line.  After a second or two Ross, breathless, said hello.  Of course I am starting to panic-Ross breathless and calling me at work is not a good sign that things are as they should be.  He told me that we had a big black bear in the backyard that was interested in our bird feeder.

I should note for all those who haven't read any of my earlier posts that my neighbor has several bird feeders and has had trouble with black bears who happen to think that they are little birdies.  I guess they seem to like the seed, and they are now trained to search it out.

Now having the bear interested in the bird feeder is not really a bad thing (although I would prefer that it would get its fill somewhere else, and I'm sure my neighbor is thinking the same thing about his feeders).  What makes it bad is that the bird feeder is really close to the bee hive and the chicken coop.  The last thing I need is to have the bear realize that we have a smorgasbord of good eats in our yard!

So with the bear's proximity to the coop and hive in mind I take you back to my phone call.  I asked Ross what was wrong and he told me about the bear in between breaths.  I asked him if the chickens were alright and secured and he said yes.  I asked him if he had ran away from it and he said "no, I chased it."  [long pause]

"You chased it?"  "Yeah, I chased it, and it ran away behind the blueberry bushes." [another long pause]

I can only assume that this is one of those moments that parents experience when their child does something so utterly crazy and incredible that the parents are left secretly filled with pride while at the same time knowing they have to admonish the behavior lest the dumb kid get killed.  In this case the dumb kid happens to be my very loving and overly protective husband; he was not about to lose another chicken this year.

After letting the idea of Ross chasing a bear sink into my brain, I asked him to please never do it again.  I also reminded him that a bear could out run him, and if it felt threatened enough it could decide to fight instead of flee.  I know Ross has a tough spirit, but I think the bear might take him in a fight.

Once I got home Ross clarified that he did not go chasing the bear through the yard.  He merely went to the end of the garden which is next to the back porch and yelled at it to go away.  This is still a bit too close for my comfort, but it worked. Ahhh, the crazy life of us country folk never ceases to amaze me!

Hall-O-Birthday

What a weekend.  My sister came to visit for a mini-vacation sans her family.  She needed a little R and R given all the excitement that she has had this past year; packing and moving your family to another state can be very stressful.  It was a good time for her to visit given that October is her birthday month, Halloween is her favorite holiday, and it is also peak foliage season in New England.  She flew in on Thursday and I picked her up in New York.  We celebrated her birthday that night with a jack o'lantern cake that Ross made.  It was cute and tasty.  He also made coq au vin for her first meal here-it was mighty delicious.  We were all stuffed afterwards (which given how much we ate this weekend it might as well be its unofficial theme).

We started Friday with a tour of the property and afterwards headed to breakfast at the local diner down the road.  Next we had lots of fun; Ross and my sister went shopping on the Litchfield green while I went to a dental appointment to fix one of my crowns (note to all kids out there-take care of your teeth because having dental work done is not fun and is not cheap).  During their shopping excursion my sister found a couple of small knick-knacks the she bought in one of the antique stores.  Happy birthday to her!  After my appointment we met up for lunch and then checked out the sights.  We stopped at the local potter.  Amazingly I left empty handed although there was something there that I wanted; for once my self control kicked in (I can control my addiction I swear).  We also took her to the Averill apple orchard in Washington to get some apple cider doughnuts which were yummy.  It was a chilly and blustery day so we headed home to warm up.  Ross filled our bellies with beef goulash.  We had a relaxing evening before hitting the hay.

I had a couple of events planned for Saturday.  The first was a ride on the historic Naugatuck Railroad.  We took a 75 minute ride in a circa 1920s railroad passenger car along the Naugatuck River.  It was fun and a nice way to see the sights and get some historical information about the area.  There was a little boy about to turn two with his grandfather next to us.  The boy was dressed in all his Thomas the Train gear.  I think he lasted about ten minutes before the rattling of the car caused him to fall fast asleep.  He woke up as the train pulled into the station.  It was so cute.  I could understand because the train made me feel the same way.

After the train ride we went looking for a place to have lunch.  I will say that this was more of a chore than I expected, and I have crossed one local eatery off my list for good due to poor customer service (when you tell me that I can't be served at 2:55 PM because the deli closes at 3 PM at least try to tell me nicely and not act like me trying to spend my hard earned money in your establishment is such an inconvenience-cough, cough Nine Main in New Preston, CT).  After finding a place to eat we headed to a local rustic, country shop where my sister was able to purchase an herb drying rack.  She really liked ours so we took her to the source.

We spent Saturday evening visiting the Glebe House in Woodbury.  This is a historical house, now museum, that had a special Halloween tour (I believe one guide said it was the ninth year for this event).  The house was candlelit and they had actors in each room.  This was not a fright-fest but more an educational endeavor.  The actors portrayed the ghosts of early residents of the house including the first owners.  It should be noted that this house was where the American Episcopalian Church was founded, so making it a haunted house would have been in poor taste.  After the house tour we went to the nearby cemetery where there where more actors who portrayed some of the more famous and infamous characters in the town's history (in most cases right next to where the residents were buried).  It was a beautiful night with luminaries leading the way and a full moon hanging brightly in the sky.  The actors did a good job too.  I would recommend going to this next year if you can make it to the area and like historical tours and such.

My sister left today so we had a quick breakfast this morning, loaded up the car, and headed back to New York so she could make her flight.  All the driving really took the wind out of my sails; I ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap once we got home.  We had a lot of fun, and it was nice to get some one-on-one time with my sister.  And now, I should probably go and make sure Ross is awake since I haven't heard him stirring in a bit.  I think he might be curled up with Bootsy on the couch.

Time Flies

Guess what...

Boy does time fly by in the blink of an eye.  It just seems like yesterday that we were growing and harvesting our garlic, and Ross planted his new bulbs for next year today.  His garden is officially defunct for the year.  He pulled the last of the plants this past week.  We were able to get one last lettuce haul that gave us enough for a salad, and there are some carrots in the fridge that we will need to eat.  For the most part it was a good growing year.  All did well except the potatoes.

I spent part of the day performing the sad task of disposing of our annual flowers that are now spent and cleaning and storing the pots for the Winter.  It's sad to see the plants fade away knowing that another Summer has come and gone.  I still left some plants that are hanging in there go so that there was at least something on the patio when my sister comes to visit next weekend.

Ross planted some more daffodil bulbs in the front of the house last weekend.  The first Spring after we bought the place we had some daffodils sprout.  Ross has added to them each year since.  I can't believe we are quickly coming up on three years in this house.  All I can say is that the house and the landscaping keeps getting better every year.

The weather seems to be getting cooler and cooler as the month rolls along.  I haven't broken out a coat yet but did pull out my quilted flannel shirt.  We are back to wearing multiple layers while we are outside.  What is worse is that I have turned on the heater in the house.  It kills me to say that.  I usually try to make it till November to turn it on, but the temperature has been low enough that the house does not get back to a comfortable temperature during the day on its own.  It is not fair to Ross to ask him to freeze his tuckus off all day long just because I'm a heat miser.  FYI, I know it's gotten cold when Ross tells me that he is cold.  He has officially been wearing jeans and even wore his coat one day while he watched the chickens.  The chickens on the other hand don't seem fazed by the temperature change.

Last weekend Ross and I had our anniversary.  We had a relaxing weekend at home.  We did go to the Garlic Festival at the the Bethlehem Fairgrounds.  It is fun to go and see all the people and try all the different garlic dips and sauces.  I bought a carved wood bowl there to house my pocket change.  While walking around we discussed whether to go out to dinner or to cook at home.  We ended up cooking.  For dinner we had prime rib, baked potatoes, fresh garden salad with a garlic vinegar dressing (we got the vinegar at the fair), mushrooms sauteed in red wine, and champagne to toast another year together.  Ross made an incredible dinner.  I am blessed to have such a talented husband.

All in all it does seem that time is flying by.  I think part of what makes it seem to go so fast is the good company I get to keep!

Break Out the Coats

What a weekend.  We had two beautiful and sunny days with daytime temperatures in the 60s and evenings in the 40s.  This was the first time since Spring that we had to bundle up.  By this I mean that I put on a sweatshirt and long pants (and thought at one point of getting a jacket) and Ross went with a long sleeve shirt and his shorts instead of a short sleeve shirt.  Ross is warm blooded and I am always cold.  In the dead of winter I want to place flannel sheets and a wool blanket on the bed but he gets too hot.  He is best with a light blanket and regular sheets.  I would wake up as popsicle if he had his way.

As you can see in the picture we are starting to lose our leaves.  Everything in the garden has been early this year and it looks as if the changing of the leaves will be early too.  We had a tropical storm go up the East Coast Thursday and Friday which dumped a lot of rain on us.  With it came strong winds which knocked down a lot of leaves.  We needed the rain but could have done without the winds.  We thought about starting to rake, but I thought we should wait another week and let some more drop.  Ross mowed the grass though to help mulch what was already on the ground.  I think the chickens were upset since they love scratching up the leaves looking for bugs and worms hiding beneath.

I spent a lot of the weekend watching the chickens (they desperately needed some outdoor time after two days of rain) while Ross worked on a new Spring bulb border in the front of the house.  He has gotten really good at making rock borders, and we are in no short supply of rocks.  We chit chatted a bit with our neighbors from across the street, and they even mentioned how nice Ross' borders looked.  Now that he has finished this border we will have Daffodils framing the entrance to the driveway; I just love Daffodils and they look so nice with our old stone walls as a backdrop.

Speaking of the stone walls, I have decided to make several jack-o-lanterns this year to place along the wall.  I already started getting pumpkins (because pumpkins are also early this year) to complete my task.  I just love Halloween.  I only wished that the communities around here made a bigger deal over this holiday.  I'll probably start carving in a week or two and slowly build up my army of orange gourds.  As I buy more pumpkins I will of course sneak a sugar pumpkin or two Ross' way for rendering.  He makes a mean homemade pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving is right around the corner!