Disheartened

Hi All,

Feeling quite disheartened today.  Life's been throwing me some deep doo for the pile lately.  House purchase is dragging along, so frustrating and we're beginning to wonder if all these hurdles we keep encountering with this place are a bigger sign of why NOT to buy it.  Deep and total frustration has replaced any excitement we had about owning this place.  It will make someone a great home, we're just not quite sure it's going to be us.  Music Man and I are completely and totally mentally and physically exhausted with the long 5 month process we've already been through.  We have spent every weekend there working on this house for a month now, invested money into it, and we don't own it yet.  All trying to get it to the point where the only type of loan we can get for it, a rehab loan, will let it qualify.  Our amazing realtor, who is also our dear friend, has been just unbelievable in his time, expertise, hard work and patience. He's been the leader of the renovations and knee deep in all the dirt with us, dirty hands, sore muscles and all.   He's living proof to us that God works through people in our lives when we most need them.  We could never repay him for his efforts and are feeling badly that, if this house falls through, he will have done it for nothing.  Except as we all have brought the barn, that was so badly falling down, to saving.  That piece of history will live on, and whether we own it or not, we can say we had a hand in saving it.  That's a cool thing.

A call from my sister on Saturday night informed me that a person very dear to our family is in the final stages of terminal cancer and was given a week to live.  There's not really words to express how this is affecting my heart and phsyche at this point in time.   I feel so badly for him, but also for his daughter and son and all the people who care as deeply for him as I do.  He is a wonderful, kind, brave man who has done a lot for a lot of people and I can't really process the fact that he's really going. He's been in my life and family since I was 12 years old.  He's rallied against this horrible disease in the last year, went through some painful and, let's face it, crappy experimental chemo that allowed us to have him for a bit longer then we would have otherwise.  But, now he's really going and I'm not able to process this.  The pit to sorrow is too deep for me to allow it in right now, I know it will come soon.

So, things are tough right now at the Casa de Peaceable Kingdom.  Drawing from faith, friends and family right now to keep leaning forward. 

~Peacemom

Scarecrows and such

Our town started a new activity last year.  The Historical Society thought it would be a great idea to do a scarecrow fund raiser.  They sell the head for a fee and then the person buying it comes up with a clever scarecrow to house the noggin.  Last year, they sold out of the 50 they had made. This year, they sold out of the 100 they made and there's already a list for next year.  Pretty cool idea, I thought, and money raised for a great cause.  Enjoy some of the fun antics we have going on around town, won't you?

Josh, the pizza chef and butcher extrodinaire at your local general store.

The EMT outside of the fire station and ambulance service.

That's one GIANT spider at the Brown's house!

you can't see in this picture, but boy to the right is playing Super Mario on a fake tv, the little girl in front is walking their dog, Mom's harvested the garden in the back, not sure what Dad's up to...

At a local beekeepers house...

At the oldest resident's home, she's got got the Boston Post Cane this year and is 94!

Headless Horseman indeed!  We'll miss the person who used to ride up and down the street on Halloween night dressed at the headless horsemen with her bay horse, they moved to Tennessee this year.

an ode to the snow lovers...

A local artists home, pretty neat and it's rained a bunch since this was taken and the painting looks the same!...

At a retired shepherd's home...

Where we get our hunting licenses and deer cutting station...

Their daughter is an adult ballet dancer...

And Maestro's favorite, a Patriots fan watching tv with his big bowl of snacks, soda and magic 8 ball...

If I get a chance to get out and take more pictures, I'll add to this, there are 100 of them around town, after all! 

Scarecrow adventures to you, ~Peacemom







A bit of a teaser, I know...

This is a picture of our future barn...I realize it's a bit of a teaser for any of you following the plight of this ol' behemoth.  I can't go into it much right now for reasons I will explain at a later date, but this was the state of the barn about a week or so ago.  Sad.  Downright pitiful, I know.  Stay tuned for things to come...

Sorry to keep you waiting...~Peacemom

In Pursuit of The Lurker

On Friday evening, Music Man and I were sitting in our sunroom (our very favorite room in the house).  It was dusk and so the colors were black and skylight.  Distinguishing actual colors other then that were not possible, so twilight you see.  From the chair I call mine in that room, I could see under the chicken coop, which is on a hill.  So sometimes I see animals there, traveling back and forth in the field beyond.  I happened to be looking underneath the coop at just the moment I saw a smallish black form moving across the grass beyond.  I excitedly exclaimed to Music Man "I just saw an animal moving behind the coop!" 

He bolted out the door and went to look around.  I paused to put on my shoes, so he had a minute or so head start.  He was still looking around when I got up the hill with him and he told me he didn't see anything.  It was hard to see much as the colors had faded and the sky had gone, what I like to call "Maxfield Parish".  Maxfield Parish painted the most amazing artwork using the colors of the twilight sky, black tree forms on a golden and blue backdrop.  Just that time of night when you concentrate only on the forms of things before darkness settles over.

I told Music Man I felt like the back was humped up like a raccoon does when it walks, with scurrying steps.  I caught that in the very quick moment it was silhouetted black against the sky beyond. As we were walking back towards the house through our apple trees, Music Man spotted a black lump in one of the trees that just didn't belong, noticable in the twilight beyond.  Figuring it was the animal we were in pursuit of, he excitedly whispered to me, "There it is!  See, in the tree!"  So, we got a little closer, but it was not possible to distinguish just what this lurker was, except that the tail that I could see in the silhouette was definitely not raccoon.  Music Man ran to the house for a flashlight and my camera and rushing back, he shined the light on it.  At first it was not possible to tell what it was, it was still as can be trying to hide from us.  Then the flashlight hit it just right and Music Man could spot the quills.  Yes, we had a very handsome porcupine hanging out in our tree!

I had seen some apples with strange gnawings on them.  We have a large squirrel and chipmunk population around here, so I figured it was one of those.  Then, I got a load of the teeth on this beauty, you can see them in the picture above (the yellow spot near the lowest branch on the right) if you look closely...I then knew what had been gnoshing on our apples!  We went into the house to get the boys to come and check it out, we were literally 10 feet from this guy, who honestly seemed totally unphased by our presence and appeared to just want to go to sleep.  The boys were astonished, and Maestro said to me as we walked back to the house, "Wow, Mom, I never expected to end my day today with a porcupine!  That's one good day!".  Yep, that's just one of the reasons we live in the country, and are so happy that our boys seem to be getting the reverence for nature that we have.  A good way to end a night indeed.

Wishing you quills in your apples, ~Peacemom