Winter, Winter and more Winter

I finally figured out that the pictures are uploading, they are just taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R to do it! 

There are a few things that I have discovered about buying a home at the onset of winter.  One is that, when it's a home of this age, you can't have any idea how little insulation is in the house until that first zero degree night hits and the furnace won't turn off and that's with the woodstove roaring.  We are also outdoors people, and we bought this house when we were going to have a difficult and cold winter.  Not much outdoors time going on 'round here.  I've been enjoying the new house and the time indoors has motivated me to do a few things.  I sanded down the butcher block countertop next to the sink because it was black with water and (gulp!) possibly mold.  No, gross, can't have it.  So, that was a bit labor intensive, but the end result is much better and I don't feel like I need to bleach it now.

 

We also were not aware that we had some other little critters occupying our home that weren't just our boys.  One morning, I came around the corner to find two rats in my steel cut oats.  WHA!!!??? So, after freaking out because they are one of my worst fears, I threw away a big bag of oats.  I think I may have been tortured with rats in another lifetime or something.  So, after losing my mind, I called the exterminator and he came and spent an hour and a half with me going over everything in the house that could be either an access point or where they might be nesting.  And, his advice was to use bait to get rid of them because we found that there were more then we thought originally.  I hated to do that because I know it's not the most humane way to get rid of them, but we tried the electronic shock traps and they weren't working.  We caught some mice in them, but no rats.  They are actually quite smart and figured that out pretty quickly that they didn't want anything to do with that nonsense.  So, I baited the house very well and we also put some in the barn away from the chickens because we had many more out there, and the exterminator explained that was where our issue was starting. They were running out of territory out there and making their way into the house because of it.  After a week, we are hearing no noise in the walls anymore, and the kitchen has no signs of them now.  I have continue to clean my kitchen with a bleach solution thoroughly in an attempt to rid the place of any germs left by those nasty stow aways.  Mission accomplished...at least for the time being!  Once the weather is warm enough to set the mortar, we'll be plugging as many of the ways into the basement they have managed to find, and that will be a big step in not having this repeated next year.

 

 

My roo, Snowball (or Snowy as we call him) is also having issues with the new, cold coop. He has a tall comb and long waddles and they are very subject to frost bite.  The girls all have smaller combs and waddles and are not suffering the same issues he is.  I tried to catch him to put some Vaseline on them, but he's not too keen on that idea at all.  Not. at. all.  We put a heat lamp in the coop, but it's not really working well because the coop is quite large and it's not much help.  We did get a heater for their waterer also, which has been working great.  That's a big relief because I was needing to change the water a couple times a day before and if it froze and I was not home, they were very thirsty when I did manage to bring in a thawed bucket.

 

 

I'm ready for the spring to arrive this year in a way I've never been before.  I actually enjoy the rest and creative time of winter.  This year, because we moved into our home at the onset of winter, we didn't have a chance to enjoy the outside areas.  I'm very much looking forward to building the gardens, working in the barn, hiking on the trails adjacent to our home, raising new chicks, and all the fun of spring time.  It's been a great time to get inside projects done, I also painted the living room walls from a dark sage to a nice cream color and it has brightened the space enormously.  It was dark and depressing before, and now feels bigger and more airy.  Loving it!  But, I'm definitely ready to flap my wings outside in the warm breeze now...just a few more months to go...I can make it...I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...

 

Hope you don't have the winter blues...if you're feeling them, order the spring seeds!  I placed my order yesterday from High Mowing and it's got me looking forward to that first turn of the soil.  Enjoy the period of rest and create something.  I'm starting to think about curtains for the house and dusting off the old sewing machine.

 

 

Enjoying my visions of spring, ~Peacemom







Why, oh why??

won't my blog let me upload pictures.  It's such a bummer to me, it's just not the same without the pictures...my stories aren't complete without the photos.  Until I can figure out why it's not working, I'll probably not post.  Hopefully, I can figure it out quickly.  Please check back soon!



~Peacemom

Holidays And Such

Holidays in the new house were great!  Exhausting, but it was so nice to have them in our new home. I think it's funny that in our new house, which is so much larger then our old one, we still needed to have a little tree.  Which worked out really well actually because the tree farm that we found, had only little trees available.

Here the boys are measuring their height on our little tree.  It was little, but very cute and fit right into the spot we chose for it.

Because our fireplace hearth does not have a mantel, we had a challenging time coming up with where to hang the stockings.  As the wood in this house is 258  years old without many holes, we didn't want to add any, so....

I used the hat and mitten drying rack!  It worked perfectly and looked great next to the tree.  Santa had no problem finding them!  There are two little stockings on the top of this collection.  They belong to Little Red's fire bellied toads Ribbit & Rebecca.  Santa didn't leave anything in their stockings because meal worms don't like the warm wood stove!

One of the highlights was being able to host my whole side of the family for the holiday this year.  It was a bit stressful trying to get all the boxes and bins that haven't been unpacked yet put away (or hidden away!), as we've not been here very long. But we had a great time gathering together, and it was the first time we've all been able to eat in one room in a long time. Our dining room comfortably hosted every one, and thanks to tables and chairs lent to us by our friend, we were able to enjoy it together.

At one point during the meal, I stopped and just took a moment to look around and see all of us enjoying each other's company and sharing a good meal together and was deeply thankful that we were all there in our new home.  Having lost my mother-in-law this year, I don't take those moments for granted any more.

The meal was very good, everyone contributing an item or two.  As always, my favorite part of the meal was the clam casserole.  I could eat a whole pan of it, I fear!  There were lots of great things to partake of.  We also decided to use the cauldron in the kitchen for a unique purpose, it worked great filled with snow!

My parents have a very large dog that was a wonderful addition to our holiday.  She's an older dog, but still has plenty of spunk left in her.  The previous owners of our home had a dog and so had a zip line in the back yard for their dog which we left up in the event that Ellie would come for a visit.  Thing about Ellie is, she'll bolt right out the door past you if she gets the chance and she's a BIG dog, so it's easy for her to do.  We found that the dutch doors in most of our doorways worked great to let her have run of the house except for the back entry room where everyone was coming in and out of.

Presents followed and a delicious assortment of desserts prepared by my sister. We very much enjoyed our time spent with loved ones.

Another highlight of our new home is having our very own little skating pond.  We're very fortunate enough to have a variety of hockey skates in great shape handed down from "The Cousins", which is what the boys call my in law's children, our nieces and nephews on Music Man's side of the family.  So, we shoveled the pond off from the snow that fell before some rain and a streak of warm temps for a couple of days to get a nice solid surface on the pond for skating when it refroze.  The boys have been having a great time on it. It's great to see the electronics left behind to have a fun time outdoors!

 

 

I'm going to try to find more time to update a bit more often now that we're settling in.  We've started the long list of things that we'd like to either renovate or fix in this old home (part of which needs to be the lack of insulation! It's freezing in here!), so I'll have more updates on that as things progress.  Happy New Year to you all and stay well!

 

Hoping for happy in your new year, ~Peacemom

Sold!

This is the best thing I could possibly show you.  It's been so long in coming...5 years since we first started looking at property in our hometown.  We finally closed on a house.  It's that beauty from a few posts ago.

It was built in 1755 and sits on 2.8 acres.  Has a big old barn that needs a lot of love and restoration. If you've been with me for a while, you'll remember the old barn that was falling in on itself that we worked so hard to restore with the help of others.  This barn is nowhere near in the pitiful shape that one was, so we're not scared.  It will get done.  And I'm even going to research to see if I can find some historic preservation grant money anywhere to help it along.  The house is in great condition, it needs some love of it's own and we're going to be doing some work on it.  A new kitchen is needed, along with some help for these roller coaster floors!  But overall it's a wonderful, warm place that will be the home we dreamed of for so long.  If we ever get done moving!  It's chaos over here right now, but as soon as I can sort it all out, I'll be back to update you.  I know I've not been around much lately because this has consumed my thoughts and time for a few months now.

Once renovations get ramped up, I'll be posting more on that process, plus the additional farming we'll be able to do with so much more space and a big barn.  Stay tuned, it's gonna get good 'round here!

In the meantime, here are a couple of photos of the interior for your viewing pleasure!

The living room hearth...

Kitchen...with almost no counter space for this cook...yikes!  Pretty, though...

cool cauldron in the kitchen.  We figure it must have held water to heat because it's on the back side of the fireplace.

So much else to share with you, come on back and check in!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours...we're feeling very blessed and thankful right now!

~Peacemom

For the Love of Autumn

“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”
― Lauren DeStefano, Wither

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”
― Henry David Thoreau

 “Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,
We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!”
― Humbert Wolfe

 “I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks

 “Two sounds of autumn are unmistakable...the hurrying rustle of crisp leaves blown along the street...by a gusty wind, and the gabble of a flock of migrating geese.”
― Hal Borland

 
“October proved a riot a riot to the senses and climaxed those giddy last weeks before Halloween.”
― Keith Donohue

 “The tints of autumn...a mighty flower garden blossoming under the spell of the enchanter, frost.”
― John Greenleaf Whittier

“I ate breakfast in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five miles to the station through the most glorious October colouring. The sun came up on the way, and the swamp maples and dogwood glowed crimson and orange and the stone walls and cornfields sparkled with hoar frost; the air was keen and clear and full of promise. I knew something was going to happen. ”
― Jean Webster, Daddy-Long-Legs

Intrigued?

Dreeeaammm...dream, dream, dream...Dreeeaaammmm....

A bit of 1755 history in our little town.  Beautiful, isn't it?

Fall Camping

Our fall is never really complete until we spend a bit of time at a coastal campground.  We had a fun trip  to this same campground in July, but were very happy to go back when there were less people to contend with.  Many of the tourists have not yet hit our area in full force and we took the much reduced traffic on the Maine Turnpike as proof of that.  We had fantastic weather the whole weekend and didn't even need the heater at night, temps dipping only into the 50's with highs during the day up in the high 70's.  Not exactly my complete "Autumn" experience as I didn't really need the sweater I begrudgingly removed as the days heated up, but the no rain and beautiful scenery prevailed over my "lack of fall" grinch-y-ness.  I'm feeling the need for one more trip in the chill before the camper is buttoned up for the season.  We did manage to see a bit of the foliage starting it's vibrant fire-like show and relished every moment of it, the ride to and from was beautiful!

Having made reservations fairly late, we had one of the only two sites with power left available.  We never had this site before, and it was part of the destructive micro burst that hit the campground over the summer.  The trees on the back of the site had been leveled and then removed, leaving scars in the landscape and treeline.  The plus side of this was that it was fodder for the boys to have free rein there.  They could bother no one as there wasn't a site behind us for a long distance.  We enjoyed them playing up there, especially when they ventured close enough to hear what they were saying.

Music Man and I laughed together when we heard Little Red talking in a hushed voice about the young marijuana garden they had found.  After that came the hypothisizing about who's it was and how they were going to stake it out and catch the bad guys.  After that came the "catching the poachers" adventure, whereby they would follow a blood trail and catch some poachers poaching deer in the woods.  They have been watching "North Woods Law", one of the few tv shows we allow them to watch once we preview the episodes.  For those unfamiliar with the show, it's about game wardens in Maine and the things they encounter every day.  Some of the content is not appropriate for them at this age, but the overall message is good and they really enjoy watching how the game wardens perform their jobs.  This was the first time we'd heard them putting their own scenerios together and it was good to hear them using their imaginations in this way.  We did get a little concerned over what other people around us might be thinking when they hear the 9 year old talking about marijuana gardens, however!

There are several key places we always want to go when we stay in Freeport.  One of our favorites is the Bow Street Market.  This is a little oasis in the midst of a shopping mecca.  It focuses on fresh, locally made and grown foods and it's atmosphere is soothing and pleasant.  And, they have the best wine selection around as well!  The boys were marveling that anyone would pay $249 for a bottle of wine (truthfully, so was I!), and it led to a discussion on marketing and quality and value of our hard earned money and where we chose to spend it.  This is a discussion we have with the boys often, about where you spend the money you work hard to earn and valuing what are able to purchase and chosing what's most important to spend that money on.

One of the other favorite places is the South Freeport Harbor.  Not only is it the home of the Haraseeket restaurant, but it's also just a neat little wharf to spend some time in.  The boys are able to explore a bit without anyone getting antsy and we feel welcome there. 

Exploring the depth chart

Waiting to go to moorings

Little fish shack

A place for a boy to just BE

Trapped in Freeport Harbor

 

Crab exploration

All in all a wonderful place for us to spend a weekend.  It was very impromptu and that made it a wee bit more fun, I think.  Hope you enjoyed a few moments with us on our first of many fall adventures.  This is my time of year to reflect, prepare and be outside.

Wishing you harbors in your adventures, ~Peacemom