The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon will be here.
And yes, we actually have a working chimney and a way for St. Nick to enter for the very first time.
A full fireplace post will come in the new year.
For now, I want to say thank you all for reading. Have a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy the holidays.
Some happenings from this week:
We have lots of family activities happening this weekend–a real kick-off to Christmas. Can you believe Christmas is here already? I have one more day of work left and one more blog post for you next week before I take a little break.
Now it’s your turn. Were there any exciting happenings for you this week? What are your plans for the weekend? Has Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) “started” for you?
Notice the past tense on the title of this post? We are ready for winter here at the farm.
… Well, I’m not ready for cold and dark, but the house and the property are.
I had a small project list for November.
I am thrilled, proud, excited, relieved (choose your adjective) to share with you today that every single one of these tasks is done.
Here is some photographic evidence to prove it.
Patchwork brown and white downspout that regularly fell apart replaced with white downspout that’s securely screwed together.
Weeping tile rabbit/weed eater barriers around all of our littlest trees. (How to: Cut section of weeping tile approximately 12 inches long. Slit it vertically (a sharp utility knife works well, but it takes patience). Wrap the weeping tile around the bottom of your tree).
Bird feeder in the ground, full of food and accepting customers.
The thing I’m most excited about is seeing the birds at the feeder. Last year, it took them until Christmas to find it. This year it took them a day. As usual, the chickadees are the bravest, but a pair of cardinals has joined them as of last weekend.
Are you all ready for winter? What have you accomplished? Or what’s still outstanding on your to-do list?
Some happenings from this week:
What’s been the highlight of your week? Any special plans for the weekend?
The pond on a wintery November afternoon.
The sun has set on our first soybean crop.
As of two weeks ago, our fields are empty, so it’s time for the final report of the year.
At last report, the soybeans were just turning gold. By harvest time, there was no trace of green or gold left, except in the trees along the border.
The plants dropped all their leaves and the beans dried.
They no longer looked like edamame and they tasted a bit like peanuts.
And they sounded like rattles. I’m not sure if their sniffiness changed, but Baxter apparently liked the sound of them or the feel of them against his face… or something. Every field walk he insisted on walking through the plants.
I found the harvest part very interesting, so brace yourself for lots of photos.
The main piece of equipment is the combine.
This thing is massive.
I would not want to be a soybean.
From the combine the beans go into a trailer.
Again the scale is massive. The tires on this trailer are over 5 feet in diameter.
The trailer full of beans is relayed to a big truck for transport. (For scale, there’s a person standing on top of the truck behind the chute).
All that’s left are the dry stalks, husks and a few stray pods.
As of last weekend, the stalks got a light dusting of snow. Yes, already.
And so concludes our first season of soybeans.
Who else has had snow already? Is the harvest done where you live? Does anyone else find the harvest process fascinating? Are you as easily impressed as I am by farming equipment?
This is the end, my friends. Not the end of the blog. Don’t worry. It’s the end of project season here at the farm.
For those that haven’t been following along since the beginning, I posted my 2014 Home Goals at the start of the year. Since then, I’ve pretty consistently done a project a month. As this is the first post of November, normally I’d be sharing with you the plan for this month’s project.
Well, there is no November project. Later this week, I’ll post the laundry room reveal, and that will be it for this year. Yes, there are a few more things on my original Home Goals list, but I’ve decided I’m ready for a break (not from blogging, just from projects).
Of course, I won’t be kicking back completely. Part of my rationale for stepping off the project train is to take care of some of the niggling little tasks that have been hanging around for a little while and maybe even start to get ready for Christmas. As well, I have a whole bunch of seasonal jobs that need to be completed so we’re ready for winter.
Matt already got a start on fall clean-up when he went over our eaves troughs with the leaf blower the other week.
Here are some of the other things on my winter is coming to-do list:
Just seven. That’s about half of what I had our first fall.
So apparently I cannot stop with the projects after all. Stay tuned. It appears I’m going to be busy.
What’s on your fall to-do list? Are you feeling the pressure of a looming winter? Do you have a project cut-off point?
An early morning eclipse a few weeks ago made for a spooky start to the day.
Happy Hallowe’en!
A sure sign it’s fall for me is the return of slippers.
A sure sign I need new slippers is this picture. Shameful!
My friends had tried to convince me to throw these out more than a year ago. Honestly, I completely agreed with them. The problem was I had nothing to replace my raggedy slippers.
All of this is to explain how I found myself spending time this summer sitting on a beach with knitting needles in my hands.
Et voilà!
Confused? Check them out after a few turns in the washing machine.
Still confused?
These are French Press Felted Slippers. It’s my fifth time making these slippers. The idea is that you knit over-sized slippers out of real wool and then throw them in the washing machine in super hot water. They shrink down to the size they’re supposed to be and the material becomes stiff and fabricy.
Felting is a pretty neat process. The final product is very solid. You can even cut it and it won’t unravel like regular knitting.
However, I’m not relying on my slipper’s natural density to avoid having another holey situation. I had some leftover fake leather, so I cut some soles out of that and stitched it onto the bottom of the slippers.
Let’s try this picture again.
Much cozier without the holes.
Are there any other knitters out there? Have you ever felted anything? How about anyone else with holes in their slippers… or even your socks?
Home on 129 Acres 