As you might know, we are having a Open House Farmwarming Music Picking Jam on Sunday. And as a result, we have been working overtime to get ready! I know that it’s not going to be perfect, far from it, but we just wanted to make sure that we did our very best to get ready for the event and finish as many projects and such as we could! I’m sorry I’ve been a little distant, but we have just been so so busy! My wonderful, amazing, unbelievably nice neighbors have been helping out in so many ways, it’s been so helpful!!! We have about 8 cards to finish up… but many are already in the works or waiting for the rainy weather to finish up!!!

On the agenda has been finishing up two ceilings. Of the six that are bad. I wish I could have afforded to get all six done, but that just is not in the cards yet. But two is almost half, so that works for me!!! We got the tiles to finish up the dining room and replace some of the nasty ones in the big office… here are a few shots of the adventure!!!

We have finished up a lot in the kitchen and it’s looking very snazzy. Miss Julia and I deep cleaned the whole place today and it just is so pretty and nice, no one is going to believe its our kitchen!!!! (ha ha ha) She showed me the power of those Magic Eraser sponges… oh my gosh…. does that thing really work! Oh my gosh…. Just amazing. I also sewed up some curtains for the windows and for the big pantry shelves. I believe that I’m going to consider dying the pantry shelf curtains… they are just a little toooooo white. It’s got a nice subtle, yet slightly modern pattern in it, and I love that, but the white… well, I think a cream or tea stained sort of light brown would match the kitchen a teeny bit more. But am I trying to do it now? Ha Ha… no way. White is fine. I am the Queen of making toooo much work for us and I am trying hard to say “No…. to anything new!!!” We are trying to finish the list we have!!! But we’re so getting there. The place is looking marvelous!

Painted the front door, wow did that make a huge difference! And we found a great remnant piece of vinyl for the parlor entry room. Just trying to get everything neat and tidy at the very least. Lots of vacuuming and stick pick up and weeding and cleaning and oh my!!!

Of course, livestock grooming was part of the adventure. Maggie and I are trying to rid the ewes of their burr collection… they are really good at it. Mocha is not keen on the whole process and will likely need to be cornered in the paddock with a lot of unhappy squirming, but she’s really the worse for the most part. We’ll see how it goes…

However, one of our major events was the total rehab of the little chicken coop. I had started painting but then hated the blue. It was just not right. And we needed to fix the siding where the flood had rotted it out years ago. So we got some good siding, and started at it… I think it turned out very very nice! Took most of a Sunday, but it’s beautiful now and the little nuggets love it. I know, they tell us. haha…

Doesn’t it look so much nicer now? It’s almost a match with the color of the house. Of course, it was one of our mistinted gallons, but it’s a real good paint and hopefully will help to make the little coop a Windhaven fixture for time to come!

The nuggets are getting bigger… for sure, but they are still only about 4 pounds in average weight. I suspect that they will be here another good week or two. I’d like to make sure I have the space for them in my freezer, and I might consider getting another deal off Craigslist before I send them off to Finishing School. They are doing wonderfully, and we haven’t lost a single one. They really enjoy going out in the yard and today, they escaped while Maggie was getting their feed…. but the funny thing is that instead of panicing, she just propped open the door and went in, calling to them and each and every one just turned around and trotted back into the shack!!! It was so cute to watch. They KNOW who feeds them! Our eight little homegrown babies are doing wonderfully as well! All feathered out and nice and full bodied. They are so sweet and beautiful. I think we have 4 that are very true Marans, and the rest are half breeds and just as pretty. I don’t suspect we will get any eggs for another couple months though, they are only about 10 weeks old now… not quite ready for laying.

Jessy has been working on her bunny hutch and it’s coming right along. We are hoping to get the bottom one finished before the party, but it’s been raining so much and the screen porch is pretty damp, so we might not. We’ll just have to see how it goes. But at least, she got a good coat of a hard kitchen and bath enamel on it and that should really help to preserve the wood and keep it safe and around for a good long time. Jack has been supervising the whole process, from the comfort of a sweatshirt! He likes to snuggle while he watches.

There are a dozen other things we’ve finished and done, like extensive weeding and lots of stick and branch cleanup as well as just stuff in some of the junk piles the previous people left all over. And lots of mowing and moving in wire spool tables… fixing the little bridge, hanging doors on the garage shed, putting up doo dads and cutting trees and fixing roofs and just oh my gosh, so much. I didn’t take as many pictures as I probably should have but we were all busy! I think just before the party I will shoot some video and Jessy has promised me lots and lots of pictures of the party!

You know… if you’re in the area and would like to make the trip out… everyone is welcome! It’s going to be fun for sure. The weather looks like it’s going to hold out and be just lovely for us on Sunday! I just can’t wait!! And I think come Monday, I am going to take a whole week and do hardly NUTHING…. but sleep in and knit and just computer stuff. I am so tuckered out!!! I will try and write some more tomorrow about our hatching adventures this week… and of course, share some adorable kitten pictures!!!! But until then…. take care and thanks for stopping in…