So tired… not done yet

I’m tired do you get some blah blah and a photo dump with no pretty. Photos likely out of order due to phone blog thing sucking  

Monday: bought a car. We now have the three we planned when we got the hearse. Hearse for weird(might stay, might be sold), Truck for farm, car for vrooming around the countryside. 

Tuesday: bought some work pants and rubber boots for us both as our yoga pant lifestyle wasn’t going to cut it anymore. The missing pieces for shelves arrived so we built those. 

Wednesday: R&R

Thursday: put in for maybe free wood chips, also car delivered, also buried two potatoes just to see if they’d survive winter here  

Friday: started putting together greenhouse (w/Hugslut) Mostly I needed someone to hold the other end of stuff and pass me things so I think this greenhouse could technically be done alone, but it’s better with two  

Saturday: first frost this morning. continued putting together greenhouse(w/Hugslut). Hugslut’s bag was breaking but I mended it up  

Sunday: called for some compost delivery,  and still working on greenhouse(w/Hugslut). It’s not more complicated than I thought but it is more… finicky? Awkward? Cumbersome? 

Tomorrow: greenhouse can wait until Wednesday or later(likely to rain Tuesday). Laundry, cleaning bathroom/kitchen/etc needs doing. Also prepping for Halloween Trick or Treating  might even make more bread tomorrow as I have run out of store bread

Wish me luck?

Touristy Stuff

Hugslut took a week off work to spend some quality time with her Mum and we decided to do some touristy stuff. Monday was a trip into the nearest big city, Yarmouth. We picked up an order at Canadian Tire and popped in at a couple local shops.

One of the first things on the sight seeing list was a proper lighthouse so Mum could take photos back to her church friends. Tuesday we decided on Sandy Point Lighthouse as it was right near Shelburne which had a place we wanted to take Mum for dinner, and a location for Guy Frenchie's which is a thrift shop for clothes and accessories. All in all a fine day.  

Unfortunately our truck only technically seats 5. The front would be too crowded if we squeezed mum into the center belt so I volunteered for the back "jump seat" which requires a bit of clambering. The 15 minute trips to the postoffice and local shops did not prepare me for 1hr drive, each way, for two days running... so I was regretting that decision by the time we got home. 

Wednesday I chose to stay home and make my first loaf of gluten free sandwich bread while Hugslut took Mum to the Shag Harbour UFO Center. They came home with a few souvenirs and were happy to be my taste-test-subjects. 

Thursday was a lovely day and I was feeling peppy so I took a VERY long walk(about 6 km total). I did find out the local hardware store has chicken feeders/feed/shell grit,etc and actually does chicken orders in April so we're all set for the little stuff. We'll just need the coop and electric netting. 

That will have to wait though because first is the GREENHOUSE! It arrived Friday! So excited!

Nine Boxes totalling 408lbs!

I got out the supplies and started sorting and tagging all the parts, checking them off the list as I went.

Hugslut kindly kept me company, and wisely stayed out of my way until I asked for help.

By the end of the day, everything was accounted for and safely guarded from the weather.

We all went to a local place called JB's for dinner and then afterward we went to the boardwalk at North East Point Beach to watch the waves and the sunset.

Yesterday Hugslut and Mum took the long drive to Halifax so Mum could fly home. While they were gone I mowed the very long grass that had gotten away from me a bit. It resulted in a huge compost pile when I layered the clippings with cardboard and I look forward to the wonderful compost I'll have to feed our plants next year... I did however, forget my sunscreen... ouch.

A small p-update

Mum & I went for a walk and 3 dogs from two different houses decided we needed and escort.

It's been a slow week, news wise. I've mostly been just hanging out at home and getting a few small things done. Hugslut was working her regular work schedule, and Mum was trying to relax.

The colours are starting to turn here. It's less obvious near our house because there's so much pine, But the drive into town for groceries reveals that Autumn is definitely doing it's thing.

The shelves for my office arrived Tuesday... well most of it did. Unfortunately, One of the kits was missing ALL of the little plastic pieces that make the unit come together.

I have contacted the company about replacement parts but I managed to put the one set together before realising the other kit was defective. If I had known, I would have used the ones I have to assemble the larger set of shelves... As it is, I really don't want to go through the fuss of disassembling the ones that are set up.

Hugslut took Mum out to visit a couple of the nearby churches and see if they were to her taste, and I've been cleaning house today because Hugslut took next week off work so we could do Touristy Stuff™️ with Mum before she heads back to Ontario, and I don't want to come home to dirty laundry. :-)

Canning, haircut, etc

Canned meat for the first time ever.

So as I mentioned last time, this week I canned up the leftover chicken. I also made and canned broth from the left over chickens bones and such.

My hair got long enough that it was pissing me off. I've been cutting my own hair for over a year now but this time I slipped and messed up the lines so I cut it all off. Blank slate to try again. :-)

Before

After

Hugslut said I'm lucky my head isn't a weird shape. lol

I made apple crisp from canned apples one night as a treat.

One night this week we discovered a stuffie had sprung a leak. My sewing is improving over time but a "hidden" seam with a slippery stretchy fabric really tested my skills.

Mum is coming for a two week visit so I might be posting a bunch more or a bunch less. We're not planning a bunch of touristy things so there might not be much more to say.

Visitors

So we've had a busy weekend. Friday after work we took a drive into Barrington Passage to pick up a tray of cookies and squares we had ordered from a local place called Dan's Icecream Shop(they also do really good wraps), and then to the grocery store for some party pop where met another neighbour. It seems it's really easy for folks to tell their friends and family to say hi to us when we drive such a distinctive car, lol.

After picking up 6 cases of pop and about 24 juice boxes (wanted to be sure of a variety and just... enough) we came home and I mostly just stressed(and showered lol). I was already to go in the morning but based on the number of people who seemed to be excited to come to our housewarming party plus about 1/2 of the rest we invited, we might have 50 people show up at the door. I've never hosted a party that big unless you count our wedding reception and I didn't have to cook anything for that.

Morning of Oct 1st Hugslut and I hopped into action setting everything up, and baking 7 chickens, and cleaning the bathroom one last time, and, and, and....

And then only two neighbours arrived. 

One brought her two kids so there were 6 people in total including Hugslut and I meaning we definitely had enough chairs for everyone. They kindly brought some cards and a bottle of wine, and I was happy to get the chance to chat with them... but it was also impossible to avoid feeling disappointed for a bit. 

As the night progressed I got a few folks who sent messages of being sick and such. Seems a bunch of folks on our street are home with bad colds. None of the other folks we invited called at all. One of our neighbours with a small baby just futzed on the date and promised to come by the next day. He brought us some blueberry wine and an adorable little fridge magnet.

We sent the two that came to the party, and the belated guest who arrived the next day, home with as much of the party food as we could convince them to carry. Potato salad will not last a whole week and it would take at least that long for us to go through it by ourselves.

Yesterday night I traded the belated guest an entire chicken's worth of chicken pieces for some ham he was cooking up so we had some variety. That night and I dealt with the chicken we had left; about 5 chicken's worth, which was about 9.5 lbs deboned. I did not like the idea of tossing it all in the freezer as it might dry out, and it would definitely take up too much room in our fridge freezer... but canned chicken won't have that problem. :-)

The leftover pop will go to our halloween stash. We're planning to get chocolate bars and chips later. I remember being super psyched to get pop on halloween and I hope kids haven't changed that much.

Last night we went grocery shopping and then later, while talking with Mum on the phone, a buck wandered through our yard.  Now we see lots of deer but it's usually just the does and fawns. 

This handsome fella made a beeline for the compost pile.

This morning I woke up super early(5:50am) and I was just going to get some water and go back to bed but when I peeped out the window I was struck with how bright and clear the stars were. I watched the stars for a while and when the sky started to brighten for sunrise I got to cleaning the jars of chicken from the night before and starting my day. That said... it's only 11am and I am pooped. I think I'll go take a nap.