2016 Goodbye Old Friend

Bessie,

We've had a lot of good times together over the last 14 years.
The first being the move from VA to TN... and a whole new life.
Everyday around-town trips for shopping, church, taxi-ing kids and grandkids around.
Family vacation trips to KY, OH, FL, and IN.
Trips back home to PA and MD to visit family.
Quilting shows and retreats in VA and KY

But, the almost 3000 mile trip to Canada/Pennsylvania was your last.
The car doc said the repairs would be costly.

So we sent you to car heaven... trading you in for...

Goldie!

I love the wide-open view out your front window and large side mirrors.
Your fold-away seats will save my back from having to lift out 80+pound seats to make room to load up for travels.
We have a lot to learn with all your extras...   dvd player, gps, and all kinds of plugs for various electronics... but when we do,  Matthew and the grandkids will be happy on long road trips.

I look forward to travelling in the future together.

2016 Karen's Critters

Living on a small farm Karen had lots of critters...

Like these four guinea hens

All four would line up on the front porch railing, but it was difficult to get a picture of them all together.  They were quick to fly off whenever I came near in an attempt to photograph them.

The two females were taking turns filling a nest full of eggs.

 The ducks had a little outdoor pen and bucket to swim in, but were also allowed to walk about freely when we were outside to keep an eye on them.

Both the ducks and the guinea hens were locked up in a shed at night to protect them from predators.

There were three cats in an outdoor pen, and another "demon" cat that was kept in the basement for everyone's saftey (and because of my allergies)

There was also this old girl,  Chantelle

This is Nikita and Adi (named for my MIL Ida)

and Raven (named for the Baltimore Ravens?)

I double dosed on my Zyrtec and survived most of the week.  By Thursday I was it was starting to bother me so I made sure to spend time not wallpapering/painting outside.

2016 Karen's Chores

Demolishing the shed was not our only chore for the week.

Mowing

 

Weedwacking

Weeding the vegetable garden 

Collecting rocks from the vegetable garden

 

Then installing netting redistributing the rocks around the garden to hold the netting in place and hopefully keep critters from feasting on fresh grown vegetables.

Cleaning up the flower beds

 

And rebuilding falling rock walls and steps

And my favorite job (grin)  stripping wallpaper and painting!

And since none of us were comfortable dealing with electric connections, the light unit above the sink remained in place as did the wallpaper above it... we didn't want to be dripping water down onto electrical wires!

I couldn't reach around the clawfoot tub or shower, so that section didn't get done

But, Karen was inspired by all our work, and after we left she was able to finish this section in a couple days.

2016 Karen's Shed...

Work progressed throughout the week.

quite a few nails had to be pulled before the metal roof could be removed. 

 By mid-week the back half was demolished.

Back and side walls of the back half of the shed along with it's metal roof are now in the scrap piles.

After the side wall boards were removed, the rail supporting the roof on the front of the shed was removed and a gentle push had the roof collapsing to the ground!

A gazillion nails had to be pulled to remove the shingles 

Once the shingles were removed the beams were quickly cleared. 

Another push and the other half collapsed 

More nails and shingles to be removed

 The last floorboards were removed

Piece by piece the shed was demolished and the scrap piles grew 

 The foundation rocks were added to the flower garden rock walls

and the last piece of framework was knocked down. 

SUCCESS!

A tired but happy work crew!

2016 Karen's Shed... Sunday

After leaving Kelly at Syracuse airport, we continued on to Troy, PA arriving at my SILs around 4 and thus began our week of labor.


After a quick chicken dinner we spent several hours beginning work on tearing down an old shed. We started on the back wall... it looking to be the most stable section of the shed.  

First we had to remove the overgrown weeds and loose boards and items surrounding the building.

A pile was started and my job (with help from Stan) was to remove the nails from the boards because Karen wanted to save the wood for future projects.  

 


We worked until dark and had most of the back wall removed and de-nailed and some of the shingled roofing on the side rabbit hutch was removed.

2016 Canada... the fishing

I went to Canada, not for the fishing, I don't go on the water... inner ear troubles make me sick as a dog.  So while I was sewing the family was on the water.  Here are pictures of their fun