Happy Ho Ho!

We went and cut down our Christmas tree this afternoon. Hopefully decorating it and the house will happen this weekend!

Another tool run

Jim went on another tool run today - to Washington, PA, this time!  He had sold the bucket on the Bobcat Skid Steer on Craig's List.  It had come with the Bobcat when he bought it from Oklahoma.  But it was an after-market bucket and wasn't the right size for the Bobcat.  He thought it would be an easy find to get a used bucket, but soon learned that a 61" bucket is hard to find.  He searched everywhere for months and no one had one.  We need one now because Jim uses it to plow the driveway in the winter.  We had just talked about it and he was pretty much convinced that he was going to have to buy a new one from the Bobcat dealer.  Then just the next day, he found a bucket listed on Craig's List!  Crazy timing yet again.  He called the guy, negotiated a price, talked to Bryan about a road trip, and they set off today about 1:00.

When I talked to Jim this afternoon, he sounded a bit discouraged about the shape the bucket was in - not as nice as he was led to believe.  He thinks it sat out in the weather for a couple years and was pretty rusty.  But he still felt it was a reasonable bucket - so he negotiated a better price and is pretty happy with the sale. 

They just got home a bit ago and are getting the bucket out of the back of Bryan's truck as we speak.  It's too dark to take good pictures but here's one!

House work still needs done...

So we're home from New York and now the motivation is even higher to get things done around here to get the house ready to sell.  One of the big things that Jim wanted to get done this fall was to replace the chimney cap.  It had started leaking and Jim needs to remove all the old concrete, replace it, put new chimney cap on it (that needs to be fabricated) and probably lots more little steps that I don't know about!  But the bad weather moved in earlier than we liked - October turned out to be pretty cold.  So the fix til spring involved Jim getting up on the roof and putting a "shower bonnet" on the chimney to keep the water out. 

That's a long way up!

 

Happy Ho Ho!

We went and cut down our Christmas tree this afternoon. Hopefully decorating it and the house will happen this weekend!

Update...all decorated and shining beautifully in the library!

Leaving...

It's sad...we really start feeling so at home here that we hate to leave. I do miss our house and will be glad to see it but wish we could stay a little longer.

Courtyard Marriott - our home away from home!

We just finished breakfast and are heading out to wash the car. You can't get the full effect from this picture because it's 2 days later and most of the sawdust has blown off, but after the first day of chipping the car was encased with it!

Car...before, with a nice coating of sawdust!

After the car is clean, we're heading back to the lot. Jim wants to cut up a red oak tree that had fallen and we'll take the logs back for burning.

10:00...Okay, cut the wood, picked up the chipper, grabbed the sign and we're ready to hit the road.

6:30...Been a good trip back so far. Jim took the southern route back to avoid traffic and it was all good. Tried to follow the Browns/Steelers game - technical difficulties made it tough but the Browns won!! So all is well in the world. Just finished pancakes at Cracker Barrel - another 120 miles to go.

 

 

Second work day

The forecast for today was snow, wind and temps in the 30s.  After temps in the 50s yesterday, I think we were a little nervous about working outside.  We got started again after breakfast, a quick fill up of gas and buying s'more supplies.  When we first got to the lot, there was a Jeep parked in the driveway. We got out and realized it was the people leaving cat food, corn and water for the animals. She leaves kind of a mess and we don't want to actually encourage stray animals.  But what can you say?  She said she relocated baby squirrels to our property and then felt guilty so she fed them.  While we were talking, a deer crossed the driveway and on our way out last night, we saw the family of turkeys we saw last time we were here.

However, she did have some interesting history on our lot.  We had seen where it was called Bailey Hill for General Bailey of George Washington's Army.  She said her grandfather had once owned the land and that it had been owned by the Comstock's who fought in the war also.  She said she has pages of history that she would share with us.  So that's exciting.

Once we got up on the hill, we started a little campfire to help keep warm (and for those s'mores!).  But it was a little scary because of all the high grass and the windy conditions.  We kept a close eye on it but it felt good to warm up with.



We moved the chipper to another location and got back to work.  We worked til time for lunch - and finally the s'mores!

Sharon, Julia & Jim enjoying our s'mores!

Then it was back to work.  While it was certainly colder than yesterday, when you were busy working it was fine.  It was just when you stopped that the cold set in.  But the weather up on the hill was amazing - we had periods of snow swirling and then bright sunshine.  It was really beautiful!

Unfortunately, the day went by too quickly.  But it was incredible to look back and see how much we got accomplished in two days.  Things look so good!






We had to break early and come back to the hotel for showers and be at church at 4:00.  We went to St. Clements - there are 5 Catholic churches in a small radius from here - like that!

Kyle and Julia had to be back at the Casino to catch the bus at 7:00, so we went to eat at Hattie's in downtown Saratoga Springs.  It's a landmark restaurant know for their Louisiana-style fried chicken.  It was a fun little place and the food was great.  We have major food detox to go through next week but for now, it's been good eatin'!

Jim, Kyle and Julia at Hattie's

So then we dropped them off, stopped at McDonald's for an ice cream and are now back at the hotel relaxing.  Two fun days of being at the lot - it's going to be so hard to leave tomorrow!

First official day of work!

While many hit the stores today on Black Friday, we had our first official day of work on the lot! After breakfast and a stop at TSC for another pair of hearing protection, we headed to the land.  Jim and I had dropped the chipper off last night so we were able to just set it up and start chipping away!  Though Julia took a quick turn, Kyle was the chipper operator for the day.  We concentrated the work on the backside of the lot where they had taken a lot of trees down and left their mess.  Jim used the chainsaw when needed and handled all the muscle work as well as hauling branches; Julia and I picked up branches and carried them up to Kyle.  After a pb&j lunch break, we kind of switched strategies and Jim and I carried all the branches up and Julia fed everything to Kyle.  Quite the operation!  We had gorgeous weather all day until the sun started going down and it started raining. But what a great first day!  You can see a major improvement in how things look.  I'm really hoping it doesn't rain tomorrow so we can get some more work done.

Julia manning the chipper!

After a well-earned and needed shower, we headed to Village Pizza for dinner.  We ended the day with a stop at Ben & Jerry's.