October 2014 – Life on the Farmlet

And I don’t feel like singing.

This year has been tough for many reasons, health, health insurance changes, lack of time to work on our Mountain Farmlet and lack of money for same. The other day I said in passing that it couldn’t get any worse and the lady I was speaking to looked at me and said: “Never say that! It can get worse…”

Well, I’m not one to think that way, but sure enough it is worse.

Bob came home recently and told me he had been let go at his work. Made redundant as some would say. He looked stunned and sad. I didn’t look in the mirror, but I’m certain that I did too. The letter of termination said “… terminated, effective immediately due to lack of work for his skill set.” Strangely, it was dated from January of this year. I guess the owner was hoping for things to gain speed. Under the circumstances it was a delay that certainly benefited us over these past months.

We are not yet certain about what we will do. We have been discouraged about how things have been going, and see this as a possible opportunity to really dig in and get some work done on the mountain and here in town. We have recently offered to sell a bit off the top (so to speak) of our land to the neighbor that lives above us. The land is on the other side of the access road, adjacent to his property and would give him some road frontage. He was interested! He has offered to help us with repairs in exchange for the property. If done this is a win/win for all of us. It also means that the section on his side will be properly maintained and make a better view for all.

In the meantime, we are getting rid of anything we don’t want or need. If it is superfluous it is out’a here!

Translation: YARD SALE, Ebay, and Etsy.

We remain optimistic and look forward to reducing, repairing, and relocating to the Mountain Farmlet.

Here for your viewing is some of what we discovered after the big windstorm, but first some fun stuff. 😀

: Along the trail I found a very large paw print,

: a rather large fungus,

: and Shagbark Hickory nuts!

: There was an antenna up there. We found it in the north paddock…

: Bridge out!

: Tree down.

: Maple I think.

: Fence is damaged and the pine has been topped. It just missed the new plantings.

: We are down too, but not for long!

At the moment, we are very grateful that the little house was not damaged and that the new roof did not blow away!

I have been in an awful funk and unwilling to write or share. I take the pictures and like those silly commercials, they remain on my disk in the camera. Shameless.

Last Friday I had the first of my surgeries on my veins. I have been so worried about the pain and the end results, and if it were really necessary, etc, etc, etc. I know it was, but I was doing my best to convince myself that it was not.

There was really no pain involved. I am surprised.

So, in other news we had a band of lightning and high winds come through early Friday morning. We are OK, but some folks on the east side the Athens area sustained wind damage from an F-O class tornado. I didn’t think such a thing existed, but it does. And apparently it can tear things up pretty good. No one was hurt and that is a blessing!

Then, later when we got home from my leg surgery we got a call from one of the neighbors up on the Mountain. Guess some of the big “bendy winds”, as my friend Celi, from The Kitchen’s Garden, likes to call them, came through and took out quite a few large trees. We talked to another neighbor by phone and he said it appeared that the house and the outbuildings held up.

We don’t know which trees, or the size of the trees, but the ones he said came down on his place are all LARGE TREES.

We thought we were going to be taking advantage of the much cooler weather to begin work on the inside of the farmhouse… guess it will be all chainsaw work now.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures from my last visit before the big bendy wind came. 😀

: An Elven sweet pea.

: Vine tricks

: Deer have been here… and do you see the large millipede?

: Raccoons too!

: The lady in the water was likely gone after the next rain, but the shade here is gone now too.

: In the swale by the pond uncut, unkempt to some, but lovely to my eye.

I will post pictures of what we found late Sunday evening. I go in for my second leg surgery on Monday morning (the left this time). This will be better because now I know what I’ll face.

Oh yes, and did I tell you I am awake for this?