November 24th, 2009 by Sha

October 11th, 2009 by Sha

10/13 UPDATE: We had so much fun with the first three pumpkins Saturday night that we did in fact head out to the Chimney Rock Organic Farm pumpkin patch on Sunday. The pumpkin patch was a blast; I hadn’t tromped through one in more years than I’d care to remember. We bought three large pumpkins and three small ones; pictured at left is the Haunted House pumpkin I carved Monday, Oct. 13. I’ve still got a template of a witch flying on a broom, that will probably be the one I do today. Then I think I’ll do scary pumpkin faces with the little ones we bought. Our neighbor has horses so we’re going to ask if we can borrow two hay bales to make a display with our carved pumpkins by the front door. So come back again over the next week to see more photos from our Halloween 2009 pumpkin extravaganza! 10/31 UPDATE: Well, it came and went and I did not finish the Halloween porch decorations. I got busy, and we had a small but unexpected snowfall on the 25th that made us realize we are not quite ready for winter and we’d better get on it before the real snows come.

Yesterday we celebrated fall and the harvest season with an old fashioned pumpkin carving. Pete and I wanted to do something different, so I got online and found some cool pumpkin carving templates at SpookMaster.com. Pete and I carved a black cat pumpkin (shown at left), Pete’s son Connor carved a ghost pumpkin, and his friend Caleb carved a pumpkin head of his own design (click on the image at left to see the full image of all three pumpkins). After we got done carving the pumpkins we lit them and put them on the patio, then we lit a fire in the chiminea and roasted marshmallows while we watched our spooky pumpkins glow in the darkness of night. It was so much fun that we are going to the local organic farm today to buy more pumpkins to carve! (BTW – Chimney Rock Certified Organic Farm is for sale, click here to view the property.)

August 11th, 2009 by Sha

It’s hard to believe that Pete and I adopted Max nine years ago. He’s my best-est pal, so I was very concerned when he started losing weight rather quickly a couple of months ago. He had all but lost his appetite, and was very lethargic and quiet – very un-like his normal self. We took him to the vet and ran a blood test, and they also checked his teeth. It turned out that he had an abscessed tooth and needed his teeth cleaned pretty badly. So we made an appointment for a cleaning and for the tooth to be removed. A few days later we heard back from the vet about the blood tests, and thankfully everything is fine. No kidney or liver problems for my Beastie, hooray! A few more days and it was time for the surgery, which went fine except that he wound up losing four teeth instead of just one. It’s been just over two weeks since the surgery and he is doing so much better. He’s talkative and energetic, and as of yesterday is allowed to eat whatever he wants again. Some people would say he is just a cat, but I couldn’t disagree more. Max has more personality than a lot of people I know, and I love spending my days with him. He is worth every penny that it took to make him better, and now my Max is back to his old self again and I couldn’t be happier.

May 1st, 2009 by Sha

We’ve been very busy the past week or so, which is why it’s been ten days since the last post. Pete’s been working on a patio down at the barn (I need to take some pictures of the project before it’s all done), the new Char Griller Outlaw smoker that I bought for him is finally all put together (more on that story in another post), I made a cover for the master bedroom window seat cushion (more on that in another post), and then I spent two days this week doing spring cleaning. While all this was going on the kitties have been loudly protesting the lack of attention, except for Squeak who’s been having fun with her new toy – an empty Pacifico twelve pack box. She is so damned cute, that Squeak in a box!

April 20th, 2009 by Sha

Our current kitchen is small and not suited to our culinary adventures, but until we can build our dream kitchen we have to make due. The biggest problem is the lack of cabinet and counter space, which was somewhat lessened when we brought the steel prep table home from the restaurant we used to own in town. It is three feet deep and four feet long, has a large drawer, and a bottom shelf where we store one of our sets of pots and pans and the deep fryer. The problem with this is that it is open, and we have four indoor cats. So basically whenever we want to use any of the items that are stored on that bottom shelf they have to be washed first. One day I got so tired of having to clean the fryer before we could use it that I decided to make a cover for it. I’m a novice sewer, at best, and am amazed that I made something like that without a pattern. I just looked at the fryer and could see in my head the shapes that I needed to make it work. The fryer cozy made Pete and I laugh because even though it is a useful item it is a bit ridiculous due to the leopard fabric it’s made of. But when you live in B.F.C. you’ve got to use what’s available when domestic silliness happens!

April 16th, 2009 by Sha

Years ago I saw a refrigerator magnet that said “cats are like potato chips, you can’t have just one”. At that point in my life I’d never had a cat, so I didn’t really understand the truth to that statement. Well now I can say without hesitation that it is absolutely true. Since moving to B.F.C. I have rescued ten felines, and kept all but two. I’m starting to think there is a kitty sign post somewhere on the property because a few weeks ago another cat showed up out of nowhere and has been hanging around the house. He’s super friendly, and he’s a big boy – I call him Big Kitty. He was shy at first but now he’s pretty comfortable here, and even came into the loft and slept in the pillow pile the other night for a few hours. I just can’t help myself, they are so sweet and cute and all they want is some love. Isn’t that what we all want?