And Then It's Here

It comes like a 5:00am alarm clock. Dark green leaves of the growing season start to turn olive, trees give us the first sign. Cool mornings suddenly leave a layer of frost; for the first time in almost half a year steaming coffee warms the body. Almost overnight, green corn fields turn golden and its harvest season. The neatly stacked firewood piles bring a sense of security that seemed so far distant in the sweaty, insect infested woods of summer. Comfort food, this year's sauerkraut, with mashed yukon gold potatoes, and pork sausage fill the senses.... maybe a hint fresh apple pie for dessert.

Could she know too?  In her third year she seems to be settling down....some days....but not these days. Do her senses bring back memories from a year ago when in a similar style morning a flannel layer was needed before we hit the woods. The ground smelled of decaying aspen leaves and from under blackberry brush a grouse erupted. Everything seemed to come together and the grouse fell.  She remembers that....she lives for it...centuries of breeding have her wired for it.

Like the suddenness of the season at hand you remember, there are only 6 days left in the season. A season that has once again slipped by with other priorities but this last outing will not. The year's last quest of the creature that rivals the Good Lord's paintbrush of autumn colors...a native brook trout.

 It's here, it came quickly, get out and suck the marrow from every moment of it; as soon as it came it'll be gone.

keepin' on

After such a big push for the last two weeks, it was nice to have a little breather and get back to a more normal-busy week. Inside electrical and plumbing are just about finished. Our downstairs laundry/ultility area is about ready for the washer/dryer.

wash/utility area (no this is not our washer, we're not that old school, washer/dryer will be on the other side of the wall)

Basement windows have been replaced.

basement windows

Kitchen cabinets were delivered. Not sure when they will be installed, but here's a sneak peak:

shaker style, color is vanilla

 And we have our first piece of furniture in the house. Our reclaimed barnwood hutch...when we showed my parents they said it will be nice when it's finished :) I guess it's good we all don't have the same taste.

The boy's room floor is finished, so their room turned into a playroom to entertain them while we work... for a little while anyways.

the boys enjoying their new play space and their "gee-tars" we just discovered from storage.

And harvest season continues. Not all things turn out how we envision. Most of our garden had a good year, squash is amazing, but unfortunately we ended up with late blight on our tomatoes... BIG bummer as these are our favorite staples for canning. I stocked up with tomatoes at the farmer's market, froze them and will get back to canning when life settles down.

tuck helping with harvest

Transformation

starting floors downstairs

It's been a while since I've posted about our work on Glory Acres and that's because we've been working a TON and are so excited to share the transformation that's happened in the last two weeks.

We've been painting the second story for a while now and last week we put in floors in our upstairs bedroom and hallway. These floors are a mixture of maple and white ash that came from land by "The Coop". It's a neat story how we got them, I'll go into more detail on a later post.

little helpers(?) painting

putting wood floors in upstairs

bathroom got a coat of paint (trim not finished)

 And while we were working upstairs, our well was finished. To discourage the well cap being run over, we decorated by it with a bird house we bought at a local auction.

The downstairs was mudded, sprayed with orange peel texture, and then was ready for us to begin painting.

Ryan took a couple of days off of work during week 6 to devote to painting and putting in the downstairs floors. We were under a time crunch because kitchen cabinets will be delivered this week (week 7). So painting here we go!

after painting ceilings

thankful for willing friends that love to help

We're still not completely finished with painting (we have some trim left to do), but after most of it was finished floors came next. We chose 3rd maple (rustic) pre-finished floors.

the boys love helping pick out pieces and finding animal faces in the wood grain

power tools are not my favorite part of this project, but hubby does a great job

While Ryan and I were working on the flooring we had a team helping put in the piping for our wood furnace, dryer vents, etc. They had to drill a series of holes through our 12" concrete foundation and brick. It worked! All was successful and turned out great!

adding our stainless steel chimney!

Below is a series of photos of the floors and painting complete.

master bedroom. wood paneling was white-washed, trim painted white. I love the result.

master bedroom. so many windows in this space, love them!

master bedroom. built-ins and nooks and crannies make it cozy.

living room. we plan on built-ins under the stairs.

dining room into kitchen

kitchen into living room

kitchen

We are so excited how everything is turning out. Finally all of the hard work we've been doing can actually be seen. I don't want to forget the little troopers, who have been little troopers throughout this. And for "Funny Mama" (Grandma) who has been playing nanny over the weekends to help us. We are very thankful for the love and help you show us, and for all the meals you've prepared!

funny mama on a walk with the 3 boys and their cousin

Apples Anyone?

Last year Ryan got an itch to make an apple cider press, so from his own rough cut wood, he began doing some research and created this master-piece:

 

 And the result was amazing! We got about 3/4 gallon of apple cider from about 3 hours of work.

But oh, so worth it!

This year we have apple trees all around us, and they are full! Our process is a little more efficient by purchasing a garbage disposal to make the apple mash.  Last year we broke our food processor while making the mash.

Apple cider making process:
1. collect apples, inspecting for worms, or not if you'd like extra protein.

2. Cut the apples in half and toss into the garbage disposal (a wooden spoon was used for coaxing apples down to save fingers from becoming mash). Out comes the apple mash into a bucket lined with a strainer bag.

 3. Put the strainer bag filled with mash into the press, put lid on and push down with a hydraulic press (photo missed). Apple cider magically comes out!

4. For canning we got the cider hot, put it in hot jars, and gave it a hot water bath for 20 min. Right now we have almost 8 gallons made and more to make. Yum!