Tuesday, December 30, 2008

holiday respite

still trying to come up for air after a wonderfully busy yet relaxing holiday. we are heading to CT tomorrow, so it may be a few more days before i get to make a 'real' post.

btw, who ever thought it was a good idea to have books close/tax stuff all relative to the end of the year, is this impeding on anyone else's holidays?!?! The trials and tribulations of small business ownership ..... :)

ah well, off to CT to visit with some of the very best people in the world.

Monday, December 22, 2008

party day

Well, my posts today are not in the right order, but it will have to do. On Saturday Dad, Em, Lizzie and I ventured to Union for the Burgess Family 'souper' Christmas Party. The food was soup, in case you missed that. I highly recommend this party food idea. There were 6-7 soups, all brought by party goers and none of them were remotely similar! Among the soups there was pea soup, fish chowder, squash soup, chicken soup and a very different and delicious pistachio soup! Lizzie had a great time with her cousins 1 removed??? or is it second cousins??? Anyone know the proper term for how Lizzie is related to her mothers first cousins children???





Then it was onto a winter solstice celebration and bonfire! It was frigid outside but really pretty nice by the bon fire. There was much food and drink and wonderful company to join us in welcoming longer days!!!!





Downtime

I was SO looking forward to yesterday, the idea of being house bound and snow on the way, I love it! John and I helped with christmas trees for awhile and made ourselves right at home (so did Nellie). My folks recently installed this refinished stove (my mothers grandmother's I believe) and John had been itching to do some cooking on it. So, first up was bacon and eggs for breakfast - yum! Then we ventured into baking and baked a cake in the oven. Luckily we kept a close eye on it because it cooked in 1/2 the time - ha! i guess it will take some trial and error to work out the kinks. I think bread may be next.......













I have officially finished my 'made gifts' so I had some time for knitting for myself seen in the background on the needles- yay!!! (I can't wait until after the holiday's so I can share some of the fun patterns I used this year). Anyway, I have heard great things about these Maine Morning Mitts and decided to give them a go. I was skeptical that they would be useful/practical but I have LOVED having them! I just made them yesterday but I have barely taken them off. These were made with some left over lamb's pride.

Why Maine Why.... oh yeah

Well, I have to say that living in Maine has it's moments. For example, -10 degree weather with wind chills, 15 inches of snow and add the joys of having to jump start my car no less than 3 times. It isn't my cars fault, in fact my subaru is a great car, but it is going on 4 1/2 years with the original battery and it does not like the cold weather. Anyway, just when I get really crabby about it:




Friday, December 19, 2008

Lizzie Fix

Well, now that I have a camera back AND I got to spend time with lizzie this morning, here are a couple new pics of the happy girl::
Working on some new teeth

turning around and around....

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

things I am happy about

1. Going to the mail box and finding holiday cards instead of bills. I love snail mail and having window sill full of cards.


2. Being nice and toasty at my office, I sit right next to the heater so I am very cosy


3. A new blanket of snow. It really makes things so beautiful. I don't love shoveling however I am trying to have a better attitude about it because it gets me outside and the snow is pretty.


4. The woodstove. enough said


5. My 2009 planner. I have a planner problem, I love to plan and I love planners. Since we started our own business I have struggled with how best to organize my stuff. In my previous life I lived by my planner but somehow those habits did not fit well with our new life. Anyway, I have yet another new planner to try for 2009 and I have just started filling it in - loving it!


6. Having a camera again!


7. Being done with xmas shopping (assuming my Internet orders arrive on time)


8. Hosting a holiday party tonight with my book club buddies. Can't wait!


9. Finally getting our tree up, pretty pathetic for the daughter of a christmas tree farmer not to have a christmas tree, so John and I finally managed to put ours up last night. We usually try pick tree that is not exactly perfect, perhaps a 'holiday' on one side that will prevent it from being bought by someone but will be just right in the corner of our home. So, this year we got a reject from the 'rack' (ie a tree we precut but was not selling). Can you believe this is a 'reject'!?!? It will look even more perfect once we get it decorated.



10. I feel like I should come up with a tenth thing to round out the list but I really got all my happiness in 1-9, so #10 is having 9 things to be happy about.

holiday cooking begins

So, I have been waiting for inspiration and it hit yesterday. Check out this great foodie blog. The pink cake balls satisfied my need for motivation. Now, the cake balls I created don't look nearly as beautiful as those on the foodie blog but I hope they are as yummy!





I used a white cake mix and store bought butter cream frosting, I didn't have time to make frosting or cake from scratch


Friday, December 12, 2008

little house on corrie rd

We have a 24 hours full of various weather, first a few inches of beautiful snow, then ice in the night and finally today rain, rain and more rain. We lost power at camp this morning and it has not returned yet. I am figuring out little dirt road is probably not a big priority when it comes to the power companies, so it may be a while yet. This morning John cooked eggs and toast on the wood stove and I took a 'shower' with water heated on the stove - very little house on the prairie! We are lucky to have the wood stove, last year at this time we would have had to use the generator to have heat. I love the coziness of the woodstove during a storm. I curled right up next to it in my grandmothers old chair and did some reading and then working on finishing some christmas knitting projects. I think I am officially done with my 'made gifts', I would love share them on the blog but many of the receivers follow said blog so that may have to wait until after gift giving. Now, on to the christmas tree decorating, wrapping and baking!

I am sorry not to be able to post photos of the amazing scenery (trees bent right down to the ground from the weight of the ice) but I have lost our camera. It has been more than 2 weeks now and no sign of it. So, i have ordered another camera, hopefully I will be back with photos early next week.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

set day!
















Here are a few photos of our set in Smithfield yesterday. The set went well, it was a long day for the guys though as the mud really makes everything more difficult and time consuming. It was a good day though. This was a 3 module ranch which has a complicated but ultimately beautiful roof line. This house will have tons of curb appeal!















Saturday, November 29, 2008

Much thanks

John and I got to give thanks with both our families this year. We started our day at Aunt Laurie & Uncle Chris's house where we enjoyed apps, drinks and great company.
Dad & Mom enjoying time together before the big meal



Aunt Char helps Mike find something to play with



Danny enjoying some family time


John & Allie play the word game 'hang man' as Mom looks on



Stephanie and Sarah



Bar tender, Uncle Tom, mixes a delicious concoction...

and Allie takes great care to deliver the holiday drink.

Mom, Laurie and Sarah work together to get the meal ready.

Then, we headed to Benedicta to have our thanksgiving meal and spend the night. We had a great meal and especially enjoyed catching up with family into the night.
Rose & Char take a minute before getting the meal ready to go to the table

John and his Dad visiting before dinner. Neighbor is really getting around well after a few months to heal from his broken leg and following surgery.


Dani, Char, Veronica and Buster getting dinner on the table
Thanks so much Dickens' and Rushes for the best Thanksgiving yet!









Little things







A view from above




In preparation for the christmas tree season, the burgess clan was in favor of decorating the new windmill tower that graces the landscape at the burgess tree farm. There was much discussion about how to decorate this new landmark but in the end we decided good old christmas lights were the way to go. And so as to not waste any precious power, we invested in LED lights for the tower. My brother-in law, Ryan, climbed the tower to fasten the lights. The lights go up about 60 feet on the 100ft tower but Ryan couldn't resist going a little higher (~80 ft) to enjoy the view and get some pics. He was, of course, wearing a harness and had redundant tie-offs for safety purposes.





























Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Holiday Cusp

It feels to me like the holidays are here! I can't resist holiday music, cooking, crafting and decorating these days. Christmas came early for John this year, see his 'new' excavator! He is SO excited. He had to take the cab off so it would fit in the moving truck (John had to go to VA to pick it up).

Em, Lizzie and I were pie happy this past weekend, making all sorts of crusts to last us through Thanksgiving (for desert pies and turkey pot pies - yum!). I even plan to make pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin, instead of the can. Can't wait to try it out! As you can see, Lizzie was a happy helper.




We had our first dusting of snow this morning. Nellie surveys her grounds.....


Evolo is closed for the rest of week, so we get a few days off - yay! I put up xmas trees in the model homes today so that we could turn the holiday lights on. I know it is early, but thanksgiving is late this year. In fact, Burgess Tree Farm is open this week. So, there has been much to do around the farm to get ready, decorating wreaths, putting up the tree racks & signs etc...

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

compost

Here is John's latest creation - our very own composter!


Our porch is filled with firewood which does not leave Nellie with as much room as she is used too, but she is making due.