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.

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...

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.

Enjoying November

November has been a great month so far, relatively mild weather means we have been able to enjoy working outside as we get ready for winter (aka firewood, firewood and more firewood :)). I have been knitting and reading up a storm while enjoying the warmth from the wood stove in the evenings, there really is nothing like it!

With lots of help from Mom and Dad we took most of the dock out and got all the 'camp' toys and outside furniture put away too!

Nellie still enjoys going in the water, especially after oh so special drift wood.

This past weekend we enjoyed an organic turkey and fresh brussel sprouts from Little Ridge Farm. I gave Nellie the brussel stock and you can see she had fun with it.

I planted a bunch of garlic for next summer, roughly about 10 times we have had the last couple of years. It is such an easy and useful crop!