Virginia Real : July 2018

Boy, time surely flies when you're not looking. We've been so busy at the farm that it's hard to know what day it is, let alone the time. The renovation, garden, mowing, and other miscellaneous things (like cats and dogs) keep us busy from daylight until dark. I do have to say that these are some of the best days I've ever had, though. I'm convinced that keeping both the mind and the body occupied is good for the soul.

Charming usually gets up around daylight, fixes his coffee and immediately goes to work on the renovation. I normally get up sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 am, depending on when I can drag myself out of bed. I fix breakfast (usually oatmeal for Charming and a muffin & fruit for me), then I go to the garden for a couple of hours to try to beat back the weeds and murder as many potato bugs as possible. After that, I take Charming a cup of hot tea then take a quick shower as, after working in the garden, I’m literally dripping with sweat. (Not really the romantic picture of country life that you see in the movies.) After I tidy up the camper then it's time to think about fixing lunch. Charming is pretty much chained in the kitchen as that's the most intensive project we have left. He is taking great pains to get things right because (bless his heart) he wants to make me happy, but also says he never wants to renovate another kitchen as long as he lives. Luckily, this kitchen is a bit easier as he doesn't have to install any new water pipes as with our last kitchen project. He is coming along with the work nicely, though, and it looks absolutely wonderful and stunningly close to what he did to our other kitchen. He's added a couple of small features that were not possible with the last kitchen and it looks like I'll have even more storage space. I have to admire Charming's work as almost all of the cabinets were recycled from cabinets that my brother gave us. Sis also gave us a huge pantry cabinet that Charming re-painted and added handles that match the other cabinets and that turned out wonderfully. The refrigerator and microwave was given to us by my brother as well. Charming polished the stainless microwave front with car polish and it looks practically brand new. Using the car polish was a great tip that I had never heard before, but it worked really well and prevents fingerprints from showing. Less cleaning for me…Yay!

The garden was growing really well until this week. During our evening walks and drives, we'd noticed a marked rise in the deer population (five in our yard, when we walked outside one day). I was almost heartbroken to find that the deer had been sampling (or rather devouring) my green beans, squash, and even onions. So we made a special trip to the store to purchase cayenne pepper to put on the plants. I'm also putting the hair from my hairbrush directly into the bunched-up leaves of the squash plants. We're also putting other stuff around the garden to try to keep them at bay. I realize that all God’s creatures need to eat and I am willing to share some, but not my entire garden. Charming says things will even out when deer season comes and we get some deer meat for our freezer.

I also continue to work on knitting/crocheting/spinning projects. My niece, Lisa, still keeps me supplied with a lot of yarn from the recycle shed at her county landfill. I try to come up with ideas to turn the yarn into usable and/or somewhat attractive items. I'm grateful to Lisa for thinking of me as it's saved me tons of money with not having to purchase yarn. She also recently found what looked to be a new blind hemming machine that just happened to be the same brand as my serger. This was a huge find as a new one costs $599. It did not have a cord/foot peddle with it, but the cord/foot peddle from my serger works perfectly with it! Lisa is a great forager and I'm so lucky to have her as my niece.

So as time goes marching on, we keep plugging away. Charming hopes to move before winter time…but I’m still not betting on that!