Our First Farm Equipment Purchase

Meet the newest member of our farm family - the lawn/garden tractor. For anyone interested in the technical details, it's a Husqvarna YTH2454, with a Briggs & Stratton engine and a 54-inch mowing deck. It even has a built-in cup holder.

We purchased it from the people selling us the farm, who bought it just last year. It has about 100 hours on it, so it already knows the ropes. I can hardly wait to mow the lawn!

Tying Up Loose Ends

The past week we have been tying up loose ends, both literally and figuratively.

Cadence is threading ceramic beads onto cords and tying 2 adjustable knots to make 1000 bracelets. This has been an ambitious project. Sara and Cadence hand-formed the beads from clay. Then Sara underglazed and imprinted each with a leaf, fired the beads, overglazed, and fired again. Then Cadence lettered the word "RE-fest" on the back of each bead before stringing onto the cord. The bracelets will be sold at RE-fest and the proceeds used to plant trees in Austin, MN. (Six finished bracelets are stacked on Cadence's wrist in this photo.)

Rog and I have been busy every spare moment working on the figurative loose ends that go with selling our house and buying a farm. This week we accomplished all the things needed to satisfy our buyers after the inspection: installed a railing along the basement stairs, a deadbolt lock on the balcony door, and had the plumbing & heating guys put in a new water heater, metal dryer vent, new gas line valves and inspect the boiler. There has been a mountain of assorted forms to sign with the bank and realtor. And, of course, we have been gathering boxes, purging and packing, lining up moving trucks, arranging for disconnection and re-connection of utilities, figuring out internet provider, etc.

Oh my gosh --In two short weekends we move!

Gold Medal Tomato

This morning at the Farmer's Market we came across a beautiful, huge tomato for sale. It was a heritage variety called Gold Medal. When the farmer described how tasty it was on a grilled cheese sandwich, we succumbed.

When he weighed it, however, we were shocked at the price: $10.70! Rog bought it for me as an anniversary present and I cradled it carefully on the walk home. Cadence had an excellent idea: to save the seeds and grow them next spring. If I could grow and sell $10 tomatoes, that would surely help support Squash Blossom Farm.

Oh, the grilled cheese sandwich (with provolone, fresh basil and sourdough bread) was fabulous.

Sold! Sign

The dogs and I just returned from the dog park to see the SOLD sign had been installed in front of our house. Now that there is no turning back on selling our house, I have tears in my eyes. I hope, hope, hope this is the right decision... I am afraid I may be kind of emotionally fragile for a while.

Garage Sale

Cadence has been working very hard on our garage sale. I realize she doesn't look so industrious in this photo, but all the really hard work--sorting through shelves, closets and drawers, pricing, hauling stuff outside, setting up the sale, making and posting signs-- was done yesterday.

Now she is just waiting for the customers to flock in. And waiting. It hasn't been a very prosperous day--even though it is a gorgeous day for garage-saling. Thursday must be a tough day unless you have done newspaper advertising to alert the serious garage salers. We, being last-minute types, didn't do that. As you can see, she did do a lovely job setting up the sale.

We also don't really have that much especially desirable stuff left to sell, thanks to my past year of serious purging in anticipation of a possible move. I had concluded that garage sales are not worth all the effort- and now I just donate to my favorite thrift stores. But I was happy to let Cadence try to make a few bucks.

Once all our stuff was spread out on tables in the garage it looked a bit shabby and disjointed--which will make it all the easier to just donate it all to the Salvation Army. And just now Cadence came in and announced the sale is over (30 minutes early!)--and asked, can we start loading the leftovers into the car? Yes! So, I am outta here.