It's Been Awhile...

...but now that the bulk of all renos are complete, we're back to some semblance of normalcy. Gardens needed weeding, hoeing, deadheading, and belive it or not ...watering! Although the bulk of the summer was wet and cold, late August and all this month have been more like summer - hot and dry.
And now is the time for transplanting, tilling, mulching etc...etc...

We spent 10 days in Ontario, partly to celebrate my parents' diamond anniversary (60 years). The entire family - 28 of us! all stayed at the various cottages in Ipperwash for the weekend festivities. I stayed for an extra week to spend time with my kids and parents and old cottage friends. Though the weather was not so "beach-y" the visit was great.

it should be noted that getting a pic of this group is akin to herding cats

...but we do love a party!


The shingles on the barn are now finished and match those on the house (Jerome is toooo happy!) as well the downstairs is insulated and a full wall of deep shelves to store stuff that would usually find itself in a basement (we have a cellar - very different from a basement!)
The upper floor, which started out being finished as a place for Jim to go and do whatever he does (lots of books and binders etc) or what is quaintly referred to here as a "man-cave" is also insulated, electrified, dry walled and painted. The south wall was supposed to have a large window, but the banker found a great deal on a 5' patio door instead...

Steve, Shawn and Rob working on the cave

and well...Jerome did such a bang up job on the finishing and lighting and paint colour...it's now designated too nice for a man cave but rather a "studio" or "wo-man cave"!
Therefore last week, we invited a few people to a Low Country Boil dinner, cold wine and beer and some honky-tonkin' bluegrass.

a VERY informal dinner!

and a bit of confusion over how to attack the food!


but...we all managed to chow down



Thus the demise and passing of the room's delegation was duly noted by the men(and Dorain) wearing black arm bands. (sigh)...


...and the gals (and Todd) dancin' ...

...and yogain'!




This is a pic of a swarm of bees that landed in an apple tree.

After countless calls to other beekeepers in the area, I finally located and empty hive (1 hour away) that I could borrow in an attempt to capture them and give them a home for the winter.
Unfortunately by the time I got back they had left. But the good karma was in the attempt!

Now...back to the farming and prepping for winter!