A Month on the farm

Thursday 19 Nov.     We have been here now for just over a month and hope to be heading south in another month.  The weeks seem to go buy so fast especially with it getting dark at 5pm. Now we are trying to keep in mind we must keep the motor home in shape for travel. As Diane walked out of house she noticed some hanging from the Moho.  It was a muffler clamp, a big muffler clamp, a $176.00 muffler clamp which is now on order.

Coyote on the hill top!!

 

Things are moving along at about half the pace we thought they would.   We finally found some one to mow the hay fields after visiting the Farm Service Agency in Wellsboro on Oct 28, writing  them a letter for permission, they responded, three attempts to contact our neighbor to rent their tractor(no luck), half a dozen other contacts and phone calls and then waiting for three days of dry weather.  And yesterday the fields were mowed three and half weeks after we started.  Other things have been smoother Sunday we drove to Mechanicsburg rented a U-Haul truck, cleaned out our storage unit and drove back Sunday night.  Phew, that was a long day we returned around 8pm parked the truck ate a snack and went to bed.  Unloaded the stuff on Monday and it  was a little like Christmas finding all kinds of things we forgot about.  We returned the truck on Tuesday after stopping for breakfast at the newly opened restaurant in Little Marsh(yes that it correct, a

Truck is unloaded!!

restaurant in Little Marsh) and food was good.   We are sorting and putting things away as we clean cupboards.  The garage is still a mess with boxes just sitting around every where.

 

Diane has the range cleaned, the refrigerator is almost done it would have been done except we found some mold up in the ice and water dispenser so we watched a couple of videos on you tube and then tore it completely apart.  If all goes well and we remember how to put it all back together we will be done with that tomorrow.  Other things are going well we stopped a antique/junk store and ended buying a set of dishes identical to the ones we sold.  And just last night Diane had the high bid on a set of flatware from an online auction.  We picked up some additional coffee cups at the thrift store only to find a set of eight in the first box we unpacked.

 

Refrigerator parts,
scrubbed and ready to go.....
Just need to finish the part
where it connects to the
refrigerator.




On the fun side of things I hunted the last week of archery season but didn't see a deer.  We have been moving are trail cameras around but aren't having much luck.  We saw the bear of course and this week captured a picture of a coyote.  Gray(the trapper)  trapped a huge male coyote last Thursday, he guesses it will be close to fifty pounds.  We have been riding around the farm trying to decide where to hunt for bear and deer but haven't yet found the perfect spots.  Did you notice riding around the farm,  Diane insisted we couldn't "work " on the farm without means to traverse the hills so she bought a 4-wheeler.  I use from time to time to haul firewood and other work related jobs.   (I think it was Brad who insisted 'you can't have 150 acres without a 4-wheeler to get around')!!

Brad, Diane and Rudy

The new toy,
Rudy thinks he wants a ride!!

 



A Week at the Farm

Friday October 6     

What a beautiful  week of weather.  We have made a lot of progress getting the farm back in order.  We had the chimney cleaned on Friday (30 Oct.) the only morning we had rain.  Fortunately the rain stopped just as he arrived. The chimney sweep was a professional, a skinny old guy must have been 70, he walked with a bad limp like he has fallen from several chimneys and yes he had the tall black top hat.  As he climbed the latter with his brushes and top hat he looked like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.  While he cleaned the chimney Diane was down getting the car inspected as the inspection ran out on the 31st.



Taking the portable
tree stand to the woods!!

     Back to making progress we have had the septic pumped, electric changed over, ironed out a deal for propane(bought the tank),  picked up two cord of fire wood, ordered parts and fixed the UV lite, ordered more parts and fixed the washer, ordered air filters for the furnace and water filters. 

     We have been busy outside as well. Diane thinned out most of the flower beds and severally thinned the out of control lilac trees.  We cut down two diseased  white pines and pulled out several dead small blue spruce along he driveway.  But as we worked around the house we must carry all the debris by hand to a burn pile or in buckets to the bottom of the hill. We now have little piles of stuff all around the yard.  We will have to figure something out. And my personal favorite job, we mowed  the entire yard with a 22 inch push mower.

    As I mentioned the weather has been great, afternoon temps in the 70's and low's in 40's.  We've been walking around the farm and hung two cameras out to find out what for wild life is running around.  At first we checked the cameras every other day, then every third and now every once in a while.  Had a picture of a bear's butt and a blurry one of a nice buck.  Some of the walks are getting to be a chore walking the food scrapes up the hill, walking to get the mail and walking buckets of ash

The Yard is looking good!!

down the hill. 

      It is still a very emotional time as we sort through our feelings about the farm.  Some things we just love and other you just hate and mostly you're just not sure about. There is no doubt this is a beautiful place the three red maples in the yard have turn this week and were just lovely.

       However, we have had breakfast and dinner on the grill for the past three or four days and enjoying the sunsets which have been just beautiful.  Just a little story about grilling this week. Each morning when I walked Rudy I noticed the grease pan under the grill had been cleaned out and small paw prints on our chair and

Not the best picture, but they
are here!!

chair backs.  We are thinking  squirrel, coon or maybe a skunk.  Soooo last night(dark 7pm) as we were enjoying our second glass of wine, grilling a ham steak in the dark, and with Rudy by our side out from under camper and right over to the grill comes a big black.......cat.  Well let me tell you that you never seen an old fart jump so high or run that fast and our "guard" dog never even saw the kitty until after it ran off.   More wine for one and all.  I almost forgot, we did see 3 bear about 10:00 Thursday morning.  They were just walking the hill side, picking and eating....not to excited about anything.


Brad, Diane and Rudy