One Less Squirrel

With a new baby due any day,

(I know I have been saying this for two weeks, now)

(and at the time of this writing... Sunday evening... still no baby!)

we have been hesitant to make any plans that would take us very 

far from the farm.

(Not that there is much of anything to do during these Covid-19 days,

anyways...)

So, as with almost all weekends for the last 6 months,

we had a quiet weekend here at the farm.

And that is certainly not a complaint...

as the farm is my most favorite place in all the world!

We have been so enjoying Autumn this year...

the weather has been delightful!

We started our weekend with a picnic lunch with my Mom 

in our pavilion Friday afternoon.

Saturday we worked on making a new trail through the woods

that lie between our house and the picnic pavilion

(which is located near the barn).

There has been the beginning of a trail off the back of the pavilion

for several years.

It's one that Tyler named the Dragon Tree Trail...

and he spent many hours fighting dragons on that trail

as a little tyke.

I thought it would be fun to extend that trail the whole way through the woods

and back to the house.

Doing so required a little chainsaw work on some fallen trees,

and a little path creation... cleaning wild raspberry vines from the new trail.

I had anticipated this being a project we would work on throughout the winter,

but with Hubbs and I working together,

we had the trail finished by the end of Saturday morning.

The kids will have a wonderful time exploring this new area of the woods.

I plan to mark the trail with small paint dots on some of the trees,

so that I can teach the kids how to follow a trail in this way.

About a third of the way down the trail,

the woods open up into a clearing.

Hubbs placed a bench alongside the trail in this clearing.

It will make a wonderful spot to read or to meditate...

spending time in the woods is so serene.

Sunday morning I tackled a pantry clean-up.

I had noticed a couple of those tiny pantry bugs

in my pantry and wanted to make sure that I did not have an infestation.

(It seems like this is the time of year for those little buggers

who like to invade flour and other grains.)

I have found, over the years, that keeping flours and grains and pasta

and cereal in glass jars with screw lids helps to prevent this situation.

I removed everything from the pantry and inspected it closely,

then washed down all of the shelves.

A couple hours later... no more buggers and a very clean pantry.

We are soon about to begin a pantry up-date....

adding a few cabinets with doors on the bottom and some counter space...

with shelving above.

I'll share that project as it happens.

Sunday we went for a bike ride with the intent of enjoying the local

autumn foliage.  

By the time we returned home we had gone 18 miles.

The leaves are just beginning to turn,

and the landscape is already lovely.

It will be even better in a few weeks!

I love stopping to say hi to the critters we see along the way.

Upon returning home, I sat down at my sewing machine to work on 

October (Fall and Halloween) themed face masks,

when all of a sudden the power went out.

With everything dark in my sewing room, I headed out with the dogs

to do the afternoon chores instead.

(After first calling the power company to report the outage.)

Even though we have solar power, if there is a power outage we do not

produce power for our own usage... 

due to the fact that we do not store our power in battery form,

but rather use it and sell it back to the power company.

Hubbs joined us and we fed and watered the animals.

On the way home, strangely, Annie stopped and sniffed

when we got to the pole on our driveway that houses our transformer.

I wondered if she smelled something hot or burning there.

Later when the power company came to inspect the transformer,

I told him of Annie's behavior,

and he thanked her for the good clue...

telling me that at this time of year, squirrels tend to sit

on top of transformers eating nuts and can sometimes get into areas

that they shouldn't.... resulting in barbecued squirrel.

Sure enough, he found said squirrel down the hill in the woods a few feet 

from the utility pole.

Annie did, indeed, smell something!

Within a few minutes the electricity was back on and I was back

to sewing... in a world that had one less squirrel.

Sadly.

Today, Easton, 3, is spending a special day here on the farm with us.

His big sister, Mackenzie, is in kindergarten now, so she will not be coming.

Maybe today will be the day that baby Elijah makes his debut.

Regardless, our day is going to be filled with all sorts of adventure.