Indoor Plumbing!!

We returned last week from a much-needed break on Cape Cod.  I taught a photography class at a Leica Seminar in Eastham and we ate lobsters

and more lobsters

and more lobsters

and Wellfleet oysters at the Oyster Festival

and we took photos of water and skies and boats.

When we got back to the farm, we discovered that the plumbers and carpenters had been busy

 installing an indoor toilet!!

and an indoor shower

with HOT water!

We are living in luxury now.

It's a very messy luxury, though, because they also started sanding sheetrock.

Even with everything covered with plastic, there is no way to keep that fine dust 

from coating every surface.

I still have my outdoor kitchen.  Luckily, the weather has been unseasonably warm.

Donnie made the trim for the kitchen windows

and the guys installed it all at once.

Duke Power came yesterday and switched our power from temporary to permanent.  The county has now given us a CO - Certificate of Occupancy, which means we can legally live here (at least in the old part of the house.  The new part still has to pass inspection!)

The only things left in my garden are green tomatoes, cabbage, and peppers.

So I made chow-chow relish

and Jalepeno Jelly.

My new chickens have started laying eggs, but they're still very small compared to those from my old hens.  

Laura loves to carve pumpkins so she made two for the farm

and put them on the grape vine posts.

The moon is gorgeous in October.

Happy Halloween!!

Floors and Fireplaces

We've made considerable progress this week tearing my kitchen apart.  Someday we'll turn the corner and start putting things back together instead of making more of a mess!  My alfresco kitchen is still usable.

And it's a good thing because Donnie shot an 8 point buck and brought us the meat.  Tom had to saw the venison shoulder so it would fit in my crockpot - the only way I had to cook it.  It was delicious and we all ate it all week as roast, then barbecue, then chili!

My poor refrigerator is moved once more.

Now even the sink is outside!

The kitchen is almost ready for a new floor.

We found some heart of pine flooring recovered from an old cotton mill in Clinton, South Carolina, that Randy, the truck driver, had stored in his garage.

Randy and his son Richmond loaded it for us.

800 Square feet of lumber is a lot!

Steve is using a nailer to put down the tongue and groove boards.

It's going to look great!

Tom and Reese went to the woods to get another load of chimney rocks from the old stacks.

Steve, the brick mason, finished up the last chimney.

Evidently it takes a lot of supervision to build a chimney.

With the chimneys finished, the only thing left for the masons to do is face the basement fireplace with the recovered stones from the log cabin chimneys.  The hearthstone is a perfect fit.

Tom is sitting on the hearthstone where nobody has sat for over 100 years.

Two rocks are turned out for the mantle to rest on.

Steve finishes up the last grouting.

It's a one-of-a-kind fireplace!

The brick masons pose in front of their beautiful creation:

Tom, Steve, James and their helper, Reese

We hated to see them leave because they've been wonderful workers and great company.  Hopefully, they will be back soon to build stone steps for the front of the house.