Farmhouse News

 

Dear Neglected Bloggers:

As I sheepishly crawl back to my blog, I'm hoping that you'll remember that Mr. C. and I have been occupied working on renovating two houses, one in Dallas and the other in Wausau over the past year and a half. We're too old for this monkey business, but you do what you have to do, right? Actually, the Wausau house is the one you've most recently heard about here on the blog, because we finished the apartment part of the house and moved into it. I love it! (That project was shown and explained in a previous post, but it's still my best excuse for not showing up until now.)

 

Back at the Wausau house, I took a few photos of the backyard in the early morning today, when the light was streaming in. I don't know the name of the plant with the huge leaves in that beam of light . Each set of leaves is nearly 2' across. They're beautiful. I know, I'll look it up. In the foreground are a few Dragon Wing begonias. They're a favorite of mine because they're so bright, beautiful, and not messy like some other begonias, but they're definitely feeling the stress of the 88 degrees.

 

I strung some little white lights inside the gazebo this forenoon, but since it's not yet dark, I won't have a photo of how that looks. The branches you see in the background of this photo represent another job we'll have to do, maybe this fall.

 

During the recent the full moon, we took a walk through the cemetery. It's pretty and surprisingly quiet. ;-)  The rest of the neighborhood was pretty noisy with private fireworks, because the city fireworks had been cancelled. I hope no one's missing any fingers today.

NEWS ON THE FARMHOUSE: We've Accepted An Offer To Purchase!

In this kind of strange economic climate, it's a little scary to put your property on the market. But God brought exactly the kind of people we were praying for and in one month. We are thrilled. They are a young Christian couple in their 30s with three little girls, ages 7, 8, and 10. They told us later that the moment they stepped into our house, they knew they couldn't pass this one up. And when they saw the map, the chalkboard, and the gazillion library shelves, they were so excited. They are readers, have books to fill those shelves, and have been contemplating homeschooling. Well there you go! It was fun to see the kids on the tree swing and running around the yard and looking forward to sledding on the hill in the winter months. I can't believe I even wrote that W word. :-(((

A view from the front porch:

 

Early morning light on the farmhouse porch

Back at the Wausau house, the little granddaughter had asked me to put braids in her hair. Mr. C. snapped this pic of the two of us, me still in my robe and looking so much like my Grandma Nelson! Good grief! At least I really liked her. The notch out of my robe is a sweet reminder of the grandpup
(RIP) . She only did it because I had a bad habit of carrying dog treats in my pockets. But that chunk taken out is no reason to throw out a perfectly good robe, right?. LOL

By the glow of the iPad

A little daughter born to our youngest son's family -  Our 12th grandchild!

And a couple weeks later, our second GREAT grandchild was born.

I don't have their family photo at this time.

We spent Father's Day weekend at our son's home in

New Ulm, Minnesota. What a fun family and fun place!

Fred and Glenn 

Glenn is the one who sent me the video thank you a bit ago.

Hint: Glenn is not the goat.

Back in Wausau:

 City Campfire

Country Campfire

:-))

We won't have many more opportunities to sit on that farmhouse front porch and look out at the amazing views, but I am so grateful that God sent the perfect buyer -  a young couple to whom I'm ready and willing to pass on the baton. I know they are a family who will truly love and care for this home, and will make a lot of good memories there. I hope they'll keep the star. We'll see. I told them that it reminded me of the Bethlehem star, and we leave it on all the time for passersby at night. I think it's such a warm spot of cheer and hope in the dark night.  (I made another star that we leave on, day and night, for the front of the Wausau house.)

(sneaky Mr. C. took this one)

Vespers in the Gazebo

during this time of social distancing.

zionlutheranwausau (Facebook) 

Zion has a great schedule of morning and evening prayer, Bible studies, and music at the middle of the day. Check out their facebook page.

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post anything. And I expect that the next few months will be just as overwhelming. Besides getting ready for the closing on the farmhouse, in Wisconsin we try to cram everything into June, July, and August, because after that it's a very fast downhill slide into WINTER, which is incredibly cold and lasts FOREVER.

Have a wonderful Tuesday, everyone. Thanks for stopping in.

Join me on Instagram: @cranberrymorning

via

 

Wednesday Wanderings

 This time I didn't ask permission to post her photo.
I mean really, it could be any little girl, right?
Or any little boy with long hair, right?
And she's checking out the backyard, watching
Mr. Chippy, who is probably confused by the new snow.
He loves to scamper along the stream-bed rocks.

 My coffee tables, besides the tool chest,
are antique boxes that I've collected over the years.
They're sturdy and work well.
When it gets a bit warmer out,
we'll have lunches in the gazebo!

 The city snow had become dirty,
so it was actually nice to see a fresh layer and
frost on the front yard trees.
I can hardly believe that I'm having welcoming thoughts about snow.

 Her last words to me before she left for school this morning:
'Don't mess with my ant city, Gramma.'
Like I had plans to do so??
Yesterday, before there was the new snow,
there was no snow in this area of the yard and she
built an 'ant city.'
When the weather gets warmer, I hope they appreciate the little bridges.

 We don't get very far with putting all the books away.
We need them to be accessible!

Left: books about Italy
Middle: children's books
Right: The Liturgical Year, my mom's Bible, and
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
(and view toward the foyer of the Wausau house)

Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone.

Join me on Instagram:

@cranberrymorning

Judy

More Wausau House Photos

 Antique accordion from our oldest son years ago
Antique Wisconsin license plate
Photo of Woodside School, where I attended in grades 1 and 2
Photo of the Blueberry train, given to me by my friend Deb
Large photo I took of a building in York, UK

Good morning from Wausau, WI !!

When you enter the front door of the Wausau house, you step into a large open foyer with an open stairway to the second story (our daughter's 3 bedrooms and bathroom), or you can walk to the left (our daughter's large kitchen, laundry, family room with window seat, den)

OR you can turn right into our living room, which by some stroke of fleeting brilliance, I claimed back in March of 2019. I wanted it to be a Common Room, but needed a place to put the oak library table and chairs and the hutch (not to mention the portion of a gazillion books which moved with us). 

 The library table is a great place to play games, work on art projects, and put together jigsaw puzzles with the grandkids. I store games and puzzles in the bottom part of the hutch. BTW, the hutch was originally built into the farmhouse in Dallas, but shortly after we moved there (more than 33 years ago), we took out the hutch, took it to someone who would strip all the paint off it, and placed it in our new kitchen.

Remember it here at the farmhouse? (above)


Well now it's in the Common Room at the Wausau house (below).

 Notice the books on Italy, which our other daughter asked me to look through and see where we should visit this fall, where we had tentative plans to visit, especially northern Italy. With the whole country in lockdown because of the COVID-19 virus, we'll probably be staying right here.

 The old sewing machine drawers were
from an Amish friend near Westby, WI

The old trunk came from Norway in the 1880s. It was in one of the outbuildings on the farm when we bought it a few decades ago. No one in the family wanted it. I've always loved it. When the light is just right, you can see that it was shipped to Monona, then Menomonie. When you open the lid, which is hinged in the middle, you see a drawer in the inside top. It was a tool chest, I guess. I use it to store warm, fuzzy blankets to use on chilly evenings.

Looking out the windows toward the large backyard woods.
This is where I have my morning coffee and devotions.
 It's also a great place to spend the time before the grandkids head off to school, for they often come in here and catch us up on the latest.

 View to the south and a couple houseplants that didn't do too well this winter.
My Christmas cactus was doing great until I put a galvanized pan under it to use as a plant tray. I've never had trouble raising my succulents, but I'm convinced that the pan poisoned my poor little plant. I feel so guilty.

P.S. The carpet is not pink, but kind of tan. The sofa and loveseat are both tan/gold/brown. We're all going to get a lot of use out of this room.

***

Don't forget to stop in at my Etsy Shop
and stock up on natural, vegan soap.
Eight bars for only $20. 
Check it out!

***

And something I found on Instagram this morning:

Have a beautiful Tuesday. I'm thanking God for the many blessings in my life.

Thanks for stopping in today!

Join me on Instagram: @cranberrymorning

Judy

Checking in on Wednesday

One of many large rocks in our backyard

Hi there!  I'm sure everyone is dying to hear what's happening in Wausau, right?** (Huh? What's a Wausau???)

Anyway...

We had a landscaper come out here to advise us regarding the huge pond/waterfall project that is in our backyard at the Wausau house. After listening to a couple hours of advice which was mostly suggesting coming up with a plan to completely take out all the rock and pond and make it into mowable backyard, we decided that we might not care to pay for future advice. We love all this rock and the less lawn to mow, the better. That is one thing Mr. C and I agree on. (The only one.) Just kidding.

First day of Fall

The back of the house
(Try to ignore the black temporary drain tile.)
This house is on a hillside, and we've been hearing from everyone in town that this was the worst ever year for water getting into basements. Wausau had a big rain on ground that was frozen solid, so it had nowhere to go, so...   BUT, we're getting gutter and draining away from the house, even with this temporary fix until we can get around to doing the permanent fix. I know, it's a boring and long story.

The sun peeking into our backyard.

My St. Francis statue looked a little lonely, so I cheered it up with the beautiful necklace Mr. C. bought for me. Of course, that was just for a minute in order to get the photo op.

Donna does beautiful work. She can be found in our tiny village of Dallas, WI making jewelry and also collaborating with Kim Losse Pottery. I'm not on Facebook, but Donna is, so you can find her there, or go on Instagram to see what she's up to. @donnacmillard

The weather has been cooperating so that we can still take lunch or dinner out to the gazebo. I swept this walk a couple days before the photo. I'm pretty sure we're going to need a leaf blower here. Good thing Mr. C. has about 3 of them in his work shop. (I think he has 3 of everything.)

 Someone asked about seeing the front of the house, so here it is.

"Rockapulco" impatiens, still going strong

It was so fun to find this box of gluten-free chocolate chip cookies in the freezer. I believe in LOTS of chocolate chips. Otherwise, what's the point, right??

Last but not least,
two of the sweet ladies that greet us when we walk along Fifth Avenue.
I never tire of these creatures. Imagine what a boring world it would be if God had just placed us on a planet with asphalt and no trees, birds, cows, streams, woods, etc. How can our hearts not overflow with praise to Him for his love and generosity!

I hope you've all had a wonderful Wednesday.

Oh wait! I forgot to tell you that our daughter and I went to see the Downton Abbey Movie while Mr. C. stayed with the kids, having a movie and popcorn night at home.

 Very Art Deco

 We got a great deal on the tickets, because evidently tickets on Tuesdays are a much better price. The seating was all large recliners (actually HUGE recliners) and there was an extra-large screen for viewing. Of course we had the mandatory popcorn and Mike and Ike while watching the movie.

So, about the movie: The brilliant Julian Fellowes did not disappoint. He gives his characters such great and clever lines. So much fun. As always, Mary was beautiful, Edith was Edith, Mr. Moseley was a delight of embarrassment, and Mr. Carson was the rock. All the costuming was gorgeous, and the parade through the village was brilliant. If you know what King George V and Queen Mary looked like (as I do - from photos, not from personal acquaintance mind you), you could squint and imagine that these actors were the royal couple. Julian Fellowes managed to tie up all the loose ends very nicely indeed, so that there is no need for a sequel. Although fun to see Downton Abbey on the big screen, the story wasn't any better than any of the others, in my opinion, but then I loved all of them, except for the dead Sybil and dead Matthew episodes. 

It was definitely worth the money and effort to get to the movie theater for another Crawley Family Fix. And so fun to share the experience with our daughter.

Have a great evening, everyone.

**We've now got all the floor tile laid and are ready for walls. But now we have to do some things back at the Dallas house. Are you getting confused? Don't worry. So are we.

Join me on Instagram: @cranberrymorning

Judy