What happened in October

Well, Oct is nearly over so I'll try to make this a quick overview of the month. Jon's workload - client load - has finally slowed down.

My Dad and Ann came for a visit. They did a couple weeks driving tour of VT, MA, NH and ME. The first day they were here it rained all day, so we stayed in a played games, showed off the inside of the house. Dad was able to move up Diane's clothes hanger in her closet for her. Jon just hadn't had the time. The second day we went into Belfast and did a walking tour of the stores.

We found the local game store has an after school program open to anyone wanting to play non-electronic games. They have a meal and snacks available from 2-6 on school day. I'm not sure what the hours are on the weekends, but I know its adults only on Sun.

We also found out that the first Sat Dec is the big sale time. They open early for 30% everything in the stores. We were told to make a list a each store of what we want, so we can get in and out quickly and hit them all. At regular opening time it drops to 10% off.

Then we went to the fall festival, but that just turned out to be the Lions Club fall yard sale. We came back to the house, showed off the outside of our new place - slightly soggy, but not raining. Jon and Dad put in our new composter. Then we played more games.

Their last day they helped us unpack boxes - we got through nearly 30 with so many hands. Diane was thrilled as we found a bunch of her old computer games. And even more thrilled when she found out they played on one of our computers.

While they were here Dad suggested that we get some straw bales to put around the bottom of the mudroom to help keep it warmer this winter. Eventually we will close it in, but here's how it looks at the moment.

Since then, we went with our realtor and her daughter apple and pumpkin picking. It's a great place with a corn maze and hay rides as well.


As you can see from the picture at the top, she found a huge one again this year. It was big enough that we carved 3 pictures on it.



But now for our two bits of exciting news!

First, some investments that Jon had with one of his clients finally paid off - well part of it anyway. So we have decided to get our hot tub early. In order to do that, we have to prepare a pad for it to sit on and a walkway to it.


Our second bit of exciting news is we auditioned for parts in the community theater production of The Emperor's New Clothes - the musical. All of us will be in the show. Diane will be the young girl who "reveals the truth". I play Woman 1 who defends her husband (who is not in the play). And Jon plays Man who insults my husband.

Rehearsals started last night and will go until the end of Nov. The play runs 10 performances in very late Nov early Dec.

Welcome to Bunchberry Cottage

Hello and welcome to Bunchberry Cottage.

We took possession of our new home on Sept 7, 2007. In order to keep friends and family up today on all the changes going on, we are going to try and keep a blog going.

First off, the name of our new home - we have not definitely decided to call it Bunchberry Cottage. First we have to wait and see if we have any bunchberries. We won't know until around April, but we think we spotted a few plants, so we are hopeful. Otherwise, we will have to go bushwhacking and see if we can find some to transplant, since you can't buy them in stores.

Now on to home life - our first month in the cottage was fully of the usual activity. Unpacking, unpacking, and unpacking. Within a week of our furniture arriving, so did one of the cats from the previous owners. They had warned us that one of their Mainecoons was on walkabout, and would we please catch it and return it to them.

So when it showed up at the back door, we did our best to catch it. Diane opened the back door and in it came. That was the easy part. Getting arrangements made to send it to it's new home was a bit trickier. For a few days we had a monster in the basement - or at least that's what our cats referred to it as. Meanwhile the cat sat at the top of the stairs explaining over and over that it did have full house privileges. It never seemed to notice that we weren't its owners.

After the Mainecoon went to its layover home on its way join it's family, we found out that it was their cat, but not the cat they told us about. Seems they had two cats on walkabout.

The following week we left for Florida for business and play. When we returned home, we were met by the second Mainecoon cat. He was as easy to catch as the first. We got out of the car and he laid down to have his tummy rub. So we had the second monster in the basement. He also didn't seem to notice that we weren't his owners. Same arrangements were made and soon this cat was off to join his buddy.

This time around Freya (our female Siamese) had a fit. We think she finally had too much stress - with the move, our leaving her, the two extra cats. She's nearly 16.5 years old and she doesn't cope with stress very well. It took several weeks, but we think we have her leveled out again.

And that brings us into Oct....