Simple Favorites & Life At Our Farmhouse (Nov. 2017)

While it’s not quite the end of November, I’m planning to take the rest of the week off to enjoy it with family so I thought I’d share my simple favorites for this month as well as some updates at our farmhouse.  Anyone else feel like this month just about flew by?

One of the biggest things we did this month was to take a Saturday to clean off our porch and pack everything away for the spring.  It’s always a little sad to put away the furniture for the winter.  Sad, in that the summer evenings of reading my book on our front porch at 7pm (when it’s still light out) are gone.  It’s also sad because it’s just a pain.  We have little storage here outside of our large barn and so while cleaning up the outside we made the decision to sell our backyard patio set.  If only, to not store it for the winter.

Our family had gifted us the patio set at our last home.  And while it was still in great shape, it just didn’t feel like it fit our new space.  Not to mention the fact that it was an elevated table and I constantly felt like it was going to blow over from the strong winds we get from on top of our home.  I listed it on Craigslist and a few days later received a full price offer.  Within hours it was gone, and our patio is feeling empty.

I’m thinking about picnic tables and a seating area – as well as a fire pit for next year.  You can purchase picnic table frames to build at Menards for very low price, and so we’re thinking we need two.  When my brother and his family come over we instantly need double the space.  We intended to do something this summer with the area, but time got away from us.

Speaking of things we wanted to get done this summer but didn’t…. our barn.  I wrote about how our goal this summer was to fix up our barn.   Well, we spent a few months getting estimates and talking to my brother about fixing it up.  It turns out that completely restoring the barn is WAY out of our budget.  As in, I need to win the lottery to justify the expense.

To top it off, the barn has started to deteriorate rapidly.  Most of the barn dates before the civil war, and without care over the last decade we’re now starting to pay the price.  It goes against everything in my nature to think about tearing it down.  Oh, the history!  But it’s not safe for the boys to roam around in it and we want to be able to preserve some of the wood for someone else to use.  We’ve started to talk to a few companies who are looking for old barns to take down to salvage the beams.  I’ll keep you posted on the process.  Right now the barn is a place of anxiety for me.  I feel like I’ve failed because we’re not able to fix it up.  It’s amazing how old it is and it was most likely my family members who built it.  But then I think about our house and have to rest in the fact we put our money into our home.  That has to be enough in terms of carrying it on for the next generation.  To be continued….

This past weekend was the last Amish auction in our area.  We’ve had quite a few Amish auctions this summer as many are retiring or leaving the area.  This summer I’ve purchased new dining room chairs, stock pots, enamelware and other fun finds at the auctions.  My husband says I’m addicted to the sales.  That may be, but I can’t turn down a great auction with ladies that sell homemade donuts for breakfast and chicken and noodles for lunch.  I go for the food.

I’m looking forward to more auctions next year as it is a great place to find antiques but also a wonderful place to get to know our Amish neighbors.  In fact one of them knows someone who takes down barns so he gave me his address.  I will write to him to get the information and hopefully we’ll start corresponding to see if it’s a good fit.  It’s kind of fun to go back in time where a letter is the only form of communication.

We found another bulk food store near the Amish Auction on Saturday and purchased a 10 pound block of chocolate for only $14.50.  We split it up amongst my family to make chocolate covered pretzels for Christmas.  Here’s my dad splitting it for us!  🙂

With Thanksgiving in just a few days I am looking forward to making pies with my nieces and enjoying time with family.  I think Thanksgiving has to be my most favorite holiday meal.  It’s all things that are delicious.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!