It's finally cold!

OK, so I know for most of you that the cold weather is just part of life...but this sucks. It has been in the 30's here at night. I know, I know, it's much colder everywhere else. You must understand though, cold weather down here is a gradual and brief experience. We all know it happens but are rarely prepared for it. Last week I had to put the AC on two nights in a row b/c it was still in the upper 70's. Oh well. At least with this cold weather it is now impossible to ignore the fact that Thanksgiving is just a week away and that X-mas is coming up soon. I'm still not sure what happened to the summer.

The good/bad/n ugly that comes along with the weather is that I am now able to see what trees need to come down on the back of my property. I may have mentioned that my house backs up onto what was decades ago a rail road. It was actually one of the first rail lines in the South that led to the development and later collapse of dozens of little towns throughout the South in the middle of nowhere. Once the trains were no more and the land just sat there for many years, the city/state finally dug up the old tracks and turned a few miles of this old rail line into a greenway. It is a very nice semi paved trail that leads through a few different neighborhoods. The dogs love running up and down as often as possible. Getting back to the point though, my fence runs along this path and the area b/w my fence and the path, or at least the part maintained by the city, was completely overgrown and filled with junk. Towards the end of the summer I started spraying some industrial strength round up in order to go in this winter and clear out the mess. Now that everything has died back I now have to start the dirty work. I'm not sure when exactly this will take place but I'm thinking sometime around x-mas break sounds good. I will then need to have cook out in order to burn all the dead wood. Sounds like a party!

OK enough rambling. See you all soon.

Constantly Playing Catch Up

Hey everyone,

Once again I just can't get used to paying attention to this thing. I love it in theory but can't seem to remember to keep up with it.
Life is going well down here. Work is busy and the house is coming along. Abby and I are constantly tweaking one thing or another.

As for everything else.. Mom and I had a good as could be expected trip out to Cali to see Molly. We for the most part left her alone as she was mainly interested in seeing us for meals and shopping. That was fine b/c it aloud Mom and I to drive up and down parts of the Pacific Coast Highway. This was really beautiful. We also spent a few hours walking around Disneyland one day. This was pretty much what we expected it to be. Totally worth the people watching.
Molly will not be coming to the Farm for Thanksgiving but she will come home for X-mas.

There is not really any interesting news from Charleston. Mom and Dad finally finished all the reconstruction on Mom's TV room / closet / bathroom. After more than six months of on again off again construction from a lousy handy man they finally found some guys that finished the job in a little over a month. The room's look great. She has a closet most of you woman would die for and a nice walk in shower. We all spent a good bit of Saturday moving furniture back into place thus making the house more presentable. They are now able to put guest up once again.

And as soon as I can find a nice small bed for my spare bedroom I will be ready for guest as well. If anyone has a daybed like frame they would like to get rid of let me know. Perhaps I could strap it to the top of my car over Thanksgiving and buy a new mattress at home.

OK, well I should get back to work. Hope all is well.
See you soon.

Life

Hello all! Sorry I have seriously been slacking off on the blog front. The end of the summer has been one thing after another and it just occurred to me last night that not only had I not been writing but I haven't been keep up on all of your lives.

It is so much fun to see all the pictures you are all taking of the now younger generation of the extended family. Hey, when did we all stop being the younger generation? I'm not sure if I am OK with that...

Quick Molly update; She is now working at a natural foods vegetable place. She was jobless for a while which caused some serious issues b/w her and my parents but I think all is well now. As we all know when she is good she is great and when she is bad she is awful. No middle ground with the Darling Angel. (What I have been calling her for years now) I don't think she gets that it is a joke but oh well.

As for the house, it is coming along. Each free weekend or evening I find myself trying to get one thing or another still put away. I still have one entire room filled with random junk that I am slowly going through. The weather is finally cooling down here so lately I have been trying to do a lot of yard work. Since I can remember my parents have always had yard people but some how I have found a love for working in the yard. I know many of you love living in the big cities but I honestly don't think I could live without a yard. This year I was not so good about vegetables as I normally am but I still managed to get a few tomatoes and as always some green peppers and chili peppers. About a year ago I purchase a lime, lemon and orange tree. The orange tree struggled for life but is doing well. No oranges yet but I expect some next year. I luckily had a few limes but only one measly lemon. The lime tree is a must down here in the summer time. Saves a lot of money while drinking those gin and tonics all season long.

OK well I've rambled on long enough. As always I will try to get better at this. Hope everyone is doing well. Have a good weekend.

The Past Several Weeks

OK, I know I haven't been keeping up with this so here goes.

First, the house is coming along quite well. It is not surprising but it seems to be an never ending process moving into the house and getting it all set up. I had my first successful party at the house back over my birthday weekend at the begining of August. It was a joint bday for Abigail and myself but it all went pretty well. The house is very comfortable, at least when the AC is working, and as soon as I convince myself to start throwing stuff away it will one day all be organized. There is of course constant tweaking or numerous aspects of the house. I find myself thinking all the time about how I could use the small space I have to my best advantage.
The next phase of the house will be to focuss my effort outside. I have been scattering my plants all around and getting them in the ground. Much of my yard is under water after a good rain so I am going to have to do some fill and then leveling in order to not be wet all the time. I am thinking of some type of cement pation with a tin roof canopy coming out from the house. Once that is all in place I will set up some sort of outdoor kitchen area along with the always present grill etc. I will also be adding an outdoor fireplace to try and make the patio a year round option. All of this will happen slowly over the next few months. I hope to have it all in place by next spring so I will be able to enjoy the fruits of all this damn labor.

Let's see, what else is going on... Molly is doing well. Mom and I are going out there over Halloween, so I am really excited about that. I think Molly is once again not really liking where she is but she is more than aware that she has to stay in some type of program. Luckily she really has not been resistant to much of that.

Much of August flew by. Between work and the house it seems like summer just started. This past weekend Abigail and I joined my parents up in the mountains for a few days. It was really nice and relaxing. While it is still hot and miserable in Charleston, it is in the low 70's up at the Mt. house and in the low 80's in Asheville. We were delighted with the weather. I can't wait to be able to open up my windows at home and turn off the A/C. Oh that reminds me.. I still need screens for my windows. Ah, yet another thing to add to my list.

Ok well back to work. I hope all is well out there with everyone. Talk to you soon.

Moving In

Well the floors are done and the fence is up. I didn't not end up being able to put in any of the flooring I wanted but oh well. I have some nice laminite on one side of the house and then some carpet in the bedrooms. With some wonderful help from Dad last night we were able to unload the PODS, portable on demand storage unit, and then fill up the house will all my stuff. I really have more stuff than anyone my age should have. I have not moved myself in yet b/c I still don't have a kitchen. I will work on that next week after the wedding. But past that it is all ready. Oh and I desperatley need blinds/curtains and then I'll be good to go. Ok well I know this is short but i've got to run. Will try and develop pictures for everyone to see this weekend.

Construction

Yesterday I started scrapping the ceilings in the house.

OUCH! I don't recomend this to anyone. It make look great later but my body is in more pain today than ever before. And lucky me still has one side of the house left... Oh boy!

Floor guys are coming today to tell me when they can start. Hopefully soon. I'm ready to move it. I'm totally over the construction/cleaning process and am ready for the moving in part.

Slowly Moving Forward

So I just about have all the tile up. I ripped out the kitchen the other night. The AC was finally installed but seems not to be working properly. I along with Kate's brother Nick, who is my go to guy for construction, have met with numerous people about flooring and we think we should be able to have someone in there on Monday. We hope!
I have the wonderful task of scrapping the ceiling in the next day or two. Let me just tell you how excited I am about that. Then over the weekend I will paint and then just be waiting for the floors. I have decided to do a little kitchen remodeling but that should not take long. Just getting a friend to move some water lines. There's almost 3ft of crawl space under the house so that should not be difficult.
I know I still haven't put up all the pictures. I'm working on it.