A bit of this and that

This #1
I have apple trees!

I went for a walk a few days ago when it was breezy and cool out (thus, fewer blackflies, deer flies and mosquitoes).  I wandered around on my farm a bit, trying to get to know what sorts of trees and plants I had present that I either liked, or didn't like.  For example, the Virginia creeper has got to go!  I was very pleased to locate at least 6 apple trees, all of which have a good crop of fruit coming.  You can enlarge the picture below to see lots of baby apples coming along!

I am guessing they are all quite old, and they have been neglected for quite some time, so a major pruning job will be necessary next year in the early spring before they break dormancy.  It will take a few years to get some of them into proper form, but I'm just glad to have them.  I hope they might be different varieties - hard to tell at this point, but for example, the one pictured below appears to be different from the first one based on the shape of the fruits.

That #2
The barn that had been earmarked for Lucky Nickel was subsequently found to be unsafe.  We determined that the boards were rotting so badly around the base that the entire thing was unstable.  Furthermore, one corner was being held up entirely by a large metal cabinet.  This led to Plan B, which was to work on another barn area for her.   A nice thing about this barn is that it is closer to the house than the one we had originally selected for her.

That work has been continuing and is approaching completion!  Here is Richard with his Dad last week - they worked hard on securing both the inside and the outside of the barn.

The plan is that Lucky Nickel will have her grand arrival on Friday evening!  I am sooooo excited to have her back!  I am sure she will want to do a blog post to tell everybody about her arrival!

This #3
I've been treated to some really lovely skies lately.  There have been a number of breathtaking sunsets, glorious views of the moon, and a really impressive rainbow at sunset.  I thought I'd share some of the images I've taken lately so that everybody could enjoy the skies I've seen.

Sunset over the big (collapsing) barn.

 Another sunset from the front view looking out towards the road.

 The beautiful moon over Lucky Nickel's originally earmarked barn, now earmarked for barn boards!

 Rainbow at sunset.

That #4
You may remember my trials and tribulations with my "new" kitchen from an earlier post.  We had been keeping an eye out for second hand cabinets that might work well for the space in an effort to re-do the kitchen at a low cost.  Richard noticed a truckload sale of cabinets at a building supply store that had been purchased for a building project that didn't go forward.  They were about 70% off their original cost, so we decided that given their value, we'd go ahead with new cabinets!  I am thrilled, to say the least.  But it gets better!  About a week later, Richard went back to the store to look for something else, and noticed that the price had dropped on the cabinets again!  We hadn't even picked up our order yet, so he took the receipt to the customer service desk and as a result, we saved another $586!  That money savings allowed us to also choose new flooring for the kitchen at the same time.  I am just so excited about having a kitchen that feels like it's "mine" rather than the existing cabinets, which are very shallow and difficult to use, not to mention the fact that they are damaged in places.  I'll also be able to get rid of some grungy metal shelving I was having to use for extra storage due to limited counter and cabinet space.  It's going to be great!  I'll wait for pictures until the project is underway!

This #5
I've been discovering new treasures as I continue working on the house and barns.  Recently, this has involved a lot of antique glass bottles, some of which are pretty colours, unusual shapes, or just lovely glass.  I've been cleaning them up and working on identifying some of them.  I'm hoping to have a display shelf at some point for some of my favourites.  Here are some of the interesting ones I've found so far.

This is a lovely dark green bottle known as a case gin bottle, probably from the late 1800s and maybe from Holland.

 An early "black glass" ale bottle from the late 1800s.

 Some old medicine bottles - one of "diastasic essense of pancreas" (ewwww!) and one from a local drugstore again from the late 1800s.

Stay tuned to hear from Lucky Nickel soon!  Maaaaaaaaaa!!!!