Guess I should change the title...

Well, now, since we don't live on the farm anymore, I guess I should change the title of my blog. I think my last entry was in August...Since then we've:

1) Sold the Farm (Late Sept.)

2) Found the most perfect house to rent & did so. (Oct.)
3) Moved (Nov 1st).

Oh! The weekend before we moved, we took a few days to go down to the beach & celebrate a friends wedding! We rented a house RIGHT. ON. THE. OCEAN. I managed to convince all of my best friends from high school- who came from places such as Oakland CA, Hawai'i and Japan- to all pile into one house together for a weekend reunion. It was a great way to forget the chaos that was about to ensue.

4) Hosted Thanksgiving for 16 of our friends & family members (Don't panic, Brian's a chef.)

The day before thanksgiving, my cat Tom was hit by a car. He didn't make it & it was one of the saddest things I've had to go through. I still miss him so much & still think I see him out of the corner of my eye every couple days or so. Who knows, maybe I am.

5) Had a host of house guests with barely a day between them from Thanksgiving til Christmas. I love all my friends & I love entertaining. I'm SO GLAD we're closer to town again where it's easier to convince people to visit & stay.

6) Then, of course there was the traveling across the great NC state between Christmas & new years.

Now that things are starting to calm down & I've been feeling more and more guilty about not updating my blog, I decided to take this quiet moment to do that; instead of writing Thank-you notes for all of my, and my son's fantastic Christmas gifts (Brian's on his own)!

I think I'll get around to doing this more often, but for now...this is the best I can do!

Hope Someone Wants to Love This Place as Much as We Do...

So, we've come to the unfortunate realization that we have to sell the farm & move closer to town. Being head chef extraordinaire to Tupelo Honey Cafe is taking up a lot of Brian's time & Jack is taking up a surprising (?!) amount of my time. We've weighed the pros and cons, crunched the numbers, called the people who could help & made the really tough decision to cut our losses (emotional & financial) and move back to Asheville.

http://www.century21.com/realestatelistings/Burnsville-NC-28714-640MonroeKingRoad-36129069

So now what? Well, find a real estate agent (check), slap a new coat of paint on 'er (check), fix all the stuff we could've lived with being broken- but are really happy to have fixed (check) and get rid of all our clutter (er, well, I'm still working on this one- it looks a lot better already though!!).

We're still planting a "garden" this year- already have tomatoes (over 200), bush beans, cukes, candy roaster squash, lots of greens & lettuces, pumpkins...the list goes on. We're hoping that the type of person who'd buy this place will be impressed with moving into a working farm with a working garden. And, if it comes to pass that we haven't sold by harvest time, we'll be pretty glad for the "extra" income.

We also plan to continue the "You-Pick Blueberry Farm" this year! So, come mid-July when ya'll get a hankerin' for some blueberries fresh off the bush, you know who to call!

I tell you, I hope I manage to ride out this manic phase I seem to be in 'till we get this farm sold. Keeping the house and farm in show-ready condition at all times might drive me insane. So far, it's been working out okay to vacuum twice (or more) a day, keep the "yard" mowed & weeded- have I mentioned this is an organic operation, so weeding means by hand or with weed-eater. No Round Up for this job! And plant the plants & keep them watered- what's up with no rain in the Cane River Hamlet this spring?? Truth be told, it's kinda nice- the place really does look great right now! I think I'm kind of feeding of my own energy. Lets just hope it lasts! Maybe blogging about all the impending change will be helpful.

Oh, and Jack's still just as cute as ever!

The Wildlife is Getting Wilder

Yesterday morning, Tom Kitten & I were lounging in bed, generally enjoying each other's company, when I heard a "distressed bird" sound coming from the kitchen/ living room area. Thinking"Oh crap, I don't want to have to go save some poor near-dead bird from whichever cat has lovingly brought it to me as a 'gift'..." I got up and went into the kitchen. Here I saw one cat sitting at the front door, which was open, staring up at a hummingbird that was desperately trying to get out. The cat looked at me as though he was thinking "Oh. Good. You're here, you can help me- knock that thing down here where I can reach it." Tom immediately ran over, glad that he'd been made aware of the situation before it got out of hand & soon enough I had an audience of about 3 kitties at my feet wondering why all I was doing was taking pictures of the thing! I opened the door & it flew off- seemingly uninjured. The cats didn't forgive me until their lack of short-term memory erased the event from their minds.

Now, the really weird thing is that the humming bird isn't the first small flying critter to end up in my house just this week. A couple of nights ago, Brian & I were watching TV when a huge shadow crossed over his head- at first we thought it was a giant moth. Quickly, we assertained that actually, it was a bat! We both jumped up to get a better look- and shoo it out- and in my excitement, I knocked over the glass of wine I was drinking- sending it acraoss the room to break into a million pieces. Cleaned that mess up, and the bat was still flying around & around in circles- not running into anything, but not getting out either! Our cat Blue actually had the thing for a second, but with the commotion of the glass getting kicked over, he let it go. It took a little while, but eventually Brian coaxed it out of the house with a pillow. I did manage to shoot this video & although its a bit grainy, I think it captures the feeling of the moment...Please note how close its coming to my head!

Highlights From Folly!

My aunt Casey and uncle Bob have (fairly) recently adopted a Chinese baby girl named Jen. We're pretty sure this was Jen's first look at the ocean and she had a great time! It was so much fun watching her run around on the beach playing with my cousin Jaimie's little boy, Carson! However, as much as Jen liked the ocean, she may have liked baby Jack even better (if I do say so myself!) Bob told me that while they were running an errand, Jen woke up in the car & started demanding the "Me-aby!!" (she has a little trouble with 'b;s') and got real mad when they tried to explain that they didn't have the baby. Apparently, this was unacceptable.

I didn't get any pictures of Jack having fun in the water. Mostly because it happened twice & was over as quickly as it started! I'd take him down to the veeerrry edge of the water to play in the sand-which he loved- and then a little water would splash him & he'd get all excited & start crawling towards the ocean. Well, we'd repeat this until the "waves" were big enough to splash over his legs & then it was sheer panic time! Carrying him out in our arms didn't cut it either- as soon as Brian or I would get past ankle deep, Jack would start climbing us! He did enjoy a couple of beach naps though. In the safety of his stroller.

This is a good representation of Jack & Carson's relationship throughout the week. Jack was totally engrossed with doing whatever Carson was (except for getting in the water). I think this is a great sign for the future. I'm sure they won't get into any trouble together. Ever.

I think maybe my favorite part of the trip was getting taken out to the Morris Island lighthouse on our friend's boat. Lisa- the boat owner- was telling us that it takes a good 3-4 trip out there with someone who knows where they're going before you can do it by yourself. The water is really shallow in a lot of places & there are a lot of twists & turns to make between the little islands. One of the coolest things about Folly Beach is that there's almost always dolphins out if you look hard enough. Our Morris Island Cruise was no exception!

Cool huh?

So, then on to the lighthouse. This lighthouse used to have it's very own island, complete with houses, cars, livestock & a ferry that went back and forth. Now most of the island is underwater. For all the years I've been going to Folly with my family my Dad & I have made at least one trip to the end of the island & looked at the lighthouse & plotted how to get to it. Finally made it! (What will the next goal be? A whole day with out having to leave the cottage at all?) In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have walked the whole way to the lighthouse on my newly-liberated ankle, but at the time I didn't even think about it! oh well.

By Day 5 Brian was pretty worn out. We all were. He and I rallied though & went out into the Folly River with some borrowed "sea" kayaks and played around for about an hour. The picture's foggy because I had the camera in the cooler & it was so hot when I took it out to take the picture the lens wouldn't unfog.

There was lots of Bocce Ball played this trip. I'd never played before. I think it's my new favorite sport! (Did you know that "bocce" is the italian word for "ball"?)

You can look at all the pictures from the trip on my Picasa Web Album!

Home Again!

Well, Brian & Jack survived their 1st McDonagh-Family Beach Trip! I think I speak for everyone there when I say that I had an amazingly good time, but have never been happier to sleep in my own bed!

I woke up this morning to 3 hampers full of clothes, a sink full of dishes & a fridge full of food that needs to be disposed of. Instead of dealing with all of this, I'm blogging! Hahaha...

Anyone who wants their very own prints of any of these pictures can click on "view my gallery" over on the left there under picasa photo stream. Once you get there you can get into the albums & click "order prints". It lets you choose which site you want to use to print them off & looks like it should be pretty easy! Yay!

My First Blog

Well, technically it isn't really my FIRST blog, but its the 1st one for this page.

Hopefully this will help people who aren't on facebook (who's not on facebook???) keep up with what's going on in my exciting life! :)

This is a picture of the baseball that Brian caught Jack at his 1st Tourist game! It was a great night out- Thirsty Thursday with Mommy in a cast, baby up waaayyy past his bedtime, and daddy, well, Daddy was carrying everything. We were all starting to get a little worn out in the 7th inning and a bit cranky (It didn't help that they cut off alcohol sales after the 7th inning stretch) and Brain & I were giving each other that "Do we throw in the towel now?" look. All of a sudden there was excitement in the crowd- which only means one thing at a Tourist game: FOUL BALL! We were sitting right behind home plate on the 3rd baseline and I figured "No way" but Brian watched it alllll the way up & then bounced off the roof and BACK down to right under a seat one section over from where we were! In a motion that has been described as "Cat-like" Brian leaped out of his chair and grabbed the ball! Jack was watching all of this with a renewed interest in life, it was like he knew this was all about him. When we handed him the ball, he was sure of it! Happy Baby! One of the ladies working as an usher at the stadium even came by & took a picture!