Thanksgiving Cleanup

Mild temperatures and an ambitious brother-in-law meant the opportunity to continue the cleanup of Cedar trees in the rear of the property. With loppers, hatchet, and ax in hand for a few hours we managed to clear out approximately 100 Cedars that were choking out native grasses and flowers. Even the boys got involved dragging the trees to piles.

The trees will likely winter in the piles and dry out, then come early Spring when the opportunity arises we will burn them. I'll also have to decide how many of the larger Cedars closer to the house I want to remove and establish a plan to regularly remove new growth cedars as they are sure to grow given established trees exist on neighboring properties. All for a better prairie!

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Woodworking: Finished Bedroom Set

It has been done for awhile, but I realized the finished master bedroom set that my wife & I worked on was never posted. I have a prior post which discussed the bed frame and headboard, but since then we added on two Ikea bedside tables which were finished to match. A great start to a few of the master suite refinishing plans we have! Take a look and let us know what you think...

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Mid-November...

It may only be mid-November, but since Halloween has passed and the Fall decorations are already on the downward slide to be removed post-Thanksgiving my wife decided that the Christmas tree can be assembled. The fact that we have an entire family room separate from the living room that allows us much more space may be a large contributing factor too. Our previous home required us to remove a piece of furniture from the living room to have the tree up.

The boys also had to trek outside after dark to watch the combine harvest up beans across the road. Even in the dark and a bit chilly wouldn't stop these boys from watching some big machines.

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Throwing Leaves...

With a fantastic Fall day the youngest boy enjoyed some time outdoors this morning playing in the leaves. With our abundance of trees in the yard the boys finally have some they can play in; Our prior home had two sad Maples that didn't provide much in the way of Fall leaves. Little things that you can take for granted, and that provide such simple joy.

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Fall Sunset & Our 'New' Truck!

A couple of weekends ago we made a quick trek up to Iowa to make a big purchase, our first truck! It isn't anything special, but it will be great to have at least one 4WD vehicle as we head into winter in the country and the hauling capacity will be much improved for our projects. Here she sits in our yard:

And while we are enjoying some beautiful sites (haha!) here is a look at tonight's sunset near the pond:

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Halloween Costumes

My wife Alyssa loves the opportunity to use her crafting skills and creative ideas. Halloween has become one such opportunity to get the entire family into an ensemble of costumes, and the planning comes plenty early as she is already talking about 2017 ideas. For this year we played on the "Bee Movie" that all three of the boys have been stuck on watching, and the concept that my wife considers herself the queen bee of the household being the only female. So our costumes consisted of the three boys being bees, in homemade tie dyed shirts, my wife being a queen bee, complete with crown, and myself as a bee catcher in full suit and all. Needless to say it was a hit with many folks offering up compliments to us at the town parade and trick or treating. We also ventured to "Boo at the Zoo" in Topeka and got a bit more tham we bargained for being interviewed by WIBW, the local CBS affiliate in Topeka.

You can view the story (and video if available) here: http://www.wibw.com/content/news/Topeka-Zoos-spookiest-event-of-the-year-returns-398065441.html

Our family prior to the Mayetta, Kansas Halloween parade:

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