Abandonment

It's that time of year when abandonment is the theme of life.  The annual squirrel hunt is an abandonment of civilized life as we know it...at least some of the finer trappings of civilized life.  The weather was gorgeous for camping; cool in the morning and pleasant in the afternoon.

We found our traditional campsite abandoned on our Thursday arrival, which was great and allowed us free reign to situate the compound.

We also abandoned comfy beds and sturdy shelter as we got back to nature.

The menfolk gathered and quickly abandoned the grind of daily obligations for anticipated squirrel hunt activities.

One of the traditions was that the old ladies would send some baked goodies out to the woods with the hunters.  The old ladies are all gone now, and I had to delicately request Denise to fill the void; she did so admirably, and it was much appreciated. That's one tradition that I am glad was not abandoned.





Some of us even abandoned our pants.

...and after another 8 weeks (or more) has passed, I'll try to conclude this post.

When I returned from the squirrel hunt, I abandoned my clean up chores and left the truck and trailer out back until the next day.  I was on the porch that evening and heard something investigating the trash bag in the trailer.  Turned out it was Roux's nemesis from a month earlier.  A shot off of the porch took care of the critter, but it ran under my shed before abandoning its earthly existence.  I had a little nasty shovel work the next morning.



The weekend before Halloween turned up another abandonment...Roux discovered this beneath the house on a rainy Sunday morning.

Well we didn't want another dog, but what do you do with an abandoned puppy?  We found out that someone had dumped a litter of 4 the day before - they were staying together, but evidently got separated overnight.  None of the other pups showed up in the neighborhood, so this one was the survivor of whatever calamity befell them.  We started the process of finding her a good home, but in the meantime, we let Roux be the babysitter.

At least it kept the puppy quiet at night.  Roux also had evidently instructed her on the fine art of watching for critters.

Well, after 3 weeks we finally found her a good home through a local who has a wide network of adoptive agencies for rescue dogs.  We sent "puppy" on to her new home (there were several applicants to adopt her)...in the state of Iowa.  Just in time, as we were starting to get attached...but I would not miss what goes with training a puppy...

We also abandoned the old porch swing and iron furniture on the front porch.  Although we still need to repaint the ceiling, our front porch restoration is about complete (after a little help from Jack).

The exterior paint project is 85-90% done.  There are a few tricky areas left, and now the weather and the holidays are barriers to completion.  This will give you some idea of what we're looking at.

Denise and I abandoned the farm to take a Halloween break with Chris' family in Illinois.  We had a great visit, and especially enjoyed true fall weather.

...of course there were the requisite seasonal decorations (Bea said "not scary", but she didn't sound too convincing...I kind of agreed with her on that clown thing!)

It was good to see the girls with all of their silliness and sweetness.

I'm sure there will be many more pictures of the girls on the Christmas recap (will it be March before I post it???  I just don't know).  Anyway, Chris busted out an elk roast to try on the grill.  Yummy!

Keeping with the food theme, we were into Thanksgiving before we knew it.  We abandoned traditional turkey in favor of a throwback menu - deer and elk backstrap, and a big pot of ducks and doves cooked the old way.

TMom and PapaT were able to visit and enjoy the back porch in addition to the meager fixings.

Joe and the kids were there to help, but I couldn't find any pictures.  Obviously I am slipping on multiple fronts.

While not approaching the splendor of Ilinois, Longville is providing its own autumnal displays.

And we'll wrap this up with something we thought had abandoned us...but did not.

There were 3 big gobblers, but the camera only captured this one picture.  At least were feeding something other than coons, possums, crows and skunks!

ressurrecion

You may have come to the conclusion that the blog has died; but since it is within my power to bring it back to life, here we go.  Looking back, I didn't have a lot of pictures since I've recapped the grand Colorado adventure, so I'll have to throw a few more words into this update than normal.  I can say that fall is in the air (or it was last week - we're back to sweating now).  A reliable indicator is the spider lily bloom...

Another late summer survivor is the cluster of crepe myrtles, which responded favorably to Denise's delicate pruning touch.

And although it's not been easy, we've started working on the southside pasture...little by little we're getting it tamed.

As if our Longville yardwork wasn't enough to keep us busy, we had to take care of the property that inspired this blog so long ago.  I hadn't been out there to mow the Richwood lots since last October, so I made a little trip in August.  With all of the spring rain, it was quite a jungle - it only took 12 hours and 2 tanks of gas for the riding mower to turn it into hay.  We do have it up for sale; I hope someone sees the same potential in it that we did.

Besides the voluminous and ubiquitous yardwork, our current ongoing major project is an exterior paint job for the old farmplace.  Denise has been on it like a bulldog, and vows for completion before Christmas (I predict much sooner than that). We had originally thought this was an October project, but we got after it in the special hell that is August in Louisiana...anyway, here's a couple of before and after shots that may give you an idea of what the finished product may look like.

We took the chance to upgrade the old shutters with some made out of leftover deck boards.

We also got a new porch swing that is sturdier and more comfortable than the one that came with the house.  It will be hung after the porch ceiling and trim is finished.

Here's the piney woods church side before and in progress.  I think we'll add the same kind of faux shutters to the windows there to make it look a little more appealing, but this will give you an idea.

We've also had a few visitors...Papa T came to sit on the porch and visit with Roux.

And you'll have to take a guess who came and practiced some new techniques in cake baking (if you're new to the blog you can scroll back through a few of the older posts to find the obvious answer).

Roux has been hard at work too.  She maintains a patient and vigilant watch to keep the squirrels up in the trees where they belong.  Here she is while we were on a visit to Scott's house before he moved.

...and before we took the pool down, I heard her growling at something under the azaleas while she was on her daily morning critter patrol, which led to this result...I'll let you fill in the blanks.

She also continues to patrol critter watch to keep out the undesireables...but she turns out to be all bark and no bite on most things...especially if they stand their ground.

We try not to let her out after dark, but every once in a while we must do so before she turns in.  A couple of weeks ago she took off in the dark after something out by the feeder.  I heard some unusual noises and called her back.  I could smell the skunk before she got close enough to pet.  Poor girl had to spend the night on the porch.  At least she wasn't out there when the chupacabra came by.

There should be some activities to document over the next few weeks...more painting progress, the annual squirrel hunt, and a visit to Illinois to see how Maggie and Bea handle Halloween!

We're optimistic for the future, and don't see any storm clouds on the horizon...well not too many.

It's coming on to the best time of the year, and we hope to see you soon.