As usual, been a busy few days. I am getting accustomed to the constant activity though, and even look forward to it. Not to say that my muscles aren't sore, because they ARE, but I like having an ongoing project like the old house. In fact, I believe it stimulates my creativity, since I keep coming up with renovation ideas and even story ideas (my creative writing has been on the back burner for a long time!). At any rate, here's a rundown of the past couple days:

Monday I went on my bike ride early, then did housework (what fun, huh?) and caught up on answering friends' emails and letters.

Tuesday I worked on my home-made wine most of the day, starting a new batch, transferring some to new jugs, etc. I plan to give all my family a gift-wrapped bottle of wine for Christmas this year, and I'm working on some wine that, hopefully, will be low liquor content and delicious. My sisters, like myself, like sweet wine that is only around 9% or less liquor. We either sip it before meals and/or with meals, and occasionally drink about a cup if we can't get to sleep (beats sleeping pills!). Late in the afternoon, I got out the leaf blower and sent all the pile of leaves in the front yard to the street -- a bigger job than I'd anticipated, creating more muscle-aches!

This morning one of my sisters called, and we talked for over an hour, catching up on the latest news. She and my brother-in-law and nephew have also been going through a move, and we had a lot in common to share. Then I returned a small hand-held sewing machine to a department store, because it didn't work -- but ended up exchanging it for another one, because it will be very useful in the interior decorating at the old house. I haven't tried the new one yet, but will later after the evening meal. I dropped by the Salvation Army store again, spent some time browsing and found some useful curtains, round-table fabric covers, several ruffled pieces that I can make into slipcovers and/or use for a country-look. I spent almost $7.00 ... whoopee, that is a great place to shop.

And now finally I am at my desk, making an entry.

I have a few new photos posted in the online album under "Renovations, Updates and Artifacts," if anyone is interested. An old sidewalk with a date of Aug 11-35 etched in it and the tractor. There's a good one of three horses in the barn, especially Oto, about two-years-old, who is very friendly and curious, seemed to want to look at my camera upclose and personal! :-)

I've also been doing some reading about horses, so I can get used to the ones we have...and plan on making some food treats to entice them near me, and hopefully, make friends! I've never met a critter I couldn't win over with just the right tasty morsel. In fact, that's how I ended up with six indoor cats and two strays (though I can't hardly call the two strays now, since they rarely ever leave the yard for fear of missing a meal).

We're hoping the central heat/air crew is at the old house today, getting started. It would be nice if they were finished by the weekend, but I wouldn't make any bets on that. We DO have some plans for the weekend; I want to paint the inside of the cabinets, since they won't be exposed to dusty conditions, staying closed up. And DH wants to start putting in the three new windows we bought at Lowe's Sunday for the kitchen. Yep, more grueling work ahead.

I'm at 94 lbs, and can't complain...although my stomach is still giving me a bit of acid reflux trouble, but has calmed down considerably using the Prilosec OTC.

I'm outta here for today!