Walls Go Back Up, Electric Shaver Races

Food Mood:Feelin’ the Fall and the Farm:  Sausage Corn Chowder

Reno Ridiculouso: Walls going back up

In early October we get a new contractor hired who we’ll call Cool Contractor.  Cool Contractor is straight forward, he and the Hubby discuss every aspect and when the Hubby asks him to do something, they debate, they clarify and it’s done.  And… sigh of relief.

However, until (and unless) we deal with sueing Bull Talker Contractor, we don’t have a lot of cash left.  So we agree that Cool Contractor will frame the walls, put ‘em back up, do the roof joists and roofing, the windows and door and leave it all ready for Tyvekking.  At which point Hubby and I and a small army of little independent jobbers will do the rest.  Which, by the by, is why this thing will end up taking another eight months, but there ya go.  

In the meanwhile, my Uncle decided to move out of his farm and into a retirement home.  This is a great thing, and the family as a whole is super happy for him.  But, he or some other member of our family has lived in that farm for about eighty years.  That’s a seriously long time to gather stuff, and let me tell ‘ya Uncle M seems to have taken that role of ‘chief stuff gatherer” quite seriously!   My saintly parents spend about a month sorting the day to day stuff, selling things, giving things to family members as requested and moving other things to charity.  

And then well all come together (eight family members, plus one extra teenage friend of my nephews) to finish the job.  We are lucky to receive the kind of gorgeous fall day that makes you happy to be alive.  Blue skies, crisp air, nothing but sun.  And we set to work.

We begin carefully assessing item by item, discussing and categorizing.

We transition to quicker decisions, a more cursory glance before a decision and then moving on.  That’s when we start discovering the crazy things.

·         An old stainless steel milker in the upper part of a closet (this farm hasn’t had cows since the seventies)

·         An electric shaver from the eighties in the bathrooms drawer

·         Then an electric shaver from the sixties in the bathroom cupboard

·         An electric shaver from the nineties in the bedside table

And that’s when I find my husband chasing my mother around the bathroom with the two electric shavers he found behind a hatch to the attic!  Eleven shavers in all, all lovingly preserved in their boxes.  

Periodically throughout the day I find The Kiddo sitting up in an apple tree just watching us.  She’s dragged an old ladder over to climb up and is sitting in the crook of the tree, watching and daydreaming and just being.  

And I think a bit about time and the places that we call home and why they matter so much to us. But only in between running from my nephew who keeps chasing me with creepy old dolls and things.  So, in all things, balance. 

Sausage and Corn Chowder

Three sausages (spicy if you like spicy, not if you don’t) either sliced in rounds or broken out of casings, which ever texture you prefer

Two newish potatoes (it’s October after all), peeled and diced

One box of chicken stock

One small onion chopped

Two cups of frozen corn

One cup of water

put in crockpot.  Cook for (suprise!) eight hours!