CHECKING THE FARMHOUSE

Taken November 25

Mike and I returned to the farmhouse Monday morning (Nov. 25) to put some final touches on the winterization and pack to town some things we didn’t have room to take on the last trip. I grabbed the wrong notebook, so I didn’t have my list, but it didn’t matter. Most of what I wanted was stacked on the table except for Grandma Ina’s copy of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, and I couldn’t find it. I don’t know where it is.

I have realized that if we aren’t going to have a farmhouse Christmas, I should bring all things Christmas back to town, and some things in town will have to be stored at the farm. This process will continue into next year, but on this trip, I brought holiday plates and mugs.

I also packed boxes of cereal. I won’t have to buy cereal for a month. The winter dampness causes it to go stale at the farm in a hurry. An unopened box of Mike’s Sugar Babies had already coagulated. It’s a difficult environment in winter.

Mike had hoped to hunt for the elusive covey of huns (Hungarian partridges), but he decided to forego because of the weather. It was chilly (less than 40), wet, and rainy. And besides, I would have been waiting in the cold house. My greatest disappointment in the trip was the lack of snow – no snowy photo for our Christmas card. On to Plan B.

So, we stopped at Subway on Riverside for lunch, and while Mike visited Builder’s Supply, I shopped next door at the Family Dollar store. I was impressed with the available home dec and holiday supplies, and it only took me three minutes to spend $16.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seems like the simple things in holiday themes have become scarce. I’m talking about napkins, paper towels, facial tissue, soap in holiday dispensers, etc. Well, I did buy hand soap in a snowman dispenser from the Dollar Tree, and then I couldn’t get the nozzle to release. “If I’m having trouble, others have had trouble, too,” I reasoned. Sure enough! I found a YouTube video from Dollar Tree. “Some of you have told us you can’t open our soap dispensers,” it began. It still took Mike and a tool to do it. 

We were home around 1:30, and then I was busy unpacking and putting away. KW