Tuesday, October 09, 2007

100 Posts!

This is my 100th post - pretty crazy, hey? That means some of you have read 100 updates on our lives. Thanks!

It's been a little while since I last posted. We had another wave of company come through, and I was trying not to hog the computer TOO much (I'm a bit of a computer hog - must be control issues!) Lots of stuff has happened...

Jai's parents were out visiting for the last eight days. That was really nice, they're very easy people to spend time with. We took them over to the South Shore the day after they arrived so we could catch the Mahone Bay Scarecrow Festival, and see the Bluenose 2 docked in Lunenburg. We've had beautiful summery weather for the last while, so it was a very pleasant day.

We also got lots of things done around the house while they were here. Including stacking all the firewood, reorganizing my wood pile, and some gardening, among other things. I picked up three fruit trees at the nursery - a Macintosh apple tree, a Honeycrisp apple tree (my new favourite kind of apple) and a Peach tree. We planted them at the back of the property where they can grow large and stately.

Anita (Jai's Mom) bought us a holly tree for beside the front door, where I had planted a hydrangea originally. My poor hydrangea was not happy there, and only managed to produce a few scraggly leaves this year, so I moved it to a sunnier spot and fed it lots of lobster manure. Yeah, they actually sell lobster manure here.
Anyway, I think the holly will do well there, and it looks very pretty!
We went out to Windhorse Farms as well. You can check them out at www.windhorsefarm.org It is a large eco-logging property, which also has organic gardens and meditation retreats. They had a lot of great wood there, so I picked some stuff out, and Jim (the owner) gave me some more pieces, as he saw our stuff at the Market, and would like me to design a simple tray they can make to use up the guitar blanks that don't make the grade. That will be a very fun little winter project.

It was a really great spot, and an amazing business, so I am glad to be able to support it, and hope to do so more in the future.

We also took them to Frenchy's, of course, and Jai's Dad ended up with a whole pile of new clothes. It was fun to introduce someone to Frenchy's who really appreciated it they way we do. What would Nove Scotia be without Frenchy's????
And we took them out to Hall's Harbour for lobster dinner at The Lobster Pound, where you order your dinner in the gift shop, and then go across to the restaurant in the next building. It was a bit confusing at first, but the food was good, and we weren't the only ones who got confused by their system - just about everyone got it wrong on the first try!

See all the things you can do on a trip to Nova Scotia (that's a hint, for all those who haven't been out to visit yet!)

And we had the Last Market of the season. It was a nice day, but we didn't sell as much as we had hoped. Still, there are worse ways to spend a day - we hung out with all our friends, and just tried to enjoy ourselves.
My cousin Christie took a detour from her PEI trip to visit for a couple of days, so that was nice, although we didn't get as much visiting in as I would have liked. She is 4 and a bit months pregnant, so this will probably be the last time I see her without a little one in tow. We have a link to her blog in our links, she's got some pretty cute ultrasound pics posted there.

We had a great big turkey dinner for thanksgiving, which was delicious! Jai is making a soup with the carcase as I type. It smells fabulous! He got the recipe off allrecipes.com - here:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/After-Thanksgiving-Turkey-Soup/Detail.aspx

Mom bought us a deep freeze, and it arrived at the Sears depot in town a few days ago, so Anita and I chopped up and froze a lot of the garden tomatoes. That was a BIG job, as there seemed to be hundreds of tomatoes still. Also I tried freezing some of the jalapeno peppers, so we'll see how that turns out. I also strung some and hung them in the pantry. I'm hoping they'll dry.
My tea turned out really well! I got some jars at the dollar store, and crumbled up the dried leaves, and it is super tasty! Plus it looks really pretty on the shelf:


What else? I put in an order for 250 bf of wood, which will arrive from Halifax tomorrow. Just like Christmas!!
We've had a couple of exciting promotional boosts:

Check out my ravens available for sale at: www.mahardrygoods.com
Very cool pictures, and I love the write-up he gave them.

And check out Jai's tops at: www.etsy.com/storque/
then click on Trends: Toys Accessorize the Modern Nursery at the top.
Again, very cool!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi!
I found you via Mahar Dry Goods. I gave your blog a quick once over starting from day 1! what a year you've had. my husband and I have a mad desire to move to Nova Scotia and rehabbing a house, it's encouraging to see your story of actually DOING it.

p.s. I love love your ravens.

Jai and Lauren Soloy said...

Hello Elise! Thanks for posting - I just sat down and read your entire blog from day 1! It was super fun! In the Realms of the Unreal is one of my favourite movies ever! I saw the link you had, and I can hardly believe that they are selling those pieces. My husband and I were fantasizing about being able to buy one. *sigh* Anyway, I've bookmarked your blog, as I thoroughly enjoyed it, and thanks again for the positive feedback! ~Lauren

Anonymous said...

hi guys! Congrats on 100 - keep them coming! Apples freeze really well too - let me know how the peppers turn out... hmmm. Talk to you soon - we're off to G&Gs for dinner and visits with the now Wednesday evening gang! XO Us

Jai and Lauren Soloy said...

Apples!!!! One more thing to add to the list...
Talk to you soon ~L

Anonymous said...

Mmmm, honeycrisps are my favourite too!

xox Alison + Yogi