And as for the new house...

yea, its done...

yea, we're moved in...

but....

work continues!

	Here is a picture of the house taken in June. David had just finished the plantars and skirting all around the porch. Well, the doors on the sides weren't done until September - but alas, we had a fun Summer instead of working all of the time!
We moved just a bit of brush this year. Here is the first load that the town took. The second round was quite a bit bigger - and the town refused to take it. So - we had a very large fire - it took 6 hours to feed all the brush in, and 2 days to cool off!!!
	Yup - we're starting them on real chores early here in the woods. They even think it is fun - yea, we know, this won't last!! This year, instead of buying 5 cords of firewood cut and delivered, we bought log length. David cut the pile into pieces he could split, and then split 4 cords of wood. The rest is cut and stacked in the woods - ready just in case we have a cold winter. Gretchen then put it in the truck and moved it to the woodpile closer to the house. The girls were really a huge help moving the wood towards the tail gate so she could readily reach it to stack. Ingrid even got real work gloves. Here she is loading all the bark and scrap for the bonfire.
Grace still adores kissee - the (used to be pink) stuffed dog. Here they are being a little less helpful with firewood!	.....and the turkeys. Not a day goes by without seeing a few turkeys. One spring day Gretchen saw 70 of them encircling the house. No pictures - but it was quite a site. Here is a Tom Turkey doing his thing with the ladies!! And, we were visited by Max - the bear - again. He likes to push over this wrought iron bird feeder stand and see what he can get. We're waiting for colder weather to feed the birds around here.

Our work list for the new year includes a rustic wood shed, clearing all the brush/trees from the clearing done for the septic field and continued improvement of landscaping. Then - we'll have to put another coat of stain on the exterior next summer/fall. With 20 acres - there is never a loss of SOMETHING that needs attention outdoors.

Here is a composite picture David put together from when he was up on the ridge. Beautiful Rensselaer County New York. Very rural around us still and quite a bit of state land. This is not quite an hour's hike from the house. Very interesting old rock walls and home sites up there. The body of water is the Tomhannock Reservoir - just about 1/2 mile beyond the house.

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