Long Weekend Basics

A happy belated Labor Day to you and yours! Tim and I were lucky enough to both be able to take the long weekend — and this one turned out to be jam packed.

It just wouldn't be a holiday weekend unless the smoker made an appearance. Brandon and Basil were keen on this idea too. Tim fired up the power drill in order to take care of a fall planting project he jokes I've been "wearing him out over" for weeks now. In all honesty, I have been talking about it for a long time and am thrilled we finally got it done. More details to follow soon!

Sunday we hopped in the car down to my mom's farm where my metalworking jewelry studio still lives. I'd been long overdue for a fork bracelet update in the jewelry shop, so we packed up Basil in the car and headed that way to knock out a big batch of them:

New bracelets are slowly making their way into the shop, so keep an eye out for all the new designs.

When we first pulled up, Brandon spotted about 4 turkeys making their way through the soybean field. We tried to catch them action but they hobbled on through the field with great speed. If you look very closely, you can see about 2 red spots in the middle of the field below where they were walking:

Basil was more than excited to be out in the country, and seemed to know exactly where we were when we pulled up:

On the way back we knew we'd done a good job of wearing him out when all he wanted to do was snuggle up to Brandon:

We were able to take care of a few other home projects over the weekend like changing out the air filters:

 

Here's our little inspector trying to tell us which filter needs to be thrown away vs. which to install in it's place — yuck! So Tim's tip is make sure you replace those filters with every change of the season — it will add miles to your heat pump and help keep your system running smoothly.

In more home news, Tim climbed up on the ladder out back to remove an antique electrical component from the outside of our house. He had a brilliant idea for re-purposing it that we can't wait to share the details of here on the blog soon:

While we were outside, I snapped a couple quick shots on the progress of our sweet potato plants:

They've continued to sprout giant leaves and the vines have grown so quickly. I tried to get a detail shot of what we hope is the beginnings of the purple flowers indicating sweet potatoes may be forming underneath the soil:

We'll be sure to keep you posted on this front!

I'm not sure if I mentioned here on the blog how Tim and I signed up over a month ago to take care of my sister's 3 children (all under the age of 3 1/2) for 24 hours while they went to go see the VA Tech vs. GA Tech football game. This was not only the first time we've watched all 3 kids at once, but also the first overnight we've had them. All went well and good — everyone came out alive in the end!

I had all these grand plans of kid projects and photographing all the ins and outs for the blog, but quickly learned when it comes to 3 kids in one place under the age of 3 1/2, it's just not possible to do anything other than juggle and keep a close eye on things at all times! I was able to get a couple fun things partially photographed we'll share here on the blog soon!

Not only did we have the kids overnight, but both of their little Dachshunds, too:

It was quite the full house to say the least — can you see Basil there in the background worn out, yet still keeping an eye on these two? Basil was a rock-star this weekend with the kids and extra 4-legged friends, we couldn't be prouder of how chill and well behaved he was amidst all the chaos.

We hope each of you had a nice long weekend and are looking forward to onset of the change in season. Did you have fun plans for the weekend or take care of any little (or big) projects you've been meaning to cross off the list?

 

P.S. Tim and I have signed up for an 8 week all levels yoga class that we're pretty excited about. We're both complete beginners, so any words of wisdom or advice for our first class coming up this Wednesday night are welcome!