NOVEMBER 2022

NOVEMBER kept reminding us that the kids would soon be parents. We still had a house that was primarily set up for our needs. We started looking at our house, thinking about the coming grandbaby. We realized, we needed to reevaluate the basement area, which had been a storage spot for misc stuff while we built the outbuildings and rearranged stuff

Time for yet another project – PROJECT GRANDBABY.

When we moved in, we were not really sure of what to do with the finished portion of the basement. It wasn't set up for our style of living, yet so many other projects outside had priority over stuff inside. Now that the days were cooler and daylight shorter, we had time to think about it. Then Tim woke up with a grand new idea. Create a lower-level play area, his movie room, and a canning kitchen for my garden produce and his bee stuff. Brilliant!!

We would remove the existing cabinets and move them to the barn, remove the window, replace the broken door, wall in the remaining area for kid play space, add the TV theater, and heat stove. Just a small remodel - you know. We emptied the space into our cargo trailer for storage and the work began. They promised it would be complete well before Christmas. We will see!!

I had planned another short trip to St. Louis to celebrate Billy’s birthday. It was fun to go back as the holiday activity was revving up. Billy and I spent a glorious full day driving around, went to dinner and caught the newest Marvel Black Panther movie.

I spent the next day with my dear high school friend, Jan, then Billy and I met up with sister Barb for a brief holiday dinner. The next day I was off - hugging Billy I headed east. I had decided to split the drive in half and stopped in Knoxville, TN for the night. What a surprise, I was able to meet up with 5 friends from NTI (an online networking group), Jan, Barbara, Connie and Penny. Janet and Bob Hutson were gracious hosts for the night. Thank you!!

Back at home, Tim and the chickens had gotten into a routine of moving their Chicken Tractor coop about every 3 - 4 weeks, giving them safe, free-range grass and bugs. Tim, looks like the pied piper with all the chickens in tow.

Arriving home, PROJECT GRANDBABY was already in process. It suddenly got real when Nat and Mal informed their new baby would be a girl, Ruby. They called with more happy news Baby Ruby, named after my grandmother, will be our delight in June. Little did we know, at Mom’s funeral, Nat and Mal had strolled through the family cemetery, thinking about possible names for their first child. We again enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with Nat and Mal in the Raleigh area.