Oh yeah, I have a blog...

I've been out of the habit of posting regularly. Life gets in the way of even our best intentions, it seems.

I'm still trying to pull together the kitchen space in the back. Right now, it's a matter of making the place warm. Whoever insulated the place must have used Q tips and toilet paper.

Bill spent the weekend crawling on all fours under the porch out there and into the space under the kitchen. He dragged in one of the bright work site lamps so he could see and, one by one, brought in long pieces of blue board insulation which he screwed in above his head, while lying on his back. He then used that funky foam insulation to seal around it's edges. It's not like radiant floor heating in there, but eventually, I'm sure it'll help.

Next on the project list comes the endeavor of building a new door into the kitchen. The one that is there now is probably about sixty years old and light comes in through the cracks between the wooden panels and around the door frame, along with twenty degree temperatures. The new door won't be as pretty and suited to the historic look of the house but it'll serve it's true purpose. Right now, we're almost drawing straws when it comes time to have go back there and pull pastries or grab foccacia bread. I can't imagine what it's been like back there in winters past, when it gets below zero. I think it used to be a mud room. I'm hoping and praying that with a new door, an operating stove and an insulated floor (and the help of an energy efficient space heater, I'm sure) that we can function back there without the aid of mittens and ear muffs.

I've picked out the colors for the coffee bar room and possibly for the room with the computers, as well. Tonight I may nail down the dates I plan on locking the doors and repainting the place. I think if I don't commit to the calendar soon, it will never happen.

It's officially stick season in the hills. Naked trees and brown earth. The long cornfields are freckled each morning with Canadian geese, crows and wild turkeys... each in their segregated little flocks, picking away at the mowed corn shafts for forgotten kernels.

The mums on the porch have died from too many hard frosts, my pumpkins were finally stolen and the front steps got egged on the night before Halloween. Summer is definitely over now.

Once we set the clocks back for daylight savings, I started closing up at 5pm instead of 6pm. It's still dark when I leave here for the night but it allows me some extra time at home and less time on my feet!

I still haven't gotten to the point where I'm wondering why the hell I decided to do this. So far, I still like being behind the counter and haven't had a nervous break down about getting taxes paid on time or about the constant grind. I've had near nervous break downs about plenty of other things but that's life....

Floor's mopped, drawer is counted, brewers are shut down and the pastries are wrapped. I've got a rooibus tea for the ride home. Cheers.